handprints on my soul - jaylor oneshots

did the love affair maim you

His family is great, I'll give them that. They were kind and welcomed me right in, allowing me to become a part of their family. That night felt so natural, right down to after dinner, when the old photo albums came out. I was taught about his past, because everyone assumed I would be his future and I'd need to start learning now.

"Oh, look at this one!" Elizabeth said, flipping open the cover on a leather bound book.

"Mum, not another," Joe groaned, rolling his eyes and shutting it. "I'm sure Taylor is tired of it."

"I think she likes it," Elizabeth responded, smiling at Taylor, who was in fact eager to see more pictures of Joe as a baby.

"Come on, it's cute," Taylor argued, grinning at Joe as she opened to the first page. It was a picture of him as a toddler, holding a plastic baseball bat in a tiny uniform.

"Awe, I remember this!" Elizabeth said in excitement. "My baby on his first sports team. You loved it so much, it was so cute."

"Mum..." Joe said, his cheeks turning red.

"You got so excited, sometimes you would miss the ball and run anyway and we'd have to chase after you," Elizabeth recalled. "Let's see, what's the next one..."

It was Joe and Tom on a bed with race car sheets, both wearing much too large pairs of comical glasses and grinning widely at the camera.

"This is so cute!" Taylor said, angling it slightly so she could see it better.

"What did you look like as a baby, Taylor?" Elizabeth asked, looking at Taylor's features.

"Nothing too special," Taylor laughed, and pulled her phone out to show Elizabeth the little girl with platinum blonde curls and big blue eyes.

"Well, weren't you just adorable!" Elizabeth commented, looking joyfully at the photo. She placed it next to the one of Joe so they were side by side. "You two would just have the cutest babies."

Chuckling lightly, Taylor linked her arm through Joe's and leaned onto him, giving him one smile before continuing to look at their side by side childhood photos.

We left late that evening, the combination of that and the wine deciding the rest of that day. The stop at his brother's house was only on our way as we went away for the long weekend, our upstate escape. That night we stayed in a motel, and the next day we continued our drive.

"Look at all the colors," said Joe, looking around as they drove through the forest.

Taylor gazed around wide eyed and wonderstruck at the beautiful colors, wanting to drink it all in while they drove to the cabin. "You were right, it is in the middle of nowhere," she agreed.

"Perfect for us, huh?" said Joe, and he took his hand off the wheel to put it on where Taylor's hands rested in her lap.

"Yeah," Taylor blissfully agreed.

"Now, care to sing? Could be a wonderful way to pass the time," Joe suggested, and his eyes twinkled as he looked at Taylor.

"The National?" asked Taylor.

"The National," Joe nodded.

We sang along to the songs playing on the tape, getting lost in the words. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until we realized we had been driving for hours, with no sign of being closer to the destination.

"We can't be much father now, can we?" Taylor asked, and looked around at the trees which never seemed to change.

"The man said we should start seeing some clearing in the trees when we're about three miles away..." Joe said, and his eyes traveled around at the forest, which was as thick as ever.