No One Dies a Virgin

Screwed Over

The arrest woke Veronica. The sirens were ringing through the night, a dark cloud looming over her as she tried to realize what was going on; Where was JD? What was going on? Who was being arrested? Had they found them, the police? Had they taken in Heather Duke?

JD wasn't beside her, and Veronica quickly got to her feet, grabbing her clothes and throwing them on as she ran down the stairs towards the front door, letting herself out into the cold night air. She shivered, her skin cold against her own touch as she wrapped her arms around herself, trying to hold the warmth in. JD...where was JD? What was going on?

Duke was outside her door, looking slightly crazed, a knife in her shaking hands. JD was nowhere in sight, but the police sirens were drawing closer. Veronica put her hands in front of her, a sign of surrender. She didn't know what was going on; They had hoped to make Duke confess and turn herself in, but here she was, trying to finish her off. Veronica knew after Duke killed her, it wouldn't be hard to pose it as suicide. The only people that would know better would be Mcnamara, JD, and Duke herself. She shuddered, knowing that the other two would follow if she died.

"Wh-what are you doing?" She asked Duke, trying to keep her voice calm. Duke was like a mad dog, likely to strike at any sudden movement. She didn't have time to move as the red-head lunged, throwing the knife forward. Veronica never felt the impact...

JD fell forward, the knife lodged firmly in his stomach. Veronica screamed. Duke fell to her knees and the Police began to swarm. Veronica was beside JD in a moment, seeing that he had been sitting on the roof only moments before. Mcnamara was sitting beside her now, her arms wrapped around her...where had she come from?

Oh, God, was JD dying?

"Jason, no, Jason, why did you do that?" She asked him, blankly. She had wrapped herself around him, letting him hold her. She couldn't quite get her mind around it...Duke was being arrested, Mcnamara explaining something to an officer as someone began to try to take Jason away from her. She wouldn't let him go.

"Jason, no, JD, please," Veronica cried, holding her friend-Her best friend-her lover to her chest. The medic finally managed to pry him away, moving him to the ambulance that was waiting, sirens shrieking.

Veronica went with him.

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Later that night everything was explained; Duke had called Mcnamara to tell her she was going to kill Veronica, attempting to kill two birds with one stone; If Veronica Was dead and Mcnamara knew Duke had done it, hopefully Duke would kill herself. If they were both dead, JD would be easy enough to kill too. Mcnamara had taken hope from Veronica's words earlier, though, and decided it was time to tip off the police.

JD had been smoking on the roof, but when he saw the sirenians he had hidden himself away, watching the scene unfold. He hoped that Veronica was staying safe inside, but when she came out he threw himself between the two girls, only to find a knife lodged in his stomach. He had completed his most immediate mission; To save Veronica.

Mcnamara had explained everything to the police, leaving out a few of the details, giving them just enough information to prove that Duke was crazy and that the others were innocent. She even disguised the murders, saying that she had pushed the three towards suicide instead of saying she had actually killed them. There was no way to disguise the fact that she had been out to kill Veronica and herself.

JD was labeled as Veronica's boyfriend who had been staying the night, and had happened to be there just in time to protect her from the freak accident that was about to take place.

That was her story, and she impressed Veronica greatly with her spur of the moment bravery and forward thinking. The two girls sat together by JD's bedside after they were questioned by the police and then cleared. They were holding hands watching the life slowly drip away from their friend.

"He was the new kid," Veronica whispered into the silence of the hospital room, her eyes never leaving JD's pale face. He looked beautiful, even though the life was slowly leaving his beautiful face. His lips were blue. His eyes were closed, his cheeks white where a flush should have been. "He came to my house for a party...he brought beer. There wasn't a party and we didn't drink the beer," She continued, wiping a tear from her cheek with one shaking hand, the other wrapped tightly around her friends.

"He's gonna be okay, you know that, right?" Mcnamara said, though her voice shook for all the bravado of the words. "He just lost a lost of blood, but he'll be okay. I know he will."

Veronica wasn't so sure; The parlor of his cheeks, the sweat beading on his forehead, the heroics he had committed...Everything was too much. He had to live. She had to tell him that she loved him, that he was a hero, and that he had been right. She had to take him in her arms and hold him and give him the childhood that had been stripped from his the day his mother died. She had to give him all her love and hope to not be left behind.

The hospital room remained silent and temperature controlled. No other visitors made appearances that night, or the day that followed.

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"Mrs. Sawyer," the nurse said, smiling as the teen dressed in blue walked into the hospital after school three days after the incident (it had been labeled as Mania, but Veronica wasn't so sure). She had returned to classes earlier that day, but she would still spend all her free hours with her friend in the hospital. His medically induced coma lulling him to sleep; JD had lost so much blood they had sedated him, now for three days, to slow his vitals and hope that he could return to normal. She prayed by his side, though she wasn't the religious sort.

"He's awake."

Veronica rushed to JD's side.

"And how are you, Darling?" he rasped as she entered the room, his voice sore from disuse. Her prayers had been answered, her JD given back to her.

"It's been Chaos without you," she told him, getting to her knees by his bedside and wrapping her arms around his torso, careful not to disturb the multiple tubes that connect JD's life to a machine by the bed.

"Chaos is good for a moment of panic," JD replied, a small smile playing at his pale lips. He took Veronica's hand in his, looking her over, making sure that there were no scratches or bruises to mar her angel-like form. He had dove to her rescue; He hoped it had worked. The teen was relieved to find no such pain etched into her being, finding her as pure and perfect as he had left her, three whole days before.

"I just want you to know how much a I love you, Jason. I didn't think I'd ever have a chance to say it again, and I want to say it always now; You were right, we got her. She's in Juvenile Detention now and we have her, and oh God, JD I was so sad for her and you and Heather...The world, it just gets inside you and screws you over, but now that you're here and you're okay...You used to tell me how sad you were, how you were afraid you were useless...well, Jason, look; Because of you I'm alive!" Veronica said this all in one huge gasp of air, shuddering with the effort to tell her friend everything she needed him to know, and taking another huge breath she told him the most important part again; "JD, I love you."

"I love you too."

JD had replied. He had given himself away, he had let someone in. He was hurting, but it was a good kind of hurt. The kind that you don't want to stop; The knowledge that the world could destroy you, fuck you over until there was nothing left to screw with and you could still stand up again and have a second chance. Have someone say they loved you...needed you. Told you what they thought, and why they thought it, and how much you needed them...

"I love you."

It was worth it.

Fin~