Five years later...

A little boy - no more than five - with baby blue eyes set in ruddy cheeks was carefully lifted from the safety of his father's truck and set on the ground beside his father. A stern warning from his father about the dangers of splashing through the puddles in the middle of the street kept the small boy firmly planted at his father's feet, stomping what little bit of water had gathered on the dark, cold asphault beneath his feet. He listened as his father rustled through the backseat of the black truck, in obvious search of something. When it was found, a small blue back-pack was handed to the little boy and his father kneeled down to his level.

"I want you to behave while I take Mommy to the doctor, alright?" Johnny warned his son, holding him in place with a hand on his shoulder. "No playing in the rain. No splashing in the puddles. No getting wet, alright? I'll be back to get you later. No misbehaving, capice?"

"Capice." Cody nodded brightly, his unruly curls damp and bouncing on his head. "Daddy?"

"Yea, son?"

"Why does Mommy have to go to the doctor?" Cody tilted his head, looking at his father with all of the innocence of a five year old.

"For a check-up, buddy. Like you did the other day before Mommy registered you for school." Johnny explained patiently. "Now, let's get you in the house so I can take Mommy to the doctor, she's waiting on me in the truck."

An excited nod followed and Johnny stood up, motioning for his son to take his hand. Cody slipped his little hand into his father's and followed him up the wet walkway, up to the front door. His little hand pounded earnestly on the door but could not match the louder, stronger knock of his father. The door was pulled open and Sandy Wu sent them a warm smile from the other side. She motioned Cody in with her head and ruffled his hair as he ran past her.

"Thanks for watching him, Sandy. We shouldn't be gone more than an hour. It's just a routine check-up." Johnny laughed.

"It's no problem." Sandy laughed, "Bye Johnny."

"Bye Sandy."

"Lissa! Lissa!" Cody's five-year-old voice called, racing down the hall into his best friend's pink and purple bedroom. He held up his blue backpack, with a picture of Spider Man proudly displayed on the front. "Look!"

Dark brown eyes, twinkling with a childish michief and playfulness, eyed the backpack and in true five-year-old girl fashion, her nose wrinkled as she eyed the boy-ish backpack. "Spider Man?"

"He's a hero!" Cody defended, sticking his tongue out at her.

Melissa happily held up her light purple Disney princess backpack for her him to see, "I got Princesses."

"Ew!" Cody wrinkled his nose at the girly backpack. "That's girl's backpack!"

"That's 'cuz I'm a girl!" Melissa told him, sticking her tongue out at her best friend.

He shrugged as he tossed his backpack down next to his best friend's and sat down in a blue and orange chair. Without another word, Melissa handed him a coloring book and his box of crayons that stayed at her house. While he colored a car black, she grabbed a pink crayon and resumed coloring her princess' dress. The purple Princess backpack and blue Spiderman backpack lay forgotten about on Melissa's white carpet.

"Why is her hair green?" Cody asked Melissa, who was busy coloring Repunzel's hair green.

"'Cuz I wanted it green." Melissa defended, not caring if she scribbled outside the lines.

Shrugging, he resumed coloring his car, scribbling in the tires with an orange crayon. Neither child said anything for a while as they continued coloring and scribbling in their respective notebooks. They looked like quite a pair. The sandy blonde haired boy with the bright baby blues and the unruly head of damp curls sitting next to the small girl with the corkscrew curls and big brown eyes.

"I'm tired of coloring," Cody declared, tossing his orange crayon on the table. "I want to swing."

"We'll get wet!" Melissa told him, tossing her green crayon down next to his orange crayon.

"So?" Cody shrugged as he grabbed her hand and pulled toward the back doors, just out of sight of her mother. The rain poured outside and dripped down the glass patio doors. He pulled them open and pulled his best friend out into the pouring rain. "Let's play!"

"Water's cold!" Melissa yelled over the rain.

Sandy looked up from her book when she heard the swish of the glass patio doors being opened. She heard the splash of little feet running through rain water and immediately knew what the best friends had done. Tossing the book on the coffee table, she dashed to the backdoors and stared at the children running around the yard, soaked to the bone by the cold rain water.

"Cody Richard and Melissa Brielle!" Sandy yelled over the pouring rain, "March your little butts back into the house right now!"

They looked up, both wide-eyed and knowing they had been. Upon seeing Sandy standing in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest, they looked at each other before linking arms and slowly making their way into the house.

"Bathroom, right now." Sandy told the two children, closing the doors behind them.

They trudged into the bathroom, both sad and miserably wet and cold, hanging their heads as they passed her. She followed them, grabbing two clean towels from the laundry basket outside the door as she walked in.

"You two!" Sandy scolded, as she wrapped them each in a clean towel. "Stay here, I'm going to go get you some dry clothes."

She left the two in the bathroom, wrapped snugly in towels and went to retrieve some clean, dry clothes. She came back with a pair of jeans and a t-shirt for each. She made quick work of getting them into dry clean clothes and towelling the cold water out of their hair.

"Time-out, three minutes, both of you." Sandy scolded, sending the two children to their respective time-out spots in the kitchen. "Now."

She watched with a shake of her head as they trudged off to their respective time-out spots and sat down, each with pouts on their adorable little faces. She knew that they were just being kids but she also knew that her best friend would not appreciate it if Cody went home in wet clothes because she decided to let them get away with splashing in the cold rain-water.

"Why am I in time-out, Mommy?" Melissa yelled from her spot, "He started it!"

"You went outside in the cold rain too, Little Miss." Sandy reminded her as she sat down to read her book once again. "Be quiet or I'll add another minute to your time-out."

She listened in amusement as the two children grumbled about being in time-out. Johnny and Evan had been right, those two were a world of trouble when they were together.

xxxx

A whirlwind of blue eyes and blonde curls crashed into her legs as soon as Cindy Jackson walked through her best friend's door followed immediately by his five-year-old voice whining about his time spent in time-out. With a weary sigh, she kneeled down and combed his hair away from his face with her fingers, resting her other hand on his ribs to keep him in place. Her golden corkscrew curls and playful blue eyes matched his but her son was much more of a handful than the playfulness in his eyes made people aware of.

"Well, I'm sure it wasn't for nothing, Cody." Cindy reminded her son. "Care to share?"

"I ran out into the rain and I wasn't s'posed too." Cody admitted, his lower lip sticking out pitifully and his head hanging in shame at having to admit what he had done wrong.

Cindy sighed softly; "Well then, you probably deserved the time-out, didn't you?"

"Yes, Mommy." Cody nodded, his blue eyes tearing up. "I'm sorry."

"Tell, Aunt Sandy. Not me." Cindy pointed him to her best friend.

"I'm sorry, Aunt Sandy." Cody apologized softly, his blue eyes still teary.

"It's alright." Sandy ruffled his hair playfully. "Don't you cry now. You did your time. Nothing to cry about."

"C'mon, kiddo, Daddy's waiting. We're going to go get some lunch." Cindy stood up and reached to hug her best friend. "Thanks again, Sandy."

"No problem." Sandy smiled, pulling away when her daughter pulled at her arm. She reached over and ruffled Cody's hair. "Later kiddo."

"Bye Aunt Sandy." Cody smiled, looking over at Melissa. "Bye Lissa."

"Bye Cody."

Confession time: Five year old Melissa is a mix of my two niece's personalities. She's kind of like my oldest niece in that she hates being in time-out, as do most five-year olds, but she's like my youngest niece in that she's eccentric, colors things the wrong colors and doesn't really instigate trouble but more of follows along with whatever her sister does, Lol!

So the first few chapters are going to explore Jackson and Melissa's childhood together through a series of incidents in which they wind up in trouble somehow :D

Love you,

RobertDowneyJrLove