Happily Ever After

Thirty Eight- High In The Sky

Kris

We took care of the Pirates pretty easily in the wildcard game. Honestly the closest they were to getting to us was when they threw at Jake and he decided that the for sure Cy Young winner could take on a whole team by himself. He must have learned that from Anthony from when he tried to take on the entire Red's team. But their efforts to rattle him were null and he shut them out to win the game four to zero on their own turf. It was a great game if you were a Cubs fan and now we get to see our favorite rivals in a best of five series, the St. Louis Cardinals.

So I meet Jenna in the city and after media we were free to go for the day. Mary wanted to go up in the Arch and she's lucky my love for her is greater than my hatred of heights. And I guess we're going to figure out by how much that is today.

"Do you want me to hold your hand" Mary asks as we get into the little capsule that takes us up. I just smile because Jenna offered earlier but she was being a smart ass and I told her no. But Mary was being sincere, I can tell.

"That would help me out a lot" I insist. She reaches out to grab my hand and I hold her hand back. We start to go up to the top in the most awkward way possible. I'm not sure how I thought we would get up there, but in a jirating space capsule wasn't it.

"This is awful" I mutter as we jerk back and fourth.

"It's kinda fun" Jenna claims with a smile on her face.

"You would enjoy this" I accuse. The girl isn't scared of anything. I thought I was going to throw up when we went on the Ferris wheel in Chicago and she wouldn't stop shaking it.

After what feels like forever and day we get to the top. I was the first one out of that rolling death trap and onto safe grounds. But now I was hundreds of feet above the ground I'm most comfortable on.

"Come on daddy" Mary cheers as she keeps ahold of my hand. She takes off to the windows where everyone was looking out. I close my eyes as I let her pull me behind her. "Don't be a baby" she teases.

"Yeah. You heard the four year old. Quit being a baby" Jenna laughs. If I could kill with looks I would.

I open one eye just to make sure Jenna knew I was glaring at her. She just grabs my other hand before giving it a squeeze. "Don't worry big man" she smirks, "we got you."

I finally relax enough to open both of my eyes. I look out and it actually wasn't that bad. It wasn't cool enough to take away my fear I had for being this high but at least I got to experience this with my girls.

"Okay! Picture time" Jenna insists.

"Yay" Mary cheers from next to me.

"Nooo" I pout. "I'm sweating bullets up here please don't make me take the picture" I beg.

"I don't have social media so the only way someone sees these pictures is if you post them" she reminds me.

Damn it, she really is too smart for me.

So I smile for pictures and try to hide the fear in my eyes. Luckily I was holding Mary and her cuteness kinda distracts from my petrified body langue.

Finally we get to go back down which wasn't as bad as going up. This time I knew what to expect and we were going away from the platform that held us above the ground.

Once we get out I let out a sigh of relief. At least two of us had fun up there. Once I get my land legs back we meet my parents for dinner. They wanted a piece of post season baseball and I didn't want to make them wait so they meet us in St. Louis. We had two games here then we had two more games in Chicago then a game five back here in St. Louis if needed. And while the Cardinals were a bit of a tougher opponent that then the last team we faced, I still had faith in my team. We were quite a solid team for not being together for all that long. There was a few more surprises we have like what Kyle did in Pittsburg. I knew we had what it takes to beat almost any team, it's just the matter of putting our money where our mouth is.

"For cryin' out loud Mary slow down" Jenna begs as Mary nearly chokes on her hot dog. In the kids defense she said she was as hungry as a lion and I guess she wasn't kidding.

Jenna wipes her nieces mouth off with a napkin as the kid smiles up at her.

"Thank you" the kid says before stuffing her face again.

"You're a mess darlin', but you're my favorite mess" Jenna smiles.

"So how have you guys been" my mom asks no one specific.

"We're doing real good" Jenna admits making me smile.

"How's work" my mom asks her.

"It's a process, that's for sure. It's so hard not to feel for these people. I've always been pretty empathetic, I always feel for other people. It makes work a little more difficult because making decisions when feeling are involved make things harder. You think you know something but it turns out you know diddly squat. But I like learning something new every day. It helps me move along and it helps my patients move on. It's been fun" she insists.

"It sounds like you found your calling" my dad notices.

"If it wasn't for Kris I wouldn't have ever reached out. I would have stayed in the cafe serving Joe and Maggie for the rest of my life even though I knew that wasn't what I was supposed to be. Who I was supposed to be. I thought I couldn't be this person I am right because of what happened. But then he showed me that I can be so much more and all it took was me reaching out and finding what was right for me" she says.

"I love you" I say softly making her smile.

"I love you to the moon and back" she promises.