"The Mistaken M. Jones"
2. For the Long Haul
March 2012 – Lima, Ohio
Gemma had one more day at McKinley before she'd be back in her standstill position, waiting for another posting, waiting for another… everything. Not that she minded the free time, of course. She'd made a pretty good dent in her piles of books, which was becoming more substantial now that she'd begged the Doctor to stop sending her more until she was ready to need more. She had the feeling somewhere on the TARDIS, the Doctor was still slowly accumulating new books to send her, so that when she did ask for more, if it came to that, she would receive twenty full boxes… or more.
She had one of those books of hers tucked under her arm from the bus ride home, when she'd gone to check her mailbox. She wasn't exactly getting much mail, especially as the bills were being handled before they ever reached her, but then who knew?
It was a good thing she'd looked, too, because right there, when the small door was opened, a pair of envelopes with the Doctor's neat handwriting were waiting for her. Gemma knew the difference by now, when she got mail slipped under her door, versus when she got it in the mailbox, and maybe for that, when her phone rang, she wasn't quite as surprised to see the number for McKinley High.
They were calling to ask if she'd be available to carry on the position she presently held, not for just the one extra day but for the remainder of the school year.
That part she had not expected, and the book and envelopes slipped out of her hands. That startled her enough to confirm that, yes, she would gladly take the post. The call ended, and Gemma slowly shut her mail box door, left with her phone and keys in hand.
The rest of the year… She may not have had all the details right there for her, but even then she knew what they were headed toward, and somehow she hadn't even been considering how they were getting closer to it. True, there were still several weeks to go before it did all come to a head, but this turn made it that much clearer that she was closer to the end than the beginning. She'd been here for so long already that she almost didn't remember what 'before' was like anymore enough that she would know how to deal with 'after.'
"Are those yours?" a man's voice asked, and she blinked, following the sound to see who was standing just inside the door to the building. Walter Reskin, who lived one floor above her.
"What?" she blinked, lost for a moment, until he pointed to the ground and she saw them: the book, the envelopes. "Oh…" she was quick to crouch and gather them up again. She slipped the envelopes into the book, absently making sure that it had not been damaged and that she had not lost her page. She wouldn't have dared to dog-ear the pages, fearing what the Doctor would say, even if it was something she did, which it wasn't, and she knew her bookmark had a way of slipping out…
She'd still been caught up in thinking about all this, for reasons she couldn't explain, and for that, she didn't see her neighbor put on his 'brace yourself' face and take a step forward.
"Listen… Ginny… I have this friend, he opened a restaurant not too long ago, it's supposed to be great but I haven't been yet. I was thinking, maybe you might like to go, with me."
All thoughts of books and bookmarks went away, and her head slowly rose again.
All this time, she'd been doing her best to keep this moment from happening. It was easier to turn him away if he didn't actually manage to put an offer in front of her like this. This whole situation, being aware that he was into her, was not something new to her, and she wished that the circumstances had changed since the last time, and the time before that, but they hadn't. She was still a temporary resident of Lima and of the year 2012. In a few months' time, she would be gone, back to the TARDIS, back to the Doctor, and Walter Reskin would be a distant memory.
Looking at him now though, her thoughts were in turmoil and her heart was the one stirring it all up. She couldn't pretend that she didn't feel anything when she looked at him. If she could, then she wouldn't even need to dodge him. She'd just tell him, point blank, that she had no interest in getting to know him any further than she already did. Can't tell him that, can you? It wasn't fair to keep pulling him along this way, when she knew she couldn't do anything to change it all, but against all odds he had been a sort of friend to her all this time, and she did want to know more about him, spend more time with…
Oh, hell…
"That sounds… Sure," she breathed out, and she was as surprised that she'd said it as he was that he'd heard it.
"Really?" he blurted out, then caught himself and tried to look less shocked. "I mean… good," he smiled, and for never having seen him so outwardly happy, Gemma felt her knees weaken. He really did something to her, didn't he?
"Yeah," she volunteered a smile back.
They had fixed a day and time, and then they'd both gone on their way, he to his apartment, her to hers. It was only once she was safely back behind her door that she let out a breath and smacked her hand against her forehead. What had she done? If her heart would just stop doing somersaults, she could properly chastise herself about it…
For the time being, she tried to focus back on her actual task. She extracted the envelopes from within her book and opened them each in turn, inspecting what was within. Once she'd read both envelopes' contents, she started to believe maybe she understood why she needed to be at McKinley full time from now on.
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)