“Did you have fun today, sweet boy?” Sebastian asked as the two of them walked back to the truck after the cave tour ended. Jaxsen smiled up at him, his face beaming with excitement. 

“Yes! That was so much fun, Daddy. Can we do it again next year?” He bounced a bit on his toes, turning toward Sebastian, that megawatt smile growing that much brighter.

“If that’s what you want to do, Jack.” Sebastian unlocked the truck and opened the back door so Jaxsen could climb inside. “You want to stop and get some dinner on the way back to the hotel?”

Jaxsen nodded. “Can we go eat at the tower?” he asked excitedly. Sebastian ruffled the boy’s hair and smiled.

“How about we eat at the tower tomorrow before heading back? It can be our final meal before heading home. Deal?”

Jaxsen nodded. “Okay, Daddy. Where are we gonna eat today, then?”

Sebastian smiled, glad to see there wasn’t disappointment in his eyes. “How about Italian? I know a great little place.”

“Okay, Daddy. Italian sounds really good.” Jaxsen smiled, all traces of yesterday’s episode vanished from his eyes.

Sebastian drove them to a little restaurant by the name of Café Napoli. Sebastian ate at this establishment every time he traveled through St. Louis. 

“Thank you, Daddy. For all of this I mean,” Jaxsen said just after their food was delivered to their table. “I’m having a really good time.” Jaxsen smiled and took a bite of his spaghetti. Sebastian smiled through his own bite of food. He’d decided on the baked beef ravioli.

“I’m having a great time too, kiddo,” he told Jaxsen genuinely. His smile didn’t falter, but something inside told him that those words fell woefully short of truth. He wanted to say a good deal more, but those words would have to wait. They talked through the meal, enjoying easy laughter going between them. Sebastian shared his new ideas for his upcoming novel and that the one he’d just finished would hit the shelves in the next few months.

Jaxsen, in turn, shared his excitement for the upcoming school year, and his hopes that Basil and Melissa would share most of his classes.

Once Jaxsen was bathed and ready for bed, Sebastian called him over to him. Jaxsen climbed onto the bed and sat Indian-style in the center.

“Listen, I wanted to tell you earlier, but it wasn’t the place. Jack…in the last year you’ve taught me so much.”

Jaxsen frowned. “I have?”

Sebastian smiled. “You have. You’ve shown me how to be a father again. You showed me that that part of my heart didn’t…die with Daniel like I had thought. I love you, Jaxsen, I hope you know that.”

Jaxsen smiled and wiped his eyes. “I do know, Daddy. I love you, too. I…I’m really glad you found me. I know that sometimes I still get scared, but…I know you and Mommy love me. I know…I know I have a family again.”

Sebastian smiled. “Come here, Jack.” And he hugged the boy close to his breast.

“Daddy, how come you call me ‘Jack’?” Jaxsen asked when they pulled apart.

Sebastian smiled then chuckled. “Well, it started when you were a baby. I was feeding you one night and we were all watching ‘The Shining.’ Well you started fussing, so I sat you up and bounced you slightly and said, ‘All work and no play makes Jack a cranky baby’.” Jaxsen laughed. “Well, your mother looked at me and very sternly said, ‘Do not call him Jack.’ And I called you that from then on. She hated it. It always made your dad and I laugh. She could give some looks that killed, let me tell you.”

Jaxsen laughed again. “Tell me another story about my mommy and daddy, please?”

“Well, one time,” Sebastian began, “your dad decided to throw a BBQ. Nothing big, just the four of us. That being your parents, Ellie, and myself. Your mom had just put you down for a nap and when she came back outside, Glen snuck up behind her and busted a very large water balloon he’d just so happened to have hidden under the ice in the cooler, right over her head.”

“What did she do?” Jaxsen asked, his smile bright. 

“She punched him. Square in the jaw,” Sebastian said matter of fact.

Jaxsen’s eyes widened. “She did?”

Sebastian laughed at the memory. “She sure did. She almost decked me too for laughing.”

“Why didn’t she?”

“Because Jack, I, my boy, am not stupid. I ran,” he said simply, smiling. Sebastian told him more stories of his parents until the boy rubbed his eyes sleepily and yawned for the third time.

“Alright, sweet boy, time for bed.” Sebastian ruffled his hair.

“Do I have to?”

“Yes. It’s late and we have a long day tomorrow,” Sebastian answered, removing the bed’s daily gathered debris. 

“Daddy?” Jaxsen asked, getting off the bed.

“What, sweet boy?”

“Can I sleep with you tonight?”

“I don’t care, Jack. You okay?” he questioned after the boy dropped his eyes and nodded. 

He shrugged in response. “I guess. I…” He paused in hesitation. “I don’t like sleeping alone in new places. It s-scares me.”

Sebastian nodded watching him intently. “I don’t care, sweet boy.” Jaxsen smiled and crawled under the covers. After a quick trip to the bathroom, Sebastian joined him. He smiled, kissed the already sleeping boy, turned out the lights and too, fell quickly to sleep.

Jaxsen was up bright and early the next morning, excited about going to the zoo. “I don’t wanna be late, Dad. We have to get up now.” Jaxsen was almost whining. 

Sebastian looked at the clock. “Jack, it’s six in the morning. The zoo doesn’t open for another two hours.” He rubbed his eyes and sat up.

Jaxsen seemed exasperated at having to explain himself. “I know that, Dad. But we have to get up and take a shower and stuff, and go get breakfast. And by the time we’re done with that, the zoo will be open.” He bounced on his knees in excitement. 

Sebastian smiled. “You’ve got it all planned out, don’t you?”

Jaxsen eagerly nodded. “Uh huh. So get up, Daddy, get up.” Jaxsen tackled him in a giant hug.

“How do you expect me to get up, silly boy, if you thwart my attempts?” Sebastian hugged him back just the same. Jaxsen giggled as Sebastian lightly tickled his ribs, then gently kissed him on the cheek.

“I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you, too, Jack. Now.” Sebastian grabbed him by the ribs, lifted him into the air, and making crashing air-plane sounds, deposited him on the bed. Jaxsen was a fit of giggles. “Let me go take a shower.” Sebastian got up, ruffling the boy’s hair again, and went into the bathroom.

They arrived at the zoo at just after nine, much to Jaxsen’s impatient displeasure of morning traffic. For Sebastian’s part, he simply laughed at Jaxsen’s backseat road-rage. Sometimes he saw Glen, Jaxsen’s late father and Sebastian’s best friend, inside Jaxsen. Like father like son he would always think to himself. When they parked Sebastian barely had the engine shut off before Jaxsen was already out of his seat and out the door. He waited, bouncing on his toes, for Sebastian to exit the vehicle. 

“You got the money and everything, Daddy?” Jaxsen asked half-way across the lot.

“I do, indeed, Jack.” Jaxsen smiled up at him and took his hand. Once inside the gates Jaxsen looked around in awe.

“Where can we go first, Daddy?” The boy was all smiles and bright eyes.

“I have no idea. Ah, here look, a map.” Sebastian pointed to a spot. “We’re here,” he said. “We can start here at the reptiles and go this way, or we can start at the petting zoo and work around this way. You decide.”

Jaxsen studied the map before saying, “I wanna pet the animals first.”

Sebastian smiled. “Lead the way, kiddo.” 

Like lightning Jaxsen took off toward the west. He turned at the little gate that kept the animals pinned, making sure Sebastian was close before going in.

“Daddy, look, he likes me.” Jaxsen giggled as a baby goat licked his palm. Sebastian knelt down beside the boy, petting the goat behind the ear. Soon enough Jaxsen was ready to move on. 

Next they went to the aquatics area where they watched the fish swim in a faux pas natural environment. Sebastian laughed as Jaxsen quickly oohed and awed at the saltwater fish. Sebastian smiled fondly as he watched Jaxsen smile and prattle excitedly over the different fish. He couldn’t imagine not having found him when he did. 

As they walked from the exhibit Sebastian got a strange feeling and looked around but saw nothing, and they moved on to the next exhibit. Close to one o’clock Jaxsen began to complain of being hungry. Earlier in the day Sebastian had seen a Rainforest Café and began making their way toward it. Jaxsen spoke excitedly about all he’d seen so far during lunch. Sebastian wondered if the boy was going to collapse from insufficient oxygen.

Sebastian didn’t dare attempt to taper his enthusiasm. He would much rather have a happy, chatty Jaxsen who was all laughter and childish giggles. He still remembered the frightened, teary-eyed boy he’d first met and was proud of the young man he was becoming.

“Daddy, what can we go see next?” Jaxsen asked once their meal was eaten. Sebastian checked his watch.

“It’s getting pretty late, Jack. We have time for probably one more exhibit before we have to head home,” Sebastian told him, checking his watch.

“Are we still gonna eat dinner at the tower?” he asked excitedly.

Sebastian smiled. “If we’re hungry enough when it’s time to leave, we can still go to the tower.”

“Okay, Dad.” They paid for their meal and they walked back outside. Jaxsen looked around in contemplation of where he wanted to go next. “Can we go to the monkey exhibit?” Jaxsen asked, his enthusiasm not hampered in the least.

“If that is where you would like to go, sweet boy.” That eerie feeling began to creep back up on him with the mention of the monkey exhibit. He suddenly remembered the dream he had not long ago that had shaken him so badly. He smiled at Jaxsen, not letting his sudden fear overtake him, and to not alert the boy of his feelings.

Jaxsen jumped with excitement. “Yeah!” And off he ran leaving Sebastian to follow with a soft chuckle. When Sebastian caught up with the boy around the corner, he was ready to chastise him about leaving his sight, but stopped at the boy’s face. He was staring off into the distance, a face that showed confusion, uncertainty, and fear.

“Jaxsen, you okay, sweet boy?” Jaxsen started, his eyes snapping to Sebastian. He nodded, swallowed, and forced a smile.

“Y-yeah, Daddy. I just…thought I saw something.”

Sebastian frowned as he knelt in front of the boy. “You sure, Jack, you’re really rather pale.”

Jaxsen nodded again. “Yeah, Daddy, I-I’m okay.”

Sebastian looked back in the direction Jaxsen had been staring before looking back to the boy. “Don’t run off like that, okay. You can go a bit ahead of me, but stay where I can see you, please.” Suddenly that eerie feeling creeping through his veins intensified and he looked around. He found nothing out of place, no suspicious persons, but he could not quell that feeling that something or someone was coming.  

They walked into the main doors of the monkey house; Jaxsen forced himself to not look behind him. That was the same person he’d seen at the theme park. Why did it seem like they were following them? And why did they almost seem familiar? He shook off the thought and stayed close to Sebastian.

“Look at that one there, Jack.” Jaxsen looked toward the back right corner where Sebastian was pointing. There was a smaller monkey off by himself; an adolescent around adults. The monkey seemed to make eyes with Jaxsen and began slowly progressing forward. Jaxsen took a few steps from Sebastian’s side.

“Jaxsen, stay close, don’t wander off.”

He nodded. “Okay, Daddy.”

The monkey jumped, swinging on a low branch and with acrobatic mastery swung himself to the next tree. Jaxsen giggled, his feet carrying him with the monkey. The glass house rounded a corner; Jaxsen glanced to his right and spied Sebastian reading a small historical plaque, before looking up again just in time to see his monkey friend take off. The monkey flew from branch to branch. With a shriek of delight and a small giggle Jaxsen sprinted off after him. He ran as fast as he could to keep up, blindly turning corners as he ran.

He ran, giggling, until suddenly he stopped. He looked around at his surroundings and took notice of three things: He was out of breath. How far did I run he thought frantically.

He didn’t see Sebastian anywhere, nor did he recognize where he was. His heart picked up speed and his eyes darted to and fro, trying, and failing to locate Sebastian. Maybe I didn’t run as far as I think. But even as he thought this he knew it was wishful thinking. 

“Dad?” Jaxsen spun in a slow circle. People walked past him, paying the small boy no mind. “Daddy?” he called again, panic seeping into his tone. He began walking in the direction he thought he might have come, but stopped uncertainly when he rounded a corner.

“Daddy?” He called a bit louder. He was really becoming frightened now. Sebastian was nowhere to be seen, he was undoubtedly lost, and he was going to get in trouble for accidentally wandering off. “Daddy?” he whimpered as he looked around.