Tension's Like a Fire

So the guys came home beat. All of them caked in dirt and sweat fighting for the first shower.

Not surprisingly Zack won that fight.

Alex groaned about having to wait and Jazz standing at the sink washing dishes called him over telling him to stop whining.

“But Jazz, I feel gross I want a shower.” He continued.

She smiled. “Fine if you really want a shower that bad.” She pulled the hose extension of the sink out and pressed the trigger and sprayed Alex in the face fast enough for him not to realize what was happening.

“Oh you think you’re real funny don’t you?” He said with a wry smile after she stopped. “Come ‘ere.”

Then he went after her and she started spraying him again.

“Stop Alex!” She giggled.

He continued to try and wrestle the hose from her turning on her as much as he could.

“Could you guys really stop with the foreplay? Seriously.” Rian said sarcastically.

“Awe man! I just got comfortable to watch the show.” Jack and Sally chorused.

Then they looked at each other and started laughing. “Jinx you owe me a coke!” They both shouted at each other.

“Now they’re all getting weird.” Rian muttered and walked toward his room.

That’s when Alex noticed it was only him, Jazz, Jack, and Sally. “Where’s Amelia?” He asked curiously.

“She went out.” Sally answered. “She said she hadn’t really been able to just go out for a walk in far to long. She’ll be back.”

“What’re we gonna do about Stefan?” Jack asked thinking of it now after talking about Amelia.

Jazz stiffened in her spot in Alex’s arms.

Alex felt it and tried to calm her. “We don’t need to worry about him.” He said confidently. “He won’t get Jazz while we’re around.”

Zack walked out towel draped around his hips having just taken the quickest shower of his life just in time to hear this conversation then he began wondering how Stefan found people with powers. He wondered if he’d already detected Jenny. He had a feeling that despite his exhaustion he wouldn’t be sleeping to well that night. He rushed off to his room not speaking to them.

Jazz was trying to keep her mind off Stefan. She turned to look at Alex and asked softly. “Have you called your folks yet?”

Now he tensed slightly, not enough for her to notice though. “Not yet. I think I’m going to try to convince Sally to do it with me so they get to hear from both their kids.” When he said that it struck him, he still hadn’t told Sally about Eric. About their brother. He dreaded this even more now. He knew he’d have to tell her before they called so she’d understand her parents’ reactions.

He groaned after that thought.

Jazz looked back over her shoulder to look at him. “What?” She asked softly.

“I have to tell Sally about our brother.” He whispered in her ear.

She nodded. “Hey Jack, it looks like it’s your turn to shower. I’m going to go change out of my now wet clothes.” She playfully glared at Alex as she not so subtly got everyone out of the room so Alex could talk to Sally.

It worked despite her lack of tact.

Alex watched them walk away.

“She’s smooth right?” He commented on Jazz while coming over to sit on the coffee table by the couch.

Sally chuckled. “You don't know the half of it plus you love it. So why was she trying to leave us alone?”

Alex ran his hand through the back of his hair and over his neck as he let out a sigh. “Well, I... uhh... Have to talk to you.” He said strained but blunt. “I think we should call mom and dad.”

Sally panicked inside just like Alex had when he first realized what he agreed to but then it settled on her mind and she realized the parents who loved her and took care of her deserved that much. One thing Sally knew was that wasn’t all he had to say, before she ran away they were really close and she knew Alex. “Ok.” She said with the same trouble as him. “What else do you have to say Alex? I know there’s more.”

He clamped his eyes for a moment hating how well she knew him now running his hand over his face as if that would make this easier.

“Alex,” She spoke softly, pleadingly not liking where this could be going. “Just tell me.”

He opened his eyes and tried to keep them from swelling with tears. “Sally, Eric’s dead.” He said equally as softly if not softer.

She froze. It was in a state of complete disbelief that she spoke next. “What?”

He moved to the couch and sat next to her and put his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. “Eric’s dead Sally. He commit suicide.”

He knew the softness of his voice and the hand on her shoulder that was supposed to bring comfort wouldn’t lessen the blow but it was all he could do.

“No.” And the real grieving began. “He can’t. Why?” Tears began to seep passed her ducts and she clung to Alex for support.

As she began crying the tears he’d been trying so hard to hold began to slowly surface.

“We don’t really know why Sal.” He said as he rubbed her back while she sobbed on his already wet shirt.

Then she did what most people do, find a way to blame it on themselves or think of how they could have better spent their time with their loved one. Grieving is self-pity, a personal little pity party that people never question. You’re upset because you’ll never get to see them again, hug them again, tell them "I love you" and you’re upset because you realize because as a human you are flawed. Not only is one of your flaws your mortality that also rears it’s head when someone dies but also the fact you make mistakes. Our greatest mistake taking every person we’ll ever love for granted. “I’ll call them tomorrow.” “I’ll make sure they know I love them tomorrow.” None of us are on the ball enough to realize tomorrow brings the unknown. No matter how many deaths you experience you’ll always learn to take everything for granted all over again.

“It’s all my fault.” She sobbed and pulled away to look Alex in the eyes. “Maybe if I hadn’t run away he’d still be alive. I’m so sorry Alex.”

The tears streaking her face made him realize once again how self-involved he’d been for so long. His self-loathing -an off ramp of the self-pity- had kept him so wrapped up he never thought about the effect it had on his parents, the effect it would have on her if she ever came home. He had been so selfish.

He threw himself into the most unselfish thing he could and that was helping her now. “Sally,” He said firmly. “Eric was never happy. Not even when he was a kid. He had clinical depression, it was a chemical imbalance. None of us could have really done anything. He tried to hide it most of the time remember? He didn’t want help so we couldn’t help him. Don’t blame yourself for this.”

She shook her head not believing him. “His kid sister disappeared Alex, what if that pushed him over the edge?”

Alex just pulled her back to his chest. “Sally its not your fault.” It was all he had left he hoped eventually she’d believe it.

“Oh God mom and dad lost all their kids.” She sobbed even harder. “I didn't even get to say goodbye.” She wasn’t even really talking to him anymore just everything hitting her was spilling out of her mouth.

Jack walked out much like Zack had earlier but toweling his hair off too with his eyes closed not noticing the scene before him. “Alex your turn.” He said before opening his eyes to see this.

He knew instantly what happened. So he walked over there and tapped Alex’s shoulder nodding toward the bathroom so Alex could get his shower and also telling him he’d take it from there.

They somehow managed to switch places fairly effortlessly and Sally was now sobbing on Jack’s bare chest neither of them thinking that he was sitting there in nothing but a towel.

“Sally baby, it’s gonna be ok.” The classics matter. “In the end it’s all going to be ok. If it’s not ok it’s not the end.” He continued with one of the quotes he remembered her loving.

She looked up at him with a smile although not a perfect smile because her lips still trembled. “Thank you Jack.” She wiped at her face. “I can’t believe you remember that.”

He smiled a precious little half smile. “How could I forget?”

She cast him one more smile before tightening their embrace again just burying her face in the crook of his neck that she could only really reach when they weren’t standing.

They stayed like that until Alex got out of the shower. He smiled lightly at the scene knowing this was helping before walking to Rian’s room to tell him the shower’s free and to his own room to grab pajama pants. Jazz just looked at him and smiled before looking back to the book she’d taken from her apartment the one time they went there.

He walked back out to the living room and approached Jack and Sally.

Sally heard him pad across the hard floors and pulled back wiping the new batch of tears from her eyes and doing her best to smile at him.

“Let’s call mom and dad.” She said simply.