The Pain Within (Sequel To 'Trapped Without You')

Miss Jessica

"Oh, I can't believe you, Lockwood!" Mary complained as she packed up the last of her things. "I'll be gone by tomorrow morning I wanted to see my little girl with the boy she loves tonight."

"It wasn't appropriate, she was hurt, the echo of that Visitor was one of the strongest I'd ever seen. It kept Lucy in a ghost-lock even after she let go of the Source and even after I tried to shake her out of it."

"Yes and Lockwood is a gentleman, he'd never kiss a girl under such conditions." George yawned. "Where'd Lucy go off to anyway?"

"I think she went to shower. I'm going to go burn the Source." Lockwood pulled his gloves back on, careful not to agitate the burn on his hand.

"Lockwood it is 2:19 am, don't you want to sleep?" George glared at Lockwood suspiciously. "Where are you going?"

"Exactly where I said. I'll be back sooner or later." With a flash of a smile and a flick of his coat, Lockwood was off.

Lucy sat in the overgrown grass and pulled at weeds, she hummed to herself as she worked cleaning up around their graves. Celia, Donald, and Jessica Lockwood. Lucy didn't like the idea of making the empty grave slot look pretty, mostly because she couldn't stand the idea of having it filled with the last of the short line of the Lockwood's, but she wanted it nice if it had to be filled. Lucy brushed the rodent droppings off the top of the gravestones, used her rapier to cut some of the bushes back, she tried not to make her cleaning up too visible, she didn't want Lockwood knowing she knew of his families grave. Yet she cleaned it anyway, she visited quite often.

After she cleared the area a bit she sat in front of the graves.

"Hi, guys." She muttered. "Mrs. and Mr. Lockwood, Miss Jessica." She regarded them politely as she always did. "I hope you're all at peace, where ever you are. I just wanted to tell you how Lockwood's been, not that I think you can even hear me, it's just reassuring to think that you're still watching over him."

"And how have I been Lucy?" Lockwood asked stepping hard on the ground next to her. Startled Lucy fell over tripping over her own feet trying to stand.

"Lockwood! I~ I~!" Lucy stuttered then cursed under her breath, then apologized to Lockwood's parents for her language.

"How do you even know about this place?" Lockwood offered Lucy a hand and helped her up.

"One night I saw you sneaking out, I was worried so I followed. It was crazy hard to climb over the wall but I got to the top saw what it was and left. I didn't want to intrude on such a personal thing so I went home and tried to forget." Lucy wiped dirt off her face.

"Yet here you are, this is quite a personal matter." Lockwood sat on one of the worn down gravestones nearby, he crossed his arms and bore into Lucy with a steady gaze.

"I wanted to pay my respects, to Jessica mostly because I knew most about her. I visited two days after I found out. I had never visited a grave before, except for the graves we've dug up, at first I didn't really know what to do. I spent quite a while just sitting here, soon I found myself talking about you. It felt nice to tell someone about things that worried me."

"It felt, proper, that your family were the people to do that. Ever since I have been giving them weekly updates, just to set my mind at ease." Lucy tried not to look at Lockwood, she felt almost ashamed to be going behind his back to visit his dead family, especially since he hated speaking about his past.

Lockwood's posture loosened, it took him a moment to respond. He smiled, went to Lucy and patted her shoulder. "Thank you for paying your respects to them, though I'm rather upset you would follow me. Then again, I read your journal, while you were missing so I guess we're both bad at invading each other's privacy." Lucy was looking at Lockwood, it took her a moment to realize what journal he was talking about, her eyes widened.

"You. Did. What!" Lucy's face went red and she began to shake, remembering all the many things she wrote in it. "That's why I couldn't find it when I got back, you took it!" Lucy gasped. "You didn't show George did you?" Lockwood backed away from Lucy a bit and scratched his head nervously.

"Well you were missing Luce, we thought it would help us find you and guess what it did!"

"You didn't read all of it did you?"

"Well, curiosity is a strong thing." Lockwood defended.

"Lockwood! You jerk!" Lucy shoved him in the chest."I at least kept this a secret! I didn't even pry you about details! Oh, I can't believe you!" Lucy was pacing back and forth now.

She remembered all the embarrassing entries about Lockwood, she cursed once again.

"Calm down Luce, George didn't see all the more personal things. The things about me." Lockwood stepped closer to Lucy. Lucy was silently pacing unsure of how to answer.

"Would you stop that you're making me anxious."

"You're anxious!? What about me?" Lucy stopped pacing to yell in Lockwood's general direction. "I just found out, standing in the middle of an abandoned graveyard, that not only my boss, my personal friend but the boy I've liked for almost years now went through my entire diary!"

"Would it help you to know my feelings toward you?" Lockwood asked seeing his opportunity.

"I don't want to talk to you right now! Get back to me when I can trust you again!" Lucy began storming off but before she could get more than a few feet away Lockwood had a hold of Lucy's hand. He pulled her back to him and turned her to face him.

"Forgive me but-" Lockwood kissed Lucy, not long for it was both his and Lucy's first kiss, but not just a small quick peck either. After Lockwood pulled his face away he finished his sentence. "I love you just as much as you love me." Lockwood smiled warmly, the pale moonlight reflected in his eyes, the cold winter breeze dancing in his hair.

"You're a jerk." Lucy punched him in the arm before kissing him again, this time he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her close as they kissed. A few minutes later they left the graveyard holding hands, walking close to each other.

Nothing was said yet everything was told, and they found comfort in the silence and in the presence of each other. They stealthily entered the house and managed to sneak past Mary who had passed out on the sofa, Lockwood lead Lucy by hand up the stairs and into his room. He changed into his pj's in his closet as Lucy changed into one of his shirts, leaving her leggings on for bottoms. They laid down in his bed together and fell asleep holding each other close.