[Fan Fiction- Mild Adult content/language] Once upon a rain.

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Author's notes:
Characters based on a combination of real people and carefully selected fictional characters.
Alan Van der Beek - Combination of ME(()), and an assortment of fictional characters, a few of which live in my head. You can try to figure them out if you like.
Lauren Ramirez - Combination of Jo((...someone special.)), and an assortment of fictional characters, none of which live in my head. You can try to figure them out, but you got to get to know Jo better first
**Note**: Characters who die during "prologue"/"Interlogue"/"Epilogue"'s names were not altered...out of rememberance. They were real people.
Several places, including street names, were not altered, however, due to Canadian copyright laws, the place where "alan" works is not the actual name of the company, as an example.
Prologue:
Alan wandered down the street with Jodi. He had walked down this path a million times before, only once outside his dreams. He knew what was happening, but he couldn't stop it. This wasn't a wishful dream, it was a rememberance nightmare. Casually, He and Jodi walked down main street, looking for places to buy Jodi's prom dress. A few looks here, a few looks there... nothing of interest.
Suddenly Jodi pulls on his arm and points at a store across the street.
They start crossing the busy road, and out of nowhere, comming down the road at 110 kilometres an hour... a drunk semi driver.
He screams.
Jodi shoves him out of the way... his ankle breaks, his ankle sprains, his lower leg muscles are pulled... and...
>>IMPACT.<<

Chapter 1:
Alan woke up, for the millionth time, sweating, from head to toe. Out of the four nightmares... that one happened least often...and scared him the second most...
Carefully, He reached for his cane in the dark room.
Normally most rooms aren't dark when it's 12:45 in the afternoon, but as Alan worked graveyards at the local Blackfoot Gas station, He had created a dark room. The tinfoil reflected the sun's rays, and then a thick green blanket filtered out anything that came through. The double paned windows muffled most of the noise, however.
He grabbed his cane, and used it to flick the light switch on. The cane itself was about 3 and a half feet tall, made mostly of wood, with a plastic handle, and a rubber bottom. The cane, which he had named Bob, was his constant companion. One of few he had left. He stared at it, and looked down at his leg muscle, which still didnt work, after 3 years since it had been broken/sprained/pulled, and then healed incorrectly. What's worse, is that, as it had healed incorrectly, it would NOT get better. Now that the body defined it as "healed", it would heal it back the same way everytime it was damaged... he was stuck with Bob.
He looked over at the Caller ID box, and saw the time... He knew that the court proceedings, not relating to Jodi, but to a different nightmare, of which he was banned from would be complete in less then 15 minutes, but still, he wished he could have said something in that court room... He knew that without proper grounds, the prosecution hadn't a chance in hell of proving that Leonard McSmythe was in his right mind on that evil september night... but as Alan had verbally threatened, harassed, and physically assaulted the prick, he was barred from the court proceedings, at his over-paid genius lawyer's request.
Alan shook his head of the last of the remains of the nightmare. He hobbled to the door of the dark room, and opened it. Hobbling along, he went to the kitchen, and turned the coffee pot on. This entire process took an record-breaking 8 minutes to cross the 15 feet between the bed and the kitchen.
Alan waited for the coffee pot to finish, and then his landlord, who had been doing some repair work in the suite downstairs, overloaded the master circuit of the apartment's electrical system with a cordless drill.
The man's stupidity defied the rules of electrical wiring...but that's because the electrical wiring in the suite had been installed by the intelligently impaired man himself.
He stared at the coffee pot, which had barely got started.
No coffee today...then again... there was that new coffee shop in Surrey Central that he had wanted to try.
Hobbling slowly along, he grabbed his keys, coat, wallet, and bus pass, and started the slow process of getting to the bus stop.

Interlogue:
Laurenia had remembered, when she was younger, her grandmother warning her about hell. Now, as she sat in the Greater Vancouver International Airport terminal for the 12th hour straight, she had discovered that hell was a company called "Air Canada". She had hoped that her flight would have atleast started the customs proceedures, but, the freak rainstorm, which had grounded every plane in the lower mainland was also overloading power circuits in the Airport Terminal. One of those was the customs database console's power supply.
"Attention passengers, this is a cancellation notice for flight Seven Four One Three One from Gate Seven from Vancouver, British Columbia, to London, England. The next scheduled non-booked flight is in three days." The anouncer man said, sounding rather tired of dishing out cancellations and delay notices.
The loudspeakers then returned to the popular Country music station around here, 93.7, JRFM((Actual Station.)). The waking crew, Karen Daniels, and Clay St. Thomas, were arguing about the usual, politics, news, and, Karen's favorite, the rain. Then the news guy came on.
"Well, these freak rainstorms have clogged up most of the hotels in the immediate area around the airports, and more annoyingly, the fast food chains. I could really go for a burger right now, but the line up goes across the street, into starbucks, and through three McDonald's, and a 7-11, so I think I'll pass on that concept. The closest available hotels at the moment are mostly in Surrey, including the King George Highway strip, reporting a total of over 300 vacant rooms, which, I expect by the next news broadcast to be either full or halved. In other news..." The gentleman faded off and was replaced by the Airport Anouncer.
"As a matter of courtesy, the Airport is offering a free shuttle service, or a Taxi voucher to anyone who's flight has been cancelled so far. If you bring your no-longer-valid tickets to the customer service desk, they will be happy to replace them with either a Shuttle pass, or a Taxi Voucher. Now, would the following list of flights please refrain from complaining about the delays, as the delays are no cancellations: Flight 71819, 71829, 71830, and lastly the private charter flight from here to Kamloops, reserved by the parkinsons." The overpowering voice said.
Laurenia's eyes narrowed at the speaker-box, and she started walking towards the customer service desk, which, she noted, had a line which had already begun to stop in at Buckstar's on the way. She shook her head, and decided that an 18th cappuccino couldn't hurt.

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Chapter 1.1

Lauren stared for the seventieth time outside her Cab's window. That was the 70th non-vacant Hotel.
"Keep going, miss?" The cab driver asked.
"It's on the airport's tab, we're not stopping till we find an incredible coffee shop or a hotel, got it?" She replied.
"Aye miss." He said.
She saw a "Grand Opening" sign on a coffee shop...
This was also the first coffee shop with a line shorter then the parking lot.
"That one." She said, pointing in it's direction.
"Aye miss." He said happily, and pulled into the driveway.
She watched the busses pull in and out of Surrey Central Skytrain station, and smiled. Everything here was so much prettier then the double-decker busses in London. She handed the cab driver the Cab-voucher.
"Sorry miss, but this voucher is good for Yellow cabs, not for Guildford cabs." The cabby said, rather annoyed.
Her face fell.
"I'd let this one go, but a 73 dollar cab ride isn't one I can give away." He said, sounding somewhat angry.
"I don't have any cash!" She exclaimed.
"Well then I'll have to exact payment in another manner." He said, unbuttoning his pants.
She shrieked.
And a cane came through the window, and knocked the cabby across the head.
"You had better have a good reason for public indecency, you filthy cab driver, and if you think you are going to do ANYTHING to that young lady in the back of your car, you have to get through bob here first." Came a somewhat angry, but still soft voice.

Interlogue 1.1:
Alan had always enjoyed the hour long bus ride between Cloverdale and Surrey. It gave him time to sleep, and usually, he didn't have nightmares.
This time, it was ridden with nightmares.
He saw Corey walk in, looking like death himself.
He remembered her words... forced intercourse...imposed by some 16 year old little bugger...
...He remembered her tiredness, and sadness for the following day...
...and the awful phone call...
...suicide...
He awoke angrily on the bus, and saw it was almost at Surrey Central Station.
He watched the lady in the cab point at the coffee shop, and he suspected she was one of many tourists who had been given a cab-voucher by the airport... and he knew exactly what the idiot cab driver would try to pull.
He jumped off the bus, while it was stopped at the red light, and pulled together the strength and tolerance for pain that was required to move somewhat quickly.

1.2
Lauren stared at the cab driver, who's head was now bleeding.
"Last time I checked, the airport only issued vouchers for Pacific Taxi, which includes guildford cabs, NOT Yellow cabs, as yellow cabs only serves vancouver, where as Pacific Taxi serves everywhere else, Including Richmond, and thus, the airport. Now either you honor the lady's pass, or I'll give you one on the OTHER side of your head too, you dirty little ((Edited for content by author))." That voice said again.
She looked out the window.
The lad was unthreatening looking, just a few inches shorter then 6 feet tall, he was rather thin, and, by the looks of it, without his cane, wouldn't stand a chance in a fight. Still... There was something in his clean-shaven face that she didn't understand.
"Aye sir..." He said.
She grabbed her bags, and got out of the cab rather quickly.
A police officer drove by, and got out of his car.
"Sir, mind telling me why you assaulted this man and his vehicle?" Officer McSmythe asked.
The look on the young man's face turned really angry.
"I JUST SAVED THIS LADY FROM SOMETHING WHICH YOUR SON WOULD HAVE CONDONED, BUT I WOULD NOT HAVE, AND NEITHER WOULD YOU. That filthy little ((Edited for content by author)) just tried to force himself on her, and fraud her out of her Cab-Voucher." The young man replied.
The officer's face turned white, realizing who the individual was.
"So you are the man who lost his best friend to my son's psychotic mind." He replied, somewhat embarassed.
"Your son was sane at the time. I think he drove himself insane to get out of jail." The young man replied.
Lauren realized she was in the middle of something nasty.
"Officer, had it not been for this young man doing what he did, I would have been doing something that I would not have wanted to do, and that cab driver STILL would have had my taxi-voucher. However, as the true criminal in this manner just drove off with a bloody forehead, I believe that there is no reason for you to remain here." She said, English accent flaring at every possible point.
The officer nodded, and left, after taking thier names, and addresses.
"Thank you." She said quietly.
He looked at her, and she looked into his eyes.
"You are most welcome." He said just as quietly.
He noticed that she had begun to cry when she realized what the cabby intended to do, and he frowned.
"What?" She asked.
He pulled out a little baggy of tissues, and whiped her face dry, then smiled.
"You look beautiful." He said quietly.
She smiled.
"Can I buy you a coffee?" He asked.
She thought about the 29 she had had already...
"How about a cup of Earl Grey?" She asked.
He smiled.
"Of course." He said.
He offered the arm he didn't use for his cane, and she took it with a slight smile.
As they were walking he thought about his nightmare... and for the first time, he smiled.
He had stopped it from occuring again.
Together, ever so slowly, they walked towards the Central City cafe, both happy for the first time in a while.

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Chapter 1.3

Lauren stared into this man's eyes again. One was blue, and one was green/silver, and she couldn't quite figure out what the heck was hidden there that motivated him to be such a "hero" type figure... but she suspected it was something she probably didn't want to know, and, knowing how most people worked, it was something he would never talk about.
They sat there for about 4 cups of earl grey, and 3 "Maple Macciatos"...whatever they were.
They talked... she was still very rattled, and realized, in mild horror, she had no place to stay, the rain was going to continue for as far as the weather forcast could see...and she had no way of getting to a hotel.
She could take a cab...she still had the cab voucher...interestingly, the cab driver hadn't bothered to take it from her.
The man, who she now knew as Alan, looked out at the rain, and saw a few cabs out there, and shook his head. Thanks to the rain, crime would probably jack up 90 percent in this area, he had told her.
She shuddered at the thought that she almost became part of that statistic.
The radio station that the barrista was playing stated that there was not a single vacant hotel room this side of hope.
"Where exactly is hope?" She asked him.
"It's this little town, roughly the distance from here to the airport from the edge of the lower mainland." He replied.
She looked down. No place to stay. Missed her flight. Nobody at home to care about the fact that she wouldn't be comming home, and... she realized... no reason to go home.
He looked into his cup, not understanding the thoughts in her head, but looking out into the rain, he saw the bus pull in.
"Need a bed?" He asked her quietly.
She looked up at him, and he still was staring at the bus.
"...I wouldn't want to be an inconvenience." She replied, just as quietly.
"Well then hurry up, or we'll miss the bus." He retorted.
She was rather relieved that they were not taking a cab.
As she walked past a homeless gentlemen just outside the barrista, she put the cab-voucher in his little change cup.
He didn't say anything, he just smiled.

Interlogue 1.3
He had fallen asleep against Lauren's shoulder, and Alan didn't particularily notice. He was dreaming...well...having a nightmare.
He stared at the girl lying on the floor, she was crying.
The man that had just ran out of the house seemed afraid of him, and his cane.
He shook his head.
Carefully, he helped her up, and off to the hospital...
and then time moved forward, like it did in dreams/nightmares.
He was having polite dinner with her, at her mother's request.
He asked her if she wanted him to stay, and she told him she needed him to go home.
That was the last thing she said to him.

Alan woke up, and stared at her. She had fallen asleep on him...
He shook his head slightly, and watched the bus pull down the familiar route.
He carefully woke her up, as thier stop was up next.
He pulled the yellow cord, and it made the familiar "Ding" noise that it always made.
She was still half asleep, so he carefully helped her off the bus...which the passer-byers were laughing at, because of course, he was doing this one-handed.
As they cautiously walked/hobbled/tripped slowly towards his house, she looked at him, and smiled.
He looked in her eyes...a dazzling coffee color, and he smiled back.
...and some little bugger on a bike came speeding down the sidewalk.
She jumped out of the way, but his handlebars slammed into alan's arm, and the pedals snapped the cane in half.
And He was lying on the ground.
Alan cursed.
He grabbed the little brats bike, and threw it infront of the now-moving bus.
It shattered into 5 rather hard to put back together pieces with a satisfying CRUNCH.
The brat, looking at him, asked "What the hell did you do that for?"
Alan glared.
"You just broke a 100 dollar cane, and now I can't walk home. You illegally rode down a sidewalk, and illegally did not yield to a disabled pedestrian. Be glad I didn't throw YOU infront of the bus." Alan replied.
The brat kicked Alan's sore leg, turned around....
And Lauren hit him straight in the face with pure undiluted bear spray.
"Ahhh! IT BURNS! IT BURNS!" The brat ran down the sidewalk screaming.
Alan stared at the two pieces of his cane, and shook his head.
Carefully, she helped him stand up properly, and she helped him walk home. The two of them, one leaning on the other's shoulder, walked slowly, and oddly enough, contentedly in the rain, and didn't say a single word.
They didn't have too.

**Author's foot note. As Jo is no longer someone special the character "Laurenia" is now based purely on fictional characters.**

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Chapter 1.4 Acceptance.

Laurenia stared out one of the two tiny windows of Alan's apartment, sitting just ontop of a pawn shop at the corner of 57th and 176 A street, in Surrey.
It rained... and rained... and still rained.
The radio quietly played in the background, and she heard the typical news little jingle, stating it was 6 AM. Alan would be home soon.
"And in other news, all flights out of Vancouver today...have...been... cancelled. There's a surprise...." She picked up snipets of the News broadcast.
She was glad to hear it. She didn't want to go home now.
Far from it... she wanted to stay here.
Alan only worked 2.5 blocks away, and he was just getting off, but the 6:30 news broadcast would be playing well before he hobbled in the door.
She stared down at alan's orange furball.
"Marmaduke" had an affinity for sitting on the window-frame when it rained.
She looked down at him.
He looked up at her.
"Meow?" He asked.
"In about 15-20 minutes." She said, answering like she knew he was asking when Alan would be home.

Alan smiled. He had 20 days left in this bloody hell-hole, and then he would be working at Telme communications as a 411 directory assistance operator. A job which DIDN"T require him to stand for 8 hours a day. Quite the opposite, actually.
He stared at the big rig parked at the lights, and shuddered. It was from the same company as.... he stopped that chain of thought.
Carefully, he started his trip home, knowing it would take way too long.


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Interupted - Writers block. I'll be back to this chapter.
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Chapter 1.4.2- Acceptance II

It was 6:45 by the time he hobbled in.
Lauren smiled at him, as she grabbed his coat, and hung it up, before he began arguing with his coat and his cane.
He shook his head, and smiled.
"This place is nothing like London. It's too quiet here." She said softly.
He nodded.
"Cloverdale is an amusing sub-community. It's blocks away from several highways, and yet you rarely hear much from them. It's technically part of Surrey, but it's residents insist that Cloverdale is a town of it's own." He said softly.
He pried one shoe off, and then, put his cane down, and pulled a rather fascinating ballancing act to get the other off.
He picked his cane back up, and stared at the cat on the window.
"Meow?" Marmaduke asked.
He shook his head.
"I don't speak kittenese." He replied to the cat.
Lauren laughed softly.
He smiled at her.
Off in the distance he heard a large truck's horn blast, and the sound of tires screeching, and his face drained of all color, as it always did.
She looked at him, surprised.
"You carry many burdens." She said quietly.
He nodded.
"Too many. But don't we all?" He asked.
She thought back to her life in London. It was a good thing he did not know how she made a living there, or where she lived. It was a good thing he did not know how her parents were killed to keep her 'working'. It was a good thing that he had decided to save her life. Because if it was anyone else, she doubted she would be still staying here, but rather, back at the airport, waiting for a plane, to go back to the life she had always known.
He smiled at her, as he saw deep thought, and intense emotion hidden behind her eyes, and understood that she too, had many secrets hidden.
"You don't have to elaborate. That look is enough. I have my own burdens. I don't want to trouble you with them." He whispered softly into her ear, as he hobbled past.
She turned, but he had already changed his attention to the coffee pot and tea kettle.
"Alan, really, you don't have to make me tea. I can drink coffee if you want me too." She said softly.
He shook his head.
"I don't want to control you. You said you preferred Earl Grey. I bought a whole tin, just for you. I don't drink the stuff. You can have tea, and I will have coffee. Or you can have coffee if you want, but you said you preferred tea." He replied.
She laughed.
"Tea is fine. Thank you." She said softly.
She stared at him, as he hobbled over to the sink, holding the two pots. He filled the kettle with water, and sat it down on the element, turning it on. Then he filled the coffee pot with water, and hobbled back to the coffee pot. She was amazed that he had figured out how to do every day tasks with one hand, so he didn't lost his balance. Silently, she walked up behind him, and wrapped her arms around him.
"Don't let go." He said softly.
He turned around, and wrapped an arm around her, and finding that she could hold his weight, he dropped his cane and wrapped the other, as well.
She stared up into his eyes, and decided right then.
"I don't want to go back." She whispered.
He nodded.
"I won't make you." He replied.
She smiled, and a single tear of joy streamed down her face. She had finally found that one man who didn't want to control any aspect of her life. Something she had never encountered before.
And she wasn't planning to give it away.
They stood there, holding eachother close, as the rain battered down, and the radio played softly.
Marmaduke looked over at them, and began to purr. Something he had not done the entire time Alan had owned him.
He jumped slightly, as the tea kettle began to whistle.
Lauren stared at the pot, and sighed.
Carefully drawing one arm off of her, Alan grabbed the kettle, and poured a cup of steaming water out of it.
He put the teabag in, and then turned back to her.
Smiling, he saw in her eyes, exactly what he wanted to see.
She was home here. And for the first time in the entirety he had lived in the small one bedroom apartment, he felt home too.
Carefully, she let go of him, making sure he had his balance, and handed him his cane.
He nodded, and turned to make himself a cup of coffee, and she grabbed her cup of tea.
The rain tappered off, slightly.
"The planes will be able to take off if this keeps going down." She whispered.
"You said it yourself. You don't want to go back. Besides, I saw that look in your eyes. This is home now. If you don't want to leave, DON'T." He replied.
"But Customs won't like that." She said softly.
"I suppose." He whispered, as she walked over a chair, and sat down.
Alan turned to the cupboard with the spices, and eyed the strange little box sitting atop of it.
"There is another way..." Alan said softly, as he knocked it off the shelf with his cane, and caught the box in his hand.
Nestled softly in a velvet holder, hiding in that box was a small daimond ring. It had been his father's mother's. And it had been his Father's mother's mother's.
He turned back to her, revealing the item inside.
"There is always another way." He said, as he sat down beside her.
She stared at the ring, shocked.
No man she had ever been with had ever bothered to ask her such a bold question... mostly because they only paid for an hour. But this man had known her only a few days. Albeit, a record long relationship in her books. But she sensed that he knew somehow, that time was something one did not waste. It was part of the burdens he carried.
She looked up into his eyes, and saw within them, among many things, the same feeling of home that she had felt, as he wrapped on arm around her, and the other held the ring in the air between them.
She smiled.
"I suppose there is." She said softly, and gently leaned in towards him, and kissed him.