This Time Around | PG13 | Twister
Title: This Time Around
Prompt: Everytime it Rains by Charlotte Martin
Challenge: 100 Fic Challenge
Fandom: Jo/Bill, Twister
Requested by: jenc81
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 992
Disclaimer: Not mine. Wish they were. Please don't sue.
Author's Note: I’ve never written for this fandom before and I’m still coming out of my writing funk, but I thought I’d make the attempt in honor of Jennifer’s birthday. Hope you like it!
-
It only takes three months before the fighting begins.
Turns out that surviving a natural disaster isn’t a cure-all for a relationship, especially when it’s already failed once before. Jo doesn’t know what she expected when she and Bill got back together. She loves him. He loves her.
That doesn’t mean they’re any damn good at making relationships work.
She stalks her scuffed boots along the dirt road, shoving her hands roughly into the pockets of her jeans. A storm is coming (not tornado weather, unfortunately) and, rather than seek the shelter of her house, she walks farther away, trying to put as much distance between them as possible.
There’s something in the air right before a storm that always manages to calm her down, especially when she’s so upset that she doesn’t know whether to scream or cry out of the sheer frustration of it all. She likes to imagine being swept up in the air current, not as she would in a tornado, but as if she were part of the storm on some deeper molecular level.
If this were tornado season, the fights wouldn’t happen. They’d be so involved in catching the next cyclone that mundane squabbles would cease to matter. In these times, they work as a singular unit, completing each other in ways that are lacking when the skies are calm. They’ve always been good at science, weather, and sex.
It’s everything else that’s shaky.
Jo squats down and grips a handful of dirt. She works it between her fingers as she stands, enjoying the gritty feel of it, before she allows it to be whisked off her palm by the wind. She gives an exasperated sigh at having mimicked one of his habits. Whether she likes it or not, he’s a part of her. She can exist on her own-she did just fine when they separated.
It just happens that she functions better with him than without him.
She thought things would be different this time. She thought even just the fact of their survival was enough to prove that they were meant to be together instead of apart. But Jo isn’t a romantic; she never was. She’s a woman of science and Bill is the unpredictable storm.
A jolt of irritated energy skitters down Jo’s spine. She doesn’t even remember what the fight was about…something trivial like forgetting to buy milk or hanging the rest of the pictures in the hall. It strikes her as absurd that she’s out here at all, that she needed to feel the cool downdraft to calm her down. It begins to rain then. Every fat drop of water that hits her skin is cold, biting at every bit of flesh that is exposed.
Jo knows that she should turn back, but she can’t face it-not yet. If she goes back to that house, she knows they’ll make up and make love and the cycle will begin all over again.
She doesn’t know if she has the fight left in her.
Jo pushes her wet hair from her face and watches the rain collect in the grooves of the road. She catches the gray haze of her reflection in a puddle and, without hesitation, she stomps her boot into the water. The splash soaks her leg, seeps into her sock. Her foot will be numb from the cold soon.
A dry house awaits her. A man who loves her is probably standing by the door.
She continues walking.
The first rumble of thunder resounds in the distance, and she watches the sky light up as lightning strikes. Rain whips into her face but she watches the storm build, slowly rolling its way in her direction.
With each step she takes, she remembers: Bill’s wedding vows, Bill’s back when he walked out for good, Bill’s hopeful eyes when he suggested they give things another shot. It’s the memory of his face that warms her and reminds her what’s at stake if she keeps walking. She tries to remember what it was like when he was gone and she was alone, and she’s suddenly back in that place, numb to everything but the pain.
She stops then, glancing over her shoulder towards the direction of the house. Bill loves her. She knows that. Sometimes he drives her crazy and sometimes his stubborn obstinacy makes her wants to scream and sometimes he hits the wrong nerves at the wrong times, but he also makes her smile in a way that no one else can and he knows her better than anyone else and loves her despite her own pig-headed tantrums.
Jo heads back to the house. She tightens her arms across her chest, suddenly desperate for the dry warmth of her bedroom. She quickens her stride and before long she is running, dodging muddy puddles and shaking the wet hair from her face.
Bill is sitting on the steps of the porch, drenched with rain and worry. When she rounds the corner and comes into view, he jumps to his feet. He doesn’t go to her. He waits.
This time around, he’s still there when the dust settles and the sky clears.
Jo flings herself into his arms, reassured by the steady solidity of his body. Unlike last time, he’s there, telling her how crazy she makes him and how worried he was when she walked out the door. In a smaller voice, he confesses that he felt the way Jo must have felt when he left the first time.
She links her hand in his and pulls him up the stairs. As the screen door slams shut behind them, Jo realizes that empty milk cartons don’t matter so much in the grand scheme of things. They’ve been through worse-much worse. They’ll make it through this. They have to. Jo and Bill are both too stubborn to let their relationship fall apart again. This time, they know what’s at stake.
---
Prompt: Everytime it Rains by Charlotte Martin
Challenge: 100 Fic Challenge
Fandom: Jo/Bill, Twister
Requested by: jenc81
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 992
Disclaimer: Not mine. Wish they were. Please don't sue.
Author's Note: I’ve never written for this fandom before and I’m still coming out of my writing funk, but I thought I’d make the attempt in honor of Jennifer’s birthday. Hope you like it!
-
It only takes three months before the fighting begins.
Turns out that surviving a natural disaster isn’t a cure-all for a relationship, especially when it’s already failed once before. Jo doesn’t know what she expected when she and Bill got back together. She loves him. He loves her.
That doesn’t mean they’re any damn good at making relationships work.
She stalks her scuffed boots along the dirt road, shoving her hands roughly into the pockets of her jeans. A storm is coming (not tornado weather, unfortunately) and, rather than seek the shelter of her house, she walks farther away, trying to put as much distance between them as possible.
There’s something in the air right before a storm that always manages to calm her down, especially when she’s so upset that she doesn’t know whether to scream or cry out of the sheer frustration of it all. She likes to imagine being swept up in the air current, not as she would in a tornado, but as if she were part of the storm on some deeper molecular level.
If this were tornado season, the fights wouldn’t happen. They’d be so involved in catching the next cyclone that mundane squabbles would cease to matter. In these times, they work as a singular unit, completing each other in ways that are lacking when the skies are calm. They’ve always been good at science, weather, and sex.
It’s everything else that’s shaky.
Jo squats down and grips a handful of dirt. She works it between her fingers as she stands, enjoying the gritty feel of it, before she allows it to be whisked off her palm by the wind. She gives an exasperated sigh at having mimicked one of his habits. Whether she likes it or not, he’s a part of her. She can exist on her own-she did just fine when they separated.
It just happens that she functions better with him than without him.
She thought things would be different this time. She thought even just the fact of their survival was enough to prove that they were meant to be together instead of apart. But Jo isn’t a romantic; she never was. She’s a woman of science and Bill is the unpredictable storm.
A jolt of irritated energy skitters down Jo’s spine. She doesn’t even remember what the fight was about…something trivial like forgetting to buy milk or hanging the rest of the pictures in the hall. It strikes her as absurd that she’s out here at all, that she needed to feel the cool downdraft to calm her down. It begins to rain then. Every fat drop of water that hits her skin is cold, biting at every bit of flesh that is exposed.
Jo knows that she should turn back, but she can’t face it-not yet. If she goes back to that house, she knows they’ll make up and make love and the cycle will begin all over again.
She doesn’t know if she has the fight left in her.
Jo pushes her wet hair from her face and watches the rain collect in the grooves of the road. She catches the gray haze of her reflection in a puddle and, without hesitation, she stomps her boot into the water. The splash soaks her leg, seeps into her sock. Her foot will be numb from the cold soon.
A dry house awaits her. A man who loves her is probably standing by the door.
She continues walking.
The first rumble of thunder resounds in the distance, and she watches the sky light up as lightning strikes. Rain whips into her face but she watches the storm build, slowly rolling its way in her direction.
With each step she takes, she remembers: Bill’s wedding vows, Bill’s back when he walked out for good, Bill’s hopeful eyes when he suggested they give things another shot. It’s the memory of his face that warms her and reminds her what’s at stake if she keeps walking. She tries to remember what it was like when he was gone and she was alone, and she’s suddenly back in that place, numb to everything but the pain.
She stops then, glancing over her shoulder towards the direction of the house. Bill loves her. She knows that. Sometimes he drives her crazy and sometimes his stubborn obstinacy makes her wants to scream and sometimes he hits the wrong nerves at the wrong times, but he also makes her smile in a way that no one else can and he knows her better than anyone else and loves her despite her own pig-headed tantrums.
Jo heads back to the house. She tightens her arms across her chest, suddenly desperate for the dry warmth of her bedroom. She quickens her stride and before long she is running, dodging muddy puddles and shaking the wet hair from her face.
Bill is sitting on the steps of the porch, drenched with rain and worry. When she rounds the corner and comes into view, he jumps to his feet. He doesn’t go to her. He waits.
This time around, he’s still there when the dust settles and the sky clears.
Jo flings herself into his arms, reassured by the steady solidity of his body. Unlike last time, he’s there, telling her how crazy she makes him and how worried he was when she walked out the door. In a smaller voice, he confesses that he felt the way Jo must have felt when he left the first time.
She links her hand in his and pulls him up the stairs. As the screen door slams shut behind them, Jo realizes that empty milk cartons don’t matter so much in the grand scheme of things. They’ve been through worse-much worse. They’ll make it through this. They have to. Jo and Bill are both too stubborn to let their relationship fall apart again. This time, they know what’s at stake.
---