The Vault

Jimmy/Sherrie/Family Fic (requested)

July 4, 1976 - Pond Creek, Oklahoma, USA

I watched my little baby boy run and jump and play in the tall corn field just on the other side of the dirt road from the farm house. My little baby boy and my perfect husband were running and jumping and playing in the tall grass while Mason did the same with his son, Nick. My heart swelled at the sight and I felt so incredibly happy knowing how perfect my family is.

I saw Jimmy's dark curls duck down under the corn only to emerge moments later as he put a little two year old girl with golden ringlets of hair, on his shoulders. She squealed and giggled and clutched onto his hair in order to maintain her balance as Jimmy carried her around. I knew this little girl well... This little girl was my perfect daughter, Scarlet Lilith.

It's quite uncanny, how our children turned out... James is, in every way, an exact replica of Jimmy. They're practically twins. Scarlet, however, is a clone of me. From the bridge of her nose to the freckles along her cheeks, the blue of her eyes and the exact shade of her curls; she's my little baby girl, and I couldn't be more proud of her.

Jimmy grinned and hopped around with Scarlet on his shoulders while Nick and James Mason chased my twin brother and my husband around, trying to protect his little girl from the rough-housing that the boys can sometime engage in. I couldn't help but to smile at Jimmy as he peeked at me from across the dirt road.

Pamela and I were sitting on horses that she and Mason had bought after the barn has been completed a few years ago. Ironically, the one I was sitting on looked exactly like Boxer, named Thunder. The one Pam was on looked just like the foal that my old horse Delia gave birth too... They named him Hunter, just as I named Delia's baby.

We were riding around for a bit, watching our husbands play with our kids when Jimmy flashed a grin my way, once again. He was so beautiful and so perfect in my eyes, despite his near skeletal appearance - he's been losing an unhealthy amount of weight lately and it worried me to no end. I'll beg him to eat, I'll make him his favorite foods or take him out to his favorite restaurants, but he just doesn't eat anything.

He's been really distant too. He'll spend hours and hours at the studio, only to come home and crash on the couch or in bed. He'll have his moods where he'll suddenly snap out of whatever's going on with him and he'll talk to me about his day or about mine. We'll have great family days where he'll treat the kids and I to something nice, like a little vacation, or a nice meal until he'll slip back into his moods days after.

He's assured me that it's just because of all the stress he's been under lately, what with Robert's recent car accident and them trying to record this next album, all while Robert's trying to recover. That's all fine and well, but I know he's lying to me... At least partially. I know there's something else... I think he's using drugs. Not like the weed everyone smoked or the cocaine everyone snorts at all the Zeppelin parties we've gone too... But I think there's something else he's tried that he hasn't told me about.

I made a mental note to sit down and have a conversation with him about this before he slipped back into one of his moods, if I could catch him on time.

With a sigh, I smiled back at him and then turned to Pam who was asking me something I didn't quite catch.

"Hmm?" I asked, turning my head back to her as Thunder shifted his weight under me, making the saddle move slightly.

"Jeez Sherrie, I don't think I've ever seen two people more smitten with each other than you and Jimmy, can't even keep your eyes off each other while I'm trying to have a conversation with you!" Pam chuckled. "I was commenting about how healthy you look, you're glowing again."