Author's Note: I found this in my drive. I wonder how much I would find if I actively went through it one of these days. Hm. Anyway, this is a fic about how the girls (well one of them) started calling Becky 'Aunt Becky' – we never really got to see it on the show. But I always wondered, so I wrote this!
Becky couldn't bare to see the hurt in that little girl's eyes, as she tried in vain to protest it. She was so small, so fragile and unexposed to all the hate and spite in the world, and Becky hated to see that turn for her so young. It wasn't fair. She shouldn't have had to endure the loss of her mother in the first place, much less everything else, no matter how seemingly insignificant, that comes with that. She wouldn't know, but it must be a lot. It shouldn't be resting on shoulders so tiny and delicate. And she would make sure of that.
"Steph, I'd be honored to go to that slumber party with you."
Stephanie's eyes lit up, happiness clearly written within her cute, little features. She didn't seem to hold that particular aversion to sleeping on the floor now, instead, it was as if she'd forgotten it had even existed.
"Really!? You'd do that for me!? We're sleeping on the floor! Yay!"
Becky grinned back at her, accepting of her tight hug. She was a surprisingly good hugger for someone with such a petite body. Becky pursed her lips tentatively against the side of her little blonde head, curls tickling her nose a bit.
Normally, she wasn't shy in offering up affection to anyone who wanted it, and while that wasn't meant to make her sound easy, it was true. She was an affectionate person. It was her love language. Touch. And she loved these girls, in the least perverse way, she loved these three, beautiful, smart, adorable little girls, like they were her own.
She'd been around the house so often these days, now spending more nights in Jesse's bedroom than her own apartment, she was as good as moved in, just like the two of them were as good as married. In saying that though, and as much as she loved and appreciated her newly acquired family, she would never push any sort of familial title onto herself.
Sure, Jesse was their uncle and she was his fiancée so that would make her something a little more intimate than the woman who shows up on their uncle's arm to family dinners every once and awhile, or sometimes accompanying him to pick the girls up from school.
And sure, she's picked them up from school herself from time to time, assuring Michelle's pre-school teacher that she wasn't some stranger interested in child-napping. But none of this meant that any of the girls, any one of his nieces, needed to feel obligated to call her something. Although she'd love it If they did – Auntie Bec, Auntie B, etcetera, she sure as heck didn't need it to feel validated, to feel any more loved and cared for by these girls, because she already knew that they loved her. Auntie or not.
So, she's made peace, and just as she let go of Stephanie, giving her a small smile as she pulled back, she realized that Stephanie had yet to let go of her wrist. Hm.
"Steph do you want me to – "
She was going to say 'stay and talk some more' but the words died in her throat.
"Um - I was actually just wondering if – uh – "
Becky held her breath, her face hopefully hiding her sudden concern well enough to go unnoticed. "What's that, honey?"
Stephanie exhaled a big whoosh of air. Looks like she wasn't the only one holding her breath. Then, words came out in a tumbled rush, quick and breathless.
"I was wondering if I could call you Aunt Becky. Cause uh – you're gonna marry Uncle Jesse and I – I want to cause I love you and I – people in my class have aunties and I've never had one and it seems like a cool thing to have and I want you to be my aunt and you're getting married to Uncle Jesse so it works right so can I call you Aunt Becky?"
Becky put a hand to her mouth. She felt a burning sensation behind her eyes. "Oh, sweetheart," she cooed, taking Stephanie's two hands and closing them in a fist. "Of course, you can."
Stephanie grinned at her. Clearly, the gravity of the situation was much less for her as it was for Becky. "Okay, cool!"
"Okay…cool," Becky let the word slide around in her mouth a few seconds before she said it out loud, testing it. She didn't want to make a huge deal out of it, so the word seemed to suit the situation fine. And so, she decided to go with it. "Yeah, that's cool."
Then, she cringed. A little too casual there, Bec, she admonished herself with a mental eye roll. She wouldn't make a big deal in front of her soon-to-be niece, but in front of her soon-to-be-husband, in-law, and pseudo in-law, was another story altogether. Inside, she actually wanted to scream.
Just as Becky was leaving the room, Stephanie's voice, soft and a little shy, stopped her midstride. "Aunt Becky?"
Becky turned around. "Yeah, honey?"
Stephanie gave her a smile that matched the tone of her voice. "I'm glad you're coming to the Honey Bees slumber party with me. I love you."
"Awe, Steph," she cooed, pulling her close to her one more time and inhaling the strawberry scent of her freshly washed hair and the soft, soapy smell of her skin. "I love you too, baby girl."
Stephanie let her go then and she left the room, taking the stairs twice at a time (a little regretfully because she nearly slipped more than once). Once she got to the landing, she wasted no time before she launched herself into Jesse's arms, who was standing with both Danny and Joey in the kitchen. She figured that the two other girls must be in the living room.
"Hey there, Bec," he purred, running his hand through her hair as he looked over at her. "What's gotten into you?'
"You really wanna know!?" she asked, and she heard it in her voice, the blatant, unabashed glee. "Stephanie just asked if she could start calling me Aunt Becky!"
"Oh honey," Jesse said, kissing the top of her head. "That's great."
She saw the look on his face – relief and unadulterated happiness. It was much more than great, to him, she knew that. It was everything he dreamed of. Sure, Jesse Katsopolis may seem shallow or vain or what have you when you first meet him, but in truth, he is a warm, soft, family man and all he wanted in his dream woman, besides perfect hair and a shapely body (she would admit that bits of what one would assume about him are half-truths), was one who his nieces loved and adored just as much as he did.
"Yeah Becky," Danny echoed, "I'm so happy that the girls are already feeling so connected to you. They need a mother figure in their lives and I for one am so glad that you're it." He smiled.
She leaned further into Jesse's side and smiled back at him. "That means a lot coming from you. But I doubt anybody's happier about it than me. Seriously. I love those girls like they're my own."
Jesse chuckled and kissed her head again. He grinned at her. "I told you she's the one, boys."