[ 25 ] 2014

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"The only way you'll ever get it open if if you two talk things out and get over your differences."

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Harley asked her parents for permission to stay over at Calum's and help him clean up. Everyone else had stayed as well, mostly because Cindy convinced Hazel and Dempsey to stay. With the cheerleading competition coming up that Friday, she was down two girls ever since they left Australia. The two girls decided to stay at least another week. They liked Cindy, but they also did it for Harley's sake. Cindy was her best friend and if it meant that much to her to at least try to win the competition, then they could give it a try as well.

Harley was overjoyed that they were staying for one more week. From there on out, there were only two more weeks of school left. That upcoming Thursday was the twelfth year amusement park trip. They would be leaving school early, around eleven in the morning and going to Luna Park. They would be staying there until three in the morning before coming back home at dawn, as was tradition for all twelfth year classes.

Friday was the big cheer competition in Campbelltown, which was chosen as the venue for the all star competition that year. The senior year students were not required to attend school after their amusement park trip. But the cheerleaders had to be there at mid day for a pep rally. Then they would be travelling an hour away and staying there over the weekend to do some sight seeing with their team and their coach. The week after competition was the big school picnic. Cindy explained to Harley that every year, the school went up to a beautiful park by the mountains, two hours away from Sydney. It was another weekend long trip, where the whole school was allowed to come. 

They had games, music, food, contests. They were to make the two hour trip on Friday afternoon, after classes were finished for the day. Since it was the last official day of school for them, it would be their day to take photos, get their yearbooks signed. That was a day for them to do essentially whatever they wanted. Saturday was the big picnic, and they would be coming back Sunday morning to rest up for the graduation ceremony the next morning.

Harley didn't realize just how tedious being a normal teenager was. There were so many pointless things to worry about. 

After getting the house cleaned with the help of everyone, most of them went their separate ways. Arthur still owned the house down the street from Harley, and authorized the hunters to use it while they stayed in Sydney. Michael was staying with them as well, but Arthur didn't yet know that his son was back in Sydney. Michael planned to keep that information that way, so that Arthur couldn't do anything to hurt Hazel and Jack. The six left nearing three in the morning, after helping to clean up the mess. Billy and Cindy were next. Since Cindy didn't want to go back to an empty house, Billy took her home with him. Both Harley and Billy knew Harleen wouldn't mind.

Niall and Andrea, drunkenly stumbled up the stairs to their bedroom, where they continued making some noise. The last to go were Calum and Harley. They went up to his room, he lent her a t-shirt to wear instead of that uncomfortable dress, and he changed into something better as well. Then they tiredly slid under the covers and drifted off to sleep almost instantly.

When she woke up next, her eyes blinked back against the morning light peeking through the black curtains in his bedroom. But what had been enough to wake her up was the tight grip around her body, it was starting to constrict her lungs and making it hard to breathe. As she looked down at her body, she saw it was Calum's mechanical arm. Though he was trying hard, he still hadn't fully gotten the hang of it, and it was worse right then that he was asleep. He didn't know how much strength he was really using.

Harley didn't blame him for it, and instead used her own hands to try to pull him away and loosen his grip on her. When she did so, his mechanical arm moved up and he gripped her wrist. She could feel her bones grinding against each other as he squeezed her hand a bit, trying to get her to stop struggling. In his sleep, he groaned too, but he was deep in his slumber and didn't yet realize what was going on.

As she tried to pull her hand away even harder, his own large hand clamped down around her wrist, snapping all of her bones easily and simultaneously. The pain was unbearable and Harley squirmed in his hold, tears running down her face at the pain. Her mouth was open, but she was in so much pain that no sound came out. The only way she was able to rouse him from his lseep and get his attention was when she was still thrashing in his hold and accidentally elbowing him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. His brown eyes shot open and his mechanical hand opened, releasing her now shattered right hand. 

Calum looked on, horrified at what he had done and practically jumped out of bed. "Ah fuck, babe. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to do that to you!"

Harley cradled her injured hand and held it to her chest, and she tried to give him reassurances that everything would be fine, but she just couldn't get the words out as hard as she tried. But his strength had been so much that her hand was currently like a sack of flesh with the bones scattered out of place. She couldn't believe she was still conscious, as this pain was greater than any pain she had ever felt before. She even dared to say it was even worse than the time she got shot by Cole Hood. At least when that happened, the pain had only lasted for a fraction of a second before she blacked out. But this pain was ongoing.

"Bring Jack." Harley said once she was able to regain her voice through the pain. 

Calum nodded his head frantically and raced out of the bedroom. He quickly left the house and went three houses down to where the hunters lived. It was still pretty early in the morning, and that meant they were asleep. But that didn't stop the boy with raven hair from pressing the doorbell several hundred times and banging on the front door another several hundred. 

It was precisely Jack who came to the door. When he saw Calum standing there, he offered a friendly smile and a greeting. "Good morning, Calum." When he saw the worry on Calum's face, and the fact that he was shirtless and only dressed in a pair of black sweats, Jack knew something was probably wrong. "How can I help you?"

Calum grabbed him by the arm, using his flesh hand, and pulled him out the door. He didn't want to risk injuring someone else. "I need you to help me with something very important."

He practically dragged Jack into his house, into his bedroom, where Harley was sitting on the bed with buckets of sweat running down her forehead. Jack took one look at her, injured hand cradled to her chest and then looked to Calum in shock. "What the hell did you do to her?"

Calum raised his mechanical hand for Jack to see. The last time the original saw them, Calum was pretty much a normal teenager. If being a shifter could be considered normal. "There's this long story. But I have this fucking metal arm now, and I did that to her by accident. Please help her." He begged. At the moment, it seemed like he was rushing his friend, but he couldn't bare to see Harley in another second of pain.

Jack went to sit on the bed and gently took her hurting hand away from the rest of her body. By this point, her hand was big and swollen, twice its regular size, and there was a purple color to it. He held onto her with the gentlest of movements, which were still painful for her and closed his eyes. It was like magic, as the two others in the room saw her hand re arrange itself, all of her bones falling into place again. It was about a minute before the swelling went down as well and the pain disappeared. As her hand was being fixed, Jack said a bit sadly, "We're friends, Calum. If you would have called me when you needed help, I'd have fixed your arm."

Calum heaved a sigh of resignation. "While I appreciate it, there was nothing any one could do to prevent this. I chose my path when this happened." He had chosen to use the Diamond Rose against his grandfather. He was the one that wouldn't let go of that gun. But it had been worth it in the end because it had sent Conrad Hood running away like the coward he was.

As her hand got back to normal again, Harley sighed and collapsed back on Calum's bed. The pain of a few minutes ago was still fresh in her mind though, and she knew it was a pain she never wanted to experience again. Calum went around to the other side of the bed and leaned over it, placing a soft kiss on her forehead. "I'm so sorry, babe." He told her, beating himself up over it internally. And looking to Jack, he added gratefully. "Thanks Jack. I know I can always count on you, mate."

Jack gave a nod of his head before he excused himself, leaving the room and their house.

For the whole rest of that day, Calum was almost afraid of touching Harley. He felt as though he would hurt her again. But she continuously reassured him that she was okay and she wasn't afraid of him. She then added a bit jokingly that if anything were to happen, they always had Jack. That served to lighten the mood a little bit.

That afternoon as an idea came to mind, Harley invited both her father Arthur, and her brother Michael. She didn't let either of them know that the other was coming and she said it was regarding something important. Arthur arrived first, as he was usually very punctual about things. She led him to the library, where Conrad Hood had kept all of his books on information he had found over the years about the shifters. She asked him to wait for her there as there was a knock on her door. Calum was outside, waving a hello at his uncle before informing Harley that her other guest was outside.

Harley smiled thankfully and gave a nod before walking out of the library with Calum. In the livingroom, Michael was sitting on the couch waiting for her. He got back on his feet when he saw her enter the room. "Hey, you said you wanted to talk to me about something important." He said as he greeted his sister with a hug.

She nodded her head. "Yeah, but I was thinking we could talk in private. Maybe in the library?" 

"I'm fine anywhere." He gave a shrug of his shoulders, but he followed her further into the house, towards the library.

Harley opened the door, but gestured for him to walk in first. He turned his head towards her as he walked past her and into the library. When he turned his head to look into the room, he saw Arthur sitting in one of the chairs. Arthur got on his feet when he saw his two kids enter the room. There was a genuine smile on his face of a  father overjoyed upon seeing his two kids together at the same time.

"That's a dirty trick, Harley--" Michael started with a glare, but she had Calum shove him down and she closed the door with the two of them inside.

Michael quickly got back on his feet and went to the door, turning the doorknob and banging on the door when that didn't work. 

"Open this door right now. I don't want to talk to him!" Michael yelled from inside the library.

But Harley had a plan. She wanted to make Michael understand that Arthur loved him and wanted to be there for him. Perhaps if they both talked, he would understand that. And perhaps Arthur would understand that it was possible for hunters and shifters to co-exist with humans. There was no reason for one race or the other to be superior. He could still keep his organization alive and act as a peacekeeping force, taking out any shifters or hunters who were doing harm to anyone else. 

"Calum showed me how to seal this door." Harley explained to the two of them from the outside. "The only way you'll ever get it open if if you two talk things out and get over your differences." 

Harley knew Arthur was willing to compromise. The only problem was Michael.

"Then you'll be the one responsible for both of our deaths." Michael said, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly.

-

a little update for you all. i was going to update yesterday. but i wasnt feeling it since i hadnt talked to my crush for two days. but he texted me today asking me how i was doing, so that gave me motivation.

please give this a nice vote, read, and comment.

only about twenty five more chapters until the end of this story. but i've already mapped them out. so please stay tuned. 

will michael and arthur talk things out? will they come to some sort of agreement. keep reading whenever theres a new update to find out. i hope you all have a wonderful day!

-clary