Title: Understandings
Pairing: Jessie/Katie
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: They don't belong to me, I'm making no money off this, and I'm using them without permission. I've got no money anyways.
A/N: Follows Goodbye to You and Hello, Again in my loosely-connected J/K series.
"Well, this is slightly awkward," Katie's father said, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had fallen. "You must be Jessie," he continued offering her his hand. She took it, and he continued, "I don't believe we've ever met formally. I'm Mitch Singer, Katie's father, and this is my wife Elizabeth." Jessie released his hand and shook hands with Katie's mother.
"Jessie," he mumbled. "I take it you've met my family already."
"Indeed they did," Rick said dryly, glancing at their joined hands before looking away. "Have a seat, you two."
"Oh, my God," Katie groaned as she sat down, a light bulb practically flashing on over her head. "We're gonna have The Talk, aren't we?"
"Oh yes we are," Karen said, gently sarcastic, from her seat on the couch. She was the only one there; Katie's mother was in an armchair and Rick and Katie's dad were standing. Karen moved over slightly, and Jessie came to sit next to her, Katie sitting on Jessie's other side.
Lily, Eli, Grace and Zoe were in the corner, just there on principle (and because they were snoops). They were unobtrusively eavesdropping; Lily, at least, had a right as it was partly her house rules they were discussing, but the three children probably shouldn't have been there. Oh, well, Lily sighed to herself.
"So where were you two planning on telling us that you were dating?" Katie's mother kicked off the inquisition.
Jessie and Katie glanced at each other. "Well," Katie handled the question delicately, "we haven't really been dating dating 'till…oh, the dance tonight."
"Yeah, speaking of which, the dance ended at nine-thirty. It's ten of eleven now. Where were you two?" Rick demanded aggressively, giving Katie a sideways, piercing glare.
For a second, the two girls didn't realize what he was implying. Then they both blushed, Katie hid her face in her hands, and Jessie started half up out of her seat, having half a mind to slug Rick.
"We didn't…." Jessie began hotly.
"We were at Friendly's," Katie cut Jessie off smoothly, having recovered her composure nicely, lightly nudging Jessie's foot with her own in the time-honored signal for Shut up and let me speak! Jessie, annoyed but knowing it was probably best, grudgingly sat down.
"I am sorry, we really should have called," Katie continued easily, "but we kind of…got together tonight, really, and we wanted to go out to celebrate, but we got recruited into helping clean up the dance, and we went out…and we just lost track of time. I'm really sorry."
"That's fine, darling," her mother interjected quickly, seeing the thunderclouds on Jessie's face. "But we are going to have to set some ground rules."
"What about Sarah?" Grace thought she mumbled, but it was apparent she hadn't as everyone turned to look at her. Karen's eyebrows rose fractionally.
"Sarah?"
"Sarah," Katie began, shooting Grace an evil glare, "is an old friend of mine and ex-girlfriend, actually. "I guess you would say that we were off and on for a while, but we recently broke up for good."
"How long ago?" Rick questioned, sensing a chance that his precious baby girl might be hurt.
Katie's face closed. "Formally? Earlier this afternoon. But we were done a long time before that…since when I met Jessie. I guess you could say our recent, two-day incarnation of a relationship was me on the semi-rebound from Jessie, as we were never officially going out."
"Really?" Mrs. Singer questioned. "I didn't know you and Jessie had something going on before this, in any way."
"Wait, how did you all know about us?" Jessie questioned, a thought that had been bugging her for several minutes.
"Alexa's mom called both sets of parents, told is that the two of you seemed…very cozy-" here Jessie and Katie both smiled "-at the dance, and you had taken off after it, and did we know this? And then Grace came home after the dance and confirmed it."
Upon hearing Katie's father's words, both Jessie and Katie shot Grace death looks. She shrank back, knowing she was so dead the next day at school.
"Which is totally fine," Karen hastened to add. "And, given your answer to the previous question, I would surmise that you haven't…done…anything beyond kissing?" Katie's mom asked hesitantly. Both girls blushed again, Jessie squeaked and hid her face on her mother's shoulder, and Katie scooted over to the end of the couch and buried her face in the pillows.
Rick, obviously relieved, added, "Well, now that that bit of information sharing is over, it's time to set the rules, enough stalling."
"Stalling?" Jessie demanded, voice high. "We haven't been stalling!"
"And we want you to know," Mr. Singer continued as if there hadn't been an interruption, "that we would set these ground rules the same as if you were dating boys, so no whining about any biases!" It was rather obvious the parents had rehearsed their spiel.
"And you don't have to worry about either of them getting pregnant," Lily murmured in the background.
It was so completely inappropriate that it totally broke the tension. Everyone roared with laughter, and when Katie disappeared and reappeared, having obviously just splashed water on her face, they laughed harder, Jessie and Katie's glares not helping any. Eventually the laughing subsided to a few chuckles.
"Well, that's a nice segway into our rules," Karen put in, still grinning broadly, despite herself. "No unsupervised sleepovers."
"Consider yourselves lucky that you even get to have sleepovers at all," Mr. Singer raised a warning hand. "But you've slept over before, so we figured…well, I'm sure two bright girls like yourselves can make the logic leaps as to what we figured. It's not fair to the two of you to immediately assume you'll want to get in each others' pants, and we trust you, so we hope that the trust won't be abused."
"What constitutes chaperoned?" Katie asked with trepidation.
"Well, obviously, people have to be home," Karen fielded he question neatly. "Not on the bed together, but some snuggling is allowed."
"Any other rules?" Jessie, about to die of embarrassment, asked, knowing her cheeks were crimson by now.
"No being alone together in any house, knowing when you're out on dates, curfews, umm…we'd like to get to know you better…" Rick looked lost in thought. Then an evil smirk spread across his face. "Oh, yeah, and we get to pump you for information now."
"Oh my God, I can't believe they subjected us to the talk," Jessie whined, flopping onto her bed much later that night. Katie, for her part, groaned and collapsed beside Jessie.
"But we do need to talk, babe," Katie reminded her girlfriend quietly, propping her head on her arm, stretched out on her side on Jessie's bed. Jessie lay on her stomach with her head on her folded arms in front of her, gazing at Katie.
"I know," Jessie managed to blurt out quickly. "But I just wanna say…I was confused, and I was afraid…of being different. Of what people would say. I really like you, Katie, I…have a thing for you, for lack of a better term," smirking at Katie's incredulous expression, she lightly flicked her girlfriend's nose. "For lack of a better term," she repeated impishly. Then she sobered. "And I would most definitely like to get to know you better. I can't tell you how sorry I am to have put you through this, but I need to know…why Sarah?" she demanded, tortured.
"'Cause I was on the rebound from you," Katie answered back dully, not looking at Jessie. "Because it hurt, and she was convenient-" here her voice cracked "-and willing and wanted it as bad as I wanted you."
"Did the two of you…?" Jessie was almost afraid to ask the question, not knowing what she'd do if Katie said yes.
"Not all the way, no," Katie answered quietly, the bedspread having become very interesting. "Second base. She wanted to take it farther, and I figured, what the hell…but…I couldn't."
"Oh."
"And it felt good, while we were together…made the pain go away…but it didn't make it all better." Tears were flowing down her cheeks now, pain flickering through them, and for the first time that night Jessie stepped back and really looked at her girlfriend, and was appalled at what she saw.
Katie was shockingly pale. She'd never been strikingly tan, but her skin was about three shades away from translucent. Her eyes were dull; her normally sharp cheekbones sagged. She had the beginnings of bags under her eyes; she looked as if she had aged years.
Not that I look much better, I imagine, Jessie thought wryly. But oh, Katie…
Jessie felt the tears form in her own eyes, let them fall freely. She cupped Katie's cheek with one hand. "Oh, God, Katie, I am so…so…sorry," she rasped out, leaning over and hugging Katie desperately, and Katie hugged her back with equal fervor, the two entwining bodies as if it was going out of style, bodies bringing themselves into intimate contact with one another's.
"I am, too," Katie grated out past her tears.
They lay like that for a time, letting the close contact wash away the weeks of separation and pain, Eventually, Jessie fell asleep curled in Katie's arms. Katie then shifter onto her back, letting Jessie curl up on her chest. Jessie threw an arm over Katie's abdomen, a leg over Katie's, and curled her head in the hollow of Katie's shoulder. Katie grinned and groaned; it was unbearably cute, but at the same time, they were so dead if Rick or Lily came in.
As if conjured by Katie's thoughts, the door creaked and Rick entered. Katie lifted her head up, knowing that a few residual tears were curling down her cheeks, knowing the tear tracks would be visible in the harsh light. Praying that the father of the girl she was falling badly for would understand and not dismember her limb from limb. Luckily, Jessie's bed wasn't turned down and they were still fully clothed.
Rick watched them for a moment. His daughter, looking like an angel in the moonlight, sound asleep half on top of her girlfriend. Said girlfriend holding her cherishingly close, looking like a guard dog except for the tear stains running down her perfect cheeks. It was a surreal, unearthly sight, and Rick half-wished he had a camera, because the scene embodied love. But no picture could do it justice, and he left, knowing with an instinct of someone who is in love that Katie and Jessie would only sleep that night. He gently closed the door behind him.
Katie exhaled the breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Her eyes drooped, her head rested on Jessie's and she let herself fall into dreams.