Who: Leon and Caroline, with NPCs Chris and Liz What: Day at the beach When: Mid-July Where: The Forbes' Home to The Beach Ratings/Warnings: Low/none
The one and only nice thing about Liz being sick was that Leon generally knew where she’d be on any given day, and also knew it was fairly likely that she’d be free, unless she had doctors appointments or something lined up.
He was banking on not. He and Chris poured out of his car, Chris sporting a wide-brimmed sunhat, his arms filled with a large inflatable beach ball, and Leon with an LA Angels baseball cap and a frisbee. Though could have left these in the car, but he thought he’d be more convincing if they brought them to the door. His car was already packed with a large parasol and a couple of beach chairs that he’d packed, though he’d left his and Chris’s surfboards at home. He wasn’t planning on surfing if Liz was coming with them, and besides, if he did bring them, there wouldn’t be room for her (and Caroline, he guessed, if Caroline wasn’t working) in the car.
“Liz, open up,” Leon called, pounding on the door with an open hand. “We’re going to the beach!”
Caroline was home for the day, spending time with her mother. It was a day with no events and she managed to not schedule any other appointments. She was looking forward to just having a quiet day with her mom. That was until she heard the loud knocking followed by Leon’s voice.
With a sigh Caroline made her way to the door “What the he-“ she stopped herself when she caught sight of Chris with Leon. “The beach?!” she demanded instead. “She needs to rest.” Seriously why couldn’t Leon seem to get that through his head.
However Liz overheard, she had been on her way to get the door but of course her daughter beat her to it. “I’m fine, Caroline,” she assured her daughter. “I’ve had enough rest. I could use a day out.”
“She can relax on the beach,” Leon barked, but before he could get further into it, Liz had already called from somewhere in the house that she wanted to go to the beach, and Leon shot Caroline a triumphant grin, which he likely wouldn’t have had Liz been able to see him. Take that, Prom Queen. (Chris, on the other hand, gave Leon a nearly exasperated look.)
“What about you, Princess? You doing anything today?”
Caroline let out another sigh. She wasn’t going to win this fight. However she sure as hell was going to tag along. She didn’t trust Leon to let her mom completely relax and rest.
“Yeah,” Caroline replied coolly. “I’m going to the beach.” She wasn’t going to even give him the chance not to invite her.
“Good, means I didn’t pack an extra chair for no reason,” Leon said. Liz would probably have a better time with Caroline tagging along anyway. “Me and Chris’ll wait here while you guys pack your beach bags. We’ve got the snacks and sunscreen and all that stuff covered already though. Chris woke up early to get everything prepared.”
Caroline smiled sweetly at Chris. “That was so nice of you. Thank you,” she said just to him and not at all to Leon. Like hell she was about to thank the guy that was dragging her mom out of the house.
“Or you could help my mom pack,” she added pointedly to Leon. She would help her mom herself but she had her own things to get ready and she didn’t think Leon and Chris wanted to wait around too long.
Chris beamed back at her, not saying anything, but his smile was enough to light the room. Leon looked fondly at him, before shooting Care a dirty look. “What’s to pack? All she needs is a towel and a bathing suit; we’ve already taken care of everything else.” Regardless of his grumbling though, he did start to make his way up stairs. He had a vague notion of where Liz kept her towels, though he wasn’t about to go snooping through her closet for her swimwear.
Caroline packed her own bathing suit. She went downstairs to grab some healthy snacks for her mother (and Caroline too.) She had a feeling Leon’s snacks weren’t all that healthy. She also grabbed some bottles of water to make sure Liz stayed hydrated. “Alright I’m ready,” Caroline called out walking back into the front room where Leon was waiting with the towels and Liz had her own bag packed. And of course Chris was there too.
“Great, let’s get going,” Leon said, leading them out to his car. Leon’s old ’92 Corolla wasn’t the roomiest car, but it wasn’t too tight a squeeze. Liz had plenty of space at the front of the car, and it wasn’t like Chris took up too much space, even with the cooler sitting on the passenger side seat in the back.
It wasn’t too far of a drive to the beach, and it didn’t take Leon too long to unpack his car, the cooler clutched under one arm and the beach chairs gripped under another. He had a couple beach bags slung over his shoulders too, and he’d given Chris the beach umbrella to carry - a little awkwardly, since it was nearly twice as tall as Chris was - and then he scanned the beach.
“Anywhere in particular you wanna set up, Liz?” Leon asked.
Caroline was not all that pleased about being squished in the back with Chris. Not that she didn’t like the kid, it just wasn’t all that comfortable. She also wasn’t thrilled at the idea of spending her day off with Leon. But she would do it. For her mom.
When they got to the beach Liz picked out a place that was a bit less crowded. Caroline took the umbrella from Chris, the poor kid it was like twice his size and carried it along with her and her mother’s bags to the spot. She quickly set up the umbrella so her mother would have some shade. “Okay,” she admitted once it was taken care of her and her eyes were on the ocean. “It is nice here.”
“See? Sometimes I know what I’m talking about,” Leon said, rolling his eyes. Sometimes it felt like Caroline forgot that Leon had also dealt with a sick parent for most of his life.
He set up Liz’s chair first, a nice lounge chair, and then Caroline’s. Leon and Chris were happier just laying on a towel out from under the umbrella. He had Chris take off his shirt, and then began to slather his little brother with sunscreen oil. He’d let Caroline take care of her mom next, but he knew that Chris was probably eager to go and start running around.
“There’s nothing better for relaxing then getting to spend an afternoon on the beach, even if you’re not playing beach volleyball or going surfing.” Both of which were things Leon did 90% of the time when he was at the beach, but he was fine going without for once. He even had a book tucked away in his beach bag.
Caroline hadn’t known about that in the past. She just remembered that both his parents were dead so that’s why he kept being invited over for dinner. When he mentioned in a few weeks ago she was of course more sympathetic, but back then she was too wrapped up in her own life. Just another reason she didn’t like being reminded of her shallowness in the dreams. Still just because his mom was once sick didn’t mean he knew what to do with hers.
“Sometimes,” Caroline teased with a smile on her face. She didn’t think Leon had good ideas often. Like bringing her mom alcohol. That definitely wasn’t a good idea.
“It’s a good day for it,” Liz said as she settled into the chair. “Thank you, Leon.”
Caroline had to suppress an eyeroll at that.
Leon shot Caroline a triumphant look at Liz’s praise. Take that, Prom Queen. It didn’t take much longer for him to finish slathering sun screen over Chris, and he lobbed the bottle at Caroline with a casual “heads up.”
He pulled some cash out of his pocket, and handed it to Chris, with instructions to buy them some juice in pineapples from a vendor that wasn’t too far down the beach.
Caroline caught the sun screen and immediately handed it over to her mom. “Make sure you put a lot on,” Caroline warned, acting more like the mother than the daughter in this situation. She turned her attention back to Leon. “I’m going to change,” she announced before heading off to the bathroom to change into her bikini.
“She’s worried about me,” Liz informed Leon once her daughter was out of ear shot. Like that wasn’t already obvious.
Leon pulled off his own shirt, revealing his well-defined pecs and six-pack abs, as well as three puckered scars from when he’d been shot in his dreams - two in his chest, one in his stomach - and an old, faded scar above his right hip bone from when a suspect had come at him with a knife when he was 19.
He leaned back on the towel, making sure he was downwind and a decent distance away from Liz before lighting up a cigarette. “Yeah, well,” Leon said, shrugging, and then he shot her a cocky half-smile. “It’s kinda our job to worry about our parents once they become ancient,” he teased. Liz wasn’t that old. Hell, she was younger than Leon’s mom had been when she passed away. But teasing her about her age was preferable to bringing up anything else.
Liz appreciated Leon not mentioning the real reason Caroline was so worried. She knew her daughter meant well. But sometimes Liz just wanted to have a normal day, forget about her cancer for a little bit. “Watch who you’re calling ancient,” Liz replied though she was smiling.
Caroline came back dressed in her red bikini, bag with her clothes inside over her shoulder. As she made her way back to their spot she spotted Leon with a cigarette. Caroline wasted no time walking right up to him and plucking it out of his hands, putting it out in the sand. “What the hell, Leon?!”
Leon stared in slack-jawed shock for a minute, before he scowled at her. “What the hell me?! What the hell you!” he exclaimed. “I’m like, six feet away from her and down wind!”
“That’s too close,” Caroline replied calmly. “If you want to smoke go back to the parking lot.” She was not having any of that around her mother.
“Caroline, it’s fine,” Liz replied though she knew it wouldn’t do much good. Her daughter was fiercely protective. Always had been. Growing up it was with her friends. Liz just never thought it would be with herself. She was the mom after all.
“No it’s not,” Caroline argued though her tone was very matter-of-fact. But then she turned her attention to Chris, considering that matter settled. “You want to go in the water?”
Leon rolled his eyes, and would have snapped something back if Chris hadn’t just returned, balancing four frozen, fruity somethings poured in pineapples on a cardboard tray. He let Chris give Liz her drink first, before taking one for himself.
Chris’ face lit up at the invitation to go in the water though, and he nodded, offering Caroline her drink.
Caroline took a sip of her drink before setting it down in the sand next to her mom. “Race you,” she said taking off for the water. She would much rather deal with Chris than Leon. Besides she figured he wanted to spend some time with her mom anyway. And this way she could still keep an eye on them.