Who Said It Was Gonna Be Easy?

A while later when jack calmed down enough to stop crying (he was still clinging to me and sniffling occasionally), I asked him a few questions about it.

"jack? I know these might be hard to answer so just take your time, ok? I want to know, I want to understand" I felt him nod. We'd somehow swapped positions and now I was hugging jack to me as he sat in my lap, his head tucked away in my neck, his arms up, nestled between our chests.

"you said he was physical and violent sometimes..what exactly did he do?"

"he'd hit me and kick me..and...he burnt me" jack whispered.

"he burnt you?! Could you show me please, baby?" jack nodded again before his shaky hands moved to lift up his top.

"you might not have noticed them before..they're not that obvious" he said quietly. He took my hand and guided my finger to where they were. There were nearly 20 small circular patches of rough, deformed skin that were slightly pinker than his normal skin tone.

"he didn't even smoke..I knew whenever he lit one..it was going to end up on me" jacks voice reduced to nothing again.

"oh jack..it's okay, baby"

"it really hurt, lex. I get these nightmares that he's back and I'm still with him and he hurts me and they scare me so much. I scream in my sleep sometimes and I wake up and I can't breathe and I wake up crying. Lex, help me I'm hurting so much" jack whispered before breaking down once more. I scooped him up in my arms and carried him to his bedroom bridal style. By now, jack was crying so much he couldn't breathe. He had a tight hold on my tshirt, twisting it up into his fists as he soaked it with his tears. I laid him down on the bed and had to force his fingers to uncurl and free me.

"jack, I'll be back in a minute" I told him before I left the room. I went into the kitchen and opened up the cupboard with all the medicines in, searching for the sleeping tablets I'd seen before. When I found them, I took out the required dose and filled a glass with water before taking them to jack. He was still crying really hard. I sat him up and put one of the pills in his mouth then lifted the glass to his mouth. The same thing happened with the other 2 pills. I then lay down with him, covering us with the duvet. I pulled him close to me and cuddled him until his sobs dwindled down into little whimpers as the sleeping pills took effect. I could tell jack was fighting them. I stroked his hair gently and kissed him on the head.

"go to sleep, baby. I'll still be here in the morning, okay?"

"promise? Promise you won't even let go of me until I wake up?"

"I promise" I told him. He made a little noise and pulled me closer.

"see you in the morning, baby" I said quietly. He made another little noise and nudged my chin with his nose. I chuckled, knowing he wanted a goodnight kiss and I obliged. After that, he fell quiet and after not even a minute had passed, he was asleep. I sighed to myself and buried my face in jacks dark, soft hair, his smell lulling me to sleep.


I was woken at about 3am by jack moving. He was trying to roll over, making frustrated noises when he was restricted by my arms. I took my arms from around him, allowing him to roll over. He sighed peacefully but then seemed to grow frantic for something, still asleep. His hand grabbed mine and pulled it so it was around him again and I was closer to him. I pressed closer to him, wanting to feel his body against mine again.

"mm'love you" jack mumbled. I froze in the darkness. Was he still asleep? Had he been awake but with his eyes closed the whole time? Was he saying it to me or was he dreaming about something else?


I decided to not reply, choosing to kiss his hair softly instead.

Notes

poor Jack:( :(


YAY NEW CHAPTER THAT'S NOT SHORTER THAN ... something short ...idk



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