Author Note: I just was kind of unsure where to fit this little headcanon of mine in I had written it to happen early on but ah what they hey I'm still working out the kinks in the chapters that were supposed to come before this one and I thought later it'd be silly so fine. . I wasn't sure if I wanted to prologue this chapter or prolong it until later. I thought this would be a nice spot for it. So the next chapter happens in the meantime while this is going on and before it. Don't worry I'm good at explaining why. Anyway this is a much shorter chapter than the usual but I thought it'd be a little tease until the next chapter. Alright so I'm done talking.

Chapter Seven

Little Blue Box

Emma Nelson wearing her purple sweatpants jogged from uptown to the childhood home she used to share with her mother, step-father and brother. When she moved out for Smithdale, Snake's godson, Connor moved into her empty basement bedroom all her things were sort of boxed up and stored in the attic for safe keeping. She decided for old time sake she wanted to see if any of it was still where her parents said they would be. Manny decided to bite the bullet and spend some of her afternoon with Jay before the girls agreed to get ready at four or so for the night. You see, Emma and Manny decided it'd be fun together to go out. So all four of them are going to double up but to a club.

She let herself in and noticed her brother sitting up playing video games. She waved to him but he was likely not paying attention. Emma was fooled. The ever-precocious ten year old was wearing a backwards Little League baseball cap and a matching top, he heard the door shut behind her and he turned around offering a smile, "Hey sis."

"Jack is mom or dad home?" Emma asked warmly.

"They're cooking in the kitchen." Jack beamed, "it's a good thing because I'm starving and I've been gaming all day."

"Thanks, I'll be in a sec, save me a game?"

"Wait he called out." He jumped to Emma and graced her with a big bear hug, "Count on it," Emma beamed. Her and Jack weren't what they call the typical brother and sister dynamic, Emma has always been more or less motherly to the boy she helped raise him their almost 12 year gap kind of either meant she would be either non existent for all or part of his life or she'd have a hand at being there for most of his childhood and moved out by the time he started entering his teens which is precicely what happened with them. Emma always visited Jack and admired him. The fair-haired curly top resembles his father more than anything but she sees a few features in her that Jack shares. The freckle-faced boy grinned and resumed his game while Emma opened the small doors that led to the kitchen stepping inside.

"Emma honey, great to see you," Spike said as if she was expecting the door to open or she had heard her come in the house, "We're getting ready to have lunch."

Emma and her her mother exchanged a friendly kiss on each of their cheeks. Snake with food filled hands thought a hug was too much and gave her a kiss atop her head. Emma wasn't going to bring up the events of the night before at least not yet. She doesn't want to get ahead of anything and be let down or get everyone all up and arms. It's not that the Simpson-Nelson parents respectively hate Sean they just understand he isn't all that reliable in the trials of love and his temper worries them but they know he has likely a changed man and will often much to Emma's chargrin talk about Sean so highly and at once still know he's not a perfect person.

Emma shook her head and sympathetically declined, "I can't, I have some plans tonight I have to get ready for."

Emma's eating disorder days are behind her, but no matter how many years she goes without a single binge or purge she is still at a threat. At this rate it had been so long since her relapse that no one questions her if she said she ate. Emma had always been slender but since growing up, developing and such she has at least gained a comfortable twenty pounds but she feels more and more confident and comfortable with. As for plans Manny and Emma have been sort of planning this event for Jay, Manny. herself and Sean.

"I kind of have a silly question, you wouldn't happen to know where that blue box had disappeared to. The stuff from the old room is in the attic right?"

Snake nodded certainly, "You finally making your new home a permanent one?"

"Better late than never." Emma stated plainly and proudly, as Snake led her to the attic door and then helped her open it up from above with a strong metal latch. Their attic had some sort of mechanism that had a ladder that folds out that you could step upon to get up into the attic, from the hole in the ceiling.

They rarely used the attic mostly for storage and holidays such as Christmas, the majority of the stuff had resided in the basement until Emma moved in there and the stuff goes up and down yearly. Emma's stuff from her room was basically almost in her house, some of it was trashed or given away with Emma's permission of course but somethings she decided to keep at her parents house just in case she ever decided she wanted them.

In the dusty attic Emma blindly sifts around, she tugged on the string that managed to hit her in the face to find the light to make it easier to see. As soon as she turned it on she found what she had been looking on. She knelt on the wooden floor and lifted the medium sized box from the floor. She blew on it resulting in a cloud of dust and then she brushed off the remaining with her hands so she could read the box. The top of the box had the word MEMORIES scrawled across the top. She pulled the lid off slowly and found it just as she had left it. Inside were pictures, ticket stubs, photographs virtually anything and everything pertaining to her relationships with one Sean Cameron. Inside near the bottom folded neatly was Sean's prized denim jacket. Emma recollected on the day, and remembered it like it was yesterday.

The carnival had come to town in the large open field at Bennet Park the summer before ninth grade. Sean at the time still was wearing his jacket, as night fell the weather started to get cool and Sean offered Emma his jacket so she can warm up. At the end of the night, Sean never asked for it back, in fact when she started to take it off when he dropped her off he told her to keep it. All these years she had it sitting in the box. A man of his word, he never asked for it back even when they were at odds.

Truthfully, Emma surmises that he ultimately forgot about the thing. Even when she assumed it was a new jacket it didn't look new. It looked well worn, preserved, well-made just it seemed like it was older and likely a hand me down but it was still Sean and it sort of still smells like him if she would hold it close to her.

The next thing to catch her eye was the burned-CD the DJ at her mother's wedding had burned for all the guests as a giveaway. It had a mixture of popular songs from the eighties including Snake's one hit with The Zit Remedy 'Everybody Wants Something' but most importantly it was the song that she and Sean danced to together, the one that was playing when she finally gave in and forgave Sean something she had fought. "Just Jane" she whispered to no one in particular. She closed her eyes, recollecting that even with her hair as bad as it was, even with the all the remarks he still liked her. It's a true estimation that their relationship had never been solely based on looks, at least on his side at least she never thought she was attractive as she thought him to be. For Sean, it had always been difficult mustering up the confidence to tell or ask something to Emma, anything. Even may I have a pencil queries, even something small. She made him nervous she was so unpredictable and intense and he was still intense but he was coupled with crippling social anxieties stemming from his silent childhood. Asking Emma to dance was outright the most ballsy thing he had ever done. There was something about Sean, according to Emma that she could never quite pinpoint. He was always such a self-less person. Emma put the lid back on the box and smiled warmly. She knew for sure he was going to be surprised.

Then, she picked up the box tucking it carefully under her arm and, with the other hand she pulled on the light to darken the attic as she made her way down stairs to beat Jack in the video game and finally get home to Manny and Sean to plan their evening out and but of course tell Sean all about it, with mixed results of course.