Never Change

3 - Charlie

Jessa and Harry. Jessa and Harry had lost their memory like she and Silas had so many years ago. Had they had a fight? Were they on the outs? How could she fix this?

She silently moved to the living room. The two of them were on the couch, as far apart as possible. Harry was stealing glances towards Jessa as she wrapped her arms around herself, clearly protective and confused. Poor thing. She remembered. She remembered waking up and knowing nothing. She remembered "friends" being the reason she even knew of Silas Nash. She looked to the other seat in the room and saw Silas, glasses on the edge of his nose, his eyes lit by the bright light of his tablet.

His hair was starting to go gray at the side burns and the glasses were a nearly permanent fixture when he wanted to read, but he was still boy she fell for in high school. She sighed, finding it nearly impossible to think she could ever forget why she fell in love with him in the first place. Their story was ingrained in her memory forever...and in the bottom of her nightstand sat a journal that detailed everything if she ever were to forget again.

The story! That's what Jessa and Harry needed to fix this. Their story of how they met, why they dated, why they loved each other. Charlie beamed, clearly proud of herself and involuntarily bounced on her heels.

"Mom?" Charlie spun around and was met with the cocked eyebrow of her youngest daughter. At only eleven Jocelyn had a knack for intuition and Charlie's thoughts were practically palpable.

"Yeah baby? All finished with homework?" Jocelyn's eyes shifted to the side and her foot started to roll under itself. Ahh guilt, she wore it like a tattoo. Charlie raised her eyebrows and held back her laughter. "Math?"

Jocelyn bit her lip and winced. Never one to show her weakness she shrugged in a way that was a mirror to her father. "Is daddy home? I'll just see...you know...if he can check it."

Charlie tilted her head towards the living room and watched as Jocelyn sidled up to Silas, smiled, blinked twice and had him wrapped twice around her finger. That one was going to be dangerous sooner rather than later.  

Minutes later, Jocelyn was tugging his arm as he not at all reluctantly followed her to the second floor sending a wink in Charlie's direction. Unspoken amusement graced their faces. Jocelyn was sharp as a tack, and although she seemed to be sputtering her way through sixth grade math, Charlie and Silas had had more than one late night conversation about the fact that she was gaining ground and needed a confidence boost more than a math tutor.

Charlie turned her attention back towards the living room and the daughter having a real problem. How she could tell Jessa she understood and get their story across without alarming her? She stared at the two kids on the couch again. Harry was whispering to Jessa and Jessa seemed to be hearing him, but not responding. And then it came to her. Breakfast for dinner.

Charlie stepped into the room, and saw Harry pull his lips in, clearly shutting up about their current predicament. "Are you two kids hungry?" Charlie asked, willing one of them to say yes so she could use the power of Ezra to solve the problem.

Harry looked at Jessa and Jessa continued to look at the TV without seeing much of anything. "Sure, Ms...Nash. I could eat," he smiled hoping she did notice the slip up when he nearly forgot her name. Harry never called her Ms. Nash anymore. Not since a year or so after he and Jessa had been dating. It took a while but Charlie had convinced Silas that his barking sir or ma'am after every sentence just wasn't necessary.

"Jessa, why don't you come help me make Harry's favorite?" Jessa startled and looked at her mom in panic, clearly unsure of Harry's favorite anything. She looked to Harry who just shrugged and back at Charlie.

"Ok," she got up and started towards the kitchen while Charlie just smiled back at Harry before turning towards problem solving.

When she entered, Jessa had the fridge door open and was staring into the vastness of the box, clearly unsure of what to grab.

"I've got that part, honey. Why don't you grab three bananas and start slicing them?"

Jessa nodded, closing the door and turning to grab bananas from the fruit bowl on the kitchen table. Charlie took out a knife and set it on the counter so Jessa didn't need to start searching the drawers for utensils. Jessa turned around and let out all the air in her lungs in relief when she saw the pairing knife on the counter. She peeled the first banana and settled into cutting it into small slices. Charlie took the ingredients for the batter out of the fridge and started cracking eggs into the bowl.

"You know, I remember the first day you came home talking about Harry."

Jessa looked up, pausing with the knife mid-cut, "You do?"