Chapter Text
Jane was curled up on her couch with a blanket pulled over the lower half of her body and a copy of Because Of Winn-Dixie in her lap. She licked her finger to turn the page when she heard the heavy footsteps of her husband Matthew pacing down the hallway towards the living room where she currently was.
Jane looked up at her husband as he moved around the couch to look at her. Matthew’s dark brown curls looked messy and disheveled and his typically friendly green eyes were tired and droopy.
“Jane,” Matthew drawled, flopping down onto the couch cushion by her feet,”can you please put the girls to bed. They aren’t listening to me.”
Jane snorted and folded the corner of her page over, rubbing her thumb along the fold to seal it before shutting her book.
“Were they really giving you that much trouble?” she asked, tossing her blanket onto her husband's lap.
Matthew turned his head to look at her, his lips pressed into a thin line. “I need a drink. I’m so tired.”
“We might have something in the fridge. I can check when I get back from handling the gremlins,” Jane told him.
“No. Don’t,” Matthew groaned, pushing himself off the couch. “I can get it myself honey.”
“Alright,” Jane said.
She walked down the hall to the bedroom where her two daughters, Kali and Max, were jumping on their beds and cackling like witches. Max had Matthew’s dark brown hair and curls and Jane’s eyes, while Kali had her mothers wavy light brown hair and her fathers bright green irises. Max lifted one of her bright red pillows off her bed and thrust it across the room at her twin sister. The pillow hit Kali in the stomach and she let out a disgruntled squeak of surprise.
“I’m going to get you for that, Maxy!” Kali threatened, picking up one of her own pale yellow floral pillows and throwing it at her sister.
Unlike Max’s pillow, Kali’s pillow didn’t fly very far. It hit the edge of Max’s mattress and flopped pathetically onto the floor. Kali stomped her foot in frustration and snatched up another pillow to try to hit Max again.
“You missed!” Max laughed, sticking her small pink tongue out at her sister.
“Hey! Stop teasing me!” Kali complained.
Jane cleared her throat loudly from her position in the doorway and both the girls' heads snapped over to look at their mother.
“Hi mommy,” Max said innocently.
Kali attempted to hide the pillow she’d been preparing to throw at Max behind her back but it didn’t work very well due to the fact that she was very small.
“Your father told me you were giving him a rough time,” Jane told them, walking to the room and making herself comfortable on one of the wooden chairs the girls had at their coloring table.
“No mommy. We didn’t,” Kali lied, setting her pillow down and bringing her legs up under her.
The little girl bounced a few times on her mattress before steadying herself using her sheets. Jane shook her head, a smile spreading over her lips.
“Girls, you have to go to bed. We’re going to visit Auntie Lizzy for Cousin Noah’s birthday party and we have to leave early,” Jane reminded her daughters.
“Oh, right,” Max exclaimed excitedly. “Will Cousin Jack be there?”
“Maybe. You’ll find out tomorrow,” Jane said, giving her daughter a small shrug.
“Mommy, can you tell us a bedtime story?” Kali asked, picking up her stuffed teddy bear and sitting it in her lap.
Jane thought to herself for a moment. What would she even tell her children about? She needed to come up with more bedtime stories or buy her girls some new books for her to read to them. She tapped her finger on her knee for a few seconds before it came to her; the perfect story.
“Ok. I’ll tell you a story,” Jane agreed. “This story is called, The Story Of The Mage.”
Kali’s eyes glittered excitedly while Max looked a bit confused.
“Mommy, what's a mage?” Max questioned, reaching over the side of her bed and picking up her favorite stuffed rabbit, Mr. Nibbles off the floor.
“A mage is someone with magical powers,” Jane explained.
“Cool!”
Jane chuckled and smiled at her daughter. “The story begins in a far off town, one just like ours. It seems normal but what the townspeople don’t know is that there is a place on the outskirts of the town experimenting on mages.”
Max gasped and her emerald eyes widened slightly. Kali tightened her grip on her teddy bear.
“There were evil people at the lab that were testing the mages powers and trying to use them for bad things. But there was one Mage, who found a way to escape,” Jane continued. “She ran into the woods outside the bad place and bumped into a group of strangers. They were a trio of explorers, the Bard, the Knight and the Paladin. The Mage didn’t trust the group at first because of her time in the bad place, but they all turned out to be very kind people, especially the Paladin.”
“What was he like Mommy?” Kali asked curiously.
“He was kind, funny, loyal and a little strange, but the Mage didn’t mind it. The Bard and the Knight took a little longer to warm up to her but eventually they all became great friends. The group told the Mage that the night they found her, they had been searching for their friend, the wizard Will the Wise, who had been taken by a bad monster,” Jane added, smiling subtly as her daughters' mouths dropped open slightly.
“What kind of monster?” Max shivered.
“A big scary monster, with lots of teeth!” Jane exclaimed, lifting her hands and arching her fingers into claws.
Max let out a yelp of alarm and hid behind Mr. Nibbles.
“The Mage helped the group save Will the Wise from the monsters and then, she became friends with him too,” Jane said. “Eventually, they added one more member to their party, the Zoomer. She was very courageous, smart and brave. Together the party defeated the evil monsters for good. During this period, the Paladin and the Mage fell in love.”
“They did?” Kali asked, her eyebrows perking up.
“Yes they did,” Jane confirmed, laughing at her daughter's sudden burst of excitement.
“Did they get their happily ever after? I wanna know!” Max demanded, crawling to the edge of her bed with Mr. Nibbles to stare down her mother.
Jane shook her head and her daughter's face fell. “No, they didn’t.”
“Aww but why!” Max complained.
“The bad people from the lab were after the Mage, so she had to run away to a place where they couldn’t find her. The Paladin didn’t want her to go, but she thought it was for the best. That way the Paladin could live a normal life again, out of danger from the people after her,” Jane told Max.
“He must’ve really loved her Mommy,” Kali said. “I would be mad if I loved someone and they left me.”
Jane sighed and her face twisted slightly as she thought about her Paladin. The way his eyes used to sparkle when he looked at her and the kindness he had shown her when they had met. He had made her feel safe. They had loved each other, but alas, some people come into others lives for a reason and when they've accomplished their purpose, its time to move on. She hadn't thought their parting time would come as soon as it did, but she would always cherish the time they'd spent together.
“He did love her a lot," Jane said quietly.
“Mommy are you ok?” Max asked, reaching forward and putting her tiny hand on top of Janes. “You look sad.”
“I’m ok baby,” Jane assured her daughter, speaking up a bit.
She took Max’s hand in her own and rubbed her thumb over her daughter's red knuckles.
“What happened to the Mage after she left her friends? Did she get a happily ever after?” Kali asked.
Jane nodded and smiled. “She did. When she left her friends, she settled down and found a new lover. He wasn’t exactly like her Paladin, but he was similar. Just like the Paladin, he was kind and told the silliest jokes. The Mage felt happy with him, but she still thought of the Paladin fondly. She had a family with her new lover and lived happily ever after with them.”
“Thats good,” Kali commented, leaning back and placing her head on top of her pillow.
“Mommy, the Mage is really cool. Do you think I could be like her one day?” Max questioned, kicking her legs excitedly.
“I bet you could. Everyone can be brave,” Jane replied, getting up from her chair. “Ok, I told you a story so you know what time it is!”
Max and Kali let out a unified annoyed groan and Max reluctantly began to crawl back to the other side of her bed so she could make herself comfortable on her pillow. Jane went to Kali first and pulled her daughter's blankets up to her chin. She tucked the blanket in around Kali’s little body and pressed a warm kiss to her forehead.
Then, Jane went over to Max and repeated the process, kissing her cheek and ruffling her hair. Jane moved to the door and flicked the light switch on the wall, making the room go pitch black. Jane twisted the doorknob and opened the bedroom door so she could leave.
“Good night girls, sweet dreams,” Jane murmured.
“Good night Mommy!” Max called back.
“Night night Mommy. Tell Daddy I said good night to him too!” Kali exclaimed.
“I will. I love you both so much and I’ll see you in the morning,” Jane promised, stepping out of the room and gently pulling the door shut behind her.
It closed with a soft click and Jane made her way back to the living room. Matthew had made himself comfortable on the couch with his feet propped up on one of the cushions. He had a bottle of Heineken in his hand and an episode of The Wire playing on their TV.
“Hey honey,” Matthew said, tilting his head at the cushion next to him.
Jane sat next to him on the couch and pressed herself against his side. Matthew snaked his arm under hers and slung it comfortably over her waist. He offered her the bottle of beer but she shook her head.
“I’m ok, but thank you.”
Matthew shrugged and brought the bottle to his lips. He tilted his head back and let some of the golden bubbly liquid cascade down his throat.
“How were you able to get them to sleep that quickly?” Matthew asked.
“I told them a bedtime story,” Jane answered simply.
“You’ve always been good at entertaining them,” Matthew commented, turning his gaze back to the TV.
“Children have wild imaginations. You can capture their attention with anything if you make it interesting enough,” Jane told him, resting her palm against the back of his hand.
Matthew turned and pecked the top of Jane’s head. “I bet.”
Jane snuggled closer to her husband and glued her eyes to the TV. She could feel Matthew’s chest rising and falling peacefully under her cheek. Eventually, her eyelids began to droop and she blinked them open to keep watching TV. After a few more minutes of trying to pay attention to the show and failing, Jane allowed herself to succumb to the cloud of sleep hovering over her and dozed off in her husband's arms.
That night, she had dreams of Hawkins Indiana and the moments she’d spent forever ago with her beloved Paladin.