(I own only plot.)
I've decided to do a whole bunch of young Jerome one shots. So I'm open for requests. Enjoy!
Jerome opened his eyes to a sunlit room. He didn't know this room. He'd fallen asleep in his own room, at his mother's house. Where was he? He panicked, seeing the one outfit he had washed and stainless. He screamed "Mummy!"
He didn't dare leave the room. The door opened and a woman he'd never met before shot in and scooped him up. She cuddled him, soothingly holding him. She softly whispered "Sh, sh, darling child."
He had no idea who she was, but he liked her. She cradled him as if he was baby, which he liked. She kissed his cheeks and whispered that he was safe with her. Jerome felt he had no choice but to trust this strange but sweet creature. He nestled up closer to her, feeling the warmth radiating off her. She rested her cheek on his hair, rubbing gently. He liked this soft, cuddly thing. The woman carried Jerome downstairs and gave him a plastic mug of milk and a plastic plate with cookies on it. "Eat up, darling." She whispered.
Jerome picked up a cookie and stared at it. He'd seen his real mother eating them but had never tasted one. He curiously looked at it, examined it. Trudy watched him, her face glowing with pleasure and fond amusement. She saw a tiny boy with round cheeks and massive blue eyes and a big mop of dark blonde hair examining a cookie with an innocent interest. Jerome looked at her with a questioning face. She smiled.
"Jerome, darling, that's for you to eat." She told him, her face glowing.
He looked at her. "I've never eaten one of these things." Jerome told her, with a slight baby lisp.
"Well, now you can, sweetheart. Go on, they don't bite back." She smiled. Her smile grew as the tiny boy bit into his examined cookie. He swallowed his mouthful and looked at the cookie in wonder. Trudy chuckled to see his look of surprise.
"Yummy thing, ma'am." He smiled, still not knowing her name.
"I'm glad you like it, sweet pea. Now, you call for me if you need anything." Trudy beamed, then scooted out to do some cleaning.
Jerome noticed some writing. "Trudy, remember to pick up some straw. Victor."
He assumed the lady was called Trudy as he'd had a friend called Victor two years before, another little boy. He ate his cookies, drank his milk and jumped off the work top he'd been put on. He fell over as he landed and hurt his leg. He started screaming in pain and Trudy went running.
"My darling child, what happened?" She asked, terrified. She crouched down and lifted him, clutching him to her.
"I felled and hurted my foots. It's really sore." Jerome sobbed, clinging on and snuffling on her.
"Oh, sweetie pie. Let me see." She whispered in his ear, then tenderly checked his ankles. His left leg was fine, then she checked out the right. She knew immediately that there was something badly wrong with that ankle as he screamed when she touched it. She whispered "Darling, I know it hurts, but you need to be strong for me, because that ankle may be too badly hurt for me to do anything. You may need to go to hospital. Would you be alright with me checking it for you?"
"Yes, Miss Trudy." He smiled, proud of his newly discovered reading skills.
She kissed his cheeks with pride in him, then returned to checking his ankle. She lay him down, then gently lifted his leg and very tenderly checked the bone in his ankle. It was supposed to be hard in certain areas and she noticed it being feathery soft. Jerome was silently crying. Trudy immediately kissed his cheeks and told him that she'd be right back. She grabbed a first aid kit and yelled at Victor that she needed him to drive her to the hospital. He came downstairs, just to see her finish a bandage on Jerome's ankle and using plaster tape to stiffen it.
"Trudy, I know you're a menace to children, but what have you done to this one?" Victor asked.
"I'm no menace and this poor child has fallen and broken his ankle. I need him in the hospital, this thing won't help anyone." She told him.
Victor watched as Trudy lifted the child up in her arms, gently kissing his hair and telling him it'd be fine. She sat in the backseat with him, letting him rest his head against her. She loved him more than she wanted to breathe. She sang songs to him, soothingly quiet lullabies. Jerome snuggled in against her ribs and fell asleep into a magical world of cookies and cuddles.
He woke up again, his leg in a cast and Trudy cradling him. He was on the sofa, in her arms, feeling very warm, but his leg hurt. She saw that he was awake and she kissed his cheeks. "Hi, darling. Don't worry about your leg, it's all fine. You slept through the whole thing and nobody dared to wake you. Anyway. I bet you're hungry. Would you like some munchies, baby?" She cooed.
"Yes, please." Jerome replied very politely.
"OK, come on. Because you're my big brave boy, I'm letting you pick the meal. What do you want?" She asked.
"Well, my real mummy used to have date nights in and she'd buy things that smelled really nice, but she never let me try." Jerome told Trudy hesitantly.
"Oh, you mean takeaway meals. Well, of course. You can have a takeaway. What do you fancy? Chinese, fish and chips, pizza?" Trudy offered, not caring about prices, but caring about Jerome.
"Um, Chinese?" He asked, very timid. She looked extremely tall to him. She bent down and picked him up.
"OK, darling. What would you like from there?" She offered him a menu.
He looked it through. The dish he really liked the sound of was chicken sweet and sour. Trudy knew exactly what to do, gave Victor a choice, then ordered. She made a salad and Jerome wondered why. And she told him she'd only ordered two meals from the takeaway and she was going to just eat a salad.
When the food arrived, she dished it up and gave the sweet and sour chicken to Jerome with her specially made egg fried rice. She took the pork in X.O. sauce to Victor with the side of rice.
She sat with Jerome and ate her salad. He kept offering her some, but she gently told him that it was his and he should be the one to eat it. She gave him bits of her salad, letting him try it. To Trudy's amazement, he still had enough room for her homemade cookie ice cream, with additional cookie dough chunks and sauces. He ate the lot and she shared a Galaxy chocolate with him, too. He didn't want to leave her side that night, liking her more with each passing second. She tried to put him in his bed and he clung to her.
"Mummy, can't I stay up a little longer with you?" He asked her, making her melt down.
"Aw, darling. I'm going to go to bed, too." She cooed.
"Please don't leave me here." He was starting to cry, feeling suddenly unwanted.
Trudy was shattered that he was upset. She lifted him up again and took him to her room. "I'm not going to leave you there. I'm going to let you stay with me." She let him lie down in her bed with her. The two slept happily, like a true mother and son.