This is another AU! I love me some AU! Also review and let me know what you think! Reviews are my crack!

This first part is dedicated to a close friend. I wanted to show that good memories and good things can come from a black past, and even though you don't have any honey, you are who you are because of your memories and experiences, good and bad. Don't ever stop being the kind loving person I couldn't live without. And thanks for letting me post this!

I don't own Teen Wolf.

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Jackson knew he'd been adopted, and before that he'd been in foster care. He knew his mother had been in an abusive relationship, that his father had a drug problem which eventually bled into his mother's life. Jackson knew he was eighteen months when he was taken away from his mother; he knew he had five foster families before he was adopted when he was four. All this he knew because it's what the records said and what he'd been told. They were just cold facts.

Jackson remembered one thing and it was this little snipped of memory that was precious to him. His mother taking him swimming. That was his only memory of her. Swimming. He thought it may have been over the course of several years because he remembered progressing from arm bands to kicking the water and moving forward on his own. He remembered a soft voice called out to him, telling him how well he was doing. How clever he was. Her hands, even when in the water, were always warm too, catching him when he needed help. 'I'm here.' She would whisper when he got frightened. 'I'm here.'

She died of an overdose when he was five, shortly after he was adopted. His parents took him to the funeral, explained his mommy was in the box and that he wouldn't see her again but it was ok because he had a new mommy now.

Jackson didn't care, he wanted his own mommy. He wanted her hands and her cuddles and her happy voice calling out to him when he was able to swim without her help. He wanted to play with her curly wet hair, splash her with his feet and watch her bomb into the pool because that was so much fun.

'Now Jackson we can do anything you want today.' He remembered it clear as day when his dad, his adoptive dad promised him the world if he would just stop crying after his mommy was buried.

'I want to go swimming.' He said pushing the tears off his cheeks with angry fists. He would be the best swimmer he possibly could be. He would make his mother proud. And maybe if she was proud she might come back and see him.

XXX

He got the call in mid-November. He was on the team. He was on the USA Olympic Swimming Team. He was twenty three! He was on the team.

Jackson celebrated! He drank champagne with his friends, then when that was finished he drank tequila, some whiskey, and some other stuff and finished it off with a blue liquid that had a fuzzy label. Perhaps his mind was fuzzy when he tried to examine it. Needless to say the celebration meal with his parents and the child they eventually managed to conceive was a washout. Jackson was hung over to the point of ignorance, receiving a lecture from his father on the evils of the devil drink and disappointed looks from his mother. He wasn't a student anymore, he should be more responsible he should respect the family that saved him from squalor and raised him in a luxury lifestyle.

'If it weren't for this family Jackson you wouldn't be on that Olympic swim team.' Carla his sister muttered.

'My mom, my birth mom, she was the one who taught me to swim, and me, I swam my way onto that team. If you folks will excuse me, I have a hangover to deal with and some vomiting to do.' Jackson said tossing his napkin and two fifty dollar bills onto his plate.

'Jackson we've given you everything! You owe us.'

'Then draw up a bill and I'll work out a repayment plan.' Jackson snapped walking out of the restaurant as people gasped in shocked outrage and the rude young man who had no respect for his family.

XXX

The apartment Jackson rented was cold and empty when he returned. He flopped onto his couch and flicked through his list of fuck buddies on his phone, but he didn't call anyone. He watched television, going from Ace of Cakes to Miami Ink to Teen Mom. It was all shit. He switched on his laptop and cleared his browser history. He looked up Olympic swimming on Wikipedia. He watched old victories on YouTube. He followed the team on Facebook.

After a dinner of toast and coffee his phone rang, it was his dad. He didn't answer but he did listen to the voicemail that explained how disappointed his father was with his childish behaviour. He made his mother cry. Carla is an example Jackson should set his life by, she never let them down the way Jackson did. Jackson should take more responsibility; if he kept acting like this the Olympic team would never want him. If he kept acting like this his father wasn't sure he wanted him as part of the company he was CEO of. Jackson didn't care, the job was boring. Swimming was his one true love.

Carla rang and he answered and hung up after ten seconds of her starting to ball him out for being a loser.

He ignored the next six calls but answered on the seventh with a 'what the hell do you want from me?'

'To start a training programme for your place in the team but if you're not interested I can find someone else.' A gruff voice said.

'No no, I thought you were someone else.' Jackson blushed. 'Please I'm so sorry. Of course I want my place.'

'Are you sure?'

'Yes.'

'Ok. My names Derek Hale, I'm your coach. I want to meet you, I've seen you swim in competitions but Finstock has told me a lot about you.'

'Finstocks' my coach.'

'He asked me to take over. I'll want you to come to New York for a few weeks, there's a fantastic Olympic sized pool here that's underused and we'll be able to get a head start on training.'

'Ok.' Jackson said rubbing his face.

'And Whittemore?'

'Yes?'

'Leave your troubles in the changing room. If personal issues affect your swimming I'm coaching someone else.'

'Of course.' Jackson said.

'Good. Pack, you're flights in the morning.'

Jackson relayed the information, and said his goodbyes. Derek sounded grumpy; perhaps he'd be more pleasant when they met face to face. He packed a bag, Googled his new coach and called his old one.

'Whittemore. Cracking job!'

'Hey coach. I hear you offloaded me.'

'You deserve the best. Hale's a bastard but he's the best.'

'You could have warned me.'

'I told you last night.'

'I saw you last night?'

'You bought me champagne and told me you wanted to sleep with my seventeen year old son.'

'Damn.'

'That's what I said. I don't have a seventeen year old son. I've called all my ex-wives but no one has a kid that age. I'm going to have to start on fiancées before I look at girlfriends.' Jackson laughed at his coaches antics, wondering if the man really was doing that.

'Will you keep in touch?'

'Star like you, I'll want to show you off! Of course I'll keep in touch boy!' Finstock said.

'Your email still cupcake101?' Jackson teased.

'Swim to hell Whittemore.' Finstock said as he ended the call. Jackson laughed, unpacked his bag then repacked it.

At eleven Jackson answered his phone to Carly. He figured he'd try to make amends seeing as he would be leaving in the morning.

'You know what, I'm ashamed of you. I wish they never adopted you.' Carly said spitefully. Jackson remembered the day she was born, he was six and she looked so tiny. He wanted to hold her but he wasn't allowed, she was too precious, they told him. He remembered waiting patiently for them to be finished cuddling her so at least he could see her properly. When he did he brushed tiny fingers over her soft hair. He was warned to be careful, and he was, so careful. Carly looked so precious wrapped in a pink blanket her fist in her mouth. Now all he could picture was her best bitch face. She did them so well.

'You know what; I wish they never adopted me either.' Jackson said as he cancelled the call. He buried his face in his pillow and let out a loud scream. Tomorrow he would be well away from this place and he wondered if he would ever come back.

He rolled onto his back and called Danny. 'Hey buddy. I'm off to New York. Fancy a goodbye fuck before I leave?'

'Horny bastard.' Danny teased. 'How about you leave to door on the latch.'

'How about you hurry the fuck up!' Jackson grinned. Danny always put him in a good mood.

XXX