Author's Note: I don't own Grease nor Grease 2 or any of the characters. I only the plot to the story and a few characters which are my own.
Summary: Grease 2 Au. Michael Carrington and Stephanie Zinone grew up together. They went their separate ways after graduation. Michael to the Marine Corp and later Vietnam. Stephanie a recently divorced single mother of two.
Six years later in the summer of 1968. Michael returns to Rydell after being medically discharged from the Marine Corp struggling to adjust back to civilian life. Stephanie recently divorced single mother to two boys.
Chapter 6
Rydell California July 1968
Lillian Carrington was woken by a large clap of thunder and rain pelting on the roof and beating against the window pains. Lillian glanced at the clock on her bedside table it was just after three in the morning. It wasn't the storm that had woken her.
She could hear someone talking or more like yelling in their sleep. Lillian got out bed putting on her slippers and dressing gown. Lillian glanced at Thomas who was fast asleep snoring. Sighing Lillian went in search of the noise.
After checking both Ellie and Sam's rooms. She concluded the noise had to be coming from Michael's room. Lillian padded down to Michael's room. Opening the door a jar Lillian pocked her head inside.
Michael was trashing around the bed in his sleep. Mumbling under his breath. It looked like he was having nightmares. Lillian couldn't make out what Michael was saying in his sleep.
A loud clap of thunder and lighting strike made Lillian jump about a foot in the air. She saw Michael bolt up right. He looked around the darken room nervously and he was shaking slightly. Lillian didn't fail to notice a hand gun was sitting in Michael's left hand.
"Michael are you alright dear" My head jerk in the direction of the bedroom door at the sound of my mother's voice. She sounded concerned about something. Most likely me or the storm.
"I'm fine Mom. Did the storm wake you" I asked as my eyes adjusted to the darkened room. I noticed Mom was eyeing the handgun in my left hand.
"No the storm didn't wake me. Partly it did. I could hear you talking. No more like yelling in your sleep. It sounded like you where having nightmares." Mom explained still eyeing the Colt M1911 in my left hand wearily.
"I'm sorry I woke you. It's just the storm. It just brings back bad memories" I said looking out the window and avoiding eye contact.
"Bad memories. Your talking about Vietnam" Mom asked hardly above a whisper. I nodded my head rather then answering the question. Even after Eight Months away from the front lines. The subject of Vietnam was still to raw of a subject to talk about. Another clap of thunder made me flinch. I set the Colt on my bedside table.
"I'm going to go make a pot of tea. I can't sleep cause of the storm. You can join if you want Michael" Mom offered before shutting my bedroom door. I got out of bed. I pulled on a shirt and headed down stairs.
"We haven't had a storm this bad in a while" Mom commented as I limped into the kitchen and took a seat at the kitchen table.
"I've seen worse" I mumbled as I looked out the kitchen window and watched early morning sky light up from the thunder and lightning.
"I do hope the rain holds off for the street party today. Did you go and visit Matthew yesterday" Mom asked as she set the cups on the table
"I went and visited his grave yesterday on the way into work. We had a beer together" I answered as Mom poured the tea into the mugs
We sat in silence for the next twenty minutes drinking our tea. I hardly drank tea anyway. I mostly drank coffee or alcohol.
"How long have you been having these nightmares Michael" Mom suddenly asked breaking up the silence that fallen between us.
"What. The nightmares. It was just the storm that stirred them up Mom" I said lying through my teeth. I'd been having nightmares/dreams about Vietnam for months maybe even years.
"Michael don't try and lie to me. I'm your mother. I know when your lying. You've been having these dreams or more like nightmares ever night since you came home." Mom replied seeing right through my bullshit of a lie.
"Mom there just dreams they don't mean anything" I lied again. There was a part of me I wanted no person to see.
"Michael these dreams/nightmares have to mean something. For God sake your sleeping with a loaded pistol under you pillow. I have heard you waking up in a cold sweat maybe three to four times a night from these nightmares every night since you've been home.
I just want you to tell me whats going on in that head of yours." Mom said trying to get me to open up to her about Vietnam.
"Mom there's just somethings I can't tell you about. Vietnam is one of those things. I don't know one day if I'll be able to talk to anyone about what I went through over there. I'm just damaged goods." I admitted taking a shaky sip of the cup of tea.
"You are not damaged goods Michael. Far from it. It just means your human. No one can go off to war and come back the same person they where when they left. Or not be affected by the horrors of what they've witnessed. I can't even imagine what it was like over there for you.
But please don't shut me out Michael." Mom said placing her hand over mine that rested on the kitchen table.
"I'm not shutting your out. It's just the memories of that place" I tried to explain but the words got chocked up in my throat. The raw emotion of invisible mental scars Nam had left on me was too hard to explain or even try to.
"I know your not shutting me out Michael. I just hate to see you hurting like this. I just wish there was something I could do to take that pain away for you. I can't fix this for you as much I won't to. But if you want to talk I am always here to listen." Mom said understandingly and giving my hand a reassuring squeeze.
"I know Mom. it's just the memories of that place" I responded taking a sip of my drink. Another clap of thunder and strike of lighting made me flinch.
"There most be some good memories or stories you can tell me about Michael. You where gone for six years and not one word. We only knew you'd been deployed was when your Aunt told me. We didn't even know you'd been wounded. "Mom pressed trying to get me open up if only a little.
"Mom you really don't wont' hear about anything that happened over there really. There wasn't one good thing about that place. Not anything I saw or I did over there was nice" I tried to explain as another clap of thunder made me again flinch.
"As for not contacting you while I was away. After I finished my training. I was sent to Okinawa where I was based till I left for Nam in May 65. You already had enough to worry about with losing Matt.
Then worrying about wither or not you heard from me. Well to be honest I didn't know what the hell to write." I continued to somewhat explain my reason for not keeping in contact for six years which was rather shit.
"Losing Matthew was hard. But I thought I had lost you as well Michael. Whatever you had to say would have stayed between us. You could have told me what it was like over in Vietnam. And I would have listened and not judge.
Unlike what your father thinks. You so much more stronger then he is. You are a lot like your grandfather. He though it was better to try to forget and not talk about the horrors of war he had witness in the four years he was in France and Belgium.
He thought it was better to suffer in silence. I only saw him cry a few times. When your grandmother died and when Matthew and you where born.
There was something he left me when he died. I want you to have." Mom finished before getting to her feet and leaving the kitchen.
I was finishing my tea when Mom walked back into the kitchen with an old battered tin box. She said nothing as she sat back down at the table.
"These where your grandfather's diaries. He wrote them during the war and after until he died when you where a year old." Mom explained open the old tin box and handing me the diaries.
Wordlessly I opened the first diary. Property of W.M. Adams Dairy 1914-1915.It read on the inside of the cover.
"I don't won't you to suffer in silence like he did Michael. I used to hear him wake up screaming in his sleep like you do. My mother used to comfort him from the nightmares and tell him he was home and that he was safe." Mom's voice cracked as she spoke of her father and the struggles he'd faced after coming home after four years on the Western Front in France and Belgium.
"I don't know if these will help. But thank you." I said putting the diaries back in the tin box. I stood up and kissed Mom on the cheek before heading back to bed.
It was later in the day now just after maybe ten. The storm that had rolled through earlier this morning had long since passed. Mom had taken over the kitchen at five this morning and had orders all of us to stay out.
All of the neighbourhood had come out for the annual 4th July street party we always had. There where people I hadn't seen for years. And there where quite a few new people who had moved into the neighbourhood since I had left for the Marines after graduation and had come home.
I sat by myself on the tailgate of my truck nursing a half empty beer and cigarette watching the festivities going on around me. The last three 4th of July I had in Nam had been anything but pleasant. It was the first 4th July I had in three years there wasn't the threat war and death around me.
"This seat taken" I looked up at the sound of Steph's voice. I hadn't seen her since the day I came back to Rydell
"No" I replied moving over and taking a sip of my beer. I lent down and rubbed Jaxs behind his ears.
"How come your sitting over here by your self" Steph asked a few minutes later.
"Don't really feel like socialising really. What about you. Why are you sitting here with me." I asked back taking another sip of my beer.
"I want to get away from my family and the constant neighbourhood gossip about my" Stephanie stared
"Divorce" I finished as I drank the last of my beer.
"So you heard about that then" Steph signed. Davey had told me some of what had happened between Steph and her wanker of a now ex husband Andrew.
"If this towns good at one thing that's gossip. I'm sure I'll be the next topic of gossip. As to why I came home from the Marines. You want a beer" I asked getting to my feet.
"That would be good thanks" Steph answered before I limped off to get us both a beer.
Stephanie watched as Michael limped away to go and get them both a beer. She had seen very little of him around town since he had come home. Steph knew he was working for her dad now at the garage.
Michael was right that town was now talking about him. And all the reason why he'd come home from Vietnam. There were a lot of stupid rumours flying around the gossip mills of town about both of them.
It was really stupid that the towns people didn't have anything better to talk about a six month old divorcee and a return Marine vet. Something caught Stephaine's attention. It wasn't something it was more like who had caught her attention.
"What the hell is she doing here" I heard Steph ask as I walked back over to my truck with two opened beers in hand.
"What the is who do here" I asked not know who Steph was talking about. I handed her beer to her.
"Sharon Cooper" Steph answered as I sat back down beside her.
"I am guessing the guy next to her. Is the one she was seeing behind Louis back" I said as I took a sip of my second beer.
"How do you"
"Louis told me when I was at Davey's with boys last Sunday" I explained to Steph how I knew what had happened between Louis and Sharon after graduation.
"You know he was a mess after the breakup. And the last thing he needs is her stirring up trouble." Steph said taking a sip of her beer and glaring in Sharon's direction.
"I figured. He still pretty cut up about it. Louis got up and walked out of the room as soon Goose asked Davey if Sharon was coming to the wedding. I followed him out to the back porch and we talked about what happened" I said look over in the direction of where Sam was talking to the girl he had told me about last night. Anna Bradford.
Sharon Davidson Nee Copper looked around the neighbourhood she'd been born and raised in. The place hadn't changed all that much in four and a half years since she'd been here last. Most of her childhood friends where here. Goose, Rhonda, Davey and Delores.
Her ex Louis DiMucci was here as well. Johnny and Paulette hadn't arrived yet it looked like. Glancing around the street party she found two more of her childhood friends where here as well Stephanie Zinone and Michael Carrington.
The last time she'd seen Michael it had been the day of graduation. He'd left town a few days later for the Marine Corp. Stephanie had been married the last time she had seen her. To Andrew McAlister. Steph was now divorced or so she had been told by her mother.
"About time you showed up Nogerlii. You get lost" Sharon heard Louis say to Johnny as he walked over to where Johnny stood with a heavily pregnant Paulette and their two children.
"Funny DiMucci. You try going anywhere with two kids and heavily pregnant wife who has to pee ever five miles" Johnny replied before Paulette shot him a look and elbowed him in the ribs for that comment.
"What its the truth" Johnny said as Paulette walked away to go and talk to Rhonda and her younger sister Delores.
Sharon looked back over to where her husband Roger stood talking with her father. Roger hadn't look at her like Johnny had Paulette in years maybe he never had. Roger had a good job with his father law firm in New York. She, Sarah and Angela where well cared for money wise.
But as a father and husband being around when they needed him. Roger failed at that. He spent most of his time at work. When he was home he spent most his time in his study. Or out with his friends drinking and playing golf on his off days. He spent hardly anytime with her or the girls
"Sharon" Sharon looked up as Michael Carrington greeted her as he walked passed or more like limping.
"Michael long time no see" Sharon replied as I limped passed going to grab another beer.
I grabbed another beer from the cooler. I walked over to where the boys where standing talking amongst themselves.
"Fellas."I say as I approached them
"Shakespeare. Where you been hiding" Johnny asked.
"No where" I answered.
Lillian Carrington stood watching Michael as he talked with his old high school friends. On the outside Michael seemed like he had been when he had been eighteen. But on the inside was a broken twenty four year old man.