MEANT TO BE

BY FATIMA ALI RAZA.

Disclaimer: I don’t own the Quest Team, and am making no money out of this fic.

Category: Weird. HR (later), I don’t know if it’s angst or not.

Rating: Universal.

Archivers: Go for it.

Note: this is the year 2005.

            It was a beautiful Sunday morning, in Rockport Maine, and seventeen-year-old Jessie Bannon was sure that there would be no morning prettier than this one. She was gloriously, joyously, blissfully happy.

            Estella had called her up this morning and had told her that she and Race had decided to get remarried.

            And ever since that call, Jessie had been unable to wipe the silly grin off her face. She ran out of her room, down the hall to Jonny’s room. She knocked on the door, and then without waiting for a reply marched right in. Jonny was still asleep.

            “Jonny!!!!” she yelled.

            Jonny practically jumped three feet in the air.

            “Jess… what the--?!”

            “Jonny, Mom and Dad are getting REMARRIED!!!!”

            For a second, Jonny looked stunned, then his face broke out in a pleased smile. He got out of bed and hugged Jessie. 

            “Jess, that’s fantastic!!”

            “I know! I’m so psyched.”

            She drew out of the hug, and looked at him.

            “I’ve been waiting for this for years.” She whispered. And her eyes watered over.

            “Oh, Jess. I know it’s wonderful” he stroked her hair.

            The wedding was a quiet affair, taking place at a local church. All the members of the Quest Team were there, along with Neela, Pasha and Hadji’s fiancée Fatima. Jonny had never seen Jessie so full of glee. She couldn’t seem to stop smiling.

            When the vows were said, and Race kissed Estella, Jessie suddenly burst into tears. Jonny hugged her.

            “It’s OK, Jess. It’ll be better this time.” He promised.

One week later, a bunch of suitcases could be seen outside the Maine Mansion. Estella, Race, and Jessie were leaving the Compound. For good.

            As they all exchanged sweet parting words and hugs, all their eyes were misty. The Quest Team was being broken into two.

            As Race hugged Jonny, the younger boy felt a sharp contraction in his chest. Race was leaving forever. For as long as they lived, there would be letters, and phone calls and emails, but somehow, he knew that things would never be the same again. Race had always been like a parent, only better, because he wouldn’t reprimand Jonny on his boyish escapades, but her helped him cope with the aftermath of those escapades. It was like losing his mother all over again.

            Before Jonny knew it, Jessie was in his arms. He hugged her very tightly, as if trying to capture her very essence, as if trying to take in her smell, her touch, her feel, so that he would always be able to remember her.

            “Goodbye, Jess. I hope we meet again.”

            As Jessie boarded the plane that would take her away from the Quests forever, she felt physically ill. True, she was ecstatic about her parents’ reunion, but one part of her was left hurting very badly because she was being separated from the people whom she had learned to love, respect and cherish over the last few years. She was going to miss her old life dreadfully. Each member of the Quest Team had taught her something. Hadji had taught her how to be patient. Dr. Quest had taught her the meaning of hard work and determination. And Jonny…

            Jonny Quest had influenced her life in more ways than she could count. He had taught her what smiling in the face of adversity really meant. He had taught her how to put others’ needs before your own, and how to save someone else’s hide at the expense of your own. He had taught her how to play, how to laugh, for she had been a patient of manic depression when she had first come to live with them.

            But most of all, he had taught her how to love. He showed her what caring really meant by each little gesture he made. He had reached out to her when she was scared and lonely and upset. He had always been there when she had needed him. And now…

            Now they were moving thousands of miles away from each other.

            She sat down in her window seat, and waved to them all one last time before the plane took off.

            Sitting back in her seat, and letting the tears fall freely now, Jessica Bannon wondered what the new life that lay ahead of her would bring.

The End of part 1.