Chapter 7: Jake: What I Carry
***Author's Note***
I first want to start of by apologizing for taking a break from this story. I am very sorry for not keeping up with it. If you like it then please show me that you do and Review, Favorite and Follow. If I don't get any support for this story then I can only assume that you guys don't like this story.
A Special Thanks:
I want to give a massive thanks and shout out to my first supporter of this series, and ultimately the reason why I'm continuing this series. Thank you Nerdiest999 for all your support from the beginning, you can never know what it means to me to have someone like my writing like this. I will keep writing this story until the end, and whether or not I make a third story to follow up on this one is up to everyone on here. If people show support to this story then I'll continue it.
Please let me know what you think of this chapter. I put as much time into it as possible, as I had very little. Please let me know if you like it.
One last thing before I begin, in order to show my thanks to Nerdiest999 I am asking all of you reading this right now to go over on to Wattpad and check out Nerdiest999's original story. It is entitled Sci Fighters. To my knowledge only the first chapter is out now but it's a story that I recommend for anyone out there looking to follow along with an original story as it's being written. Please go over there right now and show your support and your thanks, you can come back and read this chapter right after. If it weren't for Nerdiest999 then this series would've been over. So if you like this series then please show your thanks to the person responsible for keeping it going.
That is all, Hephaestus out.
Chapter 7: Jake: What I Carry
"You really don't have to do this, you know."
"I know that I don't have to, I want to." I replied. I looked over my shoulder and smiled at Cassie. She had been complaining that her feet were hurting a bit from walking around the Valley today so I offered to massage her feet. At first she tried to say that she was fine and that I didn't need to do it but I could tell that her feet were really hurting. So now, a half and an hour later I'm still sitting here on her bed massaging her feet.
"Does that feel good? Does it help?"
She smiled as she tried to hide the fact that I suck at massages and I wasn't helping at all. "Yeah, it does." Her face winced as I massaged her sore feet. It was clear that I wasn't actually helping her but she didn't say anything about it.
"Let me know when you want me to stop." I said, trying to hint that she could just ask me to stop as I was hurting her feet more.
"I never want you to stop." She said, when I heard this I thought for a second that she was only saying it to be nice and not hurt my feelings about me being terrible at massaging, but when I saw her face I knew what she meant.
"I could let you massage my feet for ever. I just love it."
I gave her a look of skepticism. "You don't have to put on an act for me, Cass. I know that my feet massaging abilities are absolutely horrid at best. You don't have to act like you like it just to make me happy."
"I don't disagree with you there, Jake. You're feet massaging is terrible." She sent a playful smile my way. "I just love seeing this side of you again. You're acting like yourself again. I also love the fact that you're willing to touch my smelly, gross, swollen feet like it's nothing."
"Oh, is that it?" I asked giving her a smile back. 'You sure that it's not my amazing massaging skills?"
"Not even close, Jake." She laughed. "Now you better get better at massaging my feet soon."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because this is going to become a regular thing. If you're going to be coming over and spending time with me like this then you're going to be useful and massage my feet."
I was just about to open my mouth to reply with a remark but I was interrupted by a knock on Cassie's door.
"Cassie?" Her mom's voice. "It's me. Can I talk to you for a sec?"
Cassie gave me a look, she didn't seem very thrilled about her mom coming and talking to her, I didn't know why.
"Of course," She replied. "By the way, Jake's here too."
Her mom opened the door and let herself in. As she did she gave me a big smile and pulled me in for a hug.
"I knew that he was here, it is my house after all, people just can't come and go as they please." She let go of me and I sat back down next to a laid down Cassie. "
"But he's always welcome here, you know that right, Jake?"
"Of course, Michelle." I answered quickly.
Cassie's mom gave her a smile as she saw her lying on her bed with her feet up as I attempted, very badly I might add, to massage them.
"I'm glad to see you in bed, Cassie, because as of today you are officially bedridden. You are now officially at eight months, the baby could come any day now, considering premature births are common in younger mothers. You won't be allowed to come and go as you please anymore. If you wish to leave then it must be with your father or I so that we can watch you and help you."
I saw Cassie's reaction on her face, she seemed to expect it but wasn't exactly happy about it.
"There's no way that I can get out of this, is there?" She asked her mom. Her mom gave a smile.
"Nope, there's no way around it. Like it or not I'm your mother, and as your mother I know what's best for you and your baby. Even if I would've liked the become a grandmother in a couple of more years I will still do everything in my power to help you and your baby."
Cassie pulled her feet from my horrid massaging and sat up on her bed. Her belly rounded and taking up most of the space on her lap.
"I told you mom that I was fine with just the doctor, I don't need you sticking your nose in every five minutes."
I turned to see her mom's response. "Well no offense to your doctor but I've met the man and did some checking, I've helped deliver more babies than him, by a long shot." Her mom gave a boastful smile.
"Yeah but none of those babies were human babies, mom. Animal's are completely different."
Her mom replied. "In many ways they're different and in many other ways they're the same, Cassie. Let's not forget who here has given birth and helped deliver the most babies, that would be me." Her mom walked over and sat next to us on the bed.
"Like it or not I'm the closest thing to a human doctor within a few miles of the house. Starting next week I'm going to be taking some time off so that I can be home with you twentyfour-seven so I can help you and be here just in case anything happens."
"That sounds great." Cassie said with a sarcastic tone. She wasn't exactly thrilled about being followed around like a helpless child for another month until the baby comes.
"Don't give me any attitude, young lady." Her mom said jokingly. "Because I'm the one who decides what you do at all times of the day. I'm also the one who decides who came come over and for how long." Her mom gave a look towards me. "If you don't do as I say then say goodbye to Jake here because I just won't let you see him until the baby's here."
"You can't do that." Cassie cried out. "I need him here."
"Don't worry, baby." Her mom reassured her. "I wouldn't do that. I was just messing with you."
Her mom gave me a look. "Speaking about the baby," She said. "Have you told Jake whether it's a boy or a girl yet? I know that we've known for awhile now, but does he know?"
I shook my head in response. "I don't know." I said simply. "I told Cassie earlier that I didn't want to know, it's going to be a surprise. I'm going to have to wait until it's born to find out." I decided not to mention the fact that up until a while ago I didn't care about knowing. When Cassie first told me she was pregnant I told her that I wanted nothing to do with it. Now I've changed how I'm thinking of the baby, it's no longer just 'her baby', it's 'our baby'.
"Well that's not something that at least I hear about too often, but it's your choice whether or not you know to begin with."
Cassie's mom, Michelle and Cassie sat and talked about preparing for the baby, a new diet that Cassie was going to be eating, much to her displeasure, proper exercise and so on. I tuned most of it out, I was going over something big in my head, something that I knew that I needed to say.
"Hey Michelle, is Walter here?" I asked out of the blue, interrupting their conversation about the proper way to sit up to best support the baby and be comfortable for Cassie.
"Why do you ask, Jake?" Her mom gave a questioning look. "You tired of our pregnancy talk already? You might want to get more used to hearing it, you're going to be surrounded by it for awhile."
"That's not it." I said. "I just need to talk to you two about something. Is he here?"
Her mom gave a concerned look for a second then smiled.
"He's in the barn, you can go get him if you like. We can all talk in here if you want."
"Actually I was hoping that we three could talk in private." Cassie gave me a look.
"Why in private?" She asked. "If you have something to say then you should say it to me too."
"Don't worry, Cass." I tried to reassure her. It wasn't really working. "You already know, I just need to tell them something."
"It's not anything I need to worry about is it?" She asked.
"Of course not, Cass. Don't worry about it." I held her hand to comfort her. I was going to kiss her instead but I thought twice since her mom was just a foot away.
"Don't worry about it, Cassie." Her mom said. "This is Jake, if you can't trust him with something as simple as this then you don't give him enough credit. I bet it's nothing."
"She's right." I agreed. "You have nothing to worry about."
I gave Cassie a hug goodbye and headed out the room with her mom. It would be a short while before I saw Cassie again, I hoped that it wouldn't be long but I wasn't holding my breath. What I was about to do needed to be done with the utmost precision and delicateness. I had to watch my footing.
XxxxxXxxxxX
"So I'm guessing that you're all wondering why I asked you all here." I looked to the room around me and looked at the four adults watching me with eyes of curiosity and worry.
"I, uh, wanted, uh-" I was having trouble thinking, I had thought it all out ahead of time what I was going to say but now that it was actually the time to say it my mind went blank.
"Just come out and say it, son." Walter, Cassie's dad said. "There's no need to be nervous." My dad gave gave Walter a look his way.
"Oh sorry, Steve. I know he's your son and all, just a force of habit."
"No problem, Walter." My dad replied. "With as much time as he's spent here over the years you could easily say that he's as much your son as he is mine." The two dads looked to each other and laughed.
"Then what would you say to letting me borrow him for awhile? With Cassie out of commision for awhile I'm going to need some help with the clinic and the animals."
My dad laughed in response.
"You can adopt him for all I care, he doesn't do any work around the house anymore. I could turn his room into a new office."
"It's a deal then." Cassie's dad laughed. "Honey," He turned to his wife. "Let's draw up the papers right now. What do you think?"
Cassie's mom gave her husband a look. "I think that we should listen to what Jake has to say, it seemed important." In a second all eyes were on me again, great, I thought, I hadn't had time to think about what I was going to say.
"Thanks, Michelle." I said with a reluctant smile. This wasn't something that I necessarily wanted to do per say but something that I knew that I needed to do. I took in a deep breath and used my four plus years of practice to wash my fears and worries away and focus on the task at hand.
"I asked you all here to apologize for what I have done to Cassie and tell you what happened between us." This removed all the smiles on the faces in the room and sucked the laughter away. The entire room was staring at me.
"Jake," Cassie's mom began. "You don't have to apologize or tell us anything, what happened between you and Cassie is your business. Walter and I could never be upset with you, because we know how much you love and care for Cassie."
"That's right, Jake." Her dad, Walter joined in. "Besides, we already know what happened, you don't need to tell us." He attempted a smile but forgot it when he saw my face.
"I figured that you'd say something like that." I said looking to Cassie's parents. "But you're wrong, you don't know everything, and I do need to tell you what happened."
"What are you talking about, Jake?" My dad asked, sending a look to my mom. They didn't know what I was going to say either, on one besides me did.
"I'm talking about what happened between Cassie and I. Why for the past several months we've-, no I've, been distant. What happened between us at the hospital and how she became pregnant." I watched the adult's faces squirm as I said this. They were not expecting this. The parents were nervous and most likely a little uncomfortable, they didn't want to hear in detail how I got Cassie pregnant.
I received no verbal response from the parents so I continued.
"As you know, after Tom and I were attacked," I paused momentarily to collect myself. "We were taken to the hospital. On the way there my friends and I were told that he was dead from the paramedic. I, I was so lost. My mind was in shambles, I saw my own brother die brutally in front of me."
I noted my parents faces, my mom was starting to cry at hearing my words, my dad was doing the best to comfort her.
"I saw him die before my eyes. I then killed D-, his unknown murderer and carried Tom for several blocks until Cassie and my friend's found us." I had almost slipped up and named David as his murderer. That was something that I couldn't tell them, ever.
"I couldn't think, my mind was shattered. I, I blamed myself for Tom's death. I still in some ways do, and I was a mess because of it. Cassie had tried to comfort me at the hospital but we got in an argument. I was upset and I took it out on Cassie. And in my anger I slapped her." I watched my parent's eyes drop. They knew about it but they nor I have brought it up since. I wouldn't talk about it.
"I hurt her." I continued. "I did something that I swore that I'd never do, I hurt the one person that I love in this world." Cassie's mom reacted when I said this. She smiled whenever I talked about how I felt for her daughter.
"And because of what I did to her at the hospital I fell even lower. My parents can tell you that themselves. I was overwhelmed by so much pain and agony that I felt that I needed to find a way to numb the pain and feelings that I felt inside. So I turned to alcohol at first, in attempt to make me forget what had happened. Needless to say that it didn't help, it only made things with my parents and everyone worse. Not soon after that I started to take medications to do what the alcohol wouldn't do for me, get rid of the pain I felt."
I looked up and saw the parents sit quietly in their chairs, not saying a word. Not wanting to interrupt but wanting to hear what I had to say.
"It was at that point when one night I went over to Cassie's house to take some painkillers from your clinic." I said to her parents as mine watched me.
"I knew that you had tonnes of painkillers for your animal's so I decided to take some. It was then when Cassie found me in your barn." I paused, I had never liked thinking about what happened that night, some of it was still a blur, mostly what we said, but I knew what happened, I knew what I had done. I could never forget that.
"I was drunk when she found me, sifting through the medications. She asked what I was doing there. Now I can't remember what was said word for word but here's the gist." I took a breath, it was now or never.
"In my drunken state I talked her into sleeping with me, but before anything happened she stopped me. Saying that she didn't want to do it." I saw her dad's eyes light up, he was catching on to what I was saying.
"She wanted to stop, but I was so drunk that I wasn't think straight. I ended up holding her down as I yelled at her. She was so scared, scared of me. I remember that look in her eye, I couldn't get it out of my head for months." I held up my hands and glared at them as if they were to blame.
"I, I ended up forcing her to sleep with me that night. I held her down as I went. I, I hurt her that night more than ever before." I lowered my head and dropped it into my hands. Trying to hold back the urge to cry and lash out at the thought of hurting her that night.
We sat in silence for a minute. The parents coming to terms with what I said and me wishing that I could forget.
It was Cassie's father Walter who broke the silence.
"You, you raped my daughter!" He yelled, standing up and stepping towards me. My father instinctively stood in between us, taking a defensive stance. My father, the kind-hearted doctor stood as if he were to fight.
"Out of my way, Steve." Her father mumbled. "I'm trying to talk to your son."
"Well you can do that from your seat." My father replied back. "You're not taking another step towards my son."
Her father gestured his hand towards me. "You heard what he said, right? Your son said that he forced my daughter to sleep with him. That's clearly rape in my book."
"Hold on, dear." Cassie's mom Michelle said as she held his arm. "Clearly Jake feels terrible about it, he's been gone for months. He obviously didn't mean to. He loves our daughter, you can see that can't you?"
I watched as her father lowered his hand and took a small step back. Her mom continued.
"And look at Cassie." She gestured up the stairs to her room. "She obviously doesn't see it that way, she still loves him and acts like nothing happened." Cassie's mom turned her head to look at me past the two men standing in between us.
"I can see the way my daughter looks at you, she loves you more than life itself. It's clear to me that she doesn't blame you for what happened. And I'm pretty sure that she'd love it if you stopped punishing yourself because of it."
"Is that what you've been doing, Jake?" It was my mom's turn to speak. "Is this why you've been so distant for so long? It's not just because of Tom?" I nodded in reply.
I looked from everyone's eyes to Cassie's dad.
"I am truly sorry for everything that I have done to Cassie. I know that it will never go away and it's something that I'm prepared to live with for the rest of my life. I have spent countless nights wishing that I could take that night back, that I could take everything that I've done to hurt her away. But I can't." I said simply.
"And I know that none of you will ever forgive me for what I have done either." I looked to Cassie's parents.
"I will completely understand if you wish that I never come back here ad see Cassie again. If you wish, then I will leave and I will never see Cassie again. I was aware of what might happen if I told you this. That, that is why I wished to distance myself from her and her child, I knew that because of what I've done that I might never see them again."
I sat tall in my seat and remained stoic to their looks. I was very well expecting to be kicked out of their house right there and then, never to see Cassie or the unborn baby again.
I saw Cassie's dad slump back into his seat, his wife sitting next to him, their hands conjoined. My dad sat back down as well.
"Is that true?" Her dad asked. "Would you really my daughter and her child if I asked?" His wife sent him a look but remained silent.
"Yes." I replied simply.
"Why?" He asked. I couldn't place his tone.
"Because I love her."
"If you'll leave her then you don't love her enough." His words caught the room's attention.
"What?" I asked questioningly.
"If you truly leave my daughter then you don't love her. Simple as that. If you love her then you'll stay by her side forever."
I sat motionless, I hadn't expected this. "But I thought that you wouldn't want me to-, I just want to do what's best for her. I love your daughter, I want to be with her."
Cassie's dad stood again, relaxed this time and stepped towards me.
"If you truly want what's best for my girl then you'll stay with her and help her raise your child." I heard how much he stressed 'your'. I was surprised, I didn't think that he'd let me be with her.
"What?" I asked, confused.
Cassie's mom stepped in the conversation again.
"What I think my husbands trying to say is that if you truly love our daughter, and I know that you do, that you wouldn't leave her. You know how hard these past eight months have been on her. Could you even imagine how she would feel if you left her and never saw her again? It would break her heart. Not only affecting her but her baby as well."
"I, I know that my not being there would hurt her, it has already hurt her before. I never want to hurt her again."
Her father placed his hand on my shoulder and gave me a smile.
"Then forget all this nonsense of beating yourself up for what you did in the past. Go up there and tell her that you love her."
Her mom stepped towards me as well.
"I'm sure that she heard us as we were talking, she must be worried out of her mind. She might think that you're leaving for good." She smiled.
"You should go up there and tell her that you'll never leave her."
I turned to my parents. My father nodded.
"I think that you should make the decision for yourself. It is clear to everyone here how you feel for her. We're your parents, if you wish to be with her then we have to agree."
"Speaking of whom," Cassie's mom said. "We should really let him go see her."
I nodded and turned to head to the stairs when her dad stopped me.
"Before you go I have a question first." His complexion was serious.
"When are you planning on marrying my daughter?"
***Author's Note***
Thanks so much for reading. I'm so very sorry for taking a few weeks off from uploading this chapter. I got carried away with my Naruto story. A thousand apologies.
I just want to say that if you like this story then please support it, please show me that you like it and Review, Favorite, and Follow. Every small bit helps, believe me.
One last big thanks to Nerdiest999 for getting me back into writing this story. If it weren't for Nerdiest999 then this chapter wouldn't be coming out. Please send a huge thanks Nerdiest999's way, Nerdiest999 really deserves a big thanks for keeping this story alive.
Again, please check out Nerdiest999's original story called Sci Fighters over on Wattpad. I have no idea if I'm supposed to advertise another site on here but I'm going to anyway. Show your support, it's what every writer wants.
Thanks, until next time, this has been HephaestusBuilds.
