Reaching Out Ch. 03

"That sounds nice. I'm glad you get to work with something new, it can get a little dull just doing the same things over and over again." Dad said, his voice light and casual. James could plainly see that his father was feeling anything but light and casual right now, and knew that Dana would see it as well. Dad was tense and rigid, his face set in its bright smile. The smile was sincere, but static; he couldn't stop it if he tried. His back was as ramrod straight as Dana's tended to get when she was scared, a trait of excitement that they shared that James had to smile about himself.

"I don't know, I like working on all the things I usually work on. I am always putting a new image on them, so it's not really the same thing. Now, I will just have more options for what I have to put all the designs on is all. I like that." She answered. It was a normal dialogue, a simple conversation, something that last week their parents would have said was impossible. James thought his fingers might break under Dana's iron grip, but he would not say or do anything about it. He did not want her to think that she should let go of her reassurance for any reason. Not while she was building this fragile courage. James never would have guessed that she could clamp her hand down with such force, but in thinking about what she did all day, he was really not all that surprised. Hammering designs into leather all day had to build up your hands up, even if you took your time and went lightly where you could. He thought of all the time she must have spent swinging a mallet at a metal stamp, pulling a swivel knife across the surface of tough leather, cutting thick hunks of hide into the shapes she needed, and the times when she did some of the stitching for the smaller sections before it went to mom for final construction. It was really not surprising, then, that she had hands that could crush his fingers and grate the bones in his palm. He wouldn't let on that she was hurting his hand though. Not for anything. He would rather she smash his hand to bits if it made her feel better than to tell her it hurt and risk taking a source of confidence from her.

"What's your favorite item to work with?" Dad asked, his voice still light and chatty. James was grateful that dad was keeping the momentum going. This was the kind of interaction that James had been talking to mom about. The kind of simple conversation that Dana so desperately needed.

"Anything big is fun. I like it when I get to do a backpack, or a wall hanger. Those have a lot of surface area and I can do a lot with them. But I think my favorite so far would be jackets. I've been able to do two jackets. Both of them special orders by customers to be designed. Those were really fun. Challenging and simple at the same time. I really liked working on them." Dana's whole face was bright red, and she was beginning to look more at her plate than her father, but she was smiling. James gave her a little squeeze with his crushed hand as best he could. She squeezed back and loosened a bit, to James' great relief.

"Well, I can get a few patterns for jackets and start making them regularly. I always thought they were a bit complex for me, but I have some experience with them now, and I would be willing to try to do them regularly, if you would like." Mom said, her voice quiet and a little uneven. It was very unlike her normal tone of voice. Dana looked up and smiled wide. She could see and hear that her mother was getting a little emotional, and Dana wanted to reassure her a little. She was very aware of the reversal of roles, and wondered just how much of this change was permanent, and how much would disappear when she lost her nerve, as she was quickly doing.

"That would be great. If you're okay with trying to put them together, I would love to tool them." Dana said. She kept her eyes on mom until she finished, then looked down to her plate and went back to eating. James filled the tense silence that tried to form with a question for mom.

"With the complexity being an issue, would it help if Dana went over the pattern and how it all fits together with you? I mean, with her precision detail kind of focus, would it help for the two of you to go at it together until you get the hang of how it all fits together?" He asked, looking from mom to Dana. He didn't want to presume upon Dana, but he didn't think that she would mind in this matter.

"Well, if you were okay with that, I would love to have your eye for detail to help me see how it all fits a bit better, Dana." Mom said carefully. She was clearly a little tense about it, but the set of her shoulders and the tightness of her words spoke more of hope and excitement than anxiety. Dana looked up to mom, then James, her hand tightening on James' again. She was smiling though, and she nodded.

"I would be happy to. Knowing the pattern and how all the pieces fit would make it a lot easier to know what I could put on it design-wise, as well. Just let me know when you want to start on it, and I'll take a look." Dana said, still smiling. She was looking more at her plate now, and her grip on James' hand was vise-like again, but James could see genuine interest in her. It was clear despite the tightness in her jaw and the rigid set of her spine.

--

After dinner, James and Dana gathered the plates and set to washing them. It only took a couple minutes, as there were no pots or pans to worry about. Mom had gone to the store to pick up a few things and dad had gone up to the office to grind away at paperwork, leaving them the kitchen to themselves.

"I didn't mean to spring the idea with the jacket on you like that, but you looked like you were starting to get a little nervous, so I thought that maybe changing the direction of the topic would help to change how you were feeling. I don't know why I thought it might work; it was something that just kind of popped into my head and out of my mouth in the moment." James said as he handed the first plate to Dana for her to dry.

"It's alright. I was still losing my nerve, but I think it helped to keep me from losing it completely. I think it was kind of like a distracting sort of thing. It made me change gears. I think that helped. I will have to talk to Mom while we work on the jackets, but I think I can do that easier now." Dana said, speaking slowly, weighing her words. James could see that she was thinking over how the conversation had gone in her head and her emotions during it. He thought that she was right, that she was far better equipped for interacting with their mother as in depth as such a project would require than she was before he had started to work with her, before they had found each other the way they had.

"I think you can do that now as well. You're doing much better in conversations. You've been talking more the last couple days than I've seen you talk the last couple years, you know?" James said with a chuckle.

"Having someone safe to talk to has been a whole new world for me." She said after a moment of thought, her voice quiet and a little sad. She put the last plate away and turned to James, a small smile on her face. He could see that the smile was both happy and sad. "I wish I had talked to you earlier. I feel like I have lost years to being alone when I could have had someone. But I'm happy I have someone now." She said, her voice not quite even. Her body was relaxed and calm, her breathing even, but she looked like she was close to crying.

"Well, let's go talk. We still have a lot of catching up to do." James said, reaching out to give her hand a squeeze. She returned the squeeze and nodded before leading him out of the kitchen, still holding his hand.

They settled on her bed, as they usually did. Dana didn't straddle James, knowing that mom would be back from the store soon, and may pop her head in. With the scare that dad had given them earlier, they were both willing to wait to until after their parents went to bed to do anything serious or easily misconstrued.

"How do think this will work long term, if your request is granted and you can get a home here?" Dana asked, her cheek resting against James' arm, her hands toying with his. She sounded more scared than curious, making James wonder what she was thinking about that had gotten her worried.

"What do you mean? How it will work with us, or with work, or the house?" He asked, pulling his hand from her grasp to put it around her. He wanted to reassure her, to let her know that whatever her worry was, he intended to put it to rest.

"Us. Mom and dad. Will we just say that I am living with you forever so that I feel better? How will it work?" She asked, her arms going around his waist. She was getting tense, her muscles growing jumpy, her hold on him tight. James had to admit that they couldn't exactly say it like that.

"Well, I figure we can tell them that you are moving in with me so that we can work on your shyness as we have been, and just go from there. As time goes by, we can just say that living together works out for both of us, and that we really don't have a reason for either of us to move out. That neither of us has met anyone, that we don't see any reason for us to each own a house when we're comfortable living together in one place, stuff like that. I think that eventually it will just be, I don't know, accepted as normal, I guess. At least, that's the way I've been thinking about it." James said, frowning. He didn't know if this was a good plan or not, how plausible it was or if it stood any chance of working. He thought that it could work, if they were careful.

Dana relaxed a little after thinking about it for a couple minutes, though she didn't relax her grip on him. James was fine with that though. She was quiet for a while before talking again.

"I think that could actually work alright, but we would have do it just right." She said, nearly echoing James' thoughts. She didn't sound terribly confident, but she did sound like she was she wanted to try. That was the important part for James. That she was willing to try. He didn't want her to do anything she didn't want to do. He would feel terrible if he made her do something against her will.

"Do you still want to try? Do you still want to see if we can?" He asked quietly, trying to keep his voice even, but not quite succeeding. Dana straightened up and looked him in the eye, her face set and determined. Her hold on him grew even tighter, emphasizing her answer.

"Yes. I don't care how small the chance is for us to do this, I want to try. Please tell me you want to try as well, James." She said, her gaze the hard and piercing focus that now drew him to her where just a few days before it had made him nervous. She looked terrified that he may be having second thoughts, her breathing shallow and fast, her pulse a lighting flutter under his hands on her back.

"More than anything. Don't worry about that, Dana. I just wanted to make sure you weren't doing anything you didn't want to, that's all. I still want to try to have a life with you; I don't want to try to have any other kind of life." James said, pulling her to him so he could kiss her. He wanted to let her know that everything would be alright. He hadn't meant to scare her, and he felt bad for doing so.

"Me too. I can't imagine not trying. All I want is a life with you. We just have to figure out how to make that work." She said, letting a shaky sigh out when she could speak again. They heard the front door and released each other, going to the door to see if mom needed help with the bags from the store.

--

After a while, James thought about checking his emails. He hadn't checked in a few days, and figured he had a few from work about stuff to do when his vacation was over. He pulled up his mailbox while Dana pulled out her sketchpad. There were indeed a bundle of emails from work; nine in all. James started to go through them, marking them for his folder of things to do, until he got to the fifth one. The fifth one had a bunch of links for the company website in it that talked about additional duties and places that he would have to start checking into every week. Confused, James marked the email as 'to do' and went to the next. It was another one like the fifth one, with a lot of stuff that he would have to start doing every week on a couple of pages on the company website. Frowning, James filed this one as well and opened the next email. This one explained the last two that had gotten him so confused.

In the seventh email, James found six pages of instructions on how to go about making the change to working from home, what was expected of him, and who he could contact in any given event. It also contained a few contact lists for info about making the change itself, if he had any questions that weren't covered by the emails he had received. A quick glance confirmed that the remaining emails were follow-ups that contained more information on what he needed to do, and how to go about doing it.

James had been expecting a phone call about this, not an email. He was also expecting to be contacted in another week or so. He checked the dates, and saw that he had been sitting on the news since yesterday without even knowing it. He stared at the screen for a moment, calling himself every form of idiot that he could think of for not thinking to check his email while he waited to find out about this. He should have known to check. Even if he had been told to expect a phone call in a week, he should have been checking his email anyways, just in case his phone missed the call or the news came early. He was an idiot of the highest caliber, in his opinion at the moment.

"James, are you alright? You look like you have to poop." Dana said, pausing in her work with her pencil. She was frowning, worried. James' face was tight and red, the vein in his neck was pulsing, his lips were tightly pursed and turning whitish from the pressure. His hands were gripping the edges of the laptop very tightly.

He jumped a little when she spoke, and turned to look at her, his face relaxing a little. He still looked pretty keyed up, but he was breathing again, at least. That was good. She was still worried, as he still looked like something was very wrong, but he was starting to smile. James spun the computer around to show her the screen, his hands holding it a little unsteadily. Dana saw a wall of text, and as she started to read it, James blurted out what it amounted to.

"It went through! They granted it, I'm going to be working from home, from our home! It went through Dana. I'm an idiot and I didn't check my email and it went through." He said in a rush, struggling to keep his voice low, not wanting to shout. It wasn't easy, but he managed it. It felt so good to say 'our home' to Dana that he could barely stand it.

Dana's eyes lit up and she smiled wide, her face looking the way James felt, a bright and cheery grin of pure happiness. She dropped the notepad on the bed and launched herself over to him, cinching her arms around his neck and bowling him over onto his back. James managed to set the laptop aside just before she made impact, and held her tight while she kissed him fiercely. She pulled back and looked him in the eye a moment, her smile still beaming.

"Our home." She said quietly.

"Our home." He agreed with a small nod.

--

James read through the email quickly, wanting to know when he would could start packing and when his last day in the office was. He was happy to discover that he only needed to show up for two days after his vacation, and after that he was effectively a free man. He was basically on his own schedule, checking in on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the afternoon with his supervisor, and once a month with his manager. All of those were to be done as videoconferences, so he didn't have to worry about going into the office building at all. The only exception was in the event of certain meetings or special occasions, which would be rare for him.

James closed the computer and gave Dana a quick kiss before the two of them left the room to tell their parents the news. They got themselves calmed down a bit then went and spread the word. Mom was sitting in the office with dad, looking over some stuff on their computer, when James and Dana came in smiling. As soon as James told them what they were smiling about, mom and dad were smiling as well.

"You're kidding! Congratulations! So when does the work from home thing start, do you know yet? How does it work? What did they say?" Mom was close to babbling. She was as excited as the kids, happy that James would be able to keep working with Dana and would be closer to home again.

James explained what the email said, grinning like an idiot the whole time. While mom and James talked about all the details, Dana simply stood by James, holding his hand.

"You must be thrilled as well dear, now that James will be close by to keep talking with you." Mom said to Dana after getting all the schedule info from James.

"Yes. You don't know how happy I am to hear about this, mom." Dana said softly, giving James' hand a squeeze. James could hear how strained Dana's voice was, and knew she was doing her best to keep from crying. He couldn't blame her. Mom looked like she was close to tears as well. Even dad was grinning ear to ear, like James was.

"I think this is a real chance for you to make a positive change in your life, Dana. Whatever you need to make it happen, to make it easier, just let us know. We'll make sure that you can make the best of it to spend as much time as you need working with your brother, okay?" Dad said, his voice surprisingly soft and gentle. He wasn't normally gruff or anything, but he wasn't normally this tender when he spoke. Dana and James could both see and hear the sincere, deep concern and caring in his statement, and it was very touching to them. Dad wasn't one for sentimental or emotional displays, and this felt like both.

"Thank you dad. I'm sure James and I will be spending a lot of time together. I'm glad to have you guys supporting us with it." Dana said, her voice catching a little on James' name. She wasn't sure when they were going to spring the news about moving in with James on them, but she wasn't worried about that right now. Right now she was simply concerned with making it through this conversation, which was hard enough with all the emotions stampeding through her. She released James' hand and stepped over to give her dad a hug, the tears she had fought to hold back finally winning out.

"Don't worry, I'll have plenty of time to dedicate to Dana. She's my top priority." James said, having a hard time keeping his eyes off of her. He didn't know he could feel so deeply for a person, not until now. Knowing that their plan now had the chance to happen, that they had a shot at being together, only seemed to magnify what he was feeling for her. He felt like if he was pricked with a needle he would simply burst from the pressure of the emotions welling in him.

--

James closed the door behind them as they walked into Dana's room. It was just after nine, mom and dad had just said their goodnights, and the house was dark once again. Dana reached past James and quietly locked the door, taking James' hand as hers left the knob. She led him to the bed and turned off the lamp, leaving them in the dim light from the nearly finished sunset. They undressed without speaking, not needing to talk to know what the other was feeling. Dana slid under the covers and James followed her.

As soon as he was in the bed, Dana was against him, her arms around him, her legs straddling his waist. She held him tight and kissed him hard, soft moans vibrating deep in her throat. James let one of his hands rub circles on her back, the other cupping the cheek of her ass. Dana broke the kiss and nuzzled against his neck, nipping lightly here and there, tugging lightly at the lobe of his ear.