Hello, it is Wednesday and I am back with a new chapter! I wrote this one nearly a year ago now but if I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure I had the idea for even longer but I procrastinated writing it. I guess, almost like the message of this story, it chose the right time to identify itself :3 In this one, Jessie and James' eldest son, Justin - and his long-term boyfriend, Sammy - have just welcomed their new baby girl into the world. Life still happens though, even though this miraculous thing has happened. People don't see eye to eye. Perhaps there's underlying tension going on. And even though the little baby has been heavily anticipated, she still doesn't have a name! I hope you enjoy this story. And enjoy seeing the connection Jorginho has to Justin beyond his tie to others that they know :3
Ages:
Justin: 27
Sammy: 34
Jorginho: 48
So many moments exist in life in which I adore that it is impossible to choose a favorite. Perhaps that is my sign not to bother! Sunday mornings fill me with warmth. My pulse races from the tip of my toes to the top of my head when I get any opportunity to reminisce with my best friend, Ash. I love weddings. Birthdays. Special occasions. My heart has room for absolutely all of them, big or small.
Of course, one of my most beloved days are when a new little life comes into the world. And when a little girl was born on the 26th of August one particular year, I was yet again reminded why I hold those occasions so dear.
Some of us gathered in the waiting room with bated breath while Justin, Sammy, and their surrogate - Victoria - were in the delivery room. Others paced up and down, sending enough air gusting to not need an open window. Some scrolled on devices, acting like their hearts weren't secretly in their throats.
And then it finally happened. The noises that we had all been waiting for. The news that we had all been waiting for.
Justin and Sammy raced hand in hand out of the delivery room door, their cheeks flushed as if they had been the one doing the heavy lifting and their glowing eyes matching their skin. I knew at once what had occurred. I knew right away it was good news. But that didn't stop my heart from dropping a few inches in my chest for a split second just in case.
"She's here!" they announced in unison, their palms glued together and not just because of their clamminess before just one of them managed to swallow and speak past the lump in their throat.
Unlike how when he took to the stage or summoned his ideas from mind to paper, Justin was rendered speechless after speaking words alongside his partner.
"She's here." Sammy repeated, his grip tightening on Justin's hand and his other pushing floppy locks out of his eyes. He added promptly before he looked into the eyes of each and every person and broke down in tears at the pure euphoria of it. "She's here and she's wonderful. Both are doing great."
I may have had aching bones from more than just waiting around at that point in my life but upon hearing all these words, I screeched with joy at the top of my lungs and as if I were their newborn baby's age!
However, my cheeks did not have time to redden at my outburst. Everyone rushed over to embrace the proud new fathers before holding one and other equally as tightly.
James' meadow orbs experienced a rainstorm as he held both his son and his son in law in spirit by the faces before planting a kiss on both of their cheeks.
Goodness, it felt like yesterday since Justin had arrived to him!
Jessie felt the same way. She pulled both men to her chest and a kiss was pressed to the tip of their ears. She wanted to say words. But she couldn't. Like her son, her heart was blocking her windpipe.
I was caught in a delightful hug sandwich from Katie, for she embraced me as soon as both men shared the news and then she squeezed them with all of her might before hugging me even tighter. She hugged me so tight in fact that I thought I might pop, and my cheeks would stay an even deeper hue forever!
James hugged his boys and then his wife. Jessie hugged them too and then pulled her husband in even closer. Katie embraced her grandmother, Lynne, after finally letting me go and she hugged her mother also. Gosh, Misty's reason for her name was in her eyes when she looked at Justin and Sammy for more than a second!
She was a grandmother herself thanks to Katie and Justin's own little brother but somehow it didn't seem possible that Justin had helped bring life into the world. He would always be that little boy who threatened to run away that one time when she babysat him.
Spouses hugged each other. Mother and daughter did. Grandmother and granddaughter. I hugged everyone! While Justin and Sammy couldn't help but give one and another a second hug, their palms glueing to each other's backs at the sheer gratitude of it all, Lynne finally approached James and congratulated him before pecking him on the cheek and the two of them engaged in their own embrace.
Because it was such a blur, I didn't think anything of it when I watched Jorginho hug only Justin and Sammy first before getting stuck into it all and offering a hug to anybody else. As he adjusted his black rimmed glasses in between each brief hug, I assumed that he was just feeling shy. He didn't want to take the shine away from the big moment. I didn't really know him very well then.
Jorginho hugged his little brother and his likely future little brother-in-law repeatedly before Jessie was the first other person that he offered a hug and a congratulations too. For some reason Katie came next even though he did not know her that well either. Light hit his glasses as he gingerly adjusted them after pulling away from her, his wide mouth grinning amiably.
The beam of his lenses lasted even if his grin died down to offer Lynne a congratulatory nod of the head and a hand pressed over his heart to convey sincerity to which she managed to muster in return.
It was fortunate that Justin and Sammy had not let go of each other, and that they had tears of joy blurring their eyes because they could not see James and Jorginho approaching one and other. You would think after the summer spent weaving in and out of each other's houses that their interaction would be stronger. You would think that James being Justin's father and Jorginho being Sammy's brother that this would elicit a hug like they had both offered to those two new fathers.
But it didn't.
James and Jorginho approached one and other. Their mouths wobbled into some semblance of a smile. And then they merely shook each other's hands, their palms touching each other for barely one full heartbeat before ripping away.
That was odd. That was so odd.
But for some reason, I couldn't be bothered to think about it at the time. A baby had been born and my heart had grown in size all over again to make room for the new little lamb. Nothing could wipe the smile from my face. And nothing could stop me from hugging everybody all over again!
Eventually I had to. Some people needed to return home and others disappeared into pairs and down to the cafeteria to wait to be called to meet the baby when Victoria was ready to present her to Justin and Sammy for good.
The little baby was worth waiting for. I found that out when it was finally my turn to greet her, right at the end of the list of everyone. I hardly minded! I felt like no other people existed in the world when Justin and Sammy had invited me to their private room and ushered me in.
I still felt like nobody else existed in the world about twenty minutes into staring down into the hospital crib where the new baby lay. I stared so long and hard that even Sammy got bored and wanted to find James to offer him other thanks for all that he had done to ease his worries about becoming a father.
Their baby was such a little beauty, like every single infant was in their own way. I always found them so adorable. Their pink and plush skin was so different from my own covered in yellow fuzz that I couldn't help but fall in love.
And their baby seemed like such a well-behaved little thing. I hadn't heard her cry yet even once, even though I had been cheekily outside the door when Eli and Lucy travelled to meet her for a brief amount of time and Sammy and Eli had to act like the tension could not be cut by a knife!
Yes, I believed that I was as in love as both the new fathers were. Maybe that couldn't be the case. But the only thing in which snapped me out of my trance was the realization that the little baby had everybody wrapped around her minuscule pinkie finger already. Everybody was already drawn to her like a winged creature to a flame.
Jorginho pushed open the room door and was so allured by his first ever niece that he forgot about waiting to be invited in! He remembered once he had taken a few steps, and both my head and Justin's head swung towards him looming in the doorway.
He broke into a smile that lit up as much as the glint on his glasses as soon as he saw Justin's dimple appear just for him and he seemed much more at ease than he had been in the waiting room. I had only seen him then. But this gave me insight on what he had been like when he met his niece for the first time.
"Hello Justin." He greeted, still standing in the doorway. He did not utter my name, but he offered a nod, so I returned one back, knowing that he was saying hello to me too. His toes twitched privately in his boots. "Do you think I could come in?"
Justin's head had risen the second that he suspected Jorginho had been standing there. He may have been through a dozen emotions during that one day, but he was still very much himself even though he had been purified with one of the most profound loves known to man.
Scrunching his nose at the corners and his dimple digging deeper in his skin, he teased his father's friend.
"I think you're already in." he quipped, his observant eyes dropping down to where Jorginho's feet were indeed already long past the threshold before they lifted again, his teeth winking so one eye did not have to.
Jorginho's own dimples blossomed on his cheeks as he could not for the life of him help but grin in return. His hand moved over to his heart in a different way than when he had congratulated Lynne.
Following a hearty chuckle, he spoke to Justin again.
"I suppose that I am." He said, touching the corner of his glasses rim as if this were a comfort to him one last time before figuring that he was okay to take a few more paces closer to the baby, Justin, and me. "I was hoping to have one more cuddle before I headed home."
The chuckle that escaped from Justin as well as the content sigh in which set itself free from his nostrils made it clear that he could not deny Jorginho of such a thing. Even if Jorginho was not Sammy's older brother, how could he resist a request as sincere as that one?
I peered over at Justin. He simply couldn't.
The new father's fingers left the edge of the hospital crib and he prepared to take a step back so Jorginho could reach his hands in and take hold of the baby himself.
He had seen him with her before. He had been such a natural.
"Oh, well if you're heading home already then I think-" Justin did not have the chance to tell Jorginho what he thought. Jorginho scooped him up in his arms and offered him congratulations again before he even thought about making a beeline for the baby. "Oh." Justin wheezed in the ursine embrace but squinted his eyes, smiling all the same. "I guess you're more than welcome to have a cuddle with us both."
Justin's cheeks were rosy after Jorginho put him down again but that wasn't out of the ordinary on that day for him. His porcelain skin had never flushed so much!
"I'm so pleased for you, Justin. I hope you know that." Jorginho said seriously, as if their brief lack of communication hadn't been rather comical and as if Justin wasn't still glowing at more than just the radiance of new fatherhood. "Babies are a gift, and I can't tell you how overjoyed I am that you get to embark on this journey with my baby brother."
Jorginho might have only just put Justin down, but his arm was snaking back around his slim shoulders that had that had once pressed over his own chest then patting Justin's concave one. If his hand lingered there for good rather than patting, he would have surely felt his heartbeat thumping inside of his ribcage, humming love for both Sammy and their new baby.
Justin didn't hesitate to lift his own arm up over Jorginho's shoulders, his single ring clad hand squeezing his trapezius muscle before it dropped down a few inches, gratefully rubbing the material of his shirt.
He could not get enough of people's happiness for him, but he could not get enough of something else more.
"I'm so pleased for me; I have to confess." He admitted like a child who couldn't help but giddily admit where he had hidden secret candy before correcting himself. "So pleased for us both." Jorginho's hand left Justin's chest after one final pat and reluctantly let go of his shoulders too. "I never dreamed too much about being a father but now I realise she is everything that I've dreamed of and more."
Justin may have been so comfortable stepping aside to allow Jorginho delve into his daughter's crib but now that the thought crossed his mind, he wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms once again and, like he did with a lot of things, he chased after that desire.
Making sure that he wasn't disturbing her too much, Justin reached his hands into her crib and slowly bought her into his arms, cradling her head and rocking the new bundle like she was the most precious treasure in the world to him.
Well, she was.
She had solidified their little family. She had made him a father. She was going to make him a father to three, if Darcy and Zack were comfortable with that as well.
I should have probably known better than to not test my luck as far as my bones were concerned but I could not help but crane upwards when the baby was in Justin's arms, stretching so I could still see her little face while she was a little less close to me.
Though I was as enamored as anybody, I still caught the look on Jorginho's face as he saw Justin's single, ring clad finger stroke the rosy cheek of the infant. He voiced my suspicions exactly.
"It feels like yesterday that I watched your father hold you in his arms for the first time." Jorginho said, his voice as level as a flat road but filled with the richness of history. Justin looked briefly away from his daughter and flashed Jorginho with an illuminating beam. He so loved how far back their joint path went. "You were a treasure to him then. Still are." Jorginho sought the comfort of the touch of his glasses one more time. "How fortunate I am to see his grandchild's first day."
Jorginho's eyes may have been quietly alive behind his glasses with so many other things that he wished to say but it simply was not about him. It was about Justin and Sammy and that little girl, and all the people involved that made her even possible.
He showed that this concept was not lost on him in the way that, while Justin's arms were occupied with the baby, Jorginho took a couple of steps backwards to where Victoria, Justin and Sammy's surrogate and now good friend, was resting in the hospital bed, deep in slumber.
His mouth pressing together in a respectful line and causing the moustache part of his beard to even out, he reached a hand out and merely patted her on the top of her hand while she slept. And then he went back to Justin and the baby.
But I could not recover quite as fast as he could, moving on to the next thing. For the next couple of minutes, as my spine erected and my chest puffed high, it elevated with respect for him rather than eagerness to not tear my gaze away from the infant.
As far as I knew at that point, Jorginho had never been a father. But how wonderful it was that he understood the miracle of it all the same. And kept every single reason that he was able to be an uncle inside of his heart, big or small.
Of course, Victoria had not played a small part. And this is one of the reasons that I chose to stop balancing on the edge of the crib for good and padded over to curl up next to her. I hoped that she didn't mind. I wondered if deep down she needed something small to keep her company now that the baby was leaving her to go to her destined parents.
"I've never felt anything like this feeling in my life before." Justin spoke again, continually showing that he already had a fatherly knack even if he doubted himself nearly more than anybody I knew. He rocked the baby in his arms, walking nearer to Jorginho and breaking the distance with him now he was back near the crib. "I've been an uncle myself. Even got to witness a baby brother and sister as a young adult when Dad had Jorgie and Johnny."
Despite their proximity and the way that Jorginho had been unable to resist raking a gentle finger through the baby's feathery blonde fluff, Justin was caught off guard by the promptness in which he found words of his own.
"But fatherhood is different." Jorginho concluded for Justin with his neck inclining on the one side and his mouth pressing together again now that he was done speaking as if he really understood. But that couldn't have been the case.
Justin nodded his own head slowly. Thoughtfully. Getting more comfortable with holding his precious bundle in just the one arm, he moved his right hand to tousle through her locks as well, but this was not to discourage Jorginho. Her little blonde wisps were irresistible.
It did not put him off in the slightest that she did not have deep purple hues like him or even darker brown locks like her other father. She was a product of everyone that had come together and supported both he and Sammy into fatherhood.
He would nestle his fingers in her hairs forever if he could. He would certainly speak of love for her always. I am certain that it was this feeling rushing through the chambers in his heart which caused him to backtrack his words.
"Actually," Justin sounded, his pointer silver ring clad ringer massaging his daughter's temple in circles before it trailed to the wisps closer to her ears. "Perhaps I have felt something similar. Once or twice."
Though I had bedded down next to Victoria rather comfortably, this did not stop me from sharing the same attitude, my interest piquing while Jorginho's did as similar thoughts swirled through our minds.
I inwardly nodded while Jorginho did outwardly, his neck still sloping in the same way as it had done around the time that he had spoken to Justin the last time.
Of course. While this was the first time that Justin and Sammy had become fathers, it was not the first time that they had had little humans in their care. No doubt did the day that Darcy and Zack had entered their home and even their lives bought a whole rollercoaster of emotions in their wake.
Even if Jorginho came to this conclusion himself, he did not speak of such and encouraged Justin to speak his mind. His fingers gripped at the edge of the crib and although he had entered the room for a baby cuddle, he did not seem to mind that this had yet not been granted.
"Is that so?" Jorginho said, large hands gripping around the clear plastic of the crib before his eyes lowered from Justin to the little bundle in his arms, unable to take his own eyes away from her.
Gosh, she was jaw clenching cute.
Jorginho clammed his cheeks shut while Justin caught him off guard by replying promptly, even though he was beginning to gently move the little baby around the room a little more, soft humming noises from his throat filling the gaps between words.
"Mmhmm." Justin acknowledged at first, unaware of the way that Jorginho's eyes followed his movements as much as they homed in on the infant, surely nostalgia filling the pits of his stomach as well as the possibility of a new being in his midst to adore. "She's only been here a handful of hours, but I feel the same way about her as I do about getting up on stage." Justin paused as he stepped closer to Jorginho again. "I love it over and over again."
Jorginho understood. Just the one corner of his mouth stretched wide but before he could nod his head all over again, there was one thing that he hadn't understood. Justin had moved closer to him for a reason.
Despite his previous naivety, Jorginho was quick to catch on when Justin's arms began shifting around the infant and before he knew it, his wish had been granted and the little baby was in his arms rather than her fathers.
The sweet baby girl was in the arms of her uncle.
A similar feeling to the one that had been pumping through Justin's veins since the second that she arrived into the world with healthy and screaming lungs injected itself into Jorginho. Infant in the crook of one arm and his other hand instinctively shifting to pat her chest with care, Jorginho used that feeling that he experienced taking over him to continually converse with Justin.
He spoke through a flushing of the neck that matched the perfect pink skin of the little girl.
"She's a very lucky thing." Jorginho began, his honest gaze meeting the elated expression of Justin and after he decided to copy the younger male's actions, slowly moving the baby around the room without disturbing her too much or Victoria, visceral emotion flushing every patch of his skin as he looked down at her. "She looks so much like the both of you. I don't know how. But she does." Justin's own porclain skin threatened to mottle. "!Dios mio!"
Instead of scolding Jorginho for the words that had escaped from him in his native tongue to express his joy and excitement, Justin couldn't help but understand his elation and let out chuckles, his nose scrunching in the corner and slim shoulders rising to his earlobes.
He may have been able to give up his daughter into the arms of Jorginho, but he couldn't keep away from her for long.
After his shoulders dropped down to their usual position, that rounded bone in his t-shirt brushed against Jorginho's as he stood right next to him, he too gazing at the perfect little bundle.
Justin smiled and my own lips curled.
Jorginho was right in a funny way. Though that was practically impossible, the child had popped into the world with a richness to her skin that you could tell could deepen into the caramel tone that Sammy possessed as she grew into herself. And on the rare occasion that she had fluttered her eyelids open, no doubt had Justin's genes watercolor her irises.
She was a perfect mix of the two men and, of course, Victoria too. She was a blend of everybody who would love her most.
No doubt was Justin thinking of this as his empty wrist raised to rest on Jorginho's supportive shoulder while his daughter was in his arms, and he was using his thumb to dote on her from the wisp of her eyebrow to the curve of her chin while she slept.
And, like his dad's good friend, Justin used the emotion torrenting through him to inform his next words.
In his mind, unlike when putting pen to paper and writing melodies from his heart, his sentences always sounded clumsy.
"Now that I think about it, I feel for her the same way that I feel for Sammy." Justin pondered quietly. Despite his hushed tones not just for the sleeping baby's benefit, this captured Jorginho's full attention, and he turned himself around to face Justin again, his broad shoulder leading the way. "I know we've been through our ups and downs. It's never been an easy ride." Justin found himself comforting himself with his hand racing through his locks upon receiving Jorginho's full attention. "But I'm honored to have another piece of him that I can cherish."
I watched with interest as Jorginho's eye contact dipped while Justin felt ready to meet his gaze again, even if his shoulders had tried to kiss upwards against his ears again.
I didn't know much about Jorginho during that time in my life. Apart from his history with Jessie, James and Meowth and of course being a doting older brother to Sammy, the man was virtually a mystery to me.
What I did know about him, however, was that he had never had a wife. Never found the right person to settle down with, let alone found anybody to experience the ups and downs of love and life with like his little brother had discovered with Justin.
I imagined that this gap between him and Justin would cause him to be unable to find words for once.
I was mistaken.
I was once again reminded that you did not need to know of great love yourself to speak on it. This told me that Jorginho had lived a life rich with love, even if it had not been the conventional or maybe romantic kind.
"You're very lucky to have found each other." Jorginho reaffirmed as he had surely done a thousand times before. Despite the magnetic effect that the little baby seemed to have on everyone, he was able to move his spare hand away from her and rest his hand briefly on the shoulder belonging to Justin that had only just brushed against his.
Like how he found emotions to be electric, he found this almost reassurance from Jorginho to fuel him in news ways. In the same way that his eyes pinged open in the middle of the night, urging him to scribble down the melodies that had been gifted to him in a dream, this sensation urged him to speak his mind.
He near enough towered over Jorginho somehow as words caught him by the throat before spilling out of him.
"I've found him over and over again." Justin began painting this picture to Jorginho. The little baby still pressed up against his heart, Jorginho was an eager student. "I guess that's what love is. I mean, that's what our love had been about." He swallowed as if this could stop his pale skin from mottling red around his collarbones. "Finding each other over and over again. And loving what you discover no matter what."
For yet another time I was proven incorrect when I believed that Jorginho's gaze would dip all over again, either distracting himself with the little baby or at some unimportant patch of the hospital ceiling.
Justin's words had done more for him than just paint a mere picture. How well he had described something personal to him had lured Jorginho in entirely and the prize of that was his full, wholehearted attention.
The baby didn't stop pressing against his heart but that chest of his turned towards Justin equally as much. He had the light of admiration in his eyes – no drop of jealousy – as he bowed his head across to the younger male, dimples revealing themselves through his beard like seashells under an outgoing tide.
"That makes sense." Jorginho concurred and Justin nodded, blinking through the blush of a rose that had left his collarbones and made a home for itself in his cheeks. His hand reached out to the wiry frame of Justin's shoulder for a second time. "I hope you find each other over and over again forevermore."
Unable to resist looking down at the warmth that Jorginho had left against his shoulder, Justin's gaze dipped for a moment while Jorginho shared his attention equally between the new father and the little baby.
Warmth and reassurance were his fuel as well. But even if the urge to spell out the words I do as well entered Justin and exited without putting them properly forth, this didn't stop him from sitting with the feeling that he was lucky to have Jorginho in his life and indeed everyone else. And that wasn't even mentioning his new little daughter.
But, of course, with any new parent, he soon was to mention his baby daughter!
He wanted to sing of her love forever. Wanted to speak of it for always. He reached out to offer her his pointer finger to hold even if she remained cozy in the arms of her uncle.
"I'm sure this one is going to grow up to give us some challenges just like we have tested each other." Justin began and this immediately made Jorginho's eyebrows knot upon his brow, even if his mouth continued to smile, no sign of harsh judgement within him. "But I'll love her over and over too."
I was beginning to make my peace with the fact that I was wrong over and over about Jorginho on that day, like he was not always spelled out to me in his entirety. Just when I thought he would look with Justin with a gaze of fondness and curiosity – and a gaze that lacked his own true understanding – his eye contact failed, and he knew he had to focus on where the baby's hand was gripping around her father's finger.
I would go on to learn the hidden meaning more and more as time had gone on.
Jorginho himself had been lucky to find Jessie, James and Meowth again after what felt like a lifetime of silence between them. But unlike Justin, he wasn't nearly as confident that they could all discover each other over and over no matter what individual path they all took.
For all that Jorginho liked to take the high road and show people the door when their purpose in his life had expired, God, he was absolutely rubbish at truly letting things and people go.
I would go on to suppose that was why he felt comfort underneath that armor of his that he wore for his role in Team Rocket. Yes, it kept everything and everybody out. But like a double-edged sword, it kept things in as well, right where they were supposed to be, right next to his heart and where nobody else could catch a glimpse.
Even then I was certain that he would go on to have an enjoyable life on his own, just like Justin and Sammy and their children would have together. What I didn't realize was that he had seen a glimpse of what he wanted his own life to be like that past summer. He had been given a secret taste right before it had shown itself the door.
And unlike Justin or Sammy, he did not have the slightest clue how to bring it from a dream and into his own realm.
"So, have you got any clue what you're going to name her yet?" Jorginho suddenly asked, perhaps wanting to move on from the thoughts that were secretly occupying his mind or maybe that was just the brash energy that he could possess that had taken over him. "I mean, you've seen her now."
Justin and Sammy might have been better at planting seeds and nurturing ideas like flowers into a blooming reality but one thing that they had never been able to settle on was a name for their little girl. And Jorginho knew this!
He was one of the people with a whole list of suggestions when it became known that their baby was indeed going to be a little girl. And for a rare occasion, he couldn't understand why they wanted to wait to see her face! As perfect as he suspected that little face to be.
Justin felt like he needed a moment to recover from conversation pulling at his heartstrings to being a little more like the questions he would have been asked by journalists if they had known he and Sammy were expectant parents. He certainly felt like he needed a second as Jorginho offered the baby back to him after planting a kiss to her brow, as if holding her in his arms would bring new ideas to him.
Justin hoped not! It needed to be decision between him and Sammy. Not him and Sammy's brother.
"Gosh, I just don't know." Justin let these words escape before anything else got the better of him, for half a second forgetting even how to hold his daughter and needing to remember how Jorginho had embraced her to feel more confident in himself. "We thought we'd know as soon as we saw her but…"
Nothing.
That word trailed out of Justin's subconscious even if his lips didn't say it. Naming a baby was certainly nothing and it was perfectly alright that they were taking their time. Even if some people didn't understand. Even if Jorginho's own patience came close to affecting them!
He could have pointed this out. He could have hurried them along. But he didn't.
For all he couldn't relate directly to certain things, he had enough life experiences and stories notched into his mind that he felt like he was a part of everyone and everything. He was undoubtedly a part of Justin and Sammy and that little baby too.
Words he would go on to summon would prove exactly this.
With a smile swiping across his lips, his wrapped his strong arm nonchalantly around Justin's slim shoulders now that he didn't have to occupy his own limbs with holding an infant.
"It's a tricky decision." He commenced, and Justin already sensed that he was about to take a trip down memory lane. For some reason, he liked to hold onto him when he painted certain kinds of images. "I remember the headache of your parents went through trying to name you and your sister." Justin tried to turn closer to Jorginho, but the unintentional strength of his affection made this a tricky thing also. "They wanted to name you after me, of course. But that went out of the window when they found out it was twins."
Jorginho's head leaning closer to Justin's even if Justin could not quite do this in return, the way that his playful brown eyes locked onto him told him everything that he needed to know.
Before an explicit chuckle could be spelled out between them both, Justin decided to mimic prior words of Jorginho's, relinquishing under his presence.
"Oh, is that so?" Justin pondered, his mouth not needing to elevate in the slightest let alone the fact that a dimple did not need to dig a hole in the side of his cheek to express the humor that they shared without needing to go into it.
Jorginho might have retracted his affection away from the younger male but that did not stop him from bobbing his head emphatically.
I smiled pleasantly all the while, but I would go on to learn that the actual truth was that Jorginho did not know that Jessie had been expecting twins until he was invited to the hospital to meet the babies!
Never again.
No wonder he had scarcely hesitated to rush to the hospital when Victoria went into labor.
Or so I thought.
"Oh, that is very so." Jorginho hummed, occupying his empty hand with this trail of curls that were beginning to grow down the back of his neck before his mouth stretched wide. If James had been there, he would have seen that the twenty-year-old Jorginho that he once knew was still very much alive. "Jorginho is a strapping name for a little girl too."
Justin had not yet been affected by the overly paranoid emotions that came with new parenthood, so he did not hesitate to clutch the baby closer to his chest, chuckling openly, and not worrying if the movements of his shoulder disturbed her.
"I'll keep that in mind." Amusement stretched his own mouth especially wide, and dimples cut holes in his cheeks before they healed themselves, leaving only a tiny dent as his lips broke the distance once more. He could not help but thumb thoughtfully to himself as he traced the cheek of his daughter and where perhaps dimples of her own would blossom along with the rest of her features as she grew. "I'm sure Sammy will consider a family name without me prompting him."
No doubt would Justin giggle with Sammy later on about the idea of naming their little girl Jorginho! It was, of course, a lovely name, and if any little girl could get away with it then it probably was their child – the child that was born out of the non-conforming hearts of the two of them.
Justin's affection moved to his daughter's knuckles rather than her cheek as he pondered further even if Jorginho's jokes had been only that.
It probably would have been too on the nose to name her something that sounded similar. And besides, his great-aunt was already a Georgina. His little sister was a Jorgie. Jordan was close to his heart and his granddaughter, Rey, had been bestowed his name as a middle name because of his legacy, living or otherwise.
Justin was about to breathe laughter out of his nostrils and turn to Jorginho, commenting that his father knew a lot of people with names that started by the same sound. He was on the cusp of asking him if he thought that was intentional when Jorginho cut through his musings with his own words.
"I'm sure Sammy will stumble across the perfect name that sounds exactly right." Jorginho said, taking the time to nudge his shoulder against Justin's all over again before bowing his head down towards the nameless little girl. "You will too for that matter."
In response, Justin didn't say anything, and he allowed his smile to do the talking, dimple shaping itself for Jorginho once again and his eyelashes clapping together while his head bobbed only the once.
Yeah, you're right, Justin thought to himself. No point overthinking these things.
She had been nameless while taking up space in his heart for the past nine months – and even longer as they embarked on a long journey to make her even possible. A few more days of trying out different names for her wouldn't make a difference.
Following Jorginho's gaze as it dipped back towards the little girl after he shared a brief smile with Justin in return, he even started to wonder if he and Sammy having such a difficult time picking a name for her was a sign. Not exactly a bad sign. Certainly not an omen. More like, perhaps they weren't meant to be the one to name her.
I instinctively glanced back at Victoria as her hand absentmindedly rested next to my spine as she slumbered, and I listened.
Justin clearly had other ideas. Had other people in mind.
"Hey." He was the one to instigate his shoulder bumping against Jorginho's. "Do you think I should ask Darcy and Zack what they want this little lady to be called?" Justin posed seriously then before Jorginho's expression could alter to match his mood, he allowed sunshine to wash over his features. "Or do you think I'll end up with a little Darcy Junior or Zack the Second in my arms?"
Jorginho broke the distance with Justin there and then, but it was only because his whole body leaned back as he broke into laughter, his hand resting over the center of his chest. Following this, he was the one to be poisoned with paranoia as he suddenly became riddled with the idea that he had awoken Victoria – or worse, the new-born baby.
He knew how difficult it was to get them back to sleep once they had settled into the idea of screaming their small lungs out!
I too glanced back at Victoria, but she was unaffected, and only her hand twitched as it continued to rest next to the curve of my spine. From that position, I couldn't crane to check on the baby but both Justin and Jorginho did.
She too snoozed away. What a good sleeper she was! Or perhaps she was used to the loud music that Justin had played for her, Victoria and thousands of other people when their surrogate attended his concert a couple of times.
Jorginho's hand was back on Justin's shoulder as he recovered from both his laughter and his concern that he had disturbed two people.
"You give your children the credit they deserve all of the time, so I think you owe them it on this occasion too." He began telling Justin and immediately, he elicited even more of a glow in his irises at the words that he was hearing. "I think they would love being included."
Having only just rested there, Jorginho's hand snaked back away from Justin again as if it couldn't make its mind up and his ursine arms wrapped around his own chest, dimples of his own cutting holes in his cheeks.
They both had diamonds twinkling in their eyes, I noticed, and I wondered if it were for different reasons or for the same.
I went on to realize without even needing to ask Justin that the reason behind his was the way that Darcy and Zack had been included in his gaggle of children. He, of course, viewed them of such. But he and Sammy had always had to be tactful seeing as they had come into their lives through foster care and their mother was very much around, even if she could not look after them both.
Justin was re-reminded of the fact that the birth of he and Sammy's little girl was going to encourage them to ask Darcy and Zack if they wanted to join the family for good, for them to officially be adopted and become part of their little kooky crew.
The two of them hadn't told anybody apart from each other. Justin wondered if Jorginho somehow knew. He often spoke like he knew Justin and his family inside and out and knew them all better than one once initially believed.
To resist confiding in Jorginho before asking Sammy permission, Justin's own hand left his baby daughter long enough to briefly squeeze the ball of Jorginho's shoulder.
"I think they would rise to that challenge with a lot of enthusiasm." Justin nodded his head, needing to remove his hand from Jorginho's shoulder when a sly lock of hair became untucked from behind his ear.
He was fixing it back in place at the same moment that Jorginho turned back to him, arms still hugging around his own torso, and he flashed him quite the knowing albeit amiable look.
Justin could only chuckle quietly at his own words and how true he trusted them to be, his arms wrapping further around his little girl and his shoulders shaking closer to his ears. He supposed that the apple didn't fall far from the tree, even if their roots and their branches were entirely different.
He liked that Jorginho could tell him this without needing to spell out the words. And even more so, he liked that Jorginho was part of his own history. His memories in the creche of Team Rocket when he was just a little tot were very scarce but since Sammy had introduced him to Jorginho, he remembered the important presence that he had once played in his life.
Yes, he loved that their roots were connected. He often wanted to ask his father more questions about it – if not Jorginho – but the summer had been busy with Justin and Sammy trying to get as much family time in as possible before their little baby had arrived. They had focused on solidifying their little unit before their world was altered for good.
And besides, James and Jorginho had clearly been embarking on adventures of their own. They had been solidifying a bond that had been forgotten over the years and stifled instead into a chunk of harrowing silence.
Justin didn't need to ask Jorginho or even his dad what he was like as a little boy because he had heard plenty of tales. And to tell you the truth, he had always been the exact same person, give or take a few traits of his that he had once tried to snuff out.
He had always had a bit of a tunnel vision within his brain, blocking out everything else to focus and to succeed at whatever captured the attention of his heart. Whether it was make-believe games. Playing on his consoles. Football. Art. Drawing. The guitar.
Gosh, it had been nearly twenty years since he picked up his father's guitar for the first time, but it certainly didn't feel like it. He didn't understand how – in his mind – just yesterday he was feeling the hairs on the back of his neck prick up as he heard a record playing for the first time and just knew he needed to replicate it on an instrument of his own.
Justin couldn't refrain from spelling out this memory of his while I delicately eased myself away from Victoria and decided I would check out the crib of the baby if she wasn't bothering to use it!
"I feel about this little girl the same way I do when I think about how music found me on that one day. And before I knew it, I knew that I needed to create music of my own. On a guitar." Justin began, an urge that was trembling like a leaf swimming through him as his hand traced the hairs on the head of his daughter, remembering as if it were only yesterday. "I don't know what I'd be doing with myself if that hadn't been my path. If I hadn't heard-"
Justin didn't say the name of the song. He couldn't even begin to spell it out, the word that was just one five letter word.
It seemed that while I was padding around in circles in the little girl's unoccupied bed and Justin had been pondering to himself, Jorginho had been rummaging through thoughts within his brain too. He had been having different ones.
I couldn't know what kind because I never asked him.
All that I know is that as electricity fumbled its way through Justin's veins thanks to memories, desperate elation coursed through Jorginho. And it caused his own clammy hands to make a grab for the little girl in her father's hold.
"It doesn't really matter what you name her, at the end of the day, you know, Justin?" Jorginho began, cutting Justin off and leaving him to realize that he didn't exactly mind that his daughter had been taken from him. What he really minded was that, at first, he didn't know what Jorginho was even saying. "This little girl connects our two families for life." Jorginho swallowed past a boulder in his throat as he offered his finger to the baby, and she accepted it with a tight squeeze in her sleep. "She symbolizes the unity between our families. Between me and you. Between me and Sammy. Our family and yours. Me with your parents." Jorginho fought to add the last bit. "Me with your dad. With James."
Having been stumbling through his own thoughts, Justin couldn't help but feel that all this was very sudden!
But like he had posed before, his roots included Jorginho all tangled up with them. He had known his parents longer than Justin and any of his siblings had done. The three of them and Meowth too in their Team Rocket days had painted the path that they would all go on to tread along. Not just Justin but Sammy too. Their children. Darcy. Zack. And their now named little girl.
Justin had a name for her blaring in his mind, but he could not speak it aloud without consulting Sammy first. So, he just had to ignore the neon lights inside of his head and prove to Jorginho that he was still listening.
"How special is that." He half-mumbled, for a rare occasion not knowing what to say as he looked down at the baby in her uncle's arms and he knew that Jorginho was right, even if all he could focus on was his own path rather than the words that Jorginho was trying to draw attention to.
Justin may have muttered. But Jorginho reaffirmed. His eyes threatened to prick with delight and even peace as he looked down at the little girl and knew that he was right. There were no severing ties anymore even if threads grew frayed.
That little girl guaranteed a reason to stick around for each other.
"How special is that." Jorginho beamed as he held the little baby closer to him, engulfing her in his arms and brushing the softest part of his cheek against the top of her feathery wisps. He whispered to her. But he whispered for them both. "It doesn't matter what you are called. We will all gather around you and each other always."
Justin just had to allow his mouth to smile. He had been taken aback by Jorginho's own urge to get words out into the air. But now that he understood where they were coming from and realized that he could not deny them, he just had to nod his head and stroke his daughter's foot through her sleepsuit.
I could end this story by saying that Jorginho was right. But I cannot lie to you. No, he was not wrong about his place being solidified in the lives of Sammy, Justin, Jessie and James and the rest of them because, of course, this little baby did unify them all.
But Jorginho did not even know the half of it.
His place in their lives had been solidified a long time ago and it could never be just down to the birth of a baby. In time, he would realize that they would all stick around for one and other because of choice.
Not blood ties. Not new arrivals. Not obligation. By choice.
Sammy wanting to keep his brother around no matter the looming shadows that he seemed to cast over their shared mother and Peter. Justin wanting to seek him out to be a shoulder to lean on even after he learned what Jorginho got up to when he went back to his own house.
Jessie reaching her hand out to Jorginho even though he had once shunned any of their trios' sympathy. And, of course, James recalibrating the path himself when their trails threatened to wander too far for one and other.
They all chose to be in each other's lives. Chose to have Jorginho around. It wasn't that baby that did that. But it was sweet that he told her that she would always be part of the reason.
And, speaking of that little girl, Jorginho was wrong about her in some ways too. For, you see, it did matter what her name went on to be. Because her name not only sang with the same rawness of the record that inspired Justin to pick up guitar but also was filled with grace like one of the people who both Justin and Sammy believed that they never would have found each other without.
I have so many moments in life in which I adore that it is impossible to choose a favorite. As I look back, I can't help but remember that a day in August on one particular year took up one of the many spaces in my heart.
Justin and Sammy's daughter, Layla, bought a lot of lives together as she entered the world and screamed in the volume that rockstars of the past had taught both her and her father to do. She solidified several bonds. She encouraged choices to be made.
But most importantly, she bought along tales of her own. And like with the rest of her family's stories, I cannot wait to share them all with you. Just like Jorginho's ones and James' too, they will come when the time is right.
Just like how her name found her too. Exactly at the time that it was meant to clasp her.
The End.
There you go, thanks so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed :3 I so loved Jorginho's connection with Justin here, and not just because he is a piece of the TRio. Or rather, a piece of James. Clearly James is a bit of a thorn in his side in this chapter! Their summer fling has come to an end and Jorginho is feeling insecure. Him telling Justin that Layla connects them no matter what is him needing to know that something connects them no matter what. He doesn't realise that, like Pikachu narrates, his place in everybody's life is solidified because they want him around. Justin and Sammy's daughter's full name is Layla Kate Taylor-Morgan. Named after Eric Clapton's song Layla, of course, and Katie, it's obvious that that little girl will have so many strong influences around her! I enjoyed writing Justin as a father here. To a reader, he seems natural. But inside, he has insecurities that he won't live up to how James has been as a father to him. Perhaps I should write more about that one day. It's vastly different to James wanting to be nothing like his own father, Charlie :P Thanks again and I'll be back on Wednesday to update this story again so see you soon!
Amy signing out :3