AN: Jack Of All Trades fits between New In Town 3, and this. I came up with the ideas and wrote them out of order.
Months passed and Emily was surprised that Jesse was even still around. He'd somehow become the unspoken handy man, whenever there was something that needed work or maintenance done, he was who nearly everyone turned to.
She was a strange kind of buffer between him and the rest of the town. After the first two weeks in Radiator Springs, he'd finally begun to allow himself to interact with the community. Emily wasn't sure if his hesitance had been because he'd expected to be recognized or if he'd been afraid of getting too comfortable.
It was most likely a mixture of the two.
Her knowledge of who he was and her own connection to Piston Cup offered a sense of familiarity. She'd been afraid to mention the sport and for the longest time pretended it didn't exist. She'd been surprised when he was the one to bring it up, asking if she'd heard anything about a number of racers. She figured it had to be the crew he was known to carouse with back east.
She hadn't at the time, but she'd made sure to find out before she saw him again.
Emily walked down the interior steps into the record rooms of the courthouse. Only a few lights had been turned on, and she was unfamiliar with the building in general, peeking around corners and trying to read the doors before making a decision as to which direction to go. She didn't like how her footsteps echoed in the silence.
Finally seeing an opened door at the end of one long hallway with the lights on, she quickened her pace and looked around the corner of the door frame to see Jesse digging through boxes of files and manila folders. He tossed one orange folder on to the table.
"Michael said you'd asked to be let in here." She glanced over the bookcases as she set her bag down. "What are you doing?"
"Looking up deeds." He glanced up at her before flipping through a stack of papers. How half the men in town could talk with a cigarette in their mouth she'd never know.
"And how's that going?"
"This is the biggest mess I've ever seen. Why is Carwood's marriage certificate mixed in with Flo's permit to sell food? Or why are there floor plans for the courthouse-" He sighed in frustration, scratching at the back of his head.
"I didn't realize you were so meticulous." She commented, sitting at the table and opening the cover of a folder to read over the first paper.
He wasn't listening, she could tell, and muttered to himself. "I thought Henry kept poor records for the garage..."
She wasn't sure who he was talking about but didn't ask for clarification.
"What do you need a deed for?"
"I'm applying for adverse possession."
She only blinked at him a few times.
"The property across from The Cozy Cone? It's abandoned, but there's an apartment and garage attached."
"Adverse possession is...?"
"It's cheaper to acquire land that's already developed but no one has been able to contact the original owners, so if I'm granted the application, I'd be made the caretaker of the property legally."
"Oh." She raised a brow, having no idea he'd truly been considered staying.
"Carburetor County must not be very big if this is the county seat."
"How do you know it's the county seat?"
He gestured above their heads in reference to the building they were standing in. "It's where the courthouse is, and it's a part-time courthouse at that..."
"Maybe you should get involved with law." She smirked.
"Please." He muttered, sliding folders back in to a box. "Between Michael telling me I should go to medical school-"
"He told me about that."
"And you, I'll be-" He paused, flipping a sheet around and looking it over quickly before slapping it with his hand. "Ha! It's been five years, that's even better."
He set the thin paper aside and started putting the other folders away. He'd have to go back some other day to organize the place better.
"How do you know so much concerning law?" She asked.
"You learn more sometimes avoiding things than by studying them."
"Speaking from experience?" She followed him back up the stairs and out the main doors.
"You interpret that however you see fit, dollface."
She hesitated briefly on the sidewalk as he crossed the street to where Michael's cruiser sat, hoping the afternoon sun could be to blame for her red face.
He was granted the application within a week, county officials would much rather hand a property off to someone than deal with an abandoned eyesore.
Jesse had gone straight to work, finding himself with a little more cash now that he wasn't paying weekly for a room at The Cone. The Hornet had been backed into the garage so he could unload the materials he'd gotten to start renovations.
"No more sittin' outside for you. You weren't used to that anyway were-"
"Are you talking to your car?" Emily asked.
He jumped, but luckily had gotten used to ducking when anywhere near the open trunk.
"Yeah, doesn't like it when I ignore it. Gets temperamental."
"Oh, kind of like you."
He only grumbled to himself in response, something about getting some no trespassing signs now that he had his own place.
"We're all meeting down at Flo's later. Everyone wanted to know if you'd be there."
"Uh-..." He eyed the cans of paint on the steps and the boards he'd leaned up near the door. "Yeah, hoping to get some of this started, but I should be over."
She ended up being the one that was late. It was surprisingly slow for a Friday night and Flo had taken the liberty of closing up early.
Emily waited at the door as she'd unlocked it, setting her things on the counter and looking toward the group in the back corner, hearing parts of the conversation.
"Why do you get to be the car and the banker?"
"Hey why don't you be that snazzy lookin' iron there?"
"He found the game, man. You think we're gunna put you in charge of money?"
"I'm up for Sheriff's Deputy you know."
"All the more reason not to trust him."
The group all broke into surprised laughter.
"Yeah, it's all funny now, wait till you're all stuck behind bars." Michael joked.
"I'd bail you out, don't worry." Jesse replied, reaching for the dice.
Emily tilted her head as she came up to the booth. "Monopoly?"
"Can't really gamble when we're all broke." Ramone looked up.
Jesse paused in passing out fake money and those that were playing all came to the same conclusion at the same time.
Emily had never seen a board game get dumped back in the box so quickly.
She'd never seen such a cut throat game of cards over fake money either.
They'd walked back and sat on the back steps of the addition he was remodeling. She could tell he was pleased over the fact that he had a permanent residence. It wasn't the steps in to a room at The Cone. This was his porch.
The sun had long since disappeared, but she could still make out the horizon and see fairly well.
"What was your sister like?"
She could tell the question had taken him off guard and as the silence lengthened she wasn't sure if he was going to respond.
He shifted and reached for his wallet, pulling a photo out and passing it to her.
"She was my best friend."
Emily took the photo, glancing at him briefly before looking at the image.
"Is it true, what they say about twins?"
He only shrugged. "I dunno. Siblings can probably be as close or as distant as they want."
She tilted the image toward the light on the back of the house in an attempt to see it better. It was maybe two or three years ago, the hood of the Hornet could just be seen at the bottom of the picture. Jesse stood in his racing jacket, squinting in the sun while Ruth stood behind him, a few steps higher as she hugged him around the neck from behind with her chin on his shoulder.
"She was shorter-"
"We weren't identical. She and I shared more traits than our older brother though. We took after our father and he took after mom."
"You have a brother?"
He only nodded.
She hesitated, staring at the image. "What was it that-"
"The only answer we were given was disease of the lungs." He replied dully. "They had no name for it."
He went on to explain that before his racing career, their mother and Ruth had fallen ill with the same symptoms. Ruth had pulled through while their mother had not.
Instinctively, Emily linked her arm with his, leaning against his shoulder. "What about your father?"
"Died in '44." Second World War.
"How old were you all when your mom-?"
"We were seventeen." He tapped the picture she still held with a finger. "Henry was twenty-two, he'd been out of the house for four years by then."
"How old are you now?"
"I turned twenty-five the week I came into town."
"You should've said-"
"I don't really celebrate birthdays anymore."
Oh, that explained his attitude those first few days after they'd met.
He went on to explain that their small inheritance had only gone so far, and with more hospital bills and doctor visits on the horizon, he'd signed up for a race in desperation. The flier had said the purse was five hundred dollars.
"We could make that go a long way."
They'd gotten themselves out of debt, made sure they would live comfortably and Jesse had set back enough money for a one way train ticket to Michigan to meet the big wigs at Hudson Motor Car Company.
"What would you have done if they said no?"
"Would've been a long walk to Georgia." It had been one of his bargaining chips though.
The Hudson family hadn't expected his career to explode the way it had, but all three siblings were grateful.
He hesitated before continuing. "Things were good. Ruth seemed to be on the mend, stronger than she had been in a while, but-"
Emily bit the inside of her cheek, unsure what to say.
"Fall of '53. There was what, maybe two months left of the season. Something happened...I've never driven as fast as I did getting us to the hospital."
He shrugged, and her eyes welled with tears.
"She was admitted and they treated her for weeks, but she never came home."
And then his wreck a year later...
Jesse glanced down, staring at the ground before looking up at her and murmuring. "Hey-"
He put his arms around her and her tears fell. She wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling ridiculous, she should be comforting him, not the other way around.
"I'm so sorry." She whispered.
She felt his arms tighten around her. "Don't cry, please."
Too late.
"If you cry, I'll cry."
Too late for that too, she could already tell.
She wasn't sure how long they sat together, but the light on the back of the partially demolished addition was the only reason she could see. Emily watched him and could tell his eyes were bloodshot, but she could also see the wheels were turning.
His voice was hoarse when he spoke again. "I'm gunna do it."
"Do what?"
"I'm going to medical school." He looked at her finally.
She could only study his features in the dim light, but the look on his face was enough to tell her he was serious.
She knew him well enough by now to know that when he said he was going to do something, he'd succeed without question.
