Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Alright, little lamb, you can watch two episodes.” Millie holds up two fingers to enunciate her point, unable to help the smile that forms at how her little one is essentially vibrating with excitement. “Then it’s time for you to get your bath and wind down for bedtime. Deal?”

“DEAL!” Maddie yells eagerly, and though she stops shouting when Millie gestures for her to take her volume down several notches, she is still overflowing with excitement. “Deal!! Thank you Mama!!”

“Of course- you have behaved very well all day, I’m happy to give you a reward for that,” Millie says affectionately, petting down her daughter’s currently messy brown hair before the girl beelines to sit on the couch in front of the TV.

Truth be told, Millie tends to be the kind of parent that prefers to constantly build up her daughter at most opportunities, even ones less clear-cut in logic like this one. Her own childhood had been woven intricately with tragedy and suffering, and despite how she constantly broke herself into smaller and smaller fractals of herself to try and achieve perfection, she exceedingly rarely received praise. Still, she strives to toe the line between empowering her own child with iron-clad confidence and a joy of for life, and spoiling her rotten and ungrateful. So far, at least, she feels she is succeeding more than not. After all, Maddie is a by-in-large happy child with a strong imagination and deep bond with her, and she’s typically very good about being responsible for her obligations and using her manners. It wasn’t hard to want to praise and reward her for being so good, especially on days like today where they’d been at the public library for several hours while both of them did homework and Millie studied for an upcoming big test.

Besides, Millie strongly doubts letting her daughter watch an extra thirty of TV before her bedtime routine is going to be a particularly big deal in the grand scheme of things.

“What are you thinking for tonight?” Millie asks as she goes over to the bookshelf that contains a multitude of movies on DVD and VHS alike- she likes having plenty of hand in the event that streaming services were temporarily unavailable to them for any reason- along with even more books.

Maddie considers it for a few long moments before declaring, “Cosmic Kerry!”

The request makes Millie chuckle; she could have definitely guessed that was coming. Ever since her girl had been a tiny toddler, she’d absolutely loved the show Cosmic Kerry and The Space Supers. Said show was like a lot of children’s TV in that it was both educational and for entertainment, and it was led by a colorful, memorable cast of characters that all taught the viewers various lessons in kindness, empathy, manners and skill-building. This was all naturally led foremost by the titular character, Cosmic Kerry, an enby person wearing their signature outfit of a vest-dress combo with a cartoon depiction of the solar system printed across the bell and a pair of fluffy antennas atop their head. It was absolutely no wonder why the themes and casting of this program were very popular in millions of households, and it was beloved by mother and daughter alike in this one, too.

“Here we go,” Millie hums as she grabs the nearest VHS box with the all-too-recognizable Cosmic Kerry theming, sliding the tape out and popping it into the player.

Even though still using things like DVDs is still pretty standard in the modern age, Millie has had to explain the whole “VHS thing’ to more than a couple of her peers. The first reason she still kept them and sought out buying them was because of their lifespan. In her experience, the tapes tended to hold up better long-term than more flimsy DVD discs, and they were definitively a one-time purchase that you could hold physically unlike streaming services. Additionally, she admittedly also enjoyed them for pure nostalgia value, and when there are a precious couple of dozens of companies that continue to print films and shows on the heavily outdated format, she will happily continue buying them. She feels absolutely certain she won’t be devastated or anything when it eventually stops being feasible for even those limited companies to continue manufacturing- it was a damn miracle that any did even now, anyway- but there is no reason to not enjoy it while it remains. Besides, she has a couple of VHS players in storage in case the current one craps out.

“Alright, pumpkin, I’m going to go get myself showered and changed for the night while you watch your episodes,” Millie informs her seven-year-old, hoping she is still paying enough attention despite her gaze being already glued to the screen behind her own body.

“Okay Mama! Have fun!” Maddie chirps jovially, wiggling around excitedly once more once Millie presses play and leaves her to her show.

With the kiddo occupied, Millie is left alone to think over and reflect on ‘adult things’ as she prepares herself for her shower. She is obviously extremely grateful that things are going well in Maddie’s life, as she’s forever her number one priority, but things are going a lot less well (with variations in severity) in the rest of her own life.

Rent for the apartment they lived in was able to be covered by her dead-end job at the yogurt store, but it ended up being tight most months, and despite the amount of overtime she worked, she didn’t get appropriately compensated over half of the time. What she really desires is to have her own home; paying on it every month would at the very least mean she’d eventually own it with no strings attached. Given how much of an asshat, tightwad, and exploitative creep her boss is, though, she’ll never be able to earn enough to do that in her current position.

Besides, it’s hardly like rent is the only pressing financial burden she’s trying desperately to juggle while making sure her daughter never has to see any of it- she’s actively enrolled in university classes to get out of the rut she’s been forced into it for all these years. Her dream is to be a teacher, maybe even eventually a principal, so she can help and nurture children in the ways she was helped as a young girl with an abusive family. Naturally, she also wants to make sure children aren’t treated as negatively as she was by different, much less mature and well-intentioned teachers and administration members. Unlike when she was with-

She can’t help how she immediately scowls, mouth subsequently pressing into a hard line. She absolutely loathes how often her sniveling, pathetic ex invades her mind. It certainly doesn’t help in the least how often he calls her, leaving voicemails every time where he begs for forgiveness, brings up nostalgic memories, and rambles on about how he wants to make it up to her and Maddie, etc. She knows the only logical course of action is to block his number- she’s already blocked him from all of her socials and thrown out every letter he’s sent- but somehow every single time she’s tried to, she’s unable to tap the button. She figures that part of her is scared of really and truly letting him go after over two decades of knowing and loving him, and she wants to throw that part of her into the dumpster along with him, but she cannot deny or ignore it very long. With Maddie inevitably also involved in this disaster of relationship, it’s complicated to say the absolute very least, and Millie buries her face in her hands, rubbing at it to try and banish those thoughts for now.

As she steps under the hot, steamy spray of the shower, she can’t help but to long for her problems and stresses to be washed away as seamlessly as the day’s grime swirls down the drain. That’s just a fantasy, she knows, but at least she’s able to relax while bathing and occupy her busy mind with daydreams and creative ideas instead. This was her private time to simply be and to think without worry, and by all that was sacred she always made sure to strive to enjoy it!

At first, everything was going perfectly fine with her watching Cosmic Kerry, and Maddie is happily swaying along with the music when the pictures on screen get all weird and glitchy. She frowns and hops up from the couch, hitting the STOP button, then PLAY, and repeating the process a couple of times to no avail. She is about to call for Mama to come fix it, but then she hears the shower turn on and frowns even more.

She does really want to watch her show- she’d earned extra TV time today and everything, after all- but she doesn’t like to bother Mama when she’s in the shower cause she’d said before she liked to have her quiet time there. Even as the little extrovert she herself is, Maddie understands that everyone needs their quiet times, and she likes to see her much-adored Mommy happy instead of all stressed.

With these thoughts fueling her determination, she pops the wonky VHS tape out of the player and puts it on top of the crinkly plastic case for Mama to see it later. She then she hurries over to the bookshelf and considers what she wants to watch instead. All of the different colors and designs are really enticing to the seven-year-old, but something pretty different catches her eye. She and Mama have a few tapes without cases, but she is positive she’s never seen the one that is toppled over to the empty side of the shelf. All of the VHSs without their cases are brightly colored or have Mama’s neat, pretty handwriting on their fronts, and this one just has the number 84 and a big word she doesn’t recognize in weird red writing.

“In…een…ca, cer…dent?” Maddie murmurs thoughtfully to herself as she carries the weird tape over to the player, using both of her small hands to slot it into place.

Once she hits the PLAY button, she hurries back over to the couch and sits down, eager to find out what was on this unusual find of hers. For what feels like forever, there are just a bunch of weird, gargled sounds and glitchy colors flashing on the screen. Normally, she’d immediately get up and turn it off; as fear at the loud, unpleasant sensory input begins to grip onto her, she wants more and more to haul herself right off the couch and into the safety of Mama’s bed, or even in the bathroom with Mama. When she tries to move a little, though, she finds herself seemingly frozen in place, like someone hit her with a freeze ray.

Finally, but also somehow abruptly, the horrible noises stop, and she lets out a big sigh of relief. Now, though, instead of the weird stuff on the screen, there is a person that she’s never seen before. She can’t help but to immediately think he looks familiar, though, with his bright blue hair, clown make-up and primary-colored outfit that matches the rest of him super well. Something is weird about him, though…no, there is definitely something really weird about how he’s staring straight ahead, like he’s looking right at her. It’s not even in the way that a lot of shows have people or cartoons can have characters look at whoever might be watching it. This is a lot more…intense, like he is just as freaked out as she is feeling, and like he’s really studying just her from top to bottom.

“Mister, are you okay?” Maddie asks reflexively, just like Mama always makes sure she does if she sees anyone who seems really sad.

Before she gets a chance to think anything else, the man on screen jumps hard in place, almost like…almost like he actually hears her talking to him. Maddie is old enough that her mama has explained how the characters on shows weren’t able to hear exactly what she was saying when she talked aloud to them, but that they would still be super happy to ‘TV listen’ to what she had to say. Either way, though, she’s never seen any person on TV act like this, especially not on the kinds of shows and movies she loves to watch.

“You…you can see me?” The man’s voice sounds just like one that she’d be used to hearing from other characters played by real-life actor people, but his is a lot more shaky, like he is trying really hard not to cry.

“Uh-huh, I can see you!” She confirms, scooting to the edge of her seat with a worried frown. “Don’t be sad, Mister! Everything’s gonna be A-OK!”

Much to her worry, the man’s eyes fill and begin to overflow with tears, and he presses his yellow-glove-clad hands seemingly directly against his side of the screen. “O-oh, oh my clouds and stars, I-I, I…you’re, you’re real! You’re really real and y-you’re talking to me! Oh, little sunspot, you don’t know how very happy this makes me!!”

“If you’re super happy, Mister, then why are you crying?” Maddie questions worriedly, scooting even closer to the TV and onto her feet. “Isn’t crying for when you’re sad?”

The brightly colored man sniffles and wipes away some of his tears with the back of one of his hands. “H-heh…I suppose that would seem pretty confusing, huh? But emotions are like that sometimes, you know. Sometimes we feel such big feelings that we do things that we wouldn’t normally do, like crying because we’re happy, or hiding our face when we’re excited. Have you ever felt such big feelings that you didn’t know how to get them all out at once?”

She considers his question for a few moments before nodding. “Uh-huh.”

“Then it’s exactly like that for me right now,” he says gently, his voice sounding much more chipper and like how she’d expect a children’s TV show host to talk to the audience. “I’m sorry if that made you feel worried or scared, little sunspot. It was awfully sweet of you to check on me like that. It’s so important to have friends who will make sure we’re okay when we are feeling lots of big feelings.”

Being called his friend makes her smile back at him now. “Mama says I’m a real good friend to have, and I’m her bestest friend forever!”

His smile is super big and happy now, and he lets out a laugh that makes her feel happier, too. “I don’t doubt that for a second, little sundrop…say, where is your mama? Is she…home?”

“Yeah! She’s takin’ a shower right now!” On some level, Maddie remembers how she’s not supposed to talk to strangers, but this stranger was on TV, and she’s never had anyone who she’s not allowed to talk to there, so she reasons this person is okay despite the weirdness of this whole situation.

The stranger worries a little with his lower lip before putting on another big, yet gentle, smile that makes her feel even more comfy with his presence. “Well, that’s okay- I bet you and I can have a nice conversation while we wait for her to finish up. Just…I really, really need you to make me a promise, okay?”

The prospect of something as important as a promise makes Maddie perk up and kneel right in front of the TV so she can make sure her ‘listening ears’ are on tight. “Okay! I’m real good at promises, Mister, don’t worry!’

The smile he makes is so happy, she’s now even more determined to keep whatever promise he asks for. “I believe you, sundrop. I just…please promise me that you won’t…that you won’t leave me in here alone, alright?”

“That’s easy!” Maddie gives him her best reassuring smile and holds up her pinkie, pressing it up against the screen. “I promise!”

She can’t be totally sure if it’s just her imagination or not, but she’s awestruck when he seemingly reaches right out of the screen to wrap his pinkie around hers.

“Thank you, new friend,” the man says super happily. “You don’t know how much that means to me.” 

“Sure thing, Mister!” The girl chirps cheerfully at once. “Um, so what’s your name?”

His mouth falls open and he brings one hand to his forehead, tapping it with his fingertips. “Oh goodness! Where are my manners? I’m sorry, new friend, I totally forgot to introduce myself! My name is Jack- Sunny Day Jack, but you can just call me Jack!”

The name ‘Sunny Day Jack’ really suits him, she decides with a fresh smile. After all, he’s got the sun on his jacket and everything!

“It’s nice to meet you, Jack!’ The seven-year-old waves with one of her hands before spinning around in place, striking a silly pose that makes Jack giggle, too. “I’m Maddie! My big first name is Madison, and I really like that name too, but lotsa people just call me Maddie!”

“Maddie,” he repeats in the way that lots of grown-ups do when they want to make sure they heard right.

When she nods enthusiastically in agreement, he smiles big again and nods to himself. “That’s such a wonderful name! And how old are you, Maddie?”

She eagerly holds up five fingers on one hand and two on the other, extending them toward the TV so he can see better. “Seven! But I’m gonna be eight in June! Mama promised me a pool party ‘n I get to send-vite all of my friends!”

“I think you might mean you get to ‘invite’ all of your friends, sunbeam,” Jack corrects, not unkindly.

“Nu-uh, cause you gotta put the ‘vites into the mailbox and send them to everyone!” Maddie replies confidently.

Jack makes a facial expression that’s kind of funny, with his nose crinkling up a little and his mouth opening and closing once before he gives her another easy smile. “Well, I guess I never thought of it that way before, new friend, but I get where you’re coming from. It’s important to we take time to listen to what our friends have to say, even if we don’t always see things the same way. That’s a big part of how we learn and grow, and it’s something that never goes out of style no matter how old you get!”

Maddie giggles and nods. “You’re really smart, Mister Jack!”

The paint on his face already gives him a blush, but now the skin underneath grows rosy at her sincere compliment. “Aww, thank you! Hearing you say such nice words makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside, like a biiiig hug!”

He steps back some against the weird, wobbly background and raises his arms out, then wraps them around himself in a big hug. Just like she does with countless other children’s TV show hosts, Maddie mimics this, giggling as she also copies the exaggerated ‘mmm’s of happiness Jack hums.

“What a wonderful hug!” He declares when they both release themselves from their own arms. “You said you were going to have a party with all of your friends when it’s your birthday- golly, that sounds like a whole lot of fun!”

“Yeah!!” Maddie bounces in place excitedly as she thinks about it. “We’ll get to be in a big huge pool and play lotsa different games, like Marco Polo and Dolphins ‘n Sharks and the one where we get the different sinky toys from the bottom of the pool!”

“Wow!” Jack smiles and listens really good; way better than most grown-ups. “What are your friends’ names? I bet you have so many it’s hard to remember them all, but that’s okay! Just tell me whatever you think of, okay?”

“Okay!” She agrees with a big smile of her own; she loves talking about her friends! “There’s Tessie and Azzy- they’re my bestest friends cause we all got the same birthday! And then there’s Wren and Keiko, and Chrissy, and Stacy, and Kimber, and Percy, and Sarah-June! And I guess Becca, but I don’t like Becca right now cause she tattled on me when I used her jump-rope that she wasn’t even using cause it was on the ground and she was coloring with chalk!!”

“Oh no!” Jack frowns and Maddie immediately groans. Why do all grown-ups only focus on the end of whatever you were saying instead of the whole thing?! “Oh? Why the long face, sunspot?”

“Cause I was talkin’-!” She begins before huffing, crossing her arms a little and staring at the ground.

“Hey now,” Jack says in a gentle voice, but unlike when a lot of grown-ups say stuff like that, he doesn’t seem mad or annoyed; just worried. “Can you look at me, Maddie?”

She huffs again but lifts her gaze back to his worried but kind dark eyes. “Mm…”

“I understand that you’re feeling frustrated right now,” he says sympathetically, and it’s impossible for her to not believe every word he says when he speaks so calmly and with such certainty. “That’s not a very good feeling at all- it can make it really hard to want to talk or to even try cheering up. But it’s important that we do our best to be a friend, even when we feel icky on the inside. That means letting our friends help us, and I can’t help you if you’re feeling too huffy and grumbly. If you need to take a couple of minutes to calm down, that’s okay too, but you gotta tell me first so I know. Alright?”

Maddie reluctantly nods; that all makes sense.

“So, friend,” Jack starts again with a soft smile. “Do you need a couple of minutes to take a breather? Or are you ready to talk?”

“Mm…I’m ready to talk,” she decides.

“Alright, I’m glad,” he says with a little bit bigger of a smile before kneeling down, looking like he’s literally right of her now, even through the TV screen. “So why are you feeling frustrated, sunspot?”

“Cause, cause you asked me about my bestest friends, and I talked about them, but then you talked about mean old Becca instead!” Maddie explains with a huff, fidgeting with one of the friendship bracelets she has on her left wrist.

“Well, sunbeam, the only reason I know about Becca at all is because you told me about how you two are having some trouble,” Jack points out carefully.

“Well yeah, but not until the very end!” The girl pulls her arms around herself protectively, little tears of frustration beginning to form in the corners of her eyes.

“Whoa now, sunspot,” Jack soothes before she even has time to sniffle. “Let me make sure I understand…you’re frustrated because instead of talking about all of your friends, I focused on Becca?”

She nods rapidly, giving an indignant huff. “Not fair.”

“That’s not very nice of you to say, Maddie,” he says with a frown that immediately makes her feel guilty. “I’m not trying to hurt your feelings or make you frustrated. I wish you wouldn’t say that because it sounds like you think I’m being mean on purpose.”

“I’m sorry…” Even though the end of the second word goes up with a small whine, Maddie stares at her feet as her lip begins to tremble. “Just…feel bad…”

“It’s very easy to spread icky feelings,” Jack says without losing a bit of his warmth and kindness; he’s a lot like Mama in the way he talks! “Even when we don’t mean to, and I know you didn’t mean to. Let’s take a few good, deeeeep breaths together- I know you can do it, sunspot. Innnnnn….very good, and oooouuut…

The two of them take a good pause together, simply taking deep breaths that make her heart beat less fast and make the tears go away. When he gives her a fresh smile, she even gives it back without forcing it!

“I’m sorry that I didn’t talk about all of what you said at first, sunspot,” Jack says in a way that makes her know immediately he means it. “And I’m sorry that the trouble you’re having with Becca is what I focused on when I know you were trying to talk about the rest of your friends.”

“That’s okay, Jack,” Maddie assures immediately before shuffling her feet a little in place. “Um, I’m sorry for making you feel bad, too, and, and for um, saying it wasn’t fair when it wasn’t not fair.”

“Don’t worry, sunbeam, I forgive you. We all make mistakes sometimes,” Jack assures with another big smile, though this one is less super excited and more gentle. “All of your friends sound wonderful- Tessie and Azzy, Keiko, Wren and Chrissy, Stacy, Percy, Sarah-June,, and Kimber- and I’m very glad you have each and every one of them. Though, do you think that you and Becca can talk it out soon? It sounds like you miss her.”

The seven-year-old considers it for a few moments before nodding in agreement. “Uh-huh. If Becca says sorry it’ll be all better again!”

“I’m very glad to hear that,” Jack says with a nod and a grin that sits crooked on his face. “It’s normal to have disagreements and misunderstandings sometimes, even with our best friends, but what matters most is that we learn how to get through them and be even better after.”

“You’re super smart, Mister Jack!” Maddie chirps with a big grin of her own. “What about your friends? What’re their names?”

The mention of his own friends feels like ripping gauze off of fresh wounds; so painful it knocks the wind out of him. Jack can feel his signature smile slip downward immediately, too obviously for the innocent girl in front of him to not see right away. He’s struggling to think of how to save face and redirect the conversation elsewhere when he’s abruptly saved the trouble of speaking. His relief cannot be understated, not when it feels like the rest of his emotions are trying to drown him beneath the relentlessly staticky, violently glitching prison that had already trapped him for an indeterminate amount of years.

“Are your two episodes over with, baby lamb?” A woman’s voice asks, and seconds later, one of the most gorgeous people Jack has ever laid eyes on comes to stand behind the nearby couch.

Even with her soaked white-blonde hair plastered to her shoulders, she has a kind of timeless beauty that he imagines the artists of many centuries’ past would painstakingly attempt to capture on canvas. Sure, that was an unbelievably subjective opinion to have, and if she were to be as fraction as helpful as her daughter, she’d be the most precious person to ever live in his eyes anyway, but the sheer amounts he’s overwhelmed by her beauty make him certain his opinion is the only one that could ever be correct. Her eyes are the most striking thing about her, being that they are a shade of dark blue so deep that they look stolen straight out of a starry sky; little Maddie has the exact same ones.

“Mama! Look, the man on TV talks back to me for real!” Thinking of Maddie, the seven-year-old in question jumps back onto the couch to kiss her mother’s cheek before pointing at the TV where he’d found himself in.

He’s conflicted. As happy as he is that Maddie was so eager to point him out, this also means that he’s going to have to explain how he, a person who by all accounts should be in his beloved Cloudy Town and having his usual adventures with the same friends Maddie was wondering about, is talking directly to the child in question all by himself and with such a wretched background.

“Yeah? And what kind of adventure is he having?” Thankfully, her mother doesn’t catch on right away, though her brow does furrow when she looks at the screen. “Goodness, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this character before, either. Do you remember his name?”

“Sunny Day Jack!” Maddie grabs her parent’s hand and gently tugs on it, sitting them both down properly before pointing at him with her other hand. “Show her how we can talk for real, Jack!”

He can help the way he falters when this metaphorical spotlight is shone on him. What could he possibly say that would ensure this fellow adult won’t lose her calm demeanor the second he proves his independent sentience? If she did, he could hardly blame her; wouldn’t he likely do the same thing if the shoe was on the other foot? Even with that understanding, he’s gripped tightly by weights that threaten to choke out all of his desperate screams, just like the static and darkness have for too long for him to even want to try remembering. If she turned off the TV, if she forced him back in the tape-

No. N̶̛͍̼̹̆̅͝o̶͕͛́͒̈́̿.̶̢̢̯͎͕̀ N̶̙̮̖̝͈̘̜̦͇̲̣̻̠̬̳̹̩̪͍͖̪̈́͛͗̈́͛̕͜ͅͅƠ̴̢̱̺͕̬͙̫̝̣̬̐͋̀̒͐̒͒͊̈́̇̈͘̚͜.̷̢̡͖̞̤̋͗̎̇̄͂̆̋̂̀̿͐̐̓͑̕̚̚̚͠ [*]

“Looks like Sunny Day Jack might be feeling a little shy,” Maddie’s mom says good-naturedly, reaching for the remote. “I’m sure he’ll feel better after he gets some rest, just like you need to, baby bunny.”

“But!” To her credit, Maddie tries to protest on his behalf first, but he’s not going to let himself be t̶r̵a̷p̶p̵e̷d̵ ̸i̷n̸ ̸H̶e̶l̶l̸ ̸a̴ ̶s̷e̴c̶o̷n̸d̴ ̸l̷o̵n̷g̶e̴r̷, n̵o̴ ̵m̷a̴t̶t̸e̶r̶ ̷w̷h̴a̸t̴ ̴i̵t̴ ̸t̸a̶k̵e̸s̵. [*]

“Whoa there, don’t touch that dial!” Frankly, Jack is absolutely gobsmacked by the tone in which his words come out; guess those acting skills come in handy even now. “I’ve got something really important to say, even though it’s time to wind down at the end of this day!”

“Mama, please?” True to her promise, Maddie takes the opportunity to grab the remote sitting off to the side and hug it protectively to her chest.

Her mother gives her a Look- Jack has seen every mom he’s ever met do that at least once, but usually more than once- but sighs in concession. “Alright, honey, but as soon as the credits come on, it is absolutely time for you to get in the bath.”

Those brilliant, gorgeous eyes of theirs focus back on him, and he swallows the lump in his throat as he reflexively holds up his hands, hating how much they shake. “I know that this situation is very unique, and that things that are unexpected and new can be really scary! It’s very difficult to know what the best thing to do is when we encounter new things, especially when we might have thought we were already equipped to know how to handle all the hurdles and responsibilities of our lives. But I’m here to let you know whatever feelings you might feel right now and after, they’re perfectly normal, and the most important thing to know is that you will never be in any danger from me. I’m your new friend, and Sunny Day Jack will always be the very best friend you’ve ever had! That’s a Sunny Day promise!”

His little speech seems to have done at least a little bit of good by the way Maddie’s Mother smiles; it’s small but seems quite sincere. Now came the most difficult part by far, then, given how her eyes immediately glance to where her kiddo is still protectively hugging the remote to her chest.

He’s too scared of what her reaction would be to look, so he squeezes his eyes shut as a wracking shiver passes from the top of his head to the tips of his toes. “So! What is your name, Maddie’s Mother?”

For a multitude of horrendous moments, there is only heavy stunned silence. When he finally hazards a peek through one eye, he sees that all of the content feelings have vanished from Maddie’s Mother’s lovely face. Instead, she’s staring at the screen with an expression of utter shock, her eyes dilated as she sits ramrod straight on the edge of the couch. Even from his position he can tell that her breathing has accelerated, her already extremely fair skin bleached by undeniable fear.

Abruptly she seems to snap out of it long enough to move between him and her daughter, hands darting down and grabbing a hold of the heavy books sitting on the coffee table; undoubtedly as makeshift weapons. Jack’s own hands whip upwards in a show of surrender, unable to help but to wonder if she can see how petrified he is as well (albeit for different reasons.)

“I know this has got to be pretty terrifying!” He’s not sure who is more caught off-guard by how he miraculously manages to keep a cheerful tone despite how the tension in the room is as thick as wet cement. “But like I said and will continue to say, I would never ever hurt you or your daughter!”

“What is this??” Maddie’s Mother demands, and despite how her voice shakes, her tone remains almost shockingly strong. “God, if this is Shaun’s idea of a prank-”

“I’ve unfortunately never met a Shaun, sunshine,” Jack feels obligated to clarify. “Which may sound like something that ‘Shaun’ could have intended for me to say as part of a prank, but I can assure you that I’m the real deal. I really am in this TV, and I really am sincere in that promise I just gave.”

“Jack’s super nice, Mama!” Maddie, bless her little heart, tries to further assure her mother, but she’s (understandably, if he’s being frank) hardly convinced.

“I’m going to have to have a serious talk with him about never doing anything that Maddie can stumble across,” Maddie’s Mother grumbles bitterly, plucking the remote from her daughter’s hands and aiming it to undoubtedly shut off the power.

“N̶̲̖̘̜̖͌͌̎́̔̇̄̓́̿̐̃͗͘͠͝O̶̧̩͕͖͓͈̠͈̳̘͔̳͍̗̗̘̼͎̱̳̅̈́̉̌͒̈́̋̾̓́̋̍̎̾̅!̴̧̡̢̖̼̱̙̺͙̣̹̼̹̼͖͚̬̜̝̗̀͒̈́̓̽̐̽̃̅͗̏̏́̑̈̍͋͒͗̃̚ͅ!̸̧̠̹̬͔̹͓̞̱̮̲͇͙̳̰̍̈́͒̏̚̕!̴̛̤̟̠̠̉̌͂̽̏͂̃̐̎̓̈͝” [*]

Jack hates how he raises his voice and undoubtedly comes across as utterly petrifying, but these thoughts are barely audible over the sheer desperation that compels him to launch himself forward. His fingers grasp and claw at the edges of the rectangular window that had so miraculously appeared inside his endless static cell to show him Maddie and her mother, knowing it’s his only ticket to escape at long last. His hands swing around wildly until he finds proper wooden purchase to begin shoving, squirming and pushing through, every inch gained feeling like slogging frantically against wet cement that was rapidly trying to set.

-̶̨̲̦͉̳̮̘̪̥̈́́̀̄͒͑̋͐̚͠-̷͈͐̕-̷̡̨̡͚̹̲̑̿͋̓̈́̽-̸̥̰̯̱̖̪̻̰͐̑̈̎̀̒-̷͕̋͑̀̿́̇́̃̀̾̉͝͝-̵͉̤̝̓̊͐̐̒̚-̶̨̲̦͉̳̮̘̪̥̈́́̀̄͒͑̋͐̚͠-̷͈͐̕-̷̡̨̡͚̹̲̑̿͋̓̈́̽-̸̥̰̯̱̖̪̻̰͐̑̈̎̀̒-̷͕̋͑̀̿́̇́̃̀̾̉͝͝-̵͉̤̝̓̊͐̐̒̚-̴̢̹͇̙̼̗͓̩̝̪̣̾̓̏̐̾̀́̄́̕͝͝ͅ-̴̢͈̲̳̲̗̼̭̮̙̌̋͒̔͛̋͝-̵̛̻͚̮͉̳̩̊͆͌̉̈̆̋́̚̚ͅ-̸̧̧͍̫͖̥͉̂͒̀̑͂̅͑̽͗͘̕͝͝-̵̨̲̞͇̠̰̩͇͕̼̑͂̓͗̂̄͠-̵̗̞̟̙̹̘̤̄̊͊͂̀̕ͅ-̵̤̮̾̄̍͌͜͠͠-̶̛̝̩͉̾͑̊̽͌̉̓̐̋̕-̶͕͍̙̫̺̳̙̞͖͉̤̾́̐͒̀̕͝͝ -̶̨̲̦͉̳̮̘̪̥̈́́̀̄͒͑̋͐̚͠-̷͈͐̕-̷̡̨̡͚̹̲̑̿͋̓̈́̽-̸̥̰̯̱̖̪̻̰͐̑̈̎̀̒-̷͕̋͑̀̿́̇́̃̀̾̉͝͝-̵͉̤̝̓̊͐̐̒̚-̴̢̹͇̙̼̗͓̩̝̪̣̾̓̏̐̾̀́̄́̕͝͝ͅ-̴̢͈̲̳̲̗̼̭̮̙̌̋͒̔͛̋͝-̵̛̻͚̮͉̳̩̊͆͌̉̈̆̋́̚̚ͅ-̸̧̧͍̫͖̥͉̂͒̀̑͂̅͑̽͗͘̕͝͝-̵̨̲̞͇̠̰̩͇͕̼̑͂̓͗̂̄͠-̵̗̞̟̙̹̘̤̄̊͊͂̀̕ͅ-̵̤̮̾̄̍͌͜͠͠-̶̛̝̩͉̾͑̊̽͌̉̓̐̋̕-̶͕͍̙̫̺̳̙̞͖͉̤̾́̐͒̀̕͝͝ -̶̨̲̦͉̳̮̘̪̥̈́́̀̄͒͑̋͐̚͠-̷͈͐̕-̷̡̨̡͚̹̲̑̿͋̓̈́̽-̸̥̰̯̱̖̪̻̰͐̑̈̎̀̒-̷͕̋͑̀̿́̇́̃̀̾̉͝͝-̵͉̤̝̓̊͐̐̒̚-̴̢̹͇̙̼̗͓̩̝̪̣̾̓̏̐̾̀́̄́̕͝͝ͅ-̴̢͈̲̳̲̗̼̭̮̙̌̋͒̔͛̋͝-̵̛̻͚̮͉̳̩̊͆͌̉̈̆̋́̚̚ͅ-̸̧̧͍̫͖̥͉̂͒̀̑͂̅͑̽͗͘̕͝͝-̵̨̲̞͇̠̰̩͇͕̼̑͂̓͗̂̄͠-̵̗̞̟̙̹̘̤̄̊͊͂̀̕ͅ-̵̤̮̾̄̍͌͜͠͠-̶̛̝̩͉̾͑̊̽͌̉̓̐̋̕-̶͕͍̙̫̺̳̙̞͖͉̤̾́̐͒̀̕͝͝ -̶̨̲̦͉̳̮̘̪̥̈́́̀̄͒͑̋͐̚͠-̷͈͐̕

He was expecting the two of them to scream in response, and that’s exactly what they do, but that doesn’t mean it breaks his heart any less. He was expecting that something might be thrown at him, too, but he absolutely was not anticipating the ‘something’ to ricochet off of him quite so hard, nor how it felt so sharp. He naturally yelps and temporarily stops fighting his way forward, eyes darting around and finding a very puffed-up cat to be arched up and growling fiercely toward him.

“Moo Kitty, stay away from him!!” Millie’s Mother shouts, voice verging on panic as she guards her child, eyes blown wide and practically baring her teeth as she holds the heavy books in front of her as a shield. “Mickey!!”

Moo Kitty/(possibly) Mickey, a tuxedo cat with big black spots that resemble a cow’s, isn’t deterred at all, slowly stalking the width of the TV as his tail swishes in aggravation. Jack would like to pull himself fully out of the TV so he can at least take the inevitable feline assault on his legs or the lower half of his torso, but when he tries to strain forward again he finds himself so stuck it nearly knocks the air from his lungs. Whipping his head back reveals the screen to be dark; Maddie’s Mom must have managed to shut it off in her desperation to make him disappear.

“Please!” Jack begs as he throws his arms over his head to block the worst of how Moo Kitty is likely launch himself at him in another attack. “I’m not going to hurt any of you, I would never! I need your help, please hear me out!”

“How do I know I can trust that?!” Maddie’s Mother demands as Maddie sobs behind her, the sound of the latter shattering Jack’s already fractured heart.

He slowly lowers his arms while keeping a careful eye on the cat, raising them as high as he dares in another display of surrender. The idea he has is not one he’s particularly confident will work- as a matter of fact, he deeply fears it will only make things worse- but he can’t think of anything better.

Keeping his hands in view of terribly frightened mother and daughter, he slowly reaches into his signature jacket- even turning the inner fabric out to display the pocket he’s briefly dipping a couple of fingers into so they can better see what he’s doing- and pulls out a little white piece of fabric. Maddie’s Mother eyes him suspiciously, but he spots how the corners of her mouth twitch ever-so slightly as he waves the little napkin around as best he can without pulling it out more. After giving the handkerchief a couple more waves, he begins to pull the fabric out, hazarding a shaky smile as he reveals how there are several more napkins in a variety of colors that trail from behind the initial white one. Just like he used to before, he makes a show of acting more and more bewildered by how the fabric train keeps growing longer and longer as he pulls out from the seemingly small pocket, opening his eyes and mouth in silly exaggerated response. He thanks God that Maddie at the very least calms down with his antics, giggling softly despite how she continues to remain mostly hidden behind her mom.

“I would never hurt you,” Jack repeats emphatically as he finally reaches the end of his handkerchief rope, producing a plush sunflower that he slowly offers out to the poor woman staring him down. “And I would never hurt Maddie, or any animals. I know I’m asking a lot by asking you to trust someone who you just met, but please…please. I can’t, I-I…I can’t go back in there.”

Maddie’s Mother visibly wrestles with what decision she should make, worrying with her lips and fidgeting with a long piece of her curly hair. She looks between Jack and Maddie, and the way the little girl looks up to her parent with a reassuring nod makes him feel a fresh wave of being indebted to this wonderful child for seeing the best in him. Finally, Maddie’s Mother exhales a long, slow sigh and lowers her makeshift book-shield, her gorgeous eyes never leaving Jack as she speaks again.

“Madison, go on ahead to the bathroom and start running your bath,” she instructs. “No more ‘buts’, baby bunny.”

Maddie pouts but nods reluctantly, hugging onto her beloved mom’s arm one more time before scampering off toward what must be the master bedroom. The woman studies Jack for a few more long moments before retrieving the TV remote from where it’d evidently fallen to the rug-clad floor in all of the chaos.

“If I turn this TV back on, you are to sit down on the edge of the couch and not move from that spot until I return to grant you permission to. If you disobey me, there will be serious consequences, including that I will not trust you going forward. Do you understand?” She says slowly but with immense conviction, her tone so stern that it causes chills to zip up his spine.  

“I understand,” he replies with as much obedience stuffed into his words as possible.

Maddie’s Mother nods slowly once before switching the device on, thus allowing him to pull the rest of himself with as much strain as before from the confines of the static-filled, maddeningly quiet, blue, empty prison that he’d been in for God-knew-how-long. When his knees touch the solid ground and both of his feet follow suite, he finds himself collapsing temporarily, entire body shaking terribly from both fatigue and overwhelming relief. Freedom.

He’s intentionally a man of his word, however, so after several long moments he hefts himself off of the ground and half-shuffles, half-crawls his way over to the couch Maddie’s Mother had instructed he sit on. He doesn’t quite trust his legs to cooperate when they felt so asleep- likely a byproduct of him having been half-struck in the TV screen with his access to the rest of his body blocked- so he uses his muscular arms to pull himself to sit in place. Once he’s sitting correctly, he cannot help but to feel like he’s been put in time-out, and the thought makes his cheeks flush hot, but he also cannot help but to concede once more internally that still can’t possibly blame Maddie’s Mother for being abundantly cautious.

Thinking of which, she hovers in place for a few more moments, sliding the TV remote into one of her robe’s pockets and eyeing him suspiciously before rolling back her shoulders and seemingly making up her mind about something. “You asked about my name before…You may call me Millie.”

Millie and Maddie/Madison. A pair of adorable, pretty names for a mother-daughter pair that had already firmly planted themselves in the long-barren garden of his heart. Jack tries to temper his delight to avoid making her uneasy, but he allows a shaky smile to spread into a grin as he clasps his hands in his lap.

“It’s truly a pleasure, Millie,” he says with barely reserved enthusiasm that makes his voice wobble slightly. “And in time, I will make sure that the sentiment is shared in return.”

Millie gives him a brief, mild smile before striding toward the master bedroom, the door shutting and audibly locking as soon as Moo Kitty dashes in after her. Jack, left on his own, settles in to wait however long she has demanded him to do so, but if his time in his hellacious prison and working with countless children alike taught him, it’s patience.

Chapter Text

It feels like an absolute fools’ errand to try and remain calm when a literal man- a specter, a demon, a hallucination???- just exited her TV, but Millie is doing her best all the same. After all, it’s for the sake of her daughter and her cats rather than her own, so it’s much easier to cling to some semblance of assuredness. She focuses intently on keeping the tatters of her cool as she supervises Maddie’s bath, taking that time to ask her about when Jack started talking to her, what they talked about, and if he or anything else had ever clawed their way out of the screen before.

Once her child is done playing (which Millie admittedly cut short tonight with the promise of giving her extra time tomorrow) and bathing in the tub, she goes with her through her usual bedtime routine. They work together to put away the majority of Maddie’s toys and ensure her completed homework and other school supplies are in her backpack, then Millie brushes her daughter’s shoulder-blade length hair as they talk about plans for tomorrow and if Maddie has anything she wants to get off her chest before being tucked in. Even with her ever-growing anxiety about the strange individual in her living room, she’d never miss doing the latter. She herself had never been listened to or respected as a child- not after her mother died, anyway- so it’s critically important to her that she makes sure to always do so with her own baby.

“I didn’t get t’ watch my extra TV tonight, Mama,” Maddie says with sorrowful disappointment. “Cause my VHS was broke and then Jack came on!”

Millie can’t help but to smile as she rocks her in her arms and lap. “Well, I think we can give you some extra screentime either tomorrow or the next day to make up for it. Just help Mama remember, okay?”

“Okay!” Maddie chirps, all discontentment vanished and leaving Millie wishing (not for the first time) that all her problems could be fixed so easily. “Is Jack gonna live with us now, Mama?”

Her first instinct is to say ‘absolutely not’, but when he’d made a point of expressing he was in need of help, she truly had no idea what would be happening with their otherworldly guest. “I’m…not sure, baby. I’m going to have a nice, long talk with him and figure out…well, we’ll figure things out.”

“He can sleep in my room!” Maddie offers while looking around her colorful, packed-to-the-brim space. “I can even give some of my toys to kids who need them so we can put in another bed, or! Or he could even sleep in mine!”

“Oh? And where would you sleep if he’s in your bed?” Obviously Millie isn’t genuinely considering Maddie’s suggestion, but she will at least let her child know she’s listening all the same.

“I think we could both fit in it! It’s a big bed! Not really super big like your bed, but I could sleep in a little ball like Moo Kitty and Princess KC!” Maddie demonstrates her point by curling up to be as small as possible, laughing when trying to maneuver to be compact makes her tip to one side and be wrapped up in her mama’s arms to avoid landing on the ground.

“I don’t know how comfortable that would be, little lamb,” Millie says with a good-natured laugh. “I’m sure if Jack does end up staying with us for a while, everyone will be much more comfortable if he sleeps in Daddy Ian’s old room.”

It pains her immensely to call him Maddie’s father in any respect, and it’s entirely his own fault she feels that way, too, but her baby cannot know how or why that sorry excuse-for-a-man will never live with them again; it’s devastating despite this being a decision that was strictly her own to make. Millie absolutely refuses to ruin her daughter’s innocence on these matters until she must, but Ian could be damned even more if he thought for a fucking second she’d outright lie, especially to Maddie, to cover his ass.

“But then where will Daddy Ian sleep??” Maddie frowns as she’s carried to her bed. “Cause you said you and him don’t wanna share your bed no more!”

Millie is grateful she hugs Maddie to her torso before laying her down; it hides her automatic grimace at the thought of allowing Ian in her bedroom, much less her bed. “Well, like I said, honey, Jack and I will figure things out about if he’s staying here or where he’s going. You don’t need to worry about any of that, though- it’s time for you to go to sleep.”

Maddie groans and starfishes in protest. “Mooommmyyyyyy!” 

“Excuuuuuseee me?” Millie playfully demands, putting her hands on her hips to enunciate her (mostly) feigned annoyance. “I let you stay up longer than normal and this is how I get repaid?”

Maddie immediately giggles and nods, though she does tuck her legs under her blankets right after. “I’m a rabble!” 

“The word you were going for there is ‘rebel’, baby,” Millie says with a grin that barely holds back laughter. A ‘rabble’ means a crowd of people who isn’t being nice.”

“Oh!” The girl giggles again as she grabs a couple of her most-beloved stuffed animals. “There was an attempt.”

Now Millie laughs outright; there was no telling if she copied hearing that meme from herself, Shaun, or both. “There was indeed; a very good attempt, too. Now, let’s do our calm-down breathing, and then you can tell me what book you want tonight.”

They take three good, deep breaths- a ritual they’ve done ever since Millie accidently discovered it helped both of them fall asleep about three years ago- and Maddie chooses one of the storybooks from the Cosmic Kerry franchise. Maddie’s eyes start to close as her mother reads through it, her breathing becomes slower and deeper. The book hasn’t run its course before she’s ought like a cute little light, even with all of the excitement from Jack’s extraordinarily bizarre appearance. Subsequently, Millie doesn’t hesitate long to leave her room to go see if their unexpected guest has obediently stayed where she left him. It’s only now she wonders if he might be able to move things around with some sort of ghostly abilities; maybe he matches his impression and wouldn’t do as much even if he can.

Much to her relief, he’s seemingly not moved from his designated spot on the sofa, hands folded in his lap and studying the rug. She wouldn’t dare to admit it aloud, but she can’t deny that it’s quite endearing how he’s obeyed her so diligently, a fact that’s only assisted by how large he looks in comparison to the piece of furniture in question. 

As she steps further into the living room, his brown eyes lift to meet her gaze, and he hazards a small, shaky smile. “Hi there, new friend.”

She takes a deep breath and draws close enough to sit delicately on the edge of the couch on the opposite end, breathing out, “Hello.”

“I’ve…said it before, and at this point it might be kind of a non-starter…” Jack unfolds his hands and fidgets with his own fingers. “But just in case that’s not the case yet, I understand why all of this has to be pretty scary.”

She purses her lips together, contemplating how to answer before ultimately deciding that it would be alright to be honest with him. “Yeah, it’s…it’s a lot.”

“I really don’t know what I’d do if the shoe were on the other foot,” Jack admits. “I mean, I just climbed out of your television. It’s not as though you have anything to compare that kind of experience to…well, you most likely don’t, anyway.”

“You would be right unless you count watching ‘The Ring’ as a suitable comparison.” At Jack’s blank stare, she deduces he must have never seen the movie, so she does her best to summarize it with emphasis on the iconic scene where the little girl/demon clawed herself out of the TV.

There are a few long moments before Jack says, “I’ll have to admit, I don’t know if I can compete with a child’s adorableness.”

“Unfortunately there is nothing cute about Samara, at least not in the scope of the story that the movie tells,” Millie says with a sense of quiet surprise at the smile that tugs on one corner of her lips. “I’m sure just about everyone who’s watched it, especially those who did when it was still new, would say she’s nightmare material.”

“Well, children have an inherent level of adorability,” Jack reasons with a crooked little grin that does nothing to help her accelerated heartrate. “Even when they’re doomed by the narrative to be evil and nightmare-inducing.”

“I can’t argue with children having automatic cute privilege,” Millie concedes as a proper small smile rests on her face. “Being a mother has made me into one of those adults who coos over everybody’s kids.”

“I can’t say that I’m a mother myself,” Jack begins with obvious jest, and it makes her laugh softly despite her persistent feelings of unease at the bizarreness of this whole situation. “But I used to work with lots of kids all the time! It was always so much fun getting to hear all of their stories and play all of their games, and I have to admit, sometimes they were even more wise and taught me more than my fellow adults!”

“Are you absolutely sure you’re not a mother? Maybe an honorary one?” Millie has to concede he certainly looks the role of someone who worked with children, a fact that makes her a little more comfortable joking.

“I’m afraid not in the traditional sense,” Jack says good-naturedly. “The jury is still out on honorary, though. I’m sure a few lovely parents might say so, but I’d hate to presume.”

The silence that follows their light banter is a lot more natural. It would be a particularly difficult feat to remove all awkwardness and trepidation in these circumstances, but Millie has to concede to herself that Jack appears to be on the right path to easing some of her most pressing concerns. She is also fully aware that the vast majority of renowned criminals were those who were able to blend in seamlessly with average folks, and often the most charismatic of those forgoing the law were the ones capable of the most vile, depraved acts imaginable. She sternly reminds herself of these realities despite her naturally-tender heart’s disposition to trust a man who begged for help and steels herself for questioning him a lot further.

“So, Jack,” she begins before pausing. “Mister…Sunny Day? Mister Jack?”

He grins a little, nose crinkling slightly with his humor. “’Jack’ is perfectly fine, Miss Millie.”

She wonders to herself if the ‘Sunny Day’ part of his name is more of an honorific title, but she forgoes asking that for now in favor of waving one hand lightly in dismal. “And just ‘Millie’ is fine with me. I feel old enough with the kids and teachers calling me ‘Miss Millie.’”

“You don’t look old at all,” Jack says immediately, and the way his cheeks instantly pinken underneath his already red clown makeup is undeniably adorable. “N-not that there’s anything wrong with looking or being old, though! Being old means you’ve had lots of experiences and life lived! But, um, you don’t look it in the slightest, if you don’t mind me saying.”

“I appreciate that,” she says with another soft laugh. “Speaking of age…how old are you?”

“Let’s see…I’ve seen a lot of wonderful, happy filled days in Cloudy Town,” Jack replies with a wistful expression. “After we turn 18, it’s less common to count the years exactly.”

“Does that mean that…where you’re from doesn’t really, um, celebrate birthdays?” Millie asks with incredulousness that she fails to keep out of her words.

“Oh, no! We definitely celebrate birthdays! They’re almost as big of a deal as the Winter Holidays or Egg Day!” Jack says like these are basic facts that everyone knows.

Millie can’t help but to be all too aware of his outlandishness, but this man/specter/whatever did come out of her TV, so she reasons she really shouldn’t expect him to be like a regular person. “So you’re not sure what your age is, just that you’re over 18?” 

“No, no, wait! I think I can remember!” Jack screws up his face slightly, even putting his hand to his chin in a cartoonishly thoughtful pose that Millie would have to admit matches his appearance. “Hmmm…well, I’m somewhere between twenty-five years old and thirty years old for sure! I remember turning twenty-five because my friends and family threw an extra big party for it, and I had to find twenty-five different envelopes in order to get all of my presents! It was so much fun! But I also know I’m not thirty yet because my older sister turned thirty…I’m not sure if it was two years ago or less time, but she was three when I was born!”

If she hadn’t seen him drag himself from her extremely standard television screen with her own two eyes, Millie would be tempted to think he was simply having a mental health crisis. Perhaps it was her that was having hallucinations, but that didn’t account for Maddie or Moo Kitty seeing and responding to him without any prior prompting.

“I…see,” she says slowly.

Jack gives her an apologetic smile at once. “I’m sorry, friend, I know that doesn’t give you the exact answer you were looking for.”

“No, but it’s, ah, close enough,” Millie says with a mild shake of her head. “You mentioned being from…Cloud Town, was it? Where is that, exactly? Is it part of the United States?”

“That was a super close try, friend- Cloudy Town!” Jack corrects, and while this kind of correction may come across as condescending from most people, he seems incredibly good-natured and sincere. “Cloudy Town is a magical place, one where people of all ages and backgrounds can come together to learn and have fun. Because it’s such a special, magical place, it exists aaaaallll over the world, from the most remote places to the most busy cities! No matter where you’re from, we’re always available to you with the click of a button or using your imagination in Cloudy Town!”

It was certainly a lovely sentiment, one that was generation-spanning and inclusive, but it absolutely wasn’t a practical or useful piece of information. “So…I presume that means that Cloudy Town is…in the TV?”

Jack ponders this for a couple of moments before nodding. “Mhm! It’s an awfully special place, don’t you think?”

It’s clear by the way he talks about it that he cares a lot about where he came from, but that only demands more questions be answered. “Please excuse my boldness, but if it’s so wonderful, why would you leave it behind?”

The way Jack’s face immediately falls is enough to make her sorely regret bringing it up. He puts his hands back in his lap and fidgets with them.

“I have no idea, friend,” he says apologetically, his tone another proverbial kick to her growing guilt. “I…remember being really happy there. I had a loving family, great friends, a big group of really wonderful kids that I got to teach and mentor every day…I don’t know why I would ever have wanted to leave. Truthfully, I don’t really feel like I could’ve wanted to, and like…” 

His strained voice cuts off with a hard swallow, and she decides to save the poor guy of having to speak these obviously difficult words aloud. “Like you might have been forced to leave?”

Jack nods while exhaling a shaky breath. “Exactly.”

Feeling properly like an absolute donkey, Millie reaches out slowly to gingerly put her hand on one of his knees. “Jack…I shouldn’t have pushed so hard for answers. You’re clearly just as lost and confused about all of this as I am.”

“I am, but that doesn’t mean you have to feel so bad, friend,” Jack replies with a gentleness she’s positive she doesn’t deserve at the moment. “You’re just trying to keep you and your daughter- and any of your pets, too-safe. Why wouldn’t you want as many concrete facts as possible to make sure that happens?”

He reaches out with a similar hesitance that she had until his hand is resting over hers. He’s so understanding and polite, it’s almost unnerving. The touch-starved part of her wants to lean into the affection he’s offering, to take everything he says and does at face value just because he says it with such meaning, but the scars of her various life traumas make it impossible to let her guard down too much. At the very least he seems to have a very solid grasp on her reluctance to trust him right away.

“That’s quite true,” she says with a small smile, and she doesn’t pull her hand away from where his comes to rest atop it. “So…Cloudy Town is not where you directly came from? There wasn’t really anything else on the screen at all when I first saw you.”

“No.” Jack’s face abruptly steels, his fingers twitching as his other hand grips the fabric of his trousers. “That…that place? It was Hell. Non-exaggerated, absolute Hell.”

To hear him speak so bluntly and with such sobriety is jarring, but all the same she tries to not react too much and risk frightening him off being vulnerable. “Yeah? And what made it so…bad?”

“I came from…” He swallows hard and tugs on one of the cargo pockets of his trousers, working the fabric over and over against and between his fingers. “I came from a place where I was loved, where I had friends and community and a family…to a dark, scary place where it was just me. Every once and a while there would be these bright flashes of…of my friends or family, but they were all wrong, and I could never reach them or really understand what was going on because it was usually over before I could even wrap my mind around it. And, and…”

He grimaces and shuts his eyes, and she turns her hand upward to grip onto his. He grips back with an intensity that only feels like wearing a too-small glove, but given how his shoulders are trembling as he continues to tug and twist his pocket, he’s holding back his strength for her sake.

“Jack,” she interjects, and she forces her timid voice to come out stronger the second time. “Jack! It’s okay, Jack, you’re not in there now. I’m right here with you.”

His eyes snap open and he locks his gaze with her with such raw intensity that it partially steals the breath from her lungs. “This isn’t…this isn’t another cruel trick? We’re really here together? Everything with you and your daughter and your cow-cat…that was real?”

“That was real,” she breathes.

If he wasn’t real, there’s no way his hand could tremble the way it does in hers, nor could she feel the way sweat is beading where their flesh touches. She wouldn’t be able to see the raw desperation as he leans closer, how his eyes are threatened by the beginnings of moisture, couldn’t watch his Adam’s apple rise and fall as he visibly searches for the right words.

“Sunshine…Millie,” he says with notes of fear that she recognizes from the symphony of her own pained life story. “Please…you can kick me out, you can call the cops, you can call a priest for all I care. But don’t…don’t make me go back in there.”

She wets her parched lips as best she can and holds his burning gaze. “I won’t, Jack. Not now…not ever.”

Millie almost regrets making that last promise on how weighty it is alone- after all, what if he turns out to be an axe murderer? - but the way his pained face smooths from most of its’ creases makes that regret settle somewhere before it can truly hit her heart.

“Thank you, sunshine,” Jack whispers, the nickname on his lips said with such reverence that it stirs something deep inside her soul. “I promise you that I will spend the rest of forever making sure you don’t regret that decision, or ever wonder if you should go back on it. I’ll be your humble servant and most trusted confidante, that’s a Sunny-Day Promise!”

She lets out a light chuckle and shakes her head. “You don’t have to be my servant to not be hurt like that, Jack.”

“Oh, but I do!” He insists with renewed vigor. “I don’t know…I don’t know what I would’ve done if I never made it out. It’s only fair that I make sure to repay you finding my tape and bringing it home to be played!”

“Hey, speaking of which…” Millie gets to her feet and walks over to the VHS player, ejecting its contents and furrowing her forehead as she looks at what exactly he was stuck inside. “Huh…it just says ’84- Incident.’ I remember seeing this in my shopping basket at Second Chances Flea Market and thinking it looked like a horror movie prop.”

Truth be told, she didn’t even remember purposefully choosing it. She’d been in the very back of the store, where all the items were dirt-cheap and covered in cobwebs. Everything on those shelves had been long-forgotten about, shoved to obscurity because the shop didn’t know what else to do with them but couldn’t just toss them when they’d evidently been donated somewhere along the line. It was mostly bags of puzzle pieces, mystery cables and knickknacks that looked like a glare could disintegrate them, but those same shelves had yielded little treasures enough times that Millie was always sure to check them out when in the shop. Amidst her poking around and taking funny pictures for her social media stories, she remembers knocking over a small box full of miscellaneous parts of items and empty VHS tape sleeves, and she’d already gotten to check-out by the time she noticed the disconcerting tape must’ve tumbled into her basket.

The idea that this individual’s entire life was confined to something that had only cost a quarter is enough to make her blood run cold.

“I’ve never been a fan of horror movies- too scary for my taste.” Jack’s voice surfaces her back to the present as he shifts in place on her couch. “But I can definitely see why you thought that just by the outside alone- it looks like was thrown down a few flights of stairs. Did…did you say you found it in a flea market?”

She grimaces sympathetically. “If it makes you feel any better, the shop was made to be for charity. They have a room full of cats from their animal shelter, and once or twice a month they bring in dogs, too.”

“Dogs and cats in the same room? That sounds like a big mess waiting to happen,” Jack says with a laugh that barely conceals how the implications of what could’ve happened to him are sinking in.

“Not in the same room, thankfully- they keep the dogs in these fairly big gates in front of the store so people can see them and play with ‘em,” Millie clarifies, and she decides to put the tape high enough on the shelf that Maddie can’t reach it and he can’t see it. “…For whatever it’s worth…I already don’t regret getting the tape.”

This seems to be enough to stir him from whatever dark thoughts are brewing in his head and clouding his expression, even just a little. “You don’t…?”

“You’ve been nothing but polite and helpful, and you made my daughter happy,” she points out with a smile she hopes conveys the reassurance she knows he needs. “Regardless of how you ended up here, I’m happy to help you in any way I can. You don’t have to overprove your worth to me to make me open my home to you. As long as I know you’re not a threat to my child, our pets and myself- and I believe you aren’t- that’s enough.”

Even in the somewhat crap lighting of her living room, his dark eyes fill with such a glowing warmth that makes her skin tingle, and his smile instantly melts the frost off of her weary heart. “Sunshine…you really are something special, aren’t you?”

Heat rises to her face, and she instinctively uses her hair as a partial curtain, fingertips coming up to gently worry at the ends of her curls. “And you’re quite the charmer, Mister Sunny Day.”

He grins self-admittedly and shrugs his massive shoulders. “You make it easy for me to compliment, Miss Millie.”

She hasn’t been flirted like this- if it even is flirting- since she was with…Millie has to stop herself from allowing the scowl that just the thought of his name to show on her face. He doesn’t matter, and he damn sure doesn’t when she has a guest to attend to.

“Are you, erm…hungry? Thirsty?” It feels silly to ask someone who she’s not even sure is fully human if they need such basic accommodations, but if her upbringing taught her nothing else, it was how to be a Lady™, and subsequently, a proper host. “Do you…even need that kind of thing?”

Jack blinks in surprise before he visibly considers the questions in that silly exaggerated pose of his. “I guess I never really thought about it much while I was in there…I really don’t know, truth be told. I guess I could try it? I know I used to do it before, anyway.”

“Sure, sure.” She nods and heads for the kitchen, pausing when he doesn’t make a move to follow. “Oh, uh, you can get off the couch now, heh. Just follow me, okay?”

“Righteous!” He chirps as he pops up and trails after her with no less enthusiasm as a big blue puppy.

Righteous? Such an old-fashioned word would’ve made her giggle if he hadn’t said it without a hint of irony, but for his sake as she restrains her amusement to a grin that she’s grateful her hair mostly covers. 

Once they’re in the kitchen, she asks about any allergies (none that he knows of) and jam preferences (blueberry, strawberry or cherry) before assembling the World’s Okay-est PB and J (her words, not his.) He makes a funny facial expression with his eyebrows raised and a full-toothed smile when she hands it to him, and he answers her silent confusion before she can outright ask.

“You cut the crusts off,” he says good-naturedly.

Looking down confirms that she did indeed. “Shit, sorry- old habit from making Maddie hers.”

He laughs, the sound warm and rich like cupcakes straight out of the oven. “If that’s the case, I’m just sad you didn’t cut them into little shapes for me~”

“Oh?” Millie laughs now too, picking the butter knife back up from where she’d placed it on the side of the sink. “Well, if you want shapes, my qualifications are stars, hearts, wonky flowers, and possibly the worst cat face you’ve ever seen in your entire life.”

This makes him burst out in full, bright laughter that’s highly contagious, and between her own giggles Millie can’t help but to think about how it’s been far too long since another adult was in her home making her laugh. She doesn’t doubt for a second that Madison and their cats were all she really needs if it came down to the wire, but that doesn’t diminish the value of having fellow adults to goof around with and to fulfill her social needs.

“Well, I won’t ask you to do all of that tonight,” Jack says with a remnant giggle once they’ve calmed down enough to speak. “But I definitely appreciate the sentiment.”

He lifts the sandwich to his face and tries to take a bite, but much to their mutual surprise, he phases right through it. He frowns and tries again at a slightly different angle to no avail, which in turn leads him to put the food down and pick it up again; still no luck.

“Well that’s disappointing,” he finally says with a rueful half-smile. “Especially when you worked so hard on it for me…”

His disappointment makes her heart ache for him, and she puts her hand comfortingly on top of his like she did before. “Hey, it’s…well, I can’t really make it totally okay, but I can promise you we can always try again later. We never know what tomorrow might bring.”

His smile is still a little sad, but it seems her words did some good with him he perks up just a bit. “Yeah…yeah! That’s a very wise way of looking at it, sunshine.” 

“You’re very sweet,” she says with a shy smile. “Far sweeter than the strawberry jam could ever aspire to eat, even.”

This makes him giggle just a little; how can one person be so damn adorable?! “Even still, I just hate to see it go to waste.”

“Oh, it won’t be wasted,” Millie assures immediately. “Maddie doesn’t care for them once they’ve been in the fridge, but I like them just fine like that. I’ll eat it for my lunch tomorrow or something.”

Jack nods, but he still seems a little unconvinced, so she picks up one half and takes a bite. All traces of worry vanish from his face as the taste coats her tongue, replaced now by a contented smile. She got comfortable with being stared at after having a very curious baby and nosy cats, but he does seem to realize he’s doing precisely that after several moments and averts his gaze to be less direct.

She only eats one half for now, sliding the other half into a plastic baggie to put in the fridge and squeaking in surprise when it suddenly vanishes from her hand. “J-Jack??”

“Let me get that for you, sunshine,” he replies cheerfully, popping open the fridge and delicately placing the sandwich on top of the spreadable-butter container. “I’ll go ahead and wash that knife for you, too- no, please, I insist!”

Millie closes her mouth from where she was about to insist he didn’t have to and simply takes a turn watching as he cleans the utensil and puts it back in the same drawer she previously got it from. When he turns back to face her, he seems like he is going to speak again before he’s cut off with a yawn that clearly takes him by as much surprise as it does her.

“I think someone’s sleepy,” she says with a certain affection but without thinking, immediately afterwards scolding herself in her head for talking to him like he’s a child. “Fuck- I mean crap- I mean! Ugh, shit.”

Jack, for his part, snorts in amusement before nodding his concession. “No need apologize, you were right the first time, sunshine.”

“It seems I’m dedicated to accidentally regarding you like you’re Maddie or one of her friends,” she says apologetically all the same. “It’s…been a while since I was directly around adults that don’t have children as well, or just those who I’m casual acquaintances at the most with.”

“Oh?” The unasked question of Maddie’s father palpably hangs in the air, but the way she outright but wordlessly refuses to give any answers when it’s so late at night and both of them are clearly exhausted is even stronger.

“Yep,” is what she says with a nod before gesturing for him to move forward, toward the other entry/exit point of the kitchen and, subsequently, in the direction of Ian’s old room.

For obvious reasons, he doesn’t exactly have anything to spend the night with like a more typical guest would, so Millie digs through the master bathroom’s cabinets as well as the second bathroom’s cabinets to procure some basic hygienic products for him. She looked in Ian’s old closet too in hopes of finding pajamas, or even just something that could function as pajamas for one night, but everything he left behind is far too small for someone of Jack’s height and physique. Come to think of it, Ian would be so much smaller that even oversized clothing on him wouldn’t really cover Jack, and she elects not to think further on why that thought gives her the whisp of a happy feeling.

“Are you sure you don’t mind me staying here, sunshine?” Jack asks as they stand together in the aforementioned third bedroom, glancing around at the various boxes put there as storage and the otherwise general bareness of the space.

“I’m positive,” Millie affirms with a nod and a small smile. “But I do want to let you know I want to keep an eye on you, just to be extra safe. It’s not that I don’t trust you, I just…” 

She tries to think of words to explain how and why her hypervigilance is not something she treats lightly, but nothing about that proverbial can of worms is succinct or precise. Thankfully, Jack saves her the trouble by shaking his head with an understanding smile. 

“Your first priority should be the safety of your family and yourself,” he says without a hint of offense or sarcasm. “I promised you before that I’d do whatever it takes to earn your trust. I’m not going to take it personally when I know it isn’t really like that, okay?”

His reassurance means a lot when the polite and soft parts of her heart feel maddeningly guilty for keeping him at arm’s length when he’s been so sweet, and she gives him a real, full smile. “Thank you for understanding, Jack. I’m sure you and I will be proper friends in no time.”

“Funny, I was just about to say the same,” Jack says with infectious levels of cheer. 

She smiles openly before reaching into one of the old boxes, ending up rummaging through a couple before she produces a baby monitor. While her guest is getting himself ready for bed in the hallway bathroom, she swaps out the batteries in the back-up power dock and plugs in the monitor that will stay in this room, setting it up on the dresser. By the time Jack returns she's got everything adjusted and reminded herself of the controls, so she takes the other main monitor half and stands in the doorway as he sits himself on the twin bed that Ian had once bought for himself but didn’t bother taking with him.

“Sorry to be lingering so long.” Even with his assurances and her believing he means every part of them, it’s simply hard-wired deep in her system for Millie to apologize for any perceived and/or actual rudeness. “I know you probably don’t want to sleep in your full outfit there, but you also probably don’t want to just…well, get undressed in front of a near-perfect stranger like myself.”

“I know it’s not easy to break habits that we have, especially ones that have been part of our lives for as long as we can remember,” Jack says, almost like he was somehow reading her mind. “But I’m happy to remind you as many times as necessary that you don’t have to apologize so often.”

His words remind her of the efforts of her poor long-suffering close friends, and both the sentiment itself and thoughts of them make her give a crooked grin of her own. “I appreciate it.”

“But in the meantime,” Jack chirps before another yawn interrupts him, which in turn causes him to rub one of his (shockingly still gloved) hands across his squinting gaze. “Nighty night and sleep tight!”

Maybe her silly child-friendly slip-ups really ae totally fine if he’s doing the same without any hesitation; she can’t help the fresh and sweet smile that spreads across her face. “Goodnight to you too, Jack. Sleep well with sweet dreams.”

As she walks back to her bedroom through the darkened rest of the apartment, Millie reflects some on how deeply bizarre all of this is. It wasn’t as though it was every day that you wound up with a mysterious ghost/specter/entity in your house, much less one that was so vividly full of personality and that was really good with your kiddo. In approximately equal measure, though, she can’t help but concede to herself that the rest of her life has been equivalent to the clown shoes he wore, so this was really just another bizarre experience on top of her bizarre life…either that or she was just profoundly exhausted.

She reaches the tiny hallway between her and Maddie’s room and peeks in, finding her daughter to be completely sacked out in her small mountain of stuffed animals. Even with how they’re both warming up well to Jack, and Millie’s got the auditory and visual camera on to ensure he doesn’t do anything crazy in the night, she’s got just enough inhibition to lead her to carefully picking her child up and tucking her along with a few of her stuffies into her own ‘big’ bed for tonight. She reasons it’s not like Jack gave her any impression he wouldn’t get this as much as he has everything else, and not only does he not even have to know, but she would far prefer being overabundantly cautious before naively over-trusting.

With Maddie within direct sight, both of their cats curled up on the end of her bed, the monitor set in easy view, and her door locked, Millie finally retires to her bed and rapidly falls into a beyond well-earned deep sleep.

Chapter Text

When she peeks her eyes open for the first time today, Maddie realizes she isn’t in her own bedroom anymore. The rainbow curtains of Mama’s room are made extra bright by the daylight shining through them, the warm early-morning sun bathing the whole room in a mixture of the rainbow and pretty white. She rolls over from her back to her left side, enjoying the beauty of the start of today for a couple of minutes (which, in a young girl’s mind, is kind-of forever.)

Eventually, though, she wakes up enough to remember that she and Mama have a guest over, and they’re a guest who they’ve never had before in more than one way. This spurs her to sit up in bed, rubbing her eyes to clear away sleep dust and stretching in the exact same way Daddy Ian always does; arms up high above her head, then with one hand helping the opposite arm to stretch behind her back, finally repeating with the other arm. Mama is still fast asleep on the left side of her big bed, curled up on her side with a pillow in her arms and Moo Kitty loafing on top of her hips.

Maddie considers waking her up- real gentle, the same way Mama wakes her up- but decides pretty quickly it would be really nice if she let her ‘sleep in.’ Besides, they have a guest to visit, and Maddie is absolutely sure she will be the best company ever, all on her own and everything!

Mind made, the girl scoots to the edge of the bed and slides down her feet onto the cool floor. Her first stop is the master bathroom that’s connected to the room, and when she’s all done with that she quietly hurries to the bedroom door, pushing it open nice and slow. She’s small enough to squeeze between the space made without having to push it to the spot where it always squeaks (a fact she knows from many times of having little adventures when she wakes up before Mama,) so she shimmies through no problem. She’s so focused on not making noise that she doesn’t register how the doorknob was initially locked on the inside, not that such a detail would be particularly interesting to her anyway.

Before she can shut the door back as quiet as a mouse, their cream and blonde-coffee striped cat, Princess KC, trots out from under the bed and follows her out. Maddie knows very well that she is about to start yowling for food, so she doesn’t waste time in scooping her up and booking it into the kitchen. She uses her whole chest to help carefully set the kitty on top of the cabinet where the cat food is kept, shushing her in a whisper that’s more suited for the stage than for actual quiet.

“I’m working on it, KC!” Maddie huffs in annoyance as she leans up on her tip-toes to reach the container where the dry food is, grabbing the edges that she can barely get an okay hold of and clumsily scooting it toward herself as Princess KC does not listen to her shushes.

The child is already feeling very frustrated and desperate, so when Moo Kitty gallops into the kitchen to also meow for food, she groans and yanks on the heavy container to get it in reach faster. Unfortunately, this causes the whole thing to tip over, cat food spilling absolutely everywhere across the tile floor, and Maddie can only stare in horror at the big mess before she begins to cry.

She has her hand over her mouth to try and make it quieter, so she gasps really hard in surprise when Jack’s voice speaks from right behind her. “Sunspot?”

The fact he’s seeing all of this is too much, causing the poor seven-year-old to sob and cover her face, totally unwilling to look at their guest when she just made such a big huge awful mess. “I-I’m s-so-so-sor-rieeee!”

“Whoaaaaa, whoa,” Jack says quickly and softly, and she finds herself being gently turned around and enveloped close to his muscular chest. “Easy does it, sunspot. Shhh, it’s okay, you don’t have to be sorry. Shhh, shhh..”

Maddie buries her face in-between his pecs and sobs freshly despite his sweet words, guilt rocketing through her and making her feel hot all over, not to mention her tummy hurting a bunch. “M-mess! Gonna be forever and ever and ever t’ clean a-and Mommy will be s-sad and mad and-!”

“Shhh,” Jack repeats in a saccharine coo, his tone so kind and patient that it acts like a balm to her big, yucky feelings. “Maddie, Maddie, Maddie, it’s okay, I promise. Shhh, can you look up at me, sunspot?”

She’s feeling too much shame to want to, but he asked super nicely, so she sniffles hard and peeks up at him with terribly sad dark blue eyes. She finds his own brown eyes, which catch super beautifully in the early-morning light from the kitchen windows, to be full of care and loving concern, another bandage over her hurting heart before he even speaks.

“I promise everything is alright,” Jack coos sweetly, gently using one hand to cup her small face and wiping away tears with his thumb. “It’s just a mess- no biggie. We’ll clean it up together no problem, and then it’ll be aaaaalll better. Your mama won’t be mad or sad because you and I will fix it up, and I’m positive she knows everyone makes honest mistakes sometimes, okay?”

Maddie hiccups and leans her face into his hand, noticing somewhere amidst her slowing tears that his palm seems almost as big as her entire head. “B-but-”

Unlike some adults, Jack doesn’t cut her off when begins to protest, simply looking at her with loving concern and patience. It’s at this point she realizes she doesn’t have a real rebuttal, but the bad feelings are still bubbling up like water in the old drink fountains in school, so she tries to find a way to put them in words.

“B-big mess,” she mumbles with a big sniffle. “A-and, and, Mama’s tryin’ to sleep…was…w-was ‘posed to be good start…t’ day, and now it’s all ruined…”

“Oh, sweet girl,” Jack says gently, rubbing away more tears with fingers that are warm even through his yellow gloves. “I don’t see why it can’t still be a good start to the day. Sure, there’s quite the mess of dry kitty food on the ground, but that’s nothing a broom and a dustpan can’t fix in a jiffy. Your mama doesn’t even have to get up for it, and then we can continue the day with good feelings again. We don’t have to cry over spilled milk.”

Maddie frowns in confusion and furrows her forehead. “B-but it’s not milk, it’s Moo Kitty and Princess KC’s food!”

Jack covers his mouth with one of his hands really quick before hugging her close to his chest once more. “You’re right, sunspot, it is. ‘Crying over spilled milk’ is just something that people say when they mean that oopsies like this don’t have to ruin our whole day, or even just the whole morning.”

Maddie considers this as she nestles her face into his warmth, eventually mumbling, “Grown-ups are weird sometimes.”

Then makes him openly laugh, the sound soft and just as nice as his regular talking voice. “That’s very true, sunspot- sometimes it feels like we should just say what we mean instead of a silly phrase, huh?”

This earns him a small giggle from the little one. “Yeah!”

“Oh-ho, there’s a cute little laugh!” She can hear the smile in Jack’s voice before she even peeks up at him, and it makes her smile shakily too. “There you go, friend- no more rainclouds on our sunshine-y day.”

Still feeling a little shy and guilty, Maddie buries her face into one of his shoulders to avoid the little wet spots she cried into the front of his shirt. She hears Jack begin to hum softly as he rubs comforting circles into her back, his voice sweet and thrumming through his chest as he hugs her close without making her feel squished. After another minute or two of his gentle ministrations, she’s feeling a lot better, and she peeks up to his kind face once more.

“Hi there, Maddie-addie-banana-fanana-fo-faddy,” he greets fondly, his silliness making her giggle more strongly. “How are you feeling now, sunspot? A little bit better now you’ve gotten those tears all out of your system?”

She nods in agreement and peeks back at the cats now, giggling softly again at how they’re happily crunching the food right off the floor. “Silly kitties.”

“They are very silly,” Jack agrees with a chuckle. “Are you feeling ready to help clean up this little accident?”

Maddie nods readily, though she does insecurely murmur, “Was an accident.”

“Don’t worry, sundrop, I know,” he soothes without missing a beat, gently rubbing her hair away from her face with one hand. “No worries, no hurries, no Boohoo-Berries.”

His unexpected words make her giggle again. “What are Boohoo-Berries?”

“They’re really pretty purple-blue berries that grow in Cloudy Town- that’s the town where I’m from,” Jack explains chipperly. “But you have to be careful, because even though they look nice, if you eat one you’ll be struck with a bad case of the Super Sads! And when you’ve got the Super Sads, you cry a lot, and that’s why they’re called Boohoo-Berries! I think most folks cry like this…”

He takes an exaggerated deep breath and pretends to dramatically weep into his hands, even dropping his head low and doing very silly noises like super quick gasps, pronouncing the ‘cries’ like ‘wah-ha-ha’, and bouncing his shoulders up and down like he can’t catch his breath. It has the exact desired effect of Maddie bursting in laughter, hugging onto him with big giggles filling the kitchen atop the sounds of the cats crunching their kibble.

“Nooooo Jack!” She exclaims between laughs. “Quick, here’s the ‘dotes for the Boohoo Berries!”

She certainly meant ‘antidote’, given how she is holding an imaginary cup or vile, but Jack decides not to directly correct her as he takes the invisible liquid and pretends to swallow it in a big gulp. “Whoa! Thank you for saving me with that antidote, Maddie! I feel sooooo much better now!”

“Yaaayyy!” Maddie giggles and hugs onto him with joy rather than sorrow. “We can clean up now, right?”

“That’s exactly right, sunspot- what a smart girl you are!” Jack smiles brightly to her and places a gentle hand atop her messy hair. “Now, let’s see if I can find the broom and dustpan to get all of this up~”

“I know where they are!” She runs over to the cleaning closet, located on the side of the dining table opposing where they’re closer to. “In here! They’re pink cause that’s one of Mama’s favoritest colors! Pink, and then green, especially light green like limes!”

“Oh, yeah?” Jack leans over enough to grab the long broom handle, easily keeping the dustpan where it’s fastened in place and maneuvering it around her much-smaller frame. “And what are your favorite colors?”

“Purple!!!” Maddie chirps excitedly, accepting the dust pan when he carefully offers it out toward her. “And yellow, cause lots of people forget about poor yellow!”

“Do you think so?” Jack says contemplatively as he begins to efficiently work the broom across the spilled kibble, brushing up as much as possible with each sweep.

“Yeah!! Some kids at school said it was a yucky color like lemons and pee!” Maddie huffs at the memory. “But yellow is like the sun, and like pretty flowers, and like cake and like lemon bars and rainboots!”

 Jack doesn’t chastise Maddie when she gets a little overexcited and goes ahead to dump the cat food back into the bag prematurely, but he does kindly correct her. “Easy, friend- please let me tell you when I’m ready for you to pour it, okay? We don’t want any dust or anything else from the floor to get in their big bag of food.”

Maddie gasps in revelation and bobs her head up and down enthusiastically; that would be yucky for the poor kitties! “Sorry, Mr. Jack!”

“Don’t worry, I know you were just being helpful,” Jack assures her with another really nice smile that makes a glow of happiness spread from her heart. “Purple and yellow are very wonderful colors, and all of those things you just talked about are so much fun, too!

“Mhm!” She nods and focuses as much as she can on making sure the dustpan is as steady in her small hands as possible. “What are your favorites?”

“My favorite colors?” He asks, and when she nods he laughs softly. “Well, you might be able to guess them based on my outfit- what do you think they might be?”

She loves fun guessing games like this! Maddie leans in a little to look at his clothes, which have all kinds of colors in them, but the ones she notices first are his red and yellow stripes on his shirt, the blue and red on his jacket, and his bright red belt with a smile on it.

“Blue!” She declares confidently. “And, and red!”

“Way to go, sunspot!” Jack praises with a grin that shows his super white teeth. “My favorite colors are blue, red, and yellow, too! I think I might like yellow just a liiiittle more than red, but those three colors are the best ones in my book. Isn’t it so cool that you and I are different in some ways, but we can still share a favorite color?”

“The COOLEST!” She half-shouts before remembering that she’s supposed to be letting Mama sleep, wincing as the revelation makes her feel a little bad on the inside. “Oops..”

Jack chuckles softly, but his tone isn’t mean, and he gently pets down her hair again. “It can be really hard to keep an inside voice when we’re so excited, huh?”

Not quite trusting herself to not accidently yell again, she nods her head quickly up and down.

“Well, I’m sure your mama will be happy to see you again once she wakes up,” he says comfortingly, sweeping up the last of the spill and giving her the go-ahead to pour it into the original back once he carefully picks out any dust or gunk.

“She’s the best!” Maddie chirps, any worry melting away as she thinks about her beloved parent. “I hope that on tomorrow she’ll make pancakes and eggs and stuff! She likes to cook on the weekends!”

“Mm, I love pancakes!” Jack says happily, but there is a couple of seconds of what looks like for-real sadness that Maddie manages to spot.

“Mr. Jack?” She reaches out to place her hand on his forearm. “What’s wrong?”

He hesitates, and she takes her chance to snuggle up with her head buried up against his waist. “You can tell me, Mr. Jack!  I’m the best at makin’ the Super Sads go away!”

He chuckles softly and brushes his fingers through her hair, short nails carefully avoiding the tangles. “Don’t worry, sunspot, I don’t have the Super Sads. I just realized last night that, for whatever reason, I’m not able to eat food. I just phase right through it! Do you know what ‘phase’ means?”

She shakes her head, so he looks around before scooping up an apple from the fruit bowl. He then kneels down to her level so she can see him better, giving her a playful grin. He then shows off his ability to roll the apple all the way down one arm and catch it again easily, and without even almost dropping it! Maddie, being an enthusiastic audience, claps excitedly without making too much noise to bother Mama.

“Thank you!” He says with a fresh smile before holding up the apple. “Alright, sunspot, time to for us to learn a new word! Are you so excited?”

“Uh-huh!” Maddie wiggles eagerly in place. “Learning is super fun!”

“It absolutely is!” Jack agrees, gently booping her forehead before looking to the fruit in his hand. “Now, if you look at this apple, it’s a solid object. That means that if you feel it, your hand doesn’t go through it.”

He takes his other hand and gently knocks against the apple before allowing her to do the same, giggling at the silliness of it.

“But if I try to eat it, I go right through it,” Jack continues to explain. “And another way of saying that I go through it is the word ‘phase.’ P-H-A-S-E, phase. Can you try saying it?”

“Phase!”

“Very good! Now watch closely.”

He brings the fruit to his lips and opens his mouth. Maddie watches in amazement as the bulb passes through his entire mouth, his face otherwise looking normal but seeming a little like TV static around where the apple is being held.

“Whooooaaa!” She gasps. “How are you doing that, Mr. Jack??”

“Well, in order for something to ‘phase’ through something else, it has to not be solid. Cause remember, if something’s solid, that means something like your hand doesn’t go through it,” Jack says.

Maddie nods thoughtfully before asking, “But my hand doesn’t go through you when I touch you, Mr. Jack!”

“That’s the part I’m not sure about either,” he admits with a smile that shows sadness alongside his eyebrows. “Sometimes, things can happen in life that we don’t understand. We can only do our best to make sense of them, even if there are no easy answers.”

“That’s…” She tries to think of a word to describe the weird feelings that neither of them understanding ‘why’ brings up and ends up sighing in frustration. “That’s weird. I don’t like it…”

“Me either,” Jack says with his sad smile growing, gently tucking some of her hair behind one of her ears. “I’m just very sorry I can’t tell you something different.”

Even with her own discontentment, seeing Jack so sad makes her feel even more bad. Maddie remembers all of a sudden that she’s supposed to be fixing his Super Sads, not making them worse, and she throws herself forward to wrap her arms around his neck in a big hug.

“It’s okay, Mr. Jack!” She says worriedly, small hand going up to pet down the back of his pretty blue hair like he likes to do with hers. “I bet it won’t always be super weird and canoeing! When I don’t know stuff, I ask Mama for help, or my teachers, or my friends! And then it’s all better again! So don’t be sad, please…”

She definitely meant ‘confusing’ rather than canoeing, but he’s far too touched to even consider trying to correct it right now.

“Oh, little sunray,” Jack coos while hugging her close. “Thank you so much for being so kind and thoughtful. I promise I’m okay- you don’t ever have to worry about your friend Sunny Day Jack.”

“But you look sad…” Maddie worries a little more, though she mostly feels like she can just trust what he’s saying.

“Would a sad person do this?” Jack asks before surprising her by scooping her right up off the floor. She automatically squeals with both surprise and laughter as he spins them both around a few times, the rotations making him stumble a little once he stops through his own laughter.

“You’re not super sad, you’re super silly!” The girl declares.

“I have to agree with you there!” He gives her a big grin and winks. “I think it suits me better than being sad, anyway.”

“Yeah!” She agrees with a couple of more giggles.

“Now that we’re both feeling much better, what do you say we get you some breakfast?” Jack says while lifting up the apple. “What about this nice, healthy apple with some yummy oatmeal?”

“I like cereal!” Maddie has to admit his offer sounds delicious too, but she loves her cereal routine!

When he sets her up against his hip and finds cereal box with her help, he makes a yuck face that makes her immediately pout. “I don’t know, sunspot, all that sugar doesn’t seem very healthy first thing in the morning. How will you make lots of energy for school if you don’t have any of that good stuff in your belly?”

“Mama always lets me have cereal!!” Maddie squirms against him with growing frustration. “She said it’s okay so you gotta listen to her!”

Jack makes another yuck face (though this time a lot smaller and easier to ignore) before gently bouncing her on his hip. “No need to fuss, sweet girl, I’m not going to tell you ‘no’ when your mama is okay with it. I just want to help you grow up big and strong.”

Now he really is being unfair, though she’s not totally sure why she feels that way when he is going to let her have it. Tears gather in her eyes and she looks away from him, even when he pours her cereal and milk and sets her down at the table to eat.

“Sunspot,” he says softly, to which she stays staring glumly at her bowl while only poking at it with her spoon. “Maddie, can you look at me for just a minute?”

“Mr. Jack, it wasn’ nice to be mean about cereal,” she mumbles without looking at his face. “I wouldn’t be mean about your favorite stuff…”

Jack is quiet for a little bit before he speaks again, voice soft but full of that tone he uses that makes her fully trust him. “I guess I was being a little too stubborn about what you eat for breakfast, and it wasn’t nice to act like your mama doesn’t know what’s best for you.”

The second thing he said makes it a lot easier to understand why she feels so bad right now, and Maddie nods. “Not nice.”

“I owe you an apology, Madison.” When he uses her big first name, she looks at Jack with wide eyes, but his face is as gentle and nice as always. “I’m sorry I wasn’t being nice to you or about your mama. You both have been doing things all by yourselves for a long time, huh?”

When she nods in agreement, he continues with a small smile. “I shouldn’t try and boss you around so much, especially not when your mama isn’t in here. I really didn’t mean it to be mean, but sometimes we mean things in a nice way and they come out in a bad way instead. I’m sorry for hurting your feelings, Maddie, and I promise I’ll do better next time. Can you forgive me?”

Maddie marvels to herself at how good of an apology he made. Usually adults that weren’t Mama or Daddy Ian or her teacher wouldn’t even say sorry, not even if they were way meaner or super wrong. Jack also meant it, too, not like when kids who were bad were made to say sorry, and he didn’t even want to make her feel like she was in the wrong but being upset. He really was a super duper nice man!

“Of course!” She assures him with a big smile, reaching out for another hug. “It’s okay to make mistakes, Mr. Jack! You’re the nicest and coolest and best!”

Jack beams and happily accepts her hug, pressing a small, quick kiss to the top of her head when he leans up to let her dig into her breakfast properly. “Thank you very much, sunspot- you’re right on the money about mistakes. We all make them sometimes, but being sorry and knowing we can always do better next time is what’s the most important. Next time I’m worried about something, I’ll just talk to your mama about it, okay?”

“Okay!” Maddie agrees happily between eating (it isn’t polite to talk with your mouth full!) “I bet you can watch TV or somethin’ if you wanna since you can’t eat food! You just gotta ask Mama before you turn on the TV!”

The idea of going anywhere near a TV of any kind is abundantly far down the list of things Jack has any intention of doing anytime soon, but he still smiles and nods politely at the sweet little seven-year-old’s innocent suggestion. He really is concerned about her eating that sugary, artificial breakfast all the time, especially on school days, but she’d flagged his overstepping boundaries on the matter like an old pro. Some adults might be put off by a child correcting them, but Jack is genuinely very glad that Millie has instilled such a strong sense of justice in Maddie, and that she’s secure enough in herself that she can politely but clearly call out bad behavior, even from adults like himself.

Besides, he had reasoned with himself while making the bowl that cereal like hers was alright in moderation, especially if it was for a snack or on a day she didn’t have school. Building healthy habits are the easiest and most important when you are young, but they also take time, and concern aside he doesn’t want to be mean or overbearing to the people who he already owes everything to. He resolves that he’ll simply have to frame it more positively, and to guide both Millie and Maddie with the best of his knowledge and chipper attitude toward healthier alternatives.

After all, he’s around now to make everything easier for them, so Millie won’t even have to worry about potentially not having time to cook in the mornings!

“Oh, hello there.” Jack stirs from his contemplation at the feeling of something brushing against his legs, looking down and smiling at the cream and beige tabby cat weaving affectionately between his legs. “I didn’t see you last night- you must be Moo Kitty’s sibling, hm?”

“That’s Princess KC!” Maddie offers up jovially.

“She’s a very pretty girl,” he says happily, bending at the waist and scritching from the center of her forehead to the base of her tail. “Do you know what ‘KC’ stands for? Is it just her name by itself?”

“Kitty Cat!”

The silliness of it makes him grin, barely containing his laughter in delight. “That’s so great, you and your mama are very clever.”

Maddie beams with pride before re-focusing on her eating cereal/daydreaming. Jack takes all the time that Princess KC demands to be given attention, rubbing his hands wherever she brushes into him. Once she saunters off, he looks over to Moo Kitty, who has been intensely watching the whole interaction in a hunched pose. No sooner does it take Jack make eye contact with the tuxedo cat for Moo Kitty to hiss and dash away; at least one out of the two cats accepting him was better than nothing?

“Oh! Good morning, sunshine!” Jack can’t help but to brighten up when Millie finally pads into the living room.

Her gorgeous pale hair is very hastily combed and tied back in a basic black hair tie, and those mesmerizing eyes of hers are still quite sleepy. The crease of her forehead immediately smooths when she spots her daughter safe and sound at the table, and then she focuses her gaze to him with a bit of a shy, sweet smile.

“Good morning,” she says with a small yawn, prompting her to reach up and gently smooth away anything around her eyes. “I’m so sorry for sleeping in so late, that’s very unlike me…”

“There’s no need at all to apologize! I’m glad you were able to get such good sleep,” Jack says with a smile and a hand wave. “Did you have good dreams?”

He doesn’t miss how her cheeks flush pink, seemingly due to his question, but for her sake he decides not to call attention to it. “Yes, I did. And you? How did you sleep in that bed?”

“I sure did, and I slept like a little baby!” The bed felt like it might be straight out of Heaven after so long of not so much having a real place to sit down.

“Adorable,” Millie comments with a smile, both components of her warm response making his own cheeks burn red. “Did you try to eat anything this morning? I see Maddie got her cereal fix.”

“Mama, Mama! I learned a new word today!” Maddie exclaims excitedly after drinking the remaining milk from her bowl.

“Oh yeah?” Her mother walks over quickly and grabs a paper towel, gently wiping her girl’s face.

“Uh-huh! Mr. Jack taught it to me!” The way that Maddie looks at him makes his heart feel like it may combust inside his chest; full of nothing but love and trust. “It’s ‘phase’!”

“Wow! That’s a very big word,” Millie smiles brightly and glances to him, his poor heart skipping a beat the second she does. “And what does it mean?”

“Um!! It means, um, your hand goes through it!” Maddie says after giving it a good think for several long moments. “Like Jack’s mouth did with an apple!”

“You’re such a smart girl!” Millie’s smile grows before she presses several kisses to the top of her daughter’s head. “Alright, little lamb, time for us to pick your clothes for the day- go on ahead and Mama will be there in just a minute, okay?”

Maddie nods and gives Jack a quick hug around his legs before running off. Jack smiles in her wake as he scoops up the empty cereal bowl before Millie is able, narrowly dodging the woman’s second attempt to grab it with a laugh and shake of his head.

“Miss- I mean, Millie, I’m a guest in your house, I insist you allow me to pull my weight,” he says light-heartedly but with sincerity he hopes is obvious.

“Exactly, you are a guest, and there is absolutely no need for you to pull any weight whatsoever!” Millie gives him a Look and Jack elects to not question why it’s enough to send shivers cascading across his skin.

“You are busy with helping Maddie get ready for school, and I have nothing else that I’m trying to do,” he argues with his best approximation of a Look in return. “Please, I insist on helping.”

Even though she is still looking at him with reluctance, she sighs and puts her hands on her hips. “Alright, since you insist, but I don’t want to see you doing any more housework afterwards. You are supposed to take it easy when you’re in somebody’s house unless they ask you to do otherwise, and I am perfectly capable of doing the chores myself- I have done so all this time.”

The idea of simply sitting sedentarily makes his stomach lurch; that’s all he was able to do in Hell. Her subtle hints of being a bit offended or defensive rule over those pesky personal feelings of his, though, and he snaps his own desires into a heavy chest inside his mind to address his host.

“Millie, I didn’t mean for it to come across like I don’t think you’re doing a great job- you’re doing a wonderful one, truly,” Jack says softly but confidently, reaching out and catching one wrist when she turns away (and dropping it like it burned him when she jolts in surprise.) “S-sorry, sorry! I just…I want to help because I care, not for any other insidious reasons. That’s another Sunny Day Promise!”

Millie looks at him with a bit incredulously, but her face relaxes again with a soft sigh. He swears he should be able to see the electricity running up the length of his arm when she takes his hand and gives it a comforting squeeze.

“Look, we can talk about this more once I drop Maddie off at school, okay?” She gives him a soft smile and he swears on everything holy and unholy that she will be the death of him yet. “I bet we can find a compromise, just you wait and see.”

“Sunshine,” he says in a near whisper, exhaling only when her fingers slide free from around his. “I…of course, sunshine.”

Millie gives him one last smile before going off to help Maddie, leaving him standing starstruck in the kitchen with a belly full of butterflies. The idea of not doing more housework as per his sunshine’s demands doesn’t sound good in the least, but he resolves that he needs to be able to listen and obey instructions if he’s going to settle the most seamlessly here.

As Jack stands there thinking, it hits him slowly, then all at once, that he doesn’t really know what his hobbies and interests are. So, he tries to shake out of the complicated, yucky feelings that wash over him like drowning static and urges himself to move forward, looking for inspiration anywhere he can.

He tells himself that this is actually a good thing, that this is an exciting set of opportunities to grow and learn more about himself than he knew before. He tells himself even more sternly he isn’t lying to himself either, he’s just got to work hard to make it true!

☺♥☻

By the time Millie and Maddie emerge from getting both getting ready for the day, Jack feels like he might be going insane all over again.

It’s not like there isn’t plenty to theoretically do in Millie’s lovely apartment. She has a bunch of different books on the bookshelf that also holds various VHS tapes and weird, thin plastic cases with oversized circular discs inside. There’s a bunch of other technology that he has no idea how to operate, but is sure he might be able to figure out if he sat down and tried, such as the rectangular device with a built-in keyboard or the smallest, fanciest music player he’s ever seen. He found some coloring books and various coloring utensils, too, and a toybox in the living room that he was admittedly itching to fully clean and organize the contents of. There was always the TV itself, too, but he had been giving it a several foot radius and barely glancing in its direction the whole time he pottered about.

“Mr. Jack, do you like my outfit?” Maddie saves him from potentially banging his head up against the wall by running up excitedly, spinning around a couple of times to show it off.

“Whoa! I sure do, sunspot!” Jack replies with just as much enthusiasm, bending down slightly to be more on her level as he appreciates her clothes; a green shirt with three different colored bunny faces across the chest, magenta jeans, purple tennis shoes, and some of her hair styled a braided crown. “I especially like your pants- they’re so radical!”

Maddie giggles with pride before sticking up one leg onto the arm of the couch, showing off her blue and yellow striped socks. “And look, I wore these ones cause they’re your favorites!”

“Aww, how nice and thoughtful of you!” He praises, his anxiety from being so restless melting beneath her warmth. “Thank you for thinking of me, sunspot.”

“Mhm!” The little one grins and sits on the arm of the couch now, pulling out a rectangular device and tapping in a six-digit number, which reveals a whole bunch of icons against a very visually-loud background.

“Whatcha got there, sunbeam?” Jack asks very curiously as Millie walks over to the kitchen with what must be Maddie’s cute little lunchbox, undoubtedly to fill it with, well, lunch food.

“My phone!” Maddie holds up the device with a proud smile. “It used to be Mama’s phone but when she got a new one she gave me this one so I can talk to my friends and play games and stuff! And so I can call her or Daddy Ian or Uncle Shaun if I need them! OOH, what’s your number? I can put you in my phone, too!!”

Jack can’t help but to cringe at the idea of being ‘put in’ anything, though thankfully his sunspot seems to be too occupied with pulling up something on her phone to notice. The last time he checked, phones were small-to-medium sized devices that typically hung on the wall or had a dedicated end table, operated with rotary dials and a separate piece to listen and talk into. The object in Maddie’s hand looks almost nothing like that- it looks far more like the TV screen than a phone- and how was it operated without being plugged into a landline??

“I, ah,” he stutters a bit, rubbing the back of his neck as his cheeks grow hot. “I don’t h-have a number, actually. We didn’t…I didn’t have anything like that, um, when I was…not here.”

“Oh!” Maddie’s brow immediately creases with concern. “But you gotta have a phone, Mr. Jack! How else are we gonna get a hold of you if you don’t got one?”

“Well, I’m sure your mama will let me know anything you might need to tell me,” Jack reasons with a reassuring smile, still reeling from all of this new-age tech but trying to keep it together to not worry the little one.

“But what if you’re not with Mama??” Maddie worries with her lower lip and looks over her shoulder, toward the kitchen island where Millie seems to be preparing a sandwich. “MAMA! Mister Jack doesn’t got a phone at ALL!”

Millie’s eyebrows raise for half a moment before she nods in understanding. “Ah, well, that makes sense, baby- he’s never had to have a cell phone until today. We’ll get him one today, okay? Don’t worry too much about it.”

Jack would very much like to protest this- why would he ever be apart from both Millie and Maddie, after all?- but he decides before he can so much as open his mouth that it was best not to make Maddie fret. He’s certain he and Millie can talk it over themselves once Maddie’s off to a fun day of learning at school.

While Millie is finishing prepping her daughter’s lunch, Maddie shows off one of her ‘apps’ to Jack, excitedly explaining how to play the game. It’s all so much more vivid and bright than Jack ever remembered a video game being, and not only was it all held in a device smaller than one of his hands, but it could contain tons of them. You didn’t have to pay a quarter or anything, you can just ‘download it from the app store with Mama’s permission’ and then play it using just a couple of your fingers??

Needless to say, Jack is fully feeling every drop of his being way out of his depth by the time Millie announces it’s time to go, and he’s immensely relieved for the distraction. He winces and braces for Millie to say something about him not needing to come along to just drop Maddie off- he wasn’t even sure if she had work today, or how her job works at all- but instead she looks over his shoulder when he hesitates in place at the couch.

“Well, come on,” she says with a smile that he’s positive could make his foggiest days turn bright and clear. “We’ve got plenty of shopping to do.”

Chapter Text

It can simply not be understated how much Maddie’s school takes Jack by surprise. When the three of them were commuting there, Jack had been imagining a basic school house on a hill like the one he had back in Cloudy Town, or maybe one of the big, much more boring buildings that he remembered from ????, but Maddie’s school was neither of those things. Instead, it was a very unique place with tons of windows and play structures built into the building itself. It’s much more tucked away from a lot of businesses and homes, out nestled a ways into the forest in a cove that looked like it has been there for centuries. The building is very colorful but somehow blends in pretty seamlessly with the nature surrounding it, and there are over two dozen children playing in various ways all around, all looking like they’re having the time of their lives.

“Alright, baby bunny,” Millie says as she puts the car into park, reaching into the backseat to lovingly pet Maddie’s forehead. “Have a great day at school today, alright?”

“I will, Mama!” Maddie chirps excitedly, grabbing her backpack and lunchbox and leaning up to kiss her mother’s cheek, scootching her small body through the space between the driver and passenger seat with relatively no difficulty. “Do you gotta work?”

“Not today- Mr. Jack and I will be doing shopping to get him anything he needs to stay with us, and for our groceries,” Millie replies. “If you think of anything you want me to be sure to grab from the store that you aren’t sure is on the list, just text me during one of your free play times, okay?”

Maddie nods and turns to Jack with that adorable smile of hers. “Bye bye for now, Mr. Jack! Have a fun day with Mama! Ooh, and pick a phone case with a REALLY cool case! If you got a cool case everyone will be like ‘Whoa, that’s really REALLY awesome and fun!’”

Jack laughs good-naturedly and nods in agreement, playfully ruffling her hair. “You’re gonna do great today, sunspot- we’ll see you after school.”

Maddie squeals and bats his hand away. “Mr. Jack nooooo my pretty hair!! Mama, is it all ruined now?”

“No, sweet pea, it’s still nice and pretty,” Millie soothes with a fresh kiss to the top of her head. “See you later, girlie- I love you to Pluto and back.”

“I love you to Pluto and back!” Maddie proclaims, kissing her mother’s cheek one more time before hopping out of the car and running toward a couple of awaiting identical girls with blonde hair; some of her best friends undoubtedly.

Both Jack and Millie watch her go for a few moments before Millie puts the car back into the drive, slowly rolling down the long gravel driveway onto the path made so cars could exit without having to back up. Jack continues looking in his side mirror for just a little longer, both admiring the school as a whole and watching the little ones interact with such innocence and raw joy.

“I used to be a teacher back in Cloudy Town, you know,” he finally says with a bittersweet smile.

Millie looks to him and he can’t help but to wonder if she’ll ever be able to without causing his heart to flutter in his chest. “Oh, yeah?”

He nods as the memories- though they can be few and far between at different times- mist over his mind. “The children were so bright and precocious, and always so receptive to whatever I was teaching them. Gosh, we had so many adventures together, going on field trips, or doing experiments and interactive lessons in my classroom…it was so much fun.”

“That does sound like a lot of fun,” Millie says with a wistful smile of her own, the sadness on her lovely face a mirror to his. “I’m sorry that you aren’t there right now- it must be so hard.”

“…It is,” he admits more quietly, squirming a little in his seat at the attention being solely on him and his feelings. “S-so, uh, you said we’re going shopping?”

Jack is perceptive enough to notice how Millie hesitates with bringing up something else on the previous topic, and is thusly extra-relieved when she allows it to be dropped. “Yes, definitely- the first stop is a department store so we can get you some basic necessities of your own.”

“Oh, sunshine, you don’t have to spend that money on me- the stuff you already had lying around in storage works perfectly fine,” he protests immediately.

“Jack, everyone deserves to have their own reliable hygiene products that they picked out. The toothbrush you’re using is something I won’t necessarily insist on replacing, but soap, haircare, toothpaste, deodorant? No, you are getting your brands of choice, and I will not budge on that,” Millie says firmly, fully using her Mom Voice that may differ slightly between parents but is largely a universal cadence.

Jack opens his mouth to protest- he’s positive she’s really being far too generous for her own good- but receiving a Look from her paired with the Mom Voice she already used deflates air in his metaphorical tires. Still, he isn’t happy about this, and he restlessly but silently pats his knees repeatedly as he tries to think of a way to foster more communication. After all, they couldn’t well bond in awkward silence, but oppressive, relentless silence is all he’d known for…just how long had he been in that insidious tape?

“So, I know this is…probably not something you get sincerely asked very often,” he begins, though he can’t quite meet her eyes due to how sour their last interaction ended (and not just because she’s driving.) “But, ah…what year is it, anyway?”

When she tells him, Jack tries to think back to what specific year he remembers last. His tape labeled ’84 specifically, and that sounded about right, so he figures he’ll stick with that.

“So that’s…” Doing the math leaves him far more dismayed than he was before. “…I was in there for around forty years…”

Jack can’t help but to visibly wilt in place, burying his face in one hand. What could his life have looked like in approximately four decades? Surely he would’ve found a nice partner in Cloudy Town or one of their neighboring communities, and they would’ve had a big wedding where they did all of those cheesy wedding traditions, even if his partner half-heartedly pretended like they hated some of them. They’d have gotten a nice house with a big yard and the most colorful fence that Clown Coins could buy and filled it with lots of happy, adored children that made their home full of chaos and laughter. Maybe his partner or children would’ve begged him for a pet or two or three, and he’d pretended to agonize over it before surprising them with two after school. Eventually, he’d have gotten to see his children grow to adults and start their lives independently, but they’d come home at least once every two weeks for supper, just like he and Jane did with their own parents. By now, they might have little babies of their own, and he’d be enjoying the beginnings of his golden years with the one he loves.

It would’ve been largely safe, and full of all the biggest highs and most devastating lows of a life well-lived. It would’ve been life. Anything and everything instead of-

“Jack.” Millie’s voice brings him back to the surface yet again, and he has to stop himself from audibly gasping as he regains focus. “Hey…you…okay, no, you’re very clearly not okay. Do you want to talk about it?”

The shame he feels for being called out is immediate. “S-sorry sunshine, did you say something before? I sh-shouldn’t be so in my own head; old h-habit, I suppose….h-heh.”

“I didn’t,” she confirms, and she slides her hand from where it was previously resting atop her middle console onto the top of his left one. “But you’re sad, and I’m worried about you.”

“You don’t need to worry about me, sunshine,” Jack says with a shake of his head. “I never want to cause you any distress- compassionate worry or otherwise.”

“Well, too bad, Mister, because becoming friends with me means you’re going to receive some of the full friendship package,” Millie says, her voice carrying both immense sincerity and a note of lighthearted humor.

“Oh, yeah? And what exactly does the Millie Friendship Package- Level One entail?” He can’t help but laugh softly, hating how it wavers at the end with the promise of tears.

Her soft fingers lace through his and her palm presses flush; a warmth to ground him. “A listening ear, caring about you especially when you say not to, and optional PG snuggles.”

He laughs softly. “I have to admit all of that does sound pretty good about now.”

Millie gives him a fresh smile and thumbs along his knuckles. “You’ve got it- so what exactly were you thinking about so hard over there?”

“Just…all the time I lost being stuck in Hell,” Jack admits a bit reluctantly, but he tells himself sternly that he needs to let her help if he wants her to know he sees her as an equal. “What…what I could’ve been doing if that hadn’t happened. D-don’t get me wrong, if it all led to meeting all of you, th-then it was worth it-”

“Hey now,” she interjects gently, pausing in case he objects immediately return before continuing. “You never have to justify your suffering to make us- to make me- feel like I’m valued. Being trapped in torturous limo for four decades? Things like that don’t have to have a silver lining. It was a kind of profound and relentless suffering that severely traumatized you. Reframing pain can be very therapeutic, and I’d never correct anyone for how they want to reclaim the shit that happened to them, but that’s not really what you’re doing here, Jack. You are putting my feelings before your own very normal ones and abundantly fresh wounds. Don’t do that; not in general and definitely not just for what you see as my sake.”

It’s a good thing that she spoke about what she did, as her words have such a profound impact on him that his first instinct is to hide. Jack grew up in a place where showing emotions was encouraged and highly normalized for everyone, but something in him shies away at being dependent on anyone else. For everyone involved’s sake, he grabs those feelings of self-loathing and shoves them deep into the same chest inside his mind where he banishes all bad things; tears form in his eyes.

“Millie…” He begins softly, cheeks burning despite his best efforts to stay calm.

When he trails off, she shakes her head gently and brings their linked hands closer to herself, where she kisses the back of his hand and squeezes it with her free one. “You don’t have to fight your emotions either, Jack. It’s what makes us hu…it’s what makes us people.”

Any pondering of whether or not he’s human will have to wait, as they are promptly flooded through with hot tears that he can’t stop (even if he really wanted to.) A small part of him still feels ashamed for how the waterworks cascade down his permanently painted cheeks and make his shoulders shake, but they’re all but dispelled entirely by how she makes a point of unbuckling her seatbelt to embrace him more fully.

He cries properly for the first time in countless years, full-on ugly-sobbing, and all Millie ever does is make him feel more comfortable. She runs her fingers through his hair over and over, she rubs circles into his back, she whispers reassurances and encouragement into his ear as it all gushes out of him with all the subtlety of a broken dam. When he finally runs out of steam- when he’s positive he’s at his most deeply unflattering, hot mess state- she gives him another one of those angelic smile and simply wipes his face with the backs of her hands.

“That’s got to feel better,” she murmurs empathically, and it’s at this point that she realizes her own lovely face is flush with small tear tracks.

“S-sunshine-” Jack immediately reaches out to caress her face, relishing silently when she doesn’t shy away.

“Hey,” she says gently, yet firmly. “Expressing emotions is not a bad thing, and it certainly is nothing to apologize for when we have a bit of mutual crying. As a matter of fact, you extra shouldn’t worry about it with me, because I’m just a sensitive gal.”

“I-I’m not supposed to make you s-sad,” he says with a frown, wishing it was as easy to push down this with the same ease he moves everything else out of his way.

“Oh, bullarky,” Millie chides with a shake of her head. “The only reason I’d cry for you is because I care a lot about you, and that also means the contents of the Friendship Package. Can’t have your cake and eat it too, sunny boy.”

“O-okay, first of all, bullarky?” Jack repeats with a watery laugh that makes her giggle too. “Second of all, that’s sunny man to you, Miss Millie.”

“Oh? Excuuuuuse the hell out of me!” She outright laughs and gently taps his nose before producing a small package of tissues from her center console. “Well, maybe you can’t have your cake and eat it too, but we can definitely split it between us so it can be consumed. Sound like a deal?”

He grins crookedly and accepts the tissues gratefully. “Deal.”

In the moments that follow him crying a lot, there is calm. It’s a warm blanket around a body just coming in from the cold, Millie’s soothing touch the fireplace that warms his frozen skin back to feeling. Her smile is home itself.

“If you’re feeling up to it, we did make it to our first destination,” she says while continuing to rub light circles into his forearm. “Take all the time you need if not, though- I’m in no hurry.”

He does a final little sniff and takes a couple more slow, deep breaths before giving her a nod. “I’m definitely ready if you are, sunshine. Let’s do it!”

The bespoke first destination is a department store, one with a coffee shop attached and a bunch of bright colors that were selected to be the most enticing. Millie grabs a cart and walks to the coffee stop-in, reminding Jack of something with a small jolt.

“Sunshine! You never ate breakfast!” He’d been so caught up caring for Maddie and helping around the house that he completely neglected his sunshine’s need for subsistence!

“Oh, I’ll be alright until lunch, J,” she says with a dismissive hand wave that he does not appreciate in the slightest. “This isn’t the first or last time I’ve been too busy to think about it.”

“Sunshine,” he says reproachfully, frowning. “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, you know. How can you be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed if you don’t take care of your basic needs, food included?”

“I don’t know, I seem pretty lively right now,” she says with a humored smirk despite his protests. “It’s really not that big of a deal- I’ll drink some coffee and I’ll be set. Tell you what, we can even do an early lunch if it’ll make you feel any better.”

“Millie, that’s even more unhealthy than sugary cereal,” he insists with his frown deepening. “Any breakfast is better than nothing at all, and eating lunch early isn’t going to make up for the lack of energy and nutrition first thing in the morning. You’re just asking to start on the wrong foot!”

“You’re being very pushy right now,” she says in a chiding tone of her own, though it’s still most light-hearted. “I know and can handle myself, I promise. Can you try to trust me if you still don’t believe me?”

Jack absolutely does not believe anyone could be better off without any food to begin their day, but he knows that pushing the envelope too hard is only going to end with them both frustrated. He’d already been a bit of a jerk to his little sunspot (a well-meaning one), so trying to same stunt on Millie would just be dumb on his part. He resolves in his own head that he’ll just have to be even more dedicated to redirecting those two to more healthy ways of living, and then they won’t resist nearly as stubbornly and they can all be happy, healthy and more bonded for it!

“Of course I trust you,” is what he says aloud with an apologetic smile. “I guess I’m being too much of a worrywart- I’m sorry for being kind of annoying about it.”

Millie softens immediately and shakes her head, giving him a small yet warm smile as she squeezes his shoulder. “Don’t sweat it, I know you mean well and I don’t find you to be annoying. Just relax as best you can, okay?”

“Okie dokie artichokie!” He says cheerfully.

He then stands patiently in line with her as she’s getting her coffee fix, rocking gently from heel to toe and glancing around curiously. When a young woman walks up with a toddler in her cart and a baby strapped to her chest, Jack can’t help but to immediately coo in delight and kneel down to the tot’s level.

“Why hello there, little sunlight,” he coos. “What’s your na-”

“Mommy! Mommy I wanna that!!” The toddler interrupts him to point to some colorful drink on the menu.

“That’s a grown-up drink, Declan,” his mother says with a tone that indicates she’s been hearing about things he ‘wants’ all day.

“I wanna!” The boy- Declan- pouts heavily, as toddlers do when they’re fussy and in clear need of a nap.

“Oh goodness, someone’s gotta be ready for a N-A-P,” Jack says good-naturedly to the mother, not deterred by the little one outright ignoring him (it has happened surprisingly often despite his size and colorfulness!)

Millie chuckles to herself, likely remembering what Maddie was like at that age, but the mother simply sighs and fishes around her purse. “You can have one of your juice boxes, do you want that?”

“NO! I wanna THAT!” Declan exclaims with (adorable, tiny) rage, stomping both of his feet.

“Declan Amadeus, I already told you that’s a grown-up drink, you wouldn’t like it,” his mother says sharply. “Now, do you want a juice box or are you just going to throw a fit?”

“I WANNA IT!” He wails, clearly about five seconds away from a total meltdown.

“Hey! Hey now, it’s okay!” Jack coos comfortingly, reaching over to Millie’s purse and gently jiggling the keys attached to the strap. “Look at this! Wow, so shiny and cool!”

Declan doesn’t fully stop his incoming tantrum, but the jangling of the keys gets his attention; a mild delay if nothing else. This gives his mother a chance to grab the apple juice from her purse and jab a straw in, planting it in his tiny open palm.

“Here, it’s got that pretty drink in it,” she fibs to her child, waving her hand as though conducting magic. “Whooooosh, whoooosh, ta-da! Now it’s in there and you can drink it up!”

This seems to do the trick, the toddler whining just a tiny bit as he looks at his parent with sad, sleepy eyes. “Wanna, wanna…”

“I know it,” she coos, exasperated but also notably compassionate to her tiny grump. “It’s all in your juicy box, okay? Just try it. Can you try for Mommy?”

He obediently takes a sip and quiets down entirely, shifting to lean against her hip and continue drinking. Jack doesn’t usually condone lying to children unless it’s necessary, but doing so to prevent a little cutie like Declan from full-on melting down in a busy story (and inevitably causing his baby sibling to get fussy, too) was fair. Besides, he can’t be more than two or three and doesn’t have to know the difference.

“Hang in there, Mom,” he tells her encouragingly. “All days won’t be hard like this one. How old is your b-?”

“Someone’s ready for a N-A-P,” the mother says as though he hadn’t spoken at all, her eyes trained on Millie, who naturally angles toward her with a sympathetic smile.

“Ohhhh yeah,” his sunshine agrees. “I remember how much my little one used to hate taking them. She still gets grumpy if she naturally needs one on the weekends, honestly.”

“Have you ever tried-?”

As the two women chat the line crawls forward, Jack stands there in stunned silence. To Millie’s credit, she does gesture and look toward him to speak a couple of different times, but each time the other mother and Declan don’t so much as glance in his direction. By the time Mille has ordered and walks to stand in the waiting area with a small wave to the mother and her little ones, Jack is feeling a cold pit of dread in his stomach that makes his face flush and spine tingle with shivers.

“I’m sorry about that,” she says in a low voice once she turns back to face him. “I don’t know what that was about- I mean, mothers tend to be able to spot each other even without our kids in tow, but I can’t believe she just ignored you so blatantly like that.”

“Sunshine,” he says slowly, and his suspicions are only fueled further in how he watches a couple of people nearby cut their eyes over like they are unsure of who she speaking to. “Let’s…talk once you get your coffee and we’re in a more private spot in the store, o-okay?”

Understandably, Millie gives him a quizzical look, but she nods slowly afterward and faces back toward the nearby service counter. It’s thankfully only a few more minutes before she’s obtained her coffee and walked several aisles away from where there is a lot of activity.

“What’s going on?” She asks after both of them double check that no one else is around.

He takes a deep breath, wondering all the while how much he even might have to form a biologically-informed statement, and speaks carefully to avoid causing distress to his sunshine. “I…I don’t think that woman and her child were ignoring me to be rude. That is, ah…I don’t think they could even see me.”

Millie’s pupils dilate immediately, her eyebrows knitting with concern. “That…that doesn’t make sense. It’s not like it’s just me who can see you- Maddie can, and so do our cats…”

“Right…but I think it might have more to do with how closely interconnected you all are, or maybe just the fact you all live in the same house as that….m-my tape,” Jack says with an anxious bite to his own lower lip. “It…it’s certainly not ideal either way, though, ha…”

“No, it’s not,” she concurs with a deeper frown that makes his heart ache. “Here, let’s try and test it some more before we reach any conclusions.”

Even with gnawing coldness threatening to overwhelm his already rubbed-raw heart, her show of resolution and rationality makes him smile just a little. “You’re right- you’re so smart, sunshine.”

For the next ten or so minutes, he and Millie test how people react (or namely, don’t react) to his presence. They conclude that people as a whole do not seem to be able to see him, though the way one person’s dog immediately barks when he looks at them suggests that it’s more universal for animals to have the ability to perceive him. He is able to touch objects, but if anyone notices items hovering in mid-air they don’t say anything.

Needless to say, he’s pretty distraught over the whole affair, but he resolves to himself not to share all of that with Millie. He knows what she said about how vulnerability is not a bad thing, and he also knows that she prefers open communication about feelings rather than suppression, but there are two reasons he doesn’t want to open that can of worms right now. One, he reasons that focusing on the negative isn’t going to make the outcome any different; he’s still going to be a ghost of some kind, invisible. The second is that, like she herself said about his ability to eat, there is always a possibility that the way things are can always change in the future.

Jack is abruptly struck with strong feelings that he’s used to being essentially invisible anyway, so this is hardly new, but he is more stunned and utterly baffled at those thoughts than the revelation of his physical transparency. Where in the clouds did he get a silly notion like that?

“I’m so sorry that you aren’t really able to interact with anyone else, Jack,” Millie says ruefully once they’re in another quiet aisle. “I can barely imagine how hard that must be for you.”

“Oh, I’m really alright, sunshine,” he assures with an easy smile. “I mean, sure, I’m not thrilled about it, but I don’t suppose I have any real need to talk with anyone outside of the house all that much. Besides, technology is so advanced these days, there are probably ways I could communicate with the outside world if I really needed to, don’t you think?”

Millie isn’t convinced (which he figured would happen.) “Jack, what did we just say about not denying ourselves our normal feelings?”

“I’m really not!” He says, justifying internally that’s not totally a lie when he’s going to strongarm it to being true. “My top priority is making sure you and Maddie are well taken care of it- you saved me, after all. Anything else is just fodder.”

Thankfully, her expression softens and grows flushed at his sincerity. “Jack, you really don’t have to repay anything. I won’t say no to you being so sweet and doting to Maddie, but you are under less than zero obligation to me, I swear.”

He’s relieved to see his redirection was successful and instantly doubles down on that train of thought. “But I want to! It’s genuinely my pleasure, sunshine, especially when you’re such a lovely person. Don’t you ever want to let go of the burdens you have been carrying for so long by yourself and let someone who cares about you shoulder them by your side?”

Her sweet, lovely face brews with some untold emotion, and he can’t miss the way those stunning eyes of hers dim with the weight of (presumably) loss. “I…I’ve been fine thus far, Jack. That’s not a coincidence.”

“I would never say it is,” he immediately refutes, stepping closer to her and clasping both of her hands in his own. “You are so strong, sunshine, and so capable, and intelligent, and kind, and so full of love and generosity. I can’t imagine anyone I’d have ever known who’d I trust so much in a scary new situation like my circumstances, nor someone who could be so responsible and adoring to Maddie. I want to help you not because you require it, but because I want to. That’s exactly why you yourself seek to make me feel better, isn’t it?”

“Well…yes, but-”

“Mmm, nooooope!” Jack interjects cheerfully while playfully tapping the tip of her nose. “No ifs, no buts, no coconuts!”

Thankfully his goofiness makes her laugh rather than feel exasperated. “You’re really living up to your clownliness, goofball.”

“Why thank you!” He says with a big grin and a dramatic bow. “I’ll be here…well, as long as you want me!”

She gets a slightly funny expression on her face before smiling and stealing a quick peck to his forehead. “Well then, you better get comfortable, because I think you’re just the sweetest. Now, shall we go and get you set up with personal hygiene products and other general items for your continued health and well-being?”

He may still very much be of the opinion that her generosity already has his cup running over, but Jack gives her a fresh smile and hooks his arm around hers when she offers it out. “We shall!”

Millie isn’t sure exactly how to break it to the poor ghost clown that his taste in music is now considered ‘Dad Rock.’

“Gosh, I was seriously beginning to wonder if anything was going to play that I recognize!” Jack had said cheerfully from beside her as he followed her around to look through the many racks of clothes at her favorite affordable clothing store. “It’s hard to believe they wouldn’t want to play bodacious tunes like this more!”

In the time since they discovered he can’t be seen by other people, they have gotten him situated with his own personal hygiene products of his choosing, gotten him a few other essentials (such as a couple of storage bins, clothes hangers, a pack of socks, a couple of packs of underwear, etc.,) and have now come to Sue P.’s Styles and Steals clothing store. Millie can’t deny how she feels embarrassed at having to tote him to places within her limited budget to get him the things he needs now that he’ll be living with them for an indeterminate amount of time, but if he’d been off-put by the way she kept having to add up prices in her phone’s calculator or the way she’d asked to swap a couple of name-brand items for their (nearly, if not completely, identical) store-brand counterparts, he hadn’t made any indications whatsoever.

Now the song that’s playing overhead is “(Oh) Pretty Woman” by Van Halen, and she’s positively endeared by how Jack’s dancing around a little to the beat as he flips through the clothes. She knows she doesn’t really have to press the ‘issue’ further unless he directly asks a question about why his age of music isn’t played more frequently; no need to break the poor ghostie’s heart. But then, like her premonition of this being a future problem was heard specifically to fuck her over by the universe itself, Jack spots a particular shirt on one of the Men’s Clearance racks and picks it up.

“Look! A Journey tee, in Clearance of all things!” He laments, showing her the grey t-shirt with Journey’s signature red and blue angel wings coming out of the Earth with a comet ring looping it all. “Do people just not enjoy good music anymore??”

“W-well, ah…” Millie twirls a few curls of her hair around as she tries to look around for a suitable distraction. “It’s not…that people don’t still enjoy Journey, it’s more…well, it’s more like-”

Jack’s looking at her with those big brown doe-eyes of his! She can’t possibly do him so dirty!

“Regardless of what other people think about Journey, Van Halen, all of those ol-ole’ classic rockers, I think they’re fantastic,” she says with a sweet smile that seems to disarm any of his misgivings.

“You’re a person of fine taste!” Jack declares before extending the t-shirt out to ask her for permission to add it to the cart, but she immediately indicates that he go ahead and do so.

“Don’t worry, I’m absolutely positive we can manage something on Clearance, and besides, how could I deny a man his Journey?” She gives him a wink and he giggles (how can one person be so damn adorable?!)

“True that, sunshine,” he agrees easily. “Hmm…I know it’s pretty warm outside, but do you think I should go ahead and get a sweater, too? It’s best to be prepared just in case, but I do already have my jacket…”

Millie adjusts her earphones in her ears, which are how she’s figured to be able to speak freely to Jack while in public. “I say go ahead and grab once, especially since there are quite a few available in Clearance this time of year.”

He nods and is clearly about to say something else, but then his eyebrows shoot upwards and he warns, “Tiny child incoming toward your legs!”

Now it’s her turn to raise her eyebrows, but no sooner does she do that than a distinctively small body comes crashing into the bends of her knees. “Oh!”

She’s pretty sure she recognizes the excited babbling before she even looks down at the tiny human who just ran directly into her (even considering that many of her friends and acquaintances have small children), but she absolutely recognizes the sound of the flustered voice of the tot’s mother. “Piper Leanne!!”

Millie breaks into a big smile immediately and bends down to swoop the toddler into her arms. “Why hello there Little Miss Pip!”

Piper squeals with joy and pats her face excitedly, her tiny hands mostly harmless as they smack up against her cheeks. “Aunana Mimme!”

“That’s right!” She praises with utter delight, leaning in to pepper that itty bitty face of hers (only because she knows Piper’s mother is fully okay with that!) “I’m Auntie Millie! Aren’t you just the smartest baby girl?”

The tot’s bespoke mother, who is a longtime friend of Millie’s, catches up now with her full cart, her expression fond but clearly long-suffering. “I swear we were mistaken being so glad when she started walking on her own, she’s always trying to wander off and shorten my lifespan in the process!”

“Oh, I’ll never forget when Maddie began walking! She just about skipped toddling all together and went straight for running!” Millie laughs lightheartedly, looking back at the poor ghost clown apologetically; he smiles gently in return and waves his hand permissively.

“I’m getting payback for Keiko being so chill when she and Maddie were little,” Veronica says humorously. “And potentially also for never having to find out directly with Wren.”

Millie laughs from her belly now, second-naturedly shifting to hold Piper on her hip. “It’s admittedly hard to imagine he was ever anything but the sweetie he’s been since I met him, but you’re a little sweetie too, aren’t you Pip-Pip?”

“Swee!” Piper exclaims joyfully, not a care in the world.

Both mothers giggle, and Millie decides to go ahead and say her friend’s name aloud for Jack’s sake. “It’s always such a pleasure to be around you and your herd of cuties, Veronica- is Benjamin at work now?”

“He is- you know him, always working on some project or another,” Veronica replies with an easy smile. “And how have you and your cutie been? Anything exciting going on lately?”

Oh, Ronnie, you have no idea. “Oh, you know how it is- life and its’ many ups and downs, but we’ve been doing well.”

“For sure- how’s school been going for you?”

“Pretty good, I think! Professor McCullough is pretty savage with the amount of quizzes and tests he has us take, but it’s also a good thing because we have plenty of opportunities to pull our grade up if we mess up on a couple- I have a test today, as a matter,” Millie muses while Piper plays on her hair, and she’s internally very grateful the girl has learned ‘nice hands’ enough to not yank on it like she used to.

Similarly as she did before with the mother-stranger at the coffee shop, she has a conversation about other facets of life with her fellow parent (albeit this one is much more thorough and personal given that Veronica and she are well-established friends.) It’s about five minutes later when Piper begins to properly fuss, kicking her legs and squirming insistently to get down.

“Ah, I suppose I should get us checked out and going on toward home,” Veronica notes as she offers her hands to take her squirmy toddler. “It’ll be lunchtime soon, and then Miss Pip here and I can get our naps.”

“Napa napa!” Piper chirps with a giggle.

“She might be a wild little girlie, but I will forever be jelly of how receptive she is to lay down and sleep,” Millie says with a lamenting sigh.

“She makes me work to ‘earn’ that rest, though!” Veronica exclaims, earning another laugh from Millie.

“I won’t keep you, then, but it was so good to see you! We’re still on for Maddie to come to your place for a playdate tomorrow, right?” Millie asks as she gives Piper a final playful mini-toss into the air before handing her to her mother.

“That’s an affirmative!”

Of course, it does take another couple of minutes for their goodbyes to be said, but eventually Millie is able to turn back around toward Jack. Her smile fades slightly as she catches the look on his face, which is cloudy with an obviously-strained smile. What really puts her on immediate edge is the sharp glint to his eyes now, something coiled and dangerous that makes some of her arm hairs raise on end. It doesn’t suit him at all, and just how intense it is as he looks after her friend makes a pit of dread open up in the base of her belly.

“Jack?”

When she speaks directly to him, he seems to break out of it slightly and give her a more easygoing, natural smile. “What’s up, sunshine?”

His nonchalance only serves to strengthen the yawning dread deep inside her; as a matter of fact, it adds to it. “What’s bothering you?”

“Bothering me?” Jack knits his eyebrows together and tilts his head to one side in evident confusion. "Hm...I don’t think anything is bothering me! I might be just a touch tired- I imagine I need to get my endurance back up now that I’m…well, you know- but otherwise I’m a peachy keen jellybean. Why do you ask?”

Millie frowns a little deeper. Maybe she was just imagining it? “Hm…just…you had kind of a weird look on your face, o-or at least I thought you did. I didn’t know, I guess I was just worried I’d said something to offend you…or, uh, something.”

Jack nods sympathetically and slowly takes both of her hands in his own, giving them a reassuring squeeze and a warm smile that she’s rapidly associating as one of his signature expressions. “There are times that anxiety may manifest itself into making us believe that others are upset at us, or that we’ve done something wrong when there isn’t anything disturbing calm waters. I totally get that, and I’m always happy to reassure you that all is well, okay?”

The sprout of unease doesn’t go away entirely with no resistance, but looking into his sweet brown eyes makes it feel as though it’s been relocated elsewhere; hopefully somewhere more productive. “Y-yeah, that’s something I’ve struggled a lot with over the years…Thank you for being so understanding.”

“It’s really no problem at all, sunshine,” he says so sweetly and earnestly that she’d feel a fool for doubting the trust he’s already cultivated between them.

Millie feels an easier smile come across her own face as she squeezes his much larger hands before nodding toward the racks with jackets/cardigans on them. “Well, as advanced as modern technology is, it’s not quite good enough to choose clothes for us, so shall we continue?”

“Heck yeah!” Jack grins so much that his nose crinkles up, a little detail that makes her heart feel just as warm and fuzzy.

They end up deciding on both a very soft cardigan and a windbreaker that absolutely looks straight out of the 1980s (or possibly the 1990s,) which large colorful swirls, shapes and other flashes of a neon palette against a bright turquoise background. From there, they work together to pick him out three pairs of jeans, a couple of pairs of shorts (pastel green and coral pink respectively,) five more t-shirts and a couple of tank tops. It takes a bit longer to find him a suitable pair of tennis shoes, and by the time they find a white and black pair, Millie would have to admit to herself that she’s feeling quite hungry as she finishes checking out.

Her stomach, the absolute traitor that it is, audibly grumbles as she turns back to Jack, the way he knowingly looks at her making her cheeks flush even hotter. “Well, sunshine, it would be pretty rude to say ‘I told you so’, but…”

He lets his trailed-off silence speak for itself, and as much as she huffs and grumbles halfhearted protests, they’re both well aware he’s right. Millie subsequently doesn’t insist on carrying the bags of his clothes to her car once they get out of the initial doors (it would be more than a little confusing if they began levitating in mid-air or something due to Jack’s invisibility, after all.) Once they’re back in the front two seats, she goes to ask him what he might have in mind to eat, just barely managing to catch herself before unintentionally kicking a sore spot of his head-on.

Jack catches her eyes and gives her a gentle smile that soothes her raised-up nerves as easily as butter is spread across bread. “I trust you’ll choose somewhere befitting the wonderful taste you already have shown me with your home and thoughts while shopping?”

Millie smiles in return with a determined nod, eyes sparkling. “Absolutely- it’s one of my favorite little restaurants in the whole area, even across multiple towns. It’s Tex-Mex!””

He nods and nudges her lightly, his shoulder and arm conduits of warmth that coil around her own limb and settles comfortably around her chest. “Just promise to eat some queso for me?”

Her laugh is easy, all trepidation slipping through her open hands like sand. “I will definitely do that.”

Chapter Text

It’s a very quick journey to drive she and Jack down to one of her bespoke favorite restaurants; a locally owned branch of a Tex-Mex franchise where they know she and Maddie by name as well as their usual orders. Something inside Millie can’t help but to glance over to Jack as she speaks with these friends of hers, wondering if she really was just imagining that chilling look before, but he makes no other indications of being bothered or one-edge whatsoever as she gets seated and orders lunch.

“I don’t want to irritate an already sensitive subject,” she says slowly as she sets her menu to the side. “But I really do hate that you’re not able to eat right now.”

“That just means I have something else to hopefully look forward to!” Jack says optimistically, swaying his legs gently side to side as he sits across from her at the two-seater table.

Millie nods appreciatively, adjusting her earphones once more and playing with the body of her phone. “Hmm…would you wanna…maybe play 20 Questions? We have some time to burn while we wait.”

“Ooh, I love playing games! That’s an extra good one as we get to know each other better- you’re a total natural at finding the fun in everyday situations, Sunshine,” Jack chirps, each kind word dripping like honey from his smiling mouth.

Her cheeks feel hot again and she wonders if her poor face muscles will ever know peace again with him around. “Having a young child makes you get creative in a hurry, I think.”

“Well, sure,” he concedes. “But not everyone does it as effortlessly as you do! I didn’t even have time to wonder about how to pass the time before you came up with a solution.”

The praise is so eager and genuine that she feels bad for rejecting it whatsoever, but Millie ruefully smiles and points out, “That also comes from having a young child around. Few things on this planet are more dangerous than a bored or under-stimulated kid.”

“Oh, don’t I know it!” Jack exclaims with an easy laugh. “God knows I got up to plenty of mischief when I was younger with the precursor of being mind-numbingly bored.”

Now that seriously piques her interest right away! “Mister Sunny Day Jack getting up to mischief and mayhem? I don’t know if I can believe that!”

Jack looks damn near as shocked that he said anything about that aloud as she feels about it having allegedly taken place, but he recovers almost instantly with a small concessional smile. “I’m afraid that it’s true, Sunshine. I wasn’t always the wholesome, responsible clown I am today.”

“Oh? That’s a perfect first question, then,” she says with a wink. “What kind of mischief exactly did you get up to back in the day?”

Millie takes a couple of moments to get a drink of soda, noticing right away how legitimately uncomfortable he now looks. He’s squirming slightly in his seat even more now, head lowered as he appears to be lost in thoughts (and presumably countless memories.) A pang of guilt spikes through her chest for causing him duress, and she tries to reel the situation back before anyone gets more hurt.

“Jack, you don’t ever have to answer anything you’re uncomfortable with,” she says as she rests a hand on his nearest forearm. “Twenty Questions or not, your consent comes first.”

He seems almost startled by her touch, but before she can fully retract her hand he catches it and gives it a reassuring squeeze, as if she’s the one in need of any comforting right now. “Don’t worry, Sunshine, it’s nothing like that! I was just wondering what I was willing to admit to right here and right now!”

They share some easy laughter, but Millie’s not so sure that’s really all his stalling out just now was. “Seriously, Jack, we can drop it immediately and I won’t bring it up again.”

“And I’m being just as serious,” Jack says while his amused smile fades into a lighter one. “I know you’re worried about me like any good friend should be- and I’m extremely grateful for that, I really am!- but I want you to know that I don’t mind talking to you about anything you want, this included. It’s just been a long time since I’ve thought about all that, that’s all.”

Just like before, she is a bit hesitant to move on as swiftly as he is, but Millie does have to remind herself that there was no point insisting on what was only a hunch on her part. Besides, part of respecting his autonomy was not pestering him for anything that he didn’t want to talk about, regardless of whether or not it was truly the case or if he is just trying to naturally move the conversation along.

She swallows back the traces of misgivings trying to impose their will and takes another sip of her Dr. Pepper. “Well then, tell me all about it!”

“Let’s see…” Jack hums while thoughtfully (and cartoonishly) stroking his chin. “Well, there was that time that I snuck into Honey-Belle Stacy’s garage and painted the whole thing with red and yellow stripes…”

“Oh my gosh, you didn’t!” It seems almost impossible for the cheerful clown before her to have done something as scandalous as vandalizing property! “Why would you even want to do something like that?”

He grins a bit bashfully but self-admittingly. “Well, she’d made it so our townwide weekday curfew was a whole hour and a half earlier in the night! It was only right that she experience the righteous fury of a bunch of teenagers…at least in our minds.”

“Well…I’m not saying that vigilante justice was the way to go for that, but I can certainly sympathize with that incurring pushback from you guys. Why would she do something like that in the first place?” Millie tilts her head to one side and leans in closer, thoroughly invested in this lore he’s dropping about his more troublesome days.

“Cloudy-Belle Sue- that’s her daughter, and one of my best friends- was always breaking her own curfew, so she decided to take it out on all of us,” Jack says with an eyeroll that’s delightfully sassy and absolutely proves he’s still salty about what happened all these years later. “She said she figured that there was no reason why we’d actually need to be out so late, anyway, and this way we’d be forced to be in at a ‘reasonable hour.’”

“But what if some of you had jobs, or other life responsibilities that meant you needed to be somewhere other than home once the early curfew rolled in? What if there was an emergency?” As a mother herself- albeit not to a teenager, but that wasn’t really here nor there- she wanted to sympathize with Honey-Belle Stacy on this matter, but it didn’t sound like she’d really thought about all of the nuances to enacting a townwide policy like that.

“Oh my golly gosh, exactly!” Jack throws his hands up in exasperation, something that makes her giggle into one of her hands. “Needless to say, I’d never seen her go many different shades of red in my life, and I’m pretty sure nobody else had, either, including Sue. We were cleaning that up for three weekends in a row!”

“Oh noooo!” Millie exclaims with more giggles pouring out of her that she’s completely failing to stifle. “It sounds like you all must’ve learned that lesson the hard way, then?”

The eyeroll he responds with at first is legendarily sassy, but then he gives her a small victorious grin and shrugs his massive shoulders. “Well, what can I say, Sunshine? We did crime and paid the time, but the curfew did ease back up after we had that garage even cleaner than we found it…”

“Wow, Cloudy Town really was based,” Millie muses as her giggles die down slightly. “I’m pretty sure if anyone here did anything like that, the best they’d get is not getting caught at all, because otherwise they’d probably at least be grounded until they were dead if not thrown in juvenile detention.”

Jack sighs and folds his arms over his chest in a non-characteristic-but-still-highly-endearing pout. “Ahhhh, juvenile detention, where they shove all the kids they don’t want to bother with rather than actually helping, dooming them to a life geared toward crime.”

This makes her laughter stop all together, Millie leaning in closer despite trying to largely appear like she’s talking through her earbuds to someone on the phone. “You…had juvie in Cloudy Town?"

The way his face flushes and he immediately looks away reminds her of the few times she’s caught her Maddie in a lie. “A-ah, well, not…not in Cloudy Town, no! Cloudy Town is a very special place full of very caring, attentive adults who all work together to keep the peace, and nurture and raise every little sunshine to their highest potential! But, but, ah, not everywhere in the whole world I’m from was…quite so nice.”

To say the absolute least, Millie doesn’t believe he’s telling the truth- at the very least not the complete truth- but she is hesitant to push it too much when she’s already made him feel antsy. Whatever the whole truth is, she considers that Jack must have his personal reasons for not outright saying it, and when this is not something major that would concern Maddie or herself directly, she elects to let it be for now. Besides, the truth always comes out eventually, and she wants to put her trust into him enough to grant him the benefit of the doubt on his mentioning anything too major (such as if he himself has ever gone to juvie.)

“I think the biggest mischief I ever got up to was with my graduating senior class in high school,” she muses to not linger in brief silence. “We rigged up a bunch of confetti in cheap netting and let it all loose during our final football pep rally. I’m almost positive that they’re still finding pieces of it to this very day!”

“Oh my goodness!” Jack laughs brightly, and she thanks her lucky stars briefly that doesn’t have to explain an admittedly bizarre concept of a ‘pep rally’ to someone who may have never heard of them. “That’s so fun! What were the pieces shaped like? Or were they just normal little thin-paper rectangles?”

“Oh, we went all out. It was our ‘official’ Senior Prank, after all!” Millie says a cheeky grin. “I think most of us pitched in at least a handful of little designs, but I remember working on a lot of them with about eight or nine other kids. They needed volunteers to really get this little class project on its’ feet, and I was…well, I was glad to take any and all reasons to be out of the house, I’ll put it that way. I’m pretty sure the majority of what I cut out were little cat heads, our graduating year’s number, and pirate ships; our school mascot was, well, The Pirates. Our mascot was a buccaneer named ‘Jolie Sealegs.’ It used to be Jolly Roger, but a bunch of Karens said it was promoting a bad message from the school district- the mascot’s name being chopped was a compromise so we don’t become The Bluejays or something else basic.”

Jack listens intently to everything that she says; not a surprise given his behavior overall up until now. But when he listens, he is obviously doing more than just receiving the information and processing it while giving the occasional indication he’s still receptive. He leans in like she and he are the only two people in the world, his eyebrows rising and falling and the sheen in his eyes shifting with every new piece of information she gives him.

His enthusiasm and care is extremely refreshing, but it’s also just a little suffocating when she’s so used to the kind of sincere but even-tempered engagement of most other adults. All the same, Millie is far, far too polite to ever truly allow herself to reflect on those feelings, much less dare to voice them in any capacity. She’s probably the toxic one for being ungrateful, anyway, she tells herself sternly.

“It’s your turn to ask a question now,” she says as a means to shoo away her rapidly tangling thoughts. “Lay it on me!”

“Let’s see here~” Jack rubs his chin again as he thinks over potential queries. “What’s your favorite season of the year?”

“I know it’s the basic answer, but fall,” Millie answers with a bit of an embarrassed smile. “The leaves changing colors, colder temperatures, bonfires, hayrides, spooky season, pumpkin carving…there’s just so much to love.”

“Oh, I love fall too!” Jack agrees cheerfully before pausing. “Ah, but…forgive me for the possibly silly question, but what does ‘basic’ mean in this context?”

“That’s not a silly question at all!” She assures before taking a few moments to consider how to succinctly explain it. “Being basic is like…saying that it’s the most common- and thus, the most boring- option. Another example would be if I said pumpkin spice coffee is my favorite flavor- which it isn’t, but that’s not the point- or if a man said his favorite alcohol is beer. It’s…kind of an insult, but not an egregious one.”

“Sunshine, don’t let anyone make you feel bad for the things you like,” Jack says with a bit of sudden intensity, reaching across the table to squeeze her hand and make sure their eyes lock. “Some people may call it ‘basic’, but there is nothing even remotely bad or condemnable about enjoying things that many others enjoy. There’s a reason popular things are well-loved by a lot of people, so it’s absolutely absurd for people to subscribe condemnation for the sake of wanting to appear hip.”

“You’re right on the money,” Millie says with a fresh smile, one as easy as breathing. “It’s especially obnoxious that most of what people call basic are things that women in particular like. It’s extremely cringey to feed into misogynistic bullcrap.”

Jack visibly considers her words for another moment or two before nodding decisively. “You can say that again! Your turn next for another question, Sunshine.”

“Well, wait, you didn’t answer your own question yet,” she points out lightheartedly.

He tilts his head ever-so-slightly to one side before blinking a couple of times in surprise. “Oh, gosh! You’re so correct- my apologies, sunshine. Well, I’d have to say that my favorite season is summer! School’s out, giving both the kids and everyone who works at the school some well-earned vacation time…hot weather with nice, refreshing pools to jump in, or even waterparks to run around…cold ice cream, and road trips to brand new places…the whole world is alive with activities and fun!”

Millie smiles, because it’s him and it’s hard not to think of things positively when he’s got such an infectious energy, but her growing mass of anxiety and darkness keeps surfacing like some kind of anti-lifejacket. Summertime for her growing up may have once been a time for fun and relaxation in equal parts, but those younger idyllic days are heavily faded and largely out of reach. In their place is the cocktail of monotonous stall-outs and vitriolic tension that always soaked her to her bones for a torturous three months, the mixture slowly growing more and more shaken with direct contact with those who hated her more than any of her school bullies until it exploded into violence and destruction. It was rinse and repeat, where all throughout she’d been counting down the days until the barrier of required education and every extracurricular possible could keep her away from her abusers for nearly the entirety of every day. School from Grades 5-12 was purgatory, but school ‘vacations’ were time spent directly in Hell.

“I take it that you…have had a lot more bad experiences with that time of year than good?” Jack is looking into her eyes again, his own worried and confused.

She sharply demands of herself why she keeps making him concerned and tries to maneuver around the subject. “W-well, not anymore.”

Now it’s Jack’s turn to be unconvinced. “Oh, yeah?”

“It’s true!” She insists, puffing up her cheeks slightly in a pout that immediately makes his attempted-neutral expression slip into a smile. “I used to find summers to be miserable b-because...ah, well, I…I am not the best with a bunch of exposure to the sun; I burn like a peach. But I love it now because Maddie loves it so much, and because that’s when her birthday is.”

Millie knows that her dodging the real reasons for her previous disdain of the months of June-August was hardly clean or particularly believable, so she silently thanks God for Jack not pointing out her half-lie. “That’s right! She said yesterday that it’s in June, and that it’s coming up pretty soon!”

“Did she?” Millie smiles warmly as she thinks about how thrilled her baby always is for holidays, especially for her big day (and Christmas, and Halloween.) “That’s not surprising- she’s going to get a proper pool party this year, and she’s been talking about it ever since I let her know that a couple of months ago.”

“It’s absolutely adorable how excited she is,” Jack says with about as much adoration as she feels in her heart. “And I bet her friends are just as pumped for it, too! I just hope you grown-ups aren’t too stressed!”

“Oh, I’m not…” She pauses before amending. “I’m not as worried as I could be. All of the children at Maddie’s school received swimming lessons early on as part of their curriculum, so I know they’re all fairly experienced swimmers who know the rules in both pools and natural freshwater.”

“That’s very good to hear!” Jack says with a determined nod. “Safety first!”

Millie nods with as much conviction, glancing around to make sure no one is actively watching before stealing a playful tap on his red nose. “Boooop~”

Jack’s eyes brighten further with amusement, and he grabs her wrist playfully; it barely constitutes as a hold. “You’re feeling cheeky, are you, Miss Millie?”

Giggles tumble forward as she allows him to very lightly ‘manhandle’ her. “You got it~ And there’s nothing you can do about it, Mister Sunny Day!”

“Oh, there’s nothing I can do?” Jack exaggeratedly widens his eyes and drops his mouth open. “Well! Then I suppose it’s no use, even if I~?”

He dips his face down and plants a small raspberry on the sensitive underside of her wrist, the one just beneath her palm. Millie promptly bursts into proper giggling laughter, ducking down her head into the arm set onto the table to muffle the sound of it. That was totally cheating, she thinks amidst her light hysterics.

“O-oh shoot, I’m so sorry, ha, the waitress is coming!” Jack’s voice stage-whispers through his own laughter.

Thankfully, she’s able to pull herself together quite quickly, swallowing her remnant giggles and cheerfully assure said waitress- Hazel was her name, one of the staff Millie’s known for the entirety she’s been coming here- that she didn’t need anything else while she waits for her food. Once Hazel’s gone on her way, Millie lightheartedly gives a quick Look to the primary-colored clown that’s grinning with mirthful guilt.

“I better go ahead and think of another question before you make them worry about my wellbeing,” she says jestfully as she adjusts her earphones and hair.

“Maybe~” Jack drawls just as lightly as he gets the last of his giggles out.

“Alright, well, what’s one skill you have always wanted to try, but never have?” Millie says after  several long moments to think.

“Ooh, that’s a toughie!” He chirps, leaning forward on his elbows and resting his chin atop his steepled hands. “Hm…maybe pottery? I’ve always thought it’d be pretty fun to work with clay, especially when it looks so relaxing to shape it on a spinning wheel, but I also don’t know if I have the eye for it, heh.”

“From everything you’ve shown me about yourself, J, I’m inclined to say there’s not too much you can’t do,” Millie says good-naturedly. “Like, everyone has their weak points, but you’re pretty great.”

Perfect, her subconscious urges her to say. Certainly far more so than she could ever dream of being.

The subsequent blush on his face is something she’s positive she’ll never get tired of seeing! “Sunshine, you’re very kind, and I absolutely love that about you, but I’m not perfect. I…I try r-really-’

He cuts himself off to clear his throat, fidgeting with one of his jacket wrists. “I try to be as good as anyone can be, but I don’t know about perfect. It’s…an awfully high standard to live up to, that’s all.”

“I’m sorry, Jack, I didn’t mean-”

Her next words die on her lips as he gets a weird, distant look in eyes, followed extremely abruptly by him blinking rapidly, like he’s clearing his vision despite their seemingly being no obstructions in sight.

“I…don’t mean to take things in such a serious direction,” Jack finally says with a small apologetic smile. “Sorry about that, Sunlight…and for interrupting you with my actions so rudely, too.”

Millie wants to immediately pardon him of his perceived wrongdoings, but it just so happens that her food arrives before she can. After thanking Hazel, she picks up her utensils and begins to eat her chimichanga and rice, allowing the subject to be dropped when it seems like Jack is giving cues for as much.  Instead, she talks about how she wants to try owning an aquarium ecosystem someday, and the kinds of fish and plants she might keep. As she continues her meal, they also talk about what weird food combinations they each like (Jack’s next question, much to her surprise,); hers are pizza and ranch as well as watermelon and feta, his are peanut butter and jelly with salty chips and mac n cheese with maple syrup.

They talk about what kind of job they’d like to have for a day between her paying for her meal and thanking the staff. It turns out that hers is an airline stewardess to get a ‘free’ trip across the globe for a vacation, and his is a weatherman, though he admits he wouldn’t know the first thing about actually reading the weather, just reporting it in front of a ‘fancy green screen.’ On the way to their next stop, they tell each other what their go-to shower song is, which then naturally leads to an impromptu karaoke session wherein neither of them try particularly hard to stay in-tune and there is a lot of shared laughter.

“Look, I’m sure you could give Freddie Mercury a run for his money,” Millie says playfully as she parks the car, silently hoping in the back of her mind that Jack isn’t paying enough attention to where they are to get antsy before she can explain. “I am a soprano and you still came closer than me to hitting the highest note!”

“Did I actually? Or am I just shameless enough to swing for it at full capacity, even when I know I’m gonna miss it by miles?” Jack replies with a wink.

“Maybe a little of both,” she says lightly.

“Probably,” he agrees with one last little mini-huff from the exertion of laughter. “So…I know now is a heck of a time to ask, seeing as we’re here…but what’s this next stop entail?”

“Well, ah…I want to go ahead and get you a phone of some kind,” she begins hesitantly, wincing when he immediately crinkles up his nose and furrows his brows. “I know, I know- I mean, I know what you said to Maddie, at least, but I really think this is for the best just in case. I mean, what if I go somewhere where you wouldn’t want to come with me, like the gynecologist or therapy? You wouldn’t want to be stuck without any way to get in touch with me.”

“I wouldn’t mind going with you anywhere,” Jack says, the first few words rushing together in a way to indicate it was a struggle to not interrupt her to say as much.  “I’ll give you your privacy, Sunshine, especially when it comes to things as sensitive as doctor visits, but why couldn’t I just wait in the designated area to do so? I promise you I could keep myself entertained just fine, or even Maddie if she’s not in school!”

“That’s another point,” she reasons. “What if I’m somewhere like work and you’re at the apartment with Maddie? You can’t be two places at once.”

There is an audible pause; she doesn’t actually know if he can be. By the look he’s now wearing, he is just about certain about his physical (or lack thereof?) capabilities.

“I don’t know if I’ll be much good at it,” Jack finally says with a small huff. “Why are the buttons so small? What even is an ‘app’? Why does the keyboard go away sometimes; what if I need it? Where is the landline cord? I mean, golly, Maddie was tapping away like an old pro, and she’s only seven! I don’t know if I can keep up!”

“Then I will help you, J,” Millie says with a smile she hopes is comforting, catching one of his hands to give it a comforting squeeze after he scrubs it through his cerulean hair. “That’s what friends are for, yeah? Don’t stress about it so much. We don’t even have to get you a smartphone if you really don’t want one.”

He hardly looks completely swayed, but he seems to resolve himself to her words enough after a heavy sigh and a trepidatious smile. “Well, I trust you, Sunshine. Let’s get at it!”

“Mrs. Gracie, look!” Maddie excitedly holds up her latest masterpiece for her beloved primary teacher to behold.

“Oop, give me juuuussst a minute, okay sweetheart?”

Mrs. Gracie looks up from where she’s been helping a few other students with weaving flower crowns after about forty-five seconds and smiles. Maddie knows she waited patiently like her instructor asked, so her own smile grows as she gets her requested attention. Being nice and considerate is good on its own, but it’s also definitely something that should get her at least one or two stars! And she gets to show off her artistic genius, so what isn’t there to dance around excitedly in place about?

“This is very fun and expressive, Maddie,” Mrs. Gracie says with a proud smile. “I especially love your use of three different glitters for the weather in the sky and the clothes! You’ve got yourself here…”

She points to the correct person on the page and Maddie beams; Mrs. Gracie is always the best at knowing who’s who in her drawings, right after Mama! “Yep!”

“And this your mama…”

“Yeah!!”

“And your two cats…”

“Mhm!”

“Would you like to tell me about this new friend you’ve drawn here?” Mrs. Gracie points to the tallest figure.

“That’s my mama and I’s newest friend!  His name is Jack!” Maddie proudly announces. “He’s real big and strong and has blue hair and came out of our TV!”

“Whoa! That’s really awesome! Do you think he always lived in your TV, or did he just magically find it one day?” Mrs. Gracie asks in a way that makes the young girl not doubt for a moment that she believes her.

“Hmm…I think he was always in it! Or was in it for a real big long time!” Maddie says after thinking about it for a few moments.

“Well, I’m sure happy that he came out so that you and your mama could have a new friend,” her teacher says with a chuckle. “And thank you for waiting so patiently for me to finish up the step I was helping our friends here with- go ahead and put two more stars on your sheet, okay?”

Score! “Yes Mrs. Gracie!”

Maddie speed-walks (not runs, cause running inside isn’t safe!) to her binder, which is in her cubby. She pulls it out and flips it open to her Star Tracker, which is the very first page, and sets about choosing which color star stickers she wants to live on the page with all her other stars from this past week. It’s impossible for her to know if she’s the very best in the whole class at earning stars when everyone’s is for their own eyes and the teachers’ only, but she is very proud of how regularly she gets them, and thusly how often she gets a prize from the different treasure chests. She’s almost to being able to use her saved-up stash for an extra-good prize from the biggest chest, too!

“Hey there, Maddie.” The familiar voice of one of her other teachers- Miss Vanessa, who teaches Crocheting and Gardening- brings her out of her concentration.

“Hi Miss Nessie!” Maddie chirps, though her smile automatically dies down at the sight of the girl at the teacher’s side. “…Hi Becca.”

“Hi,” her temporarily-not-friend in question replies quietly.

“Becca here has something she wants to tell you, and she just wants me here for support,”  Miss Vanessa explains, gently putting an encouraging hand on Becca’s back. “Nobody is in any trouble. The floor is yours, Becca.”

“Um…” Becca glances between her and their teacher, then continues half-muttering before clamming up again.

Maddie frowns and looks to Miss Vanessa. “I can’t hear her good!”

“Remember not to mumble, friend,” Miss Vanessa says just to Becca, then looks back to Maddie. “And remember to talk to Becca instead of me, friend. Neither of you have to be scared- I promise nobody’s going to bite.”

Their instructor’s little joke makes both of them giggle, and Becca pipes up more audibly this time. “’m sorry for, um, tattling on you a’fore.”

“Oh, okay!” Maddie smiles and nods. “I forgive you, Becca! Everyone makes mistakes, ‘n I know you’re not usually a tattletale.”

“Nobody wants to play with tattletales,” Becca says as if scandalized. “...But, but I wasn’t a tattletale! You took my jump rope!”

“Nu-uh, cause you weren’t even playing with it anymore!” Maddie exclaims with an immediate frown. Why is she even apologizing if she is still going to be a butt about it?!

“Easy does it, friends,” Miss Vanessa interjects. “Before we do anything else, let’s take a calm down breath together.”

“But-!” Becca begins, but she stops protesting when their teacher gently motions to shush with her finger over her mouth.

“No, no friend, it’s time to catch a bubble and a breath,” she chides, but she- exactly like the other teachers- isn’t at all mean about it; nothing like weird grown-ups that neither Maddie or her mama like much.

Both girls take a deep calm-down breath as instructed, breathing in through their noses, then out through their mouths alongside Miss Vanessa. Their beloved together then gets down on their level, kneeling on both knees and giving them both a reassuring smile.

“Now, let’s talk about this. Becca, what’s your side of the story?” She asks Maddie’s currently-not-friend.

The other girl rubs one hand up and down her other arm, her hazel eyes flitting uncertainly between their teacher, Maddie, and the ground. “Um…I was, I was going to play with the jump rope again, but Diana asked me to draw her a big flower cause I draw real good flowers and she wanted to be a buzzy bee takin’ a nap in one cause Miss Gracie showed us about, um, how bees sometimes nap in flowers after, uh, um, pollinating them!”

“Okay, so I’m hearing that you took a break from the jump rope to draw for Diana,” Miss Vanessa repeats. “So you set the jump rope down, or were you still holding it?”

“I, I put it down,” Becca says with more slow but nervous rubbing to her opposing arm. “But I was gonna go back to it!”

“I understand that you were planning to play with the jump rope again,” their teacher assures with a nod. “Now, let’s hear Maddie’s side of the story. Maddie, the floor is yours.”

“That’s not fair, Becca! Cause if you put down a toy and it’s not in your space then you can’t hog it!” Maddie exclaims with a very annoyed huff.

“Hey now, let’s not raise our voice or try to be bossy,” Miss Vanessa interjects. “Do you need some time to calm down, or do you want to try again now?”

Maddie considers her options before taking another calm-down breath. “I wanna try again now please…”

“Alright, sweet girl. Go ahead.”

Maddie thinks about how to speak without being mean for a couple of moments, then says, “I wanted to play jump rope cause I’ve been practicing real hard to do a spin while jumping without stumbling or steppin’ on the rope, but all of the ropes were token, so I was waiting my turn when someone got done! And then Becca put hers down and walked a few feet away, and it wasn’t her space, so I took it before someone else could, and then she tattled on me when I didn’t even do nothing wrong, Miss Vanessa!”

“So your side of the story is that you were waiting patiently for a jump rope, and since Becca was clearly done using hers for the time being, you went to take your time,” Miss Vanessa repeats, to which Maddie nods rapidly.

Miss Vanessa turns to look at Becca, who is avoiding both of their eyes again. “Well, Rebecca, you know that the rule is that if you are done using something, and that if it’s not in your space or your property, then you have to give others a turn.”

“Yeah, but it only was gonna take a minute to draw!” Becca whines, obviously knowing she’s caught in her mistake but not wanting to admit it quite yet.

“I understand that, but the jump ropes belong everybody in school,”  Miss Vanessa points out with a tiny smile. “So what do you think might have been the better thing to do instead of run to a teacher to tell on Madison?”

Becca fidgets and groans a little before saying, “Asked her for the jump rope back…?”

Maddie wants to jump in and correct her, but she holds her angry words back while Miss Vanessa makes a so-so rocking motion with one hand. “Well, that’s one thing you could have done, but do you think there’s something even more kind and fair to Madison you could have chosen to do?”

Becca seems to consider this before admitting, “Um, asked for a turn after she had her turn playing with it for a while..."

"Yep, I think you’re right on the money,” Miss Vanessa confirms. “So, what can you say to Maddie now to show her you understand where you made a mistake and that you will try to do better next time?”

Becca finally meets Maddie’s gaze again, her eyes welling with tears. “I-I’m sorry for bein’ a tattletale, a-and, and I won’t do it again…”

Maddie feels bad for her friend immediately and throws her arms around her, cupping the back of her head with one hand like her own mama does when she’s sad and rubbing up and down her back with the other. “It’s okay! No more rainy days!”

“S-so we can be friends again?” Becca whispers quiet enough for Miss Vanessa to not hear.

“Mhm! Here, you can help me decide what color stars I wanna put in on my star tracker!” Maddie chirps, taking her friend’s hand and stepping with her to where the star stickers are kept in their big bin.

“Wonderful work from both of you,” Miss Vanessa praises, patting both of them on the head. “You can go ahead and add two more to each of your star trackers for being such communicators and problem-solvers.”

“YAY!” Both girls cheer at once, excitedly huddling around the bin to choose together.

The End of the School Day Circle is around ten or so minutes later, where all of the kids take their assigned spots on the carpet to listen to any last announcements ore reminders. Right after that is time to clean and pack up, and it’s also when the kids who have enough stars to go to the treasure chests get called to do so, as it’s Friday. Maddie has gotten called up for four whole weeks now but chose to save up, so she feels kind of like royalty as she hurries to wait in line outside of the area where Miss Gracie has the treasure chests set up.

When it’s her turn in line, she wastes no time to hurry up and presents her star sheet, followed by her rummaging excitedly around for the prize she’s been saving up for. It’s too big to fit exactly in the treasure chest, so it’s a piece of paper called a ‘voucher’, but it has the picture of toy pack in question, so she finds it pretty fast to hand to her teacher. She then dances around in place eagerly as Miss Gracie grabs it from where it’s been stored in a closet that’s locked otherwise, telling the other kids nearby all about her special big chest choice.

When Miss Gracie emerges with the pair of beautiful, glittery, blue/purple/pink fairy wings- the kind to be worn like a backpack- and complimentary toy tiara, Maddie can’t possibly get them onto her back fast enough. She proudly parades back to her cubby to show them off to everyone, answering questions and letting everyone touch them with ‘nice hands.’ She absolutely feels like royalty now- no, with this tiara she reasons she is a princess!- and so she walks as proudly and fancy as she can when the bell rings for everyone to head outside.

She gets to properly show off to all of her good friends for a few minutes, but then she spots Mama’s car get to the front of the line and waves to all of them with both hands. “I gotta goooooo! Byeeeeee, see you guys on Monday!!”

“Except for us!” Wren pipes up with a fresh grin, squeezing the hands of his sister, Keiko, and his very best friend, Chrissy (all of which are in Maddie’s group of besties,) as Chrissy hoists them all up into the air.

“You’re gonna see US tomorrow!” Chrissy yells excitedly.

“YEAH! Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow!” Keiko shouts while jumping up and down.

“Uh-huh, yep! See you tomorrow Wren and Chrissy and Keiko!!” Maddie agrees with a twirl of her own before running to Mama’s car and popping the door handle. “Hi Mama, hi Jack! Look, look, I got my big treasure chest prize today!!!”

“Wow! Look at you go! My very good girl!” Mama praises at once, leaning enough to kiss her forehead in greeting. “Do you think you can get your seatbelt on around your wings? You can put them back on as soon as we park if not.”

“I can do it!” Maddie asserts confidently, maneuvering the material forward to haul the buckle fastened.

She is able to successfully do so, but not without getting one of her wings someway tangled up in the holder that attaches to the side of the car. Not wanting to have to redo it or take off her wings, Maddie decides silently to just deal with the uncomfy way that the accessory holds her fast to the back of her seat. Just as Mama is pulling away from the school, though, Jack turns around in his own seat and quickly gets her wing loose and re-buckled.  She sighs in immediate relief and whispers a thank you, which he responds to with a grin and a wink that makes her giggle.

“Well, you got to get your big prize today, so that’s really exciting and awesome, but was the rest of your day good?” Mama asks as they pull out onto the paved road.

“Yeah! We got to pull up weeds and add them to our compost pile, and watch a cool video all about animals in Africa, and I got to check out two new books from the school library!” Maddie explains while gently swaying her feet. “Did you and Jack do errands?”

“We sure did,” Jack says with a nod and a big warm smile. “I even got a super cool ‘cell phone.’”

“WHOA! Lemme see, lemme see!” The girl exclaims with fresh wiggles in place. She tilts her head in confusion when he reveals a small, bright blue plastic case that has a tiny screen. “Um, that’s…That doesn’t look like my phone or Mama’s phone!”

“This is what all cell phones used to look like,” Mama explains with a smile and a glance in the rearview mirror. “See, it flips open when you need to dial a number or send a text, and there’s a tiny keyboard for you to type on.”

“A very tiny keyboard,” Jack echoes with a crinkled-up face that makes Maddie giggle. “But anywhosies, I was hoping that you could help me decorate the outside with some fun stickers once we get home.”

Maddie gasps and beams while excitedly nodding. “Yeah!! I’ve got lots of real good stickers, don’t worry!”

“That will be a ton of fun,” Mama says with an appreciative nod. “But first, we’ve got to go to the library so Mama can take her college test. Maddie, I brought the book you were almost done with yesterday that you checked out, so if you finish it today while I’m working, you can check out another new one, okay?”

“Whoa! THREE new library books in one day!” The girl exclaims elatedly. “What a life!”

“It’s wonderful how enthusiastic you are about reading and learning!” Jack chimes in, and Maddie feels all warm and glow-y with pride at his approval. “Please never let that go, no matter how old you get.”

“I won’t!” She affirms with a big grin of her own.

The ride over to the library is a pretty short one, and though Maddie doesn’t quite know exactly how far it is from their apartment, she knows it isn’t a super far way away, so they gives her a bit more enthusiastic energy. She gratefully accepts Jack’s help getting out of her seatbelt, then hops down with both feet when he slides open her door for her. Since she’s adjusting her fairy wings and tiara, she doesn’t hear the quick, hushed conversation Mama and Jack have, and it’s over by the time she takes each of their hands to walk across the parking lot to the library front doors.

“Why don’t you both go right to the Children’s Section?” Mama suggests as they pause just outside the door, giving both Maddie and Jack a quick smile; the girl notices she’s got in one earbud but doesn’t think much of it. “Unless you happen to know about how an oxbow lake is formed, Jack?”

Jack pulls an even funnier ‘yuck’ face than before, though there is a couple of seconds pause that make both her and Mama do a double-take. “Haha, yeah, no…I don’t think I know could possibly know about something that advanced…um, like, sophisticated and…specific, heh.”

He then turns to Maddie more fully and playfully taps his pointer finger against one cheek. “But I bet I will be able to help Little Miss Maddie finding some really cool books to look at! Let’s just remember to use our Quiet Voices in the library…and best of luck to you, Sunshine! You’ve got this, I just know it!”

“Yeah!!” Maddie cheers in agreement to both, wrapping her arms around Mama in a big hug before excitedly following after Jack for a fun mini-adventure in the library!