"So this is where the Great Ginny Baker grew up." Mike said, walking into the kitchen, dropping his bag on the ground next to his feet. Ginny looked up from her spot on the couch, not believing what she was seeing.

"What are you doing here?" She asked. Mike gave her one of his signature 'seriously Rookie?' look.

"You invited me over for dinner."

The team had just won a travel game in Texas and had a few days of down time before they had to be in San Diego. Ginny was staying with her mother to try to continue the small amount of healing that had begun after the all star game. Mike had stayed behind, claiming his knees wouldn't survive being on a bus for the duration of the trip back. His flight was leaving in two days. True, Ginny had invited him for dinner, but that didn't explain why he was in her house at 12 in the afternoon or why he'd brought his bag. "You're a bit early for the early bird special, old man."

Mike was about to retort when Ginny's mother entered the room.

"Mike." She said, smiling. "I've got the guest room all set up."

Ginny blinked. "Say what?" She must have heard her wrong.

"Thank you, Mrs. Baker." Mike smiled and grabbed his bag. "Ginny, do you mind showing me where it is?"

Ginny looked from one to the other, trying to make sense of the insanity in front of her. "What's happening?"

Her mother smiled. "Mike's hotel reservation got cancelled so I told him he could stay with us."

Ginny gaped at him. "And you didn't think to warn me?" She asked.

"Ginny Baker." Her mother looked at her angrily. "You're being rude to our guest."

"Don't worry Mrs. Baker." Mike smirked. "She's said way worse to me. In fact, I think we should all have a sit down and go through all the mean and hurtful things and-"

Ginny grabbed his arm and dragged him to the stairs. Mike gave Janet Baker a cheery wave before turning back to Ginny. "Lead the way."

The guest room was next to hers. Pulling him inside, she crossed her arms, glaring at him. Mike sighed, flopping down on the bed, letting out a groan. "Look, this wasn't my idea. I called to ask what she wanted me to bring to dinner and all of the sudden, I was invited over."

"You could have warned me." She pointed out. He grimaced, then his face morphed into an impish grin.

"What and give you the opportunity to dismantle the shrine you have to me in your room?" He sat up. "Not a chance."

"I don't have a shrine." Ginny muttered, thinking of the embarrassingly large Mike Lawson poster that was behind her bed. Something must have shown on her face because his eyes lit up.

"Guess there's only one way to find out." He bolted to his feet and ran to the door. Ginny blinked, then followed, grabbing him around the waist.

"I thought you had bad knees." She hissed, trying to pull him back as he dragged her out into the hall.

"I can ignore the pain if properly motivated." he said, smirking back. "Something to hide, Baker?" He grunted with the effort of struggling against Ginny's hold.

"Only your body after I murder you."

"Promises promises." Mike managed to get his hand on the door handle and pulled it open. "Oh...wow."

Ginny let go; he'd seen the poster. Going inside, he put his hands on his hips looking at the poster.

"I'm rethinking my decision to stay here." He looked back at Ginny. "Your obsession is worse than I thought."

Ginny covered her face; he was never going to let her live this down.

"Seriously, I didn't even know they made posters this big." He imitated the pose he'd made in the poster. "Damn I was sexy back then."

"Emphasis on the back then." She muttered.

"Hey it's no big deal. I'm just so appealing to women" He smirked. "In fact I was starting to get worried that you were unaffected."

Ginny scoffed, "Well I'm happy to have put your mind at ease."

"See." Mike wagged his finger at her. "Your tone says 'Mike, you're annoying', but now I know that it's all an act to cover up that you're hopelessly infatuated with me." He motioned to the poster. "Want me to sign it?"

"Out." Ginny pointed to the door.

"Did you write Mrs. Mike Lawson in your geometry note book?" He teased.

"OUT." She pushed him out of the room.

"Ginny." Her mother said when they came back downstairs. "Why don't you take Mike on a tour of the town."

Mike turned and looked over at Ginny. She seemed uncomfortable, but she shrugged and nodded.

"Don't know what's so exciting about a small town." She mumbled. "Once you've seen one you've seen them all." She led him out. Mike pulled his Padres hat lowered over his eyes and shoved his hands in his pockets. They walked in silence. Mike felt as though she was angry about something, but he wasn't sure what.

"So..." He said, conversationally. "There a life size cut out to go with that poster?"

"Yeah." She said. "I actually brought it with me to San Diego and when you annoy me too much, I stick pins in it's knee."

"Oo." Mike put a hand to his chest. "That cut me deep, Baker." He thought back to the poster in her room when it hit him; it was the only truly personal thing in the room. Everything else had been sports equipment or other baseball related paraphernalia. There were no pictures or toys or anything indicating that a teenager had lived in that room. It was more of a trophy case and than a bedroom. He looked around. "There have to be a few sordid stories from your childhood.." He motioned to a side alley. "Secret drinking spot?"

She glanced over to where he was pointing and shook her head. " I busted a bike wheel near there on my way to a little league game." She mumbled.

"How about here?" He began pointing around the town and the more grumbled responses she gave, the more he realized just how much of Ginny's life had been dedicated to baseball. He'd always though that he'd had nothing but the game, but his dedication was nothing when compared to Ginny's.

"Is that Ginny Baker?"

A voice cut through the heat of the Texas afternoon and snapped Mike out of his thoughts. Ginny had gone completely rigid. It was strange; he'd seen her handle over a hundred microphones shoved in her face with poise and ease. He turned to the stranger; who could they possibly be to elicit such a strong reaction from his rookie? The woman behind them had bleach blonde hair, a fake tan, was wearing yoga gear and clutching a latte.

"Oh my goooosh." She rushed over and pulled Ginny into a hug. "How are you, girl?" She had a strong Texas accent and Mike could tell she was pretending to be nice to Ginny. She turned, looking at him. "She and I were so close in high school. I'm Miranda Smith."

Mike had no idea who this girl was, but one thing was for sure; she had not been Ginny's friend in high school. He gave her a tight lip smile. "I'm Mike Lawson."

Her eyes widened. "Here, in our town?" She gasped. "Well we always knew little Ginny was going to go on and do great things."

"Which is why you called me freaky pitcher girl." Ginny said, pulling away from Miranda. "We weren't friends, in fact you and your quarterback boyfriend made my life a living hell. You had his buddies make fun of me, all because I wanted to play baseball, not dress up and focus on makeup and boys." She grinned. "Well guess what; I'm a major league baseball player and Drake invites me to his album parties." She turned and walked down the street. Mike smirked at Miranda.

"Nice meeting you." He said before taking off after Ginny. "That was awesome."

"I didn't have a childhood." She said. "I didn't have a childhood. I was a baseball playing robot and I..." She seemed to be pouring out all the repressed thoughts and feelings. Mike walked with her as they made their way out of the main town square. There was a wooded area ahead. She walked towards it, fuming. "Now they want to talk to me. I haven't even left the house since I've gotten here because everyone's been calling my mom asking her if Ginny's around and it's taken all my convincing to have her not tell anyone that I'm here, because she still doesn't understand just how important this is and-"

"Breathe." Mike said. "Breathing is important." He stopped her when they made it under a tree. She kicked at the ground. "Hey. It's speech time, so listen up. Those people only matter as much as you let them. You have nothing to prove to them and I'm willing to bet that even then, they saw how amazing you were and were jealous, because you had a chance to get out of this town and be something big leaving them behind to relive their glory days of spring flings and homecoming crowns. You're making history." He paused. "Though it must have been pretty awesome to take her down a few pegs."

Ginny smirked. "You have no idea."

They laughed.

"I'm sorry for not warning you I was coming over."

"It's okay." She shrugged, looking over her shoulder further into the woods. Mike followed her gaze.

"What?"

"Nothing." She sighed. "It's just...the lake behind there was the place where people used to have parties." She shrugged. "I wasn't invited to any of them."

Mike tilted his head, then began walking through the trees.

"Where are you going?" She called after him.

"To see this hip party spot." He answered. Coming to the edge of the lake, he shook his head. "Not very impressive." He remarked as Ginny came to stand next to him. "I'm guessing it was mostly a bunch of drunk, pimply, teenagers touching each other over the clothes and then giggling about how badass they were." He grimaced. "You missed nothing." He pulled off his shirt. Ginny looked away.

"Lawson." She said.

"Hey, I've seen the poster. Don't pretend you don't want this view."

She met his eyes unflinchingly. "I've already gotten this view in the locker room. Not that impressive."

"Liar." Mike said, pulling down his pants. Getting a running start he jumped into the lake.

Ginny gaped at him. "What are you doing?"

He bobbed up, smiling. "I'm being spontaneous. Plus my physical therapist recommended aquatherapy."

"And you thought they meant jumping into an old nasty lake full of rusted beer cans?" She was covering her mouth, but she was smiling; he'd won.

"It's definitely what she was trying to get me to do." He said, splashing her with water. She rolled her eyes. "Come on, Baker. All the cool kids are doing it."

"I'd say this is peer pressure, but that would imply we're the same age."

He floated on his back. A few seconds later she swam up next to him. He grinned. "I knew I'd wear you down."

"Hardly." She said. "I figured you needed someone to tow you back to shore when your knees give out."

"You do realize the only reason I'm allowing you to be so mean, Rookie, is because you have hometown advantage." He glanced at her; she was smiling up at the sun. Her curly hair glistening with droplets of water. He she caught him staring, her eyes narrowing.

"What?"

"Just wondering if you had an action figure of me too."