But neither of us were ready for the news he brought.

“Are you Cory Allen Strife?” the officer asked when Cory and I came to the door.

“Yes,” Cory answered slowly. I could tell that every nerve in his body was on edge, just waiting for the words we both knew the officer would say.

“Cory?” we heard a young girl’s broken voice call. It was almost inaudible, but Cory was specially tuned to his sister’s voice. Cory leaned out of the door and his eyes landed on a nightmare.

What should have been Jamie stood behind the police officer, but the only thing there was a shattered being. Tears stained crimson with blood streaked down her face, flowing over fresh bruises and burns on her cheeks. Her eyes were deathly hollow, but strongly focused on the only family she had left. I stole a glance at Cory and I could have sworn I witnessed a piece of his soul die. “Jamie… where…” But he couldn’t finish the question he already knew the answer to.

After a short silence, the officer cleared his throat to regain Cory’s attention. “You’re mother was killed in a car wreck. Your sister refused treatment until she saw you, so we’re going to take her to the hospital now.”

The heart that I wanted so badly to obtain shattered into a million bleeding pieces right before my eyes, as if the officer saying his mother was dead made it more true than it was only seconds ago. Cory stared ahead, eyes unseeing and hazy, and he fell to his knees as an airy “no” escaped from his trembling lips. Cory and Jamie stared at each other with silent tears falling from their eyes.

Just watching them made my own heart brake, even though I wasn’t the one who lost my only involved parent. I kneeled beside Cory and carefully took his hand as the officer said his apologies. I know it wasn’t very much help, but I had no idea what else I could have done for him at that point. The second I took his hand though, I felt the void that he was falling through. But the scariest thing about it was that neither of us could see the bottom.

Several hours and visitors after we had been taken to the hospital with Jamie, the young girl finally nodded off into a much needed sleep. Cory hadn’t said a word or taken his eyes off of his sister since we got there, only giving visitors an occasional nod. It was a horrible situation to be thinking about something like this, but I couldn’t ignore the fact that he hadn’t let go of my hand since I took it back at his house. Sure his grip was pretty much crushing my fingers, but that didn’t matter much as long as it gave my angel some temporary comfort.

“Cory…” I said softly. I’d spent the past few minutes planning a dangerous move, and now I was ready to pull it off. If it went like I wanted to, Cory would think of me as a momentary savior. If it didn’t go like I wanted… Cory would probably blow up in my face and never want to see me again. Obviously, I was hoping for the first outcome. “Jamie’s asleep… You don’t have to be strong for her anymore.” I tried to put strength behind my words only to fail and have them come out like a two-year-old child would speak.

For a few seconds, Cory said nothing; did nothing. He just glared at me with built up hatred and devastation. Just like the calm before the storm… I thought. But there was no storm. At least, not the kind of storm I expected.

The next thing I knew, my shoulder was soaked and I had a hysteric god trying to wring the hell out of my shirt. I let him cry on me like that because I knew he needed it more than anything, especially more than he needed to be wearing that mask of strength for his sister. I unconsciously wound my arms around his shaking body, pulling him closer into me (if that was actually possible) and I whispered sweet nothings into his ear. I couldn’t think of anything to do for him besides this; I had never literally lost a person in my family, and here was the best son anyone could ever ask for left motherless.

“What… am I… going to… do… now?” Cory choked out when he was calm enough to look up at me and slacken his grip on my shirt.

Looking into his puffy red eyes was more heartbreaking than hearing him cry. They held so much more pain than actions could never show.

“I-I” sniff “don’t want… to be separated… from Jamie.” sniff “She… she needs me…” sniff “I’m all… all she has left!” sob “If we go to… to an o-orphanage…” sniff “s-someone… might take her… and not me!” deep sob “or- or me and n-not her! I can’t” sniff/sob “leave her Ch-Chazz… I can’t…” There was a long pause while Cory calmed down slightly, very slightly, before he spoke again. “This is… all my… fault…” sniff “if I… if I… Oh God i-it’s all my fault!”

“No Cory…” I mumbled as I stroked his feather soft hair. “It’s not your fault.”

“Yes it is! If I” gasp “would have- would have just listened to her a-and taken Jamie… I would be dead and not her!”

“Don’t say that!” I squeaked.

“It’s all my fault!” Cory clung to my shirt more tightly and tears began pouring from his eyes again. “I killed my mother Chazz! I killed my mother!”

I was rendered speechless at his words. At that moment, I knew I could say absolutely nothing more to consol my dying angel. He completely broke down again, clinging to me as if I were his last shred of life. Who knows? Maybe, at that moment, I was.

I don’t know how much longer I let him release his pain or who went to sleep first in that tiny hospital chair. All I know is that I woke up with Cory wrapped in my arms and his hands still clinging to my soaking wet shirt. He was finally breathing evenly and his tears had stopped- at least for now. It was worse than death to know that I could do nothing to help my angel at this point. He needed a home, but I couldn’t ever let him live with me; I wouldn’t be able to take it if my parents treated Cory the same way they treat Slade and me. He needed relief, but I couldn’t tell him that everything would be alright, simply because I didn’t know it would be. He needed his mother, but there was nothing anyone could do to bring her back.

As I was trying to shift into a more comfortable position in the poorly-cushioned wooden chair, a feeling of something warm and soft pressing into my neck made me freeze. Sure enough, when I let my wide eyes gaze at my shoulder I saw Cory’s lips settled against my skin. It was a completely innocent thing; he was asleep so I knew he wasn’t intending to be kissing my neck, but my body refused to take it that way. I felt heat creep into my face and drift along my neck with every breath Cory released as my own breathing became ragged. As I tried to push Cory off of me to get up, his hands tightened on my shirt and a slight brush from his lips told me that his mouth had opened.

“Please don’t leave me Chazz…” Cory whispered against my skin. “I need you…” His warm breath set my heart on fire and I unconsciously let my head fall back to expose more of my neck to his lips as my eyes slid shut.

“D-don’t s-say th-that… C-Cory… P-please…”

Cory’s soft eyelashes brushed against me as his eyes fluttered open. He arched his head back more and let his throat rest against the side of mine. “But I do need you Chazz,” he whispered. His words vibrated our necks ever so slightly, which really didn’t help my situation or my resistance.

“No… I… I have t-to go h-home. I-I’m s-sorry.”

“You can’t do that…”

I knew Cory meant that in three ways, though he probably only meant it in two. I couldn’t go home because Zane told me to stay with Cory and not come home until he got me. I couldn’t go home because I had no way of getting there. And I couldn’t go home simply because I could not do it. I literally could not force myself to leave Cory, no matter how dangerous the situation was getting for me. And believe me; I was on the edge of going crazy.

“But… I don’t want you to stay if you don’t want to…” Cory whispered, another soft brush against my neck letting me know his eyes had closed again. “I guess… All I’m saying is… you don’t have to but… I wish you would.”

My heart had already stopped about five minutes ago and Cory saying this made it completely blow up. The longing in his voice was impossible to say no to. He was just staring at me with his eyes starting to blur with coming tears. “You have no idea how badly I need you right now…”

He needed me. Cory Strife needed me and yet there I was about to refuse. About to. “Alright,” I said wearily, beginning to stroke his hair again. “I’ll stay.”

His gratefully radiant smile and sigh of relief blew my mind. Okay maybe it wasn’t so much those things as the fact that he tightly wrapped his arms around me and snuggled his face into my neck. “Thank you so much,” he breathed.

“Yeah,” I squeaked. “No problem.” It was hard seeing Cory so vulnerable and helpless like this. He had always been the one who came to my rescue, the one who always put me back on solid ground, and yet here he was curled up in my arms like a helpless child. If Cory wasn’t suffering so badly, I could have called a dream come true. But of course, every good dream always comes to an end right when the best part is within our reach.

Cory shot out of my arms and was at his sister’s side the second her eyes fluttered open. My arms hung lifeless at my side with the loss of his warmth slowly making its way up from my fingertips. At least I could breathe again.