Disclaimer: This is purely fan fiction. None of the characters, places, or lyrics used in this fic are mine.

Chapter Three

Part I:

"They can keep me alive
'Til I tear the walls
'Til I slave your hearts."

He knew that voice; his mother's voice.

It was soft, and so gentle. The only voice he'd ever considered worth listening to, even if it had no meaning. Even if it held no point. "I know," he called out in response to her. He'd been floating in and out of conciousness, the pain and power way stronger than himself. Her voice was perfectly clear; safe. A voice of reason among a crowded room filled with so many inhuman words.

She was there to tell him she knew about the things he'd done. The wrong choices he'd made, but still, she forgave him.

That meant she knew of the murderer he'd become. He knew he was better dead than living, but she disagreed. "I can't be like you," he cried to her. He couldn't be anything like his parents because he simply wasn't anything like them. He wanted so badly to see her. To hold her and know what it felt like to be held by her in return. To know the feeling of the hug given by your father when you grow from his boy, into the man he raised you to be.

Jake thought with absolution that he was a disgrace to the Armstrong name.

The pain was sharp, coming back to rip and pull a distance between his mother and himself.

Her voice was drowned out by the crowds of evil spirits; demonic whispers that egged on the darker side of himself. He cried out to her, but she was long gone, taking with her the peacefulness that she'd exuded.

He yelled out, jumping forward against arms that were trying to grasp his wild ones. His body was so sore, so weak that it was easy for him to be overpowered. His hearing came back to him, and he was freed at least for now; from the whispers in his head.

It was Diana's soft voice that was talking. "You're okay."

He laid back, without a bit of energy to even find out if she was right or not.

And God, how horrible to her he had been. Not that he'd had any control over it.

"Just lay back. They're putting everything together downstairs right now."

He listened to her, fighting to keep his eyes open as he watched her sit on the edge of the bed, putting something wet and cold against his face.

"What is that?" He croaked out, his voice sounding even more pathetic than he felt.

"A wash cloth. I'm just trying to make you comfortable for now."

He swallowed, but with how dry his throat was, it made no difference in help.

Diana moved the cloth to his temple, wiping along his hairline which made him close his eyes for a moment.

"Do you believe in Hell?" He asked her, his mouth's filter obviously still missing in action.

Her eyes finally looked at his and she seemed to take him seriously as she thought about it, her hand stilling against his forehead as she did.

"I don't know." After she began to move the cold cloth against the other side of his head, she looked at his eyes again. "Do you?"

"Yes."

She pulled the rag away, turning her body to better face him.

He was too tired to wonder why it was Diana he'd chosen to have the conversation with, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with knowing she had a free ride straight into Heaven.

"Jake-"

He stopped her before she could either agree with him, or flat out lie to him.

"I have voices in my head, telling me I'm going." She looked away from him for a moment, and he let his eyes close briefly. "I probably have a thrown set aside for me to sit on."

"It's the curse, Jake. They aren't actual voices of demons, or whatever you think they are. Your mind is fragile. When people have normal fevers from colds, they hallucinate, too. Become delirious depending on how high their temprature is... It's your brain; your concious playing tricks on you."

"Or there are actual demons asking me to come out and play fire frisbee with them."

She sighed, touching the cool rag to his face once again. His head rolled to the side, his eyes blinking tiredly. "Why're you doing this? Helping me..."

Without making eye contact with him, she answered, wiping the cloth along his neck.

"Because you need it," she answered flatly. "And I don't see anyone else here."

"Good point," he agreed.

"I'd like to think someone would do this for me," she told him honestly. "I would hope someone cared enough to."

"I would have hated to have been Adam..."

Her eyes finally locked onto his. "Gee, thanks."

With an attempt and fail at easing his throat, he tried to explain. "I just mean, if this is you caring, what do you do when you love someone? I wouldn't know what to do with that."

Her lips pursed slightly. "Well, you'd have to let someone beyond that fortress around your cold, stoney heart first."

He laid there, unable to smirk at her which he would have done normally. Then again, he probably wouldn't have been in this conversation with her in the first place.

"Fair enough," he told her, earning a small grin. "I don't deserve this."

"You're absolutely right. You don't." She lifted his head gently, placing the rag behind his neck before setting his head back down. "But you're getting it anyway." Diana pushed off of the bed, standing somewhere beside him. His eyes wouldn't stay open anymore.

"I still don't get it. You've never liked me..."

"That's not true, I just didn't know how to relate to you."

"And you do now? Are you kidding me?" He coughed, groaning at the aching that seemed to cover every square inch of his skin.

She sighed heavily. "Just sleep, Jake."

"Don't let them give me a wake," he told her, knowing that death was closer with every breath he took. The normally musky air of the abandoned house was now suddenly sweet to him.

"Oh, you'll have a wake, Jake. And I'll be the one throwing it."

He couldn't see her face, but he knew as he fell into unconsciousness once again, that she was smiling.

Part II:

"And no rivers
And no lakes,
Can put the fire out."

Diana came back up with another rag, sitting alongside Jake who was laid out on the bed, wet with his own sweat. He somehow looked thinner, as if he'd been starved. She knew it was only because his skin, in result of his sickness, was pulled taut over his veins and tendons. His bones seemed harsh against his flesh, as if they would cut him open. His eyes were sunken in, the dark circles beneath them made it look like he'd been punched in each eye.

She moved the cloth over his face, following over his chest where she laid it out beneath his tank top.

It was strange to think hours ago, she had been mortified to have found him in his underwear. Hours ago, she had been horrified in realizing he'd killed Calvin, and watching him attack Adam whom he'd thought was Calvin. Now, with his death certificate basically written out, she didn't know what she felt, but she knew it had nothing to do with her mortification from earlier.

Adam came up, looking back and forth between her and Jake.

He was smart not to say anything. Or so she initially thought.

She wiped her hands along her dirty jeans and stood, walking passed him to the stairs. By the time she stepped down a single one, Adam had chosen to finally say what he'd been more than likely looking to say all day.

"Please tell me this is you doing what's best for the circle."

She sighed, her shoulders falling a little bit as she reached out for the railing to hold onto, turning to better face him. Pretending not to know what he was talking about would be useless.

"Going along with you guys today to find that root was me doing what was best for the circle. Me caring about someone's death, is just me. I'm sorry if that makes you uncomfortable, but I'm not just going to sit here while he suffers."

"I think he's done his share of making others suffer. He's only getting back what he deserves."

"Probably, but I'm not the one to decide who pays what, for which price."

Adam's eyes narrowed at her as he stepped closer.

"If you hadn't come along with us today..." His voice trailed, as if still trying to find a way to word whatever he might have thought he'd figured out. "You never gave a rats ass about Jake before. Something changed today...what was it?"

"First of all, that's not true. Second, nothing's changed other than the fact that I've watched a human being suffering all day!"

"Has the curse affected you, too?"

"What?"

Adam nodded as if agreeing with his own thoughts. "You have feelings for Jake. Jake, Diana... Do you hear me?"

"I hear you, I just don't understand you. What's wrong with me helping someone?"

"Because you wouldn't have done it this way unless you had feelings for him. Seeing him get a taste of his own dish made you soften towards him."

"Your absurd," she said disgustedly.

"I'm absurd? He's not some lost puppy, Diana! You can't just bring him home and beg daddy to let you keep him!"

With a deep breath, she chose to speak in a lower tone. "I'm going to pretend you didn't say that to me." What had become of them? "And even if that were true, it wouldn't be any of your business anymore. You don't take me into consideration, so I'm returning the favor."

Adam's arms crossed over his chest as he stared at her, his face slowly dropped from being twisted in anger.

She walked down the stairs, pretending no one heard anything that had just happened. They did the same. All but John Blackwell who caught her eyes, holding her stare as if trying to convey that he knew what she felt; that he understood.

It was only minutes later that she gathered herself enough to walk back up and check on Jake. The only ones left were her, Jake, Adam, Cassie and Cassie's father. He stayed downstairs on the couch as Diana went up, slowing and concealing her footsteps when she heard strained voices.

"There's more," Cassie continued saying whatever she had started. "That lethe root, when we drink this, we'll forget how we feel about eachother."

Diana was bending down until her backside bumped down on the step she had stopped on. She had thought Jake was meant to drink it, but it made sense that since they were the ones with the curse, they would be the ones to drink the elixir.

"No. There's no way." Adam stated flatly, leaving no room for arguement.

"We'll remember everything," Cassie tried. "Even that we loved eachother... We just won't remember why. We won't be in love."

"That's crazy. I'm not gonna do it."

"There's no other way to break the curse," her voice calmly pleaded.

"Oh, so we're gonna destroy us, to save a killer?"

"If we let him die, then we're the killers. We're just like him."

Diana didn't know she'd been crying until a tear dropped onto her arm that was set in her lap. She lifted the back of her hand to touch against her cheek, gently wiping the tear away.

"No, Cassie. Being with you is more important than anything."

Diana broke then, her face falling as her eyes closed. This time, she made no attempt at getting rid of the tears.

She couldn't make out anything Cassie had said, but Adam's voice, so familiar, was easy to make out.

"Cassie...there is no elixir that could ever make me forget how much I love you. Not for long. I swear."

The silence that followed made Diana pushed herself up from the stairs and walk down, ignoring John Blackwell's eyes that followed her.

Outside with the door shut behind her, she was able to let go of the sob that had been building up all day.

There were so many reasons to cry. She'd been forgotten, like a past memory that was too meaningless to consider. It was clear she had never meant to Adam what he had meant to her. And though it hurt, it was past-tense. Soon, she'd be falling in love again, even if part of her wanted to reject the very idea. She was so used to Adam, so wrapped up in him being her beginning and end, that she hadn't considered any other life. Any other possibilities. But where did all those declarations go? All those words of love, their expressions of it written out, said allowed, and made between one another...

And now Cassie was going to be left with the same thing, and this was something Diana wouldn't wish on anyone.

If those two couldn't make it, who could? Who could prove to be stronger than the stars?

Part III and Final:

"It's a melody
It's a battle cry
It's a symphony."

Sunlight protruded beyond his eyelids, waking him as if he were home. In a bed he thought of as his own now.

But he wasn't in his own bed, and he definetly wasn't home.

And he was...alive.

Jake sat up, his body sore and weak, with a headache that burned with the fire of a thousand suns.

Blackwell walked up the steps, obviously to check on Jake.

He wasn't completely sure how to thank him.

"You saved my life."

"I helped," Blackwell answered simply.

Jake frowned in thought.

"Was I hallucinating or did Adam and Cassie just destroy their relationship...for me?"

"You don't think you're worth saving?"

"I know I'm not," Jake admitted with a strong pentinence.

Blackwell must have known it well, because he gave a look as if he knew. He sat himself down next to Jake. "You're one of six," he began telling him. "You matter."

"They don't know me," he paused, not sure if he should have admitted what he wanted to, or not. "I killed Calvin."

Blackwell paused for a moment, making Jake think he'd given up on him. He wouldn't have blamed him. With having been so close to death, Jake felt different. Aware. Aware of right and wrong; of justice and injustice.

"Well, that's in the past."

Jake shook his head slightly. "I wish it was, but the look on Cassie's face when she found out... I'm surprised she didn't let me die. Or Diana, for that matter." He looked at John then. "She was talking to me at some point, right?"

"I know she was bringing up cool rags to you..."

Jake nodded, remembering bits and pieces of their conversation.

"I understand...more than you know, Jake. But a man can change."

After a short pause, Jake looked at him again. "You really believe that?"

Blackwell's hand clapped onto his shoulder, squeezing in reassurance. The way a father might.

"I do," he told him.

Jake definetly felt that his head hung lower than it normally did.

"Anyone want any tea?"

Jake and Blackwell both looked up as Diana walked up the last step, mugs and a pot of herbal smelling tea in hand. Jake took the offered tea eagerly, practically gulping it down.

"I guess I'll see you two," John said then, like he was taking a cue to leave them alone. Diana glanced at Jake with a look that matched his thoughts.

She sat down beside him, pouring herself a cup before asking him how he felt.

"Like shit ran over hundreds of times."

"Wow, hundreds..." She looked at him, her laugh sparking through the silence of the house after she saw the look he'd given her.

"Did you stay here?" He asked her, noting her clean clothing and clean smell.

"Uh, no. I went home. But I was the last to leave."

"John didn't stay here?"

"No one did, Jake."

"Good."

She grinned at him, drinking a bit of her tea.

"How do you feel...otherwise?"

"About the same."

"If it's any consolation, I'm glad you didn't die."

He scoffed ironically at that. "Can't think I'd say the same thing if I were you."

"Well, then it's a good thing you're not."

He eyed her to see if she was serious, and there was no smile to be seen.

"About last night-"

"We don't ever have to talk about it. Promise."

"I was going to say thank you."

"Oh." She shrugged, her jaw resting against her hand as she set her elbow on her thigh. "Then, you're welcome."

He drank in the hot tea, letting it coat his throat completely.

"I should get going," she said, hesitating before she stood.

"Can I ask you something?"

She nodded to him, waiting patiently.

"Last night I- I thought I could hear my mom. I don't know if it was a dream or not, but it was her voice. It wasn't like she was talking to me how she would when I was little, so it couldn't have been a memory."

"Was- did she talk to you about...Calvin?"

Jake nodded, his eyes on Diana then.

She nodded with him in response, but the look she had, made him frown.

"What?"

She leaned forward, the space between them lessening. "I think it was me."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you were talking in your sleep, or when you weren't fully...here. You asked her to forgive you and I kind of- I told you I was sure she did."

She rushed ahead with her explaination, grabbing his hand when he sat down his mug in order to try and rub his face with his hands. She got ahold of one, trying to make him look at her again, but he couldn't.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to- I shouldn't have talked to you when you were like that. I'm so sorry, Jake."

"It's okay," he replied plainly.

"No, it's not because if I had thought I'd talked to my mom..." She sighed, resting his hand in her lap. He looked at her small hands grasping his large one, causing exchanged words to come back into his recollection from the night.

She looked down to what he'd been staring at and instantly let go. "Sorry. Habit."

Pulling his hand back, he looked at her closely. "I guess it's the likeness in your voices."

"What likeness?"

"The kindness... How soft it-" He stopped talking when he took a double take at her, frowning then. "What is it?"

"Nothing," she answered quickly. "Sorry."

"You act like you do such bad things all the time. Stop apologizing so much." He wasn't letting her nothing go though, wondering if it had anything to do with her conversation with Adam.

"Was Adam right?"

Her eyebrows raised as if surprised, but she quickly fixed her face to look neutral. "About what?"

What was he going to do, ask her if she liked him? Like he was in elementary or something?

"Would you have cared as much if you didn't have feelings for me?"

He supposed the filter that had been absent last night, had decided to take a longer vacation than necessary.

"You're implying that I have feelings for you," she stated flatly to him.

"Do you?"

Her eyes squinted, as if it physically hurt her to answer him on the subject. When her phone vibrated, she jumped. It broke through their silence, and Jake turned away asking himself what he was doing.

"Um, it's Melissa. Faye has a nine-one-one." She looked back up at him, but he couldn't meet her eyes again. "I should go."

"Yeah, yeah. Go ahead. I'm uh, gonna stick around here until the pain in my head fades."

"Oh, that reminds me!" From her pocket, she pulled a small baggy with two small white pills. He took them, raising an eyebrow at her in question. "Pain pills..."

"Don't you ever take a break?"

She chuckled, obviously getting that he was meaning her consideration. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Take it however you want," he told her, opening the baggy to take one of them.

She walked forward, wincing at him when he looked up at her. Her fingers touched his forehead and he lightly swatted her hand away.

"Stop fussing over me," he complained, huffing out a breath through his nose when she grabbed his head to hold him still.

"You should clean that when you can."

"It'll heal."

"It'll get infected..."

Jake pulled one of her hands down, finding that he was reluctant to let it go right away. When he glanced up at her, he noticed her eyes were still on their hands.

"I'm sorry about what I did. I mean, I'm sorry for everything I've done, but personally for you, about my, uh..."

"I agree with Cassie's dad."

Jake looked up at her, squinting against the sunlight.

"You heard all that?"

She shrugged, finally pulling her hand back. "I think a man can change, yes. I think you have a lot of...proving to do."

He completely agreed with that.

"But I also think you're wrong," she added.

Jake stared up at her, not knowing whether to speak or to let her do all the talking.

"You don't think you're worth saving, but I think you are. So does Cassie. And I'm more than positive your parents would agree with me." At the face Jake made, she grinned and added, "Parents love me."

"Thanks."

She started backing away, pointing a finger at him, her eyes narrowing. "I think you should take a break."

"What?"

"You act like you're cursed all the time. Stop thanking everyone," she said in the same tone he'd used, mocking him.

He actually felt the corner of his mouth lift as she waved a goodbye, bounding down the steps.

It was unfathomable how wary of him she could be, yet still consider him worth saving.

End

Note: I know you hate me for not even putting in a kiss, but I have a duty to both Jake and Diana to keep it as realistic as possible.

But could I somehow make a kiss between them, even with how soon it would be, realistic? I don't know but I was about to post this when I thought of an "alternative ending" idea.

-insert the sound of a tape rewinding-

Part III and Final/Alternative Ending:

"A thousand armies
Couldn't keep me out."

Pulling his hand back, he looked at her closely. "I guess it's the likeness in your voices."

"What likeness?"

"The kindness... How soft it-" He stopped talking when he took a double take at her, frowning then. "What is it?"

She opened her mouth, contemplating between saying whatever she was thinking, and not saying anything at all.

Finally, she gave a small shake of her head and grinned, her eyes on her fidgiting fingers in her lap. "I kind of like the idea. Having a likeness with your mother." She paused before moving on to explain. "We always hear about everyone's absent parents from back then, you know? I've personally never heard one bad thing about your mom or dad, so having something in common with them, even small, is kind of nice to hear."

It was her turn to do the double take and frown at him in question. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not totally sure," which was a lie, "...but I think I can remember Adam calling me a puppy." Sure he'd changed the subject, but it was also because he didn't want to think of his parents. Not right then anyway.

Her head cocked to the side, a knowing grin on her face though she was trying to bypass it as if she wasn't fully sure what he was talking about.

"Guess I'd prefer that over him saying he wouldn't mind me being dead."

"It doesn't matter if I have feelings for someone or not. The amount of caring I show might be different, but anyone with a heart would care. The pain you were in was obvious, and I'm not some weird alien creature that-"

Jake tuned her out then, touching his hand to his head which was still on fire.

"Stop," he said quietly, still hearing her adding a few things in which didn't make sense since he hadn't been listening. "Diana!" He yelled, putting his hand directly over over her mouth. She jumped, startled by the sudden movement. He was sure he hadn't moved that fast in a full twenty four hours.

"Jesus, don't you ever take a breath?"

She laughed into his hand, her chuckling dying down as she calmed. Jake pulled his hand away watching her lashes lift as she glanced up at him. Diana seemed to be somewhere along same thoughts as his, because he could have sworn she'd held her breath.

"I should go," she breathed into the quiet air around them.

Jake nodded, but it wasn't in agreeance. He was still trying to figure out if what Adam had said was true. If with all they'd gone through yesterday, she still was able to stand being around him. Liking him wasn't as important to him as her simply not minding his company. Especially since he wasn't sure Cassie would ever look at him the same way. Out of everyone, he would have expected Adam and Diana to have been the two completely against him.

A buzzing came from Diana's pocket and her eyes closed in reponse as she sighed.

What was he doing? What were they doing?

Yesterday had been a day of reckoning. An opening of the eyes, though he felt half the time he was either passed out or sleeping. He turned, meaning to ask her about hearing from either Cassie or Adam when her mouth touched the corner of his. The both instantly pulled back, but Diana was the only one able to talk. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open, stuck on words that were more than likely a mess. Much like the thoughts in his head.

"I- I was going to just-"

He knew what she was going to do. She was meaning for a sympathetic peck. A closing to an experience neither of them would mention again. An occurance that bonded them in the strangest of ways.

And he was already leaning in by the time his brain was able to take note of what he was doing.

She was unmoving as he experimentally kissed her bottom lip, waiting for her to either slap him, or pull back. Either way, he was expecting rejection.

His mouth hovered before hers, unsure of what to do now that he'd put himself in a rather deep situation. Their eyes connected a moment before she leaned in the rest of the way, her lips pressing against his own. Jake could feel her pulling away, but he lifted a hand, holding her face as he moved with her, both of them breathing out heavily. Despite his body's protesting, his hand dropped to her waist, pulling her closer to him when a more than annoying vibration interupted, breaking their kiss with a loud smack. Her fingers flew to her lips, pressing against them as she awkwardly moved her other hand around her pockets in seach for her phone.

"Melissa..." she spoke excitedly into her cell. She stood, Jake's hand fell back into his lap and he simply stared at her pacing the floor in front of him. "I'm out the door now," she told Melissa. "Yep." After pulling it away from her ear, she faced him, but neither of them had any words.

What was there to say at that point? There was no explaination. No real reason.

And his own head hurt too much to even fully process what had just happened.

"I've really gotta go..."

"Just go," he told her flatly. His less than enthused tone wasn't for lack of caring. It was more for lack of control over his life for the second day in a row.

"I hope we're not going to act like this never happened."

"Seriously?" It left his mouth before he was able to stop it. His hands paused against his face as he had been rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah, but I have to go. We'll talk later. Oh, and here..." She pulled out a small baggy with two small white pills inside. "Pain meds." She tossed the baggy to the bed before turning to run down the steps.

Didn't she ever take a break?

Jake fell back onto the bed, his whole body sore and completely worn. His hand felt around until he heard the wrinkling of plastic, and he gripped the pills in his fist. Sleeping wouldn't have been difficult originally, considering how wrecked he was, but now...

He could still feel the pressure of her lips against his own.

"Shit."