Phillip Poor's & Jesse James' Intro

The first rays of daylight were stretching their arms across 3 Crossing when young Jesse James began knocking on doors to find work for the day. He had already made the rounds numerous times in order to pay for the funeral for his friend Doc, but today he saw something that caught his eye and the curiosity was too strong to keep him from staring at two men carrying in a contraption that looked like a cross between a bed and a chair on top of a dresser. After a few moments, hunger began to consume him, he checked into the pockets of his worn through brown jeans to find only the dust and dirt that had gathered since the last time he was able to wash his clothes. Jesse decided to walk down the street and case the General Store.

"Now, you weren't thinking of stealing that, friend?" came a voice from behind Jesse.

"Who? Me?" Jesse was caught off guard, then said "No, I was jest lookin." He looked to meet the cold hard grey eyes of the store clerk.

"Then, what's all that?" The store clerk asked shaking loose the items that Jesse had stashed in his thin black coat. Jesse thought frantically to come up with something good to say, but his panic left his mind blank as he started to tremble inside.

"He's helping me pick up a few things." Came a deep voice from down the aisle, as the dark haired man approached he started to hand Jesse his basket; "you'll have to excuse me, I didn't have two baskets and thought if we split up, I could get the shopping finished a lot faster."

"Excuse me, but I don't know either one of you." The store clerk was becoming confused and frustrated.

"My apologies," the stranger said giving a slight nod. "I am Dr. Philip Poor, and this is my new assistant-"

"Jesse, Jesse James!" Both men turned to look at the young man interrupting.

"Poor, huh. You're the new doctor that moved in down the street."

"That's right." Smiled the young doctor.

"You don't look like you're hardly out of diapers, let alone graduated from med school." After a long pause, as if the two men were sizing each other up. "All right, doctor, when you're ready, I'll be at the counter waiting."

"That was incredible! You were great!" Jesse excitedly cheered the doctor for helping him. "You are a real stand up kinda guy, Dr. Poor!"

"Thank you, Jesse, but I have to be honest, my motivations were not for unselfish reasons."

Jesse's blue eyes squinted straight into Philip's brown eyes. "Whatta ya mean?"

"I mean, being the new doctor in town, I could really use an assistant to help me around the office."

"Really?" Jesse's eyes widened at the prospect of a job.

"Doesn't really pay much, for now. Just a roof over your head, clean clothes, food in your belly, medicine when you need it. As the practice grows, so can your pay."

Jesse thought to himself that it was better than he had found in over a month. "Okay, sure, I'll take it for now." Jesse and Dr. Poor shook hands and began down the street to the office