Hehe have a short Jean, Cat, and Jeremy story!
Neil: Back at the airport. Flight lands at 3pm
Andrew and Kevin were waiting for him at the airport when Neil landed. He was exhausted. After he'd dropped Jean off back at his house, Neil had gone to meet Stuart at a hotel room where they had talked strategy late into the night. He'd verified that his hit on Grayson had reached the right people and would be taken care of in the next day or two. And he asked Uncle Stuart for one extra favor. He went to the airport after that and slept on the plane.
He gave them a brief rundown of what had happened, omitting the parts about Grayson and Elodie. He wasn't sure Jean would want him sharing about that with Kevin. He'd fill Andrew in on the rest later, when they were in private.
A week later, a package was delivered to his school mailbox with no return address. Neil ignored all of Kevin's questions about it. The next day, he dragged Andrew down with him to the school post office and mailed off the package to Jean.
Cat grabbed the mail from the mailbox before she went inside the house after practice. It was more of the same, junk mail, a bill for electricity, some catalogues, but at the bottom is a large white envelope. There was a Palmetto return address but no name and it was addressed to Jean. Curious, she beelined for the boys' room.
They were both in there. Jeremy was afraid to leave Jean alone after what had happened with Grayson. That was only further complicated by Grayson's second suicide attempt. This time he'd succeeded and it had sent Lucas into a spiral. Jean had barely reacted, which only served to concern herself, Laila, and Jeremy even more.
"You got a package, Jean. Looks like it's from Palmetto," she said, handing the package to Jean. He took it tentatively, like he was scared to find what was inside it. Cat hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should stay or let him open it in peace. She decided that if he wanted to open it alone, he could set it aside. Instead, he carefully lifted the tape that was sealing the envelope closed.
He waited a moment before he slid the contents out on the bed. It was a pile of photographs.
"Wait, is that you?" she asked as she caught sight of a familiar scowling boy about ten years old. It was strange seeing him without his 3 tattoo. Jean didn't answer but instead gently reached his finger out to touch the little girl next to him in the photo.
"She was so young," he whispered. Jeremy had moved over to Jean's bed as well.
"Do you want to look at them alone?" he asked.
Jean hesitated a moment, then shook his head.
"Stay," he said, almost too quiet to hear. Jeremy sat down next to him and Cat sat on the other side.
"Who is the girl?" Jeremy asked.
"Elodie," Jean said. "She was my little sister."
Cat felt her blood run cold as she realized what Jean was saying. Neither she nor Jeremy said anything as Jean slowly flipped through the small pile of photographs. Each one was of him and Elodie. In some, he was holding her hand or playing with her. In one, he was glaring at the camera and holding her protectively against himself. In the last one, Elodie was crying and Jean looked angry. He was hugging the girl. It was the oldest he looked out of all the photos. Cat didn't say anything when she saw a tear slip off of Jean's nose and splash onto his arm. She leaned her head against him comfortingly.
As Jean set the last photo aside, Cat saw there was a note underneath it. In messy handwriting was scrawled a short message:
You're worth just as much as she was -N
