Did You See That?
A/N: We didn't get a lot of Samantha and Jonathan time where they might've talked about their parents' relationship. There had to be times they talked to each other, and there could've been confusion, too, like in Tony for President. This takes place after the family gets back from Jamaica. I picture this taking place after Tony, Angela, and Mona go to Atlantic City in Gambling Jag and before Sam Accelerates.
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Did You See That?
Tony and Angela had gone out to a PTA meeting. It was time to decide on the next big Fairfield Schools PTA event, so they knew they were going to be out for a long time. Mona had gone out for another lengthy date.
That left Samantha and Jonathan alone in the house again not too long after their parents had come back from Atlantic City.
Jonathan came skipping down the stairs and found Samantha on the sofa watching MTV videos munching on Pringles potato chips. He went over to the sofa and sat down on the seat cushion next to her despite Samantha's frustration at having Jonathan around her. But he didn't say anything or get up to walk away. Samantha had family concerns on her mind and wondered if this would be a good time to bring them up.
They sat together in silence, intently watching the latest videos for a while. Jonthan cleared his throat sounding like he had something on his mind. Occasionally, they stopped watching the screen in front of them and turned to look at each other neither one wanting to be the one who started talking. Then after staring at each other some more, Jonathan opened his mouth.
"Samantha….?"
"Yeah, squirt?"
He hesitated wondering if he should go through with what he wanted to ask her. He wondered if she'd take him seriously. After all, she was a big shot 17-year-old now, and he was only 13. They'd had issues after he started high school at the same school she went to and realizing she had to see him daily. But their relationship had settled down after grasping that their constant bickering was affecting Tony's health.
Then he thought about how they had both heard his Mom yell out her love for Tony in her sleep and then talking about it at the kitchen table the next morning – with Tony, so this information wouldn't be new to Samantha. Continuing his line of thinking, she also knew that he was the one who set them up at Chez Rene a few years back. She was the one who mentioned sex before he did so she seemed to get it, he contemplated.
He saw Samantha in the same vicinity as he was that night in Jamaica.
He cleared his throat again.
Samantha yelled and ordered, "Jonathan, stop clearing your throat, it's annoying. If you've got something to say, say it."
"Samantha, did you see what I saw in Jamaica?" he blurted out before he lost his courage to say anything.
Wanting to clarify what Jonathan had seen and wanting to be sure she didn't mention something that would stir up anything new that he might not be thinking of, she pretended not to understand what he was asking her. She asked him what he meant.
"Did you see your Dad and my Mom making out on that bench in Jamaica? You know, that giant yellow bench on the beach?"
So, he did want to go there, Samantha thought as she listened to his question. She'd been carrying around that image with her for months and wondered if anyone would ever bring it up. She had noticed her Dad and Angela getting closer after that trip. She wondered if her dream of them getting married was going to happen after all these years. Neither of them was even dating anyone else any more. But she had kept all of this to herself, not even talking about it with her best friends. She had thought about going to Mona to see what she thought, but then thought better of it since Mona could wind up teasing her Dad or Angela about it, and she didn't want that.
"Whoa, Jonathan!" Samantha exclaimed.
"Samantha, I saw you standing around until that bus of tourists blocked your view. You had to have seen it!" Jonathan shrieked back at her.
"Alright, yeah, I saw it." She couldn't lie to him because he might know something he could tell her, and she didn't want to blow her chance to find out.
"What did you think? I was standing with Monique and saw my Mom do that embarrassing dance for the talent contest. Then I saw your Dad do his dance. It looked like they were trying to outdo each other after whatever argument they had."
"Well, it looks like they made up on that bench," Samantha burst out sarcastically.
Even Jonathan couldn't resist laughing at what Samantha had just said.
Samantha had noticed a lot more coziness between her Dad and Angela recently – it seemed to have happened after their first date months before. She thought about how she'd sometimes want something in the kitchen late at night and had to stop short in her tracks on the way down the stairs because she could hear the TV on in the living room. When she further peeked around the corner into the living room, she caught sight of her Dad and Angela almost sitting on top of each other on the sofa watching whatever they were watching, usually some old black and white movie. Usually, the popcorn bowl was shared on each other's laps, and her Dad had his arm around Angela's shoulder going all the way down her arm. And maybe it happened even before then when they went to St Louis. Just as she was thinking about that, Jonathan picked up the conversation.
"Sam, we walked in on them doing something that night. Remember? It looked like they had been dancing but they tried to deny it by saying there was something wrong with the ceiling. We both looked up and didn't see anything wrong with the ceiling."
"Jonathan, I was thinking the same about that ceiling thing."
"Well, Sam, what do you think then? Do you think they really love each other? Do you think they'll get married?"
He had said the "L" word and asked about marriage. In a way Samantha was relieved this was out in the open between them. She always wondered what it would be like to have Jonathan as her real brother. Or even still, maybe her Dad and Angela would have a baby of their own if they got married. She shook her head bringing herself back to the reality of the moment.
"We both heard her say she loved my Dad, but it was in her sleep. Jonathan, they're very private people and don't' say much about anything about their relationship. They probably had no idea that we saw them in Jamaica making out like that."
"Yeah, that's for sure. I wonder if Grandma saw them? If she did, I'm surprised she hasn't teased them about it."
"From what my Dad said about the trip and not about anything else, he said she was getting ready to be a human cannonball way on the other side of the beach, so I don't think she saw them kiss. He must've wondered if Mona had seen them, too."
Samantha thought about this some more and added, "Jonathan, I don't think they want to upset our family."
"What do you mean?" Jonathan asked with a quizzical look on his face.
"Wellllllll, if they tried out a real relationship and something didn't work out, we could lose each other as a family," Samantha explained to Jonathan matter-of-factly.
"Ohhhhh, I get it. I didn't' think of that." Then he thought some more about what she said, and asked, "Why wouldn't it work out?"
"Jonathan, I don't know. I thought Jesse and I had something special, and then we didn't work out. Look at what happened with Mona and Max. We thought she was going to marry him, and he wound up dumping her. What if that happened with your Mom and my Dad? I couldn't bear leaving here," Samantha told him sadly.
Jonathan could see the fear in her eyes as she said that. But he didn't want to get mushy with her, so he only told her he understood and told her he wouldn't want Tony to leave their house either.
Samantha read between the lines and thanked him. "We should leave them alone. Maybe I'll ask my Dad about it one day."
"Could you talk to my Mom? I just can't ask her about it."
"But Jonathan, she's YOUR mother."
"I know, but it seems like you're both girls and maybe it would be easier for her to talk to you."
Samantha offered Jonathan some Pringles, which he gladly took from the red canister. They both turned their attention back to the videos appearing on their TV.
Samantha gave it some thought and reached a decision. "Okay, okay, Jonathan, I'll talk to your Mom, but not until it's absolutely necessary."
Some more time went by, and the next time Samantha and Jonathan broached the topic was because of what she had seen the night before. But Jonathan wasn't interested in talking this time; and in fact, pretended that they had never talked about this before, worrying more about getting the house and the business than his mother's relationship.
Then Samantha walked into the living room to her father listening to some depressing music. She realized then that what she had told Jonathan about talking to his mother when it became absolutely necessary. It hadn't taken long before it became necessary …
The End: Did You See That?
A/N: I don't think it could've been easy for Jonathan and Samantha to go through what they did with their parents. Tony and Angela resisted each other for the sake of the kids and gossip, but they never thought through what their actions to resist each other were doing to the kids. I wanted to address that with this story. That trip to Jamaica had an infinite number of consequences that were felt throughout Season 6.