Diamond in the Rough: Chapter 33 (adult)

Jack followed Timothy out of the Second Chances Mission, and onto the street.  Taking one more look at the people making their homes on the ground in the cold, he shivered.  He looked into Timothy's face and said, "So, this is what you do, now."


"Yes, this is what I do, except for some minor legal work."


"You're all right, Grandpa."  Jack said.


Timothy didn't make a fuss outwardly about the boy calling him this title.  Inside, he was overflowing with joy for making the connection he had set out to make.  He cautiously said, "You're all right also, Jack.  And you will be.  Next, I will find ya a support group for kids like you.  You're not alone."


"I don't feel alone," he said, quickly, and caught himself, looking into Timothy's eyes, "anymore."


"That's a good thing.  Let's walk to the penthouse and have some lunch.  Are you game?  It's a bit cold."


"I'm okay.  Sure."


They set out to cross the park together, and Jack pulled his scarf a little higher to protect his ears as they headed into the sunny, briskness of the day.


Halfway through the park, they came upon a woman on a bench.  She was rocking and appeared very cold.  Timothy said, "Miss, there's place for you back over there," he pointed to The Second Chances Mission.  She did not look up.


He repeated, "Miss, if I might, I can escort you there.  It's too chilly today and it will get worse.  You may need a place to sleep."


She focused her eyes on the ground.


He said, "Do ya have a name?"


Jack, standing back behind his grandfather, felt awkward and even afraid.  He saw the woman begin to rock a bit more rapidly, and he tensed.  She finally raised her head, and looked into Timothy's face.  He smiled at her, "Are you all right?"


He didn't realize that she was recognizing his accent as that of her friend, back at St. Anne's, but she could not express it to him.  Instead, she gave him a weak smile, and a diminutive nod.  He said, "Look, there, it's a shelter, a mission.  They have food and beds."


She moved her attention to Jack, and taking a moment to focus on his face, hers changed immediately.  The look of recognition was startling, and brought her to her feet.  She reached out to touch his face, and Jack flinched, then said, "What is she doing?"


"She believes she knows you, I think, Lad."


"I don't know her."


"I said she believes she knows you."


Jack was more uncomfortable than he had been all day, even in the presence of the unclean homeless folks, and Anthony, who had made him somehow connect drinking with feeling like vomiting before he even started.  He backed away, and the woman, now smiling wistfully, with tears set in the edges of her eyes, moved toward him.  Timothy, sensing that Jack was unable to handle the situation, said, "Come along, Dear.  Let's get you a place to be safe for the night."  Looking to Jack, he said, "Sit here and wait for me, Lad."


Within a few minutes, he was able to coax the woman to the mission, and Jack, hugging himself to stay warm, watched as Timothy made his way back to the bench he was sitting on.  "She was weird," he said.


"On the contrary, she was quite unique.  You were upset by her silence and her condition.  She actually did more listening than speaking.  Rare.  I believe she thought you were someone she lost."


Jack swallowed.  He decided he was not cut out for working with homeless people, or being one, and said, "Can we go?"


"Yes.  In fact, you move a great deal quicker than I do.  Go ahead, here's the key, and make yourself at home in the penthouse.  I'll be there shortly and we'll have some lunch.  What about tacos?"


"Tacos are great, but only when Dad makes them."


"Ah, okay.  Ya love that man, dontcha?"


"Yeah, I love him."


"Don't fear losing him, Jack.  He's with you to stay, for the long haul.  It may have taken a lifetime of Hell and years of separation and pain, but he's there to stay."


***


Todd, handing Blair the wrapping paper, said, "It was okay to have him miss school today, right?"


"Of course.  This was important."


"I thought so.  Just checking.  Blair, I can't believe how much I missed.  He's almost a man.  It's all gone."


She looked at him with a wistful tilt of her head.  "I'm sorry for that.  I can't change it.  No one can."


He took her hand.  "I know.  But I have that little baby boy you gave me, we have him to raise together and without that, it would be harder."


"Probably."


"He's asleep?"


"I think so.  He usually naps around now."  She got up, and went to the pack and play, and peeked over it.  "Yep.  He's a goner, into baby dreamland."


He watched her.  Her slender hips, her beautiful long fingers and hands, her full breasts.  He put a hand out, and said, "Come here, will you?"


She smiled, "Your wish is my command."  Taking his hand, she went to wade through the packages and wrappings, and stumbled a bit, to where he had to grasp her hips and hold her to keep her from falling.  She, standing in front of him, naturally put her hands into his hair.  He turned and put his head against her torso.  


A few minutes passed, and he turned back to her, looking up into her face as she stared down into his.  He gently moved his hands to the waistband of her pants, and undid them.  She closed her eyes, anticipating his touch and his love, and she felt herself flush and become ready for him, as she helped him pull them down and take them off.  She went to her knees in front of him.  She said, "I love you so much."


He didn't answer, he just put his mouth onto hers, and covering it, he moved his tongue between her lips, and searched for hers, which touched his in eager reciprocation.  She moved his hands to her breasts, and used hers to undo his shirt and belt.  He climbed out of his clothes, and then put his hands back where she had placed them, and kissed her neck.  She ran her hands up and down his back, and pulled him closer.  They moved slowly to the area rug below them, him on top of her and then inside her, and she wrapping herself around him like an open flower.  His movements were urgent and passionate, and his sounds danced around hers, as she relished the feeling of him moving with ease within her.


He called her name, and then began to move sharper and faster, pushing into her with all of his want and strength.  She lifted her legs higher, and held her knees with her hands, pulling them toward her.  Feeling his contact with her body deepen, she cried out in release, whispering her ending into his ear, and soon after felt him do the same.  He let out a deep and sensuous moan that made her stomach flutter and her insides twitch.  He said, "It feels so good," kissing her cheek along her jaw, and then relaxing onto her.        


She held him, as he rested against her, and thought about the years without him.  He had brought it to her mind earlier, in the talk about Jack and Ray, and now, as she lived it, she stroked his hair.  She let some of it fall onto her chest purposely.  She thought back to the last time she had seen him before he vanished, nine years before, when she had told him to leave them.  She'd made him do so, begged him to, and he had gone, both of them crying.   


The regret tied into that moment is greater than any pain.  


It wasn't much later that he had disappeared without a trace.  The empty feeling of his leaving them after she finally asked him to flew toward her again, as if it were yesterday.  He'd left them because she begged him to.  She knew now that he'd left them because he loved them and couldn't stop himself from hurting them and that he knew it.


She wept, quietly.  It wasn't long before she heard a quiet snoring coming from him, as he drowsed against her.  With all the things they had faced since he'd been back, she was always grateful for peace coming to him.  Laying there in the sunlit room, with him naked and stunning against her nude body, she knew she could never live without him again, and regardless of what choices he made, she could never, in another instance, ever let him leave them.  She closed her eyes, and smiled.  It's because of you, Todd Manning.  It's all because of you, everything I am now, everything I love.  It's all you, My Love. 


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