#i apparently don't know how to explain things and just write mini-versions instead

[elisela]

📓 - Marrish, naturally. ;)

okay--i briefly thought about doing this for marrish week but absolutely ran out of time to execute it properly, so--

the day before his second deployment, jordan is sitting alone in a cafe patio. he was supposed to be meeting up with his best friend for one last night out until said best friend's long-time crush apparently decided to confess his love seventeen hours before they were leaving the country (jordan's fine with it--derek's in his unit, it's not like he'll be missing him, he'll be missing relatively cool weather and fruity cocktail drinks and the ability to eat whatever the hell he wants)--so now he's just sitting alone and people watching. he watches the kid that tears his pizza crust into small bites and throw it into the street for the birds, the older couple who hold hands loosely across the table as they talk, and the redhead who is currently having some sort of harsh whispered fight into the phone three feet from him on the other side of the gate.

drama has always drawn him in; he can't help but eavesdrop when she sucks in an unforgiving breath and hisses "i knew you would do this. i need your help for one thing and you decide today is the day you run off to london? my mom already suspects i'm lying, what am i supposed to say now? i just want to get them off my back, jackson."

his check comes and he loses thread of her side of the conversation while he makes small talk with the waitress and tries to talk her out of comping part of his meal when she hears he's deploying, and by the time he can look over at the redhead again she straights up, shakes her shoulders, and marches across the street and into a bar. he watches her through the window until she's lead away to a table, and then--without thinking too much about it--follows.

because walking up to her table and dropping into the seat next to her with a grin and a "hey, sweetheart," is probably one of the dumbest things he's ever done, but he figures it makes for a good story and if it's goes horribly, well--he'll be out of the country for the next two years anyway, so he may as well turn to the couple he assumes are her parents and add, "sorry i'm late, my c.o. had a bunch of pre-deployment stuff to go over. nice to meet you, i'm jordan."

her eyebrow raises, just the slightest bit of surprise, but then she's leaning in and he's wrapped up in her arms, her hair brushing against his cheek when she pulls out of the embrace and kisses him soundly. she keeps the conversation centered on him for most of the dinner, though once her dad starts asking about his military career it's not difficult to do. he doesn't even know her name until they're ordering dessert, and when they stand up to leave she tugs him back down for one more drink, watches her parents walk out the door and then turns towards him.

"you're insane," she says, "and i can't tell you how much i appreciate that. how much of what you just said was the truth?"

all of it, he tells her, except for the parts he'd made up that involved her. "it's my last night, might as well do something crazy," he explains, and grins at her when he adds, "and you're pretty, so i had to take a shot."

lydia asks him a few more questions--what sorts of things he likes (dive bars and shooting ranges, running trails in la jolla and getting fresh seafood) and what he doesn't (anything spicy--derek makes fun of him for it but jordan doesn't let it bother him), the things he's been able to see while he was stationed in san diego (a lot of baseball) and what he'd never gotten around to (sailing), then sends him up to the bar to get them another drink while she makes a phone call. when he returns with a whiskey sour and a gin and tonic she smiles widely at him and tells him to drink up. "i can do you one better than sailing," she says, "my best friend's dad owns a boat and she's calling the club and asking them to get it ready for us. ready for a sunset cruise?"

(it's not a boat, it's a frickin' yacht. the cruise also doesn't end at sunset; she kisses him just as the sun dips below the horizon and leads him to one of the bedrooms, and that's where they stay until it rises again the next morning.)

ask me for an unwritten fic daydream