Hello friends! I m back after writing Episode 5 - known locally as the most teeth pulling episode of all I have written. Dunno why this one has been such a chore but think I'm just finding it harder to fit into my schedule. Anyhow, this chapter is more of a prequel to episode 5 canon as I need to set up Kasey's major storyline in this one (the first time I've really attempted a parallel storyline aside the others so I hope it works...) and also I wanted to explore some things that Lena and Stef were referr to later in the episode, as well as Jesus/Lexi's relationship before they go all the way. Anyway - it's mainly fluff but see it as a stepping stone before the main episode.
Opinion poll - this will be a looong episode, I have quite a large Kasey storyline and also go into a lot of depth with the pill story and Lena and Stef's decision making (looking at 8 chapters, sorry!). I wrote a portion all about Jude's nail polish too but that is quite standalone. I think instead of making this have too many plots running through, I may write the Jude story as a self-contained story/one-shot. Does anyone have any preferences? If you have any thoughts I'd love to hear them, though obviously I'll make my call based on lots of things.
Right - enjoy your build up to tonight's episode (wow I can't wait!) and I hope you enjoy this set-up chapter and don't find it boring! Thanks to Mea23 as always for her help with this and thanks to TheTBone who gave me the random nominations for the opening game (as well as the game suggestion...)
"OK - your turn. Justin Bieber, Hugh Hefner and Christopher Columbus."
"Sex? Easy. Bieber. I'd do it for the look on his face when the paternity test came up." Kasey mused. For marriage, I guess I'd have to go with Columbus. He'd be travelling all the time which would give me some space while he was away discovering new worlds - and plenty of time for my illicit Bieber affair." Kasey reasoned with a smile as Cooper poured them both a glass of orange. "I guess that means I'd have to off Hefner...but hey, I mean it'd make some gold-diggers pretty rich right?"
"Fair call - I think I'd go with that...well except that with Bieber the paternity thing wouldn't work...but hey I could sell the gay thing for millions!" Cooper flicked his fringe to the side. "And boy would that be a tryst. Hey your brother is a similar physique, I wonder if it would be like that dream I had about him..."
"You promised you would never mention that again!" Kasey thumped his arm.
She squinted as Cooper snorted through his glass. "But your face is so funny whenever I bring it up."
"Shakespeare, Mel Gibson and Bill Clinton. Go." She silenced him, changing the conversation swiftly back.
"Oooh!" Cooper mused it over. "Well it would be rude not to re-unite Gibson with his God, right? And some of his films deserve a capital punishment at best."
"Controversial!" Kasey teased. "I love it. Next. Which Billy would you bang?"
Cooper licked his lips, deep in thought. "It'd have to be Clinton, just for the scandal - and to see if he really speaks like that during it. Plus I wouldn't mind whispering in Hilary's ear on the way out to secure the chances of me and Shakey being able to tie the knot, right?"
Kasey laughed. "You think she has power over gay marriage?"
"Honey, if I'm gonna be marrying a corpse I think we'll need more legalised than just gay marriage."
"Well, decent choice. I know which Moms would choose. They'd do anything to get in Clinton's ear."
Cooper observed Stef appearing distantly from behind as Kasey took a drink from her glass. A wicked plan crossed his mind.
"You should follow the same trend of thought then, take your Moms with you. Do you think that would work? If you met Clinton."
"Of course. I get my Moms to distract Hilary while I have my wicked way with Bill in the back. At least he's experienced I guess." She clocked the childish smirk on Cooper's face and sensed the reason.
"And my Mom's standing right behind me isn't she. You are such a dick." Kasey kicked him under the table as he laughed into his glass before she swore at the pain of it.
"No armour around you any more there, sweets. Maybe keep the violence to the minimum? And the presidential sex fantasies."
"You have no idea what I have to put up with." Cooper complained.
"Hey Mom, did Cooper ever tell you he once had a sex dream about your son?" Kasey blurted out.
Cooper sprayed out his orange juice across the table before throwing Kasey a deathly glare.
"Nice." Stef responded, unimpressed. "Clean that up please." she ordered bluntly, chucking him a cloth. "And by the way you are both too young to be having these kinds of conversations. What would your mother say, young man?"
"She'd make him wash his mouth out with soap."
"She actually would. I still haven't got the taste out from last week and all I said was that Laurie Bresner was a bitch." Cooper agreed with a slight look of fear. Kasey laughed.
"Is that why you had to get off the phone?"
He gave her a look of affirmation.
"Well your Mom has the right idea. You could do with tidying up your language too, my friend." Stef raised her eyebrows, staring sternly at Kasey.
"Mom's just bitter because Lena doesn't let her swear." she teased back as Stef continued to put away the groceries.
"Your Mom prefers some words not to be said, it's just a matter of respect."
"Riiiiight." Kasey smiled. "That's why when you stubbed your toe the other day you sounded like a predictive text dictionary."
"Do you not have homework to do or something?" Stef challenged, trying to remove the irritation.
"Oh duck, I forgot. We'll be in deep shot with Timothy if I don't get that dabnabbin paper written."
"Hey Cooper, what soap does your Mom use?" Stef ruffled through the bags. "I only have the squeezy kind but I also have washing up liquid?" she pulled the two bottles out to examine them as Kasey rolled her eyes.
"OK, OK. We're going. Clucking bell!" Kasey added dodging the retrieved cloth speeding towards her as the two ran off to Kasey's room.
"I wish I had the kind of relationship with my Mom as you have." Cooper sighed.
"It is pretty cool." she replied. "You get on OK with your Mom though - she's just a bit of a dragon. Besides, your Dad is awesome."
"He is!" Cooper smiled. "Hey how's your Dad getting on? You two made up?"
Kasey looked down sadly. "We have - but now I just feel bad for him. I just wish he had more in his life..."
"So that you don't have to be responsible for it..." Cooper replied teasingly, reading through the lines. Kasey winced back at him guiltily.
"Does that make me a horrible person?"
Cooper chuckled in response. "sounds like you need to get him laid."
"Cooper!" Kasey smacked his arm. "That's my Dad your talking about, I don't wanna think about him having...well."
"How we all got here, babe." he winked as she slapped his arm again.
"OK, so maybe not phrased like that but maybe you should encourage him to find someone." Cooper suggested climbing back on Kasey's bed and opening her laptop.
"I've tried, he's not interested. He doesn't want to go out looking." she bounced on next to him.
A devilish grin crawled across Cooper's face.
"Well...maybe you could find one for him."
He spun the laptop round to show a dating website. Kasey glared at him. "He would never agree..."
"Well, maybe you could do the leg work, set it up and then they just happen to meet. 21st century baby, we're the social network generation - our parents rely on us to open up the world to them."
"Do it without telling him? He would kill me!"
"He'll be too busy with his new friend to do so..."
Kasey opened her mouth to protest again but something was stopping her.
"What if he ends up with some psycho bitch?"
"it's a safe site, we can vet - you can even just look for friends on here. Check what people have said about them. Besides, your dad is a cop - he can handle himself."
Kasey looked back and forth between Cooper and the screen.
"We could keep it informal right?" She conceded, folding her arms across her chest.
"Absolutely!" he smiled turning it back towards him and typing in some details. "OK, we need a photo..."
"I took one on my phone the other day at the party." Kasey sprung up and grabbed it from the desk scrolling through as Cooper mumbled to himself.
"OK, Mike Foster...email - I'll put yours. Which do you want?" he looked across at her as she squinted at her screen. "Kase!" he prompted. "email."
She turned to him, slightly confused. "Oh - use Gmail. I took way too many photos..." she complained deeply absorbing herself in her phone screen again.
"OK...select friendship or dating...dating. OK - next page. Personal details. Maybe you're gonna need to do these..."
"Got it!" she shouted, clearly having not been paying attention. "I'll beam it over now." she tapped her screen a few times and hopped back over next to Cooper.
"I'll fill these in." she smiled, taking control of the keyboard and typing in the remaining fields. "Age...ok. Occupation..."
"You can't just write "Police" what rank is he? You need to make him sound important." he reprimanded her.
"How do I know what rank he is? I zone out when it comes up. He has more stripes than Mom..."
"Well...let's go ask her!" Cooper beamed with a glint in his eye as he jumped off the bed.
Kasey leapt up after. "Don't you dare let this slip..." she ordered running up after him.
"What if someone catches us?" Lexi whispered as soon as Jesus freed her lips from his kiss.
"They won't. Besides, my Mom's upstairs - it's OK."
"But we have the door closed...won't they get mad?"
He was moving his way up her neck.
"She's on the phone to people about tomorrow, we have at least a half hour. Mom's downstairs, Jude's shopping with Callie. We're good."
"Half an hour isn't very long. Maybe we should go back to playing video games or watch an episode of something...I just don't wanna get into something that..."
He stopped at the extra comment as he could feel her tense up.
He sat up away from her, stuttering slightly. He hadn't thought about what they would end up getting into or any complications it may have.
"We don't have to...I mean I wasn't even meaning to rush into... don't feel pressured to..." he cleared his throat as Lexi pushed herself up onto her elbows suddenly feeling awkward and embarrassed.
A knock at the door interrupted them before it swiftly opened and both looked towards it.
"Door op- " Lena paused mid word seeing their position. They weren't quite on top of each other but the guilty look on both of them was enough to lead her to draw conclusions - even if they were worse than what was happening.
"Door open." she repeated after collecting her voice. "You know, maybe it's time you went home, Lexi." she added.
"That may be a good idea." she replied, rolling off the bed onto her feet. She was pink with humiliation as Jesus jumped up after.
"I'll see you tomorrow." she smiled anxiously at Lena as she passed. Lena stared at Jesus who followed Lexi out. She gave a sigh. It was time for another talk.
Jesus scurried down the stairs after Lexi and stopped her before she got to the door.
"Hey look, I'm sorry - I really, I wasn't trying to..."
"It's ok." she stopped him. "It's just...I don't want it to be like that..."
"I wasn't going to push you, really, I don't want you to think that's what I wanted. I mean not that I don't want it I just..." his ears prickled hot as he began to regret his wording. Lexi silenced him with a kiss and he relaxed.
"I know. I'm sorry, you didn't do anything wrong - I'm just a little nervous I guess. Look I'll see you tomorrow." she slid her hands down his chest and he took a deep breath. He gently took her arm.
"Listen, I won't be trying anything like that until you're ready. It's just kissing, and until you make it clear you want otherwise it'll stay just kissing. You've got nothing to feel awkward about. You're not giving me any misleading signs or anything." he kissed her hand softly as her heart melted.
She pushed forward and kissed him again stroking his cheek.
"You're the best." she whispered. "I'll see you tomorrow." he opened the door for her as she went out, stealing one last kiss. He leaned back against the closed door and rubbed his hair, enjoying the feeling of how lucky he was. As Lena emerged from the kitchen with crossed arms, he wasn't sure how lucky he'd remain.
"I think we need to have a little talk." she said flicking her head towards where age had come from.
"Mom, we weren't gonna do anything, honestly - the door just..."
"Doesn't mean we don't need to talk. Come on."
Jesus' shoulders dropped down and he passed into the kitchen where Stef sat waiting.
"Wow, word travels fast..." he observed, judging her look.
"Jesus, you know the rules." she responded, disappointed.
"And Mama was upstairs - we didn't break them."
"I think I see the problem here." Stef responded. She put her hands on the table in a gate formation.
"Here Jesus, watch closely. Closed..." she touched her finger tips together sad he rolled his eyes. "Open..." she explained separating them again as she swung her right hand open like a door. "Want me to go through it again?"
"I got it." he replied, unimpressed.
"Thank you, sweetheart." Lena glared at Stef. "Now if we can get back to topic - Jesus if you and Lexi are thinking about going further..."
"Mom..."
"Jesus, we have to have this talk. We need to know you understand the seriousness of having sex."
"We've already had the sex talk, Moms. I don't need to know how to have sex..."
"We'd rather talk about how you can not have sex, to be honest." Stef added in. Jesus rubbed his forehead, mortified. They'd had so many of these conversations and it never got any easier.
"But we want you to understand what you need to do to be safe if it does come down to it."
"Please don't tell me any more rhymes..." he replied through a whisper.
"I can explain with my hands instead if you like..." Stef threatened, moving her hands up again to motion but Lena threw her another look and grasping them, placed them back down on the table firmly.
"OK - I may be joking around but this is serious." Stef continued. "As we have said many times before, you are too young to be having sex. I repeat - we do not want you having sex. Understood?"
"Yes." he groaned, cringing.
"But if you do we want you to be safe and not afraid to come to us about it. We understand that it may happen and we don't want you to do something rash because you're scared of what we may do. We'll always support you."
"And if you do have sex we want you to be safe. There are condoms in your bathroom - they're not anything fancy but..."
"Mom!" Jesus cut her off again. "Wear condoms, I get it."
"And do you get that condoms are not a hundred percent effective? Sometimes they can split." Lena added.
"I wish I could split my head open right now..." he whispered as Lena let it slide to continue.
"Honey, I know this is awkward but it's important that you have all of this on your mind...so it's harder for other...impulses...to take over."
"Oooh! Sex talk. Someone got caught with their pants down." Kasey chimed as her and Cooper came up from the basement.
"I'm so out of here..." he responded turning briskly to the door as Stef grabbed his sleeve and pulled him back.
"Do you two mind, we're trying to have a serious conversation here." Lena turned furiously to Kasey.
"We don't mind at all - carry on." Kasey smiled taking a seat as Stef glared at her.
"I think we're finished anyway." Jesus grumbled, realising he should actually be glad of the interruption.
"Fine." Stef conceded. "But to summarise - don't get out of your depth when we can help you, OK? No matter how uncomfortable it may be. The alternative is much harder." Stef assured him seriously.
"But if things are hard -" Stef clasped a hand firmly over Kasey's mouth to prevent any further commentary. Cooper hid a smirk, finishing Kasey's comment off in his mind. Jesus looked between them all, embarrassed.
"I know I can Moms, but don't worry. We're not even ready for that yet and when the times comes we are we'll be smart about it." he nodded gently.
Lena rubbed his arm. "OK, good - and no girls in your room with the doors closed."
"I know - I'm sorry. Can I go now?" Jesus sighed.
"Yes, you can go." Lena nodded.
"So what do you two want anyway?" Stef asked, finally taking her hand away from Kasey's mouth.
"Other than condoms?" Kasey asked as Stef squinted at her.
"We were just wondering what rank Mike was. Like, what police rank." Cooper filled in, trying to be coy.
Stef looked between them both.
"Why on earth do you want to know that?"
Kasey and Cooper looked at each other. "A bet...we were just talking about it."
"He's a sergeant."
"and what are you?" Cooper asked, now just interested.
"I'm a corporal."
"So does that make Mike your boss?" Cooper added, his genuine curiosity making him still quite oblivious to the implications.
"No, he is not my boss. We're partners." Stef replied forcefully as Kasey smirked.
"I guess it just means Dad could pull rank." Kasey added as Stef cleared her throat uncomfortably.
"Is there any way I can legally gag her permanently?" Stef inquired turning to Lena who shrugged.
"You do realise that any more questions and we'll push to find out why you're asking this..." Lena warned to give Stef some support.
"Don't worry, any more questions we will direct to your superior officer." Kasey replied seriously as Stef gave a sarcastic laugh.
"OK - Cooper, it's time for you to go home. Play date's over - Kasey has chores to do." Stef responded getting up off the chair and squeezing Kasey's shoulders.
She turned to gawp at her. "I've done all my chores..."
"I thought of some more." Stef replied mercilessly. "We have a big party tomorrow, lots to do."
"She's pulling rank." Lena clarified as Stef nodded in agreement.
Cooper gave Kasey a one armed hug.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Mamas." he shouted back as he sauntered out of the door.
"Fine...you win. As always. Just let me finish something off first." Kasey grumbled as she pushed herself off her chair. She returned down to her room.
She sprawled in front of the laptop again and reviewed the fields "OK. Police Sergeant." she typed.
"Interested in meeting..." she continued to narrate as she filled in the fields.
The next chapter will kick off the commentary for Episode 5. I'm going to do this one a little differently as I will actually be changing a scene from the show (I imagine you'll be able to guess which). It fitted more naturally in this context! Anyway, I hope you enjoy the changes :)
Next Chapter Preview: Lexi and Jesus get closer and he has to enlist Kasey's help
"You better not drop me in it if you get busted..."
"I won't, I swear. This is on me. I'll ditch too, I'll meet you out the back."
He squeezed her arm one more time before leaving. Kasey watched him go with a churning wrench in her stomach. She had a terrible feeling about this.
Before I forget - shout out to an awesome story by my pal thesameguest titles "someThing missing". If you like this between the scenes stuff, you'll love that story! It's AWESOME so check it out!