Written in 58 minutes. Not as long as I wanted it to be, but it’s the general idea.

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Thursday, September 19, 2025

Webber House: Living Room

Elizabeth dangled the keys to the second car, and Jake heard the clink of the metal from across the room. He dropped the book he was shoving into his bag and nearly shoved Aiden over the back of the sofa to get to his mother. “Seriously? You don’t need it?”

“Not today. But—” Elizabeth jerked the keys from Jake’s grasp just as he was about to snag them. “You have to bring your brothers home before you can go anywhere else.”

“No problem. I’ll slow down in front of the house long enough to push them out.” Jake snatched the keys before his mother could change her mind. “Didn’t think I’d get my car back for a few more weeks.”

“Well, it’s looking like the government is never giving back mine, so I guess we’ll have get a second car. Because even after you’re in Spain next year because you’re applying,” Elizabeth added when Jake made a face, “your brother needs to drive something or Cam might need it.”

“The thought of Aiden behind the wheel is terrifying,” Jake quipped. He grabbed his bag. “I’ll be in the car,” he told his brothers. “I’m leaving in thirty seconds.”

Aiden rolled his eyes but followed Jake out the door. Danny hesitated, his hands on the strap of his book bag over his shoulders, and waited for his father, who’d been loading the dishwater to emerge from the kitchen. “Um, is…I mean, am I still supposed to go tomorrow?”

“Diane filed for medical decisions this morning,” Jason told him. “We should hear something on that within twenty-four hours. So yeah. I’m meeting with the doctor today. Is there anything you wanted me to ask him?”

“I don’t know.” Danny hunched his shoulders. “Like, is he gonna tell you everything I say?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works, but sure—” They all looked towards the door at the sound of an impatient honk.  “You’d better get going or you’ll be late.”

“Yeah, okay. Um, I guess, thanks.” Danny ducked his head and hurried out the door, closing it behind him.

Elizabeth flipped the deadbolt lock, then turning back to face Jason. “I’m tempted to pull the cord on the phone, but maybe—” Her words cut off abruptly when Jason’s hand curled around her waist and tugged her forward until his mouth covered hers. She sank into the embrace, sliding her hands up to cup his jaw. “So you remembered we had plans for today?” she managed when he released her, his hands slowly stroking her back in small circles.

“Did you think I’d forget?” he murmured, nipping at the line of her jaw. “I told Diane not to call unless it was life or death.”

“I left the same message at the hospital—” Elizabeth stifled a surprised giggle when he lifted in her the air. “It’s like I’m twenty-five again—” she said as he carried her towards the stairs. “But Carly doesn’t have a key to this door, so we’re probably good—not that it would stop her—”

“You’ve got a lock on your door, too, don’t you?” he replied and she laughed, leaning down to kiss him again, her hair swinging forward, falling across his cheek, the strands like silk.

“You’re right. Let’s not take any chances.”

—

She curled up against his side, her fingertips dancing across his chest. “This scar is new,” Elizabeth murmured, tracing a small, jagged line that was still a bit pink. “And not very old.”

“A year maybe,” Jason said, his own hand caressing her back, from her shoulders, dipping towards her waist, then back again. “Ran into the wrong end of a knife in an alley.” He tensed, because wouldn’t she ask more questions now? What alley? Why had he been there—

“I thought it would be different.”

His hand froze. “Different?” Jason repeated. “What do you mean?”

“Different’s not the right word,” she said. “But I don’t know. We haven’t been together in…” She sighed, her breath sliding across his skin. “So long. I was worried.”

I was worried. Past tense? His mind started to race. It had been years, she was right, but—

“I’m probably not saying any of this right,” Elizabeth said, and she sat up now, pulling the sheet up to tuck beneath her armpits. Her hair, disheveled, and a little damp at the roots from sweat. She bit her lip. “You know, I said it downstairs. I’m not exactly twenty-five anymore, and you know—” She lifted her eyes towards the sunlight pouring through her bedroom windows. “Lighting’s not always kind—”

The tension rushed out of him and now he almost smiled. Jason reached for her, curling his hand around the nape of her neck to kiss her, long and slowly. “You’re perfect. You always were. You always will be.”

“I’m not perfect. I don’t want to be—” Elizabeth grunted when he rolled her across his body so that she was on the other side of the bed, flat on her back and only protested slightly when he tugged the sheet down to reveal her abdomen.

He traced the faint stretch lines, maybe not entire visible to someone who hadn’t memorized their existence, and then the scar low on her belly, the evidence that she’d carried and risked her life to become a mother, to make him a father— “You’re perfect to me.”

“See, now you think I was fishing for compliments and I wasn’t,” Elizabeth insisted. He didn’t protest, when she pulled the sheet back, but relaxed back into his side. “I just meant — I was worried we couldn’t…that it wouldn’t be like before. I mean—” She bit her lip, tilted her head up. “Are you gonna be irritated if I mention Lucky?”

“No.” Probably not, he admitted to himself.

“You know, we were back and forth until we got married, and then the divorce — I don’t know. We kept trying to get it back. And it was never the same. Not the way we felt — or anything else,” Elizabeth admitted. “And maybe part of the reason I didn’t…that I was okay with waiting for today…was I liked how things were. And I didn’t want to mess it up if we’d…” She sighed. “If we’d lost this part. If it wasn’t the same. Or better.”

His lips curved into a smile, and he was glad she couldn’t see his face right now. “You can’t help but worry, can you?”

“Don’t make fun of me.”

“I’m not.”

“You are!” She huffed, and snagged one of the decorative pillows from the floor to whack him with it. “I’m being vulnerable here—”

“Okay, okay—” Jason caught the pillow and tossed it behind him, sitting up and pulling her with him to sit against the headboard. “I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not.” But she was biting at her lip, trying to stifle the smile. “It’s silly to worry about it, I guess. We’ve got so many bigger problems—” Some of the color in her face faded, and he was sorry now that he hadn’t distracted her in the right way.

“Hey.” Jason caught her hand. “We don’t have to talk about any of that right now.”

“I don’t want to, but it’s hard to close it out entirely. It’s…it hasn’t even been three weeks, do you realize that?” Elizabeth said. “I’ve spent almost a week in jail, you’ve been living here for almost two weeks, your son lives with us—Jason, we’re literally living together and it’s just…I blinked and everything is so different. I never, not in a million years, thought we’d be back here.”

“Neither did I,” Jason admitted, and she leaned back against his chest, letting him wrap his arms around her. He kissed her shoulder. “I’d given up on this dream a long time ago,” he told her, his voice almost too quiet to be audible. “You and Jake. I didn’t deserve you, I thought. Not with the choices I made. And all the steps I kept taking, it took me further away.”

“I know.” She sighed, long and wistful. “I built a whole other life, and I was happy enough. I put this — you and me, and being a family — I put in a box on a shelf in a room, and lost the key. It was enough, I told myself, to have you in Jake’s life. To have your friendship. We’d missed our moment. I’d thrown it away a long time ago, and then you walked away—”

“Our timing really sucked,” he said, and she laughed, the words echoing a sentiment he’d expressed the night they’d created Jake.

“But it’s different now. Your life is different, and we’re both free—” Elizabeth tilted her head up so that their eyes met. “I guess I was scared that everything was going too well. That maybe we might be able to live together, and be a family, but that we weren’t going to be able to have this part, too.”

“Are you still worried about that?” he asked.

Elizabeth her lip, then sat up to let the sheet fall to her waist. “I don’t know. I think we might need to run a few more tests.”

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