Title: And Then They Became Friends (Snippet- one shot)
Rating: G (very strong G)
Pairing: Friendship fic for Andy & Jessi. Kinda Andy/Josh.
Summary: They were all at their favorite café, and one Kyle XY trooper fell gravely sick.
Josh was working his rounds at The Rack, busily cleaning the dishes, stacking plates and watching his girlfriend, "little baby Trager's girlfriend" sitting on his side- her head leaning on one arm.
"You're distracting, you know."
"My beauty is always distracting."
They both smiled shyly, and Josh took a happy step closer.
"It's tempting me to give you free coffee."
"Then darn it! Give me some free coffee."
"Oh, alright then. Let me bring out the trash."
He gave her a happy wink, then pulled out a big lumpy garbage bag out from the can and walked out the class doors of The Rack Café. Andy let out a happy, fan girl sigh. She let her mind wonder about how wonderful her boyfriend was, even though he ate his lunch in the boy's bathroom and always lost at video games. Josh was perfect.
"This cancer thing has some bad timing," she let out a very sad, glum sigh.
"What's that?" asked Jessi, taking a seat on the stool beside her and looking around blankly.
Andy rose a brow, "… cancer?"
"Mhm. What's that?" Jessi repeated the question, slightly distracted.
"Oh… er… it's hard to explain. Go check a medical encyclopedia."
"Is it like the flu?"
"Sorta."
Andy couldn't believe it! How could someone not know what cancer was? The thing practically hung around her head like a noose and was plastered all over celebrity charities. Didn't Jessi do the whole 'hand on the hybrid' contest?
"'Member that contest you were in?"
"Yep."
"Well that was to find a cure for cancer."
"Oh. Did they find it?"
"The cure? Of course not!"
"Oh. Then what was the point?"
"Beats me!"
They both laughed. Jessi had seen Andy hanging around, but never stopped to talk to her. She was busy trying to get Kyle, Lori and Declan to like her. She'd barely seen any of Josh or Andy. Emily had told her to 'try' to make friends, and Andy had yet to do anything mean to her. Andy, on the other hand, hadn't seen a wink of Jessi. She just knew that she was the first member of their partner to jump in when everyone else had disappeared during the camping trip.
"I like this place." Jessi commented quietly.
"Me too. It's really-" Andy stopped talking when she noticed Jessi abruptly bounce up and walk away.
"Uh. Hey! Are you ADD or something?" she called after her. Jessi walked over to the book cases by the door and pulled out a very heavy 'medical encyclopedia' before trotting back over and plopping it onto the counter.
"I want to find out about cancer." She explained, flipping through each page- skimming it at super speed.
"Why don't you use the index?" asked Andy, helping her get to the very last page. Jessi stopped her- and returned to the exact page number she was on before. 240.
"I want to read it all. What's an index?"
Andy chuckled, "Curious George."
"What's that?"
"Er… never mind."
Josh came back inside and pat his hands on the side of his apron; he took a seat on the other side of his girlfriend and looked at Jessi flipping through the encyclopedia.
"What's going on?" he questioned.
"She's… reading it." Andy gave him a cheeky smirk.
"Oh- uh- oh." Josh quickly stammered out. This was like déjà vu to him. Jessi gave him a shy wave then continued to read the pages at a fast speed.
"You and Kyle could have a panel discussion on it."
"KYLE! Where's Kyle?" Jessi jumped up and chattered eagerly, "Is he here?"
Josh's eyes widened and he shook his head. Jessi suddenly became very disappointed.
"Oh."
Andy and Josh snickered at her hilariously disastrous crush then went back to hugging and embracing.
"Where's my free drink, Josh?" Andy picked up from where they last left off.
"Oh yeah, okay." Josh got up and gave her a silly pat on the head.
"You two are cute." Jessi gave Andy a small smile.
"We're adorkable."
"Do you like him?"
"Pttf!" Andy let out a laugh, but it became a sputtering cough.
"Are you okay?" Jessi gave her a pat on the back, but Andy's cough got worse and worse. Her face turned a ghostly pale, and she slipped off her chair, onto the floor. Jessi jumped up, and Josh dropped his cup of coffee mid-prepare, and ran over to kneel beside Andy.
The door opened, and Kyle came in. He seemed to be mid walk when he noticed the disaster that was in the making. He froze.
"Kyle! Go get help!" Jessi ordered calmly.
He nodded, flabbergasted, then charged out the door.
"Check her breathing, Josh." Jessi instructed. Josh put a hand around her wrist and looked down at this watch. A crowd of coffee drinkers had started to gather around them.
Josh looked down desperately at his girlfriend, a few tears pouring down his cheeks. Andy smiled sadly up at him.
"I'm going to be okay, don't worry." She choked out, "Just tell me I'll be okay."
Josh let out a panicked sob, "You're going to be okay."
"I know."
Jessi got up, off the floor and pulled out the medical encyclopedia. She flipped, page after page, after page, until she finished a whole chapter on multiple types of cancers, small temporary home remedies (that help for bad stomach aches, or breakout of any kind) then she calmly put it down.
She pulled out a banana from the bowl on the counter, and pulled off segments. She kneeled down by Andy and Josh and handed him over the banana pieces.
"Give her some of these; I'm going to get water and a towel."
True to her word, Jessi grabbed a cup from the cabinets and filled it with water. Then grabbed a clean towel and ran it under the tap. Andy's sputtering cough got better after she started to chew on the mushy banana. Josh gave her hand a tight squeeze.
Jessi pressed the wet towel on her forehead and gave her a sip of water from the glass.
"Do you experience this a lot?" asked Jessi.
"Too often," admitted Andy.
"Thank you for teaching me about cancer."
Andy laughed lightly, "Just took a panic attack to do it."
Jessi nodded, and gave her another sip of water. Josh watched and took in a deep breath.
"I'll be watching zombie movies with you in no time," Andy assured him. He smiled down at her and straightened out the wet towel, before giving her a kiss on the nose.
"Let's get you up, and over to the couch."
Jessi stood up and held her hands out to Andy. Josh pulled and arm under Andy, and together- the three moved over to a plump, cushy couch. They laid her down and propped her head on a pillow.
"Can someone turn the fans on?" asked Jessi.
One of the strangers agreed and hurried to it.
"How'd you know?"
"It's in the book."
"How did you read that book so fast?"
Jessi tilted her head, amused, "Now you're the one asking questions."
And then they became friends…