The Mystery in the Mansion - 5. Beyond the Mystery

Jack fell backwards to the floor as another gunshot sounded in the room.

A few moments later, Mary Lou and Justin came running into the bedroom, after having turned Hannity and Larry over to their backup that had arrived just as the shots were being fired in the house. They both were momentarily agape at the scene there before them. Miz Vivian Arnow was standing there by her bed, with the small pearl-handled revolver she clutched in her right hand still held out toward the wardrobe. She appeared to be in shock, a blank look on her face.

Jack was lying on the floor. And on the floor opposite him, over in front of the open wardrobe, laid the dead body of none other than the former pastor of the Victory In Jesus Baptist Church, LeRoy Fawlkes! Fawlkes still clutched a small pistol in his right hand, but he was quite obviously very dead. He had been shot directly through the heart by one bullet from Miz Vivian's little pearl-handled revolver.

Mary Lou went to Miz Vivian, while Justin went to Jack. He saw that Jack's eyes were fluttering opening, thank God! Jack was already starting to try sit up, but then stopped with a sharp gasp of pain, and his head fell back to the floor, as his eyes closed again.

The bullet fired by Fawlkes just before Miz Vivian had shot him had struck Jack - but Jack was thankfully wearing a bulletproof vest! This was now required standard procedure for Pleasant View's patrol officers anytime they were assisting a detective on the scene of an investigation, and was very strongly advised even when they were just on patrol. When Chief Morganfield had implemented this policy, many of the officers thought it to be overly paranoid, but that would never be the case again after this day.

The paramedics were loading Jack, whose lower chest felt rather much like it had been hit by a train, onto a stretcher. The back of Jack's head was throbbing as well, and he felt totally dazed as if caught in that very unsettling dreamlike state you sometimes find yourself in when you are not quite fully asleep, but not still awake either. But, Justin saw that by the time Jack was loaded onto the stretcher, his eyes were opening again. They soon wheeled him out of the room with Justin following right behind.

"When I came in, Jack was standing there by the wardrobe, and told me what y'all had found," Miz Vivian had meanwhile begun to explain to Mary Lou. "I told him I was gonna go change in the bathroom, and then I stopped by the bedside table here to take off my earrings. He turned away from the wardrobe then, to talk to me - Oh, Gawddammit!!! This is ALL MY FAULT!" Miz Vivian then wailed, her strength of resolve momentarily waning.

"No it isn't," Mary Lou said soothingly, slipping an arm around Miz Vivian's trembling shoulders, as the paramedics were wheeling Jack out of the room on a stretcher now.

Miz Vivian regained control then, but before continuing to explain what had happened she said, "Oh, my Gawd! If anything happens to that wonderful, dear, dear boy, I shall never, ever forgive myself! Never! Oh, Jesus!!! Someone needs to call Bradley!" She added.

"I will in a moment, Miz Vivian," Justin said. "I'm pretty sure Jack is going to be OK. Thank God he had his vest on, and I think it has just knocked the wind out of him and he probably hit his head pretty hard when he fell, too. They're just going to make sure no ribs are broken or anything like that."

"Anyway, Jack turned to speak to me, and that damn mother fuckin' asshole" - she pointed at the corpse of LeRoy Fawlkes, which was now being photographed by other detectives - "just came out of nowhere out of the wardrobe, and put a gun to Jack's back. He told him to get over here with me, and got this crazy look in his eyes and then said something about it being time for us both to be punished the way we deserved."

Mary Lou listened carefully, recording Miz Vivian's statement in a handheld recorder, as the older lady went on, "I was over here by the table, like I said. I always keep my little pistol there, or at least I have been since all this shit has been going on," she explained. "Jack whirled on the preacher and tried to draw, but before he could, the damn sorry mother fuckin' sumbitch shot him!"

Miz Vivian, for all her brassiness and flirtation, NEVER dropped the "F-bomb." Now she had twice in the span of two minutes, so this was a bit startling even to Mary Lou. Still, she thoroughly agreed with the old lady's assessment of Fawlkes, though, and certainly could only imagine the emotions that Miz Vivian had to be dealing with at that moment.

Miz Vivian went on, "Fawlkes shot Jack, but I had already reached down and gotten my little gun out of the drawer of the bedside table without Fawlkes knowin' it," she explained. "I fired just after he did."

"And you are a damn good shot," Mary Lou said in genuine admiration, with a small, ironic smile. She seriously doubted that even a trained police sharpshooter could have done any better job than this 67-year old widow had at taking out the nefarious preacher by firing just one bullet dead center into his chest.

"Damn right," Miz Vivian replied, also smiling grimly. "Daddy taught us ever' one to shoot before we were practically knee high, us girls included!"

"You acted in self-defense, obviously," Mary Lou told Miz Vivian reassuringly. "You may quite possibly have saved both Jack's life and your own."

"Oh, I have no doubt about that," Miz Vivian replied grimly. "If I hadn't shot him when I did, Fawlkes would have shot Jack again, and vest or not, he would have made sure he hit him where it would have killed him, and then he would have killed me, too. I'm sure of it, I could tell by the crazed look in his eyes that he had completely lost his marbles, what little marbles the sorry sawed-off little hypocrite ever had, that is."

Miz Vivian shivered then at the frightening reality of what she had just explained, and Mary Lou gave her another comforting hug. "He was pissed at me over not letting him back in the damn Founders Club, and he was so eat up with self-hatred that he hated all gay people, but especially Jack, ever since he had caught him and Hannity," Miz Vivian concluded. "But, I have no idea why he got here when he did, or how he knew how to get in that way," Miz Vivian added, motioning toward the wardrobe.

Meanwhile, Justin was escorting the ambulance in which Jack was riding swiftly across town to Pleasant View Regional Hospital, lights and siren flashing and blaring. He got on his cell and dialed Brad's number.

"Hey, Justin," Brad said, wondering why his boyfriend's best friend was calling him just then. Brad was right in the middle of helping his folks load some stuff into the U-Haul they had rented and were already starting to load in preparation of moving the next day.

"Brad, you need to get up to the hospital man," Justin said, his voice shaking. "Pleasant View Regional, I mean. RIGHT NOW!!!"

"OH GOD!" Brad gasped. "Is it Jack?"

"Yes, I'm so sorry but it is, Brad," Justin said. "He's been shot, but..."

"OH GOD!!!" Brad screamed again, before Justin could continue.

Justin quickly said, "Brad, Brad, buddy, he's OK, he's gonna be fine! Thank God, he had his vest on and I think it just mainly knocked the wind out of him, hard. They're going to check him out and make sure he doesn't have any broken ribs or internal injuries. I think he hit his head pretty hard when he first fell, so he might have a concussion, too."

Brad told Justin he would be right there. Allen and Betsy both came running over, and he managed to tell them what had happened.

"I'll drive!" Allen exclaimed, and they all ran toward the Carson family pickup.

By later that day, Justin, Brad, and everyone else who knew Jack was breathing so much easier. He was out in a room now, in bed in a hospital gown, but conscious and talking. He had indeed sustained a concussion, when the force of the bullet hitting the vest had knocked him backwards, and his head had hit the hardwood floor hard. He had a lot of really bad, deep bruising to his lower chest, but there were fortunately no apparent serious internal injuries or broken ribs, though.

The doctors said he would be extremely sore for a few days, and would not be able to return to full duty for probably at least a week. But, otherwise, they were reasonably sure that he would be fine. They were keeping him at least overnight just to be on the safe side, and to monitor for any internal bleeding that might develop, or any internal injuries that were not immediately apparent. They also said that Jack had been very lucky, not only because he was wearing the vest, but also because Fawlkes had only had a low caliber handgun, the bullet from which could not penetrate through the vest.

Just then, Betsy poked her head through the door, "Brad, Miz Vivian is here now, honey." Only two visitors at a time were allowed in Jack's room just then. Justin went outside with Betsy, and in a moment, Miz Vivian strode into the room, and grabbed Brad in a big hug. They both started to cry, finally letting out some of the emotions of the day.

"Oh, thank you, sweet Jesus," Miz Vivian said. "I'm so glad he's gonna be OK, baby!"

Brad thanked her, and then asked her if she was all right. "Oh, yeah, me, I'll be fine," Miz Vivian said with a tight little smile. "I think they're gonna try to recruit me as a sharpshooter though!" She tried to joke.

Jack had to laugh at that, but he quickly stopped, since it hurt a LOT. "Well, I'm just thankful you had your little pistol nearby, or this whole thing may have turned out a whole hell of a lot worse for us both," Jack told her with a grim, weak grin.

"Let's just not think about that, baby," Miz Vivian said, as they both shivered at the very thought. Miz Vivian stayed a few minutes, while Jack continued to relax, sitting up against his pillows. Before she left, she walked over to the bed, leaned down, and kissed Jack tenderly on the forehead. She then gently brushed his soft black hair back with her small dainty pale white hand.

"I 'shore thank' a whole lot of you and this big lug, baby," she then drawled softly to Brad, hugging him tight again before she told them both goodbye and left.

Soon the frantic face of Alice Albertson was at the door. Alice had come straight from Annandale upon getting the word, but had gotten stuck in traffic due to a bad wreck on the Hal Rogers Parkway. Now, she was of course very relieved that Jack was doing so well. She and Brad hugged, and they all talked for a while. The nurse and doctor came in together to check on Jack, so Alice and Brad told him bye for the moment, and went out to the waiting room.

Brad saw that Eric Jamison had arrived, and was sitting there with Justin too now. Eric was still in his shirt and tie, apparently have come straight over from the factory's office when he got off work. Alice and Brad sat down, and then Alice told Brad that she would stay there at the hospital with Jack that night, and insisted that he go on over to Jack's house and get some rest that night.

"Ya gotta move tomorrow, kid," she reminded him. "Jack wouldn't want ya worn out."

"Oh, Miss Albertson," Betsy Carson spoke up. "We'll just have to postpone moving to Tennessee, and Bradley will have to wait about moving in at Jack's."

"If I may," Eric spoke up. "I've been talking with Just’ and called some of our other friends, and if you want, then we are all going to help you all out. Justin and I will use Jack's truck to help Brad move to Jack's. And we'll all help you all get the U-Haul loaded."

The Carsons all thanked Eric and Justin, and Allen Carson said, "Well, Buck and his son Tommy were already planning on getting up here early tomorrow from Tennessee to help us, so with them and all of you, we might as well go ahead and move as planned."

Justin explained to everyone what he and Mary Lou and the rest of the force had thus far been able to piece together about what had led up to the day's events. This had been sped along greatly, he explained, by the fact that Luke Hannity and Larry Cooper were both singing like canaries in hopes of not getting the needle for killing the gardener, and their various other crimes as part of all of this. Most notably, even though they had not been directly involved in the commission of the crime, they were both scared to death that complicity in the attempted murder of a police officer might be added to their list of charges, due to Fawlkes shooting Jack.

Apparently, Larry and Hannity had first hatched their plot to systematically burglarize the old Thomason mansion as soon as Miz Vivian had moved in. While still on the police force, just as Jack and Justin had long suspected, Hannity had indeed been working both sides of the law. He had been helping to fence various stolen merchandise through a contact down at Billy Joe's Pool Hall.

Larry had dressed up in the dayglow-doused Civil War costume and scared Miz Vivian, after he and Hannity had learned of the tunnel and hidden staircase from the old gardener, who also hung out at the pool hall. Justin was annoyed that none of them had even thought of Larry as a potential suspect, when Miz Vivian had described the 'ghost' as being a rather handsome blonde man.

Amos Granby had only told about the hidden staircase and the old kitchen tunnel in a stupid round of drunken storytelling down at Billy Joe's, and had no idea that they would use the information to break into the house for their scheme. Nor could he have known that it would ultimately lead to his own murder.

The realtor who had sold Miz Vivian the mansion had no clue about the hidden staircase or the old tunnel. The old widow who had lived there, but had died before Miz Vivian bought it, would probably have known of course, since she was a Thomason descendant on her mother's side. But, apparently Amos Granby had been just about the only living person who knew about and remembered these unusual features of the old mansion. No one knew it just then, but the truth was that Amos Granby's father Billy had made some top-notch illegal moonshine whiskey down on one end of the old tunnel back during the Prohibition days. The Thomasons had covertly run it up to Chicago, increasing their already-sizable fortune.

As Jack had thought, Larry and Hannity's original idea was to scare Miz Vivian, and then start slowly taking antiques from the house in the process. They had figured that people would think she was crazy, what with her seeing ghosts and all, and maybe even start to question what had really happened to the missing items. This way, or so they had thought, no big investigation would ever take place as it certainly would have if everything had just disappeared from the house all at once one day while Miz Vivian was out.

After Hannity and the preacher had gotten only a quick slap on the wrist and a get out of jail free card for trespassing for their interlude in the Chief's barn, they had still continued with their plot. It turned out that LeRoy Fawlkes had connections with organized crime up in Rosemont going way back, and he was really the brains behind the various schemes to fence stolen antiques and other hot valuables from various sources. Since he was also covertly getting his cock sucked frequently by Hannity, he had found out about Hannity and Larry's idea to systematically burglarize the antiques from the Thomason estate. Fawlkes had loved the idea, and so had encouraged and helped the scheme right along.

When the alarm had gone off, the preacher had been hiding up at the very top of the hidden staircase, in back of the panel that led into the ballroom near the fireplace. He was intending to see what small valuables, like antique silver candelabras, that he could steal from the ballroom that day. Meanwhile, Larry was to scare and distract Miz Vivian again with the ghost routine, and Hannity was to wait on the landing in back of the wardrobe. They were all waiting for her to return from her bridge club, but Larry had gone ahead and opened the wardrobe doors to snoop in her room ahead of time. When he had stepped out into Miz Vivian's bedroom, that had tripped the alarm, and he had also torn off the small piece they had later found from the "ghost's" uniform in the process.

At the sound of the alarm, the preacher had just stayed hidden up on the third floor landing at the top of the hidden staircase. This was how he had been able to sneak back down, go through the wardrobe, and put his gun in Jack's back later. Meanwhile, Hannity and Larry had panicked and fled down the staircase and out the tunnel, where they had run smack dab into old Amos Granby in his gardener's shed (the old kitchen). Granby had put two and two together when he saw Larry in the ghost getup, and had told them he was going for the police, as Granby knew they had run to the house when the alarm had gone off. When he turned to walk toward the mansion, Hannity had calmly pulled his gun and shot the old man dead, shooting him in the back like the coward Hannity was.

They had then drug Granby's body back behind the pocket door, thinking no one would find it should they search the old kitchen. They had then run off in a panic through the shrubs over to the part of the subdivision where Hannity lived, planning to come back after the attention the alarm had caused had subsided. When they had then calmed down and come back intending to bury Granby in the old tunnel, they had of course gotten caught by Mary Lou and Justin.

Larry and Hannity had confessed all this, and insisted that they had no idea that the preacher was doing anything other than hiding upstairs and waiting for the wardrobe to close and the coast to clear so that he could escape. They had no idea why Fawlkes had gone nuts and tried to kill Jack and Miz Vivian, and they had no part in it. This was true. Truth be known, Fawlkes was so consumed with self-loathing and his twisted beliefs that it was a real wonder he hadn't already turned on his frequent cocksucker Hannity as well.

What had happened was the preacher had realized that Larry and Hannity had panicked and had just run off and left him up at the top of the stairs alone when the alarm sounded. Fawlkes had then snuck down the stairs, and looked through the wardrobe and seen Jack and Miz Vivian. Anger and rage had raced through him, along with irrationality.

In that moment, Fawlkes had thought of how much he hated Jack for catching him in the barn with Hannity and causing him to lose his church and his prestige. In his twisted way of thinking, Fawlkes also hated Jack for being out and doing what Fawlkes considered to be flaunting his homosexuality so sinfully, when a good man like him struggled against it daily. He was also thinking about how little Miz Vivian had made him feel when she had refused to let him back into the Founders Club.

His warped mind had then convinced him that God had put him there at just that moment in order to be able to give them their just punishment; Jack for being openly gay, and Miz Vivian for daring to condone that, and also for having insulted Fawlkes about the club membership. And so, the demented Fawlkes had waited until Jack's back was turned, and had then jumped out and shoved the gun into Jack's back. This had, of course, led to the rest of what had happened.

So now, the deranged preacher was dead, and Miz Vivian and Jack were both thankfully still alive, all probably due to Miz Vivian's quick thinking and amazing shooting. And, it was almost a certainty that Larry Cooper and Luke Hannity would, at the very least, both be serving very long prison sentences in the penitentiary. They had also confessed to the bank robbery that had taken place the day before.

They had gotten greedy and pulled that job just for some side cash for themselves that they would not have to cut the preacher in on. Larry had implicated Avalene Amburgey as well, and she had been arrested that evening. It seems that in addition to her married loan officer friend, Avalene was also frequently fucking Larry, who had admitted that he was already cheating with her on his new wife Holly, who was Jack's ex-wife.

Larry, meanwhile, had liked to joke to Hannity that he was "try-sexual," as in willing to try anything that got his rocks off. This was evidently true, since Larry had been fucking both his new wife Holly and Avalene regularly, as well as regularly getting blowjobs from and getting fucked by Hannity. Hell, he had even recently gotten very drunk and tried being the meat in a Hannity and Fawlkes fuck sandwich a time or two, and had loved it!

Anyway, according to Larry, Avalene had told Larry and Hannity just the perfect time to arrive at the bank in order to get the most cash, and how to go about coming up to her teller window and pulling a silent note-passing robbery, just as they had done.

Later, Brad rode with Eric and Justin in their car over to Jack's house. Brad used the key Jack had already given him to let them in. Brad got Jack's mail out of the box by the front door, and laid it on the kitchen counter. He noticed an important-looking letter from an attorney's office in Smithville on the top of the stack, and thought that he would need to take that to Jack at the hospital the next day.

They all got showered and changed, and Eric and Justin said goodnight. They were going to sleep in the bed in the larger of the two spare bedrooms, the room that tomorrow was set to become Brad's room. Brad laid in Jack's big king sized bed alone, smelling the lingering scent of his big guy's aftershave in his pillow. He eventually got to sleep.

The next day, Saturday Eric and Justin helped Brad get his things moved to Jack's house. They also helped Brad, Allen, and Brad's Uncle Buck and Cousin Tommy from Tennessee load the rest of Allen and Betsy's things into the big U-Haul and the back of Buck's pickup. Soon, the Carsons were hugging their son goodbye, and heading off for their new home in Tennessee. With the last of his stuff in Jack's truck, with Justin driving and Eric sitting in between them on the bench seat, Brad took one last look back at the farm that was no longer his home.

With the help of the other guys, Brad got the bed in his new room disassembled, and taken to Jack's storage unit across town. This made more room for Brad to turn the bedroom into a combination library/den/music room for himself, his books, computer, and extensive vinyl record collection. "We knew you wouldn't be needing a bed of your own here, Brad," Eric smirked.

"Yep. So, tell us Bradley, is my big formerly-straight best friend as totally hot a fuck as I am guessing he is?" Justin asked with a sly grin.

"Better!" Brad said, grinning and laughing back. "But don't be getting any ideas, we don't play with others – at least not just yet," Brad added, still laughing, but secretly thinking that it might eventually be all kinds of fun for him and Jack to play with the other couple they were already such close friends with.

Eric playfully gouged Justin in the ribs and laughingly said to Brad with an evil grin, "Well, we do sometimes, but suit yourselves – and let us know first if you change your minds!"

"We're really so happy for you guys, all jokes aside," Justin said to Brad. In all seriousness, not too long ago Justin would have found it weird to mess around with Jack, because they were just too close as platonic best friends. But now he liked the idea too – if and when Brad and Jack got to a point in their relationship where they wanted to play with some close friends.

Justin, Eric, and Brad went to the Ramblin' Rose and ate, and then went and stayed with Jack at the hospital until the end of visiting hours that evening. Alice was still there by her son's side, but Jack was much more like his old self today.

"They're gonna make me stay in this damn place until tomorrow," Jack grumbled with a grin, propped up on the pillows in his hospital bed. Alice had gone to the cafeteria to eat dinner now that the guys were there with Jack. Jack raised the bed up a little further and flipped on the light over it, and then quickly read the letter from the office of Smithville attorney Randy Blankenship that Brad had brought to him, which had arrived at Jack's house the day before.

"Looks like the people who own all the property going up, and all along the road up onto the top of Smith's Mountain, are planning on selling out their mineral and timber rights, and this is just to notify me of that," Jack told them.

"What does that mean?" Brad asked. "I mean, I know what mineral and timber rights are, but what will it do as far as your property on top of the mountain is concerned?"

"Nothing," Jack said. "I have a permanent right of way up to my property through theirs. Unfortunately this probably means that their property will be logged off and will then probably have a mine entrance installed down near the bottom if there is enough coal in under it to make that worthwhile for whoever it is that has bought the rights. Won't be too pretty to see when we drive up to my property, but it won't mess with my property either, though."

Jack also explained that the Chief had been to visit him, and had assured him that neither he nor Justin nor Mary Lou were in any kind of trouble due to the events that had led to Jack getting shot. Jack had been worried that they might be, particularly him, for having turned his back on the wardrobe and allowed the preacher to get the jump on him.

"Aw, hell, Jack," the Chief had said. "Justin and Mary Lou did what made sense. No one would have thought that anyone would have stayed upstairs when that alarm had gone off. They went in the most likely direction a suspect would have fled, down and out. And you were not expecting anyone to come back out of the staircase with them between you and whoever had presumably run downstairs."

"Yes, but we should have went up and checked first, we would have found Fawlkes if we had just done that," Jack had admitted. "And I should not have turned my back to that doorway!"

"That is all probably true," the Chief admitted. "But, I think between what happened to you, and what everyone else went through as a result, any necessary lessons have already been learned. And I bet I won't hear anymore bitching about the vests now, either!" That was the end of that, and Jack was told that he would return to duty as usual, once his doctors had released him to do so. Justin and Mary Lou were already once again doing their usual work.

The Chief would, several days later at the meeting of the board of the Policeman's Benefit Fund, award Miz Vivian with a special Citation of Valor for having saved Jack's life and her own with her fast thinking and even faster shot.

They visited as late as they could, then the guys all left, and Alice came back in to stay with Jack again. Eric and Justin dropped Brad off at Jack's house, and offered to spend the night again, but he told them he would be fine.

It was only about 9:30 pm then, and Brad gazed across the street toward Miz Vivian's house as Eric and Justin drove away. The lights were still on, so Brad gave her a call. Miz Vivian said she was fine, and that after everything that had happened, Tony and Juliet were actually going to stay with her for a couple of days. Miz Vivian then told Brad that if Jack felt up to it; she wanted to cook them another big supper after he got home from the hospital. Brad thanked her, then said goodnight and hung up.

He slept alone that night, and then on Sunday morning he was up early. Brad ate breakfast, showered, and dressed, and called his parents. That morning, Allen and Betsy said they were already starting to get settled in well to their new little home in East Tennessee, and that they were going to their new church with Uncle Buck and Aunt Rose later that morning.

Brad then went to the hospital to pick Jack up at the front entrance when he was discharged at about 11:30 that morning. Additional tests had shown that there fortunately were still indeed not any internal injuries or bleeding. Jack chuckled to the nurse about having to be wheeled out to the car in a wheelchair. He knew this was standard hospital procedure, though.

Jack was still a tad weak, perhaps more from being mostly off his feet all weekend than from the pain meds he was still on, when they got over to his house. He walked into his house, and plopped down on the couch. The doctor had said he would likely be able to return to work in about a week. Jack thought this was a tad ridiculous, as he was figuring that the soreness in his chest would be gone sooner than that, but he knew it was best to heed the doctor's advice. All in all, Jack felt very lucky, knowing that it all could have been so much worse. He liked to keep things light and jovial though.

"So, my ass gets another week's vacation so soon after just having one a few weeks ago!" He exclaimed with a grin. "That, I like, especially since it comes out of my sick time and not my vacation, and especially since I get to spend it with you!"

"Well, I'll love having you here for my first week of living here," Brad said, still loving how that sounded. "But, obviously I wish it wasn't because of you getting shot!"

"I would only call this having been knocked on my ass, rather than shot," Jack grinned. "I'm not complaining though - I know what could have happened if I hadn't been wearing that vest." Jack's smile had faded, and he and Brad exchanged solemn looks for a moment.

Brad was about to lose it thinking about that, so he changed the subject. "You hungry, baby?"

"Yes, actually." Jack replied.

Brad insisted on going and fixing him a sandwich, and one for himself. They ate together on the couch with the TV on. They snuggled up close after they got finished eating, Brad being careful not to get against the sore area of Jack's lower chest. They kissed tenderly.

"I'm so glad you are actually going to be living here with me all the time, Bradley. I love you," Jack told him softly, his deep blue eyes staring into Brad's pale blue ones.

"Me too baby, and thank you so much again for letting me move in! I love you too. I think my being here is only going to make us that much closer," Brad replied. Jack nodded in agreement, and they kissed again. For a while they just talked and cuddled tenderly, each silently so thankful that they still had each other.

But, by later Sunday afternoon they both really wanted to make love, though. They were still there on the couch together watching TV. They were kissing hotly again, too. Brad looked over and saw that there was a huge tent in the front of the blue Pleasant View PD sweat-shorts that Jack had on. "Well, another good thing about me living here," Brad grinned evilly, "is that you never have to worry about having someone to take care of THAT, either." He punctuated the "THAT" by reaching over and grabbing a handful of the hot bulge in Jack's lap. Brad was now tenting his own shorts majorly too. They kissed even more.