Thanks once again for all the reviews, just a warning in advance that this chapter is very long and very emotional in parts so it might be an idea to get tissues ready! Please leave a review if you read and let me know what you think! Thanks once again! xo

Chapter Seven

Jake's POV

A few hours had passed by since the funeral and their home was still full of people. Chelsea had lots of friends, her warm and funny personality meant that pretty much every person she'd met in her life had fallen in love with her. Many people had tried to comfort him, many had said that her passing was a blessing as she wouldn't be in pain anymore but he couldn't look at her death in that way. Because they'd lived at home together for so long she was his closest sibling, she'd pretty much been a second mother to him and he was devastated that he'd not had the chance to say goodbye to her and tell her how much he loved her. Now he was stood in his parent's living room trying to be strong for everyone when all he wanted to do was lock himself away in his room and grieve in private.

'Jake,' he looked up from the glass of orange juice that he was nursing to see Louise staring back at him sadly. 'I just wanted to say how sorry I am, Maddie wanted me to pass on her apologies for not making it here, there's a difficult case going on in work…'

'It's okay, she called me last night to explain, it was nice of her to come to the funeral, I told her she didn't have to,' he replied, Maddie had told him last night that Louise knew about their friendship so he saw no reason to cover up the fact that he'd spoken to her.

'She wanted to be here for you Jake, she really cares about you a great deal,' his heart warmed a little hearing those words but he still couldn't put a smile on his face, his heart was too broken to be able to do that.

'Thanks for coming today, it means a lot that you did,' he shifted slightly, as nice as Louise and everyone else was he just wanted to get out of the house and be alone for a while. 'I'm gonna go outside for a smoke, I'll see you soon.'

He kept his head down and left the house without saying a word to anyone. His family were all busy talking to other people and they probably wouldn't notice that he was missing anyway. He just needed to be alone for a couple of hours, being in the house where so many memories still lingered was just too hard today.

Digging around in his jacket pocket he found his car keys and decided to go for a drive to try and clear his head. He didn't know where he was going, if he kept himself busy he hoped that the guilt he felt for not being here when she passed would stay away for a while. His family had tried to make him feel better ever since he'd arrived home but nothing they could say or do would change the fact that he would never get the chance to spend a few final moments with the sister that he loved so much. Now that she was gone the house just felt empty and lonely without her. Because of her mobility problems he'd spent so much time with her goofing around to try and make her laugh, he would have done absolutely anything for her and when she needed him the most he hadn't been there for her.

Tears filled his eyes as he drove around aimlessly, he was desperately trying to fight them back because if he started to cry he knew he wouldn't be able to stop. The guys on the boat had all told him that he had to be strong for his family, he was a man, he was expected to be the rock for all of them and he was trying so hard not to fall apart completely. He was debating on whether to pull up and go for a walk or not when seemingly his decision was made for him by some random twist of fate. He hadn't been driving to anywhere in particular, he'd just taken turns as and when he felt the need to take them but somehow he'd ended up finding his way to one of his old hangouts.

He stopped the car opposite the run down building that he'd known so well and sat staring at it for a couple of minutes whilst his hands clung to the steering wheel. Surely one drink on the day of his sister's funeral wouldn't hurt would it? He had every reason to have just one beer or whiskey to take the edge off what had been a horrendous day. It's not like he would get completely hammered and cause a scene, he knew when to stop. No one would ever know that he'd done it so what harm could it do?

Maddie's POV

'You're still here?' She looked up from her mountain of paperwork to see her colleague Sarah poking her head around the door on her way out.

'Yep and I'm not going anywhere soon,' she sighed as she pointed to her jam packed desk. She loved her job ninety percent of the time but this side of it she could easily do without, she HATED paperwork! If they spent less time worrying about how things were written down they could spend more time actually talking to the children and the families that they saw, to her that would be more beneficial than filling in questionnaires.

'Do you want me to stay here and give you a hand?' She shook her head and smiled at Sarah's offer.

'No it's okay, thanks for the offer though.'

'Alright well I'll see you in the morning! Make sure you don't stay here all night missy!' Sarah shouted down the corridor as she left the building.

She really did not want to be stuck here, not tonight. There was only one place in the entire world that she wanted to be right now and that was with Jake. She'd tried to reschedule a meeting with the most notorious family that she had to deal with so she could take a half day and go to the funeral and to the wake at Jake's home but she hadn't been successful. Plus the pile of paperwork on her desk had to be completed whether she liked it or not. She'd managed to take an extended lunch break to attend Chelsea's funeral but she hadn't had enough time to talk to Jake for a great length of time and she felt awful about that. She'd called him last night and spent a couple of hours talking to him but that didn't make her feel much better. She wanted to see him, to be there for him in person so he could let all of his emotions out because she knew damn well that he was bottling everything up to try and be tough and strong. He didn't need to be tough and strong with her, he could just be himself. She just wanted to help try and take his pain away and she couldn't do that sat in her office.

She took a deep breath and tried to push Jake to the back of her mind as she started to go through the paperwork bit by bit, the quicker she worked the sooner she could go home and call Jake. She chowed down on one of her chicken and mayo sandwiches that she'd kept over from lunch as she started to clear the paper mountain on her overflowing desk. She managed to get about halfway through the pile after an hour and a half of nonstop work when her cell began to vibrate on the desk. She looked at the screen and saw Louise's name, she wasn't going to answer at first but something inside her told her to take the call.

'Hello,' she put the cell on speaker as she continued to go through the paperwork.

'Honey have you heard from Jake in the past couple of hours?' The question made her stop what she was doing immediately.

'No I haven't. Why, what's wrong? Has something happened?' She began to feel sick, had he done something stupid because he was so overwhelmed with grief?

'His mom just called and asked if we, more specifically you, might know where he was. He disappeared a few hours ago and didn't say where he was going, he told me he was going out for a cigarette but he never came back. I'm guessing you have no clue where he is?' She bit down on her lip and tried to think back to conversations they'd had in the past, she couldn't care less about the paperwork now, she had to try and find him.

'No I don't but he mentioned some places that he used to go to, I could go take a look….'

'On your own?'

'Yes on my own! I'm a Hansen, I can handle myself! I'll call right away if I find him,' before Louise could interject once again she ended the call and brought up Google on her PC to try and find some of the places he'd mentioned in their previous conversations.

She quickly printed off directions to three places that she remembered him mention and hoped that he would be at one of them. It was a long shot but she had nothing else to go on.

She got all her stuff together and rushed out of the office so she could get to work on finding Jake. By the time she reached her car she was out of breathe and her feet were throbbing in the stupid high heeled boots that she'd decided to wear, then again she hadn't predicted on doing a Usain Bolt impression when she'd dressed that morning.

Reading the directions that she'd printed off she worked out which place she could reach first, it was a bar called The Grove which she'd never heard of before. As she drove off she tried to call Jake's number, probably something that she should have done in the first place, her call went straight to his voicemail however so evidently he'd turned his phone off. He probably had most of his family and close friends trying to call him right now, if he was in a bar drinking it wasn't a surprise that he didn't want to speak to them, he wouldn't want them knowing what he was doing she guessed.

Weaving her way through traffic and speeding whenever she thought she could get away with it she managed to pull up outside the first bar on her list twenty minutes later. She had been about to exit the car when she took a closer look at the bar and saw that the front door was all boarded up, scrunching up the directions and throwing them in the back seat she studied the path to the next bar on the list which was a place called O'Malleys. She'd heard of the place before, mainly because fights and several stabbings had happened either inside or outside, somehow she couldn't imagine Jake going to a place like that but because he'd mentioned it in passing she had to go and check the place out for herself.

Once again she navigated her way through the Seattle streets and as soon as she turned the corner onto the street where O'Malleys was situated she spotted Jake's car. Pulling up right behind it she quickly turned off the engine and reached for her handbag which she'd placed in the back seat. Looking across the road to the dark and dingy looking bar she couldn't help but feel a little nervous as she noticed the unsavoury gang of men congregated around the front door. There was no way that she was calling anyone to come and back her up though, who the fuck could she call anyway? Jake's family had enough to deal with right now and Louise would hardly scare anyone off. Reaching into her bag she grabbed hold of the only useful thing that she'd brought with her, pepper spray. She'd carried it with her ever since one of her colleagues had been attacked at a home visit and she was now more thankful than ever that she had it with her. She slipped the spray into her jacket pocket and got out of the car so she could try and rescue Jake.

She focused her eyes firmly on the ground as she crossed the street, when she reached the sidewalk any hopes that she had of going into the bar unnoticed were gone when she started to hear catcalls and whistles.

'Hey sexy lady,' she had almost reached the front door when some bald older man covered in tattoos up to his neck blocked her path. 'I haven't seen you round here before,' he licked his lips and looked her up and down as she clutched the pepper spray in her jacket like a vice.

'That's because I haven't been here before,' trying to push past him proved futile as he easily managed to prevent her from moving forward.

'Why are you in such a hurry baby?' He put his hand on her arm and she immediately pulled away.

'Because my friend is in there getting drunk and he needs someone to take care of him so standing around outside talking to you isn't exactly high on my list of fucking priorities right now okay?' She glared at him as her temperature began to rise, she wasn't going to be scared away by some idiot who thought he was able to intimidate her, she'd dealt with pricks like him in the past because of her job.

'I'll be waiting for you when you leave sugar,' a smirk crossed his face as he stepped away from the door and brushed past her.

At least when she left she'd have Jake with her, she hoped she'd have him with her anyway. Ignoring some of the comments being thrown at her from tattooed guy's friends she pushed open the door to the bar and walked in trying to look as confident and unafraid as possible.

As soon as the door slammed shut behind her it felt like everyone in the bar stopped talking and stared at her. It was so dark and dingy inside that she could barely see where she was going as she started to head towards the scruffy, paint chipped bar where a few people were gathered.

She'd been about to ask the greasy haired, muscular man stood behind the bar if he knew where she could find Jake when a voice spoke from behind her.

'Maddie?'

She turned quickly to see Jake standing up and stepping out from the dark corner that he'd hidden himself away in. Relief spread through her body and without thinking she walked towards him and pulled him into a tight hug.

'I'm so glad I found you!' She'd been so scared that he'd done something stupid that seeing him almost made her explode, now she could talk to him and be here for him in his time of need.

'You shouldn't be here,' Jake pulled away from her after a couple of seconds and went back to his seat at the small table right in the corner of the bar. Just before she took a seat opposite him she noticed the glass of whiskey in front of him and pointed to it.

'How much of that have you had?' Jake picked the glass up and started to swirl the liquor around in the glass.

'None yet,' she breathed a huge sigh of relief, drinking wasn't going to make him feel any better, it would just make things so much worse. She'd got here just in time.

'And you think that drinking that is gonna make everything go away? It won't Jake, deep down you know that,' she stared at him but he didn't look at her, he kept his eyes on the glass.

'You should just go home Maddie, I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself,' he spoke the words half-heartedly, even if he was fucking nasty to her she still wasn't going to leave anyway, he probably knew that.

'You don't have to take care of yourself Jake,' the urge to tell him there and then what she truly felt for him was so strong but she had to resist. His head and his emotions were all over the place right now, if she did tell him how she really felt she had no idea how he would take it.

'What the fuck am I meant to do? My parents are devastated, my sister's aren't strong enough to try and deal with everything that's going on right now so that leaves me. If I don't find a way to cope then how is everyone else gonna get through this?'

'And drowning your sorrows is going to help you cope? It'll just make things a million times worse for you. You have to grieve Jake, you don't have to be the big, strong, tough guy with me, talk to me. I'm here for you,' she reached her hand across the table and placed it in his, for the first time since they'd sat down he looked at her.

'You have enough to deal with right now, I know you're busy at work…..'

'Screw work,' she interrupted him, 'I have plenty of leave to take and given the circumstances I think it's the right time to take it. I care about you so much Jake, I know we haven't known each other long but you're the closest friend I have, the closest I've ever had actually. I want to be here for you and I want to help you through this pain that you're feeling right now but you have to let it out, bottling it all up isn't going to help. Look where pretending everything is fine has got you so far, it's brought you here,' she gripped his hand and hoped that he wouldn't try to push her away.

'I can't go back to my parent's place, not yet,' Jake shook his head and she could see tears beginning to pool in his blue eyes.

'I have a spare room that you can use for as long as you need to,' having him stay with her would mean that she could keep an eye on him and make sure he didn't go back to his old ways. Plus with her dad and uncle's still fishing they didn't have to worry about being caught together for the time being.

'You're not gonna back down are you?' She shook her head. 'I know better than to try and fight a Hansen.'

'In that case let's get the hell out of here, this place gives me the creeps,' she looked around and could see that some of the men in the place were still looking at her.

Standing up quickly Jake followed her and without saying anything he wrapped an arm around her waist. Her skin tingled where his arm lay, if he could make her feel like this with just an arm around her waist what would he be able to do with her if they ever made love? She cursed herself silently, it was wrong to be thinking those thoughts at a time like this. Walking out of the bar and into the street she was brought back down to earth when she saw the tattooed man from before.

'Oh so this is the friend you were looking for then huh?'

'Just keep walking Jake, my car's parked across the road,' she felt his arm grip her waist even harder as she stared down at the ground and ignored the comment.

Passing by the man as he leaned up against a car she felt one of his hands make contact with her ass before she had time to do anything about it.

'Keep your fucking hands off of her!'

Jake saw what had happened and before she could stop him he launched himself at the tattooed guy and landed a blistering right hook right on his jaw. In the process of pulling him away from the scene one of the man's friends took advantage of the situation and punched Jake, hitting him on his cheekbone.

'Jake we need to get the fuck out of here now!'

She dragged him across the road and all but bundled him into her car, she could see that he was still angry and given half a chance he would probably go back for more but she wasn't going to give him that chance. Locking the car up after she'd got inside she sped off and didn't look back.

Once they were a few blocks away from the scene she pulled over to take a look at Jake's injury.

'The little bastard sucker punched me!' He winced as she studied the swollen and bruised flesh.

'We should get you checked out in case he's fractured anything,' she commented and he shook his head immediately.

'Once I get a bag of ice on it it'll be fine, no hospitals, not today,' rather than argue with him she said nothing and pulled off from the side of the road, the quicker she got him back to her place the sooner he could put some ice on his cheek.

Half an hour later she pulled into her designated parking space in the car park behind her apartment building. Without saying anything to one another they walked into the building together and took the elevator to the upper floor, as soon as they got inside her apartment she headed for the freezer so she could find something for Jake to put on his swollen cheek.

Finding a bag of frozen peas and wrapping it in a towel she handed the bag to Jake who thanked her before taking a seat on her couch.

'I'll have to go back tomorrow to pick up my car and grab some stuff from my folks place, that's if it's okay for me to stay for a couple of nights,' Jake broke the silence between them as she pulled out two bottles of water from the fridge and went to sit alongside him.

'You can stay as long as you want, it'll be nice to have someone to talk to,' she smiled as she handed one of the bottles over to Jake.

'I'm not exactly great to be around right now Maddie, if I don't talk much it's not because I'm deliberately trying to be rude I just….I just don't know what to say,' he sighed heavily before wincing as he pressed the peas against his cheek.

'You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, if you just wanted to scream, shout or cry you can do that, you just have to let these feelings out before they eat you up inside Jake,' she was talking from experience. Her dad had tried to remain strong when her grandpa had passed away, for months he'd buried himself in his work and pretended that everything was fine until one day he just broke down completely. She couldn't bear the thought of the same thing happening to Jake.

Putting the bag of frozen peas down on the coffee table in front of him Jake took a deep breath and cupped his hands together. 'It's already eating me up and I can't seem to stop it. I loved her so much, so much and I wasn't there for her when she needed me. I'm never gonna have the chance to say goodbye to her and I just want that chance, I want it so badly….'

She moved across the couch and wrapped her arms around his waist whilst placing her chin on his shoulder. 'Just let it out Jake, don't hide from me.'

The whispered words broke down the final barrier holding his emotions together and he started to weep. She held onto him as tight as she could and let him cry. He turned slightly and buried his face against her shoulder, his body shook from head to toe at the force of his choked sobs which almost made her cry too but she didn't, she just held him and stroked his hair in an attempt to provide him with some form of comfort. That was all that she could do.