Title: She's Everything
Author: Cassandra Mulder
Rating: PG
Classification: Jericho; Jake/Heather; romance; futurefic
Spoilers: Pretty much the whole series to episode 11 if it has anything to do with Jake/Heather.
Disclaimer: Jericho's not mine. Don't sue, and give me back Heather while you're at it. "She's Everything" belongs to Brad Paisley who's about the sweetest thing in the world for writing such a thing.
Written: December 1, 2006
Word Count: 1116
Summary: She had given him a life worth looking forward to...
A/N: First of all, this is so sappy I don't even know what's wrong with me. Obviously, not knowing the future of Jericho, I vagued this up as much as possible. Still, I know I need some Jake/Heather, since the show writers are evil and cruel, so I'm spreading some Heather love. All information that's canon is taken from the show, and the very helpful Heather Lisinski entry on Want to know if it's true or not? Go there, and it's true as far as they know. ;) Thanks to not enough background on the girl, I had to BS my way through a lot of this. It's sort of random and "weeeeeeee!", but it was fun to write. Also, sorry for using so many lyrics, but they were all this story to me. Enjoy! Remember, feedback is love.

She's a Saturday out on the town
Church girl on Sunday
A cross around her neck and a cuss word cause it's Monday
She's a bubble bath and candles
"Baby, come and kiss me"
She's a one glass of wine and she's feelin' kinda tipsy
She's the giver I wish I could be and
the stealer of the covers
She's the picture in my wallet
My unborn children's mother
She's the hand that I'm holdin' when
I'm on my knees and prayin'
She's the answer to my prayers
She's the song that I'm playin' and

She's everything I ever wanted
Everything I need
When I talk about her I go on and on and on
Cause she's everything to me

She's the voice I love to hear
Someday when I'm 90
She's that wooden rocking chair
I want rocking right beside me
Everyday that passes I only love her more
Yeah, she's the one that I'd lay down my own life for
- She's Everything - Brad Paisley

Nothing about Jake Green's life was ever supposed to turn out the way it had, but he was grateful for it every day. "The Apocalypse", as it had come to be known, was the worst tragedy in American history. Hundreds of millions had been killed either from the bombs or the nuclear holocaust that had followed, but somehow Jericho had been protected. Not always from the people within it, but from any poisonous after effects of the attack.

He had become someone he never thought he would be; a hero to some, a true and loyal friend to others, and a son his parents could finally be proud of after all of the mistakes that had followed him his entire life.

Circumstances and certain danger had brought out the noble side of him, but it was a woman that was his true salvation.

He had barely recognized Heather Lisinski when he had boarded that school bus after the attack. She had still been a kid back when he left Jericho the first time, so he had never thought much about her. There was no denying that she had grown up, and even though she was still a little on the awkward side, he liked her. She was funny, smart, thoughtful, and caring, with the added bonus of not having nearly as much baggage as he had. He could bring enough of that into one relationship for anyone to handle.

It soon became clear that she liked him, too, but even after their first kiss, which she initiated in fear of never seeing him again, he didn't know how he felt.

There was Emily, and she had been stirring feelings in him he hadn't had since he was a teenager. That had turned out to be the problem. Even when they had dealt with the hurdle that was her fiancé all but returning from the dead, they realized that old feelings were just that - old. There had been love there once, but now it was so tangled up with painful events and long-held regrets that they both knew it would never work out. They could never have been happy living in a past that had long since died, and they decided the only way to move on was to let each other go.

Heather had been a patient and kind friend to them both through it all, and looking back, he knew it had to have been one of the most difficult things she ever had to do. Sometimes he wondered if she was too good to be true, and when he had told himself that she was, indeed, entirely too good to be true, he had to smile at his good luck. He knew there was no way that he deserved her, but she had loved him anyway. After a couple of months of rebuilding a close friendship, he had told her that he loved her, too. There was no denying it, no running away from it; he was finished with all of that.

She still loved him, and in his book that qualified him for luckiest man in the world. He loved everything about her, from the way she knew more about mechanics than he did, to the way she rambled when she was nervous or afraid. He loved her random declarations that popped out from nowhere while she was stirring spaghetti sauce in the kitchen, or getting ready to turn in in the blissful silence of their bedroom.

She was brilliant, always thinking, coming to him with ideas and suggestions for everything, eagerly sharing her lesson plans for "her kids", as she called them. She loved her job, and her kids never felt like they were learning while they were in her care. They were simply doing cool stuff with Mrs. Green and having fun.

She knew how to have fun, how to make him laugh until he couldn't breathe, sometimes without even trying. She couldn't hold her liquor to save her life, and he often reminded her that she could get drunker, faster than anyone he had ever seen. On the rare occasion he let her touch the stuff, she would just giggle and pass out in his arms.

She was a minister's daughter, which might have explained the rare rebellious moment, but otherwise she didn't fit the stereotype at all. She hadn't been the bad seed, but a self-proclaimed "good geek" instead. They attended the church where her father preached every Sunday, and though Jake had been raised a believer, she made him see faith in a way he never had before.

Nothing ever prepared him for the way she looked when she ran out of the shower in the mornings, fresh scrubbed and wearing nothing but a towel, having inevitably forgotten where she put her sweater or her underwear. She always took his breath away.

He had become, of all things, a farmer as the town struggled to rebuild itself into something resembling normal. After the battles and uncertainties were over, what was left of the country was doing the best it could to resume life as it used to be. It still wasn't the same, and he knew it might never be in his lifetime. But whatever he faced, he had Heather beside him, loving him, believing in him, and knowing that because they had already made it through so much they would make it through anything else they had to face.

She was everything in the world to him, and he hoped everything about their future would be as wonderful as their currently too-brief past. He wanted to be the father of her children and watch them grow. He hoped they would have dark hair and blue eyes, and be smart and quirky. He hoped they would have the good sense not to be the troublemaker that he had been; that they would have their mother's caring, understanding heart.

All he knew was that he wanted to spend every last one of the rest of his days lying down beside her at night, and waking up with her in the morning. He wanted to help her fix Charlotte every time she broke down, kiss her when she was happy, and hold her when she cried. He wanted to hear her voice saying 'I love you' a dozen times a day, her chuckle dancing across the walls of their home, and the creaking of their rocking chairs out on the porch when they were old.

She had given him a life worth looking forward to, and he knew that he would spend the rest of his life making sure he was worthy of the gift that she had given.

Finis