A/N: I quite liked writing this chapter!
November wore into December, with the weather bringing grey skies and a constant presence of either rain or snow. It was miserable, but typical for Pittsburgh at that time of year.
JJ had had her long cast changed to a shorter cast that finished below her knee, meaning not only was her mobility much improved, her mood was as well. Add to that, her grandmother was staying with them until the New Year, and while she could get on Sandy's nerves a little, JJ loved having her around.
"Here Mom, do you want the crosswords?" Sandy asked as she pulled a section of the newspaper out and leaned over towards her mom. It was a rainy Saturday afternoon, with dark storm clouds rolling constantly overhead. JJ had taken up residence on the couch by the window, alternating between scrolling through her phone and watching the raindrops hammer against the glass relentlessly. Her mom and grandma had joined her a little while earlier after spending the morning baking to use up some fruits that were about to go bad.
"Thanks hon," Nandy replied with a smile, taking the leaf of paper from her daughter's hand before turning to face JJ. "Who are you texting so relentlessly over there?"
JJ looked up, her cheeks turning a light shade of pink as she bit back a smile. "Um... it's Will"
Nandy chuckled. "You're very head over heels my girl. But that's ok. He treats you like a queen, as he so well should, so no surprises he's got you hook line and sinker"
Sandy laughed as JJ's blush deepened. "Leave her alone Mom"
"I'm just teasing JJ. But you know what, if you've landed a guy who treats you like that, looks like that, and understands what you do, all you need is for him to be good in bed and you've got the whole package"
At this point, JJ felt like her face was the same colour as a tomato. "Uh... sure?"
Nandy grinned while Sandy shook her head in defeat. "Your face tells me all I need to know. Good catch, JJ. Life is too short to be having bad sex"
"Mom!"
"What? It's a fact of life!" Nandy exclaimed to a bewildered Sandy.
"I know, but that doesn't mean I need to know about it!"
"Oh, the same way I didn't need to know about it but still caught you in the barn with John Albury when you were sixteen?"
JJ's eyes widened as her mouth formed into a grin. "Mom!"
Sandy looked completely lost. "I... it was hot! We didn't have air conditioning, we were trying to find a place to cool down-"
"It was the middle of winter, San, and you were both butt naked"
JJ burst out laughing. "Good grief Mom, sex in a barn in winter in Vermont?"
"Look, I never said all of my decisions were good decisions," Sandy replied dryly.
Nandy and JJ laughed, JJ flopping back against the cushions as her grandmother came to sit beside her.
"Your mom went out one night with her friends to a grunge concert-"
"Grunge? Mom, I don't even know you," JJ laughed. Sandy shot her mother a look, but instead of being scolding, JJ could definitely see the amusement in her eyes.
"When she came home, she stank of booze and cigarettes, but the most telling thing about the night she'd had was the fact that her shirt was on inside out and her jeans were just barely done up," Nandy said with a gleeful grin. "I knew straightaway exactly what she had been up to"
"Look, I'm more discreet than that," JJ replied, looking pointedly at her mother.
"I do have to give JJ that, she has been very discreet. If you hadn't told me you and Will were sleeping together when you did, I wouldn't have thought you were... other than the fact that you've now been together for over a year and you're both still teenagers with hormones," Sandy replied with a grin.
"As long as that boy is gloving it up," Nandy said, quirking an eyebrow at her granddaughter. "Because if he knocks you up before the next Olympics, he'll regret every decision he's ever made"
JJ bit her lip. "Well... I'm on the pill?"
Sandy looked up from the paper, her expression hardening. "JJ... that's not exactly being one hundred percent safe. You know I was on the pill when I had you, don't you?"
"I know, I know, we just... get carried away," JJ admitted, blushing.
"Your dad and I never worried about protection," Nandy said loudly.
"How the hell am I an only child?" Sandy replied with a laugh. "What did you do, rely on God's intervening hand to stop you getting pregnant? Or did you just have sex the one time?"
"Oh god no, we were like rabbits-"
"Oh my god, Nandy, stop!" JJ shrieked, bursting out laughing as Sandy slapped her newspaper down on the couch and buried her face in her hands.
"What? There's no shame in sex! Humans were made to procreate. Take advantage of your young teenage sex drive, JJ, it dries up as you get older"
Laughing too hard to be embarrassed, JJ was practically folded in two on the couch, while across from her, her mom was in very much the same position. "Nandy, you're a loose cannon"
"I just speak the truth," Nandy said flatly, grinning at her granddaughter.
"The truth about what?"
All three ladies looked up to see Michael standing in the doorway, a bag of groceries clutched in his left hand.
"You don't wanna know," Sandy laughed, getting up from where she was sitting and heading over to him. Moments later, the two of them had disappeared to the kitchen, leaving JJ and her grandmother alone in the lounge room. Nandy turned to face JJ, a mischievous grin lighting up her face.
"Your mom was a wild child. You're a good girl. But don't stop yourself from having a little fun every now and then"
JJ chuckled, nodding in agreement. "I promise I won't"
|jareaumanar|
Ok gymternet! The time is near to ring in the new year, and I wanna know what your 2014 gymnastics predictions, wants and dreams are! I'll go first to kick it off:
Predictions:
Larisa Iordache will win AA gold at Worlds
Simone will win floor again
JJ will win beam again because DUH!
Kyla will go to Worlds again because she's a BOSS
China will come close to the USA in the team final, but the USA will win.
Aliya Mustafina will pull out a million random upgrades and win the world title on bars
Wants and dreams:
JJ to medal in the AA at worlds – but then I also want Kyla to medal and I'm fairly certain Simone should be in the AA, so I can't DECIDEEEEEE
JJ to do an Amanar so my Tumblr name stops being a made up thing. And if she does do it, I'm refusing to call it an Amanar, it's gonna be the Jareaumanar
Kyla to win bars gold – it's not impossible but with the bars field coming up this year, she's gonna need to upgrade a lot to get there
Romania to win bronze – PLEASE GYM GODS, PLEASE
Alyssa Baumann and Ashton Locklear to make national team
Maddie Kocian to be HEALTHY
Aly to come back
|tkatchevmeifyoucan|
Not to be US centric, bc y'all know I love Russian gymnastics, but seriously... these US girls are finding their way into my heart and refusing to get out. I want ALL the good things for JJ, especially since she went down with that broken leg. Like she's just so sweet and pure, I can't even? I want her to win literally everything because she's a gorgeous little snowflake and I want the world for her
Also she's literally like three years older than me yet I see her as my child I must protect
|korbutflip|
PRAYER CIRCLE FOR JJ'S LEG, THAT BONE WILL HAVE THE STRENGTH OF A THOUSAND MEN
|catalinaponors|
I also want all the good things for JJ. I also just really want Simone to go back to back in the AA. But I also want Larisa to win. So the only way I can have what I want is for them to have the same D and E scores on every event and score the same and finish with the same total so they tie and the WTC can't break the tie bc fuck Nellie Kim.
Totally doable!
|layoutfull|
I think this year we're really going to see JJ come into her own as a leader. This year we have a team competition at worlds, and if she's competing, she's going to be the oldest and most experienced gymnast on the team. I can't wait to see how this builds her as an athlete because her growth last year was fucking awesome. I think she's going to be a much stronger leader than we would have anticipated.
|jareaumanar|
This slowly morphed into a Jennifer Jareau appreciation thread and I have absolutely no problems with that
|simonanar|
Does she have Tumblr?
|korbutflip|
She does, I know she sometimes lurks on the gym tags. Pretty funny actually.
|simonanar|
If you see this JJ, I just want you to know that your boyfriend is hot as f*ck
|jareaumanar|
*snorts*