Refuge
For Mel who likes my Trink and for anybody that ever needed a port in a storm.
***
“Trace I’m gonna have to make a move.” She smiled at him, not her usual broad grin but something decidedly flirtier. It was a smile she gave only to him.
“Make any move you like, just don’t let my folks catch you.” There was a faint rumble in the distance, it was the second one Link had noticed and this time it was closer. He handed Tracy the last dress off the washing line.
“Doll it’s getting late and look at the sky.” The sky that had been clear and cornflower blue for most of August was full of dark and threatening clouds.
“Well if you put it like that I guess folding clothes isn’t worth driving home in a storm for. Goodbye kiss?”
“Seeing as you asked so nice…” They kissed in the yard until the first drop of rain fell on Link’s head, and then he pulled away. “I’d better make tracks before this thing breaks. Let me get that basket.”
After returning the laundry to a grateful Edna Turnblad Link said a slightly hurried goodbye and left.
The heavens opened, drenching the parched yards. Towering bolts of fork lightening fractured the Baltimore skyline and thunder boomed. The storm was getting closer.
By the time Tracy went to bed it was directly overhead. Fat raindrops hit the roof above her bedroom and the sidewalk below her window constantly. It was almost musical, the rhythm of the falling rain.
The weather was a welcome relief to everybody who was sick of the dust the ‘perfect’ high temperature and lack of rain had created but it was still hot. The air was thick and heavy and getting to sleep was difficult.
Tracy had opened her window in the hope of getting some fresh air but there wasn’t even the hint of a breeze and she now understood why hell was hot. When winter came everybody would wear layers and drink hot chocolate and do other things to keep warm but in the middle of the summer you could only have so many cold drinks, there was only so much clothing to take off.
Her pyjamas were in their drawer and had been there since the sleeveless white cotton nightdress had become the only thing she could sleep in. there was only a single sheet on the bed. It really was too hot for comfort, but the storm meant tomorrow would be better.
As Tracy went to close her curtains a familiar shape was illuminated by a flash of lightening. Link’s car was on her street again, or still. Had he not gone home? Hoping that the storm would drown out any noise she made, Tracy pulled on her slippers and the robe that went with her nightie before creeping out of the house.
Link sat in his car. He had been trying to get away before the storm broke but there had been an almighty crack of thunder and the heartthrob had found himself stranded outside his girlfriend’s house in the middle of something close to hell. The weather had prevented him from driving home but it was his pride that trapped him in his car.
How could he knock on Tracy’s door in the middle of the night and ask her parents to let him stay over because he really didn’t like thunder and lightening?
Something hit Link’s window and he winced, tightening his grip on the wheel. Tracy tapped on his window again.
“Link what’s wrong?” The look on his face was almost anguished. He didn’t want Tracy to see him like this, so uncool…bordering on unhinged. Link looked away; more comfortable looking at his white knuckles than her concerned face, when he looked up again she was gone. A momentary panic ensued but it died when she opened the passenger door and sat beside him.
“What’s wrong Link? What happened?”
“Nothing, nothing.” Link was sat in his car outside her house in the middle of the night for no reason that she knew of and nothing was wrong…she might not have been honour roll material but how stupid did he think she was?
“I’m not sure I believe that.” Neither of them spoke for a while, then something occurred to Tracy. “It’s the storm. I knew you didn’t really like driving in the rain but…” she put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He flinched. “Link it’s ok if you’re afraid of thunder and lightening.”
“I’m NOT afraid.” He jerked roughly away, glaring at her.
Tracy had never seen Link angry before. His vehemence was a complete shock to her, almost like a physical blow. Blinking away the forming tears, Tracy put more space between them.
“If you say you’re not then I believe you…but if you were, I wouldn’t have told anybody. I wouldn’t have betrayed your trust like that.”
Trust. He did trust her, more than anybody else in his life and even if she couldn’t understand she’d listen.
“I’m sorry Tracy. I shouldn’t have got mad at you.” His eyes were fixed on his feet, there was more than one reason he couldn’t bring himself to look at her.
“You’re forgiven. Do I get an explanation?”
“I’m not afraid of storms. I’m not.”
“Ok.” Link looked at her then; she was waiting patiently for him to continue, prepared to believe every word he said. He looked her way but still avoided eye contact. He didn’t know what he’d see in her eyes but he wanted to avoid it all the same
“When I was a kid…bit younger than Inez, there was this guy on my block, seventeen, eighteen. He had this amazing car, a bright red caddy. Absolutely beautiful. It was a Saturday I think, dad was home and he used to play golf on Sundays…then again it was raining so I don’t know. The weather got worse, thunder and lightening. I was watching from the front window and I saw that car coming down the street. He lost control, skidded and…hit somebody…right outside my house.” He gaze went back to the windscreen but that wasn’t what he was seeing. “He hit my mom. She died.”
It made complete, horrific sense.
“Link…” Tracy started to reach out in sympathy but something stopped her.
“I can’t drive when it’s like this, not just don’t want to, but can’t. I didn’t go home Trace. I can’t start the car.”
“Then come inside. You can’t spend the night here.” It was either the best idea Link had ever heard or the very worst.
“What will your parents say?”
“Let me worry about that.”
“Trace you can’t.” Her expression lost a little softness.
“People who tell me I can’t do things generally get proven wrong.” That was certainly true.
As tempting as it was to just let Tracy take control, there was something he had to know first.
“Tracy…do you think less of me?”
“Silly boy. How could I? I love you.” A smile fought its way on to Link’s face.
“You do?”
“Have you not been paying any attention at all? Of course I do.”
“I thought if you knew…”
“I think you’re confusing me with somebody else,” Tracy said gently, repressing a mental shudder at the thought of how Amber might have reacted if their places were reversed. Link nodded then winced at a loud crack of thunder. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Distract me.” The best way of distracting Link from anything was flirting but Tracy was pretty sure that mere words wouldn’t be enough this time. She put her hands over his and took them off the steering wheel.
“It’s the middle of the night and we’re all alone in your car. Nobody can hear or see us. Don’t you think we should take advantage?” He wasn’t in the mood to take the lead in any kind of seduction but Tracy was quick to pick up any new movies she saw…and Link had shown her quite a few, one of which was using music to create a mood. She put the radio on, turning the dials until she heard the ‘Stop, Look Listen’ being played.
“I should have thought of that.” Link was embarrassed for the umpteenth time.
“Doesn’t matter. Close your eyes.”
“Trace?”
“Trust me.” He did, so he shut his eyes and sighed when Tracy moved closer, putting his left arm around her. She settled herself against his chest and hugged him.
There was a flash of lightening that only Tracy saw, the thunder was only seconds away and threatened to undo the little improvement to Link’s mood. She began kissing his neck, small soft kisses moving closer to his lips and Link felt his discomfort ease with every touch of her lips to his skin, up to the point where he was almost smiling his normal Tracy-smile.
Their lips met for a couple of tender seconds before the thunder crashed above them. Link’s grip tightened and the kiss became more insistent. When the thunder passed he let her go.
“I’m sorry.”
“Never apologise for kissing me Link. It’s not a chore for me y’know.” Another ghost of a smile.
“You’re…” Tracy yawned, “…tired. I’m a jerk for keeping you awake like this.”
“Come inside and let me sleep then.” Her logic was flawless…well maybe not but it was tempting.
“You’re sure?”
“Please, I’ve only been dreaming about having you in my bedroom since-”
“Y-your room?”
“Unless you want to bunk with my mom and dad.”
“Not really.”
“Are we going inside then?”
“Alright.” Link cut Elvis off in mid-verse, sometimes, very occasionally, there were more important things than listening to The King. He locked the car behind them and let Tracy lead him by the hand to her bedroom.
It was with no small amount of relief that Tracy shut her bedroom door and turned on the lamp. Link stood like a damp statue while she closed the window and the curtains. He scanned the room, looking for something inane to talk about.
“The last time I was here you had a shrine to me on your dressing table.” It wasn’t there, in its place were frame pictures of the two of them together, with Penny and Seaweed and then there was one of Penny and Tracy.
“You’ve been in here before?” Oops. He hadn’t mentioned his trespassing, or the moment he had with her school portrait.
“The night of the protest.”
“I didn’t know you got the guided tour.”
“I was curious…”
“And hungry. You ate my emergency Baby Ruth.”
“Only half of it.”
“Yeah the last half. What were you doing on my bed anyway?”
“Uh, thinking…about you and how much of an ass I’d been. It was in here that I realised…” Tracy went to the door “…where are you going?” She took off her robe and hung it up on a hook in her door.
“Bed,” was the reply she gave before getting under the single sheet. Link hadn’t just seen anything that the people who watched the show hadn’t but the situation was beginning to have an effect on him. Tracy in nightwear. The two of them sharing a bed. If the circumstances hadn’t been…if there hadn’t been a different reason for him staying over, Link would have been fighting arousal, as it was, he was only fighting bewilderment.
“Are you sleeping fully-clothed?” Tracy tried to keep the interest out of her voice but she didn’t quite manage. Feeling a little stupid, Link took his blazer and shirt off, hanging them on the back of Tracy’s door, under her robe. His pants went under the bed to join his socks and shoes.
Clad only in vest and briefs, Link got into bed with Tracy.
After a couple of awkward minutes they found a position that worked for both of them. Link lay on his back, fingers interlaced under his head and Tracy was on her side. Her head rested on his chest, her free arm lay across his stomach.
“I’d like to think it was me making your heart race Link but I’m not sure it is.”
“You’re helping Trace.”
“I’m not sure I can be anymore distracting.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“I don’t, I worry about you.” Thunder rumbled again and Link tensed…again. “It’ll be ok, the storm’s moving away and I’m not going anywhere.
“I think you’re right. It wasn’t as loud…”
“Will you be able to sleep now?”
“Maybe.”
“I’m right here if you need me.”
If he needed her? It wasn’t really a question of if anymore. He needed her, period…and she was there for him, would always be there for him.
Link realised he loved her for that, that and a thousand other things, a million.
“Trace. Trace?”
“Hmm?”
“I love you.”
“S’nice.”
Link smiled, not caring that Tracy was too close to sleep to have been really listening. He’d just tell her again…and again and again and again. It wasn’t like either of them was going anywhere.
Thunder sounded again, fainter this time, but it didn’t matter. Link was sleeping, as peacefully as he could with Tracy snoring on his chest, and tomorrow was going to be a beautiful day…as long as it didn’t begin with them being caught in bed together. That would be…bad.
***
“Trace I’m gonna have to make a move.” She smiled at him, not her usual broad grin but something decidedly flirtier. It was a smile she gave only to him.
“Make any move you like, just don’t let my folks catch you.” There was a faint rumble in the distance, it was the second one Link had noticed and this time it was closer. He handed Tracy the last dress off the washing line.
“Doll it’s getting late and look at the sky.” The sky that had been clear and cornflower blue for most of August was full of dark and threatening clouds.
“Well if you put it like that I guess folding clothes isn’t worth driving home in a storm for. Goodbye kiss?”
“Seeing as you asked so nice…” They kissed in the yard until the first drop of rain fell on Link’s head, and then he pulled away. “I’d better make tracks before this thing breaks. Let me get that basket.”
After returning the laundry to a grateful Edna Turnblad Link said a slightly hurried goodbye and left.
The heavens opened, drenching the parched yards. Towering bolts of fork lightening fractured the Baltimore skyline and thunder boomed. The storm was getting closer.
By the time Tracy went to bed it was directly overhead. Fat raindrops hit the roof above her bedroom and the sidewalk below her window constantly. It was almost musical, the rhythm of the falling rain.
The weather was a welcome relief to everybody who was sick of the dust the ‘perfect’ high temperature and lack of rain had created but it was still hot. The air was thick and heavy and getting to sleep was difficult.
Tracy had opened her window in the hope of getting some fresh air but there wasn’t even the hint of a breeze and she now understood why hell was hot. When winter came everybody would wear layers and drink hot chocolate and do other things to keep warm but in the middle of the summer you could only have so many cold drinks, there was only so much clothing to take off.
Her pyjamas were in their drawer and had been there since the sleeveless white cotton nightdress had become the only thing she could sleep in. there was only a single sheet on the bed. It really was too hot for comfort, but the storm meant tomorrow would be better.
As Tracy went to close her curtains a familiar shape was illuminated by a flash of lightening. Link’s car was on her street again, or still. Had he not gone home? Hoping that the storm would drown out any noise she made, Tracy pulled on her slippers and the robe that went with her nightie before creeping out of the house.
Link sat in his car. He had been trying to get away before the storm broke but there had been an almighty crack of thunder and the heartthrob had found himself stranded outside his girlfriend’s house in the middle of something close to hell. The weather had prevented him from driving home but it was his pride that trapped him in his car.
How could he knock on Tracy’s door in the middle of the night and ask her parents to let him stay over because he really didn’t like thunder and lightening?
Something hit Link’s window and he winced, tightening his grip on the wheel. Tracy tapped on his window again.
“Link what’s wrong?” The look on his face was almost anguished. He didn’t want Tracy to see him like this, so uncool…bordering on unhinged. Link looked away; more comfortable looking at his white knuckles than her concerned face, when he looked up again she was gone. A momentary panic ensued but it died when she opened the passenger door and sat beside him.
“What’s wrong Link? What happened?”
“Nothing, nothing.” Link was sat in his car outside her house in the middle of the night for no reason that she knew of and nothing was wrong…she might not have been honour roll material but how stupid did he think she was?
“I’m not sure I believe that.” Neither of them spoke for a while, then something occurred to Tracy. “It’s the storm. I knew you didn’t really like driving in the rain but…” she put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He flinched. “Link it’s ok if you’re afraid of thunder and lightening.”
“I’m NOT afraid.” He jerked roughly away, glaring at her.
Tracy had never seen Link angry before. His vehemence was a complete shock to her, almost like a physical blow. Blinking away the forming tears, Tracy put more space between them.
“If you say you’re not then I believe you…but if you were, I wouldn’t have told anybody. I wouldn’t have betrayed your trust like that.”
Trust. He did trust her, more than anybody else in his life and even if she couldn’t understand she’d listen.
“I’m sorry Tracy. I shouldn’t have got mad at you.” His eyes were fixed on his feet, there was more than one reason he couldn’t bring himself to look at her.
“You’re forgiven. Do I get an explanation?”
“I’m not afraid of storms. I’m not.”
“Ok.” Link looked at her then; she was waiting patiently for him to continue, prepared to believe every word he said. He looked her way but still avoided eye contact. He didn’t know what he’d see in her eyes but he wanted to avoid it all the same
“When I was a kid…bit younger than Inez, there was this guy on my block, seventeen, eighteen. He had this amazing car, a bright red caddy. Absolutely beautiful. It was a Saturday I think, dad was home and he used to play golf on Sundays…then again it was raining so I don’t know. The weather got worse, thunder and lightening. I was watching from the front window and I saw that car coming down the street. He lost control, skidded and…hit somebody…right outside my house.” He gaze went back to the windscreen but that wasn’t what he was seeing. “He hit my mom. She died.”
It made complete, horrific sense.
“Link…” Tracy started to reach out in sympathy but something stopped her.
“I can’t drive when it’s like this, not just don’t want to, but can’t. I didn’t go home Trace. I can’t start the car.”
“Then come inside. You can’t spend the night here.” It was either the best idea Link had ever heard or the very worst.
“What will your parents say?”
“Let me worry about that.”
“Trace you can’t.” Her expression lost a little softness.
“People who tell me I can’t do things generally get proven wrong.” That was certainly true.
As tempting as it was to just let Tracy take control, there was something he had to know first.
“Tracy…do you think less of me?”
“Silly boy. How could I? I love you.” A smile fought its way on to Link’s face.
“You do?”
“Have you not been paying any attention at all? Of course I do.”
“I thought if you knew…”
“I think you’re confusing me with somebody else,” Tracy said gently, repressing a mental shudder at the thought of how Amber might have reacted if their places were reversed. Link nodded then winced at a loud crack of thunder. “Is there anything I can do?”
“Distract me.” The best way of distracting Link from anything was flirting but Tracy was pretty sure that mere words wouldn’t be enough this time. She put her hands over his and took them off the steering wheel.
“It’s the middle of the night and we’re all alone in your car. Nobody can hear or see us. Don’t you think we should take advantage?” He wasn’t in the mood to take the lead in any kind of seduction but Tracy was quick to pick up any new movies she saw…and Link had shown her quite a few, one of which was using music to create a mood. She put the radio on, turning the dials until she heard the ‘Stop, Look Listen’ being played.
“I should have thought of that.” Link was embarrassed for the umpteenth time.
“Doesn’t matter. Close your eyes.”
“Trace?”
“Trust me.” He did, so he shut his eyes and sighed when Tracy moved closer, putting his left arm around her. She settled herself against his chest and hugged him.
There was a flash of lightening that only Tracy saw, the thunder was only seconds away and threatened to undo the little improvement to Link’s mood. She began kissing his neck, small soft kisses moving closer to his lips and Link felt his discomfort ease with every touch of her lips to his skin, up to the point where he was almost smiling his normal Tracy-smile.
Their lips met for a couple of tender seconds before the thunder crashed above them. Link’s grip tightened and the kiss became more insistent. When the thunder passed he let her go.
“I’m sorry.”
“Never apologise for kissing me Link. It’s not a chore for me y’know.” Another ghost of a smile.
“You’re…” Tracy yawned, “…tired. I’m a jerk for keeping you awake like this.”
“Come inside and let me sleep then.” Her logic was flawless…well maybe not but it was tempting.
“You’re sure?”
“Please, I’ve only been dreaming about having you in my bedroom since-”
“Y-your room?”
“Unless you want to bunk with my mom and dad.”
“Not really.”
“Are we going inside then?”
“Alright.” Link cut Elvis off in mid-verse, sometimes, very occasionally, there were more important things than listening to The King. He locked the car behind them and let Tracy lead him by the hand to her bedroom.
It was with no small amount of relief that Tracy shut her bedroom door and turned on the lamp. Link stood like a damp statue while she closed the window and the curtains. He scanned the room, looking for something inane to talk about.
“The last time I was here you had a shrine to me on your dressing table.” It wasn’t there, in its place were frame pictures of the two of them together, with Penny and Seaweed and then there was one of Penny and Tracy.
“You’ve been in here before?” Oops. He hadn’t mentioned his trespassing, or the moment he had with her school portrait.
“The night of the protest.”
“I didn’t know you got the guided tour.”
“I was curious…”
“And hungry. You ate my emergency Baby Ruth.”
“Only half of it.”
“Yeah the last half. What were you doing on my bed anyway?”
“Uh, thinking…about you and how much of an ass I’d been. It was in here that I realised…” Tracy went to the door “…where are you going?” She took off her robe and hung it up on a hook in her door.
“Bed,” was the reply she gave before getting under the single sheet. Link hadn’t just seen anything that the people who watched the show hadn’t but the situation was beginning to have an effect on him. Tracy in nightwear. The two of them sharing a bed. If the circumstances hadn’t been…if there hadn’t been a different reason for him staying over, Link would have been fighting arousal, as it was, he was only fighting bewilderment.
“Are you sleeping fully-clothed?” Tracy tried to keep the interest out of her voice but she didn’t quite manage. Feeling a little stupid, Link took his blazer and shirt off, hanging them on the back of Tracy’s door, under her robe. His pants went under the bed to join his socks and shoes.
Clad only in vest and briefs, Link got into bed with Tracy.
After a couple of awkward minutes they found a position that worked for both of them. Link lay on his back, fingers interlaced under his head and Tracy was on her side. Her head rested on his chest, her free arm lay across his stomach.
“I’d like to think it was me making your heart race Link but I’m not sure it is.”
“You’re helping Trace.”
“I’m not sure I can be anymore distracting.”
“Don’t worry about that.”
“I don’t, I worry about you.” Thunder rumbled again and Link tensed…again. “It’ll be ok, the storm’s moving away and I’m not going anywhere.
“I think you’re right. It wasn’t as loud…”
“Will you be able to sleep now?”
“Maybe.”
“I’m right here if you need me.”
If he needed her? It wasn’t really a question of if anymore. He needed her, period…and she was there for him, would always be there for him.
Link realised he loved her for that, that and a thousand other things, a million.
“Trace. Trace?”
“Hmm?”
“I love you.”
“S’nice.”
Link smiled, not caring that Tracy was too close to sleep to have been really listening. He’d just tell her again…and again and again and again. It wasn’t like either of them was going anywhere.
Thunder sounded again, fainter this time, but it didn’t matter. Link was sleeping, as peacefully as he could with Tracy snoring on his chest, and tomorrow was going to be a beautiful day…as long as it didn’t begin with them being caught in bed together. That would be…bad.