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This story is based on characters copyrighted by Warner Brothers and Shoot the Moon Productions. This story is meant for enjoyment purposes only and cannot be redistributed without permission from the author. I retain the rights to the plot, not the characters. No infringement is intended.
A/N: This is a short companion story to go with the story Hidden Betrayal in chapter three. Did you ever wonder what happened to the giant stuffed Panda that Lee left at Amanda’s Front door?
Poor Bear
There were a couple of loud thuds that came from upstairs followed by a blood-curdling scream. Amanda ran from the kitchen, Dotty came out of the garden, and Lee came from the laundry room to see what the commotion was all about.
Amanda called up the stairs “What is going on up there?”
They all ran upstairs together to see what had caused the ruckus. As they entered JJ’s bedroom, they saw Jamie on the floor with JJ standing on top of him. Philip was standing to the side pleasantly amused at his brother’s situation. Mattie was crying quietly in the corner.
“What happened here?” Lee yelled.
“Get her off of me!” screamed Jamie.
Lee picked JJ up and set her down on the bed while Amanda helped Jamie up off the floor.
“Now what is going on in here?” demanded their mother standing with her hands on her hips.
“JJ is attacking me again with her karate...or supposed karate kicks and she kicked me in the well...uh...where it really hurts in that area!” Jamie looked down at his sensitive area.
“You know if you didn’t show her your latest karate moves she wouldn’t do this!” Lee stated.
“Yeah but…” Jamie started to argue.
“You’re such a doofus!” observed Philip.
“Philip, don’t call your brother names!” Amanda and Lee both said together.
Dotty saw that things were now under control. “I’ll leave you to this,” she said, waving her hand and going back downstairs to finish her gardening. Amanda turned to JJ and scolded her saying “Jennifer Joy Stetson, we’ve talked about this before. You can’t attack your brothers! No karate until you are 6 years old and taking classes!”
The three-year-old looked at her mother and father with her brows furrowed and stated, “Jamie told me that I can’t go to the park with them!”
“JJ, that’s because they are going to meet their friends and they are big kids. You can’t go with them!” her father replied.
“Not fair!” JJ stomped out of the room.
“Mom, can we go now?” Philip asked. Amanda nodded and the two boys ran down the stairs and out of the house.
Lee then turned to Mattie who was still crying softly “What’s wrong, little Irish Princess?” He picked her up to cuddle the two-year-old in his arms.
The child whimpered and shuddered a cry and said “JJ mean...hurt Jamie!”
“Your brother will be ok, Mattie... He just ran out now to have fun,” her father assured her.
Mattie nodded and buried her head in her father’s neck and whimpered some more.
Lee shook his head and addressed Amanda. “What are we going to do? JJ wants to disable everyone and this one can’t handle the thought of someone hurting!”
Amanda smiled. “They are our children to a “T”! We really need to talk more to JJ about this karate thing.”
Amanda went to look for JJ as Lee followed with Mattie in his arms. She looked in the bathroom and then checked Dotty’s room. There she saw JJ under the bed with her feet were sticking out.
“Jennifer Joy, come out from under the bed this minute!” her mother demanded.
Slowly the little girl came out and faced her parents with a defiant look and her bottom lip pushed out.
“JJ, from now on if you keep attacking your brothers, you won’t get to watch TV after dinner,” promised Amanda.
“Can I attack Mattie?”
Mattie started to wail in her father’s arms and she clung to him tightly.
“NO!” Lee said sternly and then he sat down next to her on the bed. “Look how you are making your sister feel. She’s scared you will hurt her. You need to show her you love her and will take care of her.”
“I take care of her, Poppy! I won’t let bad things happen to her. I will kick the bad guys!”
“JJ, there are no bad guys in our house. We only have our family. We love each other and we don’t hurt each other. So there is no need to do karate,” Amanda stated. “Show your sister you love her and won’t hurt her.”
JJ went over to Mattie who still had her head buried in her father’s neck. “Mattie, I take care of you. Love you!” JJ patted Mattie’s back.
Mattie sniffed and asked “No hurt me?”
“No! I love you,” JJ declared.
Mattie hugged JJ and said “Come play wif me!”
“Another crisis averted!” Lee sighed. They left the girls and went back downstairs. “I thought girls were supposed to be quiet and gentle,” Lee said.
“Where did you get that idea?” his wife smirked.
“I just thought...girls were easier than boys!”
“I thought so too, but according to some of the moms at the park, girls seem to hold grudges more than boys. Boys tend to fight it out and then they’re good and move on,” Amanda stated.
“That sounds familiar...even with big girls!” Lee wiggled his eyebrows.
Amanda raised an eyebrow “Oh really?”
Lee flashed a dimpled grin and they went outside together to work on the garden with Dotty.
Meanwhile, JJ and Mattie were back to playing with their stuffed animals when JJ looked at the big Panda Bear in the corner of their room.
“Mattie, Poppy said everyone in our house is good! But I don’t like how Panda is watching us!”
Mattie stopped feeding her doll and looked over at the overstuffed bear. “Panda bad?” she asked.
“ Yes he bad. Him not our family...so I make sure he obeys us!..help me!”
JJ tried to pick up the giant Panda but was unable to. But with Mattie’s help they pushed it out of the room and into the hall at the top of the stairs. Mattie didn’t know what her sister was going to do. She was happy that JJ was playing with her and the Panda. Then all of a sudden JJ pushed the Panda down the stairs and went running down after it. At the fifth step from the bottom, she took a flying leap, screamed, and landed on top of the bear, hitting and biting it.
Mattie came sliding down the stairs on her bottom crying “No hurt bear!”
All three adults came running into the house and stopped in front of the Panda and the two girls.
“What happened now?” Amanda moaned.
“JJ, my Bomber Princess, and Little Explosion...what are you up to now?” Her father was surveying the scene, but his best spy observational skills were at a loss.
JJ was busily kicking and jumping on the Panda. Mattie was crying again. “JJ hurt bear...bear not bad!” she wailed.
JJ stopped and looked very proud. “I no like the way bear was watching us…Poppy said we love each other in family...but bear not family.”
Lee looked puzzled, Amanda exasperated, and Dotty amused.
“See, watch, I not hurt Mattie, only bear!” JJ quickly ran to the fifth step and demonstrated her flying squirrel maneuver onto the Panda.
“Amanda stifled a laugh, turned her head to the side so JJ couldn’t hear, and whispered to Lee “She looks like you when you leap on car hoods that are speeding away!”
Lee shook his head.
Dotty shook her head. “I don’t believe that child!” and went back outside.
Lee sighed, looking frustrated, and said, “I’ll try this again.”
Lee took JJ in his arms and Amanda picked up Mattie who again was crying softly and they all went and sat on the couch.
Lee began “Ok, JJ, first, no jumping off the stairs. You can hurt yourself!”
“Poppy, I jumped on bear. He is soft!”
Lee nodded his head. “Yes bear is soft but you can’t jump from the stairs, period! It’s not safe!”
JJ furrowed her brow and gave a pouty face. “No fun!”
“So you can’t jump from the stairs!! Understand? And leave the bear alone. You’re upsetting your sister. How about you go play in the treehouse while we work in the garden?”
“Yes, Poppy!”
Amanda added “If you keep jumping from the stairs or karate kicking ANYONE or ANYTHING in the house, then no TV with Poppy after dinner! You will go straight to bed. Understand, young lady?” Amanda gave her daughter a stern look.
“No TV?” Both JJ and her father gave Amanda a sad face.
“That’s right! Both of you!” Amanda tried to keep her face looking stern. “Now come on, let’s go outside. Mattie, you want to go play with JJ in the treehouse?”
Mattie replied “Yes, I go get babies.”
“Ok, Sweetheart!” Amanda gave Mattie a kiss before she went upstairs. “When you get your babies come outside with us.”
JJ, Amanda and Lee went to the backyard as Mattie went upstairs to retrieve her dolls.
After about 15 minutes, Amanda and Lee realized Mattie hadn’t joined them outside, so Lee went to see what was holding her up. What he saw touched his heart so much that he went back to get Amanda to show her. Silently they watched Mattie who was with the giant Panda, which was still on the floor by the stairs. She had gathered band-aids from the bathroom and was applying them randomly over the Panda Bear. The empty wrappers were littered all over the floor and a trail of the wrappers continued up the stairs also. She was quietly trying to soothe the stuffed animal by quietly saying over “Poor bear, nice bear...all better...JJ no hurt!”
Lee came over and scooped the child off the floor and into his arms.
“I love you, little princess! You have the heart of your mother,” Lee said as he looked lovingly at his wife who had tears in her eyes.
The End