Title: Cuts Like A Knife
Author: Stress
First written: May 12, 2002
Edited and replaced: January 21, 2005
Summary: Part I of the Soul Mates Series; She thought that life couldn't get any better. She had friends and a family that loved her – she was taken care of and had no complaints. But that was before he came into her life. And, no matter how hard she tries to escape his grasp, he'll never let her go.
Later that Day
Later that day, when Jess finally regained consciousness, her body jerked when she saw that she was still tightly enclosed in Rip's arms as he slept. Moving slowly and quietly so as not to wake him, she wiggled out of his grasp and pulled herself over to the opposite side of the alley. Looking out in the direction of the main road, Jess could see that it was getting late. The sun was no longer shining; it must've been right about the time that it was setting.
Taking a kerchief out of her pocket, Jess tied it over her hair, partially trying to disguise the bruises and blood that she knew must have overtaken her face. Trying to put as much distance between herself and the alley where she had just left Rip, she focused on solely trying to make it back to the O'Connor's apartment alive. She knew that she must have lost a lot of blood from where Rip had smashed her head against the brick wall and her head, her poor head, felt like it was going to fall off. She just wanted to get home to tend to her injuries.
Though she knew that Rip would be angry for her leaving him alone in that alley, she just plum didn't care at that moment. Her main concern was to get home and get cleaned up before the O'Connor's realized what she looked like. Her head hurt so much that Jess wasn't sure that she would be able to come up with a believable excuse to why she was in such a state.
For what she had told Rip was the truth; she hadn't told anyone about him. She shivered as she remembered his actions from that morning and the reason he had given her for doing that to her. "I'm so sorry, Jess but you had to go and tell Spindle. I warned you that this would happen." If that was how he acted when he thought she had told someone about him, she hated to see what would happen if she actually did rat him out.
Hoping against hope that the O'Connor's had decided to go to bed extremely early, Jess crossed her fingers as she entered the apartment building and started to walk up the five flights of stairs to the O'Connor's home. Taking a deep breath she opened the door and quickly looked around the living room, only to find it empty. Letting out a sigh of relief, Jess took the kerchief off her hair and tossed it aside, limping straight to her bedroom.
"That's strange, I thought I left the door to me room open when I left this morning," she began to think to herself, but stopped when a sharp pain shot through her head. It was too painful to think right then.
Putting her left hand against her head, Jess used her right hand to open the door. She stopped short when she realized that she wasn't the only one in the room.
"Oh my God! What in Heaven's name happened to you, Jess?" squealed a short blonde figure as she darted across the room to help Jess to her bed.
Jess winced at the loud voice that rang in her ears, but allowed the other girl to lead her to her bed. "Damn, I forgot that Grace was coming to stay here."
After helping Jess into her bed, Grace ran to the bathroom and got a wet towel. Trying not to get sick at the site of her battered friend, she began to clean her up. After washing all of the dried blood off of Jess's face, Grace noticed that fresh blood was still seeping out of a wound on one side of Jess's head. As she grabbed a dry cloth and gently pressed it to the cut, she turned to look straight in Jess's clouded green eyes. "Jess, what happened? Who did this to you?"
Jess went to turn her head so that she couldn't see Grace's bright blue eyes but let out a tiny squeal of pain at the motion. Because averting her eyes was no longer an option, Jess chose to close her eyes so that Grace couldn't tell she was lying. "I was... I was... I was soaked by a bunch of newsies I didn't know," she stammered out, using the first excuse that popped in her mind.
Grace, not buying her excuse for a minute, pressed on. "But I thought that Rip was selling with you. Why didn't he do something to those newsies?"
"Rip had already left to see his girlfriend, Spindle. He wasn't there when I was attacked and he don't know nothing about it," Jess answered quickly, opening her eyes wide, trying to drop Rip's name from the conversation. She was afraid that she might somehow let it show through her emotions or facial expressions that it was Rip who had done this to her. And that would only make Rip mad if he knew that someone else had found something out about their relationship. "Rip and mad are two things I don't want to see mixed," she mumbled as she felt herself slowly losing consciousness again.
"What did ya just say? Jess? Jess?!" Grace panicked as she saw Jess's eyes flutter and begin to close again. Laying her head against Jess's chest she felt a wave of relief when she heard that Jess's heart was still beating. Working slowly and moving her ever-so-gently, Grace went about the task of changing Jess out of her blood-stained blouse and skirt and putting her in one of her lacey nightgowns.
After tucking Jess into her bed and changing the cloth on her head wound, Grace began to wonder how Jess had ended up so beaten. Though she tried not to fight, she could handle her own when she wanted to. And if a whole bunch of newsies were attacking her, Jess would have just taken off instead of letting them beat up on her. No, it was definitely a lie. "A bunch of newsies, indeed. If more than one guy did this to you, me friend, I'll eat me suspenders," Grace whispered in the darkness as she sat by her friend's bedside, listening to the rhythm of her faint but steady breathing.
Though feeling extremely furious and hateful towards Jess's attacker, Grace was puzzled by one thing: "I just want to know why you're so intent on protecting him when you're obviously the one who is in need of the protecting."