Spoilers: After cattle incident and snippets of future
episodes
Disclaimer: I own none of these characters, and if I
did, I would have never gotten rid of Eric! :D
May indeed include fictional shops and stores.
Pairings: C/E, snippets of C/W
Eric never thought that he’d be done finals and getting ready for prom. It seemed like forever since he’d phoned Caitlin and asked her to be his ‘date’. As he drove up in his parents’ new Civic, Eric couldn’t help but feel anxious.
He
held the plastic container, encasing the delicate white rose in front of
him. Eric ran over his head, how he
should present the flower. He presented
it forward a few times, when suddenly the door opened. Dori stood in front of him with a huge grin
on her face. “Eric!” she
exclaimed. “Come in.”
Eric
smiled an awkward smile and slowly made his way into the familiar entranceway
of the Lowe’s house, something he’d done so many times before, except with an
unusual amount of butterflies fluttering around in his stomach. “Thanks!
Has Griffin left yet?” Eric asked tensely, smoothing out the imaginary
wrinkles in his tux.
Dori
nodded. “Yeah, he went to pick up Nikki
already. I’m surprised that you guys
didn’t just carpool together?”
He
flashed her a brief smile. “Well,
Griffin said he had other plans afterwards and my parents offered to let me use
the new Civic, so what’s a guy to do?
Right?” he joked pathetically.
Dori
laughed airily and looked at him empathetically, like she new that he felt like
throwing up, he was so nervous. And to
add to the tension, Jim walked in sipping a cup of coffee. His face was grim and serious. “You are going to behave right Eric?” his
deep voice resounded throughout Eric’s head.
Eric
nodded, speechless. Finally finding his
voice he stuttered, “Uh, y-yes.”
Jim
looked over at Dori and then, back over at Eric. His eyes twinkled and his lips pursed. Suddenly the older law enforcer broke out in a fit of laughter. He shook his head and patted Eric on the
back. “Don’t worry Eric, you’ll be
fine. You gotta loosen up a little!”
Eric
took a deep breath and sighed. He wiped
his brow and chuckled. “Yeah. I know.
I don’t know why I’m so worried.
It’s just Caitlin right?” he babbled.
Dori
and Jim shared a look and then smiled.
“I’ll go run up and get Caitlin!” Dori chirped.
Eric
tugged at his collar, which felt like it was choking him. He had chosen no tie because he knew that it
would make him feel like he was suffocating, like the mandarin collar wasn’t
enough. Jim motioned him to have a seat
on one of the chairs in the living room.
Reluctantly, Eric made his way over to the couch. “What’s taking her so long?” Eric pouted.
“Take
it easy Eric,” Jim replied. “She’ll be
down in a minute. Girls are always like
that.”
There
was an awkward silence and Eric racked his brain for some sort of conversation
starter. It was eerie how everything
went out of his mind at that exact moment.
He’d never had troubles talking to Jim before. They’d joked around with Griffin lots.
“She’s
coming down!” Dori shouted from the top of the stairs.
Her
announcement woke Eric from his reverie.
He stood up and made his way over to the stairs. Dori bounded down the stairs with a camera
in hand. Her face glowed with
pride. “Okay. You can come down now!”
Eric
felt his heart catch in his throat when he saw the vision that made its way
down the staircase. She was
beautiful. Caitlin had her hair up into
a twist, with light curly tendrils flowing down. A sprig of Baby’s Breath accessorized the auburn locks. The dress fitted her shapely curves and Eric
thought to himself at that moment, that he’d never see anyone as elegant or as
beautiful as his date that night.
As
he offered her his arm, Eric finally took a breath as he smiled at
Caitlin. “You look amazing Caitlin,”
Eric whispered.
***
Her
spaghetti-strap dress was blood red and it had an empire waist. When Caitlin had first seen it, she knew
that it was the perfect dress for the prom.
The bodice was made out of a heavy, crushed velvet, and her skirt, which
flowed down past her ankles was made of a light crimson organza.
Caitlin
had been calm in the morning. She
didn’t think that she could get nervous.
She’d spent all week worrying, and Caitlin had thought that morning
she’d gotten it out of her system. But
as soon as she’d heard the bell ring that night, all of the butterflies came
floating back.
She
ran around her room, trying to find her shoes and a pair of stockings without a
run. Caitlin didn’t feel at all ready
for this ‘date’. When Dori had come
upstairs to find out what was taking her so long, Caitlin almost broke down in
tears. She tried her best to hide her
nervousness from her ‘almost mother’, but it was no use. But Caitlin was surprised at her reaction.
Dori
broke out in a fit of giggles, rather than trying to comfort her. Caitlin was in a state of disbelief. “How can you laugh at a time like this?”
“Caitlin,”
she sighed, controlling her giggles.
“Why do you think you’re so nervous?”
“Uh,
because I’m not ready?” exclaimed Caitlin, who spun around in her dress without
a pair of shoes.
Dori
pointed behind her, to the bed that had a box with tissue sticking out of
it. Caitlin stumbled over to the box
and found her satin red heels. Caitlin
rolled her eyes and sat down on the bed.
She slipped on the shoes and pulled the thin strap over her ankle and
secured the silver buckle on the side of the heel. Her hands were shaking.
“Dori, I can’t believe that this is it!”
The
blonde woman who’d been the closest thing she had to a mother smiled mistily at
her. “I can’t believe you’re all grown
up!”
Caitlin
stood up and double-checked her make up and her dress in the mirror. She turned around and presented herself to
Dori, who’d been the strongest, most positive influence in her life. Smoothing the front of her dress, Caitlin
smiled. “How do I look?”
Dori
rested her hands on Caitlin’s shoulders.
“I am so proud of you Caitlin.
You have changed so much and I know if I don’t stop talking,” she
sniffled, “I’m going to start bawling.”
The two women laughed.
“But,
before I take you down to that young man downstairs, I don’t think something
looks right. I think you’re missing
something.”
Caitlin
frowned and turned to look at herself in the mirror. She had her dress and her shoes and the hair she’d had done was
fine. What was Dori talking about?
The
older woman came up behind her and placed a cool silver chain around her
neck. It held a thin small heart-shaped
silver locket on it. Caitlin fingered
it lightly. “What is it?” she
whispered.
Dori
turned her around and smiled. “The
chain is new, but the locket is something that your mother gave me when we were
still teenagers. It was a birthday
gift. I had almost forgotten about it,
but the other day I was rummaging through the attic and came across it.”
Caitlin
didn’t know what to say. She had never
expected this. A locket that had been
given to Dori by her mother? Caitlin
had to control every part of her that wanted to just break down and cry. She looked up towards the ceiling, praying
that the tears forming in the corners of her eyes wouldn’t mess up the ton of
make up they’d just applied. “Thank
you,” Caitlin managed to choke out.
“I
thought you’d like to have your mother with you, so I put a picture of her on
the one side and a picture of the rest of the family on the other.”
Caitlin
threw her arms around Dori and finally gave in to the sentimentality of the
situation. When they finally pulled
apart, Caitlin rushed to the mirror and checked her make up. There was a little run of mascara, but
nothing unfixable.
~ * ~
Finally as Caitlin walked down the stairs, slowly making her descent towards the trio of waiting friends and family, Caitlin couldn’t help but feel happy. It was one of the happiest moments of her life. Caitlin felt horrible for making Eric wait, but when she made it to the base of the stairs, all she could do was blush as he complimented her. “Caitlin, you look amazing,” he had whispered.
~ * ~
There was an awkward silence in the car as they made their way to the high school. “Sorry about back at the house,” she apologized. Dori and Jim kept chattering on and taking a large amount of photos. Finally Caitlin had put her foot down and told them that they were leaving.
Eric
shook his head. “No. That was fine! I mean, like you could help that Dori’s such a ‘mom’.”
Caitlin
smiled and fingered the wrist corsage that Eric had brought her. “Thanks for the corsage,” Caitlin said
awkwardly. “It’s really beautiful.”
Eric
looked over at Caitlin. “You don’t need
one though. It pales in comparison to
how you look right now.” After the
wondrous compliment, Eric quickly turned his eyes back to the road.
Caitlin
felt the blood rush to her face.
“Thanks,” she said meekly.
“Hey,
did you hear that Brett is actually taking Taylor to the prom?” Eric exclaimed,
somewhat bemused.
Caitlin
shook her head. “I can’t believe they
did this whole dance, when everybody knew that they’d eventually be going to
the dance together.”
Eric
shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, I guess I understand why Taylor did
it.”
Caitlin
jerked her head to her left. “What?”
she asked surprised.
Eric
looked over at her and shrugged again.
“Well, she probably wanted to break up with him because of college next
year. Brett’s going away on a
basketball scholarship to UCA and Taylor is taking up Commerce at U of C.”
Caitlin
frowned. She didn’t know what that
meant. “So what? She’s going to break up with him and rub it
in his face because they’re going to different schools?”
Eric
made a right hand turn into the parking lot.
As he turned off the engine, Eric looked at Caitlin intensely. “Sure.
Long distance relationships don’t work Caitlin. Besides, who said that they’re meant to stay
together?”
Caitlin
watched Eric get out of the car and run around to the passenger side door. “Madam!” Eric joked, as he opened the door
and offered his hand. She took his hand
as he helped her out of the car.
As
they approached the school entrance, Caitlin stopped Eric for a moment. “Not all long distance relationships are
doomed you know?”
Eric
frowned for a moment, puzzled at the statement. “What?”
Caitlin
swallowed. “I said that not all long
distance relationships are doomed to not work out.” She looked into his blue eyes that seemed to search hers for some
answer to an unasked question. “I mean,
I think it depends on the people.”
After
a moment, Caitlin smiled and turned to face the high school doors. “You ready to go in?” she asked.
Eric
seemed frozen for a moment, but then snapped out of his reverie. “Uh, yeah.
Sure. Let’s party baby”
he joked, mimicking an Austin Power’s accent.