hold me really tight (until the stars look big) - II

Jael hesitantly scrapes her foot over the pavement. "Do you mind the dog...?" she asks Marcus, clenching the leash tightly in her hand. She's incredibly tense, doesn't have a clue of how to act.

Marcus shakes his head. 'Not a problem. Can he stay on the backseat?'

Jael nods, "Yeah, that's no issue." She smiles a little and lets Polar on the backseat, gently pushing him inside. Her hand is shaking a little as she lets go of the leash and she quickly joins the dog.

Tate joins Polar and Jael on the backseat, putting on his seatbelt while Marcus drives off.
'How's home?' he asks.
'Same old, same old,' Marcus replies. 'Lea's crush on you is over, but Kaia made me promise to show you her love letter. Kali turned seven a few days ago. Also: my mother said you should come over when you have time.' He shrugs.
'Seven, huh?' Tate says, whistling. 'You alright? They're all getting big.'
'I'm good,' Marcus promises. 'Mom cried, though.'
They laugh.

Jael rests her head against the car window, taking in every detail from outside, silently listening to the conversation. She plays with her fingers while Polar's head is resting on her knee. He's cuddled up against her, happy she's with him again.

'Lots of siblings, I take it?' Mica notes dryly. 'They a lot younger than you?'
Marcus nods. 'Three sisters. Oldest is twelve,' he laughs. 'Born when I was fifteen. '
She nods. 'My brother Jeremy was born when I was like thirteen. I hated him at first. He took up all the attention and kept me awake at night.'
'God, I hated that,' Marcus quips. 'All the crying, I thought I was going nuts.'

Jael smiles absentmindedly, running her fingers through Polar's thick fur. She doesn't say anything, just listens.

Mica laughs. 'Same here. He's alright, now, though,' she shrugs.
'Yeah,' Marcus says. 'When you get used to all the noise, they're not half that bad.' He turns to Tate. 'How are you holding up, though? With Macy and all.'

When Marcus mentions Macy, Jael tenses a little. She looks at Tate, tries to swallow the lump in her throat.

Tate stills, shrugs. 'I'm—I'm handling it.'
Mica snorts, but otherwise doesn't comment, not even when Marcus shoots her a look.
'You alright?' he asks Tate, concerned. 'I mean... I know she's been—How are your parents holding up? Is your mother okay?'
'Mom's been alright, kinda. She and dad—They're trying to hold on. For our sake. They grieve when they're alone.'
'Vicki?' Marcus quips.
'Silent. Doesn't talk about it to me. Says she's fine. Mason said she misses her. We all do.'

It's the first time Jael heard Tate talk about his family. She realizes how little she actually knows him. He's a silent guy, not very open, she got that a while ago.
Her eyes wander off again and she closes them for a moment, then decides she's going to have to fight to keep herself awake.

'She still so close to Mason?' Marcus asks, a bit amused.
Tate nods, something proud hidden in the corners of his small smile. His face falls when he realises that he had that with Macy, and that everything he had with Macy is gone—Macy is gone.
Marcus sees. 'I'm not gonna act like I know the feeling,' he says, 'but if you ever need a place to stay, Kaia would be thrilled to have you at our house.'
Tate smiles. 'I appreciate it.'

Jael is glad when they reach the harbor and she can get out of the car. Being close to Tate feels like being on fire—in all ways possible.

Marcus's boat is called Kalea, after his mother who taught him the ways of the wind and showed him the best waves to catch. Tate met Mrs. Vaughn a lot of times, a strong, beautiful Hawaiian woman with a fire burning the water in her belly until only the salt of "her" sea was left.
'Is it going to be long?' Mica asks.
Marcus shrugs and looks up at the sky. 'We might make it in 40 minutes,' he says. 'The wind is favourable.'
'Are we going to another Hawaiian island?' she asks.
Tate smiles. 'Something like that.'

Jael's getting a little nervous now. She's afraid of boats, been her whole life after she fell out of one when she was five years old.
This one looks more steady than the one she fell out of, though. Still, Jael's hands are sweaty and when Polar sees a seagull and happily decides to chase after it, the leash slips out of them.

Tate helps Mica get into the boat, his hand steady around hers.
'You alright?' Marcus asks Jael when they're not paying attention to them anymore.

Jael looks at Polar, who is still chasing seagulls like it's the last thing he'll ever do in his life. "Yeah, I'm fine," she says, quietly. She turns her head towards him, smiles. "I'm—I fell out of a boat when I was little. I sort of kind of almost drowned. So I'm not the fondest of boats."

Marcus walks towards the dog calmly, picking up the leash and tugging Polar with him until he's in front of Jael again. 'I take my sisters on this boat at least once a month; They never fell out of it,' he says, holing the leash up so she can grab it.

Jael takes over the leash. "Yeah, I know that. It's just—I never got rid of the fear, you know." She gives him an awkward smile. "But thank you." She hesitates getting into the boat, though.

Marcus offers her his hands when he gets in, a reassuring smile on his face.

Jael grabs his hand tightly and hesitantly steps in, but immediately lets go of him when she's in. Polar jumps, as if it's nothing, into the boat and barks happily, running towards Mica. Jael lets him.

Mica scratches Polar behind his ear, a content smile on her face. She's excited. Tate smiles brighter.
Marcus starts the boat, does weird things to the sails Tate still doesn't understand. He's always been more for facing the waves on a board instead of in a boat. Marcus has always been one of both, being born and raised so close to the sea he could've been more salt than skin.
They're going fast, the wind full in the sails the farther they get from the white sand.

Jael doesn't come close to the others. She chooses a spot where she can be alone, where she doesn't have to talk to anyone. 
Her fingers can't keep still as she sits down, legs crossed. She takes off her sweater, closing her eyes, enjoying the sun.

Forty minutes pass quickly, and before Mica knows it, there's an island close enough to see.
'That doesn't look inhabited,' she says worriedly, looking at the greens and whites and blues of the beach.
'Not yet,' Marcus points out, navigating around it until the trees thin next to them, spreading out.
'What—What—' She turns to Tate. 'What's going on?'
Tate smiles. 'Wait and see,' he says. 'Just... just wait and see.'
They sail for what seems like too long before Marcus follows the curve of the coast and a small port comes into view. But the port and the girl standing there is not what catches Mica's attention. The light brown, enormous beach house with a pool at the front does.
'What the fuck is this?' she breathes out, flabbergasted.
'This...' Tate says, 'is Mica Island.'

Julie is waiting for them to arrive. A big, face wide grin appears on her face as she notices the boat. She decides to button up the blouse she's wearing, so she looks appropriate. That's for the first time in a whole day, though. The island is more quiet than ever now everyone is gone and she took that opportunity to just walk around in her bikinis all day, even though Marcus was still around.
She walks towards the end of the dock, ready to help Marcus, and then she notices it's not three, but four persons on the boat.
Jael quickly gets up and grabs her sweater. She's stunned: the island is spectacular and the house is incredible... She doesn't say anything, just stares.

Marcus and Tate help Julie get the boat to shore and tied down, having done it many times before.
'Jules,' Marcus says as a greeting. He's never really been a man of a lot of words, unless around Tate or his sisters.
Mica's too busy staring at the island—Mica Island, fucking hell—to say anything, or to get out of the boat without Tate's help.
'What the fuck is this?' she asks, not daring to avert her eyes, frightened it will disappear if she looks away.
'It's your island,' Tate says, like it's nothing. He smiles at Julie.

Julie stretches herself empathetically, giving Mica the time to let things sink in, and gives Tate a beaming smile before turning to Jael to help her off the boat. She doesn't question anything, but she's visibly confused about the other girl.
Jael gives Julie a hesitant smile, but she doesn't say anything either, she just tries to get Polar to jump off the boat.

Mica tears her eyes away from the house to gape at Tate. 'What? Did you—Wait—What?'
Tate grins. 'It's yours. It's... It's your island. Yours. This is your house. This is your island, your beach, your trees. Everything. It's yours.' He shrugs.
Mica shakes her head, not quite believing it.

Jael grabs the leash and drags Polar off the boat. She turns, lets her eyes wander over the house, the island, the everything. Tate clearly didn't hesitate giving it everything he got... and she's probably not going to see any of it besides a quiet room.
Julie eyes Mica, head to toe, noticing the wide clothes she's wearing, her pregnant belly, and she smiles. "It's a nice final touch, isn't it, Hale? The only thing that doesn't work yet is the electricity in one of the cabins. Alec went back to shore to make it happen."

Tate frowns, but nods. 'Alright. It's not like anyone has to use it anytime soon, anyway,' he says, smiling a bit.
'How long have you been keeping this a secret?' Mica whispers.
He shrugs. 'More than a year. It was... I talked to Macy about it, first, and she said it was too much and I was like... yeah, too much will do just right. That was before your birthday in 2013.'
'Jesus Christ.'
She turns to Julie, holding out her hand. 'I'm Mica, by the way,' she says, shaking her head quickly to get her thoughts in order. 'Sorry, I'm a bit—' She makes a gesture with her hand and laughs awkwardly.

Julie shakes Mica's hand, laughs a bit. "It's okay. My name is Julie, but you might've catched that already." She winks, turns to Tate. "There's dinner in an hour, I'm making taco's—but I guess you guys aren't that hungry. It's like ten in the evening, right?" She smiles, tilts her head a bit. "We need to talk, by the way." Even though there's a smile on her face, her eyes are not sparkling like they always do.
Jael wanders away from them a bit, still looking at the house. She takes Polar off the leash, watches him take off to the beach as if he's chased by monsters. A little smile crosses her face as she watches him go.

'There's always time for tacos,' Mica says, grinning.
Tate shrugs. 'We can talk after I've given Mica a tour of the house.' He looks at Jael, who's standing far away from them. He's not afraid she's going to escape, now. They're on an island, and she's smart enough to not steal a boat. So he lets her, for now.
He turns to Marcus. 'Can you show Jael to the room with the balcony facing East when Polar's done frolicking around? She can choose whether she wants the dog to stay with her or not.'

Julie looks at Jael. "I thought you were going to come with only Mica." The girl is out of their ear shot anyway, so she talks freely. "Not that I mind, the more the merrier. Just curious."

'Jael is an old friend of mine,' Tate says, smoothly. 'She needed some time away. I offered help.' He shrugs.
Mica wants to look at him weirdly, but decides against it. 'A tour?' she says instead, looking guilty. 'Can I—Can I take a nap first?'
Tate smiles and nods. 'Sure. I got you the downstairs bedroom, for now. You can move into the masters, but this one is closest to the kitchen.' He winks.
Marcus had walked away before Julie started asking about Jael, and is walking towards the girl, carrying her bags. 'You coming?' he asks her.

Jael startles when she hears Marcus' voice. She looks over her shoulder, nods quickly. "Yeah, I'm—I'm coming." She calls Polar and grabs the leash, trying to swallow back her tears. She expected Tate to lock her away again, but she hoped she'd be able to have a word with him before it happened. She doesn't ask, though, just follows Marcus.
"I'll wait for Alec, Hale. I'll join you when he gets here. He went with the speedboat, so he'll probably be quick." Julie grins. "Taco's in two hours."

Mica smiles, thankful, and walks inside with Tate.
Marcus and Jael trail behind, not close enough to her their conversation.

Jael clears her throat. "You've been friends with Tate for a long time...?" she asks, just to say anything. Her voice doesn't come across as strong as she wanted it to be, but she just acts like the strange tone isn't there. Polar pushes his nose in the sand while walking next to Jael and sneezes.

Marcus nods. 'Something like that.'

Jael smiles a little, but doesn't say anything. She's tired, her body thinks it's midnight and her mind doesn't work like it should. 
Once inside the house, she doesn't really take in the details. She's way too nervous about the fact she's going to be locked into a room again. She hoped that would be different when Mica told her they were going to leave... Stupid, hoping for something that you know is never going to happen.

Marcus walks her to her room on the second story, the one with the second smallest balcony after his, but he barely uses his room besides for sleeping. It has a small bathroom and a closet, so he leaves her bags next to her bed for her to unpack. 'I hope you have a good time,' he says.

Jael smiles bitterly. "Yeah, no." It slips before she realizes. "I'll be fine, thanks." She looks at him, hesitates, then asks: "Could you ask Tate if I could um—have a word with him...?" There's a lump in her throat and her eyes are burning with tears, but she tries to hide it. Marcus doesn't have to know, right?

Marcus only looks at her weirdly before nodding and saying 'sure, I'll tell him,' before leaving.

First things first. Jael finds her sketchbook in her handbag and positions herself on the bed. Polar immediately jumps on it too, nuzzling her toes. She realizes he still needs some food. Mica would probably do a better job taking care of him than her. He'd be happier outside of this room, probably...
She sighs and bends over to scratch him behind his ears, then opens her sketchbook and starts drawing. The nightmare is still wandering around somewhere in her mind and as soon as she starts to sketch, it comes to the surface again. The pain, not being able to breathe. Denny with his knife. She draws, and then there's sleep, pencil still in her hand.

When Mica is settled and fast asleep, Tate checks in with Marcus, who shows him the things that changed since he last visited. Usually, he comes at least once every two months to check up on the island, but due to... circumstances (AKA murdering a girl and kidnapping another girl) he hasn't been able to visit since before Christmas.
They catch up on a few things, on Marcus' sisters and Tate's (extremely) early retirement, which isn't really a retirement because he's still has HALE HELPS and tons of other things to worry about. Tate asks him about a girl he went on a few dates with in November, but that didn't really work out, and Marcus asks him about Vicki and Mason and how they're dealing with Macy.
'I told Julie it was Macy, by the way. Didn't tell anyone else, though. Just vague descriptions. Someone close died in a bad way, something like that.'
Tate shrugs. 'She deserves to know.'
Marcus nods, then stills, looking Tate in the eye. 'Who is Jael?' he asks.
'She's the girl I took here. You were on a boat with her less than two hours ago.'
He sighs. 'I'm serious.'
Tate looks like he wants to sigh, too. 'Okay,' he confesses. 'I got into some trouble, and I had to take her away from... everything. People. Society.'
'So... she's your hostage,' Marcus points out.
Tate frowns. 'It sounds so bad when you put it like that.'
'You're not denying it.'
'Because I don't want to lie.'
Marcus grabs Tate's shoulders. 'Okay. I want to know one thing: Is this anything that can be dangerous for the safety of my family?'
He shakes his head. 'You won't have any contact with her. If something happens, all you know is that I took a friend with me who barely came out of her room all the time she was here.'
Marcus breathes out evenly, nodding more to convince himself than Tate. 'Okay,' he says. 'Okay.'

Alec arrives shortly after the others went inside. His hair is messy because of the high speed he picked up with his new 'toy'; he bought the boat a few weeks ago aftee years of saving money.
His face breaks out in a huge grin when he sees Kalea at the dock, realizes that Marcus arrived with Tate and Mica. 'They inside?' he yells at Julie, who is sitting at the end of the dock with her feet in the water.
She nods, watches him fix the boat. 'Mica was stunned. It was fantastic. Did you get your shit?' She'd been furious and frustrated when that morning the electricity failed in their little cabin.
'Yeah, I did.' He steps off the boat, carrying a big black box. 'Roy was in, by the way. He asked about you.'
Julie purses her lips and gets up. 'What did you tell him?'
'I told him that you told me that I had to kindly tell him to fuck off.' Alec shrugs. 'Couldn't take the hint, obviously, so I told him exactly that. He looked like a lost puppy, though. Where did you pick up that guy anyway?'
'To be honest… I'm still asking myself why I did. He isn't even that hot and honestly, the sex was horrible.' She shrugs and then grins. 'Don't look at me like that. Remember that blonde chick from Maine you had once? What was her name again…?'
Alec punches her in the arm. 'We promised never to talk about her again, Jules,' he warns her. 'Just like that guy from Brooklyn, the Jason guy—'
'Okay, that's mean. He may have smelled like dirty sweat too much, he was hot and sexy and he was good, except that he didn't know how to—hey, remind me why we're bringing this up again?' She crosses her arms.
Alec laughs and gives her a kiss on her forehead, which results in her pushing him away so hard that he almost trips over the toolbox he'd just put down. 'Yeah,' he says dryly, 'I missed you too.'
'It's been, what, three hours? You pretentious asshole.'

'I promise,' Tate says. 'If something happens, you will come no blame. I will always protect you and your family.'
Marcus nods again, letting go of his shoulders. 'Jael wanted to talk to you, by the way,' he tells him.
'Alright,' Tate says. 'I'll check it out. Go... do what you always do on this island.'
Marcus laughs, head thrown back and silent.
Yeah, Tate thinks. I will always protect you and your family. Even though I couldn't protect mine.

Jael is still sleeping fast, Polar cuddled up against her. She looks faded, and tired, and lost. While outside Julie and Alec are walking towards the house, mocking each other loudly, Jael just sleeps. Her sketchbook fell open on her bed, her pencil is still between her slim fingers.

Tate enters the room without knocking, not softly but not deliberately loud, Jael sprawled out on the bed, pencil between fingers. The sketchbook is open on something that looks like Denny, but more... monstrous. He resists the urge to pick it up and look through it, having had enough encounters with Jael's extremely light way of sleeping to know better. He looks around the room.

Julie walks right to the kitchen, deciding to start on the taco's. Alec is following her like a lost puppy, but a version that's clearly after something. "Where's Mica? I want to meet her."
"She's probably sleeping. They're jetlagged." She gets the right ingredients and turns towards him. "Want to help me?"
"Helping you means you slowly giving me all tasks until you can go sit on your lazy ass and watch me do your work. But fine. I'll help you." He pushes her against her shoulder, lightly, giving her an affectionate smile. She rolls her eyes.

Of course Polar wakes up when Tate enters the room. His eyes go open and his tail starts to wag, but he stays close to Jael, his nose stuffed into her side. He eyes Tate, but doesn't move, just like Jael just keeps sleeping.

Tate looks around, from the bags on the floor to the empty picture frames on the wall, just waiting for the new owner to make it more personal. He doesn't let himself think about pictures of him and Jael on a livingroom wall, pictures of them with Mica's kids in the park, of them kissing against a palm tree on the beaches of Fiji. He doesn't let himself think about any of that, just traces his hands over the dustless surface of the wooden waist-high drawers and smiles.