Autumn Leaves

Set in the Summer of Fun Universe

The characters do not belong to me but rather to 20th Century Fox and David Gerber Productions. The leaves belong to me! (Well okay maybe not!) The story is for Mara and Susan was my wonderful editor.

Jonathan sighed as he pushed his rakeful of leaves into the larger pile, wishing that he would get done. He hated this job more than any other one. Yes, even more than the dishes or folding underwear. He had hours to think about it and yes, he would rather fold bras, and lacy underwear and roll socks any day than rake leaves. When he was old and had his own house, he would hire someone to do it. Either that or not have any trees.

"How's it going, JJ?" His mother opened the back door of the house, a glass of lemonade in her hand. "Thought you might like a drink," she smiled.

"Fine," he mumbled, taking the glass happily. "I think I might finally be done, or almost."

"Looks very good." she praised him. He looked over at his mother who had been doing her share of the fall cleaning as well. She was wearing a pair of faded jeans and a blue plaid shirt over a turtleneck. Her hair was pushed back off her face and he couldn't help but think that even after she had been working in the garden, his mother was the prettiest one ever.

"How are the leaves coming along, lad?" his stepfather asked as he came around the corner of the house pushing a wheel barrow full of dirt. He stopped in his tracks, looking over the pile that Jonathan had gathered and nodded his head. "Excellent job, Skipper."

"Thanks," JJ beamed. Fall cleaning was much more fun now that they all did it together as a family. Living with Captain Gregg had always been wonderful, living with him as a dad was even better.

"The floors upstairs are all dusted." Candy came out the door, "And I got the closet in the bathroom cleaned out. And I'm tired. Can we stop for today, Mom?" the twelve-year-old looked up hopefully. "Martha won't recognize the place, it's so clean."

Martha was in Florida visiting her sister and her niece who had come in from California to show off her new baby. She was having a great time but missed them all and was planning to come home a week from tomorrow. They had decided that the nicest gift they could give her was to do the fall cleaning for her.

"I think we can all stop for now." Carolyn agreed. "We did get quite a lot done and the day is so pretty, I think we should relax for the rest of the day."

"I agree,' Daniel nodded, coming over to stand behind his wife, putting his arms around her shoulders. "Let's spend the rest of the day doing nothing."

'If you two are going to get mushy, could you do it somewhere else?" Candy asked, not entirely serious. She thought it was cool that they were always hugging and kissing and telling each other they loved them. But she still had to tease them about it.

"Oh, I don't know," Carolyn teased back. "Maybe we want to stay here."

"Yes, maybe the two of you should leave." Daniel caught up the teasing. "But how do you know that we are going to be mushy? Maybe we are going to have a leaf fight."

"A leaf fight!" JJ exclaimed. "Not after I just spent hours and hours raking them here."

"They are teasing, J." Candy told him. "They wouldn't really have a leaf fight." she shook her head.

"And why wouldn't we?" Carolyn asked. "Just because we are old fuddy-duddies doesn't mean that we don't know how to have a good time."

"Actually, I have to agree with Candy." the seaman said. "We would not have a leaf fight. But we would jump into them." his eyes starting to twinkle. And before anyone could say anything, he let Carolyn go, backed up a bit and ran towards the pile, jumping down into the middle, the leaves making a swishing sound when he hit them.

"My leaves!" Jonathan cried out, but even he had to grin a the sight of the tall captain up to his thighs in leaves.

"That was a pathetic jump." Carolyn shook her head. "I can do much better than that."

"Then you will have to prove it, my dear."

"Not a problem." She pushed the sleeves of her turtleneck up and wiped her hands on her jeans, before backing up even further than her husband had and took off at a run, jumping into the pile of leaves as gracefully as if she had done a swan dive. The greens, reds and oranges, flew up around her, some staying her hair and she made a very pretty picture sitting there.

Daniel held out his hand and helped her up. He would never get over how much a tom-boy his very womanly wife was.

"My turn." Candy was excited. "I can do better than that."

"Here, let me reshape the pile a bit first." Daniel said moving the rake with his ghostly powers and making it do the work that Jonathan had labored over.

"No fair." the boy grumbled good naturally.

Candy ran in place while he prepared the leaves for her, then stood on the edge of the pile and sort of jackknifed into them. They made a fantastic noise as she landed in their softness, her giggling causing Scruffy to wake up from his nap and run over barking to see what was going on.

"About time you roused yourself, mate." Daniel bent down and scratched the little dog behind the ears. "We've been having a lot of fun here."

Scruffy barked and leapt up on his back legs before running over to Jonathan who was trying to think of the best approach to jumping in the pile. He wanted to make a big splash. Finally he decided to come at it from the other side, taking a hurdle over the rake and landing smack dab in the middle of the pile, the leaves scattering even more. Scruffy came running over and started licking his face, JJ trying to get up with the little dog on his chest, his laughter infectious until they all were laughing to beat the band.

He did manage to get up, brushing leaves out of his hair. "So, who was the best?"

"I forgot to keep track." Carolyn laughed, and Daniel said he did too and they all started to laugh again.

"Oh, who cares? It's fun."

Once more Daniel piled the leaves up high and holding hands, he and Carolyn ran to the edge, jumping into them, the softness cradling them as she landed in the middle, the force of his weight knocking her down so that he lay on top of her. "Well, look what I found in the leaf pile." he grinned. She was warm and felt wonderfully good underneath him and he couldn't resist inching his fingers under the hem of her turtleneck to touch the skin underneath.

"We can replay that move later.' she whispered in his ear.

"I'll hold you to that."

"Are you going to go to sleep in there?" Candy teased them, "or can we play too?"

"Making out probably." JJ rolled his eyes, looking up from where he had been chasing sticks with Scruffy.

"Making out?" The Captain called out. "Do we look like we would do that?" and he reached up a hand for Candy, bringing her down on top of him, the girl laughing so hard she could hardly move.

"Hey, wait for me." Jonathan called out and jumped in with his family. They started throwing the leaves at one another, JJ and Candy sneaking up on their step dad and stuffing them down his shirt, Carolyn poking them down their backs while they were busy doing that. The scramble soon became boys vs girls with the leaves flying all around them. Scruffy joined in the fun, running and barking and stepping on leaves and people and the laughter rang out over the air.

Afterwards, they pulled themselves out of the scattered pile, pulling leaves out of every conceivable place, Carolyn even claiming she found some up inside Daniel's sweater, snaking her fingers up his chest to make sure.

A pot of cider had been brewing on the stove all day and now Daniel poured them all a steaming cup, while Carolyn got out sugar cookies and gingersnaps from the pantry and they sat around enjoying their treats, fun and laughter continuing.

It was a perfect moment in time.