A Fire Inside

Chapter 8 Dinner and a Show

A/N: I didn't mean for this chapter to be so long, but after like a week with no writing I kind of exploded. :P Whoops. Anyways this is probably my favorite chapter so far. Its got so many feels! POV shifts once in this chapter so look for the markers.  :D Enjoy! Let me know what you guys think <3 

**This chapter is spaced differently than the others. I don't know why. Hope thats okay! 

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I looked in the mirror to put the finishing touches on the little bit of make-up I put on, and ran my hands through my hair. My hair had a natural wave to it, and I hadn't tried to straighten it today so it was a bit of a mess. I picked up my beanie and put it on.
Good enough I guess.

I laced up my boots and grabbed my bag before I walked out of the dorm and was met by Emma.
"Is everything okay? Killian said he was taking you to see your family."
"Oh.. Uh its..just stuff with my dad." I said. She looked at me skeptically.
"Well.. I gotta go so I'll see you later." I said and hurried past her.
Again...Sera what the hell are you doing? This has disaster written all over it.

I walked outside and to the parking garage, where Mr. Jones stood with his arms crossed leaning against a black audi.
An audi? Seriously could you get anymore cliche?
"You and I have very different outlooks on time. You see..When I think of a couple minutes. I think..a couple minutes. Not nearly 30." He said and raised his eyebrow at me.
"Well there was no way I was leaving in my PJs looking like a potato." I said. "And then I ran into Emma."
"What did she say?" he asked.
"She asked if everything was okay."
"I imagine we are actually going to have to take a trip to your family because Emma is definitely going to be calling them to check in." He said.
I tried not to smile like an idiot but I couldn't help it. It had only been almost a week but I missed them so much already.
I walked to the car to try and get in.
"What are you doing?" Mr. Jones asked.
"Getting in the car."
"You think this is my car?" he scoffed. "This is Golds." He said.
"Well.. are we traveling by broomstick?" I asked.
He narrowed his eyes and turned on his heels before walking into the garage. I followed him and he stopped in front of a beautiful silver and black 1970 Chevelle SS. My jaw dropped and I ran my hand over the side of it.
"Close your mouth, Stark, we are not a Codfish." Mr. Jones said. I looked up and glared at him but he just smiled and winked before getting in the car.

The drive into town was very quiet and awkward.
"I suppose this is where I apologize for yesterday." Mr. Jones said finally breaking the silence.
"I don't understand were so hateful.." I said.
"I was worried. What happened yesterday, Miss Stark.. If Emma had seen what I thought she saw.." He sighed. "I'm sorry for what I said, I know it hurt your feelings because you spent the rest of dinner, looking at me with murder in your eyes while you stabbed your pot roast..violently." He said.
I laughed a little.
"I suppose I can accept your apology.." I said and smirked. He parked outside of Grannys and looked at me.
"I hope you don't mind I called in the food to pick up..What we need to discuss isn't really something other people should hear. I do know quite a bit of people here and this place is likely to bring someone I know in.."
"I don't mind." I said shaking my head.
"Good, I'll be back in just a second. No joy rides."
"Well you just take the fun out of everything don'tcha Jones?" I asked. He rolled his eyes and closed the door before walking into the dinner.

Within a few minutes he was back with a couple of brown paper bags with grease marks on them and a couple of drinks. He passed one to me and I took a sip. It was a vanilla milkshake.
"You didn't say what flavor you wanted..so I kept it simple." He said.
"Vanilla is actually my favorite. Its.."
"Ordinary?" Killian asked.
"Yeah.." I said and looked down at the milkshake.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." He replied and we were back on the road.

He drove to a secluded spot that kind of overlooked the town. Once he parked the car, we got out and he sat on the hood of the car and opened his bag of food I walked around and took mine but just looked for somewhere to sit.
"I don't bite. You can sit next to me." He said.
I sat down next to him and opened my bag.
"I wouldn't mind if you did bite." I muttered and smirked at the sound of him almost choking on a french fry.
"You are a twisted individual Stark. I like it." He said after her cleared his throat.
I smiled and took a bite out of my cheeseburger.

We sat eating in silence until we finished our food and the only sound was me trying to get the last bit of my milkshake up in the straw. I looked at Mr. Jones who was waiting for me to finish.
"Sorry. Just don't know when I'm going to get another one of these." I said and wiggled the now empty cup.
"You do realize its a school.. And not a prison right?"
"A school where students aren't allowed to leave." I shrugged.
"Its for safety reasons, but you can leave if with a staff member. Emma usually takes groups at a time to prevent everyone from going stir crazy. Eventually it will be okay for everyone to come and go as they please again but with all the attacks lately its difficult." He explained.
"I guess I understand." I shrugged. "So I have a question."
"Ask away." He said.
"All the teachers told me to call them by their first name. Why are you different?"
"I like to maintain a professional relationship with my students.. The others have different methods and thats fine." he shrugged.
"Oh.." I said and looked down at my hands.
"I hope that yesterday didn't cause any confusion Thats what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Confusion?" I asked.
"At lunch.. When I touched your face..I know it might have seemed like..something but it wasn't."
I could tell that he was lying. Anyone with a brain would be able to tell that. There was something brewing between the two of us. I knew there was and he knew there was.
"If you knew it wasn't anything why were you so worried about Emma seeing it?" I asked.
"Because I know how it looked and I just wanted to clear things up with you."
"All the way out here?" I asked.
"Well it would have been very difficult to try and clear this up at school don't you think? And if someone had overheard in the diner it could have been bad as well. And I didn't know how you would react."
"You brought me all the way out here, to tell me that there is no forbidden student teacher romance between us because you expected me to fall apart the second Killian Jones doesn't profess his undying love for me after 3 days of knowing me?" I asked.
"Well I mean thats..a bit over the top" He said and scratched behind his ear.
"You are incredibly full of yourself Jones." I laughed.
"Wait.. so you weren't confused? I thought thats why you were angry with me." Killian said.
"I was angry with you, because that is a perfectly reasonable reaction after the way you treated me." I said. "No.. I'm not confused."
Oddly disappointed however. This is not at all how I saw this going.

"Right.. Well now that..that is settled." he said and cleared his throat. "Why don't you give me your address and we can pop in and see your family just so Swan doesn't have a meltdown later."
I watched him for a few seconds. He was nervous, and fidgeting with his hands. There was no way that what happened yesterday was nothing like he claimed, but I didn't want to push. This was a delicate situation and the last thing I wanted was for him to get into trouble.
"1200 Mifflin street.." I said and smiled. "And... thank you for the food...and well taking me to see my parents you really didn't have to. I would have talked to you eventually." I smirked.
"Aye, but I did not want to wait for eventually..and I may have overheard Regina talking to her friends about you crying over your parents this morning.. "
"I wasn't crying.. She's an idiot." I muttered and got in the car.

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I parked on the street in front of the address that Sera had given me.
"Okay before we go in there.. If you think my Harry Potter jokes are horrible, my brothers are worse and he will more than likely call you a wizard."
I chuckled. "I think I can handle it."
Sera chipped at her fingernail polish nervously.
"Everything okay?" I asked.
"I don't know.. If Emma..or Gold mentioned anything about my family to you.. But my mom..hates that I am gifted but I don't think we will have to deal with that because she's probably at Church with the neighbor and.. My dad is dying. He has terminal lung cancer.." She said. "So..just don't be alarmed when you see him. He gets around well for someone who has a fast approaching expiration date but he looks...very sick." She swallowed thickly.
I frowned. I knew that something had to have been going on because of the locket she wore. But I had no idea it was this bad.
"So.. lets go in." She said and shook away the tears before she quickly got out of the car and shut the door before I could say anything.

We walked up the walkway and to the front porch Sera stopped in front of the door and knocked on it.
"Its..your house why don't you just go in?" I asked.
"My Dad is also a War vet. He's not expecting me so I don't want to sneak up on him." She said the door opened and there stood a teenage boy, who was noticeably much taller..but younger than Sera but they looked a lot a like, except while her hair was black, his was auburn. His eyes widened and he smiled big.
"Sera!" He said and wrapped his arms around his sister and lifted her from the ground.
"Gabe its been three days." She laughed.
"Which is like an eternity when we've never been apart for more than a few hours." He said and looked at me.
"Shit, what did you do?" He asked Sera not taking his eyes off of me. I raised an eyebrow. Was I honestly that intimidating?
"Nothing" Sera laughed. "This is my History of Magic teacher Mr. Jones. Killi- Mr. Jones.. This is my brother Gabriel."
I extended my hand and Gabriel shook it. He kept his eyes locked on me with almost threatening look. Like he knew something.
"Are you going to let us in dorkus?" Sera asked.
Gabriel stepped aside.
"Dad! Sera's here, she brought a Wizard!"
"Told you." Sera muttered as we stepped in the house.

A tall, fragile looking man walked out of the kitchen.
"Sera Bear." He smiled Sera hurried to him and hugged him tightly.
"Hey Dad." She sniffled. This was heart wrenching. I understood keeping her safe from the people who wanted to harm the gifted but to tear her away from her family.. Now was just horrible timing.
"What are you doing here?" Her father asked.
"Mr. Jones took me to get Granny's." She said and I felt her brothers steely eyes on me yet again.
I scratched behind my ear nervously because now her father was giving me a confused look.
"I had some things I needed to take care of in town and Sera needed help understanding an assignment and so far, I've learned she seems to do better in a one on one session rather than in the classroom." I said attempting (and failing) to make this not so strange. I extended my hand to him.
"Killian Jones." I introduced myself. He shook my hand and nodded.
"Alec Stark." He said. "Please sit." He said and gestured to the couch.
I sat down.
"I'll be right back I have to go see Bastion" Sera said.
"Bastion?" I questioned.
"Oh, I'll bring him down." Sera grinned and hurried up the steps.

It was only a few minutes later when Sera came back down the stairs with a very large snake on her shoulders.
"Oh.. Bastion is a.."
"Are you afraid of snakes?" Gabriel asked as he plopped down next to me.
"No. I..just thought maybe Bastion was a cat." I said.
"We have one of those too." Alec chuckled.
"You want to hold him?" Sera asked.
"No I'm fine." I said and smiled hopefully not hurting her feelings.
"Whats the matter? Don't speak parseltongue?" Gabriel asked.
"Gabe, stop." Sera groaned and looked at me.
"Ignore him please. Its fine, not a lot of people are comfortable around snakes. Bastion has never bit anyone though..I'm worried Regina would try to make a purse out of him so he stays here. I'll just put him back." She smiled and went back up the stairs.

"So..Killian. What kind of Magic do you do?" Gabriel asked me.
"Gabe..don't be rude." Alec sighed.
"No..its okay. I'd rather answer questions than be accursed of devil worship." I shrugged.
"Well lucky for you then. My mom is at Church." Gabriel smirked.
"Right.." I said. "Well.. I can do all sorts of Magic but I'm strongest with Elemental magic. I have an affinity for fire, like your sister."
"Oh. Do you now?" Gabriel asked and narrowed his eyes. What was this kids problem?
"Yes.. I could show you if you'd like." I offered.
Gabriel sat back and watched me, expectantly.
"Okay..then." I muttered and brought my hands up in front of me and waved them. Gabriels eyes widened as he watched the ball of fire materialize from nowhere between my hands.
"Holy..shit." He muttered.
"Gabe watch your mouth." Alec said. "That..is incredible." He added watching the fire.

Sera walked back down the stairs and sighed.
"Come on, I leave for a couple seconds and you guys use my teacher for free entertainment." she said.
"Can you do this too Sera?" Alec asked.
"She can. Well.. we are working on it anyways. Go on..show him." I smiled.
"No.. I can't." She said and shook her head.
"Yes you can." I said. "Just focus."
"And if I burn my whole house down?" She asked.
"You won't." I smirked. "I promise."
Sera sighed and brought her hands up like mine
"Just relax. You'll feel the fever start but it won't get out of control if you don't let it." I coached and watched as she focused on her hands and a small ball of fire began to form between them.

The front door opened and a woman with auburn hair, in nice dressy clothes walked in, with...a priest? She looked up at Sera with a look of anger and fear. Sera looked up and every bit of confidence she had just built disapeared in a flash. She shook her hands getting rid of the fire.
"M..mom.." She said.
"This.. is much worse than you've told me Darla." The priest said and looked at me. I raised an eyebrow at him and tossed the ball of fire up and down in my hands.
"Mom.. what does he mean?" Sera asked.

Her mother sighed. "I confided in him about you..and your problems." She said. Somehow the word problems made my blood boil. "He..suggested cleansing the house."
"Oh..christ Darla you've got to be kidding me!" Alec spat and stood up.
"No, Alec I'm not. he can even help Sera! He can get rid of it."
I looked over at Sera who looked heartbroken. Her mother honestly thought that she was evil. I shook my hand getting rid of the fireball.

"If.. I may-" I started.
"No. You may not." Her mother spat at me. "You should be ashamed of yourself. You and all the teachers at that so called school. Teaching these children. MY child how to do this.." She stepped over to Sera.
"Let Father Michael help you. He can rid you of this and you can be home again." She smiled and put her hands on her daughters face.
"Mom.. what the actual hell?" Gabriel asked.
"You.. think I'm possessed?" Sera asked.
"I think you're sick." Darla replied.

I couldn't keep my thoughts to myself any longer.
"This.. is madness. Your daughter.. Isn't sick. She's gifted."
"Shes sick!" Darla snapped. "You are all sick!"
Father Michael put his hand on Sera's wrist and pulled it back quickly as he was burned. He looked at his hand in horror and looked at Sera who was in turned horrified.
"I..I'm sorry I didn't mean t-"
"Sera what have you done? Don't you see how bad this is?!" her mother demanded.
"Let me help you before its too late." Father Michael said stepping forward again.
Alec, stepped in front of Father Michael.
"You touch her again and this sick old man is going to kick your ass around the block." He growled.
Sera in the meantime took off up the stairs.
Alec looked at me.
"You should probably take her back to school. I'm..truly sorry about all of this."
"Don't be." I said and glared at Sera's mother. How..could any woman..any mother say these things to their kid?

I walked up the stairs and followed the sound of very loud rock music. She probably wanted to drown out all the commotion down stairs. I didn't blame her in the slightest. I stopped in front of the bedroom door with a large S painted on it and knocked on the door.

The door swung open and Sera looked at me with tears in her eyes and stepped away from the door so I could come in. Once I was in she slammed the door shut and turned the radio down a little bit before she sat down at her desk with her back turned from me and her head in her hands.

I looked around the room, there were posters from several different fantasy films all over the room and the walls were painted to look like a galaxy. She had a massive book collection beside her bed and on her bed was a large plush of Falcor from The Neverending Story. I was sensing a theme..between that, and various movie posters, and figurines, and the fact that her snake was named Bastion that The Neverending Story was likely her favorite.

"How..does one who has fantasy plastered over every inch of her room, have such a hard time believing in magic?" I asked.
"I believe in it... I just wish it would happen to someone else." She muttered. "Its better in the books and the movies.."
"Well.. I agree there." I said. She sniffled and wiped her eyes.
"So..we've had dinner and A show.." She said. "A shit show.. But a show nonetheless.."
"Sera you know what your mother was saying isn't true right? You aren't evil.. You aren't sick."
"Sick.. no. but I did just burn a fucking Priest." She said. "Evil is still a possibility."
"Trust me. You are not evil." I chuckled. "You were overwhelmed."
Sera stood up and grabbed a bag and put a few things in it.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Grabbing some stuff I forgot to grab before.." She said "Then we can go."

The finished throwing things into the bag and put it over her shoulder.
"Lets go." She said and opened her door walking out of it. I followed her and noticed that Gabriel was watching me closely from his room with that same knowing look on his face. Seriously? What was wrong with that kid?

We walked down the stairs and Sera hugged her father.
"I love you Dad.. I'll call tomorrow." She said and looked at her mother who was standing by the door with Father Michael.
She walked over to the door.
"Love you mom.." She said. Her mother just looked away from her. Sera hurried past her mother and out the door to my car. I looked at her mother.
"You are the most vile woman I've ever met." I spat. "Shame on me? Shame on you." I said and walked out of the house and to my car. Sera was already in the car. When I got in, she was quiet but the second I drove away from the house she crumbled. She let out a strangled sob that she had been holding onto.

I looked at the clock, it was almost 10pm. I couldn't bring her back to the school like this. Regina would just make things worse the second she saw Sera's tears and I wasn't exactly sure what to do to make her feel better so I just drove aimlessly until she looked out the window and noticed we weren't heading back to the school.
"Where are we going?" She asked
"I haven't a clue. Any suggestions?" I said. "I'm not taking you back into the school right now, that would be leading a lamb to slaughter."
"I'm sorry.. I'm a mess. I'll be fine really." Sera said.
"Don't apologize. You are not a mess. That.. back there was the mess. You have every right to be as upset as you are. So where do you want to go?"
"Honestly.. Killian Its late you'll get in trouble if we don't go ba-"
"I don't care." I said cutting her off and honestly I had no idea what was coming over me but the only thing I cared about right now was making sure she was okay. "Where are we going?" I asked again. "What do you do when you are upset?"
"Its stupid.." she muttered.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I look at the stars. Theres a really nice spot in the park. No one is ever there this late."
"Then that is what we will do." I said and turned the car around heading to the park.

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I looked down at Sera, who was laid on the grass looking up at the sky pointing out different constellations to me.
"You know they'd be much easier to see from down here." She said.
"This is for you." I replied.
"But I'd enjoy it more if you'd look with me." She said. I sighed and sat down next to her before laying back and looking up.
"Happy?" I asked.
"Yeah." She smiled."Can I ask a question?" She asked.
"Sure."

"How did your family take it.. Finding out you were gifted?" She asked.
I swallowed thickly.
"Well..unfortunately..my mother passed when my brother and I were boys. Shortly after that..my father left us. My brother Liam..was less than thrilled when I almost burned the house down at 13 but.. He helped me. He had no understanding of what was happening to me at all and frankly neither did I but he always made sure to help me through it when he could and then a few years ago, I lost him too. He was a police officer and was shot in a drug deal gone bad."
Sera turned on her side to look at me.
"I'm really sorry.." She said. "I shouldn't have asked."
"No..its okay." I said and turned on my side to look at her and smiled. "Not talking about it doesn't mean it never happened. It actually helps me heal."

We stared at each other for what felt like eternity in silence before she rolled back onto her back to look at the stars.
"Thank you Killian..for everything today." She said.
I smiled, too busy being enchanted by the way my name sounded coming from her lips to care that she said it.
"You're welcome Sera." I replied.

I'd lost track of time, as I stared up at the stars with her. I was in a different world, until I felt something land on my chest. I looked up and saw a black fingernail painted hand clutching my shirt. I looked to my side to see Sera had fallen asleep, and rolled over and was now sleeping contently with her head on my shoulder and her hand over my heart and I couldn't even fathom waking her up, because once I did this moment would be gone.
You're in trouble now Jones..