Magically entwined

Sometimes, you just need a friend

Jax fell silently to the floor, stumbling so he was kneeling on one knee. To any onlookers, it might've looked like he was proposing to Rainy, but when Rainy bent down and hugged him tightly, an apparant look of fear and worry on her face, those assumptions would have been cast aside. Rainy didn't know what else to do, other than to hold him tightly and stroke his hair as he sobbed gently over her shoulder. He never said anything, but clearly in the space she'd been something had happened to make him lose control like this. Rainy wasn't sure how else to help other than to offer Jax comfort - she didn't have any royal or alpha responsibilities like he did, and therefore had no idea what pressure he may be under or what circumstances he'd been presented with. She caught sight of someone out of the corner of her eye, and gently detached herself from Jax, holding his shoulder while gently brushing the tears off his cheek with her other hand. "It'll be okay Jax. I don't know what's going on, and you don't have to tell me right now. But whatever it is, you'll get through it. Things will be alright, you'll see." Rainy then walked away back towards the other people training, gesturing for Thomas to approach her. Thomas ran over to her sensing something was clearly wrong with his best friend - he'd been watching their interaction but hadn't wanted to interrupt had it been a private matter. Rainy told him that Jax was upset about something but wasn't comfortable talking to her about it, and advised Thomas to try and see if he could coax a response out of him, or at least provide support that she couldn't. She watched Thomas hurry off immediately to console his friend, and despite the strangeness and sadness of it all, she couldn't help but feel relieved Jax had a friend who cared about him. She knew that in situations like this, Hunter always did a great deal for her. Thomas, you better damn well do your best for him. He needs you right now, not just as his Beta, but as his friend.

** Jax's POV **

I was vaguely aware of Rainy leaving. When she detacher herself from me I felt a shift of warmth, like the air had somehow become completely devoid of heat and I was being clutched tightly by cold, icy hands, determined to freeze me in my turmoil. I felt my heart pang at her absence, but I knew she didn't want to leave my side, she just didn't yet know me well enough to know how to help me. And I hadn't exactly helped by not telling her what was wrong - I can't expect her to fix a problem she isn't aware of. At this present moment I just felt so detached from my body, like everything that was happening was happening to someone else entirely. There was no way I'd lost my friends, my comrades, my supporters in just a few short hours. They'd been sent to survey a base and return safely with information from what they'd simply observed - they weren't sent to interrogate or engage or to fight on the front lines. They were intended to be innocent bystanders, and instead they were slaughtered, burned and suffocated to death no less. It left me feeling incredibly nauseous and trembling, to imagine that such a horrorific order could be given without a second thought. And I couldn't bear acknowledging the reality that these people I'd sent out to harmlessly camp in trees and simply watch the opposition had been so brutally dealt with, disabled and dismembered and their airways restricted. I had sent them out there for a mission I believed to be reasonably safe, expecting that even if they weren't able to acquire much information, they'd return home safe and sound by the following day, with a party to welcome them at the gates and friends and family to embrace them. Instead, I'd have to make an announcement to the people and organise a traditional funeral ceremony. These men and women had so many people who cared about them, and as destroyed as I felt, they were about to feel so much more heart-broken. On the grand scale of things, this would be considered an insignificant loss to me. But to these people's families, it would be a devastating loss that would shift their entire outlook on life, and I couldn't blame them if they questioned my decision-making either. I was completely wracked with guilt and felt it almost at the center of my being. I didn't exoect myself to be capable of feeling anything other than ashamed, guilty and deeply saddened for the rest of the day. I was vaguely aware of different footsteps approaching me, and usually my heightened senses allowed me to know who was approaching me by the sound and frequency of their steps alone if they were familiar to me. However, in my current state I didn't register it was Thomas until he was knelt down in front of me.

"This is not a good look for you man." he said, lifting a hand to my shoulder.

"Yeah, I imagine I look quite a sight right now" I said, sniffling and trying to brush my tears away, glancing over my shoulder to see how many people were looking at me. To my surprise, most people were minding their own business and remained engaged with their training.

"Eh, don't worry about them man. All I wanna know is what's up with you. And I'm sure your new lady friend would like to know too."

"She worried?" I asked, feeling bad about something new for a second.

"I imagine so dude. It's pretty clear she cares about you, and I don't blame her. As it comes, you're a pretty awesome guy, and as you know I don't hand out compliments very often."

"Yeah well, I don't feel pretty awesome right now." I say, shrugging.

"So we need to fix that immediately. You wanna tell me what's wrong and we'll go from there? Whatever it is we'll have to deal with it - you can't be in this kinda state for much longer J. I've got your back whatever it is. We're a team, I'm not gonna watch you descend into madness."

I take some deep breaths. I have no idea what I'd do without Thomas. He's just so insanely calm and level-headed, nevermind loyal. But not only is he worried about his alpha, he wants his friend to be well and to be his usual self. I know that I can trust him. Not that I can't trust Rainy, but I don't wanna burden her more than I have to. Besides, as my Beta Thomas knows what he signed up for.

"Okay. Here goes. I sent some scouts out this morning. I believed I'd located Roman's main base of operations based on where we'd intercepted some of his shipments from before, they all seemed to follow a linear line on the map and I noticed there was a large warehouse along the same path. I needed to know if my hunch was correct, because if it was then it meant we'd be able to intercept his resources and force him to either fight us in a weakened state, or pledge his loyalty to us so his kingdom wouldn't suffer. Although I mean, he doesn't seem to care much about people, and he probably knows we're too damn caring to let innocent people suffer. But yeah, we needed to know if that was where all his supplies were being kept. And as it turns out, it was indeed. But that's where it all kinda went to s***. As the scout's commanding officer was informing me of their discovery, it appeared they got attacked. And it wasn't just a physical assault or brawl; they were attacked by magic. Turns out that base had also been housing a coven that I can only assume Roman has enlisted to improve his odds at taking over the throne. So yeah, I guess on his orders, the burnt the nearby forest to the ground and our guys along with it. They're all dead Thomas. I sent them to find a safe place to sit for a stake-out for a couple hours, and then expected them to return home with news. I never imagined they'd even be in the path of any danger, worse case scenario being taken as hostages. I knew the guy had a reputation for being brutal, but Thomas they were outright murdered." As he got to the end of his explanation, Jax's voice was audibly shaking, with anger or despair Thomas couldn't quite tell.

Thomas took a second to just compose himself, taking a minute to do some deep breaths as he processed this unprecedented loss. This majorly sucked and was a serious blow to the chest; every member of their pack was like family, and he knew that Jax felt like he'd just like his own brothers, and that he would only ever blame himself. Despite how he was feeling himself, Thomas knew his priority was to try and console his friend and make him feel better, although he wasn't convinced he'd make much of a difference.

"Okay, yeah that's... Okay it's awful. And man, I am beyond sorry. But this isn't on you. You've sent scouts out hundreds of times on missions almost identical to this one. You couldn't have expected Roman to go as far as he did - he's on a whole other level of crazy and deranged. You can't hold yourself responsible for the actions of a mad man. They wouldn't have gone if they didn't trust your judgement brother. They knew they could always back down, it was their choice to go. Yeah, we lost a bunch of good people today. Really, really good people. But knowing what you now know about his plan and his forces, they wouldn't want you to sit around on your butt feeling sorry for something that's out of your control, that you can't change now anyway. They'd want you to make thigs right as best as you can. Give your condolences to their families, organise new scout unit, and let's set a serious plan in motion to secure the kingdom that's rightfully ours and make sure Roman can't hurt anyone else ever again. This is what they lost their lives for - a better future for their loved ones. Let's see that they didn't die in vain, yeah?" he said, clapping Jax on the shoulder.

Jax looked up at his best friend, and was just completely baffled by the strength of the man. He must have looked completely crazy when he burst out laughing. "I had no idea you were so good at pep talks."

"Well it's not really something I've had much practice with, but you looked like you could use one." said Thomas, smiling at his friend returning to his usual self again.

"I think yeah, I definitely needed that. You mind coming with me to help deliver the news? In case I have another complete break down."

Thomas extended his hand to Jax and the pair stood up, hugging each other tightly. "That's what friends are for."

"And can you make sure Rainy's there when I tell everyone? She needs to know why I was such a mess, and I hope she can forgive me for not talking to her about it."

"She'll understood. This whole thing is pretty new - I'm sure she'll get that there are just some things you need to talk to your friends about first. I'm sure you'll appreciate that notion just as much when she bothers Cella and Hunter with her girl talk and leaves you out of it."

The pair laugh before doing the goofy handshake they came up with they were 10, Thomas then returning to the training ground to ask everyone to make their way to the pack house for an announcement, Jax heading back to the palace to shower away his thoughts and compose himself for the meeting to come.