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One Month Later

"Kwon!" She tries as he chuckles to himself. Axel stands a few feet away from him unaware of the knife tucked into his palm. Kwon runs at him as a member of Iron Dragon kicks Jamie in her stomach.

Jamie kicks their foot before sweeping their other leg out from under them. As she stands back up, she hears a deafening scream ring throughout the arena, "No."

The teens gather around him as Kwon lays still. Jamie pushes through before standing beside Miguel. Her heart racing at the amount of blood surrounding Kwon.

"Kwon?" Daniel says kneeling beside him. He then grabs his shoulder and turns him over. Jamie's breath hitches as she catches sight of the knife sitting in his chest. Her eyes trailing up his body before they land on his eyes that stared back at Jamie.

His body jerks as he spits out more blood, "Jamie."

•••

Jamie gasps as she sits straight up. Her breathing uneven as she grabs at her racing heart. Her eyes bounce around finally taking in the familiarity of her bedroom. She turns and reaches for her phone. Her screen lighting up to read 2:49 a.m.

She sighs as she sets her phone down and lays back against her pillows. She stares back up at the ceiling as her breathing slows. Her ears zoning in on the sound of her fan on the other side of the room.

She turns to her dresser again, staring at her phone. She knew in her heart she should call. He always told her to whenever she mentioned another nightmare to him, but her gut kept telling her it wasn't his problem. That he shouldn't have to deal with her almost nightly 3 a.m. calls.

But they always promised that if they needed, they'd talk to each other. Whenever.

Jamie sighs as she reaches over and grabs her phone. The motion almost becoming muscle memory to her. She mindlessly unlocks it and opens her contacts before tapping the one she needed.

The phone rings for a few seconds before stopping. A deep inhale follows before a sigh, "Hello?"

"Hey."

"Hey." Miguel says abruptly. The grogginess almost completely gone, "I'm sorry, I didn't see who was calling."

"It's okay."

"What's the matter? Everything okay?"

Jamie stays silent for a few seconds before shutting her eyes, "I had another nightmare."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Miguel mutters, "What about this time?"

"Same thing as always." She says. Miguel's brows furrow as he hears her become choked up, "I could've saved him."

"Jamie-"

"If I had been faster and maybe tried to stop-"

"Jamie, stop." Miguel says firmly, "What happened is not your fault."

"I could've stopped it."

"A lot of people could have." Miguel says, "Kwon was blinded by his own rage. You trying to stop him, could've gotten you hurt, too and I wouldn't have been able to deal with that."

"Miguel, I saw him pick up the knife. I got up to stop him and those stupid Iron Dragon kids got in the way. But I could've stopped him."

"Jamie, you have to stop with the what-ifs. His death is not your fault, okay?" Miguel says, "Everyone there wishes they could've done something different. We all wish we could've stopped him, but we couldn't and that's okay. It's not your fault."

The line goes silent for a few seconds. Miguel knew that Jamie was having a hard time believing him. She had been since they'd gotten back from Barcelona. But no matter what, he would keep repeating it until he believed her.

"Jamie?"

"Yeah." Jamie says as she inhales, "I'm just gonna try to head back to bed."

"Are you sure? We can talk for as long as you need to."

"Yeah, thank you for answering."

"I told you, you don't have to thank me." He says softly,"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Jamie pulls her phone away from her ear and hangs up. Her eyes staring down at it as the screen goes black. She slowly sets it back on her bedside table before wrapping herself up in her blanket. Her body turned toward her closet with her eyes glued to the doors. As she lied there, she could feel the tears begin to fall. Her body starts to shake as quiet sobs fill the space.

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Sienna frowned as she knocked on Jamie's door again. She had been there for maybe 10 minutes and no one answered. Which was extremely unusual. She groans before knocking again. The door swings open revealing a disheveled Jamie.

"Oh, hi."

"Hi?" Sienna says exasperated, "I've been standing here for the past ten minutes. Do you even know what time it is?"

"No." Jamie says as Sienna brushes past her into the living room

Jamie closes the door as Sienna turns to her with furrowed brows, "It's almost 2? Are you okay? You're practically dead right now."

"I'm fine. I just didn't sleep well." Jamie says, "Why are you here again?"

"We were gonna go meet up with Eli and Miguel at the mall." Sienna says with furrowed brows, "Jamie, we talked about this yesterday, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah, right." Jamie says heading towards her room, "Sorry."

Sienna follows her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." She says grabbing her clothes

"Did you have another nightmare?"

Jamie sighs, "Yeah, but I'm fine. The mall just slipped my mind."

"Are you sure you wanna go?" Sienna asks stopping her, "We can cancel on them and just hang out here. They'll get over it."

"No, it's okay." Jamie says, "Give me like 20 minutes to shower and we can go."

"Okay." Sienna nods before Jamie walks out. Sienna sighs as she plops down on Jamie's bed.

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"There's nothing good in this food court." Sienna groans looking around

"It's a food court, Sienna." Eli says, "It's like meant to be bad."

"I don't need your attitude, okay?" Sienna says, "You know what? I'm getting a pretzel. Jamie, do you want anything?"

Miguel, Sienna, and Eli turn to her as she sits at a table. Her head in her hand as she stared across the mall. Eli looks to Miguel who leans over her placing his hand on the table, "Jamie?"

"Yeah." She mumbles

"Did you want anything? From the pretzel place?" Sienna asks pointing behind her

"Uh, yeah. Just a lemonade."

"Lemonade. Got it." Eli says before Sienna smiles and pulls him away

Miguel pulls the seat out from beside her and sits before wrapping his arm around the back of hers, "You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She mutters

"Are you sure?" He says as she turns to him, "You can talk to me you know that, right?"

"Yeah, I know."

"So, talk to me." He says softly, "About anything. Everything."

"There's nothing to talk about." She shrugs, "I'm just tired. I didn't sleep much last night."

"Even after you called me?" He asks and she nods, "Well, why didn't you call back? I could've stayed up with you until you fell back asleep."

"Because I've kept you awake enough for the past month already." She chuckles softly, "I've been trying not to call you just so I don't wake you up."

"Jamie, that's what I'm here for." He says, "I'm here for whenever you need me. Whether it's right now or in the middle of the night. I want you to call me. A lot has happened to you in the past two months and I don't want you taking that on alone."

Jamie eyes flicker around his features as his words replay in her head. Just as she readies herself to reply, she hears her friends, "Okay. So, they only had pink lemonade. I hope that's okay."

"Uh, yeah, no. It's fine." Jamie nods as Sienna takes a seat across from her.

"Cool and I got you a pretzel because you woke up late and didn't eat before we left." She says placing the drink and the pretzel in front of her with a smile.

"Thanks." Jamie chuckles as she rolls her eyes playfully

Miguel takes the pretzel from Eli as Sienna starts to go on about another store she wants to go to. Eli catches his eyes and nods to ask if everything was alright. Miguel's brows raise as he lets out a sigh. Eli nods again before the two turn their attention to Sienna.

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"Everyone!" Daniel calls out. Everyone attending the party turns their attention to the man as he smiles, "I just wanna thank you all for being here with us tonight. We are so lucky to be surrounded by friends and family. And the family that we have chosen, the LaRusso Auto family. You know, a family means that we love and support each other no matter what, and that we could be proud of every step forward we've taken together."

"And even after 18 incredible years, there's still so much ahead of us. In the early days of this business, things were pretty uncertain. We knew we were taking a risk. We had no idea if we'd be well-received. But we built something of our own. We trusted each other. We trusted that it would all work out okay because we had each other. So thank you to everyone in our family, old and new. Here's to the next step forward."

"Cheers." Everyone says as they raise their glasses

"Cheers. Thank you." He says as the partygoers clap. Daniel turns away to Amanda as Miguel, Robby, Jamie, and Sam turn to one another.

"I can't lie, I'm getting sick of the taste of this apple cider." Robby says causing the others to chuckle

"Me too."

"Guys." Johnny says standing beside Miguel, "We've got some news for you."

"What is it?" Miguel asks

"The tournament's back on."

"What? Seriously?" Robby says as Sam's eyes widen. Jamie feels her heart drop as Johnny nods with a smile.

"Yeah."

Sam looks around and walks over to her dad with the others following her, "Dad. Is it true? Is the tournament back on?"

Daniel looks to Johnny who smiles before he turns back to the teens, "It's true if that's what you all want."

Sam looks to her friends missing the way Jamie's face paled, "Bring 'em on."

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