"I say you just break up with her, walk away, and let that be the end of it!" Trixie exclaimed.

"I can't just walk away," Jake pointed out, "despite what happens with our personal relationship. She's the number one threat to the magical community, a point she keeps proving. I have to keep an eye on her."

"And you're in love with her," Spud added. "Despite what she's done, that's not going to change it."

Jake made a noise of agreement, though he hardly wanted to acknowledge the fact that his heart was stuck on Rose; that his entire being demanded Rose, Rose, Rose.

Trixie spread out across her bed, laying her feet in Spud's lap.

"But you just can't continue to be with her. Look at everything she's done to you; look at how she manipulated you. Look at what she almost did to Haley!" Trixie cried. "Hell, she told you she did the Huntsmaster –"

"I know! I know, okay? You're not telling me anything new." Jake sighed. "Logically, I know that she was manipulated into it. I also know that it's likely going to happen again. But, I also know that she was raised like that; to believe in everything that he said –"

"But he's dead," Spud interrupted. "I was there when we buried him. He's not going to be able to get to her again, no matter what."

"What if there's another enemy out there?" Jake protested.

"That enemy won't have the same effect on her as Theron did." Trixie rolled her eyes then admitted, "As much as we all hate what happened, I think we can be confident that it won't happen again."

"How do you figure?" Jake demanded.

"We agree no one could manipulate her like Theron did. With Theron out of the way, nothing to this calibre is going to happen again. And, on the other hand, who – aside from Theron, of course – is going to have the balls to kidnap the Huntsmistress?"

Jake shrugged. "Okay, so assume you're right –"

"I am, but go on."

"It's not about it happening again, not right now anyway. I need to know what I should do now that it's already happened and she's basically living in my bedroom."

"Tell us how that came around again," Spud requested.

"Basically, Kyle is sorting out all of the crap at the Huntsclan. As of right now, no one wants her living in the Huntsquarters but they don't want to risk severing ties with her and having something like this come up again. The solution? Fu and I get custody of Rose because the trust me not to lose her."

Trixie frowned at him. "So what is she doing while you're here? Fu can't stop her if she decides to leave."

Jake offered a rueful grin. "We magi-puttied all around my room; the only way she can escape is if she can teleport."

"In my opinion," Spud began suddenly, "I don't think you should force yourself to forgive her. I think you're feeling like your relationship with Rose has to be all or nothing but it doesn't. I think you will forgive her, honestly – maybe that's just the romantic in me – but I think you will. However, I think you need to give both of you space to breathe. Get to know her again but, on the other hand, try and put yourself out there."

"Are you suggesting …" Jake started but didn't finish it, because the thought was so out there, so unthinkable, that he had to be wrong. Spud possibly couldn't be saying that.

Trixie glanced at her boyfriend and understood. Not only did she understand, but she agreed. "At some point, you may want to try dating someone else."

"You know what," Jake said. "I have to go."

Before his two friends could say anything, Jake was on his feet and moving. He grabbed his skateboard from where he'd left it by Trixie's front door and hit the street, thinking the entire way home.

He'd had girlfriends before Rose. None of them had ever been serious. When he'd first started getting into crystal meth, he'd gotten reckless with girls. He'd kissed girls before he'd even asked their name. And the first girl he'd slept with, well, they'd both been high. All he could remember of her was dark brown hair.

To date someone else would feel like he was totally giving up on Rose. He didn't know if he was quite ready to do that. She had been there for him when no one else had known what to do with him. Trixie, Spud, and Haley especially had all tried – and they were all semi-successful. Rose, though, had accelerated the process of his healing and of his finding his way back to himself. Not only that, but he had been with her for over two years now. In that time, she had been his everything. She had kept him grounded; she had kept him sane. Even when she was a world away, she had been there. He was so in love with her, it was ridiculous.

But loving her had gotten him in trouble. He had been so blinded by her that he had ignored his own little suspicions (and he had them, he'd just overlooked them because she was Rose and she wouldn't do that to him; but she did) because he had loved her. Maybe Spud was right. Maybe he should take a step back and let them breathe.

Though, he couldn't see himself finding someone else.

Spud was right on one thing: it didn't have to be all or nothing with him and Rose but when it came to girls, for him, it was Rose or nothing.

(-.-)

Rose glanced around Jake's room for what felt like the hundredth time. She was bored. The room was stimulation free. There were no bookshelves; no television. All that Rose had for entertainment was her cell phone, and she didn't want to play with it. The only thing that she might have done was pace around the room, but with the mesh implant, she didn't want to risk anything happening. She might have considered calling out to Fu for conversation, but she didn't think he was in the house. She hadn't heard any noises from him since Jake had left.

Still, she felt as though she might go mad if she didn't do something. She moved from his bed over to his desk chair, thinking that if she found a notebook and pen she might be able to doodle or write (though she had no idea what she would write about). At the very least, it would be more entertaining than lying there and staring at the ceiling.

She opened the middle drawer, finding nothing within it. Systematically, she glanced through the other empty desk drawers, finding absolutely nothing. It was until she got to the last drawer that she heard something moving within and it gave her hope; hope that her boring hours would be interrupted by this object. She opened the drawer and in it was a little green velvet box.

She leaned to grab it, but a tiny pain shot through her stomach. Rose dropped to her knees instead, making it easier on her body to lean and grab. She picked up the little box and popped it open. Inside of it, was a ring. She knew immediately that it wasn't just any kind of a ring; it was an engagement ring.

It was so beautiful it took her breath away.

The band was thin and studded with diamond all the way around. It was not a traditional band. It was, not only extremely slender, but it had tiny studded leaves coming off it. The stone itself was carved to look like a diamond flower, blooming off the ring.

She was so entranced at looking at this gorgeous piece of jewellery that she didn't even hear Jake come home until the bedroom door was being peeled open. He poked his head into the room and before he could say a word, she was showing him what she had found.

"You had to know I was going to ask."

Yes, no, maybe. She'd never really thought about marriage. She'd known that she was going to be with Jake forever; that fact had been cemented in her brain and heart for longer than she could count. She'd never thought about a ring and a white dress and a ceremony though, maybe because of who they both were. He was the American Dragon and she was the Huntsmistress. Maybe she had let those labels come between the thought of marriage. Then again, she'd never dreamed of a wedding day like most little girls had, because she'd never been a little girl who had been free to marry who she chose.

Either way, it didn't matter now.

"It's beautiful."

"It was my grandmother's," Jake revealed. "Gramps gave it to me when I told him that you were flying home from your tour to all of the different Huntsquarters."

This information just broke her heart even more. It had belonged to his grandmother. Lao Shi had thought that they were going to make it. He had enough faith in them that he had given Jake the ring that he had given his own wife, so many years ago.

She opened her mouth, but Jake stopped her.

"Don't say anything. Just put it back."

Obediently, Rose did as she was told and put the ring back where she had found it. As she left Jake's room, though, she couldn't get the ring off her mind. All she could do was picture what life would have been like, had he the chance to ask her. Off her imagination went and, suddenly, she could picture it.

She could picture the white dress and, not only that, but she could picture it on her own body. She could picture walking down an aisle to meet Jake at the altar, his best man Spud at his side. She knew that Nicholas and Kyle would also be standing there, along with Haley and Trixie. In this daydream, Lao Shi was still alive because Master had never kidnapped her or, maybe, this time she had been strong enough to resist him.

Either way, he would be sitting there with Susan and Jonothan and he would be so happy for the two of them.

In her daydreams, everything was perfect. Her dress fit her like a glove; he was indescribably handsome in his tuxedo. They were beyond happy. They trusted one another and believed one another. It was as though everything was the same as it was before she had been taken.

But in reality, so many things were changed. Because she had committed that indiscretion; she had betrayed his trust.

"Jake, can we talk?" Rose asked.

"What about?" Jake asked, avoiding looking at her as he prepared himself lunch.

"Anything, everything. I miss you –"

"We're always three feet away from each other," Jake pointed out, keeping his voice even, though it took intense effort. "Excluding this morning, the last time you were away from me for any point in time was when I left you at the hospital. How could you possibly miss me?"

"You know what I mean."

He finally looked at her, eyes dark. Then, he shrugged and said, "Yeah, I do."

"So can we, at least, try to be some sort of friends? I know you hate me and –"

"Don't say I hate you," Jake interrupted gently. "Because I don't. I think that's what makes me the angriest, in the end. I can't hate you. I've tried. I'm angry, I'm hurt, I'm bitter, I'm betrayed; I'm a whole host of other things that I can't put a name to. But I don't hate you. I think it would be easier if I did."

He looked at her. He looked at her sad blue eyes and her long blonde hair. He took in everything he loved about her and all he wanted in that moment to be close to her again. He still loved her and he needed to touch her. He knew that he shouldn't give into that urge. If Jake brought physicality back into the relationship now, it would only make it harder to separate and give themselves the space they both needed to think and come to terms with what they wanted.

Dragons, however, were never known for their self-restraint.

He stepped around the counter to be in front of Rose. He grabbed her hands and pulled her upward. She went with the momentum, allowing herself to be brought against him. He leaned down and he kissed her. He kissed her like he never would again. Unlike the desperate kiss of the night of the truth potion, this kiss was different.

She wrapped herself around him and Jake found himself lifting Rose onto the counter. She drew in a breath as he slipped his hands under her shirt, his fingers drawing along the scars that his attack and her surgery had left on her. Jake pulled back when he felt the disruption in her skin. He lifted her tank top and stared down at her abdomen, at the mess that he had left her in; the mess that she had brought on the both of them.

He could hardly bear to look at her anymore. He dropped his hands away from her skin as though he had been bitten. Jake turned his back on her and, even when Rose reached out her hand to pull him back, he just continued down the stairs into the shop, needing to get away from her.

He didn't know how much longer he could deal with the feelings raging inside of him before he snapped.

I have an announcement! This story will be 38 chapters long (including the epilogue)!

I don't own anything recognizable.

~TLL~