Day ten: "It's alright, I'm here now."

You could read this as a sequel to Day 2: Don't worry, I Got You

Characters/Pairings: Jake/Rose

Rating: T

Content warnings: blood; violence; injuries; restraints

Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now and that my ao3 account is wearealloflegendnow (even though I haven't posted there yet)!

~TLL~

Jake froze.

Did that sound come from outside? Gramps wasn't supposed to be back tonight. No one was supposed to be here. Jake hated the way that the fear rolled through his stomach and then through the rest of his body but he couldn't help it. Anyone who was in his position and wasn't scared was an idiot and Jake had grown up a lot. He wasn't dumb enough anymore to think that he was invincible or that he was the biggest, strongest thing out there. The older he got, the older his enemies got too.

Jake thought he heard another sound. Moving very slowly, he sunk down to the floor and started to crawl his way toward the basement. There was a safe room in there, to make the safe house as safe as it could be. All he had to do was get down the basement steps and cross the floor and he would be safe until Gramps came back and told Jake that there was nothing outside. Jake was just being paranoid which was a good thing this time because it might just save his life.

There was a definite rattling at the door which made Jake feel better. If he had been found, they wouldn't be trying the front door. It didn't mean that he was going to stay sitting on the living room floor, inviting death in.

Jake was halfway down the basement stairs when he heard it.

"Jake, oh, Jake."

It was so quiet that it could have almost been the wind. Almost. If Jake didn't know that voice as well as he knew his own rapidly beating heart. She was here.

Rose had found him.

Jake threw himself down the stairs, giving in to his flight instinct. He just had to get to the safe room. Not even Rose could get in there; Gramps had made sure. They knew it was a possibility that she would find him – she had always been the smart one – and they knew that she wouldn't show him an ounce of mercy anymore. In the name of love, Jake had messed up far too much for Rose to show mercy anymore. He'd had to run to a safe house because she had actively started hunting him on the Huntsman's orders, putting his entire family in danger. He slipped on the bottom stair and then he felt hands on him. He let out a squeal of terror.

"Shh," Rose murmured sensually, her lips against his ear, her body pressed against his back. "It's all right, I'm here now."

"Please, don't do this."

"I told you we're enemies now." Rose pushed Jake away and he fell to the ground. Now was the time for him to transform and try to fight back but looking up at her, Jake knew that he didn't have it in him to seriously hurt her. Gramps had known it too. It was probably why he had insisted on the safe house. "So, I'm going to act accordingly."

"It really all meant nothing?" Jake asked, getting up while Rose stared at him with her cold blue eyes. "You never miss me or think of us or wish that we could go back?"

Because Jake did, all the time. He woke up every morning with the phantom of her in his arms, thought about texting her every second of every day, and even thought about picking fights with the Huntsclan just so that he could hear her voice. He stared at Rose, wishing that she could read all of the thoughts of love and missing her that were running through his mind. Rose looked completely impassive. She might as well have her mask on for all the expression that she had.

"You can't love someone who did what you did," she replied.

"So, you're just going to kill me?"

"Eventually," Rose said casually, drawing her Huntstaff from her weapons belt. "Master said if I was the one to find you, I could play with my food a little. Not the others, though. He didn't trust that you wouldn't get away from them."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because he told me to and he is my Master and I have to." Rose paused, considering. "And I volunteered."

Jake transformed into a dragon, seeing the way that she had stopped idly playing with her Huntstaff and became more intentional in her movements. Jake held his breath thinking, for a moment, that she wasn't really going to do this. This wasn't really happening. And, then, it was. Rose launched forward, drawing blood with her first strike. Jake retreated the best that he was able in the basement with the low ceilings. If he could just get up the stairs or into the safe room he could avoid all of this. Rose was almost lazy in her efforts to keep him away from the stairs, as if she knew that she didn't really have to try. Jake took a few half-hearted swipes at her and then launched a fireball that quickly fizzled out. Every time he reached out, Rose drew blood.

Jake felt more and more defeated every time because this could not be the same girl that he loved. This couldn't be the same woman who did everything she could to carve out stolen moments for the two of them where she would put her head on his shoulder and they dreamt of a world where you could run away and be together. This couldn't be the person that kissed him so tenderly that it could bring tears to his eyes. This wasn't the Rose that he missed.

But she was still Rose and he couldn't bring himself to do anything to her, even with the ease that she hurt him.

Rose backed him into a corner, the sharp end of her Huntstaff in his throat.

"Why aren't you fighting back?" she asked him. "Don't you care if you live or die?"

"I died the day I lost you. I did the wrong thing then but I'm not going to make this worse on myself by hurting you."

"You didn't lose me, you chose not to have me!" The pressure of her staff increased and Jake closed his eyes. "It didn't have to be this way."

She was right but Jake didn't regret it. He let out a breath and then let himself lapse back into a human.

"I still love you," Jake said, "and I'm not going to fight you. Do what you have to do."

Jake didn't believe that she was actually going to do it. Her staff lowered and, for a moment, he felt a flicker of hope that the Rose had had always known was going to spring back to life. She took something else out of her utility belt and, before Jake knew it, was trapped under the weight of a sphinx hair net. Rose kicked at him until he was lying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Then, Rose straddled him, reaching under the net to pet his cheek.

"You killed the girl you loved," she told him. "That version of Rose isn't here now. It's just me. It's just the Huntsgirl. That's all I have. That's all I am."

Rose put her staff to the side and leant over Jake. She bent forward and Jake closed his eyes as her lips pressed to his through the mesh in the net. Everything that he had ever felt for her, everything that they had ever put each other through, every dream he still had for them rushed through his mind at her touch again. Jake slowly opened his eyes as she leant away. That had to mean something to her too, right?

Rose pulled out a dagger from her weapons belt.

"I was eavesdropping earlier," she said, "and I know what time your grandfather will be back in the morning. There's a fifty-fifty chance that you're still alive when that happens."

With confident ease, Rose slit both of his wrists in three places.

Then, she stood and looked down at him, nodding with satisfaction as Jake tried to move, to pick up his hands and held himself, but he couldn't.

"Pray you bleed slow," she said.

Then she was gone and Jake was left to wonder if he wanted to be alive by the time Gramps got here.