FIC: We gotta get out of this place 1/?
TITLE: We gotta get out of this place aka the one where Infeld sends them on a team-bonding trip, people get drunk and watch Ted and there's a lot more to Jared than meets the eye.
AUTHOR: mina93
PAIRING: Peter / Jared
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: Peter and Jared have shared a lot of experiences, some of them quite frustrating. These are just five of them...
NOTES: If you have trouble imagining the lake house, I imagine it as the one from the movie Grown Ups.
SPOILERS: General Season One & Two. SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE TED.
DISCLAIMER: Obviously not mine. Won't be making any money off this.
FEEDBACK: Yes, need it, I am not above begging.
During a rough week at Infeld & Daniels, Peter and Jared had butted heads with Hannah and Damien and ended up in a heated argument in an elevator with two very uncomfortable associates. Infeld had gotten a complaint and gave them all a warning about acting professional, this coming from the same guy who had encouraged workplace romances. At least they were doing well on that part.
The truce had lasted for about 3 days, that’s when Karp and Pindar had to work together on a housing court case and had almost ended up losing because of Pindar’s phobias which had led to him not being able to collect the final evidence to court in time.
Karp had yelled at Pindar and Carmen had yelled at Karp.
But it wasn’t until Peter and Jared had started a childish fight over a case that had gotten too personal which had let to Jared putting all of Peter’s stuff from the office into one of the conference rooms that Infeld had called them all into his office, including Carmen and Pindar.
“You are all going on a team-bonding trip.” He informed them, looking very smug about the whole thing.
“No way.” Damien said “The last time I was blindfolded while being forced to chase some old guy from the Philippines down a cornfield!”
“Wow, didn’t think you as the kinky type, Karpy.” Peter said and slapped Damien’s arm, Jared snorted.
“You’re not helping, seriously, listen to him and use your own imagination to think about what kind of team bonding exercises there would be on a trip led by Stanton Infeld.” Hannah whispered harshly to them.
“Something you want to share, Hannah?” Infeld asked, smiling broadly.
“No, I’m good.” She said with a fake smile “This really isn’t necessary, Stanton.”
“Oh, but I disagree.” Infeld said. “And besides, this time it will only be you guys on the trip, and me off course.”
“Where to?” Peter asked.
“I’m glad you asked, Peter.” Infeld said “Because I needed some place away from the city, a remote place where we could focus on the great outdoors and connect with nature and each other.”
“Oh my God, we’re going to some sort of freaky orgy camp.” Jared whispered, so only Peter and Damien could hear him, they both shrugged.
“No, nothing like that, Mr. Frankin.” Infeld said, great, Peter was Peter, but he was Mr. Franklin, he should really have kept his mouth shut.
“Then where are we going, Stanton? Hawaii?” Jared asked, he could use a vacation; no way he was getting on a surf board though.
“Actually, I made a deal with your father, so we are going to the famous Franklin Lake House.” Infeld answered with a grin.
“What?” Jared asked, eyes wide. “The lake house by the- the… lake?” he muttered. Damn it.
“Yes, in exchange, he could borrow my place in Switzerland to take his clients skiing, but if you prefer, we could take a whole week off and go there instead.”
“No!” Jared exclaimed before any of the others had a chance to open their mouths. Jared was not going skiing.
“Great, then we’ll leave on Thursday.” Infeld said “We’ll do a long weekend.”
--
“This’ll be horrible.”
“At least you’re not driving in the same car as Stanton, I bet Hannah and Karp’s ears are bleeding from the stories he would have told by now.” Peter said as he tapped the steering wheel to the rhythm of the song on the radio with one hand, the other resting loosely on Jared’s thigh.
“It’s just weird, all of them being at the lake house.” Jared said.
“At least it’s not exactly full of baby pictures of you there.” Peter answered “You know, nothing that Karp can use against you in the future.”
“At least there’s that, has to be some good sides to your parents hating you.” Jared said, turning around to look at Pindar and Carmen’s sleeping forms. He couldn’t blame them, getting up at 6 in the morning wasn’t their style, he’d promised Peter he’d stay awake though, so he wouldn’t get bored.
“They don’t hate you.” Peter said and Jared raised an eyebrow at him. “Not that they particularly like you, but.”
“There you go.” Jared grinned “And it won’t be that bad, we’ll just get along okay with the rest of the gang for a weekend, Infeld will be happy and we can go home.”
“Gang?”
“I’m tired, sue me.” Jared said and yawned.
“Don’t fall asleep.”
“Won’t.” he answered sleepily, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. “You snored last night.”
“I do not snore.” Peter said defensibly and held up a finger.
“Yes, you do, Petey Pie.” Jared said “And not in a cute way.”
“At least I don’t hit you in my sleep, Jare Bear.”
“That was one time.”
“Oh, please.”
“That’s it, you are sharing a bunk bed with Karp.” Jared said.
“Fine, no blow jobs for you this weekend then.”
“I am like eligible bachelor number 1 by that lake, don’t you worry about me.”
Peter smacked his arm and Jared smacked back. Carmen and Pindar were both brutally awakened as they almost drove straight off the road.
---
When they finally reached the lake house, Jared let out a breath of relief, he was so ready to get their stuff inside and take a long deserved nap, everyone else in the car had fallen asleep after they’d stopped to get groceries and Jared had taken over the driving after lunch. Even Peter, the traitor had dozed off.
“Hey, sleepy head.” Jared said as he shook Peter’s arm. “We’re here!” he raised his voice to wake Carmen and Pindar up as well, just as the other car parked next to them, He waved over at Hannah who was driving.
“Finally!” Carmen said as she opened the door and stretched her legs.
“Oh my God, if we die out here, nobody will know.” Pindar said as he looked out the windows of the car.
“Relax.” Peter said sleepily as he too rolled out of the car and gave a nod towards Hannah, Damien and Infeld who was getting their stuff out of the car.
“Nice ride?”
“Splendid.” Infeld said.
“It looks like it’s going to start raining.” Damien remarked as he looked up at the sky. Hannah looked like she was getting a migraine, the trip cannot have been a fun one.
----
“Wow, this place is gorgerous.” Hannah said as they got around the house to the front, where they could take in the lake and the whole scenery.
“It’s not bad.” Jared answered as he fumbled with the keys to the double doors. “Ha!” He said once he was able to unlock them and get inside. “Come on in.”
Peter grabbed both his and Jared’s bags and followed him inside.
“Just like I remember it.” Jared told him once they entered the joined kitchen-living room area.
“It’s nice!” Carmen said “A bit old fashioned though.”
“Not what I thought Leonard Franklin would buy.” Pindar said.
“Actually,” Jared started, while filling the refrigerator and cabinets with groceries “My mom made him buy it, she had some friends around here and she told my dad it was a great fishing place, turns out she just wanted him somewhere without cellphone service.”
“Wait, there’s no service here?” Damien asked, while frantically pulling his phone out of his pocket and started walking around the room, holding his phone up in the air.
“Oh, come on!” Hannah said, frustrated,
“Excellent.” Infeld said “I told you, I want you to focus on each other this weekend, not work or anything else.”
“At least you’ve got a TV.” Carmen said and pointed to the flat screen installed above the fireplace.
“No channels though, only an old VCR player.” Jared said as they could hear the thunder starting to crash.
“We’re going to die.” Pindar said.
----
Luckily the place wasn’t small so it was pretty easy with the sleeping arrangements. Hannah took the master bedroom with Carmen, even though they all knew she and Damien were dating again, Damien took the singles room with the private little balcony, Infeld insisted on sleeping on the pull-out couch in the barely-used hobby room, something about how it reminded him of an old bohemian lover of some sort, Pindar took the room Jared used to sleep in when he was younger, since he was immune to Jared’s germs, and Peter and Jared took the grand guest room.
“God, I remember your dad made me sleep here when I came with you that one summer.” Peter said as he flopped down onto the bed with Jared.
“Yeah, he never found out that you used to sneak back into my room after they’d gone to bed.”
“That sounded more dirty than it was.” Peter remarked and Jared laughed.
“Oh, God.” Jared groaned “Do you remember when we snatched dad’s liquor and sat up all night drinking and eating Cheetos while playing chutes and ladders?”
“And then we crashed your dad’s boat?”
Jared laughed hysterically “I admit, not our best idea!”
Peter laughed as well “He was so mad.”
“No wonder he hates you.”
“It was your idea!” Peter said and turned his head to meet Jared’s eyes.
Jared shook his head “That’s not how I remember it.”
“Do you remember puking orange all over your dad’s shoes, then?” Peter asked and Jared grimaced, before a look of realization hit his face.
“You were the one who puked on my dad.”
“What?” Peter asked, before trying to remember “Oh, yeah.”
“Yeah, he was yelling at us and threatening to send me to another school-“
“Which he did.”
“Well, yeah, and then you were going to protest, but ended up puking Cheetos all over him instead.”
“Okay, so I get why your dad hates me.” Peter said “Doesn’t change the fact that he’s kind of a dick though.”
Jared chuckled “No, it doesn’t.”
“We should probably get downstairs, they’re gonna think we’re having ‘wild monkey-sex’ as Carmen puts it.”
Jared kissed Peter’s cheek with a big smack before sitting up on the bed “If we were having crazy sex up here, they would know!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Peter asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You’re not exactly quiet.” Jared said as he smacked Peter’s knee and got up from the bed, already on his way out the door and downstairs.
“I’m the loud one?!” Peter yelled after him, getting a disgusted look from Pindar as he walked by the door.
----
“This is delicious, Hannah!” Jared said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes. Everyone around the table agreed.
“Thank you.” Hannah replied with a smile, as Damien refilled their wine glasses. Jared and Peter preferred beer, but they wouldn’t want to argue with Hannah’s ‘taste’ and give Infeld a reason to hold them there longer than necessary, since Jared already managed to start an argument with Damien about some of Jared’s old drawings that he had found.
“They were just lying around!”
“In a locked drawer?!”
“It wasn’t locked!”
“But it was in a drawer?”
“What’s the big deal?”
“They were private!”
“I can imagine you sitting by the water, drawing the sunset.”
“While you’re at it, you can imagine your mom on my desk!”
Infeld had not been happy.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this full.” Carmen said as she rubbed her stomach “Can’t remember the last time I had a meal that wasn’t spaghetti O’s or pizza.”
“Hey, I cook!” Peter objected.
“Burnt French toast doesn’t count.” Jared said.
“Oh, well….” Peter answered, causing Hannah to chuckle.
“I cook.” Pindar said while raising his hand hesitantly.
“Yeah, but you don’t share.” Jared said while looking accusingly at his roommate.
“So what do you fine, young people want to do tonight?” Infeld asked while clapping his hands together.
“Oh, you know, we’re pretty tired from the trip.”
“Yeah, us too.”
“Mhm, so tired.”
Infeld held up his arms “Where is your sense of adventure? We are out here in the beautiful, breath-taking nature and you just want to sleep?”
Damien shrugged his shoulders “Yes, it’ll make the time pass by, if I can sleep with all these crickets.”
“Crickets?” Pindar yelped.
“There aren’t any crickets here.” Peter answered.
“Whatever.” Damien brushed him off. “It’s starting to pour down out there.” He said as he nodded his head towards the big glass windows, the rain was dropping heavily on the glass and they could faintly hear thunder every now and then.
“I think it’s a curse, the weather was shitty most of the time I was here the last time too.” Peter said, taking a big swing of his glass of wine.
“You’ve been here before?” Infeld asked, clearly intrigued.
“Yeah, Jared dragged me up here once when we were 16, telling me that his parents had invited me, I should have known better.” Peter said and elbowed Jared playfully in his side.
“Leonard must have been happy, I’m sure.” Infeld said with a smile.
“Oh yeah, that man loves me.” Peter answered.
Carmen smiled “Sometimes I forget how long you’ve known each other.”
The thunder rumbled again.
“Thunderbuddies for life.” Jared said and met Peter halfway in a high-five.
“What?” Damien asked, trying to understand what those two idiots were talking about this time.
“It’s from Ted.” Carmen explained.
“What?”
“It’s a movie, about a teddy bear coming to life and this awesome friendship.” Carmen said and then looked over at Jared “And I thought you hated it.”
Peter snickered.
“Why?” Hannah asked “I thought that film would be right up your alley.”
Damien looked like a question mark “So it’s a cartoon? And have you seen it?” He asked Hannah.
“No, but I’ve heard about it, I don’t live under a rock.” She answered and Pindar snorted.
“So why do you hate it?” Hannah asked.
“Because it reminds him of how, as Jared put it, ‘Janie ruined my awesome bromance with Peter’ back in the days” Carmen said and got a death glare from Jared.
Seriously, whatever happened to the stupid-stuff-we-admit-while-we-are-drunk-shall-not-be-repeated-rule?
“That’s why?” Peter asked, trying to hold back a laugh as he leaned in closer and lowered his voice so only Jared could hear him “Is that why you cry when they fight too?” Jared turned his death glare to Peter instead.
“Shut up, you cry while watching Happy Feet.” He hissed.
“Okay, now I’m intrigued.” Damien said.
“I know what we’re doing tonight.” Carmen said in triumph as she clapped her hands together “I have Ted on my lap top, we can hook it up to the TV.”
Jared really didn’t need everyone to analyze the shit out of that film and turning it against him.
“What about the thunder?” he asked. “And the lightening?”
“It’s miles away.” Hannah said “It’ll be fine.”
“I’ll get you back for this.” Jared said, pointing an accusing finger at Carmen.
----
After a lot of arguing over seating arrangements around the TV, they finally managed to get comfortable.
Peter and Jared were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the couch on the left side, sitting as close as possible without it seeing unprofessional, if they were at home right now, Jared would probably have his feet in Peter’s lap or snuggling his head in the crock of Peter’s shoulder, but this was a business trip… Sort of, so they kept to themselves.
Damien and Infeld were sitting on opposite sides of the couch in the middle, and Pindar had gotten comfortable in the big comfy chair opposite of Peter and Jared.
The girls had gotten a mountain of pillows and blankets and were now sitting comfortably on the floor, Hannah leaning casually against Damien’s legs.
It was all actually kind of nice, except for the fact that they had now had quite a lot to drink and people were just throwing their opinions out in the open.
“I can totally see how you relate this to the two of you.” Damien said as an image of Mark Wahlberg getting high with an animated teddy bear was playing on the screen.
“Shut up, for the last time, I do not relate this to Peter and me, even though the fat kid sort of reminds me of Peter.” Jared said which earned him an elbow in his ribs.
“Oh, come on, you were chubby.” Jared remarked.
“Yeah, well, at least I lost the weight, you kept the height.” He said and ruffled Jared’s hair for good measure.
“Asshole.”
----
“Wow, I can’t believe Ted moved out so easily, thought he would put up more of a fight, I bet you did, Jared.” Damien said, refilling his wine glass again.
“Me too.” Hannah said, holding her own glass up so Damien could refill hers too.
“Peter never kicked me out.” Jared said as he took a swing off his beer.
“No, Peter was the one who moved out.” Carmen said and Jared threw popcorn at her.
“Not cool, John.” Hannah commented in a ridiculous Boston accent. Drunk-Hannah was the weirdest thing ever.
Jared could have sworn he saw Infeld smile.
-----
“No, oh my God!” Hannah exclaimed as Ted was falling down onto the field.
“Jared!” Carmen shrieked.
“Peter, save him!”
“Oh, for the love of-“ Jared said as he buried his head in his hands.
Peter laughed.
----
After the movie was done and Pindar had finished crying, Jared was putting the wine glasses in the sink while everyone else was going to bed and Peter was carrying a sleeping Carmen to her room.
Jared sighed heavily as his ears were buzzing and his vision was doubled. He should know better than to mix wine with beer. Had he forgotten about Santa Monica’ 87?
Feeling slightly nauseous, he decided to go out onto the balcony to get some fresh air, seeing as the weather had cleared up.The breeze was really nice on his hot skin and he took a deep breath, leaning against the railing.
“Hey.” He heard a familiar voice behind him. “How are you feeling?”
“A little drunk.” Jared answered as he turned his eyes to see Peter’s grin.
“Leightweight.”
“Shut up, you had like, one glass of wine and two beers.” Jared said and smacked Peter’s arm, not really knowing why.
“I had four beers, and you’re still a lightweight.” Peter answered.
“Ted’s stupid, it’s a stupid movie.” Jared suddenly said. “They-they, they kept saying that it was like us, but it’s not like us.” He said while waving towards the house.
“No, it’s not.” Peter agreed.
“Because there’s no way Janie would give a shit if I was ripped in half.” Jared said “And she would not waste a magic wish on putting me back together and bringing me back to life, that’s for sure!”
“You have no idea how weird that sounded.” Peter said.
“Whatever, I’m drunk, I had like… 24 beers.” Jared said and then leaned over the railing with his upper body. “Twenty-four-beers!” he sing-sang at the lake, aware of the fact that Peter was holding onto his hips, making sure he didn’t fall over.
“We shared two six-packs.” Peter said “I had four, which means that you had…?”
“10” Jared blurted out with a grin and leaned up on his tiptoes to kiss Peter on his nose.
“I love it when you’re on this stage of drunkenness.” Peter said.
“Really? And what stage is that?” Jared asked happily.
“Where you are drunk enough to blurt out stupid stuff, but not drunk enough that you won’t remember it in the morning.”
“Damn, I hate that stage.” Jared said
Peter chuckled “I know, I warned you about mixing wine with beer. Santa Monica, remember?”
“Yeah, that was awesome!”
“Yeah, it was, remember that dancing chimp?”
Jared laughed “No!”
“You know, we’re nothing like John and Ted, because I would never have chosen anyone else over you.”
Jared’s grin faded a little before he opened his mouth and closed it a few times, wondering whether he should say something about how he’d moved out to live with Janie, even though it didn’t last very long and they had still hung out every day.
“Good.” He ended up saying, thinking about how rarely Peter would say something as smushy as what he just said.
---
There was a lot of things you could imagine Jared Franklin doing while at the family cabin; playing darts, tanning on the deck, relaxing in the Jacuzzi, playing some basketball, taking the four-wheelers out for a ride, or even trying out the jet- ski’s if he’d had enough beer that day. Getting up early to swim across the lake and back however, was not on that list.
“I thought he hated… Moving.” Carmen said as they were all sitting out on the deck above the water, taking in the morning sun, watching as Jared was on his way back from his swim.
“But he’s pretty good at Wii Tennis, though.” Pindar said as they were all trying to make sense of the situation.
“Did he do this the last time you were here?” Damien asked.
“He did, a couple of times, I usually wasn’t up at the time though, didn’t know it was a regular thing.” Peter said, as Jared climbed up onto land and went to get his towel from the chair outside the boat house.
“Hey!” He said and waved up at them.
“You know, you learn a lot about a man from where he spent his holidays.” Infeld said, I guess it sort of make sense. Sort of.
Peter was too busy staring at Jared’s half naked body to notice.
-----
“So, what’s there to do around here?” Hannah asked when Jared joined them on the deck. “I mean, other than getting up before the sun to go swimming?”
Jared grinned while drying off his hair with the towel “We pretty much got it all, what do you want to do?”
“Fishing.”
“You got any video games?”
“I’m hungry.”
“Are there any good hike trails out here?”
“Remember, you are supposed to be bonding, do something together.” Infeld said as Jared flopped down onto the available chair next to Carmen.
“We’ve got canoes.” Jared suggested, and he could hear Pindar groan.
“Excellent.” Infeld said “We can team up, make a competition out of it.”
---
After a delicious breakfast (Hannah really was quite the cook, who would have known?) they all got their life jackets, Damien only protesting slightly over how it wrinkled his sweater, and got the canoes out on the water.
“Now, hold up a second.” Infeld said as Peter and Jared was about to jump into one of the canoes. “You already work together all the time, let’s make it interesting.”
Since they were one to many, Pindar decided to “take one for the team” as he put it and stayed behind to clean the cabin, they had been there almost a day after all.
Jared was then reluctantly paired with Damien, since they couldn’t seem to work together lately (“when have we ever been able to work together?” Jared had commented), Peter shared a canoe with Hannah, which Jared thought was totally unfair, because Hannah was much easier to cooperate with. Infeld had argued that the two of them hardly worked together, and that left poor Carmen with Infeld and his stories.
“I’ve never had the opportunity to really get to know you.” Infeld said with a smile, which Carmen returned, she did have manners after all.
“We’ll kick their asses.” She said as she got settled in the canoe.
“Alright then!” Jared said “Everyone see that little island over there?” He said and pointed out at the water.
“It’s not an island, it’s a rock.” Damien said.
“It’s an island, now shut up.” Jared said. “First one to make it around that and back, wins!”
It was an easy enough task, one would think.
About half way out though, Infeld got distracted, Carmen had seen a spider (the one thing that girl was deadly afraid of) and ended up panicking and losing her oar in the water, Hannah and Peter started arguing for a bit on whether or not they should help them, but both decided against it since they both loved to win. By the time the two of them were at the island and on their way back, Jared and Damien had somehow ended up in the water and was currently splashing around trying to drown each other.
Was it Monday yet?
----
Things were slightly better at lunch after everyone had gotten a shower and were too starving to complain much. The fact that Jared and Peter had managed to sneak off to Jared’s old tree house to make out for about 20 minutes had also helped on Jared’s mood.
They all appreciated the meals, because that was when they all seemed to manage to act civilized and Pindar had made some really good sandwiches.
“Thanks, Pindy, these are great.” Carmen said as she helped herself with her second chicken sandwich.
“Thank you, Carmen, it’s nice to be appreciated.” Pindar said with a huge smile on his face. “So what are we doing later?”
“Nothing that includes water!” Jared answered, pretending to knock water out from his ears and looking accusingly at Damien.
“It was your own fault!”
Jared was about to respond when Infeld cut him off.
“Let’s not start throwing blame around; a little water has never hurt anyone.” Infeld said “How about a nice hike?”
----
The fact that Infeld himself had declined on joining the hike that he had insisted they all had to go on, was a little annoying, but to be honest, it was nice not feeling like a five year old getting yelled at for a little while.
“Something bit me!” Pindar yelled as he started jumping up and down, ruffling his hair hysterically.
“It was probably just a mosquito.” Peter said “Relax, here, have some more bug spray.” He threw the can to Pindar, who gratefully started spraying himself down.
“It’s really pretty out here.” Hannah said once they were finally on the top of the hill they were climbing. “You can see the whole lake from here.”
“Yeah, it’s awesome.” Jared said breathlessly and a little sarcastically as he sat down on a rock, Peter falling flat on his ass next to him on the grass.
“I hate hiking.” He said.
“Me too.”
“Seriously, you swam for like, an hour, this morning.” Damien said “And you can’t walk for 20 minutes without gasping for breath like an old man with pneumonia?”
“It’s not the same thing!” Jared defended himself “My feet hurt.”
“Mine too.” Peter said.
“They get exhausted walking up a set of stairs.” Carmen said as she handed them a bottle of water, which they both grasped for “Now, be nice and share.”
“I have a signal!” Damien exclaimed happily after he dug his phone out of his pocket. “I have to check my messages.”
“Stop it, and enjoy the view.” Hannah said “It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah, you should have brought your sketchbook, Jared.” Damien said.
His phone ended up being thrown down the cliff.
“What the fuck?” Damien yelled as he looked down the cliff, trying to see if his phone might have survived the fall down into the forest.
“Woops.” Jared said.
“You are so childish sometimes!” Hannah exclaimed, getting angry as well.
“And you are so uptight!” Jared said back.
“We’re uptight, because we don’t act like idiots?” Damien asked, and Carmen bit her lip, when had things gotten so bad? Oh, yeah, right.
“Idiots, really?” Peter said, getting up from the ground as well.
“That’s why you were hired, remember?”
“OKAY!” Carmen yelled, making everyone stop dead in their tracks. “That’s enough you guys!”
Jared bit the inside of his cheek and turned to look at her.
“We all know things have been tense ever since you two-“she said, gesturing between Damien and Hannah “tried getting you two, fired.” She finished, looking at Peter and Jared. “And all that drama with Infeld & Daniels almost being sold out to Jared’s dad, and the ‘who can you trust, who can you not’ crap, but it’s been months, you need to get over it!”
“I have gotten over it.” Jared said, jabbing a finger at his own chest “its monkey-face here that will never accept the fact that Franklin & Bash are actually good at what we do!”
“Monkey face?”
“Yeah, cause you look like a monkey!”
“Stop it!” Pindar said, covering his ears.
“I am simply aware of the fact that one day you two will step too far out of line and you will bring the company down with you.”
“We would never compromise the company!” Peter argued, even though they actually had, a couple of times, but that was beside the point, this was a meaningless argument for God’s sake! “We know where the line is, and yes, we might step over it from time to time for the best of our clients, but-“
“You can’t even see the line!”
“This is so stupid.” Hannah said, and Damien turned to look at her. “Don’t give me that look, Carmen’s right, there’s a reason why Infeld brought us out here in the middle of nowhere, so we couldn’t hide behind our cases and actually deal with the issue at hand here.”
Jared looked at Peter, who gave him a small nod, okay, so maybe they were all idiots.
“We are concerned about the risks you take to win your cases, and yes, we rarely see eye to eye when it comes to methods that are used, but most of the time we do win, and that’s because we are good lawyers, all of us.”
“She’s right you know.” Peter told Jared.
“Yeah, I know, we’re awesome lawyers.”
Damien snorted.
“Don’t give me that, you’ve been impressed with them too.” Hannah said and Jared and Peter both went ‘aaaww’.
“Karpy!”
“You’re so sweet.”
“Shoot me now”.
“Look at all of you, facing your issues like grown up’s, I am so proud of you!” Carmen said as she hooked her arms around Jared and Peter’s shoulders.
“Well, while we’re on the issue… Pindar, are you crying?”
“It’s just so beautiful to see that people who don’t really get along, actually do care for each other?”
“Wait, care?”
“Hold your horses there, Pindy.”
“You just ruined the moment, buddy.”
“Let’s go play some ball.”
-----
The hike back was actually surprisingly pleasant as they all could find a common factor to talk about, or actually, make fun of; it wasn’t so fun for Pindar though.
Infeld had greeted them with a smile when he had seen them actually looking pretty happy with one another when they came back. And Peter could have sworn that he had grinned like a mad man and written something down on his phone when Damien had given Carmen a three-pointer while playing ball, even though her foot was on the line.
They heated up the barbeque for dinner, and brought out blankets and ate on the deck, watching the sunset.
“I have never been this tired in my entire life.” Peter said once they settled down with their food.
“Me neither.” Pindar agreed as he took a bite of the chicken he’d brought.
“I am happy to see that you seem to be getting along better now.” Infeld said with a smile.
“Does that mean we can go home now?”
“Come on, this place is starting to grow on me.” Carmen said.
“Nature isn’t as bad as I remember it.” Pindar said and Jared slapped his arm.
“You’re not missing your girlfriend, then?”
“Off course I do!” Pindar said, like he had just been accused of a terrible crime.
“Thank God she’s not here.” Carmen said, and Pindar looked at her like with worry in his eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Megan, it’s just, I’m sort of already feeling like I’m a couple’s retreat here.” She said and nodded over to Jared, Peter, Damien and Hannah.
“Hey, we keep a low-key!”
“Yeah, like we all didn’t know what you were doing up in that tree house!”
“Great, thanks for sticking that one image in my head.” Damien groaned and rubbed his eyes.
“You can replace Peter with your mom if you like.” Jared said.
“Seriously?” Peter asked and raised his eyebrows at him.
“What? Too much?”
“A little.”
“Sorry.”
Carmen and Hannah laughed loud enough to scare off a herd of birds that were trying to catch some fish out on the water.
Infeld snorted as well, before he started: “You know, this reminds me of the time I went fly-fishing in Alaska, you see, they say that the mountains there…”
Jared instantly tuned out, he just smiled and nodded at the right places, a skill had perfected while growing up. He looked over at Peter who gave him a “what the hell is he talking about this time?’- look. Jared only shrugged his shoulders. Peter looked happy, that was good, he liked it when Peter was happy.
Part 2: http://mina93.livejournal.com/3427.html
AUTHOR: mina93
PAIRING: Peter / Jared
RATING: PG-13
SUMMARY: Peter and Jared have shared a lot of experiences, some of them quite frustrating. These are just five of them...
NOTES: If you have trouble imagining the lake house, I imagine it as the one from the movie Grown Ups.
SPOILERS: General Season One & Two. SPOILERS FOR THE MOVIE TED.
DISCLAIMER: Obviously not mine. Won't be making any money off this.
FEEDBACK: Yes, need it, I am not above begging.
During a rough week at Infeld & Daniels, Peter and Jared had butted heads with Hannah and Damien and ended up in a heated argument in an elevator with two very uncomfortable associates. Infeld had gotten a complaint and gave them all a warning about acting professional, this coming from the same guy who had encouraged workplace romances. At least they were doing well on that part.
The truce had lasted for about 3 days, that’s when Karp and Pindar had to work together on a housing court case and had almost ended up losing because of Pindar’s phobias which had led to him not being able to collect the final evidence to court in time.
Karp had yelled at Pindar and Carmen had yelled at Karp.
But it wasn’t until Peter and Jared had started a childish fight over a case that had gotten too personal which had let to Jared putting all of Peter’s stuff from the office into one of the conference rooms that Infeld had called them all into his office, including Carmen and Pindar.
“You are all going on a team-bonding trip.” He informed them, looking very smug about the whole thing.
“No way.” Damien said “The last time I was blindfolded while being forced to chase some old guy from the Philippines down a cornfield!”
“Wow, didn’t think you as the kinky type, Karpy.” Peter said and slapped Damien’s arm, Jared snorted.
“You’re not helping, seriously, listen to him and use your own imagination to think about what kind of team bonding exercises there would be on a trip led by Stanton Infeld.” Hannah whispered harshly to them.
“Something you want to share, Hannah?” Infeld asked, smiling broadly.
“No, I’m good.” She said with a fake smile “This really isn’t necessary, Stanton.”
“Oh, but I disagree.” Infeld said. “And besides, this time it will only be you guys on the trip, and me off course.”
“Where to?” Peter asked.
“I’m glad you asked, Peter.” Infeld said “Because I needed some place away from the city, a remote place where we could focus on the great outdoors and connect with nature and each other.”
“Oh my God, we’re going to some sort of freaky orgy camp.” Jared whispered, so only Peter and Damien could hear him, they both shrugged.
“No, nothing like that, Mr. Frankin.” Infeld said, great, Peter was Peter, but he was Mr. Franklin, he should really have kept his mouth shut.
“Then where are we going, Stanton? Hawaii?” Jared asked, he could use a vacation; no way he was getting on a surf board though.
“Actually, I made a deal with your father, so we are going to the famous Franklin Lake House.” Infeld answered with a grin.
“What?” Jared asked, eyes wide. “The lake house by the- the… lake?” he muttered. Damn it.
“Yes, in exchange, he could borrow my place in Switzerland to take his clients skiing, but if you prefer, we could take a whole week off and go there instead.”
“No!” Jared exclaimed before any of the others had a chance to open their mouths. Jared was not going skiing.
“Great, then we’ll leave on Thursday.” Infeld said “We’ll do a long weekend.”
--
“This’ll be horrible.”
“At least you’re not driving in the same car as Stanton, I bet Hannah and Karp’s ears are bleeding from the stories he would have told by now.” Peter said as he tapped the steering wheel to the rhythm of the song on the radio with one hand, the other resting loosely on Jared’s thigh.
“It’s just weird, all of them being at the lake house.” Jared said.
“At least it’s not exactly full of baby pictures of you there.” Peter answered “You know, nothing that Karp can use against you in the future.”
“At least there’s that, has to be some good sides to your parents hating you.” Jared said, turning around to look at Pindar and Carmen’s sleeping forms. He couldn’t blame them, getting up at 6 in the morning wasn’t their style, he’d promised Peter he’d stay awake though, so he wouldn’t get bored.
“They don’t hate you.” Peter said and Jared raised an eyebrow at him. “Not that they particularly like you, but.”
“There you go.” Jared grinned “And it won’t be that bad, we’ll just get along okay with the rest of the gang for a weekend, Infeld will be happy and we can go home.”
“Gang?”
“I’m tired, sue me.” Jared said and yawned.
“Don’t fall asleep.”
“Won’t.” he answered sleepily, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. “You snored last night.”
“I do not snore.” Peter said defensibly and held up a finger.
“Yes, you do, Petey Pie.” Jared said “And not in a cute way.”
“At least I don’t hit you in my sleep, Jare Bear.”
“That was one time.”
“Oh, please.”
“That’s it, you are sharing a bunk bed with Karp.” Jared said.
“Fine, no blow jobs for you this weekend then.”
“I am like eligible bachelor number 1 by that lake, don’t you worry about me.”
Peter smacked his arm and Jared smacked back. Carmen and Pindar were both brutally awakened as they almost drove straight off the road.
---
When they finally reached the lake house, Jared let out a breath of relief, he was so ready to get their stuff inside and take a long deserved nap, everyone else in the car had fallen asleep after they’d stopped to get groceries and Jared had taken over the driving after lunch. Even Peter, the traitor had dozed off.
“Hey, sleepy head.” Jared said as he shook Peter’s arm. “We’re here!” he raised his voice to wake Carmen and Pindar up as well, just as the other car parked next to them, He waved over at Hannah who was driving.
“Finally!” Carmen said as she opened the door and stretched her legs.
“Oh my God, if we die out here, nobody will know.” Pindar said as he looked out the windows of the car.
“Relax.” Peter said sleepily as he too rolled out of the car and gave a nod towards Hannah, Damien and Infeld who was getting their stuff out of the car.
“Nice ride?”
“Splendid.” Infeld said.
“It looks like it’s going to start raining.” Damien remarked as he looked up at the sky. Hannah looked like she was getting a migraine, the trip cannot have been a fun one.
----
“Wow, this place is gorgerous.” Hannah said as they got around the house to the front, where they could take in the lake and the whole scenery.
“It’s not bad.” Jared answered as he fumbled with the keys to the double doors. “Ha!” He said once he was able to unlock them and get inside. “Come on in.”
Peter grabbed both his and Jared’s bags and followed him inside.
“Just like I remember it.” Jared told him once they entered the joined kitchen-living room area.
“It’s nice!” Carmen said “A bit old fashioned though.”
“Not what I thought Leonard Franklin would buy.” Pindar said.
“Actually,” Jared started, while filling the refrigerator and cabinets with groceries “My mom made him buy it, she had some friends around here and she told my dad it was a great fishing place, turns out she just wanted him somewhere without cellphone service.”
“Wait, there’s no service here?” Damien asked, while frantically pulling his phone out of his pocket and started walking around the room, holding his phone up in the air.
“Oh, come on!” Hannah said, frustrated,
“Excellent.” Infeld said “I told you, I want you to focus on each other this weekend, not work or anything else.”
“At least you’ve got a TV.” Carmen said and pointed to the flat screen installed above the fireplace.
“No channels though, only an old VCR player.” Jared said as they could hear the thunder starting to crash.
“We’re going to die.” Pindar said.
----
Luckily the place wasn’t small so it was pretty easy with the sleeping arrangements. Hannah took the master bedroom with Carmen, even though they all knew she and Damien were dating again, Damien took the singles room with the private little balcony, Infeld insisted on sleeping on the pull-out couch in the barely-used hobby room, something about how it reminded him of an old bohemian lover of some sort, Pindar took the room Jared used to sleep in when he was younger, since he was immune to Jared’s germs, and Peter and Jared took the grand guest room.
“God, I remember your dad made me sleep here when I came with you that one summer.” Peter said as he flopped down onto the bed with Jared.
“Yeah, he never found out that you used to sneak back into my room after they’d gone to bed.”
“That sounded more dirty than it was.” Peter remarked and Jared laughed.
“Oh, God.” Jared groaned “Do you remember when we snatched dad’s liquor and sat up all night drinking and eating Cheetos while playing chutes and ladders?”
“And then we crashed your dad’s boat?”
Jared laughed hysterically “I admit, not our best idea!”
Peter laughed as well “He was so mad.”
“No wonder he hates you.”
“It was your idea!” Peter said and turned his head to meet Jared’s eyes.
Jared shook his head “That’s not how I remember it.”
“Do you remember puking orange all over your dad’s shoes, then?” Peter asked and Jared grimaced, before a look of realization hit his face.
“You were the one who puked on my dad.”
“What?” Peter asked, before trying to remember “Oh, yeah.”
“Yeah, he was yelling at us and threatening to send me to another school-“
“Which he did.”
“Well, yeah, and then you were going to protest, but ended up puking Cheetos all over him instead.”
“Okay, so I get why your dad hates me.” Peter said “Doesn’t change the fact that he’s kind of a dick though.”
Jared chuckled “No, it doesn’t.”
“We should probably get downstairs, they’re gonna think we’re having ‘wild monkey-sex’ as Carmen puts it.”
Jared kissed Peter’s cheek with a big smack before sitting up on the bed “If we were having crazy sex up here, they would know!”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Peter asked with a raised eyebrow.
“You’re not exactly quiet.” Jared said as he smacked Peter’s knee and got up from the bed, already on his way out the door and downstairs.
“I’m the loud one?!” Peter yelled after him, getting a disgusted look from Pindar as he walked by the door.
----
“This is delicious, Hannah!” Jared said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes. Everyone around the table agreed.
“Thank you.” Hannah replied with a smile, as Damien refilled their wine glasses. Jared and Peter preferred beer, but they wouldn’t want to argue with Hannah’s ‘taste’ and give Infeld a reason to hold them there longer than necessary, since Jared already managed to start an argument with Damien about some of Jared’s old drawings that he had found.
“They were just lying around!”
“In a locked drawer?!”
“It wasn’t locked!”
“But it was in a drawer?”
“What’s the big deal?”
“They were private!”
“I can imagine you sitting by the water, drawing the sunset.”
“While you’re at it, you can imagine your mom on my desk!”
Infeld had not been happy.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been this full.” Carmen said as she rubbed her stomach “Can’t remember the last time I had a meal that wasn’t spaghetti O’s or pizza.”
“Hey, I cook!” Peter objected.
“Burnt French toast doesn’t count.” Jared said.
“Oh, well….” Peter answered, causing Hannah to chuckle.
“I cook.” Pindar said while raising his hand hesitantly.
“Yeah, but you don’t share.” Jared said while looking accusingly at his roommate.
“So what do you fine, young people want to do tonight?” Infeld asked while clapping his hands together.
“Oh, you know, we’re pretty tired from the trip.”
“Yeah, us too.”
“Mhm, so tired.”
Infeld held up his arms “Where is your sense of adventure? We are out here in the beautiful, breath-taking nature and you just want to sleep?”
Damien shrugged his shoulders “Yes, it’ll make the time pass by, if I can sleep with all these crickets.”
“Crickets?” Pindar yelped.
“There aren’t any crickets here.” Peter answered.
“Whatever.” Damien brushed him off. “It’s starting to pour down out there.” He said as he nodded his head towards the big glass windows, the rain was dropping heavily on the glass and they could faintly hear thunder every now and then.
“I think it’s a curse, the weather was shitty most of the time I was here the last time too.” Peter said, taking a big swing of his glass of wine.
“You’ve been here before?” Infeld asked, clearly intrigued.
“Yeah, Jared dragged me up here once when we were 16, telling me that his parents had invited me, I should have known better.” Peter said and elbowed Jared playfully in his side.
“Leonard must have been happy, I’m sure.” Infeld said with a smile.
“Oh yeah, that man loves me.” Peter answered.
Carmen smiled “Sometimes I forget how long you’ve known each other.”
The thunder rumbled again.
“Thunderbuddies for life.” Jared said and met Peter halfway in a high-five.
“What?” Damien asked, trying to understand what those two idiots were talking about this time.
“It’s from Ted.” Carmen explained.
“What?”
“It’s a movie, about a teddy bear coming to life and this awesome friendship.” Carmen said and then looked over at Jared “And I thought you hated it.”
Peter snickered.
“Why?” Hannah asked “I thought that film would be right up your alley.”
Damien looked like a question mark “So it’s a cartoon? And have you seen it?” He asked Hannah.
“No, but I’ve heard about it, I don’t live under a rock.” She answered and Pindar snorted.
“So why do you hate it?” Hannah asked.
“Because it reminds him of how, as Jared put it, ‘Janie ruined my awesome bromance with Peter’ back in the days” Carmen said and got a death glare from Jared.
Seriously, whatever happened to the stupid-stuff-we-admit-while-we-are-drunk-shall-not-be-repeated-rule?
“That’s why?” Peter asked, trying to hold back a laugh as he leaned in closer and lowered his voice so only Jared could hear him “Is that why you cry when they fight too?” Jared turned his death glare to Peter instead.
“Shut up, you cry while watching Happy Feet.” He hissed.
“Okay, now I’m intrigued.” Damien said.
“I know what we’re doing tonight.” Carmen said in triumph as she clapped her hands together “I have Ted on my lap top, we can hook it up to the TV.”
Jared really didn’t need everyone to analyze the shit out of that film and turning it against him.
“What about the thunder?” he asked. “And the lightening?”
“It’s miles away.” Hannah said “It’ll be fine.”
“I’ll get you back for this.” Jared said, pointing an accusing finger at Carmen.
----
After a lot of arguing over seating arrangements around the TV, they finally managed to get comfortable.
Peter and Jared were sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the couch on the left side, sitting as close as possible without it seeing unprofessional, if they were at home right now, Jared would probably have his feet in Peter’s lap or snuggling his head in the crock of Peter’s shoulder, but this was a business trip… Sort of, so they kept to themselves.
Damien and Infeld were sitting on opposite sides of the couch in the middle, and Pindar had gotten comfortable in the big comfy chair opposite of Peter and Jared.
The girls had gotten a mountain of pillows and blankets and were now sitting comfortably on the floor, Hannah leaning casually against Damien’s legs.
It was all actually kind of nice, except for the fact that they had now had quite a lot to drink and people were just throwing their opinions out in the open.
“I can totally see how you relate this to the two of you.” Damien said as an image of Mark Wahlberg getting high with an animated teddy bear was playing on the screen.
“Shut up, for the last time, I do not relate this to Peter and me, even though the fat kid sort of reminds me of Peter.” Jared said which earned him an elbow in his ribs.
“Oh, come on, you were chubby.” Jared remarked.
“Yeah, well, at least I lost the weight, you kept the height.” He said and ruffled Jared’s hair for good measure.
“Asshole.”
----
“Wow, I can’t believe Ted moved out so easily, thought he would put up more of a fight, I bet you did, Jared.” Damien said, refilling his wine glass again.
“Me too.” Hannah said, holding her own glass up so Damien could refill hers too.
“Peter never kicked me out.” Jared said as he took a swing off his beer.
“No, Peter was the one who moved out.” Carmen said and Jared threw popcorn at her.
“Not cool, John.” Hannah commented in a ridiculous Boston accent. Drunk-Hannah was the weirdest thing ever.
Jared could have sworn he saw Infeld smile.
-----
“No, oh my God!” Hannah exclaimed as Ted was falling down onto the field.
“Jared!” Carmen shrieked.
“Peter, save him!”
“Oh, for the love of-“ Jared said as he buried his head in his hands.
Peter laughed.
----
After the movie was done and Pindar had finished crying, Jared was putting the wine glasses in the sink while everyone else was going to bed and Peter was carrying a sleeping Carmen to her room.
Jared sighed heavily as his ears were buzzing and his vision was doubled. He should know better than to mix wine with beer. Had he forgotten about Santa Monica’ 87?
Feeling slightly nauseous, he decided to go out onto the balcony to get some fresh air, seeing as the weather had cleared up.The breeze was really nice on his hot skin and he took a deep breath, leaning against the railing.
“Hey.” He heard a familiar voice behind him. “How are you feeling?”
“A little drunk.” Jared answered as he turned his eyes to see Peter’s grin.
“Leightweight.”
“Shut up, you had like, one glass of wine and two beers.” Jared said and smacked Peter’s arm, not really knowing why.
“I had four beers, and you’re still a lightweight.” Peter answered.
“Ted’s stupid, it’s a stupid movie.” Jared suddenly said. “They-they, they kept saying that it was like us, but it’s not like us.” He said while waving towards the house.
“No, it’s not.” Peter agreed.
“Because there’s no way Janie would give a shit if I was ripped in half.” Jared said “And she would not waste a magic wish on putting me back together and bringing me back to life, that’s for sure!”
“You have no idea how weird that sounded.” Peter said.
“Whatever, I’m drunk, I had like… 24 beers.” Jared said and then leaned over the railing with his upper body. “Twenty-four-beers!” he sing-sang at the lake, aware of the fact that Peter was holding onto his hips, making sure he didn’t fall over.
“We shared two six-packs.” Peter said “I had four, which means that you had…?”
“10” Jared blurted out with a grin and leaned up on his tiptoes to kiss Peter on his nose.
“I love it when you’re on this stage of drunkenness.” Peter said.
“Really? And what stage is that?” Jared asked happily.
“Where you are drunk enough to blurt out stupid stuff, but not drunk enough that you won’t remember it in the morning.”
“Damn, I hate that stage.” Jared said
Peter chuckled “I know, I warned you about mixing wine with beer. Santa Monica, remember?”
“Yeah, that was awesome!”
“Yeah, it was, remember that dancing chimp?”
Jared laughed “No!”
“You know, we’re nothing like John and Ted, because I would never have chosen anyone else over you.”
Jared’s grin faded a little before he opened his mouth and closed it a few times, wondering whether he should say something about how he’d moved out to live with Janie, even though it didn’t last very long and they had still hung out every day.
“Good.” He ended up saying, thinking about how rarely Peter would say something as smushy as what he just said.
---
There was a lot of things you could imagine Jared Franklin doing while at the family cabin; playing darts, tanning on the deck, relaxing in the Jacuzzi, playing some basketball, taking the four-wheelers out for a ride, or even trying out the jet- ski’s if he’d had enough beer that day. Getting up early to swim across the lake and back however, was not on that list.
“I thought he hated… Moving.” Carmen said as they were all sitting out on the deck above the water, taking in the morning sun, watching as Jared was on his way back from his swim.
“But he’s pretty good at Wii Tennis, though.” Pindar said as they were all trying to make sense of the situation.
“Did he do this the last time you were here?” Damien asked.
“He did, a couple of times, I usually wasn’t up at the time though, didn’t know it was a regular thing.” Peter said, as Jared climbed up onto land and went to get his towel from the chair outside the boat house.
“Hey!” He said and waved up at them.
“You know, you learn a lot about a man from where he spent his holidays.” Infeld said, I guess it sort of make sense. Sort of.
Peter was too busy staring at Jared’s half naked body to notice.
-----
“So, what’s there to do around here?” Hannah asked when Jared joined them on the deck. “I mean, other than getting up before the sun to go swimming?”
Jared grinned while drying off his hair with the towel “We pretty much got it all, what do you want to do?”
“Fishing.”
“You got any video games?”
“I’m hungry.”
“Are there any good hike trails out here?”
“Remember, you are supposed to be bonding, do something together.” Infeld said as Jared flopped down onto the available chair next to Carmen.
“We’ve got canoes.” Jared suggested, and he could hear Pindar groan.
“Excellent.” Infeld said “We can team up, make a competition out of it.”
---
After a delicious breakfast (Hannah really was quite the cook, who would have known?) they all got their life jackets, Damien only protesting slightly over how it wrinkled his sweater, and got the canoes out on the water.
“Now, hold up a second.” Infeld said as Peter and Jared was about to jump into one of the canoes. “You already work together all the time, let’s make it interesting.”
Since they were one to many, Pindar decided to “take one for the team” as he put it and stayed behind to clean the cabin, they had been there almost a day after all.
Jared was then reluctantly paired with Damien, since they couldn’t seem to work together lately (“when have we ever been able to work together?” Jared had commented), Peter shared a canoe with Hannah, which Jared thought was totally unfair, because Hannah was much easier to cooperate with. Infeld had argued that the two of them hardly worked together, and that left poor Carmen with Infeld and his stories.
“I’ve never had the opportunity to really get to know you.” Infeld said with a smile, which Carmen returned, she did have manners after all.
“We’ll kick their asses.” She said as she got settled in the canoe.
“Alright then!” Jared said “Everyone see that little island over there?” He said and pointed out at the water.
“It’s not an island, it’s a rock.” Damien said.
“It’s an island, now shut up.” Jared said. “First one to make it around that and back, wins!”
It was an easy enough task, one would think.
About half way out though, Infeld got distracted, Carmen had seen a spider (the one thing that girl was deadly afraid of) and ended up panicking and losing her oar in the water, Hannah and Peter started arguing for a bit on whether or not they should help them, but both decided against it since they both loved to win. By the time the two of them were at the island and on their way back, Jared and Damien had somehow ended up in the water and was currently splashing around trying to drown each other.
Was it Monday yet?
----
Things were slightly better at lunch after everyone had gotten a shower and were too starving to complain much. The fact that Jared and Peter had managed to sneak off to Jared’s old tree house to make out for about 20 minutes had also helped on Jared’s mood.
They all appreciated the meals, because that was when they all seemed to manage to act civilized and Pindar had made some really good sandwiches.
“Thanks, Pindy, these are great.” Carmen said as she helped herself with her second chicken sandwich.
“Thank you, Carmen, it’s nice to be appreciated.” Pindar said with a huge smile on his face. “So what are we doing later?”
“Nothing that includes water!” Jared answered, pretending to knock water out from his ears and looking accusingly at Damien.
“It was your own fault!”
Jared was about to respond when Infeld cut him off.
“Let’s not start throwing blame around; a little water has never hurt anyone.” Infeld said “How about a nice hike?”
----
The fact that Infeld himself had declined on joining the hike that he had insisted they all had to go on, was a little annoying, but to be honest, it was nice not feeling like a five year old getting yelled at for a little while.
“Something bit me!” Pindar yelled as he started jumping up and down, ruffling his hair hysterically.
“It was probably just a mosquito.” Peter said “Relax, here, have some more bug spray.” He threw the can to Pindar, who gratefully started spraying himself down.
“It’s really pretty out here.” Hannah said once they were finally on the top of the hill they were climbing. “You can see the whole lake from here.”
“Yeah, it’s awesome.” Jared said breathlessly and a little sarcastically as he sat down on a rock, Peter falling flat on his ass next to him on the grass.
“I hate hiking.” He said.
“Me too.”
“Seriously, you swam for like, an hour, this morning.” Damien said “And you can’t walk for 20 minutes without gasping for breath like an old man with pneumonia?”
“It’s not the same thing!” Jared defended himself “My feet hurt.”
“Mine too.” Peter said.
“They get exhausted walking up a set of stairs.” Carmen said as she handed them a bottle of water, which they both grasped for “Now, be nice and share.”
“I have a signal!” Damien exclaimed happily after he dug his phone out of his pocket. “I have to check my messages.”
“Stop it, and enjoy the view.” Hannah said “It’s beautiful.”
“Yeah, you should have brought your sketchbook, Jared.” Damien said.
His phone ended up being thrown down the cliff.
“What the fuck?” Damien yelled as he looked down the cliff, trying to see if his phone might have survived the fall down into the forest.
“Woops.” Jared said.
“You are so childish sometimes!” Hannah exclaimed, getting angry as well.
“And you are so uptight!” Jared said back.
“We’re uptight, because we don’t act like idiots?” Damien asked, and Carmen bit her lip, when had things gotten so bad? Oh, yeah, right.
“Idiots, really?” Peter said, getting up from the ground as well.
“That’s why you were hired, remember?”
“OKAY!” Carmen yelled, making everyone stop dead in their tracks. “That’s enough you guys!”
Jared bit the inside of his cheek and turned to look at her.
“We all know things have been tense ever since you two-“she said, gesturing between Damien and Hannah “tried getting you two, fired.” She finished, looking at Peter and Jared. “And all that drama with Infeld & Daniels almost being sold out to Jared’s dad, and the ‘who can you trust, who can you not’ crap, but it’s been months, you need to get over it!”
“I have gotten over it.” Jared said, jabbing a finger at his own chest “its monkey-face here that will never accept the fact that Franklin & Bash are actually good at what we do!”
“Monkey face?”
“Yeah, cause you look like a monkey!”
“Stop it!” Pindar said, covering his ears.
“I am simply aware of the fact that one day you two will step too far out of line and you will bring the company down with you.”
“We would never compromise the company!” Peter argued, even though they actually had, a couple of times, but that was beside the point, this was a meaningless argument for God’s sake! “We know where the line is, and yes, we might step over it from time to time for the best of our clients, but-“
“You can’t even see the line!”
“This is so stupid.” Hannah said, and Damien turned to look at her. “Don’t give me that look, Carmen’s right, there’s a reason why Infeld brought us out here in the middle of nowhere, so we couldn’t hide behind our cases and actually deal with the issue at hand here.”
Jared looked at Peter, who gave him a small nod, okay, so maybe they were all idiots.
“We are concerned about the risks you take to win your cases, and yes, we rarely see eye to eye when it comes to methods that are used, but most of the time we do win, and that’s because we are good lawyers, all of us.”
“She’s right you know.” Peter told Jared.
“Yeah, I know, we’re awesome lawyers.”
Damien snorted.
“Don’t give me that, you’ve been impressed with them too.” Hannah said and Jared and Peter both went ‘aaaww’.
“Karpy!”
“You’re so sweet.”
“Shoot me now”.
“Look at all of you, facing your issues like grown up’s, I am so proud of you!” Carmen said as she hooked her arms around Jared and Peter’s shoulders.
“Well, while we’re on the issue… Pindar, are you crying?”
“It’s just so beautiful to see that people who don’t really get along, actually do care for each other?”
“Wait, care?”
“Hold your horses there, Pindy.”
“You just ruined the moment, buddy.”
“Let’s go play some ball.”
-----
The hike back was actually surprisingly pleasant as they all could find a common factor to talk about, or actually, make fun of; it wasn’t so fun for Pindar though.
Infeld had greeted them with a smile when he had seen them actually looking pretty happy with one another when they came back. And Peter could have sworn that he had grinned like a mad man and written something down on his phone when Damien had given Carmen a three-pointer while playing ball, even though her foot was on the line.
They heated up the barbeque for dinner, and brought out blankets and ate on the deck, watching the sunset.
“I have never been this tired in my entire life.” Peter said once they settled down with their food.
“Me neither.” Pindar agreed as he took a bite of the chicken he’d brought.
“I am happy to see that you seem to be getting along better now.” Infeld said with a smile.
“Does that mean we can go home now?”
“Come on, this place is starting to grow on me.” Carmen said.
“Nature isn’t as bad as I remember it.” Pindar said and Jared slapped his arm.
“You’re not missing your girlfriend, then?”
“Off course I do!” Pindar said, like he had just been accused of a terrible crime.
“Thank God she’s not here.” Carmen said, and Pindar looked at her like with worry in his eyes. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Megan, it’s just, I’m sort of already feeling like I’m a couple’s retreat here.” She said and nodded over to Jared, Peter, Damien and Hannah.
“Hey, we keep a low-key!”
“Yeah, like we all didn’t know what you were doing up in that tree house!”
“Great, thanks for sticking that one image in my head.” Damien groaned and rubbed his eyes.
“You can replace Peter with your mom if you like.” Jared said.
“Seriously?” Peter asked and raised his eyebrows at him.
“What? Too much?”
“A little.”
“Sorry.”
Carmen and Hannah laughed loud enough to scare off a herd of birds that were trying to catch some fish out on the water.
Infeld snorted as well, before he started: “You know, this reminds me of the time I went fly-fishing in Alaska, you see, they say that the mountains there…”
Jared instantly tuned out, he just smiled and nodded at the right places, a skill had perfected while growing up. He looked over at Peter who gave him a “what the hell is he talking about this time?’- look. Jared only shrugged his shoulders. Peter looked happy, that was good, he liked it when Peter was happy.
Part 2: http://mina93.livejournal.com/3427.html