Chapter 4: Admissions

A/N: Again, thanks for the reviews everyone. This is my most reviewed fic so far! It makes me happy to see so many positive responses to this story. I'm amazed at how much of this I've written in such a little amount of time… good to know it's appreciated!

-

Grace was making her way out the door when her father called out to her.

"Grace?"

With a sigh, Grace closed the front door and headed to the family room, where her father was working.

"Where are you going?" He asked upon her appearance in the doorway.

"Out," She told him sharply. Shouldn't he know by now that she wasn't going to share that information?

"Your mother is making her way through her third glass of scotch," he informed her, without bothering to look up from his work. "You might want to stick around."

Grace sucked in a lungful of air and expelled it loudly. Usually she would ditch her plans and take care of her mother so that her father could continue to ignore the problem. Usually she didn't even have plans. But, she was sick of putting up with her family's crap and she just wanted to be with Luke.

"No, I can't," she told him with all the defiance she could muster. She usually never stood up to her father. What had come over her? Her father looked up from his work in surprise at her hardened tone. He peered at her curiously. Grace took another deep breath.

"I'm going to see my boyfriend," she said, staring her father straight in the eyes. She took a little bit of satisfaction in his shocked expression.

"Boyfriend?" he asked. "You have a boyfriend?"

"Yes," Grace informed him insolently. "Since the beginning of summer."

"Why didn't you tell me about this?" he inquired, his work forgotten at his side for the moment.

"I'm telling you now," Grace stated matter-of-factly.

"Who is this boy?"

"He's a twenty-five year old ex-convict named Marcus," Grace asserted sarcastically. When he gaped at her in shock, she rolled her eyes. "He's a 15-year-old science geek named Luke."

"Oh," her father visibly relaxed at this. Then he looked somewhat dismayed again. "He's younger than you?"

"Yes," Grace affirmed, accompanied by another eye roll. This was starting to get old. "By like eight months. He's really mature for his age. And I have to go."

"But your mother…" he protested, giving her that look that was supposed to make her feel guilty. It pissed her off to no end.

"She's your wife! Why don't you get off your ass and take care of her yourself?" she exploded. She knew it was only a matter of time before all of the hurt and anger would come pouring out of her. "You should be ashamed of yourself, making your own daughter deal with your problems so that you don't have to."

With a glare at her so clearly shaken up father, she stormed out of the room. As she was about to walk out the front door, she heard her mother noisily moving about, drunk, in the kitchen. She closed her eyes tightly; hand paused on the doorknob, wishing that it would all go away. Most times she would ride around town on her skateboard to escape this life she was forced to live. But now that seemed so empty, like it wouldn't even do her any good. Besides, she didn't want to just blow Luke off like that. That's when it occurred to her that being with Luke would be the best escape. Without looking back, she stepped out of the house and headed towards the Girardi's.

-

Joan heard the doorbell ring and rushed for the door. She was expecting Adam to show up any minute, and assumed that it was him. She flung open the door only to find a clearly upset Grace.

"Grace," Joan said in surprise. "I wasn't expecting you…"

"No, but your brother is," Grace stated, pushing her way past Joan into the house.

"Oh,' Joan said, realization striking her. She supposed that this was something she should probably get used to.

"Is he in his room?" Grace asked impatiently when Joan just stood there staring dumbly at her.

"Uh, yeah," Joan answered, shaking out of her stupor. "Is something wrong?"

"Everything's peachy," Grace snarked at her before heading up the stairs.

When Grace reached the doorway of Luke's room, she saw him sitting at his computer working on something. He didn't notice her there, so she took the chance to study him before she made her presence known. After a long moment, she cleared her throat. He looked up in surprise.

"Hey," she said softly, not moving from her spot.

"Hey," he responded, standing up and moving over to her. He was pleased to see her, if the smile on his face was any indication. After momentarily searching her eyes with his own, his smile faded.

"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

Grace sighed and moved to put her stuff down next to the door.

"I got in a fight with my dad. Well sort of," she said, putting her hands in her sweatshirt pockets. Luke placed a gentle hand on her arm and leaned down to look her in the eye.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Grace merely shrugged and somehow found herself moving closer to him and wrapping her arms around him. He rested his cheek against hers and she clutched at his shirt as she breathed him in. It was something she always found comforting, like her own personal aromatherapy.

Luke was almost expecting her cry or possibly pull away quickly, but she seemed to be… smelling him? He figured it must be his imagination and pulled back to look at her, keeping his hands on her waist. She already looked calmer and more relaxed, and he couldn't help but feel pride in knowing that him just being there helped.

"I know what'll make you feel better," he told her with a smile. "Make yourself comfortable. I'll be right back."

Grace looked at him curiously, but nodded and watched him leave the room. She stood there for a minute looking around his room before going over to his bed. She plopped down on it, stomach first, and lay her head on her arm.

Several minutes later, Luke returned and smiled to himself at the sight of Grace lounging on his bed. When she saw that he had returned, she sat up and gave him a questioning look. He wordlessly handed her a mug. She took it from him and peered in at the contents. It can't be, she thought. She took a sip to make sure. As she suspected, it was hot chocolate. She looked up at Luke, wonder written across her face.

He sat on the bed and leaned his back up against the headboard. He then motioned her to come to him. With a small smile, she complied, sitting between his legs, leaned back against his chest. He held her silently for a moment as she continued to drink her steamy beverage. After a few minutes, he began to speak.

"There was a contest in a magazine recently to mail in a scientific theory on any subject. I submitted an entry of course."

Grace rolled her eyes.

"Of course you did, geek-boy."

"Anyway, the winning entry was titled 'Perpetual Motion'. Do you know what it was about?" Luke continued, ignoring her snarky comment.

"No, but I'm sure you'll tell me," Grace said, sipping her cocoa. She settled her head back onto his shoulder, preparing herself to listen to one of his long-winded explanations.

"The theory states that a cat will always land on its feet and buttered toast will always land butter side down. Therefore, if one were to strap buttered toast to a cat's back they will never land either way, but hover above the ground in perpetual motion. It was then concluded by saying that high powered monorail systems could be powered using these buttered felines."

Grace turned to look at her boyfriend with a raised eyebrow.

"What?"

Luke only smiled at her.

"Are you serious?" she asked with a slight laugh.

"Yes, completely. I have the article," Luke told her, enjoying the lighthearted laughter he received in return. "I wrote a letter in response with a formula to complete their theory included."

"You didn't," Grace gasped, trying to control her laughter.

" I did. A true scientist can work with any hypothesis, no matter how ridiculous," he insisted as Grace began to laugh harder. She turned and collapsed against his chest again in her fit of laughter. Luke placed a hand flat against her stomach.

"Glad you find it so amusing," he said before softly kissing the side of her neck. Grace's laughter was cut short and her breath caught in her throat. Luke slowly kissed her neck again, and smiled against her skin when she let out a tiny sigh. He pulled back slightly so that he could look at her profile. She had her eyes closed and her lips parted, and Luke thought she looked utterly kissable. It wasn't until she moaned softly that he realized he had been stroking her stomach with his thumb. He ceased the movement and she opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him. Her eyes lowered to his mouth and she licked her lips. Luke groaned and captured her lips with his own. Grace whimpered ever so slightly and kissed him back hungrily. All the sudden they were jolted back to reality when something landed on their legs. They pulled away from each other in surprise to find Joan standing in the doorway, hands on her hips. They both gave her an irritated look.

"Must you guys always do that?"

"What do you want?" Luke asked impatiently, wanting to return to his quality time with Grace. He picked up the object lying against his leg. "Besides to throw phonebooks at us?"

"I wouldn't if you weren't permanently attached to Grace's lips," Joan teased him, flouncing over to them to snatch the phonebook from his hands. Grace gave her a dirty look.

"Adam and I are going to the movies in a bit," Joan informed them, sitting on the bed and officially killing their moment. With an exasperated sigh, Grace reluctantly moved away from Luke so that she could sit facing them both. Luke looked disappointed, but didn't say anything as he re-positioned himself as well.

"What movie?" Grace asked Joan after giving Luke an "I'll make it up to you later" smile.

"Without A Paddle," Joan answered, trying to pretend she didn't see the look. "It looks funny and Seth Green is in it."

"She has a love obsession with Seth Green," Luke stage whispered to Grace.

"I do not!" Joan protested with a pout. "I just think he's funny."

"Right," Grace said, not sounding the least bit convinced.

"You and him would actually make a cute couple," Joan joked, pretending to contemplate the idea.

"Hey," Luke said, moving closer to Grace possessively. "She's taken."

Joan rolled her eyes and Grace gave him a look.

"What?" Luke said defensively to Grace. "You're MY girlfriend."

"Dude, I'm not a car," she said pointedly. "You don't own me."

"Right," Luke responded, clearly upset. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Dude, chill," Grace said in reaction to his aggravation. "All I meant was that I'm not an object. I didn't mean…" Grace paused and glanced nervously at Joan, suddenly very aware of her presence. "Look, I'm with you, okay? I just don't belong to you is all I'm saying."

"Do you guys always argue over stupid stuff?" Joan asked, amused by their little lover's quarrel.

"Shut up!" They both told her at the same time and with the same expression, no less. Joan shook her head in amusement.

"Whatever. If you guys want to go with us to the movies, we're leaving in thirty minutes," she said, standing up. She smirked at them. "Plenty of time for you guys to grope each other all you want."

With that, she left the room.

"Do you want to go?" Luke asked as Grace inched closer to him.

"Sure," she responded as she snuggled back up to him. "But you heard her, we've got thirty minutes."

"What did you have in mind?" Luke questioned playfully, enjoying how cuddly she was being.

In response, Grace hooked her finger in the collar of his shirt and pulled him down to her.

-

Thirty minutes later, they appeared downstairs as Joan and Adam were putting their coats on.

"C'mon guys, hurry up!" Joan prodded, shoving their coats towards them. "Uh, Grace? You might want to do a quick comb-through."

Grace's hands shot up to her hair, which was a bit on the messy side. She sheepishly ran her fingers through it, making it presentable. Joan gave her brother and Grace a disgusted look.

"Never tell me. Ever."

Grace gave her an innocent look in response that might have been believable if it were not for Luke's smirk. Grace noticed it and smacked him in the stomach rather hard before stomping out the door. Luke rubbed his stomach painfully for a moment before grinning at Adam and Joan.

"Feisty, isn't she?" He commented happily before walking out the door as well.

"Those two are so hopeless," Joan told Adam. Adam only smiled in response before leading Joan after the others.

-

Later that night the four of them had staked out the front yard and were all looking up at the sky, trying to find constellations. Luke would spout out a random fact out every so often, which would cause Joan to roll her eyes and Grace to smile. More often than not, Joan would catch Grace giving him that "you are so adorable" look and gag loudly or make a snarky comment. Adam would then chuckle, Luke would ignore her and continue rambling, and Grace would shoot her a dirty look.

"Do you see that constellation over there?" Luke asked, leaning in towards Grace as he pointed towards the sky. "That's Ursa Major…"

Grace blushed a little at how close he was to her. It didn't help that he was using his low, intimate tone that she usually loved so much. Sort of embarrassed that he was doing it in front of them, she prayed Joan and Adam hadn't noticed.

"Beware, Grace," Joan warned, causing Luke's explanation to be cut short and Grace to flinch. "Science is like sex to him, and I do believe that he is trying to seduce you."

Grace found herself blushing even more and Luke gave his sister an irritated look before backing away from Grace. She shot Joan one of her trademark glares and turned back to Luke.

"What were you saying?"

Luke gave her a smile and delved back into his explanation, minus the intimate tone from before. Grace listened intently, smiling to herself as he became more and more passionate about the subject. Joan leaned over to whisper to Grace.

"You actually understand what he's going on about?"

"Only about half of it," Grace whispered back before returning her attention back to Luke. Joan was going to ask why she even bothered listening when she remembered something. Besides he's cute when he gets all riled up about science. She supposed that would explain why Grace endured the long, boring lectures he gave so often. She couldn't really imagine "cute" being in Grace's vocabulary, but it now seemed rather obvious by the way that Grace smiled as he got lost in his scientific explanations. Joan couldn't help but remember what she had told Grace in that same conversation: that maybe they were meant for each other. Rather freaked out by her thoughts, Joan shook her head slightly and turned to Adam.

"You want to go inside?"

Adam nodded in the affirmative and they left Luke and Grace by themselves in the yard.

Luke finished his long-winded explanation and looked at Grace thoughtfully.

"I enjoyed spending time with you today, Grace," he told her softly, wrapping an arm around her waist. She looked a little flustered by this, but quickly covered it up.

"It was fun," she said casually. He nodded in response and brought up a hand to cup her cheek. He leaned in slowly and softly kissed her.

Wow, was all she could think as they shared a slow, sweet kiss. She felt all of those stupid emotions welling up inside her when he tenderly stroked her face with his fingertips as he moved his lips against hers. When they pulled apart, Grace kept her eyes closed and leaned her forehead against his, afraid he would see how she felt about him. The idea of him knowing that honestly scared the hell out of her.

Luke held her tightly against him as he went through a similar dilemma. She made him feel things he never thought possible.

"I love you," he found himself saying before he could stop it. Grace's eyes flew open and she jerked back, startled. He looked at her and saw the fear in her eyes as she scrambled to her feet. What had he done?

"Grace…" he started, standing as well, reaching out for her. She jumped when his hand made contact with her arm and quickly backed away. He opened his mouth to say something to try to calm her down, but she intercepted him.

"I have to go," she told him, wide-eyed, still backing away from him. She then dropped her skateboard to the ground and took off on it, leaving Luke to stare after her.

A/N: Loads of shout outs in this chapter… the theory Luke is talking about at the beginning; yes its for real! The Seth Green thing is a shout out to Diminished/Vanilla Bean b/c of her insistance that Seth and Becky would be cute together. And lastly, the kiss at the end is a shout out to the kiss in BOQ. Buttered cats, Seth Green, and sweet kisses… what a combinaion!