When Kate had told her to choose anywhere in the world for them to go on their first family holiday and Jo had chosen Disneyland she probably should have been more clear that she meant in Paris. You know, the place you could get to on a train? But Kate had been so excited when she had bounded in to the living room with an excitable Josh after his football training and told her that the three of them would be spending a fortnight in Orlando. How on earth was she meant to approach the topic that Joanne Davidson HATED flying?
Sure, she hadn't had an awful lot of flying experience. She had flown from Scotland in to England or Ireland and her mum had taken her to Tenerife once when she was 5 but she was too young to really remember that. It wasn't Kate's fault, she wasn't to know, but instead of the excitement she should be experiencing before her first family holiday with her girlfriend and (she supposes) step-son, all she can think of is the intense fear of spending 9 hours in the air with no control over her surroundings.
She plastered a smile on her face every time the holiday was discussed, and voluntarily took Josh out to buy his holiday clothes without any Kate supervision. The unlikely pair laughed their way through the stores, with Josh picking up outfit choices that Jo could only describe as crimes against fashion and her gently prompting him in the right direction. The day had been fairly successful overall, and the smitten look on Kate's face as they came through the front door laughing with eachother filled her with such overwhelming joy.
They'd ordered a takeaway that night, and did some serious theme park planning. She learned that Kate was an adrenaline junkie and couldn't wait to go on anything fast and that Josh would be fine as long as the ride didn't feature water. Jo didn't push for any more information, but when her girlfriend circled her arms around her waist in bed that night she told her of the unfortunate experience Josh had on a log flume a few years prior and it suddenly made sense. 'See Joanne' her inner voice chastised as she started to drift in to slumber, 'at least the boy has a RATIONAL reason for his fear'.
The week leading up to the trip had gone fairly quickly. Josh had gone to spend some time with Mark before they went away and both Jo and Kate took the opportunity to bask in the domestic bliss they had created for themselves. They had cosy nights in and binge watched the most recent series of Great British Bake Off. They shared baths, washed eachothers hair with their favourite shampoos and talked late in to the night about the impending trip and things they couldn't wait to do together in the future. Jo thought it would ease some of the panic. It didn't.
It was 4am when they arrived at the airport on the morning of the holiday and in all the excitement from Josh and the relaxed happiness that Kate appeared to have settled in to they don't seem to be noticing Jo's internal turmoil. She had waited until her 2 travel companions had been fast asleep last night before quietly reopening the suitcases and triple checking that they really had packed everything. She had only gotten an hour before the alarms blared in both bedrooms and she hoped more than anything that she would sleep through at least half of the flight as a result.
At 6.30 am they boarded the plane and Jo's knuckles were white as she gripped the handle of her carry on bag. Kate glanced at their tickets. "We're all in the same row, we just have 2 on one side of the aisle and one on the other" and before Kate could say anything further on the matter, Josh gripped Jo's free hand in his and proudly proclaimed that his mum would have to sit alone. Jo released a breath that she hadn't realised she was holding and her girlfriend playfully rolled her eyes with a comment that she had been demoted in her only child's life once more. Josh stuck his tongue out at his mum playfully and for the first time that morning Jo felt her body relax slightly.
Josh kept a grip on her hand for the rest of the walk down the tunnel and boarding the plane, and Jo couldn't bear to say no to him when he asked if he could take the aisle seat so that he could be close to his mum too. He continued to hold her hand all through the safety briefing and Jo hadn't noticed that she had tightened her grip as the aircraft started to speed up the runway. "Are you okay Jojo? You're holding my hand really tight." The concern in Josh's voice and eyes warmed her heart.
"I'm okay love, aeroplanes just scare me a little bit. I didn't hurt you did I?" Jo spoke quietly, hoping to not draw too much attention to the situation from Kate in the other row. She felt a reassuring squeeze of her hand and watched as a new determination washed over the young Lad's face. All of a sudden he was rummaging in his bag and Jo waited to see what he was up to. In the small gap between their seats he placed a bag of hard boiled sweets, his air pods that Jo had brought him for his birthday the month before, his favourite book and his Nintendo switch.
"So we can't really use the electronics while we are taking off because of the stupid rules but when I was little mum taught me that sucking on a hard sweet was good for stopping your ears popping when the plane is taking off" Josh explained as he offered out the bag towards her, delighted when she eagerly accepted. He threw one across the aisle to Kate who shot him an encouraging wink to continue. "What I can do though is read my book. I can read it out loud if I do it quietly Jo, it might help distract you?"
Just when she thought that she couldn't possibly start to love the child next to her any more, she felt her heart grow another size bigger. The care and compassion that the young man showed was one of the few traits she knew for sure was the work of his mother. She relaxed back in to her seat slightly as Josh quietly read the opening chapter to The Maze Runner out loud. She turned her body slightly towards him and he looked up at her briefly to offer a reassuring smile.
She didn't remember closing her eyes, and she definitely didn't remember falling asleep. She woke to Kate stood beside her stroking her hair and she didn't think there was anything or anyone she would rather see when she first opened her eyes. "Hey there, sleepy head" Kate smiled lovingly down at her, "do you feel any better?"Jo took a quick glance to her left, finally feeling the weight on her left shoulder and saw that Josh had joined her in her slumber.
"How long was I out?" She asked, sharing a brief kiss with Kate who continued to run her fingers through Jo's hair. She was taking an elongated drink from her water bottle when Kate calmly informed her they were 3 hours in to their flight. She choked slightly." 3 hours?!" she repeated, causing her partner to laugh.
"Yeah, neither of you are very good company! Lucky my seat buddy supports Notts and was willing to entertain me for a couple of hours. I only woke you up because I haven't seen you eat anything today, do you think you could stomach something now?"
Jo realised that during her slumber the anxious butterflies that had taken up residence in the pit of her stomach had disappeared and replaced with hunger. Nodding her head in answer to her girlfriends question, she pulls Kate down for another kiss. "I love you both so much, you know that?" and she turns to place a kiss on her sleeping step-son's forehead, making him stir from his slumber slightly.
"We both love you too" Kate reassured, and Jo knew that there wasn't much she wouldn't be able to achieve when she was with her family.