This is a follow-up to "Beginnings." This will be a multi-chapter story and it will take us through season one. The kids will obviously be a large part of this story, but my primary focus will be the adults, Sarah Jane and Alan.
It was one of his greatest flaws and he knew it. Alan Jackson was the sort of man who tended to let things go. All manner of things, especially those that would lead to or resulted from unpleasantness. He and Maria had been stepping around each other a bit carefully since Chrissie's departure a day and a half ago and he knew better than to push her into talking to him. Maria was like him in that regard; he also tended to brood over things that bothered him, and she was a fourteen-year old girl. Still, it tore at him a bit to think that Maria thought that Chrissie's latest stunt hadn't bothered him.
Sighing, he let his hands stop their typing at his laptop and rested his elbows on the table as he rested his chin on his now-joined hands. Of course it had bothered him. It had incensed him once he had a chance to think about it. Only Chrissie would think it a good idea to flee to HIS house in order to teach her boyfriend a lesson. It had hurt like hell, but he had shrugged it off. He had become quite adept at shrugging off his ex-wife's lack of sensitivity. It wasn't all her fault, after all. If he had been enough for her in the first place, if he wasn't exactly the sort of person who loved Chrissie enough to let her grow away from him. He'd thought he was giving her her space to be herself, to enjoy being her own person while still being a part of "them." He'd never dreamed the girl of his dreams would grow so far away from him that she would cuckold him with a judo instructor.
Maybe there was nothing he could do about his own struggles to accept Chrissie for who she was now that they were no longer married, but there was sure the hell something he could to make sure that Maria knew that she was his top priority. And speaking of Maria... He glanced up at the dining room clock and was shocked to discover it was nearly three hours since Maria had stopped by the house to change out of her school clothes and say something about going across the road to see Luke before kissing his forehead... Had he really been at work all this time?
"I've got to take a break," he sighed again, pushing himself back from the table and standing up. Stretching his arms high above his head, he rolled his neck until he felt the satisfying crack before rolling his shoulders. Looking out the window, he didn't see much of anything.
Quite honestly, he was surprised Maria hadn't come back yet. Alan had already discovered there was more to their new neighbor than the frosty first impression she and he had made on each other. He still cringed when he remembered what a daft, overexcited puppy he must have seemed on their first meeting, trying to make small talk and being utterly insensitive to the fact that she was obviously in a hurry to get somewhere. But the fault hadn't been all his. She really could have been a lot friendlier, and she had made up for it several days later, taking care of Maria when Maria had wound up with her during all the nonsense about the mid-day eclipse. Sarah Jane Smith had even invited him for a cup of tea and a conversation he had enjoyed very much, even though something about it still mystified him.
He didn't like to think of himself as one who put much stock in first impressions, but seemed at the time (and still seemed now) that she had undergone a complete personality transplant in very little time. She had been very welcoming, if not a little distant, and praised his daughter to the skies, which was a sure way to get on his good side.
Grabbing a cup out of the cabinet, he filled it with water before downing the whole thing and decided to go retrieve his daughter from Sarah Jane's house. It would provide him an opportunity to do something he had been putting off: apologizing to Sarah Jane for falling asleep in her garden and for Chrissie's unpardonable rudeness.
He jogged across the road and up Sarah Jane's walkway. Rapping lightly on the door, he looked around with some interest. They hadn't lived on Bannerman Road very long yet, but he was finding more to like about it all the time.
The door opened and he found himself face to face with Sarah Jane Smith.
"Mr. Jackson!" she exclaimed, her face breaking into a smile, which he was helpless against returning.
"You haven't seen a girl around here?" he asked, leaning against her doorframe. "She's about this high," he moved his hand up and down around the general vicinity of his chest, "dark hair..." He paused a moment, furrowing his brow. "At least I think she has dark hair. Been so long since I've seen her, I've forgotten."
Sarah Jane grinned at him then. "Yes, she's here, come in. Please." He found himself being ushered into her foyer, the same foyer he had dragged Chrissie out of the last time he and Maria had been here together. "Maria!"
He had been far too humiliated at having his personal problems on display the last time he was here that he hadn't noticed much of anything, but now he looked around with interest. "You know, you really should just throw her back across the road when it gets this late. Maria, she's really very polite, but when she's having a good time, she can forget the time."
"It's no imposition at all, Mr. Jackson," Sarah Jane reassured him, gesturing to him to precede her into the sitting room. "I'm very glad she and Luke have taken to each other. He hasn't had much in the way of friends his own age. Or any age really."
Ah, yes. Luke. Another piece of the puzzle. He'd never dream of uttering such a thought aloud, but now that he was thinking of it, he found it extremely curious that a woman who had only a week or so ago curtly informed him that she didn't like a lot of noise was in the ending stages of adopting a boy around Maria's age.
"Sorry to hear it." Maria had been having several problems with the kids at school before they had moved. Personally, he was as grateful that she was already starting to make friends of a better sort. "I don't mind seeing Maria making friends this easily myself, especially with a boy who seems to be as nice as Luke, but it is a school night after all. You don't happen to know whether or not they were doing any of their schoolwork over here?"
When he realized what he said, he could have kicked himself. Several times. Not only was he pretty much telling her he was clueless, he might have also unintentionally insulted her by implying that she might not know whether Luke was doing his schoolwork or not. Way to go, you bloody idiot.
"When I left them upstairs, they were getting some work done." Sarah Jane said, in a tone that seemed oddly reassuring. Then, as if she had read his mind, she smiled sheepishly. "I'm not sure exactly how close of a watch I'm supposed to keep over Luke's schoolwork yet."
Well, he could offer some reassurance of his own at least. He smiled back at her, accepting her offer of a seat. "It's early days yet. You'll find your bearings. I know it's not the same as taking in a fourteen-year old boy, but it took me until Maria was toddling around and talking a mile a minute before I thought I had any business being a father." Lord, he'd barely known what he was doing when Maria was little. He and Chrissie had both been nearly babies themselves when Maria had come a little more than a year after they were married.
"You? Really?" Sarah Jane seemed taken aback. "But you and Maria are so close!"
"It's a fine line," Alan informed her. "We are very close, and I couldn't be happier about it. It also makes it a bit difficult when I have to discipline her."
Light dawned in Sarah Jane's eyes, perhaps understanding? She looked as if she was about to pursue the conversation, which he wouldn't have minded at all, but before she could speak, a herd of sheep could be heard stampeding down her stairs on their way to the living room.
"Hi, Dad!" Maria greeted him happily as she bounded into the room, followed closely by Luke and another boy, one Alan recognized but couldn't recall where from.
"Oh, well, that's quite a turnaround." Here he had been concerned that Maria was still in a funk in the wake of Chrissie's whirlwind visit and departure. "And it's hi, Dad now then? No, sorry-Dad-I'll-be-at-Sarah-Jane's-for-tea, and no sorry-Dad-don't-make-supper-tonight?" He was heartened by the roll of Maria's eyes followed by the good-natured mugging she always teased him with. "Maria, I know Luke and his mother enjoy having you over here, and I know you enjoy being here, but it's hardly polite to impose ourselves on our neighbors like this. Probably think I don't know how to cook."
"Maria says you're a very good cook, Mr. Jackson," Luke offered, both quietly and eagerly.
"I should probably be going myself," the boy behind Luke, still in his own school clothes, announced with a bit of reluctance. "Mum's probably starting to wonder where I am. Clyde Langer." He offered Alan his hand, which Alan readily accepted, shaking it.
"Good to meet you, Clyde. Want a ride home?" Alan didn't know where Clyde lived, but it was starting to get late.
"No, thanks, Mr. Jackson. It's only a block over and I walk fast." Clyde declined the offer. "See you at school tomorrow, Maria. Luke, we'll talk."
"Alright, Clyde." Luke followed him to the door as Alan turned back to Maria, who grinned back at him.
"Say thank you, sweetheart."
"Thank you for letting Maria come over, Mr. Jackson." Luke said, walking over to stand beside his mother, who wrapped an arm around him, rubbing his shoulder encouragingly. In many ways, it reminded Alan of the first time he had seen Luke. It was touching to see how much she already clearly cared for the boy, who Alan already liked very much.
"Thank you, Sarah Jane." Maria slung her bag over her shoulder.
"It was wonderful having you, Maria. We'll talk more next time you're here." Sarah Jane replied, surprising Alan by reach out to smooth down some of Maria's errant hair. She then looked to Alan. "We really do like having her, Mr. Jackson. And you're more than welcome to join her here for tea as well."
Alan was pleased, and warmed, by the invitation. It would be nice to have someone to talk to every once in a while. He hadn't had one of those, save Maria, in quite a while. "Oh, I wouldn't want to rain on the party over here, eh Maria?"
But Maria, well-versed in his tendencies to a solitary existence, merely replied, "Oh, come on, Dad, it's just across the road." She then turned back to Sarah Jane and Luke. "He's been working too hard again lately. We only just finished setting the house to rights before school started."
"Oh, I remember something about that," Sarah Jane replied, grimacing.
"Always one more box, it seems." Alan agreed.
"Dad, you really should see Sarah Jane's garden," Maria suggested. "You could get some really great ideas for what you want to do in ours?" The tone of her voice suggested that she may have started to worry about him.
"That's right, you were talking about your garden the other day, Mr. Jackson." Sarah Jane remarked, surprising Alan again. It had embarrassed him to think of it later, waxing poetic in front of someone he barely about the garden he had left behind. Leaving the old house and the garden had bothered him more than he had let on to Maria. The move had been far too hard on her already without her having to deal with his regrets.
Maria nudged him, prompting him into an answer.
"Oh, it's early days yet," he slung an arm around Maria's shoulder, kissing the top of her head. "And I'm in the home stretch of a big job for work, haven't had much time to think of it yet. And, you," he moved his arm around Maria's neck affectionately, "Don't volunteer our neighbor's garden for tours. We don't want to disturb her." He was fairly sure that her working hours were as flexible as his were and he hated the thought of imposing on Sarah Jane, no matter how friendly she was turning out to be.
"Oh, I don't think you'll be much of a disturbance, Mr. Jackson. You can come over when you like, just call first to make sure someone's here."
Alan was no stranger to feeling off-balance, but he was really starting to feel as if there was something he was missing here. He was growing more convinced with each passing moment in her company that he had indeed first encountered Sarah Jane Smith in a stressful moment and that the warm, inviting woman he was making small talk with now was closer to the real thing than the frosty, snooty woman he had first met. But it was still hard to reconcile the two sides he had seen.
Resigning himself to the amount of time he would no doubt spend with himself trying to do exactly that, reconcile it to himself, he smiled. He was honestly grateful for the offer, though he probably wouldn't take her up on it, knowing that Maria had put her on the spot.
"I'll certainly take that under advisement. I appreciate the offer." He also very much appreciated the hesitant, almost shy, smile she offered in response. "Well, we'd better get home, Maria, so you can finish whatever work you didn't finish with Luke and still get to bed at a reasonable hour."
"Alright, Dad. Good night, Luke. Good night, Sarah Jane!" Maria fairly skipped out of the living room, through the foyer, and out the door.
"She really wasn't any trouble at all. I like having her." Sarah Jane moved to reassure him again.
"So do I." Luke chimed in. "Can she come over after school tomorrow, Mr. Jackson?"
"I suppose we'll see about that tomorrow, Luke." Alan replied. Thinking of something, he looked at Sarah Jane. "And you can always send Luke over to us if you ever need to. I have the feeling I'll enjoy having him around as much as you and he seem to enjoy having Maria around."
"Can I, Mum?" Luke asked, turning eager eyes to his mother, who looked somewhat flustered.
"That's a very kind offer, Mr. Jackson." Sarah Jane replied, stroking Luke's hair.
"Please, call me Alan."
"Oh. Yes, of course." Now she looked decidedly awkward. "Well, I suppose Luke ought to start getting ready for bed himself. Don't want him falling asleep at his desk tomorrow."
"Clyde will poke me if I fall asleep," Luke informed her, looking as earnest as if he was saying something of monumental importance. "He says that's what friends do for each other."
Alan couldn't help the amused smile from spreading across his face. He honestly liked Luke. He didn't know many people who could give him a run for his money in the literal department.
"Dad!" Maria yelled from across the road, where she was waiting expectantly. "You locked up!"
"Coming, sweetheart!" Alan called back. "Good night, both of you. And thanks."