TILTING AT WINDMILLS - Chapter 1
It was somewhere over Iowa that Jared decided he hated flying.
It wasn’t so much that he was scared; although Jared is hard pushed to believe that even the most courageous pilot didn’t have at least a fleeting thought about the potential hazards of sitting on 10,000 gallons of flammable liquid, 30,000 feet above sea level.
It was more to do with a 6 foot, 4 inch man with the attention span of a goldfish spending five hours crammed into a seat, which had clearly been made for a child. He might have seen the brighter side of this predicament, if he’d been offered the complimentary crayons to accompany it.
“Another drink, Sir?”
Jared smiled at Marie, the petit, middle aged hostess that had been scaling the isles ever since O’Hare and had been kind enough to ply Jared with copious amounts of peanuts and alcohol.
He wasn’t going to lie; Marie had helped immensely in taking the edge off.
Jared eagerly tipped his empty plastic tumbler towards her, and made sure to show all his teeth this time, to ensure he got the good Bourbon that he’d seen stashed in the bottom pulley tray on her last visit.
Marie chuckled and bent down to reach for the lower tray. Jared did a mental fist pump.
“Not an avid flyer, huh?” She splashed a generous amount of Bourbon over ice and glanced over at Jared with a small smile.
“Nah, not really,” Jared shrugged, shifting uncomfortably in his seat as he dared a glance across, through the tiny window, where clouds were just visible beyond blinking lights and metal flaps. “I usually prefer modes of transportation that don’t require a life vest and a safety manual to evacuate, ya know?”
It was a partial lie. Jared wasn’t afraid of flying; he just tended not too.
Marie chuckled anyway and passed the drink over, cautious of the bumps and shakes that had been jarring the plane since take off.
“You do realise that you’re more likely to be in a car accident than a plane crash, right?”
“Well yeah,” Jared drawled, steadying the tiny beaker on his tray table, “but I’ve never been in a car crash.” He grinned up at her, “So the odds are already statistically stacked against me here.”
Marie smiled and shook her head fondly, kicking the break out from under the trolley and edging it away, “Just drink your damn bourbon, you lush.” She teased and Jared laughed.
He shifted again as his leg started buzzing with the tell tale pins and needles signals, just as the plane did another characteristic jiggle and sent his knee flying up into his tray table and the tiny, very full, beaker went tumbling right off the side.
“Oh, Jesus…” Jared flailed, cursing as he watched the drink land directly on the dosing guy next to him.
The guy startled and jerked awake, his hands flailing infront of him at the sudden attack, turning in time to see Jared’s wide eyed, apologetic stare.
He’d been sleeping since O’Hara, his face turned towards the window and a file folder of some sort lying unread on his lap. Jared panicked for a minute, realising it was probably something vitally important, judging from the guy’s expensive suit and leather briefcase that sat under his seat, but then let out a sigh of relief when he identified the cover was plastic, ergo, waterproof.
The same couldn’t be said about the pants though.
“Sorry.” Jared said immediately, eyes widening in horror as the guy looked down at the damp, blossoming stain expanding on his pant leg. Jared grabbed the half empty cup out of the guys hand and fumbled for the napkin on his useless little table, “I’m so sorry! It was an accident.”
He set about dabbing the stain on the guy’s pants, waving a hand at the seats around them. “These things aren’t really built for regular sized people, are they?”
In the back of his mind, Jared was painfully aware that guy he was dabbing at was tall and well built enough that he was shifting and bumping in his seat as much as Jared was. He was cute, with cropped, blondish hair, soft features and bright eyes. Unfortunately, he probably wasn’t the type to have sex with strangers in airplane bathrooms, Jared reasoned.
The guy waved him off and took the napkin out of Jared’s hands, probably in a bid to stop a complete klutz of a stranger from rubbing incessantly at his thigh.
Smooth, Padalecki.
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to be the one tell you this but...” The guy swept a hand across Jared’s contorted body, “You’re not exactly regular size, dude.”
Jared chuckled and shook the cup in his hand that, at this point was just residue brown dregs, “It’s the bourbon.” He admitted, “It makes the seats seem bigger.” He paused, “Or my legs seem smaller. I haven’t figured out which yet.”
The guy smiled in amusement and pushed the soggy, balled napkin into the seat pocket infront of him, keeping his eyes on Jared.
“I’d offer to buy you another, but I’m not sure I have enough outfit changes in my carry on.” Jared laughed dryly and gestured nervously to the folder on the guy’s tray
“I didn’t ruin anything, did I?”
The guy looked over at the file Jared was gesturing at and grinned, “Nah, don’t worry about it.” He let out a soft chuckle, “I’m an attorney. You were probably doing society a favour.”
Jared barked out a startled laugh and then tilted his head on an afterthought, “Yeah. You have a point there.”
The guy smiled and shifted in his seat to face him.
“So are you in LA for business?”
Jared shook his head, “Nah, I live here. I was kinda there on business.” Jared tipped his thumb somewhere behind him, 3000 miles back and 36, 000 feet down “A medical conference.”
The guy ‘Ahh’ed and nodded, “So you’re a doctor.”
“Not exactly.”
“A dentist?”
Jared shook his head, tight lipped and watched as the guy’s mouth twitched in a teasing smirk, “You just go for the free pens?”
Jared barked out a laugh and started to shake his head but paused thoughtfully, “Well, partly, yeah. And the fact that my boss hates to fly and hates Chicago and hates vast amounts of people in any one place at any one time.”
The guy nodded seriously, “Oh, so you’re a medical lackey. Like a PA, but with scrubs.”
Jared laughed again and the guy grinned.
“Close enough.” Jared relented, “I’m a veterinary surgeon. Well, a veterinary student intern, technically.”
“Oh, a vet” The guy nodded, eyebrows rising, “Very impressive. If I’d have known, I would have lied and been something more honourable.”
“Nah,” Jared waved him off, a teasing grin on his face, “Without corrupt corporate assholes like you, us honourable workers wouldn’t be nearly as appreciated.”
The guy barked out a laugh, eyes widening on a challenge, “Oh, I see how it is. All about the glory, huh?”
“Something like that,” Jared relented, grinning and holding out a hand over the cramped armrest divide. “Jared Padalecki.”
The guy’s grin stayed in place as he reached out and slid his own hand into Jared’s, his eyes flicking subtly over Jared’s face as he did.
“Anthony Hughes.”
Huh, Jared thought as Anthony grinned. Maybe he didn’t hate flying as much as he thought.
::::::::
LAX was a nightmare. No surprise there. But Jared still managed a perturbed grunt as he was pushed and filtered out into baggage claim with the rest of the flight cattle.
“So,” Anthony saddled up beside him again at the carousel, where a line of hassled, sleep deprived flyers were standing in scattered rows infront of the unmoving conveyer belt, heads to the right, scanning the carousel impatiently.
It reminded Jared of a documentary he had watched in his hotel room the night before, about Meer cats.
“Not that I should; considering the first impression you made, but…” Jared grinned at Anthony’s teasing tone and then looked down when he felt a brush against his wrist to find a small, white business card.
He looked up to find Anthony’s bright eyes trained on him intensely, “I’m in town for two weeks.” He said, eyes never leaving Jared’s face, even as the carousel shook and whirred to life.
The Meer cats shifted eagerly in preparation.
“Give me a call, some time.”
Jared hesitated for only a second, before reaching out and taking the offered card, slipping it into his back jean pocket and smiling at him, “Ok.”
It took ten minutes for the first bag to drop, heavily stickered and slightly ram shackled, slowly making its decent to its owner. Anthony’s neat, hard shelled suitcase was one of the first off, but he waited patiently with Jared for his, and they wheeled them out towards the EXIT together.
Anthony stopped him at the arrivals gate with a hand on his wrist and Jared stopped short, turning around, “Hey, if you don’t have any veterinary-surgeon- intern emergencies or anything, we could grab a cup of coffee or something,”
He gestured behind him with a teasing glint to the tiny Starbucks cart tucked in beside a toilet and a Foreign Exchange counter, “I’m buying.”
It was an invitation for sex, Jared was sure. He considered his options quickly before smiling and shaking his head gently, “Nah, I uh…” He thumbed somewhere over his shoulder, out over the barriers where crowds of people were craning their necks towards the doors, huddled with signs and flowers and car keys, “I’ve got a ride waiting…”
Only a brief flicker of disappointed recognition flashed over Anthony’s face, before it smoothed out into a teasing smirk. He’s probably an excellent lawyer, Jared thought,
“Hot boyfriend, huh?”
Jared grinned suddenly, wide and helpless, “Love of my life,” He shrugged.
“Jay!”
As if on cue, his name cut through the deafening bustle of the crowds and he and Anthony turned towards it.
Jared barely saw the flash of blond hair and freckles in time to bend down and scoop it up before it hurtled headlong into his legs.
He laughed as Connor’s spindly arms immediately wrapped tightly around his neck and he looked over the boy’s shoulder to see Anthony’s face go soft in realisation.
Jared nudged Connor free of the bone crushing headlock and he pulled back to wave Anthony closer.
“Anthony Hughes, this is Connor.”
“Hi.” Connor mumbled shyly, his head instinctively ducking into Jared’s neck and his fingers entwining in Jared’s collar tightly.
Jared smiled as Anthony stepped forward and stuck out the hand that wasn’t holding his luggage, “Hi yourself.” He shot a smile at Jared, and turned back to the little boy, “It’s nice to meet you, Connor.”
Connor stared at the hand for a second before a shy smile twitched at his mouth and he slid his tiny pale one into Anthony’s firm grip.
Jared bumped the kid in his arms, “Connor, this is my airplane friend, Anthony.”
Connor seemed to relax at the introduction and his eyes flickered up to Jared, “They give you friends on an airplane?” He whispered in wonder.
Anthony stifled a grin as Jared nodded seriously, “Only continental ones, so you can keep in touch.”
Connor paused, dubiously for a second and then nodded happily, “Cool.” He looked up at Jared, “Can we go now?”
Anthony chuckled, “He has your subtlety.” He flicked his thumb over his shoulder, “I should go anyway, gotta get a cab to the hotel.”
“Yeah, sure.” Jared said, pretty lamely, and then waited until Anthony was five feet away before yelling, “I’ll see you, then,” in an attempt to not be a complete jackass.
Anthony smiled back and nodded.
“I missed you.” Connor chirped, suddenly, as Jared grabbed a hold of his luggage with his free hand and started to weave them through the crowds, “Did you miss me?”
Jared stopped dead, ignored the aggravated tut of the man behind with the trolley and mock gaped at the boy in his arms, “How can you even ask me that?” He gasped dramatically, feigning hurt, “Dude, of course I didn’t! I was in Chicago!”
Connor giggled as Jared started walking again, jiggling him on every step, “Liar!”
“Yeah, you got me,” Jared relented, as the crowd parted and he saw Jensen standing on his toes, eyes eagerly scanning the crowds for them, in that mother- hen way he has when the kid's more than two feet out of his perimeter.
He caught sight of them and made a show of waving, to make absolute certain they hadn’t missed his presence, as he started pushing through a group of teenage girls holding a huge glittery sign that read ‘Congrats on Nationals, Kelly!!” in swirly pink letters.
Jared brought them to a halt at the gate and watched Jensen knock one of the girls off balance and then inadvertently grope her boob in his haste to steady her again.
Connor snorted into Jared’s shoulder, “He’s kinda a dork, huh?”
“You said it, buddy.”
“Hey” Jensen grinned as they approached and bent down to swipe Jared’s bag off the floor, “You’re early.”
“You know me.” Jared grinned, “promptness personified.”
Jensen rolled his eyes as they turned towards the exit, “Uh, sure. Whatever.”
Jared nudged him with his shoulder to set him off balance as they fell in step, “And don’t even try to act like you didn’t miss me, Ackles.” He jerked his head towards Connor, who just grinned over happily at his father, from Jared’s arms, “Short stuff already told me all about it.”
“Oh he did, did he?” Jensen replied dryly, and Jared grinned wide.
“Uh huh. The crying, the texting, the smelling of my pillow,” He paused to lean in closer to Connor’s face, who leant back eagerly in suspense, “Pretty pathetic if you ask me.”
Connor giggled.
Jensen hummed, “So tell me. I’ve been on tenterhooks all week…what’s new in the world of ophthalmology?”
“Uh,” Jared snorted and shot him a sideways glance, “It turns out…it’s just about eyes and stuff!” He made a gross face at Connor, who giggled and squished his cheeks together so his tongue stuck out further.
Jensen nodded solemnly beside him, “I see. And your proposal for teeny tiny rodent bifocals?”
“Denied!” Jared cried in mock outrage, turning to him with huge eyes once they’d manoeuvred themselves out of the automatic doors and into the stuffy afternoon heat. “Can you believe it?”
Jensen mirrored his outrage, “And they call themselves professionals!”
Connor glanced between them with a serious expression and shook his head, “Y’all are crazy!”
Jensen broke character to laugh at his son’s solemn tone and Jared jiggled him in his arms as they filed out on to the curb, “Darn tootin’ kid!”
They paused by the truck for Jensen to dig the car keys out of his jacket when Anthony rolled past towards the taxi queue on the other side of the road with his suitcase and stoped to shoot them a friendly wave.
Jensen looked up; car keys in hand, in time to see Jared return it and Anthony disappear into a cab.
At Jensen’s confused glance, Connor paused in his epic re-telling of the spider he had found in the bath tub yesterday, and leant over in Jared’s arms to place a tiny hand on his father’s shoulder, “That’s Jay’s airplane friend, Dad.”
Jensen quirked an eyebrow in Jared’s direction as he clicked the doors to the truck open, “Something tells me I don’t really want you listening to stories about Uncle Jay and his airplane friends, buddy.”
He waited for Connor to open the door and climb inside before jabbing a pointed finger at Jared over the hood of the car, “And you stop telling him stories about your airplane friends, buddy! He’s four for God’s sake!”
Jared laughed and bent in to buckle Connor into his car seat, who was frowning in confusion, “But you said it was nice to make friends, Dad.”
Jared smirked at Jensen through the rear view, as Jensen slid into the driver’s seat, “Yeah, Dad. Making friends is nice! You should try it sometime and un-lodge that stick.”
Connor nodded solemnly, catching his father’s glare through the mirror, “You really should, Dad.”
Jared stifled a laugh behind a cough and slid into the passenger side as Jensen started the truck while throwing death stares at the side of Jared’s face.
“Okay, so what did I miss?” Jared clapped eagerly, in lieu of changing the subject, craning his neck towards the back, “Have you graduated? Has the house burnt down? Did someone finally find out where the vacuum lives?”
“Danni and Aunt Sophie had a fight.” Connor revealed suddenly, vibrating in his seat with poorly concealed excitement, “A big one! And they broke up forever and ever this time, honest Jay! And Danni came over our house and she was crying and she had to sleep in your bed, cause she was getting snot all over the couch and then we went to the bar and Uncle Chris let me get up on stage with him and I sang all the songs, Jay, and after I stopped I got a million claps…”
His excited babble was tripping over itself as his eyes widened and his hand gestures got bigger and more explosive, “And then Chad got arrested and we had to go to the police station to get him and Dad yelled at him, but the policeman let me wear his hat and then Chad had to stay with Sophie cause Danni was gonna leave forever on a airplane and we’d never see her ever again and then Chad married this girl with this really tiny shirt. So now he can go live with her and everyone can live happy ever after!”
Jared had humoured it all with suitably wide eyes and occasional nods and waited for Connor to finish and look over at him with huge, expectant eyes.
“Uh huh, wow, okay.” Jared hummed, paused, and then levelled a look at the four-year-old. “And how much of that was true, exactly?”
Since he’d turned four, they’d had a tiny problem with the truth and all it entails; namely, telling it and expecting other people to believe it.
Jensen shot a world weary smirk at Jared across the seat and signalled left onto the freeway, “Danni and Sophie had another spat Wednesday afternoon” Jensen translated patiently, “We haven’t been to the bar since you left and Sophie went down to bail Chad on a drunken disorderly charge last night.”
Jared nodded sagely; turning back to Connor who had suddenly found the zipper of his sweater entrancing, “Hey,” Jared reached back and poked him in the leg, “Pinocchio.”
Connor turned huge green eyes up to him and Jared raised an expectant eyebrow, “You wanna try again?”
Connor sniffed decidedly and shot a glance towards where Jensen was failig to conceal his amusement through the rear-view.
“I didn’t sing with Chris.” He reluctantly mumbled after a minute’s indecisiveness, “And Danni didn’t snot on the couch.” He faltered and then screwed his face up in disgust, “I don’t think.”
“And…” Jared prompted, nudging him again in the sneaker.
“And…I didn’t see the policemen?”
“And…”
Connor turned confused eyes up at Jared and shrugged helplessly, clearly lost.
Jared sighed wearily, “Chad married a girl with a silly shirt so he’d have somewhere to sleep…?”
Connor looked startled for a minute and then shot a bewildered look at his father through the mirror.
Jensen cleared his throat next to him uneasily, “Uh, yeah, actually...”
Jared stared at him for a beat then whipped his head from Connor’s giddy nod to Jensen’s uneasy shift.
His mouth fell open, “No way!”
Jensen chuckled, “Oh yes. Her name’s Trixie and she can get us 30% off at any Hooters establishment on the West Coast.”
Jared stared silently for a moment in disbelief and then sunk back, resigned into the seat with a groan.
In the back, Connor delved into a detailed re enactment of exactly how he removed the spider from his bathtub. By the time they reached the exit, it had involved a sword, two grenades and a missile launcher.
It still sounded more plausible than Chad in a tux.
Part 2