𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 | 𝐙𝐢𝐜𝐤 [𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐙𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐲] ✔️

𝑬𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒖𝒆

March 1985

Nick rolls his eyes as Ziggy and Will tease him.

Over time they became close, putting aside the bad times of the past and that had led them to have a sibling relationship, which was great, until they started teasing him.

Nick lets out a long sigh and gets up from breakfast after noticing the time. He has to go to work.

"I'm going", he says interrupting them.

Ziggy pouts and goes over to hug him, he reciprocates, dipping his nose into her head.

"Well, that's my cue. Goodbye", Will says and Nick looks up and waves him goodbye.

Ziggy hides in the crook of Nick's neck.

"What's wrong?" Nick asks, noticing her mood change.

"I don't know", she admits and Nick frowns, confused "It's just... today is the anniversary of when my dad left us and..."

"Ziggy..." Nick interrupts her and pulls away a little to grab her cheeks "I would never abandon you, you know that right?"

"Of course", she says immediately and wraps her arms around his neck "And I love you for that. It just all this reminded me how lucky I am to have you", Nick smiles at her.

"I'm the lucky on", he kisses her on the nose, making her smile, "you've got a long way to go to get rid of me, Christine".

Ziggy squints, she hates it when he calls her that. He smiles at her and she finally moves in for a kiss.

If they were both sure of anything it was that they would never walk away from each other again.

September 1985

Ziggy smiles, watching Nick entertain the kids.

After so much, Nick proposes putting together the book club he had promised her all those years ago....

"I was thinking maybe once we get out of this, we could, uh... we could start a book club or something. Maybe... I dunno, Stephen King's new one is supposed to be good, I hear", he said. "I'm done with King, Judy Blume for me from now on", she said with a smile. "Yeah, Judy Blume sounds, uh... sounds perfect".

She smiles at the memory and her gaze is lost on Nick making faces at a child, who returns the gesture with laughter.

One day a week they would get together and read Judy Blume stories to the children in the morning. In the afternoon, the teenagers would arrive with their books in hand.

Nick and she had to vary the categories of books for those who were not horror fans like themselves, but Stephen King's name always stood out among the titles chosen.

Those last few weeks at the book club had got her thinking about something, and every time they got together an image came to her mind and wouldn't let her rest for days.

It was him, Nick, playing with children.

There were even times when she found herself being affectionate with them.

The truth was that Ziggy had never considered having children, until they started reading to them.

She had been considering it and each time the idea seemed better and better to her. Seeing Nick be so patient and loving with children that weren't even his own... she didn't know how to explain it, but a feeling had grown in her chest that she didn't even know what it meant, but it was present every time she saw children running from place to place.