You are Family
JISA/ One Shot/ Lisa POV/ S11E18/ Naming Day/ Spoiler - sets in at the evening of the fireplace ceremony. Just a few thoughts on it.
(English is not my native language, so pls excuse any grammatical mistakes
Thank you for that story-suggestion
If you have any JISA-fanfic-suggestions, pls let me know in the reviews)
There it was. The one right above the firebox and right next to Jack's. The stone. Her stone. The visible symbol that showed that she was part of it. Part of the family and Lisa couldn't be any prouder. Not to mention happier. She was a member of that beautiful family that lived under the roof of this welcoming and heartwarming house. She lived here, too. It was her home and over the years it had become more home to her than Fairfield.
Fairfield. A place that gave her headaches and sleepless nights. It had been a bad year, to say the worst year in her whole career. As much as it had always been a family business, these days Lisa didn't like to spend much time there. It always hurt and despite all the people that were working their asses off to keep the business running, she always felt alone and isolated. Especially towards the night, when all her employees would go back home. To their families. Then she was alone. Mostly still in her office, doing paper work or weeping over all her worries. It was hard to find sleep and so she decided to move to Heartland. If Jack agreed that is. Of course he did. Bless him. Even when it wasn't easy to get used to the situation of living together and even when everyone else seemed a bit stressed out by it, especially Lou and Amy.
It had always been hard to gain a foothold in that family. Lisa was just related by second marriage but not by blood and there were two empty roles that the family still had to deal with. Grandma Lyndy's and Marion's. Lisa would have never claimed to follow in their footsteps but there were situations where the family desperately needed support from these kind of roles. So Lisa tried her best. The best she could. But it was hard. On the one hand she wanted to help, to be there for the kids but on the other she didn't want to intrude too much. Particularly because of Lou and Amy who often didn't feel comfortable about her giving advises. Even after all those years and with everything that happened during this time, Lisa sometimes still felt that way. She loved the Heartland family and was in complete awe of the effort they would make to help others but she often sensed that she herself still wasn't fully accepted. Like a fifth wheel.
So, getting a stone at that fire place, where so many other members of the family were eternalized over many generations, was something that made her proud. Something that showed her that the Heartland gang accepted her in the family. Something she had wished for for a very long time. Lisa sighed and smiled to herself as she looked at the fire place while standing next to the coffee table.
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder that made her jump a bit.
"Hey.", she could hear Jack's low voice beside her and turned around to look at him quickly.
"Everything okay?"
"Couldn't be better.", she said, still smiling and with a tear in her eye she looked at her personal stone one more time.
Jack followed her gaze and understood. He put his arm around her shoulder and drew her closer.
"It's just a rock, you know.", he teased her with a wink. Lisa was a bit taken back but quickly got the joke.
"No it's not!", she replied and her elbow landed softly between his rips. "We both know, it's more than that."
And it was. It was not just any rock. It was the stone which was one piece of many that held together the whole fireplace. It was indeed highly symbolic. A fireplace was a place that would radiate warmth and comfort, a place that would welcome people to come and sit in it's warming atmosphere. It also was a romantic symbol of love and emotional security – in short: it was a symbol for home and family that included everything a fireplace stood for. So no, it was not just a rock. She was part of it. Like so many others that were part of the Heartland family, she was one of them now and after her mother and her later on her father died, Lisa never had that feeling of belonging somewhere or to someone ever again. Not even with Dan something like this would have been imaginable. Only when Jack entered her life she started to feel truly wanted and needed again. He gave her not only his heart, He gave much more than that: a family. Even though it was hard to fit into it. But eventually she did. After many many years.
"Of course.", Jack interrupted her thoughts. His fingers absently played with some loose strands of her hair while his arm still rested on her shoulder.
"You deserved it a long time ago and I am sorry that I haven't thought about it early. It's just-", he stopped and Lisa looked up. His face looked somewhat worried as their eyes met.
"You do know that you have always been part of the family, don't you? Even before we got married."
It was that kind of question that would make you uncomfortable. What should she tell him? She knew that the Heartland family had suffered a great loss when she entered their lives. She knew that she came from a different part of society and she knew that many considered her too young to be in a relationship with grandpa Jack. Of course she didn't fit in well at first sight but despite everything that was going on in her own busy life she had tired hard to work on her role in the family. Because it was important to her. Because she cared about them. But it took time. Time for them to deal with Marion's death and time to accept someone new.
"I am not sure.", she said eventually. As always she would choose the honest way. It felt better than lying.
A questionable look on Jack's face.
"It's been hard Jack. For me. It wasn't always easy to fit in. But it's okay. I know what you all have been through. I respect that. It's hard to loose someone so suddenly and it's hard to let in someone completely new. But you need to know that I have never wanted to take on Lyndy's or Marion's role. I would never presume to do so. All I wanted was to help. To be there for each one of you, because-", but here her voice broke down. It was very emotional what she was about to say, especially because they lived an uncommon relationship. Despite all the gossip and all the expectations and opinions from others – they defied it and it had brought them here. It brought her here. With her stone on the family's fireplace.
"You are all I have.", Lisa finished with another tear in her eye. What a lucky woman she was. Besides all the worries about Fairfield. She would have never gotten through it if there wasn't a family that stood behind her. As always she tried to deal with everything by herself until she realized that she couldn't do it. It was eating up all her energy and strength and it literally ate its way through her body. She needed help and she got it.
Jack now turned around fully to stand in front of her and let his hand slide across her waist to pull her closer. She immediately relaxed against his body, resting her head on his chest. It felt good to listen to his heart beating.
"You are family", he emphasized quietly, pressing his lips against her forehead. Lisa closed her eyes and smiled, loosing herself in that moment.
-"Alright, who wants another glass of champagne.", called out a cheerful Lou as she entered the house with Amy, Ty, Lyndy, Georgie, Peter, Katie and Tim in tow. They still had been outside after Amy finished her little horse show for Lyndy and helped to do the evening cores in the barn.
When they appeared in the living room, Jack and Lisa had already parted. Yet, Lou sensed that they must have come to the wrong time.
"Oh, are we interrupting something?"
"No.", Jack laughed amused. "Let's get the champagne and celebrate the day.", he added. With a faint wink at his wife, he stroke her arm and walked into the kitchen to get some clean glasses.
Still standing in front of the fireplace Lisa watched as the family settled into the living room. With all the lively talking it had become pretty noisy in there but she didn't care. She loved it and once more she was proud. Proud to be part of them. They were family.
(Thx again for reading)