Jane [h.s.]

three

Harry

He sat with Jane at recess every day and moved to sit next to her in class. All of his other friends had stopped talking to him.

He didn't stop though because he knew what it felt like to be lonely and he knew that Jane was lonelier than anyone.

"I helped my mom bake some cookies yesterday. I brought you some, if you want them. They're chocolate chip and they're really good, I promise."

Jane didn't say anything and blankly stared at the brown paper bag in his hands.

Harry smiled at her softly, carefully opening the bag and pulling out a cookie. Jane didn't trust people, he realized, and maybe she thought that he had done something to the cookies that would hurt her.

He didn't say anything else and took a bite, his free hand carefully placing the bag between them.

Jane twisted her fingers in her lap, her eyes darting between them and to the brown bag and back to Harry.

Harry had finished his cookie and offered her another warm smile, "It's okay if you don't want them. I don't mind."

And the truth was that he didn't, Harry didn't mind if she didn't want them because she didn't trust really anyone and he couldn't force her to trust him, he could only keep trying.

Jane looked at him with slightly glossy and confused eyes, "You don't want to hurt me?"

He shook his head and smiled, "Nope. I just want to be your friend."

Slowly, she reached her hand out to the paper bag, her fingers carefully wrapped around it's edges. Harry looked away so that he wouldn't upset her or make her feel bad, he'd learned that, if he looked at her for too long, she sometimes started yelling and sometimes she cried.

Jane was overly careful with the paper bag, her hand lowering inside carefully and slowly pulling out a single cookie. From the corner of his eye, he could see her carefully turning it in her hands and examining it.

He smiled to himself once she took a small bite and chewed carefully. The teachers and a few of the students were staring at them, but he didn't really care. He'd gained a little bit of her trust and that was all that mattered to him.

. . .

It was Tuesday and Rosalie didn't want to see him, but Harry went to the asylum anyway because he wanted to see Jane. The nurse in the front gave him a questioning look when he asked to see her and he smiled brightly in return.

"She doesn't like visitors."

Harry nodded, "I know."

She sighed, but let him in anyway, after he had discarded all items that could be considered dangerous of course.

Jane was sitting at her usual table in the back of the cafeteria, her eyes darting around the room and her hands over her head.

When she saw him, her eyes stopped wandering and her body relaxed, her hands dropping from her head. The voices had stopped only momentarily, but momentarily was better than never.

Harry stood beside her table and smiled at her, "Can I sit down?"

The voices were screaming at her to tell him no, that she couldn't trust him, and she took a long moment to answer, "Yes."

He sat down slowly, the guards eyeing him suspiciously because everyone knew that Jane didn't like anyone near her, not even herself sometimes.

Jane watched him curiously, she was waiting for him to tell her why he was there. He was never there on Tuesdays and his sister was on the opposite side of the room.

Harry put his hands up in surrender, "I just wanted to talk to you, that's all, Jane."

She didn't say anything and her posture visibly stiffened. Harry pretended not to notice.

His smile was sad as he looked at her, it looked like there were singe marks on her temples, "What happened to your head?"

Jane looked at him quizzically. Harry lifted his hands to his head and poked at his temples, "It looks like someone burned you."

Her fingers were white from clutching the end of the table so hard. The voices told her that he knew, but he looked like he didn't have a clue and she remembered how nice he always was to her, back when she was in school.

Jane fought back and closed her eyes, willing the voices to just shut up for a minute, just a minute. They were smothering her.

Instead of speaking, her eyes drifted to the guards on the other side of the room. Harry's gaze followed and recognition sparked behind his pretty green eyes. They were much greener and much more beautiful than she had remembered, but that didn't stop the voices, nothing ever did.

"Oh."

He was struggling to find the right word in his mind, the proper word for the reason that she was different. It started with an s, he knew that it started with an s, but the rest of it was completely lost to him.

Whatever the word was, it didn't make him think of her any differently, it made him want to understand even more.

Harry changed the subject, his curiosity getting the better of him, "Do your parents ever visit you?"

Jane shook her head quickly, her fingers detaching from the table only to knot together against its surface.

He understood and nodded briefly, dismayed to hear that even her own parents didn't want to see her. Sure, it probably went the other way too, they'd certainly warned him enough that she didn't like visitors, but she couldn't help it and that was unfair. She deserved family and love and friendship just as much as anyone else did.

Harry took a massive risk and reached his hand across the table only to lay it atop of hers. Jane stared at him briefly, her eyes widening a moment later and her hand retracting quickly.

He didn't take it personally and wore a small smile, "I just wanted to let you know that I care, Jane. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you. I won't do it again."

She bit down on her lip rather harshly, her eyes watering slightly as she looked at him. Jane closed her eyes tightly and took a deep breath, trying to focus around her own thoughts berating her.

"You won't hurt me?"

Her dark eyes met his light ones, searching for the answer that only the eyes could give away. Harry smiled and offered her his pinky, "Never."

She saw it, she saw the truth no matter what her mind told her.

Jane's hand trembled as she looped her pinky with his. Harry felt some odd weight, that he hadn't even recognized before, fall off his shoulders. Jane was different, but so was he and he was happy that she was giving him the chance to show her that.