Chapter 12

A policeman walked over then and said:

"Mr. Stemple, Mrs. Bolt Walton. We will be taking all of the brothers into custody. Julie began to cry, and Jeremy ran over and said:
"No, no, he is our friend!" both Julie and Jeremy said and ran over to Jimmie already in handcuffs.

"Julie, he is one of the people who took you and abused you, how could you say he is your friend?" said Aaron appalled that his daughter had wanted to help a criminal!"

Julie said to her father: "He helped me and Jeremy. When they beat us and later when Toph started to…you know…do things, he was there to comfort me and helped Jeremy fix me when I was hurt!"

"That is right. J-j-jimmie doesn't know how to be mean. H-h-h-he has been our best friend. He took care of us, got us food, and found warm blankets when the others wouldn't do that for us!" said Jeremy who was beginning to cry as well.

Candy, her heart reaching out to her son and to Julie and Jimmie went over and asked if they could get a lawyer for Jimmie. The police officer said:

"I think you might want to. I personally know Jimmie, they have used and abused him as much as they did to those two children!" With that the police officer took Jimmie who was handcuffed and crying as well as Jeremy and Julie were.

"Candy, it is time for us to go. We will go to the hotel and talk about things later. Everyone needs to have a rest." Said Aaron with a heavy sigh as he offered his hand to his daughter. Candy took Jeremy's hand and Jason took his other hand. Joshua walked behind a little ways watching to be sure nothing else would happen.

On the way home, Julie sat near her father, for the first time in a long time she felt safe and secure. She would never leave her father's side. Jeremy snuggled up to his mother who was holding him as close as she could with a seatbelt over the two of them. She was not going to let him away for a long time either. Jason was driving home and Joshua both were happy that they had the children back again. Their brother would be safe and they both vowed that they would keep an eye on him and never let him out of their sight.

When they arrived home Jennifer and Jimmie were waiting for their sister Julie. When she saw them, she started to cry again. Jeremy was still clinging to his mother and when she couldn't hold him Jason and Joshua both took turns holding his hand and showing him that he would be sleeping in the same room as them for a while.

It was two months later. Julie had been going to therapy and had almost but not quite been able to put 'Jillie' to sleep. The therapy would be ongoing and hopefully 'Jillie' would never appear again. They were contacted about having Jimmie stay with them. Aaron was worried that the alter ego would come out again.

"I am not sure that she is stable enough for 'Jimmie' to come to live with us. Is there a place he can live?" Aaron said to the counselor on the phone. The counselor suggested some visits for a while to see how they both got along and then maybe a trial overnight or weekend so that they could be observed to be sure everything would go smoothly. Jimmie was cleared of any wrongdoing in that his mental capacity was that of an 8-year-old so he was allowed visits several times a week, after school for a couple of hours. Later it turned out to be one weekend a month. Julie and Jeremy enjoyed his visits and soon made new memories with him so that the time they had would not be marred by the bad memories. It would probably be, as Aaron and Candy both noted, a couple more years before he would be able to stay full time. The family was complete. The Bolts and Stemple's were now bonded together forever. As for the Waltons, Melanie's gift of the quilt bonded the Waltons to the Bolt's and Stemples as well. But that is a different story for another time.