This is a one-shot semi-inspired by Sia's song 'Footprints.' (It's also minus Grace, just because I want to focus on these two characters.) For some reason I think it can really relate to Jonnie and their relationship. I hope you enjoy it!
As ever, I do not own casualty or any of its characters or plots that are mentioned.
He was waiting for her downstairs, humming to himself as he inspected the photos that decorated the shelves of the bookcases and surfaces of the tables in the living room. Some were just of Grace, and he could see in these how after each year she became more and more similar in looks to her mother. Others were of the two of them, but none were recent, he noticed. Grace was only tiny and Connie's hair was much shorter, and darker. His thoughts were disturbed as he heard a series of bumps from upstairs, followed by a distant curse. He grinned, and went out of the room to stand at the bottom of the stairs, arms folded and head tilted in amusement as she appeared on the landing. She wasn't really even half dressed, in a pair of dark blue jeans and a basic white bra, a walking boot in each hand before they were dropped with a thud onto the floor.
"That was the shoes, right?" He was still grinning, knowing that the boots had probably been in the back of her wardrobe for some years, buried underneath the multiple pairs of extortionately expensive heels. He couldn't help but gaze in admiration at the woman who stood on the landing above him, looking so natural and homely. Seeing her like this, that was what home meant to him. She sighed in exasperation, and went back into the bedroom. He came up the stairs and found her kneeling on the floor, putting shoes away in their proper order: light shades to dark, in ascending heel height from left to right.
"Hey, I'll do that." She shuffled around and sat back on her feet, eyebrows raised in his direction. He knelt down next to her and began to pair up the shoes and place them in the wardrobe whilst she watched, a small smile creeping up onto her features no matter how hard she tried to force it back down. He looked at her expectantly, and she poked her tongue into the side of her cheek before standing up and going to the bed, where she had laid out the rest of her clothes. She pulled a top on, flicking her hair back over her shoulders, before pulling a jumper on over the top of that. She moved to bend down to the level of the mirror on her dressing table, and tied her hair into a loose, low ponytail before turning to watch Jacob as he put her staple pair of black Louboutins and her slippers into the front of the wardrobe, just as she would have done. He got up just as she went to stand behind him, her arms around his waist, before he gently turned around and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"See, you don't just keep me here for nothing. Add personal shoe organiser to the list." She grinned, and he brushed his lips to hers before hitting her bottom lightly and gathering her gilet from the bed.
"Come on then, you. I'll get the boots."
They walked now on the pebbles, stones and shells that littered the empty beach. Her hair blew sideways in the wind, and every so often she would attempt to brush her fringe from her eyes but only minutes later and she would be struggling to see again. He held her hand tightly as she walked close to him, seeking his body heat to add to her own, and he smiled as he looked down at her.
"See, this is how sand should be, eh? Flat, and under our feet." He squeezed her hand in his, and stopped, looking out over the sea. She leaned into him, and he brought an arm around to hold her and shelter her somewhat from the wind coming off the waves.
"Mm. Not pouring from a ceiling, makes a change." She looked up at him and he felt her shiver, either from the memories of those hours in that building or from the cold, or both.
"I nearly lost you." His lips pressed into her hair and she closed her eyes, moving her thumb over his hands to acknowledge what he had said.
"Things weren't too good your end either." She rested her head against his shoulder, before continuing. "Did you really think I was going to leave you in there?"
There was a pause before he spoke, as if he was choosing his words carefully. "I love you too much to not have given you the option to get out. I didn't want you to leave... but I wanted you out of there." He swallowed, and she looked up at him before reaching up to kiss his cheek.
"Right." He relaxed his arm from around her and took both of her hands in his. "Piggyback?"
She stared at him, in disbelief. "No, I..."
"Come on sweet cheeks, it's called fun." He winked at her, intertwining their fingers and swinging their arms gently.
"Jacob, no! I'm too.."
"If you say 'old' I swear I'll..." He was interrupted as she put two fingers to his lips and gave a slight laugh. She then removed them and he raised his eyebrows at her. "You can never be too old for a piggyback. Come on." She exhaled with a noticeable huff, and he guided her around and behind him. She gave another sigh, the second one of exasperation in that day, and he grinned as he pointedly refused to lower to her height.
"I'm not jumping." He didn't have to look at her to know that she was stood there behind him, arms folded, staring into the back of his head. Still, he decided to see how far he could push it. He couldn't deny that he found this game fun too.
"Aw Con... Come on, I bet you loved leapfrog at school." He peeked around to see her unimpressed expression, stony glare and as predicted, her arms folded together.
"This is ridiculous."
"I'm not going to drop you." He turned back around and bent his knees ever so slightly, knowing that she would most likely give in what with no one else around to witness her.
"Bend down a bit more."
"What was that?"
"Jacob." He peeked around again behind him, feigning ignorance to her request.
"Bend. Down." Again he grinned, but before he had time to, he heard the scuttering of stones as she ran and leapt onto his back, her arms tangling around his neck, but taking care to make sure her boots didn't dig into him, she squeezed her legs into his sides and let her feet dangle freely, knowing he had the strength to support her. She was kissing his neck, gently biting as he shuffled to hold her, twirling her around in circles until she was screaming for him to stop. They both fought to catch their breath, in between gasps of laughter and flurries of kisses.
"You can put me down now." She said in between breaths, still smiling and tossing her hair behind her. When he made no move to let her go, she brought her head down over his shoulder to meet his, and kissed his jaw.
"Please?" She murmured, and he groaned before letting his hands slide down her thighs and gently lower her back onto the sand. Before really registering the distance between them, she gasped as she felt his arms envelop her, and pull her forcefully to him. He nuzzled his head into her neck, both bent double and staggering along the shore, him leading her onwards. The only noise to be heard was the waves, the odd seagull and the dizzy laughter of the couple, combined with the skittering of pebbles and shells as they stumbled and tripped through them.
A while later, they left the shingle behind them and walked over a stretch of damp, compact sand. They left faint footprints as they moved, fingers laced together and arms swinging gently. They would stop frequently to watch the sun as it set over the sea, turning the clouds pink and orange, and the water various shades of purple. The next time they did, the burnt orange glow of it infused at the edges with yellow and rose coloured tones, and was so intense that it quite literally took her breath away. She hadn't spent a day outside like this for longer than she wanted to admit. She felt his hand tuck strands of hair back behind her ear, chuckling as it almost instantly fell free and blew under his chin.
"I couldn't have imagined you with short hair before I saw those photographs." She looked up at him, momentarily confused. Then she remembered the frames in the living room, the photos of her and Grace on the bookcases. She didn't say anything, but he felt her lean closer against him as the breeze began to become noticeably chilly. He rested his head to hers and they stayed like that for a while, until he kissed her head and motioned for them to turn around, heading up a path in the dunes to then walk some considerable distance back to her car.
The first stars had started to appear above them by the time they arrived, and as she opened the car door she tilted her head upwards. The sky still wasn't fully dark, so she had to squint slightly to make out the constellations that were beginning to form.
"You know them?" He stood on the passenger side, his arms crossed and resting on the roof as he alternated his gaze between the sky and across at her.
"What makes you think that?" She looked at him, diverting her attention from the sky to him.
"I've seen you." He smiled, relaxing further against the body of the car, his eyes now never straying away from her. "I see you look out of that skylight upstairs every night. You're fascinated by them, and I know you, sweet cheeks. I bet you're an expert."
She laughed quietly, and bowed her head slightly, as if embarrassed. Moments later she raised it again, glancing up to see the Great Bear, then following it's curve to locate Boötes, smiling to herself as she remembered how she had spent one evening with Grace as a baby, telling her the myth of Icarius and Dionysus, along with how you could then follow it's brightest star to Virgo, who embodied the daughter of Icarius, Erigone. It was the last story she remembered her own mother telling her.
"Hey." He came around the front of the car to hold her, whispering softly as he caressed her head, which rested to his chest. He took one hand from her back to nudge the car door shut so that she could stand against it more comfortably, before letting his hands fall gently to just below her shoulders, holding her in front of him.
"We could never see them in London." She said eventually, pausing before continuing. "It was always too bright, and noisy. They're not beautiful there like there are here." He pressed a kiss to her forehead, and she reached up to touch her nose to his, before kissing his mouth. She freed her hands from his grip and placed them to his neck, felt him flinch at her cold touch before his hands went to her waist, eased their way over the bump of her gilet and then back down to her hips. She closed the kiss, smiling at her feet before she felt him tilt her chin and touch his lips to hers once more. He then reluctantly removed his hands from her, she opened the car door and he walked back around to the passenger side, sliding into his seat and resting a hand on her knee as she drove away from the beach, back towards the city.