Jess's POV
"Maya, I'm nervous," I whispered, standing behind Carina like a little kid.
"You'll be okay, lovebug," she reassured me, running her fingers through my hair. She crouched next to me, holding my face in her hands. "It's only a 30 minutes in a public place with mama and me right here, okay? We've got you."
I nodded, still wary of the entire situation. She stopped holding my face and moved to hold my hand, standing as she did so. "Are you okay, bambines?" Carina asked Iris and I.
We both gave her a nervous look, telling her exactly how 'okay' we were. An older couple approached us, their hands linked together. They both gave us warm smiles.
"Hi Lonny, great to finally meet you," Maya said, holding her hand out to the man. "I'm Maya. You've already met before, but this is Jess," she pointed to me, "and this little one is Iris," gesturing to Iris as well.
"Lovely to meet you as well, Maya," he replied kindly. "And it's so nice to see you two. We haven't seen each other since the two of you were little."
"Jess, do you remember us?" the woman asked. I looked up at her nervously, shrugging. I recognized her, but I couldn't remember anything else about her. "I figured, but that's ok."
"'Kay," was all I could say, hating how my voice shook. I gripped Maya's hand tighter, feeling her stroke her thumb over the back of mine.
"You don't have to be nervous, J," Lonny said. I smiled slightly at the nickname, remembering that my mom called me that a lot when I was younger. I smiled even wider when I remembered a day I had spent with the couple.
-flashback-
"J, are you ok?" Lonny asked, running up to me. I sat on the ground under the monkey bars, holding my knee close to my body. Iris - or then, Irene - was off to the side, playing in the mud with some random kid that they always played with when we came to the park.
My crying didn't distract them from their heated argument between their dump truck and their friend's barbie doll, the two supposedly going through a breakup. "Jess? Hey, baby, what hurts?" Lonny questioned when he was finally by my side.
He kneeled down next to me, gently shooing my hands out of the way so he could see my skin on my knee. He looked it over, lightly brushing the dirt from around my wound. My crying subsided when he didn't seem worried, knowing I was more upset by falling and embarrassing myself in front of the other kids than from the actual pain.
"Now, look here," he said, pointing at my knee. "That's a nasty little scrape you have, kid. How about we go back to the picnic table and put a piece of magic tape on this, hmm?"
I tearfully smiled; magic tape fixed everything. Scrapes, cuts, invisible ouchies, even stuffed animal imaginary injuries. Especially the ones with Toy Story characters on them.
I nodded, holding my arms up for him to scoop me up. He did so with ease, hauling me onto his shoulders.
He started towards our picnic table, loudly saying, "Mary-Anne! Our brave little adventurer is coming back from her travels! She's hurt; I need some TS2 Magic Tape for this injury, STAT!"
"Oh, Dr. Lonny, of course!" Mary-Anne, my grandmother, said as she picked through her bag in search of the box of Toy Story 2 bandaids. My mother sat next to her, holding her arms out for me to fall into when Lonny sat me in her lap.
"Thanks, Grandpa Lonny," I said when I was safely in her arms.
"Anytime kid. Now let's get this ouchie covered up so you can get back to your adventure," he said with a grin. "Where were you this time?"
"I was climbin' across a longggggg rope bridge between two big ol' cliffs, Lonny! I had to hurry before the mountain dragon caught up to me. He was gonna eat me!"
"Oh my gosh, that's quite the adventure! Were you dodging his fire breath too? Maybe that's why you fell."
"No, silly, he can't breathe fire; only cave dragons can do that! Have you not been payin' attention to my 'venture (adventure) stories?" I asked, pretending to be hurt.
"I love your stories, J! But you know how bad my memory can be sometimes." He tapped his temple with his finger.
"Come here, chicken," Mary-Anne said to me. She crouched in front of my gently sticking the Woody decorated bandaid onto my knee, despite there not being much of an injury to begin with. "There we go, all better."
"You okay now, kid?" Lonny asked me.
"I'm good as new, Lon! Your magic tape sure does the trick!" I hopped from my mom's lap after one last hug, planting my hands on my hips and my feet into the ground.
"It's time I go on another 'venture," I declared, beginning to race back towards the monkey bars. Lonny, however, stopped me by putting a hand on my arm.
"What say you and I go this one together, eh?" he asked. "Every adventurer could use a buddy every once in a while."
"I'm 5 whole years old, Grandpa Lonny, I don't need a babysitter," I rolled my eyes. "I'm a strong, in'penent (independent) girl."
"That's right, J, you tell him," Mama said from behind, giggling the whole time.
"Babysitter? No, no, I want to be your sidekick!" Lonny reassured me with a smile.
"I thought only superheroes had sidekicks."
"Are you saying you're not a superhero? You're a superhero, an adventurer, AND an expert survivalist; you're the biggest triple threat the human race has ever seen!"
"Well when you put it that way, I GUESS you can come with me," I said with a grin, my cheeks growing warm with a light pink blush. He clapped his big hand on my shoulder with a chuckle, hoisting me onto his shoulders a second later. I squealed in surprise.
"Are we off to defeat the mountain dragon, then?" he asked me. I nodded down at him, my smile growing wider when I saw a bit of dirt by his nose. "Here we gooooo," he said, imitating my favorite Disney character, Peter Pan.
He 'flew' me back to the monkey bars, the both of us giggling the whole way. He raised me up, holding onto my waist as I climbed across the 'bridge'. I jumped from the end, racing off to the nearest tree when my feet touched the ground.
I ran around the playground as he followed me, Iris joining in as the dragon chasing us, the three of us stopping many times for obstacles to escape. Mama and our grandmother watched us, silently sipping their coffee-filled travel mugs with smiles on their faces.
- end of flashback -
"Did you hear him, bambina?" I heard Carina ask.
"Hmm?" I asked, looking up at her in confusion. She laughed, slightly petting my hair.
"Your grandfather asked if you've made any friends at school."
"Oh, yea," I smiled. "There's this girl, Kiara. She's in my class."
"That's so good, kid," Lonny said, still keeping his distance.
"Yea, she's the only one who's nice about Carina and Maya," I said, a warm blush coloring my cheeks. "Everyone else says it's weird and gross but she... gets it?"
My grandfather nodded in understanding, sending a sad smile back at his wife. "People say the same about Mary-Anne and I," he said, slotting his cream colored hand in her darker one.
"Some people still do, but not quite as much as they had before," Mary-Anne added kindly. "People are a lot more open-minded now than they were in the seventies when we first got together, but that doesn't mean we don't still hear things about how 'unnatural' it is."
"But those are just words," she said, coming up and crouching beside me. "Words can hurt, but I promise, that's all they are; words. And their words don't mean anything, unlike family."
She fiddled with my hair, smiling up at me. "You look even more like your mama than I could've ever imagined you would, sweetheart. She used to have those big brown eyes you have.
And this gorgeous curly hair this little one has," she continued, turning to Iris. They grinned, their toothy smile showing the gap in the front where one had fallen out. "And the beautiful smile you two share."
"I know it's been a while since you've seen her. Do you want to look through some pictures? Maybe even pick out a few to keep if you want?"
I smiled at her, suddenly not nervous at all, and nodded eagerly. Iris, not bothering to offer an answer, had already started running to the nearest picnic table, sitting on top of the wooden surface.
Mary-Anne held her hand out to me as she stood, allowing me to take it if I chose to. I did so without hesitation, starting off to Iris and the table. I looked back at Maya and Carina for approval, and they both gave warm smiles and a nod.
Lonny had already made it to the table and was talking with Iris. He counted something on his hand with a confused look on his face, Iris probably showing off their math skills. Maya and Carina joined us too, hovering close by while still letting us have some time with our grandparents.
I was so engrossed with the small photo albums Mary-Anne pulled from her big bag that I hadn't noticed anything else around me. "Lovebug?" I heard Maya ask.
I jerked back from the pictures I was flipping through, confused to see it was just my grandmother and I at the table, besides Maya crouching beside me. I noticed their concerned looks and looked over myself, not knowing why they were looking at me like that.
Finally, my hands made their way to my face for my once-over, finding tears trickling down my cheeks. I hadn't even realized I was crying.
"Are you okay, my love?" she asked me.
"Yea," I said quietly, looking back down at the photos. "I just- I don't know, I just miss her."
"You're allowed to miss her," she said, pushing my hair out of my face and wiping away a few tears. "I'd be concerned if you didn't, especially after seeing these pictures."
I took the picture I was holding and placed it to my chest, never wanting to let it go. It was the last picture we had taken with her before she asked Peter to move in. The last time we saw our grandparents, the last time she was happy.
"Would you like to keep that one?" Mary-Anne asked. "We have a few copies of it." I nodded, smiling gratefully at her.
"Thanks, Nana," I said, feeling comfortable enough to call her that again after all these years.
Happy first birthday to this fic! Thank you all so much for all the support you've given me this past year, I couldn't have accomplished so much without all of you. 17k reads and almost 650 votes? Crazy!
Let me know what you all want to see in the future of this fic and if you're still enjoying it.