Rating: PG

Summary: Going to Carolina. I'm blatantly ripping off Martha Little in "A Beach in Winter," which is an all-time top 10 favorite of mine. It gave me a great excuse to read it again. I never get tired of it. Bravo, Martha!

Spoilers: "Clerks." A great movie.
 

March 17, 2001

Never mind all the problems going on around us. We have important things to think about. Like the Final Four, which is going on today, and we're gonna head for Mitch's and watch the playoffs today.

Kelly said she might go, too, if she can get all her homework done in time. We both stayed up late last night, trying to nail everything down, homework and researching stuff for TMB. I got to do as much as possible because I'm back on the job at school tomorrow. No, they didn't fire me. I'm amazed, but they were somewhat cool about it.

This is what passes for a hot date these days.

Only good thing I can say about being home the week I was, I got to see the start of the playoffs, which was cool. Everybody's been so busy, we've mostly listened to the games on the radio, but today we're going to Mitch's, 60-inch TV, beer, and you can be more or less totally obnoxious at Mitch's. As long as you don't hassle the ladies-he'll toss you out on your ass for doing that. But pretty much anything else goes.

Langly's biggest worry right now is that his wife'll ovulate the day of the championship final.

I tease him about basketball being more important than sex? And he says, not what you think.

Okay, you don't have to draw me a picture, thank you very much.
 

ALLY:

Okay, this is it. Cycle ended yesterday.

I've got several prescriptions awaiting my consumption, and I can't help but feel that their presence on my night table is more than a little sinister.

I don't know why I'm being so negative. I'm not going to have to be on these forever.

Just until I get pregnant.

I don't dare say 'if' at this point.

I need to think a lot more positive.

I love kids. Always have. The idea of a child is delightful.

The road to getting there, well, that's another story.

The journey included cancelling our vacation, which, I have to admit, has me rather depressed. We were supposed to leave nine days from today.

Well, we're both behind enough at work, so it's not as if we'll have nothing to do during that time. But the vacation would have been very welcome.

I think we all need one right now.

Byers's spring break is one week staggered from ours, so he's off the week after we would have gone to Cozumel. He and Juliet are talking about spending some time in the Adirondacks. This is assuming, of course, that they can find suitable accommodations for Tivoli. Suitable, naturally, as defined by them, which brings the concept to a whole other level.

Frohike mentioned something about a trip to North Carolina while the Michael is on break. I don't know if he's firmed his plans for it or not. It would do him good to get away for a while.

Langly said Frohike had taken him and Byers to North Carolina a number of years back, and he'd had a great time. Said he'd been sick when he got there, but it was an extremely therapeutic trip in more ways than one. I've never been to North Carolina, and I'd love to go, I tell him. He says we'll do it someday. They apparently stayed in a very pleasant beach house, ate some very delicious seafood, and managed to relax and enjoy, without the benefits of high-tech.

"You're telling me you went four whole days without so much as a laptop."

"Did."

"This I have to see."

"Hey, I didn't take one to Manzanillo!"

"Yes, you did. We played You Don't Know Jack in the airport on the way back."

"Yeah, but we didn't use it once in the hotel." And he winks at me, eyes bright with mischief.

Ah, yes. Why do you THINK I wanted to go to Cozumel so badly?

Miranda's reaction upon hearing that we were not going to be taking our vacation irritated her. She was going to be staying with Shelby and Mary in our absence, but apparently, the girls had planned quite the gala to take place while we were away. I found this out while gathering laundry and she had not been careful enough to close her door all the way. Something to the effect of 'now I have to call like 80 people and cancel!"

I feel a little better about staying home after that. But not much.

I've gotten as far as grabbing a glass of water to down the pills I'm supposed to start taking. That's as much progress as I made while mourning my lost vacation.

What if I just bailed on the whole deal?

What if I tell Langly, I just can't do it? He's got to understand. Doesn't he?

Not an option here.

I gulp down the initial dose.
 

MICHAEL:

I'm so happy. Kelly says she's all caught up, so she can go with us. This is totally cool. There's a bunch of us going, Dad, Langly, Byers, Jo, Mulder, Kelly and me.

We'll have to sit at the kids' table since Kelly's too young to sit at the bar, but I don't care. I don't plan to hang with the big kids, anyway. I've seen a lot more of Mulder in the past week than I need to, and he's almost as bad about busting on me as Langly is. Have my girlfriend with me, I'll never hear the end of it.

What's weird is, Langly's not busting on me too much lately. I think he's kind of preoccupied with stuff that him and Ally are doing.

I almost miss it.

Don't tell him that, though.

It's spooky, he's been almost nice. Like he's got to keep good karma or something if he's gonna get this kid of his.

It's no fun, because when he's not being an asshole, you can't hassle him back. And it's real hard to be nice to him and keep a straight face. I mentioned this to the prof, and he cracked up. Thought it was just him. I mean, Langly probably hasn't called him narc-boy in at least two weeks.

I bet he misses it, too.
 

Mitch's is packed, of course, and it's a biker bar.

Kelly seems a little nervous when we come in. I forget she grew up around this kind of stuff, and she doesn't much care for it.

I assure her, though, that the regulars are cool, Mitch is decent, and he won't tolerate any abuse of women in his bar, and she relaxes a little.

Okay, as much as she can probably relax in any establishment where one of the signs in the entryway says "Please check all weapons at the door."

I wasn't planning on us sitting with the big kids, but Langly and Mulder shove two tables together, and after a while, this lady I sort of recognize comes out. I can't remember where I saw her. She's an older lady.

"Hey, Genie!" Langly obviously knows her. He leans over and says, "Mitch's mom. Probably helping him out 'cause it's pretty full up here. Can I get a Sam Adams?"

Genie glares at him. "'Scuse me, you're in Mitch's, you get what I give you."

I like her already.

Genie looks down at me, then at my dad. "This your young'un?"

Dad nods yes, and introduces me and Kelly. He also adds that Kelly's only 19.

"I knew that," she says to Dad. She takes off, comes back with six Bud longnecks and a mineral water with lime for Kelly.

"It ain't Perrier, but it tastes the same," she tells Kelly.

Mulder's screaming for hot wings, and we get bunches of them. The wings here are nuclear, I warn Kelly. I'm not kidding. Bite into one of Mitch's hot wings, you don't think it's a big deal, but about a minute later, your eyes run, your nose runs, and if you're real pale like Ally and Langly, you turn bright red.

"I think I can handle this," Kelly says to me, and chows into one.

I'm waiting. She's gonna die.

And I'm not disappointed. She's blonde, so her poor nose and cheeks are all red and her eyes are watering and she grabs for her water and gulps down the entire thing.

"Michael, you idiot. She's a novice! Didn't you warn her?" Mulder yells down to me.

"She didn't listen!"

"I did so listen, I just didn't believe you." She's still choking.

"Any questions now?" I smile at her.

"I don't think so," she's laughing.

And she tries another one-a little more cautiously this time.
 

Halftime, and the show is, well, boring.

"God, whatever happened to miniskirts and tube tops?" My dad is moaning like it's the end of civilization or something.

Jo's asking Kelly and me about school. One thing about Jo, she asks you something, she really wants to know, so we go on about our classes and our jobs and she actually listens to us. She doesn't say a lot, but at least she's not pretending to be polite. Either that, or she's a way better actress than I give her credit for.

"Melvin, have you asked Michael?" She turns back to my dad, who's on about his twentieth beer by now.

He delivers the world's most embarrassing belch-Jesus, the guy has no class sometimes!-and I want to crawl under the table. There's no way Kelly didn't hear that.

Mulder doesn't realize this is what Kelly says is an involuntary reaction, and he takes it as invitation to start a belching contest. He and Langly are pretty soon trying to reenact various songs by belching them out. By the time Mulder's got the Illinois fight song under his belt, I want to be as far away from here as humanly possible.

But Kelly's being cool about it. She's not even blushing, like Byers, or shaking her head, like Jo. She's just sipping her mineral water-it's probably club soda, this is Mitch's after all-and smiling. She can be a good sport when she needs to, and around this crowd, you need to a lot.

I know she's still sort of an outsider to them because nobody teases her yet. When people start kidding around with her, then you know they accept her as one of us.

I'm not sure I want that to happen-some of the teasing around us is, well, pretty crude.

Mulder and Langly have gone off into comparing sperm counts-I'd like to die right now, thank you very much-Langly proudly announces, after a few hundred beers, he's in the normal range and was told he's got some strong swimmers in there.

I think this is more than any of us need to know.

Plus it kind of lays the whole thing on Ally, and it's not nice. Ally's no prude, but I think she'd clobber him if she was here.

I know Dr. Scully would belt Mulder. Maybe shoot him a couple times. Particularly when Dad asks if they're gonna do a third kid, and Mulder says something to the effect that if his wife will open her legs again, he'd do it in a heartbeat.

I get some small satisfaction knowing that Dr. Scully's keeping him out in the cold right now.

I expect Kelly to start groaning or making faces or asking if we can move, or leave, but she just hangs tight.

"I've heard worse," she tells me, and I believe her. "And going into medicine, well, it's not as if I'm never going to hear anything that's less than pretty." She laughs.

Jo hears this, and she nods in agreement. Jo did a long time as an ER nurse, and she probably has tales to tell, but she doesn't say much. I think, from what my dad tells me, she really burned out on the job. She and my dad probably talk about this stuff, just like they probably talk about 'Nam sometimes, but they don't say it to the rest of us.

"Melvin? Did you mention the trip to Michael?" Jo tries again.

What trip?

"Michael, Jo and I plan to go to North Carolina in two weeks for a few days, spend some time at a place I used to visit a lot. How'd you like to go?"

Is he talking about a vacation?

Shit, I've never been on vacation, unless you count going to Black Hat and DEFCON, and I don't. I mean, I've never gone on vacation with anybody in my family.

This idea has lots of appeal. Getting out of Dodge for a while would be very cool.

But God, to be away from Kelly, even for a few days...

Especially when she takes my hand like she just did. It's so warm, I can feel the heat radiate through me and coil up in my stomach...

Down boy.

"Can Kelly come?" I ask Dad before I even ask Kelly, which is probably not cool, but Kelly's like, she gets this look on her face like, wow, a
vacation.

That's right. Other than going to see her Aunt Patty when she was little, Kelly's never gone on vacation, either.

Jo answers first. "I think that's a nice idea, Melvin. Why not?"

Dad doesn't look quite as sure about this. But he shrugs and says, sure, Kelly can come.

"You want to?" I ask her.

She grins. "I've never been to North Carolina-I've never been anywhere, really. I'd love to. Where're we going, Mr. Frohike?"

"Atlantic Beach," Dad says. "Right on the water. It's beautiful there."

"So you've been there before?" Kelly asks him.

Dad gets this far away, wistful-type look in his eyes. "Many times. Many times."

I think this must be the place he went with Dee. Just a suspicion.

The game's starting up again, so we all turn our attention back to the sports-related activities of cheering good plays, dissing bad ones, and assailing the coach's masculinity. Lots of that going on.

All this, and Kelly's got her arm around me, I've got mine around her. This is like so great. I get a Look from Dad every now and then to keep it cool.

Jesus, does he think we're gonna jump up on the table in the middle of a crowded bar and just fuck like bunnies?

I mean, we probably could...I could do it right now, no problem.

But that's not the way I want it to be for us.

I've been so busy thinking about doing it, I hadn't even thought about what I'd like it to be like, and where, when we finally get to it.

And I think we'll get to it soon.

God, I used to think about having sex all the time.

Then I take a look at the beautiful girl in my arms, and I realize I stopped thinking about having sex and started thinking about making love.

I want it to be perfect when it happens.
 

ALLY:

March 28, 2001

The alarm goes off. Time to get up, brush my teeth, and see if I'm ovulating. It's become a routine. I'm used to it now.

What I'm not used to is that there's a definite shift this morning.

It's happened.

"Langly, up." I shake him. "We have to go."

"Tired," he mutters, pushing his face into the pillow.

"No, we have to go. It happened. I ovulated."

"Huh?" He's still locked in the arms of Morpheus, but after a couple minutes, and a repeat of the morning's headlines, he's out of bed like a shot.

"All right!" Then he loses his happy expression. "Uh...don't they just have to do you today?"

"Langly, I'm not doing this myself. Please. I need you there."

He thinks about this for about five seconds, and then wraps me in his long arms. "What, and miss harvest time? I wouldn't have missed it."

He may change his mind after it's done. He looks calm, but I'm nervous as hell.

I was told this was going to be uncomfortable.
 

Uncomfortable was a poor choice of words. It hurts like hell.

Long needles in one's abdomen are not the way you want to face the world first thing on a Friday.

I think it might have freaked him a little, too. He doesn't look quite as good as when we got here. A little pale about the gills would be one way to describe it.

I'm trying hard not to be a child about this, but it really hurts, and my eyes are damp.

But instead of passing out or going all wimpy on me, he stands by and just pats my hair, holds my hand, does whatever needs doing. He keeps talking to me, very softly, and I can keep my focus.

It sounds cruel, but I wasn't sure he had it in him.

It's finally over, and I have to stay put for a while. I tell him he can go to work, I'll Metro in later, but he's like no, he'll stay.

And it touches my heart that he would. I know he's having problems at work. He really needs to pay attention in that sphere right now. But it's nice to know what he considers to be important.

"Love you," he whispers to me.

Maybe it's the hormones, which make me feel edgy, or that I just went through a rough procedure, or that I'm tired and I'm worried about only everything in the world.

That's all it takes. I burst out crying.
 

MICHAEL:

March 29, 2001

We're really going on vacation.

I feel all excited. I mean, only way I could be more happy is if Kelly and me were going by ourselves.

But Dad has Jo to hang with on this trip, and so he shouldn't bug us too much.

We're taking Jo's car. She's got a Maxima convertible, very comfy, and Dad says you have to have a convertible at the beach. Cool by me.

We go and grab Kelly, and she's like all excited. We've been working and studying our asses off. Keeping a 4.0 is not always a piece of cake. Plus I had to make up all the work I missed when I had surgery. My goal was to have it all in before we left.

I made it. Barely, I handed in my last program yesterday, but I did do it. So now I don't have to deal with anything but the regular stuff we got assigned over break. And there's enough of that, but it's not like having to double up.

It's been a long month, and I'm real tired. I still get tired even if it's been four weeks since I had surgery. I bitched about this to Bergman when I had to go for follow-up yesterday-last one--and he said it's normal.

Just not convenient.

So I end up falling asleep almost as soon as we're on the Interstate, but it's not so bad, because Kelly puts my head in her lap and she strokes my hair and my face. I feel very comfy and secure right now.

And I sleep a long time. By the time I wake up again, Dad's driving instead of Jo-when did they stop?-and I can smell the ocean.

It's real gorgeous here.

"We in North Carolina yet?" I ask my dad.

Kelly, Dad and Jo all laugh at me. "We have been for a while. We're almost there." It's Dad. "You feeling okay, Michael?"

I feel great.

"Oh, yeah." I sit up, and I lean over and kiss Kelly, very gently.

I think we just got a look from Dad, but tough.

And Jo kind of looks at him like, Melvin, get over it already.

It's a lot warmer here than in Alexandria, and the sun's out. It was looking pretty grey when we pulled out of town. This is like being on another planet.

I can deal with this.

Dad pulls up to a house right on the beach. I didn't realize it was right on the beach-this is awesome. I think Kelly thinks so, too. She's just looking around like a little kid on Christmas morning that got everything she wanted from Santa.

"Kelly, you packed a swimsuit, didn't you?" Jo asks her. Dad told me to be sure and bring mine-I thought he was nuts when we left, but I did it anyway, and now I'm glad I did.

"Uh...I don't have one." She looks kind of embarrassed.

Jo doesn't look shocked or pitying or anything. "Well, there certainly have to be places where that can be taken care of. We'll do that when we get settled, if that's all right."

"Sounds great. I haven't bought a swimsuit since I was twelve." She's blushing.

God, she probably didn't even have tits then.

She's got them now. Living with Ally and Langly, well, you just put on weight like you breathe. Ally worries that everybody's hungry all the time. I really pudged out living with them.

Kelly's pudged out a bit, but on her, it looks fantastic. She's got a real ass now, and her tits are bigger. Her face looks a little fuller and it makes her look happier and softer.

Thinking about her, and the combination of salt and sand and water...I am getting so unbelievably horny. I'm craving the smell and feel of her skin on mine.

And I get to see how she looks in a swimsuit.
 

I offer to take her stuff upstairs, and Dad offers to take Jo's. They both are like, hey, we can handle it, but we're Frohikes, we do it anyway.

Jo and Kelly each get one of the bedrooms upstairs. Dad and I get the sofas downstairs. He made a point of this several times before we left.

But I take Kelly's stuff into the room she picked for herself, and it hits me.

This is where it's gonna happen for us.

It faces the ocean, and it's not that big, but it's real comfy looking. Lots of blankets piled on the bed, and the window's cracked a little so you can feel the breeze coming in. And there's plenty of room for both of us in the bed.

"This is SO great!" Kelly bounces on the bed a little, checking it out.

We'll make it great, I promise her to myself.
 

True to her word, Jo asks Kelly if she's ready to go shopping, and Kelly's like, sure. Kelly buys most of her stuff in thrift stores, and I bet Jo's not gonna take her to a thrift store this time. Jo may dress dull, but she buys quality duds.

Jo looks so different here. She's got on this denim skirt-I tell you, that lady should show off her legs more often-and a T-shirt with cats all over it. She's wearing this big hat, she's blonde, doesn't like to get sunburned, and sandals. And she paints her toenails bright red.

I've never seen Kelly paint her toenails. I'd do it for her if she wanted me to. I remember watching Dante in "Clerks" paint his girlfriend's nails, and I've always wanted to do it for Kelly; he made it look so damn sexy, even on the floor of the convenience store.

Maybe Jo will get her to buy some nail polish.
 

Dad's already planted himself on the porch, beer in hand-we got Sam Adams for the trip, which is real cool. I get tired of that Mexican shit Ally buys-it's okay, there's just nothing like Sam Adams.

He's got his brown fedora on, which is one of his less offensive hats. Kelly's seen some of the worse ones. I hope he left them home. I don't know why he wears them, he doesn't burn. Maybe to cover the bald spot.

"This place is awesome," I tell him.

He doesn't say anything, just stares out at the water. He's got this faraway look on his face. Not sad, just kind of thinking.

He came here with Dee. I know he did.

END OF PART 78