"So he told Yancy he married his nurse!" Cory exclaimed, doubling over in laughter. He grinned at his wife with his hands held out, encouraging her to join in the merriment.
Topanga instead gave him a withering look. "Cory," she peppered the soup she was stirring with several spices. "It was only kind of funny then and it's so not funny now."
"Oh yes, it is!" Cory could genuinely could not understand why she wasn't amused. "C'mon, Topanga. Don't you remember what happened? Jon had the accident and we all thought we might lose him, and then after a week... "
"Yes, I remember. I was there!" Exasperated, Topanga put her hand up to him to emphasize that she wanted him to stop. "It's been almost 20 years. Let. It. Die."
Cory gave up, disappointed, until he saw his former teacher walk into the Matthews' apartment.
"Hey Jon!" Cory grabbed hold of Turner's arm while Topanga gave the man a tight smile, pointed to her husband, and rolled her eyes. "When Shawn gets here you gotta tell him what you told Yancy about your wife!"
"What?" Jon glanced at Topanga. "That I married my nurse?"
"That's the one!" he cried, doubling over again, which made Jon chuckle and shake his head. The superintendent's smile faded when he saw the look Topanga was giving them.
"Don't you dare!" Topanga exclaimed, shaking a wooden soup-stained spoon at them. "Don't you dare tell Shawn that. Either of you!" She swatted at her husband with the spoon. "Cory! What is wrong with you?!"
"It's an inside joke, Topanga," Cory clarified as though that reasonably explained the jesting he intended to inflict upon his best friend.
"I know," she said, returning her attention to the boiling soup. "That's the problem. It's inside to us." She motioned to the three of them. "Shawn isn't going to think it's funny. He's going to believe you!"
"But that's the point. I want Shawn to be on the inside of the inside jokes. Like he always should have been." Cory looked to Jon for a little help. The older man waved his hand, indicating he would pass on getting involved in this particular dispute.
"What joke? It's not funny. A joke is supposed to be funny. You need to get new material." Topanga figured she had a far better chance of appealing to Jon's sense of reasoning than her husband's as his tended to abandon him at times. "I'm worried about Shawn, Jon. He took Angela's being married really hard. Even though he asked Katy out and everything went fine, something is still not right. He's not okay."
"That's what Cory tells me," the superintendent replied, his countenance darkening with sadness tinged with regret.
"That's exactly why I want him to be in on this, Topanga." Cory tried to explain to his wife once again what apparently only made sense to him. "This meeting is going to be a little awkward anyway. Consider this an icebreaker. Once he understands the joke, he'll think it's funny. I know Shawn. We're going to get a big laugh out of it. And he needs to laugh."
Topanga continued to shake her head in disagreement.
Cory looked to Turner for help, but the older man only shrugged, lost in his own thoughts. He was apprehensive about the meeting that was a little less than an hour away. Especially since Shawn wasn't exactly agreeable to meeting with him; he was only doing it because Cory hadn't given him much of a choice. And Jon really didn't want to force him into a reunion, no matter how much he wanted to see his former student again. He didn't have much hope that things would go well.
Topanga's was unusually quiet for a mid-afternoon weekday. The bakery closed early to host a private reunion. Inside, Jonathan Turner sat on one of the couches, looking pale and uncomfortable. Unconsciously, he wrung his hands. His obviousness anxiety was extremely out of character. Cory was arranging and rearranging a number of coffee cups on the counter in front of him. He found his excitement hard to contain and so had busied himself with preparing an excessive amount of coffee and dishes, twelve in total, for three people. The silence caused Cory to look up. "You okay, Jon? You seem really nervous."
Jon unclasped his hands and tapped the tips of his fingers together several times before clasping them again. "Yeah, guess l am. It's been a long time since I've really seen Shawn."
"I know." Cory picked up a cup and inspected it. "But it's going to be great."
Jon raised his eyebrows and turned toward his former student. "He's been dodging me for years, Cory. You really think this time will be any different?"
"Of course, it will. For one thing, I'm locking the door as soon he gets here." Cory grinned expecting to see the older man smile at the joke, but Jon didn't even react. This made Cory put down his cup to study his colleague and friend. The worry etched in Jon's face surprised him. It was rare to see him anything but cool and collected.
In the time since Cory had grown up and gotten married, he and the teacher had become close friends. Yet in some ways, Jon would always be the leather jacket wearing, motorcycle helmet carrying, Mr. Feeny antithesis of Cory's first day of high school whom he was always just a little bit in awe of. But this was one of those times that reminded him that Jon was human. He knew that this meeting was incredibly important. The teacher had invested as much as possible into Shawn from the distance he was held at, acting as though he was fine with following his former charges' career from a distance, but Cory knew it also hurt him deeply that Shawn didn't want to get to know him any better and didn't want him involved in his life.
Although Jon said he understood Shawn's reluctance to reconnect Cory never quite believed him because he couldn't understand it and he saw and spoke to Shawn regularly. No, he couldn't understand his friend's refusal to get to know one of their biggest influences again. Maybe when they were kids, but not anymore. It had been 17 years. It was time for Shawn to get passed this. Topanga's voice of disapproval rang in his ears. She had once again expressed concern about pushing Shawn too much in this area after the disappointment of meeting Angela again. But Cory argued that it was completely different. Angela was married and Jon was... well, Jon was too, but it was hardly the same thing. For some reason, Topanga was connecting the Angela situation to Jon and Cory could not understand why. He was tired of his best friend's stubbornness and fear causing him to miss out on so much. And one way or another, it was going to end today.
He hoped.
"It's going to be fine, Jon," he said confidently. A nagging little something tugged at his gut, but he ignored it. "Honest."
"Yeah, I hope so." Cory's confidence did not transfer to the superintendent.
The quietness of Topanga's made the opening of the entrance sound like a crack of thunder. Jon jumped, nerves getting the best of him. Cory grinned as his best friend stepped apprehensively through the door. Shawn looked as on edge as Jon. He stood close to the door and glanced at Cory's happy face before focusing on his former guardian. Jon stood up and nervously wiped his hands on his jeans. The two men stared at each other without saying a word.
Cory walked around the counter, waiting for one of them to say something. He could do it himself, if necessary. He had come prepared to carry the entire conversation. It was Jon who spared them the prepared monologue for the moment.
"Shawn."
Shawn inhaled and nervously ran his hand through his hair.
"Jon."
And that was it. Cory hung his head in silent exasperation. Shawn. Jon. How could these two not have anything more to say to each other? This would not do.
"Shawnie!" Cory jumped on his friend and grabbed his arm, trying to distract him from whatever he was thinking. "Come on in!" He latched onto Jon's arm and yanked him over to them. "It's so great to see you two together again. It's been way too long!"
Cory's over-exuberance was...overwhelming. Shawn bit his lip and winced in Cory's grip; he'd gotten stronger since the last time Shawn saw him. Not wanting Jon to think his pained expression had anything to do with him, Shawn tried not to grimace as he looked up and mustered up all the courage he had to say, "How are you, Jon?"
"Good. Great!" the man seemed immensely relieved. He grinned. "You?"
"Yeah, good."
"I saw your vlog on your most recent Icelandic adventure. Great work!"
Shawn shrugged off the compliment, but a smile kissed his lips. "Thanks! I had a blast going back to Reykjavik."
The two went back and forth about Shawn's last job, but the conversation was tedious and went nowhere. This stilted conversation was little more than a face-to-face version of their phone conversations. A few more surface-level questions would be asked. Jon asked Shawn about his travels and his most recent photography series so that he would know that Jon was interested in his career. They would then banter back and forth. Everything would seem to be going well, then Jon would let his guard down and mention his kids. And the conversation would end. If he brought up anything personal that was not strictly work related the conversation would end. Over time, Jon ran out of things to say that wouldn't abruptly end the conversation. At least with Shawn right in front of him, he was able to extend the conversation a little.
"You look good, Shawn."
"You, too." He gave his mentor a tight smile. He caught the look of elation on Cory's face. His closest friend just wanted everything to be smoothed over between them. Then he saw the anxiety clearly etched in Jon's features, a man who had done nothing wrong and just wanted to be in his life. Shawn felt awful. He knew he should say something...anything. But he couldn't. After all this time what could he say that would undo the years of loss?
So they stood in silence. Cory, with his arms around the men's shoulders, was caught in the middle of the awkwardness. He thought about the monologue he had readied but discarded it. He had to get them past this thing Shawn had against knowing anything about Jon's family. He didn't know what the problem was exactly, but it had something to do with the kids.
Kids were a sore point for Shawn; he knew that from personal experience as Shawn had avoided Riley and Auggie for most of their lives. It was only recently that he started to build a relationship with his "niece" and "nephew". And Shawn had "brothers" and "sisters" who had been waiting their whole lives to meet him. Something had to give here; something had to be said so Cory said the only thing that he knew of to break the ice and usher Shawn fully into the Matthews/Turner family.
"So, Shawn, did you know that Jon married the nurse who took care of him after his accident?"
There really was no way Cory could have anticipated what happened next even with all of Topanga's warnings. A look of confusion froze on Shawn's face. He stared slack-jawed at Cory as though he was trying to understand what he said. Cory watched as understanding clicked into place. Shawn's expression changed to disbelief. Then it morphed into a red-hot anger.
Shawn turned his glare onto Jon.
"You did what?" The words sounded more pained than angry. But the emotion on his face was clear.
Cory wasn't the only one taken aback by Shawn's reaction. Jon was shocked. He struggled to find something to say that would cool the situation. He had seen Shawn angry many times before, but this was completely different. And, strangely enough, it didn't seem really directed at him.
"Shawn," he stepped towards the angry young man trying to reason with him. "It's a just a jok-!"
Shawn cut him off. He jerked away from Cory and rounded on him. "How could you!" he spat. "This is one thing I've asked you not to do! Why would you do this!"
Cory was too stunned to say anything. He, too, had never seen this type of ire from Shawn. In desperation he looked to Jon for help.
Jon's thoughts were spinning. Shawn's reaction made no sense. None of this made any sense. "Hunter!" Jon tried to get the man's attention by raising his voice. Shawn glared at him, but he stood still. "Would you just calm down? Listen to me, it's not what you-"
"I can't do this!" Shawn raised his hands like he was going to put them over his ears. He was heading towards the door as fast as he could.
"Shawn! Stop!" Frustration was coming through Turner's voice as he felt like he was dealing with a 15-year-old again. "Don't walk out that door."
Shawn stopped and looked over his shoulder. The anger was draining from his face. He looked at his one-time friend with a deeply pained expression. "I'm sorry, Jon," he whispered. There was a wave of despair in his voice. "It's not you. I'm sorry. I just can't do this right now."
He was gone before Cory could grab him.
Cory leaned against the door stunned by Shawn's reaction. Jon slumped down on the couch, with his head between his hands.
There was nothing left to say.
Thoughts? Feedback would be really appreciated! Thanks. :)