Right Down Cherry Lane//Warrant •Jani Lane•

Grace Leigh

After a few weeks of being in the hospital and Heather, Erik, the guys, my mom, and of course Carrie  stopping by to see her, we finally got to go home. She didn't have a nursery, and my house wasn't all that big, so Jon put her crib at the end of our bed.

"Y'know...we should really look for houses." Jon said out of nowhere after I put Grace and Carrie to bed. We were sitting on the couch in the living room. I looked at him. "A house? We have a house. We've got this one." I told him.

He shook his head. "No, you have a house." He said, pointed. Realization dawns on me. "You want a house that's ours." I confirmed. He gave me a small smile and nodded. "So what about it?" He questioned, eager to know if I was with him on this or not.

I thought for a minute. I inherited this small little house from one of my aunts who I never met. We did need a bigger place. It wasn't just Carrie and I living here anymore. "Alright." I said, agreeing.

He kissed my cheek and told me we could start tomorrow. I nodded.

I felt gross still so I got up and told Jon I was taking a shower and heading to bed. He nodded and kissed me goodnight, telling me he wasn't too far behind.

I went to the bathroom and took my shower

***

As Lori was in the shower, the phone rang and John got off the couch and walked to the kitchen, picking up the receiver and answering it. He smiled when he heard who it was. "Dorothea, hey...it's pretty late. What's got you calling right now?" Jon questioned.

"Wanted to see how you were, last time I called you, you had a baby about to be born." She said. She was wondering how fatherhood was treating him so far. Just at the thought of Grace, Jon's smile grew bigger. "Jeez, Dot...it's amazing. She's amazing." He stated.

"Well does she have a name?" She asked. Jon nodded, momentarily forgetting that he was on the phone. "Yeah, Grace Leigh." He stated, still smiling. "Nice nice, did you name her?" Dorothea asked him over the phone.

"Well Lori and I both did. She had Grace, I had Leigh." He explained. Dorothea nodded over the phone, the line going silent for moment. "I remember when we used to talk about stuff like that." She said after a few minutes of silence.

Jon furrowed his eyebrows, surprised by the sudden memories and her saying that. "What?" He said no longer smiling, making sure he heard her right. "When we used to talk about our futures...our future." She continued. Jon's furrowed eyebrows softened as he changed the hand he held the receiver in, bringing it back up to his ear.

"Right...I remember. That-that was long time ago though,..we're not in high school anymore." Jon said. Cursing at him self mentally for still feeling love towards Dorothea like he had in high school.

He shouldn't be feeling this way, he had Lori, he had Grace, he even had Carrie.

There was a shuffle on Dorothea's end of the line. "I know I know, but I just wanted you to know, Jon." She said. Jon didn't know what to say to that, so he breathed a sigh and quickly told her that he had to go, and then hung up.

He was now beside himself with the feeling of love. Both old and new. He turned around and looked on top of the fridge. It where he and Lori kept the alcohol, even though they really didn't drink.

He got a glass and a bottle of whiskey and poured a little bit of it into the glass.

He slammed it, welcoming the burn down his throat, and then put the glass in the sink and the bottle back on top of the fridge. He needed out of his thoughts. He walked out of the kitchen and noticed the bathroom was now empty.

He figured a shower might help. He walked to Lori and his bedroom. Lori was already passed out asleep. Jon quietly walked past Grace asleep in her crib with a smile on his face. He grabbed something to sleep in and a towel and went back to the bathroom.

He let the water drown out his thoughts and after he was done, he put a pair of sweatpants on and went to the room again, except this when he went to walk past Grace, she was asleep.

So before she could start screaming and crying, Jon scooped her up in his arms and started to rock her back asleep.

He spoke very quietly and softly as he did. "What am I supposed to do Grace Leigh?"

Eventually she went back to sleep and Jon put her back in her crib gently. He then got into bed, pulling the cover over himself and wrapping his arm around Lori's waist.

He too eventually went to sleep.

***

Jani tried talking to and dating other women, but none of them were distinguished, not like Lori. They just weren't her. Didn't have her looks, her laugh, her smile, her personality.

It was no use. Erik had visited Lori while she was in the hospital after she had Grace. And he told Jani about it. How she and Jon were happy, how Grace looked like the both of them.

Jani was jealous beyond repair and there was nothing he could do about it.

Jon and Lori were together. They started a family, and there was Jani, still heart broke and relentless over something he didn't have and something that wasn't even there.

But now that he doesn't have Lori at all, it makes him realize how much he actually cares for her and loves her. He just fucking hates it took her falling for another guy for him to see and realize that.

Because Lori didn't need him. She had her mom, she had Heather, she had Carrie, she Erik, she had Jon, and now she had Grace Leigh.

A/N: as I'm writing this, no I don't hate Dorothea, I actually love her and I wish I find what she and Jon have because it literally seems like they've been together since the beginning of time)