1 month after the accident
Judy was back at work. She'd had to go back to wrestle her art class back from Peggy, the memory care director who always fashioned herself to be some pretentious creative spirit, but the residents secretly despised her. That's probably why she worked with folks who couldn't remember how awful she was, Judy thought with shame.
Jen was doing great. She was working part time even and was navigating around on her crutches like pro. She needed Judy's help less, but there was still this weird thing where Jen continued to "need" help bathing and "needed" Judy to sleep in her bed every night. Judy still wasn't sleeping her best, she was tired of getting kicked by that damned cast 50 times a night when Jen snuggled closer to her. She'd really come to resent that thing.
The showering thing was really becoming awkward, especially since Jen had chucked the shower chair and now leaned against the wall with her leg outside of the stall. Jen's ribs had healed and her lung and spleen hole were good enough that she could lift her arms to wash her own hair, so now the daily shower routine was two grown women standing naked together washing down and trying not to look at each other's bodies.
Jen said Judy was the weird one.
Judy was going along with it because Jen said she was afraid of falling in the shower and cracking her head open and one of the boys would find her naked and dead. It had become a whole argument that Judy didn't want to breach again.
The more Judy thought about exactly what made it so awkward was that Jen had this push and pull thing going on that left Judy's mind and heart tied in fucking knots. The facts as far as Judy could understand were as follows:
1) Jen insisted that they shower together under the pretense of fragility and fear of falling. Despite there being really no more risk of duress than any other shower slip and fall. Jen was great at balancing on one leg and that cast was going to come off in two more weeks. (Judy was curious to see if this shower falling thing would continue once that happened.)
2) Jen always focused on some point far away and never turned around to look at Judy and always kept her arms folded across her chest as much as possible. If she lifted her arms to wash something they snapped right back to her breasts like a magnet. So Judy took it that Jen felt some sort of weird shame about her body and refused to look at Judy nude, which made it impossibly uncomfortable to take a decent shower.
Those were really the only two facts that Judy had, but the discrepancy was just weird. She needed to discuss it with Jen because it was getting too weird. It would be maybe fun to shower with Jen if she wasn't so closed off and quiet about it. It was like all the air was sucked out for the room for those 15 to 20 minutes. For Judy it was painfully exhausting. She had to towel off and then go all the way outside to the guest house to get dressed and made up, and then come back to help Jen do the same.
After work, Judy picked up Jen and Henry at home and took them to the church for Henry's rehearsal. Christopher had opened up a bit about letting the parents watch rehearsal under the logic that it helped to prepare the kids for a real audience. While there one of the parent volunteers chatted with Jen and Judy about their accident and then mentioned the church was holding a donation sale, if they had anything they wanted to give to the cause. The Holy Harmonies needed new outfits and they were looking at taking the show on the road via bus trip to those sinners over in Escondido in the fall.
After the practice and dinner, Henry went upstairs to work on his new moves. The kid was sure dedicated (Christopher would call it "faith") and Charlie went out with his friends. Judy decided it was time to tell Jen that the couple's showering sessions had to stop. It also happened to be the day that the doctor had lifted Jen's alcohol restriction since she was weaned off her hydrocodone so it did feel a little like a sign from the universe.
"Henry is just so cute and his vocal range is really improving," Judy commented as she poured Jen her first glass of red and watched as her pupils dilated in happiness.
"Yeah, he is really maturing," Jen sighed and clinked her glass with Judy's. Judy helped Jen prop up her leg. Silence hung in the air for a moment as Judy let Jen and her wine get reacquainted.
"Ah, hello, darkness my old friend," Jen quipped after taking another hearty swallow."
Judy piped up, "So I was thinking since you're off the pain killers and the cast is coming off like really soon, you're ready to shower on your now, right?"
"Oh...well, I mean I could still slip, fall and die," Jen responded quickly.
"You haven't yet," Judy shook her head. "What if I just like sat outside the door and you could call for me if you started to feel shaky? Or like if you dropped the soap and were doing like a cartoon slide on floor?"
"Judy," Jen's voice had gotten lower. "What's going on?"
Judy sighed, "It's weird okay? I just...you know how much I love you and I've loved helping you and watching you heal, and don't take this the wrong way, but showering with you isn't fun for me."
Jen's face turned red and the little scar by her eyebrow popped out as she furrowed her brow. She shook her head in concern. "It's not supposed to be fun. It's like you know, basic personal hygiene."
"Exactly, personal," Judy nodded and put a hand on Jen's forearm. "I just get cold easily and have to run out to the guest house in my robe to get dressed, and you seem uncomfortable with the nudity involved so I don't understand why you even want to shower together?"
"Okay, yeah no. I'm a full grown ass woman, I can shower on my own. Seems stupid to have to even say that." Jen turned away and chugged down the rest of her wine.
"Jen..."
The conversation was over and not to be brought up again, Judy wrinkled her nose and finished her wine in silence. That night Jen didn't complain or cry or laugh she laid on her back in bed and Judy puckered her lips, half wishing that she was being kicked by the cast in Jen's effort to scrunch closer to her.
In the morning, Judy woke up to the sound of the shower water running and smiled with cautious pride that Jen had overcome her shower fear. Judy got up and went to the guest house to shower on her own under a nice hot continuous stream of water for the first time in a month.
Everything seemed normal that day, until Judy got home later and went to the guest house to find that most of her things were gone. Panicking that she did something to set Jen off on another bout of casual arson she ran to the house.
"Jen?!"
"Hey, Judy," Jen said with a bright smile. She looked pleased to see her and brought her in for an unprompted hug. "So I had some people from the church come by today."
"Oh my God, you gave away my stuff?" Judy's threw her head back.
"No! Of course not! I gave away all of Ted's shit and had them bring your stuff inside and up to the bedroom. See your crystal altar woowoo thing is where my porcelain collection used to be." Jen reassured her and Judy focused over to the living room side table indeed finding her Himalayan salt lamp glowing and prominently displayed.
"So... my clothes?" Judy was still a bit behind on what was happening.
"I moved them into the master bedroom, and your shoes and well, you're underwear and stuff I didn't let the church people touch so you'll have to go bring your more personal things in, but everything else is upstairs," Jen wrapped her arm around Judy's waist.
"Okay, but why?" Judy was still in the questioning phase.
"Because this is your house as much as it is mine and I want to see you in it, and you spend every night in bed with me anyway. You shouldn't have to walk of shame across the lawn to get dressed and made up, it's really fucking inconvenient. The guesthouse can just be your art studio from now on, okay?"
The gesture really touched Judy, she felt tears prickling at her eyes, "Oh, I love you Jen."
"I love you too, you're family."
And everything was absolutely perfect until two weeks later...
