Chapter Text
On May 9th, 2021, Jack Abbot’s life fell to shambles with just one sentence. Three words he would never be able to get rid of in his head: “It’s your wife.” It could have been worse. It could have been five words instead of three. It could have been, “It’s your wife and daughter.” But it wasn’t. Maria had only just dropped their one-year-old daughter off at daycare when a car ran a red light and struck her while she was crossing the road.
Now, she was just a cold body in the morgue, and Jack was a broken man, covered in his wife’s blood on the rooftop. Jack was here, and she was gone. He had coded her for over an hour. And that didn’t seem fair. He should’ve been dead long ago, not her. Not his love. Now his baby was without a mother, and Jack didn’t know how to raise a kid alone, let alone a daughter. Without Maria, he was lost, like a ship at sea with no stars to follow.
He was crumbling, looking out at the city that was so full of life. He could never go home again. Home was gone, home was dead. And he was contemplating climbing over the railing when Robby found him, a mess of snot and tears on the concrete. Robby, whose cheeks were stained with dried tears, placed a hand on his shoulder, and Jack fell into him, desperate and lost.
That night, Dana took his daughter home with her, and Jack went to Robby’s. He couldn’t go back to their house. Where he knew her soft, warm scent lingered, where her clothes lay strewn across their bedroom floor, where he last saw her breathing and full of life.
A week had passed when Jack finally shook free of the numbness that had captured him. He needed to man up and take care of his daughter now. She was the only thing that mattered; she was all he had left of her.
𓇢𓆸
Four years later, Jack had finally managed to build a stable life for himself and Josie. He’d moved to the night shift, so on days he worked, he could spend Josie’s mornings with her, not willing to waste any moments away from her if he could help it.
Brooke was his saving grace for the past two years; she’d checked every box on Jack’s list of requirements for the live-in nannying job he’d posted. She was kind, patient, good with children, fluent in sign language and had her CPR certifications. It didn’t hurt that Josie loved her the moment they met, either; she latched onto the twenty-two-year-old that first night and hadn’t let go since. It was good. Josie needed a female figure in her life to look up to.
Every shift, when Jack got home from work, he’d wake Josie, pack her lunch, make her breakfast, get her dressed and manage to not fall asleep while doing it. Mornings were for Jack and Josie. Brooke, slightly overworked between a toddler and university, always slept soundly in her room, despite Josie’s noisiness. Today was no different.
The weight of the night’s shift sat heavily upon Jack’s shoulders as he sat in the pulled into the driveway, it always did, but tonight had been a hard shift. A car crash involving a father and daughter had occurred a little past midnight, the daughter hadn’t made it, and Jack was left to console the broken father, his own heart breaking at the mere thought of losing Josie.
The sound of his alarm startled him, and he swiped it off clumsily. The clock on his phone stared up at him, 0715. Time to go wake the sleeping beauty, he thought, smiling. He clambered out of his truck, slinging his old backpack over his shoulder and digging in his pocket for the house key.
They still lived in the house that he and Maria had bought when they first moved to Pittsburgh; he couldn’t bring himself to sell it, knowing that this was the place Josie had shared all her memories with her mother, not that she remembered them. But Jack did, and he reminded Josie of the memories often, pointing out where they first felt her kick in her mommy’s belly, and where they sat snuggled on the couch when they found out they were having a girl.
Inside, he found the remnants of Josie and Brooke’s life while he was at work. Artwork scattered across the breakfast table—crayons and stickers along with it, princess dresses tossed over the back of the couch, and a plastic container on the kitchen counter, oatmeal raisin cookies stacked inside (Jack’s favourite), and a sticky note on top with Josie’s messy writing “for daddy, love Josie ❤︎”.
Jack’s heart warmed; he loved his daughter so much. After taking the quickest shower of his life and changing into an old army t-shirt and sweatpants, Jack opened Josie’s bedroom door and crept inside. The room was an explosion of pink and princesses, the walls were the same baby pink that Jack had painted all those years ago, books and toys were scattered across the floor and in the small bed in the corner of the room lay his own princess, sleeping soundly.
She lay on her stomach, one arm wrapped tightly around her pink stuffed bunny (what other colour would it be?), and a small patch of drool puddled on her pillow. Jack chuckled and crouched down next to her sleeping form, brushing his hand over her blonde, curl covered head. He leaned in, taking hold of her small hand and placing it on the base of his throat, “Good morning, sleeping beauty, time to wake up.”
The vibrations alone were enough to wake her. Josie’s face contorted in displeasure; she always despised waking up, much like her mother did. After a minute, her brown eyes blinked open, and little hands wrapped themselves around Jack’s neck. “Hi, Daddy. I missed you.” Her words were a bit jumbled; they always were when she didn’t have her cochlears attached.
Jack’s heart melted, and he pulled away to sign, “I missed you more, princess.”
After a few minutes of cuddling, Jack got her out of bed, attached her cochlear implants and moved into the kitchen for breakfast. While she ate her buttered toast, Jack packed her lunch bag and listened to her tales of what she and Brooke had gotten up to the previous night.
Jack smiled and listened to her stories fondly, looking down at his wrist to check the time. They were going to be late if they didn’t get moving. Jack clapped his hands and picked Josie up from her seat at the countertop, heading into her room to pick out an outfit. Josie picked out a pair of dark pink sparkly leggings, a light pink Strawberry Shortcake t-shirt, and, of course, her pink sparkly Sketchers. Jack snagged a bedazzled jean jacket for her on the way to the door, knowing she’d get cold at recess time.
Jack slung Josie’s Cinderella backpack over his shoulder and held Josie’s hand as he locked the front door. He buckled her into her car seat and queued up her Disney princess playlist. Rapunzel’s voice blasted through the speakers, Josie hummed along softly, as did Jack—but nobody else needed to know that.
𓇢𓆸
When Jack returned home from dropping Josie off at school, he found Brooke on the couch, sipping her morning coffee; a rerun of Grey’s Anatomy played on the TV. Jack took off his shoes and moved to the other end of the couch, collapsing in exhaustion. Brooke smiled at him, “Long night?”
Jack sighed, his hands over his eyes, “The longest.” Brooke nodded in understanding. She’d seen him at his worst before; this was nothing. In the past two years, she’d become more than just Josie’s nanny, she’d become family.
Jack sat up slightly to look at her, “Heard you had an exciting evening. Thanks for the cookies.”
Brooke smiled into her coffee, “Josie insisted we make them for you. I guess somehow she knew you were having a rough shift.”
They chatted for a while before silence came over the room. Brooke fidgeted with her now-empty coffee cup. Jack tilted his head and raised a brow, “You okay, B?”
Brooke sighed, “Uh, yeah. I just have to talk to you about something…” Jack nodded at her to continue.
As she spoke, his face fell slightly. Brooke would be leaving at the end of the month. She was offered an amazing internship in Boston and, of course, had to take it. It was a great opportunity, and Jack was truly happy for her. But God, Josie was going to be heartbroken. Suddenly, his not-so-great day got a whole lot worse. His mind flooded with problems. Who was going to take care of Josie while he was on shift? What was this change going to do to Josie’s life? What was Jack going to do without Brooke’s support?
The questions ran through his mind over and over. After a long chat, consisting mostly of reassuring Brooke that he would sort something else out for Josie’s care, Jack moved to his bedroom, sitting on the edge of his bed. He let out a breath and leaned down to remove his prosthetic, then pulled the covers over himself and fell asleep.
𓇢𓆸
When he woke, it was nearing four in the afternoon, which meant Josie had returned from school a little over half an hour ago. Through his closed door, he could hear the tv playing one of Josie’s Barbie movies. He lay there for a while, the morning's conversation with Brooke slipping back onto his mind. He’d decided he wouldn’t tell Josie for another couple of weeks, not until he had a solid plan of what to do.
Eventually, he pulled himself from his bed, reaching for his crutch. He clambered out of his room, nearly tripping on one of Josie’s dolls. Entering the living room, he saw that she and Brooke were snuggled up on the couch, wrapped in one of the many blankets Brooke had crocheted.
He moved toward the couch, and Brooke’s head tilted back to look at him. She tapped her ear and shook her head at him. Ah, hearing break. Josie must’ve had an over-noisy day at school then. Jack leaned over the back of the couch, planting a kiss on the top of Josie’s blonde curls. She gasped and spun around in her seat. “Daddy!” Jack laughed as she clumsily freed herself from the blanket and launched herself over the back of the couch into his chest. He nearly toppled over at the impact, but steadied himself on the couch.
For a while, she just stayed in Jack’s arms. Her small fingers tangled through the salt and pepper curls at the base of his own neck. Jack sighed in content as his little girl buried herself further into his chest. Eventually, Josie’s breathing changed, and Jack knew she’d fallen asleep. With Brooke’s help, he managed onto the couch—Josie still clinging to him like a koala bear. And that’s where he stayed until he had to get ready for his shift, Barbie playing in the background and glitter-covered hands in his hair. He wouldn’t change a thing if he could help it, but he knew better than most that all good things must come to an end.