This Too Shall Pass

Chapter 10

Jess sat on the court house steps, elbows on her knees taking deep breaths. Matt and JT stood over her. She hadn't said anything since they ushered her out of the court room ten minutes earlier. They both knew her well enough to let her work out whatever just happened in her mind for a few minutes before they included her in their conversation.

"He just hung himself in there." JT looked at Matt.

"They won't need any more witnesses, at least for the attempted murder chargers." Matt looked down at his sister. He reached into his pocket and took out her phone he had been hanging onto and handed it to her. She took it and smiled a small smile. He knew she needed to talk to Derek first and then to Cody. Matt had never been the go to guy when her life was stressed.

"They have a half of dozen more crimes he's charged with." JT watched as Jess stood and went down a few steps and dialed her phone. "I'm sure they still need us for a couple more hours." He looked back to Jess. "God help us if they put her back on the stand."

"I won't let them. Keep an eye on her." Matt turned around and headed back into the court room.

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"Hey Jess." Cody answered Derek's phone after almost six rings.

"Where's my husband Cody?" Jess knew that the feeling in the pit of her stomach for the last hour hadn't been just because Kitrick had been glaring at her with rage and murder in his eyes.

"He's changing a diaper at the moment."

"Don't lie to me Cody James."

"I'm not lying to you Jess. We stopped by your place after taking water samples and Devin was feeding Skylar and Sierra was stinking up the place." He could hear the fear in his sister's voice. "Should I ask how things are going?"

"I just want to come home and hug my babies."

"That bad?"

"Yeah, that bad."

"Here's Derek." Cody knew, no matter how much she needed him, she needed her husband more right now.

"Hey baby girl."

"Hey." Derek knew her silence said more than any words she could say right now.

"I'm fine. The girls are fine and Cody's an idiot but you already knew that." Jess chuckled.

"Kitrick blew a gasket in the court room when I was on the stand." Jess leaned against a pillar and looked up into the blue Colorado sky.

"You okay?" She chuckled again.

"I will be. Matt's going to do his best lawyer bit to try to get us home sooner than later." Jess just needed to hear her husband's voice and the stress of the last few hours lifted,

"Gotta love it when your brother gets his inner lawyer on." Derek knew that his wife was feeling better.

"He should have been the lawyer our mother wanted him to be. How are our babies?"

"Missing their mama." Jess knew he was just saying that but she was glad he did. "So is their daddy."

"It hasn't even been eight hours." Now it was Derek's turn to chuckle.

"Do you know that since we've been married the longest we've been apart is eight hours?" Jess hadn't really thought about it but he was right.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I don't ever want to be away from you longer than I have to." He said softly.

"Hopefully they had to shoot Kitrick and this whole thing can be over with."

"We'll be waiting for you baby."

"I love you Derek Morgan."

"Love you to. Keep safe." Jess hung up and looked over to see JT standing a considerate distance from her.

"Matt isn't back yet? That can't be good."

"He just texted me. They don't know how exactly how to proceed." He went and stood next to Jess. "He's going to jail for the attempted murder of a federal officer because he admitted to trying to kill you in open court, but he's going to have to be tried on the rest of the charges."

"It seems so much more real now that he admitted he was trying to kill me."

"You didn't think it was real before?" JT looked at his friend.

"I know, it sounds crazy but even when we were in Vermont and he basically admitted it didn't seem as real as it did in there." Jess bit her lower lip and it reminded JT of that first night they met. Fifteen years and a million hours of drama later she was still stronger than any woman he knew, but today was going to take a lot out of her and they both knew it. He took her in his arms and hugged her. She had been the little sister he never had and it hurt him to see her suffering.

"It it helps any, he almost killed me more than once over the last twenty years so I'm pretty sure he was never very good at being the bad guy." Jess laughed. Matt came down the court house steps and Jess pushed away from her friend.

"What's the verdict?"

"The rest of the trial is postponed while they try and figure out what charges he just confessed to and what other charges the state of California wants to nail him with." Jess looked at her oldest brother. He almost looked happy again with this part of the Kitrick drama behind them.

"Does that mean we can go home?" Jess asked hopefully.

"Yeah, they promised to subpoena us all again real soon." The three of them walked down the steps. Matt hailed a cab. "Do you guys want to eat here or just go home?"

"I'm good till we get home." Jess wanted to get back to California before anything or anyone got in the way. Neither JT or Matt wouldn't argue with her. Not after what she just went through. They got into the cab and headed to the airport

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"She's going to kill me." Cody looked at his father sitting next to him.

"Don't you think your being a little dramatic son?" The younger Hawkes shook his head.

"She asked me to one thing dad. One thing." Cody stood, unable to sit still a second longer. "I promised her."

"Accidents happen." Jesse tried to reassure the man all the way to the hospital that no matter how careful you are things just happen sometimes.

"I should have just let the car go."

"He was going eighty on a dangerous mountain road Cody, not even you could let that one slide." Running his hand through his hair Cody looked at the door they had taken his brother in law through over a half hour ago. "He's in the best hands son." Just then the younger man's phone vibrated. Taking it from his pocket, Cody read the text. "Great, Jess, Matt, and JT are landing in fifteen minutes."

"I'll go pick them up." Jesse stood.

"She'll know something's wrong if you pick them up."

"She's going to know something's wrong if you go to pick her up without her husband riding shotgun."

"Either way, I'm screwed." Cody looked at the door again. "I wish someone would come out and tell us something." If on cue, Mark Sheppard came through the doors. "Shep, how is he?"

"He's going to be sore for a few days. I'm pretty sure it would have been much worse if the car had been going faster and the truck bumper hadn't been reinforced the way it was." Cody sighed in relief and sat down. When he'd seen the car coming around that corner he knew what Jess felt when she knew things were going sideways. The difference was he didn't have enough time to send things in the right direction. Shep was right that the reinforced bumper had been a God send because the truck would have blown up on impact instead of being pushed over a hundred yards into the embankment.

"Jess just had that damn thing put on." Cody ran his hand over his face. "She probably saw this coming." He stood. "Can I see him before I face the firing squad?"

"Yeah, I want to keep him overnight for observation but I think a visit from his favorite brother in law might do him some good."

"I think I lost my place for favorite anything after today." Cody went through the door and saw Derek laying on the gurney with a neck brace on. "Awww crap, Derek I'm so sorry." The older man opened his eyes.

"What do you have to be sorry for Cody? A drunk rear ended the squad."

"I was the one who made the traffic stop." Derek tried to chuckle but it hurt too much.

"It was an accident"

"Yeah, well your wife isn't going to see it that way. I have to go pick her and the guys up but I wanted to say one last goodbye before she kills me." This time Derek couldn't himself from laughing.

"Oh God that hurts. Cody my wife is a lot of things but a cold blooded killer isn't one of them and I'm pretty sure she won't hold this against you."

"We are talking about my sister Jess, right?"

"Go pick them up. We will deal with her attitude when she gets here." Cody nodded.

"Wish me luck."

"You'll need more than luck my friend."

"Thanks." Cody left his brother in law in the capable hands of Shep and the nurses.

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"Something's wrong." Jess stood looking at her phone. "Derek isn't answering his phone." Matt stood next to her.

"Cody said he'd be here in five minutes, I'm sure everything is fine." Jess turned and looked at her older brother.

"Then why is he driving the Avalanche?" Matt looked up and saw their brother pull up to the curb. "I told you something wasn't right." Jess grabbed her bag and opened the passenger door. "What did you do to my husband and your truck?" Cody closed his eyes and leaned back against the head rest. Taking a deep breath he opened his eyes again and looked at his sister.

"It's nice to see you too Jess. I'm fine thank you and as for your husband he has a concussion and a really bad case of whip lash because some drunk soccer mom plowed into the back of my truck during a traffic stop." There he said it.

"I asked you to do one thing Cody." Matt stood behind their sister.

"How's the soccer mom?" He asked his younger brother.

"They don't think she's going to make it. She had just dropped her kids off a sleep over. I guess we can be thankful for that." Jess looked at her younger brother. He looked like crap and she guessed he hadn't been home since the accident. "Be mad at me Jess but just know that I am sorry. We were on our way back to base after checking water tables and this guy whipped passed us going eighty miles out of Emerald Bay."

"You were doing your job." Matt looked at his sister who was oddly calm considering the news she just got.

"If you hadn't stopped him he would have killed not just himself but a whole lot of other people." Jess got into the truck and looked straight ahead. "It took everything I had not to tell you to do anything else today. Better Derek take a few sick days then families lose loved ones."

"You knew this was going to happen?" Cody looked at his sister sitting next to him. She had been through so much today yet she seemed at peace. It was scarring him.

"My stomach hasn't been right all morning, I chalked it up to the trial."

"But you knew if we let the speeder go he would have caused a bigger mess."

"Just a hunch." Matt and JT knew better to get into the middle of one of Cody and Jess's discussions. "I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"I'm sorry I let your husband get hurt."

"It wasn't your fault Cody. Even though I want to blame you, I know better." She smiled.

"You didn't tell anybody about your hunch. Why?"

"Because it wouldn't of saved who needed saving." Jess was scaring him now and he wasn't getting help from the other two in the back seat.

"Jess?"

"Just take me to the hospital so I can see my husband and we'll hash the rest of it out later." Cody put the truck in gear and pulled out of the airport and headed to take his sister to her husband.