Calculated Risk

Disclaimer: Still not miiiiiiine!

Chapter Two: The Little Things

RJ frowned in concern as he eyed Fran from his spot behind the counter. She wasn't in her usual seat, the second stool from the end of the counter; rather she was sitting at a booth, books and papers strewn about the table and cushioned bench, her fingers frantically flying across the keyboard of her laptop that she had propped on the table in front of her. Occasionally she would pause to scribble something down in one of at least five notebooks, pop the pen she was using into her mouth to hold onto it as she went back to typing. Her hair was falling loose from her ponytail into her face and her glasses were dangerously close to falling off her nose, but she had yet to straighten them.

Fran had entered Jungle Karma around eleven thirty in the morning and it was now nearing three thirty. She had ordered two slices of the RJ Special pizza and a large coke around noon. She had yet to touch either, so fiercely devoted to her studies.

However RJ could see the exhaustion in the set of her shoulders and in the weariness of her deep, amber eyes. Eyes that he could have sworn were beginning to fill with tears.

That was it. RJ was intervening.

He made his way over to her booth and slid into the seat opposite of hers. "You should eat something, Fran," he said in a gently chiding voice. He reached over and plucked the pen from her mouth, the action startling his friend into focusing on him. "And I don't mean ink."

Fran blushed, but didn't say anything. Her fingers flexed, as if aching to get back to work. RJ eyed the laptop like it was the enemy. "Does that thing automatically save your work?" He asked in a carefully neutral voice.

Fran eyed him warily. "Yes…"

"Did it just save now?"

Glancing at the screen, Fran gave a slow nod only to cry out in protest when RJ slammed the lid down. "Wha—RJ!"

RJ pointed a finger at her, looking at her sternly. "You are taking a break, young lady. You've been here for nearly four hours and you haven't stopped. For anything."

Reaching over, he picked up her soda and plopped it down onto one of the few empty spots of the table. "Drink that," he all but ordered her. "You need to hydrate."

Fran stared at the soda for a minute before moving the glass towards herself and started drinking it. She eyed RJ from beneath her lashes, annoyance still etched on her face. When she let go of the straw to get air, she couldn't help but snark, "Happy now, dear?"

RJ was hardly fazed by her attitude. "Not until you eat something," he retorted, nodding toward the pizza. "It's gonna be ice cold though."

That coaxed a smirk onto Fran's face. "Ice cold pizza is the breakfast of champions for college students, I'll have you know."

"Then get to eating champ."

As Fran took a few bites of one slice, RJ picked up the plate that held the other slice. "I'll heat this one for you." As he slid out of the booth, RJ made the bold decision to snatch up her notebooks.

"What're you doing?!" Fran demanded.

"Ensuring that you take a break," RJ replied blithely. "And I don't mean just for lunch. I mean a mental break." He peered at her closely, suddenly taking note of dark circles under her eyes. He had half a mind to throw her over his shoulder and toss her onto his hammock, insisting that she get some rest. However he didn't think such a move would go over well with her, at least that it wouldn't end in his murder, so he decided to just focus on confirming that she had something to eat and was eating it as well as staying hydrated and as sane as possible.

He waved the notebooks in his hand. "Don't worry," he told her. "I won't let any harm come to these. But you're not getting them back until you've finished your food."

Quelling the scowl that threatened to form on her lips, Fran instead slouched against the back of the booth with an exasperated sigh. "Fine."

Smiling innocently, RJ left her and headed over to his cash register. Opening the drawer, RJ lifted the cash box and slid Fran's notebooks underneath. He plopped the box back down and slid the drawer shut. Whistling, he then made his way into the kitchen and slid her slice of pizza into the oven for a moment while going over the orders of other customers.

Popping out of the kitchen less than five minutes later, RJ cheerily sailed his way over to Fran with a heated slice of pizza along with a freshly made one because dang it, he was going to make sure his friend took care of herself. Sliding into the booth, RJ grinned at the surprised look on Fran's face when she was greeted with two slices of pizza instead of just one.

She opened her mouth, looking like she was going to argue with him, but instead, Fran shrugged her shoulders and took a healthy bite out of the pizza. RJ's grin grew, satisfied that she was eating and that he didn't see any sign of the cold slice he had left her with.

After taking a long sip of her soda Fran thanked him before looking at him curiously. "RJ, are you sure that it's a good idea for you to be sitting with me?"

"Yeah why not?" RJ asked. "We're friends, aren't we?"

She looked at him with mock annoyance. "We mostly hang out while you're on the clock. Are you sure that's a good idea? Shouldn't you be looking after your customers?"

"No worries," RJ assured her. "I am." He twisted his torso and checked out the scene behind him. Seeing that nobody had any need for his attention, RJ turned back to Fran and winked. "We're all good." Boldly, he pulled off a mushroom from one of her slices and popped it into his mouth. "We should totally hang out when I'm not working though." He frowned in thought. "Your schedule however…"

Fran picked up the slice that RJ had stolen the mushroom off of, holding it almost protectively which elicited a chuckle from him, said. "I'm almost done with school, including the TA bit but I'll be working days at a library not far from here. I get off at three-thirty every afternoon except for Thursdays when I get out at seven so we can hang out most nights maybe?"

RJ was curious at the odd hours and tried his best to stamp out the sense of disappointment that he might not see her as often over the summer. "Why do you have to stay an extra three and a half hours on Thursdays?"

She held up two fingers and ticked off her reasons. "There's an afterschool program that runs on Thursdays that I help out with and the library is open longer on that day." She shrugged. "Not sure why it's not Friday though."

RJ hummed as he thought over her answer. "Interesting. I close down at seven and usually have this place completely cleaned up by seven-thirty. Is that too late to start hanging out?"

Fran snorted. "Absolutely not. My night life is very uneventful. Just me making dinner, reading books with the occasional trip to Briarwood."

He arched a brow at that last bit. "Briarwood?"

"I have family there," Fran replied with a fond smile. "My cousin Chip lives there so sometimes I go over for impromptu game nights which can range from video game tournaments to intense games of DND."

That interested RJ. "Dungeons and Dragons?"

"Yup! And sometimes if Chip's girlfriend Vida succeeds in getting us to go with her, we go to a concert."

"We?"

"Vida's sister Madison and all of their friends," Fran explained. After a second's pause she added with a slight blush. "Though I suppose they're my friends too."

"Sounds fun," RJ said. He then looked at her with a mock scolding expression on his face. "And you said your nightlife was uneventful."

"Only here in Ocean Bluff."

"Well, now you've got me for a friend," RJ pointed out. "Maybe I can help you make life in Ocean Bluff a little more exciting."

Fran grinned around her straw. "Okay."

He matched her smile. "Okay." After a minute, he then asked. "So when can I start learning sign language from you?"

Fran had surprised RJ with her knowledge of the language three days earlier when a kid of about twelve years old came in and tried ordering pizza in sign language, a piece of paper defiantly gripped in his hand. Unfortunately, RJ wasn't very versed in ASL and struggled to understand the poor kid. Before the kid had to rely on paper and pencil instead, Fran stepped in. She knelt beside the boy, tapping him on the shoulder, signing fluently that she would translate for him, earning a big relieved smile.

After the boy had left with his food, Fran explained that she had learned the language as a child from a hard of hearing colleague of her mother's. She had kept up the skill as she got older, needing to use it on occasion when it came to a deaf classmate of hers and later a few deaf/hard of hearing students she would tutor in college. RJ had immediately asked her for a lesson and Fran had promised to set something up soon.

Having been reminded of her promise, Fran put down her pizza and turned to rummage in her messenger bag. She pulled out a beginner's book on sign language and passed it to RJ. "I'm free tomorrow night if you want to start then."

RJ grinned as he took the book and briefly perused it. "Sounds like a plan to me. Thank you for this." He nodded toward the kitchen, a somewhat rueful smile on his face. "I'd better get back in there."

"Okay." She grinned. "Have fun."

"I always do."

The thing about the Jungle Karma ovens was that they weren't exactly state of the art. As a matter of fact, they were in serious need of repair, if not an altogether upgrade. Unfortunately, RJ didn't exactly have the money needed for an adequate handyman let alone the technical skill necessary to tackle the job himself.

He also didn't have total awareness whenever it came to losing himself in his self-proclaimed "pizza-making groove". It wasn't until he caught the sharp, acrid smell of smoke did he realize that an order was burning terribly. With a swear under his breath, RJ darted toward his oven and was bowled over by flames rushing to greet him, nearly caressing his face with their merciless heat, smoke billowing out in black fumes behind the fire.

RJ was completely unaware of how long he had laid on his kitchen floor, staring in shock as he watched the flames start to consume his kitchen, distantly hearing the alarm system go off. Wasn't there supposed to be a sprinkler system? Ah, right. The damn things were rusted over.

He really should be getting up.

He jolted in surprise when the unmistakable hissing noise of a fire extinguisher cut through the sound of the alarms. Right. He had one of those but he clearly wasn't the one attempting to put the fire out. Had someone called the fire department?

Moving slowly into a sitting position, RJ tilted his head and saw that it wasn't a firefighter putting out the fire but…

"Fran?!" He spluttered, coughing as the smoke began to burn his throat. "What are you doing here? Are you nuts?!" He fought to get to his feet. "It's way too dangerous for you to be in here!"

Fran continued to spray the fire extinguisher into the oven, doing her best to smother the flames as she calmly replied. "Everyone else was evacuating RJ, and when I didn't see you with the crowd, I got worried and decided to see what I could do to help!"

"And that's wonderful of you, thank you, but we have to get out of here!" No longer concerned with his own well-being but consumed with worry for hers, RJ reached for Fran, determined to drag her out of the kitchen if need be.

"I've almost got it!" Fran shifted as if sensing that RJ was trying to stop her from finishing her task. She did her best to stop the wave of coughing that threatened to choke her, tightly gripping the fire extinguisher as she fought to take in clean air.

As she coughed, she didn't see the sparks that were headed right for them, coming from a power box that was starting to catch fire. RJ did see them and grabbed Fran around the middle, throwing her over shoulder, pointedly ignoring her yelp of protest as he ran them out of the kitchen, just as the fire department burst onto the scene.

"See?" RJ asked in a rough voice as he continued to run. "The fire department's here! We can go now."

Fran said nothing; too busy focusing on not falling off of RJ's shoulder while not letting the blood rush to her head due to her current position.

She was also decidedly not looking at RJ's butt, thank you very much.

When the pair reached a safe distance away from Jungle Karma, RJ placed Fran back on her feet, keeping his hands on her shoulders as they caught their breath. Once he saw that she was settled, he pulled her into a tight hug.

"That was awesome," RJ told her quietly, sincerely. "But please don't put yourself in danger like that again."

Fran hugged him back briefly before pulling back to look him in the eye. "I'm sorry RJ, but I can't make such a promise. If I can do something to help someone, I'm going to do it. Even if it's dangerous."

RJ looked like he dearly wanted to argue with her. But he also knew that if he were in her shoes, he would be saying the same thing. Sighing, he rested his head on top of hers. "I don't like it, but I completely understand."

A throat being cleared interrupted their moment and the two broke apart, turning to see a tall, dark blonde man in his early thirties clad in a firefighter's uniform. The word "captain" was emblazoned across the right side of his jacket. "I heard from several witnesses that you're the owner, RJ. Is that correct?"

RJ nodded, moving to shake the captain's hand. "That would in fact be me, sir."

"I'm Captain Grayson," the man introduced himself. "You're very lucky that your friend managed to contain much of the damage in your kitchen when she did."

"You don't need to tell me twice," RJ replied, shooting Fran a grateful look. She blushed and slid her gaze to her shoes. Looking back at Captain Grayson, RJ asked him, "So how bad is the damage?"

"We managed to contain the rest of it, just before that power box could blow. Good job on getting your friend out of there just in case and to reduce any further smoke damage to yourselves." Looking slightly regretful, Captain Grayson added, "There's significant damage to the ovens in particular and your stove range did take a beating as well but luckily it didn't spread to the dining area."

"That's a plus," RJ replied, determined to look on the bright side. He then remembered something else. "Wait, I live above the restaurant. Do you think it's safe for me to sleep there tonight?"

"You can stay with me if it's not," Fran offered. RJ smiled his thanks and gently squeezed her hand.

"I'll have my team look into it," Captain Grayson assured RJ. "As long as the air is clear in there you should be just fine as it doesn't look like the fire has threatened the building's structural soundness." He turned toward a pair of ambulances in the distance and gestured toward it. "I highly suggest you two get yourselves checked out. And I'm married to one of the doctors on EMT duty so I'll know if you didn't go over there."

Laughing, the pair thanked the captain and made their way over to the ambulances. As they walked over, Fran froze with a gasp, her eyes going wide in alarm.

"What is it?" RJ demanded as he looked her over, not seeing anything outwardly that would be a cause for concern.

"My notebooks!" She cried. "I gave them to you, remember?" She pouted and then muttered. "Though I wouldn't entirely categorize it as 'willingly'."

RJ chuckled as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Hakuna Matata, my dear Fran. I put them in my cash register which is a safe distance from the kitchen. They will be returned to you in perfect condition as soon as we're in the clear to go back into the kitchen."

She sank into his embrace with relief. "Thank you," she breathed. She lightly nudged him with a small smile. "I like the Lion King reference by the way."

"It's underutilized if you think about it, what with everyone saying 'no worries'."

"I think it's clever," Fran told him.

"You know, I think I can actually make this disaster work out," RJ mused as they continued their trek over to the ambulances.

"Oh?" She looked at him curiously. "How?"

"A new pizza. The smoked and crispy combo." He held out his free hand in a gesture of showmanship. "Thin crust that's well done with smoky mozzarella pieces on top of a regular cheese pizza. What do you think?"

Fran giggled slightly at her friend's eagerness. "That actually sounds really good."

"It does," RJ affirmed. He then made a face. "What doesn't sound good is the phone call I have to make to my insurance company later."

Fran laughed harder at that, the motion making her cough once more which in turn immediately brought her under the examination of a blonde EMT who firmly informed RJ that he was not to go anywhere for her was next.

The slight squeak that he emitted sadly did Fran's bout of laughter and coughing no favors.

So if you follow my work in Because We Love You, you know that I headcanon the idea of Fran and Chip from Mystic Force as cousins. I just think it's cute. You also know that Dana from Lightspeed Rescue has a role in that story whereas Carter is featured here. I have no idea if I did a good job with his dialogue as a fire fighter. My uncle's actually a captain of his fire department AND he was an EMT prior to that. So I'm just scrambling to remember what he's told me about his job.

Ah yes, the smoked and crispy combo. RJ's response after "Bummer" because his kitchen had caught fire. The look on Fran's face in that scene was basically, "RJ my bullshit senses are tingling...PLEASE tell me why you're running away!" I don't know about you, but I thought she was heartbroken when she saw him packing. I have no actual idea why the JKP kitchen caught fire, neither character explained so I was just taking a wild guess.

Hope y'all like and hope to update soon!