Chapter 7

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I only own the daughter 'cause I made her up

Winnie looked at Jesse and then at her daughter. This wasn't how she imagined breaking the news to him. She had hoped to find him first, talk to him for a while break into the news that he was a daddy, had been for quite some while, very gently.

Yeah, fate was having fun at her expense. Instead she walked over to her daughter and grabbed her hand at the same time hissing "Mae!". Her daughter looked at her, and shrugged her shoulders. "What? It's not like he wouldn't have found out later."

Jesse was still staring at from his understanding, his daughter, and the girl he loved for almost a century. He would have to be blind not to notice the resemblance between the two girls, he would have figured them for sisters if he had 't been called dad and Winnie mom.

But he noticed that she had both of her parents blue eyes and his lips that he could see. He was caught off guard when he saw Mae stare straight into his eyes. Hers seemed to be saying 'Hurt my mother and I'll break your legs."

Mae untangled her fingers from her mother's bone crushing grip and patted her shoulder. "I'm gonna go stand somewhere over there while you two talk things out." And both her parents watched as she walked off into the clearing.
Jesse and Winnie looked at each other awkwardly. He fidgeted by bouncing on the balls of his feet and she by playing with a strand of hair that had escaped her ponytail.

He cleared his throat and watched as her eyes found their way to his face. "So, I'm...I'm a, uh, father?" He questioned as he looked over at Mae who was presently yelling a tree root for tripping her. He briefly wondered if she was what you called 'special'.

Winnie nodded her head. "And a, uh, grandfather."

If it were possible his eyes got even huger than before. Winnie had to fight a smile that wanted to break out and let him continue trying de- fogging his brain as he thought about being a father and grandfather.

She looked him over. His hair was still the same as it was the last time she saw him. He looked the same and yet not at the same time. The leather jacket she liked very much. But he also seemed to have an air about him that suggests that he knew more than most people his age.

Which was true considering the real age he told her last time.
While Jesse tried to de-fog his brain, he let his eyes make an inventory of Winnie. She looked so different. She looked a little older, college kid like. Her hair was no longer the same length it had once been, it was now shoulder length.

"So why did you put up a tombstone?" He asked. He really wanted an answer. When he had first set eyes on it, he felt his heart stop and the entire air whoosh out of his lungs. He felt like his legs hadn't been able to support him anymore.

She cast a quick look at the stone surrounded by flowers. "Oh, um, that was my parents idea. They said that if I put up a stone that I would be officially dead and I could start a new life over with a new name without breaking any laws. Which I don't get." She said as she shrugged her shoulders.

He looked over the stone again and noticed the date. "Why did you wait so long for you to 'die'?" he gave a puzzled look at her.

Winnie threw a hand over her mouth and gave a giggle. "I had forgotten that I had commissioned one a couple of years back and the company that I bought if from were cleaning out their store and they came across it. So I made up a story saying that she just passed away two days ago and thank you very much for finding it."

Winnie opened her mouth to say more but were interrupted by Mae, "Mom!!"

Both of them turned and watched as their daughter came out of the woods clearing, an annoyed expression on her face.

Winnie rushed up to her, concern on her face as she reached her daughter. "What? What is it? What's wrong?"

"This butt-munch won't put down the gun. And he won't let me talk to tell him who I am." She said sourly as she jabbed a thumb in the direction behind her.

As Jesse walked forward he heard Winnie asking Mae "Butt-munch? What are you six?"

He gave a smile at her comment and at the person that was holding the old time gun. "Miles, put the gun down."

Mae and Winnie watched as Miles walked out of the clearing and lowered but didn't put down the gun. "Jesse." He said as he nodded his head in greeting.

"You know this girl." He said as he pointed the gun in Mae's direction. Mae barley controlled the impulse to stick her tongue out at him.

"Yeah, I do and you know her mother." Miles looked quickly and saw Winnie. "You." Winnie narrowed her eyes. "Yes, me. Nice to see you again too." She shot back her tone just a little hurt. She figured after all this time that he might have warmed up to her and if not her then the thought of her. Guess not.

"She's your daughter?" Winnie nodded and then shared a mischievous smile with her daughter. "Yes, she's my daughter....and your niece."

This time the gun was dropped as he looked back and fourth between Jesse and Winnie. He cast an angry glare in Jesse direction. "Ma and Tuck aren't gonna be happy with you." He told him a controlled voice.

Jesse could tell that Miles didn't know whether to be shocked or angry or happy or a whole lot of emotions that he hadn't felt in along time.

"Are they with you? Tuck and Ma Tuck?" Winnie asked. Miles shook his head yes. He had left the family at a hotel while he went to check on the spring and that's when he found Mae reaching for it.

"I left them at a hotel in town." Winnie and Mae jumped up and down and asked which one and Miles told them.

"Good I can't wait for them to meet their granddaughter and then to introduce them to their great grandkids." She called over her shoulder as she and Mae headed to their car and to the hotel that hosted the rest of their family.
The End.

Well let me know if you hate the end and I'll try to fix it to were I think you might like it. Or you could give me ideas and I could use them.

Any way I hope you liked it.