I'll Be There [Reese]

[Graham Kerr]

Graham had wandered outside after breakfast, smiling brightly as the sun hit his face. It was cold outside, winter was definitely in the air, he could smell it. But the weather was still nice enough for him to head outside without much of a jacket on - though it might be the werewolf in him that wasn't cold, he wasn't too sure how that worked. It wasn't like the stories, that much was true, but he was still learning.

One of the other things he was learning was how to be a boyfriend. Him. Graham Kerr. He had an actual boyfriend, as of last night. Granted, they still had a lot to talk about, Mickey had been too busy to stay with him, but it felt good. He felt a lot more relaxed than he'd been for ages.

Sitting on a wooden bench outside of the caretakers hut, he lit up a cigarette, happy to be on his own for a while. Mickey was busy doing homework or something equally as cute (yes, everything the boy did was adorable to him), Reese was...well he wasn't really sure, but he knew that either of them would find him when they needed to. He wasn't hiding after all.

[Reese Mackenzie]

Reese was a wreck ever since last night. She’d walked away after her talk with Nathan, tried to pretend like her heart wasn’t broken, but it was. The entire night she’d been unable to sleep and had mostly been crying or staring at the ceiling. She couldn’t believe this was happening. That Nathan was a werewolf, had bitten her brother and that her brother of all people had known about Nathan being what he was.

All this time Graham had known what Nathan was but he’d found it in his own best interest to keep this vital piece of information from her. And Nathan, who was a filthy liar, had never said a word to her about what he was. Never, not once! Reese couldn’t believe both guys had betrayed her trust like this and it hurt. A lot.

She fell for lies again. Things seemed to be going so well for a change and now everything was messed up again. And two worst things about it were that she had fallen in love with Nathan and that her own brother had betrayed her. She didn’t understand why this all happened. Why she had to be this stupid to let herself get hurt like this again.

After a faint attempt of freshening up, Reese had put on some new clothes, skipped breakfast and had gone outside. She knew she looked horrible with her pale, tear streaked and tired face and her hair that was quickly pulled back into a bun. Neither has she bothered to put much attention into her outfit. A black shirt, jeans and her grey hoodie to keep herself somewhat warm.

With her hands wrapped around herself she had just started walking around, not really going anywhere. Reese just wanted to be alone for a while and think about things. However, that attempt failed when she walked by the caretakers hut and found Graham sitting there, smoking.

“Crap..” she muttered soft, and blinked back the tears she felt burning again behind her eyes. “Don’t talk to me today. Or any other day from now on.”, Reese suddenly said when she was about to pass Graham. She was angry with him as well as hurt and just generally sad about everything. And the only way to keep herself somewhat standing was to be cold.

[Graham Kerr]

Graham had just brought his cigarette to his lips for his final drag when Reese passed him by without as much as a glance, muttering those words under her breath. It made him choke on the smoke in his lungs, coughing loudly before getting to his feet in an attempt to catch up with her. Muttering "crap" under his breath as well, he quickly managed to get next to her, grabbing her arm softly.

"Reese?" His voice was soft, questioning, though he had a VERY good idea what had just happened. Nate must have told her, and she was livid with him for not telling her the boy she was interested in had bitten him. "Cat's out of the bag, is it? Or well, the wolf." Not the time to make jokes, and he honestly wasn't trying to, but he was trying to guess whether or not she knew without spilling the beans in case she didn't.

This wasn't going to happen. It just wasn't. Reese and him couldn't break apart. Their friendship was too important. Hell, he called her his SISTER. That's truly what she was to him. And yeah, he should've told her, he knew it, but he wanted to give Nate a chance to do the right thing. It wasn't his secret to tell, after all.

[Reese Mackenzie]

She should have know he would do the quite opposite of what she’d just told Graham to do. But perhaps that had been the reaction Reese had wanted from him. She wasn’t sure but the only thing she did were sure of was the fact that he’d kept things from her and that she was mad cause of it. And it wasn’t fair. He hadn’t been fair and he should know that she wasn’t taking this crap from him.

A batch of fresh new years welled up in her eyes once she heard him say her name. “Graham don’t…” Reese pulled her arm away when he grabbed hold of her. Still she refused to look at him and turned herself away from him. She was so angry with him right now that all she felt doing was crying. Normally she would yell at him and demand answers but right now all she felt was hurt.

Reese huffed when he guess dead on what was going on. “It’s not funny but apparently to you this whole deal is.” Her voice was soft now, fresh tears running down her cheeks. “Just forget it, it’s done. Everything is crystal clear now.” She should have known good things couldn’t last. They never seemed to do anyway.

Hiding her face from him Reese didn’t even look back when she brushed past him. The only question remained, where to go. When she felt like this, when life wasn’t fair, she’d go to see Graham. But now, she couldn’t. One of the few options left was Jason, but she had no idea where he was.

[Graham Kerr]

Graham nearly choked again. "Funny? You think this is funny to me? Seeing you in so much pain?" He couldn't do it. He couldn't let her go, even if it was the right thing to do. So instead of letting her brush past him, he very gently put his hand on her back, turning her towards him before enveloping her in a tight hug. The blonde didn't want her to leave, so perhaps the hug was a bit tighter than she was used to. Werewolf strength sure came in handy these days.

"You listen to me now...There is NOTHING that I find funny about you being miserable. I've been bugging Nathan to tell you for ages, because you deserve to know the truth." The only reason he hadn't been completely honest with her from the start was because when they'd had the conversation about him being turned, the two hadn't even started dating. He'd seen them together but that was it. It wasn't his story to tell at the time.

Kissing the top of her head, he breathed in her scent and wondered what else to say, his voice breaking when he actually spoke up again. "When we talked, when you asked me who'd done this, I didn't tell you because at the time, there was nothing going on between you two. If there had been, I would have told you. I wanted to tell you, but he said he wanted to do it."

[Reese Mackenzie]

Reese stopped for a moment and simply shrugged, “You tell me Gray. I honestly don’t know anymore. Everyone keeps on lying and hiding things from me. There must be someone gaining some pleasure out of this. It sure as hell isn’t me though.” She was done with it. Done with all the hiding and the lying. Yet before she knew it she was caught in a tight hug. One she usually more than welcomed but right now surely did not.

“No, Graham stop it. Let me go!” Reese didn’t want to be hugged by him, she was angry with him! She struggled under his hold –which really wasn’t fair because now he was even stronger due to the whole wolf thing- and finally started to hit him against his shoulder and chest while tears now ran freely down her face. His words were heard but Reese was too angry with him to force herself to truly listen.

Eventually, after a few minutes, Reese stopped struggling and just clawed his shirt while she cried into his chest. “How could you not tell me? You knew Graham, you knew all along. You chose him over me….you did.” Her voice was muffled and filled with pain and a touch of anger. “You should have told me you jerk...you should have told me.”, she sobbed, randomly blurting out whatever was on her mind.

Reese was tired and just wanted to go back to bed again. She couldn’t handle this right now. “Nothing going on? That’s such a lame excuse. We’re supposed to be family, we watch out for each other. But you didn’t.” And Reese just couldn’t understand why. Closing her eyes she took a few deep breaths and heavily leaned on him.

[Graham Kerr]

Graham held her, letting her beat her small fists against him as much as she wanted to. It didn't hurt him nowadays, but part of him wished it would, wished he could take just a small bit of the pain that she was feeling right now.

"I didn't mean to, I swear. I just...Mackie you know I fuck up, and you know that there's nothing more important to me than you and Mickey." Couldn't leave the younger male out of this, because since they'd started dating, he had become just as important as Reese was to him.

"I love you. You are my family, and you're right, I probably could've handled things better than I did, but I was just...well, Nate wanted a chance to tell you himself, and I was trying to give him one because I figured if he did, there'd be a chance of you two ending up together. And I want that. I want you happy, and I think that he could make you happy, because he's a decent guy."

He sighed deeply, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, catching her brown hair. "I'm so sorry...you have to believe me. If I'd known I would've hurt you, or risked losing you, I swear I would've done things so much differently."