Pocket Full of Innocence Ch. 02

Author Note: For those of you that endured Part 1 and still came back for Part 2, thanks for indulging me. There was some dark content in the first part that I didn't want tainting Parts 2 and 3...kind of wanted the three parts to stand on their own...

That out of the way, on with the story...

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As if the air had suddenly been pressed out of an over inflated balloon, Rochelle Stewart literally collapsed down on her knees when she realized she'd made it out of the car with her life. Her left hand cuffed to Gavin's right, she nearly brought him down with her when she tucked her head between her knees and started to cry.

A pair of hazy outlines in the pitch black forest, Gavin bent down and hugged the Mother of his best friend as she sobbed, the chilly night air biting at each, signaling that the next stage of their ordeal was just beginning.

"What time do you think it is?" Rochelle asked as she tried to regain her composure. "It's too dark..I can't see my watch."

"Got to be a little after 9....It was getting dark the last time we stopped...," Gavin started to say then stopped himself remembering the indignity that had happened between Rochelle and Ernesto at dusk.

"Do you think they're looking for us?" Gavin sighed, desperate for anything to take Rochelle's mind off what had happened leading up to the crash.

"I'm sure they are by now...I told my Husband I'd be home in about 45 minutes and that was 4 hours ago. I'm sure he's called my cell and got no answer....its just that we're so far out of town..," Rochelle's voice drifted off as the gravity of their predicament settled in.

Silence hung in the air for a very long time, as thick and murky as the fog that would clot the river bed they'd call home for the next two nights.

"If no one's coming to get us..we're gonna have to find some way of getting word back to town," Gavin finally shook his head and said dejectedly.

"No way the car's gonna make the trip anytime soon," Rochelle noted as she stared back at the wreckage of her Volvo station wagon.

"Not to mention there's a dead guy slumped over the steering wheel," Gavin tried to be humorous but his words simply echoed with a dull thud through the woods.

"You really think he's dead?" Rochelle asked with queasy unease.

"I'm pretty sure..he wasn't breathing when we slipped out the back door," Gavin offered, not wanting to tell her how he'd heard Ernesto's neck snap a millisecond after the crash.

"I've still got my bike in the back...I could take that out and see if they're any houses in the area," Gavin kicked at the dirt in the darkness.

"It is gonna be kind of hard riding that bike handcuffed together," Rochelle gently reminded with only a hint of pessimistic irony.

"Oh yeah," Gavin whispered.

"Where do you think we're at anyway?" Rochelle asked, feeling much better the more they kept talking.

"East of town...the guy kept taking crazy turns...I dunno.....the tracks in the road looked like they did some logging up here but the tracks aren't fresh. I'm guessing no one's been up here since last Fall maybe," Gavin pondered.

Once again the two held their breath, listening for any sign of civilization around them. There were no stars out and the temperature had easily fallen 15 degrees since dusk.

"Right now...all I want to do is get away from that car," Rochelle finally put her free hand to her head and cringed, leading Gavin several yards down the road by their cuffed hands until she could once again breath.

"We'll be alright without any food...not that either one of us is going to have an appetite for awhile," Gavin tried to offer without sounding too much like a boy scout," but we're gonna have to find some water....there does sound like of river or big creek flowing a little ways up."

The two trudged along, hands tethered in the dark, both suddenly and acutely aware of how primitive their plight was about to become.

Cautiously making their way towards the sound of the rushing water, Gavin and Rochelle hadn't realized how much starch the ordeal had taken out of them until the adrenaline started to wear off. It wasn't until they could hear the water flowing endlessly over the rocks directly below that both of them felt their throats tremble with thirst. Like two wayward souls pulling themselves through a desert towards the promise of an oasis, they walked anxiously hand in hand along the ledge, trying to find the easiest path down in the dark.

As with everything else, nothing came easy.

A rock had given way beneath Gavin's right foot and in that frantic moment of decision he instinctively extended both hands out to try and keep Rochelle upright. In the process however all Gavin did was clumsily throw off his own balance, causing the pair to tumble down through the rain-soaked weeds and bushes towards the riverbed below.

Hopping and skipping as they tried grasping for any limb they could, the inertia finally let up with they both splashed into the edge of water.

"AAAHH...GOD... DAMN... Gavin..are you alright?" Rochelle croaked, knowing he was a foot or two further out.

"..I think so," he muttered, soaking wet now from the waist down.

Rochelle extended her free hand in the dark, trying to tow Gavin back to shore as the cool mountain stream splashed with a mixture of refreshment and dread across her face.

For the moment, the water hit the spot. Ignoring whatever concerns there might have been about what may have been crawling around in the rapids, Gavin and Rochelle cupped their four hands together and took turns gulping down the sustenance they scooped from the river.

"You're soaking wet Gavin," Rochelle noted once she'd finished gorging herself.

Hearing the way the heavy denim material of his jeans rubbed together each time he moved, Rochelle could only liken it to the sound those types of pants made fresh out of a washing machine. It wouldn't have been that big of a deal, but with the way the temperature was falling, she guessed it would be in the mid 40's before long.

"You fell all the way in when we tumbled down the bank, didn't you?" Rochelle asked, in the tone of a lawyer leading a witness.

"...Kinda..I'll be alright," Gavin tried to re-assure after finishing his last slurp of water.

It didn't take long before his teeth were ever so subtly chattering together.

"We really ought to try to start a fire," Gavin offered, "but everything seems like its soaked from the storm."

"I've got some matches up in the Volvo's glove compartment," Rochelle started to say but quickly stopped herself when she realized what they would encounter inside the darkened carcass of her shattered vehicle.

"We could probably also use the guy's gun out here," Gavin thought to himself but didn't have the nerve to say.

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The emotional transition of spending several hours with their lives literally in the hands of a drug crazed lunatic to now being stranded alone in a desolate forest was gradually sinking in for Gavin and Rochelle. Safe now from the maniac that had carjacked them, once they'd filled their bellies full of water, the daunting task of waiting began for the two.

It was a little after 10pm that first night when Gavin and Rochelle staked a claim on the driest spot along the riverside they could find. Sixty miles away police, and two desperate and befuddled families continued their fruitless search as the two lost souls sat on the muddy bank, cold and somewhat in shock as they listened to the endless flow of rushing water snaking by them.

"Maybe we can find two rocks..maybe smash the chain of these cuffs between them and get loose?" Gavin proposed.

"No way we're finding anything out here tonight," Rochelle sighed, the toll of the day clear in her voice. "Last thing either of us needs is twisting an ankle or a knee out here."

"How's your side?" Gavin whispered, hearing the struggle Rochelle had to make each time she spoke.

"I don't think I'm spitting up any blood..but it doesn't feel good," she answered as honestly as she could.

Silence gradually won out. Between their exhaustion and the lack of really good topics to talk about, Gavin and Rochelle's eyelids began to feel very heavy. Neither wanted to re-hash anything that had happened in the car, and Gavin had even taken note when Rochelle reached down with her free hand and used the water from the river to eliminate whatever was left of Ernesto's semen from her face.

After a little small talk about where the searchers might be looking or what some of their family members might be thinking, within 20 minutes of sitting down, the two had dozed off into a light and tedious sleep.

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Fate's a fickle thing.

All those nights growing up Gavin McGowen spent imagining he actually got a chance to sleep with Rochelle Stewart, here he was literally laying beside her miles away from the eyes of anyone else. The fact that the two were handcuffed together and covered with mud only a few hundred yards from the man they'd just killed wasn't exactly how Gavin's teenaged wet dreams had gone however.

Waking up at some point during the night, Gavin couldn't help surveying Rochelle as she slept on her back to his right. It was amazing how, even in the darkest of places, the human eye could eventually adjust to the lack of light. The white tee-shirt and shorts Rochelle had worn, now much dingier than when they'd left the house, still provided an adequate silhouette of her body as one light snore after another rose from her lungs.

The last thing Gavin had done before settling down to sleep, albeit apprehensively, was to take Mrs. Stewart's advice and ditch the jeans he'd soaked when he fell into the river. With his pants drying out in the limbs of the tree above the nest they'd made for the night, Gavin felt a twinge of mortal embarrassment washing through him as he laid there in nothing but his shirt, shoes, socks and tighty-whiteys. Having known Rochelle's family his entire life, Gavin was pretty sure she'd seen him in diapers, it still didn't make it any easier for him to strip down with her joined at the wrist, less than two feet away.

For Rochelle's part, she couldn't have been more matter of fact about the sleeping arrangements, or Gavin's state of dress. The truth was if he slept in those wet pants, he'd probably have pneumonia by the next morning. Not to mention their body heat would be enough to insure surviving the night.

The logic of it all didn't make it any easier for Gavin as he laid there, fully awake now as a blanket of fog descended upon them, his eyes gazing openly at Rochelle's chest as it rose and fell each time she exhaled.

Considering everything he'd been through over the past eight hours, one would wonder how Gavin could have entertained such thoughts about the woman sleeping beside him. Perhaps it was the stress of the ordeal they'd just been through and that built up steam needed a place to go. That, and even in light of the circumstances, an 18 year old libido isn't the easiest thing in the world to simply shut off.

Resting on his side facing Rochelle as he tried finding the most comfortable position to lay in with his hand cuffed to hers, Gavin could feel the warm cylinder of his erection steadily building until it had tented out the front of his underwear. Awkwardly trying to twist his crotch away from Rochelle without causing too much of a stir, Gavin kept his eyes pensively on he's as she slept to his right.

As chilly as it was outside, not to mention the awkwardness of the circumstances, it made no sense how Gavin's arousal was manifesting itself so visibly. It was surprising just how much warmth two bodies laying that close to generate and it wasn't long before Gavin felt comfortable enough to thumb through his memory banks to some of the times growing up when he'd had sexual thoughts about Mrs. Stewart. Whether it was the various occasions when he'd seen her in her bathing suit at the pool, or perhaps the dozens of times he'd seen her in her nightshirt and pajama shorts during his many sleepovers, he'd never quite looked at her with the same furtive focus as he did as she snored lightly beside him along the river bank.

Even though he would have never admitted it to anyone, and to be honest it turned his stomach somewhat to even admit it to himself, seeing Rochelle in the sexual situation back in the car with Ernesto had sparked something deep and dark inside him. It wasn't necessarily desire or even lust for that matter, but the mental image of his best friend's Mom working her mouth up and down on the raised penis of a complete stranger gnawed at every nerve in his body. Staring straight down at Rochelle, and the same mouth she'd used to do the deed, Gavin bit his lower lip, unable to escape the urge to picture his own penis resting inside it.

Instinctively twisted away from the woman beside him in an attempt to shield the evidence of his growing arousal, Gavin tried doing everything he could to internally talk down his erection when he saw Rochelle begin to sir awake.

"You up?" she rubbed her free hand up to her drowsy eyes and asked. "How long have I been asleep?"

"I don't know...without any moon out its hard to tell how late it is.....I..uhhh....I just woke up myself?" he lied somewhat convincingly.

"I ...hate to say it...but I think I have to pee," Gavin stammered in the dark, doing his best to steer his crotch away from Rochelle's eyes.

"Actually..I think I probably need to too," she replied.

"I'm guessing everything is uni-sex out here in the woods," Rochelle added as she and Gavin helped each other up. "Camping has never been my thing."

"Let's head back over to the spot where we got some water earlier..at least we know the path so we wont trip over anything in the dark," he suggested.

Side by side the pair navigated the river bank until they were at the fringes of the rushing water.

"You want to go first?" Rochelle asked.

"Doesn't matter..I guess," Gavin replied before turning his back 180 degrees, the full realization hitting him that he was about to pull his cock from his drawers with Mrs. Stewart standing directly behind him.

Tugging his semi-erect dick free with his left hand and aiming it straight out, Gavin started counting to 10, never comfortable going to the bathroom in the presence of other poeple, much less the Mother of his best friend. Either due to the coldness of the air or the amount of water he'd drank earlier, Gavin surprised himself by starting to go before he even got to 7. And once he started, he couldn't seem to stop. Aiming the stream directly into the river, it sounded like a race horse relieving itself, and Gavin felt an awkward shiver nipping at his spine the longer it took to tap his bladder.

He swore he could hear Rochelle giggling under her breath but he wasn't sure. He did know he'd die if she'd said anything at that moment. Finally, he felt a wave of relief sweep through his system on several levels when the final few trickles dripped free.

Shoving his cock back inside his Fruit of the Looms, Gavin couldn't even bring himself to turn around before telling Rochelle she could go, in essence showing her the same courtesy she'd just shown him.

Of all the differences between the genders, the effort and logistics that go into taking a piss in the woods would be right up there. Combine that with being handcuffed to a someone in the dark and Rochelle had quite an engineering task ahead of her. Able to work the clasp of her shorts free and slide the zipper down with her right hand, she realized the hardest part of the process would be working those same shorts down to her knees so she could do her business.

Gavin could feel her struggling beside him but had no clue what to do to help. Standing there in nothing but a tee-shirt and underwear, Gavin instinctively eased closer to allow Rochelle more slack on the cuffs as she gyrated her hips side to side, trying to inch her shorts down.

"My God...Mrs. Stewart is pulling her pants down right beside me," the voice of Gavin's teenaged libido chuckled even though he maintained the poise and calmness of the fine young man he was growing up to be.

Finally it seemed Rochelle had worked her shorts down far enough and Gavin could feel her weight shift when she squatted down. Within a few seconds, he could hear the sound of Rochelle's stream hitting the soggy ground below.

"Its almost like we're Adam and Eve out here," Gavin thought poetically to himself as he waited for Rochelle to finish.

Extending his right hand towards Rochelle to give her all the slack he could on the cuffs, Gavin kept his back turned towards her, shielding the older woman from the stiff bulge that persisted inside his underwear.

Reaching down with his free hand, Gavin couldn't help but ever so subtlety rub at the protruding girth while Rochelle was still distracted.

"Done?" he said when he felt Rochelle raising back up.

"Yeah," Rochelle sighed, now busy trying to work her shorts back up to her waist.

Gavin desperately wanted to ask if he could help, but was thankfully able to bite his tongue. He could feel her trying to re-button the pants with her one free hand but it just wasn't happening. Rather than going through the indignity of having to ask for Gavin's help, she simply left it as it was before suggesting they head back to the shelter of their improvised nest.

"Jeans are still a little wet..hopefully they'll be dry by morning," Gavin noted as they headed back to their spot along the river, trying not to think about how dumb he'd look in nothing but his underwear if they weren't dry by sunrise.

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As relieved as their kidneys felt after getting up to pee, the one drawback for Rochelle and Gavin was they'd lost the cocoon of heat they had created while sleeping. The temperature had dropped into the mid 40's but thankfully with the layer of fog draping the river, there wasn't a hint of wind blowing.

Once they'd laid back down, Gavin and Rochelle found themselves cuddling a little closer than before in an effort to re-capture the life sustaining warmth they could provide each other. Without an ideal position to lay in considering the circumstances, about the only way they could comfortably exist handcuffed as they were was face to face.

Their thirst satiated and their bladders empty, it wasn't long before Gavin and Rochelle to drifted back to sleep, this time less than a foot from each other. The continuous and melodic flow of the water beside them created an almost hypnotic effect as the fog eventually shrouded the stranded pair.

It was about an hour before sunrise when Gavin was once again stirred awake. Rochelle was still sleeping as she faced him but from the way her face and shoulders were twitching it was clear she was having a nightmare. So close he could feel the fear in each one of her exhales wash across his face, Gavin instinctively reached out with his cuffed right hand and laid it down gently on Rochelle's left hip. It wasn't long before several shiny tears were leaking down the woman's cheek.

Drifting in and out of sleep himself for the next few minutes as the eerie and surreal white haze engulfed the river bank, Gavin openly wondered if he was the one dreaming all this as Rochelle's sobs of fear grew louder. At some point the older woman's tear soaked face wound up flush against the 18 year old's chest as he held her as tenderly and reassuringly as he could.

"You're laying here in nothing but your underwear Dammitt and she's just cuddling closer," Gavin said to himself in a horrified daze.

"She's still asleep..she has no idea what she's doing," the rational part of Gavin's mind calmly offered as Rochelle's tears began to soak into his shirt.