CHAPTER TWO

After waking up in an otherwise empty bed, Jay makes her way down the stairs in the Lockwood mansion, and she stumbles upon Carol in the living room. "Judith." The mayor's light eyes widen in obvious surprise when she sees the teenager.

"Mayor Lockwood, hi." She sighs as she crosses her arms over her chest, wanting to hide...or maybe wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her whole. "Sorry."

"What for, dear?"

"I...don't know. Apologizing just felt appropriate."

"What are you doing here?" The mayor asks.

"Uh, I was stupid, and..." The little brunette sighs again. "I was drinking. I got drunk at my sister's birthday party last night, and Tyler saved me from being an even bigger idiot."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Jay nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. I mean, I have a minor headache, and I'm beyond embarrassed, but I'm fine."

"I meant... I'm sure it's been difficult, since your mom... Is that why you were drinking?" She asks, and the teenager clears her throat as she looks down.

"Look, uh... I don't mean any disrespect, I just... I-I don't really wanna talk about it." She tells her, and Carol nods.

"Of course."

"I should probably be getting home. Where's Tyler?"

"I don't know. I think he left earlier." The mayor tells her, and her eyebrows furrow.

An hour and a half later, Tyler's at the grill, and Caroline walks over to where he's playing a game at the pool table. "What's going on with you and Jay?" The blonde asks, and he looks at her.

"What?" Tyler pulls her away from the guy that he was playing the game with.

"You two have spent the entire Summer together so far, and you're tutoring her? Tyler, really? I mean, she's not stupid, and you haven't taken Health since we were Freshman — three years ago."

"She lost her only friend saving our asses." He reminds her. "So what if I hang out with her?"

"And that's why you ditched Sophie to be Jay's knight in shining armor last night?" She questions.

"So, you're saying that I should've just left Jay — who was drunk, by the way — to dance with that guy so that he could do God knows what to her?" He raises his eyebrows. "Is there really something wrong with me being her friend? Especially after everything that she's done for me?"

"No, of course you shouldn't have left her with that creep last night. I just... I think she has a crush on you, Tyler." She tells him. "And after everything that she's been through, I really don't wanna see her get hurt any more than she already has."

"And why are you so sure that I'm gonna hurt her?"

"She's fourteen, Tyler."

"I'm aware of that, Caroline. Thank you." He shakes his head. "We're friends, alright?"

"Yeah, that's what she said." She nods as she looks down.

"You've talked to her about this?"

"Mhm." She nods. "Because I saw the disappointed look on her face when you told her that you had a date with slutty Sophie. And then I saw the look on her face when she saw you dancing with her, and I saw how mad you got when you saw her dancing with that guy last night. Just friends, huh, Tyler?" She questions, and he clenches his teeth.

"What do you want from me, Caroline?"

"I want you to—"

"Hey." Jay gets their attention as she walks over to the area with the pool tables. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine." Tyler says as he looks away from the blonde in front of him.

"Ty, can I talk to you?" She asks, and he turns to face her. "Alone?"

"Yeah." He nods, and then walks over to her, leaving Caroline standing by herself.

"Okay... I'll see you later, Care." The brunette waves and then turns to follow after Tyler.

"Come on. We have to get things ready for tonight anyway." He says over his shoulder, and she picks up her pace to keep up with him.

The two of them make it out to his car, and Jay climbs into the passenger seat. "What was that back there with Caroline? She doesn't usually make you mad like that. Not...anymore, anyway."

"It wasn't anything." He lies, and she nods before turning her head to look out the front windshield again.

—

Tyler and Jay make it halfway into the woods before he glances over at her from the driver's seat of his car. "I thought you wanted to talk to me about something earlier."

"Oh, uh... Yeah, I did. It seemed less important after seeing you arguing with Care." She tells him, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Honestly, I just kinda feel dumb about the whole thing anyway."

"What whole thing?"

"Me...drinking, getting drunk." She shakes her head. "It was supposed to be a fun night. Elena's birthday party wasn't supposed to be me being an idiot."

"If it makes you feel any better, she didn't even want the party to begin with." He tells her as he parks outside the cellar on the old Lockwood property in the middle of the woods.

They both get out and go to the trunk of his car, then she turns to face him. "What did I tell you last night?" She asks, and he glances at her before shaking his head.

"You didn't tell me anything."

"Ty, I woke up in the middle of the night curled into your side, and your arms were around me. I know I had to have told you something to make you stay with me like that. Hell, for you to take me to your house instead of back to mine."

Tyler sighs as he then turns to face her. "You asked me not to take you home. You said that you didn't want to see the pictures of your mom, and your aunt and uncle; you didn't want to look at your mom's closed bedroom door." He tells her, and she looks away from him. "I laid with you because...you said that you were afraid of your nightmares... You dream about that night?"

Jay nods as she looks up at him. "I got close, and I heard Elena scream...and then I saw Klaus stake my mom." She tells him, tears welling up in her eyes. "I just froze, it was like I-I couldn't move. And after Klaus and Elijah disappeared, I ran over and I held her body in my arms."

He reaches up and wipes the tears from her cheek, causing her to close her eyes and lean her face into the palm of his hand. It isn't often that she lets people see her cry, let alone allows anyone to comfort her when she's upset. She figures that with how much death and pain they face all the time, it doesn't make sense to break down every time, but this time is different.

"You shouldn't feel dumb for what you feel or how you try to cope." Tyler tells her, and her brown eyes meet his again. "So much happened and changed that night... Nobody can possibly understand what you're going through."

"Sometimes, I just... I don't want to deal with it. I wanna forget."

"I know." He nods. "We've got a good distraction tonight. And I'll help you through everything else as we go." Tyler tells her, and she offers him a small smile.

"Come on." The brunette grabs one of the bags from the trunk and starts down into the cellar with him following right behind her.

They get all of the chains set up, and Jay helps him lock them around his ankles. She then mixes a bottle of water with the wolfsbane and turns away from him when he takes a drink. Tyler coughs and gags as it burns his mouth and throat, and she sits down on the step of the entrance to the gated area that they built for her to stay away from him while he's a wolf. There's no way for him to get in after he turns, so she's perfectly safe locked in there.

"Why did you leave?" The younger girl asks as he tosses his shirt to the side — he doesn't wear his shirt or shorts, since as he said before: it's not like how the Hulk gets to keep his pants.

"What are you talking about?" Tyler asks as he glances over at her.

"I woke up at your house alone this afternoon, and then I had to sit through an awkward car ride with your mom." She tells him. "Why did you leave before I woke up?"

He sighs as he looks down. "Because when I woke up...we were..."

"We were what?"

"In a similar position that we were in when you woke up the first time, except you weren't curled into my side. We were facing each other, and..." Tyler shakes his head as he looks back at the brunette. "You're Elena's little sister. Even though you didn't grow up in Mystic Falls, I remember you as a kid. You're fourteen, Jay..."

She scoffs, her dark eyes on the ground as she nods. "Right."

"Jay—" He takes a step toward her, but trips when the shackle around his ankle pulls on his leg.

"No, I get it." The little brunette says as she stands up. "I'm a kid, the baby of the group. You don't have to explain, it's fine." She shuts and locks the gate. "Let's just get through tonight."

Jay sits at the back of the area and her jaw tightens as she listens to Tyler's screams. She can hear the snapping of his bones as he turns and she covers her ears as she squeezes her eyes shut. His screams stop, and she gets to her feet so that she can walk over to look at the wolf.

"You know, sometimes I think I like you better like this." She says as he turns to face her. "Maybe it's just 'cause you can't talk, so you can't state the obvious."

The little brunette kneels down, and the wolf walks over to her and just stands there. Just like the last two full moons — after the nearly disastrous first one — he just looks at her. His eyes are a golden color, and nothing about him seems particularly menacing. Still, she remains behind the gate that separates the two of them.

"I guess Caroline was right... I was stupid anyway." She shakes her head as she crosses her arms and rests them on her knees. "Like a guy like you would ever date me. I'm nobody special. I'm just little Jay, nothing more than a stupid kid."

He moves closer to her, and it's always so strange to the teenage girl — watching the way that the wolf moves on four legs. He's entirely an animal, and yet it's Tyler in there.

It's a couple of hours later before Jay hears the wolf stop shuffling around restlessly on the other side of the gate. She walks back over then and sees a human — and naked — Tyler laying unconscious on the dirt ground, so she unlocks the gate before grabbing the blanket that she keeps stashed there and walks over to him.

The brunette's laying the blanket over him when he starts to wake up, and Tyler looks at her. She pulls the key to the shackles out of her pocket and unlocks the cuffs so that he's free. Wordlessly, he gets to his feet, keeping the blanket wrapped around his lower half as she walks over to grab the duffle bag that has his clothes so that he can get dressed.

"I'll meet you back at the car." Jay tells him before she heads out of the cellar.

She's already in the passenger seat when he starts loading things into the trunk, and then he climbs into the driver's seat. Neither of them says a word the whole drive back to her house, and then he parks behind Ric's SUV.

"I was thinking..." Tyler begins, so she halts in her movements to open the door. "Maybe I should start handling the full moon on my own from now on. You could get hurt, and it's not right for me to put you in that kind of danger." He says, and she closes her eyes, hoping that it'll stop the tears. "I'll be alright by myself, and you don't have to worry about getting the wolfsbane anymore, or locking yourself up separate from me. It'll be better for the both of us."

Jay reaches into her sweater pocket and pulls out the ring with the keys to the gate and his shackles. She usually hangs onto them, but now she tosses them into his lap. Without a word, the little brunette opens the passenger door and then climbs out, slamming it shut behind her before she heads up to the house and goes inside.