Clowns
Mal and Josh have a secret, at least they thought it was a secret. --
A/N: Set 2010, just into President Santos's second term - hey I can dream can't I?
Leo watched his daughter and her fiance on the dance floor and he smiled, pleased to see her in a relationship he approved off. "They seem happy," he commented.
"Leave them alone," Josh cautioned. "He's still scared of you you know."
"Sam was never scared of me."
"Yeah he was. You can be pretty intimidating, especially to Mal's boyfriends," Josh laughed.
Leo grinned, "It's a father's privilege."
"And it's one you enjoy way too much."
"Never intimidated you."
Josh completely missed Leo's meaning. "There are plenty times you've intimidated me," he smiled.
Leo watched Josh for a second. "I've been trying to work out what year it would have been," he said. "I think it was 1984, possibly '85, there was a lot of blurred edges back then."
"What are we talking about?" Josh asked.
"You came to the house a lot that summer," Leo reminded him.
"Yeah, maybe," Josh replied and wondered why he felt nervous after 26 years.
"But you never seemed intimidated," Leo continued.
"You knew?" Josh asked nervously.
Leo tried hard not to grin, Josh actually looked like he was searching for his quickest escape route. 'Better late than never,' he thought. "About you and Mallory, yeah I knew."
"You never said anything."
"You seemed to want to keep it a secret," Leo replied.
Josh looked at Leo, "We didn't deliberately hide it. It was just that summer."
"I know, although I did wonder for a while when you were both away at college, but Jenny reckoned it was over with the summer."
Josh glanced across the room to where Jenny was talking to Abbey and Sam's mother. "Jenny knew?"
"Yeah, she noticed first."
"Oh God," Josh moaned.
Leo laughed, "It was 25 years ago, stop looking so worried."
"Does Mal know you know?"
"Nah."
"I don't get it," Josh said. "You always take delight in torturing Mal's dates."
While Leo couldn't argue with that, the reason he did it wasn't solely for pleasure, it was more because he didn't think any of the men were good enough for his daughter. There had only been two exceptions to that; Josh and Sam. And though it was true he'd enjoyed teasing Sam back when he'd first tried to date Mallory, he hadn't really been trying to break them up and he was pleased when they started dating again two years ago. Almost as pleased as he'd been when Jenny told him her suspicions about Josh and Mal.
"I've left Sam alone this time," Leo argued.
"Yeah, that actually scared him more," Josh grinned and then frowned a little, "You're not mad then?"
"About what?"
"Me and Mal?"
"No, Josh, I never was."
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Josh finally managed to get Mallory on her own. He steered her to a quiet corner. "You're getting married," he said. "Took you long enough," he smiled. "Eleven years in fact."
"Taken me that long to convince him that my dad approves," Mal laughed. "You know what," she smiled mischievously, "you're the only guy I've ever taken home who didn't get the third degree, you're the only one who wasn't intimidated by my dad."
Josh grinned, "That's 'cause you didn't tell him the real reason I was calling by. If you'd told him what we got up to after the game or pizza or the movie, I'm pretty certain I'd have felt differently."
"You think?" Mal asked with a grin.
"I think," Josh agreed. "That was a good summer." He had fond memories of his internship in the summer of 1984. He'd been 23, Mallory had been 19. They'd known each other most of their lives, but that summer their relationship had changed to something much deeper; or that was how it had appeared at the time. Once the summer was over, they'd both gone back to college and their friendship had returned to how it had been before.
"Does Sam know?" Josh suddenly asked.
Mallory shook her head. "I've never seen a reason to tell him. No one knows but us, which is kind of a shame," she decided. "We had a great time, it was one of the best summers of my life and no one knows."
Josh grinned, "You wanna go out there and tell them?"
Mal laughed, "Can you imagine their faces? My mom and dad, Sam, Donna, not to mention our friends. I did think about telling Sam, but the time never seemed right and... don't take this the wrong way, but, it didn't seem relevant somehow."
"Turns out that your mom and dad knew all along."
"They knew?"
"Yeah, your dad just told me."
"They knew? They've never said anything."
"No," Josh agreed, "Doesn't make sense to me either."
"Maybe they approved?" Mal suggested.
"Maybe," Josh agreed. "You'll be relieved to hear that Leo approves of Sam more; or at least Sam would be relieved to hear that."
"Do you ever wonder what would have happened if we'd stayed together after the summer?"
"Back then, yeah sometimes. You?"
"Back then," Mal echoed. "I'm glad we didn't. I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean..."
"We're better as friends?" Josh suggested.
"We are," Mal agreed. "Come on." She led Josh onto the dance floor, "One more dance for old times sake."
END