Happily Ever After

Home : Stories by Catw00man : Happily Ever After

Summary: Sometimes fairy tales do come true.

AUTHOR: Catw00man
EMAIL: catw00man@cryptoffic.com
RATING: PG-13
CHARACTER: Dale Earnhardt Jr/Athena Barber, Dale Jr POV
PROMPT: Taming the Muse #129 (#104 for me) - Black Out & January Challenge Fic
COMPLETED: January 11, 2009
WORD COUNT: 3,657
DISCLAIMER: I own NOTHING and am affiliated with NO ONE mentioned here. Not the drivers, not the teams, no one. This is all fiction and fun. In other words...NOT REAL, NOT REAL, NOT REAL. ;-)
DEDICATION: To Zippit on her birthday. I hope you enjoy this hun and can I say I’m SO happy you requested this one! Once you did he just wouldn’t shut up about it. Happy Birthday sweetie!!!
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This fic is a little different than what I usually do in pairing and the way it’s written, but I think it worked out alright. I’d love to know what you think though! ;)
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Dirty Mo’ Acres - January 20th, 2009

Things really shouldn’t have happened the way they did, not that we meant for anything to happen at all.  But I guess sometimes things have a way of happening no matter if you want them to or not.  I’ve never been a man to believe in destiny, even after what happened to Daddy.  I think it’s a matter of not wanting to believe we ain’t got any choices, that we ain’t got control.  I’m always about having control over my life nowadays.  But this…this just happened.

I wasn’t lookin’ for company that day in Kansas.  I wasn’t even lookin’ to be there but Martin had a tire test with Goodyear and wanted company.  It’s not like it’s the first tire test we’ve crashed, I just stayed a little more under the radar this time.  Unlike Darlington though Martin had to work so there wasn’t gonna be any knocking back cold ones for most of the day, at least not with him.  I was bored almost the second testing got started so while he was busy I decided to head into town to find something to entertain myself.  I sure as hell never expected to run into her.

It was probably stupid on my part because I knew Kansas was her home.  But I guess I never really thought about it.  The past few years she’s always been around the track so much it was actually a little strange to see her someplace normal.  Apparently there’s no good shopping in Emporia.  I guess it was dumb luck she decided to make the trip up to Kansas City instead of down to Wichita that day.  Why she decided to pick that Arby’s for lunch at the same time I did I guess I’ll never know. 

I don’t know who was more surprised when she called my name.  But it was nice to see a familiar face, even though it felt a little strange to be joining her for lunch.  When I sat down I expected things to be awkward and weird…but they weren’t.  If anything it was like running into an old friend you haven’t seen in ages even though we’d never really talked like that before.  But we used to live in the same world and it was so plain she missed it as much as she missed him.

We ended up talking there for a good hour or more, me catching her up on people who used to seem like family and her telling me about readjusting to life back in Kansas.  She tried to make it all sound good, but she’s about as good a liar as I am.  She missed the life, the traveling, the roar of the engines and part of me wanted to tell her to fuck it all and just come back to North Carolina at least.  She didn’t belong in that small Kansas town anymore.  Not all the time.  But it didn’t matter.  I knew she wouldn’t no matter how much she missed it.  She didn’t want to be that girl and I didn’t blame her.

We have a name for girls like that, the ones who bounce from driver to driver so they can have an all access pass to pit road.  But no way should her name ever be associated with those skanks.  She’s not some damn pit lizard, but that’s what the world would see.  Maybe she’s just too beautiful to be taken seriously, I dunno.  But I do know if she showed up on some other guy’s arm she’d look like nothing but a cheap whore, and if she turned up alone…she’d just look pathetic.  Either way he stole that world from her the minute he decided to throw her away.

Fucking idiot.

I swear to God he never deserved her.  She’s absolutely everything a guy like us could want.  She wasn’t on his arm just cause he could wheel a car and rake in the bucks.  She wasn’t by his side just to make some internet poll as the hottest driver girlfriend…even though she did.  She was there because she loved the sport and men who were like her daddy.   She was there because she loved him and he tossed her aside like yesterday’s garbage.  I swear it’s enough to make me wanna punch him right in the jaw.  But I can’t, none of us can even though I know there’s more than one of us who’d like to.  But we won’t because we don’t want to be that guy.

It doesn’t matter he’s the one who ended it.  It doesn’t matter he’s slinking around with every pretty thing he can find all over the country.  It doesn’t matter.  She’s off limits because she was his and just because he doesn’t want her anymore it doesn’t mean she’s fair game.  I probably shouldn’t have even had lunch with her.  I know I shouldn’t have told her she could stay in Mooresville anytime she got homesick for North Carolina.  I still can’t believe I had the gall to make the offer and I swore she was just being polite when she told me she’d remember and keep it in mind.  I never dreamed she’d actually take me up on it.

It wasn’t until almost two months later she said she wanted to come out.  I hadn’t seen her since the August tire test and we hadn’t talked all that much, just texted some, talked on the computer a bit.  When the race in Kansas rolled around and I didn’t hear from her the week before or after I was thinking maybe she’d gotten smart and forgot all about it.  But I think her distance from the series when we rolled into her home state had a lot more to do with him than me.  She still wasn’t over it and I didn’t blame her.  That’s why I was so surprised when she finally called--not texted, called--to ask if my offer was still good.

How could I say no?  That’s what I told myself all the way to the airport when I went to pick her up.  I made the offer, I couldn’t exactly go back on it.  She missed North Carolina, wanted to see some friends.  That’s what she said after all.  She wanted to come back for a visit, not to see me, just for a visit.  That’s how it should’ve gone, and maybe it would’ve if the lights hadn’t gone out a little after we got back to my house.

She was planning on meeting up with some friends that night.  But somehow she never found her way back out the door until it was time to head back to Kansas two days later.  I remember how weird things were when I picked her up, and how she went to get ready to go out almost immediately after we got back to the house…but then everything blacked out and of course I can’t ever find a flashlight.  I didn’t think she was ever gonna let me live down the fact I had all those candles in my bedroom.  I swear I didn’t even know there were so many.  I know I didn’t buy them but it was a good thing they were there or we really would’ve been sitting in the dark all night long.  It was all so insane.

I was in the middle of a game online when everything went dark and it actually took me a few minutes to remember she was upstairs trying to take a shower.  I swear I don’t think things could’ve been more awkward than me stumbling upstairs, calling her name in the dark while she hid in the shower unable to find a towel.  It should’ve been uncomfortable.  It could’ve turned into something it shouldn’t have.  But it didn’t.  It just ended up with me holding a big candle with her towel on my head so I wouldn’t watch while she got dressed.  Apparently me looking like an idiot really is a good ice breaker because after all that she called her friends and let them know she wasn’t going to make it.  Something about a long flight and not being able to get ready in the dark.

I always knew she was into cars and racing.  All you had to do was talk to her for more than five minutes and you knew she knew as much if not more than her Kansas boy ever did about cars. Turns out her daddy wasn’t just a racer.  He was a good teacher too and she sucked up every bit of knowledge he’d give her.  I’ve known guys who worked in the shop who weren’t half as smart as she is.  Maybe that’s why we ended up in my basement bar with candles talking half the night, or maybe it was the beer….

You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect set up.  Candles, alcohol, nowhere to be and no one knowing she was there.  According to her, her friends only knew she was in town, not that she was with me, and I sure as hell didn’t mention it, not even to Kelley.  I’m not exactly sure why I felt like I had to hide, it wasn’t like we were planning on doing anything wrong, but somehow I didn’t want to share her.  Somehow it all felt too personal and if she had been any other girl in the world I know exactly how that night would’ve ended. 

But not with her.  No, we didn’t do a damn thing but talk all night, even after we went and lit the third round of candles up in my bedroom.  We just talked and passed out and by the time the sun came up and the power came on I knew everything from her insane obsession with Mustangs to all the ins and outs of how she ended up with him in the first place.  And it went both ways.  Somehow I ended up tellin’ her things even Kelley didn’t know and it didn’t feel weird at all.  It felt…comfortable and I’m still not sure why.  Yeah, that night was all about getting to know each other.  The rest didn’t come until the next night.

And I almost ruined it all.

I’ll admit, I’ve been with a lot of people and the first time always goes one of two ways.  Either it’s all hot and heavy, nothing but lust and sex to the point you hardly even know who you’re with, which is usually the best case scenario because the other is all awkward and strange and never very satisfying.  But she was neither.  Maybe it was spending the night before in the same room talking till we passed out, I dunno, but it wasn’t like any other first time I’ve had.  It’s like she knew me, really knew me, and it was by far the best sex I’d had in years.  And I didn’t know how to deal with it.

I took her back to the airport the next morning and I couldn’t bring myself to call her for almost two weeks and by that time I knew exactly what she was gonna say.  She was gonna bitch me out for being insensitive and not calling or tell me she was sorry she even came to Mooresville.  I knew it.  I’d been there…more times than I can count.  To be honest I almost didn’t call at all because I never should’ve let it happen.  But I finally did…and I can’t see how any man on this earth could’ve let her go.

She didn’t say a word about it, just asked how I’d been and told me about how FHM was calling her up to do another interview and spread.  Before I knew it she had me right at ease until I remembered why I called.  I swear it got to the point I had to bring it up and I know I sounded like a complete idiot asking about “that night.”  At first she didn’t even answer and I figured I’d done and blown it for good.  But then she did and I was the one blown away.

“Junior, I’m not going to be your 360 girlfriend, and I won’t go to the banquet with you.”  I swear I’ll never forget those words cause I don’t think any girl has ever been so blunt with me.  I didn’t even have an answer for her until she added softy, “…but I do want to see you again.”

And we have.

Whenever we’ve been able to make the time we’ve seen each other, but never at the track.  I don’t think anyone’s ready for that yet.  Hell, I know she ain’t ready for that heavy of a relationship and I know I ain’t.  But the thing is…she makes me think I could be.  I dunno if it’s just cause we’re in the beginning but she never rails on me for not callin’ or letting her know where I am every minute.  She has a life too and she never makes me feel like I have to check in with her.  I’ve had girls pretend to be that way before but with her, I think it’s real. 

It was all going so damn well until I had to go and do my damnedest to screw it up again.  I’d just got back from going to Aspen with my family and, well, I missed her.  I missed her somethin’ awful so I called her up and did something I never should’ve done.  I asked her to come spend Christmas with me.  I knew the instant she went quiet I’d done the wrong thing and I wasn’t surprised when she said no.  Of course she’d wanna be with her family.  What I didn’t expect was her to tell me to, “Ask her next year.”

It took a bit for me to figure it out but once I did 2009 couldn’t come soon enough.  I damn near called her at 12:01 New Year’s Eve, but somehow I held off until halfway through the Rose Bowl.  She was here the next weekend and it was fucking wonderful.  But after the first horny, blissed out week or so I was already crawling the walls.  I’m more than a bit independent and having someone around all the time I couldn’t make disappear with a look was more than I could take.  Snooter, Martin, Brad, all of them knew when I got that look in my eyes it was in their best interests to find some other place to be.  But how could I do that to her when I’d asked her here in the first place?

I played the good boyfriend all I could but when I hadn’t been online in over a week I was more than a little on edge.  I remember sitting on the couch with her, watching some stupid show while she was curled up under a blanket and I couldn’t even remember why I’d started all this in the first place.  I’m not a boyfriend guy.  I wasn’t cut out for this and I was about ready to disappear down to Whiskey River when she looked at me and shocked me senseless.

“Junior, go do something.”  All I could do was stare at her and come up with a dozen reasons in my head why I should be happy sitting there with her but she didn’t even let me get one out.  No, she just held my gaze and told me in no uncertain terms, “Earnhardt, if you don’t stop smothering me and go do something I’m jumping the first flight back out to Kansas.”

That’s when I knew I loved her.

I don’t really know how I looked but it must’ve been amusing because I could tell she was trying to keep from smiling.  But hell, she couldn’t have surprised me more if she’d said, “Junior, fuck me on your car.”  Ok, so maybe that was my fantasy.  But to be honest, what she gave me was even better.  She let me be me, and she has ever since.  I can sit up half the night playing on the computer or the 360 like tonight and she doesn’t get mad.  She’ll either head to bed early or curl up with a book or something and not get pissed.  It’s…fucking perfect, even if no one knows but us.

Ok, so, maybe that’s not exactly true.  I know Kelley’s got a clue, and Kev’s figured it out.  He’s bad about that.  Apparently one of the friends Athena was supposed to hang out with that first night was DeLana and I swear Harvick just looked at me once and knew I was hiding something.  Then he wore me down like he always does and I finally admitted it.  Bastard made my arm sore for a couple days with how hard he frogged me.  Apparently he wasn’t too pleased he was gonna have to keep a secret from Clint.  But he will, even though I know it will bite him in the end.  He will because he saw what I have.  He saw what I found that I never thought I would.

I’ve never admitted it to him or anyone but I always envied him a bit with DeLana, even though I know she’s more woman then I’d ever want to handle.  But the way they are, the way she cares about what he does and how it’s her life as much as his.  I’ve always envied that.  I just knew I couldn’t handle how much a part of his life she is.  I could never be smothered like that.  That’s why I always envied Jeff too because he seemed to have the other half of the equation.  He has his beautiful Ingrid when he goes home and on Sundays, but then he still has his time to himself.  The only thing he’s missing is a woman who really understands what we do.  Like Athena does.

Glance up when I hear a sound and pause the XBOX, suddenly a lot less interested in my latest Call of Duty mission when I see the vision that walks into the room.  Her hair’s all pulled back ready for bed and she’s wearing nothing but one of my old T-shirts and the sexiest low cut, black lace panties I’ve ever seen.  I hear TJ in my ear wanting to know what the holdup is but as she makes herself comfortable at the other end of the couch I know I’m not running this mission.  But she’d let me.  It’s already after two a.m. and I know she wouldn’t care if I played till the sun came up.  I’ve done it before, but tonight I think I have something better in mind.

“You’re gonna have to run this one without me boys,” I tell them and I’m already hearing the protests when I pull off the headset and toss it on the low table in front of me along with the controller.  She looks up at me curiously and I know what she’s gonna say before she opens her mouth.  She’s gonna tell me she doesn’t mind watching, and I know she would until she fell asleep curled up next to me.  But I don’t wanna play with the boys tonight.  I wanna play with the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known.

I know it won’t be easy on us once we decide to stop hiding and I know neither of us are ready for it.  She’s definitely not ready to be my girlfriend and I don’t blame her.  I’m not ready for it either.  But one look at her lets me know we will be.  No one’s ever known me like she has.  No one’s ever wanted to be with me once they saw I’m nothing but a homebody video game freak instead of the rock star man out on the town people think I am.  But she does.  And I could get real used to her being here all the time.

“Junior, you don’t have to….”

“They can wait,” I tell her as I crawl closer and brush my clean shaven face against her soft cheek.  I would’ve thought she’d have been beggin’ for me to shave the instant she got here.  But I had my beard a good week before I had to get rid of it for the sponsors and she never said a word.  If anything she seemed to like it.  I swear I can’t imagine a woman more perfect than her.  Kiss her lips softly and I swear she melts into my arms in all the right ways.  “Why don’t we head to bed early?”  Glance down at the book in her hands and grin, “Unless you have better plans for the rest of the night?”

Hear the book hit the floor with a thump as she tugs me closer and now I’m the one lost to her kiss.  Feel her hands run down my back and my pulse races when her warm breath brushes against my ear.  “I guess I could tear myself away for you.”

The grin spreads across my face before I even know it and I pull back quicker than she expects.  She looks at me curiously as I move off the couch and before she knows what’s coming I scoop her up in my arms.  The look of surprise written all over her face just makes me smile more because I love sweeping her off her feet.  I’ve never been so good at it but with her, it’s just so easy.  “Good to hear it.”  Kiss her again and then turn to make my way to bed.  It ain’t gonna be easy when the world knows what we got going, but I know it’s gonna be alright.  Who knows, maybe I was wrong, maybe there is such a thing as destiny and happy endings after all.

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Catw00man - catw00man@cryptoffic.com