| The continuing years of the Discovery Series storyline as the family gets ready for a big event. The family storyteller gathers up some photos and shares a perspective on the past. (including a "photo album" scrapbook) GSR/Yo!Bling/Etc. *Rated PG for Most Everyone. |
| LIKE IT WAS YESTERDAY |
| Jimmy & Emily |
| Any comments, suggestions or questions can be directed to the author. Thank you for taking the time to read and I hope you found something that you could enjoy. Disclaimer: I do not own anything in relation to C.S.I., Alliance Atlantic, CBS, William Petersen, Jorja Fox or any other characters contained herein... I just like playing with them now and then while stretching my writing muscles. And if you think there's any money to be gained by suing me, you're in for a horrible disappointment. |
| Check out All the Author's Works in Progress at FanFiction.net |
| Congratulations! You found the Easter Egg! |
| Never in a million years could I have imagined that winning a free portrait of my kids would change the course of my life forever. But that’s exactly what happened. A raffle ticket from a school carnival and an eager photographer looking for business; that’s how my life changed. It took me two weeks to schedule enough time between jobs and the kids’ school and appointments before I was able to finally get the kids over to the photographer’s studio. And when I got there, it was even worse. Being a single parent has a lot of disadvantages. The biggest one being that time is my constant enemy. On this particular day Micah was having a ball throwing his shoes and socks out the car window on the way over, Devon was in a huge snit because she wanted to wear the pink bow in her hair instead of the white one that went with her dress, and one of my jobs kept calling to get me to cover another shift, but my babysitter wasn’t bothering to return my phone calls. So, the very last thing I wanted to do was have their pictures taken by anyone, let alone some young hot shot photographer who was going try and get artsy so he could show off his vision and make my life a living hell with the children. By the time we got to the studio all I wanted to do was go home. I was just about to turn the key in the ignition and peel right out of the parking lot. It was at that moment Jimmy came out of the door with this huge smile on his face and a helium balloon for each of the kids, sinking any chance I had at getting away. We went into the studio and I was hooked. It wasn’t artsy or stuffy or even looked like any photography studio I had ever seen before. The whole thing reminded me of someone’s living room, someone with kids. And my kids loved it. Devon fell in love with Jimmy the moment he told her how much he liked her hair bow, and Micah was gone the moment he showed him the aquarium filled with fire-bellied tree frogs. When he started taking the pictures the kids laughed and giggled and smiled brighter than I could ever remember seeing before. When we were done, he gave the kids Lunchables and sat down with his camera behind the computer. He kept up the small talk with me as he continued to work on the computer and then he pointed to the screen behind his head. He said that he was biased, but he thought it was the best picture, and up there on the wall was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. There behind his head were my two children, brimming over with joy and happiness and smiling so brightly I almost started crying. And I must have looked like it, too, because he quickly stood up and handed me a box of tissues. Jimmy was so sweet, and he made sure there wasn’t another picture I liked better. Before we left, the kids each had a stuffed frog with his calling card tattooed to the belly, I had a proof for the photo in my hands, and he was sending me the portrait in the mail. After two weeks, I still only had that proof taped to my refrigerator. I was starting to think the whole thing was a bust when on my one and only day off every week, wearing my grungiest pair of jean shorts and a t-shirt I was pretty sure I had been wearing since high school, he showed up on my doorstep. Jimmy was wearing these god-awful khaki cargo shorts and a utility vest over a UCLA sweatshirt and he looked like he was about fifteen years old. He also smelled like he’d just stepped out of swamp. He was holding a brown paper wrapped box and apologizing profusely. Apparently the photo lab sent the pictures to his studio by mistake and he had been out of town on a photography excursion with his uncle. He was talking a mile a minute and the whole time I kept trying to figure out why in the hell he didn’t just call me when he got back. It wasn’t like I was a paying customer or anything. When I asked him why he was there, he stopped cold in his tracks and looked like all the blood had just drained out of his face. He stuttered for a while and I was sure he would spontaneously combust, but then Micah ran to Jimmy and wrapped himself around his leg, asking if he had any new frogs. Twenty minutes later, Micah was still glued to Jimmy’s side listening to him talk about the jungle and all the frogs and bugs he found on his trip, and Devon was on the other side doing the same thing. I fixed lunch and invited Jimmy to stay. The kids loved him, and his enthusiasm was incredible. He actually seemed to enjoy talking to them just as much as they enjoyed listening to him talk. After lunch I put Micah down for his nap, while Devon was busy showing Jimmy her paper flower garden in the hallway. I was finally able to rescue Jimmy and myself from the whole ordeal when the little girl next door came over to get Devon so they could play in her backyard. I thanked him for being so nice to the kids and he completely floored me. Jimmy said he was glad he got some time to hang out with us, because it gave him the chance to see what he was getting himself into. And then he asked me out on a date. This young guy, free to gallivant across the globe at a moment’s notice, wanted to go out with me. Considering the way I looked the two times I had seen him, I was convinced he must have been insane. And I told him as much. Jimmy just took my hand and he said that his family taught him to look for the deeper meaning in things and not to get hung up on the surface. He said that he looked into my eyes that day in the studio and he thought he could see forever. And he told me that he knew, without a doubt, I was the woman he was looking for. I was speechless. Completely and totally without words. He left me the pictures, which was way more than I was supposed to get for my prize, kissed my hand and said that I knew where to find him if I wanted to make his dreams come true. Right after he walked out my front door, I started laughing. I figured it had to be some kind of joke. This kid could not seriously be trying to date me. He was just one of those smooth young guys out to get another notch on the bedpost. And then the flowers started. Once a week, on my one day off, a new arrangement of flowers was delivered to my house. Every one had a short note on the back of one Jimmy’s business cards. Most of them had the same theme; he was still waiting. After two months of this I had taken all I was going to take. I got a girlfriend from work to take the kids for the afternoon and I drove right over to his studio to give him a piece of my mind. I found Jimmy with the kid from the flower shop as he was scribbling another note on a business card to stick in with the flowers. I cleared my throat and he looked up from his writing. The smile on his face melted all of my anger into a single puddle. He slipped the kid from the shop a twenty and sent him away without the flowers. Jimmy just stood there smiling at me until the door closed behind the kid. His smile actually brightened, and his eyes were practically beaming at me when he said, “I guess you finally found me.” We’ve been together ever since. My first marriage was a joke, but I got two great kids out of it. My marriage to Jimmy has been the single greatest source of strength in my life. And when I first looked into the eyes of our daughter Bridget, I could see forever, too. |