Jo is standing in the kitchen, preparing dinner after a long day of work. She's exhausted, tired, all she wants to do is sleep. But there are hungry mouths she had to feed. Two to be exact, but those two eat like four.
They have always been like that. Jo can remember long nights when she had to feed two hungry mouths all by herself. And of course they were always hungry at the same time. Maybe because they are twins.
Jip, twins.
A really easy decision that Jo made almost 20 years ago.
Crazy how time flies by.
But to be honest Jo is quite happy that it flew by so quickly.
And she is happy that she has her twins.
Back then, 20 years ago she wasn't really sure if she made the right decision.
Back then she reacted quite irrational.
20 years ago she was left heartbroken.
Alone.
By the man that had always promised to never leave her.
And then he left.
To be with another woman and their kids.
He left. Left her alone in a way to big, way to empty, way to quiet loft.
Sure she had Levi living with her for some months but when he moved out, she made a decision.
She didn't want to be alone anymore.
She wasn't quite ready for a new man on her side.
And to be honest she didn't need a man.
There has never been a man in her life that she could trust fully.
She thought she could trust Alex but in the end she saw who was left in her corner.
Only herself.
So she made a decision for herself.
And got herself what she never had.
A family.
Yes.
After way to many calls and way to many appointments in offices that she knew way to good from her childhood, she adopted her little boy.
The little boy she held in her arms back than as the safe haven volenteer.
And through all that process of adopting him, it came out that he had a twin sister, which was submitted by their mother at another fire station.
So in the end Jo adopted both twins.
And she didn't regret it one minute.
It was the best thing she had done. For herself and for them.
She gave those two the home she never had as a child.
And those two gave Jo stability and joy that she had really needed in that time.
Without them, she was sure, she would have fallen into that dark hole of depression again.
"Mom?"
Totally lost in her own world the loud screaming voice of her son gets Jo back to reality.
"In the kitchen."
With that her son walks through the kitchen door and sits down on the island, opposite from his cooking mother.
"Could my friend maybe come to dinner? She's in town with her dad to visit some family and I kind of invited her already because she really doesn't want to go there. Please?"
That's something he learned really quickly. Puppy dog eyes. Something his mother couldn't say no to.
And he hoped it would work this time too.
"Yeah why not." Jo shrugs her shoulders and smiles at her son.
You can't tell her but he really loves how easy going and cool his mom is. She always has been like that.
She didn't have it easy as a single mom but she really did her best.
He had never felt not 100% loved by his mom, even though he and his sister weren't her biological kids.
She really gave them the best life. Even after a long and hard work day she always found her time for them. Back when they were little she had always played with them after work. Or years later sat with them until late in the night to learn for an important test. Or like now cooks for them after a twenty-four hour shift in the hospital.
"Thank you." He is about to leave the kitchen, when he hears his mothers voice again.
"Parker Joseph, where do you think you're going?"
With a sign he turns around in the hall and plops town at the kitchen island again.
"And now you tell me something about that friend. What's her name? How do you know her?"
He hates that smirk on his mother's face. Sure she was easy going but she also always wants to know everything.
He signs while looking at his mom.
"Well her name is Ally and she's not from here. She's from the East and visits family here in Seattle. With her dad like I already said. I know her from college. She's in my anatomy class and we are lab partners. And- I like her, ok?"
He's looking directly into his mother's eyes to clear his point.
"Ok."
She's smiling back at him with a toothless smile, still stirring in the pot in front of her.
"Sounds like she's pretty cool. I'm excited to meet her. What time did you tell her to come?"
Parker takes a quick look to the clock on the oven.
"Ah- I told her 8 but I don't know, her dad is dropping her off on his way to his friend's house."
Jo also checks the clock which shows 7:31.
"Alright than you could make yourself helpful and set the table."
As told Parker stands up from the bar stool and grabs plates, knives and forkes out of the clean dishwasher and starts to set the table.
"Ahm- There's one more thing. Could you maybe change before she's coming?"
He's not looking at his mom while asking that.
"What? What's wrong with my clothes?"
Jo's looking down on herself and couldn't really find anything wrong with her outfit.
She was wearing sweatpants and an old oversized t-shirt.
"Well nothing. I think you look cool. You know I like your style mom, but Ally said that her dad wants to meet you before he is leaving her here, so..."
Parker is now sitting on one of the chairs on the dining table and waits for his mother's reaction.
"Aww you want your mother to look appropriate when she's meeting her future daughter in law's dad."
With another smirk on her lips she's teasing her son.
"I never said that I like her that way, mom."
"Yeah, sure."
With a wink she stops stirring the spaghetti sauce and walks over to where her son is sitting.
"I'm gonna go change now, alright? Could you have an eye on the spaghetti, so it doesn't burn?"
With that his mother walks out of the kitchen and through the hall up the stairs to change.
She puts on a pair of jeans and tucks the old t-shirt she was still wearing in. On her way back down she makes a quick stop at Emery's already open door.
"Emy, dinner is ready."
"I'll be there in a second. I'm gonna change real quick for our special guest."
With a laugh Jo's leaving her daughters room and walks down the stairs, when she hears talking from the front door.
She turns around the corner of the hallway that leads to the front door, when she stops dead in track.
Two big eyes stare back at her.
Everything around her is imediatally silent.
And she's just staring.
Very slowly she's coming out of her numbness, to find her voice again.
"Alex."
