This Was An Awkward Night – Erin Hutchinson

This would be a fun night.

She would get to dress up and watch all the awkward looking fifth and sixth graders dance, because that's what she was chaperoning. Did she fail to mention that she was going to be chaperoning this little formal dance with her best friend's husband? Yes, it would be her and Jake for a few hours. Rose was on assignment in Washington DC, Alyssa and Johnny were both on vacation for the first time in years, Mark was in a business conference in Los Angeles and her mother wasn't sociable enough. And her youngest Grandkids, Liza and Andrew had to have someone chaperone their dance and they were it. That's why she was dressed in this long, halter top, backless, black dress with her hair all done and enough makeup to make bozo the clown jealous.

Checking her watch, Jake said that he'd be there to pick her up around 7:30 and it was 7:24. When she was younger she was always nervous about dating, the reason for that was simple and it had one name, Paul Sindacco. He had trashed talked her about her looks and her personality for years and that's why she supposed that she was insecure until she met her husband. Mark restored her confidence, but the thought of Jake made her nervous again. Yes, she loved Mark and she would never cheat on him, much less with the Husband of the Huntsgirl herself, but he was a heavily attractive man and she had grown to know him as a charming man as well. She hated feeling this way, and that's why she dressed like she was going to a State Dinner at the White House.

Pulling the tie out of her hair, she made one final adjustment and she looked just right. In her opinion, her hair was the cherry on top of the cake that was her. Putting the tie down on her dresser, she heard the doorbell ring and looked up. He was here, deep breaths Erin, deep breaths, smoothing out her dress. She walked from the bedroom and marched into the living room. She reached forward and opened the door and there stood Jake Long, all done up in a tuxedo and looking rather charming. With a winning smile, she closed the door behind her and looked up to Jake, "Well, you certainly have outdone yourself Mr. Long. My parents want me back by 10:00."

"Well I spoke to my wife," Jake smiled and produced a medium sized box from behind his back to a smiling Erin. Opening the box, he took the corsage out and slipped it out onto her wrist. He had been forced to this on most of his dances when he was younger, it was a serious habit, "She told me to keep my hands to myself, to be in bed my 11:00 and, while laughing at me, to have fun."

Erin actually blushed, but she nodded and sheepishly laughed, in her enormous cover personality, she fought down the blush and touched his nose slightly. She had to remember that this wasn't her husband and this was Rose's husband and she would kill her, "Honey, the only what that I'd let you touch me is if they had alcohol and I doubt that they'd have it at a fifth and sixth grade dance …"

Laughing awkwardly, he motioned for the car, "Your chariot awaits madam."

Trying to brush off the awkwardness of his actions, Erin smoothed down her dress and walked down her porch to the car that was sitting in her driveway. Spying her youngest Grandchildren, Andrew and Liza in the back, she waved to them and opened the passenger door. Settling herself inside, she leaned back and looked at them adoringly, "You two look great! Are you excited for your dance?"

Andrew nodded at her with a smile, "Yeah, I've got this girl that wanted to dance with me."

Erin chuckled inwardly, but merely smiled at him before looking over to the overly-enthusiastic Liza Sindacco, "Hey Liza, you look beautiful."

"Thank you," She nodded, "You look really pretty Grandma!"

The driver's door opened with the sound of Jake's chuckling, "Yeah Baby Girl, she certainly does look very pretty."

Erin couldn't stop herself from blushing again, wow? What the hell was happening to her? She blushed rarely and Jake was making her blush left and right. Clearing her throat, she saw Jake grin out of the corner of her eye and start the car. Forget about this being a fun. This was going to be one hell of an awkward night and more than likely, Erin and Jake would never speak of it again. She could already tell that it would be smart to not say anything. Especially to their spouses, his spouse would probably horse whip her and her spouse would …well… probably get his ass kicked. But she wanted to avoid that very possible future, so she would bite her tongue, take it like a man, and pull on through the night without wading in the pool of surefire awkwardness.

This was funny.

She was getting nasty glares from the older women in the room, fuck them, she wanted to look great. With whatever she did, she did it to the best of her ability and she wanted to be the best and most of the time she was. That's why she looked like this. She was on the arm of a handsome guy, she looked fantastic and her two beautiful Grandchildren were perhaps the life of their groups. As the night went on, both Erin and Jake watched them closely and they were amazed to see them interact. Andrew seemed like the king of his group of eight friends that he constantly hung around with and Liza had already danced with several of the boys, "You know, Liza is going to be such a heartbreaker one day, she's a gorgeous little girl and she comes from really attractive stock."

Jake threw his head back in laughter, "I suppose that's an indirect compliment to my looks?"

"Yes," Erin looked back with a slight grin, "You are very handsome Jake, Rose is just lucky that she snagged you first."

He ran his hand through his hair and grinned at her again, "Yeah, well Rose could have had me for pretty much anything, I made a fool out of myself for years around her. That woman is the love of my life, when we had Alyssa and she went away she forced me to grow up and I couldn't be more thankful for that. She's crazy, yes, a total nut, but she's also very kind and a beautiful person."

Trained to know what people were feeling through their speech, she could tell easily that Jake was telling her this to relieve the awkwardness. Nodding, Erin wasn't any fool to Rose back then either, they were best friends and practically sisters, "She stuck up for me when I was younger. I have two different personalities, when I'm in Hunter mode, I'm the craziest bitch there is, Rose pales in comparison, but when I'm me, the sweet loveable, goody-two shoes Erin Hutchinson, I'm all those things. Rose and I are quite similar in that regard. Surely you've noticed that?"

"Are you kidding," Jake laughed and leaned against the stage that they were watching the kids from, "All of you girls from the Huntsclan are smoking hot, but you're the craziest people I've ever met in my life. I remember when I managed to get into the Huntsclan Academy –don't ask- my friend Spud had girls literally fighting over him. I'd never ever seen anything like it before, really weird."

Erin rolled her eyes and groaned at the memories, "Don't remind me, you don't know how many ribs, noses, faces, bones and spirits I had to crush to get my hands on Paul, I almost regret it."

"Damn," Jake shook his head at the memoires he had of the Huntsman, they were all bad. He still hated that man. "I've heard a lot about Paul Sindacco, how he was some player with good looks, but I've also heard that he was one of the meanest people alive. You left the Huntsclan because of him, that's testament enough to the man's personality, I mean I don't want to speak ill of the-…"

She held her hand up, "You can speak ill of that son of a bitch all you want to. Paul Sindacco was all of those things, but I was the one who had to deal with them for years. He had the eye of every girl in the Academy, including your wife for a time. I was humiliated when he openly cheated on me, but by that time I was already Pregnant. I mean sure he was kind and when he was kind you couldn't help but love the man. But he was cruel, and after I had Johnny his cruelty didn't do anything but get worse. He physically abused me, mentally abused me, I just had to get out. I was ate up with guilt for leaving my son with that man, but I had no choice. Paul would have found me, killed me and twisted Johnny into something. I took the risk of Paul raising him and I won that bet."

Jake had narrowed his eyes, "Why would he do those things to you? I mean for as long as I've known you, you've been nothing but a kind and loving person. Why would he cheat on you? Look at you, you're an amazingly, sexy, unbelievably, gorgeous woman. Well he's dead, there's no use on dwelling on the past. You've got a man who you love and a man who loves you, you've got your kids, your friends. You didn't know anything wrong, Johnny is a good kid and I love him as if he were one of my own. I mean I flicked him shit when he was younger, but that was only because he liked my daughter. When I see the people that Rachel is dating, I think why can't they all just date people like Johnny? I'd feel more comfortable with that. But alas, there was only one of them."

"I'm sorry I couldn't push more human beings out of my loins for your children to marry," Erin stuck her tongue out at him, "And thanks, I've heard it all before, but not like that."

"Really, your husband must be blind," Jake grinned before motioning to the dance floor, it was a slow dance, and yes it would be weird. But Jake really wasn't all that normal and you could say that same about Erin as well, so who the hell were they to back out of this? Picking up her hand, he kissed it gently, "May I have this dance, I would love to dance with a beautiful woman like yourself?"

Erin blushed, again, and nodded.

It really had turned out to be an awkward, but amazing night.

It had changed things between Erin and Jake.

Authors Note: I'm playing around with the possible Jake/Erin romance, it might just be this one time deal or it might be brought up again in the main story, I don't know. Now as to the next entry, it will be Jackie's turn. It's her birthday, and she's grumpy! How will that work out with all of our characters, under one roof. Comeback and read it to find out!