Baby-sitters Club | Count Me In: A Question of Regret

[luxken27]

Title: A Question of Regret
Genre: Friendship, Romance
Rating: T
Word Count: 2,349
Summary: Sometimes simple questions don't have simple answers.

Links: DW | AO3

So apparently I like to celebrate momentous occasions with sudden bursts of fic.

Some personal things have been weighing quite heavily on my mind of late (and, mercifully, was finally resolved today), and apparently this served as major inspiration for my fic-writing muse. Odd, but I won't question it - I need all of the momentum and motivation I can get!

I've been thinking about my post-canon Charlie/Janine continuum for a couple of months now, trying to figure out where and how I wanted to fill in the gaps. This is the fun of writing non-linear fic: you don't really have to have any idea what you're doing, LOL. It's freeing, because you don't have to worry about keeping everything tightly wound. As long as its coherent, it's gold =)

I've mentioned before (and hinted at in the fic series itself) that I see the summer after the events of "Double Date" as a sort of getting-to-know-each-other mostly-casual early stage of Charlie's and Janine's relationship, and this fic is an example of that period of time. What better way for the two of them to chat on a regular basis than a series of lunch dates during Janine's summer science course at the university? They'd have a dedicated block of time to spend together, and to talk about anything and everything. There's something very informal about it that I think would especially put Janine at ease, and would allow each of them to pursue their relationship at their own pace.

I don't know that Janine not being able to drive is canon, but it fits my particular post-canon landscape, where she's mostly walking everywhere she goes, or using public transportation. Stoneybrook is fairly small - everyone walks or rides bikes to various locales in town - and MIT is situated in Cambridge, MA, on the northern side of Boston, which has a pretty famous subway system of its own. Its like living in New York City - driving is a luxury, not a necessity, but Stoneybrook is enough of a suburb that getting one's driver's license is a teenage rite of passage. So I thought it would be an interesting contrast to make, especially since Charlie spends so much of his time chauffeuring Kristy & co around in the books.

And once I started on this particular line of thought, the conversation wandered way off course, but in very interesting ways. Janine reveals a lot about herself when she talks about her inability to drive - which isn't a lack of ability at all, just a lack of confidence. They are both aware of the distance between them (literally and metaphorically) and Charlie is already thinking about ways to close that distance, even if only subconsciously. It's a further example of his impulsivity vs Janine's practicality. There are plenty of ways to link them (most obviously, via air travel) but suddenly he has to know why she doesn't share his impulsive need to escape, or his ability to do so whenever he thinks about it. It's a boundary he is surprised to find, and curious enough to overcome.

I really wanted this to be a very sweet scene, demonstrating their ease with each other and how they are becoming closer, both in words and in deeds. I just love casual shows of affection like the hand-holding here, or the kiss at the end. There's nothing big and dramatic; it's all very spontaneous and easy and feel-good ♥ I like the idea of a series of these sorts of friendly chats, and the two of them growing closer without really realizing it.

I gave myself an opening in that regard with the whole driving lessons thing, but I'm not 100% sure I'm going to pursue it. I've had some success mixing driving lessons with flirtation before in some KI fic so IDK if I want to retread that ground. We'll see. I'm sure something will develop as their summer draws to an end =)

The other important bit of meta about this particular piece is the fact that I hand wrote the first two drafts. This is the first story I've actually written longhand in about eight years, and it was just as difficult as I remember (I am an impulsive editor, right from the start, haha). The original, mostly completed draft was about 1,700 words long and took up six pages in my notebook. It was fun, if frustrating, but again - I wasn't going to lose this bit of inspiration or momentum simply because I couldn't hunker down in front of my computer. Maybe I'm getting a bit more flexible in my old age, haha - or maybe I'm just working too damn much. Those two things probably aren't mutually exclusive :P

As with just about every other entry in this series, finishing this fic has spawned ideas for at least two more, so I'm definitely not done! Here's hoping it won't take two months to crank out the next installment *fingers crossed*