Well, it's been a long time hasn't it and I haven't made too many friends with this fic, oh well it comes with writing depressing dribble! But T/J fans you'll like this chapter! I like this chapter so you'll like it!
Sorry about it being a bit long I just kept writing and writing and writing, I woke up at 6.00am in the morning today just to finish it for you! So do enjoy! And do review…even if you hate it, I'm working on dealing with criticism…so negative comments will help!
Emsta: Ahh Emsta my dedicated fic readerer, sorry about confusing you hopefully this'll make things a bit clearer. Don't hesitate to email me and ask questions!
Big and Bluey: Well well, an Inspector Rex fans…it's such a damn good show! Thanks for the review and making my fic one of your favs…I feel so loved! I loved your Deception fic by the way…good stuff that was!
Disclaimer: no don't own anything except Paul, Jerry, Darren and Sammy…oh and the M&Ms!
Saturday: Off with their heads!
I seemed to dream a lot about Tess lately. Mainly morbid dreams, nightmares really, so vivid I couldn't get back to sleep in fear of plunging back into that sickening world. I've read about dreams, something to do with subconscious fears...well that must be right then 'cause Tessy scared me, really scared me.
Pressing the icepack firmly against my cheek the stinging pain numbed only to sting again with the harsh cold of the ice.
"You sure pack a punch Tessy..." I started as we sat on the polo blue couch nursing my wound.
"I'm sorry" Tess whispered cutting me off while she changed hands her other hand cold and wet from the melting ice.
"You shouldn't be sorry Tess, it was only an accident." I paused waiting for Tessy's answer, hoping that it was just an accident, that maybe she was confused and that she really hadn't meant to hurt me, that she'd tell me that she loved me and let me hold her.
"No..." she looked down at her hand that was drawing nervous figure eight patterns on her knee.
"You wanted to hurt me?" I asked as I pressed my palm against her cheek caressing it gently. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes which were still soaked with sticky tears.
"Arghh..." I winced in pain, hinting to Tess that she needn't press so hard with the icepack but she was in her own little world, I couldn't get through to her.
"If you hadn't hidden them Evan, then maybe this would have never happened..." Tess finally mumbled under her breath, it was still loud enough for me to hear. 'So this was my fault was it?' I thought to myself somehow I wasn't surprised, everything else seemed to be.
"Tess, you need to stop this..." I started to only be cut off by a stubborn Tess.
"Just give 'em back." she said sternly looking at me harshly.
"No!"
"Give them back!" Tess raised her voice somewhat. There was a moments silence before I said what I needed too, something I should have said days ago.
When she hugged me I wouldn't let her go, Susie grew suspicious.
"She was your sarge hey?" she asked questioning my relationship with the beautiful blonde.
"Yep" I smiled at Suse who was stirring her coffee.
"Nothing more?" she asked sparks of some kind of jealously erupted from her.
"Nope" I lied, leaning against the bench the locker room incident flashing to memory. I never told her I still thought of Tess, even if it was just an innocent memory.
"You sure?" asked a perplexed Susie, who'd suddenly become quite apprehensive. What was she scared of?
"Tess I'm sick of this!" I yelled to an irate Tess who hadn't known how deeply I felt about the matter. "Slashing your wrists mightn't hurt you Tess but it hurts me." I spat resisting the urge to simply burst into tears. Tessy's eyes widened and she felt guilty.
"I need to do it..." was her feeble excuse but I didn't care much for her excuses. Sitting on the couch Tess comforted herself by hugging her knees to her chest resting her head on her knees.
"C'mon we're goin' to the hospital." I said my tone still faintly hostile. Grabbing her arm I tried to lead her to the door but she wouldn't budge, when I looked at her she had that look of fear about her.
"Not there..." she begged she stood dropping the icepack to try and pry my hand of her arm."Please Ev...not the hospital." her tears cut her off. I realised there was no point forcing her, I gently walked forwards putting my arms on her shoulders. Tess rubbed her hand hard against her forehead punishing herself for the endless stream of tears.
"But you'll be safe there Tessy, look you're sick and I wanna help..." My voice dulled itself to a gentle soft tone in hope of calming Tess down; sitting her down again next to her I wrapped my arm around her shoulders rubbing her shoulder warmly.
"Please, don't make me go...I'll do anything...please!" she begged softly clutching my hand, uncontrollably crying she clutched the collar of my shirt. I raised my eyebrows at her face smeared in tears, her eyes so watery.
"Please..." she begged her voice a whisper.
"You'll take the pills?" I asked looking at her still rubbing her shoulder gently, she'd began to shake.
"I said anything, didn't I?" she looked up me swallowing hard.
"I care about you..." I pulled Tess into hug; she wrapped her arms around my neck and rested her head against my shoulder.
"I know" she whispered cutting me off. I felt her warm tears drip down my neck to rest in a wet patch that had formed just below my neck. I hugged her tighter and she brushed her fingers through my hair silently crying, her body shaking in pure agony. The only intimate moment we had for what seemed like years was interrupted by Tess' need to wipe her eyes. I looked at her; she was so fragile and scared.
Susie nervously tapped her fingers on the mess room table whilst clutching her coffee with the other hand.
"So what was it that you had to tell me?" Alex sat down making himself familiar with the not so comfy chair.
"Ah..." Susie began not knowing where to start.
"You right?" He asked acknowledging her nervousness. She smiled nervously before she looked at her coffee and not taking her eyes of it she feed him the bad news.
"I'm pregnant" she said incoherently hoping that he wouldn't hear but he did. All of a sudden his world came crashing down on him.
"Shit!" he muttered to himself more than anybody else. "What are we gonna do?" he asked a petrified Susie.
"Hey...It's alright" I whispered into Tess' ear, holding her warmly in my arms she still cried so I kissed her head hoping she'd stop. "Tessy?" I asked propping her head up in my hands, smiling sheepishly. "What's wrong?" Tess pulled out the folded up yellow flowered 'Get Well' card still encased in it's scraggly envelope.
"This" she handed me the card.
"The card mum gave you?" I asked curiously before opening the card, the top of it fell forward from the harsh fold in it's middle.
"'Dear Tessy..." I read aloud before I skimmed through the text silently, I read it again making sure that what I had read was right. "'Dear Tessy..." I started again, reading it aloud as it warranted me to. "'Feelin' better? Didn't get ya the first time but don't worry Constable Plod can't keep ya safe for long. Gonna get ya like I got those other cops, gonna make you pay bitch...love from Paul'" when I finished I closed the card hiding the scrawl written on it's inside. Looking at Tess who was nervously biting her nails I felt sick, I thought she was safe, I didn't know how real the danger was.
I can still remember the only time Tess was her old self again, don't think I'll ever forget it.
I'd taken refuge in the mess room upon hearing that the wedding was off, no one dared to follow me in to console me so I just sat there dwelling on what Susie just told me just days before, the bitter pain just started to sink in.
I rubbed my forehead and forced myself to just wipe away everything: Susie, the wedding, Alex...everything but the faint noise of the steaming kettle distracted me. I looked up simultaneously wiping the silent tears that'd made their way down my cheeks. It was Tess. I didn't talk to her; there was nothing to talk about. She glanced at me and came to sit next to me.
"Jones?" she asked in her concerned but quite voice. I didn't say anything instead I just looked at her stirring her coffee like she had to be elsewhere. "I'm concerned about your workload Jones, so many incidents so little reports..." she paused noticing that work was the last thing on my mind."...if you need the time off Evan..." it'd become personal, she wasn't just the work obsessed Sarge, she did care about me.
"Sorry Sarge I'll pull my socks up, when do you want those reports by?" was my programmed response, I looked up at her but Tess never looked at me, she always hurt when I cried.
"I know what its like to lose someone you love" Tessy replied circling the top of the mug with her finger. "It hurts...a lot, for a really long time but at the end of the day you know everything will be okay, that you'll be okay and that's all that matters." she had her hand on my shoulder. "Jones?"
"Mmm?" I looked up at her; she had a concerned sort of smile on her face.
"It's your turn to get the lunches." Tess smiled as she began to lift herself off the chair and make her way to the door.
I'll never forget that day.
"Don't tell me nothin's been done about this!" I yelled quite flustered with PJ's monotonous excuses. I sat down with Tess in PJ's office quite irate at the situation.
"Yeah, look mate we're doin' everything we can but there's no blue falcon and no Paul Gorge." said PJ calming me down by handing me a coffee as he swung through the door.
"Then what about this..." I handed PJ the yellow flowered "Get Well" card which was hardly cheerful anymore. PJ picked up the card and inspected it thoroughly before opening it. His eyes scanned through the contents once and then again making sure it wasn't a hallucination.
"Your joking!" he exclaimed as he lent back in his chair and sighed deeply, his hands rubbed his face before they were brought back to support his head. "The whole team's in St. David's!" PJ exclaimed rubbing his eyes with his forefinger and thumb, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"So this Paul guy's been out and about keepin' tabs on us and you guys haven't even noticed?" I posed PJ a more challenging question.
"Like I said Jones, no falcon...no Paul, or so we thought" murmured PJ his hand covering his forehead in deep thought. The Boss knocked on the door, entering the situation with suspicion.
"Jones, what's going on? You should be at Tess' making sure no one lays a finger on your sergeant." the Boss pointed out quite upset at the fact that I had driven here at a risk of being mowed down by the lunatic.
"He's here Boss..." said PJ in a concerned voice handing the card to the Boss who was more than slightly aggravated. The Boss went through the same procedure reading it twice and a third time just to make sure.
"This is impossible" said the Boss letting the card fall back on the table. "We had every man on the job, we handed out leaflets, did doorknocks, road blocks...everything and the moron's still got through!" the Boss exclaimed lowering himself into the chair I vacated. "Do you know where he could be Tess?" asked the Boss in a more concerned tone. I looked over at Tess who looked like she'd zoned out for the whole 20 mins that we were here, the Boss' question brought her back.
"No…umm, I don't really know the guy Boss..." Tess said in an awful quiet voice, her shock still obvious in the way her hands shook. The Boss comforted Tess by taking her hands in his. A moment of silence passed while the Boss contemplated on what to do with the situation.
"Jones, you take Sergeant Gallagher home, pack some supplies and get down to that vacant hut in Widgeree State Park." the Boss ordered walking Tess outside his office, everybody pretended to be busy, answering phones, scribbling down notes while Tess was filed down the corridor and waited with the Boss.
I looked at PJ who looked more worried than ever.
"Is there somethin' I don't know?" I asked puzzled at PJ's expression, he'd never been this worried before. His brow creased and his arm supported his chin, his elbow propped up against the table.
"Look, it isn't my place to say but Tessy's in real danger, she's gone in way too deep this time." answered a somewhat baffled PJ who switched back into his deep concentrating state once he answered. I couldn't figure it out, Tess hadn't mentioned anything, all I knew was that some guy was after her cause the dope she gave him wasn't real, I didn't think he'd really want her dead, she was in danger yeah but "in way too deep"? What did PJ mean?
I turned to head near the door knowing by the expression on PJ's face that we didn't have a lot of time I turned around at the last minute.
"You get the bastard PJ, whatever it takes."
PJ nodded in obedience and I shut the door.
"Listen up guys!" called Chris whilst pouring me a beer. The whole team fell silent and looked Chris' way.
"Umm Chris...you don't have to..." Susie tried to stop Chris but she was well on her way to announcing the dreadful news.
"Great news everyone, Susie's gonna be a mum!" Chris announced, the team fell silent for a few seconds, the Boss was first to speak.
"I believe congratulations are in order Raynor" he turned to Suse wrapping his arm around her in a fatherly hug. The others proceeded to voice their congratulations while I sat on the pub stool hopelessly.
"Don't forget the daddy!" Chris proceeded to exclaim cheerfully. I smiled sheepishly and looked over at Alex who'd turned pale. Tess'd in the meantime made her way over to hug Suse.
"Here Jonesy...on the house" Chris gave me another beer sliding it to sit next to the first. The smile on Chris' face was immense.
Alex had made his way through the excited coppers to a very excited Chris, still looking pale he managed to mumble the sentence half as loud as her normally would've.
"Yeah umm Chris, I'm the father...not Jonesy". Chris was shocked but contained her composure. The others looked on in disbelief for a couple of seconds then started reluctantly to congratulate Alex, who'd made enough of an embarrassment of himself.
Tess sat next to me without saying a word, possibly picking up that I hardly wanted to be talked to.
"Chris, you can have this back" I passed Chris the beer back, Chris looked shocked.
"No, I think you better have that Jonesy. I'm sorry..." Chris tried to alleviate the embarrassment she'd just caused. "...I just thought..."
"No worries Chris, you weren't to know" I said in a somewhat sad tone but I remained completely oblivious to the whispering behind my back.
"Want a beer Sarge?"
"Tess?" I asked looking at Tess who'd set to work packing whatever edible foodstuffs she could find in her cupboards. I shook the packet of antidepressants which'd gotten squashed in my jeans pocket. Tess sighed.
"They don't help" Tess muttered under her breath hoping I wouldn't hear.
"Well you don't know if you don't try." I must have convinced Tess because she held out her palm waiting for me to pop the pill into it. She reluctantly slid the pill onto her tongue and with a painfully distasteful look on her face, took a gulp of the water in the glass I handed to her.
"See, it isn't that bad?" I smiled to Tess who'd shown me the inside of her mouth, proving that she'd stick to the deal. With an awful look of disgust she continued packing tins of some sort into a box.
"Here you hang on to these" I threw the packet of tablets to Tess who'd caught them one handedly.
"No, you keep them...otherwise I probably won't take them..." Tess had that look of self doubt in her eyes when she threw the tablets back.
"She's so gorgeous!" shrieked Kelly passing me back the wallet sized photo I had of Sammy that Tess'd sent me.
"Yeah...she is" I looked at the photo once more before I placed it back into the window of my wallet adjusting it so it fitted perfectly. I took a few seconds to just look at the little toddler. Sammy's beautiful blue eyes peered out at me and her stunning little smile was enough to make your heart skip a beat. It's amazing how much she looked like her mother.
"Is she gonna bring her down for the wedding?" asked a very clucky Kelly so smitten with a baby she'd never met.
"Yeah, I hope so...I'm dyin' to see her" I said my eyes still glued on Sammy's little face.
The drive to Widgeree was meant to take 20 mins but it seemed to take hours.
"Tess?" I asked Tess who had the seat reclined and was basically half asleep. She ignored me hoping that I'd think she was asleep.
"Who's Paul?" I asked in my all too concerned voice. Tessy turned her head to face me.
"Paul..." she whispered more to herself than to me.
"Tessy, who is he? And why does he wanna hurt you? I mean I thought we were after this Mr. X guy, what's his face...Darren Frank..." I stopped mid sentence peering for a couple of seconds at the look on Tessy's face, she was completely lost.
"Umm...well he was Mr. X...in a way" Tessy finally said, answering the only question she probably heard. I gave her the same look she gave me. She smiled.
"You always left out of the loop?" asked Tess who'd know rolled the reclined chair back up into it's normal sitting position.
"Yeah, as of late" I answered agreeing somewhat with what she had to say.
"Umm...I'll start from the beginning then..." said Tessy rummaging in the side pocket in the door of the car for the leftover M&Ms.
"By all means..."
"In Melbourne, as part of the drug squad me and 3 D's were given a list..."
"A list?" I asked bewildered. What did this have to do with anything? I thought to myself.
"Well it had the names of 10 drug lords. We had to investigate and bring down they're little circles, starting with the dealers. Once we'd get them then we'd get the big fish...the suppliers."
"Mmm..." I replied knowing the procedure back to front.
"We started on a Mr. Jerry Thorn..."
"Jerry Thorn…like Operation Mule Thorn?"
"Yeah...Victoria's worst drug offender, two time major importer of massive amounts of ecstasy, heroine, speed...the lot basically. Well we'd just about ripped through his little circle of friends, we had 200 dealers charged, some rolled over told us pick up places, names associates but none of them knew where Jerry was gettin' the stuff from; or who as a matter of fact, until we got approval to raid Thorn's place."
"Don't tell me...you didn't find anything"
"No, that's just it...we did, well I did...I found this" Tess pulled out a black floppy disc from inside of her jeans pocket.
"A floppy disc?" I asked again not knowing where the conversation was headed.
"This, Evan has mention of Jerry Thorn's supplier...Paul Gorge."
"Paul..." I mimed to myself all of a sudden something clicked.
"Paul found out about the disc! But Tess, its just a disc!" I stated
"But it has everything Jones, places, dates, names, times, even bloody phone transcripts...It's enough to charge him...you'd think they'd be smart enough to burn it."
"That's why he wants you...couldn't ya just leave the disc in Melbourne?" Tess sighed, her voice changed to one of fear.
"He wants it back...he'll go to extreme lengths if he has to. Those Detectives I worked with...3 weeks after the disc was taken in as evidence they all went missing..." Tess' voice began to quaver "...all three of them...we never found their bodies but they're heads...umm they were mailed back to the station, in POSTpak boxes. He'd decapitated them packaged their heads in bubble wrap and sent them to the station!" Tess repeated making present the disgust in her voice.
"That bastard!" I exclaimed only for a moment before I quietened down again.
"I'm the only one left..." Tess whispered obviously shaken. "When I heard about the wedding...I thought I might come down, Jerry was in town and the Melbourne D's wanted me to keep an eye on him..."
"Except Paul found out too..." I cut Tess off finishing her sentence for her.
"Mmm...He was Mr. X Evan..." Tess' voice had now reduced to a whisper. "...Darren Frank had fooled us into thinking he'd rolled over, we were never going to meet Darren...they set the whole thing up. You know what these guys are like, chums through thick and thin..."
"Why didn't you say anything...in the car, we could've done something..."
"It was enough knowing that he was gonna beat the crap out of me Evan but I didn't want him to hurt you." Tess gulped.
We'd arrived at the almost run down hut in the State Park, being out of radio contact I called PJ to tell him we were here. Tess had fallen asleep in the last few minutes or so and I didn't want to wake her so I unpacked the car.
"Hey..." I said smiling to Tess who had adjusted the beanie to cover her forehead again, rubbing her eyes she looked down at me picking up the last of the boxes.
"Need any help?" I didn't think Tess'd volunteer.
"Nah, you're right. These are the last anyway..." I called out to her while making the 100m trek back up to the car.
"C'mon, let's get settled in for the night." I held out my hand and Tess let go of the roof of the car and held onto my hand while she tried to make her way down the narrow dusty path into the bush. It only took a few steps before Tess felt too dizzy to walk the track; she nearly stumbled over herself if it weren't for my arm supporting her she would have.
"Here hold to my neck." I suggested acknowledging Tessy's inability to walk.
"I don't need..." Tess started but stopped mid sentence, "Okay" Tess wrapped her arms around my neck and I picked her up cradling her in my arms I carried her to the abandoned hut.
"Jonesy..." Susie was the second last to leave the pub just before closing. She'd stuck around on purpose so she'd get me alone.
"Jonesy?" Susie was interrupting my train of thought, I was putting up chairs on tables and that's all I wanted to concentrate on. I tried to ignore her but that was a bit hard.
"Mmm?" I finally answered running out of chairs. Susie looked at me with the utmost look of regret on her face. "Sorry I never told you sooner but you gotta understand...it was too hard..."
"Yeah don't worry about it..." she was talking about the baby, I didn't need to hear about it. "I think you should go, I'm locking up anyway..." I needed Suse to leave, I could only pretend for so long that the baby issue didn't bother me.
"It isn't that bad..." I tried to convince Tess who'd already made up her mind about the humble little hut we were to call home for an indefinite period.
"Guess not..." Tess was just tired I guess. She unpacked the boxes slowly while I unravelled the few blankets I could muster back at Tessy's and those camping mattresses out onto the floor. We didn't have much to talk about and the long awkward silence was getting to me. Tessy had found something to amuse herself with; she stacked up the remaining tuna cans into a little pile on uneven table in the far edge of the little hut. Being the perfectionist she is or just out of pure boredom she rearranged them in chronological order, twisting the cans to make sure the labels faced her. I sat on the floor playing with the piles of dust under my feet waiting for the silence to elapse, it finally did.
"Evan?" Tess asked midway through her can turning exposé.
"Mmm?" I muttered concentrating hard on the piles of dust which'd now been airborne.
"Do you still love her?" asked Tess too scared to turn around and face me.
"Who?" I asked knowing exactly who she meant.
"Susie..." Tess whispered hesitantly now turning fully around to face me. I looked down while she looked at me. 'Did I still love her? Did I ever love her?' I thought to myself, Tess was waiting for an answer.
"No..." I finally managed to mutter. "...don't think I ever did." I almost whispered hoping Tess'd hear every word. I wanted her to know that she was the one I loved.
"Then...?" Tess started. I looked up at her; she was leaning against the edge of the table. Seeing the look on my face she decided she'd better sit down next to me. "Why'd you want to marry her?" Tess continued in her mellow voice. I didn't want to answer that question, it was a stupid question.
"Why did you marry Josh?" I asked saving myself from saying something blindly stupid. Tess looked down at her knees which she'd propped up and lent against her chest. I guess my question was hard to answer too. Tess sat silently only briefly looking up at me; she didn't have a comeback-for once! But why would Tess care about Susie? She'd leave the room whenever I mentioned her before, why now all of sudden? Then it finally dawned on me.
"You were jealous...!" I exclaimed to Tess a look of disbelief formed on both our faces.
"What?" Tess tried to mask the shock.
"That's why you didn't talk to me for months on end. You hated the fact that I was going to marry her, it ate you up inside knowing that I'd moved on... you still loved me..." I stopped, judging by the look on Tess' face I didn't need to say anymore.
"No..." she finally whispered. She swallowed hard; she found it hard to talk. "...Not so much jealous as just pain angry."
"At me?" I asked
"No..." Tess had that look of deep sympathy on her face. "...not you...me. Just hated myself for ages, for everything...Josh, the baby, for not marrying you when I should have..." Tess stopped herself; she needed to stop the tears that had just begun to form. I didn't know what to say.
"Everybody makes mistakes" I said, sounded like the most logical thing to say at the time. Tess shook her head.
"Not like this...I'm just so stupid." Tess couldn't control the tears anymore they just flowed.
"Hey..." I soothed wrapping my arm around her. The only thing I hated most was Tess being hurt.
"And I still hate myself for hurting you...I'll never forgive myself for that." Tess took my arm off from around her shoulder and walked herself to the door.
"Is it okay if I go for a walk?" she asked her face so painfully soaked in tears.
"We're getting married..." Alex didn't look too thrilled.
"That's great" I muttered, Alex could pick up that I was hardly excited. Tess broke up the mother's day club we'd formed in the back corridor.
"Kirby," Tess got Alex's attention "the worst...there's no such word as worstest." Tess was pointing Alex's poorly written incident report at him.
"Sorry Sarge." Alex trudged off.
"They're gettin' married." I said to Tess who cared less.
"Jones, there's no 'e' in contraband" said Tess pointing my poorly written report at me.
"Damn!" Tess punched the table with her fist.
"What's wrong?" I asked half way through Tess' leftover can of bacon flavoured baked beans.
"No more matches..." Tess had been cold, lighting a fire proved difficult.
"I got some in my wallet" I answered getting back to my baked beans. It was nearly pitch black and I could hardly tell where Tess was.
"Ouch!" muttered Tess in a very annoyed tone of voice, she'd just walked into something from the sound of it. But eventually she managed to find her way to my wallet, once she lit a match I could see her figure for a brief couple of seconds before the light died down. Tess lit the couple of candles in front of her and proceeded to put the fold up book of matches back into my wallet when something caught her attention. She stopped for a while and I guess she must have been crying silently because her hand covered her eyes.
"You still have this?" Tess' voice was shaky, I was right she was crying.
"Have what?" I didn't look up as I was still consuming the half cooked bacon flavoured beans. But Tess brought the wallet over sitting next to me on one of the mattresses. She pointed to the dimly visible picture of Sammy in the clear window of the wallet.
"Yeah, I put it in there so I could carry her around, she was so beautiful, reminded me so much of you." Tess had her hand covering her mouth to stop herself from sobbing loudly. Tess leant against me overcome by grief; I put the can of beans down and wrapped my arm around her.
"What happened to her Tessy?" I asked gently, I wanted to know...I loved Sammy too.
"She had pneumococcal, I didn't notice it until it became too aggressive...they said there was nothing they could do for her...I loved her so much and I just watched her slowly wear away. Don't know how I did it...I just sat there and she was so quiet too, then she just stopped breathing altogether and she was really cold..." Tess' broke down in tears it brang me to tears too so I pulled Tess into a hug, her head leant against my shoulder and my arms wrapt themselves around her back.
"Is that why you hurt yourself?" I asked the terrifying thoughts of Tess digging razor blades into her flesh came to mind as I saw the crusty deep red scab across her wrist. Tess seemed a bit uneasy.
"It was the only way to stop all the pain..." Tess whispered gently burying her head deeper into my shoulder; I hugged her tighter, rubbing her back with my hands to keep her warm. I cried with her for a little while, Tess had pressed her cheek against mine, and I felt the woollen texture of her beanie against my temple. Tess felt my cheeks were wet so she wiped them with the back of her hand and pressed her cheek against mine again and wrapt her arms around my neck, caressing the back of my head with her hands. I moved my head sideways and kissed her cheek and she sighed softly. Tessy gently ran her fingers through my hair and stopped herself from crying.
"Think we better call it a night hey?" she whispered softly into my ear.
"Yeah...alright..." I agreed it was then that I reminded myself of little cylindrical shape in the back of my jeans pocket. "Hang on..." I said stopping Tess from rearranging the blankets on her mattress. "I've got something for you..." I smiled and pulled the object out of the back of my pocket and concealed it in my palm making sure she wouldn't see until she needed too. Tess leant against the wall of the hut, her head held up by the wall.
"Being your Birthday and all, I'd thought I'd give you something special" I smiled to her, Tess had a look of soft embarrassment on her face, she'd forgotten that it was her Birthday.
"Didn't think you'd remember..." she finally whispered. I smiled.
"How could I forget?" Tessy smiled to herself too, it was something cheerful to end the day with.
"Here hold out you hand..." I held my fist in midair and Tess put her open palm under it. "...Sorry I didn't wrap it but it wouldn't fit into my pocket..." Tess smiled to herself again and I let the object fall into Tessy's palm. She knew by its shape it had to be a ring. She held it up against the dim candlelight and the deep set diamonds sparkled ever so brightly. Tess rubbed her thumb against the band, warming it to her hands. I watched her admire it and I knew she loved it but that look of love quickly turned into dejection.
"I can't..." Tess started but I cut her off.
"Please Tess just keep it, I can't do much with it anyway I mean I went to the trouble of engraving your name on it..." Tessy looked a tiny bit shocked and looked on to the inside band of the ring for the engraving.
"Tess...I love you, be mine forever." she read out to herself. I blushed and Tess looked up at me and gave me a puzzled sort of look.
"Yeah...I know, it's a bit corny but it was an engagement ring..." I started Tess had an even more puzzled look on her face.
"Engagement?" Tess looked a bit unsure but that look on her face soon disappeared once she'd figured it out. "Oh...when I was pregnant..." I nodded silently and went a tiny bit red.
"You went to all this trouble?" see asked rubbing her thumb against the diamonds.
"I didn't think you'd say 'no'" I said softly, I was more upset saying that then she thought I would have been. Tessy rubbed my shoulder and half smiled.
"Just keep it hey?" I said to Tess half smiling myself. "It doesn't have to mean anything to you; I just want to have it." I explained. Tess held out my palm putting the ring back onto it, in all her stubbornness I thought she wanted it give it back but then she held out her hand for me to put it on. I slid the ring on her finger and she smiled gently, holding her palm up to the candlelight to make it sparkle again. She gently stroked my cheek and then leant forward and kissed my forehead.
"Thankyou..." she said smiling shyly."It's very beautiful Evan." I smiled to her and I reached out the tips of my fingers touching her forehead I ran them under the rim of her beanie and down to her cheek, holding her head in my palms I leant forward gingerly and kissed her lips softly.
"Night Tess..." I said letting myself sit back and stare into her eyes. Tess looked at me longingly for a little while before she realised it was late.
"Night Evan" she said smiling and she ruffled my short hair with her palm in warm affection.