Chapter XI: Disruption
Hello again, dear fans! We are so sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up, but unfortunately, Peach Wookiee's computer had a catastrophic crash and all data on said computer was lost. So we have begun a major reconstruction of the tale you have enjoyed. So Peach and Ani thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you for all your reviews and for continuing to read! So, onto the newest chapter!
Last time, the guys and girls had a night out and the girls got into more mischief than the guys. Dr. Vellian Crowler actually took a prank call in stride and let Violet, Alexis, Rosa and Annie off with a warning. Violet later had a major sugar high and some warm milk got her to sleep. It seemed the night would be peaceful. So what will happen next? Stay tuned!
Disclaimer: Hmmm… Peach and Ani check what they own and don't own… Nope. We still don't own GX or its characters. We just own our OCs and this storyline. Thanks for your attention!
Authors' note: In this chapter, we introduce Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as something each of the gang, to some degree, might have. But Jaden seems, at this moment, to be suffering from it the worst. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is caused by physical and/or psychological trauma. This has become highly publicized in recent years because of the number of military members who suffer from it. If you'd like to learn more about PTSD, check out Wikipedia, the Mayo Clinic website or many other fine medical websites.
Also, we should point out that the guys might seem a bit out of character here. You'll see why and we hope you don't mind terribly. This part of the story will also be a Jaden-heavy arc. Thank you.
The most peaceful of nights can be disrupted by the most terrorizing of nightmares. A happy dream can become distorted into a mental war zone where no one is safe. And after the four couples had their joyous night out, a nightmare visited Rosadina Terelino Jimenez-Rodriguez. Tyson Hassleberry was awakened by his bride-to-be tossing and turning, mumbling in her sleep. "Rosa? Rosa!" he called out.
"...dark...fire..." Rosa mumbled in a terrified tone, deaf to her fiancé's calls. Darkness gripped her mind, planting a fear in her worse than her previous nightmares. She was alone in a dark void, unable to sense anything at all but the dead silence. It almost felt like water, even though she was completely dry. "T-Tyson...?" she called out, shivering. It unnerved her, being helpless like this. And then, fierce heat was at her back. Whipping around, her eyes snapped wide and she screamed as a large fireball engulfed her body in flames. A similar scream tore itself from her in reality, sweat beading her brow.
In the real world, Tyson gripped her shoulders. "Rosa?! Rosa, wake up, darlin'!" The scream from his beloved rent his soul. 'She's havin' the nightmare again!' his mind screamed. "Rosa, the snake ain't got you!" he called out.
"...burning..." Rosa groaned, body actually feeling warm to the touch. The nightmare was so real, thanks to some shadow magic that her body was giving off a real reaction to it. The flames didn't hurt Rosa like they should have, however. It felt more like dozens of creatures gnawing at her.
Tyson, in the real world, grabbed his PDA. "Rosa! Spanish Rose! I'm right here! Jorge's... Sam Hill!" he yelped, feeling how hot she was. "Darlin', wake up! And then I'm callin' Miss Fontaine!" He shook her again, trying to restore her to consciousness. And whether it was something Tyson said or the fact that Darkness had delivered his message, Rosa's eyes flew open and she drew in a shuddering breath. She was shaking like a leaf, a rare action for her, and looked like she'd seen a ghost...or worse. Her body was still warm, and tingled with the subconscious feeling of being eaten alive in her nightmare. And, strangely, her ears were ringing with a sound close to laughter. When her eyes snapped open, Tyson held her to him. "Shhh... darlin', I'm right here," he murmured. "You're okay... was it Jorge and the snake again?" he asked, noting that she was beginning to cool down.
His question surprised her; the old had been entirely stomped out by this new terror. "Who..? No... n-no... Not them," Rosa muttered, leaning into him as much as she could and trying to calm down. She hated stuttering and feeling frightened, but at the moment spoke her native tongue without a second thought.
He held her in a strong and yet surprisingly gentle embrace, lying down with her. Automatically, he switched to Spanish. "What was it..? You're shakin' terribly..." And that shook him mentally. 'If that wasn't what scared her, what did?' he thought.
She closed her eyes at the memory of her recent nightmare, but quickly opened them again for fear of it returning. "I...I'm fine," she said first, though still in Spanish. But Rosa knew that he'd still want to know what she had dreamt about. So she told him...about the darkness, the fire, the feeling of something trying to eat her.
Tyson's face tightened a little, and he frowned in concern. 'What do I do?' he thought, rubbing her back. "Darlin', it's gonna be okay... I'm right here... Do you want me to get Miss Fontaine?"
"NO!" Rosa answered instantly, tensing. The last thing she wanted was for everyone to get worried again, especially after things were finally settling down. "I mean...no, I'm fine. Really," she repeated, at last reverting to English.
Tyson jerked back slightly at the intensity in her tone at first. And then he relaxed slightly. "Are you sure? I've never seen you be so terrified," he explained, still concerned.
She frowned; she'd never FELT so terrified. "I'm sure... It was just a nightmare. I'll forget about it tomorrow and be fine; it's not the same as last time."
Tyson yielded the point rather reluctantly. She was so pale and frightened, it actually scared him. "Okay, but if you have that again... Darlin', remember, we can be strong for each other..." He stroked her face and hair gently with one hand.
He would later regret saying that, but for now it was a good statement. She leaned into his touch, nodding slightly. "Si... I know, Ty-Ty. Let's go back to sleep..."
"Okay," he answered as she snuggled against him. But Tyson Schwarzkopf Hassleberry lay awake in the darkness for nearly an hour after Rosa's soft rhythmic breathing told him she was sleeping. 'If this is a threat,' he mentally prayed, 'Great General, help me fight it. I ain't gonna lose her... I can't!' And finally, he let sleep come to him. The young man's dreams were rather disturbing to him, but he didn't remember what they were when he woke up on Sunday morning.
Rosa turned out to be partially correct; she had slept peacefully, but the nightmare still haunted her. Nevertheless, she pushed it to the back of her mind and smiled at Tyson when he finally opened his eyes. "Buenos dias, Ty-Ty," she said, kissing him.
"Mornin', Spanish Rose," he greeted, kissing back. He searched her face, remembering her terror in the night. He could see the slight fear in her eyes. "Are you feelin' better?" he asked softly.
She nodded. "Si. Much better. I told you it would be fine..."
Tyson looked her straight in the eyes. "Rosa," he began and then paused, collecting his thoughts. "Rosa, that really scared you, didn't it?" he asked in Spanish, no anger in his voice, just concern.
Rosa paused herself, looking at him. She knew he was only worried about her, but sometimes she wished he wouldn't do it so much. "....Yes. But isn't that what nightmares do? The others scared me, but nothing bad happened," she answered in Spanish.
"But... last night... was different," he said.
He knew it. She knew it. But she pretended not to. "How?"
He took a deep breath, keeping his emotions in check. "Rosadina... you have never been that frightened by a nightmare. I know it. Even after what Jorge did, you weren't tremblin' from the nightmares like that..." He rarely used the full form of her first name, and this was when he desperately needed her to know how worried he was for her.
Her gaze turned downward along with the corners of her mouth, knowing what he said was true. And that was what bothered her. She was scared...and in turn was scaring him. "You're right... But Tyson, I'm not scared now like I was last night. I'm over the nightmare and just fine...really," she tried yet again.
Tyson knew all too well that Rosa was lying to him now, and he hated it. But he knew why she was lying to him, and that made it worse. So he decided to try something else. "Darlin', I know somethin's botherin' you... And when you're ready to tell me, I'll listen. If you're worried about scarin' me, you're only gonna scare me more by keepin' it in... I've told you before, you don't have to be strong all the time. Just like I don't..."
Rosa looked into his eyes, relief filling her at the fact that he was going to drop the subject...for now, at least. She smiled a little, trying to reassure him. She really wasn't as scared as she had been, so she wasn't fully lying. "All right. And I know, Ty-Ty...I'll never forget that. It was the first thing you taught me."
He grinned and kissed her again. "Hey, shall we go get some breakfast?"
Her stomach let out a low growl, and she blushed lightly. "Good idea. Though...shall we get dressed first?"
"Good idea," he answered. And so they got showers, got dressed and headed to breakfast. They arrived at the spacious white Obelisk dining hall, which had long tables set up for Sunday brunch.
"Hey, guys!" Jaden called cheerfully from the table where he, Alexis, Syrus, Annie, Violet, Bastion, Chazz, Atticus, Jesse, Adrian, Jim and Axel were congregated.
Rosa and Tyson joined them at the table, both looking a bit more tired than the others. "You missed it! We were just talking about all of the crazy stuff we did last night!" Violet stated cheerfully, grinning.
Tyson sweat-dropped, grinning sheepishly. The guys who hadn't been at the party were cracking up. "I still can't believe you guys pranked Crowler and he didn't get you in trouble!" Adrian chuckled. He may not have been at Duel Academy Central very long, but already he knew that Dr. Crowler wasn't someone to be crossed. 'I may be cocky, but I'm not stupid," he mentally reflected, absently running a hand through his spiky red hair and then straightening his glasses.
"I know. We all thought for sure he was going to give us the worst detention possible," Alexis replied, sweat-dropping.
Syrus grinned sheepishly. "It's kind of funny how we hardly did anything compared to what they did... I mean, mischief-wise..."
Annie flushed, matching her fiancé's expression. "Yeah... what's up with that?"
All of the guys looked at each other, wondering the same thing. Violet shrugged. "I guess girls just know how to have more fun than guys," she teased.
"Nah... We just want to live to get married, have children... have lives," Jaden grinned, laughing.
Alexis smirked. "Well, I doubt a few dares will stop us from getting that far, Jay."
"Hmmm... well, if Dr. Crowler had been on a rampage last night, you girls might be dead," Bastion asserted softly.
Syrus grimaced. "Bastion's right. Crowler could get pretty scary..."
"But he didn't," Annie sighed in awe.
Axel, even though he had been laughing at the girls' antics, was now serious. "I read up on him at West Academy and he definitely didn't act like his psych profile indicated." Axel had told the group about his work with Professor Viper, but hadn't mentioned how thorough their research on the gang around Jaden Yuki had been.
"He has a psych profile?" Bastion asked, stunned. Axel nodded.
"Uh...what's a psych profile?" Violet added.
"Psychological profile... it tells about what a person is like and how he or she thinks," Adrian explained.
"Oh...well then I think they should update Crowler's. After what he did last night, he's definitely not the same as he was our first year," Violet replied.
"No... he did a... well, I wouldn't call it a 180, but it's something," Bastion sighed, smiling.
Tyson and Rosa had been quieter than usual during the conversation, barely saying a word. Their friends took notice. "Tyson...Rosa...you guys okay?" Alexis asked for them all. Tyson looked at Rosa, wondering if he should say anything about what happened late last night. Rosa conveyed the answer with her eyes. She didn't mind telling them, but later, when it was more private.
So Tyson took a breath and said, "Yeah... just in a quiet sorta mood." Jaden and the other guys caught Tyson's look, knowing it meant they'd talk later. The girls, too, perceived the same thing through Rosa's expression and realized the same thing. The gang got through breakfast and then the guys and girls separated. By this time, Mindy, Chazz's new girlfriend and Jasmine, who'd just started seeing Atticus, had joined up and were with the other girls.
The guys headed over to one of the private Obelisk lounges and sat on the big overstuffed blue couches. "Guys... Rosa didn't want us to say nothin' in the main hall," Tyson began.
"Did something happen?" Syrus asked. All of the guys had the same concerned expressions on their faces, in varying degrees.
Tyson sighed for the umpteenth time this morning. "She had a nightmare... and it was a bad one. I've never seen her so scared..."
"You mean the one she was having before?" Atticus asked.
Tyson shook his head. "No... This time... it was worse..." And so he told them what Rosa had told him. "... And when she woke up, she was shakin' like a leaf..."
Jaden nodded, his brown eyes wide. "Not good, man... Man, if Lex was freaking like that... I'd be freaked too."
Jesse frowned. "That sounds pretty real, don't it? For a nightmare, I mean. From the way her body was actin'..." Tyson had also mentioned about Rosa's strange increase in temperature.
Adrian looked curious and worried at the same time. "Body temperatures sometimes interact with dreams. I wish I knew more about dream interpretation... Maybe I could help..."
"Too bad there aren't any Aboriginal gurus around here like there were back home. They're experts at this sort of thing," Jim said, Shirley growling lightly in agreement on his back.
"Uh...what?" Jaden asked, not understanding. "What's an aboriginal guru?"
Chazz smacked his head and groaned, "It's like an Indian medicine man, you moron!"
Syrus sweat-dropped. "Actually, Chazz, I didn't really know what that was, either..."
"Neither did I," both Atty and Jesse stated simultaneously. They blinked and exchanged glances, then grinned sheepishly.
Chazz flushed. "Uh... sorry," he apologized, wishing he hadn't reacted.
Jim chuckled. "Not a lot of people know about them, mates. So no worries... But getting back to the point of the matter, you don't think this'll be a repeat of last time, do you?" he asked Tyson. Of course, Jim was referring to the nightmares the girls had previously experienced, all four of them.
"I hope not... I really hope not," Tyson groaned.
"Alexis didn't have bad nightmares before the summer," Jaden said thoughtfully.
"Neither did Violet," Bastion added, face tight, worried about his fiancée's safety if this was a return of the nightmares that made the girls sick.
"Annie didn't, either. Well, except for the ones she had that sometimes came true," Syrus added, remembering the few times such an event had occurred.
"They came true?" Adrian asked, eyebrows raised.
Chazz nodded. "Yeah... she kinda had premonitions."
"But she hasn't had any recently. You don't think...Rosa's nightmare was one, do you?" Syrus asked, worry edging his voice. The group of young men looked at each other, not sure what to say.
And in another lounge, Jasmine looked at Rosa in concern. "What's up?" she asked gently.
Rosa sighed, just like her fiancé had, before speaking. "Last night...I had a nightmare. Not the one from before...this one was much, much worse..."
"What happened?" Annie asked. "Rosa... you look like you saw a ghost!"
"I wish it had been a ghost..." And so for the second time she explained her nightmare, including the strange reactions her body had experienced in reality. "I...I've never been so scared..."
The girls drew around Rosa in a protective hug and huddle. They knew she was terribly frightened and that in itself was a horrible thing. Jasmine sat close to the younger woman and said, "Rosa, it felt really real, didn't it? It almost sounds like some of what we heard about in class. Dreams real enough that you feel it."
All of the girls knew that anything that scared Rosa must be truly terrifying. Rosa looked over at the redhead, nodding slightly. "Si...I was actually surprised when I woke up... I thought I HAD been awake," she murmured, rubbing her eyes tiredly.
Mindy shivered slightly. "It... it sounds like," she began and then trailed off. She looked like she regretted opening her mouth at this, and looked at the ground like it was the most fascinating thing. 'Now they're going to wonder,' she thought, furious with herself.
All of the girls were looking at their friend in a mixture of curiosity and confusion. "Like...what, Mindy?" Violet asked.
Mindy blushed furiously. She knew she couldn't lie her way out of this. 'Oooh! Alexis'll ask!' she groaned inwardly. "Uh...oh... I promised I wouldn't say anything to you guys about this! And I had to go and blab!" she blurted out in anger with herself.
The others exchanged glances; now they HAD to know. Alexis fixed her friend with a serious look. "Mindy...what are you talking about?"
Mindy sighed, lifting her gray eyes to look at who just might be her future sister-in-law, though it might be too early for that. "It's... it's something... Chazz mentioned..."
Alexis frowned. "Chazz? Mindy, is something wrong?" she asked, worry edging her tone.
Mindy groaned again. "I promised him... but... I guess he wasn't ready to tell you and Atticus... I know it's not the same thing, but he's.... told me some stuff. He has bad dreams; not like what you told us, Rosa! But...he's had bad ones..." All the other young women exchanged glances at this. What dreams plagued him?
Saying Alexis looked worried was an understatement; she had an idea, but couldn't be sure. "If that's true...then I need to go to talk to him," she stated, beginning to stand.
"Alexis, wait." Surprisingly, it was Violet who spoke. "If he's not ready to tell you...then he's not. Trust me, I've been there. The last thing he wants right now is to be confronted about it. It won't turn out well," she explained, remembering how she had once been.
Annie nodded in agreement. "It's about those things he had the misfortune to share DNA with, am I right, Mindy?" she asked gently.
Mindy nodded, scowling at the mention of the two evil men who now were in prison for child abuse, neglect and endangerment, as well as attempted murder. "He won't tell me much, but what he does tell me... Let's just say I wish I was stronger. Then I could deal with them..."
Alexis's fists clenched, but she held her anger down. "They've already been dealt with as much as legally possible...even if they deserve worse."
"I wish," Mindy sighed, and then stopped. She had matured in the past few months. Her relationship with one Charles Xavier Princeton, later Rhodes, had begun shortly after the infamous sensitivity training/movie night, albeit clandestinely. He liked her and she liked him, but they were taking things slowly. The dark-haired, gray-eyed girl had a feeling it was because her boyfriend had expected her to revert to type, but if he had, he'd been surprised when he returned to the academy to find her waiting for him. And now, she wasn't sure what she wished she could do to take away his pain. All she knew was that she wanted to do that.
All of them had felt such a feeling of wanting to help at one point or another— both the girls and the boys. They had grown close, even with those who were not related by blood or held together through a relationship. They were a patchwork family of sorts, and they cared for each other as such. Though the others didn't feel nearly as vengeful as Alexis, Atticus, and Mindy might, they too felt the emotion, to a degree, of protectiveness.
Annie took a deep breath. "This is one of those times we have to let go and let God, I guess. And I know one thing. Slade and Jagger will someday have to stand in front of God and account for what they've done..." Mentally, she sighed. 'Lord, why does it take so long?' she mentally prayed.
Violet frowned. "They're definitely coming back as worms. I hope someone steps on them," she muttered. As a Buddhist, she believed in reincarnation and that one's deeds in this life dictated what one would become in the next life.
The others looked at each other and grinned wickedly. "Yeah... night crawlers... Then they get stuck on rusty hooks," Mindy smirked. "And then they're some fish's lunch..."
"If only they could be brought back to the level of dirt," Rosa added, smirking.
"Stepped on day-in and day-out. Now there's a good punishment," Alexis agreed.
"MICROBES!" Annie shouted suddenly. She had a very happy look on her face as she'd figured out what was going to be trod on every day. "They can be microbes found in dirt!"
Violet snickered. "Perfect! That's gotta be the lowest life form on this planet!"
"Yeah... But maybe," Mindy said thoughtfully, "maybe they'd be reincarnated as someone like their brother... Then they'd learn what it was like to be that child that was hurt so bad... Or maybe they would learn kindness some other way…"
Annie looked at Mindy, stunned. "That... that is brilliant... Sad, but brilliant." If they got sent back, she reasoned, it would only make sense that they'd be human again in order to learn what they hadn't seemed to in this lifetime.
Alexis smiled. "That does sound like the best idea. Let's hope God heard that..."
"I... I hope so," Mindy answered, wishing that if the Princeton brothers were reincarnated, they would learn kindness somehow.
"Has anyone else had bad dreams like Rosa's?" Annie asked, getting a suddenly bad feeling.
The girls all shook their heads. "I've been getting a bad feeling, though," Violet offered. "Like...there's a lot of bad karma around lately..."
Jasmine nodded. "Yeah, me too... So much for senior year being relaxing. Should we tell the teachers?" And then she thought about that. "Oh, wait," she groaned and then said, "'Hi, Chancellor Shepherd. One of us had a very real dream about something happening and we don't know if it was a warning...' Uh... maybe we should wait," she concluded, sweat-dropping.
Rosa nodded, having been about to voice her disagreement. "As I told Tyson, I am sure that it will turn out to be nada. We cannot believe every time something mal happens, it is an omen. That is being...er, what is the word?"
"Paranoid?" Alexis offered.
"Si. That is the one. Paranoid..."
"Yeah... We can't jump at shadows," Mindy agreed. "I mean, for all we know, it could be just a coincidence... right?"
The others nodded in agreement. "Right. We can keep an eye out, but let's not go overboard and jump to conclusions," Violet said.
"Good idea," Annie agreed, and then blinked, looking at her best friend. "What, no conspiracy theories?"
Violet blinked a few times, then sweat-dropped. "Uh...okay, here's one! The Sand Man is out to get us this time around."
The group of girls cracked up. Annie apologized, giggling. "Sorry! You usually have a conspiracy theory."
Violet gave a sheepish grin. "Let's just say I've had enough conspiracies... for the moment. Though I still believe bunnies are evil—that'll never change," she replied in all seriousness.
Annie sweat-dropped, grinning sheepishly as everyone stopped laughing. "Yeah... bunnies... evil... got it..."
Back with the guys, though... "Syrus... I hope Annie ain't had premonitions lately," Tyson said sincerely, his hazel eyes clearly fearful.
Syrus shook his head for a second time. "If she has, she hasn't told me. And she usually does—or at least I can tell when she's had one," he explained.
Jaden nodded. "Yeah. I know when Lex has bad dreams now... She can't hide much from me anymore..." And he abruptly flushed, remembering the incident when he'd found her... feminine items. "She definitely can't hide much anymore..."
The other engaged guys caught the blush easily, but decided not to say anything since they had had similar...private discoveries. "Well, I bet it really is just a nightmare. We can't freak out every time something bad happens," Atticus said to break the light tension, having surmised what Jaden referred to.
"That's true, Atticus. We can't give into fear of what may occur just because one of us had a nightmare. Conspiracies may exist but we can't assume a single nightmare means an evil dark force is going to come and get us," Bastion pointed out. Axel sighed softly, listening to the group.
Jim noticed it, and looked over at the well-toned teen as the conversation carried on with the others. "Something wrong, mate?" he asked quietly.
"Just thinking... You guys have fought hard against enemies you couldn't always see. And it's done something to you," Axel offered.
"I guess we have become a little paranoid...we're used to enemies coming out of nowhere all the time," Syrus said thoughtfully.
Tyson met Axel's eyes in sudden understanding. "We have the symptoms, don't we?" the Texas Ra asked.
Axel nodded. "Yeah... you have some of the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Civilians get it, too, even little kids. You keep going through traumas and it gets to you. My dad talked about it..."
Jaden nodded as well, and took a deep breath. Of all the things he'd told his friends, what he was about to tell them seemed the most difficult to tell. "I had to be treated for that," he admitted.
Jesse looked over at his look-a-like in surprise. "You did, Jay?" he asked, green eyes wide.
The brown-eyed Slifer nodded quietly. He bent so no one could see his eyes. "You all know about Yubel now... After she hurt people and then after she left, I had all those nightmares. It went on for weeks. I had a lot of tests, therapy and meds... and part of that blocked my ability to hear my monsters for a while. But anyway, the doctors knew that seeing my friends collapse had caused some mental trauma and they diagnosed me with PTSD. So I was treated for that. It wasn't as serious as it could've been, but it was still pretty bad." A single tear raced down Jaden's cheek, betraying what was going on in his head and heart; admitting the trauma and the subsequent treatment was now breaking down his emotional and psychological defenses.
Chazz took a breath of his own. "Slacker... I think I noticed this summer... When you told us about her. You were scared like I was scared of... them... And I'm still fighting that off. Karen said I'll probably fight it off for the rest of my life..." And then Chazz did a very un-Chazz like thing. He walked over from where he was standing and actually pulled his future brother-in-law into a strong brotherly hug. "It's okay, man..."
And seeing Chazz drop his tough guy act long enough to hug Jaden, the other guys in the room followed suit. It was a rare group hug among only the boys, and even Axel and Adrian joined in...after a few moments of hesitation, of course.
Tyson, on the outer edge of the group had gotten Axel into it. "This is... a little weird," Axel muttered.
"Yeah, but it's our duty to the platoon," Tyson grinned, softly explaining.
Adrian realized this had to be done, but was a little uncomfortable. 'If Echo could see this, she'd put it on her MySpace... or worse... her Facebook site!' he thought in horror. He could see his best friend clicking a picture and posting it for all to see. She had an occasionally impish side and that meant she didn't have a problem teasing Adrian. Echo wouldn't be the only one who would pull that, however. If any of the girls had seen this, it wouldn't end well for the guys. But they were alone in the room, and their friend needed consolation.
Well, they were alone... that is until the girls walked in. "THEY HAVE FEELINGS!" Mindy squealed. Of course, the young women all knew that the young men had feelings; it was just that said young men didn't express their feelings in such an obvious fashion. And no one pulled out a camera.
"Awww! I've never seen such a big group man hug! Looks like we came at the right time, girls!!" Violet stated, giggling and squealing much like Mindy just had.
The guys abruptly broke apart. They looked decidedly uncomfortable at having been discovered in a vulnerable position like that. "Uh," Tyson got out, and then grinned sheepishly at his fiancée.
Rosa couldn't hide her surprise, but she smiled. She was used to her brothers and father hugging each other all the time. "It's okay, Tyson. It's nice to see your softer side like this," she said in her native tongue. Of course she saw it more than anyone, but it was nice to show others he had this side.
Jaden was still standing quietly, and hadn't lifted his head. So Chazz moved to his sister. "He's having a hard time, sis," he explained. "And...I started the hug..."
Alexis smiled a little herself. "Good move, bro," she said before going to her fiancé, giving him a tender hug of her own. "You okay, Jay?"
He managed to lift his head and it was obvious the tears had come. "Just... remembered some hard stuff, babe... Chazz remembered, I think, too..."
She brushed some of his tears away with her fingers. "Are you going to be all right? Do you want to go back to the room?" She knew Jaden might want some time to recover from what he'd allowed to resurface.
Jaden seemed a little shaky. "Y-yeah... I think... Yeah, babe..." Chazz laid a hand on Jaden's shoulder as he stepped over to Mindy. It was a simple gesture, but it conveyed something that the raven-haired boy, when he'd been in the black uniform, could not have conveyed. And so Jaden and Alexis stepped away from the group and left. "S-sorry, babe," he apologized as they walked.
Alexis kept an arm around him, knowing that he needed comforting and reassuring now. "It's okay, Jay. You're shaken up...it's best if you get some time to yourself. I know from experience," she soothed.
"I... dang it..." He stopped as they stood in the hall, balling his fists, trying to calm his nerves. "Dr. Yancy said this would happen sometime... but..." His face showed absolute frustration.
She looked at him. "Dr. Yancy?"
"He was my psychologist/therapist when I was younger. Alexis... I was really messed up after Yubel..."
"I understand, Jay... I'm not surprised you were. But what did he say would happen that you think is happening now?"
"That... there might be a point where I talk about it and..." The tears came again. "I do this," he explained, voice breaking.
She frowned, wrapping her arms around him again and pulling him close. "Oh, Jaden... If you talk about it and this happens...it's natural. There's nothing strange about it...anyone would get worked up over something like this..." He held on, grateful for the millionth time that he wasn't alone and she hadn't rejected him. They made it back to the room and he collapsed onto their bed. Jaden was so drained that he fell into an exhausted sleep.
So it seems everyone in the gang has some issues, but Jaden's issues seem to really be getting to him. How will he deal with it? Next time, please join us for "Shadows of the Past." Thank you, and until next time, which definitely won't be as long, please read and review!