Chapter 68
The hours continued to pass, and eventually Jeff lost his battle to stay awake. He fell asleep, resting his head on her hand, still clutching it. Matt stayed true to his word and kept watch on both of them. Vince had sent Amy up to see how they were doing and ask if he could come up yet, but Matt didn't want either of them disturbed so he told her Vince had to wait. Looking at them, he felt himself struggling to stay awake. He would have dozed off if he hadn't had heard a faint moan coming from Jessica.
"Jeff." He whispered quietly, nudging his brother's arm.
"What?" He said sleepily.
"She's waking up." Matt said and Jeff quickly sat back up.
"Jess?" He called out. She began to stir as he squeezed her hand. He let out a sigh of relief as she opened her eyes and stared up at him.
"Where am I?" She said opening her eyes.
"Baby." Jeff smile at her. "Thank god, you had me so scared."
"What happened?"
"You got shot." He told her, stroking her face.
"Am I gonna be okay?"
"You're going to be great." He grinned at her. She smiled back but her face changed as everything started coming back to her.
"Shane?" She asked fearfully.
"He's in custody. He can't hurt you anymore." He told her.
"Are you sure?"
"I saw them take him away in the car myself." Matt told her. "You don't have to worry about him."
"It's over." Jeff said. Jessica looked away.
"Look, why don't I leave you alone a bit. I'm just going to go downstairs and let everyone know you're awake." Matt leaned down and kissed Jessica on the head before stepping out of the room.
"Who's downstairs?"
"Just a few people. When I left there was Amy, Stephanie, and Agent Miller from the FBI. Vince came by later. They all wanted to make sure you were all right." Jeff paused looking at her. "Are you all right?"
"I don't know." She said looking away again. "Are you?"
"I'm fine, now that I have you back. When you went with him I was afraid I'd never see you again."
"I had to go with him. That day at that building, he was going to kill you. I didn't have a choice."
"I know."
"On our way to the house, I tried to escape but…" She let her voice trail.
"But what?"
"He told me he'd kill you."
"So you went back." Jeff finished for her. He had already been feeling guilty and finding this out made him feel even worse. Again she had sacrificed herself for him and Shane had known she would do it. "This is my fault."
"Then he told me that you were dead." She continued wanting to get it all out. "You didn't make it and we were all each other had because everyone would blame me for your death. I started to believe him." Her eyes filled with moisture.
"Jess, honey, don't do this if you're not ready." Jeff said reaching out for her.
"No, I need to. One minute, he'd be all happy, running around the house almost like a kid. But if I said something the wrong way, or I didn't smile at him quick enough, he'd start smashing things and storming around the house. So to keep him calm I played along. But he was always there. Then I came up with that stupid plan."
"It wasn't stupid. If you hadn't done it then we never would have figured out where you were. You called the cops."
"And I pissed Shane off in the process." She lowered her head.
"You did what you had to do to keep yourself safe."
"I let him believe that I loved him. I pretended to flirt with him. I let him kiss me and I kissed him back. If I hadn't led him on and then tried to escape, he wouldn't have tried to…" Her voice faltered as the tears fell.
Jeff didn't say anything. He just got on the bed next to her and held him in her arms wishing he could take her pain away. She cried for a long time, not even stopping when a nurse stepped in to check on her.
"Would you like me to get her something to help her sleep again?" She asked.
"No, she'll be okay." Jeff told her, sitting back up. The nurse left again. With the interruption, Jessica tried to regain her composure, wiping the tears from her face. She looked at Jeff.
"I don't know what I'm supposed to do next. I can't get that feeling to go away. It's like he's still on top of me, touching me. How do I get that out of my head? Why do I still feel like this?"
"Like what?"
"I feel like there's something wrong with me. I thought once I got out of there everything would just go away. I mean they have Shane and you're telling me that he can't hurt me anymore. So why don't I believe it? How come the fear is still there?"
"Jess, with everything that you've been through, you can't expect it to just go away."
"So what, I just go through the rest of my life feeling like this?"
"No, it won't last forever." He told her. "We take it one day at a time and deal with it. Eventually, it won't hurt as much and hopefully fade away." She shook her head not believing him.
"That's what I thought last time and you saw what I was like. It didn't go away. I spent almost a year in a mental hospital and even they couldn't help me. I don't want to go crazy again."
"That's not going to happen."
"How do you know?" She asked.
"This isn't like the last time. It's different. You don't have to wonder who it was, or where he currently is. This time there's closure. They have Shane and they're not going to let him go. It's over. Besides, I won't let you." He looked her straight in the eye. "Before, you tried to go it alone but you don't have too. You're not alone anymore. We are all here to help you get through this. Me, Matt, my dad; we're all going to be there for you. We can get through this. We'll make it."
He squeezed himself back on the bed and gently wrapped his arms around her. Feeling safe for the first time in awhile, she pressed herself against him and just lay in his arms. They had actually fallen asleep that way when Matt entered the room. He wished he could let them rest but he had news he didn't think could wait. He heard footsteps behind him and saw Vince standing there.
"I want to be the one to tell them." He warned. Vince just nodded. Matt nudged his brother, gently waking him.
"What's going on?"
"We need to talk." He gestured for Jeff to come outside, but Jessica was asleep in his arms. "It's important."
"Just give me a second." Jeff tried to extract himself from her but she opened her eyes. "It's okay. Go back to sleep. I'll be right back."
"Promise?"
"I promise." She smiled contently and shut her eyes again as the two brothers walked out of the room. Jeff was surprised to find Vince and Agent Miller waiting outside.
"What's going on?" Jeff asked them.
"We had to stop Shane's interrogation." Agent Miller told him.
"What? Why?"
"He was becoming incoherent. Nothing he was saying made any sense."
"He's faking it." He said.
"That's not true." Vince started to argue but one look from Matt silenced him.
"So what happens now?" Jeff asked glaring at Vince.
"We put him in for a psychological evaluation." Miller let him know.
"Good, they'll be able to see through him."
"Jeff," Matt started. "He's here."
"What do you mean he's here?"
"He's up in the psych ward." Miller said.
"Wait, you put him here? Where Jess is? What the hell were you thinking?"
"This is the closest hospital. It's procedure." Miller tried to explain.
"I don't care. Someone should have thought of sending him somewhere else." Jeff spoke loudly.
"Jeff?" Jessica called out to him and he stepped back into the room. "Is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine." He told her softly.
"Then why were you yelling?" She looked around him and saw Matt and Vince standing behind him in the door way. "What's going on?" He was about to tell her it was nothing but he saw the look in her eyes. She knew something was going on.
"They brought Shane here to the mental ward." He told her taking her hand.
"Shane's here?" She asked quickly sitting up. Jeff saw the fear return in her eyes.
"Hey, it's okay. He's still locked up. He won't be able to get to you."
"The pysch ward is secure and there's police up there too." Miller told her.
"Who are you?"
"Jess, this is Agent Miller. He's the lead agent on the case." Jeff told her. She looked to Jeff as Miller reached out his hand. "It's okay." He reassured her and she shook Miller's hand.
"I don't want to be here." Jessica said. "Not if he's is. I just can't"
"I understand." Miller said. "We can make arrangements to transfer you to another hospital."
"No, not another hospital." She glanced at Jeff. "Take me home?"
"Babe, it's too soon." Jeff said.
"No it's not. I'm fine, you said so yourself."
"You need to rest."
"I can rest at your place. Please?" She pleaded. Jeff looked to Matt for help. "I can check myself out." She added when no one would answer and Matt finally laughed.
"You guys are so alike. I'm pretty sure we had the same conversation with you just a few days ago." He said to Jeff and Jessica actually smiled at him.
"I'll clean your wounds if you clean mine." She teased him. Just thankful to see a glimpse of happiness in her he relented.
"I'll go speak to a doctor but I don't think they'll let you."
"If you want, I can handle it." Vince finally spoke up.
"Thank you." Jessica said to him. After a few minutes Vince returned.
"Well, they weren't happy." He said walking over to her. "But I convinced them that it's going to be hectic. What with all the reporters stalking around, you really wouldn't be able to rest. Plus, I told them that I would pay for a nurse to stay with you until you're better.
"See?" She said smiling at Jeff. Smiling back he leaned down and kissed her.
