Some Girl

Pwaying Piwates

-JENSEN'S POV-

"Unca Jensen!"

"Hey, buddy," I grinned, picking Tom up from where he stood next to Gen.

We had finally finished filming for the season premiere and during our two weeks off before we had to go back to shoot more, I was spending time in Texas with Jared and his family. Gen was holding Shep on her hip as she grinned at her husband.

"Hey, babe," he greeted her, giving her a kiss.

"Ew!" Tom exclaimed in my arms, burying his face in my shoulder.

"Don't look at it, Tom. They're disgusting," I told the little boy.

"Hey, Tom, wanna come see Daddy?" Jared asked his son.

"No! I want Unca Jensen!" the boy declared, burrowing further into my shoulder.

I smirked at Jared who rolled his eyes and took Shep from his wife as we made our way through the airport and out to the car.

"So, how's filming been?" Gen asked us.

"Same old, same old," I replied.

"Except for Lightweight," Jared teased.

Ever since the conversation in my dining room, the dynamic between Scarlett and I had shifted. Although it wasn't the nickname I thought I'd be using, I had actually found a worthy adversary to combat her calling me Douchebag on set all the time. Jared and Misha were the only ones who had heard and taken to calling her Lightweight like me, but unlike me, they only used it when she wasn't around and they were teasing me about her.

"What?"

"Don't worry about it," I mumbled in response to Gen's confused expression.

She looked at Jared for more of an explanation, but he just shook his head. He and I both buckled the boys into their car seats and I climbed into the back in between the two children while Gen slipped into the passenger seat and Jared sat behind the wheel. I played with the boys the entire drive back to their house.

"Come pway, Unca Jensen!" Tom yelled when we got through the door.

He latched onto my fingers with his fist, dragging me further into the home. I grinned as I allowed myself to follow him to the living room where his toy chest was set up in the corner.

"What do you want to play, buddy?" I asked, opening the chest for him.

"Piwates!"

"Okay."

We got out the fake swords and pirate hats and Tom wanted to put mine on me before putting his on himself. We ran around, sword fighting and pretending to look for buried treasure while Jared and Gen watched Shep and caught up with each other more. Jared called her at least once every week while filming, but it was never for very long because either she had to pay attention to the boys or he had to hurry back to shoot a scene. I knew I shouldn't be jealous, but it was hard not to be, especially since not only had the couple met not long after Dani and I started dating, but we had gotten married just a few months apart. 

They had been married for the same amount of time as me and Dani, and yet they made it work and we couldn't. It wasn't their fault, I knew that. Statistically, fifty percent of marriages ended in divorce or separation, so between Jared and I, it was a fifty-fifty chance that one of our marriages would end badly. There were just some times when I wished it had been his instead of mine. Then I would see the way they looked at each other, or would spend time with Tom and I'd think that it was good that it had been Dani and I who had ended and not Jared and Gen.

Dani never looked at me the way Gen looked at Jared after the wedding. It was like a switch had flipped in both our brains after tying the knot and everything just started going downhill.

"Unca Jensen, we dig!" 

Tom's voice pulled me from my reverie, and he tugged on my hand to get me to go play with him.

"Where are we digging, Tom?"

"Out thewe," he pointed at the backyard.

"We need shovels to dig for the treasure, bud," I told him.

The nearly three-year-old boy paused, face scrunched up in concentration as he thought through what I had said.

"Daddy give us shovas!" he declared after a moment.

Before I could stop him, he was running back through the halls in search of his father to get the shovels necessary to dig in the backyard.

"Daddy, Unca Jensen need shova!" I heard Tom's voice carrying from the other room.

"Why does Unca Jensen need a shovel, bud?" Jared asked his son.

"We digging up bewied tweasuwe!"

"He wants to dig in the backyard," I explained, coming into the room.

"Unca Jensen scawy piwate!" Tom grinned up at his dad.

"Oh yeah," Jared nodded. "Unca Jensen is the scariest pirate."

"I think there should be some shovels in the sandbox out back," Gen spoke up from the other side of the room.

"Wet's go, Unca Jensen!"

I found my fingers once again in Tom's grasp as he dragged me back out of the room.

"Okay, okay, slow down, Tom," I tried to tell him, but he didn't listen.

He dragged me over to the sandbox in the backyard, thrusting a little plastic shovel into my hands.

"Dig fo' tweasuwe!"

He grabbed a shovel of his own, getting down on his hands and knees in the sandbox and beginning to dig. I knelt down beside him, beginning to dig a hole of my own with the toy he'd given me. It was quiet for a few minutes as we both concentrated on what we were doing, and my mind strayed to Scarlett. I wondered what she was doing with her break. She had flown back to LA, and I was sure she had met up with Tom to tell him all about the adventures she had had while in Vancouver. Though, there couldn't be too many stories he hadn't heard with how much the pair had called and texted all the time. She talked to him more than Jared talked to Gen while filming.

"Wook, Unca Jensen!"

I looked over to see what Tom was presenting to me. In his little hand was a plastic gold coin.

"You found the treasure!" I got excited.

"I win," he grinned up at me.

"Yeah, buddy. You won."