A/N: It's a miracle, I updated! I'm sorry I haven't been working on this or ROOL much, but school and family drama has been taking up most of my time and now I'm sick (which is the only reason I had time to work on it, I couldn't sleep). I will try to update both of these stories more often.

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Bailey exited the car, slamming the door shut angrily behind her. As the car spun away she quickly turned around and flipped the driver off. Stomping her way back to the alley she saw the curtain in the crappy room pulled back a bit and bright blue-green eyes peering out from within. It had been a week since Jack had shown up and every night he waited up for her. It was slightly endearing, but tonight had been bad and she had wished this one time he had been asleep. It was a lot harder to act like she didn't care about what she had just done with him around.

"Have a hard night?" a voice asked.

Bailey turned towards the girl who stood to the left of her. Her name was Scarlet, although Bailey was pretty sure that it was a made up name, and she looked twenty-five, despite the fact that she was only nineteen and tried her hardest to appear younger by braiding her badly bleached hair into pigtails. She was the person who had introduced Bailey to the streets when she had nowhere to go and the one who introduced her to drugs when she just wanted to forget. She hated Scarlet now, but knew how easy it was to be sucked in by her.

"We all get our fair share of assholes," Bailey replied.

"You get laid all the time and yet you are the most miserable people on earth," Scarlet commented. She looked back at the building behind them and smirked. "Speaking of getting laid, is that why you're keeping the little prince around? Showing him a few things?"

"He's thirteen."

"If I remember correctly, you were thirteen."

"It's different."

"Different?" Scarlet scoffed and raised her eyebrows, taking a few steps closer to Bailey. "Sweetheart, nothing is different, we all end up here with the same conclusion. You may try to protect him but he'll be standing here with us soon enough. Why not just nudge him in that direction now and save the energy, because you aren't going to save his virtue no matter how hard you try."

"Stop," Bailey said, her clenching her fists at her sides.

"Come on, Bailey. Think about it, he's a good looking guy, he won't be out here for half an hour before he gets picked up. You could make a profit off of him."

Bailey closed her eyes, feeling the anger rise in her. She hated that Scarlet was trying to recruit Jack and belittle her efforts to save him. When she opened her eyes, she saw the smirk on Scarlet's face and fought the urge to smack her.

"I couldn't live with myself, making money off of a kid," she said. Bailey shrugged and looked Scarlet in the eyes. "I guess you never taught me how to be a soulless bitch like you. Thank God for that."

"Fine, try and protect him. I just figured I'd give you the chance before I did." She laughed and threw her arms up in the air. "Maybe I'll even try him out first. See what kind of investment I'm making." She reached out and ran a hand along Bailey's neck. "Just like I did with you."

"That's it." She closed the gap between the two of them and grabbed the back of Scarlet's neck. "Touch him and I promise you that you will pay."

"I'm supposed to be scared of you?"

"No, not me. I know someone who would do it for me without a second thought."

Bailey released her grip on Scarlet and turned away from her. Shoving a hand through her hair, she looked down at the ground as she walked over to the entrance, prying away the plywood and slipping inside, trying to contain her anger. As soon as she entered the room, Jack was standing there and she looked over at him. His hair and face were dirty, patches of black smudges covering his cheeks. His abrasions were healing though and minus the incident with Bobby the first night he was there he had been relatively okay. She hated herself for a moment as she thought about what Scarlet had said, nearly considering it.

"You wait up for me or something?" Bailey asked.

"I wanted to make sure you were okay," Jack admitted meekly. He walked over to the mattress and plopped down onto it, watching Bailey as she stood at the opposite end of the room. "Are you?"

"Fuckin' perfect."

With a small sigh she headed over to the cracked mirror hanging precariously on the wall and stared at her reflection for a moment, checking the areas where she knew there were going to be bruises come morning. She pulled her hair away from her neck and pulled down the neck of her shirt, seeing the already forming purple mark on her chest. She could see Jack watching her reflection in the corner of the mirror and sighed softly, before turning around.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Nothing," she lied. She pulled on the bottom on her shirt, readjusting the fabric and smiled for him. Another lie. "Get some sleep, kid."

"Bailey, why won't you tell me what happened? I'm not a kid," Jack said, pushing himself off of the makeshift bed.

"Fine, you're not a fuckin' kid. You want to know what happened?" she asked, angrily. She pulled her hair away from her neck and yanked down the neck of her shirt. "Wanna hear how he choked me while he was fucking me? Or how he bit me right there?" she questioned, lifting her skirt so that her upper thigh was exposed. She dropped the fabric of her skirt and immediately lifted up her shirt, exposing her stomach. "How about how he couldn't find a condom so he finished off, right here?" She patted her stomach and shook her head. "You don't wanna know any of that Jack and I don't particularly want to relive it. So stop fucking asking!"

Jack took a step closer to Bailey, who quickly backed away. Catching a glimpse of her eyes, Jack noticed something in them that told him not to approach her again. He walked over to the furthest side of the room as Bailey started to pace beside the window. She muttered something angrily under her breath and then swiftly kicked the wall.

"Fuck!" she screamed in pain.

Bailey punched the wall in response and screamed again. Jack ran over to her and quickly grabbed hold of her hands, afraid that she would hurt herself again. She bowled over, suddenly crying before falling to the floor. She pulled her hands out of his grip and wrapped her arms around her knees, burying her face against them. Jack stood there watching her, unsure of what to do. When he finally got enough courage to approach her again, she lifted her head from her knees and wiped her face with her sleeve.

"Fuck, that hurt," she muttered, standing up suddenly. She looked down at her hands, her knuckles bleeding and shook her head. "I really need to learn to control my temper."

Jack watched as she made her way over to the darkened corner of the room. She shrugged off the skirt she was wearing and slipped on a pair of ratty sweatpants that would have been warmer if it weren't for the holes that adorned them. She turned to around and caught him quickly looking away and heading towards a corner at the opposite end of the room.

Readjusting the fabric so that it covered over her hips, Bailey headed towards the mattress. She took a seat on it, waiting for Jack to say something as he shuffled nervously in the corner. After a minute of nothing but silence, she settled against the mattress and pulled the blanket over body.

"I'm going to sleep, Jack. You could lie down with me or sulk by yourself in the corner," she replied, turning her back to him. "It'd hurt my ego if you didn't think I was better than a drafty corner though."

Jack smirked half-heartedly and slowly walked over to the mattress. He laid down beside her, keeping a gap between them and stared at the fire that was still burning. With a small sigh, he rolled onto his side, his face to her back and watched the way her shoulders hunched up around her neck and her body shook slightly.

"I don't mean to be a bitch," Bailey whispered when she felt his eyes on her. "I just need to be, it's easier to be for people like me."

"But you don't want to be who you are."

"No."

"Then why don't you do something else?"

Bailey laughed bitterly and turned to face him. Jack noticed her tear stained checks and smeared make up. She shook her head softly, almost condescendingly. He was aware that he didn't always understand, but there was a simple solution to this problem, he was sure of that.

"You really think I'd do this, be this, if there was any other option?" She wiped at her face angrily and looked over his shoulder. She could see the other people in the alleyway and she shrugged. "You do what you're good at to survive, Jack, even if you hate it. Even if you hate yourself for doing it."

"I don't understand."

"Part of me is really glad that you don't."

Bailey looked at him and reached up to touch the side of his face, Jack's eyes closing instantly. She noticed the contrast of his skin, pale and dirty but still soft, and the bruised and scraped skin on her knuckles. She wondered how she, someone so flawed and who, in the long run, would only hurt Jack, could comfort him.

Quickly, she pulled her hand away from him. She balled her hand up at her side and watched as he opened his eyes, searching her face for some clue to her sudden change in behavior. Jack reached out to touch her face and she pushed his hand away before he could make contact. He looked hurt as his hand retreated to his side.

"Why?" Jack asked, wondering what exactly he had done wrong.

"I don't like being touched."

Jack nodded; he knew after her blow up earlier it was not a good night to push any subject. He started to fold his arms beneath his head and go to sleep but as he closed his eyes he could feel Bailey watching him. So he opened his eyes and watched her. He knew she contemplating something in her head, wondering if she should say something, it was something she did a lot.

"Promise me something," Bailey finally said.

"What?"

"Promise me you won't do what I do."

"I won't." He narrowed his eyes at her. "But why?"

Bailey looked down at the space between them and replayed the conversation she had with Scarlet. The thought of it made her stomach turn. He was a thirteen, not a kid as he so often reminded her, but nowhere near the age where sex should even be a main concern. It didn't matter that it had occurred in his past, that hadn't been his fault, but it was not going to happen now, she was going to make sure of it. She wanted to hold onto that last glimmer of innocence that he had that would be taken away the moment he made the decision to initiate something. She wanted him to have the one thing she lacked and wanted back.

"I want you to be able to be comforted by a touch."

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Thank You:

CaptainSammish

Ghostwriter

Heartfallen

Little Miss Creant

lovePEOPLEndCOWBOY

Maxiekat

ollie-oxycotyn

psycho-pyro-shrink

Sakurabound

Shadow315 (No, this will not be slash. I have nothing against it but I'm just not a writer of it.)

windstar

Zafiro Okami