Emily gasped as she woke, pushing herself upright to remind herself that she was okay. She jumped at the small form in the doorway.
“Are you okay, Miss Em’ly?”
Emily sighed. It was just Jack. “I’m fine,” she answered, trying to inject warmth into her voice. She pushed herself out of bed, padding over to him and crouching to his level. “What are you doing up?”
Jack hugged his stuffed hippo tighter. “I hada bad dream,” he answered shyly. “I was going to see Daddy, but then you were making funny noises like Daddy makes when he has a bad dream.”
Emily smiled at Jack’s perceptiveness. Then she had an idea. “You had a bad dream, and I had a bad dream… I think that calls for a story, don’t you?”
Jack tilted his head in confusion.
“My dad used to read me stories when I had a bad dream so I had something else to think about. The bad dreams would go away.”
Jack seemed to consider the plausibility of what she was saying for a moment, nodding slowly. “Okay.” He held out his hand and Emily took it as they tiptoed quietly back to Jack’s room. Jack bounded into bed, hunkering down into his pillows and blankets. Emily closed the door and flicked on the bedside lamp so she could go digging through his bag for a book. Eventually, she settled beside him, book in hand.
“Miss Em’ly?” Jack asked in a small voice before she could start reading.
Emily looked down at him. “Yes, Jack?”
“Can you tell me a story instead?”
Emily thought about it for a moment before she had an idea. “Okay. Ready?”
Nodding enthusiastically, Jack curled up against her thigh. Emily’s hand absently went to his head, stroking through his hair. “Once upon a time, there was a brave prince named Jack.”
“That’s my name,” Jack giggled.
Emily grinned, wedging her fingers into the juncture between his neck and shoulder and tickling just a bit. “It is,” she agreed. “And this Prince Jack was the best monster fighter in all of the land.”
“I don’t fight monsters,” Jack said.
“In the story world you can do whatever you want,” she told him honestly.
“So I can fight monsters? Just like Daddy?”
Ah, she knew she’d been on something by adding that into her tale. “Just like Daddy,” she agreed. “Can I keep going?”
Jack let out a huge yawn. “Yup.”
“One day, one of the outlying kingdoms sent a message to Prince Jack, asking him to come and defend them from a vicious monster that was kidnapping all of the Mommies in his land…”
Aaron was surprised when the house was quiet the next morning. Jack was an early riser, as all small children were, but it was well past eight in the morning and Jack was nowhere to be found. He rose and stretched, wincing when his entire body popped and headed for Jack’s room, only to be shocked about what he found there. Instead of little Jack curled up in his bed, Emily was there, fast asleep, curled under Jack’s dinosaur comforter. Jack was playing quietly on the floor with a few of his figurines from his shelves.
“Morning, Big Guy,” Aaron greeted softly.
“Shh,” Jack said, even as he stood to give one of his father’s legs a hug. “Miss Em’ly is sleeping.”
“I can see that. Why isn’t she sleeping in her room?”
“She had a bad dream,” Jack answered with all of the seriousness of his six years. “I heard her making the bad noises.
Aaron bent down to lift his son into his arms. “And why were you up?”
“I had a bad dream too,” the little boy replied, making a triceratops wander up his father’s shoulder. “Miss Em’ly said that stories always made her feel better so she told me a story.”
“And you fell asleep.”
Jack nodded brightly. “And didn’t have anymore bad dreams!”
Aaron mirrored his son’s nod, though a little more tempered than the six-year-old exuberance. “Let’s go downstairs, huh? Let Emily sleep.”
“But what if she has another bad dream? Bad dreams are scary.”
It didn’t seem they had to worry as Emily started to stir. Her eyes opened and took in her surroundings, finally landing on father and son. He watched the tension leak out of her. “I was worried he’d gone.”
He enjoyed Emily first thing in the morning. No walls, no pretenses of perfection, no guarded distance. “Jack knows not to leave,” he replied, putting his wiggling son down.
Jack hopped up on the bed, flopping on his stomach right against Emily’s side. “Know what I dreamed about?”
“Dreamt,” she corrected absently, her fingers sliding once through his hair. “And what?”
“That I was a monster-fighter, just like in the story. I didn’t have any bad dreams a’cause I could fight off the monsters.”
Emily smiled, curling her arm under the pillow under her head. “Really.”
Jack nodded. “Did you have a bad dream again, Miss Em’ly?”
“How could I, with such a good monster-fighter close by?”
Jack positively beamed. “Hear that Daddy? I’m a good monster-fighter!” The he was off, bounding down the stairs as best he could while Emily finally pushed herself into a sitting position.
Aaron regarded her carefully. When he’d found Jack playing quietly in his room, so protective of a woman he’d just met and a woman Aaron cared about so deeply “ there was no point in denying it now “ he’d felt his heart leap. He’d felt a little bit like a terrible father as Emily goofed around with Jack the night before, but Emily reminded him that she was new, something Jack knew nothing about. It was probably just natural curiosity. And she was nice.
“You okay?”
Emily shrugged, understanding the things he didn’t ask. “He had a bad dream, I had a bad dream, so we figured we’d have bad dreams together,” she explained, rolling her shoulders.
“And now he’s a monster-fighter.”
Her grin was unrepentant. “My dad used to tell me stories when I had nightmares. Well, read me stories, but Jack wanted one he hadn’t heard before. Who am I to deny a child?” His body language spoke of confusion and insecurity. “If it makes you feel any better, he was on his way to see you.”
That did make him feel better. Jack was his son and though he was glad there wasn’t any animosity between his son and Emily, he was Jack’s parent. “But he came to you.”
She sighed. “He said I was making bad dream noises,” she offered in embarrassed explanation. “Or he would have come to you.”
He moved into the room, sitting beside her. “This is just weird.”
“You’re telling me,” she shot back. “I know I’m good with kids, I babysat “ or whatever the equivalent is at political functions “ enough of them in my day, but I’ve never had one take to me so fast. Or be so endlessly understanding.”
“Did you tell him about-“
“No,” Emily shook her head. “He’s happy enough being a monster-fighter, he doesn’t need to know that real people get attacked by them. To him, monsters attack strangers, never him, never his family. Who am I to destroy that?”
Aaron looked at her then, a wave of something passing between them. The air was charged and Aaron knew, that if he leaned over right then, she wouldn’t back away from his advances. He held in the urge. “JJ’s right,” he said after a minute.
“Oh?”
“You’ll make a fantastic mother.”
She chuckled, the sound only slightly self deprecating. “That would require a man first and the job doesn’t exactly allow for that kind of relationship.” The fact that she was in love with him didn’t help much either, but he didn’t need to know that.
He laughed, a low rumble, and stood, pulling her up by her hand and then into his arms. Emily forced herself to relax at the uncharacteristic display and hugged him back. “It’ll come,” he told her as encouraging as he could.
“Daddy!” Jack’s voice floated up from downstairs.
Aaron pulled away, telling himself he was imagining her reluctance to break the contact too. “Yes, Jack?”
“Can we have pancakes for breakfast?”
Emily laughed as she followed him out of the room and down the stairs. Jack was standing at the bottom, looking up with pleading eyes. Heavens to Betsy, Emily was positive that child could get whatever he wanted with those eyes.
Aaron ruffled his son’s hair as he passed. It was good to have some routine back. Whenever he was home, they had pancakes for breakfast, especially if it was Saturday morning. “Of course we can have pancakes,” he agreed, leading the way to the kitchen.
“And Miss Em’ly can help?”
Where he’d gotten the ‘Miss’ to tack onto her name Emily wouldn’t understand. She hadn’t introduced herself as such, but it was cute in his little ‘Jack way’. At the question, however, she back-pedaled. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She almost died at the full pout the child sent her way.
“Why not?” Jack asked.
“I’m really not good in the kitchen, Jack,” she said, her voice holding a note of pleading. “Really. And too many cooks spoil the soup.”
“Huh?” Jack asked.
Emily smiled patiently. “If there’s too many people, there isn’t enough room to move around and do everything. Something always gets ruined.”
“But you won’t ruin anything!” Jack protested. Miss Emily, like Daddy, was perfect, even if she did have bad dreams. She had to be, she was a grown-up.
Aaron hoisted his son into the air, carrying him the rest of the way to the kitchen. “How be Emily pitches in when she can?” he suggested. “You know how to make pancakes better than she does, so maybe you can show her how.”
Jack considered this for a moment before nodding. “Okay.”