A/N - So here's the first part of this story's last chapter. A little bittersweet! This chapter takes place a couple of years after chapter 8, so we'll see what has happened since then. I generally like writing Meredith and Derek hanging out together just with the kids (I think they actually do in most chapters), but here they'll meet with a couple of other people. I hope it turned out okay. Happy reading!
"Dad, come on!" Josie dragged out the last syllable to really stress her impatience and tugged Derek's sleeve while she trudged forward.
Derek chuckled and turned around to localize Meredith. She was sitting in front of Jennie's wheelchair, helping her adjusting the straps on her top. She looked up and met his gaze.
"Go on," she called. "We're coming in just a second."
Derek nodded. "Let's go," he told Josie. "Where are we heading?"
"The tropical rain forest!" Josie exclaimed. "'I want to see the monkeys."
"The monkeys, huh?" Derek said amusedly. "Ok, lead the way."
He followed his daughter who eagerly bounced a couple of steps in front of him. Her blue and white striped sleeveless top and white shorts that Meredith had bought her just a couple of days ago made him realize just how tall she'd grown. She had turned nine in the beginning of the year and would begin fourth grade in just a couple of weeks. He couldn't quite imagine where time had gone, but savored every moment his girls still wanted him to tag along. He knew that all too soon, it would be hard to get even a minute of their day.
He smiled as he tried to keep up with Josie and her enthusiasm. Since they first attended an event with the Spina Bifida Association of Washington State last summer, both girls had constantly been asking him and Meredith when they would go back. Last time, Josie had been a little shy in the face of new surroundings and new meetings, but today, she seemed totally relaxed and happy to know how everything worked. They'd learned over time that she, much more than Jennie, was a child who needed to be prepared, who kept to routines and was much happier at times when she knew what to expect.
This year's summer picnic was being held in Woodland Park just southeast of Green Lake. Derek hadn't been there much in all those years he'd lived here. Usually, he preferred the woods or a secluded lake where he could fish pretty undisturbed. Sometimes he and Meredith would take the children to a park for a weekend trip, but Seattle had many great parks so he wasn't that familiar with Woodland.
Just as last year, they'd arrived a few hours early. Meredith and Derek had found that a bit of family time together before joining all the others was a great way of taking the edge of the eager anxiousness. They wouldn't have the opportunity to visit the Woodland Park Zoo on the other side of Aurora Avenue once they'd met with the other families, and both Josie and Jennie had requested a visit.
"Dad?"
Josie weighed a little on her left foot where she'd stopped to wait right outside the residence of the black-and-white colubus monkeys, impatiently chewing on her lip. Her hair was just as dark and curly as ever, but this summer a little longer than she'd worn it before. She'd asked Meredith to put it in a french braid down her back and the summer's sun hours had made her skin deepen one shade and her freckles appear more clearly.
"Did you know that monkeys have four stomachs? Like cows."
Derek studied the large color poster right next to the gate. "You're right."
"Why?"
Derek smiled. Josie hadn't been very openly curious as a younger child. She was bright and a really fast learner, but sometimes he'd sensed that she preferred to figure things out for herself. Lately, she'd been more prone to asking them questions, though. Especially the why of things.
"It says here it's because they eat a lot of leaves. They need a lot of stomach space to digest it, or they wouldn't be able to eat enough for them to keep their energy up."
"Oh," Josie said. "Can you have a monkey for a pet?"
Derek chuckled. Lately, Josie had been dropping hints about all sorts of animals, telling them that just about everyone in her class had a dog that slept in their bed at night, or hogging the newspaper each morning just to triumphantly point out seller's ads for kittens. Meredith and Derek had both resisted this ongoing lobbying, although they'd briefly discussed taking in a cat.
"Well," he said. "You can have a pet monkey..."
"...but you're certainly not going to have one," Meredith finished firmly from behind, shooting him a look as she gently pushed Jennie's chair over a slight incline.
"Mom!" Josie said, making a face. "Don't you think they are cute?"
"They're almost as big as me," Meredith pointed out. "And they have a lot of hair."
"Me too!" Jennie announced and gestured at the glass wall. Meredith pushed her a little forward, close up to the wall, but it still wasn't enough. She wobbled a little as she stood up, and Derek took a few steps to steady her. She shook him off, though, balancing herself against the low barrier. Her eyes sparkled at the sight of the colubus monkey mother making her way over the grounds with a tiny monkey with white fuzzy fur following in her wake.
"See, Jen?" Derek asked. "These apes have no thumb like other apes do. That way they can climb with all four limbs at the same time. Do you know what country they come from?"
Jennie shook her head, still fascinated with the primates and not turning to look at him.
"Well, what country do you know that has a rain forest? A jungle?"
"Afri-ha," Jennie informed him. "But it is a ohn-tinent." She sat down again in her chair and turned around so that she could look at him. "Don't dem uhn-er-shand English den?" she asked, concerned.
Derek stifled a little laugh. When Jennie had gotten her diagnosis, he'd only hoped that they would have conversations like this someday. It had seemed so far away at the time, but now he savored every time she was able to express herself in a way that did her mind and thoughts justice.
"I guess they learn," he replied, taking the question seriously. "They're probably mostly talking to each other anyway."
They had her current kindergarten to thank for so much. Researching their options had felt like an impossible task. They'd been torn between feeling they rushed the decision and that it took forever to reach a conclusion. But after reasoning with speech therapists, getting second opinions and visiting the available kindergartens to see for themselves what kind of work was done there, they'd finally enrolled Jennie into a school that specialized in speech and language. The group of children was small and led by therapists and teachers who worked with each child to maximize their abilities.
"Mommy, goh-illas!"
"I see," Meredith smiled. "And there are lemurs. See the ones with the red fur?"
"Yes. I read about mon-hees. In sh-ool."
Jennie's days were structured in a totally different way than in her last preschool. Combined with regular classes, she also had speech therapy sessions and oral motor training, both individually and together with other children. It seemed to Derek that all activities, whether designed for it or not, were focused on developing and stimulating language. They read aloud, used signs at all times, and had a way of working with terms and words in a thorough way that really let the children get the feel for it.
Jennie's diagnosis was rare even in this group. Most of the other children had a speech or language delay that also made it hard for them to understand instructions or realize the advantages with communication. Derek knew Jennie thrived here, when she often got to be one of the children who succeeded.
While they slowly worked their way over the park, Josie ran before them. She waved eagerly at them to hurry each time she found a new, exciting animal. Jennie wasn't long behind, wheeling herself as fast as she could to join her sister. Derek glanced at Meredith. She looked relaxed where she strolled next to him, her handbag slung over her shoulder and her sunglasses on top of her head.
"This is nice, isn't it?"
She smiled at him. "Yeah."
They walked in silence for a little while. Derek could see Josie glare at kids who walked by and stared at Jennie's wheelchair. He knew she found it hard getting that kind of attention from strangers, but she seemed to have toughened up a little. Jennie seemed not to care today, although lately, they'd noticed her go quiet a few times after trips to crowded places like the mall or the beach. When they asked her about it, she'd tell them she didn't like it when other kids stared, but hadn't seemed to eager to talk about it. Derek wasn't sure of how to handle it.
"Jennie told me she wanted to meet Shannon again," Meredith said.
"She did?" Derek replied. "I hope they'll be there. Maybe this year we're gonna get our act together and actually get them a play date."
Last year, when they first met with several other children and adults with spina bifida, Jennie had been a little hesitant to begin with. She'd mostly kept to Meredith and looked with big eyes at the sudden lot of people with walkers or wheelchairs. When she'd warmed up a little, she'd started to play on her own with a couple of the other kids, and afterwards she'd talked about that day over and over again. Shannon was a year older, chatty and with a wit and a wild streak. Derek had studied them together, thinking that maybe she was a little too bold for Jennie, but the girls had got on surprisingly well.
It had been their intention all year to get together with Shannon's family so that the girls could hang out with each other without having to wait for next summer's picnic, but school and the everyday life had gotten in their way. He hoped that this year the girls could use the computer to keep in touch with each other. Jennie, as many other kids, handled the computer with a naturalness that he most certainly didn't have as a child.
"Derek," Meredith said, nudging him a little. He looked up and saw that Josie had stopped at one of the stands along the windy road they were currently walking. Jennie was still a few yards behind her, watching penguins strolling around behind a fence. The woman standing behind the counter seemed a little worn; she must have handed out a whole lot of whatever it was that she was selling, and it was hot enough outside to make Derek long for a dip in the ocean.
They sped up a little when they saw the lady lean over the counter and say something. She didn't smile and Derek found it best to be around should there be a need to intervene. They stopped a few steps behind though, and watched her face lit up as Jennie wheeled herself up right next to Josie and craned her neck to better see.
"Hi there," she said. "Do you both like liquorice chewy ropes?"
"Yes!" Jennie told her immediately. Josie nodded along, but didn't say anything.
"Well, do you want to taste some of mine? I have a lot of flavors. Do you have a favorite?" She held out a plate that was placed on the counter, where ropes in different colors were cut up into small pieces.
Jennie leaned eagerly forward, but Josie hesitated a little. "We're not allowed to take candy from someone we don't know," she said.
"Oh, I see," the woman replied. She looked up and let her eyes wander over the crowd that endlessly streamed along. "Are those your parents right over there?" she asked when she caught sight of Derek and Meredith.
Josie turned around and nodded shyly.
"Sir, would it be all right with you if your girls got to taste a bit of my candy?" the woman called. "No need to buy."
Derek saw that Meredith didn't particularly liked the idea. But he remembered market places from when he was little, the magical feeling of tasting, smelling and seeing candy in all sorts of forms and the salesmen with funny hats and broad accents and how special he'd felt when they spoke to him.
"Let them try," he told Meredith. "It's something special. And it is Saturday after all." She shrugged and he smiled at the woman and nodded. "That's fine," he called back.
"Here you go, sweetie," the woman said and offered Josie first. "What flavor do you like? We've got strawberry and cherry – those are the red ones over there. The green and yellow ones are watermelon and orange. Or do you prefer black liquorice?"
Josie let her hand circle over the plate for a few seconds before deciding on a strawberry piece.
"Thanks," she whispered.
"And here's for your sister – you're sisters, aren't you?" the woman asked. "I'm sorry, dear, I can't quite reach you over there. Can you tell me which one you want?"
"Ohr-ansh," Jennie said.
The woman's smile got a little unsure. "I'm sorry, I didn't get that," she said.
"Ohr-ansh," Jennie said again.
"Orange," Josie clarified when the woman's smile faltered even more.
"Oh, right! Well, sweetie, here you go." She picked a yellow piece from her plate and reached over the counter to put it in Jennie's outstretched hand. "One orange for you."
The man standing behind her in the counter popped out his head from where he was working. "Want to see something cool?" he asked.
Jennie stared at him and Derek understood why. He was big, had very little hair and several tattoos on his bare arms, but he smiled heartily and directed them both to the back of the stand and showed them how he put a large, red dried mass into a chopper.
"See this?" He waved at a bench right to their left where a batch of tinplates were piled up on top of each other. "Each night, we mix together all ingredients and heat them up until they become liquid. Then we form it and let it dry until we get this mass out of it. Each time we run out of candy, we chop up a new one."
"That's really cool, isn't it, Jen?" Derek said. She'd followed the big man with big eyes as he talked and now she nodded eagerly.
"It is cah-ndy, Daddy," she informed him, pointing to the tinplates.
"That's right. What do you say we buy each of you a chewy rope before we leave?"
"You too. And Mommy too," Jennie said.
He took out his wallet and gave the woman a five dollar bill. He picked Jennie up from her chair and put her on his shoulders so that she could truly see the different choices and let her pick which one she wanted. When they'd gotten their four pieces in a little bag, that Jennie happily clutched in her knee, they smiled at the stand's owners.
"Thank you very much," Derek said.
"Thank you," the woman smiled back. "I hope you enjoy your candy."
"Come back anytime to see the candy making," the big man added.
It was funny, Derek thought, how unexpected things could sometimes happen with Jennie around. More than a few times before had total strangers offered gifts or gone out of their way to do something kind for her. This woman had looked so brusque at first, but totally lightened up the moment Jennie came wheeling towards her. In many cases, things could be just the opposite. Derek knew Jennie already had experienced being met by uncertainty, or avoidance, or hesitance to approach. She would likely experience it again. And when that happened, it was important to remember times like these.
They walked for a few minutes, steering their way onto the left parkway, and passed the sun bear and the sloth bear. The children were happily chewing their candy, and Derek convinced Meredith that they should eat along. As they walked through a particularly narrow part of the walkway, they saw several people lean forward with their cameras.
"Daddy, what is doing there?" Jennie asked Derek. She was still sitting on his shoulders, and Meredith pushed the wheelchair.
Josie tried to stand on her toes to see what all the commotion was about.
"That bear is eating a bug," she reported. "It's sucking it in. Gross!"
"Daddy, gross!" Jennie repeated and giggled.
"If you say so," Derek said and put her down in her chair again. His arms started to hurt and he was afraid not to be able to hold her if she wriggled a little and lost her balance. They continued to walk and when they'd covered the Australasia, the African Savanna and the Tropical Asia, Derek found it best to take a break before either one of the children would get too tired and whiny to really enjoy the rest of the day.
After a cup of coffee, a hot dog and a bathroom visit, they made a quick trip to the Family Farm before they decided to make their way over to the regular park.
It was nearly half past one and as they went in through the west entrance, already four or five families had gathered at the picnic spot written in the invitation.
"See, Jennie?" Meredith said. "Shannon's here. Wanna go say hello?"
Derek remembered last year, when Jennie had been totally overwhelmed by the mere sight of so many people wheeling around in their chairs or by their walkers. She'd looked at Meredith, astonished, and then back at the children again.
"Ah-mmy," she'd said, with a smile on her face that was both huge and a little hesitant at the same time. "Like me."
Now, she nodded at Meredith's question, but tugged at her hand. Derek watched them both walk over to the table where Shannon and her father had started packing up their lunch. A few other girls had arrived as well, but they were a little older and had already sat down together, showing each other pictures on their phones. A younger man Derek recognized from last year nodded at him, hoisting his son on his hip. If Derek remembered correctly, the boy was two years younger than Jennie and hadn't began to walk on his own.
"Hi, Jennie," Shannon called when she saw them. "Guess what? My dad forgot to take the food out from the freezer so now we have to wait forever to eat it." She tilted her head a little, shoving her dark ringlets behind her ears. "Wanna go play over there in the meantime?"
Jennie nodded eagerly. "Mommy?" she asked.
"Just take it easy," Meredith said. "Hi, Shannon, nice to meet you again."
Derek smiled sympathetically at Shannon's father, who looked a little embarrassed. He was raising his daughter alone, and it wasn't hard to imagine that the strong-opinionated Shannon could be a handful.
"Hi there, Al," he greeted him. "How was your trip?"
"Not too bad," Al Roberts replied. "Except I had to endure Shannon's choice of music all way. Wasn't as much traffic as I had anticipated either, so we're earlier than I thought we'd be. Of course, with the food and everything, we could just as well still be on the roads."
Meredith made a grimace. "Could've happened to me," she said. "I'm sure there'll be plenty of food for everyone though. How's Shannon doing? We've been meaning to get in touch, but you know how time flies."
Al Roberts shrugged. "She's been doing ok this year. She's starting second grade this fall and overall, first grade was good for her. What about Jennie? She's younger than Shan, isn't she? Does she go to school yet?"
"She's still in kindergarten," Derek said. "They will keep her for another year. She's doing great though."
Jennie had made significant progress this last year, but just like her teachers, Meredith and Derek both felt that she would benefit from an extra year before she started first grade. Even though she spoke more clearly and more easily found her words compared to a couple of years ago, the gap between her and peers her own age was still there, and would certainly be noticed among her classmates. They wanted her to get the most tools she could get before starting in a regular classroom, something they were totally prepared for her to do even if she might need additional therapy and support for several years to come.
"And how about you?" Al asked Josie, who was still keeping close to Meredith, too timid to join some of the other children. "What grade are you in?"
"I'll start fourth," Josie whispered.
"Why don't we go look if there's someone you know?" Derek suggested. "I see Emma and Rebecca over there."
Josie looked like she wanted to protest, but sent Al a shy glance and merely shrugged and followed Derek when he got up. Meredith shook her head slightly and looked apologetically at Al.
"Hey," he said, holding up his hand. "Kids are different. Shannon's the right opposite from yours... she could go right up to anybody. Some days I don't know what's the better approach."
Just as Derek got back, finally having convinced Josie to stay for a while with the other girls, two or three other families arrived almost at the same time. Frances Kay carried her two-year old on her hip and ushered two slightly older girls before her, loudly announcing that she'd been fooled into buying a large party of blueberry pies.
"So no need for more desserts," she assured them. "We've got enough for everyone."
"Tell that to the poor mothers who had to drag their whole coolers out here," Deborah McCabe nodded. "They won't be happy."
The flyer that had arrived in Derek's inbox this spring had stated that all attending families were each to bring something to eat for everybody, and snacks, barbecue and desserts had been evenly distributed between the attendees.
"I guess we'll be stuck with those pies for weeks, then," Frances sighed, putting her shoulder bag down and shifting her son on her hip. "The girls are happy now, but they'll grow tired of it the day after tomorrow, trust me."
"Gee, I wish that someone got me a large box of dessert pies," the third mother, Louise Scott, commented. Her daughter, Hannah, was about Josie's age and almost as shy. Last year, they'd tried to get the two of them to play together, but it had proved hard since neither of them had been taking any initiative. Derek wondered if today would be any different.
In just a few moments, the children had scattered somewhat, spreading out on the field to play with each other, or just to explore their surroundings. Derek felt strangely safe letting Jennie and Josie run around without constantly checking on them. Even if this was a public place, they had reserved the picnic area for this afternoon and the fact that he'd met these people only one time or less didn't make him doubt his trust in them.
"I'm so glad you're back," Louise told Meredith, sitting down next to them at the table they shared with Al. Her husband was crouched before Hannah, fixing something with her chair and talking quietly to her. "Did Jennie have a good time last year?"
"She had a blast," Meredith replied and smiled. "She's been talking about it ever since, and she was so excited to come here today that she made me change her outfit three times."
"Mom, the food," Louise's oldest son, Tom, reminded her. "Did everyone come yet?" he asked, looking around. Derek wasn't sure of his age, but thought he might be about 16 or 17.
"I think people will still be dropping in," Derek said. "But most of the kids are out there playing. What do you say we start up some game in a little bit?"
"Yeah, Tom, take Brian and get the younger kids together," Louise urged. "Hannah, go with your brothers."
Hannah shook her head, but her dad, Roger, took a grip of her wheelchair. "Let's go out there and see what they're doing," he said, turning Hannah's chair around. "I'll be back to help you with the food, ok?" he added to his wife, who nodded and waved at Hannah.
"Is Josie with you today?" she asked, watching as her husband wheeled Hannah towards the field.
"Yeah, she is," Derek confirmed. "I made her go out there but I have no idea what she's doing. I hope she and Hannah find each other this year."
"Hannah has a hard time finding friends," Louise commented. "She just won't go up to other children, and well, they kind of ignores her in school. I don't really know how to help her."
"We've had the same problem with Josie," Meredith told her. "It has gotten a lot better though. Now she has a couple of friends that she sticks to, but meeting new people always makes her uncomfortable."
To their joy, they'd seen Josie's friendship with Alice blossom. Derek thought it hard to find two more different girls, but somehow they seemed to balance each other out very well, and together with Alice, he'd seen Josie laugh and joke and live up like few times else. She played occasionally with two other girls in her class as well, even if Derek suspected that those were friendships that Alice originally had struck up.
Standing up, he left Meredith to tell Louise how they'd worked with Josie to help her succeed and strolled over to the shadow of the tree, where two of the other dads were standing talking to each other.
"Hey," one of them addressed him, a thin, tall man whose hairline was beginning to creep up and who Derek thought was named Peter. "You were here last year, right?"
"Yeah," Derek nodded. "Last year was our first. It's a good group."
"It is," Peter agreed. "Our Katie benefits a lot from these activities.
"It's a welcome break, meeting like this," James, a young man with shoulder-long brown hair and a tiny baby sleeping wrapped up in a kiddy carrier against his chest, said. "Everyone's pretty busy, with surgeries and therapies, and working to make sure the bills are paid. So this is nice."
"Did Eric have his hip surgery yet?" Peter asked.
"He did. The doctors were unsure of how much it would help him, but so far, we think he's been getting stronger and more mobile." James glanced over at the little spot only a few yards away, where the youngest children had been placed, sitting on blankets and babbling to each other. "It was a nuisance though, the surgery and the aftercare. Took a lot out of us."
"Katie did her third shunt replacement a couple of months ago," Peter told them. "No hip surgery so far, but they've been talking about scheduling something for her bowel in the near future."
"M-hm," James shook his head sympathetically. "Not looking forward to that one either. What about your daughter?" he said, turning to Derek. "How old is she again?"
"She's six," Derek replied and smiled. "She had to change her shunt a few years ago, but that's actually it so far."
He felt it strange to stand here and talk about surgeries so totally out of the medical and professional context he was used to. He wasn't sure these men knew he was a doctor, even less a neurosurgeon, and it was a little uncomfortable admitting to them that he was. This was a place for parents and patients to let out their frustrations on their medical care, compare treatments, and talk about it from their perspective. He suspected that it would create a tension among them if they knew he did surgeries like this for a living. He did, however, found it utterly rewarding listening to their conversation. It was a world doctors never had access to.
He stood by a little while longer, pitching comments when asked directly, but actively avoiding taking a greater part in the conversation. Just as James and Peter were laying out the pros and cons for different braces – a discussion he actually could take part in since it didn't really have to do with his profession – someone pulled his hand from behind. He turned around and found Jennie standing there, a bit of mud caked onto the leg of her left sneaker. She'd gotten out of the wheelchair but didn't seem to wobble much, like she sometimes would do if she'd been walking a long time unassisted.
"Hey," he said, reaching forward to remove a small twig stuck in her hair. "Are you having fun?"
"Yeah," she breathed, but had already shifted her attention to the men beside him. "Hi," she said after a brief consideration, looking at James.
"Hi there," he nodded.
"Has your ey-bee a wheelchair too?"
James smiled a little. "No, the baby hasn't. But my other son does. Did you meet Eric?"
"Is in a wheelchair?" she questioned, gesturing loosely to the field. Derek followed her fingers and saw that most of the children had gathered. There was no way he could tell which one was Eric; there were several little boys, some of them wheeling around and some of them leaning on a walker while waiting for Tom to instruct them.
"Can he walk?" Jennie wanted to know.
They'd talked to both her and Josie before this day, wanting them to know a little of what to expect. Even within the same diagnosis, things looked quite different from child to child, and what Jennie and Josie knew wouldn't necessarily match the situations that these children here were living in. So they'd told them that some children would walk and others would use their wheelchairs, and that some would have crutches or walkers.
"No, he doesn't walk," James replied. "He needs his wheelchair to get around."
"I haf wheelchair too," Jennie nodded. "And I walk too."
"Hey, Jennie." Derek placed his hand on her shoulder, turning her a little towards him. "What are you doing out there?"
"We pway pag!" Jennie exclaimed.
"What do... Ah, you play tag. Well, are you the tagger?"
"No, no," Jennie shook her head, and then bit her lip when she remembered why she'd come in the first place. "Daddy, where Mommy?"
"I think she's over there, talking to the other mommies," Derek said. "Do you need her?"
"Yeah, I need my mommy."
"Come on, I'll take you." Derek nodded apologetically at James and Peter and grabbed Jennie's hand as they walked past the grill, where most people had put their coolers and bags. "What do you need Mommy for?"
She hesitated, then looked down on the ground. "I got wet," she told him finally, so quietly that he had to strain his ears. He stopped and crouched down before her to inspect her clothing. She was right; her shorts did have a darkened stain down its right leg. It could have been a simple water spill, but he suspected she wouldn't be embarrassed like this if it was.
"Did you feel it, Bug?" he asked, astonished. They tried to work with her to take regular breaks, but even though she had become quite good at reminding them herself when they were on their daily routine, interesting things like games had a way of making her forget it. He'd never heard her say that she felt the need of going. If she really had felt herself going wet this time, it was a huge step.
She shook her head, though. "Oh-sie telled me."
"Ok," Derek said. "That's ok, Jen. You want me to take you to change?"
"I want Mommy."
"Ok, then," Derek said, trying to pretend he didn't care that she so obviously chose Meredith over him. It was probably just as it should be. She was getting older and lately they'd both observed that she preferred Meredith in some situations. It was still somewhat ok that he helped her dress at home, but for showering and to some extent also the bathroom visits, she usually wanted Meredith, especially when they were out somewhere.
Meredith was still sitting down at one of the larger tables in the middle of the area, now accompained not only by Louise but also by a couple of other women that Derek didn't think he'd met last year. She was smiling politely and nodding at the other women's chattering, but didn't seem to do a lot of input herself.
"Meredith," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder and catching her eye. "Jennie needs you."
"What happened?" Meredith asked. She stood up, pulling down her top that had eased up a little and looked questioningly at Derek.
"Just a little accident. We've got a change of clothes, right?"
She nodded. "It's in the large bag. She wants me to do it?"
"Yeah."
She smiled at him and quickly stroked his arm as if she knew he did feel a little overseen, despite his best intentions. She slung the bag over her shoulder and sat down in front of Jennie, who had let go of Derek's hand before they reached the table and was standing a little bit aside, still not looking at anyone.
"Hey," Meredith said gently. "What do you say you and I go to the bathroom real quick? Then you can go back to playing."
"Mommy, you don't tell," Jennie mumbled.
"I won't tell," Meredith promised. "But accidents happen, sweetie. I bet it did happen to almost all of the others here one time or another."
"I want my chair," Jennie said without commenting.
"You're tired?" Meredith asked.
"I not show."
Derek watched as Meredith helped Jennie into her chair and pushed her over the grass onto the walkway where Jennie could wheel herself. He hoped Meredith would manage to cheer her up so that she could enjoy the rest of the day without feeling bad about what happened.
"Oh, Derek," Louise called from the table, waving him over and motioning for him to take Meredith's seat. "I just remembered, I have some photos from last year still on my cell."
She reached down for the red bag that stood leaned against the table leg and rummaged through it until she came back up with an iPhone in a blue leathercase. She turned on the screen and scrolled through her pictures until she found the right one and held it out for Derek to see. They'd been sent some pictures though the website after last year's picnic, and they'd taken some of their own as well, but he'd never seen these. Jennie grinned at him from the photo, sitting at his shoulders and holding on to the sides of her head. Josie stood next to him, her right hand on Jennie's foot and her other one showing a victory sign. She was looking slightly upwards at Jennie and without any of the reservation her smiles usually held.
"There's more," Louise told him. "Just browse them."
The following picture showed Jennie and Josie in front of the fire they'd lit when the day crept over in night and the sun started to set. Josie sat with her back against a large tree and Jennie sat in the gap between her wide-stretched legs, leaning against her. The light from the fire made the shadows dance in their faces, both looking a little sleepy after a full day with new people and exciting activities. He browsed through the rest of them; they were surprisingly good and really mirroring the happiness of that day.
"Very good ones," he said honestly. "We didn't take any like those." He returned the phone to Louise and smiled at her. "You're a photographer?"
"Oh, no," she said, laughing a little. "Only have years of practice taking our kids pictures. Especially with Hannah." She shrugged. "You'd think with the third child it would kinda feel a little old, taking pictures of all those first times. Only it isn't with Hannah, you know?"
Derek knew what she meant. Josie's firsts had also been their firsts; whatever she did, Meredith and him wouldn't have experienced it with another child before. It was times to be captured and remembered. A second child's firsts, though unique in their own, would probably not have that same glory. With Jennie, however, they'd learned not to expect things to happen by a certain schedule, if at all. And when they did happen, the joy was another, even if Derek couldn't quite pinpoint the difference. Some of her firsts were different, too; learning to steer her wheelchair, her first sign, figuring out how to catheterize. Sometimes Derek felt these victories bigger than anything Josie would ever learn. Sometimes he merely thought of them as bittersweet.
A/N - So, now we've seen some animal interaction (I mean, who wouldn't want a monkey for a pet?) and some human interactions with new people as well. This was the most natural breaking point, so the chapter will just pick up again in the next part.