“What happened?” He demanded, reaching out to wrap an arm around her shoulder. She jerked out of the way and took a step back. His eyebrows knitted together in concern as she looked down at the ground, her shoulders shaking from time to time as she sniffed or let out a sob. “Come in.” He backed away from the door, giving her more room to come into the house.

She blinked and rubbed her cheeks which were instantly hit with the warmth of the house. She didn’t say anything but watched as JC rushed out of the foyer. She crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her arms, noticing how much water she was dripping on the floor.

“Umm, they might be a little too big but I guess you can just pin them,” JC said as he held out clothes to her. “The bathroom’s upstairs, first door on the right of the right hallway. Leave your wet stuff outside the door and I’ll get it washed for you, ok?” She nodded and turned to leave but JC held out an arm to stop her. “Call if you need anything, ok?” She nodded again and moved around his arm to go up the stairs.

It broke his heart seeing her so fragile and vulnerable like that. It just wasn’t her and he hated seeing her in that state. What made it worse was that he knew Wade had something to do with it. He wanted to know what Wade did, if he did anything, and hurt him for hurting her which in turn hurt JC himself.

The ringing phone shattered the silence of the house and it was quickly followed by the bark of JC’s Eurasier, Jacer. “Hey, stop that,” he shushed the dog and lightly petted his head. Jacer immediately quieted down and climbed onto the couch next to JC who sat to answer the phone. He smiled down at Jacer who put his head in JC’s lap before he answered. “Hello?”

“I’VE BEEN CALLING FOR THE PAST FIVE MINUTES YOU FUCKER!” Justin yelled on the other end.

JC jerked the phone away from his ear and made a face. “J, calm down!”

“Do you know where Mack is? She’s not answering her phone! Wade’s not answering his phone either! She could be hurt or lost or something. Should we call the police? I–”

“JUSTIN!” JC yelled interrupting him. Justin fell silent. “Take a deep breath.” Justin did as he was told. “Now let it out, slowly.” Once again he did as he was told. “Relax, ok? She’s here with me.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because she just showed up here. If I had known she was going to come I would’ve told you.”

“She said she was going to talk to you earlier.”

“She hasn’t’ stopped by except now.” He sighed. “Something’s wrong, J.”

“What do you mean? Did something happen?” he asked, concern dripping from his words.

“I don’t know what happened but I do know that something did happen. She won’t talk to me, she won’t look at me, and she won’t even let me touch her. She just showed up about…three minutes ago soaking wet and crying.”

“Why…why didn’t she come to me?” He asked in a small voice. JC sighed. He could practically see the hurt that was etched across his best friend’s face. It was dripping from his words and JC didn’t know how to make his friend feel better. “Why, Jace? She’s always come to me before, why not now?”

“I…I don’t know, Jus,” he mumbled. “I really don’t know.”

“Is she there? I want to talk to her.”

“Hey man, don’t push it.” JC ran a hand through his hair and let out a breath. “Don’t force your way into her problem, she’s only going to pull away even more.”

“Don’t talk to me like you know more about her than I do, ‘cause you don’t,” Justin practically spat into the phone.

“Whoa, man. Don’t get mad at me. I’m just saying you should give her space and give her enough time to come to you instead of forcing yourself on her.”

JC heard Justin sigh on the other end. “I get it,” he mumbled. “Tell her to call me when she feels like it, Ok?”

“I will.”

“Oh, and Jace?”

“Yeah?”

“Take care of her for me.”

“I will.”

JC hung up the phone and went up the stairs. He spotted her wet clothes lying in a pile by the door. Ignoring that he was getting his own shirt wet, he gathered the pile into his arms and went back down the stairs, through the kitchen, and down another flight of stairs to get to the laundry room. He had put her clothes into the water and added the necessary amount of soap. He was about to turn on the washing machine when he heard Mack’s scream.

He dashed back up the stairs, Jacer following at his heels. Once he reached the landing of the top floor he turned and was about to go into the bathroom when Mack came flying out, crashing into him. “Whoa, girl,” he said as he grabbed her shoulders to steady her. “What’s wrong, why’d you scream?”

“There’s a spider!” She replied, moving behind him to use him as a human shield. “On the counter.” She shoved him into the bathroom and pointed at the spider that was, indeed, sitting on the counter. “Kill it!” JC looked back and forth between her and the spider before laughing. She glared and lightly slapped his arm as she asked, “What’s so funny?”

“You are,” he replied, still chuckling as he pulled a piece of paper from underneath the sink and slid it under the spider. He went back down the stairs to the front door and lowered the paper to the ground, waiting for the spider to scurry off of the page. “The storm’s too bad for you to go back to the compound. You can stay here tonight,” he said without turning around after hearing Mack’s footsteps coming down the stairs.

“Are you sure?” She asked. “I don’t want to be in the way.”

JC turned and smiled at her. “You’re too small to be in the way,” he teased.

“Ha ha,” she laughed sarcastically while rolling her eyes. “Is it ok if I watch tv a bit? I’m not really tired so…”

“Yeah, go ahead. I’ll join you in a bit, if that’s ok.”

“It’s your house.”

JC watched as she turned and went into the living room, Jacer following close behind. He was surprised Jacer had taken a liking to her that quickly. Eurasiers were known to be very close to their human family and they were very protective when strangers came into the picture, yet Jacer treated her like she was part of the family all along.

JC shook his head and went into the kitchen, pulling out hot chocolate packets from the pantry. He filled two cups with hot water and poured in the instant mix. Once he thought it was mixed in well enough he dumped in mini marshmallows and then carried the mugs into the living room where Mack was curled up on the couch with Jacer lying cross her lap.

“Here,” he said as he held the mug out to her before sitting down next to her. She took the mug and looked in it.

“Oh, hot chocolate.” Then her eyes widened. “And marshmallows. You know me too well.”

“You’re easy to please,” he pointed out. “You get excited over glow sticks, play-doh, bouncy balls, hacky sacks, and the Where’s Waldo? books to keep the list short.”

“What is it, Pick on the Young One day?” She demanded.

“No, that’s every day.” He set down his mug, grabbed the remote from her hand, and muted the TV. “Why are you here?” He asked once she turned to look at him.

“Because you let me stay,” she replied simply.

“Don’t be a smartass. I want to know what happened.” She opened her mouth but he held up his hand to stop her. “Don’t deny it, I know something happened or else you wouldn’t have shown up here this late at night soaking wet and crying.” She remained silent. “You can tell me.”

“I can’t,” she replied.

“Why not?”

“Because you’ll do something stupid once you find out.”

“I promise I won’t.” He put his hand over his heart. “Cross my heart and hope to die, watch our sales records fall from the sky.” He smiled when she chuckled at his rhyme.

“You’re so lame,” she muttered shaking her head. She let out a slow breath and looked in the direction of the TV but her eyes never rested on it. JC didn’t think she was going to answer but she sighed again and finally spoke. “Wade had taken me to dinner and then we went dancing at this club. Usually I try to stay away from dancing on a date, since that’s the only thing I ever do, but he managed to convince me to do it.” She took a slow breath before exhaling. “We were leaving and he said he wanted to talk some more. I suggested going to the park but he said we should go back to his hotel room because it was quieter.”

“Don’t tell me,” JC mumbled.

Mack continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “So I agreed to it and we went back to his hotel room. I said I wanted to leave. I didn’t want to stay out too late and I wanted to leave before the storm got worse. Wade said that he’d drive me but I didn’t want to have him deal with driving in the storm so I said I’d take a cab. He kept going on about how I either had to let him drive me or I’d have to stay there. I laughed at him because he thought he could control me. The next thing I knew I was being shoved against the door”…

~~~~~~~~

“You should’ve listened to me.” Mack struggled to get air into her lungs as she was being pressed harder against the door. Her vision started to blur as she struggled and squirmed to get Wade off of her back. He just laughed in her ear. “Keep struggling, baby, you’re only turning me on even more.”

He kissed her neck as she tried to bring her leg back far enough to kick him somewhere but she couldn’t budge. Tears started to form in the corner of her eyes as she racked her brain to try and think of something to do but everything was slipping from her mind.

Suddenly the weight on her back was removed. Before she could react she felt tugging on the hood of her t-shirt. She reached up to try and pull it away from her throat where it was tightening, cutting off her oxygen once more. Wade tugged so hard at her hood that she felt back against the foot of the bed.

“Wade, please...” Mack begged as tears fell freely down his face.

He merely let out a breath from his nose before straddling her, keeping his knees on either side of her hips so she was pinned. “We can either do this the easy way or the hard way. If you don’t choose I’ll choose for you,” he told her, bringing a hand up to his belt.

“Wade, don’t!”

“Fine, we’ll do this the hard way.” He grabbed her hands with one of his and pinned it above her head as she started to sob. “You chose this way, I would’ve let you off easy you know,” he said as he unbuckled his belt, unzipped his pants, and pulled out his throbbing membrane. He brushed it against her lips as she fought to turn her head out of his way. He used his other free hand to grab her hair, yanking her head up. She let out a cry of pain and he slipped his cock into her warm, wet mouth. He let out a groan as his eyes slid shut in ecstasy.

He drew her away and brought her to him as she tried to get out of his grasp, but he tightened his hold on her hands and her head causing her to let out a groan of pain, which only made Wade feel even better. He began to buck his hips against her face, causing his cock to slide further back into her mouth. She felt the urge to gag every time it hit the back of her throat.

“Oh fuck,” he whispered. “You’re going to swallow it all.” Mack’s eyes widened in shock as the liquid spilled down her throat and Wade slammed into her mouth once more, harder than before. He pulled out of her mouth but kept a firm grip on her hair and her hands. “Swallow it all or you’ll have to do it again until you do.” She squeezed his eyes shut and winced as she swallowed gingerly, trying not to throw up at the brackish taste. “There’s more on the tip, lick it.” He forced her head to the tip of his cock and waited as she licked it clean. He then let go of her hair and her hands, backed away, and tucked his cock back into his pants. “You can go now.” He tilted his head towards the door. She merely looked up at him in confusion. “Did you think I was going to rape you?” He chuckled. “I’m not stupid and you’re not stupid. If you went to the police for this technically you’d be the one going to jail, not me, because you’re the legal adult in this situation. That and I know you wouldn’t want to lose your job. So let’s just keep this between us, OK honey?”

Something in his last sentence triggered the sobs that had wanted to escape her but got stuck in her throat. Eyes blurry with tears and sobs stopping her from being able to speak, she turned and ran out the door…

~~~~~~~~~

“So I ran here. I didn’t bother getting a cab, the driver would’ve kicked me out anyway,” she finished with a shrug.

“You ran here?” JC repeated. She nodded. “Mackie, that’s six miles!” he exclaimed, using her most hated nickname.

“I’ve run worse."

“Why the hell are you being so nonchalant about this? You have to call the police! What he did to you was wrong.”

“You heard what he said; I’d go to jail, not the other way around. I worked hard to get my reputation as a good choreographer and I’m not going to let a jackass like him take that away from me.”

“But he could’ve–”

“But he didn’t,” she insisted. “So let’s just leave it at that. It’s late, we need sleep.”

“Oh, I’m not going to be able to get to sleep now,” JC said as he shook his head. “I want to kick his ass for what he did. Don’t you understand? He violated you.”

“I understand that,” Mack replied, cutting her eyes at him. “Believe it or not, I’m not stupid. I may be naïve sometimes but I’m not an idiot.” She sighed. “This is just how I deal with it. If I went around crying or whatever then he’d know that he got to me. If I don’t react then I’ll win.”

“Win what and what do you mean this is how you deal with it? Has this happened before?” He demanded.

“Does it matter?” She asked, standing, ready to leave the room.

“Yes, it matters!” He replied, grabbing her arm before she could leave.

“You’re not going to be able to do anything about it anyway so just drop it.” She rubbed her temple with her free arm. “I appreciate your concern but let me deal with this on my own, OK? I’m a big girl, I can take care of myself."

“I want to take care of you for you so you don’t have to worry,” JC mumbled, looking at his feet suddenly acting like the shy man that he could be. “I love you. I want to be there for you, to protect you.”

Mack sighed and turned to face him, lifting his head with her hand. “You all ready are here for me. Why do you think I’m here now? Compared to you, Justin would tear up the town in search for Wade.” She paused and scrunched up her face, thinking. JC couldn’t resist the urge her cute face gave him so he kissed her nose. “I care about you Josh, you know I do. You and the guys…you’re the most important thing in my life besides my family. The thing is…you and me…to be honest I’m scared.”

“Of what? I won’t hurt you,” JC mumbled, leaning close nuzzling her cheek.

“I’ve been fed that lie before.”

“I’m not lying.” He lightly kissed her cheek. “I’ll never hurt you.” He kissed her forehead. “Hurting you would end up hurting me.” He kissed her nose again.

“I could lose my job.”

“You wouldn’t. The guys, Johnny, and I are the only ones who can fire you and they’d be stupid if they did.”

“I could get a bad reputation.”

“Let me worry about that.”

“You’re not going to take no for an answer, are you?”

“Nope. I’m just going to pursue you even more until you eventually realize that I’m the perfect guy for you,” he replied. “My intentions are good, I promise.”

“Really?” A smile tugged at the corner of her lips. “Yeah, that’s not what Justin tells me.”

JC backed away and squinted at her. “What did he say?”

“Basically, he said you want to do more than kiss me.”

“He has loose lips.”

“I knew before he told me.” A smile spread across her face. “That’s the downside to you having amazing blue eyes, it’s really easy to read them and figure out what you’re thinking.”

“Well, I can’t help it.” He slid his arms around her waist and pulled her close, surprised that she didn’t pull away. “You’re so naively hot that it gets to me.”

“I can tell,” she laughed. She then stood up on her tiptoes and leaned forward. He blinked before leaning towards her. Only when her breath tickled his lips did she whisper, “Goodnight” before backing out of his reach and racing up the stairs.

“You’re a fucking tease!” JC yelled after her.

“Yet I bet you like that about me too!” She shouted back.

“Damn straight,” he told himself as he petted Jacer’s head.

~*~*~

“Ok guys, you can take an hour break,” Mack called as she lowered the faders to zero, cutting off the song mid-chorus.

“Finally!” Chris cheered, jumping off of the stage and racing towards the nearest exit.

“We’re goig to go down the street for some lunch. Do you want to come?” Lance asked, walking over to where Mack was standing, studying her notebook.

“Nah, I’m going to stay here and fix some stuff,” she replied with her sunniest smile. “Go ahead without me. You wouldn’t want to keep Chris from his so-desired food.”

“Ok. Don’t overwork yourself,” Joey said as Lance gave her a little hug and kissed her cheek.

“I won’t,” she replied with an eyeroll. “God, I do that once and you won’t let me forget it.”

“Only because you were going on a JC-like rampage,” Joey joked.

“Hey now, I haven’t done anything to you and yet you’re putting me down!” JC called from across the stage as he tied his shoe. “That’s not going to fly with me.” He picked up the water bottle that was by him and ran at Joey. Joey let out a little cry of surprise, jumped off of the stage, and ran in the direction that Chris went. “See ya,” JC called over his shoulder, slowing down a bit to wink at her before he continued chasing Joey again.

“You might want to catch them,” Mack suggested.

“I will. See you in a bit.” Lance then jumped off of the stage and jogged after them.

“Aren’t you going to go?” Mack asked, turning to Justin who had appeared by her side.

“No, I want a few questions answered,” he replied, crossing his arms over her chest.

“I would’ve called but my phone broke, no, JC didn’t try anything, sorry I didn’t come to you but I wanted to take care of some things on my own,” she rambled as soon as he opened his mouth. He closed it, squinted, and opened it again. “And yes I’m fine.” He closed it again.

“Now I know something happened between you and Jace so you better spill ‘cause I can always ask him and he’d give me a warped version of the truth,” Justin said as he grinned.

Mack rolled her eyes and walked across the stage, her eyes glued in her notebook as he followed close behind. “I showed up at his place, took a shower, drank some hot chocolate, talked to JC a bit, and then went to sleep.”

“No confessions on your part? I’m surprised,” Justin mused. Mack stopped and looked at him. “Mackie–” he started.

“Stop calling me that,” she said in a warning tone.

“Scrappy, then,” he corrected, using his old nickname for her. “Stop telling yourself to ignore your feelings for Jace. You know it’s there. I know it’s there. He knows it’s there. Hell, my parents call me almost every day to find out if you’ve gotten together yet. Everyone knows you feel for him, so why won’t you admit it to him and to yourself?” She didn’t reply. “You’re scared, right?” She nodded. “Scrappy, JC’s the most honest, loyal, patient person I’ve ever met. He’d never force you into anything you’re not ready for. He’d wait until you’re comfortable to move on. If he could, he’d wait forever. I know it. You guys are perfect for each other. Please, give him a chance? For me.”

She tapped her fingers against her notebook. “I’ll consider it. Honestly, I don’t want to put my career in jeopardy.”

“Your career is safe. It’s your personal life that would be put in jeopardy, but it would be worth it to date a catch like him.”

“Thanks, Scooby.”

“No problem, Scrappy.”

~*~*~

“Joey and I will get a table, OK?” JC said as he leaned against the counter. Chris and Lance nodded as they continued to study the menu. JC lightly slapped Joey’s arm and the two went to the nearest table that would hold all of them.

“What’s with the smile?” Joey asked, studying JC’s face. JC just shrugged and continued to smile. “Oh, you’ve had some Mack progress, eh?”

“You can say that,” JC shrugged. “She seems fine knowing how I feel about her. She doesn’t deny it anymore. I just have to get her to realize she feels the same way.”

“Are you sure she does?”

“I know she does, Joe. I’ve never felt this way for anyone before, you know that. It’s just…this feeling I have. I can see myself marrying her, Joe.”

Joey was about to respond but his eyes widened in shock. JC’s face contorted to a look on confusion. Joey pointed over JC’s shoulder and the latter turned. His mouth fell open when he saw someone enter the building, look around, and lay their eyes on him. “What’s she doing here?” He hissed.

“Joshua, I’m glad you’re here,” Bobbie mumbled, her hands clasped in front of her. “We need to talk.”

“Whatever you have to say you can say it in front of Joey,” JC replied, nodding at his friend. “And I thought I said to never speak to me again.”

“But Joshua, it’s important.”

“And I told you not to call me Joshua; only my family calls me that.”

“But Josh–”

“What’re you doing here, Bobzilla?” Chris demanded. He and Lance were standing behind her, a tray in their hands was loaded with food.

“Josh, please,” Bobbie begged, ignoring them.

JC sighed and got up from the table. He followed her a little ways away from them. “What is it you wanted to–?”

“I’m pregnant.”