A/N After reading "Forever Pappy", a reader over at the site asked if I'd see if a longer story about Jarrod and Hope would come. This was the result. Hope's parents' deaths are mentioned in this chapter but not actually shown.

Chapter One

Jarrod, who had been looking for his five year old niece, Hope, found her in the rose garden sitting on the ground next to one of the large willow trees that stood in the middle of the garden. After standing at the top of the stairs and hearing the unnecessary remarks made by the child's ten year old cousin, Jarrod had not been surprised to see her bolt out of the house.

It was a good thing Nick had walked out of the kitchen at just the right moment and heard what his son had said, thus enabling Nick to deal with the boy while Jarrod hurried down the steps and out the door. For as quickly as he'd flown down the stairs, he was amazed how far Hope had gotten. Moving as fast as Hope had, Jarrod was grateful she'd stopped in the garden.

As he entered the garden and drew closer to his niece, Jarrod was not surprised to see she'd been crying. While he'd have preferred to sit on the nearby bench and call her to him, he figured he'd have better luck if he didn't make her feel as if she was in trouble. That being the case, Jarrod sat on the ground next to her, leaned against the tree and moved the young child onto his lap. He wasn't surprised when she laid her head against his chest. She often did that when she was upset or scared. In this case, he figured it was more the former than the latter.

"Your cousin often says things before he takes the time to think." Jarrod said, silently smiling at the fact that young Thomas reminded him so much of Nick when he was the boy's age. Though that smile quickly vanished as he thought on the hurt the boy had inflicted on the brown haired, blue eyed child now on his lap.

"H…he said I had no right to call you Pappy b…because you weren't my father!" Hope blurted out as she started crying again. "H…he said Uncle Nick was his father like Uncle Heath was daddy to his children. H…he sai…" she tried to continue talking only her crying got in the way.

Jarrod held his niece close, fighting down the anger he felt towards his nephew. Finally, once the angry feeling left, he sighed and talked in a quiet, soothing tone to his niece. "He's very wrong when he said you have no right to call me Pappy. You have every right." He held the young child closer as her sobs subsided. He had known he would have to talk to her about her true parentage someday, only why on earth did it have to be when she was only five? "Only he was right when he said I was your uncle the same as his. However," he pulled the young child backwards and smiled upon her, "like I just said, you have every right to call me Pappy. I don't want that to change, you understand?"

After a moment, Hope nodded her head and then quietly asked, "If you're not my real father, who is? Where is my mother? Tommy said I had that wrong too." She and her cousins never called Thomas by his real name… no one ever did unless the boy was in trouble which meant the grownups found themselves saying Thomas all too often.

Jarrod got a faraway look in his eyes for a moment and then, taking her chin in his right hand, he began talking. "Your father was a very good man by the name of Mark Campbell. He worked for us up at the Sierra Mines. He was killed days before you were born in a freak mining accident."

"What did he look like? What was he like?" Hope, always an inquisitive child, asked as she kept her eyes on Jarrod.

Jarrod smiled as he told her all about the young black haired gentleman who had succeeded in courting her mother-who had grown leery of the suitors who would come her way. "He was persistent though and your mother, my sister, fell head over heels in love with him."

Hope frowned. "What happened to her? Where did my mother go?"

Jarrod felt a tug on his heart as he thought on his blonde haired sister. She'd been so full of life and had been so excited when she'd learned she was carrying Mark's child. "She started having some health problems that the doctor said some women have while carrying a child a few months before you were born." He hesitated as he knew the child deserved the whole truth only he didn't want her to start blaming herself for any of the problems her mother had had when delivering her either. He took a deep breath and did his best to choose his words carefully. "As I said, your mother was having some health issues and, unfortunately, the accident that took your father's life took place just hours before she went into labor." He wasn't surprised by the confused look that appeared upon the child's face and he quickly explained that 'going into labor' simply meant that her mother had started the process of giving birth to her. "I can't prove it, only since you weren't due to be born for another three weeks, I can't help but think the shock of your father's passing had something to do with the early labor. She had a very difficult time of it." He paused and then said,"She passed away within hours after giving birth to you."

"Did I kill her?" Hope asked softly, remembering more of her cousin's cruel words.

Jarrod felt a rage of fury come over him. Once again, he was glad Nick had entered the scene and was taking care of Thomas or he, Jarrod, would have shown the young lad it wasn't just Nick who knew how to explode. "No!" Jarrod pulled the young girl into a firmer embrace. "Never think that! You're mother simply did not have the strength to survive. Sadly, there are many women who have suffered the same fate. Maybe, someday, there will be means to save more of them. Just don't go blaming yourself for what happened to your mother. It's never the child's fault when something like that happens; it's just the reality of life, sometimes."

Hope, who found comfort in the words of the only father she knew, held on tight to Jarrod and, after a few moments of basking is the security of his arms, she pulled back. "Will I ever have a mother other than my grandmother?" She asked keeping an eye on her Pappy's face.

Jarrod shrugged his shoulders and gave her a kindly smile. "Maybe, someday I hope. I can't promise it though. You need to understand, I won't marry just to give you a mother. I mean why would I want to marry just anybody? Someday you'll be grown, and I don't want to find myself with someone I never really loved in the first place."

Hope couldn't imagine being all grown up, but she had no reason to doubt Jarrod's words either. She laid her head against his chest and asked if it was okay if they just stayed in the garden awhile, saying if they didn't, she just might go punch her cousin in the face. Naturally, she got a gentle rebuke from Jarrod-though he made sure she didn't see the huge smile on his face as he gave it.