Road to Nowhere

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Sidenote: Takes place a year after the show ended off things.

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Ice-age heat wave, can't complain
If the world's at large, why should I remain?

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Chippewa is a little suburban town in the middle of nowhere. Well, maybe it isn’t exactly in the middle of nowhere (it’s actually right smack in the middle of Detroit, Michigan) but no one actually cares enough to pay attention to that minor detail.

Or at least she doesn’t.

Lindsay Weir knows pretty well what’s expected of her here in this quaint, practically backwards, and far too robotically religious, conservative community she’s been raised in for her entire life.

She’s supposed to attend high school (McKinley High School), be a mathlete and honor student for all four years, and make her parents proud by attending the University of Michigan with Millie, her childhood best friend. Millie who is the only reasonable choice as maid of honor at her wedding in her family’s church and who will also be godmother to the two kids she’ll be having with the nice young (Christian) boy she marries right after college.

She’s supposed to work at the local bank as an accountant or something (because it would be a crime for her to waste her gift in mathematics) until she gets pregnant; that’s when she’ll promptly hand in her resignation because anyone who wants to raise their kids well (code for steering them away from treading down the wrong path, full of premarital kissing, sex and booze with the burned-out ‘freaks’ behind the high school bleachers) has to make sure they can be a mother twenty-four-seven.

There’s a plan. There always is a plan for girls like her.

She wonders where her mother went wrong with her plan, because she can’t seem to find any flaw in her actions. These plans have been passed down generation after generation (they’re practically tradition, an unwritten code of law) yet here she is, in a car officially leaving the outskirts of Detroit in about two minutes, as indicated by the sign they just passed, to go on some kind of road trip with a boy everyone’s already written off as ‘bad news’ because he’s flunked the sixth and ninth grade each respectively and probably lost his virginity to a junior even before he actually set foot into the high school.

She’ll never be the marrying type from here on out. There’s no hope, no going back now and she can already distantly hear Millie’s disapproving words in her ears, mumbling in disappointment and embarrassment on her behalf. “Oh Lindsay. What are you doing with yourself? Why are you throwing your future away for a boy?”

Oh, Lindsay.

Where are you going?

-

“Where are we going?”

They’re going nowhere fast and she doesn’t want to think about it, but it’s like a bad habit she can’t let go of. It’s been built into her system since she was little. Her dad used to call it a sign of intelligence. Ken used to call it a sign of being annoying.

She keeps her eyes trained out the window at the passing lanes and cars. Curiosity always seems to get the best of her.

She’s pretty sure he’s not looking at her, keeping his attention focused on the road ahead instead, and something inside her tells her to push it further but she tries to ignore the need to know what’s happening – to be in control.

A few more minutes go by and the silence finally gets to her. She fiddles with the buttons of her army jacket and starts tapping her fingers on her legs restlessly.

“Daniel?” She tries again. He turns around this time, his eyes dark and stormy and she’s taken aback a little by their intensity.

“Yeah?”

“Where are we going?” She repeats a little more quietly this time. He stares at her distractedly, his eyes studying her face, searching for something, she don’t know what.

“Do you trust me?” He answers her question with a question and his voice always sounds so heavy, like he's drugged up or something.

She hesitates. She thinks about how the others would answer his question. If she was Ken, she would have asked him if he was drunk or high. If she was Kim, she’d laugh in his face and tell him he was the last person on her list for trusting (even if he was mostly likely the first). But she’s Lindsay and no matter how many times he manipulates her or breaks her heart and doesn’t notice (or doesn’t care to notice) she can’t say no to him.

“Yes.” She replies almost inaudibly but truthfully, and he nods his head slowly, turning back around; she can’t helping thinking this could be easy, so much less complicated if he saw her the way she sees him.

They drive in silence. She’s starting to like the sound of the wheels against the road anyways.

-

She wakes up with a jolt, or maybe it’s the skid of the car coming to a halt and she realizes they’re in some gas station. She rubs her forehead, checking for any bruise or bump that she might have gotten from the direct collision she’s just had with the side of the passenger door.

He leans close to her, lightly touching her forehead checking for any injury too and she shivers at his touch, but he doesn’t seem to notice.

“Sorry about that. Gotta be more careful next time.” He mumbles in his usual low, smooth voice and she can’t seem to do anything but slowly nod her head as a sign of accepting his apology.

“Why are we here?”

He looks away for a second. “Need to get gas and maybe some food”, he stops, thinking over something, before finishing off with his afterthought, “–and some beer.”

“If you’re drinking, I’m driving.” She says without thinking and he stares at her with his “are you kidding” expression.

“It’s beer. I won’t get drunk off my ass. And have you seen the way you drive by the way? Hell no, I’m not letting you get into the driver’s seat.”

“You and just about everyone else were distracting me! That’s why I hit the other car.” She speaks up, slightly irritated. She isn’t half as bad as he makes her out to be.

He grins, “All the more reason why you’re not driving. You're not a 'safe and responsible driver', at least in Millie's book," he clucks his tongue in mock disappointment, "Face it: you’re scatter-brained in front of the wheel.”

“Am not.” She mutters, folding her arms in front of her chest.

“Yeah sure whatever you say. I’m getting out, you want anything?” He always loses interest so fast.

“Yeah, actually I do. I want to know, where exactly we are.”

He looks at her for a second, eyes sharp and shining with some sort of challenge. “Does it really matter?”

“Yes, Daniel. It kind of does. This could be considered kidnap, if you take me somewhere against my will.” She uses a stern voice to get on his nerves.

He blinks for a few seconds, the sleepiness in his eyes even heavier than usual as he tilts his head and gives her a cocky grin. “Last time I checked, you got into the car without one sign of protest.”

“Yeah well now I’m starting to reconsider it.” She retorts, trying to keep a poker face on the best she can.

A second passes by.

He stares at her, eyes big and flashing, like lightening. “Fine. Everywhere. Nowhere. A gas station.”

She doesn’t back down. “Yeah? That’s just great. And where exactly are we going then?”

“It’s not about the destination, princess. It’s about the journey. Ever think about that.” He stresses the syllables, closing his eyes in the middle, and rubbing the sides of his temple, before opening his eyes again and looking at her like she of all people should understand that.

She blinks at him for a couple of seconds and he quirks his head to the side, a smile sneaking up on his face as he bats his eyelashes as well. Two can play the game.

She breaks out into a smile of defeat, shaking her head lightly, and she feels tired suddenly. “No, I guess I didn't Daniel. Thank you for enlightening me about that. You can go get whatever you need now. I’m going back to sleep.” She brings her legs up to her just so she can wrap her arms around them and turn away from him.

He shrugs, already getting out of the car, well-aware he’s won this time around.

She leans her head against the window again, trying to let the coolness of it spread over her skin, when she feels a tap on the glass. She opens her eyes to see him bent down, and peering in, mouthing for her to slide the window down. She does quickly, waiting for him to say something.

“Hey we’re cool, right?” He asks softly.

She smiles. “Yeah, of course we are.” She yawns a little, and she’s never felt this drowsy before.

The trademark half-smile of his tugs on the right corner of his mouth. “Alright.”

She feels her eyes closing as he starts walking towards the drug store next to the gas pumps.

-

“Did Kim and you break up again?”

He doesn’t respond, but she sees how his hold on the steering wheel becomes tighter.

“Daniel?”

“Yeah, we did.” He finally replies curtly.

They relapse into silence.

It takes her a second to regain her groundings and speak up again. “Did you guys fight again?”

“Guess you could call it that.” He says vaguely.

She keeps trying. “Did she dump you again?”

“No, I broke up with her.”

She gives him a funny, morose look. “Yeah, I’m sure you did, Daniel.”

He turns to her for a second, an honest look in his distant eyes. “No seriously. I did.”

She pauses trying to think about what that exactly means, if that should mean anything at all, before hesitantly asking, “Why?”

“Why what.” He’s pretending to be clueless and she really is getting sick of it.

She sighs, giving him a sallow look, “Why did you break up with her?”

He turns onto some lane and for a second she gets distracted, narrowing her eyes to read the name of the road they’re on now. She snaps back into reality as his voice breaks through the silence. “Because stuff happened.”

She looks at him curiously. “Stuff?”

He briefly nods his head, like she should get it, or just leave it at that if she doesn't. “Yeah. Stuff.”

She nods her head neutrally. “I see.”

“Glad you do.” His voice is a little gruffer, with a hint of pointedness and it’s obvious he wants to stop talking about Kim and the break up, but she can’t just let it end on that note.

“I’m sure when you call her, she’ll want to make up and you guys will get back together.” She says, trying to sound supportive or encouraging or whatever she should sound like as his friend.

He turns his head towards her, and raises his eyebrow, his eyes heavy-lidded and it occurs to her for the millionth time that it’s just wrong for someone to look this good. She tries to not let it get to her though.

“No. Not this time.” He mutters, turning his head back towards the road.

She forces another smile. “What are you talking about? You always do.”

He sighs, running his hand through his golden-brown hair, making strands of it stand up in all different directions even more than usual. (She doesn’t get how he makes the ‘slob’ look work either to be honest.)

“Forget it.”

“What? No. Daniel, what happened?”

He drums his hands exasperatedly on the steering wheel as they wait for the red light to turn green, and all of a sudden she realizes she’s pissing him off, making her promptly shuther mouth as he starts talking again.

“Jesus, Lindsay, if I knew you’d be interrogating me the entire time we were on the road, maybe I wouldn’t have asked you to come along.”

Something in her fires up all of a sudden and she can’t keep her mouth closed. “Oh, I’m sorry Daniel. Forgive me for trying to strike up a normal conversation with a supposed friend of mine on a ride where there's only two people actually in the car.”

“This isn’t a normal conversation.” He snaps heatedly.

“Well, what do you want to talk about then?” She says in a bored voice, “Because nothing I seem to be saying seems to interest you the slightest or be appropriate either.”

“What did Mr. Kowchevski say to you that one time when I wanted you to help me cheat on that math test, and you tried to convince him to give me an extension instead?” He asks suddenly.

“What?” He catches her off-guard with the change of topic.

“You heard me.” He doesn’t miss a beat.

“Why do you want to know all of a sudden?” She asks defensively.

“I guess I always wondered what he must have said to you that could have gotten you convinced to help me cheat.”

“He said you were a loser and if I hung out with you, you’d only bring me down.” She admits acidly, wanting him to feel the burn after his verbal lash-out on her from a few minutes ago.

He doesn’t seem affected. “Yeah? What else.”

She bites her bottom lip, looking out the window. “I don’t know.”

“Don’t lie.” He says breezily.

“I’m not.” She tries to defend herself, but it only comes out like a horrible lie.

“I can see right through you, princess. Just like you know all that math stuff inside and out, I know all this lying stuff inside and out.”

“Whatever. I don’t remember, okay?” She folds her arms in front of her and tries to edge away from him, hoping he’ll give up and leave her alone.

He doesn’t.

“Stop bullshitting with me, Lindsay. Just tell me and stop making such a big deal out of it.”

“Fine.” She mutters.

A few more minutes pass by between them.

“I’m waiting.”

She sighs, exhausted. “He told me not to let my hormones get the best of me, just because you were ‘cute with your bedroom eyes and stringy hair’ or whatever.”

There’s a second of silence and then he starts laughing, breaking the stifling tension of the post-confession. “Wow. That’s just something. My bedroom eyes are cute.”

She rolls her eyes, shaking her head and twiddling with the ends of her jacket.

“So do you think I’m cute with my bedroom eyes and stringy hair?” He nudges her shoulder.

She looks up at him quickly, to see his eyes laughing at her, twinkling with mischief.

She snorts. “You wish you had bedroom eyes…” She mumbles the last part, and it comes out weak despite how much she tries to act tough and collected.

Damnit.

He looks over at her, that stupid smirk still on his face. “Aw come on, princess, you know you want me.”

She shoots him a look of dagger and cold disdain.

He pouts, his lips together, still unfazed, “You want to run your hands through my stringy hair..”

“No. Daniel, I really don’t.” She gives him a warning look.

“Oh okay, if it makes you feel better, then we'll just go with that."

“Shut. Up. Daniel.” She rolls her eyes, before hitting the side of his head. The car swerves momentarily.

“Jesus Lindsay! Don’t do stuff like that while I’m driving. You want your parents to find you dead in a car accident in the middle of nowhere?”

He’s still laughing though, and he’s clearly having more fun with this than he should be. She glares at him sardonically, before smiling sweetly. “As long as I have you by my side as I die, it shouldn’t matter, should it Daniel?”

“Witty.” He remarks coolly, sobering up fast.

“I know. I’m such a babe with my intelligence and all.” She responds dispassionately.

His eyes drift down her brown hair, taking in her brown eyes, pink lips and pale complexion. “Yeah, you are.” He murmurs in a low and mysterious voice, his eyes deep and heated and all of a sudden it feels way too hot in his sorry excuse for a car, and she’s more uncomfortable under his gaze than she should be at this stage of their friendship.

She looks away, trying to hide how much he flusters her when he gets under her skin like this, so she attempts to smile allusively and continue playing along instead. “You don’t meet a lot of girls like me, do you?”

“None. I guess that makes you special.” He’s still staring at her with a penetrating gaze and she wants him to start smiling again so bad, just so they can at least pretend this is a little game they play all the time.

“Yeah, well I don’t meet a lot of boys like you from where I come from either, so I guess you’re special too.” She still has a smile plastered on her face, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep it there, with all the trouble she’s having with taking breathes and all.

“And where do I come from exactly?”

She gives him a side glance. “You know – girls’ windows after three in the morning before the parents wake up, behind the bleachers at school, the list goes on .”

“I comes from all those places?”

“Yeah.” She inhales, and then exhales. “My parents would hate you.”

He nods his head, signaling she’s got a point. “They already do, especially now that I’ve 'abducted' you, in their eyes at least. It doesn’t matter. We could be like…Romeo and Juliet.”

She breaks out into a fit of laughter. “Romeo and Juliet? They come from rival, rich families, Daniel. And you do know they end up killing themselves at the end of the play because they’re love just isn’t enough to conquer the feud between their families, right?”

He shrugs, clearly unmoved. “Same thing. They’re full of crap anyway. We can be Daniel and Lindsay instead. No dying, just cruising along, living our lives, being epic. How about it?”

He finally cracks a charmingly lazy smile, the curve of the right side of his mouth forming the familiar lines and creases on his skin that she knows so well by now. Her pulse quickens for a second, despite how much she tries to subdue it.

“I love it.” She replies honestly, giving him a small and calming smile, just as she feels his hand cover hers, his fingers kneading through hers.

She looks down at their hands then back up, but his expression hasn’t changed and he shows no sign of talking about his sudden gesture towards her. She thinks a part of her doesn’t really want to find out anyway.

"So it's me and you from here on out?" She asks nonchalantly, and he stares at her with brooding eyes that seem to look right into her soul, or right into the darkness where it should be at least.

They stop at a traffic light in front of them, waiting for it to turn green.

"Guess so, kid."

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A/N: Because Freaks and Geeks was one of the best coming of age TV shows, hands down and everyone knows Daniel and Lindsay would have ended up together had the show not been cancelled prematurely. It doesn't seem like a lot of people write about this show, but I had to get this out of my system. I don't know if I'll continue, but if I do there will be more insight on the backstory, development, etc. Btw, I’ve never had so much trouble trying to keep characters in character. I gave up trying somewhere in the middle.