ftch12

Chapter 12

"Where is she? Where is she?!"
JC came barreling into the house, pushing past police, doctors, and a bunch of other people that he had no time to notice.
"WHERE IS SHE?"
Chris came up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.
"You know, C, you�re only going to scare her away if you keep up this caveman voice you�ve got going on."
JC pushed him away angrily and approached one of the policemen who were collecting finger print samples from the gun.
"Where�s Mandi?"
"Who�s Mandi?"
JC took a few deep breaths and counted to ten slowly.
"Mandi. You know, the one who was attacked? The reason you�re here?"
"Oh, her. She�s in the other room talking to police. You�ll have to wait."
"But she�s not dead?"
"No, she�s very much alive."
JC breathed in deeply and took a seat in one of the kitchen chairs, giving Lance the best smile he could manage when he sat down across from him.
"Did you find her?"
"She�s talking to the cops, so they�re making me wait."
Lance nodded slowly.
"I still can�t believe it. I mean, you always hear these stories of these crazy people attacking their ex-wife or girlfriend of daughter or something, but you never actually think it�s going to happen. It�s like... wait a minute. Where is Robert, anyways?"
JC shrugged.
"I don�t care, as long as he�s not here."
He leaned his forehead down to rest on the table, keeping his bad arm, which was now in a sling, in his lap, only lifting it when he heard Justin come barging in,
"Where is she? Where is she?"
Lance grinned.
"Why does that sound so familiar?"
"Is she ok?"
JC nodded and then put his head back down.
"She�s fine. Talking to cops. Haven�t seen her yet."
Justin sat down next to Lance.
"Are you ok?"
JC nodded and gave Justin a half-hearted thumbs-up.
"How�d you manage to get out of the hospital?"
"We paid them, like, fifty million bucks," Chris chimed in, sitting on top of the table. "Hey, did you guys call Joe? He should be here."
Lance shifted uncomfortable in his chair and stood up.
"Yeah, we called him. He�ll be here later. I�m going to go see how Whitney�s doing, k?"
He walked off, and the other three men at the table sat in silence together, a rare occurrence for them.
"C? Do you think things will ever be the same again?" Chris piped up after a few minutes.
JC sat up and looked at him.
"I don�t know. I haven�t even seen her yet. How long does it take to talk to the damn police?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mandi shifted uncomfortably as the two officers in front of her asked her more questions. She must have told them what happened five times by now. What did it matter, anyways? It�s not like there was going to be a trial or anything. He was dead. It was over. She just wanted to start moving on. How was she supposed to move on if these people kept forcing her to relive it?"
"Did he ever abuse you sexually?"
She closed her eyes and put a hand to her forehead. No one knew that. Not even JC knew that.
"No."
The men looked up from their notebooks to stare at her suspiciously.
"You don�t need to lie to us, Mandi."
"Why do you need to know that?"
"We�re asking the questions here. All you need to do is trust us and answer them."
"And if I don�t answer them?"
"Then we have a problem."
She stood, walked back and forth across the room, and sat back down.
"When can I see JC?"
"When you answer our question."
She glared at the men. They had no right to torture her like this.
"Fine. Yes, he did. Can I go now?"
"To what extent were you sexually abused?"
"That�s none of your damn business."
One of the men sighed, and the other rolled his eyes.
"Mandi, you�re making this harder than it needs to be. Just answer the question, and we�ll let you go."
"He raped me. When I was fourteen, he came home drunk and he raped me. And I want to thank you very much for making me relive it. I�m going now, and if you have any more questions, well, you can go fuck yourselves, because I�m not answering them."
She stood up and walked out angrily, pushing past anyone in her way until she got to the bathroom door, which she stood outside of silently.
"It�s over."
She let the tears fall when she heard his voice, turning towards him and taking a deep breath.
"Is it really over?"
He nodded and stepped towards her with his arms held out. She stepped into them and allowed him to hold her and rock her slowly as she cried into his chest. There was no more being strong. That didn�t matter to her. The only thing that mattered was that she was alive and he was here. And it was over. All the years of suffering, the twenty-two years of pain were officially over. It was time to put them in the past, and force herself to have a happy future. But first, she just wanted to be with him.
She slid her arms around his waist, holding on to him tightly and pulling him closer. She had never needed him like she needed him now, and too close wasn�t close enough for her. She needed him to cry with her, to listen to her, to kiss her tears away, just to be with her while she got over this. She wouldn�t be able to do it without him. She couldn�t handle it on her own.
He pulled away just enough so that he could look her in the eyes, and bent his knees slightly, putting himself directly at her eye level.
"It�s really over. Everything is going to be ok, because he�s gone, and I�m here, and you�re ok, and it�s over. He can never, ever hurt us again. I promise you."
She didn�t say anything, just nodded and let the tears fall, closing her eyes when his hand reached up to brush away those tears and then pulled her back close to him and wrapped his arms tightly around her the best he could.
"How did you get here?" she mumbled into his chest through her sobs.
"That�s not important. What�s important is that I�m here. I told you I would find a way to get here, and I did."
"I knew you would."
Her arms wrapped around his neck and her feet were lifted off of the floor when he straightened his back. It seemed like the tears would never stop. How much could one person possibly cry in only a matter of days? Could someone ever run out of tears? She was sick of crying, but at the same time, it felt good to get everything out. She didn�t have to worry about him thinking she was weak or that she cried too much. He wanted to be there to dry her tears.
They weren�t just tears of sadness or tears of fear anymore, either. They were cleansing tears, they washed away all of the horrible memories, the revolting touches, and the awful experiences that had made her such a strong person today. She was strong, even if she didn�t think it or seem it. She was strong because of him. She would most definitely fall apart if he wasn�t there to keep her together.
He was the only one who had always known that she could make it. The only one that was there through everything, that never left her, never abused her, never yelled at her, and was just there for her. That was all she ever needed, all she wanted. It was what she lived for.
There were people in the world that didn�t believe in love, and those people truly saddened her. How could you not believe in something that was right in front of your eyes? Something so real, so true, and something that could never be denied. The thing that saddened her the most, though, was that those people who didn�t believe in love would never find it. They would never know the amazing powers that love could hold over you. They would never feel that their hearts belonged to someone else, someone who would treasure that heart and keep it close to them, guard it with their life. Maybe those were the people who went crazy, the people without love. Maybe that�s why Robert went so crazy.
"Hey, Spicy. You�re ok."
She turned around in JC�s arms when she heard Justin�s smooth voice behind her and smiled through her tears.
"Yeah, I�m ok.
He pulled her to him and gave her a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Good."
This was a different kind of love. The love between two friends, two people that would never be more than friends and were perfectly happy with that. Two people with so much respect and pride in each other. That looked out for one another, that helped each other, that leaned on each other, that were there for each other like friends should be.
Two people that had grown up together, gone through some of the hardest things in their lives together. They cared about each other so much that sometimes it was unbelievable to people that they didn�t end up together. They had just as strong a connection as Mandi and JC did; only theirs was entirely different. The connection between best friends was something to be held on to and cherished, and that special bond was the one between Mandi and Justin.
It was almost like they could have been siblings. They were so much alike, which could have been why they would never have ended up together. They would have driven each other crazy within a week.
"Thank you, Superstar," Mandi whispered softly into his ear as his arms loosened around her and he backed up a step or two.
"Anytime."
"Mands!"
Chris was the next one to jump into Mandi�s arms, and she laughed when they almost went tumbling onto the floor together. He was the first one to make her laugh since all of this has begun, and that summed up their relationship in a nutshell.
These were two people that were there to make the other laugh. Plain and simple. Maybe their connection wasn�t as deep as Mandi�s was with Justin, but it was just as meaningful and important to her survival. Chris had the perfect sense of humor. He never failed to make anyone laugh, and he always seemed to know exactly when someone needed cheering up. It was like he had a laugh detector or something. He knew exactly what to say and exactly how far he could push people. He never, ever crossed the line over to being offensive, and he always knew when to quit.
"I�m so glad you�re ok," Chris said as he rocked Mandi back and forth dramatically.
"Me too."
JC cleared his throat, and Chris jumped and backed away from Mandi.
"Ohh... getting a little too close to your woman, am I? Getting a little jealous? Worried about a little competition?"
Mandi giggled and JC grinned and pulled her back into his arms.
"No, Chris. It�s no competition."
"You�re right. I would kick your ass."
He walked off with Justin, laughing to himself softly. That was the other great thing about Chris. Even if no one else found him funny, he always did. Mandi and JC stood holding each other silently, trying to block out all of the confusion surrounding them.
"Are you really ok?" he whispered to her.
"I�ve been better, but I�ll get better."
"What can I do?"
"Just... be here. That�s all I really need."
He smiled and inhaled deeply.
"I was so scared that I wouldn�t make it in time."
"So was I. I�ve never been more terrified in my life."
"I should have been there."
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"I should have been there."
JC and Mandi laid together in the bed in the guestroom at Justin�s house. She shook her head before laying it against his shoulder.
"No. I think... I think this was something that I just needed to go through on my own. Something that I had to get through without you saving me."
"But I want to save you. That�s my job."
"It�s not your job to get me out of everything. I actually feel a lot better and a lot stronger knowing that I can get through things without you there."
He gave her his best pouty face, the one that made her melt no matter how many times she saw it.
"You don�t need me anymore?"
She covered her face with her hands to avoid being influenced by his pathetic face. The man could pout better than any girl she knew.
"Of course I need you. I just don�t need you to solve all my problems for me."
He nodded and kissed the side of her head.
"Good enough."
All of their things were packed into four suitcases, which they would be taking with them when they left on their honeymoon the next morning. They both decided that they needed to go and get away from everything for a while. A vacation was what they needed more than anything.
"Are you sure you�re ok?"
"You won�t be if you keep asking me that," she said playfully.
"I�m sorry, I just... I can�t get over how someone would dare do something like this. And not just today, but your whole life. How could someone be such a... bastard?"
She sighed heavily, knowing that now was the time that she had to tell him. The police didn�t deserve to know something that her husband didn�t know.
"Jace... I haven�t actually told you everything... you should know about what a bastard he actually is."
He sat up and looked at her, not fully understanding.
"What are you talking about?"
She sat up next to him and chewed on her lip for a minute.
"He raped me. Eight years ago. The only reason I didn�t tell you was because it was too painful to talk about... but the police made me answer questions about it today and it�s kind of... out there now."
He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
"I don�t know what to say."
She laid back down.
"You don�t have to say anything. I just wanted you to know. I didn�t want the cops to know something that you didn�t."
He laid back down next to her and pulled her to him, hugging her as tight as he could because that was the only thing he could think to do.
"I�m so sorry."
He rocked her back and forth slowly while she held on to him, but there were no tears this time. All she felt was peace. Peace and happiness. It still hurt to think about the distant and not so distant past, but she was healing and moving on. It felt so good to finally be able to say with complete certainty that she was going to be fine. She was ready to move on and ready to put the past behind her, and that was the best thing she had ever felt.
"I just hope that our family ties don�t turn out so screwed up," she giggled.
JC grinned and pulled her in for a kiss.
"That could never happen. We�re way too perfect for each other."