Chapter Text
There would only be a week at the Florida shoreline before Jason shipped off.
Thank God.
At least that meant that it would be only one more week until he could get out of this hell hole.
The pier was always his favorite place as a kid. The water was soothing and so inviting. If sirens were real, he would have suspected one was trying to lure him with his song. He always said the sea was his only love.
Of course, this was different than the Gotham Harbor. The water was clearer, and it smelled too much like salt and shellfish. Most people would probably prefer that to the murky and slightly polluted waters in Gotham, but Jason didn’t. Sunny skies and white sand beaches weren’t his thing.
Though no one would know it since he was walking down said beach in his board shorts and an unbuttoned t-shirt with his flipflops in hand and sunglasses firmly on his face.
Gotham wasn’t this fucking hot.
Most of the other guys were at the beach too. What else did you do when you had a week to kill in Florida?
“Excited to shove off?”
Jason turned and saw one of the other servicemen he met at basic training. Grayson or something.
“Yeah,” Jason shrugged, “I’m not much of a land guy.”
Land always sucked. The people on it didn’t make sense. The water did what it always did, tides and currents and waves. It didn’t surprise him.
“Hm,” Grayson hummed in thought from where he was sitting on the sand. “Sucks a bit though, my dad and brother weren’t too happy that I was doing this.”
“No?”
“No, he’s only 10.” Grayson shrugged. “He doesn’t get it. What about you? You family?”
“Haven’t got any,” Jason shook his head.
“Oh, I’m sorry-“
“Save it,” Jason waved him off. “Never knew my dad and mom died right before I graduated. Figured college wasn’t in the cards for me so here I am.”
“My parents too,” Grayson nodded. “Like 12 years ago. I was adopted after that.”
“That’s rough.” Jason mumbled, glancing up and down the beach. He caught sight of one of those rickety beach bars down a ways, tourist-attracting grass thatch looking roof and everything. “I’m going to go get a drink, I’ll catch you later.”
Jason waved as he started down the beach. It was too damn hot here. And maybe he could use a water or something. Maybe lemonade. He had simple tastes.
The inside of the bar wasn’t much different than the outside. There weren’t many walls, mostly all open to the salty breeze flowing off of the ocean. But at least inside the sun wasn’t beating down on him.
His freckles were starting to show and he usually tried to hide those as best he could. Gotham’s constant cloud cover seemed to work wonders for that.
“What can I get you?” the bartender asked as he sat down. She was young, blond, and she had pretty blue eyes. Jason glanced up at the menu behind her.
“Shirley temple?” He asked, and she gave him a smile as she headed over to her work station.
“You got it,” She said, filling a glass with ice and grabbing the soda gun to fill it. “You here for business or pleasure?”
“Uh, a little of both,” Jason nodded. “I’m shipping off in a week with the Navy.”
“Oh, sailor, huh?” She asked, pulling out the grenadine.
“Oh yeah, my life’s dream to live on a boat with fifty other people for six months,” He said with a laugh as she handed him the glass, setting a cherry in the pinkish liquid.
“Sounds like my life’s dream,” She chuckled, leaning on the bar. “So if you don’t want to go, why are you?”
“I do want to go,” Jason nodded, pausing to take a sip. “I’ve been trying to make ends meat since high school and it just wasn’t working out for me so I just decided to enlist not long after and here I am.”
“Pretty brave of you.” She said, glancing at a sunburned tourist who strode in, but a shorter man with raven-black hair beat her to greeting him. “So you got a name?”
“Jason,” He said, holding out his hand. “Jason Todd.”
“Well, nice to meet you, Jason. I’m Stephanie Brown,” She said, shaking his hand firmly. “So where do you call home?”
“Gotham, up in the north east. Born and raised. Sorta.” Jason shrugged, taking another sip of his drink.
“Pretty different here, huh?” She asked, waving to acknowledge another person sitting at the other end of the bar.
“It’s hotter than hell here. And I’ve been to hell, I know,” Jason said with a smile, and Stephanie laughed.
“Stephanie Lynn, we have other customers,” The waiter from earlier hissed as he walked by the two with a tray of food.
“Give me a second,” She said with a small smile, heading down to the other end to get the person a drink.
True to her word, she was back in a few moments, still full of smiles. Jason assumed it was to get a nice tip.
“So Lynn, huh?” He asked, taking another sip of his drink.
“I’m getting flack from the guy drinking the Shirley Temple?” She asked, motioning to him.
“Hey, not my fault I’m only 20,” Jason laughed. “And no, I like that name. Better than my middle name, Peter.”
Stephanie covered her smile with her hand.
“Well I think that’s a great name,” she said, biting her lip.
“You just saying that to get a good tip?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Maybe.”
“Well you got it, chickadee.” Jason scoffed, reaching for his wallet. He pulled out a 20 and handed it to her. “Keep the change.”
“Well aren’t you generous, Sailor.” She said, heading to her POS system.
“I try,” He nodded, and it was true. He grew up with nothing, he’d gladly share all he had. “So I doubt you run this place all by yourself.”
“Oh, no,” She shook her head, pocketing the spare cash into her apron. “My dad owns this place.” She scowled.
“Don’t like working here?” He asked, setting his empty glass aside.
“Oh, I’ve always loved working here,” she said, glancing around. “I started bussing tables when I was tall enough to see over them, but my dad got thrown in jail for some really shady business stuff a few years ago.”
“Oh, I’m sorry-“
“It’s cool, he and I weren’t that close anyways. But my mom wanted to sell this place and I had to beg her not to. I told her I would do all the hiring and work if she just paid the bills for it still.” She explained with a shrug.
“Pretty adult of you.” Jason said, watching her take his glass and fill it up again.
“Well, it was hard, I had to hire a lot more people when I was still in school, but I just graduated so it’s pretty much just me and Tim and our cook, Bart. They’re my friends, and they’d rather work 12 hours than not enough hours.” She said, giving Tim a small wave.
“You’re pretty much running the show then,” Jason said with a nod. “Impressive.”
“I try,” She shrugged, handing the glass back. “So, you hungry?”
“Nah, I’ve got some stuff to take care of.” Jason shook his head, downing his second drink. “But I appreciate the company.”
“You should come back and see me some time,” She said, grabbing the empty glass and setting it in the sink. She grabbed a rag and wiped up the condensation.
“I will,” Jason said, giving her a wink and a wave as he headed back out into that devil sun.
And he did.
The bar opened around two every day, and Jason spent longer and longer there daily. She made a pretty mean virgin strawberry daiquiri.
“So you heading out tomorrow?” Steph asked, setting a napkin in front of the woman who sat two stools down. “What can I get you miss?”
Jason glanced around. He’d already killed four hours, and the dinner rush was starting. A second waitress had come in, and Stephanie said she was only there for dinner time to help out. Her name was Cass.
“Yeah, we set sail at 6 a.m.” Jason said, stabbing at his quickly melting drink with his straw.
“You don’t sound too excited,” She said, raising an eyebrow as she set the woman’s wine on a napkin in front of her.
“Eh,” Jason shrugged. He wasn’t as excited as he thought he would be. He was starting to really miss Gotham, and even the shitty apartment he had been living in. And he was actually really starting to like Stephanie’s company. During slow times they’d play cards or just talk. It got to be something he looked forward to in the morning. “I am, just not looking forward to getting up at 6 a.m.”
“I get that,” She nodded, “I can’t remember the last time I was up that early.”
“Besides, I won’t get to see you and that’s kind of shitty,” He said, scowling at his glass. She reached out to take it and refill it with something else. He had also turned into her guinea pig for virgin drinks since she didn’t make a ton of those.
“Aww, you gonna miss me?” She asked with a laugh. “You should write me.”
“I don’t know how often I’ll be able to,” He said, looking up as she put what looked like some kind of frozen lemonade in front of him. “Just when we dock.”
“Oh, it’ll be fun. And if you’ll be somewhere for a while, I could write one to you.” She said, shrugging a shoulder.
“I don’t know if you can write me,” Jason said, trying to remember everything his commander told him.
“Well, then you’ll just have someone to write back to. Tell about all of your adventures,” She said. “And if I can write you, I will.”
“I appreciate it,” Jason nodded, watching another person sit down at the bar. “You’re going to get busy here soon.”
“That’s alright, nothing I can’t handle.” She shook her head, setting a napkin down in front of the person.
“I should probably head out. I need to get some sleep since I have to leave in less than 12 hours,” Jason said, looking down at his watch.
“Wait, just a minute,” Stephanie said, setting a mug of beer in front of the person. She ran out from behind the bar and pushing a piece of paper into Jason’s hand. “That’s my address. I look forward to hearing from you.”
Jason glanced down at the little scrap of paper with an address scrawled on it and a little ‘Steph’ next to a heart doodle.
“Thanks, Steph,” He said with a nod. “I will.”
“Bye, Sailor.” She said, heading back to the bar, her eyes staying on him.
“Bye, Blondie,” He said, waving as he headed back out to the beach to take the walk back to the hotel.
Jason tried to sleep, he really did.
It wasn’t easy, because his stomach started rolling at the thought of actually leaving. He wished his mom was still around at times like this because she usually somehow made him feel better, even if it was just giving him someone to focus on other than himself.
It was nearing 1:30 when he got an idea.
He got out of the ridiculously soft bed and changed back into his clothes. He knew he had to be up in less than 4 hours, but what was the point now? He could sleep tomorrow when he was off duty at 4.
Besides, they wouldn’t get to a port for a few days. He’d have plenty of time to lay on his bunk and catch up on sleep.
He wouldn’t have may other chances, or really reasons, to be walking down a beach at almost 2 in the morning. It wasn’t as hot at night, and there were less people out and about. That wasn’t saying much because there were usually too many people, now there were still too many, just less of too many.
Jason caught sight of Tim and Cass leaving the bar, heading towards the parking lot. Bart was behind them, keeping an eye on Stephanie as she shut the door and pulled her keys out of her pocket.
He started running, which was difficult in the sugary sand that gave way under his feet, but Stephanie had just locked the door and turned when she heard his steps on the wooden stairs.
“Jason?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t you leave in like 4 hours?”
“Yeah, I just, I had to,” Jason paused to catch his breath. “I had to come see you.”
“You should be asleep.” She said, glancing over at her coworkers, who had paused when they saw she wasn’t following.
“I just,” Jason said, not able to find the words he was looking for. Instead, he reached forward gently, his hands going to hold her, one on her shoulder, the other on the back of her head, and pulled her into a soft kiss.
He had been wanting to do that and who knew if he’d ever get another chance.
“Oh,” She said when they pulled apart.
“I couldn’t sleep,” He whispered, and she nodded, leaning in for another kiss.
“You have to go,” She whispered. “You’re leaving.”
“I’ll come back.” Jason mumbled, letting his hand fall to hold her, clasping around her keys. “Promise.”
“Jason,” She shook her head, looking down at her feet. Jason cupped her cheek, not wanting to see her sad, wanting to see her smile again. “Write me, okay?”
“Of course.” Jason nodded, giving her one more kiss before she pulled fully away. She didn’t say anything as she fled towards the parking lot, following after her friends.
Jason didn’t sleep, of course, because why would he?
6 a.m. came way too soon, and he was going to have to get used to that again after basic training and all the other crap he had to do.
They were boarding the ship, and plenty of family and bystanders were watching from the beach and dock. Women sobbed, children waved, parents wept.
And Stephanie smiled.
Jason paused, almost tripping that Grayson guy behind him when he saw her standing on the beach, waving and smiling at him. He gave her a smile back as he continued onto the ship.
“Who was that?” Grayson asked.
“Just some girl I met.” Jason shrugged, and the guy whistled behind him. “Just for that, I call top rack.”
Actually, top rack wasn’t so bad. He was the tallest out of the three who were in their bunk, so that meant he could reach his stuff easier. Grayson, who he learned actually was called Dick and Jason found that really fitting, was in the middle and some fresh-out-of-school kid Conner was on the bottom.
The first day was a bit more easy going, tomorrow they would get their assignments and all, today they had time to get used to the ship, unpack, and get to know each other. He and Dick would start their watch later in the day, Conner would have morning on the flight deck as a damage controlman.
At the end of the day, Dick found Jason sitting in one of the common areas with paper and a pencil, scribbling out a letter.
“Sending a letter already?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Jason partially covered his paper like Dick was cheating off of his test.
“No, just starting it.” He shrugged, glancing down at it.
“To that girl?” He asked, flopping onto the couch beside him.
“Yeah,” Jason nodded. “Figured when we get to the first port I’d send it out. We’re stopping in a few days.”
“Why don’t you just email? We can, you know.” Dick asked, watching Conner flop into a chair, fiddling with something in his hand. It looked like a watch.
“I don’t know,” Jason shrugged. “Just feels more personal. Besides, she only gave me her address.” He reached into his pocket and produced the crumpled up piece of paper Stephanie had given him, and Dick plucked it from his hand.
“Heart, huh?” He asked, suppressing a laugh. Jason snatched it back, shoving it back into his pocket while Dick snickered.
“I hate you,” Jason said, folding his paper so Dick couldn’t see it. And especially so he couldn’t see that the letter was addressed to ‘Stephie’ because that was just embarrassing.