A/N: Hello, all! First off, I must apologize. I'm late getting this to you because I honestly didn't realize Season 3 had premiered already! I thought we were getting it later in the summer! That said, when I realized my error, I spent all last night catching up on the episodes. Then, today, I churned out this piece. I'm ready to get back into this wonderful couple and their life. That said, please enjoy!
Disclaimer: Nothing you recognize belongs to me. Title is from "You & Me" by the Dave Matthews Band, which also does not belong to me.
Summary: Ryder is graduating, Lennox is in college, and Mel has run out of reasons for Joe to stay. Hasn't she? One-shot, complete.
When the Kids are Old Enough, We're Gonna Teach Them to Fly
Oh, and when the kids are old enough,
we're gonna teach them to fly.
You and me together, we could do anything.
~You and Me, Dave Matthews Band
The party is slowly winding down. The sun has set, taking most of the oppressive heat and humidity with it. The moon is out, and a cool breeze is bringing life back into the guests who have spent most of the day in the shade. Now they stand in clumps near the picnic shelter, and animated chatter and sporadic laughter indicates a good time is being had by all.
Mel Burke leans against a pole currently holding up a decorative paper lantern that is helping to light the encroaching night. Her nephew graduated high school this morning, and as exhausting as the party has been, he is clearly having the time of his life, laughing with friends and excited about his future. So why is she feeling so down?
Unwillingly, her gaze flits to a man who is chatting with a few of Ryder's friends' parents, a beer held loosely in his hand, at ease and totally relaxed in this atmosphere. Usually, seeing him nearby reassures her that nothing catastrophic has happened, that Ryder or Lennox hasn't done anything stupid, but now, her heart sinks and panic starts clawing at her chest. For a moment, she struggles to breathe. What is she going to do?
"You know he's not going to stay forever, right?"
Mel doesn't even turn at the sound of the familiar voice beside her. Instead, she takes another sip of the wine she is camouflaging with a red Solo cup and resists the urge to clap her hands over her ears and start chanting.
"What else did you expect?" Lennox continues, infuriatingly calm and practical. "He has to have a life outside us; he told me he's been looking for jobs."
Mel bites her lip. But I want him to stay with me! her inner petulant child wails. "Has he found anything?" she asks, struggling to keep her voice light and pretend that she really, really doesn't care what the answer is.
She feels Lennox shrug beside her. "Not sure. He didn't really say what they were, just that he was looking."
"He can stay until he finds a job," Mel offers, but she knows it's a flimsy excuse, one Lennox can see right through.
Her niece grins. "He's like Mary Poppins. He stays until he's no longer needed, and then he moves on. He's worked his magic; do you think you can let him go? I'm in college, Ryder will be gone in August. Why should he stay?"
Mel is silent, unable to answer. She is thinking of an empty house come August, with Lennox and Ryder at college, Joe completely gone, and she feels ready to cry. Five years ago, when her sister and brother-in-law turned up on the news and she was presented with two surly teenagers to raise, she would have paid money to get her quiet house back. Now?
She's pretty sure she'll go crazy if she's left there by herself.
"Why should he stay?" Lennox presses, feeling like she might be on the cusp of getting her aunt to admit something. She may have only had a couple of psych classes, but she knows her aunt well enough to know Mel is torn about something. "You don't have any reason to keep him. There are no solar panels, no Ryder being a failure, no college plans to handle."
Mel takes another sip and turns fully to eye the younger woman. "Why do you care so much?"
"Why do you?" Lennox counters, brown eyes sparkling with mischief. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I'll miss seeing Joe when I come home on breaks, but I think you might miss him more. Am I right?"
Mel feels like saying yes to this might be a trap, but the excuses come too easily. "Of course I'll miss him," she shrugs. "Who's going to take care of the house for me?"
"Bullshit." Lennox is laughing at her, and Mel glares this time.
"Hey!"
"Give Joe a reason to stay," Lennox tells her, smirking, "and he might say yes. But it needs to be a good reason, not some crap."
Mel glares at her, opening her mouth to retort, but Lennox has already sauntered away, heading toward a group of girls she knows vaguely from school. Mel growls curses after her and soothes her confusion and irritation with more wine. Sometimes she thinks she taught the girl too well.
She settles more comfortably against the pole and sips her wine, letting the warmth flow through her body, soothing her jangled nerves. She's been on edge for days, fearing that one morning she'll come downstairs and there will be silence in the kitchen, in the space over the garage, that there will be no trace of Joe Longo in the house, in her life. That he has walked out without so much as a goodbye. As silly as she knows this to be, it doesn't keep her from fearing it. It's one of her worst nightmares, right up there with something happening to one of her kids.
She smiles at that. They really are her kids, these two that she took out of familial obligation, but would now fight for in an instant if they were threatened. Her gaze flits back over to Joe. Well, she amends, not completely hers alone.
She is distracted, and thankfully so, by a tall figure ambling in her direction. Mel smiles up at Ryder as he draws closer. He's grown even more, and is easily over six feet now, dwarfing her by a good half foot. He takes Lennox's abandoned spot beside her, settling his spine comfortably against the wood.
"How's my little nephew?"
He grins down at her, teeth flashing. "It's been a great day. Thanks for the party, Aunt Mel."
Surprised and touched by this gratitude, she wraps an arm around his waist and squeezes with affection. "Oh, you know I couldn't send you off to college without a great party."
Ryder chuckles. "I'm not leaving for a few more months, Aunt Mel."
"I know," Mel shrugs, "but you'll be leaving for college orientation sooner than you think, trust me." She grows quiet, thinking again of the empty house waiting for her in the fall.
She glances up to find Ryder peering at her in concern. "You okay?"
She forces a smile and squeezes him again. "I'm just going to miss you guys!" She blames the wine for the thickness in her voice, for the tears that tremble against her eyes. Ryder starts to edge away, clearly not sure what to do with his emotional aunt, and Mel offers up a hoarse laugh.
"I'm just so proud of you!" She hugs him one last time and lets him go, but he doesn't flee like she expects. He watches her for a long moment and then turns to peer out into the darkness.
"It'll be weird without Joe, huh?"
Mel stiffens, strains to keep her voice light. Damn. "Why do you say that?" Her hand trembles as she brings the cup to her lips and takes a quick sip.
Ryder shrugs. "I mean, you'll have the house to yourself. He'll be gone at some point, won't he?"
Every word is a pinprick that makes her wince, but Mel is stronger than this. (Sometimes. Most of the time. Occasionally.) She shakes her head. "I'm going to enjoy the quiet! No one fighting over the remote or stealing all the hot water!"
At her elbow in his ribs, Ryder grins. "No bickering, no arguments, no lectures."
Mel swallows hard. "Right. How great is that going to be?" Most of the enthusiasm has disappeared from her voice, and Ryder glances over at her again. He might not be as perceptive as his sister, but even he knows that something is wrong. Deciding he's not the one to deal with it, he straightens and begins to move away, tilting his head back towards his friends.
"I think I hear Adam calling…"
With that, he is gone, and Mel is left alone with her increasingly moody thoughts. The lantern casts a puddle of light around her feet, and if she closes her eyes, she can pretend that she is alone, that she has no problems, that everything is as it should be.
"Burke? Lennox said you wanted to talk to me?"
She is going to kill that girl. Mel opens her eyes to find Joe standing just beyond her lit pool, and her breath catches. He is all toned lines and husky lowered voice out there in the dark, and it's just not fair, that she might be losing this before she's had a chance to find out what this is.
You've had five years! How much more do you need?
Mel blows out a slow breath and offers a smile. "Hey, Longo."
She sounds tired, and she knows Joe catches it, because when he steps into the warm circle of light, his brow is creased in confusion and faint worry. "Hey, Burke, you okay?"
Mel raises her cup in a salute and manages a grin that has more in common with a grimace. "Of course I am."
Silence descends, and it's too much—silence means she turns back to her thoughts. She distracts herself by asking, "How's the job hunt going?" She's surprised him—she can see it in the way his shoulders roll back slightly, in the way his dark eyes narrow.
"It's all right," he shrugs. "Had a few leads, maybe an interview in the next few weeks."
"What about the house-hunting?" Mel's voice is a lot less steady that she would like as she asks the question, and she hates herself for it. She takes a sip, and she watches Joe track the movement.
"Haven't had much luck yet," he tells her, then: "Why are you asking, Burke? The last few weeks, every time I've talked about jobs or houses or leaving, you've avoided me."
Mel really, really wants to plug her ears and start chanting, to stop having this conversation, but she can't keep running from this forever. She takes a deep breath and stares out into the darkness behind him.
"Do you have to leave?" It comes out way too whiny, and Mel winces, clears her throat. "Do you have to go just yet?"
Joe stares at her, his dark eyes intent. There's uncertainty there, confusion, a bit of impatience, and…is that hope? He shakes his head, and it's gone. "Why should I stay, Burke?"
Mel has no answer, her throat closing over, panic rising in her chest again. Her stomach churns, and words lie dormant on her tongue: Don't go, I can't stand it, don't go, I need you, I need you, stay for me…
She says none of these things, and Joe continues. "Lennox is in college, Ryder is on his way to his in the fall—what else is there?" He pauses, glances at her. It's a loaded gaze, one they've had too many times the last five years, and Mel is helpless against it.
Sensing that she might answer him if he presses, Joe takes a step closer, eyes never leaving hers. She can't look away, doesn't want to, and so when his voice drops to a lower register, she shivers, because there is a burning strand being woven between them, built of five years of glances and words longing to be said but swallowed, of raising two kids together and learning what it means to be parents, partners. When he asks again, she knows she has to answer.
"Tell me why I should stay, Mel. No solar panels, no problems with the kids, no college visits and tutorials, no projects around the house. Is there a reason I should stay?"
Mel stares up at him, blue eyes over-bright, lips quivering. The words have died again, turned to dust. She needs to answer, but she doesn't know what to say. The worry and fretting she has done over the last few weeks, the last five years she's spent with this man in her house, in her kitchen, in her heart, are building to a crescendo, and she has to give him an answer he understands.
What the hell was that?
…if they don't look away, that's how you know they're into you.
I'm…jealous.
Mel gives him the only answer she can.
She kisses him.
Joe wasn't expecting to find his arms full of Mel, but he's really not complaining. Her arms are wrapped around his neck, and she is kissing him with the pent-up passion of the last several years, and he can't help but respond. His arms wrap tightly around her, one hand in her hair.
"Stay," she whispers against his lips, and Joe can only chuckle against hers.
"Uh, Burke, did you really think I was going to leave?"
Mel draws back a little at that, frowning, and Joe chuckles against her. "Burke, the only way you could get me to leave is if you destroyed my kitchen." He considers his words. "Or my clothes."
Mel is smiling at his words, blue eyes dancing. "You never know, Longo, I might do it to punish you."
They're flirting now, flirting as they always have through arguments, but it's different now that she's in his arms, hands against the back of his head, around his neck, and he can feel the warmth of her body tight against him, the curve of her spine under his hands.
He laughs and kisses her again.
The crack of fireworks forces them apart, startling like a couple of teenagers, but then Mel laughs and tips her head back to enjoy the spray of color against the sky, glad the display means that no one has noticed her and Joe's.
She casts him a sidelong glance. "So, Longo, what are you doing later?" Her voice is dark velvet and loaded with meaning, and she has to giggle at the conflicted look on his face. By habit, he's begun to screw up his face in disgust, but then realizes he doesn't have to pretend to be disgusted.
"I have a few ideas," he murmurs, smirking, skating a hand down her back. Mel shivers and leans into him for a moment, but straightens when Lennox turns to her with a grin, a child again, squealing at each bright display.
"The fireworks are so cool, Aunt Mel!" She gushes, bouncing forward to hug her aunt. Mel hugs her back, giving her first genuine smile of the night and glancing up to see Joe beaming back at her. Lennox flits away, the fireworks turning her blue, red, green for an instant.
Mel feels Joe squeeze her hand in the brief moment of dark between rockets, and she turns to smile at him. "They turned out pretty well, didn't they?"
Joe's grin is brilliant in the light of the fireworks. "Yeah, we did a good job, Burke."
There will be time, Mel reflects as she finally, finally relaxes, all her tension melting away. It's new, this thing between her and Joe, for all that it has a solid foundation of a five year friendship behind it. It will take time for them to figure out where they're going and how to do it best, how to fit their lives around each other in this new relationship they're in, but she knows the time doesn't matter. He'll be here, he's staying. Their two kids are heading out into the world, but he is where he needs to be: next to her.
That's all that matters.
Oh, and when the kids are old enough, we're gonna teach them to fly. You and me together, we could do anything...
~Fin
A/N: Reviews are always appreciated!