Lakeside Picnic Tables

[Daisy O'Connor]

Daisy listened as he spoke about her baking, painting one of her favorite past times into something wonderful, interesting and creative, it had honestly never crossed her mind to think of it that way and the truth was, it delighted her. "I've never...well frankly, I've never thought of it that way. I simply love to bake, the whole process of it, finding new tricks or trying new things..." She drifted as she considered what he was saying, thought of the apple cinnamon pie she had made just the other day, the brown flaky crust coming out of the oven making her mouth water. She looked down at her hands and then back over at him, a smile stretching across her features. "That is a beautiful way to look at something so simple, thank you."

She watched as the duck he'd called Puddles before reached up with his beak and gained Jerry's attention and she watched him feed her carefully by hand. There was something so easy and natural about being here with him, sitting beside him as he fed ducks in the park, his presence large and comforting beside her as the lake, ducks and grass stretched out around them. It was like finding a small and unexpected oasis made perfect by Jerry's presence, and Daisy decided she rather liked it.

He looked at her quickly as he shyly admitted to possibly overloading her with books and she smiled a little as he looked away. Reaching over she tugged on the very sleeve Puddles had used before, allowing her fingers to linger. "How about if I promise to let you know if I'm not interested?" She said softly, biting her lip a little bit as she watched him before dropped her eyes and returning them to Puddles and his friends.

[Jerry Flynn]

(OMG JERRY'S NEW SIG! ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL?!)

"Alright, it's a deal, then," Jerry agreed, trying (and failing) to not blush at the hidden promises in her words. With the bread loaf rapidly disappearing, he tore up a small handful of pieces and tossed them toward the water's edge, sending all the ducks scurrying after them, while secretly giving Puddles a reserved larger piece. Puddles, familiar with this pattern now, knew this to mean the end of the bread supply and after scoffing her last morsel, turned and hopped from the bench again, pausing just long enough for Jerry to stroke a hand down her feathery back. As the other ducks came scrambling back to wait for more bread, Puddles waddled through the group and back into the water.

"We should leave before they mutiny," he advised, turning on the tabletop and climbing down the other side, then offering his hand to Daisy to assist her dismount. As her feet settled on the ground again, Jerry immediately fell into his usual preoccupation with overthinking tiny gestures: namely, their joined hands. Dropping her hand now could easily be construed negatively, as a lack of interest. But maintaining their contact was so very bold, an exceedingly intimate gesture in his mind. Far more appropriate would be to offer his arm, as he had the night before.

You're overthinking it, Jer, came Jensen's annoyed voice in his mind. Hold her damn hand. You like her and, more importantly, she likes you!

Taking Jensen's brotherly advice (well, he was fairly sure it was what the actual Jensen would tell him, given the opportunity, anyway), he kept her small hand in his, color rising high on his cheeks as he did so.

"So, um," he started, hoping to distract her from the awkwardness with which he moved now. A cruel trick of fate, his left leg had started to go numb while they were seated on the wooden tabletop, and now he was having trouble walking normally while his leg revived itself. "Where... where would you like to go now? I could, um, take you... take you to my apartment. You know, to go through my novels, I mean. Or we could, uh, just... keep walking. For a while. Or--or maybe you've got somewhere in mind, maybe?"

[Daisy O'Connor]

(OMG DAISY SO HIGHLY APPROVES )

Daisy watched his end routine with the ducks, a smile on her features as she watched him reserving a piece for Puddles, running a large hand down the duck's back before it hopped off to join it's friends. There was so much to be said about Jerry in those simple gestures, so much about the nature of his heart and soul that touched Daisy's down to her very core. She could've looked a lifetime and never found someone as wonderful and perfect for her as Jerry and the realization had her heart skipping a beat in her chest.

He offered his hand to help her down and she was struck once again with how small hers felt in his, the pleasant warmth of his fingers surrounding her own and she was pretty sure that she never wanted him to let go. Jerry didn't let go though, instead he held steadfastly to her hand and she ran her thumb along the back of his hand once, in a gesture of thanks before looking ahead of them across the park to hide the coloring in her own cheeks.

"I think...I think I would like very much to go through your collection of novels," Daisy said, looking up at him and smiling a little, feeling a little surge of excitement of the idea at being alone with him, completely and utterly alone. "And then...then maybe I could cook you some dinner?" Daisy said softly, feeling suddenly inspired and she wasn't ready to envision the end of their time together.

[Jerry Flynn]

((Btw, Jerry has a story to tell you about Puddles. Remind me about it next time you see me on aim.))

Jerry bit his lip, trying to hide his pleasure at her suggestion of dinner, and nodded. "I think that would be wonderful," he said bashfully, his eyes watching the ground, watching out for gopher holes as they navigated through the grass and back to the path worn around the park. Behind them, several ducks called in an annoyed tone, squabbling amongst each other for any hidden crumbs in the grass now that the free buffet had ended.

Again finding himself nervous and without anything to say, and not trusting his voice to stay level and even if he were to babble along until a topic came up, he posed a question to her. He'd rather listen to her lovely voice anyway. "So, you said you were from Ireland--which part? I have Irish blood from my father's side. We've got family in Tipperary and Limerick, I think. How long were you there before coming to this side of the pond?"

[Daisy O'Connor]

Daisy smiled at his question, stepping a little closer to him as they walked on the path, feeling comfortable and at ease with him. "I was born at a little farm just outside of Dublin," Daisy replied, noting that just talk of her homeland caused a little bit more of her accent to trace back into her speech. "I grew up there and then my family decided to cross the pond about three years ago." In her mind she could see the lush, green, rolling farm hills of her youth, sun spilling down over the trees and the river that had marked the edge of the O'Connor land. She had fond, treasured memories but she didn't begrudge the choice that her parents made, they had done what they needed to once money and food had begun to run out. Besides, Daisy thought as she stole a glance over at Jerry, being in New York meant she had met him and that was reason enough for it all to be worth it.

"Have you ever been to Ireland?" She asked, thinking of the trip her parents had taken her on once over to Limerick, a rare and wonderful treat that Daisy had treasued throughout her childhood. "My da took me into Limerick once, it was beautiful and bustling..." Daisy smiled at the memory, before returning her attention to Jerry. "There was this beautiful necklace in one of the shops near where my da was doing business, it had a gorgeous glass pendant that just caught the light in the window and sent rainbows bouncing across every available surface."

Her hand tightened in Jerry's briefly as she recalled standing in the window and seeing the necklace, barely ten years old and it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. "There is no way that my parents could afford to get it for me and I know they wanted too. That Christmas I found a similar one under the tree, wore it until the chain broke and I lost it one summer...but I never forgot that pendant."

[Jerry Flynn]

Jerry grew quiet, listening to her story, taking in her words carefully. "I've never been, no," he said, in answer to her question, while a thought bubbled idly at the edge of his mind. He frowned a bit as he mulled over the idea, before shaking it off. It would be a while before that idea could come to fruition anyway; he made a mental note to write another letter home later tonight.

After dinner. Just the thought brought another smile to his face as they strolled hand-in-hand through the park. Clearing his throat, recognizing her pause as the signal that it was his turn to talk, he continued on his answer. "No, I've never been to Ireland, but I think I'd like to. I think about traveling through most of Western Europe, really. So much to see, so many different inspirations to be had. The dour bustle of London, the frenetic energy of Paris, the palpable passion of Rome..."

Looking to Daisy out of the corner of his eye, he increased the pressure of his hand around hers fractionally, and added, "I bet they're nothing compared to the peaceful serenity of the rolling green hills, though." Unbidden, a vision flashed through his mind briefly: himself seated on a rock overlooking those rolling green hills, journal balanced open on one knee--and Daisy seated in the grass alongside him, bare feet curling against the warm earth, her head resting gently against his side, keeping watch over the words he wrote.

The image, probably not exactly appropriate for a relationship less than 24 hours old, brought a broad grin scattering across his face, and he blushed, biting his lower lip and looking away at his impropriety.

[Daisy O'Connor]

"I've always wanted to travel," Daisy said, as he listed off cities that she had only dreamed of visiting, reading about them in books and imagining what they all must be like. The excitement and bustle and adventure that lay beyond the pages of a book and would come alive before her eyes. "We weren't able to do it much, but there is just...so much to see," She breathed out, smiling up at his as his hold on her hand tightened and she looked up at him for a moment before shifting her hand so she could slide her fingers between his and link their hands together more securely.

"Ireland is...beautiful," Daisy said as the memory of her homeland danced in her mind and she smiled at him; finding a peaceful, serenity in this moment too, walking through a park in the middle of a bustling city towards home. "There are rolling hills and lush green grass that sometimes you think might go on forever, with little pops of color from the flowers that spring up in the most unexpected places."

She reached up her free hand to push a loose strand of hair out of her face, catching her lower lip between her teeth for a moment before speaking. "I'd like to go back some day..." She imagined walking the farmland of her youth with Jerry, strong and vibrant by her side and felt her pulse quicken at the thought. It was too soon for such notions and yet, Daisy found that it felt all together right to imagine him in her future.

"But for right now," Daisy began, crossing her arm over so she could settle her hand on his arm and squeeze gently. "I'm rather happy to be right here."

[Jerry Flynn]

Jerry smiled bashfully at her words, his head tipping humbly. "I'm glad for that," he said. He felt the muscle of his forearm, where she'd placed her hand, tense and bunch up, flexing against her touch almost involuntarily, and his cheeks colored a bit. "I like being right here, too."

The boldness of his words, of the implied statement beneath them, only added to his nervousness, and he had to focus for the next few moments on keeping each foot moving forward in the proper pattern--first one, then the other, and any other combination was suicide.

"I-I've not done much traveling," he blurted after a moment, fully aware that the sudden eruption of the words carried evidence of his embarrassing awkwardness but powerless to waylay his word-vomit. "Just short trips here and there, mostly in-state. I've been to Vermont a few times--relatives, you know--but that's not... really very impressive, is it?" A brief pause, and he continued, much to his chagrin. "My... my parents like the idea. Of my traveling, I mean. They en-encouraged it. But I... I just never really... got around to it, I guess. We, uh... we came this far--my brother and me, I mean--and now... now we can't seem to leave." He gave a small chuckle, more nerves than any unseen humor, and finally bit his lip again, forcing back any more spewing verbiage before it was too late.

After several long moments, he eased up on his lower lip, giving his tongue a second chance at intelligible speech. "You... you look lovely today, Miss Daisy," he murmured softly, and in his head, he heard his brother's voice sigh, Finally...!

[Daisy O'Connor]

She felt his arm tense and flex underneath of her hand and for a moment she wondered what it might be like to have that arm wrapped around her, but she banished the thought, shoving it aside until later and tried to focus on his words. She could hear the edges of nervousness in his voice, the same nerves that were twisting in her stomach and threatening to nearly swallow her whole as they continued to walk. The fluttering of butterflies wings in her stomach that took flight each moment that he looked at her and Daisy was fairly certain that she wanted him to continue to look at her for the rest of her life. She bit her lip a little at what that thought implied, at what it might mean about how she was feeling but tucked it back with the other thought, resolving to examine them later.

"New York has it's own charm," She said, finding her voice as she smiled up at him, her hand still settled on his arm because she rather liked the feel of it there. "I think that most places have those hidden and unexpected things that make them treasures, the problem sometimes you just have to look a little harder to find them. I believe that would be the best part of the adventure of traveling...find the hidden treasures."

She flushed a little at his compliment, feeling a heating in her cheeks as she reached up a hand to touch the blue ribbon she'd tied in her hair that morning, with thoughts of seeing him in her mind. "Th-thank you," Daisy breathed out, smiling a little as she looked away from his gaze and willed her cheeks to return to normal. Finding some courage she looked over at him and then at her hand settled on his arm and a smile ghosted across her features. "I'm...I'm having a lovely time, Jerry."

[Jerry Flynn]

Feeling certain that his face would burst into flames at any moment, so warm was it from his heavy blushing, Jerry smiled bashfully. He wanted to keep his head down, afraid that looking Daisy in the eye would merit some level of embarrassment on his part, but he couldn't seem to keep his gaze where he wanted it. Eyes flicking nervously to catch Daisy's, he murmured, "I am too, Miss Daisy."

With Jensen's voice in his head urging him to keep talking--slowly and sensibly this time--Jerry continued on, amazing himself with the casualness of his tone. Perhaps there really was something to the theory he'd come up with last night, that only one person at a time could be awkward and nervous in a conversation. "I hope my apartment meets your standards of cleanliness. I share the space with my brother, and he can be... a bit of a slob." He could be a lot of a slob, actually, but there was no point in trashing Jensen before he'd even met Daisy. Yet. "I wind up cleaning up after him most of the time, but I left the building before he did this morning. There's no telling what he may have done after I left."

Oh please, oh please, oh please, don't let him have left his nudie postcards from Paris out! Jerry fervently, silently pleaded. No French postcards, no underwear, no dripping towels...!

[Daisy O'Connor]

"I doubt it will be anything either one of us can't manage," Daisy said, shooting Jerry a little smile, not wanting him to be concerned with something so slight. A few dirty dishes or clothes on the floor was hardly going to color her view of the man who walked beside her, whose arm she was still clutching as they strolled back towards their apartment building.

"I work at McGinty's you should see the messes I contend with on a regular basis, and I don't mean the customers." Daisy laughed at the memory of the backroom at McGinty's on some occasions, particularly after a long, busy night, cluttered with dirty dishes and glasses from when they'd been able to grab something during brief breaks. Usually the odd piece of clothing or two and other various items strewn about from the heavy rotation of barmaids and bartenders.

"Besides," She said, her voice soft as she looked away from him to stare at the ground and then watched him out of the corner of her eye. "I don't think I'll be looking at the apartment." Her cheeks flushed a little as the words left her mouth but she didn't regret them, not when she knew she'd rather be looking at Jerry than most anything else...no matter the circumstance.

[Jerry Flynn]

Looking back, Jerry was utterly ashamed of how long it took him to understand what Daisy had implied. And he thanked every god, saint and prophet he'd ever heard of that he hadn't actually said "What do you mean?" aloud.

After a good ten-second pause for him to realize she was flirting, Jerry turned a dozen shades of red and he dropped his head to stare at the ground, biting his lip against a grin. Damn, it felt good to be flirted with. No wonder Jensen did it so often!

Unfortunately, Jensen had never seen to teaching Jerry how to flirt back with a girl, and he was at a loss for how to return her serve. All too aware of the awkward silence, he cleared his throat to speak. Chances were good that he'd just embarrass himself further if he attempted to answer her flirting in kind, but dropping conversation altogether was sure to be a faux pas of the worst degree.

"Um... th-thank you," he stumbled quickly. Ignoring the flirtation completely was bad form, right? He had to acknowledge it somehow, or else it was like he was pretending she hadn't said it, wasn't he? He was overthinking again, and bulled forward. "I always wondered who the task of cleaning up fell to following a brawl at McGinty's. With all the broken glass and overturned tables and blood droplets from split lips and knuckles and brows, do the barmaids have to clean up the mess as though they were tidying up after any other customer? Or is there a specific position assigned with that task? As often as they happen, I would think having the latter would be more efficient..."

[Daisy O'Connor]

"You're welcome," Daisy said shyly, unable to decide if she should have said anything at all, but it might have been worth it just to see the grin that had broken across Jerry's face as he'd processed what she said.

She laughed a little at Jerry's description of McGinty's knowing that the lively customers had a tendency to create a very...eventful atmosphere on some days. "I think McGinty's reputation is preceding it and also not entirely accurate." She shrugged a little as she looked up at Jerry, admiring his profile against the afternoon sky. "There aren't as many fights as you might think, a cross word or two, the occasional fist thrown when they don't use their better judgment and drink more than they should. Honestly things have a tendency to move outside pretty quickly." Something that Daisy and her fellow barmaids had taken to suggesting when customers started to get rowdy - take it outside lest they hit an innocent bystander, namely one of the girls, and it was better for business if the mess, to both people and objects was kept to a minimum.

"And the times that things get out of hand, well...I suppose we all sort of pitch in where we can to clean it up. It's part of the job," Daisy said with a smile, remembering the evening she and one of the other barmaids had recently stayed after the doors had closed for the night to clean up after a fight. "Often we make a game of it, or sometimes we'll sing if the customers have a mind to enjoy it. Shannon, one of the other girls, she has a lovely voice and Bridgette plays and dances beautifully. It's a sight once they get going."

She drifted once she realized how much she had been babbling, her face flushing and wondering how exactly it was she got to talking about singing and dancing when he'd asked about messes and broken glass. "I...uh...I'm talking a lot, I'm sorry," She said softly, noting that they were drawing closer to their apartment building.

[Jerry Flynn]

"No, no," Jerry quickly assured her. "I... I like listening to you talk. It's okay." He bit his lip nervously--he'd need to locate that tin of lip balm that had rolled under his bed a few days earlier, as much abuse as his lower lip was enduring today--before adding shyly, "I bet you've got a beautiful voice yourself."

Clearing his throat, he pawed at his ear with his free hand, quickly changing the subject back to violence and bloodshed. "I must have a knack for showing up on those nights when the fights break out, then," he said, smirking slightly. "Seems every time I go in there, I wind up leaving with a split lip or bloodied brow." He chuckled, remembering the last time, when he'd come home bloody and Jensen had gone into a fit of rage, swearing revenge as he'd helped Jerry patch himself up. "I don't know, something about me just ticks those drunken thugs off, I guess."

Looking up, he realized the apartment house was looming closer. He felt his heart jump a little harder at the thought of taking their date indoors. On the one hand, his potential embarrassment would be limited to the smallest audience possible; on the other, the opportunities for said embarrassment increased tenfold along with their privacy. Please, oh please, oh please don't let Jensen be home! Jerry chanted in his head.

Releasing Daisy's hand, he placed his hand in the small of her back as they mounted the steps leading to the door of their building, and held the door open for her, ushering her inside. "This way," he instructed, guiding her to the stairs. "We're on the third floor."


((You can either reply here and I'll start the next tag at Jerry and Jensen's apartment, or you can start the thread there if you're so inclined. ))