"I Think I Owe You An Apology"

Ok.  So guess what?  I know I should finish that dinner night, the LONG NIGHT sequence, but I really fucking don't want to right now!  i know a few things that have to happen but... bleck.  i'm not into it at present, and i'm wayyy too fucking busy to be fucking around with things I'm not passionate about, that i'm not invested in, you know?

Instead, today, on this rainy ass thursday, i'd like to post something I'm reallllll fucking smitten with.  It will be a several-parter, and it is doodoodoodooloodoo flashback!

I like it alot.  I wonder if it would make a final cut if I were to compile all this into a book.  Hmm.  not sure.  But it would make it as a backstory flashback episode on LOST!!!!  so, think of it l.ike that and we're all good.  

This is Nolan.  sigh of sighs.  Plus we get to see some Jonah and baby Viola, which might give some readers the creeps since they already know what happens when she blossoms into womanhood (heeeheeehee, sinister laugh!).  But here, just like in the father's day one where he's her principal, Jonah is just a good man, a good dad, and completely unaware that one day he'll become his worst nightmare!

But this isn't really about jones, it is a Nolan storyline.

Enjoy, because, well, why the fuck not, right?  

Then, preview of coming attractions:  When I'm done with this Nolan thing in a few days i am going to get back to the 'present' by skipping over the dinner entirely (unless some burst of creative epiphany makes THE LONG NIGHT coalesce into something passable), and getting back to the business of Grey & Maggie-- who happen to be fan favorites :)

Ok.  happy reading folks!

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“I think I owe you an apology.”  Nolan sat down on the playground bench beside his brother, wearing a dazed sort of expression.

Jonah glanced at his watch and smiled.  “You aren’t all that late.  No need to apologize.”  He bounced the little girl on his knees and she giggled riotously.  He smiled at her, her little fingers gripping his thumbs and her little legs kicking excitedly.  

“More!”  She demanded, her grin bright and breathless.

Jonah crinkled his eyes at her before doing a quick scan of the playground beyond.  He took a moment to watch for two sets of red pigtails to run by before returning his attention to the toddler on his lap.  “More?!”  He asked, bouncing her lightly.

She crinkled her eyes right back and giggled with an emphatic nod.

“You asked for it.”  He warned with a smile.  Her eyes widened just a second before he split his knees apart and her bottom fell through.  She gasped at the suddenness of the trapdoor effect, throwing her head back for the full experience, but holding onto his thumbs for dear life. 

Jonah pulled her back up and returned his lap to neutral so she’d once again have a solid seat and they grinned at eachother some more.  “More.”  She said, looking purely delighted.

He chuckled and planted a kiss on her forehead.  “No more.  Not now.”

Predictably, she pouted mightily.  “Yes.”  She stated, then, as an afterthought “Peez?”

He kept his face stoic despite the urge to grin.  “Not right now.  Give kisses to Uncle Nolan.”  He leaned her sideways and she promptly let go of her grip on his fingers and clamored into her uncle’s lap.

Nolan helped her scramble automatically, with the ease that comes from years of practice with nieces and nephews, and wrapped her in a big bear hug.  But he maintained that half-here, half-somehwere-else expression even while kissing her little cheeks, tapping her nose, tickling her into a fit of giggles and then setting her on the ground infront of the bench.

She babbled to him in her semi-fluent version of the English language and Jonah watched with amusement as his brother pretended to follow her animated end of the conversation.  “Really?  You don’t say!”  Nolan engaged the girl.  She nodded and continued.  Jonah was able to lift a few familiar words and phrases from the steady stream of happy gabbing, but really only Viola knew what in hell she was talking about.

After a few moments of monologuing, punctuated here and there by Nolan’s politely interested interjections and complete with emphatic hand gestures on her part, the girl seemed to come to some kind of conclusion and looked at them both expectantly.

“That was a wonderful story.”  Jonah told her indulgently.  She tilted her head to the side and smiled at him. 

He spent the next few minutes getting her settled in the sandbox a few feet from the bench.  Once she seemed engaged with the possibilities inherent, he resumed his seat next to his brother and sighed happily.  It was a gorgeous summer day.  He was content.

“I really do.”  Nolan said vaguely, resuming the conversation he’d initiated upon arrival.

“You do what?  Owe me an apology?”  Jonah asked, glancing at him in time to see him nodding, his eyes far away, a peculiar smile on his lips.  Jonah chuckled.  What the hell was up?  “What for?”

Nolan smiled and looked down at his shoes.  “I thought you were a crazy romantic sap.”  He confessed.  “Honestly, I pretty much thought you were insane.”

Jonah’s eyebrows crinkled and he directed his head toward where one of the twins was calling for him to ‘Watch This Daddy!’.   He gave a little wave and a nod to let her know he was an attentive audience member.  “To which instance are we referring here?”  He asked his brother pleasantly.

Vienna slid down the tallest slide with her arms in the air, landed, did a somersault, stood, and threw her arms up once more in a ‘tad-da’ moment.  Jonah clapped appreciatively and gave her a thumbs-up.  She ran off to another piece of playground equipment with a pleased-as-punch smile.

“When you fell for Velvet.”

Christ.  Jonah laughed.  “You’ve been holding your tongue on that all this time?”  He asked as he observed Viola dump a bucket of sand out with a satisfied air of accomplishment.

Nolan sighed.  “That sort of stuff is just in movies, you know?  Just a fairytale.  It doesn’t happen to regular people, in real life.”

Jonah’s brows relaxed and a smile spread very slowly across his lips.  He counted his youngest children once more, quickly—yes, one, two, and the sandbox makes three—and then, as slow as the smile, turned to examine his brother.

“You wouldn’t mean ‘love at first sight’, by any chance, would you Nolan?”

Jonah watched his brother’s face, a mixture of rapture and bewilderment.  The guy was transported.  Jonah grinned and reminded himself that it would be smug of him to point a finger and say ‘I told you so!’

“I’ve never felt anything like this before in my life.”  Nolan confessed, sounding both elated and terrified, if that is possible.

Jonah smothered his knowing grin just before his brother’s stormy blue-gray eyes turned to him, full of earnest concern, and still fairly spell-bound.  Jonah couldn’t help the giddy swelling in his chest.  He was a romantic sap, afterall.  A sentimental fool.  And it was about goddamn time this happened to Nolan.

Not that his brother hadn’t had fine relationships.  He had.  Nolan was a great guy and he had a knack for dating great girls. All the women Nolan saw for long periods of time were friendly, smart, good-natured, lovely people.  They were always great to Jonah’s kids, made friends with the family, and treated Nolan well.  But Jonah had yet to see his brother fall head over heels.  Oh, he didn’t doubt Nolan cared deeply for the women he saw; Nolan wasn’t really the kind of guy who sought casual sex much.  But while the guy may have loved many of his partners, he never seemed to really fall in love with anyone.

Now it had happened in, what?  The space of an afternoon?

“I think I just met the woman I’m going to marry.”  He said, wide-eyed and almost startled at the words as they escaped his lips.

Jonah adjusted his glasses, crossed his legs and leaned back on the bench.  The two smiled at eachother like hopeless idiots for a full minute, not saying anything, just grinning.

“Well, let’s hear about it.”  Jonah laughed and clapped his brother’s shoulder affectionately.