This is the prequel to Holiday Cheer. It's going to be anywhere around 5-15 chapters long. Even though it's based around Jesse, Wade will make a few appearances and I do have a few different things planned with Zoe and Wade that will still follow along with Holiday Cheer. I know nothing about Acute lymphoblastic leukemia just what I read online, so if I have anything wrong, I'm really sorry. Enjoy!


"Daddy," a 4 year old Noelle screeched running and jumping into her daddy's arm as he walked through the door. Jesse smiled, picking her up, peppering her little cheeks with kisses making his daughter giggle.

"Noelle, sweetie, what have I told you about yelling in the house?" Lisa asked her daughter, coming from the kitchen. "And running?"

"That it's naughty to yell and run in the house," Noelle recited with a sigh. "I'm sorry, mommy," Noelle apologized.

"It's okay," Jesse said, kissing her cheek. "Did you have fun today?" He asked, walking over to his girlfriend to give her a kiss.

"Like you wouldn't believe, daddy," she told him excitedly. "Mommy says I need a bath but I was waiting for you," she informed him.

"How about after dinner I'll give you a bath and you can tell me all about your day, is that a deal?" He asked. Noelle nodded her head. Jesse went to put her down but she held on tighter. "Something wrong, sweets?" Jesse asked, placing a kiss to the top of her head.

"Missed you," was her mumbled reply against his neck.

"Missed you too," he replied with a smile on his face as they went into the living room. Jesse turned the TV on finding a kid show for her to watch. She curled up on his lap refusing to leave his side. There were many times that Jesse would come home and Noelle wouldn't leave his side until she fell asleep in his arms while he read her favorite book. It was these times he liked the most just curling up with his little girl and holding her, in few years time he wouldn't be able to do this.

Before father and daughter knew it, it was time to eat. Washing up, Jesse raced Noelle to the table, a smile on his face hearing her laughter. Passing his girlfriend on the way to the fridge to get their daughter something to drink he quickly kissed her.

"You're still staying home with her tomorrow right?" Lisa asked over dinner.

"What kind of question is that? I've never skipped out on a day with my daughter, I'm not starting now," he said lowly. "I know how important tomorrow is for you, I wouldn't ruin that, let alone miss daddy/daughter time," he said with a smile.

Once a month he'd do something special with Noelle, only they would know what it was they had done that day. His girlfriend did her own thing and he didn't mind. At first they'd use that one day a month to do whatever they wanted within reason of not breaking any rules after they had moved in together. Lisa would spend the day with her friends and he'd hang with the guys, but after Noelle was born he spent his one day with her. He didn't need a beer when he got laughs, smiles, hugs and kisses to last him a lifetime.

"I was just double checking that nothing with work came up or that your brother didn't need you for something," she replied.

"My brother lives hours away and if I was going to see him, I'd take Noelle with me, because it would be a weekend trip," he replied. "Noelle has always come before work, that's not going to change now," he firmly replied.

"I know that," she told him. "I didn't mean to imply that you would, Jesse," Lisa replied with a sigh.

"Baby I get it, you just wanted to make sure that nothing has changed for tomorrow," he replied softly, laying his larger hand on top of hers. "And nothing has, I would've let you know," he told her. She nodded her head.

After dinner Jesse had gotten the bath water for Noelle started, adding a little extra bubble mix, just the way Noelle liked it. As the tub filled with water, Jesse head into the bedroom to change out of his work clothes. Checking the water in the tub he turned it off seeing that there was more than enough water. "Noelle sweetie, bath time," he called out walking the few steps from the bathroom to his daughter's room. Seeing her curled up on the floor holding onto Polly her pink stuffed cat asleep, he didn't have the heart to wake his daughter up. Carefully he picked her up from the floor and placed her in her bed, pulling the blankets over her. He gently kissed her forehead. "Love you little girl," he whispered, checking that Polly had made it to the bed too.

"That was a fast bath," Lisa remarked, getting ready for bed seeing her boyfriend enter the bedroom.

"She fell asleep on the floor. I'll give her a bath first thing in the morning," he replied, stripping his shirt off and tossing it to the side. "What did you guys do today?" He questioned, slipping his pants off.

"We went to the park, had lunch and got ice cream cones on the walk home. Not that much actually," she informed him. "The last few days she's been on the tired side of things. She gets plenty of sleep. It could be that she's just growing," Lisa told him. Jesse shrugged his shoulders; he didn't know what was going with her or why she was so tired all of a sudden. He was going to keep tabs on it though.

"Could be it," he replied, walking around the bed to where she was at in front of the mirror, his hands resting on her shoulders. "How was your day?" He questioned, his fingers slowly working out any knots she had in her muscles getting her to relax, her eyes locking with his through the mirror.

"Better now," she moaned. Jesse smirked, bending down to nuzzle her neck.

It didn't take long for things to get hot and steamy between them, moving them from in front of the mirror to the bed, what little clothing they had left on, laying on the floor as they got lost in each touch of passion.

Jesse was in the process of making breakfast when he was graced with the presence of his daughter, still groggy from sleep. He smiled placing a smiley face pancake in front of her. She smiled at him perking up a little bit. They ate breakfast in silence which Jesse had found as strange, when it was the two of them she was always going on about something and he had to pretend that he knew what it was she was talking about. Today he couldn't even get her tell him what it was she wanted to do. He didn't even question it when she barely ate any of the food on her plate. His daughter loved food but there had been days before when she just wouldn't eat anything and within a day she would be back to eating like a pro.

After breakfast he was able to get her into the tub which woke her up and he smiled getting back his little ball of energy he had for a daughter. He had let her play for a few minutes before he decided to get her washed up. After getting the shampoo washed out of her hair, he got ready to get the rest of her washed up when he noticed a few small bruises on her left leg and on her rib cage. "Sweetie, where did you get these at?" He asked, running a finger over the bruises. She winced a little bit.

"From the park," she shrugged, not really knowing where they had came from.

Jesse let it go and finished washing her up. With that done he let her play a little bit longer. He knew that Lisa wouldn't do anything like that to their daughter and she had never done anything at the park to warrant a bruise before. No matter what he did he couldn't find any reason on why she'd have them. He knew that all little kids get a bruise from time to time, he had been covered in them growing up but he had been more dangerous with the things he had done with Wade. Noelle was afraid to jump into the pool let alone going around and doing anything that she wasn't supposed to be doing at the park.

Pulling the plug on the water, he got her out. Wrapping her up in a big fluffy towel they headed into her bedroom to get dressed for the day.

"Daddy can we play superheroes?" She asked in a small voice. Jesse smiled, getting her wonder woman costume from the closet. Noelle smiled assuring her dad that she could get it on, pushing Jesse out of the room. Jesse chuckled, walking to his own room to get the batman cape that he had for when they played superheroes.

After running around the house most the morning, they found themselves laying in the living room having apple slices with peanut butter and juice for a snack. Noelle was on his lap, her eyes slowly closing no matter how many times she snapped them open they would fall shut again. When she had finally dozed off which Jesse thought of as strange because he couldn't remember the last time she had taken a nap during the day. He frowned when he placed a kiss to her forehead feeling that she was warm. He quickly got a blanket and tossed it over her. He turned down the TV and got himself comfortable on the couch and typed a few key words into Google. He ruled a few things out knowing that on no certain terms it could be that. Leukemia was one of the things that kept coming up but he kept bypassing it, he didn't want to entertain the idea of his daughter being that sick.