Chapter 24

The following morning, Jasina was up after getting zero sleep because she had spent the night crying and having nightmares of Randy and plane crashes. John was even in one and died in a plane crash, which is when Jasina decided she wasn't going back to sleep. She spent the majority of her morning drinking coffee and directing traffic to the movers, making sure none of her furniture was damaged and that they didn't damage anything in the guest room. When the final piece was packed into the truck, Jasina turned to Mark and managed to flash a small smile, extending her hand to him, watching as his swallowed hers like always.

"Thank you for letting me stay here." She said appreciatively, smiling. "I'll never be able to repay you and...I'm sorry about everything that's happened."

Mark had brought the kids in when he seen the last of Jasina's things being loaded into the back of the moving van, knowing she would be leaving as soon as possible. "Anytime darlin' and don't be sorry." Mark said, squeezing her hand gently before letting go.

"Is Aunt Jazzy leavin?" JR asked, tugging on Mark's jeans to get his attention, smiling when his giant uncle looked down at him then pointed to his aunt.

"Yeah lil man she is, but yer going to see her real soon, okay?" Mark grinned when JR nodded and hugged Jasina before letting go, showing her his new hammer. "He even gets to take that home with him." Mark chortled evilly.

"I'm sure Steve and Trish will LOVE that. I'll come by in a few days to pick them up, it shouldn't take too long to settle in."

Jasina lifted JR in her arms, kissing his cheek and rubbed her nose against his before kissing little Emily's forehead. She didn't realize how hard it would be to say goodbye, to actually leave the ranch. Suddenly, Jasina could feel an overwhelming sadness enveloping her. What if she was making a mistake by leaving? There was nothing here for her besides...Mark.

"Take care of yourself and the munchkins. See you in a few days." She hurried out the door and closed it behind her, having left the keys on the stand by the door and got into her car, heading toward the furniture store to pick up a few more things.

Picking up Emily and planting her on his side with one arm wrapped around her, Mark let JR take his hand and guide him towards the living room, following the mini-version of adult Steve out onto the porch. They watched as Jasina sped out of the driveway behind the moving van, Mark's face impassive as he watched her make her way out of his life again. Even though they would undoubtedly see each other again, it still felt like she was trying to tell him goodbye.

"My Daddy says you love Aunt Jazzy."

"Yer Daddy says a lot of things, lil man." Mark rumbled, not about to have a talk about love with a little boy who still watched Sesame Street.

As promised, Jasina returned three days later to pick up JR and Emily, giving Mark a much needed break. She giggled when she walked inside the ranch, after knocking, and saw Mark trying to pull a sucker out of his long auburn hair. Apparently, Mark had let Emily try a few licks of a sucker from her brother, only for her to yank it out of his grasp and stuck it in his hair.

"Uncle Marky is sticky."

"Here, let me help you before you yank the rest of your hair out of your skull." Jasina said in between giggles, trying to bite her tongue to stop them, but it wasn't happening. "Wow she really got it in there didn't she?"

"I looked away for ONE minute and when I turned my head back to her, the sucker was gone." Mark growled, not finding this as amusing as she was. "I thought she dropped it, so I started lookin' for it, which only got the damn thing-"

"You said a bad word!"

"Tangled up even worse!"

"Shouting at a toddler is not going to help your problem right now, Mark." Jasina rationalized, shoving Mark down in the nearby chair. "Stay there, I'll put on some cartoons for them to watch while we work this out of your hair." She walked JR out into the living room, smiling at Emily in her pack-n-play, Scooby Doo on the television screen. "Let Auntie Jazzy help Uncle Marky with his hair, okay?"

"Otay."

"Okay." Jasina walked back into the kitchen and could hear Mark grumbling, getting him a beer along with some ice cubes, sitting down beside him and even cracked open the can for him. "Take a long swig and let me work some magic. Because if we don't get this out soon, you're going to end up having to cut it out."

Mark promptly snorted his beer right out his nose and mouth, all over her, though she managed to avoid most of it by dodging quickly. "SON OF A BITCH!" He cursed, setting down the beer on the edge of the table, his now stinging, watering eyes clenched shut as he pinched the end of his bright red nose. He had been expecting some quick fix, not the suggestion of cutting his hair. "NO cuttin' the hair." He finally managed to grunt out.

Jasina was disgusted as she looked down at her splattered jeans and shirt, not moving fast enough to dodge all of the beer. "That's just...terrific." She growled, wiping the beer off of her arms and neck, some of it even getting on her face. "If you're quite finished spewing beer at the person who is trying to help you..." She ignored his warning growl and popped him upside the head, knowing she was one of the only people who could get away with doing that without losing a hand. "Just sit there and shut the hell up!" She began working the ice cube, after slipping a rubber glove on that she grabbed out of the downstairs bathroom, beginning to work the sucker slowly out of his hair.

Mark sat there in silence and suffered the agony of having his hair pulled, though he refrained from growling or cussing her out since she knew where he kept the scissors. He would not put it past Jasina to cut out the hair the sucker was tangled in. He was NEVER giving another child a sucker EVER.

Or gum, or anything sticky.

From now on, the kids got applesauce and crackers for snacks. Well, no crackers for Emily, but she would definitely not be getting anything else she could lodge against his head. He let out a sigh of relief when Jasina waved the hairy sucker in front of his face, reaching up to feel the spot and groaned, knowing a shower was in order.

"Thank you, darlin'." He murmured appreciatively, sighing with great relief.

"Welcome Sticky." Jasina took the glove off and tossed it in the trash while Mark groaned at the nickname, a smirk curving her lips. "You look like you could use a break from the kids and some beers. So go shower, have some beers and let me handle them. I already have a pack-n-play and toddler bed at my place." She figured Trish would ask her to babysit again sometime in the future since she was both of the kids' godmother, shrugging when Mark raised an eyebrow. "Unless you prefer to keep them here for the remainder of the honeymoon?"

"I figured they'd stay here, yeah." Since technically they were supposed to be watching the kids together, not separately. He felt like they had a custody arrangement going on, shaking his head at the thought, faintly amused. "If you want to take 'em with you, I guess I don't mind..." A shower and a few beers did sound good, but not so good he was rushing off right away. "Don't take this wrong, but do you think you can handle both of 'em at the same time?" He knew she was good with kids, obviously, but other than Emily and a bit with Arie, Mark could not recall her caring for babies for extended periods.

Jasina slowly narrowed her eyes back at her ex-husband, folding her arms in front of her chest, not believing he actually just asked her that ignorant question. "Wow and here I thought you wouldn't be an asshole. For your information, I have watched BOTH of those kids on numerous occasions, especially when I stayed with Trish and Steve briefly when we were fighting." Her temper didn't flare, but if looks could kill, Mark would be dead on the kitchen floor right now. "I should've chopped your goddamn hair off. Now if you'll excuse me, I have two munchkins to take to my NEW place that is baby and toddler proofed, in case you were interested." She stormed out of the kitchen to get JR and Emily, having a car seat for both of them since Steve JR was just a tad too young to have a seatbelt still.

All Mark could do was sit there and wonder what the hell he had just done to royally piss off his seriously moody ex-wife. He hadn't meant to offend her, but given her lack of experience with babies -now he knew better on that end-, she had been having a seriously hard time lately what with finding out that John was her now dead boyfriend's best friend. He could only shake his head, replaying everything over and finally gave it up.

He would never, ever be able to please that woman.

"Menopause musta come early..." He muttered under his breath, not about to say THAT aloud because then she WOULD chop off his hair. Sighing, he got up and headed out to the living room to say goodbye to JR and Emily. Then what she said about her NEW place hit him, wondering what the emphasis on NEW was for. "What the hell is wrong with my place?"

"Did I say anything about your place?" Jasina demanded crossly, wondering why Mark couldn't just leave her the hell alone, finishing packing up Emily.

Seriously, first he spews beer on her, then insults her by asking if she knew how to handle kids. NOW he was snapping about his place! She never said anything remotely close to his place, rolling her eyes when he merely glared at her.

"Keep glaring and see how far it gets you, Calaway." She swung the diaper bag over her shoulder, grabbing JR's hand and headed out the door.

"Considerin' everything else I do only gets me shouted at, whatever you say Jasina." Mark retorted, not about to follow her and even kept his tone level because he wasn't about to fight with her in front of the kids. Though there was no mistaking the fact that he was angry now. "No matter what I do, I'm always going to be an asshole to you." He still had no idea what he had done to set her off besides ask a simple question, wondering why she had to take everything he said or did wrong. "You're bound and determined to find shit wrong with me." And apparently he was really good at giving her the fuel she needed to explode on him.

"You're not fightin' are you Uncle Marky?" Steve called over his shoulder anxiously.

"Course not." He smiled at his nephew, picking up Emily's pacifier from the coffee table and carrying it over to drop in the diaper bag slung over Jasina's shoulder, stepping back quickly. "Be good for Aunt Jazzy, and don't hit her walls with the hammer!"

"Cause it'll leave big holes!"

"I could care less about finding things wrong with you because it doesn't matter to me. You just HAD to ask me about my parenting skills because you're STILL LIVING IN THE PAST."

What part of that did he not understand?

It always went back to what happened with Arielle all those years ago when Jasina left. Would Mark ever forgive her and STOP bringing it up with asinine questions? He needed serious help, no wonder they hadn't worked out. Mark just couldn't seem to let the past go and found ways to bring it up through stupid questions like the one he asked her regarding Emily and JR.

"And no, I'm bound and determined to get as far away from you as possible before I plant my foot in your ass." Jasina smiled sweetly at him and it didn't reach her steel teal eyes, heading to her car with the kids. 'I will KILL Trish and Steve for making us do this together.' She thought angrily, wanting to bash Mark's skull in with JR's hammer.

Mark realized instantly that Jasina thought he had been silently referencing her running off and sticking him with their infant daughter, when that had actually been the furthest thing from his mind. At least until now. Shaking his head he dropped down onto the porch steps and watched as she loaded the kids up into the car, not even having the strength to explain he hadn't been trying to throw that in her face.

Hell he hadn't even been thinking about it.

Other than the times they had watched JR together when they were a couple, how the fuck was he supposed to know that she had babysat the kids? It wasn't like Trish told him what Jasina did because Trish only tolerated him due to Steve most of the time. Steve had quickly learned to shut the hell up about Jasina's business since they had actually gotten into that 'bitch' fight in the garage. Closing his eyes he tilted his head until it rested against the railing post at the top of the steps, feeling tired.

Mark ended up showering, built up a bonfire in the backyard, dragged out a cooler filled with beer and a radio that he blasted at full volume -having no neighbors was a beautiful thing. Having no one at home was also beautiful because it meant he could get plastered, sit around in just his old torn denim shorts and see how high he could get the flames to go. Of course, he made sure that he let the fire die down and there was no more wood around before he got totally plowed, not about to burn down his ranch.

After that blow-up with Jasina, he had needed more than just a few drinks. He needed to flat out forget, even if only briefly, that he even knew her. Tonight he was going to drink her away and tomorrow, he was going to force himself to move on and accept the fact that she no longer wanted, needed or loved him.

"Hell...she don't even LIKE me..." He muttered, crushing the can in his hand and chucked it over his shoulder.

~!~

Later on that night, Jasina was in the living room of her new house watching Golden Girls, just trying to calm down since the kids had completely exhausted her...in a good way of course...when JR walked out rubbing his little eyes. "Hey little man, what's wrong?" Jasina asked, frowning when the little boy came toward her, lifting him up to sit on her lap. "Did you have a bad dream?"

"No." JR yawned loudly, stretching a little and rested his head on his Auntie Jazzy's shoulder, wearing his marvel pajamas. "I had to tell ya somethin'."

"Alright..." Jasina raised an eyebrow down at her godson, running her fingers through his light blonde hair, wrapping her arms around his little body. "Go on sweetie, tell me what's on your mind."

"Daddy told me Uncle Marky still loves Auntie Jazzy." JR yawned even louder, his eyes droopy and didn't notice the shocked look that crossed her face, too tired to keep his eyes open.

Jasina could only blink down at her godson with a gaping mouth.