Lost Boy in Neverland

“Ha! Who knows, she might have a future in softball.” Clarissa chuckled, giving Lizzie the toy back and laughing as she squealed in joy. At his question, Clarissa shrugged lightly and glanced down at the baby in the stroller. “Not really but I know the signs. Been there myself a while ago.” Memories of her time as a full-time babysitter for her friends flashed through her mind. “Do you think he’s teething? That could be a reason why he’s so fussy and hard to put down?” It was something she had learned while helping Rose with Liv. It was only then that Toto decided it was a good time to come and investigate what going on and ran up to sniff at Kip and the stroller, his tail wagging happily. 

-

Kip nodded his head and laughed. “She could.” He said and shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe. I mean he is 5 months so that could be it. All I need is for him to sleep for more than an hour at a time.” He said and sighed as he looked down at the dog. “Well hello there.” He said as he knelt down and offered his hand for Toto to sniff.

————————

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Jessie smiled before bending down to tickle the baby on the tummy. “It’s very nice to meet you, Gideon” Turning back her attention to the dog, Jessie pet his head gently as Kip gave her a run down. “Alright, that sounds like a plan. He seems like a very good boy.” She opened the door and called her tech in to help with the exam. Once they had lifted the golden onto the exam table, Jessie did a general check up on the animal. “How much longer is he in training for?” She asked curiously, checking the range of motion of each of his legs.

-

Kip watched their movements as they lifted Echo onto the table, heartrate picking up slightly as the control he had was altered but he knew this is what they needed to do so he left out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding and raised an eyebrow as he watched. “Just a few more months and then he will graduate his program.” He said proudly. “If you ask me though, he is already ready to go.”

Cooking was really the only healthy constant in Andrew’s life.  Living in the White House with two very busy parents meant that he spent a lot of his time in the kitchen with their chef and then he’d gone to cooking school because it was all he knew and the only thing he’d ever been good at and he loved it.  He’d been struggling with drug addiction at that point already, but the constant media attention and being away from home made it all worse and now he was here, away from everyone he’d ever known, following a failed suicide attempt and a fourth stint in rehab.  His parents thought a change would be good for him and they were supporting him financially as long as he stayed in therapy and tried his hardest to stay clean.

Andrew smiled and shook the man’s and, “That’s fine, I’ve been doing a lot of cooking at home but I’m on my own, so I’ve just been giving things to my neighbors, it’ll be nice to be able to do it as a job again.”  Andrew sighed and looked down at his hands, “I thought it would be best to be up front about things.  My dad was kind of…the President from ‘93 to early ‘01, so sometimes there’s press that follows me around to try and start some kind of scandal, but I don’t think they know I’m here yet, thankfully.  The bigger issue i that I’m here because I just got out of rehab about a month ago and it wasn’t exactly my first time there, I’m trying to get better, I really am, but sitting alone in my house isn’t helping anything, so I thought getting a job might help me and give me some structure, you know?” 

-

Kip listened to the other speak, nodding his head as he listened. He could vaguely recognize the person in front of him from articles he had read but he honestly didn’t care about what the press had to say. He had dealt first hand with addiction through his birth parents and he knew how rough the disease could be on it’s own. But he thought that they way society treated people suffering with addiction was so much worse, even those who were working towards recovery were treated terribly and he hated that. “I see, well, none of that matters in the kitchen as long as you can promise me that you will try your best to stay clean and sober and that when you are in the kitchen, you are focused on the work.” He said as he looked towards him. “That and as long as the food you put out is excellent, things should work out.”

He set the menu on the counter in front of Andrew. “Show me what you can do with this, feel free to make the dishes your own and we will see if you can handle the menu.” Kip said as he slipped off his apron. “If the tasting goes well, we can talk about the ins and outs of the job including pay and everything.” He said as he moved towards the front of the house. “I’ll be up front when you finish the dishes.”

Kami struggled to be away from Liyana, but spending time with Kip made it easier to be away, and she new her daughter was in good hands with her sister for the next few hours and she was looking forward to spending the evening with Kip, even if tonight was going to be a non-traditional date night.  After how badly things had gone with his father, Kami had been hesitant to introduce Ladon to Kip, but once they had met, they had gotten along great and she was glad Kip was receptive to her idea for tonight. 

“These games are actually pretty fun, but this is an important one, and even though I’m not looking forward to dealing with the other moms tonight, they can been kind of judgy and they’re going to be grilling me about why Coyote isn’t around, I want to do it for Ladon and I’m really glad you’re here with me.”  She laughed, “Definitely make as much noise as possible, he’s a great player and he’s got a decent number of fans here, but the more noise we can get, the better.  And honestly, I’d love to stay for the game, but I should warn you…I can get a little intense at these games, you’re probably going to see a side of me you’ve never seen before.”

-

Kip nodded his head. He of course had run into his fair share of those kinds of moms whenever he took Gideon to his doctor’s appointments and he was met with the ‘babysitting’ questions as if dad’s couldn’t be parenting their children, only babysitting them. It was something that had bothered him but he was getting used to the whole single dad thing. “I can handle the moms. I’m sure they are the same ones who stare at me when I take Gideon in for his doctor’s appointments. I’m glad I could be here with you for it! I’m sure it’s going to be a great time.” He said as he watched her for a moment. “Well I will be loud then and that’s fine. I can’t wait to see the competitive side of you.”

Clarissa was sitting on a blanket in the grass of the local park. Her friend Jessie’s white terrier was sprawled along side of her while 3-year old Lizzie was playing with her toys. It was a beautiful day and instead of spending it indoors, Clarissa had opted for them to go outside and enjoy some sun. She hoped to take Jilly and Viggo out later, even if just for a couple of hours. The book-store owner lifted her eyes from her book, just in time to see Lizzie throw one of her toys in the direction of a man, hitting him on his foot. Sighing, she got up and picked up Lizzie before walking over to get the toy, meanwhile, Toto stayed on the blanket with not a care in the world. “I’m sorry, she’s got quite the throw over here.” Clarissa chuckled, bending down to get the the toy. She could easily see that this man was exhausted and she glanced in the carrier to the stirring baby. “Has he been keeping you up a lot?”

Kip spotted the toy by his foot and couldn’t help but smile as he looked in the direction that it had come from. “Oh, no worries. I mean the throw is actually really impressive.” He said as he sat up on the bench some, looking over to Gideon to make sure he was where he had left him and all good. “Yeah, he doesn’t like to sleep at home it seems.” He said with a laugh, resuming the slight push and pull he had been doing in hopes he would settle. It had been a long 5 months for him since Gideon had been left with him. He hadn’t been sure that he would be able to do it but here he was, being a dad and hopefully pulling it off. “Is it that obvious I don’t sleep?” He asked before laughing.

It had been a busy day for Jessie. Jumping around from some of her farm clients to the clinic to check on some patients. As she approached the room of her next patient, Jessie recognized that this was a new dog. Knocking on the door, she entered the room and immodestly bent down to greet the dog. “Hi, Dr. Matthews. Who is this handsome boy?” She asked, laughing as the dog gave her some kisses before she stood up and offered her hand to the owner.

Kip smiled as he looked down as Echo stood to greet the vet. “Hi, this is Echo and I’m Kip. The baby is Gideon, though he can’t quite hold a conversation just yet.” He said as he shook her hand. “I just adopted him and they told me he’s about 2 years old and he is in training to become my service dog.” Kip said, watching the golden retriever for just a moment before looking back towards her. “He just needs an overall check up from what they told me.”

@jessie-m​

@rissa-evans​

Andrew’s parents had made it clear that he didn’t have to work and that they would support him financially as long as he committed to staying clean and staying away from the friend group he had run with back in South Carolina.  That sounded good at first, but the longer Andrew stayed there, the more isolated he felt and the more he wanted to find something to do with his time so he wasn’t stuck alone with his thoughts.  He happened to be looking through job openings in the area and he found an opening for a chef at a restaurant in town and since he didn’t have anything else going on, he decided to go and check it out. 

He didn’t have much of an appetite these days, so he didn’t order anything, but he looked over the menu and it looked like things he could handle and he liked the look of the restaurant, so he spoke to someone and they introduced him to the owner.  “Hi, I’m Andrew Reynolds, I just moved to the area and I saw your ad.  I was the head chef at a steakhouse in South Carolina, and I’m looking for something here and I can apply online, of course, but I thought it would be best if I came in and pitched myself in person, since I feel like if I don’t, you’re only going to find the bad and the things the press has said if you look me up.”

@kip–weaver​​

Kip loved being the chef and owner of his restaurant and he loved cooking, however with his place becoming more and more popular, he was finding it hard to do both. He was thankful that his restaurant was successful and he had decided to hire a chef to take over for him 5 days a week which would allow him 2 days as a chef doing actual cooking for his place. He had a few people apply but he wasn’t thrilled with those that had, either they didn’t have enough experience, or the food he tried was just not good but he wasn’t going to give up hope in finding the right chef to take over for him. When one of his staff members brought someone into the kitchen, he was curious on what was going on. They generally didn’t bring in customers through the back as a general rule of thumb. 

“Hi. Kip Weaver.” He said as he took his glove off as he reached out to shake Andrew’s hand. “I see, well the job is definitely still open but no need to apply online. I’m not great with electronics really.” Kip said as he moved a pan from the burner it was on. “Well you’ve got experience and I will need you to cook a few different things that I can try to make sure the quality of the food.” He said as he pulled out a test menu from a cabinet. “Bad things and press. Is there something I should know about?” He asked, head tilted to the side. “Not that much of anything could keep you from a job. I’m a believer in second chances.”

After spending her entire adult life and a few of her teenage years totally focused on her relationship with Coyote.  Even during the years treated her horribly and then abandoned her, she welcomed him back with open arms when he decided to come back, only for him to get her pregnant and leave again.  Now that she was alone again and determined to never let him back into their lives again, she figured the romantic phase of her life was over, she was just going to focus on raising the baby and getting her son through high school and into college, then she would be on her own when her daughter grew up.  That was why meeting Kip had been such a shock her her, a good shock, but a shock nonetheless.

They weren’t officially a couple, but Kami was fairly certain it was moving in that direction, as they’d been casually seeing each other for over a month now, when they could find time away from their kids, which wasn’t easy.  This week had been tough to make work, and depending on if he was willing to go along with her idea, it might not be working this time either.  She stepped out of her car when she saw he was already there, “So…I’m guessing you’re wondering why I asked you to meet me at the high school.”  She blushed, “I promise we can get dinner or something more traditional after this, but it’s Parent’s Night at the Basketball game and I need to spend a couple of minutes on the court with the other parents while they announce us and the boys all have to awkwardly hug us in front of the whole school and half the town.  We don’t have to stay for the whole game, but I couldn’t be the only mom who didn’t show up, especially since his father won’t be here this time.  I hope this cute and charming and not too weird, I know ‘High School Basketball Game’ is an odd start to date night, but these are usually pretty fun, I promise.”

@kip–weaver​​

Kip had all but given up on finding love and someone to spend the rest of his life with. He had chosen to instead focus on his son Gideon and his restaurant. Of course, they say love finds a way to you when you stop looking for it and though they weren’t 100 percent serious now, he thought they might be going that way. The person of course, was Kami and he thought she was the prettiest woman he had ever seen and he already adored her kids so when she asked him to meet at the high school, he said yes right away. He didn’t know what had changed for their date but he was willing to go for it. He arrived at the school and parked. He had asked his friend Theo to watch Gideon and though he was missing his son, he was happy to be out of the house. 

He couldn’t help but smile when he saw Kami get out of her car. Kip gave her a little wave. ”I mean, yeah, it’s a bit odd but I’m open.” He listened to her reasoning and grinned. “That sounds like fun. I can even film it for you and you can use it as blackmail or something. Parents are supposed to embarrass their kids right?” He said with a smile. “I mean, I’m not his dad or anything but I can make a lot of noise.” He said with a grin. “Oh we have to stay for the whole game though. You can’t be the mom who leaves early either. Besides, it’ll be good practice for me when Gideon gets old enough. I can buy the snacks and the drinks and stuff. It’ll be a good time!” He said, knowing how important being a present parent was.