Awakening Feelings
A/N: One shot fic about Eddie and Janet before they became Jeddie. This takes place right before Nick comes home. This is dedicated to all the writers and creators of October Road, to the cast and crew and most especially, to my Roadies. Keep on Rollin'.
The thing about the Ridge is that even though things change, everything stays the same. You may have new characters from time to time or the old favorites may have gone away, but all in all, change isn't the way and it was just as Eddie Latekka liked it. It was early in the morning and all was quiet on October Road. He stood at the edge of the Road looking all the way to the Dufresne College and wondered how anyone could choose to live anywhere else. Lately his mind had been snagged on Nicky and what could have been with their business, but he was working on trying to let go of the bitterness. It would kill him if he wasn't careful, that's what Janet had told him anyway.
Standing there, looking down the road he thought back to the night before and how he had tied one on at Sully's. Even though he hit the bottle pretty hard, Eddie woke up clear of mind and in a good mood. Perhaps it was because he struck out with that cute little blonde and was able to make it back to Sully's in time for his closing drink with Janet.
Janet. Eddie rolled her name around and around in his head. She was pretty enough, and when she smiled, it just kicked it up a 100. He didn't know why he was so drawn to her, she wasn't his usual type, but she made him feel good. It felt good to talk to her, to laugh with her, hell it even felt good to drink with her. He bet she wouldn't mind spending the day watching football and eating sandwiches out of the wrapper. He bet she wouldn't nag him about hanging out with the guys. He bet she would make a great girlfriend. He wondered why she didn't seem to date. Could it be that no one saw her for the wonderful woman she was? Admittedly it took him a long time to see it himself, but most guys weren't as shallow as him. He wondered for a fleeting moment if she batted for the other team. Nah, stuff like that just didn't stay secret in the Ridge. So why didn't she date? Weird. She was cute enough, sure a little on the heavier side, but it made her kinda sexy and curvy and she had all that curly brown hair that made you want to sink your face into. Eddie was lost in his thoughts wondering if he should just get on with it and ask her out. He was afraid to if truth be told. He knew that a girl like Janet was the marrying kind, the kind you brought home to mom and in the last ten years, Eddie was always careful to steer clear of those kind of girls.
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Janet got out of her car and smiled over at Eddie's truck. He humped it home last night after she insisted he should. He drank too much and wasn't speaking too clearly so she was definitely not going to let him drive. As was becoming habit, he had come back in the bar after he struck out and they shared a final shot together. He stayed after she locked the doors and they talked about everything and nothing. She often wondered why he chose her to talk to, and wondered if it was pity. She knew that she made him laugh, but then she was always good at that. She hoped he considered her a friend, but then, she was always the friend, never the lover.
She tried in vain to put the erotic images of Eddie out of her mind. He would never, ever be interested in her. There was no way she could be the Dottie, Cindy or Sherry's of the world. She was just plain old chubby Janet; with the great personality and the sunny smile. No one ever noticed her and the few guys that did ask her out never made it past the second or third date. She would not settle. She wouldn't; it was all or nothing. So Janet would try it and if there was no chemistry, she wouldn't force it and she'd move on. And so here she was, almost 28 years old and still never having experienced love or a true relationship.
She often wondered if she should move away from the Ridge, go someplace new, where the menu wasn't so limited. Then she thought about Hannah and Sam and even Eddie and she knew it would be hard to walk away from her home, her friends and her life. It wasn't exactly a lonely life, but it wasn't the happiest and she wondered if she ever would be.
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Sully's was hopping. It was Saturday night and the place was packed. The students were starting to come back from summer break and soon the fall semester would start. Janet was still getting used to the faster pace of the weekend crowd and as a result found herself actually taking her breaks instead of skipping them.
Walking out the back door to just get some air and kick off her shoes for a few minutes, she squeaked in surprise when she saw a dark figure leaning against her car.
"Hey! It's okay, it's just me Janet. Sorry, I didn't mean to rattle ya." His raspy voice was unmistakable. Even though her eyes had yet to adjust to the dark, she knew it was Eddie.
Janet held her hand to her heart and took a deep breath to relax. "Oh! Eddie, you scared me. What the hell are you doing back here anyway?"
He shrugged his shoulders in that typical Latekka way and looked at her. "It was loud and I was thinking about going home 'cause I'm tired and worked all day and not really sure why I'm even here tonight except for the fact that's it's a Saturday night in the Ridge and what the hell else is there to do?" He held his palms up and shrugged again.
She took him in, giving him a slow perusal; his long body leaning against her car. He had a beer bottle in his hand, but it was still full. She walked over to him, closer, imagining dangerously what would happen if she just made a grab for him and kissed him. Just laid one right on him, what the hell would he do? Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she couldn't help but laugh at herself. "Not much, I suppose. It is the Ridge." She was smiling like a loon now, but she couldn't help it. He would probably run screaming for the hills and never speak to her again if she tried putting the moves on him.
It was weird, for just one moment in time, Janet looked like she was on the hunt and he was her prey. He half expected her to walk right up to him and kiss him. And where the hell had that come from Latekka? Eddie sincerely liked Janet. That much was true, but he would never, ever hurt her the way he seemed to do with so many other women in the Ridge. He knew what kind of girl she was, a good girl, and Eddie Latekka had no business with a good girl whatsoever. Shaking himself, he noticed she was smiling, almost laughing. He must look like a complete idiot. "What's so funny."
That wiped the smile off her face. Quickly, she recovered. "Nothing, it's nothing. I was just thinking about something funny I read in the paper this morning." Please don't ask me what, please don't ask me what, please don't ask me what.
"Oh." Taking a deep breath, he continued. "So, you're on your break… want to be left alone? I'm sure you don't feel like being bothered by customers while you're taking a break. I'll leave." He pushed off her car and started heading towards the back door.
Finding courage where there was usually none, she called to him. "Eddie, wait. You don't have to go. In fact, I'd like you to stay. I don't mind, really, I could use the conversation. Besides," she took a deep breath, "I kind of think of you as a friend, and I always have time for friends."
He looked at her for what seemed an eternity, but in reality was probably only a matter of seconds. It would be the way he would always look at her when she said something that both surprised and touched him. It was his look for her, but Janet didn't know that yet, Janet didn't know what the future would hold for her and Eddie. She didn't know at that moment what he would come to mean to her. What she would come to mean to him. She didn't know that 2 years from now in the fall they would marry in Janet's backyard. She didn't know that 4 ½ years from now they would face the problems of infertility. She didn't know that 6 years from now, they would adopt their first child, a little girl from Somalia. And that soon after they brought their new baby home, by some miracle, she would get pregnant and give Eddie a son. She didn't know that 32 years from now they would be celebrating a 30 year anniversary with friends and family in the Ridge. That life with Eddie would be a wonderful adventure full of ups and downs and everything in between. That Eddie Latekka would love her through everything, through infidelity, through weight loss and weight gain, mood swings and business ventures. He would love her through infertility and adoption and pregnancy and wedding anniversaries. He would love their children, he would build their dream home for her in their retirement. He would love her through cancer and dementia and he would die soon after her, from a broken heart at age 86. He would treasure her always and make her feel like the most important person in his world. In essence, he would make her twirl.
A little choked up by the fierceness of her statement, Eddie slowly nodded. "Yeah Janet, I think of you as a friend too…a good friend. I want you to know that." And just like that, Eddie Latekka and Janet Meadows sat in the moonlight in the back alley of Sully's and talked; building the foundation to what would become one the strongest relationships ever known to man. It would become perfect in its imperfection; a love that would last a lifetime.