New Girl in Town Pt. 23

"She's smarter than that and she sympathizes with them," he countered. "Let her take the lead in inviting them to sit down with us at a later date. I'll call her tonight and tell her how best to word it when she speaks to them."

"Then what am I supposed to do while she's schmoozing them?" he asked.

"Concentrate on keeping your mouth shut and for God's sake try and look sympathetic," he advised him. "You want them to take this settlement offer and not take us to court. Understand that. Remember it."

Buck gave a terse nod of his head that he understood as he poured himself another drink. He figured that he could drown his troubles here where Courtney wouldn't be able to stop him.

"Damn kid," he muttered. "All this crap he's shoveled into my life over some dumb high school crap. Can you believe..."

"Buck, I don't want to hear anything about Patrick and his ties to these kids," Eli interrupted him. "As far as anyone is concerned this was all just a tragic accident. Happenstance and nothing more because if the truth of this comes out then you can kiss Patrick's plea deal goodbye."

****

"Jake, are you sure that you don't need another pillow?" Sarah asked from her spot on Jessica's bed.

It had been decided that they would move their homework spot from the Golden's kitchen table to Jessica's room so Jake could get off his leg and prop it up for awhile. Dr. Golden had helped them set up a pile of pillows so Jake's leg could be elevated while the kids did their work.

"I'm good, Sar Bear," Jake smiled at her. "I appreciate you asking though."

"Sissy didn't ask," she giggled. "I take better care of you now."

"Hey!" Jessica said as she nudged her little sister. "I had to take care of him all day, Sar Bear. I carried his books, made sure he got to class without any problems and I even drove him home."

Sarah seemed to think about that for a moment then turned and handed Jessica a pillow.

"You need this more than Jake," she announced.

"Hey!" Jake chuckled as Jessica accepted the pillow and stuck her tongue out at him. "I'll remember that when someone needs her hand and fingers massaged."

"Jake, don't make me threaten to call Other Jessica on you," she warned him. "She'll tell Ashley and then you will really be in trouble."

"Can't have that," Jake smiled. "Massage after our work is done here?"

"We'll eat dinner first," Jessica told him. "Mom is making us grilled chicken with baked potatoes and some asparagus too. Speaking of which, we should probably go wash up. It should be almost ready."

At Sarah's insistence she took over helping Jake until he assured her that he was capable of handling the complexities of turning the faucet on and off himself but he did allow her to hand him a towel to dry off with.

"Jake, do you need help getting down the stairs?" Mr. Golden asked as the kids started down.

"I've gotten pretty okay at the stairs," Jake assured him but both Jessica and Sarah made sure that he made it down safely.

"See?" he asked when he got to Mr. Golden. "I almost didn't even have to walk myself down with all the help I was getting."

"I could see that," Mr. Golden chuckled. "It's a shame that you can't have both your helpers with you at school."

"Poor Jess has to do it all on her own," Sarah sighed as she sat at the table.

"You have been hanging around our friends a little too long I think, Sarah," Jake chuckled. "Are you going to start picking on me now too?"

"Not all the time," Sarah told him. "Just when it's funny."

'Just when it's funny huh?" Dr. Golden shook her head. "How is that not all the time where you're concerned?"

"When Jake is over for a tea party," she answered with a grin.

"Oh is that so," Jessica giggled then nudged Jake. "Sounds like someone has some tea parties in his future."

"Seems so," Jake agreed.

"Yay!" Sarah cheered then pointed toward the chicken. "Can we eat now?"

****

"Mom, can you and dad distract Sarah for a little while?" Jessica asked as she helped her mother wash up the dishes from dinner. "I need my hand massaged and I figured..."

"You figured that you might want something else massaged while you were at it?" Dr. Golden asked with a raised eyebrow.

"MOM!" Jessica exclaimed as she flushed red in her cheeks.

"Well am I wrong?" she asked as she handed Jessica a dish to dry.

"I'm not forgetting the nothing under this roof rule, mom," she answered as she wiped down the dish with her good hand. "I just thought that we could maybe make out a little. You have to admit that it has been awhile."

"As your mother I do not have to admit anything, sweetie," Dr. Golden responded. "Though I will agree that it has been a while since the two of you have had some privacy."

"It's been tough trying to get more than five minutes alone since he woke up. I'm thankful for everyone coming by and helping out as much as they have been but, well, you know what I'm saying right, mom?" Jessica asked.

"The outpouring of support has been pretty remarkable but also not too surprising, but yes, I know where you're coming from," Dr. Golden answered as she dried her hands. "There are still rules here though, Jessica."

"I'm not going to push any boundaries, mom," she told her. "I just want some alone time with my boyfriend. Ten minutes at most."

"Ten minutes," Dr. Golden nodded.

"Thank you, mom," Jessica smiled then leaned in and kissed her mom's cheek.

"You are to remain clothed, Jessica," Dr. Golden told her. "I don't want some wild scramble for clothes when Sarah barges up to your room despite my best efforts to keep her occupied."

"I wouldn't dream of it, mom," Jessica assured her then kissed her cheek. "Thank you. I owe you."

"Yes, you do," she answered as Jessica headed toward the living room to collect Jake. "And no noise, Jessica!"

****

Jake fell back onto Jessica's bed with a groan. His good leg ached and he felt short of breath when he topped Jessica's stairs this time.

"I can't be that out of shape already can I?" he asked as Jessica helped him prop up his broken leg.

"You did a lot of moving around today, Jake," she said. "Your body just has to get used to it again. Speaking of your body..."

Jessica crawled onto her bed and pressed her lips to Jake's. He parted his lips and slid his tongue into her waiting mouth. She was pleasantly surprised by the passion in his kiss but she returned it tenfold. She had missed this so much and now she had him where she wanted him. Well almost where she wanted him. She reminded herself that she was at home and that Sarah was there. Any second now she would hear her little sister running up the stairs to check in on them and the kiss would be broken. With her ear attuned for the sound Jessica moved quickly. She pulled her lips from Jake's mouth and gave his questioning look a smile.

"Shh," she whispered as she reached down and pulled the drawstring from his workout pants..

"Jess, we can't... we shouldn't..." Jake tried to argue but part of his brain yelled for him to shut up and that voice drowned out his voice of reason.

Jessica fumbled with the drawstring since her hand was still in it's cast. She made the easy tie Jake had used into a knot which she couldn't undo with her one good hand.

"I should have taken this damn thing off," she muttered. "You were supposed to be giving me a massage anyway. It would make sense if we just took it off."

"Just let me help," Jake said as he reached down and started to work the knot loose. "Wow, you really got this thing knotted. Are you sure that you wanted to do this or to prevent doing this?"

"I wanted to at first but if you're going to tease me then I'm thinking it's the other," she pouted but with a wink.

"Get your scissors," Jake told her.

"No," she laughed as she reached in to help him.

With her help they were able to get the knot loose which had Jake sigh with relief.

"Someone's anxious," Jessica giggled as she put thoughts of her cast aside. "Have I been missed?"

Even as she asked the question she had slipped her hand into Jake's opened pants and found her target, all nice and hard just for her. She glanced back at the door then tugged him free of his boxer briefs and workout pants..

"Oh, I have been," she whispered as she looked down at his cock. "Do me a favor and open the top drawer of my nightstand."

Jake did as he was asked and pulled a bottle out from it.

"Coconut oil?" he asked. "Isn't this for cooking or something?"

"You can use it for that," she grinned as she pulled her hand off his cock and held it out for him. "Pour some in my hand please."

Jake was still confused but he did as she asked, opened the top and poured the clear liquid into Jessica's extended hand until she indicated that she had enough.

"So other than cook..." Jake stopped and sucked in a huge breath when she wrapped her slick hand around his erection.

He fought back his intense urge to shout out his surprise and pleasure as Jess slowly ran her slick hand up and down his shaft. She teased the crown of his head with her fingers and giggled as he jerked in her hand. She glanced at Jake, smiled then looked back down at her hand as she stroked him.

"Jake, I'm really glad that my friend here wasn't injured," she said as she examined him. "Part of me is really glad."

"You know..." Jake gasped out, "I have researched some... positions that we might be able to... damn, Jess... do with my leg like this."

"You don't think that I've looked into that as well," she said then laughed. "Staci did too, fyi."

"Of course she did," Jake laughed then moaned as Jessica teased the spot just under the head of his cock that is always the most sensitive on him. "Do that some more and I'm going to cum, Jess."

"I should hope so," she smiled as she moved back to his shaft and stroked him up and down with deliberate motions. "I mean I do owe him after all."

"Oh and I owe you... for this, Jess," he groaned out.

"How does Staci's place on Saturday night sound?" she asked.

"Really good right about now," he answered.

"Only really good?" she teased him.

Before he could answer she lowered her head to his dick and took him into her mouth. Jake hissed out her name but kept the noise to a minimum even as her tongue danced across his overly sensitive head. She slid more of him into her mouth, applied some gentle suction even as her hand continued to stroke his shaft. He verbalized his impending eruption but she already knew. She had felt him swell in her mouth and knew that he was about to cum.

"Oh god, Jess," Jake moaned out as he started to cum.

She had moved up so that just his head was in her mouth and had used her tongue to block the initial shot so it didn't go down her throat and cause her to choke. Jake actually shook with his release as he filled her mouth. Jessica swallowed as he continued to pump out more cum into her mouth until there was nothing left. She gave his still throbbing head one last suck then let him slip from her mouth. As she looked up into Jake's grateful face to smile she heard footfalls on the stairs. She grabbed a pillow and put it over Jake's exposed penis just as her door flew open.

"There you guys are," Sarah exclaimed. "I was looking everywhere!"

"Sarah, what..." Jessica started to ask then started to cough as she got choked while she tried to swallow.

"Sarah, can you get Jess some water please?" Jake asked as he used the pillow to keep himself covered. "I think that something went down the wrong way."

"More like someone had a lot to get out of his system," Jessica managed between coughs.

"I'll be right back," Sarah announced and ran past their mother who had trailed behind her. "I'm getting Sissy some water."

"I tried my best," Dr. Golden said as she poked her head into Jessica's room. "I take it that you two had an adequate amount of time before Sarah burst in? Or maybe not given Jessica's coughing fit."

"I'm fine," Jessica croaked out. "Just got a tickle is all."

"Uh huh," Dr. Golden raised her eyebrow. "I'm betting that's not all that you got. Help Jake downstairs once you get your water. I think that your hand massage will go better down there now."

"Yes, mom," Jessica nodded as her mom left the teens alone.

"That was close," Jessica commented.

As she turned toward Jake, he pulled her toward him and kissed her passionately. He held her close and his tongue melded with hers until she lost herself to his passion. That was until Sarah bounded back into the room with the water that had been requested.

"Oooo, smoochies!" she announced with a giggle. "Serious smoochies too!"

Jessica pulled her mouth from Jake's and couldn't help but laugh at her sister. Jake took advantage of the distracted Sarah to get his pants situation sorted out.

"Give me my water, Sar Bear," she told her. "Then help me get Jake downstairs if you please. Think you can manage that?"

"Sure can," Sarah answered. "Come on, Jake. Sissy needs her hand rubbed. Kisses can come after that."

"You heard her, Jake," Jessica grinned. "More kisses after my rub down."

"We'd better get moving then," Jake smiled. "I can't wait for more kisses."

Sarah made a yucky face and shook her head at the same time.

"Grown ups," she sighed dramatically as the teens got off Jessica's bed and headed downstairs.

*****

Just as Jake finished up with Jessica's hand massage a car turned into the Golden's driveway. Sarah spotted the lights and got up from Jessica's lap and went to the window.

"Who's that?" she asked as she peeked out the curtain.

"Jake's mom and dad," Dr. Golden told her. "We wanted to talk to you guys together."

"About tomorrow," Jake stated as he assisted Jessica in getting her cast back on.

"Yes," Mr. Golden answered. "I'll get the door."

As he headed toward the door Jessica assisted Jake to get his leg propped up while Sarah asked if she would be allowed to stay or if she had to go to her room.

"You might want to go up and start to get ready for bed," Dr. Golden told her as she tousled her hair.

"Is it about the wreck?" She asked. "I know all about it anyway. The kids at my school have all talked about it. They say it was a ghost that made you wreck but I told them that it was a jerk and that ghosts aren't real. That is right isn't it, Jake?"

"Yes, Sar Bear," Jake smiled. "Ghosts aren't real."

"Good," Sarah said. "Mr. Bear will be glad to hear that."

"I'm sure he's not the only one," Jessica giggled. "Now say hi to Jake's parents then head upstairs and brush your teeth."

Sarah received hugs from Jake's parent's then started up the steps but paused for a moment with a question.

"Sissy, do I have to wash my face tonight?" she called out.

"Yes you do," Jessica answered. "I will help you with that though so just brush your teeth and your hair for now, please. Thank you."

"Fine," Sarah sighed then started back up the steps, "but I still don't like it!"

"Sarah," Jessica called out then waited.

After a moment Sarah responded.

"Thank you, sissy," she said.

"She still is a handful," Jessica said to Jake's parents. "And it's not gotten any easier even though she knows that I'm down to one hand now."

"You won't be like this for long, Jess," Jake's mom assured her as she joined the teens on the couch.

"No, ma'am," Jessica nodded. "I talked to Ashley the other day and she had looked over my latest set of x-rays. She said everything looked really good."

"That is great news," Jake's dad said as Jessica moved to sit on the floor to give him room on the couch.

She took Jake's hand and pulled it over her shoulder so she could hold it while they waited for their parents to say what they wanted. Jake gave it a squeeze of reassurance then spoke.

"I'm guessing this is about tomorrow and Patrick's sentencing?" Jake suggested.

"It is," Jessica's dad said. "We just wanted to be certain that you both are certain that you don't want to participate."

"I feel like we've participated as much as we want to," Jessica told them. "We have both talked with the police and the district attorney a few times already. I don't know what else we can add and I don't think that I'm up to reliving it all over again."

"It might be helpful, Jessica," Jake's dad said. "The DA said that the judge would allow time for you to speak before he decides Patrick's sentence should either of you choose to."

"I don't see how us speaking tomorrow will help," Jake said. "They have our statements or they have what we remember which isn't a lot. They said that we couldn't bring up what Patrick's past actions against us were because of some deal that his family's lawyer had worked out so I don't see the point. I would rather just go to school and try to have a normal day so we can start to move past all this."

"We can understand that, Jake," Jessica's mom said. "We just wonder if this may give you both some closure to this traumatic event. That could be important to you both."

"It could, but us just moving on could too," Jessica said. "School work will keep our minds occupied and the less we have to see the Greene's the better. Only bad memories will come up with us having to see him again."

"If you both think that's for the best then we will let this drop," Jake's mom told them. "You both understand that we will be going correct?"

"That's fine with us," Jessica said then looked back at Jake. "Right, Jake?"

"Totally fine," Jake nodded. "You can text us when it's over and let us know how it turns out."

"Our friends would like to know," Jessica added. "We just want to work on moving forward."

Jake nodded his head in agreement but he felt uneasy in the pit of his stomach as if he didn't feel that moving forward would be all that easy.

*****

Tuesday

Mr. and Mrs. Golden saw Jake's parents outside the county courthouse as they parked. They waved as they approached.

"I see that you couldn't convince Jake to join you this morning," Mr. Golden pointed out.

"His mind really was made up," Mrs. Gibson answered. "We asked both him and Jessica this morning when she came to pick him up and they both said that school was more important than this. Jessica told us that you both had tried with her again this morning as well."

"When they've made up their minds.." Dr. Golden let the sentence linger in the cold morning air. "This is all just a formality anyway isn't it?"

"Pretty much," Mr. Gibson nodded as he opened the door for them to go inside. "We know there is some kind of deal in place since he turned himself in and pleaded guilty so for all intents and purposes this is just a formality. I just want to hear it for myself."

As the group started down the hallway to the assigned courtroom Courtney Greene saw them and stood up. She tapped her husband who frowned deeply but slipped on a smile when his wife scowled at him.

"Wes, Pam," Courtney greeted them with an empathetic look, "I wish that we were seeing you under different circumstances. How is Jake doing?"

"We wish the same, Courtney," Mrs. Gibson answered. "Jake is doing as well as can be expected. He's gotten the hang of using crutches well enough to go back to school."

"That is so good to hear. We've been praying for him. Him and Jessica both," she said as she patted Mrs. Gibson's hand sympathetically. "Mr. And Mrs. Golden, it's nice to see you as well. How is Jessica?"

"Nice to see you as well," Mr. Golden said with a nod to Buck who still did his best to smile and nod. "Jessica is doing okay. Her wrist is on the mend but she still has some nightmares that wake her."

"Pulling her injured boyfriend out of a burning car then watching as he almost died in her lap will do that," Dr. Golden stated coldly.

"I... I am so sorry to hear that," Courtney stammered.

She was taken aback by the iciness in Dr. Golden's tone. Courtney had thought that Jake's parent's would be the angriest of the group. She hadn't counted on Jessica's mom to be as upset as she appeared to be.