Once and Again 1. After The Kiss

Hello! I loved Once and Again, especially the Grace/Dimitri storyline! I don't own any part of Once and Again, I'm just a bored writer, LOL. This takes place immediately following the kiss in 'Experience Is The Teacher'. Let me know what you think, please review!  
She couldn't believe that she'd kissed him. She had actually kissed him. But what surprised her even more than that was the fact that he had kissed back. She was sure of it. She'd felt it, the mutuality of it, and it both excited and scared her. In either case, it had caused Grace to strongly evaluate how she really felt about August Dimitri.  
  
"Gracie?" Lily asked, leaning into the doorway. "Yeah?" Grace asked. She was curled up on her bed. She didn't look at Lily. She was afraid that somehow the phrase, I KISSED MR. DIMITRI would be tattooed in neon on her forehead.  
  
"Are you going to come down for dinner?" Grace shook her head against her pillow. She regretted the action immediately, now Lily was going to come in, sit down, and pry into her life again.  
  
And she did. Lily seated herself next to Grace on the bed, and tucked a tendril of Grace's hair behind her ear as Grace struggled to act natural.  
  
"Something wrong, Gracie? Because you know you can always-" Lily began. "I'm fine, really. I'm just taking a break between chapters," Grace said, sitting up and showing her mother a copy of To Kill A Mockingbird that was laying beside her bed.  
  
"Oh, well, okay. I'll leave a plate for you on the stove," Lily said as she left. Grace nodded, but she doubted she'd be hungry for awhile. Her lips were still on fire from before. When she had kissed him.  
* The next morning, Grace was both anxious and nervous about going to class. Were things going to be weird? Of course they will, she thought to herself. She tried to play it off like she wasn't thinking about it, but everyone could tell something was up.  
  
"Yo, earth to Grace!! Okay, Grace has left the building!" Zoe screeched, snapping her sister out of her daze.  
  
"What do you want, Zoe?!" Grace demanded, irritated. She had big things on her mind and no time for trivial stuff.  
  
"I've only been asking you to pass the orange juice for the past ten minutes!!!" Zoe whined, stretching her little arm across the table as far as she could, proving to Grace that she just couldn't reach. "Oh," Grace said absently. "Sorry."  
  
She sat the juice in front of Zoe and shouldered her backpack. She almost ran smack into Eli in the doorway.  
  
"God, Grace, where's the fire?" he asked, gently grabbing her wrist. "Nowhere....I just have to get to school. I'm going to be late," she said, taking her wrist back and exiting.  
  
When Grace got to school, she suddenly felt like avoiding her Creative Writing class. She lingered by her locker with her friends Hayley and Jenna for as long as she could, trying to listen while they gushed on and on about Tad. They noticed that something was off about Grace, too.  
  
"Grace? Are you okay?" Jenna asked, waving a hand in front of Grace's face. "Yeah, I'm fine, why?" she replied.  
  
As if on cue, just then Eli passed by their lockers and waved casually to Grace. Jenna and Hayley exchanged glances, and then looked at Grace, who didn't seem to notice.  
  
"Ohhh..." Hayley said, grinning. "I get it. I knew it!" "What?" Grace demanded. "Oh come on Gracie! It's so obvious! You've got it bad for him!!" Jenna squealed.  
  
Grace's heart skipped a beat and her stomach swam in a panic. She wished she had one of those little magnetic mirrors in her locker so she could recheck for the neon tattoo.  
  
"What are you talking about? I don't 'have it bad' for anybody! Honestly!" she huffed. Hayley and Jenna laughed.  
  
"Yeah right. Deny it all you want, but that stepbrother of yours is fine, Gracie, and you know it," Hayley said.  
  
My stepbrother? Grace thought. Eli. They thought she had a crush on Eli. Well, she sorta did, maybe, or at least she did before....Well, if they wanted to think it was Eli that she was longing for, let them. It would keep them from thinking anything else.  
  
Grace didn't have to respond as the first block bell rang. She exhaled deeply and headed to Dimitri's class. The whole class went as normal as any other day, except for an exaggerated lack of eye contact between the two. Probably best, Grace concluded. She didn't know if she was relieved or disappointed that nothing had changed, but before she could decide for sure, class was over. She gathered her books and headed for the door when she stopped in her tracks at the sound of his voice.  
  
"Ms. Manning? Can I see you for a moment, please?" he asked. Grace's heart jumped and she thought to herself, you can see me all you want, but she composed herself and approached his desk.  
  
"Last night-" he began. Grace's breath caught in her throat and she sucked in air to try and breath. Dimitri noticed and moved on quickly to assure her that it wasn't what she thought.  
  
"- I wanted to give you a novel that's on my preferred author's list, but we got...we didn't have the time. I brought it with me today," he said, and handed her the book. "Thanks," Grace said quietly, smiled, and rushed into the hall.  
  
She practically ran to the bathroom, locked herself in a stall, and paused, the book quivering in her hands. She anticipated opening the book to find another inscription like the one in the Chekov book. But what if there wasn't one? Could she handle it? Could she if there was? Enough of this, she thought, and opened the book. A small piece of paper fluttered out from between the cover and title page. Grace deftly caught it before it hit the floor, and looked at it with wide eyes. It was in his all-too- familiar penmanship, and her heart raced with each word.  
  
Grace, Please meet with me at my house tonight. Be discreet. We need to discuss things. -August  
  
She didn't know how to interpret it. He wanted her to meet him. After the kiss, he still wanted to risk it. Was that good or bad? Be discreet. Obviously. We need to discuss things? That was for sure, but what did he mean? He'd signed it August. Just August.  
  
The rest of the day, Grace was in agony. She couldn't stand not knowing what the note had meant, and tried to focus not on Dimitri...August....whoever he was, whoever he had become, but rather on how she was going to get out of the house. She was becoming quite the talented liar. But a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, she thought.  
  
"Hey Grace," Eli said, coming into the kitchen where Grace was reading the novel Mr. Dimitri had given to her earlier in the day.  
  
"Hi," she said, not looking up from the book. Eli slid onto the chair across from her and plucked the book out of her hands.  
  
"Hey!" she cried playfully. Eli grinned at her from across the table.  
  
"You know, if you don't quit reading so much people might get the idea that you're some kind of geeky bookworm or something," he teased, flipping through the pages.  
  
Just then, Grace realized that she left the note in the book. She quickly yanked it back. "Jeez, sorry! Lighten up, Gracie!" he said, reaching over to play with her hair. "I'm sorry, Eli," Grace said. "You know what you need?" Eli said, his eyes bright. "Enlighten me," Grace teased. "To cut loose. Have a little fun. Why don't you come with me and my band tonight? There's a free concert in the park tonight, new local band. Pretty good," Eli remarked.  
  
"But no competition, right?" Grace laughed. Eli echoed her laughter. "I'd love to, really, but I've got to go the library and do some studying," she said. That was the best she'd been able to come up with.  
  
"Oh, come on," Eli moaned. "The library?" "Yeah! Look, I'm really sorry," Grace said, looking out the window at the dark night sky. "But I've got to get going. My study group is waiting."  
  
Grace stood up and headed for the door, grabbing her keys from the hook as she went. "Hey, E, could you tell my Mom where I'm at?" she asked, paused in the doorway. "Yeah, sure thing." "Thanks!" Grace said, and headed out the door.  
  
Eli watched as Grace pulled out of the driveway and drove off, going east. It was then that he realized the library was the other way. He jumped up and grabbed his own keys.  
  
Well?! Should I continue? Let me know what you think, please!! =) 


	2. Words Can't Express

Hey everyone! Thanks for all the positive feedback, I really appreciate! Just for that, you all get another chapter! Let me know what you think of this one, R & R, and you might earn yourselves a Chapter 3~! =)  
  
Grace sat in her car in Dimitri's driveway, trying to psyche herself up for whatever happened. She finally gathered all her courage and approached the door, and knocked.  
  
Mr. Dimitri appeared quickly, wearing a Yale tee shirt, khakis, and his hair tied back in a ponytail. He led her inside to the living room, specifically avoiding the kitchen.  
  
Grace sat on the couch, and Dimitri sat on the bench of an old piano opposite of the sofa. Grace felt uncomfortable. She could sense that he felt the same way.  
  
"Grace, we need to talk about what happened last night," Dimitri said, lacing his fingers together and staring at them with empty eyes.  
  
Grace nodded, feeling a lump beginning to form in her throat. She felt tears stinging her eyes. She looked at the floor, trying to hide it.  
  
"What do you want me to say?" she asked in a small voice. Dimitri heaved a sigh, and smirked, averting his eyes to the corners of the room. A cloud of awkwardness had cumulated over the room.  
  
"Say....say what you feel," he said finally, frustrated with dancing around the fire and knowingly leaping into the flames. Grace felt a tear trickle down her cheek.  
  
"You don't want me to do that," she warned, brushing the tear away shamefully. Dimitri stood up and began pacing around the room, staring at the ceiling and rubbing his eyes.  
  
"Yes, Grace, I do. Isn't that what I've always taught you to do? Be brave, be honest, express yourself-"  
  
"I think I expressed how I felt last night," Grace commented. Dimitri laughed at the ceiling.  
  
"Don't laugh at me!" Grace said indignantly. Then she herself couldn't help but crack a smile. A cloud of silence rolled in to join the awkwardness, and a storm was looming overheard.  
"What do you feel?" Grace finally asked. Dimitri sighed again. For the first time in his life, he was having trouble finding the right words. They didn't seem to exist in his endless vocabulary.  
  
"I think that you're right," he said. "It's...it's not fair." Tears shimmered in Grace's eyes.  
  
"That they're keeping us apart?" she asked timidly. Dimitri stopped pacing and stared blankly.  
  
"Not 'they', Grace. Fate," he said.  
  
Grace looked at him, not caring that she was crying. She didn't comprehend.  
  
"Nobody's ever really......gotten me," Dimitri said in an indistinct voice. His tone quickened with irritated excitement. "And now fate is cruel enough to make the one person who does get me, at long last, a seventeen year old girl?!" he exclaimed. He sat down on the piano bench again.  
"And my student, nonetheless! It's just so, unfair," he concluded, his voice soft and melancholy. Aside from the sadness, Grace could hear Dimitri's feelings coming through in his words. She realized that he was right, she did get him. She slowly approached him, and knelt down in front of him. She locked her eyes into his, and they no longer needed to 'discuss' anything. It was all there, out in the open, on the table. She carefully took his hand in hers, and reached up with her other hand to touch his face.  
  
"I think fate knows what she's doing," she said tenderly, leaning towards him. And then it happened. Again. They kissed, mutually, innocently, with a sense of relief. When they pulled away from each other, Dimitri squeezed Grace's hand, and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.  
  
"Yes," he said, "but do we?" Outside the window of Dimitri's house, Eli sat in his car, in disbelief. No way. What was this pervert doing to Grace? He had to restrain himself from going in there and pounding him. Instead, he drove off.  
  
Grace smiled at him, both with her mouth and her eyes. "I know exactly what I'm doing. I'm doing what you taught me to, and that's to go with what I feel," Grace said. They then kissed for a third time. Dimitri's head was reeling with the sheer anarchic situation his derailed life had been led into.  
  
"You've taught me that, too," Dimitri said quietly. "But we can't do this...." he mumbled. "We can't not do this," Grace whispered seriously. She figured that would be the best place to end this. She stood up, and left without saying goodbye.  
  
* 


	3. Collision With The Truth

Hey! I'm not sure how good this is or will be, but please keep reviewing! Thanks for reading!! =)  
  
When Grace got home, Lily was sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for her. "Where have you been?" Lily asked in an annoyed tone. Grace shrugged casually.  
  
"At the library, studying," Grace replied calmly. "What's the big deal?" Lily folded her arms over her chest.  
  
"The big deal, Grace, is that the library closed an hour and a half ago," she said, raising her eyebrows at her daughter. "Now, let's try this again. Where. Have. You. Been?"  
  
Grace sighed. Now what? "I went to a concert in the park, okay? Eli told me about it." Lily shook her head.  
  
"Nope. Wrong again, Grace. You weren't there, because Eli is home and he told me that you went to the library. Gosh, Grace! What's going on? You never lie to me!" Lily said, hurt.  
  
"What does it matter where I was? I'm home now, safe and sound," Grace said, heading for the stairs.  
  
"We're going to talk about this, Grace! You can count on that!" Lily yelled after her. Grace rolled her eyes as she ran up the stairs. Eli was waiting at the top for her, glaring.  
  
"What's your problem?" Grace asked, trying to get past him. Eli grabbed her wrist. "I think you're the one with the problem," he snarled. Grace narrowed her eyes.  
  
"I don't know what you're talking about-" she said, trying to pull away from him. "Don't give me that! You think that nobody knows, Grace? Are you honestly that delusional?!" Eli exclaimed.  
  
"Eli, I think you need to mind your own damn business!" Grace said angrily as she jerked her arm away from him and retreated to her room, slamming the door behind her.  
  
Eli stood in the hall, tears threatening in his eyes. She just didn't understand. That perverted teacher was so wrong for her, their relationship was so...wrong. Why couldn't she see what was right in front of her? Why did she have to go looking for trouble in the most unorthodox place? Eli sighed and retreated to his own room, thoroughly depressed and angry.  
  
The next morning, Grace wasn't nervous about going to school. She knew that August wouldn't let on about anything, and she knew she wouldn't. Maybe keeping this secret wouldn't be so bad after all. As long as she got to be with him, she didn't care that it had to be secret. But Eli knew, and that was dangerous. Grace hoped she could trust him.  
  
Grace was right. Mr. Dimitri didn't act any differently than any other day. It was almost the end of the year, and soon, she could be with him and then nobody could keep them apart.  
  
Grace was upstairs doing her trig homework when Lily got home. Grace had been dreading this all day. Sure enough, Lily bellowed up the stairs, "Grace! Get down here, we're going to have a talk!" Grace sighed as she slammed her trig book , and sluggishly tromped down the stairs. Lily was sitting in the living room.  
  
"All right, Gracie, I'm going to ask you one more time, and I want you to tell me the truth. Where were you last night?"  
  
Grace looked at the floor. "Let me save you the effort of having to invent a new excuse. I know where you were," Lily said coldly, restraining her anger.  
  
Grace looked up and cocked her head, challenging her mother. "And if you ever go to Mr. Dimitri's house again, ever, for whatever reason, I will call the school board and have him fired," Lily said in that same, strange tone.  
  
"Mother, he was giving me a book-" Grace began. "A book, Gracie?!" Lily cried. "You can get books at the library! You don't lie about a book! It's not right and you know it! I've warned you about this before, Grace, and you know that too, and you have to start listening to me before you get the both of you into serious trouble. You better get your head on straight and I mean now !" Lily cried in a hushed angry tone.  
  
Grace's eyes were filled with tears of anger. "You can't stop me from seeing August," she said defiantly. "AUGUST?!" Lily exclaimed. "Grace, why in the hell are you calling him August?! For God's sake, he's your teacher!"  
  
"You think I don't know that?! My God, I know, I know, I know he's my teacher! I have to think about that every single second! But I don't care anymore! I just don't care, because I love him-" Grace cried.  
  
"You what?! You love him?! Grace, you don't love him! This is just sick, and I'm calling the school. You're not going to see him out of school or in, no!" Lily said, shaking her head and grabbing the phone.  
  
Just then, Rick came in to see what all the commotion was. He arrived just in time to witness Grace grabbing the phone out of Lily's hand and slamming it back down.  
  
"That's it! I've HAD IT WITH YOU, Grace! Get out!" Lily screamed, tears running down her cheeks. Grace stepped back, stunned. Had Lily just said what she thought she'd said?  
  
"Lil, hon, calm down," Rick said, touching Lily's arm. Lily jerked away. "No, Rick, I've tried to be patient with her about this, but not anymore. I've looked at her like my child, needing to be protected from this man, and she obviously has no interest in being protected from him. So what am I supposed to do? I don't want any part of this...this sickness. If she wants to ruin her life by spending it with some pedophile, she's more than welcome, but she's not going to do it living under my roof."  
  
With that, Lily turned and walked away. Grace looked at Rick with tears in her eyes and then headed for the front door. Eli was standing the kitchen.  
  
"You told," Grace said tearfully. "I hope you're happy. " She got into her car, and didn't know where to go. There was no way she was going to Dimitri's house, she wasn't about to get him in trouble by spending the night there. She couldn't go to Jenna or Hayley, they'd only pry. Dad? No way. Judy? No, Lily had probably called her by now. Grace just started driving, and ended up in the park. She locked her car, and laid down across the two front seats, and cried herself to sleep.  
  
* 


	4. Problem Solved?

Hey! Thanks so much for the reviews, please keep them coming! Here's another chapter for you to enjoy..I hope! =)  
The next morning when Grace sloughed into Mr. Dimitri's class ten minutes late, he and everyone else could tell that something had happened the night before. She looked plain awful. Her eyes were swollen and puffy, her hair was limp and messy, and her wrinkled clothes were the same heather gray tee shirt and khakis she'd worn yesterday.  
  
"Uh, Class, excuse me for a moment," Dimitri said, and took Grace into the hall, making sure that they were out of eyeshot from the small window in the door.  
  
"What's going on?" Dimitri demanded, putting his hands on Grace's shoulders. Grace heaved a sigh, and raked a hand through her tousled brown tresses. "My mom kicked me out," she said. Dimitri's jaw dropped slightly, and he closed his eyes, enduring what she'd just said. This was all his fault.  
  
"So...she knows, about us," he said softly. Grace's heart fluttered at the sound of that. Us. She nodded solemnly. Dimitri covered his mouth with his hand, thinking hard.  
  
"Don't worry, she's not going to call the school or anything. I don't think, anyway. But Eli knows about us too. He followed me to your house," Grace explained apologetically.  
  
"I'm not worried about that right now. I'm worried about you. Where did you go after your mom threw you out?" he asked earnestly.  
  
"I slept in my car at the park," Grace replied. "You did what?!" Dimitri hissed. "Grace, how could you be so foolish? Don't you know what happens to people who sleep in their cars?!" "Their clothes get wrinkled?"  
  
Dimitri's grave face split into a smirk at that remark. He tried to compose himself again.  
  
"You're not staying another night in you car. It's just not safe," he concluded sternly. "Well, I'm not going home!" Grace said indignantly. Dimitri didn't hesitate.  
  
"Then come stay with me," he said. Grace's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates.  
  
"What? No, no, uh-uh. You're not getting fired over this, there's no way I'm going to let you jeopardize your career," said Grace.  
  
"Well I'm not going to let you jeopardize your life, Grace!" he said.  
  
Grace's heart swelled with admiration, he actually cared.  
  
"Look, it'll be fine. Just park your car behind the garage and nobody will know the difference. You can go home after school and get your stuff while your mother is at work," Dimitri said. "And that's final. Now get in there and start your writer's journal," he concluded, opening the door. He narrowed his eyes at her from his desk for good measure.  
  
"I expect that you'll think twice, Miss Manning, before deciding to come in tardy and disrupt my class again," he said sternly.  
  
"Yes sir," Grace said smugly, rolling her eyes at her fellow classmates who giggled. They were way too good at this.  
  
Grace did as Dimitri had said and swung by her house to pack some things. She felt bad about Zoe, who didn't even realize what had happened last night (she'd been in bed when Grace had left), but she had her pride. As she zipped her backpack on her bed, she looked at a picture of her with her mother and scowled. She flipped it over, and satisfied, left home.  
  
As Grace was heading back towards Mr. Dimitri's place, she decided to stop at the store and get some things to make him dinner, as a thank you gesture. After all, he was inviting her into his home. Why shouldn't she do something nice for him?  
  
When Dimitri got home, he was greeted by the appetizing aroma of pasta. Grace was setting the table for two, and Dimitri couldn't help but smile. This was all he'd ever wanted, someone to come home to. And Grace was the only one he wanted to come home to. Who cared if she was seventeen? She was at the maturity level intellectually of someone twice her age.  
  
"Hey," Grace said, welcoming him with a smile. "What is all this?" Dimitri asked, returning the smile as he took off his jacket and sat down his briefcase. "Oh, it's nothing," Grace said modestly. "Spaghetti is the only thing I know how to make." "You didn't have to do this," Dimitri said graciously. "I know," Grace said. "I wanted to."  
  
Their eyes met and locked, and for the first time, neither looked away. After the two ate dinner together, they shared dish duty and graded papers before settling down to watch Third Watch. After the show, Grace went upstairs to take a shower.  
  
Following her shower, Grace wrapped herself in a towel and went into the guest room, where she was to stay. A copy of Chekov's On Love lay on the nightstand, and a single white rose accompanied it. She grinned happily, and jumped slightly at a knock at the door. 


	5. Somewhere Between A Dream and A Nightmar...

Hello! Once again, thank you thank you thank you for the reviews! You all are what keeps me writing, so if you want more, please review! This chapter is a little more suggestive than the others, though I tried to keep it clean. Oh, I'll just let you see for yourself! R and R!!!  
  
"Oh, it's you," Grace said quietly as Dimitri vigilantly opened the guest room door. Duh, she thought to herself, who were you expecting?!  
  
"Did you find everything all right?" Dimitri asked, forcing casualness. Grace bit her lip shyly and nodded. Dimitri had seemed not to have taken notice to the scrap of terry cloth that was the only thing standing between Grace and her birthday suit.  
  
An awkward pause fell between them, and they stood uncomfortably six feet from one another. In an attempt to break the silence, Dimitri spoke.  
  
"Uh, there's extra pillows in the closet up here, " he said, crossing the room. His pj'ed body brushed lightly against Grace's towel-clad figure as he approached the closet. He rummaged around on the top shelf, and Grace came up behind him.  
  
"Ah.., here they are," he said, presenting her with two clean white down pillows. He and Grace's eyes met in that captivating way once again, they burned the imprint of their irises onto one another.  
  
"Thank you," Grace said, a statement that was all too familiar, having been spoken in the kitchen downstairs nights before, concerning the book that adorned the night stand.  
  
"I didn't realize pillows were so important to you," Dimitri joked lightly, not taking his eyes from Grace's. "I'm not talking about the pillows," Grace said, and she dropped them as he took Grace's face in his hands, more forcefully this time, and kissed her.  
  
The next morning, Grace awoke to the scent of coffee. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, disoriented. Where am I? She thought. Then she caught a glimpse of the discarded towel that lay on the floor from the night before, and it all came rushing back to her, creating a dull ache between her eyes and a churning in her stomach. Had things really gone that far? It had to have been a dream, she thought to herself as she dressed.  
  
The uneasiness that met Grace at the foot of the stairs proved to her that it wasn't. She felt nervous as she came into the kitchen, trying to act natural.  
  
Dimitri was hunched over a stack of papers, sipping coffee. He avoided looking at Grace, and for the first time ever, she was glad. She didn't' know what to do, so she wandered over out of habit and opened the fridge, half expecting him to offer her some cheese.  
  
"Well, I'm going to be late," Dimitri said, rising and checking his watch for aesthetics. He shuffled the papers into his briefcase and put his hand on the doorknob, pausing.  
  
"See you in class," was all he said as he walked through the door. Grace never turned around, only stared blankly into the fridge until the tears blurred her vision. 


End file.

Once and Again, Angst, Romance