[Story] Stuck In the Middle with You ~ Chapter One
Title: Stuck In the Middle with You
Summary: Fred and Lex haven’t seen Catalina since she dropped out of high school without telling anyone why. When they run into her by mere accident at an airport, a lot of unsolved mysteries emerge.
Rating: PG
Dedication: Thanks to Emma. If you hadn’t forced me to buy Now 50 three years ago, I never would’ve listened to Stuck In The Middle With You yesterday. The ending is dedicated to Sam, because she inspired me to write it.
Genre: General/Romance
Disclaimer: Lex O’Leary and Jeff Delricci belong to NYgoldfish54. Fred and Catalina belong to me. I can be humble enough to share Jack with NYgoldfish54. I’ll be very surprised if you find anyone else but those five mentioned in this story.

#¤#¤#¤#Stuck In the Middle with You#¤#¤#¤#
...:.:.:.:.:.:.By: Cimmy.:.:.:.:.:.:...

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Chapter 1. Coincidence
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    I don’t recall how we ended up at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Fred had a game up in Bismarck, Wisconsin and I guess we had to make an intermediate landing.

    Usually, I don’t tag along when he goes off to play in another city, but I had a break from the tour my band was on. Fred begged me to come, since we hadn’t spent much time together during the past few months.

    Flying makes Fred nervous, and he kept talking nonstop, so by the second hour of our long wait for the plane to board, I was pretty tired of his babble. I really love him, but I need silence from time to time. His persistent voice makes me unable to think.

    We went to school together too, and that’s actually where we met. Ever since we graduated from high school, we’ve been living in New York. Fred managed to get an athletic scholarship to New York University, and he plays college hockey there. I was enrolled at the college too, but decided to take a sabbatical year, because I needed a break from all the studies for a while.

    Of course, I didn’t slack off completely, doing nothing. In high school, six of my friends and I had a band together. We called ourselves Suspended Motion and we managed to get a lot of gigs after winning a huge competition where the prize was to be the opening act for the Rolling Stones. Despite of this, we never had the chance to completely absorb ourselves in the music, thanks to our studies. We all agreed to devote the first year after high school to the band, and if it didn’t work out, we’d go back to college and not worry about it.

    The band has been successful ever since. I plan to study anyway, just not now. We make good money from it, and leaving the band just when we’re doing well seems insane. I’ll be twenty this year, so I have all the time in the world to do whatever I want.

    Fred has always told me to do what I love the most. He keeps telling me how proud he is of me, and I know he’s being sincere. He’s awful at telling lies.

    My parents, however, were not especially thrilled when I told them I wasn’t going straight to college after high school. My father put up quite a fight against me leaving home to move in with Fred. I’ve never gotten along with my Dad and I dreaded telling him for months. Eventually, Fred followed me home to give me moral support, and… Well, it didn’t go well, but I don’t regret it either. I stood up for myself.

    Anyhow, this trip was the first actual time off I’ve had in a while. Fred was happy I could come with him, and I’ve missed him.

    Thanks to Fred’s amazing ability to not pay attention to where he was, we’d gotten lost. If I’d known I was supposed to keep track of our gate, I would’ve done that. But no, Fred insisted he knew exactly where it was.

    We were bickering about how to get back, when something bumped into my leg. At first I thought someone had rammed me with another one of those luggage trolleys. People just don’t seem to be able to drive them without hitting me.

    “I’m almost certain we’re supposed to go that way,” Fred explained. His superiority drove me crazy, and I was just about to object to his madness when he pointed at me. “Who’s that?”

    Feeling a headache developing, I just sighed. “This is me; Lex. Don’t joke around, Fred. I’m definitely not in the mood for this,” I said pointedly. Just to see what had collided with my left leg, I turned around. Instead of a trolley, a small child gazed up at me. “Oh, who’s that?”

    Fred rolled his eyes. “I just asked that!” The child, apparently a young boy, let go of my coat and dashed over to Fred, throwing his arms around his leg.

    “He seems to like you,” I giggled. “Maybe his parents lost him?”

    “But he’s not crying,” Fred shrugged, kneeling next to the boy. “Hi, where are your parents?”

    “Why does he have to cry?” I asked, also crouching down. “Maybe he took off on his own?”

    “Someone should teach him to be more careful about approaching strangers,” Fred muttered, picking the child up in his arms. “Where’s the information counter?”

    “Should we just leave him there?” The little boy stretched out his hand towards me, and I smiled at him. He babbled happily when I poked at him, trying to distract him from the fact that his parents were missing.

    “Eh, nobody seems to be looking for him,” Fred pointed out after quickly inspecting the area.

    “It seems wrong just to dump him off at the information counter,” I added. “He doesn’t look to be very old. What’s your name?” The boy didn’t answer. “How old are you?” I continued.

    “Two,” he mumbled, placing the thumb in his mouth.

    Fred shook his head. “No, we can’t leave him. Let’s go and find his parents. He can’t have wandered off too far.”

    We both took our luggage and started to walk back from where we came two minutes ago.

    If we hadn’t found that boy, who knows what would’ve happened? I always think about how he was the one who found us, and that it all happened for a reason.

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