just a stroll... {OPEN}

[Jason Griffin]

Jason and Neveah both wanted to go and look around the recently moved in neighborhood they lived in. Neveah the sweet little four year old and the light of his life. He wouldn't trade anything in because he loved his daughter. He wanted his daughter to know that she was loved. Loved and taken care of. Her life was so supportive of her father.

Jason and Neveah were just walking down the road, towards the park that was in the vicinity of where they lived. Jason had planned on putting in a playground behind the house, but hadn't done so yet. Neveah of course wasn't a child to beg, but she was happy that she had her daddy, that she had someone she could count on.

Jason turned his attention to Neveah as she got a little bit ahead of him for his liking and took off running towards the park. "Neveah Griffin, don't you dare run like that, you don't know this area you could get hurt!" He scolded, not being he was angry, but because he was worried that she could hurt herself.

"Neveah, you need to ocme back here and walk now." He was in good shape, so he could keep up. But she was already bumping into the a women on the road. Thankfully Jason caught up finally. "I'm terribly sorry about that, Neveah usually doesn't run off like that." He sighed, grabbing a firm hand of Neveah's hand. Half tempted to return home and to not go into the park.

[Ayesha McMillan]

Ayesha was in the middle of taking deep breaths after her jog, alternating between stretching and resting her hands on her thighs, when something bumped into her.

Taking a look down she discovered that the 'something' was actually a little girl, with a man who followed close in the girl's footsteps and reigned her in just a second later.

"That's fine," she told the guy and brushed a sweat-soaked strand of hair from her face. Ayesha had not been able to take a run at all in a week, given her move to Montana and all the things she had to take care of at her home and Willow Brooke. What spare time she had found she had spent with Dance, helping the mare settle in and just enjoying her presence, so she was a little bit out of shape and perhaps she had pushed herself a little too hard for her first serious run in over two weeks, but she had enjoyed it nonetheless, and she was in a good mood. Running was one of the things that made her feel alive, and that it took a little toll on her body was an acceptable trade off.

She took another deep breath and let it out slowly. "Kids just want to play. No harm done."

Ayesha offered the girl a smile, before looking back to the man she surmised was the girl's father. She was certain she had seen him at Willow Brooke, but only at a distance, someone crossing the courtyard, or leaving the office when she was about to enter it. She still hadn't met half the staff, but Willow Brooke staff he had to be at his age, if he hung out there.

"I think I have seen you at Willow Brooke," she offered. If he was a colleague of sorts it wouldn't hurt to introduce herself, so she added, "Ayesha McMillan, pleased to meet you, Mister....?"

[Jason Griffin]

Neveah looked up and at the women. "I'ms sorryyys." She said in her cute little four year old voice. She was just so cute and it was hard to stay mad at her. Jason gave his daughter a hug.

Jason nodded. "I do apologize, sometimes she has a bit to much sugar at the daycare." He smiled down at his daughter and ruffled her hair. Her hands immediately went up and pushed him off her head so that her hair didn't get messed up. Jason could tell that he had seen this face before. However he just couldn't place where it was.

Her next sentence made Jason chuckle. "She likes to play all the time, she is just a little bit of a clutz whenever she runs like that. I swear she never looks up when she runs just down." Jason smiled and chuckled once more.

"You are right, I just wasn't sure if I had seen you in Willow Brooke either, I work as the student counselor there. I am basically one that was hired on in case the kids wanted a staff member who wasn't a teacher, stable hand, Jared, or Markus to talk too."

"Jason Griffin, and this here is Neveah Griffin." He said as he offered a hand to shake.

[Ayesha McMillan]

Ayesha took the offered hand and shook it briefly, only long enough to serve the demands of politeness. She still felt sweaty, so she didn't want to prolong the contact, but turning down the offered hand wasn't an option. She was, after all, a diplomats daughter, so simply turning down an offer made in good faith never really crossed her mind as a serious option. "Pleased to meet you, Mister Griffin."

She squatted down and looked at the little girl. "And it's nice to meet you too, Neveah." She offered the girl her hand and a smile.

When she looked up at Jason again, her smile was still in place, if perhaps a little more contemplative. "If you are the counselor I am certain we will see each other from time to time, as I am the new English teacher. And after reading the files on some of the students..."

Ayesha left the sentence unfinished and rose again. Talking about these things was really something that demanded some privacy, she thought. Discussing the problems of troubled teenagers in front of a little girl didn't strike her as the best thing to do.

"I... take it you two live somewhere around here?" she asked, to turn the conversation firmly away from work for the moment. Willow Brooke housed a good number of its staff, but Ayesha couldn't imagine someone would stay in the staff cabins with a child.

[Jason Griffin]

Jason smiled at the women. "Please call me Jason, only the students have to call me that." He shook her hand briefly though. He didn't really fall in love with anyone lately. He had been waiting to get over the fact that his wife was gone. He sighed slightly hoping to hide his disappointment in himself. She was a beautiful women and of course Jason had butterflies. Jason smiled as she spoke to Neveah.

Neveah shook her hand and gave a cheesy grin. "I'm daddys only girls, cause im his kid and mommy nots here no mores." She said with a frown. The little girl wanted her family together, but it wasn't happening. "Mommy wents to be in heavens." She frowned. She wanted her mommy back. "You kinda looks like my mommy."

Jason nodded, he had read all the files of the students there. "Your absolutely right about that." He nodded, "Those files aren't something that I find nice, there perhaps the hardest ones I have seen." Which was the truth.

"Yes we live over by, well right down the road, right there." He motioned to her. "So, you live around here as well?"

[Ayesha McMillan]

"Then Jason it will be," Ayesha told him, before she listened to Neveah's words. She placed her hand on the girl's shoulder and nodded at her.

"I am sorry. But I bet she watches you from heaven, and if you love her, she will always be with you." Ayesha wasn't very religious, but she believed there was an afterlife, that life didn't just end when a body expired. There was too much to life, too much that she thought evolution alone could explain to believe that life was all about biology and physiology alone. But losing her mother at a young age... Her expression turned thoughtful as she contemplated how much her own parents mattered to her. Losing them would be the hardest thing life could visit on her and no amount of distance or age could ever change that so she felt like she could relate to the little girl.

She wasn't quite certain what to make of the girl's comment that she looked a bit like her mother. Maybe that was just what the eyes of a young child saw in a woman who was perhaps roughly the age her mother might have been now. But Jason took her attention away from those thoughts, and she was thankful for that. Being likened to a dead woman was not the best way to start a conversation

"I have a small house somewhere around..." Ayesha looked down the street, turned so her eyes could follow the direction of the next side street hidden behind the park's trees, before she pointed across the park. "Somewhere there. I was wondering if there was a shortcut through this park. Any idea?"

[Jason Griffin]

Jason glanced towards Ayesha once more. It was pretty funny that she did look exactly like his wife whom had passed away years ago. "She does, daddy tells me that all that time, and he says that I look like her too." Jason chuckled at Neveah. "That she does, don't worry she is watching. Don't worry you do look like her." Jason said to his daughter as he ruffled her hair.

Jason nodded. "A home is a home, especially were your heart is." He told her. It was an expression he had heard the kids say once in a while at the different places he had worked. It was the same in many cases. Your home will be where your heart is, and where you're heart is only. Jason glanced towards the direction that Ayesha was looking. "Doesn't matter what size house you have as long as you love it." He smiled.

"Hmmm Neveah and I haven't been here that long. We haven't tried going through the tree's, or the park to get to our house, as its close. I don't know about the one your looking for, perhaps there is." He shrugged.

[Ayesha McMillan]

"Yes," Ayesha slowly replied, "it's important where your heart is, that a place means something to you. Otherwise it's just a house, not a home."

Her own new home... She had decorated it to her liking, had filled it with familiar objects and mementos, and Brooke Haven was slowly growing on her. Spending time with Dance, making friends, standing more on her own two feet as a teacher than ever before while working at a large school, it was all to her liking so far.

She had a feeling she could be happy in this life she had chosen. But she still missed her parents often. As often she thought it was rather silly that a grown-up woman would cling so much to her parents, but they had been the only constant in her life for the better part of it.

Ayesha turned away from Jason and Neveah to hide the mixed emotions she could feel sneaking up on her expression. She drew a deep breath and pretended to survey the tree line surrounding the park for a moment, before she spoke again.

"I wouldn't mind having some company while I look for a shortcut." She looked down at Neveah thoughtfully, speaking slowly, a little hesitantly. "When I was younger my parents and I moved a lot from place to place, never staying somewhere for more than a year or two, so I am used to exploring new places, figuring out what is where."

And it had always been her mother taking her out exploring, her dad too often being too busy. That was a large part of what had so firmly tied Ayesha to her mother, and why she felt sad about Neveah losing her own mother at a young age. But at least Jason seemed to cover for his late wife as best as he could.

[Jason Griffin]

Jason nodded, he could tell that Ayesha was agreeing with him totally or so it seemed. He smiled a bit. "Of course some of the students have a home here." He said with a reassuring and refreshing smile. Jason didn't mind spending time with Ayesha, she seemed nice. Neveah even liked her. Perhaps they would be doing other things together.

Jason glanced at her as if he was forming another question. Granted he was. However he didn't say anything in fact he was pretty silent for the most part. Jason was still fairly new at getting back into the swing of things. Dating as his daughter thinks he is ready too. Neveah wanted another mother, but Jason couldn't just replace someone that easily.

When she turned, Jason turned with Neveah a bit to give her a look that said calm it down a bit. He was always worrying about Neveah saying a bit to much. "Well I guess we can accompany you, that is if Neveah feels very much like it." Neveah of course beamed a smiler bigger then her face. "Yupperooo!" The little girl nodded.

Neveah listened to the women. "ohhhhh that hadda stink, daddy said we not movin no more, we gonna stay here." she told the women. She was very talkative for just meeting someone.

Jason smiled at his daughter. "That's my girl, so do you want to lead the way Ma'am?" He motioned towards Ayesha. He was going to call her by her first name. However he was still having manners being taught to his little girl Neveah. Afterall a girl with manners usually got things she wanted. "You gonna leads the way Ma'am?" Neveah asked Ayesha. It was so cuter when she said it. Jason couldn't help but to smile.