AN/ Hey, it's been a long time since I updated this story...And since it's Valentine I couldn't help but think about my favorite couple, so I had to finish this chapter today. Hope you'll enjoy.

Thank you so much for all your reviews:) Some of you readers are really sharp.
AnAross3000 noticed the name 'Dani' in the last chapter... she was unsure if it was meant to be there or if it was just a typo... I can say that it's not a typo...;)
And PurplePenguin13MI noticed that Bucky was the name Jack named his imaginable bird in the episode 'Two dates and a funeral'. When I started to write this story way back I had already decided that Jack would give Kim a name, but I didn't know which. I couldn't find anything that suited though, but then Jack gave me one:)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kickin' it.

Chapter 12

A New Quest

I threw a glance at the clock on the wall. Only ten minutes to go before Claire would arrive. I was sitting by the kitchen window, waiting. Jack had left for school, letting me roam the majority of the house freely under the condition of staying away from Mr Brewer and his stuff. The boy had doubled checked that the door to his father's office was closed before he'd left, which was really annoying…

Being alone in the big house was kind of boring. There's not much you can do when you're a bird and I'd ended up just waiting and worrying over my problems. I was nervous, but also excited. Claire must have some new important information to give me, I was sure of it.

Suddenly I caught sight of a colourful woman walking up the street. With the bright yellow dress matched with a green vest and the mess of unruly red hair, she was hard to miss. Feeling hopeful when I saw her I quickly left my seat by the window and flew to the living room.

For the first twenty minutes of my time alone I had searched the house for a way out. All the doors and windows were closed and locked, which had made me a bit frustrated to begin with, but then I'd found the open fireplace in the living room.

Swiftly I made it into it and started my flight up the dark chimney, trying to avoid the slightly claustrophobic feeling it gave me.

Once outside I froze as I realized how high up in the air I was after having made the mistake of looking down. My claws clutched the edge of the chimney as I forced myself to look over at Claire.

She had almost made it to the house by now. Her focus was further down the road though, where our secret meeting would take place. I don't think she noticed me as she didn't even look my way.

Taking a deep breath I spread my wings and jumped out in the air, letting myself carefully lose some height as I aimed for the woman. I quickly caught up with her and landed on her shoulder. Claire flinched slightly from surprise but kept walking as if she hadn't noticed me.

"You're early," she mumbled and fixed her hair casually so that I could hide in it. "Let's go for a walk…"

Once she was sure we were out of sight for any curious eyes, she began speaking. But her words weren't exactly what I'd thought they would be… and they left me confused, angry and a bit upset, feeling as if she'd intruded on my personal life.

"I've gone through your diary," she blurted out just like that, causing me to nearly fall off her shoulder.

She'd done WHAT?!

Claire didn't seem to notice my reaction -or she just ignored it- and went on. "You sure mention the name 'Jack' a lot…" She chuckled a little. Since I couldn't say anything in my defence I did what came first to my mind; I pecked her on the shoulder. Didn't she have any respect for my personal life?

Claire flinched slightly and held up her hands in surrender.
"I don't blame you. He's one special guy. I can totally see what you see in him." If she would've said that just two days ago I would've said that the only thing special about him was the fact that he was meaner and fuller of himself than any other guy that I knew of. Now however, after having spent some time with him alone I couldn't agree with that any longer. He was special indeed. At least he'd started to become special to me…and I found myself hoping that I'd started to become special to him too…

I did not have a crush on him though, no matter how much Claire wanted to hint that.
Blushing at her comment I pecked her shoulder again to get her to stop talking about Jack and get to the point. Claire ignored me.

"It's too bad you two didn't get along…" She got quiet thinking for a moment. "…or maybe it's a good thing after all…" I frowned, not sure what she meant. She shook her head "That's not really important right now… We have bigger things to take care of…"

We'd reached the outskirts of the neighbourhood by now and Claire started to head towards less inhabited areas.

"There are two things that I need to talk to you about and the first one is Jackson Brewer." I tweeted in protest. Why couldn't she just let it go?

"I know you like him Kimberly, so don't deny it." She said matter-of-factly and turned her head slightly to look at me. "Is there any other boy that you've ever felt for?" My eyes widened. I was not going to talk about my feelings for boys with her. Claire's face turned serious. "Kimberly, this is important. I need to know. Now, I've gone through your diary and it clearly shows that you haven't found interest in anyone else but Jack, but I need to be sure... Are there any other boys that you ever felt for?"

There was something in her tone that made it clear that she wasn't fooling around with me. This was serious and I needed to let her know.

I shook my head. There was a few other guys that I'd like and had thought was cute over the last years, but I'd never really felt anything for them compared to what I'd felt when I'd first met Jack.

"Good…" Claire said. "Then Jack Brewer it is…" I frowned, wondering for a moment if I'd done the right decision to let her know. Somehow it felt like I'd put him in trouble, and for some reason I cared. I didn't want to make his already messed up life even worse…

"To the next question…" She continued. "Have you written anything about him in any other book or doodled his name somewhere?" Again I shook my head. "Do you have photos of him anywhere?" I thought for a moment and then shook my head. "You're absolutely sure? You don't have anything on him on the computer or on your phone?"

My answer was again 'no'. I wasn't the kind of person who told or showed everyone who I liked. I'd kept it a secret, which I'd been glad for. It would've been awkward if anyone knew that I'd crushed on someone like Jack.

The only place I had ever let my secrets out was in my diary believing they would be safe. But apparently they hadn't been safe enough…

"Okay, that's good." Claire nodded, seeming to be relieved. "Now to the second thing that needs to be taken care of…I've been trying to do some research of the Brotherhood. It's hard though. I barely get the chance to work on anything since Evelyn is around. But she has reluctantly being driven to school today…" I could almost see a faint smile of amusement on Claire's face as she said that. "Your mother doesn't suspect a thing yet, which is good. Evelyn's been doing a great job pretending to be you…" I felt my heart sink a little. It hurt in some way to know that I'd been replaced and no one had really noticed. Not even my own mother…

"She's working hard though to get her plan into motion again…she needs to be ready on Friday…and so do we…" I felt my stomach doing another sickening twist of worry. I had no clue of what lay ahead or what to do, and frankly Claire seemed to be unsure too, despite the fact that she'd been studying the legend for years…

"Listen Kimberly, about the order. There's something strange going on in there…I don't know what but…" She looked at me again. "We need to know what they are doing. They know for sure that this day is coming too, they've been preparing for it for years and they will definitely try to stop the witch to arise again. It's something that doesn't add up though… We need to know how they work from the inside. If I were a man I would be able to just strut in there and find out for myself…" I adjusted awkwardly on her shoulder, beginning to feel where this was going. Claire stopped in her tracks and reached up to grab me. Holding me in her hand she looked me straight in the eyes.

"Kimberly, you need to get inside their headquarters." I felt the blood drain from my face. How was I supposed to do that? It had been tough enough to get inside the Brewer's house, having almost gotten killed by a fifteen year old boy…

"And you will have to bring someone with, a boy or a man, to speak for you…" I looked at her, having a bad feeling about all of this. Claire already had a person in mind; I could see that in her eyes. And that person could only be one of two people Mr Brewer or Jack…

Mr Brewer would easily be able to get into the headquarters without anyone suspecting anything. But the problem was that he didn't know I existed and I still didn't dare to show myself to him, the memory of him abusing Jack still fresh in my mind…

Jack on the other hand would be willing to help me. I was pretty sure of that. But he would have a problem getting into the headquarters.

"Kimberly," Claire said my name to bring me back from my thoughts. "Take a Brewer with you to the headquarters and make sure that you'll find the essence of their belief." I raised an eyebrow, looking at her. Why did she have to speak in riddles? This thing was hard as it was already… "Find the curse, Kimberly."

~~~~Wings of Love~~~~

I was flying. It was late in the afternoon. My meeting with Claire had taken longer than I'd thought and to my disappointment it hadn't brought me more than new questions. I had thought that she had found a way to help me, that I would return home in my human body or at least being a step closer to it…

I had spent some time flying mindlessly through Seaford, all my problems feeling overwhelming. She'd told me to get into the heart of the Brotherhood of the Fireguard… it was a simple task, still it felt impossible. And even if I did get inside, I didn't know what to look for. 'Find the curse' she'd said. Was that literally speaking or figuratively? And how was I supposed to bring anyone with me? I could hardly communicate.

I got one thing from the conversation though, or I think I did at least. When Claire first had told me to find 'Mr Brewer', she might not have meant Mr Brewer senior… Jack could also be referred to as Mr Brewer…

I came to think of it as Claire kept repeating his last name. Maybe she meant something by it, trying to give me a clue…Or maybe I just imagined, hoping that I would never have to make contact with Mr Brewer…I sure didn't trust him.

That's when I decided. If anyone would help me get into the headquarters it would be Jack. He was the one who could be trusted…I think…

Finally I reached the fancy neighbourhood where the Brewer's lived. I noticed the car being parked on the driveway, telling me that Mr Brewer had come home from work. Realizing how late it must be I speeded up a bit. Jack must've been home for quite a while…

Not being able to use the front door since it was closed and locked I flew around the house and up to Jack's window. Luckily he'd left it open and I could easily get inside.

I landed on the desk right beneath the window. Jack was sitting on the edge of his bed with his guitar. He wasn't really playing on it though. Just mindlessly picking the strings one by one without any purpose as he gazed at the bed he'd made for me out of the shoebox, his eyes blank. I looked at him curiously. I'd never heard him play and I decided to wait for a moment afraid that I might interrupt him if I announced my presence…

A moment passed without Jack noticing me, his focus still on the bedside table. The sound of the guitar soon faded as he'd reached the last string and let his hand fall down into his lap. He sighed and slumped his shoulders. I frowned, cocking my head to the side. He seemed sad…

Worried that something might was wrong I whistled and flew over to him. He immediately turned his head around by the sound of me, his glum expression changing quickly into a surprised one.

"Bucky?" A huge smile made it to his face. "You're back! I thought I'd never see you again."

A bunch of unexplainable butterflies stirred in my stomach as I met his gaze. I landed on his shoulder. The sight of his smile made me feel lighter and for a short time I could forget all my troubles.

"I looked everywhere for you. Where were you?" He wondered, turning his head so that he could look at me. The butterflies made another flip when I realized that he'd missed me. I pointed with my wing towards the window. "You were outside?"

I nodded before I noticed something. Frowning I studied his face. The mark Mr Brewer had left on his cheek two days ago was completely gone. It hadn't been too bad from the beginning, but it had still been clearly visible this morning before Jack had left for school…

The boy suddenly put the guitar away, laying it on the bed and stood up. He walked over to his backpack, opening it. I remained on his shoulder, watching as he effectively went through the bag, obviously in search for something. There were a lot of things in there though and he ended up having to take some stuff out to get to the thing that he wanted. Among the books and papers a pink teddy bear fell out. I looked at it, suddenly remembering what Grace had told me at her party.

'Do you guys know he carries a pink teddy bear in his backpack? It's true. Roy has seen it more than once. Jack's always very quick to hide it again if it would accidentally show.'

Back then I had been unsure whether to believe her or not even though I had went along with plotting against Jack and having the teddy bear as a big part of our plan…

Turned out that Jack indeed walked around with a stuffed animal in his bag. An animal that seemed to be meant for a baby girl, not a teenager boy… The teddy was about six inches tall and had a white heart covering most of its stomach. I shook my head and looked at Jack who was busy pulling out a spiral and some lose documents, wishing that I could ask him about the teddy bear.

Jack put the things that he needed on his desk before shoving the rest of the stuff back down into the bag. The pink teddy stopped him for a brief moment as he looked at it, squeezing it slightly in his hand. I watched him curiously, hoping that he would say something about it. But to my disappointment he just stuffed it into the bag and sat down by the desk.

I immediately recognized the worksheet filled with questions about the solar system lying in front of us. Mr Hanson had been handing it out last week and I had -thanks to Milton- already done mine. I wasn't sure that it mattered much now though, since I doubted that Evelyn would care to hand it in for me…

"Okay, first question," Jack said out loud. "How many planets are there? Easy…" he mumbled as he wrote the digit '8'. "Which planet is the coldest?"

I watched from his shoulder as he filled in the answers one by one. The questions were easy to begin with but became harder the further he came and I noticed him taking longer and longer time to think through his answers until he got completely stuck.

"How many moons does Mars have…? How am I supposed to know that?" he said, slightly frustrated with the homework. I smiled at his comment, since it was exactly what I had said to Milton when we'd worked on it… Lucky for me Milton was like a living lexicon and he had just answered all the questions right away without even needing to think twice for any of them.

"I suppose there should be more than one," Jack continued. "Maybe five…" I tweeted in protest at his answer, knowing it was wrong. Jack stopped himself from writing anything down as he looked at me leaving his shoulder. I landed in front of him, right on top of his homework and shook my head. He gave me a strange look.

"Are you trying to tell me that I'm wrong?" he wondered sceptically. I nodded. "Since when do birds know about stuff like this?" I shrugged and made a gesture, tapping my beak twice against the desk. Jack raised his eyebrow, obviously not getting what I meant.

"What now?" he said making me sigh in frustration. I hated not being able to make myself clear.

I pecked the desk again, twice. My movements were slower this time, and he caught on to what I meant.

"Are you counting for me?" He wondered, looking both sceptical and fascinated when I nodded. "Okay…" I taped my beak against the hard surface once again as Jack counted with me. "One, two…" I stopped, glancing up at him. He seemed puzzled. "What, you mean there's only two?" I nodded, causing Jack to shake his head. "Okay if you say so…I can't believe I'm letting a bird do my homework…" he mumbled and scribbled his answer down before giving me a glance. "I'm blaming you if this turns out to be the wrong answer…"

We continued to work together on the rest of the questions. Jack would read them out loud and then ask me a 'yes or no' question, so that I could easily give him an answer by shaking or nodding my head. It didn't take long until we were done.

Jack put the pencil down and looked at me.

"Thanks," he said. "I didn't know you knew any of this..."

I shrugged nonchalantly in response which made him flash a smile before he turned serious again. "There's still a lot more to you than I know about, isn't there?"

I held his gaze locked for a moment, hesitating before I slowly nodded. Maybe this was the time to let him know the truth about me. I hadn't really gotten an opportunity like this before and I probably wouldn't get another one as time was running short… besides if Jack was supposed to help me then he needed to know.

I didn't know how to tell him though. Not only because of my inability to speak but because I was unsure how to put things in such a way that he would help me. If I'd let him know who I truly was then I doubted that he would care to lift one finger for me, let alone put himself in possible danger… I was certain that he couldn't stand me in my human form just as little as I'd been able to stand him.

"You okay, Bucky?" Jack asked, waving his hand in front of my face. I shook my head, getting back to reality. The boy wrinkled his eyebrows slightly. Realizing that I had his attention I pointed at myself with the tip of my wing.

"You…" Jack said, trying to make out what I meant. I nodded and pointed at him before doing a circle motion with my wing. "me…together, we," Jack guessed as I continued my charades. I nodded at the word 'we' and looked down at the worksheet lying beneath me in search for some useful words. Finding what I looked for I pointed at them in order as Jack read them out loud.

"…have to…" he frowned, giving me a strange look. "I didn't know you could read." I smiled at that but quickly tried to get him to focus again on what I was about to tell him.

"We have to…stop…a…"

Jack and I were so caught up in our new way of communicating that we both missed to notice the door to his room opening as a tall figure let themselves in…

That was it. Unusually short chapter and kind of boring... I wanted to end it there though *evil smirk*.

I didn't send out sneak peeks on this chapter because I got stuck with it and didn't have anything to send out until now and I decided that I could just as well post the entire thing...

There will be sneak peeks for the next chapter though, and you'll get one by reviewing;)

Thanks for reading.

/MJ