Green Light

1.05

The One Where the Beach Boy Arrives

*~*~*~*

Catalina's eyes were trained out her kitchen window as she stood at the sink. Peering through the glass at where her newly turned eight-year-old son was running around in the small grassy area, playing with the new soccer ball he'd been gifted for his birthday last week. A smile filled her lips as she watched him play, truly careless about the world around him at the moment-- just like every child should be. 

"That ball might as well be glued to his feet." Catalina muttered into her phone; the small device pressed to her ear as she continued to watch JD play outside. "I swear, it's all he wants to do since you gave him that thing."

"Well how else is he supposed to get better if he doesn't practice?" Han's familiar voice trickled through the device, subtle amusement coating his every word.

"It'd probably help if he had someone halfway decent to practice with him," she pointed out.

"You've got feet, don't you?" He countered, already knowing what she was trying to get at. It being the same point that was made most times they spoke when he was away from Miami.

"Oh, I've tried. In the oh-so-lovely words of the very boy I suffered through twenty-six hours of labor with-- I'm hopeless." She couldn't help but chuckle at the memory of JD's disappointment in her soccer skills. The boy having begged her to play with him, not believing her insistence that she was horrible at soccer. Oh, had her point been proven within minutes of joining him in the yard. "He tried getting Tej to play with him the other day, but that man somehow managed to trip over his own feet. Deanna's the only one around here that isn't half bad, but she's been so busy lately with Belle."

"Well, I'll make sure to play with him the next time I'm in town," he promised.

"And when is that gonna be?" She leaned against the kitchen counter. The cool material of the slab cut into her side slightly, but she didn't let it bother her-- too focused on the conversation at hand. It had only been a week since she had last seen the man, yet both she and JD already missed him terribly.

After two years together, Han and Catalina were still struggling to keep their relationship running smoothly. They were both honest with one another and committed to making things work between them, but that didn't mean they didn't have their rough spots. A constant one being the man's seeming inability to stay in one place for too long.

When he first came to Miami, he had managed to hang around the city for seven months. Successfully worming his way into not only Catalina's heart, but into that of a six-year-old JD. The man and boy had become thick as thieves, much to Catalina's own hesitancy. But despite her worries, Han had proven himself to be there for the mother and son duo when they needed him. Even when he left town to "do jobs" he would make sure to go no longer than two or three days without calling to check in. Always asking how things were going back in Miami, what "exciting" things had happened in the young boy's life that day. Though despite Han's persistence and continued commitment, Catalina often times found herself growing more hesitant and worried about their relationship. After all, how well could things work when the man she loved was only ever around for a month or so at a time?

"I've got a few more jobs lined up down here," he claimed, having known the question was coming. "Hopefully I'll be able to make it back up that way here in a couple of weeks. That is, unless you two feel like taking a little vacation?"

"You mean JD and I taking in the sights while you're robbing someone?" She filled in the gaps. "Yeah, I think we'll pass."

"Tali..." He muttered into his own phone. She could just picture the downward turn of his lips and slight furrow of his brows as he struggled to come up with something to say. Some way to deny her accusation when they both knew she was right. No matter how honest of a life Catalina tried to live for her son, she was by no means a saint.