Beck, without a doubt, loved Jade.

There was something more, though. Something underneath the depth of their relationship that alwayskept him coming back.

He was always a sucker for fixing broken things. Cars, Ipods, Computers.

Jade.

Inexplicably, and as much as it hurt, he enjoyed the way she came to him when in distress, standing on his doorstep with running tears and broken smiles just waiting to be fixed. He enjoyed the fact that he had a purpose in their relationship.

His job was to assuage her bad tempter, relieve her msery.

Fix her.

And that was what always kept him coming back.

And so, when, that evening, she stood on his doorstep, duffell bag over one shoulder, her face bruised, her mouth tugged into a pernament frown, Beck took her into his arms until she finally, finally unraveled.

She was crying now, sobbing against his chest. The ache in her chest was a gaping whole that only Beck could fix, and he knew just how to do it.

He was going to fix this.

He managed to lead her over the bed, where she plopped down, a heap of defeated bones. Her eyes stared forward, her palms shaking on her lap.

Beck paced in front of her, running his hands through his hair. Jade watched with a sense of love surging through her.

She didn't need her father. She had everything she needed right here.

"We have to call the police," Beck finally said.

Jade vigorously shook her head.

"I'm not getting put in foster care, Beck."

Beck stopped pacing, stood in front of her. He took in her tired features, the way her shoulders slouched.

He was gazing at her with an expression that she couldn't read.

"Maybe we need to find your mom."

Jade sat on Beck's bed, thinking that the last thing she wanted to do was find her mother.

Her mother had volunteeringly walked out on her only daughter. She had left Jade on her own with her monstruous father.

Surely her mother had to know what he was capable of.

But yet...

She dreamed of finding her mother for years. In her dreams, happy reunions played out with long embraces and hearfelt apologies.

But she knew, deep down, it wouldn't be that way.

Her mother could have taken Jade with her.

All of this hurt, all of this pain could have been avoided.

She could still have been Jadelynn right now.

The first though that popped into her mind was to tell Beck no.

Absolutely not.

Instead, she looked up with a determined glint in her eyes.

"Alright."