The first court date they had to make was a simple one, which was just trying to get an order of protection put in place for Jeremy against Jasper. His lawyer, Wren Campbell, who was taking lead because Ryder technically couldn't represent him, included all of the proof of the family contacting Jeremy and his friends as well. Even Ryder had been getting texts, which Ryder thought was idiotic of them, but it gave them plenty of evidence.
The judge granted the protection order without any hesitation, and included his family as well. Wren made it clear he was willing to hand over the information to the prosecutor to help them prove witness tampering if it continued, and Judge Mann told Jasper that he and his family should tread incredibly carefully here.
The next court date would end up happening after the holidays, as the courts tended to already be booked in advance and no one really wanted to work around Christmas. After some talk, they decided that splitting up the holidays would be easiest. The Thayers were okay with Jeremy missing Thanksgiving given that he was living in Ohio, and so long as he came for Christmas time, which Jeremy was willing to do. Plus, the Morrows were going to host their group around Christmas so they didn't need to worry about an Airbnb or hotel. Or more like, Ethan was hosting them for the holidays, while Mr. and Mrs. Morrow spent most of their time out and not with their son.
"We likely won't even see them," Ethan told everyone, mostly for Wayne and Jimmy's sake. "So when everyone comes into town, you can just pick a room and chill."
Jeremy set up with Zoe when they would be doing the family meeting so she could mediate through Zoom. It was decided it would be done when everyone could be there. Most of them would just be silent support for Jeremy, but as his friends were essentially his chosen family, he felt more comfortable knowing they would be there.
As Thanksgiving break rolled around, Jeremy was more nervous than he felt he had any right to be about the idea of meeting Jimmy's family. All he knew about them was that his parents were divorced, Jimmy had a sister, and that they were willing to overlook Jeremy's gender due to his family's wealth. Jimmy had been right that it wasn't really a compliment, but it also gave him a slight upper hand considering that they might be less likely to be homophobic toward him if they thought they could get something out of it.
Not that Jeremy was willing to use his family's money to get in good with them. While Jeremy would be more than willing to use his own personal wealth eventually once he had a job and access to his trust fund to help Jimmy's career goals and the like, Jimmy had his own career to consider and would likely not want Jeremy just paying for everything, and that was fine for Jeremy. He wanted a partner, an equal, not a dependent.
He wasn't going to tell them that outright though until they better got to know him. Jimmy, for his part, began making apologies for his family as soon as they set plans for Jeremy to meet them. He had never actually brought a partner around his family before, mostly because he hadn't been serious with anyone before. His family was generally fairly shallow, though their hearts were usually in the right place most of the time.
Jimmy never really considered whether or how Jeremy would use his wealth. The money never entered his mental framework, for some reason. Probably because Jeremy never pushed his wealth into Jimmy's face at all. Jeremy tried to live as modestly as he could. Even his car was more modest, as it was just a slightly used Toyota Avalon in a black color.
Their plan was to drive down early the day of Thanksgiving to help out, and Jeremy had offered to drive. They said goodbye to their friends before leaving. Ethan was spending the day reading and making his own food (which usually meant ordering ahead of time), while Chloe had left it up to Wayne what he wanted her to do. She could go with him or she could stay with Ethan and share a meal with him, as her parents were too busy for frivolous holidays like that.
Wayne's parents had decided to go on a cruise this year, so he offered to stay in with Chloe and Ethan and just snack on takeout. He explained that his parents always laid out a huge spread for the family and no one ever chipped in at all, so they decided to spend that money on themselves this year instead. He applauded them and told them he'd see them after their trip.
"Jimmy, if your family drives you nuts, then grab Jeremy and come to our place," Ethan told them. "You know, it gives you an out. I've given Jeremy that invite every year."
"I'm sure Jimmy's family can't be worse than mine," Jeremy grumbled.
"You're about to find out," Ethan joked and then they got into the car to leave.
They arrived at Jimmy's mother's house before noon and, after introductions, helped her prep the turkey and get it in the oven. They sat down after that and broke up several loaves of stale bread that had been baked fresh a few days ago into small chunks while Jimmy's mom ("Call me Paula, dear", a name Jimmy hadn't even known she had) prepped the other ingredients for the stuffing she liked to make.
Once the stuffing was prepped it went into the oven under the turkey's roasting pan and they started in on the sugar snap peas and mashed sweet potatoes. Jimmy seemed to know his way around this kitchen like he'd been cooking from an early age. He ordered Jeremy around with the confidence of an experienced chef and when his sister got there she jumped in to help without comment, merely stopping to kiss her mother's cheek and wave hello to Jeremy.
This was far different to how Jeremy would have been spending Thanksgiving, but he found he liked it. Back in the Thayer household, the kitchen staff would be the ones getting the meal prepared. Jeremy didn't think he had ever actually seen Sidney Thayer cook before. Jeremy knew how to cook mostly because he was the one who was always kind of outside the family, and he didn't like making the staff make all of his snacks and meals. Once he went to college, he didn't want to hire anyone so he sat down with recipes and ingredients and just had fun with it. Some meals were disasters, others were amazing. At this point, the amazing far outweighed the disasters.
This also felt far more personal. They were spending time as a family working together, which also wasn't what the Thayers would do. The men might drink scotch and chat, while the women did...Jeremy actually didn't know what the women tended to do when the men spent time together.
He shook his head at that realization, as if he was trying to baffle it out and get it out of his head at the same time. At some point he would have to ask Scarlett or Kat what they got up to on their downtime. Right now, all he could imagine was knitting and needlepoint, but that felt incredibly Regency and he realized he might have been reading too much of Chloe's Jane Austen.
Every time Jimmy would look over to give another direction or just to check how Jeremy was doing, Jeremy would give him a little smile that was meant only for Jimmy. It was loving and conveyed that he was enjoying his time with him in the kitchen. They finished up with a pumpkin pie (store-bought, no one's pumpkins had survived the halloween season). Once it was in the oven, Jimmy started in on dishes until his mother kicked him out of the kitchen to relax a little.
Once they got into the living room, Jeremy looked over at his boyfriend with a curious expression. "So, do you ever see your dad around the holidays?"
"Yeah, he's welcome over for turkey day, but he usually works late. We may see him around 6, if he comes at all," Jimmy said with a shrug.
"This is kind of a nice, cozy way to spend a holiday," Jeremy said to him, looking around the small, packed living room. There was a drab old couch and two chairs that all looked like they'd last seen sunlight in the 1980's. The room was clean, but cluttered, with chotchkies littering the end tables and books piled here and there as if Jimmy's mom didn't have enough space on her bookshelf. "It's so vastly different from home. Better, though."
Jimmy smiled and tried to tidy things up, but gave up when he couldn't find any better place for any of it. Jeremy chuckled and put his hand on Jimmy's leg.
"You don't need to clean up for me," Jeremy told him. "Everything about how clean my parents' home is because of staff and the lack of real personal items."
"It's still embarrassing. There's always clutter..." Jimmy said.
"That's not the worst thing in the world," Jeremy replied quietly and they both looked up when his sister came into the living room, with Jeremy giving her a smile. Cathy smiled back, though her smile didn't really touch her eyes. She had figured out how to model normal human behavior at a young age and fooled nearly everyone. She was their mother's favored child, though Paula would vehemently deny it.
"So, like, you're into dudes now?" she asked Jimmy abruptly.
