A Better Life Part 1
The televised barbeque was cute. Jared loved it and it made him feel warm to watch it. It was edited down for three hours of air time. It wasn’t like any of the other Family Barbeques Jamie was right on that count. Jared got a cut four days after the party, the day after everyone left, a solid week before it was to air. He had to watch it at work for final approval. It made him smile so much his face hurt. The first half was people cooking but even that wasn’t normal.
It wasn’t that it was celebrities cooking: it was the stuff going on the background. Usually in Food Network shows the kitchens were quiet, people came in on cues to cook with the chef and there was already “one prepared earlier.” These ones weren’t that clean, they were real. It was Katie making party mix but it was also James covertly eating it as she was working. It was Jensen’s father and Jason making a spice rub but it was also Honor coming in pouting that her mother wouldn’t let her go on the trampoline while the big boys were on it and Papa Ackles, as Jared had come to think of him, letting her help. It was Michael and Steve making pasta salad but it was also Jessica coming into the kitchen in a one piece bathing suit and saying, “Ignore me, I just came to get some iced tea for the kids.”
Then the second half was all them eating, playing music, the piñata and Manhunt. It really funny that an hour and a half of the Food Network’s prime time program wasn’t going to be about food. The grace had been included. And while there were tons of celebrities, and people were tuning in for that, that was not the point. No one felt like a celebrity in the context of the party. None of them were famous they were just friends.
He wondered what people would think when they saw it. They would either hate that it’s wasn’t glitzy or love that it was the most behind-the-scenes look at their group ever. Because you never expected to see Michelle Williams and Jessica Alba talking about pediatricians with Jensen Ackles’ mother. And even if you’d thought of that you really never expected to see James Marsters run at them, grab Michelle and Jessica, scream, “Human wave,” and pull them into the swimming pool. It caused a huge splash and both girls burst the surface shouting that he was a jerk and an idiot but they climbed out of the pool laughing.
But the weird thing was, Jared didn’t really care what anyone thought of it. Jared had always cared about what the public thought, he liked being cool. But now he just didn’t care. Because his favorite part of the show was something he hadn’t realized they’d taped. It was when he’d told Jensen that he would have loved to have grown up in his neighborhood. Jensen had kissed him and said that he loved him. They’d agreed that their episode of Family Barbeque was going to be the coolest one ever because they had Texan Manhunt. It was a quiet moment in the middle of the loud dinner. Jared hadn’t noticed the camera that must have caught it. And it made him feel squishy inside when he watched it. So he really didn’t care what anyone said because he loved it.
There was so much publicity around it that Sandy had decided to allow affiliates to air it. “What does that mean?” asked Jared.
“We allow other Tribune affiliated channels to air it the same night we show it, it’s a simulcast on to local channels so that people without cable get to see it. The Network gets paid and all of the ratings are attributed to Family Barbeque and Dinner for Two.”
Jared nodded, “Okay, so who are ‘Tribune affiliated channels’?”
“The CW, they’re who showed the Iron Chef with Michelle Obama when Cablevision was dicking us around about the Northeast.”
Jared nodded, “Cool.”
And when it came to the night it was going to air Jared made the three of them popcorn and they settled onto the couch to watch it with the dogs on the floor. The builder had already started putting in the shower and Jared’s house was on the market. When you got right down to brass tacks Jared had a really great life.
~~~
Jensen loved the show which got the highest ratings the Network had ever seen. And he was thrilled that the shower was going in so cleanly. He waited for the fallout. But actually, there wasn’t much. Sure, there was still a lot of, “OMG, why is those queers near kids?” but for the most part no one could find anything to fault them on.
It actually got a lot of good press. It made people see them as normal. There weren’t any showbiz people in it, just friends. There were no nannies, or PR people. And seeing Katie cutting up fried chicken into little bites for Suri saying, “Momma Rimes’ fried chicken is really good isn’t it?” reminded people that yes, she was a scientologist, but she was a really great mom. There was Mattie asking if she had to have salad while she already had both potato salad and pasta salad on her plate. Michelle said, “We learned from Cookie Monster that there are sometime foods and anytime foods. But a barbeque is a sometimes meal so no, no salad if you don’t want.” And there you go, celebrity kids watch Sesame Street too.
And then people, celebrities and family members, were wearing green tee-shirts that said Kicking Butt and Taking Bandanas on the front and the date of the party on the back that proved that Chad had indeed made tee-shirts for the winners. Paris got the most press while wearing the shirt. She hadn’t been an airhead on the show, she’d been herself, the words ‘that’s hot’ hadn’t come out of her mouth once and when people hounded her on it she said, “I have an empire built off of lip-gloss and being stupid. But I wasn’t being Paris Hilton that night I was hanging out with my friends. I’ve made my money and now I’m a chef at the highest Zagat rated restaurant in Richardson. Do you really think someone as stupid as I pretended to be could possibly be competent enough to do that? Get real.”
The obvious question, the one Jensen had been waiting for, was asked of Van Der Beek. Why wasn’t Joshua Jackson there? James responded by saying, “Not everyone has to be friends. Marsters, Michelle, Katie and I got really tight with Jensen. We never got close to Josh. There’s no bad blood we just aren’t really friends. It’s not grade school; you don’t have to invite the whole class. The party was for family. Josh isn’t family.”
Jensen was relieved that Beek had answered it and that he didn’t say, “Funny story, that episode near the beginning of season two where Pacey got it a car accident and broke his nose? People have always said it was weird that we had that after he’d already broken his nose playing basketball in season one. Well, the second break had to be written in because Jensen lost it when the über abusive relationship finally ended. And everyone was on his side because Jensen is family.”
Probably the weirdest thing was that his agent was getting a lot of calls about Jamie, asking if he had recorded anything. It was odd but Jensen sat down Jamie and talked to him about it. He asked Jamie what he thought of it. And Jamie got really excited. Jensen said, “It’s a lot of work.”
Jamie rolled his eyes, “Daddy, it’s playing music and singing. It takes a lot of time but it’s not work. It’s fun.”
“Jamie, when you make a CD, you have to tour. That takes a lot of time. I would make sure it was in the summer so that you didn’t have to miss any school. But you would sort of lose your summer. Would you really want that?”
Thinking about it for a minute Jamie said, “Could we look at stuff in each city?”
“Of course we can, especially as we would be doing it in the summer. It means no school which means no tutors just us.”
Jamie smiled, “So it would be traveling all over America, getting to see all the cool stuff and getting to show off on stage?”
Shrugging Jensen said, “Yes, that’s what I always felt like when I did it.”
“So what would I need to do?” asked Jamie.
“You know when you play a song and then you change it a little?”
“Yeah, that’s fun, I do it a lot and you look proud.”
“Well that’s what you would do, your rearrangements of classics. And then I’ll write you some really fun stuff to play with words. Would you like to do that?” Jamie nodded enthusiastically. “Okay, well, I’m going to start on that and you should start writing down variants you make up that you like. And then when we have enough stuff we’ll record it all. Sounds good?” Jamie nodded again.
Jeff’s boys now came over as much as Marky and Mary. And people were in and out all the time to eat, hang out and play music. Jamie was thriving on it, loving all the company and when Jensen talked to Jamie about Jared moving in Jamie had looked confused and said, “He still has a house?” which had set Jensen’s mind at rest. They had a barbeque the next month and then Jensen got down to scoring the film. Which was awesome. It finally had a name: The First Voyage.
He found himself a lot of the time writing songs for himself and songs for Jamie. Once he started he realized how much he loved it and how great it made him feel. Two weeks into the school year he flew out to LA, leaving Jamie in Jared’s competent hands to record it all with an orchestra. He recorded the two songs with vocals one was just him the other was LeAnn, Steve and him. He dealt with their contracts himself. He called home every night to speak to Jamie and Jared and was pleased they were getting on so well without him. And he thought, “This is your life; this is who you forgot to be.”
Once he got home he used Chris’ and Steve’s recording studio to record an album. He did all the strings and vocals, he got Jason to come over and do the drums and Chris and Steve did back up vocals. He waited to send it to his agent, wanted to be able to send it with Jamie’s CD once he was done. Jamie was still rehearsing and working on his arrangements.
The shower was finished and they broke it in, first going out for popcorn shrimp and cheese fries. It was kind of a strange combination but it was really fucking delicious. Jamie was at Ma and Pa’s place for the night. They came home and stripped in the garage and jumped into the shower together. They were laughing and kissing under the spray. They jerked each other off and cleaned each other. There was a toothbrush holder in the shower and they brushed their teeth, spitting away from their feet. They had left sweats in the garage and after they dried off they pulled on their pants.
Jared smiled, “What do you think?”
“We’re fucking golden,” said Jensen and went into the house. He felt really good and loose. They drank coffee while the dogs played in the yard.
Jared said, “I got an offer on my house.”
“Good offer?”
“Great one. I’m going to have all my cookware professionally cleaned to bring over.”
“Awesome. What about your stuff?”
“Meggie has been renting furniture ever since she moved into her apartment after graduating from college last year. I also don’t have as much furniture as you. I am bringing my dresser and wardrobe because I have a lot of clothes. Plus, I’m bringing my wine and all my photos, a few personal things. The rest of it can get split between family members who need it.”
“Do you want to start moving this week? We can do it while Jamie’s at school.”
“That would be awesome.”
They slowly moved Jared in and then suddenly everything was clicked into place. Jared sold his house and The First Voyage came out to incredibly high expectations. He took Jamie and Jared to the premier mid October. They all dressed up in suits and stayed in a nice hotel in a suite with a kitchen to cook meals in. They took a stretched limo, laid on by the studio, to the red carpet and Jamie never stopped smiling. They sat next to Chad and Sophia in the theater and Jamie watched it with wide eyes and he leaned over in the song that Jensen sung alone and said, “Daddy that’s you. That’s your voice.” Jensen nodded and leaned over to kiss Jamie’s forehead.
Afterwards there was a cocktail hour, mostly just to kiss each other’s asses. Jensen had always loved it, loved getting BSed and loved BSing other people. Jensen and Jared had glasses of red wine while Jamie had a glass of cranberry juice and Sprite. Jensen introduced Jared and Jamie to Jim Cameron.
~~~
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