(Untitled)

[learnwhatsreal]

She knew. She couldn't have quite said how, but somehow, just setting foot in his treehouse, Jenny knew that Dan was gone. Something about the place, and not just because he wasn't there when he said he'd be, felt unsettlingly empty. It wasn't a sensation she could explain, but she felt his absence all the same. Still, no matter what she suspected

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[up_off_thefloor]

Eric had glanced up from his book as Jenny came in, but her expression made him drop it and sit up even before she spoke. "...Gone?" He stood and crossed the room to Chuck's bed, easing down onto the edge and touching Jenny's shoulder lightly. "Oh God. I'm sorry, Jenny." The pain of losing someone was still fairly fresh to him--how much worse would it have been if it had been Serena? "I'm so sorry."

[learnwhatsreal]

Jenny leaned towards him instinctively at the touch to her shoulder, swallowing heavily and closing her eyes a moment before she spoke again. "We were supposed to hang out today," she said, as if that alone should have been enough to make it not be true. "But then I went, and I looked, and..." She shook her head, almost incredulous still, attempting to blink back the threat of tears. Everything she'd said to him now seemed that much meaner; every day she hadn't spent with him seemed longer, like if she'd been there, if she'd appreciated him more, none of this would have happened. "It was like he'd never been there at all."

[up_off_thefloor]

Eric nodded, remembering that particular emptiness when he'd gone to Tobi and Nothing's. "Oh, Jenny." He didn't know what else to say, so he simply wrapped his arms around her and gave her a hug.

[learnwhatsreal]

Jenny slid an arm around him too when he hugged her, unable to do much more lest she fall apart completely. She couldn't let herself go that far yet, if only because that would mean giving up any last shred of hope that he might've been around somewhere, no matter how much she knew it wasn't true. From there, though, she did nothing more. It was as if she couldn't move at all, paralyzed by the notion that she might be without her brother forever, now.

[im_chuckbass]

Chuck entered his room, stripping off his coat and barely registering that Eric and Jenny were in the room. Right now he needed a drink, a stiff one, and anything that was going to get in the way of that could wait. He scrounged up an empty glass and his current bottle, and filled it nearly halfway, taking two big swallows before he stopped long enough to let his eyes rest on the teens, registering for the first time that Jenny was obviously upset and Eric was consoling her. "What?" he asked flatly, taking another sip, too scattered to come up with the sort of remark he usually would.

[up_off_thefloor]

Eric loosened his hold on Jenny but didn't pull away, his frown deepening as he looked at Chuck and took in his mood. "Dan's gone," he said quietly, hoping that even Chuck would have the decency to keep his personal feelings about Dan to himself at a time like this.

[learnwhatsreal]

Jenny nodded solemnly, tilting her head up to look at Chuck when she realized that he'd come into the room. Eric explaining was almost a relief. She wasn't really sure she'd have had the heard to just say it again, as if doing so automatically made it true. "I've looked everywhere he'd be," she added sullenly, like that might be some help. "But -"

[im_chuckbass]

Chuck stopped, listened for a moment to make sure he was really hearing what it sounded like Jenny and Eric were saying. Then, inexplicably, he almost laughed as he tossed the rest of his drink back. "Looks like this place decided to make it a two for one. Lyla's gone, too." He was silent a moment, jaw working as if he had something to say and was keeping it in. "Good for them," he said finally, not without a little bitterness. "They've gotten what we've all wanted since we arrived, haven't they?"

[up_off_thefloor]

Eric's eyes widened at Chuck's news. "Both of them?" Now that just seemed unfair. He squeezed Jenny's shoulder as if to reassure her that he was still there and stood up, grimacing in sympathy. "Are you okay?" It was a stupid question, he knew as soon as he asked. Not only was Chuck obviously not okay, the likelihood that he would admit it was somewhere in the realm of slim to none.

[learnwhatsreal]

Jenny remained where she sat on Chuck's bed, eyes widening in something like disbelief. "No," she said, shaking her head, "no, that's -" It wasn't fair was what it was, but one look at Chuck's face was enough to tell her that there was no way he could be mistaken, just like she'd been sure about Dan. Cutting herself off, she let her head fall back, fists dropping to her side in a futile gesture. "God damnit!" she shouted, and it was all she could do then to keep from bursting into tears. She didn't know what to do about losing Dan, but losing a friend, too, was just rubbing salt in an open wound.

[im_chuckbass]

To Chuck, the whole thing just seemed to make a terrible amount of sense. Things were calming down from the fucked-up month that had been December; people had made their peace and Nathaniel had even finally arrived. It only made sense that something like this would happen now. Not one disappearance but two.

In lieu of answering Chuck's question, he refilled his glass, and then grabbed two more and set them on the desk, next to the bottle, for Eric and Jenny to use if they wanted to. The last thing he wanted was to be accused of liquoring up minors in their grief, but he also couldn't imagine anyone getting through this without a drink in them. He took a sip from his glass, slower this time, and was quiet for a long moment. "We should find the others," he said quietly. Jenny needed someone to comfort her, in a way that Chuck couldn't provide, and someone who knew her brother a little better than Eric. "Come on, Jennifer." He offered his hand to pull her up off his bed.

[up_off_thefloor]

"Yeah, I should probably tell Serena," Eric agreed with a wince. He wasn't looking forward to that conversation, but he'd rather she hear it from him than anyone else.

[learnwhatsreal]

Lowering her head a moment, Jenny took a deep breath, then placed her hand gently in Chuck's so she could pull herself to her feet. She didn't know where they were going to go, but if she could be sure of one thing in any of this, it was that she couldn't be alone, even if that meant going to people who still weren't speaking to her. Something like this had to be enough to let bygones be bygones. It was her own damn fault Dan was gone now, anyway. "Yeah," she murmured, giving a slight nod. "Let's go."

[throw_it_off]

They didn't get very far before they found Nate. The stairwell, in fact, just as Nate had been heading down to see who was home in their room. He cleared the last two steps with a hop in his step that died when he saw the looks on his friends' faces. Chuck's expression was dangerously close to what Nate had seen at the funeral, and it made his stomach sink with dread.

"Hey," he said quietly, stepping forward to meet the trio. "What happened?"

[learnwhatsreal]

Jenny couldn't have said how relieving it was to run into Nate just then, even if she didn't know quite why. Stepping slowly away from Chuck and Eric towards him, she took a deep breath, casting them a long glance before she turned back to Nate and spoke. "My brother's gone," she said quietly, hands twisting in front of her, expression nothing short of sorrowful. "And Lyla. We - we were coming to tell people."

[im_chuckbass]

Chuck stepped up beside her, looking drawn and tired. One hit after another; was there any point in expecting anything else these days? "If you know where Blair and Serena are, you could point us in the right direction. Thought S should hear it from someone who cares." He indicated in Eric's direction. Nate hadn't been here long enough to be intimately acquainted with the concept of disappearances on the island, but Chuck was relatively certain he had the basic concept. Enough to understand the importance of discretion, anyway.