I'm Adopted: Vengeance Edition.

Jackie's POV

"That's... good?" Dev laughed as I told Kara Michelle was coming over to visit "Isn't she your ex-fiance's best friend's fiance?"

"Yah... or my other best friend to keep it simple." I laughed as Kara handed me the bowl of rocks. I took a hit and shrugged "Like... I mean..." I scratched at my neck "I'm just hoping she's not bringing baggage."

"The guys?" Kara asked. I nodded "So what if she does? You and Matt were always a cute couple. I mean... problematic yes, cute yes, from what you say it was a thing so..." She shrugged "Why'd you leave him?"

"It makes no sense, every time I ask she says because of Maddy." Devynne shrugged "I mean like... you're a Mama, get over it, we all fuck up. Bite ya' damn teeth and keep moving lady. You need to stand strong for that baby and her daddy. He's working to support you two, you should be proud of that." She smiled "Not pissed that he's working. If I had a baby daddy that worked his ass off to provide for me and my niño I wouldn't even bat an eyelash wrong at him chica. You straight loco, I don't know about you."

"I know... Loco doesn't even begin to tell the story. I don't know... sometimes I wish I had never come back to Cali." I sighed, they both knew my whole story and understood what I mean "But... I needed Zack in my life, and Matt I guess... Maddy's just-"

"A fucking blessing." Devynne took a sip of her Margarita left over from dinner "She's a beautiful niña, cariño. You should go back if he wants you. I mean... You're a lucky lucky chica. That's a straight up hombre right there."

I laughed as there was a knock on the door "Cue Michelle." Kara smiled as I stood up. I looked in the mirror and checked my hair and makeup. Nothing could fix the mess I had become and I hated coming to that realization.

Matt's POV

Michelle knocked on the door and I took a deep breath. Zack, Brian, and Jim waited in the car. Two should be enough of a shocker for her. There was a rustling and the door swung open.

"Mich-" Her eyes trailed beyond Michelle, to me, and stopped in their tracks. "Matt." She breathed quietly.

"Jackie." I whispered, my jaw slack.

Her green eyes were a dull grey, almost dusty blue. Her blonde hair I had last seen was growing out and her dark brown roots were about four inches down, fading somewhat nicely into her faded blonde locks, her hair tattered and dull hanging below her mid back. Her skin was tan but no life hid beneath it, her lips creased into a smile at the moment she opened the door but no emotion translated through her glossy lips. Her toothpick like arms crossed over her chest after she tucked her hair behind her ear, which held more piercings than I Remembered. A glinting caught my eye and I stared at her nose, a ring placed in her nostril and a ring hanging off her lip. Her dull eyes scanned me.

"You look great." She smiled, stepping to the side "Come in guys. I'll show you around."

"You look..." Michelle caught the words in her mouth "Wonderful." She smiled. Because we all half expected you to be curled up in a drain somewhere off of Hollywood Boulevard was what was running through Michelle's mind, I could sense it. We had this conversation on the ride over from her Nana's.

"Thanks." Jackie muttered, catching the lie in Michelle's tone. "So uhm... this is Kara and Devynne." Jackie gestured to two girls sitting on the couch, one familiar to me, and the other not so much. But she looked just like Kara so I assumed it was her cousins.

"Hola." Devynne smiled "You must be Michelle." She smiled and stood, shaking Michelle's hand "And Matt."

"Yup." I smiled as she looked me over "Jackie mention me?"

"Does she stop?" Kara giggled as I looked at Jackie, her expression set in stone staring at her hands.

"So... wanna see the yard? It's beautiful." She smiled up at me, I could see distance in her eyes.

"Sure." Michelle smiled, just to amuse Jackie.

We walked out onto a patio, surrounded by plants, a pool, a slide, a poolhouse, it was gorgeous. "It's.. like.. huge." I laughed.

"Yah. That's what I said when I first got here, I couldn't even believe it." She laughed as we all sat down aroun the fire pit which looked like it had been used the night before. Clearly. A few beer bottles remained by the seats "So... why are you here?"

"We were worried." Michelle sighed "We looked for you and they said you got evicted and-"

"Sh!" Jackie hissed "You can't say that here. No one is supposed to know but Kara's parents and Devynne." She pushed her hands to her face "It... It didn't go as well as we had planned."

"Oh, you planned using Meth to go well?" I asked.

"Matt... if you're going to persecute me, you can leave. I'm not dealing with that." She looked up "I can't deal with that."

"Then why?" I asked "Why kill yourself for something you're ashamed of?" I asked as she went silent "Jaclyn fucking Baker-"

"Ha-"

"Baker." I corrected her before she could. "You're his fucking sister, shut up." I ran my hands through my hair and stood "No. You're his fucking sister, yah. But you're my fucking fiance for God sakes! You're our daughter's MOTHER!" I shouted. She cringed and backed her chair up.

"Matt you don't understand." Her hands wrung together as she tapped her foot "I can't just... I can't just go back."

"Why not? We can take your stuff in trips, Jackie-"

"I can't just stop being this person." Her eyes shot up to mine, the dusty blue color draining to a light gray now "I can't just be Jackie again. I can't just smile at everything and laugh and be a mom and be your fuckin' fiance again! I chose this life and I can't fucking stop, Matthew! I can't just decide to fucking stop using heroin or meth, I can't just fucking stop!" She stood up, throwing her chair backwards in the process and with two steps she was toe to toe with me "Do you understand what the fuck I see?" She asked, her eyes locking mine as he body shook softly "I watch myself sleep every fucking night. I watch people crying, my casket being lowered into the fucking ground. I watch my daughter growing up without a mother." Her eyes were dry as the dessert as her words shot like bullets from her mouth "Every time I pierce my skin with that goddamn needle I take another step closer to that being my reality, every time I smoke a fucking rock I lose another chance to stop and make a better life." Her entire body was shaking at this point and she hadn't noticed I had taken her hands to stop their shaking "Every fucking time I get myself high, I get in my happy place, that's when I realize I lost everything. I lost Mom, Dad.. I lost Zack. I let it take everything. Madeline. And You." She stared at me, her eyes looking down as she shook my hands off her. She rubbed her arms like it was twenty below and she looked around "I can't..."

"Jackie." Michelle stood up "Jackie please come home. We need you."

Jackie laughed "You need me? Right. Any of you needing me is probably the biggest joke I've ever heard. Whoever needs a meth head in their life clearly needs help-"

"No, but you do." I walked closer to her "You need help, look at youreself."

"I DO." She screamed "I look at myself" She took a breath, standing still but her body still shaking, uncontrolably now "Every damn day in the mirror. None of this," She gestured to herself "None of this can be erased. It can't be turned back. My skin is ruined, my hair is... god, my hair." She laughed "I can't come back. I'm gone..." She whispered and looked down "I'm.... gone."

"Don't say that hun," Michelle took Jackie's hand, but Jackie retracted it quickly and glared at her "You're right here, you just need to let us help."

"Help." Jackie looked up at Michelle "Please," She laughed "Help is the biggest lie ever."

"Stop it." I sighed "Just shut the fuck up and let us help you, Jackie."

Her eyes wandered the yard, stopping on the pool. Her hands scratched at her sides. Michelle turned and looked as Jackie's eyes zoned out. "Matt?" Michelle asked "What's going on?"

"I... I don't know." I mumbled as Devynne walked out "What's wrong with her?" I asked.

"Oh this?" Devynne walked over next to Michelle and shrugged "She usually like blacks out after she smokes a good amout." She waved her hand infront of Jackie's face "Her and Kara did more shit today than I've ever seen in my life." She laughed "Dustin dropped off an assload last night. My mama came over today, they needed it. I'm surprised she didn't fuckin' pass out, y'know?"

"I can't... " Jackie whispered "I'm... I'm gone.."

"No, you're right here." I took her hand as she began sitting down on the grass.

"NO I'M NOT. RIGHT HERE HURTS." She screamed, her eyes finally watering. "I'm gone, I'm not here. No one's here. Nothing's here." She looked at me, her hands resting on my shoulders "I'm not even in here."

"Jackie.." I Whispered and cupped her face in my hand "Please come back to me.. let me get you back." Her head gently fell from my hand as her body limped into my arms "Jackie?!"

"Shh." Devynne hushed me "She'll be sobered up when she wakes up, just don't let her throw up. She'll choke and die." She muttered something under her breath "Her rooms upstairs, fourth door on the left if you wanna stay with here there."

I looked up at Michelle "We'll be at Nana's if you need us?" She shrugged.

"I'll stay." I picked Jackie up and made our way upstairs, keeping a close check on her breathing as I watched Michelle leave. "Where's Kara?" I asked as I passed Devynne in the hall.

"In her bed, she's out too." She laughed "Fuckin' babies."

I kept my comments to myself and made my way upstairs, a limp Jackie in my arms. A tear escaped her eyelid and my own mimicked her's. I just wanted the mother of my child to make it, to live... I wanted her to be mine, but the first steps are the smallest..