Wrecked

By Kadi
Rated T

Disclaimer: This is not my sandbox, simply one that I enjoy playing in.

Chapter 10

The water was cool against her skin. Emily watched it swirling around her legs as she kicked them through it. She was seated on the edge of the pool, enjoying the sun and listening to the sound of voices and laughter behind her. When she lifted her legs, Emily frowned at them. Her left was definitely much lighter than the right, a result of having spent so many weeks wrapped in a cast. Her nose wrinkled as her gaze moved to the other leg. There was an ugly pink line down one side of it. When she considered the alternative, a couple of discolored legs were the least of her worries. That didn't mean that her vanity agreed.

Emily had been out of the cast for almost a month now. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't seem to even out the golden hue of her skin. She had tanned in the Southern California sunlight, something that she enjoyed, but her poor, cast encased leg was sadly devoid of any color. She supposed she would have to give in to her own arrogance and make an appointment at the salon for a spray tan. For now, Emily was just going to enjoy the feel of the water against her skin.

Movement beside her drew Emily's attention. She squinted behind her sunglasses when she looked up. Her nose wrinkled again, for an entirely new reason. "Haven't you picked on me enough for one week?"

"Never." Charlie kicked out of his flip-flops and lowered himself onto the edge of the pool beside her. He dropped his feet into the water with a splash and grinned when the water splattered up onto her thighs. "The party is over there," he nodded his head toward where the others were gathered. "What are you doing sulking over here?"

"I am not sulking." Emily returned her gaze to the water. "I'm just thinking." She ignored the fact that he was right. It was a party, and she didn't mind celebrating, but her mind was full and she had just needed a moment to herself.

"About?" Charlie nudged her shoulder with his. "Come on, Princess. It's not every day that our parents buy a house and decide to shack up together. What's got you so wound up that you can't at least pretend to be happy for them? I thought you said that you like the old man?" Charlie tipped his sunglasses up onto his head and frowned at her. "It's a little late for you to decide that you're against all of this, isn't it?"

"No." Emily shook her head. "That isn't what I am thinking about at all." A frown drew her brows together. "I am happy for them. I'm thrilled, actually. I knew that it was only a matter of time before this happened. To be honest, if they hadn't been forced to juggle so much time back and forth between two homes while the condo was so crowded, I think it probably would have taken until next spring for them to make this decision." Emily smiled as she thought about it. It was a bright and sunny day. The weather was mild for late summer.

The gathering that was going on behind them was a small house warming party. They had only invited family and close friends. Emily knew that they were celebrating the fact that the last box was finally unpacked. There was still much to do. Her mother and Andy were still sleeping in one of the guest rooms while the master bedroom was being remodeled. Neither of them had liked the color, so they had decided to change it, and make the closet bigger while they were at it. The house was a rambling structure with three bedrooms. They had almost passed on it because of the size of the yard and the pool. Neither her mother nor Andy really wanted the upkeep, but when they had considered the size of the family that they were combining, and the gatherings that could be held on the patio and around the pool, they had decided that it was perfect.

An extra selling point had come in the size of the basement. The house was only one level, with the sub-level basement, but it stretched almost the length of the entire house. The previous owners had built an apartment into it with a separate exit behind the garage. Their housekeeper had lived there, but Sharon and Andy had no need of that. It was, however, perfect for Rusty. He could come and go as independently as he liked, but with the knowledge that he was not yet on his own. This was something that he, and their mother, liked very much. It had also freed up another bedroom so that Emily could occupy it while her stay in Los Angeles was prolonged.

She had spent the last few months moving between physical therapy and doctor's appointments. Even before the cast was off she was dancing again. She couldn't delve right in and pick up where she had left off, but she started going to a few classes a week. When she wasn't in class, Emily was dancing in her room. It was much harder than she imagined it would be. Her upper body simply did not want to move in quite the same way that it had before. It was going to take work. In the meantime, Emily had gone back to New York for a week. She had things that needed to be taken care of, and while she was there, she had met with her company director. It was that meeting that had her mind so full. She had promised her mother that she would be home in time for the house warming party, and she was, but she was finding it hard to truly enjoy it.

"Okay," Charlie had watched her smile fade. The line was back between her brows. He frowned at her. "If you're so damned happy, then why do you look like someone kicked your puppy? You know that your mom is all worried about you, right? She's been looking over here every couple of minutes since you separated yourself from the rest of us. Spill it, Princess. What's got your tights all in a wad?"

Emily rolled her eyes at him. "You are truly annoying, I hope that you realize that." She sighed again. "My trip to New York wasn't as wonderful as I hoped it would be." She tipped her shades into her hair and looked over at him. "I haven't told my mother yet. She has been so wrapped up in the new house and getting ready for all of this…" Emily waved her hand in the direction of the party, "I didn't want to spoil her good mood." Emily kicked her legs in the water again. "My contract isn't being renewed. They said that I could come back next season and we would re-evaluate things."

Charlie winced. He turned his gaze back to the pool. Like Emily he was kicking his legs slowly through the water. He watched it swirl around his legs. He didn't know what that meant, exactly, but he had a pretty good idea. It meant that she lost her job. She wasn't going to be dancing with her company, and he felt bad for her… but oddly, he didn't feel too bad about it. "So," he began carefully, "what are you going to do?"

"I don't know." That was the crux of it all. Emily hadn't decided that yet. For the last several years her life had been in New York. Now that she was home again, she was beginning to discover just how much she missed being near her family. She missed the beach and the sunshine, and all of the glitz of the Los Angeles nightlife. But then she thought about New York. She liked the museums and the galleries, the theaters and the shows. She had friends there too. She thought about her apartment and how happy and comfortable she had been there. As much as she loved the sunshine of Southern California, she also liked the seasons of New York. She enjoyed watching the leaves turn in the fall, and there was nothing quite like the first snowfall in winter. "I am going to keep dancing," she said. "I just don't know what that means yet."

"I'm sorry," Charlie said, and meant it. Being a paramedic wasn't easy. It could be hard and painful, but he couldn't imagine doing anything else. He was even thinking about going back to school, to train to be a flight medic. Some people just had a calling, whether it was dancing or police work, or some other form of service or profession; it was what they were meant to do. It made them happy. "You know," he ventured thoughtfully, "your mom wouldn't mind if you stuck around here for a while. There's no rush to go back to New York."

"Believe me," Emily laughed but there was little joy in the sound. "I know. She has been telling me for years that I would have better success dancing in Los Angeles. She is probably right, but I always felt like New York was my place. Now I'm just not so sure." Emily shrugged. "I was happy there. I don't think that would change. I still have my degree. I can work in a museum or an art gallery. I did that when I first moved to the city, while I was waiting for my career to take off. Once I was dancing more regularly, I was able to stop. I could do that again." Her lips pursed in thought. "Of course, I could do that here too. When I first moved to New York," she continued, "I felt like I had been living on my own for so long that the distance didn't matter. You know? This is the first time that I have been home for more than a week or two since my sophomore year at Northwestern. There was always some reason to spend the summer doing other things. I was studying abroad or traveling with my girlfriends. All I ever wanted to do was dance for the American Ballet Theater, and after I earned my Masters, moving to New York just seemed like the next logical step."

"Just because they didn't renew your contract this season," Charlie pointed out, "doesn't mean that they won't. Like they said, you can go back next season." He nudged her shoulder again. "Or you could stay, if that is what you're thinking about doing. You miss it don't you?"

"I didn't realize how disconnected I felt until I was here." Emily looked over at him. "Is that selfish? I'm not really thinking about what this will mean for anyone else. I feel like everything is happening without me. I talk to my mom all the time, we skype every week. I talk to my brothers, and Ricky visits whenever he can. I know everything that is happening here, but I haven't really been part of it." Emily shook her head. "When mom adopted Rusty, I was okay with it. He seemed nice, and he made her happy. Now I realize that I never even bothered to get to know my little brother. Then mom started dating, and I wasn't sure what to think about it. Andy seemed nice too, but I didn't know him. Now that I have gotten to know him, I can understand why she loves him. I want them to be happy. I want Ricky to stop worrying that he's going to turn out like our dad and just… live." While she had spoken her eyes had grown moist with tears. Emily looked down while she chewed on her bottom lip and tried to blink them away. "I don't know what I'm saying. I just want to dance."

"So stay." Charlie thought it sounded pretty damned simple to him. Her mind was already made up; she just hadn't realized it yet. "You can get a job here. Go to work and keep dancing. Be part of your family and do all of those things." He grinned crookedly at her. "You can help Nicole plan the inevitable wedding. She's already looking at venues, and if I were dad, I'd grab your mom and hit up a judge before she gets too far into it." He grinned when she laughed. "You think I'm joking, but remind me to show you the pictures from her wedding." Charlie drew one of his legs out of the water. He bent his knee and rested his foot on the edge of the pool. He leaned against it while he considered her options. "When you're strong enough to go back to New York, do it. Get your contract back, or just find a company to dance for out here. There's no reason that you can't stay here while you finish getting stronger, Princess. Just because you were living in New York a few months ago doesn't mean that you can't change your mind. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be closer to the family."

"Hm." A soft smile curved her lips. Emily looked out across the yard. "I thought that you might understand." She watched Nicole's stepsons run to the back fence before racing back toward the patio where the adults were gathered. "I honestly cannot believe that I am about to say this, but I think you might be right."

Charlie grabbed his chest and leaned away from her. "No!" He gasped. "I don't believe it. An actual admission of admiration from her highness."

"Oh shut up." Emily rolled her eyes at him. "Don't let it go to your head, jerkface." She drew her legs up and wrapped her arms around her knees. "It won't be hard to find someone to sublet my apartment. I can do that until spring. When the new season starts, I can… re-evaluate my choices."

"Great." He kicked his other leg in the water causing it to splash her again. "So what about that dating situation?" His brow arched. "If you're going to be sticking around, maybe you and the camera nerd can finally stop making heart eyes at each other and do something about it." His lip curled in disgust. "It's really becoming a problem."

Emily blinked at him a couple of times. Then she snorted a laugh. She leaned forward, an arm wrapped around her middle as she giggled. "Oh my god, you are as bad as Rusty!" Her eyes lit up with amusement. She smiled deviously at him. "There have been no heart eyes. At least, none that were real. We've been screwing with everyone. Mostly Rusty, because mom is right, and he is just so easy. You see, it was Rusty who asked Buzz to replace my phone and transfer everything over to the new one. When he asked Lieutenant Tao and Detective Sanchez to help him," Emily explained, "they completely jumped to the wrong conclusion. So I may have been helping him get a little even with them as a way of thanking him… for helping me out, but mostly because he has been so great with Rusty. On the upside," she laughed again, "messing with Rusty is just too much fun. In his head, the fact that he is dating is one thing, but any of the older people in his life that are doing it is just too weird for him to think about."

He made a face at her. "You are devious and somewhat demented," Charlie decided.

"You're slow on the uptake," she fired back. "I cannot believe that you didn't figure it out. Or at least ask before now. Mom did. Then she told us to have fun." Emily's eyes were still sparkling. Her mother had taken a great deal of vicarious enjoyment out of watching the others squirm. "Even if there were heart eyes, which there are most definitely not, I am honestly not in a place to date anyone right now. My entire life is up in the air. I wouldn't make a very good girlfriend, especially when I may be leaving again in several months. All of that aside, he is very nice, but he works for my mother. It would just be too awkward…. And I promised Rusty that I wouldn't date any of his friends. It's a thing."

Charlie's lips pursed. He nodded slowly. "Good." When she cast a surprised look at him, he shrugged. "Well, all that would make you feel bad and then I would have to break his pretty face. It's a thing."

"You are a Neanderthal," she decided. "You do understand that fighting isn't the answer, right?"

"Yeah, sure, you-betcha." He smirked at her. Charlie drew himself up and stood. "You ready to stop sulking now and rejoin the others?"

Emily let her shades fall back down to cover her eyes. She looked up at him with a scowl. "I was never sulking. I was considering very serious life matters."

"In the middle of our parents' house warming party. I call that sulking." Charlie reached down and offered her his hand. "Come on, they're about to finally feed us." His dad had been manning the grill for most of the afternoon, or rather, standing beside it and arguing with his partner about whether or not he was going to burn the meat. Charlie was more worried that the two old guys would end up arguing for so long that they would both burn it. "If you're nice, I'll leave you some."

Emily let him pull her up. She elbowed him as she walked past. "Does the phrase Ladies first mean absolutely nothing to you?"

"Oh, it does." Charlie grinned as he followed her. He caught up easily with his longer stride and dropped an arm around her shoulders. "Good thing you're not a lady." His grin only grew wider when she glared at him. Behind his sunglasses his dark eyes were sparkling. "You're nothin' but a sister."

Emily shoved him away from her. Of all of the pop cultural references that he could have made in that moment, he had chosen to go with Disney. There were times when she really could not believe that she knew him. Oddly enough, when she thought back to a few months before, she couldn't stand the fact that she had to deal with him at all. Then things had changed. He had saved her life. Something had shifted between them, and for whatever reason, they realized that they were stuck with one another. Now she had to admit, somewhat grudgingly, that since she had been back in Los Angeles, that obnoxious pain in her backside was actually her best friend. More importantly, she had come to discover that she had another brother.

Charlie was there the night that she almost died. He was there when she remembered opening her eyes for the first time. He had sat through several physical therapy appointments with her. When she didn't think that she could take anymore, he poked and prodded and made her angry enough that she kept going. The day she found out that her dad was really someone that could not be counted on, he was someone to lean on. When Ricky had to eventually go back to Palo Alto, Charlie was around to pitch in. He had ended up selling the Mustang that he and his dad had rebuilt to Rusty, and for barely enough to cover the cost of the restoration. They were working on another one now, although for the life of her she would never be able to recall the make and model of the car, but Emily had figured out very quickly that it had nothing to do with the cars themselves. She envied him that relationship sometimes. But as her mother and Nicole were quick to point out, those two men had worked very hard to be able to have a relationship at all.

It wasn't just about her, or her family either. He took his nephews to dance class when their parents couldn't manage it. He mowed his sister's lawn on weekends, and he babysat so that she and her husband could have time away to themselves. He ran errands for his mother and when his stepdad's car had broken down, Charlie had looked at it first, before allowing him to take it in to a shop to be fixed. He switched shifts with the guys that he worked with whenever he could so that they could spend time with their families, and she knew that he and Ricky, and Nicole's husband Dean were planning a camping trip. They insisted it was for the boys, but everyone knew that it was all about the big kids.

It's a thing. He said. Yes, she understood that quite well. He was the oldest. It was his job to look out for them, just as she had always looked out for Ricky, and now she was looking out for Rusty. Emily understood now why he was so hard to deal with when they first met. He didn't want to like them. He didn't want to like her mother. He didn't want to see his father get hurt. There was a part of him that feared he would lose what they had achieved, if somehow he lost his dad to his addiction again. It may not happen. Emily did not think that it would, but she understood his concern. It was a thought that was always in the back of her mind too, every time that her father was able to stay sober for any length of time, although, in her case, Jack always managed to backslide somehow. So while she did not think that it was truly warranted for Charlie, she understood. So did Ricky, and so did Rusty. They all got it.

The only thing that their parents had asked of them was to be civil. They had removed themselves from the equation and remained neutral. What they had expected was for their children to be the adults that they wanted to be seen as and to handle their relationships accordingly. They didn't always get along very well, but they were all managing a lot more than just a civil acquaintance. At some point along the way, they had all realized that they wanted the same thing. A normal family.

That was never going to happen. They were never going to be normal, and that was something that they could agree on. They could also agree that they wanted their parents to be happy, and no one on either side wanted to be the reason that they weren't.

It was as her mother had said a few months before. When she was a girl her dream had been to grow old with the man that she loved. She wanted to raise their grandchildren, and just be happy together. Emily looked toward where her mother stood, laughing with the man that she was making a life with now. She smiled as Nicole's stepsons dodged around them, chasing one another. She laughed when Andy yelled after them to slow down and her mother poked his side. Emily couldn't hear her, but she knew that her mother was telling him to leave them be, to just let them play. The dream was not lost so much as it was changed.

Emily knew that she would have to accept that about her own life. She would dance again. It may not be for the same dance company and it may not be in New York, but she would dance. That was the dream. It was all that she really wanted. The shape that it took was not truly important, she would fold it around her however she could. Just as her mother had promised that she would.

Until then she would keep working on getting stronger. She would go to class, and she would practice. She would find a job and consider whether or not she wanted to stay with her mother until she returned to New York. She would keep Charlie and Ricky from picking on Rusty too much, and she would warn her mother about that judge idea that Charlie had planted in her head.

If the accident had taught Emily anything it was that life was a balancing act. The scales could tip too easily from one side to the other. Nothing was certain, and nothing was written in stone. She still ached to have a meaningful relationship with her father. She ached to perform in front of a packed crowd again. She longed for her life to be stable again, even if it couldn't be sure. There was none of that, however, that was out of her reach. As long as she was still alive, there was nothing so wrecked that it couldn't be pieced back together again. It may just look a little differently than it had before.

-END-