FF: In The Town Where I Was Born

[quaggy]

Title: In The Town Where I Was Born
Author: Quaggy
Category: Various
Rating: G
Notes: These drabbles can be separately or all together as one united fic. Each of these drabbles are exactly 100 words so that they would qualify for tww100. The current challenge (#181) is “Water.” Wasn’t that convenient! For those of you who care about things like this, the last drabble features Nora and Aaron. Thank you to edgeriffic, gatsbyfan and caz963for the beta and to teresadivicenzo for finally giving Aaron his name! :-) And, of course, thank you to flippet for such an inspiring idea! Ages ago, I wrote a silly little drabble about singing in the shower. Flip thought that Donna listening to Josh sing Yellow Submarine would make a good drabble and I promised to write it for her birthday. Flash forward many months later, and I’ve written her five. Which is only fair since I missed her birthday a while ago. Sorry, for the delay, Flip! Happy belated birthday!

Surprise

They’re grown men who will, with any luck, soon be running the country.  So how come the words “black tie event” suddenly makes them so inept? Lord knows what they would have done if you hadn’t stopped by.

You’d finally gotten Josh off the phone so he could shower and had just untangled the mess Sam made of his bow tie when ungodly sounds (which could be called singing, if they weren’t atonal) start echoing from the bathroom.  You think you’re a little horrified. 

“Josh sings Yellow Submarine when he’s in a good mood,” Sam shrugs, grinning at your discomfort. 

Weak

He’s so weak it scares you.  He falls asleep without warning.  Just standing tires him out, but he’s still insisting on taking a shower.  His will remains strong as steel.  He won’t wait for the nurse and you aren’t allowed in the bathroom with him.  He can’t stop you from sitting outside the door, though.  Just in case. 

At first, you think he’s talking to himself.  His voice is too faint to be heard over the water, but the chorus of Yellow Submarine is made to be sung as loudly as possible.  He’s off-key and he sounds wonderful.

Break

You want to pummel them all with a baseball bat.  Carrick.  Congress.  Even Leo.  They all tried to break him just because they could.  So Josh works harder.  Stays longer.  Because he won’t be the first to break. 

After three days of not going home, you force him to at least take a shower.  You stand outside the door, like a prison guard.  Even though you know that you can’t actually hear if he’s under the water, you press your ear against the door… and discover that he’s singing Yellow Submarine.  But you can tell his heart isn’t in it.

Freedom

You can hear the shower running and Josh singing about yellow submarines.  It’s like nothing has changed.  Except everything has.  You’re not his assistant anymore.  You now can enter the bathroom while he’s in the shower.  Even get under the water with him if you so choose.  You don’t know what to make of this freedom.

He emerges with only a towel wrapped around his hips and flashes you a grin, before rummaging in his suitcase for something to wear.  And suddenly it doesn’t seem so strange.  This is who you are now.  And who you’ve always wanted to be.

Duet

Nora’s completely occupied with her dollhouse but she took the thirty minutes until bedtime warning with fairly good grace.  Whether she will take the ten minute warning so well remains to be seen.  Not wanting to borrow trouble, you head down the hall to see if Josh has succeeded in giving Aaron a bath without causing a flood.

You can hear him singing from down the hallway.  Yellow Submarine, of course.  But tonight there’s something new.  Aaron is singing along with his father, just as loud and just as off-key.

You don’t think you’ve ever heard anything quite so lovely.

Comments

[melanie-anne.livejournal.com]

These are great drabbles! Love how you've tied the song into each. The last one is my favourite. :)

[quaggy]

Thank you! The Beatles can be very inspiring and I liked having the excuse to write Aaron and Nora into another story. :-)

[imperviousness.livejournal.com]

Lovely!

Now, I'm gonna go pull out my Beatles album...

[quaggy]

Thank you!

Listening to Beatles albyms is always a good idea, I think!

[gatsbyfan.livejournal.com]

Aw, two of my favorite things... The Beatles and Josh & Donna. What more could I want. Don't answer that.

Lovely as always.

[quaggy]

Heh! There's a reason we're friends! ;-) Thanks you, dearest. And thank you again for all your help!

[kathyh]

Gorgeous as always. Love the link through the song, which I'm now humming to myself *g*.

[quaggy]

It's an infectious song, isn't it? I'm glad you liked it, Kath!

[zommbie1.livejournal.com]

Very cute! And funny and sad and then all good.

[quaggy]

Thanks Zommbie! I'm glad you like them! :-)

[zinke.livejournal.com]

Marvelous! These were the perfect pick-me-up for a Friday morning.

[quaggy]

Thanks Zinke! I'm always glad to make a Friday go easier! :-)

[under-theground.livejournal.com]

That was incredibly adorable.

[quaggy]

Thank you very much! :-)

[megwriting.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh, you broke my heart in the middle but made it all better again at the end. Charming! I loved it!

[quaggy]

Thank you, Meg!! Josh and Donna went through so much during the series. It's nice to think that they had nothing but happiness afterwards.

[christinekh.livejournal.com]

hehe! very cute :)

[quaggy]

Thank you, Christine!! :-D

[cantbesilent.livejournal.com]

This made me :)

[quaggy]

I'm glad! Glad you liked it!

[caz963.livejournal.com]

I didn't say this last night, although I'm sure you've been expecting me to. I think my brain melted at the thought of Josh in a towel :)

*ahem*

Fab work, as ever.

[quaggy]

I was wondering why you hadn't! I figured the thought alone made you drool too much! We don't want to short circuit your computer! :-)

Thank you, dearest!! (Heh. "Fab")

[foreverdreaming.livejournal.com]

i loved all of this but the post-rosslyn and the nora and aaron ones are my favourites.

thanks for sharing :)

[quaggy]

Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed this! I'm especially pleased you like the Nora and Aaron drabble! I liked having the excuse to write them into a story!

Drabbles!

[farmerliz.livejournal.com]

Gracious, you hit all the high points, with pre-season 1 and post series kid fic thrown in there too. Ah, the beauty of drabbles. Thanks for writing.

-Liz

Re: Drabbles!

[quaggy]

Thank you for reading! Pinpointing time periods that would work was fairly easy. I'm glad you enjoyed them!

[flippet.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhhhh! I finally got to these!

They're wonderful, quags! Thank you.

A wittle baby voice singing along with his Daddy....*wipes tear*

I love how it's all Donna...Josh isn't in on any of these--he probably doesn't even know she can hear him, most of the time. It's like a little keepsake he's giving her, and doesn't even know it.

Lovely. *mwah*

[quaggy]

Thank you Flip! I'm so glad you enjoyed them seeing as you were the inspiration! Now you know why I asked you which kids you liked the best and why I was looking for a clip of Brad Whitford signing! :-)

That's an excellent point about these being all about Donna as the observer. I doubt Josh cares if Donna hears him or not, but he probably will never know how much it means to her.

[kassandra-w.livejournal.com]

Lovely as always, Quags!

[quaggy]

Glad you liked it, Kassy!

[malexandra25.livejournal.com]

Great as usual and again I can totally see her thinking all that. Thanks for sharing them.

[quaggy]

Thanks for reading them! :-D I'm glad you enjoyed them.

[little-zigzags.livejournal.com]

You can't call this drabble... it's too satisfying! So much love for these moments.

[quaggy]

Well, there are five of them, after all! :-) I'm glad you liked them! Drabbles are a fun challenge!

[(Anonymous)]

loved loved loved loved loved.
(one for each of them)

[quaggy]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :-D

Re: Hey!!!

[quaggy]

Thanks! Glad you liked it! :-)