Title: Immensity
Category:One Tree Hill
Characters: Quinn James, Clay Evans
Prompt: Crush
Rating: T – For near death experience.
Length:One-Shot – 4,028 words.
Summary: A mysterious woman appears on the beach every night, a camera around her neck. Clay wonders who she is and will he ever meet the woman he is slowly falling in love with from a distance. One night, the two are forced together. One-Shot.
Notes: This is set in a time before Clay and Quinn have met each other. As you'll probably figure out while reading it. I also don't really know how the prompt of 'crush' brought me to this, but it did, and I just went with it.
The moon laid its reflection over the sea superbly. Gracing the woman who sat on the sand, casting its light over her miraculously. Her pale bluish grey eyes mirrored the moon as it reflected in her eyes' dark pupils.
It was nights like these that Quinn James lived for. Nights when she was alone on the beach, just her and the moon, a camera at her side and waves lapping lusciously at her feet, that she loved the most. Quinn never liked the sea. It was an immensity she was scared of. The unknown and vastness worried her more than most. But after the first night, she let a toe dip into the water. As if somehow she were slowly facing that fear, a toe at a time. She was up to both of her feet at the moment, and she was not really willing to go further, for now she was satisfied with her effort. The lapping at her feet, calmly nipping her every so often made her feel at one with herself. Mr. Moon and her trusty Nikon at her side
She liked to believe that this was her own immensity. Her own vast world surrounding her, and with a camera at her side, Quinn James could do anything and be anything.
Like a ritual, Clay Evans would pull back his curtains and watch her, in a trance. Her beauty in the moonlight. The calmness she portrayed. He could never believe himself to be falling in love with a woman he had never actually met before.
Clay stumbled upon her one morning, while she lay fast asleep on the beach, her Nikon in a bag next to her, soft breathing. That couldn't be considered the first time they met, technically, she hadn't saw him; she still had not. Despite all of this, he found himself falling for her. Clay had never believed in love at first sight, or love at all, not after Sara. Despite that, somehow one look at the woman had taught him to believe. Her beauty took his breath way. It gave him a reason to believe.
She came back to the forefront of his mind, like a sledgehammer removing him from her beauty. Sara. His deceased wife; She was the reason as to why he could not love, not again. He would not erase her memory like that. One last glance at his forbidden treasure and he was gone, jogging away.
He let the curtain fall out of his hand, sipping from his cup of water lovingly. Watching her and getting lost in her immensity. Every night he found himself wondering who she was and what she was doing. A part of him did not want to, knowing that if he screwed it up, he may never see her again.
"You know, if you keep on doing this she's going to get a restraining order on you." Sara raised her eyebrows, walking seductively around him. She ran a smooth hand over his t-shirt clad abs.
Guilt streamed through his eyes, "Sorry." Clay apologized, shifting the curtain back to its original place. He looked around, placing the cup down and settling into his favourite chair.
"Baby," Sara said, crawling onto the arm of the chair, "Maybe you should go talk to her." She encouraged.
"I don't want to." He told her, coldly, looking through a newspaper he had obviously searched through a million times before.
Sara gave a sigh and looked him dead in the eyes, "Why baby? You know you want to." She prompted him.
"I won't do it." He told her, fiercely shaking his head.
"Do what? Just talk to her? Sweetie, talking to her isn't going to do any harm." She knew his buttons, and she knew how to push them exactly.
"No! You know what, I won't!" His hand slammed into the arm of the chair where Sara no longer seemed to be.
Standing next to the curtain again, she fought to look through the gap.
"I won't go and talk to her, I won't fall in love with her and I will not erase all my memories of you!" He shouted furiously.
"Baby," She walked over to him again, laying a hand on his arm, "You won't erase me, you will make new memories, and I will be happy knowing that you're moving on."
A tear fell down Clay's face, which he was swift to wipe away. "I won't. I won't do it." Instead of shouting, he just shook his head and sat back in the chair. "I won't." He whispered.
"Fine." Sara said, "Live alone!"
Just like she appeared, Sara Evans was gone, a breeze blowing the curtains where she previously stood. Rising from the chair, Clay looked back out of the window. There she was, the mysterious woman, sitting in the sand. Furiously, he let the curtain fall from his palm, the rubbed the tears off of his cheeks. Instead of walking back into his bedroom, Clay grabbed a beer and wallowed in his chair in self-pity. The same as most nights.
.
"Hi Haley." Quinn gave a smile, walking in through the backdoor of her sister's home.
"Morning Quinny." Haley greeted, while mixing a bowl of pancake batter.
"Oh! Breakfast, I'm starving." Quinn told her, sitting at the kitchen bar.
Haley licked a small portion of the batter off of her finger, "And where were you out to all night?" Her eyebrows rose, "I'm guessing not with your husband." She cocked her head to the side.
"He isn't my husband anymore, Haley." Quinn replied.
"Maybe you should tell him that instead of running away from it." Haley crept around the counter and picked up Quinn's sand clad bag, "Obviously no where fun, especially with your camera, unless…" She put the bowl of batter on the counter, which Quinn took and began stirring.
"There are no naughty pictures, Haley." She raised one eyebrow with a smirk.
"So what were you doing all night?" Her sister laughed back, giving up on trying to hold the camera without getting some of the mix on it.
Quinn sighed and smiled, "It was a beautiful sunrise." She informed her little sister.
"I bet." Haley began to pour some of the mix into a pan just as loud footsteps bound down the stairs.
"Aunt Quinn!" Jamie excitedly cheered as he saw his Aunt sitting there.
"Hey buddy!" She smiled, giving him a big cuddle then helping him onto the tall stools.
"Morning beautiful." Nate said, giving Haley a kiss. "Hey you goof." He rubbed at Jamie's hair, "Morning Quinn, or should I say 'goodnight'?" He laughed slightly, mimicked by his wife in the background.
"She was taking pictures of 'the sunrise'." Haley smirked at her husband.
Quinn lost their conversation when her nephew started to speak to her, "Hey, Aunt Quinn, are we still hanging out today?"
"We sure are buddy, so why don't you eat up, we have a long day ahead of us."
After they had eaten their breakfast, Jaime had bounded up the stairs to get ready. Quinn let a yawn escape her mouth.
"Someone's tired. If you want I can take him to the studio with me so you can get some sleep." Haley offered, pouring her sister a little more coffee. Quinn shook her head, caught in another yawn.
"I can take him to Clay's with me, he loves it there."
Quinn shook her head again, "No, really. He's fine with me. Besides, if there's anyone that can keep me awake, it'll be him. We have a very busy day ahead."
.
"Wow." Jamie said with ice cream smeared down his chin.
"Wow what?" Quinn asked, laughing at his massacred ice cream and wiping some off o f his shirt.
Jamie took another lick of the ice cream, adding another messy splotch to his top. "How did we manage to do all of that?" He asked, in amazement.
"What do you mean?" Quinn asked, taking a sip of her drink.
"Well…" He got out his fingers and started to list off all of the things they had done: "We've played Horse and some baseball, we went bowling and to the arcade, we've been to the fairground, saw a petting zoo and we even went to the cinema!" He exclaimed. "That's seven… We've only been out for…" Carefully he checked the time on his watch, "seven hours! That's a thing an hour!"
"Yeah!" Quinn smirked, when in all actuality, they had spent a good few hours playing games. Horse had not lasted that long since she was never very good at it, and the little boy creamed her at it. Baseball went down the same way horse had. The park had set up a small fairground with only a few rides and a petting zoo. She and Jamie went on a few of the rides and then looked at the animals before heading off to bowl where the arcade was. Exhaustion had started to set in after that, so she visited her last resort. The cinema. At one point she was sure she fell asleep in there; she couldn't even remember what film they were seeing, for all she knew it could have been far too inappropriate for Jamie. "So, buddy, I have an idea, what about we go home and we go out in the pool. Sound like fun?" An eager nod had her picking up her purse and car keys, leading the little boy back to her car.
.
"Alright, J-Man, let's see what you've got." She encouraged him, already submersing her legs into the water and perched on the side.
"J-Man?" Jamie questioned, shaking his head.
She gave a laugh. "What? You don't want to be J-Man any more?" Quinn questioned.
"Seriously?" He watched as his Aunt shrugged, "What do you think I am, five?" He shook his head once again.
"Be warned, I can deduct points for that smart mouth of yours!" She teased him.
Jamie pulled a tongue at her and she pulled one back before the little boy banded towards the pool. Wrapping his arm around his legs, he shouted, "Canon ball!" splashing water all over.
Once he popped back up from the water, Quinn waited a moment to decide her score, before happily saying, "Definite ten, even with points deducted."
"Yes!" The little boy cheered, before paddling around the pool, " So, Aunt Quinn?"
The woman who was previously resting her eyes looked up at the little boy, checking he was in no signs of distress, "Mmm?" She asked, letting a yawn escape her.
"I was thinking, after we swim and have dinner, can we play some Rock Band?"
"It sounds perfect." She told him.
"What time will mom and dad be home?" He asked, messing with his basketball as if floated past.
"Pretty late, Jamie. Your mom's at the studio and your dad's doing some work with his agent." Quinn informed him.
"Clay?" Jamie's head popped out of the water at hearing her words.
"Yeah buddy. They won't be home until after I put you to bed."
With a resounding sigh, he continued shooting the basketball at the two hoops on the sides of the pool, and Quinn tried anything to keep her exhausted mind from sleeping.
.
She let her body dump like a sack of potatoes against the couch, closing her eyes and almost immediately falling into the sleep she desired. Almost. A ring came out of the doorbell just as she transitioned into deep sleep, pulling her right back out of it. She groaned, sitting back up and looking around to see who or what had woken her. Jamie sounded as if he were still fast asleep and her sister and brother-in-law were nowhere to be found. Just as Quinn ruled that nothing was wrong and maybe she had woken herself up, another ring came out of the doorbell.
With a heave, Quinn James opened the door with a grumpy huff, "What?" She exclaimed. Rubbing her loose messy hair out of her face.
"Nice too see you too." David replied, both eyebrows rose. "Can I come in?" He asked, looking around the house.
"No." Quinn told him bluntly.
"I do believe this is my sister-in-law's house, not yours." He informed her.
Quinn stepped out onto the doorstep, glancing back up the stairs she closed the door after herself, "She isn't home." She told him, "What the hell do you want, David?"
"My wife." He replied bluntly, handing her a bouquet of roses.
With a scoff, Quinn shook her head and didn't take the flowers from him, "I was actually looking forward to seeing you." His eyes lit up, "Because I need to tell you that I want a divorce." Before he could get another word in, Quinn continued, "No, David. You've changed. You aren't the man I fell in love with and I can't do this any more. Not with you." With a swift movement, she took the rings off of her finger, "Here." She placed them in his palm.
"But you were still wearing them." He tried to reason.
Quinn sighed, "Only so I could give you them back. It's over David. Please stop calling." Tears welled up in her eyes; she was on the brink of breaking down. No, she would not do that in front of him, he did not deserve to see her do that. Carefully, she let herself back into the house, closing the door behind herself. She slid down the wooden panel, tears streaming down her face.
A part of her was unsure how long she sat there and cried before she pulled her weak body off of the floor and walked into the kitchen, attempting to clean all of the mess from the dinner her and Jamie had attempted to make.
"Well, well." Nathan said, smirking. "Haley always said you were a bad cook." He told her, laughing.
Quinn turned around from the counter she had been wiping down for the past few minutes, "Yeah, I think Jamie was relieved when I finally ordered pizza. But we had fun." Her words came out broken at first; she swallowed and gathered herself with a sniffle before finishing her sentence.
"Quinn? Hey!" Nathan looked sadly at her, seeing the redness of her face and the tear tracks down her cheeks. He tried to envelope her in a hug, but it was turned down as Quinn went back to cleaning the exact same side. "Hey, hey." He spun her shoulder so she looked at him, "What's happened?" A part of him felt uncomfortable, knowing this was far from his job, begging for his wife to walk in.
"Nothing." Quinn told him, trying once again to clean the side.
This time Nathan took the cloth from her hand, holding it in his own, "I'll take care of that, Quinn. What happened?"
She was in a situation, fight or flight. At the moment, her thought was flight, and that was what she did. "I, I have to go." Her hand grabbed the car keys off of the side and walked out of the door. Getting in her car and driving.
Where she was driving she never knew, but she carried on, heading down the roads she normally drove, her parked car finally landed at the entrance to the beach. The one place she felt free.
Her regular spot was left untouched at this time of night, even if it were only eleven at night. The moon welcomed her as it always did, and the waves lapped at her feet. If she hadn't been so emotional, overwhelmed by her feelings, Quinn James might have noticed the ferocity the waves were hitting her at.
Unfortunately for her, tonight was the night. The night she wanted to face it all. The immensity. Knowing David was here only made her want to face it even more. Find out what lay inside the immensity, how far it could take her away. Hopefully away from here.
.
A shrill cry filled his ears and he shot out of the chair he was sitting in, a half empty bottle of beer fell to the floor, smashing and spilling everywhere. Another shriek had Clay running straight out of the patio doors, looking out to see where it was.
"Help!" The words were muffled, yet he heard them. Water silencing her cries.
He froze momentarily. Then realized he had to get a move on. Within a minute, Clay had run out of his house and out into the sea.
Where was she?
The waves were furious, sweeping him away, almost taking him off of his feet. For a moment he had to wonder why she would be out here, standing in the waves like normal on a night like this. The cold wind bit away at him.
"Hello!" He called out, a hand struggled to reach out of the water to him.
Running out into the water, he did not give a thought to the waves soaking his clothes and freezing his body; all that mattered was her. His head went under the water, searching for the woman, and finding her instantly. She looked passed out, like the waves had already consumed her. Clay knew it would only be a matter of time before he had to save her. That did not seem to be easy, as every time he inched closer to her, the waves had stolen her away again.
There was not a single thought in his mind that was letting him give up; a woman's life depended on it. And that's just what he did. First his hand wrapped around her wrist, then both arms cradled her body to his, carrying her out of the water like Superman.
He lay her down on the sand, trying to see if she had a pulse of not. Thinking about how far away it is for him to call an ambulance on his home phone as his mobile, which was in his pocket was probably ruined right now.
Then she coughed. A spluttered amount of water filed the sand next to her. To save her from choking Clay helped her to sit up. Quinn let all of the water from her lungs fall out onto the sand, and then found herself pulled into Clay's body. Her hands tightly clasping his wet t-shirt.
Her sobs were muffled by the waves still trying to take her back into the sea; but he would not let them. Instead, Clay scooped her in his arms and carried her, taking her away from her once beloved beach spot into his home and setting her down on the couch. When he left her, Quinn found herself sobbing into her hands, terror still eating away at her. It was diminishing slowly but seemed to go a little faster when Clay placed a towel around her shoulders, rubbing it to dry her off.
"You're going to need to get a warm shower." He told her, using all of his better judgment not to carry her into his bed and let her cry into his chest until they fell asleep. "I've put some of my clothes on the bed that I think will be okay for tonight."
After letting another sob escape her body, Quinn swallowed and asked, "Can't you just drive me home?"
Without explaining, his arm extended to point out of the window, "There's a storm, that's why the waves were so bad."
And it all dawned upon her. She reasoned it on the fact she was exhausted and in tears, and had been for the better part of the night; that was why she hadn't realized the oncoming storm, or even heard it over her car radio.
"Go on." He tells her, "I'm going to be right here."
.
Quinn had to admit she did feel a little better after she let herself have a warm shower and get changed. She almost felt like a new woman. Almost. Thoughts of her new knight in shining armor flooded her mind, making her feel a little bit less guilty about breaking up with David; the old David would have came and saved her in the middle of the most terrifying thing of her life. Apparently, the new David did not. Maybe it was time to move on.
She laughed slightly, fiddling with his t-shirt and sweat pants that she was wearing, knowing she was going to have to stop calling him her knight in shining armor.
"I don't even know your name." She said upon re-entering the main living room.
Clay was on his hands and knees, picking up the pieces of glass and wiping away the spilled beer. "Clay. Clay Evans."
Her heart stopped, 'Clay?' It could just be a coincidence. "I'm Quinn James." She gave him a smile. "Thanks by the way." Carefully she sat herself down on the couch, turning her neck as she watched him deposit the glass and the beer soaked cloth in the trashcan.
He came and sat back in his favourite chair, facing her, "So, Quinn James, what were you doing out there?" He asked, eyebrows raised.
"I was just thinking. Normally I take some pictures, but I sort of forgot my camera." She explained.
Clay smirked, that adorable half smirk that made her heart melt, "Oh I know that, you come out here every night and do it. I meant what were you doing in the sea?" She opened her mouth to give another sarcastic response so he cut in first, "Other than drowning."
She gave a sigh, "I came out here to think. That's all." The look in his eyes told her that he believed that answer to not be good enough. Quinn shrugged and looked down at the pants he had given her. "I… Um…" She wiped a single tear away, and Clay's heart broke.
"You can tell me you know." He switched and sat on the couch next to her. "A girl tried to kill herself on my doorstep, I think I have a right to know."
At least that got a small laugh from her, "It wasn't that. I've just." She sighed again, before continuing, "I've always been afraid of the ocean."
"Can't swim?" He asks.
Quinn shook her head, "No, I can definitely swim. I just never liked… the immensity." Looking into his eyes, she searched for a hint of amusement, but only found a look of him understanding. "Every night I go out there, take some pictures and try to build up the courage to actually go full in."
"And you thought tonight was that night?"
"No… Yes? I, I got into an argument with someone really close to me, well someone who used to be, and I realized that I shouldn't have to live in a closed off world. Maybe I should face the immensity, and find something new and vast."
"And the drowning?"
Quinn gave another shrug, then a shiver as Clay wiped a falling tear off of her cheek, "I was upset, really upset, and I didn't realize how bad the waves were. One minute I was standing in the water, then I walked a bit deeper in, and by the time I had realized that I was in danger, I was being pulled under, and the waves were consuming me."
He enveloped her in another hug, letting her once again cry into him. His heart broke all over again. "Well you're safe now, and once we've waited this storm out you can go home, but for now I think you, Miss James, are pretty exhausted, so, Doctor's orders are for you to have a nice hot cocoa and to go climb into my bed." He felt her stiffen in his arms, "I'm going to sleep out here. Don't you worry." His hand once again wiped the tears off of her cheeks and he gave her a small smile, standing up he entered the joining kitchen, "So, Miss James, one marshmallow or two?"
"Two." Quinn smiled, a real smile, for the first time in a long while.
Maybe immensity had brought her to a new and vast land.
And she most definitely liked it.