Hello :P It is not Wednesday but I am back to upload a few chapter. I'm getting a little inconsistent with my weekly uploads so sorry about that. But I get round to it in the end! This one was a good one for me to write because as well as seeing a lot of myself in Katie in this chapter, James and Katie's relationship together is something that I've wanted to write about once again for a very long time. I came up with the idea for this at work and I had to go my entire shift with all these sentences forming in my mind - I had to try and block them out until I got home! I ended up writing this and it was fun writing those two when Katie is a teenager and not feeling her best. I hope you enjoy!

Ages:

Katie: 13

James: 40

Jorgie (Mentioned): Four Months Old

Disclaimer: I own the story and the OC children mentioned :3

I nuzzled Katie's earlobe gently from sitting on her shoulder and observing her just sitting up against her bedroom door, her legs pulled to her chest and one of her favourite story books being clutched in both of her hands. She breathed out. I continued watching her. In that moment, her actions weren't really causing me too much concern. It was just a normal day for her. It was just a normal day for us. And what she was doing – for her – was rather normal.

She inhaled through her nostrils gently as she continued holding her book, her thumb slowly grazing the hard cover and gliding over the blurb that was on the back. I looked further at her. Her aquamarine eyes were staring right at the letters that her finger was not covering but despite this, she wasn't really looking at them. She seemed to be elsewhere. She seemed to be on another planet.

The clock on her wall ticked rhythmically. The Ketchum house made various different noises. There were quiet voices from the other family members down the hall. The floorboards creaked. The water in the pipes bubbled. The bird Pokémon chirped in the garden outside the window. And then louder, more obvious noises could be heard. But still, Katie didn't look up from looking distantly at the world below that was locked inside the paper pages.

The knock on the front door was too far away to be heard by the orange haired girl but the quiet sounds when her mother went to answer it and greet the person flowed into both our ears, not just mine. More words were exchanged elsewhere in the Ketchum house and probably a hug too. And then the noises grew even more prominent.

There were footsteps and they were heading right towards where Katie's room was located. This made her stop staring at the words on the back of her book and she looked up. But she still didn't snap out of being trapped in her own mind. She was no longer staring at her hard back book but she moved to direct the same thoughtful yet thoughtless stare at the door instead. I knew what then happened was about to happen. Of course I did. It was highly predicted. The door was knocked on twice and then opened. It was James. He seemed very cheerful.

"Hello, hello." He greeted his orange haired god-daughter with a smile as soon as he saw her and he didn't waste any time in shutting the door behind him and taking off his messenger bag. He placed it in front of the door, continuing to look at Katie. He continued smiling at her too. He pushed his long locks out of his eyes. "I'm a little late so sorry about that but I'm here now."

I looked at Katie after lightly touching my cheek against hers. I smiled. I noticed that James didn't offer or give an excuse as to why he had arrived slightly after 4 o'clock rather than being 4 o'clock on the dot like they always arranged. I thought to myself. He was a very reliable person as a friend and uncle but he wasn't very punctual when it came to keeping times. But that didn't matter. Katie adored him anyway.

The orange haired female had been in her confusing trance for a good few minutes and in that moment, I was beginning to get worried. I leaned my face in to nudge her but before my nose could brush her cheek, she came right out of it. She blinked. She moved her legs down onto the floor from being pulled to her chest. She tilted her head on one side as she looked up at her Uncle. She broke her silence.

"Oh." She mumbled, a crease still in her brow but before she could clarify what she was thinking, James stopped smiling and looked down at her immediately, his green orbs laced with concern.

"Is something the matter?" he asked her softly and automatically came to sit down next to her on the floor and after he crossed his legs, he lifted his messenger back onto his lap and started to fiddle with the strap. Katie shook her head but her expression was still pretty hard to read.

"O-Oh. No." she told him and she continued shaking her head. I knew that she was acting off, even if I hadn't addressed it in my mind right away. I gave her a chance for it to pass out of her teenage body and brain. But it didn't. I knew she wasn't acting completely like herself. And she did too. She then shook her head in a different way. At herself. And then she tried to act like she was okay. She offered her Uncle a tiny smile. "I… I just didn't t-think you were going to come anymore."

Following her words, she gave off a little shrug to dismiss it all and move on with their weekly Wednesday activity but James was not going to forget about it quickly. He was concerned. He was worried that something was really wrong. He blinked, his own brow being taken over by a frown.

"Why wouldn't I come here? It's Wednesday. This is what we do on Wednesdays." He told her and this caused her to nod and mumble 'I know'. This confused James even more but he didn't lose his patience one bit. However, he did begin to feel more worry brewing in his stomach. He edged closer to her. "Do you not want to do this anymore?"

"Of course I d-do." Katie replied back to him quickly and she tried not to let her teenager-y side take over by rolling her eyes. But she did roll her book over so she was looking at the front instead. She clarified when she sensed her Uncle breathing out with what she assumed was annoyance. "I mean, of course I want to keep doing this. I don't know, I… I just had a feeling today that you weren't… weren't going to show up."

I looked over at James and I watched him pause before answering his god-daughter right away. He was seeing so many things in her at that moment. He was seeing Misty - he was seeing how his red headed best friend used to be when she was a teenager. He was seeing a little bit of my best friend too – the stubbornness yet innocence that he still possessed to that day. He was also seeing all the different sides of Katie too. The one that didn't want to communicate what was truly the matter. The one who wanted reassurance that she wasn't being a burden and was wasting his time. And last but not least, he was seeing the real her. The one who adored spending time with him and the girl who held a very special place in his heart.

After observing and thinking all of this to himself, he gave Katie a reassuring smile. He certainly wasn't going to ridicule the teenage girl for appearing a little differently. He lightly but not patronisingly reached out to poke her cheek.

"Well, I'm right here and I'm ready to do this with you." He told her truthfully and even though his fingers started to unzip his bag, he didn't break away his reassuring eye contact from her. He told her even more honestly. "Besides, if I couldn't make it, I would've rung you to tell you. Of course I would. I would've let you know, Katie."

Upon hearing these words, the orange haired young lady couldn't help but feel a little reassured and even a bit better. She nodded her head and gave James a sheepish smile. It was a small smile but it was a smile nonetheless and I could tell it was genuine. And James did too. He continued rummaging in his bag while I hopped off Katie's shoulder and moved onto the bean bag to give her more privacy during her session. And when I was further away from her, I had a chance to study her even more. I found myself smiling.

Katie was many many things but one of the most important things was that she was lucky. She had been supported for so many years by so many different people when it came to her stutter and when it started affecting her daily life, she discovered who her true loved ones were.

She knew that her lavender haired uncle was a good and selfless man but even she was surprised at his offer to tutor her through it when she expressed that she didn't feel comfortable going to a group class. He went above and beyond for all but he especially did this for Katie. She was so lucky. She was so loved. She was so perfect. Even though she didn't believe that she was.

James moved to sit right next to his god-daughter's side and didn't mind one bit that they were both sat on the floor. After he reached into his bag for his glasses and put them on and Katie couldn't help but smile and reach out to poke them fondly, their little stutter improving time began. The lavender haired male smiled and began to relax when he saw her starting to come back out of her shell again. He gave her a light nudge and then poked the book that was in her lap.

"Why don't you have a go reading me a little bit of that today?" he suggested, causing Katie to look down at her legs at the book he was referring too and she couldn't help but blush. At first, she was slightly embarrassed that she had been caught re-reading a book from her childhood but she soon decided to have another mind-set about it. It was a classic. And she was sat with James. He never ever judged her. Not once. He smiled more when he sensed her embarrassment and adjusted his reading glasses earnestly. "I love that one. Just carry on from where you left off. I've read it enough times to understand whereabouts we are."

I truly believed that it was James' kindness and his patience that made their little stutter classes work. If it was someone else or perhaps a female, Katie might have found herself being a little defensive and embarrassed and stubbornly not wanting to do what was being asked of her. But because it was her Uncle and because it was James, she really wanted to make him proud. She really wanted to succeed. And because of that attitude and that mind-set, I really knew that she would.

And so, Katie comfortably obliged. She opened the book to the page where she had left a book mark and together, her eyes and fingers scanned the exact paragraph she was required to read next. She soon found it. And she soon began reading quietly to her Uncle. And soon enough, I was away in a mystical land of literature, my eyes shut as I listened to the teenager reading.

I listened to each and every word, my brain transforming the sentences into imagery. I could see it all. I could sense it all. I could feel it all. I was very much there. Katie's words and voice had carried me away. But they weren't carrying her away. And when I opened my eyes and stopped letting my mind lap up each and every page of the author's creation. I understood why. I soon heard for myself.

When I had my eyes closed, I hadn't noticed. But when I opened them, I realised that she was struggling. For a rare time in those few months of lessons, Katie had started to stutter and stumble on almost each and every word. I looked up at her, expecting her cheeks to be as red as mine. But they weren't. In fact, I believed that she almost hadn't even noticed.

Though I also believed that her heart wasn't really in it and she was for once struggling to picture the descriptions given to her, I knew that she had once again been captured by bad teenaged thoughts and this caused her, perhaps for the best, not to even notice her own stammering.

But of course, James noticed and when I stopped studying Katie, I looked up to see him looking over at me with concern. I didn't like that. Of course he had a right to worry, knowing that her stammer was triggered by stress most of all, still, I didn't like it. Even though it wasn't the case, I couldn't help but feel protective, like he pitied her. I hoped he didn't sense this from me. But I think he did because he looked away quickly.

However, he didn't dwell on the fact that his feelings had been hurt. Katie was his main priority. He gently tapped her page to get her attention and after it took a few moments to get her to snap out of her thoughts and her thoughts to stop sneaking up on her, she looked up at him. He gave her another smile. He was being gentle as ever.

"Why don't we try that thing where you put on headphones and listen to music and see if that helps, yes?"

He asked her with all the casualness and relaxation in the world but it was this that caused Katie to blush. And she promptly slammed her book with a snap. Her frown took back over her face and James understood why. He gave her a brief glance, not wanting to mortify her more.

"I found a new version of the soundtracks that you like." James told her, reaching into his bag for his earphones and then placing them on her head after he couldn't help but gently stroke her orange locks. Katie knew he was bluffing but after she took a quiet but deep breath, she didn't mind so much. She knew it was coming from a good place. She let him plug the earphones into his mobile. He offered her another smile. "I think the sounds would go great with this story as well. Let's see if I'm right."

I let out a quiet breath at the same time that Katie did. I felt badly for judging James like he had pitied Katie when I was singing his praises earlier. But I couldn't help it. Even if he was so very kind and patient, he had to be so careful with his words. He didn't want to upset Katie about her stutter but sadly, that was sometimes so easily done. She was so embarrassed by it. She was so uncomfortable with it. I really wished that she wasn't. But that was another thing that was easier said than done.

So I watched the lavender haired male select the right song and put it on for Katie but not too loudly to distract her from reading but at the same time, loud enough to ease away her stammer. He carefully picked the book back up and found the correct page and after doing so, he handed it to her.

Katie's cheeks were still lightly red from the unintentional humiliation but I saw her shake her head at herself. I saw her tell herself off. She briefly shut her eyes and took another few deep breaths before she opened them again. She allowed her eyes to wander the page and find the paragraph that she was to read. And as soon as she found it, she started reading it.

She started off very well indeed. The well-known little trick had worked. She was doing so very,very well. I started to immediately be taken away to that fantasy land, with my eyes open that time. I didn't even need to listen as hard. With her no longer stammering, it was even easier for me to get lost in that world of literature. I saw James smiling. He felt the exact same way as me and on top of that, he felt pride as well. He wasn't even one bit smug that his idea had worked. He was just glad to hear Katie reading effortlessly. He was just glad to sense her beginning to relax.

But sadly, that didn't last long. Almost as if someone had snapped their fingers, the overthinking thoughts of Katie began to take over her brain once again. And she couldn't shut them out. She tried. She really tried. She really tried to focus on the words instead but her negative thoughts wanted attention. They wanted her full attention. And they soon got it.

Once again, Katie began stammering on each and every word but she didn't let it go on for long. That time, she noticed it. She didn't want to be humiliated any more. She ripped the headphones off her head and threw them down. She tossed her book away too. She folded her arms over her chest in embarrassment and to comfort herself too. Her aquamarine eyes began to fill with hot, prickly tears. She only uttered a few things.

"T-That's i-it." She told her Uncle, unable to look at him and unable to look down at the book that she felt she had let down either. She gulped. "N-Not d-doing i-t any… Any m-more."

And with that, she shut her mouth with such upset determination that her teeth made a quiet clicking noise. My eyes filled with sadness for her but they didn't fill with tears. I didn't allow them to. I knew this would've made Katie feel even worse.

James let out a quiet sigh, feeling the same pain in his heart that I was. But he didn't do much about it at first. He just simply picked his headphones up off the floor and turned the music off. He folded them up neatly and put them on top of the hard cover of the book after he had sorted that out as well. He glanced over at Katie but just briefly. He then looked away as he spoke to her.

"Listen…" he mumbled to her but on a very rare occasion, he wasn't getting any indication that she was listening to him. Her eyes continued to pool with angry and frustrated tears at herself. She rested her chin on her knees and I longed to head over to comfort her. But like James, I really truly didn't want to make things worse for her. But he was braver than I was. "I really feel like there's something that you want to tell me… Or ask me. And it's distracting you from what we're doing today. So why don't you go ahead and come out with it?"

The lavender haired male looked back over at Katie but he wasn't getting anything from her. She was refusing to look at him. In fact, she had closed her eyes so she didn't have to look at anybody or anything. Her tears slid down her cheeks but she ignored them. She wanted everything to go away. She didn't want to deal with anything.

James' jaw clenched. He always knew what to do with her. He always knew how to cheer her up. But like how in that day, she had lost her much-ness, he had as well. He just wanted her to be okay. And because she clearly wasn't, that made his sadness wash away apart of himself. But he tried something else.

"Okay…" he mumbled and I saw that this caused Katie's eyelids to briefly flutter open but then them to stubbornly and brokenly shut again. James didn't notice this. He just continued. "You don't feel like talking today and that's okay. But I do. I want to talk. So listen. Jorgie did the absolutely cutest thing today. She was so like you when you were a baby. She-"

James wasn't expecting it and neither was I but this caused more tears to tumble down Katie's cheeks. Her eyes snapped open. She couldn't do it anymore. She couldn't hide it anymore. She looked over at her Uncle, her heart feeling shattered.

"T-That's exactly the problem!" she yelped at James and even though he should have been used to it from her mother when she was her age, the lavender haired male jumped lightly. His eyes flickered worriedly from behind his glasses. Katie continued after wiping her nose roughly with her hand. "T-That's exactly the problem."

And to contrast the first time she said these words, the orange haired female said them the second time a lot differently. Her voice cracked in the middle of them and at the end of them, she began sobbing quietly to herself. I quickly darted over to her side and held onto her leg. James didn't hesitate to wrap his arm around her and pull her close to his side. He wasn't expecting it but Katie buried her head in his chest and cried against it.

Being hidden away from the world and with him with her eyes shut made it easier for her to pour her heart out. So that's exactly what she did.

"Y-You s-shouldn't have to do this anymore for me. You s-shouldn't. I'm a burden. I'm t-taking up all of your Wednesdays when you should be with your new girl… girlfriend and b-baby."

James' heart openly broke upon hearing Katie crying and her words almost moved him to tears as well. He should've guessed it. He felt like he should've guessed it. She just didn't understand how much she meant to him. He held her tighter than ever.

"You really are so wrong about that, Bubbles." He told her, calling her by the name that he used to call her when she was Jorgie's age and making her hug onto him tighter. She wanted to feel protected by him. He didn't hesitate to do so. He shook his head sadly. "You know the first person was who I thought about when I found out I was having a baby? Well, it wasn't you." He told her and as soon as Katie sniffed against his chest and mumbled 'Gee, thanks', he quickly explained himself.

"No." he told her. "No, I mean, I didn't think about you and how it would affect my time with you because I knew that I wouldn't let it affect us. I would never let it affect you and I. And even when I offered to do these Wednesday lessons with you, I knew that nobody would ever get in the way. Not even little Jorgie."

The orange haired female was being to listen to where her Uncle was getting at but she couldn't help but pull away from his soggy chest and look tearfully up at him. She sniffed, her nose making a little snorting noise.

"Y-Yeah, you say that now but-"

"No, listen to me." James interrupted his god-daughter firmly for what felt like the first time in her whole life so Katie shut her mouth and listened. She really tried to listen as she looked up at him, her vulnerable eyes blinking. He shook his head softly and smiled emotionally down at her. "You really don't get it, do you? You really don't get how much you mean to me. You don't understand that I want to be having these sessions with you as much as I hope that you do. And it's definitely not an ego boosting thing. I love being with you. I love reading with you. I love learning with you. And I love watching you succeed."

At first, Katie didn't have anything to say back to her Uncle. Her first mind-set was to deny his words and not believe them but even she couldn't dismiss the words belonging to one of the people she trusted the most and had trusted the most for her entire life. She swallowed, her eyes filling with tears again. She listened to his words. They fluttered into her ears. But she still found herself shaking her head. She looked away.

"B-But… But you shouldn't be here. You shouldn't have to be here."

And because those two were so very close, so infinitely close, James understood what exactly she was getting at. He gently and carefully lifted her head up with his hand and after brushing her tears from her eyes, he told her the truth. He told her the whole and utter truth.

"I know what you're thinking. I know what you mean. You think that you're going to repay me in some way for all of this and that's nonsense because, believe me, I'm definitely not the best at all of this." he began by telling her and after she couldn't help but frown and shake her head, disagreeing with him, he told her what he really wanted to say.

"You never have to feel like you're taking up all of my time and you never have to repay me. If anyone needs to repay anyone, I need to repay you. I'm your Uncle and I'm the one who has technically looked out for you for years but believe me, you have done the same exact thing for me. Since the day you were born. You've been one of my best friends. You loved me when I was younger and when I really wasn't sure of myself. There were days where I was so blue. But it didn't matter. Because your mom and dad would need me to watch you and I was so happy to do that. Truthfully, there were some days where I would count down the days until I could be with you again. Because I loved it so much. Because I loved you so much. And I still do. I love you so much."

James' words were touching and beautiful but it was his voice crack at the end of it that made Katie unable to deny them. She was unable to feel like he was lying to her. He was telling her the truth. And him telling her the truth made them both emotional. Her eyes filled with tears again and she emotionally reached up to gently brush his cheek like she had done since she was a very little girl. She shook her head slowly.

"That can't be true…" she mumbled to him but even though she was shaking her head, deep inside, she knew that they were true. And James wasn't going to let her think that they weren't. He nodded his head and sniffed, looking right back at her and holding her cheek as well.

"Oh, but they are." He told her, gently leaning forward to briefly touch his forehead against hers before he looked around her room. He then shut his eyes, remembering the truth to his own words. "I have a new little daughter now. My little ginger daughter. But a part of me will always feel like you were my first little Jorgie. Because you were. It's true. You were my best friend. You are my best friend. My little movie watching partner. The girl who loves me young or old or dressed up or in my own clothes or confused or certain. You loved me unconditionally when I felt like no one else did or could. I'm the one who needs to repay you. I'm the one who is lucky to have you. You're my little Bubbles. You're my girl. You're the daughter that I would have in a heartbeat. Katie, I am telling you the truth."

After all this was said, there was nothing really else that they could say to each other so Katie just fell back against his chest and held onto her Uncle. James wrapped his arms around his god-daughter and pressed a kiss to her head and let his lips linger there even after he opened his eyes once again. He had told her the truth. He had told her what she meant to him. He had felt all those things for many many years but in that moment, he only just put them all into sentences for her. And it was good. It felt good.

And following those precious words and precious conversations, Katie began to feel good again. In fact, she felt even more than good. She had been reassured of her place in not only her Uncle's life but everybody else's too. She figured that if he felt that way and he was the one who saw most of her difficult moments then she knew that everyone else felt the same way. And they did. She was lucky. She was loved. But most importantly, she was successful.

She was successful in life. She was successful when it came to overcoming her stutter. And she was successful in not only the people who loved her but the people she loved too. She loved so many people. Young and old. Dressed up or in their own clothes. Confused or certain. She loved them all. But like he felt for her, her Uncle James held a special place in her heart.

He was her Uncle. He was her god-father. He was her stutter tutor. He was her best friend. And he was home when nowhere else really felt like it. And, I believe, that other than it being the strength of her own heart, it was that bond that made her achieve everything that she deserved to overcome.

The End.

There you go! Thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 One thing I really have to write about one day is Misty's children's reactions when James and Lynne start dating as well. It's touched a tiny little bit here and as you can see, Katie has worries that she's taking too much of James' time and feeling guilty that he should be spending their time with Lynne and Jorgie instead. But of course, he soon sets her straight. The truth is, he enjoys their time as much as she does and he really does view her as almost a daughter. James and Katie has been one of my favourite relationships for a very long time. I recently got a review on a chapter focusing on Katie's stutter and thank you to the person that left it. I hope that I portray it okay! Thanks again and I will be back again on the 28th with The Diary of Baby Rey so see you then!

AmyBieberKetchum signing out :3