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Chapter or Story
Disclaimer: The characters of the Pretender don't belong to me. No infringement is intended & I'm not making any money from this.
A/N: Thanks to Nancy for betaing J
The Baby Series
When You Wish Upon A Star
Melanie-Anne
Six years later
The seven-year-old boy ran across the soccer field, passing the ball to his teammate. As the other boy kicked the ball into the net, the referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the match.
"Yay!" Tommy yelled. "We won!"
He gave his teammate a high-five and ran to Miranda who stood on the sidelines with the other moms. She and Jarod still sat on the Centre's board of directors but their life was here in Maine. Jarod still worked at the clinic and Miranda had taken up a teaching position at the primary school when Sara was a year old. She'd wanted a job that would allow her to spend lots of time with her children and attend important events in their lives, something her father had never done for her. She had yet to miss one of Tommy's soccer matches.
"Mom! We won!"
Miranda smiled. "I saw. Well done." She ruffled his hair; oddly, he didn't have the same aversion to public displays of affection like other boys his age did. He threw his arms around his mother's waist in a hug.
"Mom!" Sara, a dark-haired pixie of a child, tugged on Miranda's pants leg. She looked up with eyes identical to those of her mother's. "We're gonna be late."
"I know. Tommy, say goodbye to everyone. We'll meet you in the parking lot."
"But Mom-"
"No buts. Sara has to be at ballet."
"Okay." Tommy sighed.
Sara ran to the minivan ahead of Miranda, eager to get to her ballet class. The recital was the following week and it was what her existence currently revolved around. She danced around the house, showing anyone and everyone the most recent steps she'd learned. With her parents' anniversary party this coming Saturday, her extended family had been in town and had all, at some stage, been her audience.
"Mommy, I'm gonna be a ballerina when I'm big," she said from the back seat.
"Ballerinas are stupid," Tommy said, buckling himself into the front.
Sara rolled her eyes. "What do you know? You're a boy."
"Hey, no fighting!"
"Mommy, he started!"
Miranda sighed, relieved when they finally arrived at their destination. Tommy waited in the car, engrossed in a Spiderman comic while Miranda and Sara went inside the dance studio.
"Kim!" Sara waved to her best friend, a tiny Chinese girl also in the class. She skipped over to hug her and Miranda smiled at Cindy, Kim's mother.
"Are you sure it's okay for you to bring her home?" she asked.
Cindy nodded. "Of course. It's no trouble."
"Thanks." Miranda waved at her daughter.
Sara smiled back. She and Kim sat down on the bench to take off their sneakers. Kim leaned closer to Sara and whispered something in her ear, causing her to start giggling. Miranda finally tore herself away, knowing Tommy would have finished the comic by now and would be getting bored.
*
Saturday
Sara sat patiently while Miranda brushed her hair.
"You look beautiful, baby."
Sara grinned, her dimples showing.
"There. All done." Miranda set the brush down on the dresser. Sara swiveled around to face her.
"You mustn't be scared to tell him," she said in her most grown up voice.
Miranda frowned, holding an outfit at arms' length while deciding whether or not to wear it. "Tell who what?"
"Daddy. He'll be happy."
"About what?"
Sara bit her lip, realizing she knew more than she should. "Umm, I'm gonna go help Grandma in the kitchen." She hummed to herself as she snuck out the room.
Jarod knocked once then entered, smiling when he saw Miranda. "The blue one," he said. "It matches your eyes."
Miranda slipped into the dress and turned her back to Jarod. He zipped it up, running his hands slowly down her back when he was done.
"You're beautiful." He kissed the back of her neck, inhaling the sweet citrus smell of her hair. "Six years," he said.
"And I still love you." She laughed and turned around to kiss him.
"Mom! Dad!" Tommy yelled. "Grandpa Sydney's here!"
"We'll have to continue this later," Jarod said.
Arm in arm, they made their way downstairs.
Miranda kissed Sydney's cheek. In the short time that he'd been at the Centre's helm, he'd completely turned it around. There were no more simulations, no more terrible experiments. Instead, it was purely a research facility. Kids fresh out of med school vied for an internship position in the laboratories.
Angelo hugged her next. Sadly, despite all Sydney's work with him, he would never be Timmy again. Seeing Sara over Miranda's shoulder, he smiled at her and nodded. He felt it, too.
Michelle and Nicholas had also come up for the party. They had moved to Blue Cove a few months after the trial had ended. Nicholas had been helping his father at the Centre on and off for the past two years and was considering making his contribution permanent. His decision had nothing to do with his engagement to a pretty, young lab assistant, of course.
Broots and Debbie arrived next. Broots had only intended to stay at the Centre for a few months but Sydney had persuaded to stay longer. Debbie was about to start college. Returning to Blue Cove had been good for her. She'd gone back to her old school and all her old friends.
Margaret wandered out of the kitchen to greet the new arrivals. The anniversary party was her and Charles' gift to the couple. They'd organized everything, much to Miranda's relief. She hadn't been feeling too well lately and the last thing she needed was the stress of organizing a party.
Not a day passed when Margaret didn't think of Catherine. She wished that Catherine were around to see that, at long last, things had come right. Some nights she would look up at the sky and pick a star to talk to. Somehow, that star always seemed to burn brighter than the rest.
Ethan and Ella came in through the back, not wanting to make too much of an entrance. For three years their relationship had been on and off while Ethan tried to come to terms with everything that had happened to him. He hadn't felt secure enough in himself to commit to a deeper relationship. Ella had the patience of a saint and had quietly gone on with her life and career. One morning Ethan had woken up and decided he was sick of being alone. A month later they were married. When Ella had discovered she was unable to get pregnant, they had adopted. Two-year-old Matthew had been orphaned when his parents' plane had crashed. Six-month-old Rebecca had been born to a frightened teenager who had cried when she had to give her up, but hadn't had any other choice.
JJ had gone into law. It had come as no surprise to anyone. He looked exactly like Jarod had at his age, of course. His girlfriend, Lana, had accompanied him to the party, eager to meet everyone. They'd met at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. He'd been having lunch with Jarod and, without warning, had leaned back in his chair. Lana had been walking past and had lost her balance and fallen when the chair hit her. JJ had bent to help her up from the floor, taken one look in her green eyes and was smitten.
"Do you believe in love at first sight?" he'd later asked Jarod.
"Of course," Jarod had replied, thinking back to the moment when a young, dark-haired girl had held her hand up to a pane of glass.
Ben was also there. He'd brought the last of Catherine's things for Miranda. She suspected that he was still a little bit in love with Catherine, and she loved him all the more for it.
James and Emily were late, as usual. They had spent the past month in Africa, negotiating with the last remaining appendage of the old Centre in Mozambique. They were hoping to bring it into a partnership with the new Centre.
No one was quite sure what their relationship was. Immediately following the trial they had been inseparable but nobody knew when, or even if, they had crossed the boundary between friend and lover. They were an excellent team and very successful in their negotiations with other parts of the Centre in other countries. They loved each other, of that everyone was certain, but refused to discuss their relationship.
Perhaps it was because they knew Charles would find it difficult to accept a relationship, more so than it had been with Jarod and Miranda. Perhaps it was as simple as a desire for privacy. Perhaps there was nothing to talk about.
Whatever the case was, they did just about everything together. And they were happy.
As they were the only ones who hadn't had a ballet demonstration that week, Sara dragged them into the kitchen as soon as they arrived. They smiled and clapped, then Emily hunted through her purse for the gift they'd brought her from Mozambique.
Sara slipped the colored beads onto her tiny wrists and thanked her aunt and uncle with a hug. Tommy insisted his gift, a miniature djembe drum, was cooler than the beads. He disappeared up to his room for a while to play it.
When Jarod went looking for Miranda, he found her out on the porch. Wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, he leaned his chin on her shoulder.
"What's up?" he asked.
"I'm just thinking."
"About?"
"How blessed we are. How happy I am." She smiled.
Jarod squeezed her tighter. "I love you."
Tommy and Sara stood watching their parents, and shared a grin. They hated to disturb their parents but they had a message.
"Mom, Dad," Tommy said. "Grandma's looking for you."
Jarod and Miranda turned around, smiling at two of their blessings. Jarod scooped Sara up into his arms, dipping her upside down so that she squealed. Tommy took his mother's hand and led the way inside. He looked back and caught Sara's eye, grinning again.
Inside her mother's womb, the three-week-old Selena Scott quietly went on growing.
*The End*
A/N: Thanks to Nancy for betaing J
The Baby Series
When You Wish Upon A Star
Melanie-Anne
Six years later
The seven-year-old boy ran across the soccer field, passing the ball to his teammate. As the other boy kicked the ball into the net, the referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the match.
"Yay!" Tommy yelled. "We won!"
He gave his teammate a high-five and ran to Miranda who stood on the sidelines with the other moms. She and Jarod still sat on the Centre's board of directors but their life was here in Maine. Jarod still worked at the clinic and Miranda had taken up a teaching position at the primary school when Sara was a year old. She'd wanted a job that would allow her to spend lots of time with her children and attend important events in their lives, something her father had never done for her. She had yet to miss one of Tommy's soccer matches.
"Mom! We won!"
Miranda smiled. "I saw. Well done." She ruffled his hair; oddly, he didn't have the same aversion to public displays of affection like other boys his age did. He threw his arms around his mother's waist in a hug.
"Mom!" Sara, a dark-haired pixie of a child, tugged on Miranda's pants leg. She looked up with eyes identical to those of her mother's. "We're gonna be late."
"I know. Tommy, say goodbye to everyone. We'll meet you in the parking lot."
"But Mom-"
"No buts. Sara has to be at ballet."
"Okay." Tommy sighed.
Sara ran to the minivan ahead of Miranda, eager to get to her ballet class. The recital was the following week and it was what her existence currently revolved around. She danced around the house, showing anyone and everyone the most recent steps she'd learned. With her parents' anniversary party this coming Saturday, her extended family had been in town and had all, at some stage, been her audience.
"Mommy, I'm gonna be a ballerina when I'm big," she said from the back seat.
"Ballerinas are stupid," Tommy said, buckling himself into the front.
Sara rolled her eyes. "What do you know? You're a boy."
"Hey, no fighting!"
"Mommy, he started!"
Miranda sighed, relieved when they finally arrived at their destination. Tommy waited in the car, engrossed in a Spiderman comic while Miranda and Sara went inside the dance studio.
"Kim!" Sara waved to her best friend, a tiny Chinese girl also in the class. She skipped over to hug her and Miranda smiled at Cindy, Kim's mother.
"Are you sure it's okay for you to bring her home?" she asked.
Cindy nodded. "Of course. It's no trouble."
"Thanks." Miranda waved at her daughter.
Sara smiled back. She and Kim sat down on the bench to take off their sneakers. Kim leaned closer to Sara and whispered something in her ear, causing her to start giggling. Miranda finally tore herself away, knowing Tommy would have finished the comic by now and would be getting bored.
*
Saturday
Sara sat patiently while Miranda brushed her hair.
"You look beautiful, baby."
Sara grinned, her dimples showing.
"There. All done." Miranda set the brush down on the dresser. Sara swiveled around to face her.
"You mustn't be scared to tell him," she said in her most grown up voice.
Miranda frowned, holding an outfit at arms' length while deciding whether or not to wear it. "Tell who what?"
"Daddy. He'll be happy."
"About what?"
Sara bit her lip, realizing she knew more than she should. "Umm, I'm gonna go help Grandma in the kitchen." She hummed to herself as she snuck out the room.
Jarod knocked once then entered, smiling when he saw Miranda. "The blue one," he said. "It matches your eyes."
Miranda slipped into the dress and turned her back to Jarod. He zipped it up, running his hands slowly down her back when he was done.
"You're beautiful." He kissed the back of her neck, inhaling the sweet citrus smell of her hair. "Six years," he said.
"And I still love you." She laughed and turned around to kiss him.
"Mom! Dad!" Tommy yelled. "Grandpa Sydney's here!"
"We'll have to continue this later," Jarod said.
Arm in arm, they made their way downstairs.
Miranda kissed Sydney's cheek. In the short time that he'd been at the Centre's helm, he'd completely turned it around. There were no more simulations, no more terrible experiments. Instead, it was purely a research facility. Kids fresh out of med school vied for an internship position in the laboratories.
Angelo hugged her next. Sadly, despite all Sydney's work with him, he would never be Timmy again. Seeing Sara over Miranda's shoulder, he smiled at her and nodded. He felt it, too.
Michelle and Nicholas had also come up for the party. They had moved to Blue Cove a few months after the trial had ended. Nicholas had been helping his father at the Centre on and off for the past two years and was considering making his contribution permanent. His decision had nothing to do with his engagement to a pretty, young lab assistant, of course.
Broots and Debbie arrived next. Broots had only intended to stay at the Centre for a few months but Sydney had persuaded to stay longer. Debbie was about to start college. Returning to Blue Cove had been good for her. She'd gone back to her old school and all her old friends.
Margaret wandered out of the kitchen to greet the new arrivals. The anniversary party was her and Charles' gift to the couple. They'd organized everything, much to Miranda's relief. She hadn't been feeling too well lately and the last thing she needed was the stress of organizing a party.
Not a day passed when Margaret didn't think of Catherine. She wished that Catherine were around to see that, at long last, things had come right. Some nights she would look up at the sky and pick a star to talk to. Somehow, that star always seemed to burn brighter than the rest.
Ethan and Ella came in through the back, not wanting to make too much of an entrance. For three years their relationship had been on and off while Ethan tried to come to terms with everything that had happened to him. He hadn't felt secure enough in himself to commit to a deeper relationship. Ella had the patience of a saint and had quietly gone on with her life and career. One morning Ethan had woken up and decided he was sick of being alone. A month later they were married. When Ella had discovered she was unable to get pregnant, they had adopted. Two-year-old Matthew had been orphaned when his parents' plane had crashed. Six-month-old Rebecca had been born to a frightened teenager who had cried when she had to give her up, but hadn't had any other choice.
JJ had gone into law. It had come as no surprise to anyone. He looked exactly like Jarod had at his age, of course. His girlfriend, Lana, had accompanied him to the party, eager to meet everyone. They'd met at the restaurant where she worked as a waitress. He'd been having lunch with Jarod and, without warning, had leaned back in his chair. Lana had been walking past and had lost her balance and fallen when the chair hit her. JJ had bent to help her up from the floor, taken one look in her green eyes and was smitten.
"Do you believe in love at first sight?" he'd later asked Jarod.
"Of course," Jarod had replied, thinking back to the moment when a young, dark-haired girl had held her hand up to a pane of glass.
Ben was also there. He'd brought the last of Catherine's things for Miranda. She suspected that he was still a little bit in love with Catherine, and she loved him all the more for it.
James and Emily were late, as usual. They had spent the past month in Africa, negotiating with the last remaining appendage of the old Centre in Mozambique. They were hoping to bring it into a partnership with the new Centre.
No one was quite sure what their relationship was. Immediately following the trial they had been inseparable but nobody knew when, or even if, they had crossed the boundary between friend and lover. They were an excellent team and very successful in their negotiations with other parts of the Centre in other countries. They loved each other, of that everyone was certain, but refused to discuss their relationship.
Perhaps it was because they knew Charles would find it difficult to accept a relationship, more so than it had been with Jarod and Miranda. Perhaps it was as simple as a desire for privacy. Perhaps there was nothing to talk about.
Whatever the case was, they did just about everything together. And they were happy.
As they were the only ones who hadn't had a ballet demonstration that week, Sara dragged them into the kitchen as soon as they arrived. They smiled and clapped, then Emily hunted through her purse for the gift they'd brought her from Mozambique.
Sara slipped the colored beads onto her tiny wrists and thanked her aunt and uncle with a hug. Tommy insisted his gift, a miniature djembe drum, was cooler than the beads. He disappeared up to his room for a while to play it.
When Jarod went looking for Miranda, he found her out on the porch. Wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, he leaned his chin on her shoulder.
"What's up?" he asked.
"I'm just thinking."
"About?"
"How blessed we are. How happy I am." She smiled.
Jarod squeezed her tighter. "I love you."
Tommy and Sara stood watching their parents, and shared a grin. They hated to disturb their parents but they had a message.
"Mom, Dad," Tommy said. "Grandma's looking for you."
Jarod and Miranda turned around, smiling at two of their blessings. Jarod scooped Sara up into his arms, dipping her upside down so that she squealed. Tommy took his mother's hand and led the way inside. He looked back and caught Sara's eye, grinning again.
Inside her mother's womb, the three-week-old Selena Scott quietly went on growing.
*The End*
