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When JJ pulled up outside the Chateau, he slammed on the breaks and Sarah and Pope helped Claire out of the van and inside. Carefully, they sat her down on the couch and placed her wounded leg on the coffee table. All the while, Claire's face was stained with hot tears and she was holding back a scream, while also trying not to vomit at the sight of her bloodied up leg.

"Pope, John B, find me a pocket knife, some rubbing alcohol, bandages and tweezers or something similar if there aren't tweezers, and scissors." Sarah instructed, "JJ, grab some towels and a bowl of hot water."

All three boys nodded and went to find what Sarah instructed, while Kie sat beside Claire and gripped her hand.

"How you holding up?" Kie asked.

"I've been better." Claire replied. "I still can't believe we pulled that off."

Kie smiled. "I know. We're gonna be so rich."

The three boys returned with the equipment and Sarah handed Claire one of the towels.

"What's this for?" She asked.

"For you to bite down on for the pain. Cause this is gonna hurt like a bitch." Sarah said.

Sarah got to work, first applying the rubbing alcohol, which, as expected, stung like hell. Claire bit down on the towel and squeezed her eyes shut–as well as squeezing Kiara's hand. Then Sarah worked carefully with the pocket knife, cutting a small incision around the hole (which Claire looked away for due to more blood), and then she used the tweezers to remove the bullet. Claire was sure she'd accidentally break Kie's hand from how hard she was squeezing it but Kie didn't seem to mind. Sarah successfully got the bullet out and dabbed a towel with some hot water to get rid of the blood, before applying some more rubbing alcohol and then bandaging it up securely.

Claire removed the towel from her mouth and gasped, releasing her grip from Kie's hand. "Holy fuck that hurt!"

"Yeah, sorry." Sarah said. "The bullet had barely reached anything important though, so, it was pretty easy to get out."

"I guess that's a relief. She is a terrible shot after all." Claire chuckled. "Thank you, Sarah."

Sarah smiled. "You're welcome. Just keep cleaning it and changing bandages over the next few days so it doesn't get infected." Claire nodded in understanding.

"Where'd you learn to do all that kinda stuff anyways?" JJ asked.

Sarah shrugged. "My dad taught us a lot of this kinda stuff in case of emergency's. I never thought I'd have to actually take a bullet out but, here we are." She said. "Anyways, I should get home or my dad will freak."

"Yeah, I should get home too." Pope said.

"Same." Kie agreed.

"I'm gonna stay here, if that's okay, JB?" Claire asked.

John nodded. "Of course. Would be rude of me to say no after you basically just took a bullet for me."

"What are friends for, right?"

"I'll stay with her." JJ said. She gave him a grateful smile.

"Alright. We'll meet back here tomorrow morning, and go from there." John B said.

The others nodded in agreement and one by one they left, until it was just JJ and Claire. He came to sit beside her and released a sigh.

"One hell of a night, huh." He said.

She stifled a laugh. "Understatement of the year." Then she turned her head to look at him. "Thanks for staying, you didn't have to."

"I wasn't gonna let you stay here alone after you'd just been shot, Claire."

"Yeah, well, for all we know Mrs Crain could've followed us all the way out here with her axe and will try to chop our heads off in the middle of the night."

JJ was shaking his head and trying not to laugh. "Don't even go there."

Claire laughed softly. "Sorry."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while; JJ wanted to talk to her about his conversation with John B and Pope earlier, but he wasn't sure how she'd react. He still wasn't sure if the timing was right, and honestly wasn't sure if it ever would be. Claire seemed to notice his tense expression.

"Hey, you okay?" She asked.

JJ looked at her, his blue eyes bored into her green ones and he swallowed the lump in his throat. He wasn't one to get nervous–especially around girls–but Claire just had that effect on him and he both hated it and craved more of it at the same time. He wasn't good with words, and had no idea how to answer her question. So he did the only thing that he thought would answer her.

He kissed her.

It took Claire by surprise to say the least, but she didn't pull away. It was an awkward position, considering her leg was still up on the table and she couldn't really move it to adjust her body, but she wasn't about to ruin the moment by telling him that. She'd been wanting this moment to happen for so long and now that it was, she felt like a huge weight had lifted from her shoulders. All her doubts about JJ not liking her that way disappeared as she melted into his touch.

They broke apart for air, and Claire's lips tingled with sensation.

"That was, uh..."

"Yeah..."

Claire chuckled awkwardly, looking down at her lap and playing with her hands. "So...what now?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I guess we should talk about us..."

JJ didn't answer straight away. Claire's stomach twisted and she could feel the awkward tension seeping into the atmosphere.

It wasn't that JJ didn't want to talk about it, he just wasn't sure if he was ready for that kind of discussion yet. He liked her so much, but he wasn't sure if he was ready to open himself up to Claire that way, and be vulnerable. He was never good at that, and he didn't believe Claire deserved someone like him–someone with his kind of...baggage. JJ thought it was just easier if they just stayed friends–even if saying it hurt both of them in the process.

"We could..." JJ finally said, pushing all of his doubts to the back of his mind. "Or...we could go back to makin' out," he smirked and wiggled his eyebrows, "cause that was pretty great."

Claire sighed. "JJ...we can't just make out and then not talk about what that means."

"It doesn't mean anything, Claire. We're just making out, and it's not like we haven't done this before."

Claire raised her eyebrows. "You're joking, right?" He shrugged nonchalantly, and she scoffed. "You're unbelievable."

She carefully moved her leg, wincing, and stood up slowly before limping away from him. JJ stood up immediately and followed her, reaching out to support her in case she fell.

"Hey, be careful."

She shrugged him off. "Just leave me alone, JJ."

"Why are you mad?"

Claire pivoted slowly and shook her head in disbelief at the blonde boy in front of her, tears threatening her eyes. "If you have to ask, then you can figure it out for yourself. Let me know when you decide to stop being a jerk, JJ, and then we can talk."

And with that, she limped off to John B's room and closed the door.

JJ clenched his jaw and cursed under his breath, frustratedly running a hand over his face as he plonked back down onto the couch.

He groaned softly and muttered to himself, "Fucking idiot."

He regretted ever making a move in the first place, because now he'd fucked things up and didn't know how to fix them.

Claire carefully laid down on the bed, adjusting her body into a comfortable sleeping position and took in the silence of the room. And as she lay there, she was overcome with tears. Instead of holding back, she just let them fall.

Her heart ached as she cried.

Getting shot in the leg was something she could handle, but fighting with JJ was like she'd been shot in the heart a thousand times instead.

It was painful and had pierced a hole so deep that she wasn't sure how long would take to heal.

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uhhh hi...
again...don't hate me pls, the angst needed to happen im sorry 😭

on a different note, I'm actually super proud of this chapter, so I hope you still enjoyed it even though there was lots of angst lol

Don't forget to vote and comment!! Your feedback and support help me so much & ily all! xx