Fairy Tale
Group: Living in the Silence
Drabble No. 3: Fairy Tale
Author: burntotears
Fandom: Joan of Arcadia
Pairing: Joan/Adam, Luke/Grace
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Joan of Arcadia and all related elements © Barbara Hall Productions, Inc. and CBS Productions, in association with Sony Pictures Television. All rights reserved.
Author's Note: Getting good reviews so hopefully that means you guys want more.
“Rove. Your sudden extension of social gratitude is rather alarming. Are you sick?” Grace sat down next to Adam, surprised that the boy had asked her to meet him.
“No. Sorry. I’ve just been busy... and worried-” Adam started.
“About Girardi. Yes, I know. Has she... talked to you yet?”
“Besides the ‘Sorry, can’t talk, I’m tired’ bit-no.” He shook his head and sighed.
“Yes well,” Grace sighed loudly as if the words hurt as she put them out, “maybe it’s just one of those... ‘give her some time’ things? I’m no Joan expert, but I’m pretty sure when she’s got something that bugs her, she won’t just let it go until she’s gotten it taken care of.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“Yeah, I know. It’s just... hard to wonder if it wasn’t me that caused... whatever it is.”
Grace laughed. “Truthfully, you probably did. But it’s probably something miniscule that you shouldn’t even be worrying about. She’s a bit of a drama queen, y’know.”
Surprisingly, Adam cracked a small smile. “Yeah, she is. Well, what have you been up to, Grace? I really didn’t mean to come out here and talk about Joan. I just wanted to hang out... like we never do anymore...”
“Well there’s never much new with me, Rove. Hebrew classes take up a lot of time and... well if it isn’t one Girardi, it’s another.” She shook her head as if it was a passive comment, but Adam pressed it anyway.
“What do you mean?”
“Oh nothing, just that stupid geek...” Grace was trying to get him to drop the subject, but she had a feeling it wasn’t going to happen.
Adam laughed. “Luke? What about him?”
“Nothing. He’s just... really annoying sometimes...”
“Right,” Adam raised an eyebrow at her. “I talked to him the other day, actually. He doesn’t seem all that annoying. Why does he annoy you?”
“Hell Rove, why don’t you just ask if we kissed already?” Grace jumped up, her hands flying in the air.
Adam grinned. “You kissed him?”
“No! He kissed-well it just sort of... I told him I wasn’t into him!”
“You kissed him and then told him you weren’t into him? You’re gonna confuse the crap out of him, Grace.” Adam couldn’t help but smile.
“Actually, I told him I wasn’t into him and then I kissed him... I mean, he kissed me-well it sort of happened.” Adam nodded. “He’s a geek! I don’t dig geeks. He’s into science and theorems and... just a load of crap I don’t care about. He likes to talk about how things work and what makes up everything... I don’t care about that. He’s smart and stupid and annoying and when he talks it’s like he’s trying to make you feel stupid, which I admit is funny when directed at the right person, but when directed at me, it’s not cool. He’s got no life outside of... science. I mean, he probably gets off from it or something. I’m not anything like that, dude, I...”
Adam smiled lightly as she went on about Luke. As much as he and Joan were different, Luke and Grace were ten times more opposite. But there was the saying...
He stood up when she trailed off and shook his head. “I don’t know, Grace. I gotta get home, though. Good luck with it.” He turned and began walking away, then about five feet away he stopped and turned to call out to her, “Opposites attract, yo.”
Grace frowned after him. Opposites, my ass.
---
“Y’know, television like this really does lessen your brain capacity,” Luke said, sitting on the couch next to Joan and switching the TV from a soap opera to National Geographic.
Joan scoffed and grabbed the remote back. “I like my small brain capacity, thanks. And I was watching that.”
“Adam misses you,” Luke blurted out, not even meaning to get to that subject. Joan muted the TV and turned to him.
“What?”
“He misses you. You’re whole living as a hermit routine doesn’t leave much time for him to spend with you. Not to mention your attitude royally sucks.”
Joan’s mouth fell open. “Listen nerd, I don’t need you trying to give me relationship advice. If I can remember correctly, you and Glynis broke up. Adam and I are still together. So leave me alone.” She un-muted the TV and turned her attention back to it.
Luke shook his head. Women. As he stood to go, Helen called to Joan from the kitchen, “Get dressed, Joan, we’re going to the library.”
“But Mom-”
“We’re leaving in five minutes!”
Joan stomped all the way up the stairs.
---
“Pick out some books. You need to read instead of watching so much TV...”
“It’s summer, Mom! I don’t have to read! Hence the term: summer vacation! I’m supposed to be getting a break here!”
An older lady shushed them. Helen sighed. “Joan, I said pick out some books. As long as you are going to be moping around the house you’re going to have to do as I say, understand?”
“Oh for Chri-”
“Joan.” Helen said simply, turning toward the art section. Joan looked around. She didn’t want to get any books. She didn’t want to read. Sighing heavily, she walked toward the fiction section when she overheard a child and mother arguing.
“I want Cinderella, Mom!”
“Cinderella isn’t real, honey. Let’s pick a book that has a good moral-”
“I want Cinderella! I like it! They’re happy and-”
“We’re getting books that teach you things, dear. Ones you can learn-”
“I don’t want to learn! I want Cinderella!”
Finally, the lady had to drag her child out of the library for being so loud. Joan raised an eyebrow and turned toward the children section. She scanned through the books and her eyes landed on a book titled Classic Fairy Tales. She pulled it out and skimmed through the pages. Smiling, she grabbed a few more like it and headed toward her mother who was already waiting to leave. She handed her the books and Helen looked down at them and then back up at Joan.
“Wha-” She stopped herself and just shrugged, placing all the books on the counter to check them out.
---
Luke sat down next to his brother at the table and sighed.
“What’s your problem now?” Kevin asked, eating chips and flipping through a magazine.
“The day Joan went to the hospital, I walked Grace home.”
Kevin looked at him stupidly. “So?”
“So we kissed.”
“Oh yeah? She kissed you?” Kevin closed the magazine, somewhat interested.
“No. It was sort of-it just happened. One second she was yelling at me saying she wasn’t into me and the next we were kissing.” Luke drummed his fingers on the table nervously.
“She sounds like a nut case to me. Have you always gone for the psycho types?”
Luke smiled. “She’s not a psychopath. She’s really intelligent and humorous and I like to be with her and she makes me laugh about just anything and every time I see her I want to touch her and-”
“Alright, dude, spare the details. You’re into her, that’s obvious enough to everyone.” Kevin shook his head. “So have you talked to her since then?”
“Yeah. But I try to bring it up and she avoids the subject. Or more-so she gets up runs out of the room.”
“Dude, you’re just going to have to ask Joan to talk to her for you. There’s no other way. She certainly doesn’t want to talk to you about it so you’re going to have to play the sister card. That’s the perk of her being friends with Grace.”
Luke shook his head. “Yeah, only that Joan is so verily ignoring everyone at the moment, Grace included. I can’t get Joan to talk to her. I can’t even get Joan to get off the couch.”
Sighing, Kevin knew he was right. Ever since the hospital stay their sister had been acting weird and Kevin had a feeling it wasn’t the illness or the medication or anything of the sort. She was more jumpy and stayed in the house more and more as the days wore on. Joan, who usually would find any excuse to never be at the house.
“I know. I can’t figure out what her problem is, though. Has she said anything to you?” Kevin lowered his voice as he spoke, in case Joan was around.
Luke took the hint. “Not much,” he whispered. “Though she did say something about missing faith. Could that be something?”
Kevin raised an eyebrow. “Maybe. We’ll have to start watching her more closely when she doesn’t know it and we might figure something out. Don’t tell Mom or Dad though. This’ll just be between us.” Kevin winked and Luke smiled at him.
They didn’t have a lot of brotherly bonding, but Luke was always happy to take what he could get. He nodded and stood up, going back to his room.
---
Joan was lying on her stomach on a blanket in the front yard. Another blanket was draped over her like she used to do when she was younger. Flashlight in hand, she flipped through her fairy tale books, grinning at some of the stories she used to love and laughing at the pictures.
Adam quietly walked up and knelt next to her, placing his hand on her back. “Jane?”
Joan jumped and turned quickly onto her back, throwing down the blanket to look up at Adam. “Yeah?”
Adam sighed. “Hey. I was-what are you doing?” He looked down at her, his brow furrowed.
“Reading.” She turned her flashlight onto the book to show him what it was, then turned it off, settling on her back and looking at the stars. “Why are you here?”
“Because you’re my girlfriend, Jane, and we talk to each other less now than we did when we were just friends.”
Joan heaved a sigh and lifted the blanket, patting next to her for him to lie down. When he was settled next to her, he looked up at the sky. “Are you thinking of breaking up with me, Jane?” Adam hadn’t really thought about that before, but now that he’d said it, he did wonder. Why else would she ignore him so much?
“No. I just... I’m sorry, Adam.” She sat quiet for a while, thinking about the books she’d been looking through. Scooting closer to him, she spoke. “Y’know fairy tales. When we’re younger we read them, thinking that the perfect life is just how they depict things. If we are to have the perfect romance then we should live happily ever after. If we are to be like Cinderella or Snow White then when we find our Prince Charming everything should just fall into place and we should get along and be in love and there be no problems.”
Adam nodded, not quite sure what she was getting at.
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot. That sort of thing... well it sounds really boring. To always get along and always have the perfect relationship. Who wants that?” Her voice got softer. “Who wants a perfect life where everything makes sense and there’s no challenge? Sure it would be so-called ‘happy,’ but it would be the most boring life ever.”
“Jane, what-”
Joan turned on her side and supported her head in her hand, elbow on the ground next to his head. She looked at him.
“Adam, my life has never made any sense. At least not for a long while now. And I accepted that. In fact, I was getting used to it and I was happy. Truly happy. And once I was comfortable, something came along and ripped the ground from beneath me and I don’t know where to stand anymore.” A tear fell down her cheek and Adam felt a tightness in his chest.
“I just want my fairy tale back. The one where everything that didn’t make sense still somehow had a logical explanation behind it. The one where I was happy with how everything was going and I didn’t feel so... alone.”
Adam rested his hand on the side of her face and rubbed her tears with his thumb. “You aren’t alone, Jane. I’m always here when you need me.”
Joan nodded. “I know. I know you are but somehow... that’s just not enough.”
Adam raised his head up and kissed her mouth sweetly, not sure what else he could say. He didn’t know what she meant by any of it but if she was going to talk to him again, he was going to take what he could get for now.
She kissed him back, sighing when he pulled away. Slowly opening her eyes, she smiled weakly at him. “Thank you.”
“Anytime, Jane. I’m here anytime you want.”
Continue to Part IV
Drabble No. 3: Fairy Tale
Author: burntotears
Fandom: Joan of Arcadia
Pairing: Joan/Adam, Luke/Grace
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Joan of Arcadia and all related elements © Barbara Hall Productions, Inc. and CBS Productions, in association with Sony Pictures Television. All rights reserved.
Author's Note: Getting good reviews so hopefully that means you guys want more.
“Rove. Your sudden extension of social gratitude is rather alarming. Are you sick?” Grace sat down next to Adam, surprised that the boy had asked her to meet him.
“No. Sorry. I’ve just been busy... and worried-” Adam started.
“About Girardi. Yes, I know. Has she... talked to you yet?”
“Besides the ‘Sorry, can’t talk, I’m tired’ bit-no.” He shook his head and sighed.
“Yes well,” Grace sighed loudly as if the words hurt as she put them out, “maybe it’s just one of those... ‘give her some time’ things? I’m no Joan expert, but I’m pretty sure when she’s got something that bugs her, she won’t just let it go until she’s gotten it taken care of.” She shrugged her shoulders.
“Yeah, I know. It’s just... hard to wonder if it wasn’t me that caused... whatever it is.”
Grace laughed. “Truthfully, you probably did. But it’s probably something miniscule that you shouldn’t even be worrying about. She’s a bit of a drama queen, y’know.”
Surprisingly, Adam cracked a small smile. “Yeah, she is. Well, what have you been up to, Grace? I really didn’t mean to come out here and talk about Joan. I just wanted to hang out... like we never do anymore...”
“Well there’s never much new with me, Rove. Hebrew classes take up a lot of time and... well if it isn’t one Girardi, it’s another.” She shook her head as if it was a passive comment, but Adam pressed it anyway.
“What do you mean?”
“Oh nothing, just that stupid geek...” Grace was trying to get him to drop the subject, but she had a feeling it wasn’t going to happen.
Adam laughed. “Luke? What about him?”
“Nothing. He’s just... really annoying sometimes...”
“Right,” Adam raised an eyebrow at her. “I talked to him the other day, actually. He doesn’t seem all that annoying. Why does he annoy you?”
“Hell Rove, why don’t you just ask if we kissed already?” Grace jumped up, her hands flying in the air.
Adam grinned. “You kissed him?”
“No! He kissed-well it just sort of... I told him I wasn’t into him!”
“You kissed him and then told him you weren’t into him? You’re gonna confuse the crap out of him, Grace.” Adam couldn’t help but smile.
“Actually, I told him I wasn’t into him and then I kissed him... I mean, he kissed me-well it sort of happened.” Adam nodded. “He’s a geek! I don’t dig geeks. He’s into science and theorems and... just a load of crap I don’t care about. He likes to talk about how things work and what makes up everything... I don’t care about that. He’s smart and stupid and annoying and when he talks it’s like he’s trying to make you feel stupid, which I admit is funny when directed at the right person, but when directed at me, it’s not cool. He’s got no life outside of... science. I mean, he probably gets off from it or something. I’m not anything like that, dude, I...”
Adam smiled lightly as she went on about Luke. As much as he and Joan were different, Luke and Grace were ten times more opposite. But there was the saying...
He stood up when she trailed off and shook his head. “I don’t know, Grace. I gotta get home, though. Good luck with it.” He turned and began walking away, then about five feet away he stopped and turned to call out to her, “Opposites attract, yo.”
Grace frowned after him. Opposites, my ass.
---
“Y’know, television like this really does lessen your brain capacity,” Luke said, sitting on the couch next to Joan and switching the TV from a soap opera to National Geographic.
Joan scoffed and grabbed the remote back. “I like my small brain capacity, thanks. And I was watching that.”
“Adam misses you,” Luke blurted out, not even meaning to get to that subject. Joan muted the TV and turned to him.
“What?”
“He misses you. You’re whole living as a hermit routine doesn’t leave much time for him to spend with you. Not to mention your attitude royally sucks.”
Joan’s mouth fell open. “Listen nerd, I don’t need you trying to give me relationship advice. If I can remember correctly, you and Glynis broke up. Adam and I are still together. So leave me alone.” She un-muted the TV and turned her attention back to it.
Luke shook his head. Women. As he stood to go, Helen called to Joan from the kitchen, “Get dressed, Joan, we’re going to the library.”
“But Mom-”
“We’re leaving in five minutes!”
Joan stomped all the way up the stairs.
---
“Pick out some books. You need to read instead of watching so much TV...”
“It’s summer, Mom! I don’t have to read! Hence the term: summer vacation! I’m supposed to be getting a break here!”
An older lady shushed them. Helen sighed. “Joan, I said pick out some books. As long as you are going to be moping around the house you’re going to have to do as I say, understand?”
“Oh for Chri-”
“Joan.” Helen said simply, turning toward the art section. Joan looked around. She didn’t want to get any books. She didn’t want to read. Sighing heavily, she walked toward the fiction section when she overheard a child and mother arguing.
“I want Cinderella, Mom!”
“Cinderella isn’t real, honey. Let’s pick a book that has a good moral-”
“I want Cinderella! I like it! They’re happy and-”
“We’re getting books that teach you things, dear. Ones you can learn-”
“I don’t want to learn! I want Cinderella!”
Finally, the lady had to drag her child out of the library for being so loud. Joan raised an eyebrow and turned toward the children section. She scanned through the books and her eyes landed on a book titled Classic Fairy Tales. She pulled it out and skimmed through the pages. Smiling, she grabbed a few more like it and headed toward her mother who was already waiting to leave. She handed her the books and Helen looked down at them and then back up at Joan.
“Wha-” She stopped herself and just shrugged, placing all the books on the counter to check them out.
---
Luke sat down next to his brother at the table and sighed.
“What’s your problem now?” Kevin asked, eating chips and flipping through a magazine.
“The day Joan went to the hospital, I walked Grace home.”
Kevin looked at him stupidly. “So?”
“So we kissed.”
“Oh yeah? She kissed you?” Kevin closed the magazine, somewhat interested.
“No. It was sort of-it just happened. One second she was yelling at me saying she wasn’t into me and the next we were kissing.” Luke drummed his fingers on the table nervously.
“She sounds like a nut case to me. Have you always gone for the psycho types?”
Luke smiled. “She’s not a psychopath. She’s really intelligent and humorous and I like to be with her and she makes me laugh about just anything and every time I see her I want to touch her and-”
“Alright, dude, spare the details. You’re into her, that’s obvious enough to everyone.” Kevin shook his head. “So have you talked to her since then?”
“Yeah. But I try to bring it up and she avoids the subject. Or more-so she gets up runs out of the room.”
“Dude, you’re just going to have to ask Joan to talk to her for you. There’s no other way. She certainly doesn’t want to talk to you about it so you’re going to have to play the sister card. That’s the perk of her being friends with Grace.”
Luke shook his head. “Yeah, only that Joan is so verily ignoring everyone at the moment, Grace included. I can’t get Joan to talk to her. I can’t even get Joan to get off the couch.”
Sighing, Kevin knew he was right. Ever since the hospital stay their sister had been acting weird and Kevin had a feeling it wasn’t the illness or the medication or anything of the sort. She was more jumpy and stayed in the house more and more as the days wore on. Joan, who usually would find any excuse to never be at the house.
“I know. I can’t figure out what her problem is, though. Has she said anything to you?” Kevin lowered his voice as he spoke, in case Joan was around.
Luke took the hint. “Not much,” he whispered. “Though she did say something about missing faith. Could that be something?”
Kevin raised an eyebrow. “Maybe. We’ll have to start watching her more closely when she doesn’t know it and we might figure something out. Don’t tell Mom or Dad though. This’ll just be between us.” Kevin winked and Luke smiled at him.
They didn’t have a lot of brotherly bonding, but Luke was always happy to take what he could get. He nodded and stood up, going back to his room.
---
Joan was lying on her stomach on a blanket in the front yard. Another blanket was draped over her like she used to do when she was younger. Flashlight in hand, she flipped through her fairy tale books, grinning at some of the stories she used to love and laughing at the pictures.
Adam quietly walked up and knelt next to her, placing his hand on her back. “Jane?”
Joan jumped and turned quickly onto her back, throwing down the blanket to look up at Adam. “Yeah?”
Adam sighed. “Hey. I was-what are you doing?” He looked down at her, his brow furrowed.
“Reading.” She turned her flashlight onto the book to show him what it was, then turned it off, settling on her back and looking at the stars. “Why are you here?”
“Because you’re my girlfriend, Jane, and we talk to each other less now than we did when we were just friends.”
Joan heaved a sigh and lifted the blanket, patting next to her for him to lie down. When he was settled next to her, he looked up at the sky. “Are you thinking of breaking up with me, Jane?” Adam hadn’t really thought about that before, but now that he’d said it, he did wonder. Why else would she ignore him so much?
“No. I just... I’m sorry, Adam.” She sat quiet for a while, thinking about the books she’d been looking through. Scooting closer to him, she spoke. “Y’know fairy tales. When we’re younger we read them, thinking that the perfect life is just how they depict things. If we are to have the perfect romance then we should live happily ever after. If we are to be like Cinderella or Snow White then when we find our Prince Charming everything should just fall into place and we should get along and be in love and there be no problems.”
Adam nodded, not quite sure what she was getting at.
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot. That sort of thing... well it sounds really boring. To always get along and always have the perfect relationship. Who wants that?” Her voice got softer. “Who wants a perfect life where everything makes sense and there’s no challenge? Sure it would be so-called ‘happy,’ but it would be the most boring life ever.”
“Jane, what-”
Joan turned on her side and supported her head in her hand, elbow on the ground next to his head. She looked at him.
“Adam, my life has never made any sense. At least not for a long while now. And I accepted that. In fact, I was getting used to it and I was happy. Truly happy. And once I was comfortable, something came along and ripped the ground from beneath me and I don’t know where to stand anymore.” A tear fell down her cheek and Adam felt a tightness in his chest.
“I just want my fairy tale back. The one where everything that didn’t make sense still somehow had a logical explanation behind it. The one where I was happy with how everything was going and I didn’t feel so... alone.”
Adam rested his hand on the side of her face and rubbed her tears with his thumb. “You aren’t alone, Jane. I’m always here when you need me.”
Joan nodded. “I know. I know you are but somehow... that’s just not enough.”
Adam raised his head up and kissed her mouth sweetly, not sure what else he could say. He didn’t know what she meant by any of it but if she was going to talk to him again, he was going to take what he could get for now.
She kissed him back, sighing when he pulled away. Slowly opening her eyes, she smiled weakly at him. “Thank you.”
“Anytime, Jane. I’m here anytime you want.”
Continue to Part IV