[b]Jessalyn - House - Floyd[/b]

Jess stayed under the covers for quite a while before peeking her head out. Things were no different then they had been, but she knew she couldn't hide forever. She would have to face Floyd, hoping that his anger had cooled off by now.
But maybe she would put it off for just a little longer.

Getting up, she went to the closet and started sorting through the clothing. The woman who had lived her before had kept a few of her maternity clothes but she had been taller then Jess. She changed out of her dirty travel clothes into a pair of shorts, the openings for the legs were a little big, and a flowing bohemian style maternity top. It was white with blue flowers on it.
The rest of the clothes, the ones that wouldn't fit her, Jess pushed into the back of the closet.
Next came the men's clothes. The man had been about as tall as Floyd but not as muscular. The shirts would probably not fit, but the pants looked like they would work alright. If she found a needle and thread she could probably take the hem out of the shirts and resew them to make them bigger.

She was still in the sorting process when she heard Floyd's footsteps. She tensed a moment before she realized he was not coming in.
A knock and a faint 'I'm sorry' was all she heard before he walked off again.
Jess stared at the clothes, thinking. He had apologized. Maybe he really hadn't meant to get so angry. He still needed to learn to control his temper though, especially with a baby on the way. She wouldn't have him losing his temper around her child.

Picking up a few pairs of pants that she thought would fit him, Jess opened the door to see he had started down the stairs.
She walked to him without shaking, proud of herself for it, and held out the clothes to him. "The shirts are too small, but I'm going to try and fix them. The pants should fit, if you want a change of clothes."

She went down the stairs, waiting for him to follow. She wasn't going to mention anything about what had happened. He had apologized and that was the end of it. But there was something she needed to do.

They went into the kitchen and she pulled out a chair for him and another for herself. "Please sit and talk with me," she asked.
When he sat she took a deep breath. "I think you need to understand me more, and I need to understand you. So I am going to tell you about myself and, in turn, I am hoping you will feel comfortable enough to tell me about yourself. I am not going to force you," she added quickly. "It is your choice."
Taking another breath, she began.

"My father left when I was five. He was an alcoholic. He wasn't mean or abusive, he was just stupid. He couldn't hold a job because of his drinking problem and he did dumb things when he was drunk. I think he sort of cared about me, in his own way, but I wasn't the boy he wanted and he loved his alcohol more then me. One day I came home from school and he was... just gone. My mom would never talk about him to me until I was 13 and I forced her to tell me about him."
She cleared her throat before she continued. "I had a brother. A half-brother that my mother had before she married my dad. His name was Nick. He... He hated me for being born. Always did. It went from him being mean and teasing me as children, to him either ignoring my existence completely or yelling at me for things I didn't do. He even tried to kill me once. We were swimming in a pool and he tried to drown me. When the outbreak happened, we were in all in the car trying to get away. He shoved me out of the car and drove off without a second glance."

Jessalyn had to take a moment. This was hard for her to talk about. "For some reason I loved him. I tried everything I could to win his love. I would have done anything if it meant that he would treat me as a brother should treat his sister. Pretty stupid huh?"

She wiped her eyes and breathed. "So anyway," she continued, her voice a little hoarse. "After all of that I met Bruce. He said he would look after me, that he would take me somewhere safe. All I had to do was do him a favor : Lay still. After he was... done with me, he took me to Lynn and left me with her. I found out I was pregnant three months later. I didn't see or hear from Bruce until Eli took me to Haywood. He was the leader there. He was going to trade me to Tyler for supplies, as he had done with other women, but there was an uprising and he was overthrown from his leadership. They brought him to me after Eli was killed, wanting me to kill him. He lied to me again, filling my head with apologies and saying how he wanted to love me and take care of our child. I stupidly believed him. I [b]wanted[/b] it to be true, even though unconciously I knew it wasn't. He attacked me the moment he was loose. He almost killed me before they shot him."

She smiled, but her smile was not humorous in the slightest. "So, as you can see, my track record with men is not the best. So if I come across as needy or clingy or scared of being abandoned, now you know why. It is not because I think badly of you, I am just afraid that whatever is in men that makes them hate me will make you hate me. I don't know what I do that makes every man I let in hate me, but I'm scared of it happening with you too. That I will do something to make you hate me and you'll leave me behind like everyone does."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[b]Katie - Farm - Bull, Lauren[/b]

Katie heard the shot and saw Lauren fall. "NO!" she screamed. "No Lauren no! Don't go away!"
When Bull appeared and held the woman Katie looked around. The man who had shot her was arguing with another man. "You bad man!" she shouted angrily.
The next minute there was a shot and the man was the ground, dead. Katie screamed and ran behind Bull.
"Go away!" she yelled at the man who had shot the mean man. "Leave us alone!" she ordered.