Love Is Won

Part Six

Jessica stepped lightly down the stairs, flicking the landing light off as she reached the bottom. She recovered the bottle of white wine she'd had chilling in the fridge all day and two glasses from the cupboard, before making her way to the living room.

She entered the space and the sight that greeted her stopped her in her tracks. Danny was sat cross legged and upright in the tent of sheets that he had crafted for the girls earlier in the day. The flowery sheets hung down, carefully draped over a few chairs from the kitchen-dining room, creating just enough room for two in the centre of the room. He had retrieved the bedding from the broken bed in the spare room, using it to form a comfy floor space, and had dug out the white Christmas fairy lights which lit up the interior of the cosy shelter via an extension cable. The girls had filled their den with pillows, blankets and teddy bears, their favourite books and any other supplies they believed they'd need, before lying contently on their fronts, heads popping out through the flap of the door to watch The Secret Garden, while Danny and Jessica grinned at them from the couch.

Danny sat, pouring over some leather bound photo albums, completely unaware that his love was watching him with an expression of the most immense adoration, and slight amusement.

"Hey," she said, walking towards him and bending to hand him a glass.

"Hey," he replied, as he looked up and beamed at her rosy cheeks. "Did they go down okay?"

"Eventually, after a few tears," Jessica said sadly. "I couldn't leave Ilse alone so she's in with me tonight, too."

Danny nodded.

"They need to be close to you, love."

He scooted over and motioned for Jessica to join him. After a slight eye roll, she passed him the bottle and nestled down by his side, rearranging some cushions behind her. Danny unscrewed the wine and poured a generous glass for each of them, before clinking the edges together and taking a long, refreshing gulp.

"What are you doing with those?" Jessica questioned, gesturing at one of the albums that lay open across his lap.

"Oh, I hope you don't mind, they were just on the shelf there."

"I don't mind. What're you looking at?" she asked, referring to the year on the spine.

"You," Danny replied simply. "Look at you."

He placed his glass on the floor in front of them and stroked his thumb lightly across the plastic coating that covered a photograph of Jessica, gently tracing her high cheekbone.

"Oh," she dismissed, smacking his arm as she took another sip of wine, hiding her self-conscious frown. "That was Walker's high school graduation," she continued.

"You're glowing," Danny remarked, still gazing at the photograph.

Jessica waved her hand flippantly and reached over his leg to turn the page. As she did so, a photograph fell, unbound, from the pages of the album. Danny retrieved it and found it to be another of Jessica. She was sat on the steps of the front porch at the old farm, looking to the side with her arm bent, elbow resting on her knee, supporting her chin in her hand. A party was in full swing behind her, but she seemed oblivious to the festivities, and the presence of the camera, as she stared wistfully at something out of frame.

"I hate that one," she groaned, trying to snatch it from his grasp, but failed to do so as Danny held the image out of her reach.

"It's beautiful."

"It's not. It's the graduation party at home and I was devastated..."

"Why?" Danny asked, looking at her earnestly.

"Walker was my last one, he's my baby."

Jessica rested the side of her head against his upper arm and wrapped her hand around his bicep, holding onto him. Danny touched her crown with his cheek and turned to kiss the top of her head.

"If you don't like it, can I have it?" he spoke into her hair.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"...I don't see why not," she shrugged.

They sat in their huddle for a good while longer, slowly turning the pages of Jessica's familial memories, mostly silent, though occasionally laughing and murmuring to each other, until Jessica got restless. She shuffled, readjusting her position and wound her arm round Danny's shoulder, pressing her forehead into his cheek.

"I've had enough now," she said softly.

"Yeah?"

Danny draped his arm across her thighs.

"Yeah. It's great to look back on it all, but I hate how it'll never be like that again. I'll never have my babies again, even the girls are closer to becoming young women than they are children."

Danny gave her thigh a consoling squeeze and rubbed his cheek against her brow.

"I know honey," he lulled. "But you've got plenty of film to make some new memories. I will never compete with your children, but we can still have a good time."

Jessica pressed herself as close to his frame as she possibly could, soaking in his words and briefly closing her eyes.

"Adah and Ilse need you now more than they've ever needed you, and they always will, even when they have their children," Danny assured her. "There's nothing quite like visiting your grandparents, at any age."

"I hope so," Jessica said, draining her glass and nudging at the empty bottle with her toe.

Danny followed suit, before closing the spread of albums in front of them and standing to slot them back in order on the bottom shelf of the bookcase on the other side of the room. He turned and moved to take the hands Jessica was holding out to him and pulled her to her feet, then into a tight hug. They remained chest to chest for a few moments before Jessica pulled away and placed her hands softly on his forearms.

"I'm sorry you have to sleep down here tonight, Daniel," she sighed, gesturing to the couch.

He smiled and shook his head.

"For the thousandth time, it's fine. I really don't mind."

"If I'd have thought, I'd have fixed up the spare room, but it's more for storage now, and the bed's broken anyway... You can't sleep in there, it's so gross."

Danny acknowledged her unconscious use of the girls' current favourite adjective of disgust and mischief danced in his eyes.

"You never mentioned," he said. "How did you manage to break that bed?"

Jessica giggled and her cheeks flushed further, the heat from the fire aiding their colouration.

"Wouldn't you like to know," she tempted.

"Come here."

Danny seized Jessica's hips, she squealed as he jolted her into a hard, wet kiss. Their tongues wrapped around each other and each pulled at the other's clothes, stopping when their lower halves were bare. They stood facing one another in the centre of the living room, until Jessica caught sight of them in the reflection of the dark window and doubled over with laughter.

"What?" Danny smiled, looking down at himself bemusedly.

"Oh god, not you," she chortled. "Look."

She turned him round by his shoulders and stood to his side, giving them both the full view of their half nude reflections in the glass.

"What?" Danny continued to question her. "We look great."

"We look ridiculous."

"I don't know what the deal is with your eyesight, but I think we've never looked better," he insisted, resting his right hand on her buttock. "Do you want me to draw the curtains?"

"No," Jessica replied, rubbing the centre of his back, having recovered from her bout of giggles. "I want you to make love to me."