Title: Picture Perfect

Author:Sabrinasmom3

Rating:PG

Disclaimer:I don't own Joan of Arcadia or the actors, blah, blah blah.

Summary:Luke and Grace do normal, everyday things together that end up meaning much more and that someone else sees as picture perfect.

Luke wasn't sure if he'd even slept, though he must have. He woke up several times throughout the night and finally gave up trying to get back to sleep at around 7 a.m. This was good though, because he'd had an idea at some point during the night, whether he was asleep or awake at the time, he had no idea.

Luke got up, got dressed and quietly went downstairs. He stopped in at the living room to check on Grace. She was still there, still sleeping and still beautiful. He got a little lost in looking at her and almost forgot what he was doing.

He hurried into the kitchen and stood there for a moment. How hard could it be? He was a genius after all and following a recipe wasn't that different from doing a Chemistry experiment, right? Of course, in Chemistry, if you mixed together the wrong components or got the wrong quantities, it could cause an explosion. Doing that while attempting to make pancakes would just make them taste gross. So, he decided, since there didn't seem to be much of a risk of physical harm to anyone who might eat his concoction, he was going to give it a whirl. Applying his scientific knowledge to food was a pretty easy transition, except that food proved to be a lot messier than chemicals. His mom wouldn't be happy with that.

Now, he was racking his brain trying to remember if it was blueberry or chocolate chip pancakes. Or did she ever even specify? He couldn't remember, but they had frozen blueberries, so what the heck, he threw them in, too.

When he finished, he was surprised to find that no one was up and about yet. It sounded like his parents were moving around upstairs, but no one had come down yet. When he went to check on the girls, Joan had her eyes open, but didn't look like she was getting up any time soon. Luke waved his arms from the doorway to get Joan's attention without making any sounds. She gave him her "you-are-insane" look and shook her head as she got up and quietly left the room. He told her what he'd done and told her that the rest of the batter was hers if she would just go away. Without a word, she shook her head and headed upstairs. Like SHE was going to make pancakes. Right.

It took him so long to organize a tray with the plate of buttered and syruped pancakes, a glass of milk, a glass of juice, a cup of coffee (he didn't know what she'd want), a napkin and utensils, that he was afraid the pancakes might have gone cold, but they hadn't. Sometimes being a perfectionist was annoying, even to himself. Finally, he was ready.

When he walked into the living room, Grace was still sleeping. It made him wonder if she ever got a good night's sleep at home. She must have been exhausted. He walked over and set the tray on the floor while he sat down on the coffee table.

"Grace. Grace wake up," he whispered, afraid to wake her too suddenly and startle her. Her eyelids fluttered for just a moment and almost decided just to stay closed, but Luke leaned in and kissed her gently, just for good measure. She was still in a fog when his lips touched hers and for a second she squeezed her eyes shut and willed the dream not to end. But when she let her eyes open and looked up, she realized it wasn't a dream. He was here, kissing her awake. What the…? It took a minute for what little there was of last night to come back to her. She must have fallen asleep. Her dad was going to freak. Oh well, wouldn't be the first time.

Luke picked up the tray and held it out to her. She sat up and looked at the tray, then back at Luke with a puzzled look. "Breakfast in…well, couch I guess," he said with a goofy smile. Grace hardly heard him. To anyone else, this might look like a simple, sweet gesture, but Grace knew that Luke knew that this was so much more.

She took the tray and started to eat. He had made her pancakes. He knew that the last time she participated in a sleepover it was supposed to end just like this, with homemade pancakes. Instead it just ended, along with the first friendship she ever had. If not for Adam and Joan, it would have been the only friendship she ever had. Luke was trying to put right what went wrong for her so long ago. He didn't care that it had nothing to do with him or that it wasn't his responsibility. He just wanted to make it all better, to heal her wounds and help her rebuild her broken psyche. She didn't think anyone had ever done anything so wonderful for her in her entire life. She leaned over the plate hoping that her hair would fall over her face and prevent him from seeing the tear that escaped down her cheek.