A/N: Thank you all for the positive feedback so far! This chapter is a short one, but the next one will be longer!
It was a Friday night and Helga had just hung up the phone when there was a knock at the door. "Got it!" Jacob called, and she went to the entry way to watch him and see who it was, though she already knew who would be on the other side. When he opened the door, Gerald was standing there, a bottle of soda in one hand and a bag with a carton of ice cream in the other.
He and Helga hadn't had much of a chance to talk anymore about the situation, so Helga had called him and suggested this. It would give them more time to talk, and more of an opportunity to spend time with Jacob if he wanted to. Well of course Gerald wanted that, so they set a day and here he was.
"Mr. J! What're you doing here?" Jacob asked as Gerald stepped inside.
"He's going to have pizza and watch a movie with us." Helga explained and Jacob grinned before running off to dig through the box of movies that Helga hadn't gotten around to unpacking quite yet.
"Hey." Gerald smiled to her before following her in to the kitchen
"Hey, you can set the soda on the counter. I'll put the ice cream in the freezer until later."
It was quiet between the pair for a moment, and then Gerald broke it. "Does Jacob know?" His voice was quiet. Helga closed the freezer and turned back to him.
"No, he doesn't. When the question comes up I've just told him that he's on a long trip." Helga smiled wryly. "He doesn't really ask anymore."
"Long trip, hm? I guess it's better than saying I'm flat out dead."
Helga gave a short laugh. "Well I didn't think that would be quite fair…and how confusing would it be if I told him you were dead all this time, but now you're right here?"
"I suppose-" Gerald started but was cut off by Jacob running in with two DVDs.
"These ones mommy?" Jacob held up the DVDs to her. 'A Bug's Life' and 'Wreck-It Ralph'.
"Sure honey. These ones are fine." Helga smiled. "Why don't you let Mr. J pick out the one we watch first."
Jacob turned to Gerald and held up the DVDs, looking at him expectantly. Gerald looked at the movies, debating a moment. "Let's watch A Bug's Life. Movies about bugs are always fun, right?"
Jacob grinned. "Lots of fun!" And then he went back in to the living room to get things set up. Half an hour or so later the pizza arrived and once it was all dished out they settled on to the couch to watch the movie. Jacob sat in the middle.
Jacob, no matter how many times he denied it, always went to sleep early. He managed to make it through most of 'A Bug's Life'. However ,around 9:00 when the credits were rolling, Helga looked over and smiled.
Jacob had curled up to Gerald and was sleeping now. Gerald looked down at the boy and smiled too, ruffling his hair ever so slightly. "He's a cute little guy."
"Well, he takes after his father." Helga said it almost automatically and then blushed.
Gerald smirked a bit and then laughed. "I was going to say that he must get it from you." This made Helga blush even more.
Helga shut off the movie and then carried Jacob up to bed with Gerald following behind. This was good. It was progress. Soon they could tell Jacob the truth, that his daddy was back from his long trip. So long as Gerald still wanted to be part of his life…Helga saw no problem finally telling her son the truth.
