A/N: Hi there. Nick is my favorite character, so I just had to insert myself. You understand right? Right right right. So with out further ado, this is Chapter 2.
Disclaimer: Since I forgot to put one in the first chapter... I don't own this story, nor some of this dialog. I own Jasmine, who is of my own mind, but everyone else... nada. Praise be to Stephen King for inventing them first, and I hope he won't get angry at me for using them now.
Jasmine was ordered to stay at home while her daddy and Nick went off to find Vince Hogan. She was really hoping that they got the ones who roughed up Nick, because they deserved to rot in jail for the rotten things they did to the poor guy. She had found out that Nick was twenty-two though he only looked to be about nineteen. He was rather handsome, and Jasmine often found her thoughts, and gaze drifting towards the man. She waved as Nick and her daddy drove off to the sawmill to raz Vince and get him to spill.
Nick waved back at Jasmine with a smile. She was rather pretty to look at, and there was an intelligence behind her eyes that he rather admired. He wanted to get to know her, and found he couldn't stop staring at her. He wondered if she had a southern tone to her voice, and wished he could hear it. When he watched her pretty lips form words, she formed them properly, and didn't say "ain't" or similar words often heard from the south. But he knew he didn't stand a chance in hell with a girl like her, and he fully accepted this.
John smiled and waved good-bye to his daughter, as she stood in the door way, a smile on her face. He drove his old power wagon instead of the cruiser, the little bubble on the dash dormant. When they pulled up at the sawmill, he spit out a big glob of snot on the dusty ground, following it up with a good hard nose blow, and finished with a few dabs at his eyes. He had a very bad cold, and would probably talk to Doc Soames about it later. He turned to Nick and said; "Now, when we see him, I'll grab him by the arm. I'll ask you 'Is this one of 'em?' You give me a big nod yes. I don't care if it was or not. You just nod. Got it?"
The plan John laid out seemed like a very good one to Nick, so he gave a firm nod in response. He got out of the car with John, and walked up to Vince who was working a board planer, up to his ankles in saw dust. Nick did think he recognized the guy, so it would be no great lie when he nodded his head.
Vince looked up to see the Sheriff and the mutie he and his friends had beaten up the previous night. He gave the Sheriff a nervous smile before his eyes flicked to Nick, seeing exactly what they had done to him. It didn't look too pretty, but that had been Ray's intention. "Hi, Big John, what you doin' out with the workin' folk?" He could feel the eyes of his co-workers on him, and did his best to ignore the feeling.
John grabbed Vince by the arm, just as planned and pulled him forward despite protest from the man. He turned his head so Nick could see his lips. "Is this one of em?"
Nick had to hide a smile, and he got the feeling John was hiding one of his own. He nodded and pointed at Vince making double sure to indicate him as one of the guilty parties involved in making his face look more liked mashed potatoes instead of his usual self.
Vince paled a bit and marveled at how Nick could identify him. "What is this? I don't know this dummy from Adam." He hoped he sounded offended and unknowing, but he wasn't very confident in his acting ability. But that's not what trapped him.
"Then how do you know he's a dummy?" John got him; he knew he got him. "Come on Vince, you're going to the cooler. Toot-sweet. You can send one of these boys to get your toothbrush." John tuned out Vince's protests suddenly wishing he was deaf like Nick. Vince protested all the way into town, and all the way into the jail cell where he was locked up. John didn't like the protesting so much. In fact, he liked it so little, he didn't even read Vince his rights. "Damn fool'd just get confused," He told Nick later.
Jasmine watched as her daddy and Nick came back to the station with Vince in the back. She smiled satisfactorily as he was lead past her into a waiting jail cell. When her daddy was out on business, she often minded the station, and did a lot of thinking. She was in her senior year of high school, and thinking about what she wanted to do with her life, having never planned it out before. When school resumed, she'd be looking at colleges, hoping she would have the money to go. She marked her place in the book she was reading as Daddy and Nick came back out of the holding area. "Good catch. One down, three to go." She smiled, glad they had caught him.
"We'll just leave him sit there for a while to think about whether or not he wants to spill. In the meantime, why don't we all go back to the house, and Jane'll cook us up somethin' nice." John smiled, very satisfied with his catch. He knew that if he left Vince in the cell long enough, the man would crack; that was just his way. "On second thought, how 'bout I just bring something back for you two? I'm not quite hungry yet, and I don't wanna ruin my lunch."
Nick agreed to let Sheriff Baker get him some food, for he was getting quite hungry. That and it would give him some time to get to know Jasmine better, for she greatly interested him. He was beginning to really respect the Sheriff and was glad that it was this town he got beat up in, if it had to have happened at all. He didn't much care for being beaten up, but he did enjoy meeting people such as the Sheriff and his daughter. Nick had long ago realized that she was not a typical southern girl, and would make it somewhere, yet she didn't seem to be stuck up, and have an "I'm-better-than-you" type of attitude. He liked that, and he liked her.
Jasmine watched her daddy leave, knowing that he knew what she wanted, and how she rarely ever ate anything before lunch. She had been insecure ever since her ex-boyfriend, Stephen, had told her she was too fat for him to date; she had really loved him, though she was mostly over it now, and realized that Stephen had just been an asshole. She turned her attention to her new friend, Nick, with a smile. "So, how is it that you came to be in our humble town?"
Nick shrugged, and grabbed a piece of paper and pencil to write with. "I don't know, I've just been traveling around is all." He slid the paper over to her, and watched her read it, her mouth making subtle movements, half-forming the words he had written.
Jasmine snatched the pencil out of Nick's hand, and put it to the paper. "I see. It must be nice to travel all the time. I think I'd like to do that some day." She slid the pencil and paper back over to Nick. She had replaced the sheriff's stationary with a real notebook while Nick and Daddy had been out grabbing Vince from the mill.
"It's okay. But why are you writing back? I can read lips." Nick was a bit confused, he knew she didn't think he was stupid, so why had she written it out, instead of just saying it? He slipped her back the notebook, as she obviously wanted it, and handed her the pencil, getting a tingling sensation in his fingers as they brushed her own thin, delicate ones.
"Just a habit. My friends and I used to pass notes in class all the time, so when someone passes me a note, I don't talk, I just write." She wrote on the pad, in long elegant print. She thought her handwriting was terrible, while numerous others called it 'pretty.'
Nick smiled as he read what she wrote. She was certainly interesting, no doubt about that. "Are you still in school? Or did you graduate?" He passed her the paper and pencil again, watching her read, and then write notes back. He rather liked her handwriting. It wasn't difficult to read, and was rather pretty; sort of like her.
"I'm a senior this year. I just turned eighteen this past April." She passed him the note, wondering who taught him how to read and write. It must not have been easy for either the teacher, nor the student, but he was certainly talented at it.
Eighteen. Not so good, but not so bad either. There were only five years between them, he knew people who were married with more years of difference. "So one more year to go, that's not too bad." He smiled, passing her the notebook. He put his elbow on the desk, leaning his cheek against his hand, a dreamy look in his eyes, and a smile on his face. He didn't mind Jasmine seeing the smile, it was the dreamy look in his eyes he was worried about.
Jasmine smiled as she looked at Nick's note. She wrote back; "Believe me, it is pretty bad. High school is high school, and I'm a teenager so we all think the same." She slid the notebook across the desk, knowing Nick was staring at her. She didn't mind at all, in fact she rather liked it. She just hoped that Nick couldn't see the blush putting even more color in her cheeks.
Were Nick not mute, he would have laughed at Jasmine's note, especially since he thought her very unique compared to others of her age. "I don't think your the same as other teenagers." He pushed the notebook towards the girl, smiling as a blush reddened her face to quite a pretty shade of rouge.
John Baker chose that moment to enter the office, not even noticing the looks Nick and Jasmine were shooting each other. He was mostly focused on the plates of hot food he was carrying, praying to the Lord above that he didn't drop one, or both of them. He carefully set one in front of Nick, then the other in front of his daughter.
"Thank-you Daddy." Jasmine smiled up at her father as she took the fork he offered to her. Her momma made them some fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and some corn; a traditional southern meal. Her momma knew what she liked in the ways of chicken, wings and legs.
Nick was excited about the home-cooked meal; it had been a long time since he had had one, and that was for sure. He scooped up a fork full of mashed potatoes heaped with gravy. After he had swallowed it, he quickly took up the pencil, and wrote on the pad; "Thank-you, it's delicious," and slid it over to John.
"Well I'm mighty glad to hear you say that, son." John smiled at Nick, glad to be of help to the boy. Nick was someone you couldn't help but like. John took a seat behind his desk and wrote out a slip to document the arrest of Vince Hogan.
Nick glanced up at Jasmine, and was a bit surprised to see her eating her wing of chicken with her fingers. Not only was she a unique teenager, she was a unique girl. He liked that, he liked that a lot. It was the start of something a bit more than just a beautiful friendship, though neither of them knew it at the time.
