Unlikely Places

Chapter 41 Overprotective Neanderthals

The silence in the kitchen after Branson, Noah, and Mick left was the loneliest sound I had ever heard. I wrapped my arms tightly around my torso, trying to stave off the fine tremors that were shaking me from the inside out.

Pierce stepped forward immediately and wrapped his arms tightly around me, sharing the warmth of his body to quell the shivers. I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead against Pierce's solid chest, soaking up the comfort he was offering.

I heard Archer and Percy whispering to each other but I didn't try to listen in to what they were saying. I needed a minute to decompress. I needed another minute or ten to recharge. Pierce was helping me do both.

Pierce was the first to pull back. He looked down at me then cocked his head to the right, indicating without words that Archer and Percy were still here. They had not left.

It was as if a bolt of lightening struck me. I turned towards them and literally pounced on Archer in my frantic haste. I grabbed at his hand and held it between my own in a tight grip. I didn't plan to let go either. He wasn't going to get the chance to walk out of here. Out on me.

"I think you two need to talk," Percy commented and Pierce nodded in agreement.

"Go... go," Percy ordered, shooing us out of the room back towards the living room. "We'll just stay in here and finish up with... with... well... whatever," he finished with a flourish of his hands and turned back towards Pierce and the kitchen, his face tight with concern.

My hand still holding tightly to Archer I pulled him towards the sofa and sat, pulling him down beside me, his hand still firmly grasped in my own.

"I... I want to talk. I want you to listen. Will y...you listen?" I murmured.

Archer's stern face eased. He lay his free hand over our clasped ones, and smiled. "Of course, I will, Jackson. I'm not going anywhere."

A deep sigh of relief escaped my lungs. His words eased the tight hold I had had on myself since Branson, Mick, and Noah walked out the door. It made what I had to say easier. From my heart the words flowed.

"I love you guys. I love that you're protective. I... I love that you always have my back. I love it and have encouraged it since the m...moment we met years ago and you rescued me. It's how we all started and I have been a...as guilty basking in it as you all have been in enacting it."

I smiled ruefully at Archer and he smiled back at me knowingly. He couldn't disagree either way with what I said. It was who we all were and how we had all been.

"None of you were ever wrong. It's not really a wrong or r...right thing. I don't ever want any of you to change. I j...just need for you to recognize the changes in me."

"We have noticed," Archer said with a smile.

I smiled back.

"I know you have noticed but y...you haven't really adapted to them or thought about what they m...mean," I pointed out carefully.

Archer's eyes widened as my words sunk in. It was clear by his reaction that he hadn't.

"You all were who you were at a time I...I needed it. From that moment on we fell into a way of life. I was Jackson and y...you were my protectors. So ingrained did it become that none of us thought to question it nor was there anything wrong with it. And it's not l...like there is even anything 'wrong' with it per se, it's just that I have changed and I don't..." I hesitated over my choice of words not wanting to hurt Archer or seem ungrateful for all he and the guys had done for me over the years.