While Chris tucked Jess in, Joey and Justin started to clean up the kitchen area. Lance could tell from the look on his face that Joey was going to delve into Justin's emotions. Knowing that Justin was going to be taken care of, Lance switched his focus to JC.
"Hey, C, you OK?" He sat down next to JC.
JC slowly looked up and focussed on Lance's presence. "What? Oh, Lance!" He paused for a moment to collect himself. "Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for asking."
"Come on, JC. Cut the crap, OK? You're not fine, I'm not fine, Justin's not fine, Chris isn't fine and Jess and Joey aren't fine. And it's OK, because we have just spent a very emotional evening. But see, the thing is, the four of us only heard Jess's story; you relived it. You don't have to be the strong one right now, JC."
JC shook his head. "I'm not the strong one, Lance. Jess is. She's been through so much shit...," he broke off with a sob and let Lance hold him while he cried.
A while later, all five men were gathered around the table again. Four of them were waiting as patiently as they could for the fifth to start talking. JC took a deep breath, made eye contact with each of his friends and started.
"I don't think I can adequately explain the shock of getting the phone call telling me that Jess was hurt. We had just finished a kick-ass performance. There I was, running high on adrenalin only to be brought crashing back down to earth. I felt like a high flying balloon that had suddenly popped. Of course, as soon as I knew Jess needed me, I left and caused management to have kittens, but there was no choice. My friend was hurt and I was listed as her next of kin. I had to go.
"I got to the hospital, and even though I was prepared, seeing her laying there just floored me. I was stunned. I couldn't believe someone had hurt my sweet friend like that." JC stopped for a moment to compose himself. Talking about this, or even thinking about how she looked that day were things he tried to never do. The sight of her all swollen from numerous punches and kicks was burned into his memory, no matter how hard he tried to erase it.
"They were able to determine some of what had happened to her based on her injuries. He punched in the face multiple times. Both her eyes were blackened and swollen shut. The inside of her mouth was cut up from her cheek being smashed up against her teeth. The part that floored me was the clear imprint of his boot on her ribcage. From all the bruising, they could tell he'd kicked her around quite a bit. She ended up with a couple cracked ribs and a broken wrist.
"The forensic nurses were able to tell that Jessie had put up a fight. Her hands were injured and some of her fingers were dislocated when she tried to hold him off. She still has problems with her hands which is why you'll often see her flexing her fingers or cracking her knuckles.
"There were marks on her body which showed that he tried to pull her clothes off of her. Her t shirt had been stretched as if he had tried to rip it off her and they think he was trying to cut her jeans when he was scared off.
"But her worst injury wasn't physical at all. Jess always had problems with her self esteem and after the attack, she withdrew even more into herself and lost any remaining bit of faith in herself that she had. That's the injury that she's still recovering from. And with all this media attention on her lately, I'm surprised she hasn't cracked.
"Anyway, I sat with her all night and she woke at some point before dawn. She was in a lot of pain and couldn't see much. I called the nurse and once she got her pain medication, Jess realized I was there. She knew things were bad if I had been called, and that started her crying. Would you believe that I was the first person in her life who was there for her when things got bad? Everyone else had left at the first sign of difficulty.
"I stayed there with her for the next day and we spent a lot of time talking. She told me the details of what had happened even though she didn't want to. She was afraid I would think that she was naïve and had brought this upon herself; mostly she was afraid of that because that is how she actually felt about herself. I tried to convince her that this was not her fault, that she had said no, but she wasn't buying it. Sometimes I still think she blames herself for what happened." He sighed before continuing.
"I spent some time talking with her doctors and nurses about how to get her the help that she would need. She was assigned a social worker and I met with her too. Julie is the one who helped Jess get signed up for all the therapies she needed, everything from physical therapy to well, therapy therapy.
"And then, before I was ready, I had to get back to the tour. I felt so bad leaving her, knowing that she had abandonment issues. But, just before I left, Jess told me that I was her guardian angel; it turned out that when the phone rang and scared him off, it was me calling her. She told me that she had been thinking of me, trying to escape the reality she was caught in and then the phone rang.
"It was not a time that I would usually have called her. It was pre-show and I should have been spending time in the quiet room getting ready. I had to call her; if you had asked me why, I wouldn't have had an explanation. It wasn't until she told me later that I realized how important that one phone call was.
"I collapsed in her arms and we both just wept. Her nurse ended up coming in to see what was going on and she stuck around to make sure I left so Jess could get some rest.
"I came back to the tour and I wasn't easy to live with. Jess had made me promise not to tell you guys what had happened. She was really embarrassed and thought that you all might think less of her." He saw their reactions and jumped to defend himself before they could disagree with him. "Hey, that was how she felt then. She'd only seen you a couple of times at that point and she really wanted to make a good impression. I knew that she was worried over nothing, but I couldn't break my promise to her, so I kept my mouth shut."
"While I was on tour and trying to enjoy the excitement of hitting the big time, I was also trying to come to grips with what had happened to Jess and how it changed her. She had become so withdrawn from life that it scared me. Her heart wasn't really in her therapy and she wasn't enjoying what life had to offer her. It was a really dark time and I was afraid for her. I asked her to consider moving in with my family for a few months while she got back on her feet. She isn't one to take advantage of a situation, so I had to hire her as an assistant. She helped my mom with fan club stuff and kept up with her therapy. She had been saving for school when it all happened, so her therapist encouraged her to enrol in some correspondence courses so that she could get her degree, just like she'd dreamed of.
"I'm sure you've seen the change in Jess since she first moved down. She has really blossomed in the last couple of years. The love and friendship you have all given her has really helped her to heal. I wasn't so sure about having her hang out with a bunch of guys after all she'd been through, but you turned out to be the best medicine for her. I think now that she's gotten this huge secret off her chest, you're going to see her really come into her own."
JC sat back, glad to have finally cleared the air.
"Jace, I'm confused. Jess said she met this guy when she was sixteen. The numbers aren't adding up here." Lance's brow furrowed in confusion.
"Oh. She didn't explain that part well, she was so nervous. Her dad took off when she was sixteen because he couldn't get any government assistance for her then. She stayed with her ‘stepmother' and worked part time so she could keep going to school and pay her board. Anyway, this whole thing happened when she was done high school and working full time to save up for school. She was about twenty when it happened."
"What about the asshole who did this to her? What happened to him?" Justin surprised them all by growling.
JC sighed. "Short version. He's in jail. Long version is really complicated and I don't want to get into it tonight."
Author's Chapter Notes:
This chapter deals with what happened to Jess when she was the victim of attempted rape. It's not overly graphic, but I wanted to give you a heads up, just in case. The injuries described are based on research. And I do realize that the way Jess moved from Canada to the US couldn't have happened quite as easily as I've written it, but that is the beauty of fiction :)
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Story Tags: celebritysync jc chris
