Chapter 19: The Kiss
The barn hinges screamed in protest as Jake transmuted their molecular structure for the fourth night in a row, steel becoming something brittle and unreliable under his alchemical touch. Each session left him drained and nauseated, but he persisted with the grim determination of someone who'd run out of better options.
His plan was simple in its desperation: weaken the barn's structural integrity until external pressure—wind, rain, the weight of the walkers themselves—forced a catastrophic failure. If he could trigger the barn situation before Sophia was added to the count, maybe he could save at least one innocent life from the coming tragedy.
"I'm playing god with the timeline. Changing things that were meant to happen, gambling with lives I have no right to risk. But what's the alternative? Sit back and watch Sophia die because I'm too afraid to act?"
Jake pressed his hands against the metal again, feeling for the crystalline structure that held the hinges together. His power reached out, convincing iron atoms to rearrange themselves into configurations that looked solid but would fail under stress. The process was like performing surgery with his bare hands—delicate, draining, and potentially fatal if he made a mistake.
"What're you doing?"
Daryl's voice cut through the night like a blade, making Jake jump and lose his concentration. The tracker stood ten feet away, crossbow held casually but ready, pale eyes fixed on Jake's hands where they rested against the barn door.
"Something I'll regret either way," Jake said honestly, pulling his hands back. Blood trickled from his nose—the familiar price of extended alchemy use.
Daryl studied him for a long moment, reading the exhaustion and desperate determination written in every line of Jake's posture. "This about whatever's in that barn? Whatever's got you looking like a whipped dog every time you come near this place?"
Jake nodded mutely. He couldn't explain the specifics—the speech block prevented that—but Daryl deserved some kind of warning.
"It's going to come out eventually," Jake said carefully. "What's in there. And when it does, people are going to get hurt. I'm trying to... to control when and how it happens."
"By breaking the barn?"
"By forcing the issue before it gets worse."
Daryl was quiet for so long that Jake wondered if he'd said too much. Then the tracker spat into the grass and shouldered his crossbow.
"Your call, college boy. But if this goes sideways, you better be ready to live with the consequences."
Jake watched him disappear into the darkness, then turned back to his sabotage. Three more nights of work should do it—three more sessions of molecular manipulation that would leave the hinges ready to fail at the first real stress.
Three more nights to prevent a tragedy, or create a different one entirely.
"You're a terrible liar."
Maggie's voice came from behind him, soft and amused and close enough to make his heart skip. Jake had been standing near the barn again, staring up at the stars and trying to convince himself he wasn't obsessing over his sabotage work.
He turned to find her less than arm's length away, green eyes reflecting starlight and something else—something warm and dangerous and impossible to ignore.
"I'm not lying," Jake said weakly. "I was counting stars."
"Uh-huh." Maggie stepped closer, close enough that he could smell her shampoo and see the faint freckles across her nose. "And I'm sure the barn has nothing to do with you being out here every night, looking like the world's about to end."
The electricity between them was unbearable, a charged field that made Jake's skin tingle and his breath catch. They were standing too close, sharing air and space and possibilities that had no business existing in a world full of walkers and hard choices.
"Maggie," Jake started, but whatever warning he'd been about to voice died as she reached up and cupped his face in her hands.
"I know," she whispered. "I know this is complicated. I know Glenn is good and kind and everything a girl should want. But I can't stop thinking about you."
The kiss was inevitable, a collision of need and want and the desperate human urge to find connection in the midst of chaos. Jake's hands found her waist, pulling her closer, and for a moment the world contracted to nothing but the warmth of her lips and the soft sound she made against his mouth.
Then reality crashed back like a bucket of ice water.
Jake pulled away, his hands shaking as he stepped back from her. "You're with Glenn."
"I know." Maggie's voice was unsteady, her eyes wide with shock at her own actions. "I... I don't know why I did that."
But Jake could see the truth in her face—the same certainty he felt in his own chest. This wasn't a moment of weakness or confusion. This was recognition, the dangerous kind that changed everything and respected nothing.
"This can't happen," Jake said, though every cell in his body was screaming in protest. "Glenn is a good man. He doesn't deserve this."
"I know," Maggie repeated, but she didn't move away. "But knowing that doesn't change how I feel. Doesn't change what just happened between us."
They stood there in the darkness, separated by three feet of space that might as well have been an ocean. The kiss had broken something between them—some barrier of propriety and rational thought that couldn't be rebuilt.
"I should go," Maggie said finally.
"Yeah. You should."
But neither of them moved. They stayed frozen in that moment, caught between what they wanted and what they knew was right, until finally Maggie turned and walked back toward the farmhouse without another word.
Jake remained by the barn until dawn, staring at the stars and trying to ignore the taste of her lips still lingering on his own.
Glenn found him at breakfast, his usually cheerful face marked by the kind of pain that came from watching your world collapse in real time.
"I saw you two," Glenn said quietly, sitting beside Jake at the picnic table. "Last night. By the barn."
Jake's stomach dropped. He'd been so focused on Maggie, so lost in the moment, that he hadn't thought to check if anyone was watching.
"Glenn, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for—"
"You love her." It wasn't a question.
Jake opened his mouth to deny it, to find some way to minimize the damage. But looking at Glenn's face—seeing the resignation there, the acceptance of a loss he'd never had a chance to prevent—he couldn't bring himself to lie.
"I... yes."
Glenn nodded slowly, as if Jake's admission confirmed something he'd already suspected. "Does she love you?"
"I don't know." The words tasted like ash. "We've never talked about it. Last night was... unexpected."
"But not unwelcome."
Jake couldn't answer that. Couldn't find words that would soften the truth or make this conversation any less devastating than it already was.
Glenn stood up, his breakfast untouched. "She's a good person, Jake. One of the best I've ever met. If she's choosing you... well, I guess that says something about who you are too."
The generosity in his voice was like a knife in Jake's chest. Here was someone being genuinely gracious about losing the woman he cared about, someone finding a way to be happy for his friends even when it cost him everything.
"Glenn—"
"Don't." Glenn held up a hand, stopping whatever apology Jake had been about to offer. "Don't make this harder than it already is. Just... just be good to her, okay? She deserves someone who'll be good to her."
Jake watched him walk away, his shoulders bowed with the weight of noble sacrifice, and felt like the lowest form of life on earth. He was changing the timeline, stealing his friend's chance at love, interfering with relationships that should have been sacred.
But he couldn't change what he felt. Couldn't undo the electricity that sparked between him and Maggie every time they were in the same room. Couldn't pretend that the kiss hadn't happened or that it didn't mean everything.
"I'm becoming someone I don't recognize. Someone who takes what he wants regardless of the cost to others. Is this what power does to people? Is this what having foreknowledge does to your moral compass?"
The questions followed him through the day, a constant background hum of guilt and self-recrimination. But underneath it all, stronger than shame or regret, was the memory of Maggie's lips against his and the certainty that he would do it again in a heartbeat.
Some lines, once crossed, couldn't be uncrossed. Some choices, once made, changed you forever.
Jake had crossed that line the moment he kissed her back.
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