JC woke up with a pit in his stomach and couldn’t remember why until he saw the papers from Charlotte Peters resting on his bedside table. He rubbed his eyes and saw that it was almost 7:00. He hadn’t fallen asleep until nearly 2:00 and had plans to pop by the doctor’s office at 8:00 before heading to the studio. He’d left a message with Dr. Carnes, his doctor of nearly 10 years. They’d developed a good doctor/patient relationship and Dr. Carnes had called him back at 10, letting JC know that he was fine to come in first thing the next morning. JC had then called Jimmy and let him know what had happened and that he had no other choice but to bring Emma-Claire into work with him.

He slowly got out of bed and made his way down the other end of the hallway to where Emma-Claire was sleeping. The door was still cracked and JC poked his head in to see the little girl snuggled against the pillows fast asleep. How did he wake her up? He tried to remember how his mother had woken him up as a child, but most of the time Tyler had beat her to it by playfully pouncing on his older brother. Obviously, that was out of the question. He walked over to the bed and gently tapped Emma-Claire’s shoulder.

“Hey, Emma-Claire. You gotta get up. I have to be somewhere soon,” he said it above a whisper and loud enough to where he hoped he wouldn’t have to repeat himself again. He watched her open her eyes and look up at him. JC did a double-take. She had his eyes, there was no question and he knew it. Still, he wanted a paternity test to be 100%. The child said nothing, only yawned and sat up in the bed. He didn’t know whether or not to stay and help her get dressed or what to do next. Nothing came naturally to him when it came to this little girl. He watched as she climbed down from the bed and went into the bathroom. In a minute he heard the toilet flush and she came back out and stood in the doorway.

“So, we probably should get you some clothes for today, huh?” JC went over to the suitcase in front of the bed and began to dig around. How the hell did he dress up a little girl? He pulled out a pair of jeans and a short sleeved floral top. “How’s this?”

Emma-Claire nodded and walked over to him. She lifted her arms and JC helped her out of her Jasmine pajamas, laying them on the bed. Then he helped her into her jeans and top and surveyed his work. “Good. Now I’ve got to get ready. Why don’t you go downstairs and –“

“Mommy and Grandma always brush my hair,” Emma-Claire told him. She reached into her suitcase and handed him a brush. JC cleared his throat and nodded at her, seeing that he hadn’t even taken her braids out from the night before. Ok, he wasn’t stupid. He could do this. He sat down on the edge of the bed and Emma-Claire stood in front of him. He slowly took each strand of hair out of the braids and when he was finished, Emma-Claire’s hair looked as though it had been through a crimper. He winced as he brushed out her hair, but she stood still and let him finish.

“Sorry, I don’t know how to do hair,” he told her, apologetically.

“It’s okay,” Emma-Claire answered and turned around, giving him a smile. “Can I have breakfast now?”

Breakfast. Right. JC tried to think about just what exactly was in his pantry since he was never really home for meals and never really ate breakfast. “Um, yeah. We’ll go check,” he walked out of the room, Emma-Claire behind him, and they both headed downstairs to the kitchen. He found an apple in the refrigerator and milk that hadn’t gone bad. The only other option was leftover pizza. In five minutes, Emma-Claire was sitting at the table with a plate filled with cut up apple pieces and two slices of pizza. “We’ll go grocery shopping when I get done working,” JC told her as he began to leave the kitchen. “I have to go get ready. I’ll be back in a few minutes, okay?”

Emma-Claire only nodded silently and began to dig into her breakfast.

JC hadn’t realized just how long it had taken him to get Emma-Claire ready, fix her breakfast, and then dress himself. By the time they left the house, it was already 8:00 and he’d had to call Dr. Carnes to let him know he’d be late. Then he called Jimmy to tell him he’d be there as soon as he was finished with his appointment. Emma-Claire sat in the backseat of JC’s SUV and looked out the window on the drive to the doctor’s office. JC had scared her as soon as he’d started the car, because he’d forgotten to turn down his music from the night before and a dub-step demo he’d been listening to had blasted throughout the vehicle, causing Emma-Claire to promptly put her hands over her ears and make a face. JC had immediately turned it off and apologized, hoping to get her laughing, but she was simply quiet and didn’t say anything until after the doctor’s appointment.

“How come you went to the doctor?” she asked him, as he pulled out of the parking lot an hour later.

“I had to just get something checked,” JC replied, looking at her through the rearview mirror. Dr. Carnes had assured JC that he would have the results as soon as possible and hopefully within the week. But the minute the doctor laid eyes on Emma-Claire, he quietly told JC that it was obvious whom she belonged to, but JC had only shrugged and added once more that he needed absolute proof.

“What are you gonna do with her here all day?” Jimmy asked him later that morning, after JC had settled Emma-Claire on a couch with one of her coloring books. He’d been proud of himself for remembering to bring it at the last minute along with her set of crayons.

“I’ve gotta work. She’ll be fine. She’s got a coloring book,” JC answered, swiveling back and forth in his chair.

“You do realize she’s the spitting image of you,” Jimmy pointed out, making JC aware of this fact for the third time that morning.

“I do,” JC faced away from Jimmy to set a few dials on the monitor in front of him.

“What are you gonna do when that paternity test comes back positive?” Jimmy prodded.

“I’ll think of that later,” JC almost snapped at him. “Let’s not talk about it, ok? She’s fine right now and that’s all that matters.”

Annie’s heart was in her stomach as she walked out of the McGriffin’s house for the last time. The night before, Ruby and Henry had made ice cream sundaes with her and watched their favorite movie together, The Goonies. Henry always liked to pretend he was on a treasure hunt with Annie after they had watched it and the night before had been no different. Patsy had allowed her children to stay up later than normal because she knew it was important to them to have all the time they could with Annie. That morning, Annie had gotten up with them like she always did, ate breakfast, helped load the dishwasher and hugged them tightly when their carpool ride came to take them to school. Ruby was in tears and Henry was sniffling as they got into the car.

“I promise I will come and visit,” Annie kissed Ruby’s cheek. “And you have my email and we’ll FaceTime. Okay?”

“It’s not the same!” Ruby sniffed.

“No, it’s not. But you and Henry are very important to me and I will always be here for you,” Annie hugged her once more and let her run to the car. Patsy stood behind her and they both waved at the kids as the carpool pulled out of the driveway.

“What time is Megan getting here?” Patsy asked, as she poured a cup of coffee. “Do you have time for a cup?”

Annie nodded. “She’ll be here around 10,”

Patsy sat down at the kitchen table with Annie and they chatted for a good two hours about the last four years. Annie swore she would come and visit and Patsy had assured her that she would always have a place to stay at their home. Annie looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was nearing 10:00. Just then, Megan pulled into the driveway.

“It’s not goodbye,” Patsy assured Annie, as the two women hugged at the front door. “You’ll be back to see us.”

“I know,” Annie wiped away a stray tear that was falling down her cheek. “Thanks for everything, Patsy. You’ve been amazing.”

“You are amazing, my dear,” Patsy squeezed her once more. “Email me sometime this week or whenever you’re settled back in Ohio.”

“I will,” Annie forced a smile and walked to Megan’s car, turning once more to wave at Patsy.

“That’s the worst part of the job,” Megan sighed, as she put her car in reverse. Megan had been a nanny in Beverly Hills for six years and considered it her real job for now. She’d gone to school in Northern California and had plans to come to L.A. and work as a sous chef for some fancy restaurant in Bel Air. None of that had gone according to plan and instead, she’d found herself in the homes of some of Hollywood’s elite. Right now, she was the nanny for a Lakers ball player and before that, she’d worked for Jessica Alba.

“Well, thankfully, that’s the last time I’ll ever have to do that,” Annie sighed and rested her head against the back of the seat and watching the ritzy Beverly Hills neighborhood pass her by.

By eight that evening, the girls had laid down most of the tracks for their album and all that was left was polishing. Everyone was pretty exhausted, including little Emma-Claire, who’d obediently sat in the same spot for hours on end, occasionally getting up and asking JC for the bathroom or for a drink of water. For lunch, they’d all ordered in pizza and JC felt for the kid because she’d now had pizza for the last three meals in a row.

“Same time tomorrow,” he announced to the girls as they were dispersing. “We gotta get ready for some upcoming shows.”

“You bringing the kid?” Jimmy asked out of earshot.

“No idea what else to do with her,” JC hissed back. “I’m calling my mom tonight. She said she’d come out and help with her while I figured stuff out.”

“Right. But in the meantime. Like tomorrow?”

JC looked over at Emma-Claire, who was sound asleep on the couch. He winced at that. She hadn’t even had dinner and he still needed to stop at the grocery store so she could have breakfast tomorrow.

“Look, take tomorrow off,” Jimmy told him. JC tried to protest but Jimmy continued. “No, man, you need to. Take off tomorrow, tell your mom to get here and in the meantime, I’ll see if I know of anyone who can recommend a nanny.”

“A nanny? That sounds so permanent,” JC collected his things and went over to the couch where Emma-Claire was resting.

“Don’t be a jerk, man. You know she’s your daughter. You can look at her without a damn test. And I know you’re too nice of a guy to just dump her in the system,”

JC sighed loudly and looked down at the sleeping child. He looked back at Jimmy and shook his head. “Dude, I don’t know what I’m doing,” He reached down and gently lifted Emma-Claire off the couch. She woke up immediately and rubbed her eyes, then smiled sleepily at JC, before resting her head on his shoulder. He was surprised by that gesture and looked at Jimmy, who shook his head and chuckled.

“Looks like you got it so far,” Jimmy assured him, as they walked out of the studio.

“We’re going to stop at the grocery store,” JC told Emma-Claire as they drove out of the parking lot. “And then we’ll go to In-N-Out for dinner. Do you like hamburgers?”

“Yes,” Emma-Claire responded.

“Great,” JC sighed and rubbed his neck as he drove towards the freeway. He was somewhat relieved that he’d gotten a day off the next day. Granted, he knew his mind would be going a mile a minute because he was constantly going to be thinking of new things to do for the band, but he also knew that he couldn’t bring Emma-Claire to the studio again. Although she’d been well behaved, her bathroom breaks came quite frequently and even though he didn’t know that much about kids, he figured another all-day coloring book session would start to get old really fast.

Once he was at home, JC fed Emma-Claire her dinner and then took her upstairs for bed, as it was well past 8:30. “You get to sleep in tomorrow,” he told her, as she climbed into bed. “I don’t have to go to work.”

“Wait,” Emma-Claire hopped out of bed and went over to where she’d placed her coloring book.  She opened one of the pages – Belle dancing with the Beast – and handed it to JC. “I colored that for you.”

JC looked at the picture and couldn’t help but smile. “Oh yeah? Well, thanks,” Emma-Claire gave him a grin and crawled back into bed. “Okay. Sleep tight. See you tomorrow.”

He went to crack her door and saw her take her picture out from under her pillow, kiss it, and only then did she descend into the covers.

“You have to come, Mom. She’s great but I have no idea what the hell to do with her,”

Karen chuckled on the phone. “Fine, honey. I’ll get there tomorrow night as fast as I can. I’m just glad you have the day off and she doesn’t have to go into the studio with you. She must have been bored to tears!”

“No, she had her coloring book. She colored me a picture,”

“Oh, Josh, that is precious. Is she calling you ‘daddy’ yet?”

“She doesn’t really call me anything. She’s pretty shy,”

“I’d say her coloring that picture for you means something,”

“Well, I still don’t know what I’m doing,”

“You’ll get the hang of it. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know when I will be in town okay? Could you come pick me up?”

“Of course,”

“With my granddaughter, I’m assuming?”

“Well, your unofficial granddaughter, yes,”

“Right. Unofficial,”

“See you tomorrow, Mom,”