*

Tiff unhinged

Tiff felt good, it'd been months since The Bathroom and she had stopped jumping in her skin whenever that bathroom door squeaked as it shut.

And Hamilton was away.

She even went to the bathroom by herself now. The first time she couldn't breathe, the air felt trapped in her lungs.

Tiff didn't tell anyone that she passed out from hyperventilating.

She did sing to Nightingale about it though. She was kinda stiff but what the doc said made sense, Tiff thought, remembering.

"You've associated the bathroom with the assault, Tiffany. It will always be a trigger for you." Those clear blue eyes met hers and Tiff shifted her gaze away from that probing gaze.

"Now, let's go over the fainting episode so we don't have a recurrence."

Fainting episode. Gawd it was all so dumb. "I don't know why I bit it," Tiff said, her hands straying to where her gum lay, just out of reach by her pulse.

Nightingale watched her nervous twitch and waited.

"Okay, so maybe going there freaks me out," Tiff grabbed the gum and jammed a stick in her mouth, chewing it like it was a lifeline.

Nightingale nodded, a ghost of a smile playing around her lips. "As it should."

Tiff tore her gaze off the floor and met the doctor's caring eyes.

It was no bullshit, the doc cared about Tiff. She saw it and recognized the genuineness of her immediately.

They stared at each other and Nightingale said softly, "It wasn't your fault, Tiffany Weller."

Tiff broke.

She burst into tears for the first time since that bastard had hurt her and Nightingale wrapped her up, holding her tightly.

A tough girl and her Empath doctor.

Two women helping each other.

CHAPTER 8

Jonesy

April

My arm was slung around Jade's neck as we paced an easy rhythm through the hall, Easter break had officially begun and I swore that everybody had their head wedged, running around hollering and cheering that school was out for a week.

Jade and I were thinking of all the things we could do to each other in a week.

Well, I was anyway.

John and Tiff were walking together, he acting as her protective shadow. When it had become clear a few months ago that he wasn't leaving her alone again... ever, she had stopped yelling about bodyguard shit.

It just was what it was. And that was all.

Sophie was humming the latest pop tune (badly) as her internal disc was fired up on whatever... loud as hell, and we were suffering.

A singer she was not.

Then she drowned us with the exterior sound. She'd recently gotten an app that let the music come out of her mouth.

Kinda like the karaoke of the past, pulse style.

That's when Jonesy came up out of nowhere and did the typical launch at unsuspecting people thing. He was expert at it and today's target was Tiff and John.

I thought later that it had been more about the general mood of the school; Jonesy had been swept up in the euphoria (imagine that) and wanted to suck up whatever part of the group he stumbled on.

Sophie's music was loud and it aided in Tiff not hearing Jonesy's approach.

There were a million people everywhere so he was just another person in the crowd.

He swung both arms around the pair, swinging between them and pulled Tiff back against himself, laughing.

Jade stiffened a moment before Tiff's meltdown, "No!" she yelled and I stopped, looking at what was going down.

I saw Jonesy but was too late to stop it. I knew when his six feet of muscled and energized giddiness nailed Tiff she'd freak.

Jade told me Carson and Diego took her from behind.

Jonesy didn't know that. Nor did he give it a lot of forethought. He was a Reactor, plain and simple.

Tiff screamed, letting her body weight act as an anchor as she sunk like a rock to the floor.

John's face was comical for a millisecond and rage the next.

He belted Jonesy so hard he flew, his dark head kicking back.

I didn't think Terran had it in him. I also think that for the first time ever he hadn't used his Frontal Lobe.

Yeah, looked like Terran's wasn't fully developed either. Here was the proof.

Alex, Archer and I stood stupidly for a second as Terran realized he'd belted Jonesy. Terran didn't even try to apologize. He grabbed a hysterical Tiff, who was screaming and swinging at everyone who tried to help her.

John grabbed her by the shoulders, forcing her to look at him. In a loud voice he said, "It's John, Tiffany!"

She blinked, the tears and snot from her fear drenching her face.

"John?" she asked like she didn't know him, couldn't see him when he was right in front of her face.

He slowly nodded from above her.

She jumped into his arms and John snapped them around her.

"It's okay, I've got you..." he said, pressing her head against his chest. His eyes met mine over her head and I nodded.

You're doing okay, my look said.

"I thought... I thought it was him..." Tiff said as fresh tears fell.

"He can't hurt you Tiff, you're safe." John's eyes met hers and she held on to him like he was the last solid thing in the world.

Then John said the unthinkable, "I'll keep you safe. I love you, Tiff."

He said it in front of the student body of KPH, his friends and a girl that had rejected him countless times.

Jonesy approached. "Hey, I'm sorry..."

John gave him a look and Jonesy backed away, with his palms up in surrender.

"He didn't rape me," she said, so quietly I barely heard her.

Jade hiccuped a sob back into her throat, covering her mouth with her hand.

"He did something, Tiff," John said, dismissing the semantics of the assault.

"He touched me, he... he touched me inside," she wailed in a pathetic sob, her hand tightening on the material of his shirt as she shook with her sobs. "I woke up to him... doing it..." she whispered her confession miserably.

I'd never seen death so eloquently held up in a stare. I'd raised it, conquered it and called it.

Yet the death I saw in John's flat blue eyes was for one person: Carson Hamilton.

God help him.

*

after

The Js were cool. John apologized for punching Jonesy and of course, Jonesy thought it was cool that John would. So that ended that. With guys, you could duke it out and still be friends later.

I think with girls the knife was still twisting at the twenty-five year class reunion.

John and Tiff just sort of fell together after that. It was a slow-burn romance. Like an ember that glowed, the wind had picked up and it burnt brighter, hotter as the days toward our graduation wore on.

Terran the Tender, that's what Jonesy and I called John behind his back. Not like a dis, more like a surprise. He'd taken on Tiff single-handedly and become her champion.

That kitten had teeth.

And claws.

Now Tiff smiled. She chewed gum. Not with the vigor of before but she wasn't going to be the same.

About two weeks later I came up to her and she didn't flinch. I told her about my Mom's self-defense classes and I didn't get the smart ass retort I was expecting.

"Okay, thanks... Caleb," she said with just the edge of shyness to her words and John smiled at me.

John cupped her chin, looking deeply into her eyes. "I'll take you."

"Okay," she said, taking a deep breath and letting it out.

Mission accomplished, I thought, walking off to meet my girl at the end of the hall. Her eyes met mine and I saw the pride.

A guy couldn't hide a thing from an Empath girlfriend.

That was okay, I thought, it had its upside.

Boy, did it.

*

Nightingale

Georgia looked at Tiffany Weller struggle to tell her what had happened.

She'd had a breakthrough brought on by an innocent friend reenacting the trauma by accident and it had finally brought her to the progress she'd so desperately needed to achieve.

Georgia had almost given up on forward momentum with Tiffany, who was self-reliant and resilient in a way that Georgia had never seen before.

And the boy... young man, John Terran; Georgia thought if she ever saw him she'd plant the biggest kiss on him he'd ever had.

That one boy was at least partially responsible for her recovery. He'd doggedly pursued Tiff and made sure he was there, just his presence, without any strings or demands.

And for once, someone was in the right place at the right time. When Tiff had a trigger, John Terran had been there to comfort her and she'd begun to trust again. And with a male.

Georgia thought she'd be okay.

Until that criminal was let loose again. Georgia was set to testify for barring him from attending the graduation. She didn't have high hopes that it would prove fruitful. In this climate of sympathy towards criminals and their equal treatment, his status as student and his recent birthday; he'd get the most sympathetic response possible.

Georgia shuddered. She'd been the on-site head doc to take a peek at Carson Hamilton.

She had been disturbed. He'd shown no remorse for his assault against Tiffany Weller. Further, it was her professional opinion that he had perpetuated this type of crime before. Just not so publicly. Tiff had been a perfect catalyst for what set this boy off. Somehow, Carson's normal stealth couldn't be employed. And to coerce that pathetic friend of his... ugh. It made Georgia sick.

Tiffany met her eyes. "I'm ready."

Nightingale gave an encouraging smile and answered, "I know."

Tiff looked at the doc gratefully. Then, taking a deep breath she began, "I was in the girl's washroom..."

Georgia took notes. Tiff got quiet after she'd told Georgia about the beating; she had squeezed her hands so tightly they mottled to white. Nightingale put her pulse down. Her thumb was indented from depressing it so much.

"We can take a break for a moment, Tiffany."

Tiff's eyes shone. "No. I've taken too many breaks, Doc."

"Alright," Georgia said.

One heartbeat of silence unfolded... two.

Tiff twisted her hands. "When I came to, his hands were in me... hurting me." She met Georgia's eyes. "It hurt so bad, Doc.... so bad," she repeated in a whisper.

Nightingale stood and came to Tiff. "Are you okay now?"

Tiff nodded. "I'm okay... I'm still... he didn't..."

Georgia nodded. "I know."

"You do?" Tiff asked, jerking her head up and meeting Georgia's eyes.

"Yes, I have the medical reports. I've always known, Tiffany."

"Oh," she said in a small voice, casting her eyes down again.

"Look at me."

Tiff did.

"It was important that you tell me, Tiffany. It was yours to tell, yours to own." Georgia gave her a look full of such compassion that Tiff could not stop the fat tears that chased each other down her face.

"Yours to conquer," Nightingale finished in a voice that vibrated with truth and conviction.

"Thank you," Tiff said through her tears.

"No, thank you. You're the bravest person I know," Georgia said in honest surprise.

Tiff laughed. "Yeah, I've been told that a time or two."

Georgia laughed with her.

And Tiff was okay.

She wasn't back to the old Tiff, but the new Tiff had a passing resemblance to the former.

It was good to have her back.

CHAPTER 9

now

Tiff & John, graduation night

"Breathe, Tiff," John said, one hand palming the wheel, the other on her knee, his finger flirting with the hem of her skirt.

Tiff did, slowly and deeply, the Carson Experience at John's parent's reception was still with her like an aftertaste. Tiff looked at John. "I didn't think I could pull it off."

John nodded, not much for talking but knowing that something was expected as a response. Tiff made him feel klutzy in his responses. The whole attack by Carson against Tiff made it doubly worse. He wasn't reactive like Jonesy, but his normal control fled him when it came to Tiffany.

He didn't hold the short leash of death like Caleb.

John knew he was crack-the-whip smart, he was also a Null. But none of that shit mattered for Tiff. It was a huge responsibility.

It's what he wanted.

He carefully formulated his response.

"Say something, Terran," Tiff said.

John smiled. She still called him by his last name when she was irritated with him. Tiff was so bossy.

John kinda liked it. They were such a contrast, but somehow fit so well.

"You did." He flicked his eyes to hers then back at the black ribbon of road ahead of them. He turned the corners that wound closer to the Weller house.

"What?" Tiff asked, studying his expression.

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