Pairing: Jesse / Brennan

Rating: G - complete and utter fluff, in fact...

Status: Complete / Stand Alone

Archive: If you feel it's worthy of archiving then, please, be my guest.

Feedback: But of course...

Disclaimers: Characters belong to Tribune Entertainment. I merely play with them for reasons that may or may not have something to do with my sanity.

Summary: Title says it all!

Notes: Narrated by Jess. Self beta'd.

~oo0oo~

"Do you think he's even aware that it's Easter?" Shalimar remarks fondly as Adam, his attention firmly focused on the Palm-Pilot in his hand, strides determinedly past the door to the living area.

"Somehow I doubt it," Emma grins, placing the empty popcorn bowl on the coffee table and stretching languidly. "I don't know about any of you but I used to love Easter as a child."

"Oh yeah, me too," Brennan replies, stifling a yawn. "To me Easter was better than Christmas because Easter eggs were cheaper and easier to come by than the latest toy fad that always hit in December. You know the ones. Every kid in the schoolyard wanted whatever it was -- me included -- and my mom could never afford it. Lots of chocolate at Easter though, that was easy."

"And don't forget the egg hunts," Shal interjects, all but bouncing up and down on the sofa. "Man, I used to love them."

"Oh God!" Emma exclaims, shaking her head. "I can't believe I'd forgotten all about the egg hunts until you just mentioned them. You're right. They were just too cool. I bet with your sense of smell you never had any trouble hunting 'em out either."

Grinning, Shal claps her hands together gleefully. "You betcha! There was an egg hunt for all the local children at nearby park once and I can remember finding their entire stash in a matter of minutes. The organizers weren't amused. In fact, and this still bugs me, they made me give half of them back."

"I used to cheat too," Emma giggles, her eyes twinkling. "By focusing on my parents I was able to get flashes of where they'd hidden the eggs. Every year they put more and more effort into hiding them and every year I'd find 'em just like that. It used to push dad's buttons like you wouldn't believe."

"Hey, no fair," Brennan interjects, mock pouting. "I had to rely solely on my foraging skills to hunt mine out while you two just breezed through the hunt. Talk about having it easy."

"You're just jealous," Emma smiles, reaching across and playfully ruffling Brennan's hair. "If there was some way you could have used your powers to find the eggs quicker you can't tell me that you wouldn't have used it."

"Hell no," Brennan replies, grinning. "You're right. I'm just jealous, that's all."

"What about you, Jess?" Shalimar queries, swivelling around to face me. "You're awfully quiet sitting up there. Anything the matter?"

"I..." Damn. I can feel myself blushing and wish like mad I'd gotten up and snuck out of the room before any of them had remembered I was still sitting here. Oh well. Here goes. "I don't actually know what you're talking about," I confess softly. "Egg hunt? What's that?"

Three sets of shocked eyes blink at me in unison. It would have been funny if it weren't so surreal.

"How can you not know what an egg hunt is?" Emma murmurs, looking at me as though I've just grown a second head or expressed a predilection for wearing women's underwear. "*Everyone* knows what an egg hunt is."

"Everyone except Jess by the looks of things," Brennan mutters, his expression, if I'm not mistaken, one of pity.

"An egg hunt is where someone, usually parents, scatter Easter eggs around the house or backyard for their children to, well, hunt," Shalimar explains. "It's like, I dunno, tradition or something. I can remember having them up until I was ten." Pausing, she cocks her head to one side and peers at me intently. "You got Easter eggs though, *right*?"

"Oh yeah, I got Easter eggs," I reply, nodding. "Lots of them." What I don't add is that they were all Swiss chocolate and that I didn't even know they made chocolate in America until I was thirteen. For some reason I suspect hearing this particular snippet about my over privileged upbringing would result in three more pitying looks being thrown in my direction. And, oh boy, I can *so* live without that.

"Where'd you get them?" Brennan queries. "Were they left in your bedroom or what?"

"The housekeeper placed them on the dining table so they'd be there when I went down to breakfast," I mumble, feigning fascination with my fingernails so as to avoid my friends' reactions.

"That's really sad," Emma whispers, sounding close to tears.

"The rich sure do have a funny way of doing things," Brennan mutters flatly. "Sorry Jess, but they do."

"You missed out on something special, Jess, that's for sure," Shal comments sadly. "On that note though, I'm beat and think I'll turn in for the night."

"Sounds good to me," Emma agrees, clambering out of the armchair and giving me a quick hug before wandering towards the door. "Night everyone. See you in the morning."

"Wait up!" Shal exclaims, bounding off the sofa. "I'll walk you to your room." Reaching the door, she slings her arm around Emma's shoulders and adds, "See you two in the morning."

"Hang on!" Brennan states, propelling himself off the sofa and quickly making his way over to the girls. "I've just remembered something I need to talk to the pair of you about."

"Um... 'Night," I murmur dully, feeling, not exactly surprisingly, somewhat like a leper. If I'd known admitting to not knowing what an egg hunt was would have made me a social pariah I would have kept my mouth shut. One thing's for sure though, I know now how to clear a room without breaking a sweat.

"Shit!" Slamming on the brakes, Brennan spins on his heels and jogs back over to me. "Sorry Jess," he mumbles, bending down and giving my cheek a moist kiss. "See you in the morning, yeah?" With that, and before I have time to reply, he bolts out of the door and disappears.

Sighing, I look around the empty room and can't for the life of me work out what just happened. I try not to feel hurt, especially by Brennan's sudden disappearing act, but it's hard. I mean, it's not like it would have killed him to have come up with an excuse for him not wanting -- which he clearly doesn't -- us to sleep together night.

Getting up, I take in all the empty bowls and mugs that are scattered around the room and sigh again. To hell with cleaning up though. Be it alone or not, I'm going to bed.

~*~

"C'mon Jess, wake up!"

"Go 'way," I mumble, squirming away from the insistent hand that's shaking my shoulder and trying to pull the comforter over my head.

"C'mon Jess! You've gotta get up. The girls have already got a head start as it is."

"Go 'way," I repeat grumpily. Just because Brennan's up and had his morning dose of happy pills doesn't mean I have to be. What's more, if he thinks he can just bounce in here because he's feeling horny he's got another thing coming. It took me long enough to get to sleep as it was without him deciding *now* that he wants to be with me. I love Brennan but last night's disappearing act hurt. If he feels the need to alter our usual sleeping habits over the fact that -- well I never -- our childhood's were worlds apart then, well...

"C'mon Jess! I know you're awake and I really, *really* want you to get up!"

"And I really, really want to sleep," I mutter, reluctantly pulling the comforter away from my face and opening my eyes.

Oh. Dear. God.

Brennan's wearing pyjamas. Grey pyjamas with black convict arrows on them, no more and no less. I think I've now seen everything.

"Nice look," I murmur, struggling into a sitting position so I can get a better look. "Very... ah... you."

"Got a pair for you to wear too," Brennan beams, dumping a bundle of black cotton on top of the bed. "Now, come on! Get up, put your pyjamas on, and come with me."

"This is a dream, right?" I mutter suspiciously, nonetheless swinging my legs over the edge of the mattress and -- I can't believe I'm doing this -- pulling on the black pyjama pants. "What's going on, Bren, huh? What's with the pyjamas and, perhaps more to the point, what's with the freakin' enthusiasm at this time of the morning? It's unnatural."

"If you get a move on you'll see," Brennan replies, picking up the top and helping me into it. Crouching down, he bats my fingers out of the way and takes on the task of doing the buttons up himself. Once they're done, our eyes meet and he kisses me gently on the lips. "Happy Easter, Jess," he murmurs, hugging me tightly. "I'm sorry about last night but, c'mon, it'll all make perfect sense to you in a minute."

"It had better," I reply, relaxing against Brennan as all of the built up tension leaves my body. "Missed having you next to me."

"Missed *being* next to you," Brennan murmurs, kissing me again before pulling back and standing up. "Now, c'mon. The girls will be getting impatient."

Grabbing my hand, Brennan hauls me to my feet and together we make our way out of the bedroom. Reaching the Dojo, my morning immediately becomes just that little bit stranger -- proving nothing's impossible -- as I see that both Shalimar and Emma too are wearing pyjamas. Shal's are leopard print while Emma's are Barbie pink. Despite the time of morning they're both grinning from ear to ear.

"About time you got here," Shalimar comments, hugging me. "Now we can finally prove once and for all that girls do it better."

"Do what better?" I murmur, glancing at Brennan helplessly. Much more of this and I'm going to think I've been slipped a hallucinogen.

"Hunt for eggs, of course," Emma interjects, gesturing around her. "We got Adam to hide eggs all around Sanctuary, you know, so you'll be able to experience your very own egg hunt."

"Couldn't get him to wear a bunny suit though," Brennan states with a laugh. "Believe me, we tried too."

"You did all this... for me?" I whisper, glancing at each of my friends in turn as an immense feeling of happiness threatens to overwhelm me. Wow. I can hardly believe it. Never would I have expected this.

"Course we did, Shal replies, giving me one of her brightest smiles. "Couldn't have you missing out on all the fun of an egg hunt, now, could we? What's more, given that we're guaranteed to find 'em all ourselves, Em and I have even agreed to give the pair of you a couple, you know, in keeping with the spirit of things."

"You just keep telling yourselves that you're gonna find them all. I mean, we're all entitled to our delusions," Brennan declares mock indignantly. "C'mon Jess. Stop standing there gaping, we've got eggs to find."

Eggs hunts obviously being something of great importance -- not to mention personal pride-- I make a mental note to thank everyone later and allow Brennan to drag me away, a silly great smile feeling as though it's taken up permanent residence on my face.

As Easter's go this one's already my favourite. *Easy*.

~ end ~

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Created on ... April 29, 2003