Prompt: Jesus had a bad day - the moms make him feel better.
I don't know - I feel like there's not enough Jesus with the moms. So I figured out how to make it work. This maybe out of character for all three characters, but it just wouldn't leave my head. Also, imagine this between the season 1 finale and the season 2 premiere. So Jesus and Emma are together and Lena is pregnant.
I'm taking prompts more so now since I'm on winter break until mid-January.
Disclaimer: I still don't own The Fosters.
So He Could Breathe Easier
Jesus Adams Foster tried to count his days; he tended not to have a bad day because he realized how precious life is. He had a good life, he has two moms who love him unconditionally, two brothers and two sisters who argue with him to be logical, strong, and independent. He has a good life. A life he wouldn't trade for the world.
So when he has bad days where he wakes up after a restless nights sleep, gets the cold shower in the morning, grumbles his way through breakfast, he gets a failed math test back, and he almost gets into a fight with a classmate at school, he wonders what he did wrong.
That wasn't any different on this particular Monday and now he wants to know what he did wrong.
He didn't sleep well the night before, tossing and turning, and he didn't know why.
"Jesus, wake up honey," Lena gently tells him before going over to wake up Jude. When he makes no movement after the younger boy leaves the room, Lena tries again, "Jesus Adams Foster," she said sternly, "get up or at least make the attempt to or I'll send Mom in here with an air horn."
He slowly sits up and moves his way around the room so that his mama would leave, he's the last in the shower that morning, when the cold water hits him he grumble, "For the love of everything that is good, why?"
He quickly showers and as he is getting ready slowly he hears his mom yelling up the stairs, "Come on Jesus, shake a leg. Breakfast is ready." He rolled his eyes. Every morning, Stef yells that out to a child, rarely ever is it him. He pulls a shirt over his head and walks out of the room and walks downstairs and as he did he heard Stef say, "It's about time you join us."
"Yeah, yeah." He mumbled making his way to the table to sit between his twin and Brandon.
As breakfast goes on he grumbles his way through with every question that's asked to him, sure he's not usually a morning person, but both moms realized his quietness and as Stef asked if he had taken his medication and when he rolled his eyes and grumbled over to the cabinet, Lena met him front behind and gently placed her hands on his shoulders, "Are you okay?" The vice principal asked.
"I'm fine," Jesus grumbled.
"Are you sure?" Lena asked scratching his back soothingly.
"Positive." He said walking away, leaving a very confused Lena Adams Foster behind. "Just get me through today," he grumbled to himself on his way to school.
Sitting in math class behind Emma, his math teacher puts the test down in front of him, the teacher looks at Jesus with wide eyes, and walks away.
"Fuck," he swore under his breath when he saw the F on the exam, "Moms are going to kill me," he muttered.
"Woah damn Foster," Emma said. "Did you not study after our tutoring session?"
"First of all, it's Adams Foster, if you refuse to call my first name at least get my last name right," he snapped. "And secondly, what's it to you? You know I did."
"Woahh," Emma said, "I'm sorry, take a deep breath. Calm down."
As he did what his girlfriend told him to do, the kid next to him made a whipping sound in his direction, "You wanna try that again?" Jesus then snapped at his classmate.
"Jesus," Emma said not wanting him to get into trouble.
"Yeah, listen to your girlfriend Foster." The kid next to him said.
"Didn't you hear me?" Jesus snapped, "No? So for the last time, it's Adams Foster. Why can't anybody get it right?"
"Well, at least my mother loved me enough to keep me," the boy snarled back. "At least I still have the last name I was born with."
Jesus was about to leap forward to strangle the boy when, "Is there a problem?" The teacher asked from the front of the room and like perfect timing Lena popped her head in. She did that when she knew one of her kids was having a bad day. It was more of a motherly check-in more than anything else.
"Is everything okay in here?" Lena asked.
"I'm not sure," the teacher said. "Jesus is everything okay?"
"Everything's fine," he grumbled.
"Jesus can I see you for a moment?" Lena asked.
"Oooh busted," the kid from beside him.
Jesus stomped his foot towards the boy before going out to see his mama, when he got out of the classroom, Lena pulled him into a tight hug, "Seems that you're having a bad day and could use one of these." She said not letting go.
"I'm fine, Mama." Jesus said. In his mind she had other things to worry about.
Lena kissed his cheek and smiled at his stubbornness, "It feels as if I'm talking to Mom or Callie," she said putting her arms around tighter him. "You can be honest with me baby."
"I am being honest," he said pulling back. "I'm fine."
He sat on the bench that was near the classroom and then put his face in his hands, Lena came over and started scratching his back lightly, "You're allowed to have a bad day every once and awhile." She said. "It's not a crime, Mom won't arrest you for it." She tried to joke. When Jesus made no move to talk she continued talking, "You remember when you were little? When you first came to us and you to hide a failed math test from us because you thought the moment that we found out we would send you and your sister away for not being smart enough?"
Jesus nodded his head, "That was the most nerve-wracking weekend of my life," he said through a chuckle. "That was the same weekend that I fell off my skateboard and scraped my knees pretty bad and Mariana tried to help clean it up before you found out."
"You remember what Mom and I did when we figured everything out?" She asked.
"You two took me into your room and just held me, reassuring me that I was loved and that nothing could change the love you had for me." Jesus said leaning into his mama for some extra support.
"That hasn't changed baby," Lena said. "We still love you, even when you're having a bad day."
Jesus lowered his head for a moment, "It really has been a sucky day Mama," he murmured almost in tears. "I didn't sleep well last night and I don't know why, I got the last shower this morning so it was ice cold, and then I just got a math test that I studied really hard on, and I failed it. And then, it shouldn't bother me, but everybody is calling me Foster when it's Adams Foster, then the kid next to me kept egging me on by saying at least his mother still loved him and that he still has the last name he was born with, and I feel like I just keep taking low blows."
"Do I need to talk to this student?" Lena asked her son.
"No Mama," he said. "It's fine, I just- I guess I just needed a hug, that's all."
Lena wrapped her arm around him and rubbed her hand up and down his arm, "It sounds like you could also use a Mamas night." She concluded.
Jesus looked from his lap to his mama with a small smile; a mamas night is where they ordered pizza for the rest of the kids and they take the one kid who needs a little extra mama love and spend the entire evening with them.
"Really?" Jesus asked. "Because I could use a little extra mama love."
"Of course my baby," Lena said. "I'll let Mom know, you just go back to class and let me take over from here okay?" Jesus nodded, "I love you baby," she said.
"I love you too, Mama." He said kissing her cheek before getting up and going back into his classroom feeling a little better.
Lena watched as her middle son went back into the classroom before going into her office and calling Stef.
"Hey babe," Stef's voice showered over her making her relax a little more.
"Hey honey," Lena said. "So it looks like one of the kids could use a mamas night tonight."
"Jesus?" The cop asked knowingly.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Lena asked.
"He seemed off at breakfast this morning," she said. "I know that none of our kids are morning people, but his grumbling was a bit more than usual."
"He didn't sleep well last night," Lena began, "then because of that he got the cold shower this morning, and then I guess the math test he studied really hard for, he failed. On top of, people call him just Foster instead of Adams Foster, and he said that some student was trying to get a rise out of him, and he's just not having a good day."
"Oh poor baby," she said softly. "A mamas night is definitely in order."
"Yeah," Lena agreed sounding distant.
"Are you okay, my love?" Stef asked.
"I just am remembering looking at him, at first, he didn't think he could have a bad day. It's like that little, scared, foster care Jesus all over again." Lena vented to her wife, "He kept saying that he was fine even when it was evident otherwise. He didn't think he could have a bad day," Lena started to cry. Evident that her pregnancy hormones were taking over.
"Hey," Stef said softly to calm her wife down, "it's okay baby. He's fine, just having a bad day. Everybody has them."
"You're right," Lena said wiping the tears from her eyes, "He said he just needed a hug and then when I offered a mamas night, he agreed."
"Good," Stef said as somebody else was talking in the background. "Hey baby, I gotta go. I'll see you tonight. I love you."
"I love you too," Lena said softly.
"And hey, I'll send off a text to Jesus, you just relax, okay?"
"Yeah, sounds good, I will. Bye sweetheart."
"Bye my love," Stef said hanging up.
Lena sat back in her chair and took a deep breath before getting back to work. Stef was right, everybody has bad days and her children were entitled to them every once in awhile.
Sitting at a pizza parlor that night was Stef, Lena, and Jesus. They had ordered pizza for the rest of the family back at home, but when they asked Jesus what he wanted, he said he wanted pizza as well.
"So, do you want to talk about your day?" Stef asked the boy sitting across from the couple.
"I just couldn't sleep last night and then that hindered me from getting up on time today," he began. "Which I'm sorry for that Mama." He added remembering how much of a pain in the ass he was to get out of bed that morning.
Lena reached across the table and said, "You have nothing to be sorry for baby."
Jesus smiled as his mama's hand never left his as he continued, "And then I got the cold shower this morning. It's not that I don't love Callie and Jude, but it's just-" he took a deep breath. "Sometimes I miss the days where there was enough hot water for everybody in the house."
He took a shaky deep breath, "And then at breakfast this morning, it was just like everything was too much for me to handle and I didn't mean to snap at you when I was taking my medication." He said to Lena gripping her hand tighter. She nodded her head in a way of saying she knew and for him to continue, "Everything was okay for the most part until my math class."
He took another shaky deep breath, "I really studied hard for that math test," he said. "Really hard and to get it back failed made me feel like a failure. And then everybody kept calling me just Foster instead of Adams Foster which led to the kid next to me saying basically that at least his mom loved him enough to keep him and he has the same last name he was born with. And then I almost snapped. If it wasn't for Mr. Rodriguez and Mama, I probably would've. I just needed my bad day to just stop for a moment... so I could breathe easier."
Stef moved from next to her wife to next to her son and wrapped him in a strong embrace, "We love you baby," she said. "Nothing will ever make us love you less. You aren't a failure. You've come so far from that scared little boy that we didn't know had ADHD when he was placed with us."
Jesus felt his mama caressing the back of his hand with her thumb and for the first time that day, he felt the tension leave his shoulders and he melted in his mom's strong embrace and soften his grip on his mama's hand.
For once, he didn't need a girl to make him feel better.
No, not when he had his moms to remind him how loved he was, how precious he was, and how much of a failure he wasn't.
Because at the end of the day, these two were the ones that would love him unconditionally and that's what Jesus Adams Foster really needed.
End.