#philjess

Jessica is at a recording booth when suddenly the door opens and a blur of arms and legs jumps at her.

"Aunt Jay! Aunt Jay!", Pip's voice nearly deafens her.  He's so excited to see her.  She feels guilty.  She'd promised to visit last month but her schedule wouldn't allow her.

"Missed me, Pip?"

"Of course I did!"

He's holding onto her shoulders while she's picked him up from the floor.  Just like when he was a toddler.  She makes no move to put him down on the floor.  She misses this.  She misses Pip.  And she would hug him until there was no tomorrow.

Pip is almost four years old now. A little boy with unlimited energy apparently, judging by the way he attacked her with a hug.

She notes that he has his father's eyes, everything else is his mother's.  When she first looked at him, she had not known/accepted that he was Phillip's son.  But when he opened his eyes, she was sure.

Pip has grown quiet so she seats him in her chair and looks at him.  He has a serious expression on his face.  He is thinking hard. He might be his mother's son, but his expressions are all Phillip's.  It's very endearing.  Jessica can't help but smile at his facial expressions.

"What's up, Pip?", she asks.

"Aunt Jay... Does dad sing?"

The unexpected question hangs in the air before Jessica blinks and the shocked expression on her face vanishes.  

"Of course he does.  He's got a great voice."

"I have never heard him sing, Aunt Jay...", he mumbles sadly.  He's not looking at her, his eyes are partially covered by his wavy brown hair.

"Hey, cheer up Pip.  I bet he'll sing for you if you asked him to."

"But I did ask him!", he exclaims with all the petulance of a young boy. He even stamps his little foot.

Jessica can see that this has really upset Pip.  She wonders why Phillip never sang for his son.  She doesn't want Pip deprived of his father's legacy so she makes a compromise.

Jessica places her hand on Pip's shoulder.

"Pip, listen to me.", she says while wiping the tears off of his face with her other hand.

"How about I sing something your dad sang when he was on American Idol?"

Pip slowly stops crying, only a few sniffles here and there.

"What's American Idol?", he asks her.

Jessica hesitates.  She's not sure why Phillip has never told his son about American Idol.  Does he want to forget it?  Forget the months they spent hanging out? Those were good memories.  She had thought of those few months as special.  Especially the last couple of weeks when there were only a few of them left.

She hadn't known Phillip before then.  Phillip was this tall, mysterious, older guy and she didn't hang out with him much before her almost elimination.  They only interacted when there were others with them.  When they had the chance to talk to each other, it was just mumbled 'hellos', 'good luck', 'great song'.

She remembers the time when her fellow finalists had asked her what she thought of the guys in the Final 13.  When they asked her what she thought of Phillip, she'd subconsciously mimicked one of his facial expressions because that was what had stuck on her mind the last time she saw Phillip. Phillip was trolling Ryan Seacrest, as usual.  He had stood behind Ryan and made this funny face while Ryan was talking to the other contestants seriously.  She had found it funny. Phillip was a weird guy, sometimes very silent, other times, goofing around.  Phillip was cute too, but her friends had seen her make a face and mistaken assumed it as her answer.

"Jay thinks Phillip is 'ugh'"

"What?!?", she asks in disbelief.

"You made a face."

"What face?"

"A weird face, you know..."

"Wait, it kinda reminds me of someone..."

Before they could continue their dissection of her facial expression, Mr. Jimmy had knocked on the door to call their attention.  They were to practice their songs.  And that was the end of that, or so she had thought.  But then someone had told Phillip.

~~~~~~

Author's Note: I am sorry for the long wait.  I wrote this on my phone and I forgot about it because my phone got broken and the PhilJess fever died when the American Idol tour ended.  There were no more fics, no more photos, nothing which I could look to for inspiration. :(

Anyway, I managed to download this from my phone (when it cooperated with me) and this has been lying in my hard drive for the past months (I forgot all about it, I know).