Chapter 17

We couldn’t hear what the young couple next to us said to each other, but it was clear that Simon was positively astonished. It was very clear to us that Rose didn’t have to worry that Simon would leave her because of her braces.

We could see them flirt to each other and it was clear what would happen between them that night. It was then that Jess said: “Let’ss finissh ouw wine, I think I need a sshowew too…” When I looked at her to reply, I saw so much lust in her eyes that I just couldn’s say anything. I was really curious what the night might have in store for me.

We left the restaurant just after Rose and Simon and made the quick walk to our hotel. It wasn’t before long that we showering together.
After a long busy night, we were preparing ourselves for breakfast when Jess’s phone chimed. While I was tightening here corset, she took her phone and smiled.

“What’s up?” I asked her,

“Do you wemembew ouw lovebiwdss fwom the westauwant? When we wewe in the toilet, I encouwaged hew to weaw hew headgeaw and I promissed hew it would lead to a night to wemembew and that sshe would expewience the possitive sside of having bwacess. The message that I jusst got said: “You wewe sso wight lasst night… thankss!” I think they got to know each othew much bettew lasst night, don’t you.”

“Do you remember our lovebirds from the restaurant? When we were in the toilet, I encouraged her to wear her headgear and I promised her it would lead to a night to remember and that she would experience the positive side of having braces. The message that I just got said: “You were so right last night… thanks!” I think they got to know each other much better last night, don’t you.”

Thinking that our night has been probably more or less the same as from the lovebirds, made me smile and I quickly finished tightening Jess’s corset. When I clicked the padlock shut, I felt a shiver running down Jess’s spine. I realized that it wasn’t the fact that I more or less had control over Jess that I liked, but the fact that she trusted me when she asked me to be vulnerable or helpless.

We had a lovely last day in Paris and when we travelled back in the train, Jess cuddled upon me. When she did I felt the solid padlocks on her back and in her neck. Jess didn’t seem to bother about them and I wandered if she would keep her headgear locked the coming days, or if she would return to self-control.

In the weeks that followed Jess sometimes locked her headgear, even when we wouldn't see each other for a few days, so she was unable to take off her headgear for a few days. Also her corset became a piece of clothing that she wore more and more. I noticed she enjoyed the moment I laced her in. although it wasn’t always comfortable.

Time passed quickly and the of the year was coming close. Because we were a new couple in both our families, we decided to invite both our families for Christmas to our place.

We were busy with preparations and succeeded to buy a present for all our guests. Of course we also bought a present for each other. When we placed all the presents under the tree the day before Christmas, I showed Jess two presents with her name on. She looked a little bit puzzled but wasn’t that surprised, as we bought each other presents more often.

“I got you a really personalized present and I hope you like it. However it might be a present that is not appropriate to open when all our families are around. If you like, you can open it now.”

“Of couwsse I want to open pwessentss now. What did you buy me? Ssome kinky outfit ow sso?”

Jess carefully opened the rectangular present and when she opened it, there was a blue pouch inside, she said in disbelieve: “Iss thiss what I think it iss? Did you get me a new headgeaw?”

I just nodded, not knowing if I had done good, or very wrong, while Jess opened the pouch. The moment she saw what was inside I knew I hit the right spot, because I saw her eyes lighten and some other bodyparts react.

Within seconds Jess got up and hurried into the bathroom. Within a few moments Jess came back, embraced me and tried to kiss me. We had a somewhat uneasy kiss and when we broke apart Jess said: “Hank ou. Hoow I how hy I ha hoo hopen his hwensent how.” (Thank you, now I know why I had to open this present now). Ih houh he wange ih I ohened thi wi ou fahihy ahoud (It would be strange if I opened this with our family around)."

I felt Jess’s excitement about her new headgear while she embraced me. Carefully I broke our embracement, so I could see how she looked. Her head was showing two facebows about a quarter of an inch apart, making it almost impossible to close her lips around the bows. Both facebows were connected to interlandi headgear straps embracing her head.

At about three o'clock the doorbell rang, where I saw Jess’s sister Kayleigh. I was a little surprised, as we didn’t expect anyone to arrive before about five o’clock. As soon as I opened the door she exclaimed: “Hi Ron, I hope you don’t mind that I’m a little early, but my car broke down, so I had to take public transport and that’s why I’m so early. With the next train I would arrive at about seven, so…. You two need some help in preparations?”

I invited Keyleigh in and she walked into the living, where Jess was laying the table. As soon as Kayleigh saw Jess, she froze and just stammered: “Hi siss, How a…. Wow….what…. what happened with your braces?”

As soon as Jess heard Kayleigh’s voice, she turned around and hugged her.

“Hacess? I hu go thi nuh heagea. I ha oo ge uuss to. I hanne oo hake ih oh hefoh hou ah hou ahhive, huh hou ah so eahhy. I hi hake ih oh noh.”

"Braces? I just got this new headgear. I have to get used to it. I planned to take is off before you arrive, but you are so early. I will take it off now.”

“Oh no, don’t take it of because of me. I really do admire your braveness. It must be very hard to wear this headgear in front of Ron.”

We continued our preparations and in fact it was  nice to have Kayleigh help us. At about 4:30 we changed our clothes and as soon as we were in the privacy of our bedroom, we took the opportunity for a kissing session to explore the possibilities with Jess’s double facebow.

Jess switched to her single facebow, making it much easier to understand her. We had a nice get-together and we experienced that both our families welcomed us as a new couple. Especially my father was very explicit in welcoming my lovely Jess into the family.

Of course we had a cleaning session as soon as every one left but before we even started Jess left to change to a little more comfortable outfit. I already started cleaning and when Jess returned, she embraced me from my back. She started kissing my neck and I noticed she also changed to her double facebow again: “Hoh, I healy hoh thih heagea. Hou goh hee he hest hismah hesent eheh. Ahuahy I houl hav hove ho heah ih ahl dah, buh ih ihhnt hewy hachicah”. (Ron, I really love this headgear. You got me the best Christmas present ever. Actually I would have loved to wear it all day, but it isn’t very practical).

We seemed to be a great team cleaning the house and within no time we were done and left for bed, calling it a day. As usual Jess was already in bed before me and as soon as I crawled up behind her, she took the initiative to give me the night of a lifetime. I guess I hit the jackpot giving Jess an over the top headgear.

Thanks.  A very good story.

Chapter 19

Without any trouble we arrived in a cozy French village, where we had rented a big house for the whole group. Since Jess had never brought a boyfriend on the skiing trips, she always had been convicted to sleeping in the living room. Now I accompanied her, she got the luxury of a bedroom, where we had some privacy.

As a member of the group of friends, Chris was joining as well. He was still frustrated about the fact that Jess was involved in a relationship with me and he abominated the fact that Jess was wearing braces, something he still blamed me for. It was clear that Chris and I wouldn’t become best friends, but we didn’t bother each other.

The first day of skiing was great, blue skies and great snow conditions. After the lifts closed, we got a few beers in a pub before we left for our house. Jess took advantage of the luxury of a private bedroom including a bathroom with a bath and left for a relaxing session.

I was joining a few others with some card games, when I heard Jess calling Susan to come to our room. I didn’t think anything of it, until Susan came back, walked to me and whispered in my ear: “Your explanation in the car about braces, seems to have a little different meaning with the Christmas present you gave Jess.” I understood Jess told Susan about the double headgear I had given her. As far as I knew Jess had left it at home for our own entertainment.

We continued our card game and I had my back to the door of our room, so I couldn’t see when Jess entered the room again. Before I even noticed Jess entering the room Chris exploded. I looked around to see why Chris went nuts, when I saw Jess wearing her double headgear. No one had seen it yet, so a lot of us were surprised. Most of our friends were full of sympathy that Jess had to wear such massive braces and supported her, but Chris was clearly not amused about Jess’s braces. Again he blamed me for the braces that Jess wore and in fact, he was right this time. It took soke time for Chris to calm down, but the atmosphere only cleared fully when Chris left for bed.

More and more friends left for bed, even Jess, leaving just Susan and myself. Susan has the privilege to sleep in the living room this year, as she was one of the singles. When I got ready to go to bed, she asked me to have a last drink.

I felt Susan wanted to discuss something, so I quickly agreed, grabbing two beers and plumped on a couch, while handing Susan one of the beers.
“Are you sure you’re not into braces? I mean, you didn’t give her a regular Christmas present, did you?”

I smiled and said: “I knew Jess is always looking for challenges and I knew she just enjoy wearing braces including her headgear. I guess you have seen that as well. I found out, but didn’t tell Jess yet, that her orthodontist is an old schoolfriend of me, so it was quite easy to get the headgear.
I didn’t know she took it with her this trip, so when she showed up wearing it tonight, I was as surprised as anyone else.

I expect she called you to show the headgear in private?”

“Yes indeed, she wanted me to tell me about the double headgear in private and in continuation of our conversation in the car I asked her to put it in, so I could really see how it looked. In fact she hesitated to show it even to me, you know, showing such a humiliating device to your friends is quite hard.
When she put it in, I immediately recognized what you said earlier. She looked so natural wearing the double headgear. Of course it looked strange, but it just suits her.

She said she needed a moment when I returned to the living, so I expected her to take of the double headgear. Little did I know she needed a moment to compose herself to show herself wearing this headgear in front of her friends.”

In fact I wasn’t really surprised with Susans explanation and a could have expected it from Jess. Also remembering the conversation in the car, I started to think that wearing braces might be a little more than only a challenge for Jess. Not that I was disappointed about it, anyway.

Now the topic was into braces anyway, I asked Susan: “I don’t know you as well as Jess does, but I think you have been thinking about braces since we had our conversations back in the car. I bet now you have seen Jess’s headgear, you are questioning yourself what it would be like to have such braces yourself and what Daves reaction would. Am I correct?”

She laughed out loud and threw a cushion towards me: “You are damn right. Now go to bed and give Jess some attention. I need you to leave the room anyway, because I need some sleep for a new day of skiing tomorrow”.

I understood the message and rose from the couch. I wished Susan sweet dreams about braces and slipped into our room, where I found Jess fast asleep wearing her double headgear. Unfortunately she didn’t notice me climbing into bed.

Chapter 21

The next morning both Jess was next to my bed when I woke up. It was annoying that I wasn’t able to give her a proper morning kiss, as my back was immobilized, my leg was in traction and Jess’s mouth was covered by a mask, but we did the best we could. It was hard to communicate and I was a little frustrated that I didn’t know what had happened. We were both happy to see Susan’s head popping around the door. 

Susan came in and after the initial shock she regained herself and started explaining what had happened.

After Chris left the group after lunch, he was agitated, which left him not wanting to ski anymore. He had gone to a bar and had a few more beers. When he left the bar to go home, he had seen our group waiting at the side of the slope and decided to give us, or mainly me, a snowshower. It was an understatement that his plan had gone wrong. Chris had missed his timing and crashed fully into me. The impact was so big that I got launched and crashed with my helmed into Jess’s face, before crashing into the big rocking that caused my back and leg  to break. Within minutes the paramedics and police were on seen and after they found out what happened, Chris was taken into custody.

With her background Susan had gone to the police station to find out what next steps could be expected. She learned that there would be a lawsuit and that Chris would see a judge within 48 hours to decide if he had to stay in prison, or that he was allowed to get out of jail, but stay in France, or that he could go home. Chris would be accused of multiple serious assault. Susan had also found out that Chris could face up to 5 years of prison.
After about an hour Susan left, but not after she left my Ipad that she had taken from our apartment. It made it easier to communicate with Jess and it gave me a chance to do some research about my injuries.
The next day Susan came to the hospital again, but mainly to pickup Jess to go to the courthouse for the first hearing of Chris.
When they returned Susan had a mischievous smile on her face. Looking to Jess’s eyes, she to, but of course no one could see her mouth because of the mask

Susan explained that the Judge was a rather old guy, very friendly towards Jess and Susan. When Chris was brought to him, his attitude changed and he showed no mercy towards Chris. It almost seemed to be a principal matter and when he found out that alcohol was involved and Chris was used to drink a lot, he was very strict and explained that he probably would ordeal to keep Chris into custody up to his trial. He explained that society was no place for guys like Chris.

Then Susan had stood up and asked the judge to explain her backgrounds and to discuss an alternative conviction as Chris was still one of their friends, although he had misbehaved badly. Sending Chris to prison would ruin his future.

Susan and the judge had a chat where Susan explained she wanted to send Chris to a rehabilitation clinic for his alcohol abuse. When he returned, Chris should get some help to change his lifestyle and attitude. To get rid of the rude and overweighted Chris, that antagonized many others, to a healthy and empathic person, realizing that he should be aware of the people among him to get a better future. Of course Chris had to participate in the group actively. He wasn’t supposed to drop out of the group and his social life. If he did, he would have to take his prison time yet.

The judge was positively amazed by this extraordinary proposal and he really appreciated the fact that a group of friends didn’t let someone down, because of a major misheap. It also showed that the out-of-the-box thinking of Susan could lead to more suitable convictions.

The judge explained the proposal to Chris and added a probation of seven years and that if Chris didn’t cooperate and therefor broke his probation, he would get seven years of prison instead of five.

Chris quickly agreed to the proposal that saved him from five years of prison.

After the settlement Chris was taken back immediately and would be flown to a rehabilitation clinic in South Africa to treat his alcohol abuse that has caused the whole situation.

Just when Susan finished her explanation, some doctors entered the room.

Thanks for writing and sharing! I can't wait to read more

This is a really nice story. I cannot wait for the next chapter.

Chapter 24

The following weeks went by quickly. We were released from the hospital about a week after our surgeries and decided to stay at my place. We were lucky with our group of friends, who helped us a lot, although Jess was mobile and went back to work after about two weeks. She doesn’t seem to bother the RED frame. Of course she had to adjust. She couldn’t eat solid foods and she seemed to squint and of course… kissing was out of the question. The advantage of the frame was that her tongue crib had been taken out, so her speech was much better than before. Of course the big splint she had in her mouth gave her a lisp, but now only with the s-ses.

My recovery went also smoothly. My leg was healing nicely and with the daily rehab and physio, the swelling went down quickly. The corset hindered me more than the loss of my leg and especially crutching was clumsy, but I didn’t want to complain about it in front of Jess.

During these weeks Jess seemed to get quieter and more into her own world, but I couldn’t get to the reason. After about two weeks she was upset and it was clear that something bothered her. When I came in the room, she stood in front of the window, just looking at nothing. I crutched behind her, let my crutches fall on the floor and just embraced her tightly. Without saying anything I kissed her neck. When Jess slowly turned around, I saw tears in her eyes. When I opened my mouth to say something Jess simply put her indexfinger on my lips to silence me.

“I am tho thorry about this thituation,” Jess started. Not knowing what to expect I just looked at her and dried her tears.

“Look at you now,” she continued: “The thporty, thexy thweet guy that I fell in love with is now crippled and thtumbling around. Gone ith the bright future and all, becauthe of me. I am rethponthible for what hath happened to you.”

I never had expected these kind of words and had no idea where she got this idea, so I simply said: “You’re not responsible, Chris is. What makes you think that you are responsible?”

“Well, I agreed that Chrith joined the thkiing trip, knowing that he didn’t rethpect you. And becauthe of that dethithion, your life hath changed forever. I’m tho thorry. I can’t think of a way to compenthate you for your lothth and I have trouble looking you into the eyeth knowing that I am responthible for the lothth of your leg and that horrible corthet you have to wear.”

I was overwhelmed by what I heard. It definitely wasn’t how I experienced what happened and although my life had changed, my love for Jess certainly didn’t.

I embraced Jess even harder and I felt her RED frame dig into my chest, while Jess’s tears wet my shirt.
Then I whispered in her ear: “Jess, you’re not responsible. There is only person responsible and that is Chris. I don’t care if you agreed to joining him on the ski-trip. That’s not your fault. I know his behavior changed not only my life, but also your or our lives. And I promis you, we’ll manage. I’m sure the worst has gone and it will only get better from now on”.

Jess freed herself and looked me into the eyes: “Are you theriouth? You aren’t mad at me?”

“Of course not.”

“I wath tho afraid you were mad at me and would leave me,” Jess whispered.

“How could I leave the most wonderful and remarkable person I have ever met?”I said with a smile and gave her a kiss.”It might sound weird, but this whole situation put us into a real big challenge and I’m sure we’ll find ways to manage. I know you long enough to know that you actually enjoy your RED frame in a way, because of the challenges it brings you and to be honest. Moving on one leg in a corset is hard, but I think I understand more and more the excitement of these kind of challenges.

If you freshen up and get into something more comfortable, I’ll try to get some food on the table”.

I let her go and stumbled around to pick up my crutches, while Jess left for the bathroom. It wasn’t before long that I heard the shower. About fifteen minutes later, I heard some strange squeaking noises and when I looked up, I saw Jess entering the dark living room where I had lit some candles, leaving me speechless.

The squeaking noise came from my i-walk, that she had strapped to her own leg. The soft light of the candles reflected in the RED frame, causing it to look very mysterious. Jess wore the same black dress that she had worn on the first night when she cooked dinner for me.
I got up and embraced her again. When I did I felt Jess was wearing a corset again. Feeling around the laces and hearing Jess breath very shallow, I knew she had tightened it very tight.

“Thankth for your nithe wordth,” Jess said: “when you thaid that you are thort of exthited walking around on one leg wearing a corthet, I thought I had to try mythelf. I mutht admit it feelth weird and I know exactly what feeling you mean.”

That night was a relief. It lead to a nice shower for the first time since the accident and we gladly discovered that we were still able to exercise. May be it had even intensified, finding more sensitive spots.