Disclaimer: The characters given in the story are property of ABC/Disney--the only thing that is my property is the idea from which the story is based on.
A/N: I think this is the longest I've gone without having a Jolie story going. I once made a joke and said this was the only way I'd let this happen in any of my stories. I'm going to try really really hard to get this story done before the wedding, but if it seems like it's getting sloppy as the date rolls nearer, you might have a break in the middle of October with no story. Enjoy! Until next time--PCGirl.
Natalie walked into the Gym at the Center and took a look around—it was quiet, which was odd for a summer day. She walked across the empty basketball court and into the game room where the air hockey, pool table, and a few video machines were fixed. All the boys were huddled around the pool table, but she could see all the cues were up on the rack bolted to the wall. "What's going on, fellas?" she asked as she walked behind them and they jumped at her sight.
"Hi Miss Natalie," said Jeremy with the grin of a guilty man.
"What are you all doing here? Anyone want to shoot some hoops out there?" she asked as they all shook their heads no. She looked behind them as saw the felt was cut along the edge where they were standing.
"Nothing—we were just thinking about playing a game," said one of the other boys standing near one of the corner pockets.
"Right—how'd the felt get cut?"
"I—I don't know," shrugged Jeremy.
"If someone doesn't tell me now I'm going to have to call in reinforcements and do a full body search of all of you—better yet, I'll call the cops for damaged property," she said as they all looked at each other and then one of them walked up and handed over the switchblade, "Who does this belong to?"
"Sam's brother," said an undistinguishable voice in the middle.
"Sam—go in my office, please. The rest of you—the game room is off limits for the rest of the afternoon. I oughta make it until I get back from vacation, but I have a heart," she said as there was a low rumble of displeasure as she watched them all leave the room and then turned off the lights and locked the game room shut.
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"He doesn't know I have it—I swear Miss Natalie. We were just trying to fix out the lumps."
Natalie tried to hold in a laugh—cutting the felt and stretching it was one way to get the lumps out—it was about as bad as the one in AC at the Skat-o-rama when she was growing up, but she knew cutting the felt wasn't going to solve anything. "I know what you were attempting to do, but that still doesn't give you right to destroy property—I'll write out a note in a bit for your parents to read, now go play with the rest of the guys," she sighed as she watched him leave and she closed her eyes.
The Center wasn't easy—these kids had it worse off than she did in AC and she saw that now, but she was making a difference little by little. When she had first started they didn't want anything to do with her—made her first few months a living hell that by the time of the wedding on New Years Eve she was ready to move back to Llanview, but then she decided to push back one more time—and that was all it took.
Finally they saw the light and realized she was just as tough as they were and wasn't going to allow them to get away with all the stuff the other counselors did. She looked over at the newspaper article now matted and hanging on the wall—"Natalie Buchanan McBain Receives Award." It was the first time a beginning counselor at any of the Centers in the area received an award for reaching out to the children and thus causing there to be more children attending the Center on a regular basis instead of mulling around the streets all day.
Her mind came back to reality when the phone rang, "Natalie McBain," she answered.
"I still like the sound of that," he laughed.
"Hey—how's it going?"
"Boring, as always—how is everything there today?"
"Oh, same old thing—I confiscated a switchblade though," she said as she picked it up and took another look at it.
"From who?" asked John with fear it had been used against her.
"One of the kids—they were ripping the felt on the pool table to stretch it and make it less bumpy—or that's the way they thought it would work."
"Well, that's one way to solve a problem."
"Yeah, well for a second I thought about canceling the order on the new pool table—but I just kept seeing their eyes when we open after Christmas to see a new table there in the game room—I couldn't do it. I must be turning into a softy."
"You—a softy? Never. You wouldn't even let me win a game of pool on my birthday," he laughed.
"Oh yeah—maybe I will tonight," she grinned as she looked to see Adrienne was standing at her door, "Hey—I gotta go, I'll see you in awhile."
"Ok—I better start looking busy," he grinned. "I love you."
"I love you too," she said and then smiled at her fellow counselor, "Are they about to stage a coup for the pool table?"
"Didn't look like it—I called someone to repair the damage before we open in the morning. Did you get a chance to review the candidates for the position for tomorrow?"
"No, but I already put them in my bag to do at home—so we can have a quick conference before the interviews start in the morning?"
"Sounds like a plan—I'm going to work on the Back to School newsletter we'll send out to them while you are on vacation," she grinned.
"Hey—you got to take a two week vacation earlier in the summer."
"I know—it's just I didn't go anywhere exciting," she sighed.
Natalie gave her a look that questioned Adrienne's last comment, "And England is exciting?"
"Sure—if you've never been there," she shrugged as Natalie finished printing out a sheet and handed it to Adrienne, "Ooo—nice," she smiled.
"Yeah, well I figured that could be my contribution to the newsletter—since I won't be here," she said as Adrienne gave her a nod and Natalie began working on some last minute paperwork.
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John walked into the same apartment he and Natalie had shared since they moved to Philly—a few better ones had come along, but somehow in the middle of everything they realized their small place was perfect for them. The only thing they had really needed was an office, so they had bought some screens and set up a corner of the living room for a desk and computer. He could see her shadow being cast against the screen from the small desk lamp and walked over and watched her in deep concentration for a moment, "Hey."
Natalie jumped and looked up to see him leaning against the screen, smiling down at her, "Hey," she smiled getting up and putting down the file before wrapping her arms around his neck.
"You looked like you were pretty into reading that file. Is something wrong?"
"No, it's just something I have to have done by the morning. How was work?"
"It was—well, work," he laughed at her and suddenly realized that as close as they were at the moment he wanted to be closer. He leaned over and turned off the desk lamp and began walking backwards towards the couch. He paused for a moment and took a look at her in the shadowy room, "I missed you."
"You did?" she grinned.
"Yeah, I did," he said running his hand over her hair.
"Well, I'm glad to hear that—because I missed you too," she grinned as she shoved him down onto the couch and they were lost in each other. As long as they had their little apartment and each other then it felt like nothing could touch them.