That Summer
Rating: T-M
Summary: In August Joan & Adam are crossing the country to
Stanford in CA, Grace & Luke are heading to Cambridge for their schools. What
are their plans for their final summer before parting? Can they pull it off
without their normal drama? Obviously G/L & J/A
Disclaimer: If the characters were mine I'd be getting paid to write
TV scripts, now wouldn't I? So…you know the drill.
To my two reviewers: Sam –
Thanks for reviewing. If I can ask, what
was it about chapter 4 that made you have to read it a couple times to get a
feel for it? P.S.-Yeah I kinda figured you were a G/L person, but psssst…me
too! TJ – That's for the
compliments my friend! And too American Idiot – I'm glad you came out of being lazy for a chapter, thank
you! I appreciate it!
To all other readers, whether you've reviewed in the past or not: THANK YOU! Sorry for the review guilt trips
but, like I said I want to know if I'm still going strong or starting to wane
and flake out as I go on. I need YOU to tell me that because let's face it
people, I'm a bit biased! Thank you again for reading! Much love to y'all!
Chapter 6 – Walk Tall, Through This World
"Rise and Shine! It's breakfast time!" Joan called out into the hallway from the doorway of the kitchen.
"I over slept." Adam frowned as he darted into the kitchen, trying to yank a wife beater over his head, holding his work shirt in his hand.
"What time do you have to be in?" Joan asked as he reached around her and grabbed a waffle, leaning in to kiss her quickly before he took a bite of it. He sat down in a chair to tie his shoes and the words that escaped his full mouth were nothing more then mumble.
"Say what now?" Joan asked. She leaned out to the hallway again. "GET UP YOU GUYS!" She pounded the wall with a smile.
"Ten minutes." Adam said after swallowing.
"What?" Joan turned her attention back.
"I have to get there in ten minutes." He stood back up, finishing his waffle and chugging a glass of orange juice.
"Do you want the car?" Joan asked.
"No, I'll make it." He said. He stopped a minute and looked her up and down. "That's the uniform?" He raised an eyebrow, looking at her blue bikini with the letters OCBP printed on the left side of the top. She had a pair of short blue track shorts over them with the top rolled over a few times. The back had the letters OCBP on them as well. Joan shrugged.
"Hey, you've gotta have a swimsuit on if you're going to stop someone from drowning." She smirked.
"I can honestly say I didn't think you'd get a lifeguard job." He grinned. Joan put her hands on her hips.
"Hello, I'm totally all about the protecting and serving, here." She said. Adam put his hands up.
"Okay, Okay, you win." He nodded. "I have to go." He kissed her once more and then jogged out of the house, sprinting up the block.
"HEY! I SAID UP PEOPLE!" Joan banged on Luke and Grace's door again, smiling to herself as she went back into the kitchen.
"Dude…your sister's going to get it soon…" Grace mumbled, her face buried into Luke's bare chest. Their covers were tossed aside, both almost sticking to each other since no one had uncovered the elusive thermostat yet. The fan hummed as it spun above them.
"Yeah well…I'm probably going to be late." Luke mumbled, still half asleep. Grace sighed and lifted her hand from where it was resting across Luke's abdomen, and used it to rub the right side of her face while she inhaled a deep breath, letting out a sigh. She glanced at the clock.
"It's 6:03, brain." She murmured.
"Ah-ha…27 minutes." Luke muttered. Grace heard Joan bang on the door for the third time and she groaned.
"I'm going to strangle you Girardi!" She yelled out. Her head jostled as Luke laughed at her.
"My arm's asleep…" Luke said. Grace frowned slightly. She forced herself to sit up. "I didn't mean that you had to move. I was just stating a fact." Luke smiled slightly. Grace ran her hands through her hair and rubbed her face, trying to brush the sleep out of her brain.
"Well we can't have you mowing lawns and operating those gardening machines with a numb arm now can we?" Grace asked, looking back at him as he put his hands behind his head and took a deep breath.
"Soooo…how exactly did Joan rope you into becoming a lifeguard?" Luke asked. Grace lightly pushed Luke at his ribs as she got out of the bed.
"Let's not go there." She frowned.
"Did it have to do with the big guy upstairs?" Luke followed her into the bathroom as she prepared her toothbrush. He stood behind her as she started brushing her teeth and he wrapped his arms around her, leaning down to leave a couple of kisses on her shoulder and at her neck. Grace squirmed slightly, but didn't push him away.
"Nu-uh." She shook her head no as the toothpaste started foaming while she brushed. She let her eyes watch him in the mirror. He was looking down and letting his eyes follow her hands, which were tracing lines at her waist and along her free arm, which she had let lay across one of his arms when they'd circled her. She studied him. His shaggy hair was in his face, just a bit longer than he used to keep it, and he had learned to keep it messier, sometimes doing nothing but running his hands through it with gel and letting it dry. It wasn't completely blond. In fact normally it looked like muddy river brown, laced with lines of yellow. Now that he'd been out in the sun so much in the past week and a half, his hair was looking more and more blond each day. Of course this could have also been an optical illusion, considering all the working outside had started Luke down the path of a nice tan. Grace tried not to smile to herself as her eyes roamed down and spotted the white tan line separating his torso from low on his waist where is boxers sat against his hips.
"So it wasn't G…then what was it?" Luke asked suspiciously, catching her eye in the mirror. "Blackmail? Could it be?"
Grace rolled her eyes in response and leaned down some to spit out her toothpaste and rinse her mouth out. She turned around when Luke loosened his hold on her and tilted her head to look up at him.
"I promised to try new things didn't I?" She asked him, just a tiny hint of her sarcasm faithfully shining through. Luke let a half smile creep across his lips as his hands, which were on her hips, pulled her an inch or two closer to him. He nodded slightly.
"Yes you did." He leaned in for a kiss. Grace placed her hand on his chest to steady herself as she leaned up to meet his lips. They pulled apart when Joan knocked on their door again.
"She's a dead woman…" She backed away from Luke, a slight grin on her face. "And by the way…you totally need to brush your teeth." She pinched her nose and wrinkled her face up as she back towards the bedroom door.
"Oh…shut up you!" He tossed a hand towel in her direction and laughed. He watched her head for the kitchen.
"Girardi…you got five seconds to hide!" She called as she rounded the corner. Luke laughed and turned the water on to brush his teeth.
"Want some fruit?" Joan asked innocently from her spot at the kitchen table. She had her feet up on the seat as she leaned back eating cantaloupe. Grace sighed and stretched before walking over and pulling a piece out of Joan's bowl. "I should warn you that there's-,"
"Dude!" Grace cut her off, making a disgusted face. She grabbed a napkin and spit the piece of fruit into it before throwing it out. "Who eats salt on cantaloupe?" She asked, hanging her tongue out in disgust momentarily as Joan snickered and shrugged.
"I do?" She said aloud. "We have until 7:30 by the way."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know." Grace waved her hand and nodded her head as she opened the fridge and searched for something to eat.
"It's going to be great you'll see." Joan assured, popping an orange slice into her mouth. "We sit in the sun all day and watch people swim, how hard could it get right?"
Grace stood up, a perplexed look on her face. "Girardi…" she shook her head as Joan looked at her. Grace put her hand up and shook her head again. "Never mind. I'll remind you of that when we have to save some unfortunate schmuck from drowning cause he drank too much and thought it would be funny to body surf in a rip tide." She sat across from Joan with the box of Cap'N Crunch. She put her right leg up and rested her right hand over it, holding it while using her left hand to dig in the box and pull out handfuls of the cereal to eat.
"Sounds like you speak from experience…" Joan commented, an eyebrow raised encouragingly. Grace looked at Joan, not sure what to say now that she'd stuck her foot in her mouth. Luckily Luke had saved her. He had entered the kitchen wearing a pair of worn-out khaki cargo shorts that had a couple of tears making the bottom edges fray, and a pair of all terrain sandals strapped to his feet.
"Good morning ladies." He grinned as he walked to the fridge and poured himself a glass of orange juice.
"I can't believe you're working with a landscaper." Joan snickered. "How did you snag that?"
"Well, just because I can use science to use equipment…don't fault me for it now." He smiled.
"I don't want to know how that equation goes." Joan held her hand up as if to stop Luke as she rinsed her bowl and put it in the dishwasher. "I'm going for a jog before work." She looked at Grace. "I'll meet you at headquarters." She said with a pat on Grace's shoulder as she passed her on the way out of the kitchen. Grace nodded, holding just a cup of coffee in both her hands now. "Have fun trimming hedges, dork." She grinned and left out the back door. "By the way it's one of your turns to cook dinner!" She called to them.
"That was not an analogy I wanted to picture." Grace said, shaking her head. Luke sat down across from her.
"Oh come on, me in nothing but shorts with some electric hedge clippers, covered in sweat in the sun…" He wiggled his eyebrows up and down. "You know you just can't reasonably resist it." He finished his orange juice and set the cup down. He grinned when Grace was just staring at him. "What?"
"Did you really just say that?" She asked. Luke got up and put his cup in the dishwasher.
"Do you want to cook tonight or should I?" He asked.
"Let's go out somewhere, who feels like cooking?" Grace wrinkled up her nose.
"I'll find somewhere to go after work then." He shrugged. He glanced at the clock. "Feel like helping me with the sunscreen?" He asked. Grace stood up and took the tube of sunscreen and started to cover Luke's back. When she was done she started for the bedroom.
"How much longer do you have?" She called back to him.
"Ten minutes before he gets here!" Luke called out to her.
Grace quickly began to change. Once she had the same blue bikini on that Joan had been wearing, she stopped putting sunscreen on and looked in the mirror. She grimaced slightly and sighed.
"How in the hell did I get myself into this?" She asked. She grabbed the track shorts and tank that she had been issued and pulled them on before she went back out to the kitchen. Luke smiled.
"OCBP indeed." He said.
"Could you get my back?" Grace cheeks flushed pink as she asked it. Luke nodded and walked up behind her.
"Uhh…Grace…you've gotta take the shirt off for this." He told her. Anxiously, Grace reached for the hem of the tank top and pulled it over her head. Luke put sunscreen on his hand and reached out to put it on Grace's back. "Sorry." He apologized when her back arched and her muscles tensed because of the cold lotion.
"S'all right." Grace said quietly.
"It's not that big of a deal, you know." He told her when he was done and she put the tank back on.
"What's not?" She asked, leaning back against the counter. Luke stood in front of her.
"We discussed this fifteen times since we got here, Grace." He said.
"Well, when I get out there and I'm hot enough maybe I'll take this stuff off. It's early, it's not that hot out yet." Grace defended herself.
"I wish I could be there to watch you hit the first guy that mouths off to you cause you're hot." He grinned. Grace's cheeks flushed again.
"Shut up, brain," she lightly smacked his chest. They heard a car horn from outside. Luke sighed.
"Off to work." He said. "Good luck." He smiled. He was about to walk away but Grace grabbed his arm and kissed him.
"See you later." She said. They heard the car horn again. Luke smiled.
"Gotta go, Hank's waiting." He kissed her quickly once more before jogging out of the house. Grace went to the door to watch him go. Luke climbed into the back of a pick up truck that had a trailer full of lawn mowers and gardening equipment attached to it. There were three other guys around his age already in the back of it. One of them whistled at Grace.
"Damn kid, how the hell did you, get that?" One of them asked. Luke smacked him upside the back of his head.
"Don't be staring at my girlfriend man." He smiled at Grace and waved. "She'll kick your ass, man."
"Yeah, sure." He said as Hank began to drive away. Grace rolled her eyes and went back inside.
"How was your run?" Grace asked as she and Joan arrived at the section of the beach they were supposed to watch for the day. Each put their belongings in the little holder space before climbing up the wooden structure to sit atop the bench.
"It was very nice actually. There weren't many people out. The water's warm too." Joan smiled. "How was the rest of the morning?"
"All right. Two of the guys Luke works with need a swift kick in the pants." She smirked. Joan laughed.
"What?" She asked.
"Oh yeah, they pulled up and I was saying goodbye, waiting for them to pull away. Next thing I know one's whistling, one's being a pig, and the other one's drooling and Luke's slapping them upside the head." Grace explained.
"Luke? Slapping someone who isn't Friedman?" Joan asked, almost wide eyed. "Now that's impressive."
"Yeah well…" Grace replied. Joan watched her for a minute. Grace was taking this job a little more seriously than Joan was. Grace had her sunglasses on and was scanning the beach and the water for any problems at all, a stony expression across her face as the ocean breeze cooled their skin in the already sweltering heat. Neither of them spoke much for the next two hours.
"I don't know how you're wearing extra clothes, it's exhausting out here." Joan wiped some sweat off of her forehead; glad her hair was pulled back.
"I know." Grace said. In truth she was pretty warm even though they had opened the umbrella on their lifeguard stand in order to try and keep a little cooler. Her shirt was wet with sweat and the shorts weren't exactly helping either. "Why do parents have to buy their kids boogie boards? Do they want to annihilate their children?" she asked. She lifted the whistle that was hooked tightly around her neck and blew it until the kids looked up. Grace stood up on the foot ledge and waved them in until they were far enough in that she could tell their feet were touching the sand under the water before she sat back down.
"I don't know. I think they realize the danger," Joan said. Grace glanced at her, intrigued for Joan to finish. "But I think they just rely on the lifeguards should injury occur." She nodded.
"Wonderful." Grace muttered.
"You really don't like the beach do you?" Joan asked.
"Girardi…" Grace warned.
"Hey, I'm just asking." Joan put her hands up in innocence.
"Bad memories." Grace answered. She sighed and finally gave in. Reaching for the hem of her shirt, she whipped it up and over her head before she could second-guess herself. Her shorts came off next before she stowed them under the seat. Joan could think of a couple of remarks to make, but she stalled herself, not wanting to fuel Grace's self-esteem issues. Grace felt Joan's eyes on her and she sighed, still watching the water. "Go ahead, Girardi, say what you're thinking."
"Oh, no…wouldn't dream of you know, getting into your business." Joan tried to hide the smile threatening to overtake her face. She already knew what Grace's reaction would be. Grace laughed almost hysterically.
"Oh yeah, right. A Girardi staying out of someone's business? HA!" She replied. A smirk covered her face. She didn't look over at Joan, just kept watch over the three boys who were watching her, inching further and further back out in the water after every wave they rode in. Joan watched the other side, looking for anyone who might need help. "I was ten. We went to Myrtle Beach. My aunt lives out there. My Dad had stayed home to work. My aunt was lying on a blanket and I was making a sandcastle-," Grace stopped when Joan snickered.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She waved her hand. "I just can't picture you making a sandcastle." She smiled.
"I know." Grace nodded. She sighed. "My mom had been drunk from the night before still, and that's not counting the three hours of drinking she did before we got to the beach. I was trying to ignore her singing, and obnoxious responses to people looking at us funny. My aunt turned to her and said, 'regardless of what's going on in your family Sarah, you should let your daughter have a good time for once.'" Grace said sarcastically imitating her aunt. "And my mom said she was going for a walk and got up, stumbled down towards the wet sand to walk. The next thing I know, there are lifeguards coming from other towers besides the one we were near, racing into the water. My aunt, and me we went and gathered with the crowd to see what was going on, and out comes two lifeguards, carrying my mother to the beach. She'd gone in the water and nearly drowned. She'd started to get sick and then a wave hit her and she inhaled water and probably vomit too and got stuck in a rip tide. They had to put her on a backboard and carry her up the beach to an ambulance." Grace turned her head from the water to look at Joan. "I haven't been to the beach until this summer, since then." She said. Grace had washed all emotion away from her face. Her jaw was set and Joan was pretty sure that Grace was glad she had sunglasses on to protect herself from bearing her soul too much more than this. Grace turned her head back. "Oh come on!" she stood up and whistled at the boys in the water again. They looked up at her and put their heads down, moving in towards the shoreline disappointedly.
"I'm sorry Grace." Joan said when she sat back down. Grace shrugged. "Why then…did you agree to come with us?"
"Well, the fact that everyone else, including your brother was coming helped. I mean I don't like to follow the crowd but without anyone at home to escape to, well, that would suck. And being nearly 4 hours away from my mom is helpful too. I don't think I would have been able to make it through the summer between her drinking and Dad never being home because of her drinking." She reasoned. Joan nodded slowly.
"Understandable." Joan said. Grace sighed. She stood up. Joan gave Grace's shoulder a little shove. Grace glanced at her. "I'm glad you came with us." She smiled. "And I'm glad we help when you need it." She winked. Grace let herself smile and nodded. She cleared her throat.
"I'm going to go out there and bring them in closer." She grabbed a red can and put the strap around her shoulder, holding the handle.
"You teach those boys." Joan nodded encouragingly, knowing it would be easier for Grace to yell at the three boys to behave than if she were to do it.
