Best present ever

A/N: Hi everybody! So I finally decided after a lot of hesitation and A LOT of debating with myself, that I would write a Bess/Joe one-shot because in my opinion, Bess and Joe are undeniably ADORABLE together and there aren't nearly enough stories for them. So I decided to give the pairing a little attention and whip one up. Before you read, I'm just gonna ask that if you DON'T like the Bess/Joe pairing that you simply not read this rather than being rude about it but if you like them, that's perfect. Enjoy!

George Fayne walked into the living room of her parents' house to find her blonde cousin sobbing her heart out and lying on her stomach on the couch crying into one of the couch pillows; loud wails and sniffles filled the air while her body was wracked with sobs.

"Bess!" She rushed over to Bess and sat down on the couch beside her as she put a hand on her shaking shoulder. "What's going on? Why are you crying?" Her voice was filled with worry as her blonde cousin sat herself up in a seated position before wiping her nose with the sleeve of her pink sweater. Bess's eyes were bloodshot and puffy while her cheeks were stained with tears and her blonde hair was slightly messy. "Please tell me."

Bess's lip quivered as she tried to speak clearly but it was impossible with the coming sobs. "He-he d-dumped me! He cheated on me, told I was worthless and then he DUMPED ME!" She threw herself George as she burst into tears once more.

George hesitated to say the name of her now ex-boyfriend as she tried to comfort her. "You mean Kyle?" Bess hiccupped loudly as she nodded her head against George's shoulder. "I thought you guys were really happy together. What happened?"

"I-I don't know," Bess sobbed in reply as she sniffed and another tear ran down her cheek. "He just had to do it right before my birthday."

George froze at the word birthday; the day after tomorrow was Bess's birthday and she hadn't even gotten her present yet. Knowing she was short on time, she knew she had to think of something in order to cheer her cousin up. Even though Bess could be annoying, that didn't mean she deserved to be heartbroken on her birthday.

The next day, George had sent Bess over to Nancy's house so that she could plan her surprise for her birthday. She only hoped it would work because if it didn't, she was in big trouble; but she had to at least try and with that thought in mind, she bravely picked up the phone and hesitantly dialed the number. George absently tapped her fingers on the wooden table as muffled ringing on the other line repeatedly buzzed in her ear until someone finally picked up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Joe. It's George," George said, grateful it was him who had answered and not Frank.

Joe greeted her with his usual friendly tone. "Hi, George. How's everything going in River Heights? What's Bess up to?"

George's smile faded as she sighed. "That's actually why I called you. I need your help with something,"

"Okay. What is it?" Joe responded.

"Bess's birthday is tomorrow and she's really depressed because her boyfriend cheated on her and then dumped her," George told him in an unhappy tone. She pushed back a strand of brown hair as she continued. "Anyway, I wanna do something nice for her to make her happy on her birthday but I don't know what to do."

Joe spoke up again and sounded confused. "Well, what do you need me to do?"

George pursed her lips as she begged for what she was about to ask to work out. "I figured if anyone could cheer her up, it'd be you and so I was wondering if…..you'd come up to River Heights,"

"Geez, it's kinda short notice and I don't know how easily I can get the plane tickets and all…." Joe said.

"But?" George prayed he would say yes.

"I think I can arrange something," Joe said finally.

George heaved a sigh of relief. "Thanks so much, Joe. You have no idea how big this is,"

Joe smirked. "No worries. Sooo, what's the plan?"

"Alright. Bess is gonna be at the house all day tomorrow because she has no plans and I'm gonna leave to get you from the airport once you call me. When we get back, you wait outside while I get her to show her the surprise," George explained in a devious tone.

"I like this plan so far," Joe remarked.

"Then when she least expects it, you come in and surprise her," George finished with a small giggle. "What do you think?"

Joe shrugged. "Sounds good to me. I'll book a flight as soon as I can and call you when I get there,"

"Great but remember we can't say a word to her or anyone else because we don't wanna ruin the surprise. Got it?" George reminded him.

"Got it," Joe replied. "See you tomorrow."

"Bye and thanks again, Joe," George hung the phone up with a grin as she thought of her cousin's face when Joe Hardy would unexpectedly walk into their house on her birthday.

When she woke up the next morning, George tried to be as casual as she possibly could in order to keep Bess from knowing what was going on and she figured it'd be fairly easy since Bess was distracted by what had happened with Kyle who George was dead set on getting revenge on for what he did to her cousin.

Then around twelve fifteen, her phone rang and when Joe's name came up on the screen; she peeked around to make sure Bess wasn't around before answering it. "Hey,"

"Hey, I'm at the airport right now. My plane just landed," Joe told her with the sounds of the airport in the background.

"Oh perfect. I'll be right there," George said as she quickly hung up her phone when she saw Bess coming down the steps. "Hey."

Bess had clearly been crying judging by the redness on her cheeks and in her eyes. "You're going somewhere?" Bess asked sounding slightly curious.

George searched for words as she nodded. "Uh yeah. I have a tutor who's helping me out in physics and I'm meeting him downtown,"

"Oh," Was all Bess said in a small voice. "Have fun." She gave her a smile but it faded as quickly as it came as she made her way into the kitchen.

George smiled to herself; grateful her cousin had bought it as she walked out the door and got into her car. It took her a total of twenty five minutes to get to the airport between the distance and the bad traffic along with drivers.

Once there, she made her way into the waiting section as she looked around for Joe and after about four minutes, she spotted him walking toward her with a smile on his face along with a suitcase rolling behind him; he hadn't changed much apart from the fact he was slightly taller.

"It took you long enough," George teased with a laugh as he gave her a one arm hug. "How was the flight?"

Joe pretended to think on her question as he pursed his lips and looked up at the ceiling. "I sat next to a grandpa who snored like a damn subway train throughout the entire flight," George giggled and rolled her brown eyes as they made their way toward the exit. "So Bess doesn't know I'm here?"

George shook her head as she grinned. "Nope. She thinks I'm downtown studying for college exams," She grinned even wider when she pictured what her cousin's reaction would be.

"I can't believe that jerk dumped her right before birthday. What kind of person does that?" Joe exclaimed as George drove down the road.

"I can't wait to get revenge on him for that and so you'll have to get in line," George remarked in a half serious tone.

When they got back, George peeked inside and saw Bess wasn't downstairs; she assumed she was upstairs in her bedroom and she turned to Joe. "Okay. You go wait in the kitchen while I get her to come downstairs but be quiet," Joe nodded in understanding as they crept inside the house.

George made her way up the steps and saw Bess sitting on her bed looking at her laptop. "Whatcha doin?"

"Nothing. I'm just doing some studying," Her blonde cousin replied casually. She suddenly looked up at George in surprise. "I thought you were with your tutor."

"Well….I know today is your birthday and all. So I got you something," George told her with a smile.

Bess almost looked slightly suspicious when she heard this. "What is it?"

George shrugged her shoulders. "It's a surprise. Come downstairs and I'll show you," She yanked her cousin by the arm and pulled her off the bed but she stopped by the door to give her a stern look. "First, close your eyes." Bess reluctantly closed her eyes as she was led by her brunette cousin down the stairs.

"George, will you just tell me what it is?" Bess whined as they got to the bottom of the steps.

"Just wait like one more minute," George pleaded as she placed her cousin in the middle of the living room and finally let go of her hand. "Okay, now keep your eyes closed." Bess rolled her eyes as she placed her hands over her eyes. "Count to thirty and then you'll get your surprise."

Bess sighed dramatically. "Fine. One, two, three, four, five…." She started counting as George tip toed out of the living room and motioned Joe to come in; he carefully began walking towards the clueless blonde as she counted. "Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen…." Joe reached out and grabbed her shoulders making Bess squeal as she jolted slightly. "George, what are you-"She turned around but her annoyance quickly turned to pure joy when she saw Joe standing before her with a wide grin. "Joe?!" She nearly screamed as she threw her arms around him and locked him in a bear hug.

George walked out, happy to see her plan had worked judging by how tightly Bess was hugging Joe. "So how do you like your present?" George questioned teasingly.

When Bess finally released him, the ecstatic yet clearly shocked blonde looked at Joe with a bewildered expression. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"George told me about how depressed you were and asked me to come," Joe replied in the most simple of tones he could. Bess gaped at this piece of information and went to hug George as well. "Anyway, there's no way I'm gonna have you sulking on your birthday and so I'm gonna take you out for a day of fun. Come along my lady." He offered his hand which she gladly accepted as they walked out the door.

"So George told me about what happened. I wanted to say I'm sorry," Joe said as they walked down the sidewalk.

Bess gave a shrug of her shoulders as she tried not to make it seem like anything that was much of a problem. "It's no big deal," Was all she said in reply.

Joe sighed. "Well, he's an idiot for doing this to you," He paused. "In my opinion."

"No," Bess shook her head slowly as she looked up at him with her blue eyes softened. "I'm the idiot for thinking he ever actually cared about me." She looked away from Joe as she started to feel almost slightly self-conscious.

"You're not," Joe told her defiantly as he lifted her chin to meet his gaze and leaned down towards her as his lips came in contact with hers; once they pulled away after a few seconds, Joe continued speaking to the now semi-surprised Bess who blinked twice. "What you are is beautiful, fun, and selfless."

Bess didn't know what to say and so she just wrapped her arms around his neck to kiss him back in a longer, deeper kiss.

Hope you enjoyed this one-shot. Please review but be gentle. Thanks for reading!