The Things I Can Do Without [Karate Kid Fanfic]

Checked Into Rehab

She was quiet. It freaked him out, to be a little honest. The girl he remembered had been a riot to be around, back when she hadn't a clue of Terry's real motivations for "training" her. While they'd trained, he'd gotten a sense of her dorky wit and had enjoyed her charm while it had lasted.

The girl sitting in the back of his car, quiet as a mouse, wasn't the same girl he remembered.

Glancing to his side, he saw John tiredly watching out of his window, refusing to look anywhere else. Guilt seemed to have struck his friend back (it had him too), but unlike Terry who was trying to make things somewhat cheerier and better for everyone, John seemed to have withdrawn into himself in almost the same way Danielle had.

"So, it's just John and me in the house, though Snake and Dennis live there –they come in and out whenever though, 'cause you know –teenagers," he knew he was rambling. "If you don't remember them, they're the, uh, boys that were hanging around Barnes."

A flinch.

Terry paused, watching her through his mirror for a moment. He knew he hadn't imagined that. As soon as he'd mentioned Barnes, she'd...she'd flinched. Without consciously doing so, he'd slammed his foot on the brake, causing the car to jolt into a stop on top of the hill that led to his mansion. He heard John cursing, but he was too focused on the girl at the back of the car, who had nearly flown off her seat as well at the stop.

"What the hell, Terry?!" John cursed at him, but Terry ignored him.

"Did Barnes do it?" he felt his gut clenching horribly as he stared at her.

She whimpered and curled up into a ball, clutching her hands over her ears. Oh fuck.

"Did he –" his voice sounded nearly hysterical and had gone to a higher pitch.

A hand gripped his shoulder tightly and he looked at John, who shook his head and glared at him. Terry glanced back at Danielle, who was doing her best to block out the world, and then back at his friend, who was giving him a steady glare. Cursing under his breath, he put the car back in drive and began to continue on to his home.

But fuck. This was his fault. He'd brought that kid in on this! He was the one who'd found Barnes, who'd given him a deal, and had made him all a part of this thing. What was the kid thinking? Why the hell would he do something like this?

Where was Barnes anyway? He hadn't seen him since a little after the tournament, where he'd all but kicked the kid out of the house for his failure.

Parking in front of the mansion, he stepped out and watched as John did too. Danielle was slower to leave though, and they waited for her patiently. She walked around the car and then stared up at the mansion, showing some emotion as she looked at it in awe. Pride and a bit of smugness filled him up, though inwardly he was relieved that some emotion came out of her, especially a more positive one.

"So you get to live in here for a while," Terry bounced a little on the balls of his feet, grinning slightly. "Want the grand tour?"

"I'd like to go straight to sleep," she said quietly, and his grin faltered.

"Okay," John cut in. "We'll show you where you sleep, and you can sleep for the night. Breakfast is...whenever. We sleep in pretty late, and neither of us really cook. We scrounge up something, or get something out."

"John cooks a little," Terry added. "But only some stuff. Little, easy stuff. 'Cause you know –bachelors."

A small smile briefly appeared on her lips, which Terry straightened up at and felt relieved again at seeing.