Dean's POV
He's back.
James is back.
I couldn't move.
The voices calling my name were muffled.
He's coming back to get me.
I stood up and sprinted out of the room, ignoring the calls from behind me. I ran up the stairs and into our bedroom, slamming the door.
I collapsed onto the floor in front of the door, pulling my knees up to my chest. I felt the tears slip down my face, but I made no attempt to wipe them away.
My eyes fell upon my bag that was under the bed... I leaned forward, tugging it towards me before unzipping one of the pockets and pulling out my old blade.
I let out a shaky breath as I pulled up my sleeve, exposing my wrist.
"Dean?" Jack called from outside the door.
"What?" I sighed.
"Are you okay?"
"No. Of course I'm not..."
He tried to open the door.
"Dean, please let me in. We need to talk."
I pressed the blade to my wrist.
"One second." I muttered, sliding the blade down, opening up a cut. I sighed in relief as I felt the blood trickle down my arm. I attempted to wipe the worst of it away before pulling my sleeve back up.
"Dean! What are you doing in there??" Jack asked, sounding panicked.
"Just give me a second." I sighed, shoving the blade into my pocket as I stood up.
I opened the door to be met by a worried looking Jack.
Without a word, he stepped into the room and hugged me tightly.
I hugged him back, burying my face in his neck.
"They'll catch him Dean, it'll be okay." He whispered before pulling away from the hug.
He looked down at the ground before frowning.
"Why is there blood on the carpet?"
I shrugged.
His eyes widened.
He reached out, grabbing my arm. I was slightly relieved that he didn't grab the arm that I'd actually cut. He pulled up my sleeve and frowned when he realized there wasn't anything there.
"Sorry, I just thought that you'd... You know..."
I felt a pang of guilt run through me.
"It's fine, don't worry about it." I mumbled.
I was suddenly aware of how much my wrist was bleeding as the blood trickled down my hand.
"The police can help us, you know? They can protect us."
I nodded, trying to focus on making sure the blood didn't drip onto the floor.
"Come on, we should probably go back downstairs." He smiled reassuringly as he grabbed my bloody hand.
He slowly pulled his hand away, looking down at his hand before looking back at me.
"Dean, what-" He cut himself off.
He grabbed my arm, pulling the sleeve up to reveal the cut.
Without hesitation, he pulled me by the hand into the bathroom and made me sit down on the side of the bath as he washed his hand and rummaged through the medicine cabinet. He kneeled down on the floor as he cleaned and bandaged the cut.
"Tell me next time, okay?" He sighed, continuing to wrap the bandage around the cut.
I nodded.
"I'm sorry..."
He snapped his head up.
"Don't you ever apologize for this. It's not your fault." He said sternly.
I nodded.
He tilted his head up, kissing me lightly before focusing on the bandage again.
Once he'd finished, he took my hand and lead me back down to the living room, where we found Daniel clinging onto Oliver.
"Look, maybe we should all just go away somewhere for a while, you know?" Jack suggested.
"Like where?" I sighed.
Jack shrugged.
"Anywhere."
"Look, James knows the police would expect him to turn up here first, he wouldn't be that stupid, right?"
Oliver sighed, pulling Daniel even closer to him.
"I guess..." Jack admitted, sitting down on the sofa.
"What do we do though? We can't just carry on as normal knowing that he's free!" I cried.
"The police will catch him eventually Dean." Oliver said, smiling sadly.
I sighed, sitting down next to Jack. He wrapped his arm around me.
What the fuck are we going to do?
*
Jack crawled into bed next to me, draping his arms around my waist.
"You okay?" He muttered into my ear.
I turned over to face him.
"No... I'm not okay. What if he comes back?"
"I promise I'm never going to let him hurt you ever again. I'll protect you, okay?" He said, planting a kiss on my cheek.
I smiled at him.
"Thanks... But what if you end up getting hurt instead?"
"I'll be fine. I'm tough, I can take it."
I stared at him, smiling.
He raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
I shuffled closer to him before leaning in and connecting our lips. He smiled into the kiss, pulling me even closer to him.
Kissing James was never like this. The only time I kissed him was when he was angry, to try and stop him from hurting me. That never ended well for me, it would either make him angrier or it would end up with him pulling me into the bedroom...
I pulled away from the kiss.
"I love you so much..." I said.
"I love you too." Jack giggled, leaning in and kissing me again.
We were interrupted by shouting coming from the bedroom that Daniel and Oliver were staying in. We had agreed that it would probably be safer if there were more of us in the house.
I sighed, getting out of bed.
"Dean, I'm sure they're fine..." Jack said.
I ignored him, opening the door and walking into the hall, the shouting was much louder now. I walked over to the bedroom door and placed my hand on the handle, turning it and walking inside.
Daniel was sat on the bed, staring at the ground with Oliver towering over him.
"Is everything okay?" I asked.
"Fine." Daniel said.
I frowned.
"What's wrong?"
"Daniel wants to move back to Nottingham." Oliver sighed.
I sat down on the bed, putting an arm around him.
"Dan, listen, James is not going to hurt us again. The police will catch him."
Daniel looked at me, a red hand print on his cheek.
My eyes widened.
"Where did you get that mark??"
"What mark?" He asked, emotionless.
"The huge hand print on your face." I said.
I snapped my head up, glaring at Oliver.
Oliver stared at the floor, a guilty expression on his face.
"Did you do this?" I asked, a hint of malice in my voice.
He didn't answer.
"Did you do this?! Yes or no!?"
"Yes! Okay?! It was an accident! I didn't mean to, I just-"
I stood up, grabbing Oliver and shoving him against the wall, holding him there by pressing my arm against his neck.
"Don't you fucking dare hurt my brother like that! I've been through an abusive relationship and I'm never going to let him go through the same thing!" I screamed at him.
"Dean, calm down! It was an accident!" Daniel said, trying to pull me away from him.
I stepped back from Oliver, taking a moment to glare at him one final time before I turned to Daniel.
"Don't let him do it again, okay? If he does, come and tell me." I said softly, placing a hand on his shoulder.
He nodded.
I turned around, walking out of the room to leave them to talk things over. I made my way back to the bedroom to find Jack still in bed.
"Is everything okay?" He frowned.
I nodded, climbing back into bed.
"What happened?"
"Oliver hit Daniel because he wants to move back to Nottingham..."
Jack's eyes widened.
"He what?!"
"Apparently it was an accident..." I sighed.
"It better fucking be..."
I shuffled closer to him, resting my head against his shoulder.
"Are we gonna be okay?" I asked, looking up at him.
"Of course we are." He smiled, leaning down and kissing my forehead.