Nearly a week passed after the camping weekend before Jess saw the boys again. When she did, it was Friday night again and her housemates had begged, pleaded and blackmailed her into driving them to the Bulkhead.
Jess felt weird walking in there. It had been a while since she'd been there and she was secretly praying her Bravo family would be there, or she would even settle for some of the other team guys she'd meet over the camping weekend. The boys from Alpha team seemed nice enough and she figured after seeing them interact with Scott that they would look after her if she needed help.
As it turned out, Jess got her wish and about thirty minutes after she got there, most of Bravo showed up (Clay and Ray were missing). They spotted her in her corner of the busy bar, head bent over her binder of notes and a textbook.
"Annnd she's back at it!" Brock teased as he, Scott and Trent approached. "You know this isn't a library, right?"
Looking up with a bright, relieved smile, Jess said, "I have a few tests next week! And the girls were whining about needing to get out and do something fun, so…here I am. Besides, I actually study better here because if I look busy then I don't get bothered by anyone…like, other than you guys, but I like when you bother me."
"I thought going out and doing something fun meant actually going out and doing something fun." Trent said as he squinted at the textbook. "What the hell is this?"
"Ecological studies and the effects of climate change. And then I also have a stats course this semester, which is sooo boring. I hate it."
"Aren't most of those made up?" Scott asked, completely deadpan. Anyone who didn't know him might have thought he was serious.
"Oh, haha, funny!" Jess rolled her eyes. "No."
"I thought I heard something about that too." Trent insisted. "What was it, 85% of all statistics are made up?"
Snorting, Jess scribbled something down in her notes, highlighted another thing and asked, "How's everyone doing? Was it a good week?"
Swirling the whiskey in his glass, Scott shrugged, "It had some good moments."
Jess read the subtext. There were some bad moments too.
"We were spun up for most of it." Trent added. "Long week."
"But, everyone's safe."
Finding the numbers and answers to one of the review questions that she was looking for while listening, Jess said with genuine sincerity, "Good. I'm glad everyone's safe, and hopefully the weekend is what you need to face a new week!"
"I'm sure it will be." Brock told her warmly.
Remembering the conversation by the lake, Jess tried not to feel like there was some underlying reason why the three of them sat down with her and were watching her write down information with undeniably soft glints in their eyes. Why on earth would something mundane like her studying help anything at all? It didn't make sense.
"Hey, Brock!" Jason and a few of the others were approaching the table. "Look who I just found!"
Promising herself she would greet the others as soon as she was done with the next few lines of review, Jess half listened as more people gathered round the table.
"Trevor!"
There was the distinctive sound of a bro hug and a new, yet not so new voice answered warmly, "Brock! How you keeping?"
Why would they be familiar? Jess wondered absently as she double checked the spelling of one scientific term.
"I am well! It's really good to see you, little man!"
"Not so little. He's as tall as you, Brock."
"Trevor, you know all the guys from last time we ran into you…but, I guess you haven't actually officially met our girl here," Brock called Jess's attention. "Jess? This is Trevor Bailey! He's the little brother of a good buddy of mine and by proxy he's like my little brother too. He's one of the officers who handled the issues with your mom that night at the hospital."
Jess looked up from her notes while taking a drink at the same time and promptly choked when she saw who was standing there.
Officer Bailey. It all clicked into place. He was the same guy who pulled her over about a week ago.
Oh, she was so screwed.
Trent patted her back as she coughed her beverage back into the glass, "You ok? You're not supposed to inhale that stuff, you know."
"I'm good," Jess wheezed, giving an awkward wave to Trevor as she flushed a deep shade of crimson. "Hello."
He wasn't as intimidating without his uniform on and he looked younger, maybe closer to Clay's age than Jess originally would have guessed. Not that it mattered. It just always amazed her how uniforms and such dress could make someone look that much older or younger.
"Hi!" Trevor smiled knowingly at her, holding a beer.
"Wait…hold on," Jason squinted between the two of them as he pulled up a few chairs. "Why am I getting the feeling you two know each other already?"
"You two know each other already?" Brock asked, glancing between them quizzically.
"I wouldn't call it knowing, exactly," said Trevor. "So much as a professional run-in last week and a conversation about speeding in a fifty zone?"
Jess sunk down in her seat and let a hand go over her face.
"Jess…" Jason shifted to a half serious, half teasing dad mode instantly. "Did you get pulled over?!"
"A little." Jess mumbled as the noise level around her went up with glee and pretend disappointment. Oh heaven help her, she was never going to live this down.
"A little?!" Metal was giving her that look that told her he was amused and mildly annoyed all at once. She should have told him.
Trying to appeal more to his amusement than his annoyance, Jess exclaimed, "What!? You guys found me a car that can actually accelerate! It's hard to get used to!"
"It's better than that old deathtrap." Sonny laughed. "That old blazer needed to get retired long ago!"
"You're lucky it ended where and when it did." Trent agreed.
"Wait." Trevor gave a worried, serious look around the group. "She didn't used to drive an old, blue, beat up Jimmy Blazer with rust holes in it, did she? Cause there's this one that recently-"
"Caught fire." Brock nodded. "Yes. That was our Jess's truckie."
"May she rest in peace." Jess added under her breath, still a kinda sad that her first car bit the dust so badly.
"In pieces." Metal muttered in response before drinking from his cup.
"Hey!" Jess turned on him and pointed her pen at him. "Don't speak ill of the dead! Truckie took very good care of me for a long time!"
Trevor seemed a little pained as he said, "I really hate to break it to you, but you are so lucky you weren't pulled over ages ago for driving that thing! It was a beast!"
"Why wasn't she?" Metal grumbled.
"Because they had better things to do with their time than be grumpy about my truckie, like you!" Jess told him patiently.
Sonny plopped into a chair next to her as the others joined them, Trevor included, and stated, "Someone put her sassy pants on today! What are you studyin there now, miss Granger?"
Mouth opening a little with delighted surprise, Jess put a hand over her heart, truckie forgotten and said, "Awww…Sonny. You made a Harry Potter reference! I'm so proud of you!"
"Now, see, if only it were that easy to get validation and appreciation of the rest of these knuckleheads whenever I make a movie reference!" Sonny winked at her and ducked when Jason and Brock tossed pretzels at him.
"Don't get too full of yourself there, Sonny," Trent said smugly. "My references are still better."
"What references?! You hardly ever talk!" Sonny squawked.
"That's only cause you talk enough for all of us, Sonny." Scott interjected.
"Trevor here could probably out reference all of you." Brock teased, smacking the younger guy on the arm.
He laughed a little and held up a hand, "Nah, I am not getting into a competition with a bunch of frogmen. I wanna live."
"Awww, where's the fun in that?" Jason asked, ego lacing through his words anyway.
Knowing this was going to turn into just a little bit of a pissing match, Jess hopped up to go use the washroom since she had someone to watch her stuff now.
"Hey! Where you goin?" Sonny stopped her. "Are we that bad company?"
Without even thinking, Jess immediately said, "No, I gotta go talk to Moaning Myrtle," and walked away.
Only when she caught the laughter as she left did Jess realize she was being corrupted. Never in a thousand years would she have said that in public. She was raised not to talk about the bathroom, and excuse herself quietly without making jokes or discussing.
There was a rebellious part of her that rejoiced in that small victory while the other horrified part of her wondered what would be next? Discussing fart smells right along with them the next time it comes up? That conversation had been so stranger, yet weirdly interesting all at once, not that she would ever admit it to them.
As Jess made her way back through the crowded bar from the bathroom, contemplating something completely new now and not paying close attention to her surroundings, Jess found her way blocked.
"Um, excuse me-" The words died in her throat when she looked up and saw who was standing there.
"Hey, Jess! Long time no see!" The young 'boy' man said.
"Devin?!" She felt like she'd been washed back in time, because he hadn't changed at all. He still had curly black hair, green eyes, a sharp attractive chin and muscular shoulders that screamed 'I play football'.
"Yeah! Funny I should run into you here!" Devin smiled charmingly, nearly disarming her guard the way he used to when they were in highschool. That charm was the whole reason she'd given in and dated him in the first place. Well, that and social pressure. "You're mom mentioned you spend time here and said I should look you up if I was ever in town! Turns out a buddy of mine comes here too, so, guess it was just luck we bumped into each other, uh?"
Reeling, because she hadn't seen him since the night she got drugged, Jess stared at him.
"I'm sorry…my mom told you to look me up?" Jess could hardly believe her ears. Really? The woman was stooping that low? First Trigger, now literally triggering her most traumatic memories!?
"Yeah!" Devin shrugged. "She said you felt bad about how things ended between us and that we should talk!"
A humorless laugh escaped from Jess and she felt like she was watching someone else.
"Yeah, no. We don't have anything to discuss, unless you want to apologize for being an asshole."
The charm on Devin's face faded. "What? You mean you aren't going to apologize?"
"For what!?" Jess's voice pitched loudly then, catching the attention of people immediately around them. "You're the one who's got shit you need to own up to! Or did you forget how it all that went down?"
"Would you keep your voice down?" Devin hissed, "There's no need to get so dramatic!"
" You approached me, and you brought this up." Jess told him, her voice getting louder without her permission. She wasn't entirely aware that it was growing quieter and nearly everyone could hear them now, or that her pack of cranky protectors from across the room were getting up suddenly.
"Yeah, well I thought after a few years you might have had enough time to see that you overreacted!"
"I-I overreacted ?!"
"It was a prank, for fuck sake. A dumb prank, yeah, but it was just a prank! Why can't you just accept that!"
"It wasn't just a prank!" Jess's voice shook with emotion. "You were my boyfriend, asshole! You were supposed to take care of me, not stand there and laugh with the rest when I got drugged !"
"Nothing happened!" Devin protested, clearly frustrated. This wasn't going his way. He had always been arrogant enough to rely on his charm and charisma to get him what he wanted. "Nothing was ever going to happen!"
"I didn't know that!" Jess spat angrily.
"Yeah, well you wouldn't have reacted like this if you hadn't been so weird about your precious virginity anyway! You know you ruined my fuckin life back home, right?"
"Fuck you!" Jess snapped. "You are such an asshole and you always were."
She started to walk away, but Devin reached out a hand and grabbed her arm roughly, pulling her back closer to him.
"I'm not the bad guy here! I was good to you!"
People started moving the second he touched her. Guys Jess didn't even know were getting out of their seats at the same time that members of Bravo moved in.
Scott was only two strides away, ready to crush Devin's skull when Jess herself reacted.
Her small fist shot up, striking hard, fast and furious as it made contact with Devin's nose.
All the fear, shame, disgust for all the times she'd let him touch her or kiss her, the frustration, anger, paranoia and pain she'd endure over the years because of that one night laying on a dirty bathroom floor unable to move and not knowing what was happening to her; Jess poured it all into that one punch.
The corner of the bar went 'OH!' as Devin staggered back four steps, clutching his face with both hands. He tripped over the corner of a chair and fell heavily on his rear. Younger guys who had just been ready to fight for her were cheering and fist bumping each other while the older boys, like Jason and Scott, converged on Devin to haul his ass roughly off the floor and drag him out.
Jess stood frozen in time, shocked at her own actions and weirdly satisfied by the amount of blood pouring from Devin's nose.
The pain didn't register for Jess until Trent was in front of her, taking the fist she still had gripped in front of her.
"Ow…" She tried to pull it away as she danced a little on the spot. "Owowowowo,"
"Yeah…I bet, stay still," Trent said mildly as he carefully turned it over between his palms. "That was a good punch, but we really gotta teach you how to do it without hurting yourself. You know there's a reason we tell you to kick and aim for the nuts instead, right?"
"Didn't think," Jess was shaking her head, trying not to cry and fighting the urge to pull her hand away again. "Just kinda happened…ouch, ow… that really hurts!"
Reality kicked back in as Jess watched Devin getting 'escorted' none too gently out the door by the rest of Bravo and a few others she knew in passing. Half the attention in the room was on that lovely scene, while the rest, Jess realized, was on her.
Embarrassment flushed deep over her skin when she noticed a group of 'wannabe's' talking to each other and smiling at her. On the other side were some girls giving her sympathetic looks and nods of respect. Zoe, Stacy and Pauline were staring at her, stunned with open mouthed amazement. They never knew she had it in her, not that Jess could blame them cause she didn't know either!
Shit. This was not the kind of attention she wanted or needed.
"Let's go somewhere quieter and take a better look." Trent murmured, following her gaze around the room.
"Yes, please." Jess blinked rapidly as she tried to twitch her fingers and failed. "Am I going to get in trouble for punching him?"
"Hell no. We all saw him grab you and I'm willing to bet over half the witnesses will play it up more just to make sure you stay clear of anything." Trent had an arm around her, leading her back near the bathrooms where it wasn't as busy. "Our good friend Officer Bailey even saw the whole thing. He'll back you up. Don't worry."
One of the bartenders flagged them down part way and opened the door to a back office.
"Thanks, Laura! We appreciate it."
"There's a first aid kit behind the door, if you need it." Laura told them, giving Jess a nod of respect. "Good throw, kid. Jackass deserved it."
"Thanks." Jess mumbled, heart hammering now as she started to really process what just happened.
Trent guided Jess into the office and made her sit.
"Take a few deep breaths for me," He said, crouching down in front of her. "You're ok. We got you."
"I can't believe that just happened."
"It was an event, that's for sure." Trent agreed, taking her hand carefully again and starting to passively move her digits. "How's this?"
"It's ok. Just sore…my whole arm is sore…wow."
"First time punching someone?"
"Yes."
"Nice! No sharp pains?"
"No."
"Good. Wiggle your fingers for me."
Jess tried to and managed it slowly.
"Let's get you some ice."
"Already ahead of you." Scott appeared with a bag of ice and a deep frown. "You ok, pipsqueak?"
Jason and Sonny appeared behind him. Jess was almost surprised to see them so soon, but Trent snorted when he noted the three of them.
"Got kicked back inside, uh?"
"Yeah," Sonny grumbled unhappily. "Officer Bailey and Brock thought that cooler heads should deal with the punk so no charges got pressed."
"He's going to press charges against me?" Jess asked, anxiety lining her tone as she glanced from one to the other.
"Oh! No." Jason smiled. "Charges against us."
The ice Trent was settling over her hand didn't feel as cold as the way that statement froze her stomach.
"What did you do?" Jess asked, horrified at the idea of them being in trouble and also wanting to know/not wanting to know all at once.
Sonny laughed a little too lightly, "Us? Oh, we didn't do anything. It's not our fault the little punk is clumsy and fell into the wall with his face."
"Twice." Scott added, a little too happily as he leaned against the wall and made eye contact with Jess. There was fire blazing in the steel stare that Jess had never seen before. She caught a flash of what looked like blood on Scott's one knuckle as he folded his arms and continued without the smallest amount of remorse. "And he absolutely stumbled into my fist. Shithead must have been drinking too much."
"Yeah, everyone out there saw him trip right after that last unfortunate comment, even Bailey." Jason agreed casually. "It's a shame his hearing is so bad too. He really misunderstood those questions we were asking him. For some reason he thought we were threatening him."
Putting her good hand over her eyes, Jess whispered, "Oh my god, I love you guys so much."
"We love you too, little ocean fearing buddy," Sonny announced. "And let me say, that was one hell of a punch you threw!"
"Yeah, the form was terrible and we gotta train you up a bit, but man, for such a small thing you had some serious power behind it!" Jason approached and peered at her hand now that Trent was done moving her all joints and digits. "Did she break anything?"
"Amazingly enough, I don't think so," Trent said, giving Jess a serious brow raise. "You're lucky, Jess!"
Giving her hand an experiment flex, Jess was relieved that it just felt stiff now and bruised.
"I can't believe he was here." She murmured, half to herself. "I haven't seen him since- all that."
"Glad we got to hand his sorry ass to him." Jason's tone became clipped all the sudden, like he was suddenly itching to hit something, or rather someone. "That fuckin scumbag never deserved to date you in the first place and you can bet if I've been there when all that happened he would never have walked again."
"How'd you know-"
"Not hard to figure out." Scott growled.
"Well, that and you yelled at him in the middle of the bar." Sonny added with a grin.
Where Jess was embarrassed about yelling, he seemed proud. "Pretty hard not to overhear a lot of those details."
Feeling like she needed to explain more, because they'd just risked getting in big trouble over the whole thing, Jess found herself saying, "We dated for a bit, the end of highschool. I didn't really want to go out with him, but, our friends pressured me, and he was popular so there was pressure from everywhere. He got really pushy, towards the end…about sleeping with him, cause I really didn't want to and I wouldn't. I didn't even like it when he kissed me and was starting to dig my heels in about all that too which he didn't like, so…anyway…so then when, when they- I thought-"
Jess shuddered violently, seeing that whole terrifying moment instead of the world around her, and the next thing she knew Jason was pulling her onto her feet, into a hug.
That night was getting dragged up in her mind, one image at a time, and Jess hid her face against him, clinging to the present as she whimpered, "I thought they were going to. I really did."
"Take a breath." Jason held her close, just the way a dad should. "You're safe. You're here, with us."
Letting him anchor her, Jess fought off the crash of intrusive thoughts and moments. This hadn't happened in years. It was like no matter how hard she tried she couldn't escape it and the only thing that made her feel like maybe she really was safe and ok were Jason's arms and steady heartbeat.
From behind them, Jess heard Sonny say quietly, "Is it too late to go kill him? Or at least cut his nuts off?"
"Don't tempt me." Scott muttered darkly. Something about his tone made Jess wonder if he was serious.
Trent sang the words 'or me' under his breath so quietly that Jess almost missed it.
Fury slithered to the surface again and Jess cried angrily, "My mom told him to look me up! She told him where to find me and convinced him that I wanted to talk! First that friggin PI, then my dog! Now this? Why is she such a sadistic bitch!?"
Jason tightened his arms and held her head in place, saying with equal anger that wasn't at all directed at her, "I don't know, kid, but it's really pissing me off."
Suddenly afraid that Devin would know where she lived, Jess whispered, "Do you think Devin will come back?"
"Nope." Jason stated with complete confidence. "He's a coward and I'm pretty sure we made it pretty clear that he'd never live to see another day if he or any of the people from that night ever approached you again."
The noise from the bar rose and fell outside the office door and Jess felt so tired all the sudden.
"I don't want to go back out there." She whispered.
"You don't have to." Jason rubbed her shoulder with his palm still keeping her close, as if that alone could chase away her demons. It was working. "Why don't you let one of us take you home."
"What about the girls?" Jess asked, dearly wanting nothing more than to go home, curl up in her bed and cry herself to sleep. "And the car? They've all been drinking."
"We'll get them home." Trent promised.
"Wouldn't be the first time." Sonny added.
"I'm sorry." Jess shook her forehead against Jason, suddenly guilty and unsure of herself. "I can just drive home, if you could give the girls a ride? Or I can just come back for them later. I don't want to mess up you guys' night any more than I have already. I know it wasn't a great week. You guys should enjoy the night. I'll be ok."
There was a pause and Jess couldn't see the deliberate, slow breath from Scott, or the way Sonny swore wordlessly, or that Trent closed his eyes as if he were in pain.
"Yeah, that's not gonna happen." Jason's humorless laugh colored his words, tipping Jess off to the fact that he wasn't happy. "You are stuck with at least one of us for the next couple hours, kid."
"But-"
"Jess, I'm going to grab your stuff." Scott's voice announced, it's growl deeper than normal. "Then I'm taking you home."
Rather than feel trapped, or bullied by the decision being made for her, Jess was admittedly grateful beyond words the second Scott said it. Deep down she did want one of them with her right now, and they knew it as well as she did, or if they didn't, they'd decided she needed one of them.
"Get it out of your head that you 'messed' anything up, Jess." Jason pulled away and fixed her with that 'dad' stare that made her squirm inside. "You didn't do anything wrong, you didn't cause anything. End of story."
Adjusting the ice bag on her hand, Jess swallowed another round of tears.
'Hey," Trent edged closer, obvious compassion and concern in his eyes as he took a turn pulling her into a hug. "Doesn't matter what kind of week we had. Let us be here, for you."
"You guys have more on your plates than me." Jess whispered.
"Who made it a competition?!" Sonny asked, only half joking.
"Yeah, and who says you wouldn't be winning some days, Jess? You have a lot on your plate too. Don't sell yourself short." Trent let her go after one final squeeze and Sonny took his place, carefully crushing her with one more warm embrace that made her throat close up with emotion.
Jess rubbed her eyes and tried to smile at the three of them, "Thank you…for having my back."
"We always got your back, kid." Jason told her seriously as Scott reappeared with Jess's bag.
"Ready to go?" He asked.
Nodding, Jess tucked in close to him, hoping no one would stare when they slipped out to the doors. She nearly cried when Trent, Sonny and Jason moved in too, boxing her in the middle of all of them and blocking her from view.
"Thank you." She whispered just loud enough for them to hear.
"Uh huh. Go get some rest. We'll see you around." Jason nodded, patting her shoulder right before she and Scott slipped mostly unnoticed out the door.
The drive home was quiet and Jess was ok with that. She didn't want to fall apart yet. That required being home and possibly curled up in her bed.
It shouldn't have been surprising that when Scott brought her home he parked the truck and wordlessly followed her inside. Jess didn't question it or protest. She knew it won't really change anything unless she didn't want him there and she did.
"Want tea?" Scott asked, walking into her kitchen as if it were his and casting a critical eye to the mess. Despite his obvious personal opinions, Jess didn't feel judged for some reason.
"Yeah, I think so." She answered, going to Pippin's crate and letting the dog out of it. The pup immediately grabbed a toy and trotted over to Scott, showing him proudly and wagging her tail at him so hard her butt wiggled. "I'm just going to put my bag in my room."
"Uh huh." Scott put the kettle on and crouched down to give Pippin an affectionate rough house, which she loved.
When Jess came back in comfy clothes rather than the jeans and top she'd gone upstairs in, Scott didn't seem to notice or care. Instead he handed her a mug of her favorite tea and jerked his head to the living room.
"Movie?"
Nodding, Jess followed him. She felt like she'd been on autopilot ever since they left The Bulkhead. There was part of her brain that knew she should be telling Scott she was fine and that he didn't need to stay, but the more honest part of her knew she needed him right now.
That became evident when she automatically tucked in close to his side when he sat down. His arm lifted even as she sat next to him, proving that he'd been expecting it and he snagged the remote.
"How's that hand?" He asked as he flipped through the different options on the various apps the girls had on their shared Firestick.
Flexing and extending her fingers gingerly, Jess shrugged. "Ok, I think?"
"Good." Scott paused in his searching, hovered the selection over a movie and silently asked if she wanted to watch it.
Jess hardly looked at it the first time before saying, "Sure."
It took the opening scene for her to realize he'd picked The Fellowship of the Ring, which happened to be a comfort movie.
One hour in, Jess finally felt like she could relax.
Her thoughts weren't really on the movie and after a while she stole a look at Scott's knuckles.
The blood she thought she'd seen earlier was gone.
"Did you really hit him?" Jess whispered.
"Yup."
"Why?"
"Said something he shouldn't have."
"What did he say?"
"Don't worry about it, pips. Watch the movie."
"How hard did you hit him?" Jess couldn't let it go. Part of her was horrified and worried about him getting in trouble, while the other part of her wished she could have seen it.
Scott snorted softly and flexed his hand subtly. "He probably won't be able to open his left eye very much tomorrow."
"Is it bad that I'm happy about that?"
"Nope. His nose is likely broken, just in case you wanted to know how hard you hit him."
"Really?"
"Uh huh."
Jess was quiet for a minute before she said, "I've never punched someone before."
"We need to teach you how to strike properly." Scott paused, choosing his words. "Do you have any formal instruction for that kind of thing?"
"No."
"We need to change that too. Basic self-defense, at least."
"I've never really had time or funds to do something about it." Jess signed. "That and I'm freaked out going to the gym or to classes for that stuff."
"I think you're forgetting who you're talking to right now. You don't need funds, and we'll find time." Scott's voice held a hint of amusement.
The way he said it with such certainty told Jess this was happening, one way or another.