As soon as they could pry Jack away from Crutchies lifeless body they made a makeshift grave for him under the prettiest trees they could find. Jack doesn't say anything as they set him down in the ground and put his mat over the top of him, Katherine couldn't keep from crying as David set to work at putting the dirt back over him. The sight was pitiful and sad as Jacks glassy eyes never moved from the spot where Crutchies face is, even after Davids finished pushing the sand back over him Jack doesn't want to move. Katherine can understand that he's hurting, they all are but she wished he didn't look as dead as Crutchie.

"H-he was a good man." David chokes out as he looks down at the fresh dirt. Clara sniffs and puts palm leaves down over the mound to make the sight as nice as possible, Katherine helps her frame the grave with small rocks so they would never loose the spot.

"He w-would of been the worlds best author." Katherine said wiping her tears on her shirt.

"He made everything better." Clara said hanging her head. Katherine sees David choke back a sob and he has to leave, Clara leave too also unable to stand the sight.

Katherine stands at the foot of the grave just watching Jacks motionless body, he's still starring blankly at the grave like he can't comprehend what had just happened. She feels so sorry for him as he sits there, she has no clue what to say to make him feel better. After all he had just watched his best friend die, what a horrible thing to whitness. Katherine suddenly feels guilty for snapping at Crutchie while she was running away from David, that problem seemed to stupid and minute compared to the one at her feet.

She wants to say something but her mouth won't work, she suddenly finds herself backing away from the grave unable to muster anything else.

Perhaps time alone will help him.

***************************

Three days go by and Jack still hasn't moved from his spot, the only thing Katherine had seen him do is refuse the food she and Clara brought to him. Katherine's worry grew as she woke up on the morning of the third day and he still hadn't come back, something in her chest was going off again as she left a sleeping Clara and David to go see Jack. The walk to Crutchies grave was about five minutes from their camp and she soon found herself at the foot of Crutchies grave looking down at Jack. He was sitting crosslegged and his shoulders were hunched over his legs, he appeared to be sleeping. Katherine stared backing up slowly and was about to turn and go when Jacks head snapped up at the sound of her breaking a twig under her foot.

"Oh... its you." Jack said blankly and turned his head back to look at the grave.

"Just... me." She said feeling bad for waking him up, no doubt he hadn't gotten much sleep lately.

"I don't want to eat anything." He said playing with a string on the end of his worn jeans.

"That's not why I'm hear." She said coming over to him careful not to step on the grave.

"Then what do ya want?" Jack asked tensing up as she sat down next to him.

"To talk." She said placing a hand to his forearm. He jerked away from her and shot her a look.

"I don't want to talk." He said sharply his blue eyes loosing their glassy look briefly. Katherine took a deep breath and scooted closer to him, the familiar explosion that had once gone off in her chest while she was around him was starting to come back. She felt as if it had always been there in her chest ready to go off it had just never had something to ignite it... until now. She had never seen this side of Jack before and it was doing something to her, something she never thought possible.

"Then let me talk." Katherine said trying to peer into his gorgeous eyes again. "I understand how you feel about... this. We're all hurting Jack, he was all of our friends; he was such a sweet guy I can't tell you how many times he smiled at me when I didn't deserve one." She said hooking her arm into his. He didn't pull away this time and she was grateful for that.

"Youse don't understand Kath, he was my brother. We did everything together..." His voice shook slightly.

"Maybe I don't understand but I do know how it feels to loose someone you love." She took a deep breath and prepared herself to tell Jack something very close to her heart. "Back when I was 8 or so I had a little brother named Daniel, he had just turned three when my mom and him got into an accident. They were hit from the side by a semi killing my baby brother instantly, my mother was so devastated by it she couldn't talk to anybody for 3 years. She claimed part of her died with her youngest son and my whole family didn't have a mother for a long time. Those had been the darkest years of my life, I no longer had my best friend or my mother to comfort me. All I had was my bitter father and distant older siblings. It wasn't until my mother emerged from her room one day and told me she needed to move on that my life finally brightened again. She told me that she would see her sweet Daniel again someday and that she needed to live while she could."

Katherine suddenly found her throat closing up with emotion.

"S-she told me Daniel had somehow told her to move on, h-he told her that his big sister needed her m-mother... he-" Katherine could no longer speak and she suddenly found Jacks arms wrapping around her.

The feeling instantly made her feel better and her heart speed up in her chest as he pulled her to him. She could feel Jacks ragged breathing in her ear and she knew he was trying to stay together as well. She wasn't sure if the story had helped him any but she prayed it would at least knock some sense into him.

"Crutch has always been there for me since day one." Jack begins and she can feel him about ready to pour his soul out to her. She looks up at him and lays her head back on his shoulder as he gulps. "H-he met me on da streets while I was starvin' he told me there was a place I could get food and shelter... he save my life by letting me come to the Logging House... he also was da one ta get me out of trouble. Ya see I had a nasty habit of messing with people I hated. I was painting some rich dudes office when da Bulls finally caught me, I didn't run two blocks before they jumped me. Then there was Crutchie ta save they day. He distracted them so I could get away but I was stupid enough to not come back and help him... that's when he broke his foot. It's all my fault he was a crip after that, If I had just came back an helped him, h-he wouldn't of been crippled. It was all my fault."

Katherine suddenly understood what Crutchie had meant by "Don't blame that on you, it's not your fault I couldn't run faster then the Bulls."

"Anyways," Jack continued "There was no way in hell we could afford to got to da hospital so we just left his foot alone in hopes it would get better, obviously it hadn't but Crutchie neva let that get him down. And thats when Davey found us, he kinda took us in and made me stop vandalizing things, we was like da three musketeers of New York City. Some of the best times of my life were spent with just the three of us." Jack said.

Katherine looked up to see that Jacks eyes were dry, he still looked hurt but she could tell talking about it had helped him. She sure knew it had helped her, she stared into his beautiful endless eyes and couldn't help but appreciate how handsome he really was. She could feel the heat of his left hand against her back and the tingle of his right as it came up to cup the side of her face. She blinked the tears out of her eyes and smiled up at him as he got closer to her, for once she didn't want him to get away from her. Perhaps it was the shock of losing Crutchie or the reality that she never be more than a sister to David but Katherine really wanted to kiss Jack.

She got her wish.

She let her eyes flutter closed as his warm lips moved with hers, it was a magical feeling she'd never experienced before. Sure she'd kissed boys before but never had she felt like this while kissing one. She found herself threading her fingers through his hair and pulling him closer as the kiss intensified. Suddenly she felt him thence against her and before she knew it he was jerking away from her almost knocking her front tooth out.

"I'm... sorry I shouldn't have done that, it ain't right." Jack said awkwardly moving away from her. Katherine felt stupid as she felt her front tooth to make sure it was still there, what the hell just happened?

"No, don't be sorry it was..." she struggled for the right word to describe it. She couldn't find one so she just sat there awkwardly playing with the hem of her shirt.

"It was wrong, I won't do it again." He said his eyes fixing on Crutchies grave again. Katherine suddenly realized why he had pulled away.

"Jack... you weren't... I wasn't trying to take advantage of you. You didn't do anything to-"

"It's fine, you don't have to apologize I won't do it again." He said his voice suddenly going back to how it had been when she first got here: emotionless.

She felt awkward sitting there starring at him, he wouldn't look at her and she felt as if she needed to say something. She wasn't quite sure how to say it though, did she really feel something for Jack? Had she really had feelings for him this whole time but she hadn't realized it until now?

"Jack I-" she stared to say but Jack but her off.

"Let's just pretend it never happened." He said and he refused to look at her. Katherine's heart dropped to her stomach but she managed to nod. She bit her lip and glanced around nervously, she got to her feet and brushed the sand away from her ripped sweats.

"Right, see you around." She said awkwardly, Jack didn't answer so she decided now was her time to leave. There was something strange happening in her chest and she didn't know what to think about it.

One thing was for sure, she liked the feeling.