First Love
Chapter 3.
As they all returned to New York even if Tess had really been looking forward to going home again, she did still have some nerves about things and would she ever be free of her stalker? When they went back to her apartment they soon also realised that she wasn't ever going to get back there again because of what had happened there. As promised Bull was with her along with Chunk as well, but on the doorstep she was too overwhelmed with everything and ended up having a panic attack, which of course Bull had to help her through with, while Chunk took the keys from her and went inside to get a drink of water for her. After that with them at her side she did manage to get in there to grab some clothes and other things she'd need, because Bull told her that she would be coming back to his because he didn't want her to be alone, as well as getting all the paperwork that she had also told Bull about. When they left the place Bull promised that he and the team would get the apartment sorted out for her and her things into storage for the time being so that she could then get it on the market if that was what she wanted done with it. Then that night back at Bull's apartment because of the way that the panic attack had wiped her out so much the two of them just had a quiet night together.
The next day as she and Bull went into TAC for the first time since her disappearance she was quite surprised with the welcome that they all gave her, along with the promises of help as and when she needed it. Not only that before they went to her office so that they could be in private Bull also said in front of everyone that the golden rule with Tess from now on was that unless she was in court with him or Benny, then she wasn't to be alone when she went out one of the others had to be with her at all times. After that the two of them then headed into her office and as they then sat together holding hands he said "With you only just giving me the paperwork I've not gone through that yet and I promise you that I will do that, but the major thing that happened after you went missing was that we did start to go through everything over your dad's conviction, as well as the latest thing to have happened. Because that latest charge has already been thrown out with the way that most of the cases now that Sprong was involved with are going to be looked into. But I called in a few favours because I know how important it is going to be for you both to have the chance to repair your relationship, because there could otherwise be a chance that it will be a very long time before anything gets looked into. So the reason the latest charge has been thrown out is because even though the crime happened in DC where he was living, it also appears that at the time Sprong had also taken some leave. The forensics have been looked at and we haven't got anything as yet to prove that he was somehow involved, but they do prove that your father wasn't involved in it in any way at all, not only that you should also be thankful that your dad had also decided to live in a place for ex-criminals and so it had got CCTV cameras all over the building, so even if the rest of the evidence can't be proved over Sprong's involvement, what we can prove is that he was following your dad and that he did actually plant the evidence that got found on your dad, as the cameras picked it all up. Things are also now being checked back in Ohio over his original conviction and I have been promised that they will keep us updated in how things are going out there. The only thing I'm not going to be sure over is how long everything is going to take over getting that conviction quashed if it is proved that yet again Sprong set him up because every single conviction and case that he's been involved with is going to be looked into carefully and there could end up being quite a few convictions that will have to be quashed now and I'm not honestly sure what the process for all of that will now be, but I do promise you that when it does happen I will do all I can to help him."
She replies "So where is dad now?"
Bull answers "We've now moved him back here to New York and at the moment we have got him in protective custody for his safety, just in case Sprong decides to try and make a move on him or even if he perhaps tries to use a contact of his to do something, which is also why you may find that we are being followed at times because we've been given protection as well, which is also why I don't want you to be alone if you go anywhere, I know that it's probably going to get really hard, but I would much rather we take extra precautions and be as safe as possible. I also know that the two of you have got a very long way to go in repairing your relationship, but we did also have to tell him when you went missing and he was very worried about you. So he's now here in the office so that the two of you can begin on that process. Not only that I also promise you that I will help as much as I can with this process between the two of you, but if you do feel that the two of you do need some extra help with everything, then I will do my best to help you find someone to help you with that as well.
She squeezes his hand and says "We may end up needing something extra, but I think I'd like to see how things go with us first, and well as he is here now I think it would be a good place to start."
So with that the two of them then hug and kiss, before he then goes off to get her dad. After leaving them hugging each other in tears he leaves the two of them to their privacy and picks up the files that she had given him to start going through everything.
While she and her father are having their reunion and talking Bull starts to go through everything that she had given him, the more that he gets into it all the more he starts to get the feeling that Tess was right about her mom having been murdered, the only thing that really concerns him though is how much her father did actually know about things and how much it could end up effecting their reunion, especially as he discovers that her father got the second autopsy done as well. Even though Bull doesn't really understand everything that is said in both of them, he can understand enough to know that there are glaring differences between the both of them. As he goes through things he ends up calling the detective that had been in charge of the case at the time and as they talk his hackles automatically go up as soon as the detective mentions that Sprong was involved in the case and investigation, he knows that it may take time to get anything done about it but he gets the detective to send him copies of the investigation and he is very determined that if it was Sprong that did murder her mom, then he will get both she and her dad the justice for it, even after all of these years later. Not only that in a way he also wants to bring himself some peace, because after seeing how much like her mom she is like, with Sprong still out there on the streets he is very worried about the safety of the woman he loves very much and doesn't want any harm coming to her. After that he then gets Danny to check with her contacts to find out what she can about thins as well as getting Cable as much as she can onto the electronic trail of everything, he also tells everyone that even though working on the case is a high priority they also know that it is probably going to take them time to be able to get through it all, so because of that it will also mean that everything will be business as usual.
After Tess's dad has left them, as she and Bull eat lunch together in her office and then just picks at it staying quiet and not really eating, as they all get back to work again he tells everyone to leave her alone unless she does come to them to talk, if she doesn't then he will try talking to her later on. Later on as he can't find her and everyone else has started packing up and getting ready to head for home, when Bull asks Chunk if he has seen her, he tells Bull that the last time he saw her, she was sitting in one of the tent chairs. When he goes and looks in one of them, he can't help but smile at her, because with her being so short in stature, she had laid down inside it, curled up into a ball and had fallen asleep like that, although as her laptop was also by her side he'd guessed that she had been on that as well. So with that he got that out and shut it down for her, before he then knelt on the floor to poke his head just inside the tent, as he awoke her gently by stroking her face.
As she then woke up, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, but remained lying there, as she cleared her throat and said quietly "Hey." As she then sat up and he helped her out, he went and made her a coffee and when he came back again they then curled up together on the sofa in Chunk's room, as he kissed the top of her head he said "Are you ok?"
She replied "I'm ok and I know that things with me and dad are going to take some time, but just from that little talk we had we are now in a much better place already. He did also apologise for not telling me the truth about mom all those years ago, he admitted that he did it because he thought that I was already hurting enough over her death on top of everything then starting to get strained between us, but he has said that he will help us as much as he possibly can with things. Not only that he did also tell me that he had a feeling that there could be a possibility that Sprong could be bisexual or gay."
He asks "How do you mean?"
She answers "It seems that I think it could something along the lines of emotional transference. Because apparently Sprong attended one of dad's adult martial arts classes. In the end he had to ask him to leave it because of the way he would leave notes and would also flirt with him, as well as also leave presents for him as well. After having him leave the class he then had to get a restraining order out on him because he then begun to also leave presents and things for him both at the place where he took the classes and also at home, as well as that the silent calls then began. Once he'd been given the restraining order, Sprong then disappeared once again. But then after that he reappeared again a few months later at one of my mom's adult art classes, his obsession then started up with her and the whole cycle of things began again, and now of course it's begun yet again on me."
He then asks "Did he say anything to you about any of that stuff being kept?"
She answers "He did say that the stuff did get kept together in a box that went to my grandparents, as in my mom's mom and dad. Because of what happened with me we all ended up loosing touch though. Of course back then as well the both of them lived in the UK and I haven't got a clue where they would be now, or even if they would still have that box considering the associations that it had with dad."
He replies "Ok I'll get Benny onto it tomorrow seeing as we're attempting to trace people it might be better that it comes from a lawyer, but now I think that it's time we went home because today has been a bit of a long day."
She says "That it has been, but before we do go home I do just want to say this."
He asks "And what's that?"
She answers "Well before I went and fell asleep I was looking into what we've been talking about in me possibly going back to university, especially with dad telling me how proud he was of me and that he knew mom would be as well. He then told me that when I was little he and mom set up a trust fund for me and for my education later on, apparently he also kept putting money in it after mom had passed away; he even continued to put money into it when he went inside, no matter how small the amount was. Anyway he said that in the last few years he hasn't checked it to find out how much is in it now, but he is going to sign it over to me so that I can have it and he did ask Benny to get the paperwork sorted out for doing that while he was here. So when it's done and I can use it I'd like to go back to university again."
He asks "Ok, so what would you like to do there?"
She answers with a slight smile "Well as long as you feel that you could cope with me being a doctor as well, I think that I would to do my doctorate in criminal psychology."
As he then pulls her into him more and strokes her hair he says "Wow! I would love to work side by side with you as a doctor too. Not only that I would be very proud to work with you as a partner both in and out of work and with us both also holding different doctorates I think it will be a very useful thing to have here. I know that you may probably have to wait a while before you're able to start it and hopefully by then all of this Sprong stuff will all be over with. But if it isn't over and done with by then, then I promise you that we still find a way to keep you protected while you're doing it, and we'll also make sure that we can work round things so that you can also still come in and do some work as well."
She says "I know that you will help me do this, and that is why I really love you Dr Bull."
She then scoots up and gently kisses him on the cheek, as she then yawns, he then gives her a nudge forward and says "Right that's it we're going home because we've had a long day and you need some rest." He then gets up from the sofa and takes her hand pulling her up, before they then kiss and get themselves together and leave.
As Tess comes out of the bathroom in her dressing gown and a towel wrapped round her head, she heads straight to the kitchen because of the gorgeous smells coming from that direction, as she gets there she finds that Bull is just putting something into the oven, as he comes back up from bending to do it, she wraps he arms round him from behind and says "Thank you for doing the bath for me."
He then turns in her arms, he then smells and nuzzles her neck as he replies "And you smell gorgeous." After he then initiates a kiss, when they break apart, he takes her hand and then leads her to the bedroom. When they get in there he first of all gets her to sit down at the chair in front of the dressing table, he then unwraps the towel from around her hair, before he then rubs her hair gently with it. When he stops doing that, he then picks up her hair brush and plugs in the hair dryer he then says "Now I know that I may not be as good as Chunk is with doing this, but I will give it a good go." Before he then proceeds to dry and do her hair. Not only does she find that she really loves him doing her hair, but by the time that he's done she finds that he has actually managed to do a really good job of it.
When he's finally done with it, he then takes her hair and lays it over her shoulder and starts to then graze on one of her favourite spots on the back of her neck, as he then starts to up the anti slightly with what he's doing by biting just slightly harder she sighs and groans before finally saying "Jason do we have time for this with our food cooking?"
He then stops for a second as he then says huskily in answer to her ear "Yes we do have time as I made sure that we did."
As he then goes back to grazing on her neck again, she then feels his hands wander down to undo the tie on her dressing gown, as he then slips it off from her, he then bends and says quietly into her ear again "Bed now."
She then swallows hard and nods her head, as she does as she's told and goes to get on the bed, and as she then lays on her back watching him strip his clothes off, she finds that the butterflies are starting grow in her stomach with her anticipation, as well as it being the familiar feeling she always gets now whether it's him stripping himself or if it is her doing it. He only gets as far as stripping down to just his trousers, but he does strip his socks off, which she is happy about, because she also has a real thing about his feet being a turn on for her, and even if he stays in his trousers he does also strip the belt away from the loops and lets it drop to the floor, as he then joins her on the bed, he straddles her and begins to caress her body softly through her night dress. Even though they have made love so many times now, her nerves still seem to worm their way into her, despite that though as he senses them start to hit he will always "Relax" in her ear before he starts to nibble and graze on the spot just below her ear, which she has soon found is a favourite spot to her and she always loves the way that he soon gets her to relax and as she does she becomes more responsive. As his hands started to wander underneath her night dress and she arched into him, she could feel his growing hardness against her, as she broke their kiss and said "Off" because of the way she'd been struggling to find a way of getting access to his trousers to get them undone, although as he pressed himself up on his hands and gave a little chuckle as he said "You're a bossy little thing aren't you?" She realised that it must have come out more like an order than she had actually meant it to be. As he then sat up to start straddling her again, he let her undo the button and zipper, before he then got off the bed to strip them off. When he got on the bed again to straddle her once again, he once again grinned at her as he repeated the "Off" back at her again over her night dress. So she then sat up and slowly stripped it off, before initiating a kiss and then pulling him down with her, as they slowly made love.
Afterwards they curled up into each others arms and fell asleep, just for about an hour though before they got up to have their food and spend a quiet night together.
Over the next few days things started to progress with the case against Sprong, but it also became a mixture of reunions and new beginnings all round. The first thing was a reunion with Tess's grandmother on her mom's side, but sadly her grandfather had passed away a couple of years before. Luckily as well her grandmother had kept the box and it had gone with them each and every time they had moved. When they checked the contents out it had everything that Sprong had sent to her mom and dad as well as all the records that they had kept of what he had done in between the times that he had sent gifts and notes and things. When Benny had got in touch with her grandmother she had agreed that she would just see Bull and Tess, but at that first meeting Bull had explained to her grandmother about how Sprong had now made his obsession about Tess and was doing the same to her, as well as about her having run to Paris, along with also telling her about what they had discovered while Tess was missing and that all of her father's convictions had now been called into question, and that it now could be looking like there may be a possibility that Sprong could have killed her daughter and Tess's mom. After that he had then left both Tess and her grandmother to talk alone and her grandmother confessed to her that she had wanted to remain in contact with Tess after she had gone into the care system, but the people at social services wouldn't allow her to do it. Both she and her grandfather had thought at the time that her father had had something to do with her mom's murder and that she had used the excuse about being in his class and her being there in it because she had wanted to protect her father, but with what Bull had just said about things and thinking about it all they may have just made that conclusion because they'd had one detective Sprong in their ears constantly, so they were tending to believe his story rather than theirs because after all he was a cop. If it was needed then she would now be prepared to give a statement about what he had done and said if it would help them, especially as in many ways it was probably about time that all of them stood together as her family against Sprong. Seeing as over the years and because of her father ending up in prison and things, plus nearly being sent back once again by Sprong recently attempting it, she and her father's relationship had really badly broken down and they were now finally on their own road to recovery with their relationship, thanks to of course Bull's help as well. What also helps Tess snap out of her thoughts at what her grandmother has said comes when she then says that they will all stand together for both her grandfather and mother and get the justice finally for them both, because she knows that when her grandfather passed away he would have had a reunion with his daughter once again and he would have learnt the truth from her about things, so they should stand strong together as a family to get the justice for them all and help to prevent anything from happening to Tess, because she also knows that she would have been very worried about her safety if she had known about Tess having gone missing. After that her grandmother then surprises her as she asks Tess if she's in love with Bull, when she admits that she is, her grandmother then tells her that she is very happy for her as he seems like he is a very good man and she knows that her mom would have very much approved of him and would have really love him too.. So Tess then tells her about how the two of them had gone to her mom's grave just before the two of them returned to Paris, and that as they walked away from the grave she had a feeling as though she could feel her mom's presence around them and that she did approve things about the two of them being together. After saying it her grandmother then took her hand and said that she could very well understand that feeling because she herself had had the exact same relationship with both her great grandmother as well as her mom. She obviously didn't want to replace her mom in any way, but Tess was to know that she would always be there for her, so at anytime she wanted to or felt that she needed to talk to anyone other than those people that were around her, then she could her or go to see her about anything that she needed too. Plus next time that Sprong ended up trying something again and at anytime she felt like she had to run then she could go to her, rather than go to the UK or Paris once again, of course her only proviso would be that she had to make sure that she called Bull as well to let him know where she was, so that he didn't end up worrying about her himself again. Just before the two of them left a bit later on she then made the both of them promise that they would go round to dinner at some time, so that she could get to know Bull better and the two of them promise that they would do so.
That night when the two of them get home and enjoy a night together, as they finally settle down to go to sleep after making love, as she falls asleep Tess realises that she's starting to feel like her life is finally coming together, as she's with a man that she loves very much, her family have started to work towards getting their family relationship together again and for the first time in her life she's starting to feel a lot more confident in herself and is very determined that all of them will finally find out the truth about Sprong and that they will succeed in beating him once and for all.