Title: Bold
Fandom: Fuller House
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: DJ, Jackson
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: DJ's still got a little boldness in her in her "old" age.
Word Count: 1,651
Written For: Fan FlashWorks 396: Bold, 100 Fandom Hell Fandom #44, and Fannish 50 14. DJ Tanner
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.







Exhaustion was creeping into DJ as she made her way up the familiar school steps. She kept her eyes focused on the door and her hands full with her youngest son, inching her fingers up a little as she realized that she was going to need to change his diaper very soon. There had been a time, although she'd never voiced it aloud, when DJ had hated these steps and even more so hated the institution into which they led. She'd always been a good student, of course, but dealing with the other kids had never been easy. Kimmy had been her only true friend, and Kimmy, well, was Kimmy.

She smiled as she thought of the few times when she'd actually been fooled into thinking she was popular. The other kids had always only wanted to befriend her because of her father's money or her cute Uncle Jesse. They had never had any real interest in her herself, even when she had dated their football star, Steve. Steve could have gone so much further in life, and in his academics, than he ever had, but his desire to be accepted had led him, and nearly drowned him, in sports.

She was going to need to practice her old pitching arm, DJ thought as she spotted her children making their way toward her, their trademark, brown heads bobbing in the hallway amongst the other dismissing students. She and her sisters had always been noticed for their blonde hair, but she could not look at her boys without being reminded of their father because of those dark and attractive curls. She reached out to Jackson as he neared, observing that he glanced back to make sure his brother was on his way, and ruffled his bangs.

"Mom!" he snapped, jerking back. "I've asked you not to do that!"

"I'm sorry," she spoke honestly, unshed tears glimmering in her eyes.

Seeing the look on his mother's face, Jackson relented. He knew his hair made her think of his dad. He could sometimes see the resemblance while staring at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. It both made him love and hate his hair. "It's okay," he said but tucked his head nonetheless as he hurried pass her toward the car, another thing which she had inherited from her father, another thing she had not thought her life would contain so soon. It was a station wagon, of all things, one she wouldn't have even been able to afford if not for her father.

How was she ever going to manage these boys without her dad or theirs? She reached out for Max, but he just blew right pass her, grumbling about some stupid test and... a girl? DJ blinked in surprise. Already?? She turned after him and almost bumped into another of the mothers.

She instantly recognized the other woman as being one of the cool kids who had almost convinced her to smoke all those years ago. She couldn't quite recall her name, but she knew her face too well. Over the years, she'd seen it twisted into cruel laughter at hers or Kimmy's expense. "Oh! Hey, are you here to pick up your kids too?"

"What do I look like?" the girl, still clad in a cool leather jacket, snarled. "A soccer mom?" She took the cigarette out of her mouth and blew a puff of smoke directly into DJ's face. Smoking was prohibited on school premises these days, but before DJ could point that out, the other girl continued. "Hell nah! I'm just here for my sister's Hellions."

"Excuse me," DJ murmured as Jackson squalled, "MOM!" He and Max were bouncing up and down outside the car, a car she could remember once holding very many more members of their family.

"My boys need me," she added as she slid past the leather-clad girl. What was it her Uncle Jesse had said about people who wore leather? Too many did it just to look cool with no respect for the actual threads or their meanings.

"I bet they do," the leather-clad muttered behind DJ's back. Her voice dropped, but DJ heard her plainly, "Always thought you were so much better than us, but here you are, an unwed mother of three."

"Excuse me?" DJ retorted, turning back.

In politer company, she might have expected her old classmate to deny what she had said, but instead the other woman took another drag off of her cigarette, letting a puff of smoke go right over a child's head. DJ witnessed a teacher fumbling in the doorway, glancing back and forth between the hallway, obviously looking for some assistance, and the smoking, rude woman. DJ drew herself up to her full height despite the baby on her hip, gathered all her courage, and looked straight into the other woman's eyes. "My husband passed away saving others. He was a firefighter."

"Sure, he was."

"He was, and he was a wonderful man. I was blessed to know him, to have him to love me while he was in my life. He was taken too soon." She inclined her head toward the cigarette in the girl's hand. "Just as many others are taken too soon because of irresponsible smokers like yourself. You shouldn't be smoking around the children. It's illegal, you know."

"Yeah, yeah, I know you never had the stones to -- "

"Actually, she's right," the teacher spoke up in a somewhat tremulous voice. She held books close to her chest as she approached the other woman. "You're here for Elaine's boys, right? They're being held in detention."

"Imagine that." DJ smirked and turned back to her own children. Max was still bouncing impatiently beside the back door, but Jackson was watching her with that same intent and knowing gaze that had so often pierced his father's beautiful eyes. "I'm coming!" DJ visibly brightened, beaming at her boys, her whole reason for putting up with this place again.

She hurried to them as the poor teacher was stuck listening to the wannabe biker's complaints about having to wait for her nephews. She fastened Tommy Junior into his baby seat, jumped into the car, waited for her boys to climb in, checked her mirrors, and announced, "Seat belts."

No one spoke until she was out of the school parking lot. By that time, Max had his nose buried into his phone, but Jackson was still watching intently. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly, glancing back at Max.

DJ felt a pang in her heart at the realization that her firstborn was so intuitive to her feelings but also so protective of his baby brothers. He shouldn't have such worries at his age! "I'm fine," she murmured, focusing on the traffic and the drive home. "What do you have for homework tonight?"

"I've got a test tomorrow," he admitted, "but I'm ready for it."

"We'll see about that -- "

"That was kinda cool, Mom."

She frowned. "What was?"

"The way you stood up to Miss Biker Wannabe."

"You noticed that too, huh?"

"Hey, Uncle Jesse's told me about biking. It's not all glamorous and cool like they want to make out."

"Well," she grinned, "it is cool."

She instantly regretted her words, however, and her eyes were already closing in the knowledge of what her words were going to earn her when her son exclaimed, "See? I told you! Even you know it's cool!" He nodded enthusiastically. "I wanna be a biker when I grow up!"

"Son -- " DJ paused as she made a careful turn in the traffic, but also carefully considered her own situation. She had wanted to be so much more, to do so much more, to never again have to deal with Bayview High, Junior High, Elementary, or anything connected to it. She had never wanted to see the bullies of her past again. Yet she had. And she still didn't really regret a single important decision she had made in her life. She didn't regret having Jackson, Max, or Tommy Junior, and she most certainly didn't regret loving their dad. She did regret losing him, of course, but that wasn't something over which she'd had any power at all.

"Yes?"

"Huh?" She blinked, having forgotten what had spurred her most recent trip down proverbial Memory Lane.

"You were saying? You were about to tell me how I don't need to be a biker and my Father didn't raise me to just take so menial an approach to life?"

She smiled and glanced over at him. "Actually, I was going to say, if that's what you really want to do and be, then go for it. Just be careful while you're following your heart."

"That's bold, Mom!"

"Huh? Is it? Really?"

He grinned wide, showing her a lot of white, healthy teeth.

DJ smiled. She had stood up to the bullies and peer pressure back then, no matter how much she'd wanted to be cool, and she was still standing up today. Maybe she had been forced back here, but she was still being her own woman. She was still making the right decisions -- mostly -- and being a guiding light for her sons. Maybe she hadn't lost all her cool points after all. Maybe her life being stuck back in the old family home and the old family car wasn't so bad. Maybe she could find a way to pull this off and raise her boys in a way that would make their father proud.

"Oh, by the way, Jackson," she said as another thought occurred to her, "your Aunt Kimmy's coming for a visit this evening."

Jackson groaned audibly.

"She's not that bad -- " DJ started to defend the only friend she'd ever had outside of her family for a long time.

"Is she bringing Ramona too?"

"Yes."

Jackson groaned again, but DJ was still smiling. Yeah, maybe her life wasn't so bad at all!




The End