I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend, and that you're all looking forward to the New Year.

Chapter 44.

Waking up with someone else in your bed, when you've mostly slept alone for years can be quite disconcerting. But as the realization that the night before hadn't been a dream, that Jess was now sharing my apartment and my bed, came quickly.

"G'morning," her soft voice murmured as her hand began to stroke my face. I opened one eye and looked at her, seeing a smile on her lips and in her eyes.

"'Morning," I mumbled.

"Did someone say something about showering together?"

"I think that was me," I said. "But first I have to pee." I extricated myself from her embrace and reached for my cane to steady myself as I got up, knowing she was watching my naked form, I could only hope in admiration.

"I'll go start the coffee," she called after me. "Then I'll join you in there."

When she entered the bathroom, she'd donned a pink kimono, but quickly shed it as she reached in to turn the faucets on.

"The water gets hot pretty quickly," I told her, flushing and rinsing my hands.

Once the temperature was to her liking, she stepped into the tub, and I followed. I'd been afraid she'd set the water temperature too low, but it was actually perfect. We soaped each other and the knowledge I'd gained the night before about her most sensitive spots came in handy. I had her smiling in no time. But sex in the shower was still not an option, because I'd have to stand for too long, so we rinse off and toweled each other dry and returned to the bed for another round.

Later, we put on robes and went to the kitchen. It turned out that Jess knew how to make a good cup of coffee, but there was very little in the apartment in the way of breakfast food. I would have been content with some leftover Chinese that was in the back of my refrigerator, but Jess decided we should go out for breakfast. So we got dressed and left.

It was Saturday, and besides retrieving Jess' car we didn't have anything planned. We went to a diner halfway between the apartment and the motel for breakfast. The coffee wasn't as good as hers, but the diner had dynamite pancakes and pretty good sausage, too. I guess I'd gotten used to having meals with Jess. It didn't surprise me at all how much she could eat.

"So, I gather we have enough patients and a large enough control group for the study," she said before putting a forkful of home fries in her mouth.

"Yes. There are fifty patients, with varying levels of hyperacusis and ranging in age from about ten to the sixties, I think."

She nodded, her mouth now full of egg. She chewed and swallowed before saying, "I think I'm more anxious than ever to see how this study turns out. It could help a lot of people besides Christopher."

"If we have a better handle on the genetics behind who will or won't develop the condition, we can start treatment much sooner and sometimes that makes the difference between a good and bad outcome."

"You've never done anything like this before, have you?"

"I'm used to working with one patient at a time, finding all of their symptoms, and looking for the connections between test results and the symptoms they show."

"So this is a change of pace for everyone," she concluded.

"What are you getting at?"

"Just that we'll all be learning the ropes at the same time."

"I pick my people well. They're up to it."

"Does that include me?"

"You better believe it." I saw that she was finished with her food. "More of this wretched coffee or should we go?"

"Let's go."

We continued on to the hotel. I went in with Jess to get what was left in her room. However, before we could leave, Petey came to the door.

"What are you doing now?" he demanded.

"I'm taking my things and checking out," she told him.

"But where are you going? You're not going back to Dorsey again, are you?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but I've moved in with Greg."

"You're kidding!" But he could see she wasn't. He looked at me and shook his head.

"I understand you're giving your doctors a hard time," Jess said, probably to change the subject, although it appeared that Petey didn't know what to say next anyway.

"They're idiots!"

"I agree with you," I told him. "But they do know what they're doing in your case." And he was as much of an idiot as his doctors.

"I'm not going to do what they say just because they say so!"

"Why not? No, don't answer that. Well, it's been fun chatting, but we gotta go." I motioned to Jess to finish getting her things together.

"We'll see you around," Jess told her brother as she zipped up her suitcase and started to roll it to the door.

He looked confused, but that wasn't unusual for Petey. We left him in the hallway just outside Jess' former room and went to the front desk so she could check out. She stowed the suitcase in her trunk and followed me back to the apartment, parking her car not far from mine.

When I reached her car, she was taking the suitcase out of the trunk along with a small box, but I could see there were several other boxes left. "I'll get the rest after I put this stuff away," she told me, slamming the trunk closed. At least she hadn't expected me to carry anything for her. Still, I wondered what was in all of the boxes, and not for the first time, where we'd put all of her belongings.

Back in the apartment, she stuffed as much of her clothing into the one drawer I'd given her. "Is there anywhere I can hang the rest?" she asked. The suitcase was still about half-full.

My two closets were stuffed. Sure, I could get rid of some of the clothes I hadn't worn in ten years, but I wasn't ready to do that yet. "I guess we'll have to get a dresser or something for you."

She nodded, closing the suitcase again and putting it in a corner of the room. The box turned out to contain about two dozen books. Jess looked around the room, smirked, took one out and put it on the nightstand, then put the box next to her suitcase. Maybe we'd need more than a dresser for her.