#I’ve also never drawn bob and alicia so this was new

[zimbits-my-love]

I wish I could draw like you can!! You should doodle Jack bob and Alicia hugging at jacks graduation. Maybe all of them are crying a lil bit cuz they never thought they’d get here!?

thank you!! It means so much to me that people like my art 🧡

also this is hitting me right in the feels 😭

I tried!!

[nuggetpie]

Since I have the flu I have plenty of time to work on this fic

I’m hoping that by posting the first bit maybe some feedback might really get me going to work on it and finish? It’s a two part  memory loss kid fic (first from Jack’s pov, 2nd from Bitty’s) and so far I have ~1500 of part one and ~2300 of part 2. I do have some personal experience with concussions and brain injuries but the only formal studying i’ve done on brains is neuro/psycholinguistics which has no base here. There are a LOT of liberties I am taking and will continue to take :x Also this is like...... not even proofread, let alone beta’d

There is a lot more to do and I still need to figure out how to end part 1 but uhh.... here it goes? The first 1500 words of part one

***

There’s a child in the bed next to Jack.

He finds it strange because he’s an adult. His neighbor is up and about and probably no older than four. Jack wonders where the line is drawn between pediatrics and other specialized units.

His harangued father was around but Jack thinks he’s in a meeting with Dr. O right now.

Jack himself isn’t very sure why he’s still here for a concussion. He knows he’s been having memory problems. His mother might have mentioned it. He knows his age he knows quite a bit about history and hockey but he can’t remember the game that sent him here or the teammate who supposedly camped out in the ER. He remembers the month and who won the Stanley Cup for the last ten years but he doesn’t remember having friends or who his nurse was… is? Has the shift changed over yet?

His roommate is four. Jack doesn’t know where Alicia is or where the boys father is but he hopes they come back soon because the boy is climbing into Jack’s bed, pull-up peeking out of his gown.

“Um,” says Jack.

“...” says the boy.

“Have we… met?” He asks, because it’s likely that they have. It’s odd, Jack doesn’t remember being told about his memory issues but he knows he has them. Kind of like Finding Dory.

… is that a book or a movie?

“Where’s your father?” Jack tries again. The boy stares. “Your… uncle? Brother? Youthful grandfather?” He keeps trying even though he knows the blonde man is the boy's father (how does he know?). But all the boy does is blink owlishly up at him and make himself comfortable under Jack’s blanket. Well, all right then. Far be it from him to deny a toddler comfort while waiting for his father. He lets himself bask in the contact as he waits for his own parent.

It’s nearly ten minutes later that Bob walks through the door. Jack assumes he’s just forgotten his dad coming into the country so he raises his hand casually and shrugs as much as he can without dislodging the boy.

“I cross international borders because my son has a brain injury and all I get is a-” he waves pathetically.

“Sorry. I didn’t actually know if you’d been here yet. I just assumed I forgot.”

Jack can tell by his father’s face that he hasn’t spoken to anyone about his condition in depth yet.

“Jack, this all just happened two days ago.”

That… is actually very surprising. Jack looks around the room at the dresser, the television, the children’s decorations in the corner of the boy’s side of the room, and all he can think is that it feels more familiar than two days. He lets out an unimpressive, “huh,” then, “why did you come two days after mom?”

Bob approaches the bed far too carefully. The boy in Jack’s lap raises his arms up until Bob picks him up and sits on the side of Jack’s bed. Jack knows that Bob is fond of kids but picking up strange toddler patients is a little much. He’s trying to collect his thoughts enough to say so when his dad speaks again.

“Jack…” he stops. Jack can see that he’s choosing his words very carefully. “Your mother only beat me her two hours while I was checking into the hotel. We were in France until this morning. How much… where’s she gone? Where’s your doctor?”

“Mom is with the boy’s father I think. Maybe Dr. O. Or…. somewhere.”

Bob mouths “the boy” just as Alicia and the blonde father come back. There’s a flurry of activity that Jack can’t concentrate on. All he knows is that he’s in his room, alone, and there’s a boy in the bed next to him.

Jack’s roommate is a four year old boy in pull-ups and a hospital gown. He has dark blonde hair and huge eyes, all partially hidden by a wrap of mesh keeping wires attached to his head. He’s sleeping at the moment and Jack envies him. The lights of the room are dim and he’s tired, yet awake. He feels ready for bed. Or maybe he’s just woken up?

The boy’s father is in a gliding chair between the two beds. He’s young and attractive and sitting ramrod straight as he carefully avoids Jack’s eyes. Jack feels awkward about that. Sharing close quarters with someone makes him feel obligated to talk but he can never think of something normal to say. Part of him wants to see if he might have access to a private room. Another part of him wishes his mom were here because he doesn’t want to be alone. An overwhelmingly large part of him thinks the blonde dad is very cute. It’s a new feeling for Jack, finding someone attractive so easily. He doesn't hate it.

“What a picture we make,” Blonde dad says in a sleepy southern drawl. His voice is as low as the lights and Jack thinks he could listen to him speak for days. Then he realizes that the child is asleep and blonde dad is probably talking to Jack. Were they having a conversation? Had they been introduced? Is it rude to ask? Or more rude to assume?

Blonde dad looks over and must see something deserving of pity. He gives a sad smile. “Now, don’t work yourself up into a state, sweetpea. I know you’ve got some memory problems going on. You go ahead and ask anything you need. Don’t be embarrassed.”

When people tell you not to be embarrassed, it’s probably because you should be. But Jack feels like he could believe anything that lovely thick voice says. His mind is going too fast and sluggish at the same time. It takes him a while to form the words. “Where are my parents?”

“Just went to their hotel for the night. They’ll be back in the morning. They’ve got a nasty case of jet lag.”

Jack nods sagely, an image in his head of Bob fleeing the aggressive pigeons of Paris. “He hates birds.” He knows that won’t make sense to blonde dad but…

But…

Blonde dad smiles brilliantly. “They were in France.”

Obviously, Jack wants to say. He wants to ask how much he’s spoken to his parents in the last however long.

“What’s your name?” He asks instead and hopes he’ll remember. Blonde dad looks back at his sleeping son and makes a sound like a cut off sigh.

“I’m Eric. This is Julien.”

“He’s very friendly.” Jack says. He doesn’t know why. Julien is asleep which is a rather neutral thing to do. Eric smiles at him and shrugs a single shoulder.

“He’s very shy with strangers.”

“Well, he can’t… ” Jack squints at the sleeping boy, as if that would give him answers. “Talk?”

Eric makes a face, still turned mostly away from Jack. “Won’t,” he says. Jack makes an inquiring sound. “He can talk just fine but he won’t. Not lately, at least. It comes and goes but it’s been worse for a few days. I don’t… I can’t…” Eric turns completely to face Julien’s bed as his voice cracks. Jack doesn’t need to know him to know that he’s crying. Jack doesn’t push and doesn’t  ask any more questions.

Jack’s roommate is four years old because they have the same neurologist. Possibly. Dr. O is very casual but intelligent and Julien loves him dearly. The toddler raises his arms for a hug every time the man enters the room.

“How did his tests go, today?” Eric asks from the glider where he’d been sitting with his son. Dr. O pushes down the railing on the miniature bed so that he can sit and hold Julien at the same time.

“Dr. Stewart is optimistic. He’s responding somewhat but mostly it’s up to him. I can continue pull some strings for a little while, but…”

As Dr. O trails off, Eric’s face becomes pinched. He gets up from the chair so that he can fuss with the lights of the mini tree on the dresser.  Jack stares at the tree and wonders for some period time. A moment. A minute. A second. Was it Christmas?

“How can I take him home in this state? I can’t… I can’t be home enough to take care of him. And he needs that. I can’t… I don’t know…”

Between the dim lights of the room and the glowing Christmas tree, Eric looks beautiful even as he falls apart.

[cyn2k]

Prompt Fic: Shades of Future Past (Zimbits)

I’ve not posted anything original before, and I’ve never written fan fiction.  But I saw the below prompt posted by a friend (original prompt source), and this outline just begged to be written.  Of course, it just kept getting longer and longer.  I’ve left it in outline form, as I truly don’t have the skills to turn it into the monster it threatens to be.

Prompt:

Cleaning out your grandfather’s house after his death you’re going through boxes in his attic when you come across a box of photo albums labeled with your name.

You smile and begin to flip through them. Your smile fades, you don’t recognize many of the people. That is when you realize the dates are from ten to fifteen years into the future.

After the overdose and rehab, Jack returns to his parents’ house in Montreal.  He hasn’t lived there for more than a few months since his first billeting for Midgets years earlier.

He has no idea what he will do with his life.  Hockey is all he knows.

He starts seeing Dr. Turgeon twice a week. He doesn’t say much at first, but an anxiety attack in his 5th week of visits starts their discussions.  He does not talk about hockey or his father. He does talk about how alone he feels. He doesn’t talk about his lack of a future. He doesn’t talk about sex, or whatever that was with Kent.

Bob tries to get him to come to meetings with him (keeping him in view for when he’s ready to return to hockey), but Jack can’t see that far ahead.

Seven months in, one of his Peewee coaches contacts him about coaching some of the kids at his old rink.  He says he’ll think it over.

On his next therapy visit, he brings up hockey for the first time.

Jack’s grandfather died a year after the overdose.

Jack’s grandparents live in California.  All 3 of the Zimmermanns come for the funeral.

Grandma has decided the house is too big for her alone and wants to downsize to a senior community in Arizona, or maybe Florida.  Jack hopes she chooses Florida, as it’s closer to Montreal.

Alicia asks Jack to stay with her after the funeral to help clean out the house.  Bob has commitments and returns to Montreal.

Alicia’s brother and sister-in-law help out after work, but Jack does most of the heavy lifting.

California homes don’t have basements, which Jack finds odd.

They can and do have attics, though, and his grandparents had a lot of stuff.

Grandpa had a lot of WW2 memorabilia from his father’s family, including a number of diaries from both male relatives in the war effort, and female relatives involved in the workplace.  One of his great aunts worked at the Douglas Aircraft factory in Long Beach.

Jack takes one of the books on WWII history and spends the rest of his free time at his grandparents’ house reading all the books he can find in the collection.  Alicia arranges to have the books and diaries shipped home to Montreal, as Grandma and his cousins have no interest in them.  (He will later use 2 of the diaries as source material in his senior thesis.)

The box with Jack’s name on it is underneath a quilt Jack recognizes from a visit just before he entered the Q.  Jack smiles. They’d gone to Knott’s Berry Farm because his grandpa loved the restaurant there. It had been a good visit.

There are 3 photo albums in the box - one a deep red, one blue and gold, and one white.  He doesn’t remember his grandparents taking that many pictures.

Opening the red album, the first picture he sees is a pie. It looks good, but he’s never much cared about sweets. He turns the page.

The pages are filled with pictures of a group of men in front of a rather dilapidated looking house. Most of them are tall, but there’s a much shorter man right in the middle. He had big brown eyes. Jack thinks they look happy. He smiles and turns the page.

The same men, now joined by several women, including one of the shortest women Jack has ever seen, are now in front of a large building.  Jack thinks it’s probably an ice rink.

He takes another look at the last picture, and realizes one of the men looks like his father.  He looks again.  The man has blue eyes.  He is standing next to, and has his arms around, the short blond man he noticed before, and a man with a very bushy mustache.

He flips through several more pages. The group appear to be taking pictures at a college campus, and they look like good friends. The man who looks like his dad makes his skin feel shivery. His eyes are drawn, over and over, to the blond man, who isn’t always smiling.  Sometimes he looks like he’s scolding one of the others.

Jack’s heart hurts. He’s never had a group of friends like that. He puts the album down and picks up another one.

The blue and gold album has a logo on the front that he recognizes.

He opens the page to a Falconers hockey team photo on the ice. He doesn’t want to recognize the man in the #1 sweater with a C on the shoulder. He shivers.

He can’t deny that the next photo is himself - a promo shot of him in the same #1 sweater. He looks so old.  There’s a small scar on his chin, and maybe he’s broken his nose at least once.

The next several pages are game shots.  He glances at them, recognizing scrimmages and game shots with other teams. He does not see any that look like the Aces.

He turns the page, catches a glimpse of silver, and shuts the book quickly before he can swear whether he saw a certain large cup.

He puts the book back in the box, and takes several deep breaths before lifting out the white album.

On the first pages he sees have photos of himself with his parents.  Looking at his parents first, he thinks they look good.  He doesn’t recognize the dress his mother is wearing, but thinks they must have been tired, as they look older. He smiles.

He doesn’t recognize himself at first.  His hair is shorter than he’s ever remembered wearing it, and he looks like his dad.  The suit doesn’t look anything like his style. He flips the page.

The next set of pages features pictures of a smiling blond man with beautiful big brown eyes and a radiant smile, surrounded by what must be his parents.Jack recognizes the blond from the red album.

The next two pages hold pictures of a group of people, all featuring the blond man from the previous page. Many of them look like the men from the first album. There are only two women in any of the pictures - the short Asian woman from the red album, and an African-American woman who seems to be coaxing the others into place. Jack wonders why he’s not there.

Two of the pictures were taken when everyone seems to be laughing hard, except the blond man, who looks indignant. He turns the page.

His own face smiles back at him, along with the big eyes and wide smile of the blond man standing next to him.

While Jack-in-the-picture has a regular tie, the blond man wears a bow tie.  They are the same color, as are the suits they’re wearing. Jack’s smile fades. He turns the page.

Their parents have joined them in this picture.  Everyone is smiling. Their moms are wearing corsages.

Jack feels light-headed.  He shuts the album and places all 3 back in the box, carrying it downstairs.

He does not discuss the box with his mom, but decides to bring it home.

They finish clearing out the attic two days later.  Alicia and her mother have been researching real estate online. Grandma still leans towards Arizona, although she might stay in California to be closer to friends.

Alicia and Jack return to Montreal.   The WWII books and diaries he’d picked out appear on one of his shelves, replacing some of his hockey trophies.

Jack looks through the photos once more, avoiding a certain silver image in the Falconers album, before sealing the box and hiding it in the back of his closet.

He feels hopeful for the first time since waking up in the hospital.  Since long before that, really.

He contacts his Peewee coach and agrees to start helping out with the kids. Alicia and Bob are thrilled, but decide to say nothing.

Dr. Turgeon is the first person he talks to about Kent.  While his parents know he was with Kent, they’ve never talked about it. Progress is made.

A few months later, Jack talks to his parents about attending college.  He doesn’t let himself think about the box in the closet, but is pleased when his mom brings up Samwell as an option.

He mostly forgets about the box in the attic.

At Samwell, he chooses history as a major, with a focus on the 20th century and WWII. He joins the hockey team.

Two years later, when he first sets eyes on the small blond frog on the Haus tour, he can’t remember why he looks familiar. This irritates him.

The next three years pass.  Jack graduates and joins the Falconers.  He does not remember the box at all. He and Bitty come out to their friends and families.

Bitty graduates and moves to Providence, to no one’s surprise. Jack takes him to dinner and proposes 2 weeks later, also to no one’s surprise. They marry the next summer.

Bitty’s mom makes a photo album of the wedding.

Bitty keeps a photo and scrapbook of his time with the Falconers.  Jack notices, but doesn’t pay much attention.

In his fourth year with the Falconers, his first year with the C, the team goes all the way. Jack comes out on his Cup Day, which he spends in Montreal with his family and most of the SMH gang.

Jack is traded to the Schooners a year later. He leads his new team to the second round of the playoffs, but they are eliminated by the Sharks.  He is traded again, to the Habs.  Jack suspects his dad may have been involved.

Bitty isn’t thrilled about the paperwork for living in Canada, but does enjoy spending time with his in-laws while Jack is away.

Bitty’s working on his second cookbook, and Alicia has taken to making guest appearances on his vlog.  Bob makes occasional outrageous appearances, leading to the trending hashtags #badbobbakes.

They win the Stanley Cup two years later. Jack is 32 and starting to think about retirement. He doesn’t think too hard around the Cup, because you can’t take chances with Cup magic.

Jack and Bitty have a house and a dog, and perhaps the cat that keeps showing up for chicken that Bitty may slip her from time to time, and are thinking of starting a family. Suzanne and Alicia may be tag-teaming them.

They return to Samwell for Jack and Shitty’s 10-year reunion, after Jack’s second Cup win with the Habs. (He just might have had some thoughts about that). His Cup day is a week later, back in Montreal.

The SMH gang decide to throw their own reunion. They’ve rented a house, and Bitty bakes. The gang devours the first three like they’ve not seen pie in years. (As if Bitty would ever leave his friends pie-less.)

 Jack arranges with Lardo for a photographer friend of hers to come with them and take photos while they tour the campus and spend time together. Jack has his own camera, but knows that time with friends is more important than taking the right photo. The photographer gets his own pie.

The photographer sends him a digital file, but also sends Jack a photo album of the best shots. The album cover is red.

He opens the album to a photo of one of Bitty’s pies.  He turns the page.  There are Ransom and Holster, Shitty and Lardo, Chowder and Cait (no one calls her Farmer any more), Ford and Nursey and Dex, and Jack and Bitty in front of the Haus, which is looking even worse than when he’d lived there. And another of them in front of Faber.

And he remembers. He does not look any further.

He does, however, gather the wedding album, the Falconers album, and the reunion album, and places them in a box. After sealing the box, he asks Bitty to label the box with his name. It sits on the chair in their bedroom.

On Cup Day, he whispers his wish when no one is looking.

When Jack and Bitty get home, the box is gone.  He’ll pick it up the next time they go to visit his parents.

[thedesperatehousehusband]

Grammy’s....The First 2.5 Hours....

Time for the Grammy’s and all those only-on-the-Grammy’s special moments. Basically what that means is they’re going to pair Joan Baez and Post Malone or some shit like that. Typically they trot out someone like Bonnie Raitt, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Bob Dylan or maybe the reanimated hologram of Tupac.

Lizzo. Lizzo. Lizzo. I just canNOT with her. She is bananas cool and I love her. That’s a great way to open the show. We saw her twice last year and her meteoric rise to stardom is a very cool story. I hope she cleans up tonight. But I’m not sure we’ll ever know because in a 3.5-telecast they will only give away about 5 awards. It’s ALL about those special Grammy moments, y’all. Next up Josh Groban and Nicki Minaj!!

Juan and I discussed how they would work Kobe Bryant into the show. The Alicia Keys and Boyz II Men tribute using “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday” worked. I forgot that the show was the Staples Center where Kobe played for all those years. I was never any sort of Lakers fan but I also like Kobe Bryant and I’m actually really bothered and upset by his death. I hate that one of his kids was with him. It’s just heartbreaking and awful.

Blake and Gwen were just OK. I’m not sure what that song.

What is Alicia Keys doing? What is this keyboard vamp and the talking to the audience and all the nominees? Is this supposed like what Billy Crystal always used to do? It’s not amazing.

I don’t care who knows it: The Jonas Brothers make me happy. Sucker is a GREAT song. Their performance was right on time. I also enjoyed the pan to their wives in the audience. Sophie Turner, Priyanka Chopra and Danielle. I’m happy Danielle is getting the screen time because, let’s face it, Danielle is not the Jonas wife that people want to see.

Sweet that Lizzo won Best Pop Solo Performance. Nice speech. Love her dress.

I am unclear on who Tyler The Creator is. This is why I love and hate this show. It validates me for being hip to certain aspects of music but completely and utterly also validates that my knowledge is narrow. I do not know this person and I am not drawn to the performance nor the strange blonde, bowl-cut wigs.

Is Alicia Keys enhanced with some sort of hippy drug? She seems like she’s hallucinating and on some sort of LSD trip. I am a big, big, big Alicia Keys fan but she seems off.

I’m unclear on the point of Prince tribute. Is that just something we do when icons die? Here’s what I’ve learned. Usher is NOT Prince. Their talents are not the same. I don’t know who I want to hear sing these songs but I’ve discovered it’s not Usher. The positives….Sheila E still got it. She can beat the drum, bitches. And she looks incredible. The dancers are cool. Usher is just not getting this done.

Thoroughly enjoying Camila Cabello. What a sweet song. But Jim Gaffigan introducing her was awkward primarily because he couldn’t read the teleprompter. Back to Camila. Well, I’m crying. Isn’t this something? It’s actually a special moment.

Tanya Tucker is fucking back. Because a lot of you thought she was dead. Well, she’s not. She’s apparently rocking it out with this new album that somehow involves Brandi Carlisle as a writer, producer or both. Their performance was solid, solid, solid. I would go see Tanya Tucker.

This Ariana Grande performance feels over-produced. Do we think she insures the pony tail? At least she things live at these things.

Are Billie Eilish’s press-on nails also Gucci? Until this very performance, I haven’t really been into Billie Eilish nor have I even really understood the excitement about her. But I think I get it now. This is a good performance.

Steven Tyler is pickled and has probably had about 1,000 near-death experiences but it doesn’t matter. Aerosmith can still command the stage despite or maybe in spite of them being nearly 100 years old. Motherfuckers, it’s RUN-DMC. Goddammit. This is MY YOUTH.

Lil Nas X. I guess he’s a thing. It feels like a novelty song, no? What is this revolving lazy susan set? BTS is a strange looking group. Who is this country child? Billy Ray Cyrus better be excited AF about this song because it’s the second best song he’s ever done and he’s only done two songs……..

And now, ladies and gentleman, Demi Lovato is going to emerge from something. And, you know what? She tore it up.