[for joe]

[damnfinecup]

It wasn't a bad day to go to the beach. Not that there were often bad days to go to the beach on the island, if one didn't count the occasional hurricane or those times when dinosaurs walked the island. Even in the rain, Dale sometimes liked to walk along the sand and watch the clouds gather over the ocean. There was no rain today though, just a partly cloudy sky and a pleasant breeze.

Dale didn't do much in the way of food, deciding they would be better off raiding the nearby trees for something to eat, but he did wear the awful shorts, as promised, along with equally awful tank top and his too-large running shoes that he never could find the heart to part with, not with everything they'd been through together. And rather than heading west or south they went north, to a more distant and seldom-visited stretch of shoreline.

"So," he said, standing barefoot in the surf and looking out over the water. "You ready?"

Comments

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"You're the one who keeps telling me you're out of shape," Dale pointed out, diving right in to the water and emerging quite a few feet away. "You keep telling me that and I'm going to make sure you do something about it."

[jdick.livejournal.com]

Joe was not looking at Dale, he was squinting out to the horizon, just walking further out into the water. "To me getting into shape means quitting booze and cigarettes and making sure my nose stops fucking bleeding, not muscles."

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"It's all tied up in the same stuff, Joe," said Dale, moving through the water with a few lazy strokes, not really heading anywhere. "It's all about taking care of yourself."

[jdick.livejournal.com]

"One step at a time, okay?" Joe asked and although he was smiling, he was serious. One step at a time. "Lemme quit smoking first and then we'll get me some muscle."

And then he ducked into the water, dunking his head and then popping back up, water dripping into his eyes.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"I believe I just heard you say you're going to quit smoking," said Dale with a grin. "Both you mind and your body are going to be happy with you today. And a bit of a swim can't hurt things any either."

[jdick.livejournal.com]

"Can I make my mind and my body happy tomorrow?" he asked, thinking longingly of the one single cigarette he still had. "I only have one left anyway." And maybe he'd share it, although the only time he'd seen Dale spoke was one drag on Valentine's Day.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"Enjoy your last smoke, Joe," said Dale easily. "One step at a time, like you said. Though I might make you eat your vegetables with dinner."

[jdick.livejournal.com]

"That sounds like a threat," Joe said dryly, cutting through the water with a few lazy strokes, feeling his feet leave the sand on the ocean floor. "You ever wonder what we're swimming around with out here? Fucking sharks and things with stingers?"

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"Don't forget the giant squid," said Dale, flipping over onto his back. "It wasn't all that far from here that they first met it, I believe."

[jdick.livejournal.com]

Looking around at the water surrounding them, Joe dryly said, "If I get eaten by something, just know you're the only man on the island for me, Dale."

And it only struck him after he said it that he probably shouldn't have. Not that it really fucking mattered now, it had been said.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

Dale didn't flinch, not visibly, but the offhand remark still hit him in the gut. He didn't think Joe meant to be cruel, he just didn't think sometimes.

"You're not going to get eaten, Joe," was all he said before diving under the water again.

[jdick.livejournal.com]

And the worst part about making Dale feel like shit with saying something like that was that it wasn't a lie, but Joe knew he couldn't say that now, that at this point it was too... too something. He meant it, but it didn't count for much right now, so he just continued to swim for a little bit before flipping over onto his back to float.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"Swimming's good for the lungs, too," said Dale finally, after the moment had time to pass, "and even if you're going to argue that you aren't worried about muscle, I think we both know that your lungs could use some work. Come on, follow me."

[jdick.livejournal.com]

"Such a pain in my ass," Joe grumbled, but he flipped over again and swam toward Dale in the water. He wasn't a terrible swimmer, he'd lived most of his life near one of the nicer beaches in Vancouver after all, but he wasn't nearly as strong a swimmer as Dale and he knew it.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

Dale didn't try to race him, just set a comfortable -- fairly slow, for him -- pace parallel to the shore. Nothing Joe couldn't keep up with if he was making any effort at all.

[jdick.livejournal.com]

"So we're just gonna swim around the island?" Joe asked dryly when he lifted his head out of the water, loud enough for Dale to hear, praying that he wasn't going to expect him to go on for too long like this.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"I was thinking just as far as that tree over there," said Dale, pausing to gesture at one ahead of them that was growing a little nearer to the shore than the rest. "If you want to tackle the whole island we should have brought our lunch."

[jdick.livejournal.com]

"And what? Carried it on our heads to keep it dry?" Joe asked softly, smirking a little bit before he continued to swim, falling silent so that he didn't expend all his energy talking.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"There are a number of things we could have brought that wouldn't have needed to stay dry," said Dale, as though actually planning out the logistics of swimming around the island. "And as long as we weren't near dinosaur territory we could always go ashore and hunt something down."

[jdick.livejournal.com]

"You could hunt something down," Joe said, sounding a little out of breath and he knew he should stop talking, but he didn't particularly want to. "I'd sit and watch."

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"You could fish," Dale suggested instead, swimming at what was to him a very leisurely pace. "We could stick you in the water with a net and let you find something."

[jdick.livejournal.com]

Joe laughed at that, inhaled some water accidentally and had to stop swimming while he coughed, his eyes watering as he felt the salt burning his throat. "Fucker," he wheezed, his hand pressed against his chest.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

Dale immediately swam to his side, concerned. "Time to take it to shore again?" he asked. "Can you breathe?"

[jdick.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I'm fine," Joe said with another laugh that ended in a hiccup. "I swallowed some water when I laughed."

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"Do you want to cut this short and go in?" Dale asked again, though he hoped that Joe wouldn't just use the coughing fit as an excuse to quit if he was actually all right.