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100fandomhellTitle: All Those Years Ago
Author: Apache Firecat
Rating: PG/K+
Fandom: Saved by the Bell (reboot)
Wordcount or Timestamp: 3,552
She walked the halls alone, though surrounded by the student body. Chatter buzzed all around her, but Jessie's mind wasn't there. She didn't actually hear anything that was being said, and if anyone did bother to speak to their guidance counselor, she didn't hear them and just kept walking. She hadn't felt this alone in a very long time, but she had been. She had been alone for years. She had been alone since she'd left Bayside that first time all those years ago, and it had only been in these very halls that she had ever felt, well, not alone.
Another memory was around every corner. There were so many things that made her smile and feel like laughing or crying throughout the halls, especially where the lockers were, in the principal's office, and in Mister Tuttle's office. She wondered where he was these days and what life had done to him. Life had changed them all so very much and, she couldn't help thinking, for the worse. She had been so full of energy and optimism when she had been younger, but life had worn down that girl who had always smiled and shone with enthusiasm no matter how much she'd hurt back then.
Of course, back then, in her high school days, Jessie had rarely felt alone and, when she had, it had never lasted for long. Her friends had always been there. These days, she rarely got a call or even a text message from Lisa or Kelly. She heard from Zack and Screech even less often. She did see Slater every day still, but it wasn't the same. Things could never be the same between them as they had been. They'd both moved on with their lives. They'd had to.
But had they really? she thought, glancing at his closed, office door as she passed by it. Had he really? He'd had so much going for him with his military father who'd had so many connections ripe for the using if he had so chosen, though she'd known he'd never been the military type, and his athletics. Well, she half-smiled, his sports. She'd always ragged about his sports, but she'd since seen how good and helpful they actually were. Maybe they didn't take a smart mind to accomplish -- although math did help with all the angles in basketball --, but they did take skill, strength, and agility.
They were also, in their own right, very useful for the right type of people, especially guys. She'd known many a child whose college studies had been paid for through sports scholarships, and she'd known many others, like her own precious Jamie, who had opened up and made friends because of school sports. No wonder Slater had come to love them, she thought, stopping and staring at a bench, the very bench around which she and her friends had gathered so often when they'd been younger. Like herself, when he'd first come to Bayside, he had not had any friends, but always having played school sports had helped him not only vent his anger and other bottled emotions but also to connect with other kids. He still had never known any real friends until he'd come here. And neither of them had made any genuine, lasting friendships since there high school days in this very establishment.
Slater had apologized to her for the way he'd treated her during their school years, but she had yet to apologize to him. She had given him, at times and in her own way, just a hard time as he had given her. She should never have tried to make him feel bad about something that had helped him to open up to other children, that had helped him, she was sure upon looking back, to feel some kind of normalcy and steadiness in his childhood and teenage years. As hard as things had been for her, at least her homelife had been steady, if a bit crazy at times what with her mother constantly being arrested for standing up for the things in which she'd believed and for which she'd taught Jessie to also risk her life, but it wasn't just the Environment and animal rights for which one's life was worth risking.
She heard the steady pitter-patter of a basketball bouncing and found herself slowly heading towards the gymnasium. She and Slater had spent some wonderful nights out on the court, not that she'd ever told anybody else, not even Kelly. She'd always ragged him about sports whenever he'd teased her about being too much of an Environmental, animal lover, or women's lib supporter, but that had not made it right. And, in all honesty, when it had just been the two of them, there had been times when the teasing had stopped. When the name calling had stopped. When she'd not felt the constant need to exert her strength as a woman with equal rights.
There had been a time when... when he had been gentle with her and she had been receptive and not tried to stay so strong against him... when she had been unable to see a future without him... when she had not cared so much about the world around her as the sweet, handsome boy with whom she'd been sharing it... with whom she still shared it. How had she ever gotten away from him? she thought as she came to a stop within the gym's open doors. A student filed pass her, but she barely noticed the boy. The halls behind her were emptying out, and most of the kids should already be gone. He'd undoubtedly been playing -- no, she corrected herself, training here in the gym for a little while longer after school. Perhaps a sports scholarship was the only hope the child had of actually reaching a good college, or even a college at all for that matter.
She didn't realize it, but she leaned against the hard, metal door frame as she watched Slater dribbling the ball. Had he been training the kid? she wondered, and as she watched him, she realized he truly had never moved on. He'd gone to a close college, all but insisting they break up so that she could continue to pursue her dreams. She could still remember what he had told her, how he had been so vehement that she could not simply place her dreams on a proverbial shelf for himself or any man. For all the teasing he'd given her over the years, he had actually, in the end, always supported her.
Which was far more than she could say for the man whose divorce papers she had signed today. That man had never been her friend. He had known so little about her and had not cared to know any more. He had not actually tried to be there for her or for their son. His ego had not allowed him to ever genuinely care for either of them. He'd always missed Jamie's birthdays unless she'd reminded him, and he'd very rarely remembered hers. Even when he had, he'd done nothing more than sending her flowers, often times, even, the few varieties to which she was allergic. Like the sandalwood he had once smoked all around their home.
Why had she fallen for him? He'd appeared to be everything she was, everything for which she'd been ridiculed all throughout her life, but he had done it all for looks and to make himself feel better about himself, not because he'd actually believed in or cared about the causes. Slater might have teased her, but he'd always supported her in the end. And he supported the children now. She was always watching him with the kids when no one was looking. She saw how much he cared though he had no children of his own. He somehow found ways to reach kids that no one else could.
it was often through sports, she thought, but not always. Was that why he had come back to Bayside? He had been making a career for himself at one point, and she'd heard a little something about an accident. He'd been released from the hospital that same day, so she hadn't worried for him too much. Watching him now as he darted across the court, no one could tell he had ever been hurt. But he had been very much hurt when he'd first come here to Bayside. His very soul inside of him had been crushed, pushed deep down inside of his psyche from whence he'd been too scared to let it out. Scared that people would make fun of him, that he'd never have a friends, that he'd never have a life beyond school and sports, or worse yet, that he'd become just like his father.
Yet his life had become school and sports, she thought. Why? Why had he not gone for more? Was it the kids? Was it in trying to reach the ones that no one else reached, like he himself had almost become? It had been no teacher who had reached him. Belding had tried, but what had really reached him was... Jessie's smiling lips suddenly twisted up into a smirk. It had been Zack Morris who had reached him first, she admitted, Zack who had reached him while they'd been fighting over the same girl, the girl Zack had ended up winning and even eventually marrying.
They had married while they'd been in college. There had been times when Jessie had been pursuing her own studies that she had missed Slater so much it had been almost a physical ache in her breast. She had been painfully jealous of Zack and Kelly and how their romance had grown as they'd gotten to go to the same school. A part of her had hoped to reconnect with Slater after she graduated, but that had not happened. She'd ended up going elsewhere, even going out of the country, in trying to save others' lives.
And what had become of her own in the interim? Here she was thinking about Slater and wondering why his life was still nothing more than school and sports, but what of her own? What had she done with her life? Sure, she'd saved species. She'd written books, won awards, and touched lives. She'd had a son of whom she was very, very proud even if he did actually suck at sports. But beyond that... She had no one to share with whom to share it, no one who cared enough, even through just a quick text, to ask how her day had been, no one to hold her at night.
For that matter, she had not been held as tenderly as A.C. Slater had held her since the very days here before. Her husband had never touched her the way Slater had been then. He'd never even touched her the way Slater had hugged her a few times since they'd been back here at the same school again. He'd never cared for her half as much as the man in front of her had. But that had all been when they'd been children. There were so many years between them now, so many lost years, so many emotions that should be dead, not still bubbling within her whenever she watched him like this or watched him with a child for whom no one else seemed to care or saw him give her that sweet, sweet, dimpled smile of his.
As he was now doing. Jessie blinked, realizing that Slater had been watching her for how long she didn't now. He was just standing before the net, dribbling the ball up and down in a steady motion. He winked at her now from across the small distance that still separated them, a distance that seemed far greater than it actually was. "Like what you see, Momma?"
He always sounded so confident, but she knew he didn't feel half as confident as he acted. Or, at least, he never truly had before. His facade of exuding confidence was not unlike the same facades she had deployed over the years. She had always acted like no one's disbelief in her or her causes could hurt her. She had always acted like her own husband's disinterest in her and their child had never harmed either of them. She had always exuded her own facade of false confidence, right down to how she had always pretended, as a dedicated student, to know the answers to their tests even when she had not at all been certain of herself or her constant A's.
She didn't miss a beat in answering him despite her reverie. "A pig in a hot suit? Sure." She crinkled her nose, which she remembered he'd always thought cute. He was cute. He was beyond cute. Although the years might not have been kind to him in finances or actual progression of his career or life, they had been very kind to his looks. Of course, she was certain that all his training in athletics didn't hurt. He worked out every day of the week, and it showed in his hard muscles, leaned body, and his dark, creamy skin that made her fully understand why the romance novels, such pitiful material that they were (not that she didn't have a whole box of Latino novellas hidden in an old shoebox underneath her bed), always described the hero as having bronzed skin. Slater's skin was bronze, and she remembered the feel of it very, very well.
"Think fast," Slater said, grinning, and threw the ball at her. Jessie actually caught it deftly in her hands. He cocked a dark eyebrow. "Mmm. Not bad."
It had been years since he'd last convinced her to play with him on this very court when no one else had been watching, when it had been so late at night that all the other students had been tucked away in their beds but he'd come to get away from his home life and she had come searching for him for no other reason than to spend time with him. She truly had loved him back in those days. Perhaps she loved him still a little now. Maybe she had never truly stopped loving him and all she had claimed to feel for her husband had also been a facade, a facade brought on by the fact that a single night's mistake had left her with a child who had needed and deserved a father.
She dribbled the ball and darted toward him. She sprang in front of him as he tried to defend, her stature granting her a few good inches on him. He tried to swat the ball away, but the basketball sailed between their hands as they collided. His fingers entwined with hers as he brought her arm down. The basketball dropped through the net and bounced away, momentarily forgotten as they gazed into each other's eyes.
"I've missed you, Momma," he whispered though they'd been working together for over a year now.
Jessie's heart pounded in her ears, far louder than any basketball. "I've missed you too, Poppa," she said and held onto his fingers with hers as he started to pull away. Their eyes were still locked, and in that moment, she wanted nothing more than to kiss him, than to feel his lips upon hers, to taste again the sweet, sultry taste of his Latin lips mingled with the salty goodness of the sweat he'd worked up.
They stepped closer to each other at the same time. Her heart pounded. The bouncing of the basketball made her think, in that sweet moment of near surrender, that his heart, too, was pounding, answering hers. Her lips started to part.
Suddenly he tore away. "When'd you learn to bounce like that?"
"You know when," she started.
"You weren't that good back then."
Betraying tears had leapt into her eyes, and Jessie turned away from him only to spy her son standing a few feet inside of the gym, not too far away from where they stood, from where they had just almost kissed... "Jamie! What are you doing here?"
"Hum, it is the school, Mom."
Jessie blushed and hoped frantically that neither guy noticed. "Yeah, but it's after hours. Shouldn't you be with your friends?"
"Coach Slater said he'd worked with me some more, so that maybe I can beat Aisha."
Jessie grinned. She liked that girl. She held her own against the boys and could certainly teach her son a thing or two. "Did he?" she asked, looking back at Slater who had fetched the ball and now gripped it hard between his hands.
"Yeah." He shot her that sweet, adorable, dimpled smile of his again, that same smile that had haunted so many of Jessie's dreams during all the years been apart and all the years before then that they'd been together too. Her eyes drifted to the spot just underneath the basketball net, and when she looked back to Slater, she could tell from the way his bronzed skin had turned a tad darker and his rich, dark eyes wouldn't quite meet hers that he knew the very moment of which she had just been reminiscing.
Maybe she did need to keep an eye on that Aisha girl after all, what with her and Jamie both liking basketball so much... She gave herself a hard, mental shake and looked back to Slater. "Thanks."
He frowned. "For what, Mo-- Doctor Spano?"
She couldn't even tell him she was divorced now, she thought, not without being blatant about it. But he would hear eventually. This school had never kept anything quiet for very long. He'd hear that she was single again eventually, and he'd do with that information as he chose. Of course, she could always ask him out, but not in front of her son and not so soon. It wouldn't be right. When they got back together this time, she wanted to make sure it wasn't just a rebound thing and that they did manage to stay together this time for the rest of their lives. She had, after all, never stopped loving him.
She shrugged. "For helping my son." But then she moved boldly forward and placed a quick, chaste peck on his dimpled cheek. "For everything," she whispered where only he could hear her and then walked away, actually feeling confident in the fact that she had worn her tightest jeans that day.
"Whoa!" she heard him exclaim behind her as she walked out the gymnasium. She called over her shoulder, "I'll have dinner ready by seven, Jamie."
Her son's eyes darted between the two. He'd noticed a definite difference in his mother with Coach Slater around. He'd seen a difference in her ever since they'd been here at Bayside, and he knew, too, how much his father had hurt her and that their divorce had finally finalized today.
"Think fast."
Jamie deftly caught the ball Slater threw him and began to dribble. He didn't like the thought of another man in his mother's life, another man who could hurt her and never deserve her, and what, really, did a coach have to offer her? He'd find a way to beat Slater's butt and then he'd beat Aisha's, but never again would he let a man hurt his momma.
A few minutes later, Jessie peeked back in at Slater and Jamie. They were caught up so fully in their game that neither noticed her watching them, and she just stood there, watching them both for several long minutes. Renee had never played with Jamie like that. He'd never taken an interest in their son, yet Slater took an interest not just in her child but, it seemed, all the children who attended the school. She beamed through her unshed tears as she watched them play. Maybe the years had not been kind to Slater in the way of finances or progression. Maybe they hadn't been kind to her in her love life or friendships. But her world was a lot better now that he was back in it again. Jamie's was improving too, and she liked to think Slater's was too.
Jamie scored a point as he dunked ball, and Jessie gulped as she realized, quite suddenly, that Slater was staring curiously at her. She just smiled at him, resisted the urge to blow him a kiss, and walked away. He'd hear soon enough that her divorce was final. It would be up to him rather or not he wanted to come after her, but she actually did have every confidence that he would come and their lives would be forever better when he did.
This time, as she passed through the long hallways, even though they were emptied, Jessie no longer felt alone. She felt... She felt loved, she realized, beaming happily, even though neither of them had said it again yet. She felt genuinely cared for and wanted. As she exited the school, she actually skipped down the stairs like she hadn't in years. Hugging herself, she admitted silently that her life was already far, far better than it had been in many long, lonely years.
The End
Author: Apache Firecat
Rating: PG/K+
Fandom: Saved by the Bell (reboot)
Wordcount or Timestamp: 3,552
She walked the halls alone, though surrounded by the student body. Chatter buzzed all around her, but Jessie's mind wasn't there. She didn't actually hear anything that was being said, and if anyone did bother to speak to their guidance counselor, she didn't hear them and just kept walking. She hadn't felt this alone in a very long time, but she had been. She had been alone for years. She had been alone since she'd left Bayside that first time all those years ago, and it had only been in these very halls that she had ever felt, well, not alone.
Another memory was around every corner. There were so many things that made her smile and feel like laughing or crying throughout the halls, especially where the lockers were, in the principal's office, and in Mister Tuttle's office. She wondered where he was these days and what life had done to him. Life had changed them all so very much and, she couldn't help thinking, for the worse. She had been so full of energy and optimism when she had been younger, but life had worn down that girl who had always smiled and shone with enthusiasm no matter how much she'd hurt back then.
Of course, back then, in her high school days, Jessie had rarely felt alone and, when she had, it had never lasted for long. Her friends had always been there. These days, she rarely got a call or even a text message from Lisa or Kelly. She heard from Zack and Screech even less often. She did see Slater every day still, but it wasn't the same. Things could never be the same between them as they had been. They'd both moved on with their lives. They'd had to.
But had they really? she thought, glancing at his closed, office door as she passed by it. Had he really? He'd had so much going for him with his military father who'd had so many connections ripe for the using if he had so chosen, though she'd known he'd never been the military type, and his athletics. Well, she half-smiled, his sports. She'd always ragged about his sports, but she'd since seen how good and helpful they actually were. Maybe they didn't take a smart mind to accomplish -- although math did help with all the angles in basketball --, but they did take skill, strength, and agility.
They were also, in their own right, very useful for the right type of people, especially guys. She'd known many a child whose college studies had been paid for through sports scholarships, and she'd known many others, like her own precious Jamie, who had opened up and made friends because of school sports. No wonder Slater had come to love them, she thought, stopping and staring at a bench, the very bench around which she and her friends had gathered so often when they'd been younger. Like herself, when he'd first come to Bayside, he had not had any friends, but always having played school sports had helped him not only vent his anger and other bottled emotions but also to connect with other kids. He still had never known any real friends until he'd come here. And neither of them had made any genuine, lasting friendships since there high school days in this very establishment.
Slater had apologized to her for the way he'd treated her during their school years, but she had yet to apologize to him. She had given him, at times and in her own way, just a hard time as he had given her. She should never have tried to make him feel bad about something that had helped him to open up to other children, that had helped him, she was sure upon looking back, to feel some kind of normalcy and steadiness in his childhood and teenage years. As hard as things had been for her, at least her homelife had been steady, if a bit crazy at times what with her mother constantly being arrested for standing up for the things in which she'd believed and for which she'd taught Jessie to also risk her life, but it wasn't just the Environment and animal rights for which one's life was worth risking.
She heard the steady pitter-patter of a basketball bouncing and found herself slowly heading towards the gymnasium. She and Slater had spent some wonderful nights out on the court, not that she'd ever told anybody else, not even Kelly. She'd always ragged him about sports whenever he'd teased her about being too much of an Environmental, animal lover, or women's lib supporter, but that had not made it right. And, in all honesty, when it had just been the two of them, there had been times when the teasing had stopped. When the name calling had stopped. When she'd not felt the constant need to exert her strength as a woman with equal rights.
There had been a time when... when he had been gentle with her and she had been receptive and not tried to stay so strong against him... when she had been unable to see a future without him... when she had not cared so much about the world around her as the sweet, handsome boy with whom she'd been sharing it... with whom she still shared it. How had she ever gotten away from him? she thought as she came to a stop within the gym's open doors. A student filed pass her, but she barely noticed the boy. The halls behind her were emptying out, and most of the kids should already be gone. He'd undoubtedly been playing -- no, she corrected herself, training here in the gym for a little while longer after school. Perhaps a sports scholarship was the only hope the child had of actually reaching a good college, or even a college at all for that matter.
She didn't realize it, but she leaned against the hard, metal door frame as she watched Slater dribbling the ball. Had he been training the kid? she wondered, and as she watched him, she realized he truly had never moved on. He'd gone to a close college, all but insisting they break up so that she could continue to pursue her dreams. She could still remember what he had told her, how he had been so vehement that she could not simply place her dreams on a proverbial shelf for himself or any man. For all the teasing he'd given her over the years, he had actually, in the end, always supported her.
Which was far more than she could say for the man whose divorce papers she had signed today. That man had never been her friend. He had known so little about her and had not cared to know any more. He had not actually tried to be there for her or for their son. His ego had not allowed him to ever genuinely care for either of them. He'd always missed Jamie's birthdays unless she'd reminded him, and he'd very rarely remembered hers. Even when he had, he'd done nothing more than sending her flowers, often times, even, the few varieties to which she was allergic. Like the sandalwood he had once smoked all around their home.
Why had she fallen for him? He'd appeared to be everything she was, everything for which she'd been ridiculed all throughout her life, but he had done it all for looks and to make himself feel better about himself, not because he'd actually believed in or cared about the causes. Slater might have teased her, but he'd always supported her in the end. And he supported the children now. She was always watching him with the kids when no one was looking. She saw how much he cared though he had no children of his own. He somehow found ways to reach kids that no one else could.
it was often through sports, she thought, but not always. Was that why he had come back to Bayside? He had been making a career for himself at one point, and she'd heard a little something about an accident. He'd been released from the hospital that same day, so she hadn't worried for him too much. Watching him now as he darted across the court, no one could tell he had ever been hurt. But he had been very much hurt when he'd first come here to Bayside. His very soul inside of him had been crushed, pushed deep down inside of his psyche from whence he'd been too scared to let it out. Scared that people would make fun of him, that he'd never have a friends, that he'd never have a life beyond school and sports, or worse yet, that he'd become just like his father.
Yet his life had become school and sports, she thought. Why? Why had he not gone for more? Was it the kids? Was it in trying to reach the ones that no one else reached, like he himself had almost become? It had been no teacher who had reached him. Belding had tried, but what had really reached him was... Jessie's smiling lips suddenly twisted up into a smirk. It had been Zack Morris who had reached him first, she admitted, Zack who had reached him while they'd been fighting over the same girl, the girl Zack had ended up winning and even eventually marrying.
They had married while they'd been in college. There had been times when Jessie had been pursuing her own studies that she had missed Slater so much it had been almost a physical ache in her breast. She had been painfully jealous of Zack and Kelly and how their romance had grown as they'd gotten to go to the same school. A part of her had hoped to reconnect with Slater after she graduated, but that had not happened. She'd ended up going elsewhere, even going out of the country, in trying to save others' lives.
And what had become of her own in the interim? Here she was thinking about Slater and wondering why his life was still nothing more than school and sports, but what of her own? What had she done with her life? Sure, she'd saved species. She'd written books, won awards, and touched lives. She'd had a son of whom she was very, very proud even if he did actually suck at sports. But beyond that... She had no one to share with whom to share it, no one who cared enough, even through just a quick text, to ask how her day had been, no one to hold her at night.
For that matter, she had not been held as tenderly as A.C. Slater had held her since the very days here before. Her husband had never touched her the way Slater had been then. He'd never even touched her the way Slater had hugged her a few times since they'd been back here at the same school again. He'd never cared for her half as much as the man in front of her had. But that had all been when they'd been children. There were so many years between them now, so many lost years, so many emotions that should be dead, not still bubbling within her whenever she watched him like this or watched him with a child for whom no one else seemed to care or saw him give her that sweet, sweet, dimpled smile of his.
As he was now doing. Jessie blinked, realizing that Slater had been watching her for how long she didn't now. He was just standing before the net, dribbling the ball up and down in a steady motion. He winked at her now from across the small distance that still separated them, a distance that seemed far greater than it actually was. "Like what you see, Momma?"
He always sounded so confident, but she knew he didn't feel half as confident as he acted. Or, at least, he never truly had before. His facade of exuding confidence was not unlike the same facades she had deployed over the years. She had always acted like no one's disbelief in her or her causes could hurt her. She had always acted like her own husband's disinterest in her and their child had never harmed either of them. She had always exuded her own facade of false confidence, right down to how she had always pretended, as a dedicated student, to know the answers to their tests even when she had not at all been certain of herself or her constant A's.
She didn't miss a beat in answering him despite her reverie. "A pig in a hot suit? Sure." She crinkled her nose, which she remembered he'd always thought cute. He was cute. He was beyond cute. Although the years might not have been kind to him in finances or actual progression of his career or life, they had been very kind to his looks. Of course, she was certain that all his training in athletics didn't hurt. He worked out every day of the week, and it showed in his hard muscles, leaned body, and his dark, creamy skin that made her fully understand why the romance novels, such pitiful material that they were (not that she didn't have a whole box of Latino novellas hidden in an old shoebox underneath her bed), always described the hero as having bronzed skin. Slater's skin was bronze, and she remembered the feel of it very, very well.
"Think fast," Slater said, grinning, and threw the ball at her. Jessie actually caught it deftly in her hands. He cocked a dark eyebrow. "Mmm. Not bad."
It had been years since he'd last convinced her to play with him on this very court when no one else had been watching, when it had been so late at night that all the other students had been tucked away in their beds but he'd come to get away from his home life and she had come searching for him for no other reason than to spend time with him. She truly had loved him back in those days. Perhaps she loved him still a little now. Maybe she had never truly stopped loving him and all she had claimed to feel for her husband had also been a facade, a facade brought on by the fact that a single night's mistake had left her with a child who had needed and deserved a father.
She dribbled the ball and darted toward him. She sprang in front of him as he tried to defend, her stature granting her a few good inches on him. He tried to swat the ball away, but the basketball sailed between their hands as they collided. His fingers entwined with hers as he brought her arm down. The basketball dropped through the net and bounced away, momentarily forgotten as they gazed into each other's eyes.
"I've missed you, Momma," he whispered though they'd been working together for over a year now.
Jessie's heart pounded in her ears, far louder than any basketball. "I've missed you too, Poppa," she said and held onto his fingers with hers as he started to pull away. Their eyes were still locked, and in that moment, she wanted nothing more than to kiss him, than to feel his lips upon hers, to taste again the sweet, sultry taste of his Latin lips mingled with the salty goodness of the sweat he'd worked up.
They stepped closer to each other at the same time. Her heart pounded. The bouncing of the basketball made her think, in that sweet moment of near surrender, that his heart, too, was pounding, answering hers. Her lips started to part.
Suddenly he tore away. "When'd you learn to bounce like that?"
"You know when," she started.
"You weren't that good back then."
Betraying tears had leapt into her eyes, and Jessie turned away from him only to spy her son standing a few feet inside of the gym, not too far away from where they stood, from where they had just almost kissed... "Jamie! What are you doing here?"
"Hum, it is the school, Mom."
Jessie blushed and hoped frantically that neither guy noticed. "Yeah, but it's after hours. Shouldn't you be with your friends?"
"Coach Slater said he'd worked with me some more, so that maybe I can beat Aisha."
Jessie grinned. She liked that girl. She held her own against the boys and could certainly teach her son a thing or two. "Did he?" she asked, looking back at Slater who had fetched the ball and now gripped it hard between his hands.
"Yeah." He shot her that sweet, adorable, dimpled smile of his again, that same smile that had haunted so many of Jessie's dreams during all the years been apart and all the years before then that they'd been together too. Her eyes drifted to the spot just underneath the basketball net, and when she looked back to Slater, she could tell from the way his bronzed skin had turned a tad darker and his rich, dark eyes wouldn't quite meet hers that he knew the very moment of which she had just been reminiscing.
Maybe she did need to keep an eye on that Aisha girl after all, what with her and Jamie both liking basketball so much... She gave herself a hard, mental shake and looked back to Slater. "Thanks."
He frowned. "For what, Mo-- Doctor Spano?"
She couldn't even tell him she was divorced now, she thought, not without being blatant about it. But he would hear eventually. This school had never kept anything quiet for very long. He'd hear that she was single again eventually, and he'd do with that information as he chose. Of course, she could always ask him out, but not in front of her son and not so soon. It wouldn't be right. When they got back together this time, she wanted to make sure it wasn't just a rebound thing and that they did manage to stay together this time for the rest of their lives. She had, after all, never stopped loving him.
She shrugged. "For helping my son." But then she moved boldly forward and placed a quick, chaste peck on his dimpled cheek. "For everything," she whispered where only he could hear her and then walked away, actually feeling confident in the fact that she had worn her tightest jeans that day.
"Whoa!" she heard him exclaim behind her as she walked out the gymnasium. She called over her shoulder, "I'll have dinner ready by seven, Jamie."
Her son's eyes darted between the two. He'd noticed a definite difference in his mother with Coach Slater around. He'd seen a difference in her ever since they'd been here at Bayside, and he knew, too, how much his father had hurt her and that their divorce had finally finalized today.
"Think fast."
Jamie deftly caught the ball Slater threw him and began to dribble. He didn't like the thought of another man in his mother's life, another man who could hurt her and never deserve her, and what, really, did a coach have to offer her? He'd find a way to beat Slater's butt and then he'd beat Aisha's, but never again would he let a man hurt his momma.
A few minutes later, Jessie peeked back in at Slater and Jamie. They were caught up so fully in their game that neither noticed her watching them, and she just stood there, watching them both for several long minutes. Renee had never played with Jamie like that. He'd never taken an interest in their son, yet Slater took an interest not just in her child but, it seemed, all the children who attended the school. She beamed through her unshed tears as she watched them play. Maybe the years had not been kind to Slater in the way of finances or progression. Maybe they hadn't been kind to her in her love life or friendships. But her world was a lot better now that he was back in it again. Jamie's was improving too, and she liked to think Slater's was too.
Jamie scored a point as he dunked ball, and Jessie gulped as she realized, quite suddenly, that Slater was staring curiously at her. She just smiled at him, resisted the urge to blow him a kiss, and walked away. He'd hear soon enough that her divorce was final. It would be up to him rather or not he wanted to come after her, but she actually did have every confidence that he would come and their lives would be forever better when he did.
This time, as she passed through the long hallways, even though they were emptied, Jessie no longer felt alone. She felt... She felt loved, she realized, beaming happily, even though neither of them had said it again yet. She felt genuinely cared for and wanted. As she exited the school, she actually skipped down the stairs like she hadn't in years. Hugging herself, she admitted silently that her life was already far, far better than it had been in many long, lonely years.
The End