Chapter Three-Hundred and Twenty-Nine
Jerry took a seat beside John at the table, setting a small trinket in front of him. "Do you remember this?" He asked, hoping that would help pull John out of the shock from finding out he'd been dead for two minutes.
John turned the torn fabric over in his hands, his brow furrowing when he saw that there was a little button nose on it. "No…" He looked up at Jerry, his question clear. "What is it?"
"When I pulled you out of that crawlspace, you were holding onto this like a lifeline." He set a picture next to it. "It used to be a toy rabbit, but after a while it got worn out." He smiled. "You gave that to me right before the EMTs took you, and I've carried it on every job I've had since then."
John felt over the worn-out fur, trying to remember something of that night. "Why?"
Jerry chuckled, taking a drink of water before he had to get back to work. "Because you were my first rescue." He patted John's shoulder, the image of the little two-year-old flashing behind his eyes. "It meant good luck."
Justin's eyes followed John as he limped around the site, noticing that it wasn't just the wounds on his back that were causing it. "Why does he limp like that?" He asked, turning to Sara as she bounced Amber in her arms.
Sara smiled at her adoptive daughter, looking up at her long-lost nephew with soft eyes. "Jacob broke his leg when he was ten. He set it himself but it never healed right. We even tried to surgically correct it, but it'll never be normal again." She kissed Amber's head. "Not to mention that, after seven years of walking with a limp his muscles adapted to walk like that."
Justin nodded, letting Amber take his finger in her chubby hand. "Jacob sounds like a real messed up guy…"
"Amber is actually Jacob's baby too… John's mother got pregnant with her when Jacob escaped prison and he raped her. She asked Asher and I to adopt her so she's ours now." She took a bottled from Amelia as she handed it to her. "Thank you, Squirt." She smiled.
Amelia pressed a light kiss to Amber's head and bolted into the rest of the site to help with the clean-up. She picked up a hammer and a nail, bouncing up to Dominic's side as he and Andy steadied a piece of sheet rock. "I wanna help!" She announced, jumping as a screw fell beside her. "John!" She laughed, watching him as he drilled into the cross beam above her.
He smirked, adjusting his safety glasses before he moved on to the next part. "Look out below."