Title: Company

Summary: Joan's turn for a POV. Grace is freaked, Luke is in deep denial, and Joan gets caught in the middle while innocently trying to eat her lunch. Post Just Say No.

A/N: Inspired by Only Connect:

Grace - Tell your brother to stop looking at me.
Joan - Grace, we are not doing another year of this. You tell him.

Adam had left the lunch period early to work on an art project in the art classroom and Grace was probably somewhere off campus by that point, so Joan sat alone out in the quad. She pulled her monster sized, opera of a sandwich out of the plastic bag with a sigh. She hated being alone; it left her with nothing but her thoughts and she hated dealing with those. She wished for company; any company.

She soon rethought that wish when Grace plopped down on the concrete bench next to her, an annoyed look on her face.

"Dude," the blonde girl greeted, the tone of her voice indicating she was about to go off on some kind of rant. Joan looked over at her, mildly exasperated. "Your brother was, like, looking at me today in Chem."

Joan raised her eyebrows as the other girl's eyes darted around, as if she was afraid someone would be listening to them.

"Oh no, he looked at you?" Joan asked in mock horror. "Not that."

Grace shot her a look. "Funny. I mean, he sits in front of me. It's not like he can just accidentally look my way. He has to turn around in his chair to even be able to know if I'm back there or not!"

Joan had to fight down the chuckle that wanted to come out at the expense of her lab partner. Grace had to be the only girl she had ever known to get so bent out of shape about a guy looking at her.

"Grace, relax," Joan told her, a slight eye roll accompanying the command. "He just has some weird thing for you. He's not working for the CIA or whatever."

Grace was silent for a moment, and if Joan didn't know better, she could have sworn she saw the leather clad girl blush a little.

"Yeah, that's creepy," Grace finally remarked, looking more than a little freaked out.

"It's just a stupid crush," Joan pointed out with another eye roll. "He's a teenage guy. He'll get over it soon enough and find someone else to fixate on. It's how they work."

Grace frowned slightly. Joan figured she hadn't convinced her just yet, so she tried a different tactic.

"Just make it clear you're not interested, and he'll leave you alone. Best for everyone."

Even though this little crush thing gives me so much blackmail opportunity, Joan thought, a slight smirk appearing on her face.

Grace narrowed her eyes, "Right."

"Want some?" Joan changed the topic swiftly, holding out the other half of her sandwich.

Grace stared at the offer for a minute before taking it. Joan smiled a little; the other girl seemed less annoyed now and she had company. Her smile quickly disappeared as Luke approached them.

"Hey," he greeted, giving Grace a tiny, nervous glance. "Can I sit with you guys?"

Joan looked over the girl sitting next to her, awaiting her response. Grace sat very still, not acknowledging she had even heard the question. Joan resisted rolling her eyes and shrugged. Luke shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to do, until she scooted over and patted the space next her.

As he sat, Grace stiffly handed the sandwich back to Joan. "Not hungry after all."

The siblings watched as she jumped up and hurried off towards the building.

"Something wrong with her?" Luke asked casually, obviously trying to mask the fact that he cared.

"Yeeeah," Joan drawled, giving her brother a pointed look. "You chased her off."

"What did I do?" Luke asked, offended.

"You keep going all stalker-boy on her," Joan informed him. "You kind of freak her out."

Joan felt a twinge of guilt knot up in her stomach as a hurt look flashed across Luke's face.

"I'm just trying to be friendly," he muttered, staring down at his lunch.

"I know," Joan assured. "I think you're just making her paranoid with the staring and stuff. She doesn't need the extra help in that department. I mean, she already thinks the government has her phones tapped."

Joan chuckled at the thought of the militant girl who she had formed a quasi-friendship with and her crazy theories. Even more amusing was the notion that her usually shy and timid brother had a thing for the girl that could more than likely break him in two if he ever pissed her off enough.

"What? I don't stare," Luke insisted stubbornly, even while his cheeks turned a light shade of pink. Joan laughed again and he gave her a mild glare. "I don't."

"Okay, rocket boy," Joan held up her hands in defeat of the subject. "Whatever you say."

Luke sighed and stood from his spot on the bench. "I think I'm going to go get a head start on my homework."

Joan watched her brother walk away, presumably to go to the library, a frown settling over her face.

After dealing with all that drama she was still alone.

"Figures," she muttered to herself, finally settling down to eat her lunch.

A/N: I am going to attempt to write all the way through the end of the show for this, but I make no guarantees. This is pretty much just progressing as ideas come to me. One thing I was hoping to accomplish with this is to fill in the blanks, such as why Luke used the aftershave, etc. If anyone wants something specific that was mentioned on the show elaborated, lemme know in the reviews and I'll attempt.