Everything in Transit

Getting Kay to agree to a dinner date was easy enough, however actually departing for said occasion was a little more difficult.

"We can't leave her here!" Kay cried with a degree of anxiety in her voice. "You are trusting Garrett with your six month old daughter?" She had asked rather incredulously.

John just laughed and nodded, leaving Kay standing there in her blue dress and black suede heels, visibly fuming. John's laugh was reinforced when Corrine's babble floated out from out of the living room.

"Ga ga!"

"No, Garrett!" came the imploring but patient voice from Garrett who was bouncing Corrine on his knee and at the same time trying to teach her his name.

John had to attempt to drag Kay, who was already filled with nervous anxiety, out of the apartment it being the only way to move her. Even though she was not Corrine's mother, 'just' her aunt, she still displayed deeply maternal attitudes towards the tiny baby. This attitude had been a growing cause of admiration amongst family members and friends over the past month.

"Come on Kay, when's the last time you went out without having to worry?" John asked feebly as Kay stood rooted to the spot, not moving anywhere.

"That time you forced me to the spa, which was terrible by the way I had much worse back pain after than before," Kay said with a fierce look on her face, but she was trying not to smile, knowing that John was completely right. Again.

Before Kay could make even more protests John just grabbed a hold of her arm, shouted his goodbyes back into the apartment and in three quick strides he had pulled Kay out of the apartment.

As Shakespeare said once, 'me thinks the lady doth protest too much'. Kay was the classic example. She was protesting far too much, all the way to the old cinema in town where they were showing her favourite Marilyn Monroe film 'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and then from there all the way to the pancake house. She was 'protesting' so much because she knew what would happen if she let herself enjoy the date, and the company that came with it.

But John knew Kay, and so he knew exactly what was going through her head. He knew that her mouth was saying something that her heart wasn't.

"John really I don't know why you feel like you have to drag me out of the house," Kay was saying as they were walking on the sidewalk to the Pancake House restaurant.

Johns topped in his tracks with a smile on his face. He stood right in front of her, tall and proud in his tight jeans and white shirt with a black blazer thrown over it; he knew that it was now or never.

"I mean it's not like I don't appreciate it or anything but…"

Kay was cut off from saying whatever she was going to say when John cupped her face in his hands and crashed his lips down onto hers.

It had been the moment that he had been anticipating since the time when Kay had stormed into his apartment after Elaine's funeral. She had been so stubborn and headstrong then, and very little had changed since.

The kiss was a total surprise for Kay. It had always been an element in her wishful daydreams and thoughts but she never thought it would happen.

When they broke apart both of them had a wide content smile adorning their face. They stayed standing in front of each other, John resting his head against Kay's forehead. People, who passed John and Kay, saw the couple and smiled recognising all signs of young love all at once.

"John…" Kay began softly, so many questions sprinting around her mind, unable to come to rest.

John just shook his head and took a hold of her hand, he knew exactly what she was going to say.

"We'll talk once we're inside," he said with a soft smile and led Kay into the Pancake House, where they often used to have dinner with friends whilst they were still in high school.

They were shown to a booth and immediately placed their order, John going to the stacked pancakes with bacon and everything else, whilst Kay went for the healthier option of pancakes with lemon sauce.

The conversation this time came with a degree of difficulty, it could even be described as awkward, with Kay stabbing at her pancakes doing everything to avoid John's eye contact.

Words and sentences flew through John's mind urging him to open his mouth and say something, anything to lighten the situation, but he knew that now it was time to only say what wanted to say and mean it.

"I want you to come on tour with us."

Kay chocked on a piece of pancake and it took two minutes and a glass of water to partially calm her coughs.

"You what?" She asked incredulously, downing half of a second glass of water just praying that her coughs would subside.

"I'm not leaving you behind this time, not again," John said emphatically taking a hold of Kay's free hand across the table.

"But Corrine," Kay began.

"She's coming too, bands who have kids take them along all the time," John attempted to sooth Kay's qualms. "Everyone would help out we could managed Kay. Please?" He asked imploringly.

Kay looked at a complete loss, weighing up the options in her mind. Her head was buzzing with the idea of the proposition that John had just put forward, but she didn't want to be rash and agree to do something that in the end would cause far more problems than it was worth.

She needed a reason.

"Why do you want me to come on tour with you? Be honest John, is it because you can't leave Corrine behind and need me to look after her or is it something else?" Kay asked, her voice not sounding as demanding and distant as she would have liked it to be. She felt as though she needed a buffer of harsh words around her to protect her from whatever answer was going to fall from John's lips.

John didn't hesitate in his answer, which turned out to be an encouraging sign.

"I want you to come on tour with us, because without you there I'll do crazy. I need you Kay," he said with a soft smile, rendering the words far less clique than he had said them with a desperate and serious face. "Not just because you're so amazing with Corrine." He added, reassuring her that she had far more value than just as the substitute mother, which she had become.

"Over the past months I've realised what's important to me, watching you look after Corrine with so much love, all the things that you've done Kay, Elaine would have never done…" John broke off for a moment, unsure of whether to continue with what he was about to say, but the alert face of Kay, who was listening to every syllable that dropped from his mouth, encouraged him to carry on.

He explained everything, from how he met Elaine but always noticed the younger sister in the background, how he and Elaine stayed together because there seemed to be no one else but then Elaine formed the attachment when John was about to break it off. He told Kay that so many times it was her whom he wanted to be with, but he didn't want to appear rude or moving on from one sister to the other.

"Bur it's always been you," John finished looking over at Kay who was sat next to him, enraptured by what he had just said.

She had been waiting for those words for such a long time now.

Kay had always been envious of Elaine. Elaine had sailed through life taking everything before Kay could reach it, which included John O'Callaghan. He was the boy who in High School was adored from a far by Kay. She mentioned this to her sister and suddenly John made an appearance in the Corlett house as Elaine's boyfriend.

But now there was no Elaine anymore. Kay could be free of the race, of always having to try beating her sister. She could now be genuinely happy.

Kay had made her decision.