I Wanna Get Well

Five years later.

You have missed quite a lot my dear friends. But fret not, you’ll learn a lot soon.

“Coming!” I called as the doorbell rang. I stepped out of the kitchen and began to hum under my breath as I walked down the entrance hall to the large door. So here’s lesson one, new house. Johnny and I had decided to move somewhere more comfortable with no ill memories tied in. And by that I mean no memories of his shitty ex-girlfriend whom he was to marry but ended running off with his old bass tech.

Yeah, that was a terrific story. Oh, sorry, my sarcasm is still very brutal.

As soon as I opened the front door, my legs were attacked. I laughed, leaning down to the small child hugging my knees. I propped him on my hip, his large orbs sparkling with happiness. He wore a large grin accented by dimples and his messy, brown hair was even messier than usual. “Auntie Fee!”

“Jelly Bean, my little troll,” I greeted, ruffling his hair. He had an infatuation with Jelly Beans so he was deemed the nickname. Sometimes he called me Aunt Twix so it was only fair. He placed a kiss on my cheek as a couple approached the front steps.

“James, how many times have I told you not to run off without us?” the woman demanded, crossing her arms as she gave a firm stare to the (almost) six year old connected to me.

“I’m sorry Mommy. I thought it was okay since we were at Auntie’s house.”

“It’s not okay. What if one of the guys turned into the driveway and couldn't see you?” Jimmy looked down, obviously upset that he had angered his parents. His mother sighed, plucking him off my hip to replace him on hers. “It’s fine honey. C’mon, let’s go find Uncle Johnny.”

“Okay!” He squirmed to be let down before grabbing his mother’s hand and pulling her inside. I gave her a kiss on the cheek as she went by, waving. I turned to her other half and smiled.

“He’s gonna be a heart breaker when he’s older.”

“When he's older?” He scoffed. “He’s already a little flirt, the biggest one in the first grade. It's only a matter of time before he breaks one or two. It’s good to see you again, Phoenix.”

“You too Matt,” I replied, returning the hug he was giving me. He finally stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. “Where is Johnny anyway?”

It was my turn to scoff. “Psh, like I bother to try and keep up with him anymore. Last time I checked he was upstairs, but I think he went to work on the grill."

"Geeze, I’ll go help him. I don’t want him to burn the food again.”

I smiled as he led himself to the backyard. Johnny was pretty terrible at grilling. He had no attention span so one of the guys usually took over the job. It didn't matter that we were celebrating Matt and Brian’s birthdays, I had a feeling they were going to be the ones cooking today. And as soon as that thought was done, I heard the doorbell go off. Opening the door I found none other than Brian and Zack’s groups.

“Fee!” Brian shouted, taking me into a tight hug. I laughed as I hugged back. When we parted he was grinning widely. “Love the hair.”

“Thanks.” I had decided to dye it red. Johnny had told me it fit me in appearance and name. Brian let me know this was true by calling me a bird and asking how the nest was. I smacked his arm playfully. “Shut up already.”

“So much for a birthday greeting,” Brian moaned. He was shoved aside by a brown haired woman that was practically a clone to Val. This was actually her twin, and Brian’s wife, Michelle.

“Oh, shut up Brian. It was yesterday and they already called,” she scolded. She then took me into a hug, which I had to be very careful to not accidentally bump her belly. She was now following in everyone’s footsteps by being six months pregnant. I think Brian had secretly been doing a ritual in the middle of the night to have it be a girl. Don't ask me why, he just wanted to have a daughter. Of course he'd be thrilled no matter what, but he wanted a girl. “How have you guys been Phoenix? We haven’t see your group in a week or so.”

“We’re fine. We went to visit my mom’s grave and Parker’s family. We were actually all going to take a trip to see my cousins in a few weeks too.”

“Well I’m glad honey. Make sure to tell Parker’s trio I said hello.” Yeah, you heard right. Parker and Carly had moved together in Los Angeles with their son Payton who was now three. Parker had decided to continue our mother’s tradition of naming the children with ‘P’ names. What about my father you ask? He and his home wrecker fell through and he decided to retreat to New York City where he was working as a partner in a law firm. And no, we still don't speak. Johnny had found an article about him, the only reason I know about that tid bit of his life.

As they walked in, I was brought into another hug by Zacky. We were still fantastic friends and Parker still worked for him. Given he no longer has to go into an office everyday, but he still gets a pretty paycheck for his designs. Still Zack’s favorite, too. “Good afternoon, hun.”

“You too.”

There wasn't much need of a hello between Zack and I. We both knew that by the end of the day we would be gossiping and talking about everything under the sun. I hugged his fiancee, Gena, who was still more reserved than any one of the people in our group. These two, however, were the overachievers of our friends. They had twins, one was Tonya and the other Aydan. They were only six months old but a huge handful. Aydan was passed out in the carrier that Zack had picked up while Tonya was wide awake in Gena’s arms.

I shut the door behind them and followed the couples to the backdoor. It was alive with the sounds of children playing, music booming from the speakers around the pool and jungle gym, and filled with the delicious smell of hamburgers and hot dogs. I locked eyes with Johnny’s and smiled. He easily returned it before Matt snatched his attention back, pointing out what patties needed to be flipped.

“Mommy!” I looked down just in time to get a familiar pressure around my knees. I smiled, picking up the little girl grinning up at me. Yes, yes, I had a child. Two years after I got out, Johnny and I got married. A few months later, I was pregnant. In my arms was two year old Pandora, also known as Dory. And yes, I did steal Parker’s idea to continue the ‘P’ names. In my mother’s memory, right? “Jimmy and I are going to play with Tonya!”

“Okay, baby. Just make sure you’re careful with her, alright? And no picking her up unless Aunt Gena says it’s okay and an adult is with you,” I scolded. She nodded and I kissed her cheek before placing her back on her feet.She ran off to the blanket that Gena and Zack had laid out for the babies. Val and Michelle had come over to me and we settled onto chairs to talk.

After ten minutes or so I excused myself to make sure the snacks - which everyone had decided to begin devouring as soon as they appeared - were still decent enough until the real food was ready. Once they were deemed okay, I hovered by the long table we had set up for the ‘food bar’. I smiled as I glanced around the party. Everyone seemed happy and content with it all. I was glad.

Suddenly arms wrapped around my waist, making me jump until I took in the scent of the familiar cologne. I smiled, leaning back into the chest behind me, lightly grasping the tattoo covered wrists. “Whatcya thinking about?”

“That this must be a dream and I’ll be waking up soon. It’s much too good to be true.”

After a short paused he asked, “You've been thinking about the past again, haven’t you?”

I smiled softly, shrugging a little. “Perhaps.”

“Well, its not a dream. You have a great life, a wonderful daughter, and a sexy husband.”

“Eh, he’s alright.”

I was turned around, his arms slipping around my shoulders as he raised his eyebrow at me. “Just ‘alright’, huh?”

“Well, you’re no David Tennant.”

He rolled his eyes at me with a smile threatening to take over his face. “And you’re no Emma Stone.”

“So we’ll be perfect the non-David Tennant and non-Emma Stone couple.”

“I can deal with that.” Johnny leaned down, capturing my lips in a kiss. I easily returned it, slipping my arms around his waist. I suddenly felt a tugging on my shirt’s end. I looked down to see Pandora staring up at me with her wide, brown eyes.

“Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Mattie said to stop sucking each other’s faces and come eat lunch. What does that mean? Sucking - ”

“Dory, go hit Uncle Mattie in the arm and tell him Mommy’s going to kick his butt,” I spoke, quickly stopping her. She grinned happily, running and calling his name. I swear, if she used that phrase in the next week Matt was going to lose his future baby making abilities. Johnny slipped his hand in mine, causing me to look over at him.

He grinned widely at me. “Shall we go, non-Emma?”

“Let’s, non-David.”