Perfect School

Kira:

I glanced over at Kyle and Michael, inspecting their faces for some sign of how they were feeling. While I couldn't read Kyle as Kyra was in the way. I had a good view of Michael's expression. He looked in pain, like someone had punched him in the gut and he didn't know what to do after. But after Kyra gave him directions he went off with barely a glance around.

Michael:

I hadn't wanted to come. Kyle had convinced me other wise. It was the easiest way to know my wife was safe. That she was even alive at all. My blue eyes swept over the room, passing over Kira and after Kyra told me where Krissy was I went off. My heart hurt more and more as I got closer. And when I gripped the doorknob I hesitated for almost a minute before turning it and stepping inside.

Krissy:

When I got out of the shower I dressed in the only change of clothes they had here: dark green scrubs. I stood by the window and looked out. My body felt numb. I had a few scratches but nothing serious. My mind was guilty. I wasn’t sorry I had killed Ivan, but I could have gone about it differently.

I heard Kyle’s voice from the hallway. I sat on the bed waiting for my scolding from my brother. Then Michael walked through the door. The look on his face scared me. It had been quite a long time since I had seen such a look from him. He was guarded against me.

I went to him still and wrapped my arms around him. I clung to him and when he didn’t put his arms around me, I held on tighter.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry,” I said, voice cracking. I couldn’t stand for him to be unhappy, especially when I was the direct cause for it.

"You left. You walked out without a word." My voice was low, almost chilling. But she knew me well enough to hear the cracks and the raw pain that was underneath. "I didn't know if..." I didn't finish the sentence and instead drew in a deep breath to calm down. The guard slid further up, less to keep her out but to keep everything else in.

Krissy:

“I know… Michael, I’m so sorry. It happened so quickly. I couldn’t stop myself… I’m sorry…” I pressed my face into his shoulder. I desperately wanted him to hold me so I could know that it would be alright again. But he still didn’t.

"It takes 14 hours to get here...so you had 14 hours to send me a message while coming here. Then however long you've been here to tell me. And after that another 14 hours while Kyle and I flew here." My voice was no longer cold, just tired.

Krissy:

I looked up at him and put my hands on either side of his face, trying to get some physical reaction from him. Hoping he would touch me in some way.

“I wasn’t in my right mind. I wasn’t thinking straight. I couldn’t focus anything else…” I said looking into his eyes. Once the words left my mouth I knew it wasn’t exactly true. I had thought of him. I had thought that I didn’t want him to know where I was. I didn’t want him to come after me and find me. I didn’t want him to get hurt or killed because of me. My life didn’t matter in the state that I was in, but his still did.

Disappointment colored my face as I searched her own. She'd just lied to me. I could see it on her face that she didn't fully believe in the words that came from her mouth. "I thought I could have lost you for good...my one constant in my life. The person who made me good. The love of my life could have died and she left me to deal with it all alone. The uncertainty, the worry, the pain...and you just now lied to me." Reaching up I took hold of her hands, my touches ever so gentle as I squeezed them then pulled them off my face.

"I love you Krissy." I still held her hands in my hand, and I squeezed them once more before letting them go and stepping towards the door behind me. I paused only long enough to open the door andd take a step outside before murmuring over my shoulder, "I'm sorry...I need a moment."

Krissy:

My heart broke with every word from him. A deep worried line cinched my brows together. It shattered me when he said I lied. Because it was true, and I had never wanted to do that to him. And then he walked away from me.

That’s not how we did things. If we disappointed each other, or upset each other, or accidentally hurt each other, we always made up. We didn’t need time away when we were unhappy. We fixed things first, and it never took much more than apologies and hugging to do so. I had never messed up this badly and he had never walked away from me.

“Michael, I’m sorry!” I went after him. Maybe it would have been wiser to give him the minute he needed, but I couldn’t bare it. I grabbed his arm. “I didn’t mean for this to happen. I should have told you, I know that.”

Even with her clinging onto my arm I didn't stop moving but my pace was slowed. "But you didn't tell me. You didn't trust me to stand with you." I stopped in the room with the others and looked at her. "You were selfish Krissy...you didn't want me to get hurt or die, but you didn't even consider how I would feel...how your own daughter would feel." Raising my eyes to Kyle I gave him a pleading look. I wanted a drink, I wanted to just step away for a bit. But I also didn't want to hurt my wife by forcing her off me.

Krissy:

Everything he said, his disappointment, and his sadness crushed me. I was speechless. I couldn't let him go, couldn't let him leave me. I felt a familiar hand on my shoulder.

"Let go Krissy. You've done enough. Let him be," Kyle said. I slid my hands down to hold Michael's. I couldn't let go entirely. "Michael..." I said brokenly.

"Come on." Kyle squeezed my shoulder and tugged me back.

Kyra:

I watched with my arms crossed, leaning against the wall near Kira. I'd never seen Krissy and Michael like this with each other. But then I had never seen Krissy lose it before. I thought is served her right.

"I'll be at the bar across the street." I murmured to Kyle before walking out of the room. It broke my heart to walk out like that. But I didn't know what to do. She'd never lied to me like this. Never had we fought with each other and not made up there. But I really had worried she was dead. That she'd been kidnapped. And yet she'd chosen to go off on a mission of revenge. One I'd have happily stood beside her on.

Kira:

I glanced over and watched the specticle out of the corner of my eye then turned my face fully away to keep looking out the window. I didn't know what to do. I didn't care about my life, but I did care that the things I was coming to enjoy were close to being taken away from me. I wouldn't be able to have time with my family. See my team. Train with Jonah. All of it would be taken away from me.

I wasn't sure what I could do about it, if anything. I was trapped.

Kyle:

Once Michael was out the door, Krissy stopped leaning away from me. She stood motionless with a shell-shocked expression. I let her go slowly, expecting her to run after him, but she didn’t move.

I was angry with her too. For more reasons than Michael. I wanted to shake her and yell at her. She had put my daughter in danger. She had put Kira in danger. She had promised she was done with this and yet here we were. But now wasn’t the time to say any of that. I turned to the girls.

“Come on, let’s get you something to eat and a place to rest,” I told them, nodding Kyra and
Kira over.


Kyra:

I straightened up and uncrossed my arms. We hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. I didn’t realize how hungry I was until now. Even so, I hesitated, looking at Kira. If she didn’t come, I wouldn’t go.

Kira:

I stood slowly, methodically. There was no life in my limbs, and I simply obeyed the words coming from Kyle. My mind was elsewhere, processing the day, processing the entire events leading up to this. My world teetered on the brink of falling apart. And with how close it was to dropping I was realizing how fragile it was. It didn't leave me with many options, each sounding worse than the last. Did I turn myself in? Did I try to run? Did I cross my fingers like a little girl and hope it all just blew over?

As I followed Kyle and Kyra, joining them even though I only felt a weight in my stomach and no desire to sleep.

Michael:

Across the street I entered a little bar. A handful of people glanced up when I walked in but most didn't look for more than a moment. Even then after one look at my face they didn't stay staring for long. I found a place at the bar, away from everyone else and ordered my first drink. For a moment guilt flashed through me. Krissy didn't like it when I drank. She barely tolerated what little I did normally. But the thought made me laugh bitterly and I downed half of it in one go.

Kyra:

Kira and I sat in the back seat while Krissy sat in the front. Sitting behind my dad, I saw a couple tears roll down Krissy’s cheeks.

“For Christ’s sake,” I muttered. “Stop acting like a kicked dog. You did this to yourself.” She turned her head to look out the window. It infuriated me even more.

“Do you even realize what you’ve done? How careless you’ve been?” I demanded. My dad shifted the rear-view mirror to look at me.

“I’m sorry,” Krissy said quietly. “Sorry? Really? We should be able to depend on you, not run after you to fix your mistakes. You put us all in danger for no reason. You made us sick with worrying. You could have killed our friend. We don’t even know if he’s going to be okay. And all for what? Revenge? Don’t you think we all wanted that? You aren’t the only one who cares about Kira. We just control ourselves better. You’re a pitiful excuse for a mother.”

“Kyra, that’s enough,” My dad said with a warning look in the mirror.

“This is bullshit.” I crossed my arms and looked out my own window, fuming. My face was hot with anger.

Kira:

Their words drew me out of my thoughts. I couldn't disagree with what they were saying. Krissy shouldn't have done this. She'd jeopardized everything and for a revenge that didn't even matter. I knew he was a bad man. He'd hurt me and humiliated me all to mold me into what I was.

That everyone was getting so heated over it when the consequences of it all fell onto my head and in part Jonah's made me snort and shake my head.

Kyle:

I ordered food to go without asking anyone what they wanted. It brought back memories, having a car full of unhappy women. Kyra looked so like her mother, especially when she got angry like this. It was why I was soft with her.

What would my wife have done if she was here? Would she have taken Krissy away to help her, or would she have taken the kids? What would she think of Kira? Could she help turn Krissy into a mother? It broke my heart that Lexi wasn’t here. That she never got to see her children as anything but babies.

I rubbed my temples when I parked the car at a hotel. I would need to have a serious talk with Krissy about what had happened but now wasn’t the time. It would do no good to beat her while he was down. For now, I got our rooms and set the food out for them to eat. Only Kyra took anything.

Kira:

A part of me knew I should eat. It had been long enough, and I needed to take my medicine too. A task that was easier on my stomach when it was full. But I couldn't bring myself to do it. Instead I went for the window, placing my hands on the windowsill as I watched the city move ahead of me. I kept to myself, deep within my thoughts for several hours before I finally pushed away from the view and snagged up my backpack. I didn't want to be here. Not where everything felt so chaotic in my head. Only one person had ever brought that chaos under control and he wasn't here.

I could hear Kyra in the shower, and felt better about it. I scrawled a quick note to her, leaving it on her bed before making my way out the door. I almost made it to the stairs with my phone being pulled out of my pocket when a hand gripped my shoulder. In any other state of mind I would have attacked whomever it was, but all I did was jump. Glancing over my shoulder I eyed Kyle and his hand. "I'm going to see Jonah."

Kyle:

A million reasons why I should stop her came into my mind. She needed rest, she could be seen, she shouldn’t be with Jonah. But ultimately, I had no control over her and telling her not to go would only drive her away.

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll take you.” It was the best way to keep tabs on her. And I wanted a moment alone with her anyway.

Krissy:

I laid down on the bed. Now that I was alone, the tears flowed unrestrained. I clutched my phone to my chest trying not to call Michael over and over until he picked up, so I could beg him to come back. Kyle said to give him some space. Instead I called the only person who might possibly not hate me for what I had done.

Kira:

I expected him to refuse me. I expected him to try to convince me to stay. Anything but offering to take me. I paused, my arguments dying on my lips as I turned to face him and search his face for a moment. "Thank you..." I murmured the faintest of smiles touching my lips.

Jack:

The clubs music was deafening, but that didn't stop me from laughing louder than the music. I had one arm around a bombshell of a blonde. All legs and curves. The other was thrown around a man who made me look short. Both were laughing along with me, in on the little inside joke that the tired looking man across from us had given. I liked this little trio. They were fun and always up for some adventurous activities.

I had a quip ready, a saucy little thing that would send my Ugandian friend beside me blushing. But I was interupted by a buzzing from my pocket. Leaning forward, and taking Lisa along for the ride as I dug it out of my pocket using the arm still wrapped around her. My face lit up and I released them both. "I gotta take this. A friend. You'd all love her to pieces the sugary sweetheart. Her husband might as well be my brother too. Now kisses," Pausing to kiss each six different cheeks I flipped open the phone and brought it to my ear. "If any of you eat my cheese sticks. I'll spank you. And I mean it." I pointed at each of them then moved towards the balcony door just a few feet away.

Once the music wasn't pounding into my ear drums I grinned and leaned on the railing. "Krissy my darling, my sweetheart, my shining star to what do I owe this pleasure?"

Kyle:

I nodded. For a moment I thought of letting Kyra know, but she would likely fuss and want to come along. Instead, I took my niece to the car. I knew they were only just beginning to build their relationship. I hoped what Krissy did wouldn’t set them back too far.

Krissy:

I paused for a moment, listening to the noise in the background before Jack spoke. “Jack,” I said brokenly, “Michael left me.” It was a bit of an overstatement, and I knew that, but it was what I felt at the moment. I had not felt this alone since we had gotten married.

It brought back all the times we had been separated I didn’t know if I would see him again or if he was still even alive. And it made it all the worse because I was the source of the issue. I was the reason he left. “I messed up. I broke our promise and killed someone… I lost it…”

Kira:

I climbed into the passenger seat and hugged onto my backpack. "I thought you would try and stop me." I admitted to him. It was hard to describe our relationship. On one hand we'd tried to kill each other. On the other he'd mocked me repeated. On still a third it was because of him that I had met Michael and Krissy.

Jack:

I held my breath at her words. I knew Michael. Better than most. I couldn't see him ever leaving Krissy like that. I waited for more and sighed slowly through my nose as it came. "Oh honey...I doubt he's gone for good. I know Michael. So tell me what you did alright? I'm sure things aren't that bad. And where are you? I can be on a plane in twenty minutes."

Kyle:

“I’ve long since learned that telling a teenage girl what to do only tends to backfire,” I said as I backed out of the parking space. I waited a few minutes before speaking again, “Kira, you’re not my daughter, but I hope you know I see you as one. I want to protect you just as much as I want to protect the rest of my family.” I sighed. “Krissy doesn’t know how to be a mother. She was always taken care of by everyone else. You can’t blame her for that. But what she did today was wrong. We all know it. It’s just not as simple as her being reckless and irresponsible. She has… problems. She always has. Problems with controlling her urges. When she gets set on a path nothing can stop her. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be angry with her for it. I’m angry with her. But just keep in in mind.”


Krissy:

I told him everything. I didn’t try to sugar coat it or present my best side. Jack knew me. He also had his own impulsive problems. He was the most likely to understand my side of it and not hate me for it. I tried not to tell him where we were, saying I wanted to make up with Michael first but we would surely meet up with him after that.

Kira:

I gripped my bag tighter as he spoke.  Not quite defending Krissy, but certainly not condoning what she'd done.  I held my tongue until he was finished before responding.  "None of you seem to know that this whole situation is fragile for me.  If I step out of line too far, don't dance the right tune, and I'll disappear.  I won't be seen again."

Jack:

I sighed at the end of it, rubbing my jaw as she laid it all out before me.  "Well I can tell you that Michael doesn't hate you.  I am a little upset no one has invited me to meet your daughter, and I'll get my revenge for that at a better time."

Turning around and gazing into the club I leaned against the railing.  "I know Michael.  There isn't much that has him worrying.  But if I had to guess he thought he might have lost you.  You were reckless, but you know that.  You didn't once consider just what would have happened if you'd failed.  Who would have to pick up the pieces, deal with the unknown.  But again you know that.  So really you need to give him a second.  He'll come around once the adrenaline and fear wear off."

"But I don't think he's the one who is a victim here.  Your daughter.  Kira.  Sounds like she lives a really controlled life.  Is she going to be alright?"

Kyle:

“It is dangerous for all of us, Kira. But we risk it for family,” I said. We were only a few minutes away from the facility I was taking her to. “We could protect you. My aunt is powerful, but she isn’t the only one. Your parents are out of this game, but I’m not. I have people working for me, I have connections. This whole situation may have gone differently if I hadn’t had my own people pulling strings.”

Krissy:

I pulled the covers over my head. “I don’t know, Jack. I may have pushed her further away by doing this. I haven’t exactly talked to her… She might not want anything else to do with me.” My heart hurt more now. Michael leaving me had shattered me, but I knew he would come back. He had to. And Jack had helped calm me on that matter. But I could have irreparably damaged my relationship with her.

Kira:

"Dangerous for all of you?" I asked softly. I couldn't help the snort that followed the rest of his words. "I don't think there is anything you could do Kyle. The effort is noted but for all the connections you have...could you take on an entire city? That is the resources available to Marie. A city and it's personnel, it's funds, it's production." Shaking my head I looked up at him. "You can't win."

Jack:

"You never know if you don't try, and you won't know the damage and till you go look. You gotta talk to her so you know just how you can make this better." Sighing softly I tilted my head back to look at the night sky above. "I know it'll be hard sweetie, but I know you can do it. You caught Michael. I tried for years to do that and I got nothing."