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Jack paced back and forth as he rode the elevator up to Jo's penthouse. He had never dated someone with so much money and it scared him at first. However, Jo was so down to earth and so kind, that he often forgot how rich she was. Especially when she was running around the hospital as a resident when he saw her, or when they hung out at his place or the fire station/clinic.
She was also a resident and worked resident hours. While he was a firefighter and worked firefighter hours. So they always liked to spend the one day they both had free time together. However, this was the first time he was going to her penthouse to meet Jo's daughter, Luna. Although Jo had talked about her enough that he felt he knew Luna.
Jack paced the short length of the elevator. If things went well they would all spend the day together. He hoped things went well. He looked down at the little teddy bear he had gotten her. It was a medium-sized light brown bear with a red ribbon around its neck. He had considered the bear very carefully at the store. There were thousands of little things he could get her. He wanted her to have something from him when he first met her and he had said he settled on the simplicity of the teddy bear.
But it was stupid, Jack thought. She must have a dozen other teddy bears. He thought about hinging it to return later. Then the elevator dinged and he stood in the hallway in front of Jo's door. It was now or never and he'd rather bring her that teddy bear instead of showing up empty-handed.
He walked up to the door and rang the ring doorbell, as he fiddled with the bear's ribbon and waited. Then the door opened up and Jo's smiling face was before him as she held Luna on her hip. The blue-eyed blonde-haired little girl he had seen in so many pictures was before him.
‘Hi girls,’ Jack signed and smiled as naturally as he could.
“Hey, I’m glad you made it,” Jo greeted him, her voice full of her smile and his breathing a little easier.
‘Luna,’ Jo turned to her daughter as she touched her shirt, signing to her as well as she could. ‘This is Jack.’
Jo pointed at him and Luna followed her eyes and looked at him with uninterest, but she waved.
‘Hello, Luna,’ Jack signed to her. ‘It's nice to meet you. I brought this for you.’
Jack handed her the teddy bear and she took it with a smile.
‘Can you sign thank you?’ Jo prompted her daughter by signing thank you herself.
‘Thank you,’ Luna smiled as she ran her fingers along the bow. She smiled as she touched it and Jack breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Come on in,’ Jo signed ushering him into the penthouse. “We've just been playing a lot so it's a little bit of a mess sorry.’
‘Don't worry about it, You have a toddler. I don't expect your place to be clean,’ Jack signed to her looking around the room. It wasn’t that bad, just a few toys here and there.
Jo let out a breath of her own as they all went into the living room. ‘We were playing with Luna's fire truck and I was telling her that you’re a fighter fighter.’
Jo sat on the floor with Luna in her lap and Jack followed suit sitting on the floor acres from them. “You don’t have to do that, Jack. you can sit on the couch.”
“I don’t mind,” Jack said with a shrug.
Luna reached for the firetruck and signed to him. ‘I have a fire truck like you, Jack.’
‘That’s cool, does it light up?’ Jack signed to her as Luna nodded and pressed the button that made the sirens and the lights.
“I can't figure out how to turn the alarm off without also turning the lights off and she loves the lights, but the sound is getting to me a little bit,” Jo said with a shake of her head.
‘Can I see?’ Jack signed to Luna as she happily handed the toy over to him, pressing the button again as the lights lit up and the alarm went off.
Jack flipped it over and Luna immediately rushed to take the firetruck back as she signed. ‘No, no. Lights on. Mommy, Jack no turn off lights.’
‘No baby, he's trying to fix it for Mommy. It makes noise and it's too loud,’ Jo aligned to her although Luna looked at him suspiciously and didn't give the toy back to him.
‘Why don't we do something else then,’ Jack signed as he looked over at her fire truck. ‘Do you know how the ladder works? Can you show me?’
‘The firefighters go up the ladder to rescue people,’ Luna nodded and turned the dial on the ladder that made it go up and down.
‘Yes, I do that too,’ Jack signed to her as Luna smiled again. ‘But do you have a firefighter badge?’
Jack pulled the sticker out of his pocket and handed it to her. Luna looked at the sticker and smiled before she signed, ‘Thank you.’
Jack smiled and let out a breath as he looked over at Jo who seemed just as relieved.
Luna put the sticker on the fire truck before putting her fire truck away. She went back and grabbed her teddy bear before she went to her toy bin. She got some toy food from her kitchen and started to pretend to make something in the kitchen. She made a bowl of food, grabbed a few plates, and brought two of them.
‘For you,’ Luna signed to Jo as she gave her a plate and put some food on her plate.
‘Thank you’ Jo signed to her.
Luna went over to present him with the food. Jack pretended to wolf it down and made over-exaggerated eating noises and pretended to devour it, before placing the food back on the plates and rubbing his stomach.
‘It was very yummy,’ Jack said as Luna laughed back to the kitchen.
Jack laughed as he moved back to sit next to Jo who smiled and looked over at him taking his hands and giving it a squeeze. “I thought for sure she would hate me after the fire truck.”
Jo chuckled with a little smile as she looked over at him. “I think you're growing on her already. She usually likes people, especially people that will play with her.”
“Well that I’m always willing to do,” Jack said looking over at her and for a moment, he got lost in her eye.
Jack leaned in and tilted his lips, but Jo pulled away. “Maybe not in front of her just yet.”
She glanced back at Luna as Jack nodded. They both sat back and watched Luna play as she cooked in her kitchen and fed her new bear.
‘Hey, Luna,’ Jacks waved to get her attention. ‘Do you have any more food?’
They played together well for the rest of the afternoon. By the time naptime came around, Luna was trying to convince Jo to let her stay up as she didn't want to stop playing with Jack. Still, Jo insisted on a nap and left to put her down upstairs.
Jack was feeling easier about everything as he was convinced that Luna at least liked him now. He hoped that she could grow to love him. He was already head over heels for this little girl with blonde pigtails and big blue eyes.
“I can see why you fell in love with her,” Jack said as he saw Jo coming back downstairs.
“Yeah, she's just something else,” Jo said with a little smile on her face that betrayed the love she had for her daughter. “You picked up the toys.”
She gestured to the clean living room around her as Jack shrugged. “Yeah, I figured it'd be I'd help you out a bit.”
“Thank you,” Jo said, her voice full of genuine gratitude.
She had a little smile for him as she walked up to him. He wrapped his arms around her waist as she wrapped her arms around his neck and tilted her head as she finally kissed him. He melted into her lips with a moan as Jo kissed him back, her lips full of love. He pulled her body against his, but Jo paused and pulled back for a second.
“I feel like I got really lucky with you and….” Jo trailed off shaking her head and Jack could guess what her next words would have been.
She told him about her divorce and how he left her. Although she tried not to get caught up in it when they were together. He knew it was a secret fear of hers that he would break her heart and leave her. It’s partly why she waited so long to introduce him to her daughter. It was something he hoped could help settle in her as he displayed his loyalty to her.
“I just want to thank you for being so good to me and Luna,” Jo said, looking up at him with soft eyes.
“Of course,” Jack said with a little smile. He was so in love with Jo Wilson and her daughter that he was good to them without a second thought. He knew he could be good to her no matter what. Jo leaned in and kissed him again and Jack got lost in her lips.