Disclaimer: I own nothing. I do not own Resurrection nor do I own any of its characters. I do no town any other shows, songs, or characters that might b mentioned in this story. I own nothing!
Author's Note: Hello everyone! How are you? Hope you're doing well! Today I have for you my first oneshot for Resurrection! Now this doesn't mean that my other story The Unthinkable is over, I'm still working on it, I just wanted to write a fluffy piece of the show too. This story does consist of kinda a lot of flashbacks—I love flashbacks—I hope you don't mind. We have seen flashback in the show, plus I thought it would be nice to kind of explore what life would have been like in the Langston home before Jacobs's death. I also picked the story to be based around Henry's nickname for Jacob, that being Monkey. He's called him this on several occasions and I have no idea if it's part of the characters or maybe even adlibbed by Kurtwood Smith, either way I don't care, I love it and it just about melts my heart whenever I hear Henry call Jacob monkey. I hope that you all enjoy this story! Please if you can, leave a review, I would so love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for stopping by to read, I hope you like, and please, Enjoy!
Monkey
"Hey, monkey."
The moment that Lucille heard these words, she knew in her heart of hearts that her husband was back. She watched him enter their house and she wanted to run to him, kiss him, hold him in her arms, and be held by him; but she couldn't move. Lucille was overcome with so much emotion that all she could do was stand with her hands over her mouth and her tears pouring out of her widened eyes.
As Henry bent down to hug Jacob and then lift him up in his arms, Lucille felt the dam inside her break as the tears fell down her face and for some reason she found herself thinking back to the day that Henry's nickname for Jacob had first appeared.
1974
Lucille Langston sat up in the hospital bed with her husband seated close beside her and her newborn baby boy nestled in her arms.
"Oh Henry, isn't he beautiful?" she asked softly, her stare still focused on the sleeping bundle.
"I don't know," Henry replied in a playful tone, "He's kind of funny looking don't you think?"
Of course, Lucille knew her husband was only playing and son in the same good natured manner, she chided him lightly, "Oh shush! He's perfect."
With his eyes locked on the sight of his son, peaceful in his slumber, Henry's playful smile softened with a sense of awe.
"Yeah, he is," he agreed, making his wife's smile grow. "He's got a head of hair on him too. I don't think I've ever seen a baby with that much hair. Human, that is; maybe a baby monkey."
"Henry Thomas Langston, you stop that right now or I will not let you hold him," threatened Lucille—doing her best to keep her stern expression form cracking into the smile that she knew Henry was trying to get out of her.
"Okay, okay," he agreed, chuckling lightly as he moved his gaze from his wife and down to the baby in her arms. "I guess it's really not that much hair. It could've been worse and he could've been born looking like your Cousin Andy, Missouri's own Ape-Man."
"Okay, that's it! I give up," Lucille exasperatedly said, shaking her head in hopes of diminishing her urge to laugh. She looked down at her son who had just begun to stir, "You see if you can talk some sense into your father."
Hearing Lucille's words, Henry was overcome with a powerful sense of emotion. It was a kind of feeling that was filled with shock, amazement, pride and a kind of love he'd never felt before. It was a feeling that was hard to describe but one that he would never forget. It was the first time he had been referred to as a father.
Soon the surprise in this sentiment started to subdue the other emotions, just slightly so, as he saw his wife lifting their cradled son towards him.
"Me?" he asked dumbly.
The new mother only smiled and nodded her head.
After a few silent, gentle moments—and a soft reminder from Lucille to 'watch his head'—Baby Boy Langston was safely secured in his father's strong arms. Henry looked downwards at his son with a look of so much love and adoration and wonderment…it was a look that Lucille had never seen him wear before and it had her tearing up with emotion.
"Hi there," Henry said in a hushed tone, though apparently not enough because immediately after he said this, the baby's left eye peeked open; Henry's smile grew, "Hi, I'm your daddy."
Henry watched as his son's other eye opened up, revealing the biggest, warmest brown eyes he'd ever seen. Carefully, Henry moved his index finger towards the, wriggling in his blanket, baby; and then almost instantly a little hand wrapped itself around the new father's finger. Henry's grin grew larger and larger.
"That's some grip you've got there," he told his son. "I bet you're gonna use it to climb all over the place, are you little monkey?"
While Lucille rolled her eyes at hearing this, it appeared that her son enjoyed his new nickname much more than she had. Keeping his brown eyes locked with his father's blue ones, the baby, in the blue cap, held onto his dad's finger a little tighter and then proceeded to let out a little baby gurgle like sound. It was so slight and tiny that it was hard to tell if it was done out of pleasure or displeasure; but Henry was definitely going with pleasure. It was like he could feel his infant was trying to show delight in what he'd said.
"You like that? See Lu, he likes it," he told his wife then turned his joy filled eyes back down to his son, "Hey, monkey."
And just like that the name had stuck.
Lucille wasn't sure how that nickname had been settled on before Jacob's real name but it just happened that way. She also wasn't sure whether Henry picking out 'monkey' as a nickname for Jacob had been due to a sense he got about what their son's personality would be like or if Jacob's personality had been shaped by the pet name. Either way the name monkey had fit Jacob to a T.
Jacob was such a little ball of energy always jumping around, excited, and so happy. He could bring a smile to anyone's face but most especially his parents. He was their little monkey. He loved his mother's banana bread aka monkey bread, he was always found hanging from his father's neck in true piggy (or monkey) back style, and he climbed on everything. At four years old, Jacob was already climbing to the second level of branches on trees, bookshelves, and the doorframes in the house.
1978
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Little four-year old Jacob cried as he ran down the staircase and through the hallway to the kitchen—in his underwear.
He was running as fast as his little legs could take him and was in such a hurry that he didn't notice that the man he was calling for was standing right in front of him. This caused the little boy to crash into his father's legs.
"Whoa there, monkey," Henry said, grabbing a hold of his son before he tumbled backwards. "What's the hurry?"
"You gots to help me, Daddy!" Jacob pleaded, after his dad had scooped him up into his arms.
Right away, Henry's brows furrowed together, "Help you? What's wrong?"
"Mommy! She says it's baf time!"
"Bath time?" Henry repeated in a horrified tone of voice and expression to match. "Well we can't have that, can we?"
A smile sprung onto Jacob's face as he realized his dad was on his side and would help him just like he knew he would. Answering the question that had been asked by his dad, Jacob shook his head back and forth in a rapid motion.
"Then let's go hide you some place Mommy will never find you!"
"No!" came Jacob's unexpected cry, causing Henry to freeze in his spot on the staircase's second step from the bottom.
He looked at his son, confused, "No?"
"No," the littlest Langston shook his head again before explaining. "She finds me!"
Henry nodded his head in agreement, his son had made a valid point. No matter where Jacob hid, Lucille would find him. She had proved to be the champion of finding people when the family would play hide-and-seek and she would find Henry and Jacob in their hiding spot in record time.
"Hmm… if we can't hide you, where should we put you then?" the father asked his son, looking around the room for inspiration.
"Up high!" exclaimed Jacob excitedly, "Sos Mommy can't get me."
"Up high?" Henry repeated, frowning just a bit, "Up high, where?"
"In the twees!" Jacob answered pointing his chubby little arm towards the front door.
Looking in the direction of the door and despite the sheer material making up the curtain that hung in front of the door's glass window, Henry could still make out the heavy rainfall that he could hear hitting the house's rooftop.
"It's raining outside, Jacob," he explained to the young boy, "You can't climb trees when it's raining. It's dangerous."
"Aww…"Jacob pouted his disappointment.
The sad little face that his son wore was enough to make Henry wish that he could stop the rain himself, just for Jacob. But of course he couldn't do this, so he had to come up with the next best thing.
He looked at the boy and smirked, "I've got a better idea!"
0o0o0o
"Jacob? Where are you?" Lucille called as she stepped out of the bathroom and began to search for her son, "Jacob Harold Langston, where…Oh my God!"
Her sudden explanation was said with a great deal of shock that had been caused by the sight she'd found just seconds into her search for Jacob. Lucille knew that Jacob was not looking forward to his bath—he never did—she was expecting for him to give her a hard time. What she had not been expecting was to find her son—in only his underwear—hanging at the top of the side of the doorframe that lead into his bedroom with the largest of smiles on his face.
The longer Lucille looked at him the faster her panicked heart began to beat. Jacob may not have been up very high, just a few feet from the ground, but in a mother's eyes he may as well have been hanging from the top of the Empire State Building in a King Kong like fashion.
"How did you ever get up there?" she finally managed to ask.
Jacob grinned proudly, "I climbeded."
Just then Lucille heard a sound that tore her attention away from her son and caused her to look off to the side of the doorway, opposite of where Jacob was, to find her chuckling husband—who instantly stopped laughing when he had been noticed.
"You heard him, he climbeded," he said with a simple shrug of his shoulders.
Lucille shook her head, "You helped him, didn't you?"
"Nope," Henry answered, mirroring his wife's head movements. "He did it all on his own."
Excitedly, Jacob nodded his head to confirm his father's words. None of this seemed to be making any progress with his mother though, she still looked upset, shocked, and determined to give Jacob his bath.
"Well it doesn't matter how you got up there because I'm getting you down now," Lucille stated sounding very firm in her words as she stepped towards her son.
"No, Mommy!" Jacob declared, his grip on the doorframe tightening, "You can't get me."
Suddenly Henry was no longer standing off to the side but rather right in the space between mother and son.
"He's right, Lu, you can't get him."
"And why not?" she demanded to know, her gaze darting over her husband's shoulder and towards her son who was still perfectly content.
"Because," Henry began to explain, "He's too up high for you to get him." He finished with a wink and a smile.
Lucille sighed in defeat, "Fine. Jacob, honey, what does Mommy have to do to get you to come down from there?"
"No baf, Mommy, no baf." Jacob wasted little time in saying.
"Yeah," Henry joined in, "No bath, Mommy."
The redhead's glare was back on her husband, "This is the kind of behavior you're encouraging?"
"Oh come on, Lu, it's one bath." Henry tried to convince her, "You'll skip it tonight and give it to him first thing in the morning."
"After Scooby-Doo!" chimed in Jacob.
His father nodded in agreement then repeated, "After Scooby-Doo."
At this, Lucille couldn't help but release a light laugh. Nothing would keep her boys from watching their Saturday Morning cartoons together, she was lucky that they were willing to let her squeeze in bath time between Scooby-Doo and Bugs Bunny.
"Alright, okay," she gave in, wearing a smile, "No bath."
Her words created a great round of celebration from the two important men in her life. One was cheering more happily than the other—that same one being the one who looked like he was trying to clap his hands while keeping his hold on the door frame.
Simply looking at him made Lucille nervous, she wanted to close her eyes and shield her from the sight but instead looked straight at her husband and used her arm to gesture towards their son.
"Would you at least go stand next to him," she ordered rather than suggested, of course she had every reason to. "He could fall and hurt himself."
"He's got it," Henry assured his wife, then turned to Jacob, "Right, monkey?"
Jacob eagerly nodded and his smile grew as he triumphantly shouted, "No bath!"
"No bath tonight," corrected Lucille, "You're still getting your bath in the morning, young man. Now in the meantime, you stay there and you," her pointer finger traveled from Jacob to Henry then back to where Jacob was, "move closer to Jacob."
Henry did as he was told, worried of what would happen if he didn't. Lucille, meanwhile, gave a satisfied head nod and matching smile at the sight before her.
"Now, you two stay right there. I'll be right back," she told them before walking to the master bedroom and calling out over her shoulder, "Don't move!"
Neither of the two moved an inch. Jacob and Henry looked at each other, both more than a little puzzled. They had no idea what Lucille was up to and they didn't figure it out until she reappeared moments later, holding a small rectangular object up to her face.
"Say cheese!" she cheerfully announced.
While Jacob followed through and gave a bright smile, Henry took the words as a cue to step out of the frame just moments before Lucille snapped the photo and captured the memory forever.
0o0o0o
As most kids got older they had a tendency to grow tired or even begin to dislike their little nicknames that their parents had given them, but not Jacob. In fact, it was the exact opposite with Jacob, as the years went by he seemed to only love his nickname more and more.
Henry and Lucille were given proof of this on Christmas 1980.
Jacob had been six years old and Santa had brought him a Tyco Daredevil Jump Nite Glow, a gift that his parents were sure would be the hit toy of Christmas morning. The toy was a hit—the rest of Christmas day and weeks to follow, Jacob and his father spent hours playing with the toy, racing their cars on the glowing racetrack—but it wasn't the hit toy of Christmas morning.
Instead that title went to a little gift that Jacob's mother had given him, a small gray and yellow monkey made from socks and stuffing; Lucille had made it herself and Jacob had loved it.
"Look Daddy! It's a monkey just like me!" Jacobs exclaimed, giving the stuffed animal a hug while grinning happily.
Lucille could still recall the big smile that Jacob wore that day when he unwrapped Mickey the Monkey, it was so large almost as large as the one he wore now as he hugged his returned father.
Watching the father and son embrace the tears continued to flow heavily down Lucille's face. She cried because she had lost them both, she cried out of happiness from the miracle of getting them both back, and she cried because after all the events of the past few days—she just needed a good cry.
Through bleary, teary eyes, Lucille saw Henry shift Jacob into his left arm, then look at her, opening his right arm to her; and Lucille's legs couldn't get her to him quick enough. She practically threw herself into Henry's embrace before wrapping her arms around her little family, continuing to sob. She was just so happy and indescribably thankful to have back her husband and their monkey.
The End
Author's Note: So what did you think? Good? Bad? Five stars? One star? Let me know in a review!
Again thanks for stopping by to read, I hope you enjoyed the story. If you are reading my other story 'The Unthinkable' a new chapter should be posted soon. Today possibly tomorrow, just waiting for some other readers to catch up :D
Until next time, thanks for reading, hope you liked, please review and lemme know what you think, take care, and have a nice day!