Sunday Mornings

James was standing by the baggage claim in the airport with Peyton on his hip waiting for Jess and Taya to arrive from Pittsburgh. He wasn't sure what had brought on their last minute plans for a visit, but three nights previous James had received a phone call at nearly midnight asking about his schedule and the next thing he knew he was being sent flight itineraries and making up the guest rooms. Not that he minded, they were basically his sisters at this point, but he hadn't seen them since the funeral and he didn't know how to act around them.

He heard them before he saw them, "Oh my god look at how big she is!"

James smiled and was happy to hand Peyton over to Jess when she held out her hands for her niece. With Peyton occupied James turned to Taya, and she was hesitant to hug him, he could tell, so he leaned down and wrapped her into a hug.

"It's good to see you Taya." He told her as they parted.

She looked up at him and smile gently, giving his forearm a squeeze before she let go of it as she said, "You too. You look good."

"Better than the last time you saw me?" James asked her, a small smile on his face to let her know he was joking, sort of.

The last time he had seen Taya was when she had to pick him up off of the bathroom floor of the very house they were on their way home to, after James had barricaded himself in there with a bottle of scotch for six hours. He hadn't been so nice to her. In fact, James could remember, distinctly, telling her that he didn't need her help and that she should figure her own life out instead of trying to fix his.

His cheeks flushed just at the thought, but he didn't bring that moment up. Instead he smiled when Taya told him, "Much better, and that niece of mine? She is like one hundred times cuter, and more pudgy than usual."

James smiled, "Yeah, I haven't quite figured out this whole feeding a baby thing yet."

"Eh, you have time." Taya joked.

James lead them out to where he had parked his SUV, and Jess immediately said, "Nice ride."

Taya joked, "Could you be any more stereotypically lesbian?"

James practically snorted, Jess simply rolled her eyes and told her youngest sister, "Wasn't it you just last week saying you were giving up on men and how much easier dating chicks would be?"

"Yes…but then I realized I'd actually have to date a girl…" Taya stated, before she looked at Jess and said, "No offense chicken little."

"Oh my god, it was one relationship that was like two months long. Get over it." Jess stated with an eye roll.

"Yeah but isn't the saying once you go-"

James interrupted her with a pointed look, "Tiny ears in the car aunt Taya."

Taya grinned and looked over at Peyton as he strapped her into the car seat in the back seat next to her. Once James was behind the wheel up front Taya tucked Peyton's shirt front back into her pants and said to her, "Don't worry kiddo, aunt Taya will teach you everything you need to know about life. All about boys, and mean kids in school but most importantly how to push your dad's buttons."

"She's already figured that one out." James muttered.

Jess grinned, "She driving you up the wall?"

"All day every day." James stated.

Jess, who saw through his smile and joking tone, reached out and patted his forearm as he backed out of the parking spot and started the drive home.

Once they got home and Taya immediately took Peyton and the dogs out into the backyard James busied himself in the kitchen making lunch. Jess leaned against the island counter and watched him for a few minutes before she asked him, her voice soft, "How are you?"

"I'm good." He told her, not turning away from what he was doing to look at her.

"Don't lie to me James." He did turn to look at her this time, and she was watching him with a pointed look.

He sighed, stopped what he was doing and told her, "I don't quite know the answer to that question right now."

"I don't know that you ever will." Jess said softly and he nodded his head.

James, ever the paragon of selflessness, asked her, "What about you? You're doing better?"

Jess nodded her head, "Yeah I'm okay now."

"You're sleeping better?" He asked her, and when her cheeks flushed he told her, "Sorry, I don't mean to pry."

"No, don't worry about it. I am sleeping a lot better now actually." She told him, watching as his head nodded slowly. She knew he wasn't going to say anything, so Jess said, "I miss her."

"Me too." James said quietly, and he was surprised when Jess leaned up and wrapped him into a tight hug. One that he reciprocated a little more hesitantly.

"Are we interrupting something?" Taya asked, she had Peyton balanced on her hip as she walked into the kitchen.

Jess and James pulled away from each other, and James, as he turned back to prepare their lunch said, "Not at all. What did you need?"

"We were wondering where we might find the stroller and dog leashes." Taya told him, bouncing Peyton on her hip, making her giggle and reach out to play with Taya's hair.

James' brow raised, "You're gonna walk two dogs and push a stroller?"

"Hey, I used to do this professionally." Taya stated and when his brow stayed cocked she rolled her eyes when Jess snickered and she explained to James, "I did a series of temp jobs over the last eight months. One of which was a dog walking job and the other was babysitting the world's ugliest child."

"Did you just call a child ugly?" Jess asked in amusement.

"I picked up dog shit for three months and that's all you got out of that conversation?" Taya fired back and James couldn't help but chuckle at the two of them.

When they both turned to look at him he smiled and told them, "Good to know some things never change."

Ignoring him and Jess Taya told him, "I just thought I could take her out of the house and give you some time without a needy tiny human you know."

"Stroller is in the garage next to the dog leashes which are on hooks by the door. But please put a hat on her, and some sunscreen!" James called out as Taya headed to the garage. He turned to Jess and asked, "Is this a terrible idea?"

"Probably." Jess joked, and he cracked a smile before she assured him, "Don't sweat it. Taya will be fine. She's like a multitasking queen."

James cringed when he heard Taya call out that she would be home soon. Jess laughed at him, and once they were fully alone she looked over at him and asked him again, firmly this time so he knew she wasn't going to let him off the hook as easily this time, "How are you... really?"

He sighed and admitted sheepishly, "Better than the last time you saw me."

Jess sent him a small smile and she told him, "We don't hold that against you James, we never would. Both Taya and I, we get it; that was a really rough day and for you that was a really rough day after a really rough couple months."

He nodded slowly and told her, "Still, I shouldn't have said anything that I said."

"I told you, do not apologize to us. You don't need to, we get it. You don't think that Taya and I were at each other's throats for weeks after Quinn died? Believe me, if anyone gets it, we do." Jess told him softly, reaching out to wrap her hand around his forearm and give it a gentle squeeze. When James nodded his head Jess told him, "Go lay down, have a nap. You look tired. I'll wake you up when Taya get's back and we'll do lunch then."

James didn't need to be told twice, he took the stairs two at a time but before he went down the hall to his room he made a stop in Peyton's room. He picked a few articles of clothing from their morning routine and put them away, before he adjusted a few things on the built in shelf next to the crib. He couldn't stop himself from picking up the framed photo on the shelf next to the stuffed Gnash and he smiled gently.

He couldn't remember the picture being taken, but one look at Peyton told him she couldn't have been more than five or six months old. Quinn was holding her on the wicker patio couch outside, smiling down at her, and James was sitting on the arm of the couch watching them both from a few feet away, not even realizing that his own smiling face had made it into the frame. It had been Quinn who had framed the picture, along with two other ones that were each on the shelf above and below; one of James sitting in the grass watching Peyton prop herself up with Stanley Cup, and another of Quinn, holding Peyton the day that they got her. James set the frame in his hand back down and reached up one shelf for the picture of Peyton and Quinn, pulling it down.

When his index finger brushed over something sticking out of the back of the frame he flipped it over and found the corner of a piece of paper sticking out. He pushed the three fasteners out of the way and pulled the velvet back piece off to find a small envelope inside. He pulled it out and set the frame in two pieces down on the shelf before he flipped the envelope over in his hand and stared at it.

Seeing Quinn's writing on the front nearly knocked the wind out of him.

July 1st. For P.

He wanted to open it. Every part of him did. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead he simply stared at her neat handwriting on the front and tried to remember if she had told him about this or not. Maybe she forgot. It hadn't been long after the date on the envelope that she had died. Maybe she forgot she even stuffed it in here. Then again, maybe she didn't forget, maybe she just didn't tell him.

There were a few things that since her death James had found around the house in spots that they didn't belong. Part of him wondered if she did that on purpose. Like it was her way of leaving him reminders that he would be fine without her around, at least he figured that would have been Quinn's reasoning.

The day of the funeral he had found a beginners cookbook stashed in with all of his suits and he had laughed so hard that he ended up crying on the floor of the closet for an hour and a half. She knew he would go looking for a suit for her funeral eventually, and it was like she was trying to make him laugh because she knew that at that point it would have been ages since he had laughed about anything.

Two days after arriving back in Nashville with Peyton and his mother after spending some time in Whitby James had found two packs of men's socks in the pantry behind the box of his breakfast cereal. He was notoriously bad for misplacing socks.

Just last week James had found a bottle of scotch on a shelf in the garage with a note on it that simply said 'Please don't drink it all at once.'

Of course these were all the things that made him laugh, and like always, there were things that had the opposite effect on him.

Like the first night he had been home after Quinn passed, and he had ended up taking Peyton to Walmart at three in the morning to buy sheets and pillows and blankets because he had washed the bedding four times and couldn't get the smell of Quinn out of them.

When he had spent two straight sleepless nights staring at the ceiling in the master bedroom before he finally moved into the guest room down the hall.

Or when he had gone into the master to grab a new watch and he had dropped it while he was trying to put it on and when he got down onto the floor to get it he found her slippers tucked underneath the bed and he had ended up spending hours locked up in his bedroom crying.

Leaving the frame on the shelf the way it was James held the envelope tight in one hand and headed down the hall to the guest bedroom, where he was staying. He still couldn't bring himself to sleep in the master, he wasn't sure he ever would be able to again.

He closed the door softly behind him, shut the curtains, and sat on the edge of the bed in the dark with the envelope in both hands before him. He sat, feeling the thick cardstock beneath the smooth envelope for a few minutes before he shoved the envelope into the nightstand. Maybe some day he would open it, or maybe he would keep it until Peyton was old enough to read it. He wasn't sure, he just didn't want to forget it was there.

He had woken up a few hours later, well into the evening, laying on the bed on top of the covers. When he pulled the door open he heard Peyton's laughter, accompanied by Taya's, so James quietly crept down the stairs to see what was going on. He stood just inside the entrance to the living room off of the kitchen and watched as Taya sat on the couch and lifted Peyton up and down, laughing with her as Jess would lean over and kiss Peyton's face when Taya brought her back down.

Jess caught James' eye and she smiled, telling him, "I didn't have the heart to wake you up, you were out cold when I went up there."

He nodded his head slowly and joined them in the living room, Peyton immediately reached for him so Taya dramatically dropped onto her side on the couch, pretending to toss Peyton at James. James reached out and grabbed her, but when she reached for his face he lifted her, stretching his arms out away from him and poked his tongue out at her. Jess and Taya let out laughs when Peyton stuck her own tongue out at him in response, mimicking him, with her tongue slightly to the left.

So he slowly drew her closer to him, and she reached out with her little arms for him, but she couldn't quiet reach so she started wiggling, trying to bounce up and down in his arms as if that might move her closer. Finally James plopped her onto his lap, and kept his arms in a circle around her, available in case she teetered over. Peyton pushed her hands into his chest and used that as stability to stand up on his upper thighs, and then James held onto her hands and held her up, laughing when she bent her knees and bounced up and down babbling away.

Taya stated, "She's got some sweet dance moves."

James grinned and Jess asked him curiously, "We were trying to see if she could walk yet. Has she?"

He shook his head, "She tried once about a month or so ago. She was up and like two seconds from taking that first step and then Snoop knocked into her and knocked her down. She cried for like an hour and hasn't tried again since."

Taya grinned as Snoop came running over upon hearing his name, and as she scratched behind his ears she asked him, "Did you knock your baby sister down? Did you? That's not very nice Mr."

His tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth as Taya continued to scratch behind his ears and James told her, "Wait until you see Nix with her."

"Is he worse?" Jess asked him curiously as she glanced over at Nixon, who was content with laying by the large living room windows instead of joining the excitement on the couch.

James shook his head and explained, "Snoop just wants to play with her. Nixon though, he's like... he just has to protect her. If she's playing on the floor and people come over he goes and lays in front of her."

Jess smiled gently, but before she could respond a Jeep went down the street and Nixon got up and went to the door, letting out a loud bark. James sighed, and when he jumped up and scratched at the front door James said, "Nix, no. Down."

He did as he was told but he trotted down the hall and disappeared and James knew exactly where he was headed. It was like that every time a Jeep went down the street, it was like Nixon had memorized the sound. James figured he would lay in front of the closed door down the hall all night now, and that even if James physically picked him up and put him in his dog bed upstairs in the guest room he would wake up to find him back down in front of that door.

"He do that often?" Jess asked him curiously.

Taya remained oblivious to the whole conversation, too busy petting, scratching and kissing Snoop. James glanced at her and smiled, before he nodded his head in a silent response to Jess' question. He turned his attention back to Peyton, who had now sat down on his lap again, she was inching her way closer to him, pushing against his chest, before she was almost face level with him. James grinned, and she jumped from fright, making everyone laugh.

He wrapped his arms around her and held her securely to him as he leaned forward and kissed her cheeks a few times before he told her, "I think you're crazy."

She shook her head vigorously while saying, "No no no no no."