Author's Note: I completely forgot that yesterday was my posting day! Sorry guys, here you go!

This is the final installment of this little love triangle series between Jimmy, Pete, and Gary! Although you don't have to, in order to best understand this one you can go back and read 'Weak People'.

No Good This Late

"You can't be up to no good this late!" One of the dock workers informed Jimmy as he passed him on the street.

Usually Jimmy would ignore comments people directed at him, but tonight he had to disagree with the guy. Not to the man's face but in his mind and through his pending actions. He was up to some good this particular night, and that good being hunting Gary Smith down and beating him into a bloody pulp!

Earlier that day he had been awoken rather early by a loud bang, at first he had told himself to ignore it, but found that he was unable to shake a strange feeling he had. He made the decision to go and check on Pete to help soothe his uneasiness but was dealt a shocking blow when he found the boy's room and bed to be empty.

Fear immediately struck him as irrational thoughts of what could have become of Pete filled his mind. His biggest fear was that Gary had done something to him and he had been too busy sleeping to realize it. He searched the bathrooms, the common room, and even went about kicking the campus psychopaths door down to make sure Pete wasn't in there and surprisingly not only was Pete not in there but neither was Gary. Despite a bout of panic settling in, Jimmy managed to keep himself composed and left the building to look for Pete.

After following as trail of blood he managed to find him… behind the boy's dorm and in the dumpster of all places, the fucking dumpster! Just tossed in there like he was a bag of trash! He was barely conscious; he had clearly been beaten and sexually assaulted. His body was covered in black and blue bruises and his clothes were ripped, torn, and dis-shelved.

Jimmy had taken him to the nurse only to find out that the damage had been worse than it seemed, he had a broken arm along with a broken collar bone and a few cracked ribs. As it turns out those injuries were too severe to be treated by the nurse and Pete ended up being transported to the hospital which was where he and Jimmy had spent their entire day.

Pete had refused to talk to the nurse or any of the doctors about what had happened to him, but once Jimmy had gotten the smaller boy back to his room on campus he managed to get some information out of him. Gary had been the culprit; after he somehow broke into Pete's room he had forced the small boy behind the dormitory where he proceeded to savagely beat and rape him.

Why?

Because Pete had chosen Jimmy over him! Pure rage and animosity coursed through Jimmy's veins as he listened to a shattered and broken Pete tell him what had happened. He made the decision to go and find the mentally delusional ass hat but Pete stopped him before he could leave, begging him not to go and saying that he didn't want to be alone right now. With anger still pulsating through his body Jimmy had stayed with him, long enough to comfort him and until he fell asleep.

Night time had fallen and that had brought him to his current location, scouring the vale for the sociopath, he wanted revenge and he was going to get it. Last time the boy had assaulted Pete he had managed to get away from him with nothing more than a few bruises, and thanks to the prefects Gary had managed to get away from Jimmy with nothing more than a few bruises! Regardless though Jimmy blamed himself for what had happened to Pete. Gary had after all given him a fair warning telling him quote,

"This isn't over by a long shot! I'll get you back for this!"

At first Jimmy had heeded the warning, not letting Pete out of his sight for fear that Gary might try to hurt him, but as the weeks wore on he became less and less concerned about Gary, only to have his relaxation come back to haunt him.

It was late, now nearing midnight but Jimmy didn't care, he ignored all the townsfolk who shot him funny looks due to the fact that he was out so late but when a cop would appear he would unwilling duck into a dark alley or behind a parked car. If they saw him and caught him then they would take him back to school bringing his manhunt to an end, and Jimmy had already told himself that there was no way in hell he was going to bed tonight before he found and manhandled Gary Smith. Heading past the boxing gym for who knows how many times that night Jimmy suddenly stopped as a deep monotone voice interrupted his hunt.

"Looking for someone?"

Slowly turning around and narrowing his eyes Jimmy balled up both of his fist at the sight of the person he had been searching for that night. They stared at one another, the dull streetlights casting a yellow glow over the two of them.

"You know…" Jimmy began angrily,

"Usually I'm the type who shoots first and ask questions later but in this case I think I'll make an exception!"

Gary let out a light chuckle while swinging his arms back and forth rather nonchalantly despite the situation at hand.

"Ahh good old James, always the evermore heroic one aren't we!" Gary replied somewhat cheerfully.

For the first time in his life Jimmy found himself struggling to avoid hurting someone, any other incident like this and he would waste no time in initiating a physical confrontation, but in this case he had to wait, wait for an answer.

"I suppose you think now that you're king of the school you own everything around here don't you?" Gary's voice had taken on a completely different tone from a moment ago, he sounded almost sinister but Jimmy wasn't fazed by it.

Jimmy stood silent for a moment, after everything Gary had done one would think that there was nothing he could do or say to surprise Jimmy, but he had just been once again proven wrong!

"For the very last time, Pete is not a thing! He is not a material possession, he is not a what! He is a person! A living breathing being and he deserves to be treated like one, not like some dog on a leash! Had you and your infinite wisdom been intelligent enough to realize that then maybe he wouldn't have left you! But I suppose you're too fucking full of yourself to see that!" Jimmy finished his statement through clenched teeth; his rage clearly starting to consume him.

Gary narrowed his eyes at what had been said to him. He refused to acknowledge that Jimmy was in fact right! He had treated Pete poorly, like an animal on a leash and like he was some sort of property. Angry at the fact that Jimmy knew so much about his relationship with Pete and angry at the fact that he hadn't managed to pull himself together before it was too late, he took the liberty of throwing the first punch. Jimmy was ready for him though, he was quick to block the attack and retaliate with a left hook catching Gary straight in his mouth. The demented teen's head snapped back as he nearly lost his footing and Jimmy not wanting their fight to be interrupted, deliberately turned and ran into a dark alley knowing Gary would get the message and follow.

Now out of sight of any authorities, Jimmy knew he could exact his revenge and not have to worry about getting caught. The two boys wasted no time in attempting to tear each other limb from limb. This was no longer about who would run the school, or who was smarter, this was about Pete. With one side attempting to reclaim what they deemed to be rightfully theirs and the other viewing it as allowing someone to choose what they wanted and trying to protect them.

The fight was a brutal one; both tough opponents, but months of being locked away in a mental health institute had taken its toll on Gary. In no time at all, Jimmy had the upper hand in the battle. Delivering a roundhouse kick to Gary's unstable head Jimmy sent the other boy crashing to the ground. Grabbing a discarded steel pipe nearby he dropped to his knees overtop of the sociopath and proceeded to relentlessly beat the other into the bloody pulp he had vowed he would.

Over and over Jimmy continued to strike him as hard as he could, wanting to break every bone in his body. With each strike another bruise and laceration formed with the occasional disturbing sound of a bone cracking. Blood had begun to spill from Gary's face and head but Jimmy didn't let up, he wanted to make sure that the sick fuck paid dearly for what he had done to Pete.

Running out of breath and strength Jimmy finally ceased his brutal assault on the other teen. Rising to his feet he stared down at him, his face now unrecognizable as he lay there coughing up bubbles of blood and not moving. Grabbing him by the school vest he wore, Jimmy drug him over to a nearby trashcan hoisting him up and dumping him in it upside down. His weight of course caused the trashcan to tip over but even then his upper body was still inside of it with only his legs visible. Satisfied with what he had done, Jimmy turned to go not caring if a dead body would be found or not the next morning.

Stepping out of the alley and into the dull glow of the streetlight he looked down at himself. Surprisingly he didn't have as much blood on him as one would have thought he would. The majority of it was on his hands and what had gotten onto his shirt didn't really show up being that it was a black tank top. He didn't really want to go back to the dorm looking like he did, with the blood of Gary literally on his hands, if Pete saw him then it would be obvious what had taken place and although he knew he couldn't hide it forever he still though it best he clean up before returning to the small boy.

Making sure there was no one around he quickly hurried down to the beach. It was now nearing 1 am and it would take too much time to get to the beach house and back so he though he's just dip into the water in an effort to rid himself of some of the visible blood. Although he wasn't completely clean it had gotten the obvious blood stains off of him. Now soaked and wet he hurried off back to the school campus.

Quietly slipping into his room he was relieved to find Pete still asleep, he was quick to change his clothes and tried to quietly climb into bed with his boyfriend. However upon getting on the bed Pete woke up, Jimmy paused for a brief moment but continued to settle in as the two stared at one another. It was obvious by the look on Pete's face that he hadn't really been asleep.

Jimmy laid down next to him and as he did Pete reached up and used his index finger to trace the bruise that now marred Jimmy's right eye. Jimmy let out a deep breath as Pete stared at him questioningly, and although he said nothing Jimmy knew that he was still asking him what had happened.

They continued to gaze at one another and moments later when Jimmy still didn't answer his questioning looks Pete suddenly got the message of what Jimmy's silence was telling him. He widened his eyes a bit in realization of what had taken place. Not wanting Pete to stress out any more than he already was Jimmy reached over and ran his thumb across the boy's bottom lip,

"Go to sleep Pete," Jimmy told him softly but firmly,

"It's over now… go to sleep"

The small boy continued to stare at him for a moment, he knew that he should listen to Jimmy and let it go but there was a part of him that wouldn't let go, a part of him that refused to move on. Despite everything he had been put through he still felt like he had a leash around his neck, despite what he himself had said to his tormentor he still couldn't completely free himself from the invisible tie that kept him bound to Gary.

Relaxing his battered body into the bed before he closed his eyes Pete thought back to everything that had taken place over the course of the past few weeks. So much had happened and so much had changed, his future was starting to look much brighter and he knew he now had something to look forward to with each passing day. Yet he still continued to cling to what once was… Feeling tears pool behind his eyelids he kept his eyes closed and eventually he drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

Jimmy laid there wide awake for quite some time; he stared at Pete as his chest gently rose and fell. He allowed his eyes to wander all over the bruises and cuts on Pete's face and though about how he should have been able to prevent them from being there at all. Although he knew he couldn't go back and change the past, he still couldn't help but to mentally beat himself up over everything that had happened. Part of that reason being that he knew despite his efforts he still didn't have Pete all to himself… Allowing his eyes to slowly drift shut he too eventually dozed off into a peaceful sleep.

Author's note: Just for the record I don't like to think that Gary died! I'm sure some of you may have felt or interpreted his fate as him being killed but I like to think that he lived another day to continue this war in this love triangle!

Also I know that Pete has seemed rather weak and pathetic throughout this little series of mine, but I had to portray him like that in a poor effort to display his innocence in all of this, if that makes sense. I wanted this to come off as two vicious brutes fighting a ferocious war over the gentle lamb caught in the middle so that's what I went for!

This is the end of this series for Jimmy, Pete, and Gary! I don't plan to add any more stories to this but you can never be too sure with me! I will more than likely write more on these three but this particular section is done, anything else I write will be taking place in an AU!

Thanks for reading!