Title: "Take Care"
Rating: T, just in case
Genre: friendship, romance
Character(s): Janelle, Leo and OC
Pairing(s): Leo/OC, with mentions of past Leo/Janelle
Summary: Janelle runs into an old friend at an ice cream place in downtown San Francisco. There, she learns how much had changed since the last time they saw each other. Post-Lab Rats. One-shot. Set five years after Run, Run, Run.
Notes: The idea just came up to me one day, and I had to write it. Amaranth is starting to become one of my favorite OCs (not quite at the same level as Torrance Carlisle, but they're mostly in the same league), and she seems like she needs another turn. Also, with the series on its way to its finale, I just wanted a 'what happened years after' story. We all wonder and theorize, right?
Just to be clear, in this, Janelle and Leo are both 22 years old, and Amaranth is 21. ;)
Hope you enjoy!
Janelle would like to think that she's generally a patient person, but this? This is really testing her to her limits.
The blazing Californian sun is searing her skin, even though she's mostly covered by the dark green awning hanging over the entrance of the ice cream place, and the humid air is near to suffocating her. Her swollen ankles and aching feet do not help her mood any better. She's just glad that one of the men sitting on the compressed wooden bench by the door gave up his seat for her earlier. She felt bad taking it from him, seeing that having a place to sit down seemed to be the only consolation he had from having been required to wait for someone, just like she's doing, but she had to take it.
After all, she doesn't want to risk falling over and hurting the baby inside of her.
She glances at her watch again and then sighs. She really shouldn't have gone on this 'Bridal Party in the City' day that her best friends planned. She had let them coerce her, and now she's suffering the consequences of having to wait for almost an hour for them just so they can get gelatos that are frankly too expensive and none too spectacular.
After looking in through the glass doors and seeing the mass of bodies crowding the shop's customer line, Janelle decides to check her phone. No texts, no phone calls. She scoffs. "This cannot be happening to me right now," she mutters.
"Are you waiting for somebody else, too?" a middle-aged lady sporting tinted specs and a pink dress sitting next to her asks with a smile.
She smiles back. "Yes," she says politely. "I'm close to leaving them, though."
The lady laughs. "Oh, I don't blame you. Wish I could do the same thing, but I have to wait," she says. She points to the man sitting next to her with her thumb. "My husband and I have to wait for our grandkids."
Janelle nods. "Oh, okay," she says with a chuckle. As the conversation heads into a lull, she sighs. She decides this is not worth getting sick over. Since she cannot get a hold of any of her friends, she'll just go in there, find them, and tell them that she's going home.
She stands up from the seat, securing her sling bag on her side, before walking towards the door. As she reaches out for the handle, it swings open, causing her to jump back instinctively. Thankfully, the person on the other side noticed her before the door can hit her. "Whoa! I'm sorry. Didn't see you there," he says as he carefully steps out.
Janelle is set to tell him it's okay, but when she recognizes him, a bewildered grin comes up to her face, the same one that's coming up in his. "Leo?" she says.
"Hey! Janelle!" Leo immediately gives her a hug, which she's glad he initiated because she's not exactly sure if he'd find the gesture appropriate if she did it. However, he disengages soon enough after he feels the baby bump. His brows hitch in amusement as he looks down on it. "Oh, and baby!"
Janelle giggles. "Yeah, I know. I'm huge," she says.
"No, no, no! What do you mean? You look great! You're glowing, actually," he says. He frowns. "Glowing is the term for it, right? Glowing?"
Janelle laughs. She rolls her eyes. "Yes, glowing," she says. "Thanks for telling me that."
Leo nods. "So, are you here to get some ice cream, too?" he asks. "Just a fair warning: it's a madhouse in there, not to mention stuffy. It's much better out here, and that's saying a lot."
"No, I'm waiting for my friends. Well, I'm supposed to be waiting for them. I'm ready to ditch them right about now," she replies.
"Ah." Leo smirks. "Smart."
"My best friend took everyone in her bridal party out to relax today," she adds. "I didn't want to go, but since I was chosen as the maid of honor I had to."
"Well, it won't be good for you and the baby staying out in this weather," Leo notes.
"Yeah," Janelle says. She smiles. "It's been a while. How have you been?"
"Good," Leo says. "I've been a bit busy lately, but it's nothing I can't handle."
"A lot of things going on at the Academy, huh?"
"No, no. Well, yeah, but I'm busy because of the things my team and I have to do," Leo says. "You know I live in New York now."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yeah! I've been there for almost a year," Leo says. "It's a little…gifted kids-heavy here on the west coast, so Big D decided to send some on the east coast. I don't know if you've met him, but my step-uncle, Douglas? Yeah, he's the one overseeing the whole thing there."
"How's that working out?"
"Well, nothing's burned down to the ground yet," Leo replies with a laugh.
Janelle laughs, too.
"What about you?" Leo asks. "How have you been?"
Janelle sighs with a smile. "Oh, you know, nothing as exciting. Just seven months pregnant and—" she raises up her hands to show the wedding ring on her finger, "married. Happened in reverse order, of course."
Leo chuckles. "Hey, that's exciting. When the mini you comes, you'll have a family. That's a big thing," he says sincerely. "You know what the baby's going to be yet?"
"No. Todd and I want to be surprised," Janelle says. "We're just hoping we won't get twins. He's in line for it. I mean, we wouldn't mind, but then we're not as prepared."
Leo steps to the side as the door opens again, and he apologizes to the customers who walk out for blocking their way. After moving to a better spot, he says, "Todd."
"Yeah. Todd. Todd Lawson," Janelle says with a smile as she thinks of her husband. "I met him freshman year at UCLA. Married him two years later, right after the finals."
"Oh, okay. How's married life going?"
"Good," she says. "A lot of people are telling us that we're still on our honeymoon phase, and that's why everything's nice and happy. They said it will fade away in five years, so we're trying to enjoy it as much as we can."
Leo frowns. "Why should it fade away? I mean, isn't the decision of how long a husband and a wife will be happy up to the husband and the wife?" he asks.
Janelle thinks about it. "Yeah. I guess you're right," she says.
Leo shrugs, smiling. "So everything will be as happy as you and Mr. Lawson make it, Mrs. Lawson," he teases.
Janelle laughs. "Hey, how's your family doing? I haven't spoken to Adam, Bree or Chase in years either," she says.
"They're all doing fine," Leo says. "Big D decided to take Mom on a long vacation, so now Chase is left in charge of overseeing Davenport Industries, with Douglas, of course. Because he's busy, Adam and Bree are tag-teaming the management of the Academy. It's going well. Most of the students had finished their trainings already, so now it acts more like a meeting point."
"Oh, okay," Janelle nods. "Are any of them married yet?"
Leo chuckles. "You know, surprisingly? No," he says. "Adam and Chase are both dating, and Bree's decided to focus on work and stay single."
Janelle grins out of disbelief. "Really? Bree? No boyfriend?" she asks.
"Yeah," Leo says. "I know. I couldn't believe it myself, but I guess over the years she's just matured to the point that she's started not to depend so much on romantic relationships. She says that if it comes, she'll entertain it – but she's done running after it."
"Wow. Words of wisdom."
"I know. She said that when she turned twenty-one two years ago," Leo says. "Maybe there's just something about hitting that age."
"Yeah."
"She's happy, though, so there's nothing else I could ask for," Leo adds. "Adam and Chase are happy, too. Their girlfriends are both nice, both intelligent. They're also very pretty." He chuckled before adding, "I think since we met Chase's girlfriend last year, everyone in my family gained weight. Not only is she a genius, she's also a terrific cook. Her family owns several restaurants, and if I remember right she went to a culinary school in Rome. Big D and Adam told Chase that once they get married, he's going to have to triple the effort to stay in shape."
Janelle laughs. "I see that Adam and Chase are still at it with the smack talk," she comments.
"Yeah, but not as much as before, though. We're all drifting out to our own lives, so they're not around each other as much. But you're right, they'll go at it whenever they get the chance," Leo says. "In fact, Chase was teasing Adam just the other day about proposing to his girlfriend. Adam's kind of chickened out of it. He was supposed to do it tonight at the family dinner – Mom and Big D are coming back from their trip – but he wants to put it off."
"Aw. Poor Adam," Janelle says. "He must be scared."
"We're trying to talk him into acting on it during our grandparents' anniversary party this coming December," Leo says. "It's just his nerves making him jittery. All he needs is a push, so Chase and I are trying to give him that, especially since it's clear how much he loves that girl."
Janelle nods. "Well, what about you?" she asks. "Is there a special someone in your life?"
Slowly, a smile comes to Leo's face, and it's the kind that she has never seen before even through the three years they spent together. The expression isn't overtly bright that it looks synthetic, but it's refreshing and warm and new, like the first full rays of daylight in the morning. Through it, she can almost see his heart, light and floating and lost within the spaces between the stars, and for but a small second she wonders what it is about the other girl that makes him this content and nearly untouchable that she, during the time she was with him, didn't have.
Leo nods. "As a matter of fact, I do," he says. "Her name is Amaranth."
"Amaranth. That's a nice name," Janelle notes with a sincere smile.
"Yeah. It's as beautiful as her," Leo says.
"So where did you guys meet?" Janelle asks.
"Oh, at the Academy."
Janelle's eyes widen. "She's bionic?" she asks quietly, knowing that blurting out that information in public may not be the best idea.
Leo nods. "Yep," he replies with a grin.
"Nice." She grins back at him. "That must be exciting."
Leo's head bobs as he considers it. "Yeah, it is – but even without her abilities, she just has this great personality that makes everything awesome," he says. He sighs excitedly. "Ah, Janelle, you'll like her when you meet her. She's just… she's so smart. She's funny. She's kind. She gets sassy at times, but that's only when she's frustrated. She apologizes later on, though, and that's one of the things she's taught me. It takes a strong person to admit they're wrong and to apologize for it. I respect her very much for that." He then adds, "She loves music. Anything related to that, she'll love. I remember buying her a great quality headphone after I took her to a concert for our anniversary, and she freaked. She was so happy, and we were like the bestest of friends for the next two weeks. Not only that, she…What?" Leo grins as he sees the knowing smile on Janelle's face. "What is it?"
Janelle shakes her head. "Nothing."
Leo scratches his head when he realizes it. "Oh. I was rambling, wasn't I?" he asks.
Janelle shrugs. "Well, you're in love," she says.
Leo nods. "Yeah. Yeah, I am," he says.
Janelle chuckles. "How long have you guys been together?" she asks.
"Hm… About five years?" he says. "Yeah. It should be five years next month."
He met her after we broke up, Janelle thinks to herself, but she only says, "Oh, okay."
"Yeah, I know," Leo says bashfully, misconstruing her response. "It's an awfully long time, but we decided to take a very, very slow and traditional route to this."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, after we've been together for two years, I realized that she hasn't met a lot of people – You still remember why, right? Yeah. She hasn't met a lot of people, and she hasn't met a lot of guys. As much as I loved her, I don't want her to wake up one day after we get married and realize that she's with the wrong person. I don't want her to regret the decision of being with me the rest of her life. That'll just suck, you know? So, I told her that we'd be on pause for a year, just so we're sure we've really looked into all the options, and if we still like each other after that, we'll get back together."
Leo then laughs. "You know, the funny thing about that one year break is that we seemed to 'accidentally' meet at the strangest of places at the strangest of times, and it always ended up with us spending time together. She would ask me how I'm doing, I'll ask her how she is, we'd answer each other, and then she'd talk me into getting a smoothie or a sandwich. It didn't happen often, and the circumstances were, like I said, just weird, so I didn't really catch on. I have suspicions, but I guess I just ignored it because I missed her.
"Anyways, after we got back together, she admitted that she did all of those on purpose, and she counted them as dates. I told her that the whole point of the pause is for us to see other people, look into other relationships, but, she told me that she couldn't do it. She tried, but once she realized that she's always comparing other guys to me, she said she knew it wasn't worth it."
Janelle notes with a wide smile, "She really loves you."
"Yeah," Leo says. "Just knowing that someone can feel that way towards me makes the difference in the world. You know how it is, right?"
Janelle laughs. "Yep. Todd's like that, too. He's sweet," she said. "What about you? Did you date anyone during that time?"
Leo shakes his head. "No, I was just waiting for her," he says. "Believe me when I say that that year went really, really slow."
"I can imagine," Janelle agrees. "Now, you mentioned something about being traditional…?"
"Oh, yeah. We're doing this old school. Just flowers and dinners and holding hands. Texting, talking on the phone for forever about things we talked about just an hour ago. Nothing more, nothing less," Leo says. "I know it sounds boring and all but, we're having a blast. Why fix something that works, right?"
Janelle nods. "I wish I could meet her, Leo. She sounds like a great person," she says. "Too bad New York is too far."
"Oh, she's not with me in New York. Actually, it's her older brother and her sister who's with me for our little east coast trial run," Leo says. "She still lives at the Academy. Well, she's currently sharing an apartment with Bree out in LA. They're really great friends, love hanging out with each other, which they get to do a lot now that Big D had them co-coordinate some things over at the island."
Janelle rolls her eyes. "Please don't tell me you're jealous," she says, grinning.
Leo smirks conspiratorially. "I was, but Amaranth might be changing her living arrangements soon," he says.
Janelle's brows wrinkle. "What do you mean?"
Before Leo can answer, the front door opens again, this time letting out a small crowd of people, a number of them either grinning or smiling at the poodle charging in front of them. Janelle watches as the little dog bounds around barking, looks at its surroundings, and then, when it sees Leo, hurries towards him. It puts its paws up on his legs then looks at him expectantly while wagging its tail. "Hey, boy," Leo tells the dog as he picks it up. "What are you doing out here? Where's Mommy?"
"This is your dog?" Janelle asks.
"Oh, there you are!" exclaims a blonde in a blue floral dress holding two ice cream cones as she pushes past the door with her hip. She walks to where the dog is facing before saying, "Stop doing that, Sparky. You could get hit by a car."
"He ran out on you again?" Leo asks her with a smirk.
The blonde eyes him unhappily. "You know, this dog doesn't listen to me. He only listens to you and Bree. I don't get that," she says.
Leo grins. Addressing Janelle, he says, "Janelle, this is Amaranth, my girlfriend. Amaranth, you remember Janelle, right?"
Janelle begins to extend a hand, but she sees that Amaranth won't be able to take it. Amaranth notices this problem, too, and she immediately resolves it by handing Leo one of the ice cream cones. "Here," she says. "I got this for you anyways."
"Oh, wow, you did?" Leo says as he takes it, quite intrigued by what he's given. "Thanks, Ames."
Amaranth gives the handshake a second try. "It's great to see you again, Janelle," she says. "We didn't get to meet each other, but I still remember when you visited the Academy. It's been a long time."
Janelle nods, and the more she looks at the girl, the more she agrees with Leo about her being beautiful. "Yes, it's been," she replies.
"How have you been doing?" Amaranth asks her.
"Good. I'm married now." Janelle places her hands affectionately over her midsection. "Pregnant."
Amaranth looks down on it then gasps. "Oh my gosh." She looks up at her with widened eyes. "Baby!" she says happily.
Janelle grins. "Yeah."
"Is it a boy or a girl?"
"I don't know yet. My husband and I have decided to wait."
"Oh, that's cool. Whether a boy or a girl, I'm sure the baby's going to be cute. You're looking really pretty, Janelle."
"Thank you," Janelle says. "So do you."
Amaranth smiles gratefully at her. "Well, it's nice running into you and getting to meet you again," she says. To Leo, "I'll go wait in the car. I need to make a phone call; Bree's been calling me. She's probably just freaking out about getting the family dinner together."
"Yeah, sure," Leo says with a smile, and for a second Janelle detects a hint of nervousness.
"We've still got a while so, take your time," Amaranth tells them both. She takes her pet from Leo's arms, the dog squirming as he's transferred to her, and then she says, "Janelle, nice to see you again."
Janelle nods, and soon after Amaranth walks off, starting on her ice cream while mumbling something to her poodle.
As both of them watch her get farther and farther, Leo says, "I'm going to propose to her tonight."
Janelle turns around and stares at him. Then, she smiles, because the anxiety she noticed and the comment he made about the girl's future earlier now fall into place. "Are you nervous?" she asks.
"I feel like I'm choking on my own heart," Leo admits. "I don't know what to do. It's just, it's so much pressure. I'm scared I'll mess it up. I'm scared she'll say no, but – I want to marry her, so I just have to get it together and ask."
"Does your family know about your plan?"
"Nope. I'm on my own with this one," Leo says. "Them not knowing takes away some of the pressure. Amaranth's really observant, and she's going to know if something's going on if she reads it from them, so it's better that they'll be as surprised."
A loud knock on the door from the inside causes both of them to look.
Beth, one of Janelle's friends, holds up two fingers. Two. More. Minutes. Okay?, she mouths with a big grin.
Janelle nods impatiently at her.
Beth grins wider. When she notices Leo, she gives him a wave, says "Hi," and then walks back to the rest of the bridal party.
"Well, it seems like you're getting ready to go, too," Leo says.
"Yeah. They're about to drag me around town some more," Janelle says, annoyed.
Leo laughs. "Hang in there, Mrs. Lawson," he tells her. After she gives him a consolatory smile, he says, "It was great talking to you again, Janelle. I hope everything works out for the best for you and the husband and the baby."
Janelle nods. "Great catching up with you, too," she says. "I wish you guys the best."
"Thanks," Leo says. "See you, Janelle."
Janelle nods. "Bye," she says.
Leo walks away at that moment and heads towards the same direction that Amaranth has gone to.
As she watches him leave, Janelle realizes that this might as well be the last time she'd get to see him. He did tell her that he resides in a faraway state now, so this alone has been a coincidental meeting. Not only that, he's also preoccupied with a noble task that will always take him to different places, distant places. The most important factor of all, though, is that he's going to be married soon. He's going to start a new life with the person he loves and who loves him. His world is going to revolve around her, and he'll be lost in his own bliss of laughter, arguments, misunderstandings, forgiveness, and overwhelming affection that he'd be almost impossible to reach.
Knowing how happy he is and how happy he will be makes her happy. She knows he deserves it.
So with a smile, she says, "Take care, Leo." Then, she pulls open the door and vanishes within the crowd inside the shop in search of her friends.