A/N: Well, folks, I went and got myself a fulltime job, which means that updates are going to be a lot more infrequent. Maybe this is even the best place to end it? We'll see. I'm so exhausted right now that I can't even fathom starting the next chapter. But, know that I'm still around and I still love them. I always will.

Special thanks to LushBaby and Cait for beta-ing for me and making me tone down Grace's neediness. Hopefully this is truer to character while still capturing the desired emotion.

To Michael and Becky. Because the writing is great, the directing is superb, but in the end, it's all about those two and the magic they have.

Safe Place to Fall

It was cold, I was tired, and I hate waiting. This was the first time he had failed to meet me before school, and I didn't like standing out in the biting October morning, waiting in vain for him to decide to make an appearance. If he had decided that it wasn't worth his time, at least he could have had the decency to tell me to my face and not leave me dangling like an idiot.

I shook my head violently and told myself to get a grip. I had seen Joan go through this when she finally hooked up with Adam; they got together and she freaked. Why must a person drive oneself mad over stuff like this?

I had no choice but to head to school. I waited in front of the building as long as I could, and finally saw him walking towards the school. He took one look at me and headed directly towards me.

I looked at him in unspoken question as my anxiety eased away.

"Hey. Sorry I wasn't..." he didn't finish the thought, as people might have overheard. "We were at the hospital until late last night. My great-aunt had a stroke last night. Completely freaked me out. Scariest thing I've seen, except for Kevin after the accident." He opened the door to the building and I walked in.

"Last night?"

"Yeah, in the kitchen, right in front of us. I mean, she just-- she just sunk to the floor, you know, like, eyes wide. I--I just--I kind of shut down and just watched, like it wasn't real."

"Dude, weird." I was only half-listening to him. Partly, I was missing our personal time, but mostly I was remembering the days and nights I'd spent in the hospital, praying my mother would make it after one of her drinking binges.

"That's it?" He looked at me, annoyed. "'Weird?' My aunt almost died and that's all you can say?"

"Ok, Bruce Banner, relax," I told him. Why was he getting so worked up about this?

"Is it totally impossible for us to share things that are important to us?"

"Hey!" Joan said from behind us. I pulled myself away from him to avoid any suspicion. "You two look deep into something."

"Madame Curie is just trying to recruit me for the science fair again," I covered.

He played along. "It's just the competition's fierce, and, you know... "Joan, of course, got bored and continued walking down the hall, joined by Adam, Friedman, and Judith. I turned towards my supposed science partner, and shot him a warning look before following the others.

As the six of us continued down the hall, my mind went over his last question. Could we share things that are important to us? An unfamiliar sense came over me. I wanted to share with him, and maybe the world wouldn't fall down around me if I did.

Where did that come from?

Pushing away my new quandary, I watched unbelievingly with the others as Friedman once again made a play for Judith.

"Friedman," Judith told him, "you and me-- it's never gonna happen."

"I'm a scientist, my sweet," he answered. "We toil in unsolvable equations for years."

I couldn't help but smirk as I remembered how someone else had once used science for similar means. But that's where the similarities ended; Friedman couldn't be more different than his best friend.

---

It was that afternoon, before the last period, before I talked to him again. I found him by his locker, switching his books.

"You owe me," I said, leaning my back against the lockers beside him.

"Hmm?"

"Five minutes, Dude. After school?" I raised my eyebrow at him.

I watched as his eyes changed from puzzlement, to realization, to anticipation, and then I turned and went to my next class.

A long hour and fifteen minutes later, I saw his long form approach, and he smiled at me. As he sat next to me, I stared wordlessly at him for several moments, enjoying his nearness. He too remained silent, until his eyes said he'd had enough, and his lips took my own. After several minutes of soft sighs and quiet moans we pulled apart, but no more than it took to carry on a quiet conversation.

"So, sick aunts notwithstanding, can we please go back to our normal time?" I wouldn't tell him how hard it had been to endure the day without him in the morning.

"I don't know. Afternoons are nice. More time, less rush." His voice dropped at his last words, taking the bottom of my stomach with him.

"Five minutes is five minutes, Dude," I countered halfheartedly.

He put his hand on my upper arm, and slowly rubbed. "We could try not keeping time. Just, try?" His breath was on my face, and his eyes rested on mine.

I looked at him skeptically. I had long given up doing multiplications in my head when we were together; it never worked that well to begin with, and the whole experience was far too pleasurable to fight anyway.

"We'll see," I said, making no promises. "Listen, You have IM, don't you?"

"Sure."

"Why don't you give me your nickname? The phone thing really isn't a good idea, but this way we can make plans the night before or the next morning." I wanted to keep my options open; five minutes first thing in the morning, or extra quality time in the afternoon. Both choices were tantalizing.

"Gravity Boy, yours?"

"Grace—oh, that's not going to work. I've never used IM much, and so I just used my name, but..." Foothold in the outer regions or not, using my real name to talk to him was too much exposure. "I need to think of a nick."

"Uhhh, HotChick?" He suggested.

"Ha! I'd get people like Friedman bugging me." I shuddered.

"Enigmatic Beauty?"

"Black widow?" I countered, suppressing a smile and picking a more suitable imagery.

I saw his face fall. "Grace—"

"It's a joke," I interrupted, suddenly uncomfortable. Of course he'd see the connection to the spider that ate her mate. "It would keep the psychos away."

He looked like he didn't quite believe me, but he said nothing. Instead he pulled me close for a kiss. I closed my eyes and sighed into him, thankful that he dropped it.

---

The next day I came home from school around four, only to find my mother home, locked in the den. It knew from experience that she wouldn't come out at my insistence, but I tried to coax her out anyway. When that failed, I tried to do my normal routine, homework, clean up, watch TV, but the truth is I hated it. After so many years one would have thought it would get better, but it didn't, it just got worse. More hopeless.

Finally, I went up to my room. Taking my computer into my lap, I logged online and searched for his handle. Finding it, I typed, hey.

Almost immediately he responded, Hey Grace.

Why didn't he think a little? Panic surged through me and hastily I typed, Don't use my name on line, DUDE!!! and hit Enter.

Right, sorry. I can't do anything right.

I regretted typing the message as soon as I sent it, and I winced at his response. Dang it, why do I always snap at him, push him away? It would serve me right if one of these days I pushed so hard that he didn't come back.

I wanted him to understand. Look, sometimes I'm a jerk. I typed. It's just there are things I don't tell people. I can't.

I hit Enter, and then considered what I had done. Was I going to tell him?

It was a bad idea. He would feel nothing but scorn and contempt.

His warm eyes appeared before my mind.

Slowly, I typed, It's why I don't let anyone come to my house, and then I waited.

Time stood still. Then a message appeared.

GravityBoy has logged off!

Logged off? I slowly closed my laptop.

Maybe it was better this way. Better to not let him get too close. I don't share this.

Where did he go?

I put the computer on my desk, and despite the early hour, climbed into bed. As I lay on my side, clutching a pillow to my chest, I felt a tear trickle from the corner of my eye down my cheek to my ear. My body began to relax, and my lips voicelessly shaped themselves.

Luke.

---

I woke up late the next morning, and missed the first two periods. I was coming out of the office after getting a late slip when I saw him ahead of me. I ducked my head and hurried to catch up with him.

"Gravity boy has logged off?" I asked. Maybe there was an explanation.

He turned his head, but not enough to look at me "Joan was trying to bust me for looking at porn."

My eyes snapped to him "You were looking at porn while we were IMing?"

"No!" he insisted, then looked at me curiously. "Do you-- do you want me to?"

I smirked at him, and ducked my head. Oh, we so weren't going there right now.

Luckily, he got the hint. "Look, the Joan interruption was a singular event, ok? If there's something you need to say..."

I looked up at him. I wanted to say something, but it wasn't the time. Joan and Adam were only a few feet away, and I needed to get to class. Making a snarky comment to Joan about hanging all over Adam, I walked past them, leaving him there to discuss Joan's new beast.

---

I sat down next to him after school, and kissed him hungrily.

"Grace—"He said, pulling away.

"Shh," I whispered, recapturing his lips. The desire continue last night's discussion had waned in the bright daylight and the reality of his presence. I caressed his warm lips, and allowed everything else to slip away.

---

I woke up to the screaming.

It didn't happen very often, and sometimes when the silence got to heavy, I almost thought I preferred the arguments. But then I would witness one of them and I knew the silence was far better.

I didn't even know what they were yelling about. Probably the fact that my mother forgot about a meeting at the synagogue the night before, and my dad had to cover for her. The anger that permeated the entire house during a yelling match tore like a jagged, dull knife that kept cutting at the same open wound.

I hated it. Hated waiting for the storm to pass, hated the silence, hated being sixteen and still bound to this household and the occupants in it, hated having to pretend that life was fine when it wasn't. It was days like today that I wanted to crawl up in a hole and scream at the world to leave me alone. Quickly, I dressed and headed towards my door, but stopped and turned towards my computer.

Alone was the last thing I wanted.

Without giving myself the chance to talk myself out of it, I signed in, and sent the message. My Mother drinks.

I waited.

That was dumb. What did I expect from him? He couldn't make it better, couldn't whisk me away on some horse, or promise me anything. Immediately I signed off and left the house.

Take a walk, I told myself. Go to a lake and find a bench. You've dealt with this on your own before, it's what you do. This isn't any different from all the other times. Don't do anything else stupid.

I stood in front of the school. There were too many people there to deal with.

Something propelled me forward.

I opened my locker and desperately looked towards the front door. Then he was there and his eyes found mine as he stood to be scanned by the security wand. I knew he had seen my message. As I stuffed my bag in my locker, I knew that he'd come over to me, try to offer comfort, and his voice, his soft touch would be too much to bear. Wanting to hide behind all the walls that he had so methodically, carefully dismantled, I turned and walked away.

I had taken two steps and then his hand was on my elbow, turning me to him.

There were promises of safety in his eyes, and I knew that I needed him.

He followed me into an empty classroom, and I turned to face him. I couldn't look at him; he knew too much. Knew that I was a fraud. I was weak and small and nothing like what he thought he was getting.

He stood there silently, and when I brought my eyes up to his, I saw neither contempt nor pity. Just concern. Concern and uncertainty, like he was trying to process what I had told him. I barely shook my head, silently asking him not to ask me the questions he was pondering, and as the questions receded from his eyes, they left in their place patience and understanding.

Gently, he placed a hand on my shoulder, and drew me towards him. As he wrapped his arms securely around me and I buried my face into his shoulder, feeling the softness of his sweatshirt and taking in his familiar scent. He gently rocked me and rubbed my back as I relaxed into him, letting him support my weight. Clinging to him, I felt his warmth and strength envelop me as I let the tears silently fall.