"Come on, dad, hurry up!" Apogee whined as she slowly pulled ahead of her father as they glided over southern Las Pegasus.
"Sweetheart, believe me when I say I'm flying as fast as I can. I've got a flight to catch, after all." Jet responded.
His daughter had so far maintained her enthusiasm about trying to reconnect with Delta, and Jet was beginning to wonder if she was stubbornly headed into disappointment. Diamond Gavel had confided, away from Apogee of course, that it was only when she threatened a court summons did Delta relent to Apogee's requested weekly two-day custody. And now here they were, at week 2, and an emergency over in Fillydelphia was going to push that to three days.
Needless to say, he wasn't looking forward to arguing with her about it in front of Apogee.
Delta was taking in the Friday morning sun, reclined in her lawn chair outside her trailer, sipping at a fresh cup of coffee. With the way she felt right now, she could strap on that LR79 in the workshop and go to the fucking moon. Cleaning the bathroom yesterday had taken most of the afternoon, and when she got done, the first thing she did was soak for an hour in her clean shower. After that, and a hearty dinner of instant noodles, she once again fell into her bed for a good night's rest.
"Mom!" She heard an excited call from up in the sky. She adjusted her new glasses, and peered up, to see a pair of ponies she honestly wasn't expecting to see for another 24 hours.
Thus, she was hit with her first pang of disappointment as she reached over to her pack of nicotine gum on the table. Nearly all of the cleaning she had been doing for the past four days had been inside the trailer; outside around the lot, everything looked nearly exactly the same. As she got up from her chair, privately grumbling that Jet wasn't going to see any of what she'd been up to, but when she saw her daughter's excited expression as she came in for a landing, she began to realize that it wasn't only to spite him, it had also turned into a surprise for her.
"Hey mom!" Apogee greeted, as she and Jet landed in the middle of the lot. "Oh wow you got new glasses!" She exclaimed as she ran up for a nuzzle.
"That's not all." She said, returning the nuzzle, before looking up at Jet expectantly.
"I've got a situation in Fillydelphia that I need to leave for right away. I'm hoping it's alright if I drop her off early." He told her, trying and mostly failing to hide his surprise at his ex's new eyewear.
"Yeah, that's fine." She answered.
Jet was taken aback. It didn't sound sarcastic, or complaining, or grumbling.
"A- Alright, great." He stuttered, really not expecting such an immediate acceptance. That had never happened before.
"Well? Have you done anything else? How's it look?" Apogee asked her mom excitedly.
"Why don't you go in and have a look for yourself?" Delta replied, Apogee bounding for the front door moments after. She couldn't help but wonder what she'd notice first. Meanwhile, she wondered why Jet hadn't left yet as he also watched his daughter open the front door and go inside, leaving it open.
"Oh wow! A flatscreen?! Are you for real?!?" She exclaimed. Delta let out a chuckle. She got it at a yard sale down the block yesterday. 20 inches; certainly beat the 15-inch cathode she had kept on the table for the past decade.
"Yeah, Potato Ponies in high definition, how about that?" She called back. Once again, she glanced back at Jet.
"Well, don't you have a flight to catch?" She asked, before turning and heading towards the trailer after her daughter.
"So you've managed to start to picking yourself up, huh? Is that a piece of nicotine gum?" He asked, noticing the pack on the table next to her lawn chair, as well as the empty ash tray. He noticed her feathers ruffle for a moment, and he finally got the hint that he was starting to overstay what very little welcome he had here.
'No, it's three pieces, Fuck Face.' Delta thought to herself silently as she turned back to her ex, not wanting Apogee to hear her colorful language.
"You can pick her up at 9 on Monday morning. No earlier. I believe that was the agreement in Gavel's mountain of paperwork?"
"It was eight pages."
"Get off my property."
As she turned back to the trailer and heard Jet turn and take off, her slowly bubbling annoyance began to subside as she stepped inside and closed the door, watching Apogee as she took in, in her experience, how the place was absolutely transformed from what she saw last week, and the sporadic visits before that.
Her looks of astonishment were way better than any surprised look she'd get from Jet.
"Can I get you anything? Boop-O-Roops? Pancakes?" Delta asked softly, her emotions rising in her chest.
"A..." She had to pause as her voice wavered as Apogee turned to face her. "A hug...?"
Apogee stood there for only a brief moment, wondering if aliens had come down, abducted her mom and replaced her with a body double. She jumped forward, front legs outstretched, and threw them around Delta's neck.
"Thanks, mom. The place looks great so far!"
"No, thank you, Apogee." Delta replied, sniffling away her tears. "For helping me see and face some truths that I needed to face. What happened between me and your dad wasn't your fault, and I can't keep shutting you out because of that. Somehow, you never gave up on me. I know there's nothing I can do to make up for the past 12 years, but I can start trying to be the mom I should have been all along, right here, right now."
Apogee released her mom from the hug and took a step back, tearing up herself.
"Yeah, that sounds fantastic. And honestly, so do pancakes." She answered.
"You got it, pancakes it is." Delta said, going over to the stove and getting a pan out from the bottom cabinet, and lit the burner. "And for lunch we can make our own pizza." She finished as she grabbed the jug of pancake batter. In a matter of minutes they were sitting together at the table, each with a stack of pancakes drizzled with maple syrup, with Potato Ponies
"Seriously, mom. This place looks great. It's just too bad that dad didn't see it." Apogee said, her mouth full of pancakes.
"Well, he can see the outside. And if you're still serious about helping, I've got something in mind for when he gets back on Monday."
"Absolutely. Just tell me what to do."
Once they were finished with breakfast, they quickly washed the dishes, then went outside to the workshop, where Delta dragged out a piece of machinery that honestly looked like a suitcase, with two hoses attached to it; one went to a spigot around back, and the other was a bit thinner, and had a long nozzle gun attached to the end of it. Delta checked the oil and gas levels, turned a knob, and gave the pull start a yank. The small motor choked and sputtered for a few seconds, then started right up.
"What is that?" Apogee asked.
"This..." Delta began, holding up the nozzle gun, "is a pressure washer. It's just about as fun as a flamethrower. Want to try it?"
"Heck yeah!" Apogee answered excitedly.
Delta wheeled the washer over to the front of the trailer, gave the nozzle gun a short test spray, then offered it to her daughter.
"So what do you say we get the outside of this place looking like new. Have at it."
Delta Vee felt something akin to pride when she saw her daughter take the nozzle gun and look at it like she looked at a box of matches.
"Alright, Apogee. Let 'er rip!"