Curveball

Chapter 24

Waking up a couple hours later, Shawn stretches and looks over at the clock, it reads 4:35 as he looks over at Jenna and watches her, his eyes running over her face and down her body from the waist up since the covers pulled down a little. He leans in and kisses her forehead carefully so not to wake her as he then slides out of bed and pulling the covers back up to her shoulders. Shawn gets dressed in the dark and quietly walks out of her apartment. Doing what Jenna told him to do. He gets home about twenty minutes later and sleeps for another three hours.

"Shawn...get up. Cora is ready. You need to get to the airport," his mom walks into the room about seven-thirty.

Shawn groans, still asleep in his clothes from the night before, stretching and sitting up, rubbing his eyes and yawning a little.

"Clean up a little," she smirks.

Shawn shakes his head not finding the humor in his mother's comment as he stands up and pulls his shirt off and tosses it in the half-empty suitcase before heading to the bathroom. He sees the scratches across his chest and abs, noticing one over his heart which makes a sloppy J shape. He laughs but hops in the shower quickly and changes clothes, throwing all his stuff in his suitcase not even caring about folding it before heading downstairs, his mom already cleaning Cora up from breakfast.

"Hey you ready go?" he asks his daughter.

"Yes daddy," she nods getting up and bringing the paper. "I colored Miss. Jenna a picture to remember me."

"She'll like that," Shawn smiles trying not to tear up.

"Daddy don't forget your flowers for her," the little girl reminds him.

"Right," he nods grabbing the vase and kissing his mom.

They get in the truck and head to the school to drop the stuff off before making their way to the airport. They get on the plane and his daughter curls against his side, just like Jenna does as she drops a few pictures in her lap and on the floor. Shawn sees it's of him and Jenna from when they were little until Junior prom as he picks them up.

"Mom.." he smiles mumbling.

"No..." Cora starts looking around, almost about to cry.

"What's a matter?" Shawn says, taking out his headphones.

"I lost them...daddy I lost them," she looks at her father, tears welling up in her eyes.

"You lost what?"

"The pictures...I took them from Gramma without asking, and I lost them."

Shawn smiles a little, pulling them out of his jacket pocket. "No, they're right here. You dropped them, so I picked them back up for you."

Cora grabs them and holds them tightly. "I'll tell Gramma I took them."

"She won't care," Shawn smiles, leaning over and kissing the top of her head.

"I wanted them because you're smiling in them. All the ones with momma you aren't."

"That's not true," Shawn half smiles. "I'm smiling in them too."

Cora pulls out one of them after one of Shawn's games that he got the winning hit and her and Janelle are smiling but Shawn isn't. He takes the picture and looks at it.

"How many of these did you take from grandma?"

Cora pulls out more pictures, one from when Shawn and Jenna were five or six, another at twelve and the last one they were seventeen. Shawn smiles looking through them all before kissing the top of her head once more, telling her stories about each photograph.