I DO NOT OWN ANYONE OR ANYTHING IN THIS STORY BESIDES THE OC'S.
The Next Saturday- Day of the NKOTB Concert- Dawn's Point of View-
Shannon has been staying the night at my house for the past couple of weeks helping me with Jazmine, we have took turns staying the night in her room with her sleeping in the bed we made on the ground next to her bed or we slept out on the couch cuddled in each others embrace. He's also been helping me figure out the whole insurance issue and how Amy's funeral is going to be paid for. I woke up this morning with my head resting on Shannon's lap with his hand half way through my hair.
"MOMMY!" Jazmine screamed from her room, I sat up allowing Shannon's hand go rest of the way through my hair, I walked back to Jazmine's room seeing her sitting up on her bed.
"Morning sweetie." I said as I picked her up carrying her out to the living room setting her on the couch next to Shannon.
"Morning mommy, Shannon not awake yet." She said looking at Shannon.
"He had a late night last night." I said kissing the top of her head.
"May I help you cook him breakfast?" She asked.
"Sure." I said picking her back up carrying her out to the kitchen setting her down on the counter. "What should we make him?"
"French Toast and eggs!" She said.
"You like that wouldn't you?" I asked, she smiled and nodded, I pulled out the ingredients for French toast and the eggs, I then pulled out the bowls and pans needed, I lit the stove setting the pans down on it. "You want to crack an egg?" I asked, I handed her the egg, "Careful now." I said holding onto her hand helping her crack the egg and pouring it into the one pan. "Scrambled?"
"Scrambled!" She said excitedly, I started scrambling it then poured it onto one big plate before I started cooking the toast.
"Set the bread in the bowl." I said handing her a slice of bread, she dropped the bread down into the batter then I flipped it over getting both sides covered with the batter, I then set it down on the other pan.
"Flip?" She asked.
"You want to flip it, you sure?" I asked putting an hand on my hip.
"I'm three mommy, I could do it!" She said giggling.
"Alright." I said, I handed her the spatula helping her flip the toast and she was so proud of it, we finished making the French toast, I set some eggs and a slice of the French toast on a zoo pal plate for her putting it in her high chair, I then carried her over to the chair setting her down she dug in with her one hand, she was able to eat with the one hand she had which amazed me. I made Shannon and I a plate, I poured Jazmine a sippy cup giving it to her. I walked out to the living room walking up to Shannon grabbing his leg giving it a shake.
"Huh? What?" Shannon asked his eyes opening a little bit at a time.
"Morning, breakfast is ready." I said.
"I'm up." He said sitting forward running his hands through his hair.
"We still on for tonight?" I asked plopping down next to him wrapping my arms around his arm resting my head against his shoulder.
"Yeah, we're still on, what's for breakfast?" He asked looking over at me.
"French toast and scrambled eggs." I said smiling.
"Yummy." He said, I stood up pulling him up walking out to the kitchen seeing Jazmine half way done with her food.
"You were hungry, huh?" I asked scooting down in the seat next to her.
"Mm hmm." She said nodding as she took another bite of her French toast as Shannon and I begun eating ours. "What time is aunt Tahlia and uncle Gregory going to be here?" Jazmine asked eating at her eggs.
"No idea pumpkin." Shannon said.
"What time is the concert?" I asked taking a bite of my French toast.
"7." Shannon answered.
"What do you want to do today Jazmine?" I asked.
"Park?" She asked.
"You won't be able to run around though, plus sand will get into your casts." I said.
"Mommy, please?" She whined as a knock came to the door.
"Who will be here at this time?" Shannon asked, I stood up from my chair heading to the door, Shannon picked Jazmine up from her chair carrying her out with him, I opened the door to see Tahlia and Gregory.
"Hey guys, what are you guys doing here this early?" I asked.
"We figured we wanted to spend the whole day with our little princess." Gregory said taking Jazmine from Shannon's grip.
"You sure you want to take her for the whole day?" I asked.
"We got the whole day planned, we are going to go to the zoo, then the aquarium, maybe we'll go to the pier." Gregory said slightly bouncing her.
"Don't bounce her, she just ate." Shannon said.
"Oh, we don't want you getting sick now do we?" Gregory asked lightly scratching at her stomach.
"May I mommy?" Jazmine asked.
"Are you sure?" I asked nervously shifting my weight onto my one foot and interlocking my hands together.
"Yes, we offered to take her for the day, it'll give you guys some time to rest up before the show tonight, by the way have fun." Tahlia said smiling.
"I'll try, come in so I could get you some things for Jazmine." I said, they walked in and Gregory sat on the floor with Jazmine playing with Lego's and animal figures with her. Tahlia walked back to Jazmine's room with me as I packed an overnight bag for her.
"How you holding up?" Tahlia asked leaning against Jazmine's dresser.
"I'm getting better, I don't cry every time Amy is brought up, I know Shannon is hurting on the inside, I think when the funeral gets here it will really get to him." I said glancing up at her.
"Yeah, Shannon's not much for talking about his feelings, I think tonight will help him get his mind off it as well." Tahlia said.
"I hope so, I hope this is something for the better, I can't thank you enough for this, taking time out of your anniversary to watch Jazmine to allow us to go to the concert." I said as I zipped up her bag.
"No problem sweetie, we love little Jazmine, she's family. Plus, the Hardy's are asking when they get to see her."
"Well those darn Hardy's better get their butt's down here and see her." I said getting us both to giggle because I added attitude to the sentence.
"They might be down here for the funeral, when I went back up to North Carolina without Shannon they were asking about Shannon and Jazmine, I explained everything to them, they want a picture to make sure she is okay." Tahlia said.
"Jeez…" I said rolling my eyes, I handed her the bag and she carried it out to the car she had, I grabbed Shannon's cell phone off the stand next to the couch to take a picture of Jazmine.
"Hey, that's my phone!" Shannon said.
"I know, I'm just doing you a favor. Jazmine, look at mommy." I said as I zoomed in snapping a photo of Jazmine with a wide smile on her face sitting on the ground holding her cow figure tightly in her hand. I sent the picture to Jeff and Matt's phone handing the phone to Shannon, "It's time to get dressed Jazmine." I said bending down picking up my daughter.
"May I wear a dress mommy?" She asked.
"Sure, what dress you want to wear?" I asked carrying her back to her room.
"Sunflower." She said smiling, I set her down on her bed looking for her sunflower dress changing her into her sunflower dress.
"Do you want to wear your sunflower hat?" I asked pulling out the hat.
"No, bad hair." She said.
"It gives you bad hair huh?" I asked getting down on my knees, she nodded her head, I leant back barely reaching her brush pulling it off her dresser. "Your hair is so pretty." I said brushing out her hair.
"Thanks mommy, so is yours." She said looking at me with her big blue eyes getting me to smile, I don't know what I would of done if she would of passed on as well.
"I love you." I said as I leant forward kissing her forehead.
"I love you too mommy." She said, I felt tears sting my eyes wrapping my arms around her holding her in my embrace as I felt her arms trying to creep around me as best she could but couldn't because of the weight of the cast, just the thought that I almost lost her and not being able to hear her say those words to me or being able to say those words to her, being able to wake up to 'Morning mommy,' tucking her in to bed saying 'Night mommy, I love you,' being able to dress her, chase her around the house, doing her hair, or anything again could have been taken away from me. I let go of her leaning back on my legs looking at my daughter. "Mommy, why are you crying?" Jazmine asked curiously.
"I'm crying from happiness." I said wiping my eyes.
"Why do you cry when your happy?"
"Sometimes you just cry when your happy, it's way better than crying when sad."
"Why are you so happy?"
"Because I have you still here with me sweetie." I said wiping the tears from my eyes.
"I'm always here mommy." She said getting me smile bigger and let a few more tears go.
"I know, hearing you say I love you really touched me." I said as I went back to brushing her hair.
"I love you mommy, you're the best mommy." Jazmine said.
"Thanks Jazmine, I love you too." I said as I set the brush down next to her, "Your ready to go, your going to have fun today." I said standing up picking her up and she snuggled to my embrace, I carried her out to the living room.
"That's a pretty dress." Shannon said.
"Thank you." Jazmine said sheepishly.
"You ready to go?" Gregory asked, Jazmine nodded.
"Bye Jazmine, behave and I love you." I said hugging her tighter to my embrace kissing her forehead.
"I love you too mommy." Jazmine said, Shannon walked over grasping her before I handed her off to Gregory, he hugged her tightly to his embrace before Gregory took her, I waved good bye as he carried her out to the car, I watched as they pulled out of the driveway heading out to the main street, Shannon wrapped his arm around me.
"Well, our day is free." I said looking over at him.
"That it is, what are you going to do?" Shannon asked.
"I'm going to go take a nap." I said.
"That sounds good."
"Would you mind if I slept in my room? It's not that I don't like you or anything."
"It's cool." Shannon said, I slowly walked to my room shutting the door to leave a crack in the door just to hear what goes on out in the living room, I climbed onto my bed looking up at the ceiling thinking about the night of the crash and how Eric came to the hospital even though we were broken up, he must still care if he showed up to see how Jazmine was or some type of feeling, but it was Jazmine not me. I reached over to my house phone that I had hooked up in my room picking it up about to dial Eric's number but I don't know what to say or if I'm ready to talk to him. I set the phone back down thinking about how I should go about talking to him, I got to talk to him at some point considering we work at the same company and I'm a photographer, I'm going to have to work with him and be civil. I'll worry about that later. I set my alarm clock to wake me up at 5 PM in case I'm not up, which I should be, I don't know why I shouldn't be up by that time, I laid there staring at the ceiling until I fell asleep.