Missing You

The black tie was a far better match to the black and white suit than the bow tie, Josh noticed, once he switched. Before donning the tie, he'd put a bow tie around his throat before a mental image of Andy came up. He'd knew what she would say if she saw him wearing that.

'You loser! Even you should know better than to wear a bow tie to your- OUR WEDDING!'

Of course, she didn't care much after the ceremony and reception had taken place. Andy was too busy making sure he wasn't staying a "virgin 'til he was 30" any longer. Josh chuckled to himself. Who knew that the carefree activist was really quite wild when it came to certain matters? And to think he'd actually once compared her to the girls he used to fawn over.

The adverse habit stopped after getting to know her a bit and realizing that beauty was truly inner deep. Not that Andy wasn't beautiful. To him, she defined the word. Though, she did teach him a bit about acceptance and basically conditioned him into a far better person. Her 'greatest work of art' she once said out of the blue on their honeymoon.

It had been a particularly cloudy morning, which quickly became sunny once the afternoon came around. Wearing a tux wasn't the most plausible thing to wear on that type of day, but it was his anniversary. Our anniversary, he corrected himself, walking out of the bedroom door and down the stairs.

He went out the door and went directly into his car. His old junky one from his teen years long before replaced with a humble looking Corvette. It was a pretty penny, but he got it specifically for Andy. What woman wouldn't fall for a guy with a sweet ride?

Actually, Andy hadn't in the beginning. And it wasn't always a Corvette. In fact, it was a Silica. He remembered how she'd reacted when she saw it parked outside of her house.

'You idiot! You know what you could've used that car money for instead?'

'I know. But-' She cut him off.

'It could've been used for charity, an animal shelter, CANCER RESEARCH, JOSH!'

'Maybe even a wedding?' Josh thought she'd double by the shocked expression on her face.

'What are you implying, Trager?' she said after calming down a bit.

He walked towards her and bent down on one knew. A black box was soon presented to Andy and opened to reveal a beautiful diamond ring with a silver band.

'Will you marry me, Andrea Jensen?'

'Josh…'

'Is that a yes?' he asked optimistically, his knee beginning to hurt from the concrete.

'YES!' He immediately got up, placed the ring on the correct finger (location clarified after a talk with his mother), and she hugged him immediately afterwards.

Whilst hugging, she said to him, "Just lose the Silica, and I swear to god Josh, call me Andrea again and I'll-"

He interjected with a kiss, which saved him from an imminent threat and signified their first kiss of affianced-ness.

Josh remembered how swell the wedding went. There was enough money to have their dream wedding (after selling the car and replacing it) and nearly all of their family members came, excluding the ones who just didn't approve that either should be married at the mere age of 20. But that number of people was pretty low, so they really had nothing to worry about. Lori gladly accepted the position of maid of honor (the previous choice nearly causing her to end the engagement with Josh) while Josh handed position of best man to Kyle.

Their honeymoon was a whole month spent in Cabo, which Andy thought was complete hell after getting what appeared to be the flu during their third week of the trip. It proved to be otherwise, once they came home.

He found an empty spot near her resting place and walked from there. It wasn't too far and he could clearly see it from there. At his arrival, he kneeled down and took a look at the headstone, as he usually did.

Andrea Melanie Jensen-Trager

May 28th 1991

January 13th 2019

Wonderful Friend, Sister, Wife

……

Forever In Our Hearts,

You Will Always Be Remembered

He thought hard as he began to remember what led to her unexpected death.


Seattle had been hit with a chilly January. Unfortunately, Andy's cancer had also recently begun to stop responding to chemo. This put them both in a state of despair. Both of them were only 27. They had a whole life ahead of them and Melanie was much too young to understand. .

A few weeks after the scare, Andy came home from shopping with her face paler than usual. 'Josh. I-I…' He caught her before her body meant the hard wood floor of their home.

'Andy! Andy! Stay with me! Melanie, call 911!'

She'd suffered a heart attack, brought on by her cancer and from the immense cold. Josh blamed himself for her predicament. He'd been a fool for letting her out of the house instead of having her stay in bed like the doctor had ordered her to.

'Josh Trager, is it?' A woman in scrubs came up to him, her hands clasped together and a sad looking her eyes.

'Um, yes, that's me. How's Andy?'

'Well, there is no easy way to say this, but your wife…' He looked at her intently, daring her to continue. And she did. 'Your wife succumbed to the heart attack. I'm sorry.'

He never really got over it.

A familiar voice broke him from his thoughts.

"Hey! Hey!" He turned his head to see a head of dark colored hair coming towards him. It was held up in a hat, that reminded him so much of her.

Josh stood up and waved to the girl before turning back to the headstone and examining the final title for his deceased wife.


Andy had taken a trip to the doctor's clinic against her will by Lori, who was more than willing to bring her against the other girl's judgment.

'Remind me why I'm here again, Lori?' The redhead was flipping through a Parent magazine.

'Because Andy, throwing up at 8 every morning and getting constant worry-calls from Josh isn't normal. And it disturbs my sleep. I don't think Declan appreciates it anymore than I do.' She rolled her eyes at Lori.

'I took three of them for god's sake, and they were all negative. That's 299.7 efficiency right there!' Lori looked up from the magazine.

'Josh said you took another test and it was positive. Now just go with the damn doctor and take the test or so help me I'll…'

'How's your spawn doing?' she asked her.

'Aidan is doing quite fine, actually. When he's not busy obsessing over himself in the mirror. For a 1-year-old he's a bit of a narcissist. I believe he gets it from his father,' Lori mused.

A woman came out with a clipboard. 'Eh, Jensen-Trager, Andrea? You can come in now.' Andy stood up and winked towards Lori, as if saying she was going to come back with negative results.

This was not the case after an hour in the doctor's office. According to the doctor's results, she was five-weeks pregnant. Wow.

Double wow. How was she going to tell Josh he was going to be a father in less than eight months after being officially married for 2 weeks?

She was so gonna kick his ass if he gave her any crap.

"It's the hormones talking," said Lori as she drove them home. "I nearly killed Declan during my sixth month. Though I'm sure he's recovered."

"Sorry it took so long to get here. School let out late, and it took me a while to get the roses from the flower shop. You cannot believe how long it takes for them to wrap a simple dozen flowers. I swear, humanity needs to pick up the pace."

Melanie looked like an almost exactly copy of her mother. Her hair was the same, albeit slightly darker, and her eyes were a mixture of both her parent's. Even the clothes she wore had a bit of Andy's style in them. And, of course, she stood up for what she believed in. She took crap from nobody, though was the least bit rebellious.

Like mother, like daughter.

"So, how's mom doing?" she asked him, her hold on the flowers becoming tighter. He knew she was holding back tears. After all, the two were close when Andy was still alive. It was quite possibly the biggest blow Melanie had taken and the fact she was only eleven at the time made it harder for her to come to terms with.

At sixteen, she was well on her way of coping with it and had even begun her own little fund for cancer, in memory of her mother.

"Blissful, I believe. It would've been worse if it were raining," Josh said, looking up at the sky.

"Well then, here's to making her day up there a little more pleasant." Melanie set the roses down on the grave, brushing away the dust to reveal the hidden title. "Ah yes, mom. My mom," she murmured thoughtfully, her eyes never leaving the spot.

"Heh, I wonder if she gives advice up there. Saving relationships even in the afterlife one at a time…"

His daughter gave him an amused look. "An in-thing between you and mom?"

Josh winked at her. "Yup. Now, why don't we head to somewhere a little bit more comfortable? And tell me about that boy. Robert something or another." He held out his arm, which Melanie took.

"Of course. As for the boy, I think not. It's my personal life after all and we're not dating," she said with a smile and small roll of her eyes.

"Don't tell me he looks at porn in the bathroom? That's it, isn't it?!" Melanie punched his arm.

"Dad, you perv! Robby is going to be a bio-engineer, not some perv like you who gets off by looking at that stuff. I swear, mom must've been crazy to say yes to you."

"Well, no one can deny the Trager charm," he said with a wink.

"Aw, you're hopeless, Dad!" She said, releasing herself from his arm and going into the passenger side of his car.

Before he got into the car, Josh looked up at the sky and winked. "For you, Andy," he said softly.

The drive was pretty quiet, except for Josh's nagging at Melanie's guy friend whom she proclaimed to have 'absolutely zero' feelings for even though he remembered the guy having the guts to confess to her.

Like mother, like daughter.

First Jandy fic ever xD. Review!