A/N: Chapter includes character Valerie from the fourth season episode "Details"

CHAPTER EIGHT!

Redondo Beach Pier

BARBARA was pissed. Johnny could already tell that from several feet away as he hurriedly walked towards her. First of all, she hadn't been too keen on meeting him for dinner—she would have rather been picked up—and secondly, he was fifteen minutes late. With each step he hoped she'd get over it once they were inside the restaurant.

She was waiting out in front of Tony's Sea Food with her arms crossed over her Halston dress that she was probably freezing in. While the October days were still hot, nighttime—especially right on the beach—was a different story. Noticing him, Barbara's expression descended into a momentary frown.

Johnny gave her a chagrined smile. "I'm sorry I'm late..."

Barbara said nothing, taking the time to run her fingers through her dark blonde hair. Then she finally spoke, her voice low and flat. "Did you call in a reservation? The wait is pretty long."

"Reservations?" Shit! How could he forget to call in a reservation? Of all the stupid things...

"You forgot, didn't you?"

Johnny rubbed his forehead. "Yeah. I'm sorry. I meant to do it when I got off my shift, but I was so distracted. Today was very busy."

Barbara looked away from him, her green eyes lividly focusing on the shops across the pier from where they stood. "It's fine. We'll wait."

"Are you sure?" Johnny tentatively rested his hand on her arm. "We could always head over to Zeppy's Pizza if you—"

"I said it's fine."

"You're sure?"

"Johnny, you know how much I hate that stupid pizza place..."

Johnny took his hand back to himself. "Okay. We'll wait. I'll—um—go see if I can get our name on the list..." He left her side to wander over to the hostess standing at a podium by the front entrance. The entire time he wondered how it was even possible for someone to hate Zeppy's Pizza.

"Hi," Johnny said to the hostess. "About how long is the wait?"

She gave him an apologetic look. "Right now it's about thirty minutes."

"That's awright. You can put me down on the list."

"Okay. Your name and how many in your party?"

"Johnny...and two."

The hostess wrote down his information, looking back up to him once she was done. "Thanks. I'll call you when you're up."

Johnny thanked her again and then walked back to Barbara, explaining to her that the wait was only thirty minutes. She didn't respond to him, walking over to sit on a nearby bench. Johnny sat next to her and Barbara closed herself to him, refusing to talk or make eye contact.

Well, this is gonna be real fun, Johnny thought. He began to wonder if she was manic depressive or something. At Jake Mercer's get-together in Palos Verdes she had been the life of the party. And now she was simply being an all-around kill-joy. Johnny just couldn't understand it one bit. She hadn't acted this way the last time they tried dating—why start now?

He contemplated asking her if there was something wrong other than the fact that he'd been late and had forgotten to call in a reservation. But he ended up deciding against that. He knew bugging her would only make her angrier than she already was.

For the rest of the thirty minute wait, they sat there in silence.

When Johnny's name was finally called, the hostess led them inside the restaurant, finding them a place on the upper level. It was a candle-lit table for two near a large window overlooking the ocean. How nice, Johnny thought. Now, if only Barbara would think so too.

They both sat, Barbara finally smiling at him. A half-smile, but a smile nonetheless. "I'm sorry I got so mad at you, Johnny," she said.

"That's awright." He smiled back. "I kinda deserved it."

Barbara picked up a menu and looked it over. "How did things go at the station today?" she asked while she glanced through the pages.

Johnny picked up his menu too. "It was just plain crazy. First thing in the morning we get called to a possible heart attack. But as it turns out it wasn't even a heart attack at all—just a nervous old man hyperventilating. Then we got called to an apartment complex where this poor woman was nearly beaten to death." Johnny swallowed hard. "Domestic violence...that rescue just about ruined my whole day. And then we got called to fire up in PV. No major injuries there, but I'm pretty sure whoever started that one started last week's apartment fire."

Barbara glanced at him over her menu. "An arsonist or something?"

"Well, I dunno for sure. I wudn't there to see the arson investigator's analysis of the first fire...but I just got a funny feelin' about both the scenes. You know—like a gut feelin'?"

"Yeah..."

"Oh!" Johnny exclaimed as he realised he could change the subject. Talking about it was beginning to make him uncomfortable. "I talked to Roy about going out dancin'."

"What did he say?" Barbara smiled, this time a real one.

"Said he was gonna talk to his wife, and if she wants to go then we're on."

"Sounds like fun." She lowered her eyes back to the menu. "I'm thinking about the shrimp scampi. What about you?"

A large smile cracked across Johnny's face. "Fish n' chips."

Soon after their brief spurt of conversation, their waiter came to take their order. While waiting for their food they had a glass of wine and chatted about Barbara's day. She talked about the flight to and from Seattle that she worked and said she'd never seen so many screaming babies on one airplane before. Then she talked about the next flight she worked to Las Vegas. "I hate that stupid airport," she said. "It smells like a big, fat cigarette. And everywhere you look there's a slot machine. Slot machines...in the airport! Can you believe it?" And Johnny could believe it. He'd only ever driven to Vegas—flying there seemed like a waste of time—but considering there were slot machines even at the gas stations, he could imagine they'd be at the airport too.

Then the food came and they were silent for a while as they ate.

"Johnny Gage?" a surprised female voice asked in the middle of their meal.

Johnny, chewing a large bite of fish, turned in his seat to see who it was. Before him stood Valerie—the ex-girlfriend he'd tried the hardest to forget. What the heck is she doing here?

He swallowed his food, nearly choking on it. "V-Valerie?" He cleared his throat. "Um—hi."

Valerie smiled sweetly. She looked so normal on the surface, but underneath—she was completely pathological. Her grubby youngest child clung to her hand, sucking a thumb. The other two terrors were nowhere to be seen. Of course, it wasn't the fact that she had children that disturbed Johnny when they dated a year and a half ago. Johnny had nothing against children (more or less). It was the fact that she had forgotten to mention to him that she had children in the first place. And they weren't even normal children—all three were well on their way to being just as crazy as their mother.

"It's so wonderful to see you," Valerie said. "How have you been?"

Johnny loosened his tie a little bit. It was getting hard to breath, and that smile of hers was driving him nuts. "Oh...I've been great...just fine...and you?"

"I've been wonderful."

Barbara cleared her throat and Johnny looked across the table to her. She had an annoyed look on her face and he realised she was giving him some kind of cue.

"Oh...Oh, yes!" he blurted. "Valerie, this is Barbara Reynolds. Barb, this is Valerie Hunter, an...old friend of mine..."

"Valerie Mitchell, now—actually." She flashed a giant diamond wedding ring.

Johnny gulped. "Congratulations." Poor guy...and he wondered if it was the unfortunate attorney she'd gotten her claws into after dumping him to the curb.

"Nice to meet you," Valerie said to Barbara. "I love your dress. It's very pretty."

"Thank you." Barbara smiled and Valerie smiled back, though Johnny was sure neither of them was being sincere to the other. He figured that was how women worked. They complimented each other, but didn't really mean a single word. It was all just for show, and what they really thought could be seen in their eyes.

"Barbara, huh?" Valerie went on after staring her down. "You're the stewardess, aren't you? Pacific Southwest?"

"Yeah, how did you know that?" Barb asked with a little frown. Johnny wondered this too, until he recalled that he had broken up with Barbara in order to go out with Valerie.

"Johnny told me about you," Valerie went on, her plastic smile never once leaving her face.

Barbara looked at Johnny pointedly. "Oh, really?"

Valerie seemed to shrug a little. "I really better be on my way now." She looked down at her thumb-sucking toddler. "I was just taking this one to the restroom. It was wonderful to see you, Johnny. Take care!" Then she walked off, dragging her child along.

Johnny looked down at his food and suddenly it didn't look tasty anymore.

"What the hell was that all about?" Barbara asked, leaning in to scowl at him.

He glanced up at her, pursing his lips. "Nothing..."

"That was not 'nothing'. How does that chick know who I am? Is she like some ex of yours, or something?"

"I went out with her a while ago, okay. No big deal. It was right after you and I broke up so I guess I mentioned you to her...That's it."

"You mean when you broke up with me. Is that why? Because of her? You dumped me for her?"

"It was almost two years ago. You and I made up; it's all good, what does it matter?" He looked over, noticing that an older couple a few tables over was gawking at them. "Now, can we drop this, please?"

But Barb wasn't dropping it. She just went on, louder than before. "You fed me some crap about needing a break from dating, but the whole time it was just a lie so you could go out with her?"

Johnny placed his head in his hands. He couldn't believe this was happening. "C'mon, Barb—you're being ridiculous."

"Ridiculous?" Barbara stood up from her seat. She chucked her napkin at him. "I'll show you ridiculous!" she yelled. "I don't even know why I started going out with you again. You are a pompous ass!" She snatched up her purse, and then flung around to leave.

"Barbara!"

He thought about going after her, but she was already halfway across the dining hall. It wasn't any use, anyway. He knew he had completely blown it. Johnny sat back miserably in his chair, raising a hand to wave down the waiter.

"Check, please..."

Johnny drove along Palos Verdes Drive to clear his mind before going home.

The languid stretch of road wound up through the hills and right along the ocean. To his left, the sun was gone on the sea and most of what remained was a purplish glow against the darkness of the rest of the sky. There were no stars to speak of because the light pollution blotted them all out, but Johnny liked to imagine they were still out there somewhere.

He remembered when he was a boy and he and his grandfather used to go out on the plains to look at them. Out in the middle of nowhere there were no big cities like Los Angeles to block out the stars' light and millions of them could be seen. The earth was flat and the sky went on forever it seemed. It used to make Johnny feel extremely small. His grandfather would tell him stories about how the Milky Way is a path straight to Heaven, and though he still felt small, it made him feel a little bit better. It was one of the things he actually missed about Oklahoma, but it was long ago and he knew he'd never get that time back.

Johnny sighed. He was driving really slow, but was too deep in thought to even notice cars passing the double-yellow line just to get around him. They flew past, gawking at him or making obscene gestures, but Johnny's attention was on the Point Vicente Lighthouse up ahead. It sat perched on the point, shadowy palms surrounding it. Its beacon shone brightly, and every time it made its cycle, Johnny could see the blurry smudge on the glass that urban legend told was the ghost of a woman.

The lighthouse was Barbara's favourite place Johnny remembered as he finally passed it. So much for trying to take a ride to get her off his mind. I should have gone after her back at Tony's, he thought, and he wanted to kick himself because he didn't. Now he knew it was too late. It was too late to call her, it was too late to beg, and it was too late to make amends. Now he had to tell Roy that he couldn't go dancing on Friday either.

What a terrible start to the week.

Johnny reached San Pedro eventually, finding his way to the 110 so he could get back to Carson. All the lights on the freeway blurred his senses, and he fought against sleep until he finally reached his apartment. Once inside, he chain-locked his door and bolted it.

Once again, he was alone.