sunshine // joel miller

THIRTEEN

She held the book delicately between her hands. Looking back at the shelf to see a couple others that filled her with glee, grabbing them too and looking through them.

"Light reading?" Joel spoke, watching her turn to look up at him with a smile.

"The Mr Men," Fran told him, holding up the books, each one dedicated to a different character.

"My favorite was little miss sunshine," she spoke fondly, holding up her favorite to Joel who took it off her hands, flipping through the pages.

"And little miss magic." Fran gasped as she saw it, holding it in front of her as she stared at it.

She stood up after a second, Joel passing her back the book with a small smile. She held them close to her, knowing she was taking them with her, and walked out the room to grab her bag.

Henry was quick to get her in conversation, her showing him the books proudly as he smiled. She was having more of an impact on the two new comers than Joel first realised.

-

A little while later, and the adults were sat at a bigger table, Fran with an assortment of things that Sam had kindly gifted her, as they sat watching the two kids play football.

It was finally a wave of calm that Fran needed after the second most stressful week of her life, and she was enjoying seeing both Ellie and Sam happy as they played.

"If you were collaboratin' to take care of him, I... I shouldn't have said what I said," Joel spoke over to Sam from where he sat next to Fran, "I don't know your situation. And I'm not sayin' they should let it go but..."

Ellie's yell of excitement grabbed their attention for a moment, before Joel continued.

"All things considered, seems kinda cruel to send a whole army after you for that."

Henry looked between the two at that, watching them watch the kids with a small pain in his chest, "You know, I wasn't, uh... exactly telling you the truth before... about me not killing someone."

The confession made Fran look to him with a confused look, Henry quick to tell the story.

"There was a man, a great man. You know, he was never afraid... never selfish... and he was always forgiving. Have you ever met someone like that?" Henry asked them. Fran, who was sat in front of Joel from where she looked at Henry nodded her head sombrely, not noticing the stare Joel had on the back of her head. His look alone answering Henry's question.

"The kinda man you'd follow anywhere. I mean, I wanted to. Well... I would've," Henry seemed to stutter over his words as he tried to piece his mind together, "Yeah, but, uh, Sam, he, uh... he got sick. Leukaemia."

The mention alone was enough for Fran to look over at Sam with sympathy, the young boy still laughing away will Ellie. She watched as he scored a goal, quickly looking back to see if the adults had seen. Upon catching eyes with Fran, he pointed to the goal with a big smile.

She sent him a wide smile and a thumbs up in return, and watched as he absolutely glowed with glee, Ellie quick to scoop him up for a rematch.

"Yeah, anyway, um... there was one drսg that worked, and, whoa... big shock... there wasn't much left of it and it belonged to FEDRA," Henry continued as Fran played with the plastic ring on her pinky finger, "And if I wanted some... it was gonna take something big. So I gave them something big."