A/N: Has anyone else read The Secret Diary of Ashley Juergens? Well if you're a Grason fan and you haven't, you SHOULD! Why? Because it tells exactly what happened between Grace and Jason at the Young Healers Camp over the summer. And that's what this story is about. So yes, this is your SPOILER WARNING! (Go read the book! Page 224. That's where you'll find all your Grason needs.)
Revival
It was awkward enough lying on the ground pretending to be a drowning victim in the middle of a classroom full of other pre-med hopefuls, half of whom were also lying on their backs with the other half hanging over them, giving chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. But what was even more awkward was that Jason Treacy happened to be part of that other half, that was giving said mouth-to-mouth to Grace Bowman.
Jason had been the only other person with the grades and know how from Grant High to be accepted into the Young Healers Summer Camp. Luckily for them, they had also been placed into the same lecture group and found themselves sharing hospital rounds. For that reason, Grace and Jason quickly latched onto each other and had become quite good friends during their time at camp, since neither of them knew any of their peers.
Grace thought she would miss Jack greatly while she was away, but to her surprise, she barely gave him a second thought. She was far too busy with patients and charts and medical books and of course e-mailing Ashley Juergens with everything that was going on at camp. Ashley never e-mailed back, but it was a comfort just to get all her thoughts out. In fact, it made Grace feel good that Ashley was on the other end of the computer to read and not to comment, just to listen, in a manner of speaking.
So when she found herself beneath Jason, with her mouth pressed on and off to his and his hands pressing firmly - yet tenderly - against her chest, between her breasts actually, a place which only Jack's hands had ever been before, albeit without the clothes and the bra, it was an awkward situation. It became even more awkward when the chest compressions seemed to stop, but the mouth-to-mouth did not.
While she laid there, she had to admit that she liked the way Jason's mouth felt on hers. It was hot. Steamy, like being in a jungle with the humid mist clinging to her lips. She'd only ever had her mouth on Jack's mouth before, but it hadn't been like this. Granted, her and Jack had not been demonstrating CPR before, but somehow she liked CPR better. Jason's lips were softer and more subtle. She found herself wanting so badly to be able to switch positions, but like any good drowning victim, she remained lifeless.
"Time's up!" she heard the professor announce. "Great job, everyone! Good drowning victims, good life guards. Although, Mr. Treacy, next time you may want to include a few more chest compressions. The breath of life is important, but you want to keep your victim's heart pumping too, you know."
"Yes, Sir. Sorry, I'll be better next time."
Grace sat up. She looked down, hiding the faint smile on her lips at Jason's embarrassment. She couldn't see any flush against his skin, but his body language said it all. When the professor had turned his attention away, she placed her hand to Jason's shoulder. "Thanks for saving me," she said shyly.
Jason didn't meet her eyes. "Sure," he mumbled, still obviously embarrassed.
"Trust me," she said with an air of breathlessness, "my heart's pumping just fine."
Jason flashed his pearlescent grin. "Glad to hear it." He stood and extended his hand to her, which he smiled again when she accepted. "So uh, now that you're life's saved and all, would you be interested in lunch?" He glanced down at his wrist watch. "I think we've still got a half hour until we're due for our rounds."
Grace absently smoothed the creases of her pleated yellow skirt. "Sure…sounds great. I was kind of hungry." She meant to move her hand to her stomach, but instead she moved it to her chest. Her heart was still pounding. Definitely not in need of compression. Then her stomach growled.
They were the first ones out of the room and Jason held the door open for her. He slagged behind her as they walked to the café. It was just before noon and people were filing into the booths; it was the worst time to catch lunch. The last free table was by the door, because it caught the draft and everyone avoided it. Jason made a point of pulling out the chair on the opposite side of the table.
"Oh, you don't have to get the drafty seat, I can sit over there." She pointed across the table to emphasize her point, but Jason would have none of it.
"I insist."
Grace felt a blush seep into her cheeks as she slid into the chair. She quickly shook her head, hiding her face with her sashes of golden hair. "Thank you."
As he sat down, the waitress emerged with two glasses of ice water. "Have you decided on what you'd like to order?" She retrieved her notepad and pen, appearing anxious and rightfully so for the particular time of day.
"I'll have a bacon ranch salad with grilled chicken," Jason nodded. His dark eyes shifted to Grace.
"I'll have the same."
"Anything to drink?"
"Water's fine," they spoke in unison.
"I'll try to get your salads here as soon as possible."
Grace met Jason's eyes across the table. One of her hands was wrapped around the edge of the table, still replaying her drowning victim role from class. The urge to ask him about why he so conveniently forgot the chest compressions was killing her. It wasn't like Jason to forget. When they'd practiced on dummies, he'd been perfect. Everything he did was always perfect. He aced all of his tests and he even corrected her and other students from time to time, so it didn't make a lick of sense that he'd forget the chest compressions when it really mattered: on a real person.
As she was mulling over her thoughts, she flexed her arm across the table for the straw. Her hand bumped into Jason's, who was reaching for the same straw. Even though there was air conditioning in the café, it seemed to disappear in that instance. Electricity crackled around their hands; Grace could almost see the BBQ-like heat waves rising from their skin. She laughed awkwardly. "Sorry."
"No, my fault. I didn't realize you were reaching for the same straw." But he didn't pull his hand away and neither did she. For several minutes, they sat in silence, with the bird-like chatter of the café around them. Then Jason moved his fingers, brushing them feather soft against Grace's as he slid the straw out from beneath her hand. He tore away the paper like a banana peel and then inserted the straw into her ice water and reached for the second straw.
"Thank you." Grace wrapped her hand around the cup. It was sweating, just like she was. Luckily, she had fantastic deodorant. It was a Godsend and she made a silent prayer for that as she sipped the ice water through her straw, stealing peeks at Jason as he unwrapped his own straw.
About five minutes later, the waitress reappeared, looking haggard. She'd made her rounds around the café before she'd gotten back to their table, even though they'd been too busy looking at each other to notice. "Sorry about the wait," she apologized as she slid the salads in front of her customers.
"No problem," Jason mumbled without even looking at her. He picked up his knife and fork as she left and began to saw his chicken breast into cubes while Grace cut hers into strips. When he looked down to take a bite of his food, she'd look at him, and when he'd look up she looked down to eat and he'd stare at her, neither one knowing about the other's discretions.
"Oh!" Grace suddenly announced with disappointment.
"Something wrong?"
"They forgot my cherry tomatoes." She exhaled softly. "I guess it's not a big deal, they're busy and-" Her voice deadpanned as Jason leaned across the table and rolled all of his cherry tomatoes onto her salad. "You don't have to do that," she whispered, her face flushing again. "It's alright, it's-"
"Yours. Take them. They're my apology for not compressing you enough."
"You're such a silly goose," she blurted out. But nevertheless, she stabbed one of the tomatoes with her fork and ate it as she watched Jason's satisfied grin. The rest of the lunch sailed along just as smoothly, with little talk but lots of secret glances. Grace's mind was still in a daze and she wondered if maybe it was due to lack of oxygen, from Jason's mouth covering hers for so long. She began to mentally recount the details of the exercise and realized he had on cologne, but couldn't pinpoint what the smell was. Whatever it was, she liked it, and it made her wish she could get close enough to him again to get another whiff.
By the time the waitress returned and collected their plates, Jason held up his wrist and announced that they had five minutes before rounds. Grace cursed silently to herself as she realized she didn't have time to run all the way across the campus to her dorm to get her lab coat and still be on time.
Jason scratched the side of his head. "You look like something's wrong."
"It's nothing. I just…I washed my lab coat yesterday and left it back in my room-"
"Say no more! I've got an extra in my dorm. It's on the way and won't take more than a minute. It might be a bit long for you, you might need to roll back the sleeves a bit, but if you want-"
"You're a life saver!" Grace chuckled at her unintentional pun as they rose from their seats and Jason once again held open the door for her. Like he promised, they dropped by his dorm and he collected his spare lab coat. She slid it up and found it fit her, so long as she gave one roll to each cuff. "This is the second time you've saved my life today," she giggled and nudged him playfully on the arm as they arrived at check-in. They were the first to sign in and Grace ended up waiting alone as Jason went to find his lab coat. When he came back, they stood next to each other as the minutes on the clock ticked away.
Grace dropped her hands to her sides in annoyance. She had impatience when it came to slackers and lateness. At one minute to one, she and Jason were still the only ones there. Then something surprised her: she felt Jason's fingers ripple across hers. For a second, she thought it was an accident until it happened again. From the corner of her eye, she looked at him, but he appeared to be staring straight again. Curious, she stretched out her fingers and found his for a moment. And just when she thought it was a fluke, her hand felt Jason's hand wrap around hers. She felt her breathing speed up and she could feel her heart pulsing in her chest. It lasted for thirty seconds, until the sound of footsteps and voices echoed from down the hall, signaling the entrance of the doctor in charge of student rounds and a couple of peers in their group. Their hands quickly broke apart as Dr. Hahn came into sight.
"You're in for a very educational night, tonight, class!" Dr. Hahn held up his list of patients and a mischievous gleam twinkled in his eyes. "You get to learn all about the raging effects of syphilis from our newest patient!"
Grace was only half paying attention. She had her fingers discreetly pressed to her neck, counting her pulse. She wasn't sure about Jason, but she knew her head was off some place far, far away and she wasn't going to be learning anything new tonight. Her pulse was so fast she couldn't even keep track. She was feeling a little light headed too. But thankfully, she knew that if she fainted during rounds, at least Jason would be right there to bring her back.
