Well here's the beginning of me posting my old jerichofanfiction fics onto my ol' ffnet account. This got some sort of special recognition for something so I guess this one was a good one to start with. This was written and posted a few weeks before series end. :(

Setting: somewhat AU near the end of/or post series (grr)

Characters: Mimi, Stanley, others mentioned

Disclaimer: if I owned Jericho, we would so be in the middle of season 3 right now (sniff)

Surprise You

"Mimi? What is all of this?"

A frustrated Stanley came back to his farmhouse for the first time after the tragic lost of his sister, but it seemed like Mimi beat him back first, even in her poor condition. Stanley hadn't changed his clothes, nor did he shower since Bonnie's death and his constant stench of Bailey's confirmed it.

But all of these people were now walking around his house, tearing up his floors! He didn't know whether to be confused or angry...though Mimi could tell as she approached him that he was doing a bit of both.

"Stanley, don't be mad!" said Mimi. "I wanted to surprise you."

"With what? Tearing up everything that my family worked hard for?!" Stanley screamed.

"No. No. No. No. No! You don't understand!"

Mimi placed her hands between herself and Stanley hoping to control him before he went insane.

"Now listen to me!" She sniffed him for a second and said "and when you are done listening, PLEASE take a shower! Okay? Now Trish brought me back here this morning and the whole place looked like a war zone. It scared the crap outta me to see what happened when I was hiding in that pantry."

Stanley tried to cover his face in order to not think about that night...only a couple of days ago.

"And I just knew that if you came back here to all the broken glass and bullet holes, you would lose it."

"Like I'm about to now?" said Stanley as he clenched his fists.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" said Mimi as she tried to hold Stanley in placed. "I'm not finished."

Stanley tried to calm down.

"Trish and I made a couple of calls and your neighbors, these people you're all seeing here..." Mimi pointed her finger all over the kitchen and the living room where Trish and a few other people were working on the floors and the windows.

"...they didn't want you to come home to that either. They're replacing the windows and the wall in the pantry...and they're putting in new floors that aren't bloodstained. Get it Stanley? They're all doing this for you..." Mimi took Stanley's hands into her own. "So that we can come home to this house every night...and not have to remember what went on here."

Stanley was shocked as he watched two farmers he knew placing a new window in the living room.

"Come on, Stanley," Mimi said smiling. "This house is your life...and it's my life too. I figure we could use the clean start."

Stanley grabbed Mimi in an instant and began to kiss her. It was a kiss drenched by his own tears of happiness and gratitude. His world had been falling apart. He had been scared. And here was Mimi being the rock during these hard times. Absolutely beautiful.

"Thank you," he said softly. "I love it when you surprise me. So in return...I'm going to take that shower right now."

But at that moment, Mimi had just remembered something. "Hold that thought!" she said.

Mimi quickly ran upstairs to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. It had been enough time now. She grabbed the object that was lying on the edge of the sink...

..and after a closer inspection...she sat back on the toilet and began crying tears of happiness.

Mimi began to feel it not long before all this happened but thought nothing of it. When the feeling failed to go away after Trish picked her up, she knew what it had to be...she just needed to make sure.

But this was an awkward time and place to throw this at Stanley. What was she to do?

She smiled and then thought to herself...'aw hell, he likes surprises. I'll surprise him with this one later'.

Mimi then tossed the positive pregnancy test into the trashcan and ran back downstairs before Stanley suspected a thing.

A clean start truly was coming...

If you were new to this story...reviews would be lovely. ;)