Title: Bad Moviethon

Author: [email protected]

Rating: PG

Archive: Sure, if you really want a ficlet, go ahead, just credit.

Disclaimer: I don't own Joan or any of the characters. They belong to CBS and Barbara Hall and I'm nothing but envious.

Crossposted: my journal, arcadian_tales and joanofarcadia livejournal communities. Summary: This is a ficlet I wrote for someone and I've decided to share it. She asked for a "."...a JOA fic where Grace, Joan, and Adam are hanging out.".

"You're hogging the blanket!" Joan shrieked as she felt her body temperature dip to hypothermic levels. She pulled at the fabric and as she watched her brother, Luke, wrap himself up even tighter in the afghan that their grandmother had made ("all warmth, no taste," as Kevin had once said about the orange and yellow eyesore), she whined, "Share, dork! Share!"

"Because I'm so moved to open my heart and blanket to you when you refer to me like that," he countered, not removing his eyes from the television.

"Your blanket? Grandmom doesn't even like you."

Luke rolled his eyes and admitted, "She never has forgiven me for accidentally blowing up her dark room."

Joan giggled at the memory. She could picture her brother hurrying up the stairs with a wide-eyed, frenzied look, waving his arms haplessly for everyone to exit. He kept screaming something about "too much nitrogen" and "get out now." In retrospect, it was much funnier-despite the fact that her mother managed to mortify her in front of two hot firemen-than it was at the time. Then again, most things usually were.

The sounds of the doorbell stopped Luke from surely making some insult and he threw the blanket off and ran for the door. Joan grumbled as she tried to untangle herself and draped the afghan over her shoulders, popping a bite of popcorn into her mouth and settling back against the sofa.

Luke appeared with a strange look on his face and said, "You didn't tell me that people were joining us for our annual bad-moviethon."

"You always know how to make a girl swoon, don't you, Girardi?" Grace said, brushing past him and settling down on the floor in front of the sofa. She pulled a few videos out of her bag and said, "The night wouldn't be complete without a viewing of From Justin to Kelly." Off the looks on both Joan and Luke's faces, she added, "For mocking purposes only, I assure you."

Joan laughed and said, "First, I find out you're actually the sweet daughter of a rabbi-"

"I'll get you for that, Girardi--"

"-And now you're sharing your strange devotion to American Idol with us."

"What devotion? There is no devotion."

Luke and Joan exchanged looks and Joan chuckled. Grace glared at the two of them. "That's it," Grace replied. She stood up and went on, "I'm outta here."

Luke placed his hand on her arm for a moment to try to...what he didn't know--calm her? Stop her from leaving?...and he wasn't fully cognizant of even doing it. Grace's eyes slid down to the spot and Luke pulled away, suddenly aware of what he had done. She rolled her eyes and said, "I thought you Girardi's said 'bad moviethon' so naturally, I found the very worst their was."

"I was kidding, Grace," Joan replied.

"Whatever."

"Does that mean you're staying?" Joan asked. She motioned to all the junk food laid out on the coffee table and said, "Because I spent most of my paycheck on chips and dip."

Grace sat back down and glimpsed over a stack of videos already set aside. She picked up one and said, "You were giving me a hard time when you were planning to force Titanic on me?"

"Who put that there?" Joan questioned, jumping out of her seat. She grabbed the video from Grace and pointed it in her brother's direction, "This is not a bad movie."

"Yes, it is."

"I'm with your brother on that."

Joan groaned and reiterated, "It's not bad. It's-"

"Like we can count on you to offer an unbiased opinion," Luke interrupted. He focused on Grace and said, "She was in love with Leonardo DiCaprio and she used to make dreamy sighs at the screen," Luke finished. He raised his hands to his cheeks and raised his voice, "Oh Jack! I love you, Jack! You go, I go. You go, I go."

Grace snickered and Joan threw the movie at her brother, "That's not true! What I was going to say is that it marks a time in my life-"

"One you should probably forget, Girardi," Grace offered.

Joan ignored her, "-A time when I was younger and was focused more on hot guys than living my life."

"You're still focused on hot guys," Luke responded.

"Yes, but I also make time for others."

Again with the snickering, this time from both her brother and Grace. The doorbell rang and Joan stomped past the two of them. She said, "Finally, someone who'll be on my side."

Grace rolled her eyes and she called out, "If you and Rove are planning an encore of the science fair, I'm going to vomit." She stared at Luke and asked, "Did she really have a thing for Leonardo DiCaprio?"

"I'm afraid so."

Grace shuddered and said, "You think you know someone..."

"Hey," Adam said, hands in his pockets, head ducked down, per usual. He fell back onto the sofa and leaned across Joan when she sat down next to him. He picked up the remote and said, "How does this work?"

"It's a remote, moron," Grace replied.

"Not the-this movie thing."

"Well, there are no real rules to the evening except that mocking is a must," Joan stated.

Luke shoved a movie into the VCR and added, "Yes, and the more biting, the better. I mean, it's quite easy to make the every day joke at a Jim Carey movie, but it takes intelligence to truly critique the works of Tom Cruise."

"Says who?" Adam questioned.

Joan nudged her brother and answered, "Well, it does for Luke. He harbors a secret crush on the man."

Luke knocked his sister's feet off the table and threw a chip at her as he sat down in the opposite chair. He ignored everyone's groans when the opening credits started.

"Hey dork? It's not a bad movie if the one who chose it has seen it twenty- five times," Joan commented.

"I never figured you for a Trekkie," Grace added.

"Just watch the movie," Luke demanded.

"Trek-a-what?"

Joan patted Adam's leg, "Nevermind."

{/end}