Kingdom Come Undone

Dwindling Mercurial High - Part 2

I saw them through the window after stopping for a quick lunch. Jacob stood right at his mother's elbow as he wrapped his hand around her forearm, his face plastered to her arm. Alison looked down at him frequently to ask him questions which he appeared to reply to giddily. Her hand rested on his back as she rubbed between his shoulder blades.

This was it. My last moments to be able to back out to admit that maybe I wasn't as ready or as prepared as I had been so sure about just hours before. Jacob was an actual child. My presence would affect him. I would have a direct impact on his future. I took a deep breath as I opened the door to the old school ice cream shop Alison selected ready for whatever reaction waited for me.

"Have you two found anything that looks good?" I asked behind them to break the ice.

Alison turned around gleefully, her smile radiating as Jacob quickly held onto his mother's hand at the surprise of my voice.

"Hey, Em." She whispered, holding onto my elbow with her other hand as she knelt to Jacob's level to keep speaking, "Oh, now you're going to get shy? When just minutes ago you were asking when Emily would be here? Say hi, sweetheart."

He waved politely as I tried to follow his lead, waving in return, "Jacob, it really is so nice to meet you. I felt so badly about not being there last weekend when you filled up you sticker book. I hope today makes up for it. Did you earn any new stickers this week?"

He nodded, holding out three fingers, "I got free."

I looked toward Alison for any indication if that was a good number or potentially not enough. She was of no use though as she looked like a deer in headlights at Jacob and I interacting altogether. "Woah. That's awesome! Do you know what ice cream you want yet?"

He turned back around to face the counter, standing on his tip toes to see into the large vats. As he stared into each one to find his perfect flavor, I laced my hand in Alison's trying to get her attention, "You alright there, beautiful?" I gave her a brief kiss on the cheek before letting our hands go, not wanting to inflict too much PDA on Jacob before he was used to the idea.

"I'm short circuiting." She shook out her head, glancing at each of us back and forth.

"The three of us are here together, yes. We've had this planned for a week."

She laughed against my shoulder, "I was so nervous about the organization of it all that I never let my brain figure out what it would actually be like."

"Well, this is it." I shrugged, wanting so badly for today to work out.

"Oh my God! I forgot about your day! How was Carter?" She connected our hands back together as she looked up at me for any details I was willing to share.

"Good." I wasn't sure how much to give away about our conversation. How much I should reveal about everything he made known, "Really good. We met at a park."

Jacob's voice broke into our conversation, "Mommy! Mommy! Hep me see!"

"One second, Bug." She replied, passing off her purse to me without question as she turned around to pick Jacob up on her hip. "A park? Why a park, Em?" Noticing that Jacob was preoccupied with looking down at the ice cream, she reached over to hold my hand.

"It was sweet, actually. It's the park you both took Jacob too after getting his all-clear. It was like my initiation."

Alison rolled her eyes while still smiling, kissing the back of Jacob's head, "He's such a sap. Surprised he didn't take you to Jake's delivery room if he really wanted to get you initiated."

"I think we put that on the calendar for next weekend." I smirked, bring her hand up to my lips to delicately kiss her knuckles. "Jacob, remember I said that this trip was my treat, so look carefully to figure out what you want."