Author's Note: I am REALLY sorry for those of you who are waiting for this. Its all written, turns out to be nine chapters long. Sorry for the wait about it but I just need some time to post them all and maybe a few encouraging reviews hinthint. ANyway I hope you like it and remember this takes place just before FEAR

Big thanks to macrauchenia for being a great beta!

I don't own the FAYZ

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Chapter 4

Jace woke with the image of a couch seam printed across his face in bright red. The thick line of the leather couch he slept on that night had a bit of drool on it. He sat up and tried to stretch but his stomach started to growl.

He had spent the night in an office not too far away from where the Jack house was. He watched Dwight go back there with the girl last night. He had yet to see him leave. He just needed to wait for those worthless lumberjacks to get out of their house and head out of town to get the loads of wood and then he could get in and take what he wanted. Then burn the place down. That was if he couldn't get his guys to go after them again.

He lifted the pair of antique binoculars he had been using to watch the house. He sat there for a while and didn't see a thing; a couple of shadows crossed the front window but nothing else.

Finally, a tall guy walked out of the door and started to walk back into town at a fast clip. Jace ground his teeth together and took off after Dwight.

Jace jogged until he matched his old friend's pace. "Dwight, I have an idea."

"Not interested."

Jace's cold eyes snapped on the tall youth. "What do you mean? You don't even know what it is."

Dwight shrugged. "And I don't care. Why don't you go beg Crissy to take you back?"

"Because I thought you were my bro. We're best friends, man," Jace tried to put a hand on Dwight's shoulder but he it shrugged away.

"No, dude, you've jumped my case too many times." Dwight started to walk faster, but not in the direction of the casino. "I'm leaving. You have fun."

Dwight left Jace standing on the sidewalk as he went into a large blue house and didn't seem to be leaving for a while. Jace scowled and kicked a rock as he started walking back towards the casino and listened to his stomach growl again.

He didn't have Dwight, but that didn't mean anything. He could still figure something out. He just wasn't sure what that was going to be. He didn't want to go crawling back to Crissy, but he was sure as hell that he wasn't going to make a living out in the fields. Maybe Dwight did have an idea. He could work his way back into Crissy's good graces. It would make him look bad, but it could be worth it. All he had to do was make her happy and trust him again and all the cards would be back in his hand.

Before he knew it, he was at his old house and knocking on the door. Marshall pulled the door open and glared down at him. "What do you want, Ace?"

He grinned, his old charm coming back to him. "I was wondering if Miss Crissy could use a dealer."

~x~X~x~

Will sat motionless as he watched his baby brother convulse on his little racecar bed. Coughs ripped out of the little boy's mouth like they were tearing apart his insides.

Will was useless. Any medicine he gave Demi would be thrown right back up. He couldn't carry his brother because he thrashed so much.

He couldn't do it. His entire reason for living was right there in that bed. He tried everything and nothing worked. He didn't know what to do. Tears wouldn't come to his eyes. Curses couldn't be formed with his too thick tongue.

He couldn't keep watching his brother die from the inside out.

But he had no choice.

~x~X~x~

Jean woke with a start as she realized she was in Kristos' bed. "No, no, no tell me I didn't do anything thing." She jerked aside the blanket to find herself completely clothed. "Thank God," she mumbled as she looked around for the other person that should have been there.

Kris was missing.

Jean cursed under her breath and ran to where she hid his markers. They were still there. She went to the living room and couldn't believe what she saw. The house she had been staying in with Kris was actually…clean.

The boy she had been trying to save looked like he was a brand new person. A hair tie held back his long greasy hair. His hands were busy washing leaves of a head of cabbage in a bucket of salt water. Pieces of cooked meat were sitting on a dish at the table.

"What—what's going on, Kristos?"

Kris turned and smiled. His teeth were stilled with cavities and he was missing one on the side. The skin on his face was stretched tight and dry but he still grinned. His eyes were clearer and brighter than ever.

"Come on, come sit down," ushered her into a chair at the head of the table. "I've got breakfast for you."

"Where did you…"

Kris sat a plate of meat and the cabbage in front of her. "Its rat, I caught it out back. I sold an old pot pipe to get the money for the rest. We'll start work again soon on picking food. I thought you could use a day off."

"Where did this come from?" She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Kris was usually still in bed, needing to be jerked out. "I mean, what are you doing?"

Kris's face looked troubled for moment and he sat down and started to chew slowly on a cabbage leaf. "You are a good person, Jean. I need to be a better person. I'll never be good. I can be better. I can start by making things better for you. You stood by me and tried to make me clean up. I'm doing that. Thanks, but I need to help now."

She couldn't believe her ears. She was the one that was supposed to be making up for things she did in the past and here he was saying he needed to be the better person. "Kris, I don't-"

"I know you don't like me that much. I get it." The grin was still on his face. "But the truth is, I like you a lot and I want you to see I can be likable." He cleared his throat. "So what do you say?"

"Umm… okay?" She asked dumbly.

~x~X~x~

"So he stays the night in your room. Now he's gone. You're still in bed. We're late. Anything stolen?" Aerik demanded as he watched his sister sit up in bed. Her hair was a mess, and her face was pulled into a tight scowl.

Athene sat up and started to dig in a drawer nearby, probably for clean socks. "Nothing's stolen."

"How do you know?" Aerik demanded. He couldn't believe his sister's naiveté. Dwight ran with a gang of criminals. "Why did he even sleep in your room?"

"Because I invited him and I walked him out of the house." Athene glared at him in the mirror as she pulled a brush through her hair. "I'm not going to invite someone into our house and not keep an eye on them. I'm not stupid."

"I didn't say you were stupid," Aerik snapped.

"And I didn't say that you did," she snapped back.

"You implied."

She shrugged and started to braid her hair. "You've implied a lot of things."

"And you assume things." Aerik's brown eyes watched her carefully.

"Like what do I assume?" Athene finally turned on him and glared with a sense of dignity despite the baggy sweat pants pushed up to exposed red tube socks and oversized tank top.

Aerik cheeks turned pink. He couldn't believe his sister was acting like such a priss about things. He had seen how she always peered around doorways and knocked on closed doors, always checking to make sure she wasn't interrupting. "You think that all Nikki and I do is sleep together."

"I don't care what you guys do when I'm not around, just long as she doesn't end up…you know." She flicked her hand in the air.

"Pregnant?" Aerik rolled his eyes. "Impossible. You would have to get past second base for that.

It was Athene's turn to blush bright red. "I didn't know, and quite frankly I don't care." She scowled. "I would like to get dressed you know?"

"If you didn't care, you wouldn't be concerned about your brother's virginity," he countered.

"It's not that!" She grabbed a clean T shirt from her closet and a pair of jeans, too. "I just don't want you with the wrong girls."

Aerik threw his hands in the air. "I thought you and Nikki were friends? What's the big deal, is it because she doesn't like freaks?"

"No!" Athene's brow was creased. "She still hangs around that Crissy girl. You know the one who's boyfriend wanted us dead?"

"So what? Here you were sleeping in the same room as the guy that did shoot at you. Next you'll be telling me he's moving to the lake with you."

Athene turned her back on him again. It frustrated Aerik to not be able to see her face. "I've thought about it, and I think I'm just going to go out into the hills alone. It would be safer with less people. Especially if you came with me too. But yeah Dwight's coming with me, at least as far as the ridge."

"Why can't you just stay with Nikki and me?"

"Nikki and I," she corrected.

"Just shut up for a minute." Aerik grabbed onto the edge of her bed. "Do you know what you're doing to us? I slept just down the hall so I could hear everything in your room all night. You're taking Dwight with you just to make me come."

"No I'm not," she growled. "And it's none of your business what I do or don't do with Dwight."She reached for the hem of shirt to change, Aerik saw he pushed her patience a bit too far, she was in a hurry to leave.

Aerik turnd around as he listened to his sister change clothes. "Oh so you don't like it when it's your virginity in question?"

"Ugg! Shut it Aerik." She hooked the button on her jeans and heard her proceed to zip them up before she sat down to lace up her boots. "I'm leaving town with Dwight. I wish you would come with me, but if you don't, that fine, stay here with your lying girlfriend."

"She's not lying, so what if she talks to Crissy when they run into each other in the market?" Aerik scowled and suddenly found the floor very interesting. The truth was, Nikki left the house a lot lately and he had no idea where she was most the time. He and Athene never had this problem because they were always together.

"Believe what you want Aerik, I'm going to the garage to finish packing up. I plan on leaving soon." She shouldered her way past him in the door frame and disappeared down the stairs.

Aerik sighed and stomped off to his own room, he found a nice sight when he got there. Nikki was on his bed in one of the long and tight tank tops she wore with an even tighter pair of spandex shorts. Her right leg was crossed over the other; a magazine was open in her hands. She looked like she had barely moved today.

"Hey there, beautiful," he sat down next to her and reached over to kiss her.

She kissed him back, her hands roaming under his shirt. "I was worried you would be in a bad mood," she told him a little breathlessly. "I heard you and Athene arguing."

Aerik shook his head and let his lips trail along her jaw. "She's just angry, she'll get over it." He really liked the way her finger tips barely brushed against his collar bone. He let his hands slip lower over her ribs resting just along the elastic of her shorts.

He found her lips again, smothering them with his own as his thumb began to hook into the edge of her clothing and suddenly she was pulling away. "Uh-uh, you know where my line is, Aerik, we won't want anything we'll regret." She leaned back down to kiss him again, this time his hands stayed where they were allowed.