Thank You

“I don’t want to leave,” Austin confessed, twirling a strand of Jessica’s hair around his finger. “I want to live here.”

“It is nice,” she whispered in agreement. They were silent for a while. Jessica had yet to open her eyes. If she could, she would lie in this bed forever. She had, arguably, the best night of sleep she could ever remember. She could just live in this bed and order room service. That sounded perfect.

“Has it really hit you yet?”

“What?” she asked, finally opening her eyes and studying him, studying her.

“That we got married yesterday? Legitimately married. Like,” he paused and thought about it for a moment, rubbing the slight stubble on his chin. “Like, my last name is tacked onto the end of yours.”

“Ah, am I doing the three name deal?” she asked. “Jessica Clark Gibbs?”

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “Whatever you want to do.”

“I don’t know. I never actually thought we would go through with it, if I’m being completely honest. I thought you would change your mind.”

“Why would I change my mind?” he asked, a confused look painting his face. “This was my idea.”

“Well. It just all happened so fast. It hasn’t even been a week since you and…” she trailed off.

“You can say her name,” he chuckled, pushing her bangs out of her face and kissing her forehead.

“Okay,” she smiled. “Since you and Taylor split.”

“No use in crying over something that wasn’t right for you,” he shrugged one of his shoulders.

“It’s not really even a real marriage anyway.”

He didn’t say anything, just studied her. Pushing himself up, he studied her before he stood up. “I’m going to go shower,” he informed her.

She sensed his shift in mood and started to panic. She didn’t want him to be angry right now. “Want some company?” she asked, sitting up and watching him walk around the bed.

“Who would turn that down?” he asked, plucking her out of the bed and throwing her over his shoulder.
//\\//\\//\\

They got ready together, like they had so many times before but this time just felt so much different. There was a different feeling in the air and Jessica knew that he had to feel it too.

“I know this may sound weird,” Austin said, locking eyes with her in the mirror, “but I like you.”

“Ah, that’s good,” she laughed, running a comb through her hair. “People should generally like the person that they are married to, in my opinion,” she joked.

“Jessica,” he sighed, shaking his head and closing his eyes. “I’m trying to ask you out on a date and you’re ruining it.” She giggled and cleared her throat, trying to keep a straight face. “Now. Would you like to go out with me tonight?”

“I don’t know,” she sighed dramatically. “I’ll have to check my schedule.”

“Well,” he smirked, leaning back against the doorframe. “Get back to me. I have backups if you turn me down.”

“Oh shut up,” she shoved him, grabbing her phone and sticking it in her back pocket. “Are you ready? I want to go to the hospital. You called a cab, right?”

“Yeah. Should almost be here. Let’s go,” he nodded, picking up their bags.

“I can grab my own bag, Gibbs.”

“No way. I’ve got your bag, Gibbs,” he joked.

“Ugh, that’s weird,” she shook her head. “So weird.”

//\\//\\//\\//\\

As soon as they got in the elevator, Austin wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close and buried his face in her hair. “Ready to go back to reality?”

“Do we have a choice?” she asked, pulling her head back so that she could look at him.

“No, not really,” he chuckled, pulling her off of the elevator when it reached the floor. He smiled at the same couple who saw him practically manhandling her a few days ago, reaching for her hand and lacing his fingers with hers.

She glanced down at their connected hands and bit her lip. They didn’t do these things up until yesterday. Up until yesterday they were nothing more than friends; friends who just happened to get married. Apparently that changed things, that or the fact that they drunkenly took their relationship to a place where it had only been once. Only, this time had been better. Much better. She didn’t want him to feel like he had to do these things because they were married. She wanted him to only do these things if he wanted to.

She disconnected their hands and shot him a small smile, walking ahead of him to her mom’s room. Stepping through the door, her heart stopped when she saw the empty bed. She saw her father’s jacket thrown across the chair and a few toys that her nieces and nephews had left behind, but nobody was in there.

“Something’s not right,” she said as soon as Austin walked up behind her. “This isn’t right. Something’s not right.” She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone to find it dead. “Of course,” she panicked. Austin pulled his out and handed it to her.

“Here, use mine.”

“I don’t know anyone’s number by heart anymore,” she panicked, grabbing his phone and staring at it. “This is why having a cell phone is ruining the world.”

“Hey, calm down,” he tried, rubbing his hand over her arm and grabbing his cell phone. “Maybe everything is okay. I have-”

“No, Austin,” she interrupted, “Everything is not okay, so stop telling me that it is.”

“I’m just saying that you don’t need to jump to conclusions,” he defended, putting his hands up in front of him as if he were shielding himself from her attacks.

“You know, not everything in the world is hunky dory.”

“Hunky dory?” he questioned, raising one of his eyebrows and staring at her like she had suddenly grown a second head.

“The world is a fucked up place, so don’t tell me that everything is okay.”

“What I was going to say, before you completely jumped on my ass,” he paused to take a breath and shake his head, “was that I have Peyton’s number, and Kennedy’s for that matter. So if you want to stop yelling at me and maybe find something out, well, I suggest you do that, princess.”

She snatched the phone out of his hand and glared at him. “Don’t call me princess.” Thumbing through his contacts, she found Peyton’s number and pushed “send,” mashing the phone to her ear and avoiding looking at Austin.

“Austin?” she answered.

“It’s Jess. What’s going on?”

“God, Jess. We only called you a million times last night.”

“Oh, I’m sorry sis. It was only my wedding night.”

“Gross.”

Jess’s patience was wearing thin as she waited for her sister to stop being an immature 15 year old.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“Mom’s room.”

“I’ll be there in a second.”

Peyton pulled the phone away from her ear and shoved it at Austin. “Well, that was informative,” she snarled, shaking her head. “You know, if you hadn’t have put your moves on me last night-”

“Wait a second,” he chuckled harshly. “If I remember correctly, you had some moves of your own that you put on me.”

“Hey,” Peyton said, poking her head through the door.

“Hey,” Jess greeted, stepping around Austin.

“Come here, Ted wants to talk to you.”

Jessica couldn’t help but be annoyed. She wanted answers and she was getting nothing. “What is going on?” she asked as she followed Peyton down the hallway. She heard Austin’s boots clacking on the linoleum floor behind her and couldn’t help but get annoyed. Things had changed so much in the past 24 hours and she felt like she had whiplash at everything happening so fast.

She saw her dad pacing the floor by the drink machines, phone pressed to his ear and a look of annoyance across his face. He hung up the phone as soon as he saw Jessica and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her to his chest.

“Dad,” she breathed, “what’s going on?”

He pulled back and looked at her, a smile gracing his face. “Your mom changed her mind.”
“What?!” Jessica asked, a smile tugging at her own lips.

“She’s in surgery right now.”

“I’m sorry,” Austin said, “I don’t want to butt in, but can someone fill me in?”

“My mom,” Jessica started, unable to stop smiling. “She’s refused to have another kidney transplant after the last one started failing. We all offered, but she always said she couldn’t ask for something that big. She said she was done.”

“One became available last night and when they called, we were all shocked that she said that she wanted to do it.” Ted spoke up. “I think it’s because she finally has something to fight for. She just watched her baby get married and met her grandkids.”

“It’s so great,” Peyton said, wrapping her arm around Jessica. Jessica wrapped hers around Peyton and squeezed tightly. She knew how she felt right now, it was more than likely the way she felt

“They flew it in from Atlanta. She went into surgery about thirty minutes ago.” Ted continued.

“That’s so great,” Austin said, looking from Ted to Jessica.

“I’m sorry,” she mouthed to him.

“Me too,” he mouthed back with a little shrug.

“You kids should go do something to get your mind off of it. She’ll be in recovery for a long time before we can even see her. I’ll call you when I know something.”

“I have to go see Kennedy and the kids. Do you guys want a ride back to the house?”

“How did you guys even get here?” Ted asked.

“It was a few miles, we took a cab. And thanks Pey, but I can’t be cooped up in the house right now.”

“Ted, do you mind if we borrow your car?” Austin asked, clapping Jessica’s dad on the back? “Your daughter and I have a date to go on.”

“Ah, the newlywed stage,” Ted laughed, fishing the keys out of his pocket.

“Something like that,” Austin said, winking at Jessica.

“Austin, give dad your number so he can call us,” Jessica said, walking with Peyton down the hallway.

Today she had heard the best news she could have possibly heard. Maybe things were finally going to turn around.