Chapter 8
A Certain Chemistry, Further Explored

Adrien

On second thought, I liked it better when Johnny wasn't around. It was easier to distance myself from his indiscretions when we were distanced literally and physically. It was obviously much harder to ignore his nefarious activities when I was receiving bills for ridiculous amounts of alcohol. When Johnny was home, his problems became my problems. Which didn't seem quite fair – it wasn't as though he ever allowed my problems to become his.

Two days later, I still hadn't really talked to Kate. But not, this time, for lack of trying. I think Kate saw that I was making an effort, but we both knew I was a little late. When Kate had really needed me, I had been too self-involved to notice. And, yes, Johnny's arrival had jolted me out of that stupor. But now Kate was okay.

Still, I had no intention of abandoning her again. I knew that Johnny would be gone sooner or later, and probably sooner. But that didn't mean I was going to wait around for him to leave to patch things up with Kate. Especially not just because of some childish rivalry between my brother and me.

On Tuesday afternoon, I walked up to Kate's room hoping to find her alone. But she was, of course, with Johnny – when I knocked on the door I could hear him inside saying, with a certain degree of humor, "It's Adrien. Don't let him in."

Kate replied, "Cut him some slack." And then to the door: "Come on in, Adrien."

I pushed the door open. Inside, Kate was on the floor painting her toenails a strange pinkish-orange color. Johnny had pulled a chair up to the dresser and was playing with music videos on his laptop. "I told her not to let you in," he said, without looking away from what he was doing. "But she did."

"Thank you, Johnny," Kate said to her toenails. "But I believe we'd noticed." She looked up to grin at him, then went back to her work. I took note of the lack of acknowledgement I was receiving from both parties. After a moment's consideration, I crossed the room and sat down on the floor beside Kate.

There was a long minute or two of awkward silence, except for Johnny's music. But I was hardly going to let that chase me out of the room this time. Then Johnny turned off the music on his laptop and closed it up. "So seeing as I'm stifling the conversation…" he began as he rose to his feet.

"What are you up to?" I asked abruptly.

As an answer, Johnny laughed hardily, threw Kate a "Later, Beautiful," and left the room. I was tempting to turn the question on Kate, but I didn't want to make her take sides. And besides, there were other things that needed to be taken care of first. I watched her sweep the nail polish over the second toe on her right foot. Then I started in.

"Kate, I need to—"

Apologize was how that sentence was supposed to end. But Kate, knowing as well as I did what was coming next, cut in.

"I'd rather you didn't."

"What?" I asked. I knew what she meant, but the question came out of my surprise. Kate assumed I was asking for clarification.

"Apologize," she explained. She was concentrating on her next toe. "I'd rather you didn't."

"Ah. Okay," I stumbled. I folded my hands clumsily in my lap. Kate finished up and screwed the lid back on the nail polish. When she finally looked at me there was smile hiding behind her eyes.

"You really want to, don't you?"

"Yes, I do," I admitted a bit sheepishly.

"Don't think I don't know you, Adrien Mansfield," she said. "And anyway, it's alright. I know you didn't mean to abandon me." Her use of the word abandon stung a little. But there was humor in her voice, as if she couldn't help but laugh at the both of us. I did have to hand that to Johnny: he did wonders for Kate's level of confidence.

I slid down onto my back and lay there on the floor. "Kate, what is wrong with me" I groaned. I felt there had to be something.

"Nothing," she replied cheerfully. "Can I paint your toe nails?"

I laughed finally, and propped my head up with my hands. "Absolutely not. And what kind of answer is that anyway?"

"If you want a better one, you'd better ask Johnny." I wondered briefly whether this was a joke or a quick jab, but I quickly assigned to her the more benign motive.

"Hmmm," I grunted, closing my eyes.

"He's planning a party or something like that."

My eyes opened and I sat back up so that I could look at her. I wondered what this kind of confession meant. Kate shrugged. "It's not a betrayal or anything. You were going to find out sooner or later. That's probably half the point of it."

"I'm sure it is," I replied grimly. I couldn't sit still anymore, so I struggled to my feet and paced to the window. I could feel Kate following me with her eyes. For a minute, we were quiet again – she watched me and I watched nothing in particular. When I turned around to face her again, I said, "See this is what I really don't have time for."

"Dealing with me?" she asked. She was joking again but almost not. Kate was being hard on me today. I might have deserved it, I don't know. At any rate, it was another effect of Johnny's influence.

"Dealing with Johnny," I corrected briskly, though we both had known what I meant the first time around.

"Well, he doesn't expect you to stop him," Kate said. She leaned back against her bed and looked up at me. I felt strange again standing when she was sitting, so I took the seat Johnny had vacated.

"What force in the universe could stop Johnny?" I asked rhetorically.

Kate answered anyway, "God. Maybe."

She laughed but I asked seriously, "So you don't think I should do anything then?"

"You're asking me?" She seemed surprised. I didn't see why she should be. I had always consulted her about anything important, a lot of things that weren't important, and above all anything remotely pertaining to Johnny. A couple of weeks of neglect could hardly nullify a life-long relationship.

But it could, however, severely damage one.

I said, "Of course I'm asking you." And then, "I'm learning some things the hard way."

Kate ignored the second statement, and so I wondered if she'd understood me. But I didn't get a chance to ask because she said, "I think you should do what you need to do. You know better than me what that is." That brought us back to the subject at hand.

"Call our father and tell him to cancel Johnny's credit card?" I suggested.

Kate gave me a stern, be-a-man-Adrien, scowl. And I knew that in her opinion doing what I needed to do didn't involve an easy way out. She was right of course. She always was.

"I was just kidding," I sighed. And mostly, I was.

- - - - - - - -

Later I had a conversation with Johnny. If that's what you call it. I don't think we ever did make it onto the same page. But back in those days that was just the way things went between us.

He was at the kitchen table, eating my last sesame bagel and scanning front page of the paper. I sat down across from him and waited for him to stop ignoring me. When he finally did he looked up and said, "You know you really can't tell me what to do. Drives you crazy doesn't it?" He said it, of course, like he found it funny. He knew Kate had told me what she'd told me.

In fact, he'd probably given her permission to do so.

I said, "You aren't going to trash the house." It wasn't phrased as a question, but Johnny took it as one.

He looked back at his paper. "We'll see. Daddy's not home," he said, and I was amazed at the amount of distain he was able to pack into those two short sentences. I felt that one of us was missing the point.

I informed him that it hadn't been a question. He grunted. I asked, "Why did you come home anyway?"

"For Kate," he said as if there was no other possible explanation, which was probably true. He added, "But she asked me to this time," and looked up to gage my reaction. To my eternal credit, I remained reaction-less, although I was struggling with the layers of meaning behind the statement. Especially behind the "this time." I didn't reply and Johnny decided to continue on a different track.

"Besides," he said, rising to his feet with the paper still in his hands. "I've done you enough favors already." He dropped the paper to the table and looked directly at me. He shrugged. "For instance, I let you keep your girlfriend." With that, he started out of the room.

I knew he was talking about Rachel now, and I suddenly felt very defensive. "What is that supposed to mean, Johnny?" I asked, the question coming out like a sigh.

He paused to glance back at me. "Oh, you'll work it out eventually," he answered nonchalantly. Since there was clearly nothing either of us could say that would bring us any closer to a delicate peace, I let him leave the room.

- - - - - - -

Rachel came last in my day. It was something that hadn't happened in a while, and probably something she wasn't particularly happy about. In my opinion, it had been inevitable. There were sometimes more important things. But she eventually accosted me and told me to come talk to her because she hadn't seen me all day.

I told her it would be better for us to sit outside, and didn't explain why. The house felt smaller with Johnny in it, like there wasn't enough room for both of us. I had the porch in mind. But Rachel, being Rachel, dragged me out to the middle of the lawn where we sat down on the grass. "I could tell you were feeling a bit claustrophobic," she told me. She said it as if it was something that only she could possibly perceive. As if she understood me when nobody else could. And back then I was inclined to believe this about her.

She asked me about Johnny and I told her about his plans, hoping for at last a little sympathy. But when I finished she was far from sympathetic.

"You're making me depressed," she said, tipping her head to one side and combing her fingers through her hair. She didn't look depressed. She looked positively brilliant. "I mean, no offense, hun, but this place could use a little par-tay." Her smile was slight and almost wicked.

"You won't be saying that when you're helping me put house back together for the next two weeks," I said, half-joking, but really just trying to bring her back to my side.

"Who says I'll be helping?" she deadpanned.

I never understood Rachel Harrington. One moment, she would be purring with concern over my self-inflicted claustrophobia. The next she was refusing to make even the smallest sacrifices on my behalf. In retrospect, I realize she was doing all of this on purpose. It was a good move on her part. It kept me intrigued. It was part of why I liked her. I was always convinced that there was something deeper behind her frequent eruptions of selfishness.

On this occasion, Rachel had more to say. But it was at that moment that Johnny and Kate tumbled out of our front door, in a flurry of activity and animated conversation.

Rachel tersely observed, "So they don't only perform for an audience."

I wanted to defend Kate, but I didn't want to defend Johnny. Before I'd fully figured out what to do about those opposing desires, Rachel was flagging Kate down.

"Katie! Come over here for a second." I don't know where Rachel had gotten the idea to call Kate "Katie." Nobody had ever called her that, not a day in her life, but Kate endured it.

Kate held up a give-me-a-second hand and said something to Johnny. Then he continued to his car with the keys, and Kate ambled across the lawn to us. When she made it over, Rachel instructed her, "Tell Adrien there's nothing wrong with a party."

I had to cut Rachel some slack. She didn't understand that the problem was deeper than the party, because the problem was Johnny's irresponsibility. She thought it was all good fun.

Kate raised her eyebrows and looked from one of us to the other. She finally ended by looking at me and saying, "There's nothing wrong with a party." Rachel was satisfied, but I thought I caught something subversive in her tone. Then Kate continued to me, "You talked to Johnny."

"Tried to," I said. I didn't feel like that conversation had been an overwhelming success, but Kate's expression said that she approved. "I'm just not going to have anything to do with it," I added to Kate, about the party.

"Me neither," she agreed. That seemed strange to me—Kate had something to do with everything Johnny did—but I didn't address it at the time. Rachel, beside me, was scolding Kate.

"I called you over here to convince him to have something to do with the party, Katie," she was joking, or at lest acting like she was joking. "You're both impossible," she concluded with mock seriousness, and then her face relaxed and she laughed.

"Okay," Kate said abruptly. "Johnny's waiting for me. You guys have fun."

"You guys too," I said, wishing the fun mostly for Kate's sake. She offered us half a wave and then started off across the lawn, walking at first and then jogging a little after Johnny called out of his car window, "Get your slow ass over here!" When she got in the car, she pounded him on the shoulder for referring to inappropriate parts of her anatomy.

Rachel remarked, "Although I have to say, I think they work a little harder when they do have an audience."

I didn't argue because it might have been true. Instead, I said, "How about we don't talk about Johnny."

"Okay," Rachel agreed, and so we didn't. We talked about Rachel, which was of infinitely more interest to both of us.

- - - - - - - - -

A/N: Come on everybody, Adrien wants you to love him! Just look at him – how can you not love that face? Thanks for all the reviews everyone. Lots of review! Made me get this done muy rapido. Love all around. Keep the reviews coming and tell me how I'm doing. LOST STARTS ON WEDNESDAY, for anyone who cares :o)

Notredamegirlie: Lost, yay. Thank you for wishing me luck, everyone can always use a little luck :o) I don't know why I always have to throw the jealously subplot in… I think these Jane Austen books just lend themselves to it, lol

shokolade: To be honest, Kate is much more of a challenge to write than I thought she would be, so I'm glad to hear that you think I'm doing well :o) In fact everyone in Mansfield Park is a challenge to write, what with their layers of complexity. The Emma cast just so wasn't like that. Sigh.. I can't wait until I get into writing some Kate/Scott stuff though. Fun times.

cookie: Glad you like it. Yeah, the lack of MP fics is really what inspired me to pick this book.

kristie: Oh no… I was worried about people liking Johnny more than Adrien (grins sheepishly) Poor Adrien. I worked really hard on him this chapter, so hopefully he's raise a little in everyone's estimation. Glad you like the fic.

lee tea: well, since you living for the story, I'd better update, huh? Yeah, I thought I'd better take a step back with the Johnny/Kate thing and get some Adrien in here.

frye-anjel: Lol, Kate is normal compared to everyone else, isn't she? I never even thought of it that way. that's awesome.

Huntress of the Stars: Aw, poor Adrien. Everyone's likes his big brother better. No wonder he has a complex.

BreezyGirl: Ah, Johnny is so much fun. He thinks he's so superior :o)

BeyondtheSea: Dude, everyone's falling in love with Johnny! I couldn't resist making him a more important character. Mansfield Park just really needed someone lively around.

Nnichollaa: Sorry if I made you late for work again ;o) yeah, I wanted to make Johnny and Kate have their little friendship thing to sort of makes Adrien make an effort.

Rapsody's song: Hey a new reviewer! How exciting! Glad you like it, it makes my day when ppl like the story.

slam a revolving door: Wow, you think it's realistic. That makes me happy. Sometimes I worry that realism isn't my strong suit. Thank you so much for reviewing!

ubi gais: Alas, they cannot. Jane Austen would have a fit.

Jill: Guilt trip? ME?Never. Now on with the shameless flattery. Oh beloved of all beloved reviewers. I write solely for thee. I have also now humbly learned my lesson NEVER EVER to write a shout out to someone else that is longer than yours and I repent, begging forgiveness of your most benevolent self. In my defense, however, it was Jack and Kate and their stupid birthday song that made Phoenix-Talon's Fight Fair shout out so long. I had nothing to do with it whatsoever. Nope. Nothing. Anyways. For the record, before I actually started writing this fic, when I was mentally considering writing a P&P fic instead (despite the fact that there are seven gazillion versions of P&P on this sight – it's just so tempting) and I had this wonderful brilliant plan to stick Jeremy (from the Emma fic) in there randomly (well not completely randomly, as the Elizabeth Bennett character's boss – this is obvious future-grown-up-with-a-job Jeremy). And, due to my usual screwing around with the subplots thing, he was going to get to hook up with the Charlotte Lucas character (this being of course after she divorced Mr. Collin's sorry ass). Thus Jeremy attains his romantic bliss. However, I've been thinking about this really hard and just don't think there's time or women enough in this fic for Johnny to find his soul mate. Maybe I'll epilogue him some true love and happiness. As far as Jess goes, I plan to develop her more somewhat soonish. I'm trying really hard not to let anyone of the Mansfield gang get off with being a completely flat character. Thus some emotional depth will be required of Jess. Not a whole lot, but a little. She will, at least, be genuinely wounded when Scott starts off on his little Kate fling. I also have less ambitious plans for Manda, but indeed plans, and they are for much, much later on. The only character I haven't completely fixed yet is Rachel. For instance, does she ever sincerely like slash possibly love Adrien, or is she simply evil incarnate? Any thoughts on this subject will be much appreciated. PS. now go write more On Thin Ice (which, to any random person who is reading this, is one rockin' S&S modernization – go read and review, now!) I don't know what I'm more anxious for – more Mason or more Caleb.