[Modern Family] Ch: 36 [Extensive Peer Review] (Patreon)

Jason had intended to tell Haley and Alex about Penny together.

That had been the plan from the moment he drove away from Penny's apartment on May 4. He didn't want to tell Haley first and leave Alex wondering what had been said behind her back, and he definitely didn't want Alex hearing it first and then spending the next several hours constructing a twelve-point argument about why his communication strategy was statistically terrible.

He wanted both of them sitting in the same room when he explained everything.

Unfortunately, finding the right moment turned out to be considerably harder than expected.

The problem started with Alex.

Two days after Jason's date with Penny, Alex showed up at his house carrying a backpack heavy enough to qualify as gym equipment and announced that she'd signed up for a debate tournament being held at Caltech in two weeks.

Jason had been sitting at his dining table checking rental applications for the fourth unit of his fourplex when she dropped an enormous folder beside his laptop.

He looked at the folder, then toward her. "Should I be worried that you brought enough paper to legally annex my dining room?"

Alex pulled out the chair beside him and opened the folder. "I need someone to practice against who won't collapse after the first rebuttal."

Jason slowly smiled because he already knew where the conversation was going. "And somehow you looked at me and thought, there's a man I'd enjoy arguing with for several hours."

Alex adjusted her glasses while returning his smile. "You've been surprisingly difficult to beat so far, and I need difficult."

Jason closed his laptop. "That's possibly the most romantic thing you've ever said to me."

Alex slid several pages toward him. "Read the topic before your ego becomes physically measurable."

The debate centered around whether the federal government should substantially increase investment and incentives for alternative energy development despite the ongoing recession. Alex had already gathered research on solar power, wind generation, nuclear energy, fossil-fuel dependence, employment effects, energy security, government spending, infrastructure costs, and environmental consequences.

Jason read through the first several pages while Alex watched him closely.

Then he started poking holes in her argument.

That was how the next two weeks disappeared.

...

Most afternoons, Alex arrived shortly after school and found Jason waiting with printed articles, handwritten notes, or another angle he wanted her to defend against.

Sometimes he took the opposing position even when he agreed with her simply because it forced her to think faster.

One afternoon, Alex stood beside the dining table while Jason leaned against the kitchen counter with his arms folded.

"If you're claiming large-scale renewable subsidies will create enough employment to justify the expense during a recession, you can't simply count every job created and ignore opportunity cost," Jason said as he gestured toward her notes. "Money used there can't simultaneously be used somewhere else, so explain why this particular investment produces a better long-term return."

Alex immediately answered while pacing beside the table. "Because energy infrastructure creates benefits extending beyond the initial employment numbers. Reduced dependence on imported fuel affects trade exposure and national security, while technological investment can lower future generation costs and establish industries that remain productive after the recession ends."

Jason shook his head slightly. "You're assuming those technologies become competitive quickly enough to justify government intervention. What happens if taxpayers spend billions supporting companies that never become economically viable?"

Alex turned toward him without hesitation. "Then the problem is poor implementation rather than the underlying policy. Government investment already supports industries where private capital won't tolerate long development periods, including aerospace, medicine, transportation, and defense research."

Jason pointed toward her immediately. "Good answer, but don't say 'poor implementation' without defining what proper implementation looks like because a decent opponent will jump on that opening."

Alex stopped pacing.

Her eyes moved over him for several seconds.

Jason noticed the look. "What?"

Alex slowly placed her pen on the table. "You know what's really irritating?"

Jason smiled. "There's an extensive list, so you'll need to narrow it down."

Alex walked toward him. "You keep doing that."

"Doing what?"

"Making a good argument, forcing me to rethink mine, and then immediately pointing out how I can make mine stronger."

Jason's smile widened. "That's generally how practice works."

Alex stopped directly in front of him and looked up through her glasses. "It's extremely annoying."

Jason leaned slightly closer. "You don't look annoyed."

Alex grabbed the front of his shirt and kissed him before he could continue.

Jason's hands settled around her waist as she pushed him backward against the counter, and whatever argument they'd been having disappeared almost instantly. Their first few kisses were slow, though Alex's competitive energy hadn't exactly vanished just because the debate had stopped.

She kissed him harder, one hand sliding behind his neck while Jason pulled her closer against him. He tilted his head and caught her mouth again, letting the kiss stretch until both of them needed to pull apart for a breath.

Alex kept her forehead against his while smiling.

Jason looked at her flushed face. "I assume that means I won the argument."

Alex immediately kissed him again before pulling back with an amused expression. "That means you should stop talking before I change my mind."

Jason smiled against her lips. "That's still technically a victory."

The second makeout session lasted considerably longer than the first.

By the time Alex finally stepped away from him, her glasses had shifted slightly, Jason's shirt collar was crooked, and neither of them remembered where the conversation about opportunity cost had originally ended.

Alex fixed her glasses and glanced toward the abandoned notes.

"We're going back to work."

Jason straightened his shirt. "Absolutely, because clearly we're both extremely disciplined people."

Alex picked up her pen while trying to hide her smile. "Five-minute break."

Jason checked the clock. "That was closer to twenty."

Alex looked at him. "Then stop keeping records."

...

That pattern became dangerously consistent.

They'd practice for two or three hours, sometimes longer, going through opening statements, cross-examinations, evidence challenges, counterarguments, and rapid-fire questions. Jason would deliberately twist the argument or introduce another statistic, and Alex would become increasingly determined to destroy whatever position he'd chosen.

The more difficult Jason made things, the more Alex enjoyed herself.

Unfortunately for both their productivity and Jason's ability to maintain personal space, Alex also seemed to find arguing with him increasingly attractive.

One evening, Jason spent nearly fifteen minutes attacking her position on nuclear energy until Alex finally trapped him with his own earlier argument about long-term infrastructure investment.

Jason stared at her for several seconds after realizing what she'd done.

Alex slowly smiled. "You just contradicted your own standard."

Jason pointed toward her. "I was testing whether you'd catch it."

"You absolutely weren't."

"I absolutely was."

Alex walked around the table. "You were losing."

Jason remained seated while watching her approach. "That's a very serious accusation."

Alex stopped between his knees. "Do you have a rebuttal?"

Jason reached up, caught her gently around the waist, and pulled her slightly closer. "I've got several."

Alex smiled as she leaned toward him. "Then present your evidence."

Jason kissed her.

The rebuttal apparently required extensive peer review.

...

Haley occasionally arrived near the end of those practice sessions.

The first time, she walked into Jason's living room and found Alex sitting beside him on the couch with several debate pages scattered across the coffee table. Alex's hair was slightly messy, Jason's lips looked suspiciously red, and both of them suddenly became far too interested in discussing energy policy.

Haley stopped near the couch and slowly looked between them.

"You guys were making out again."

Alex adjusted one of the pages. "We were practicing."

Haley stared at her sister. "Did the debate suddenly become mouth-based?"

Jason covered a laugh with his hand while Alex gave Haley an unimpressed look.

Haley pointed toward Jason. "And you're terrible at looking innocent."

Jason nodded. "That's fair criticism."

Haley dropped onto the armchair and looked at the pages covering the table. "How much longer are you two doing nerd Olympics?"

Alex glanced toward the clock. "We're basically finished for today."

Haley immediately looked toward Jason. "Good, because I'm stealing him."

Jason raised his eyebrows. "Do I get consulted during this kidnapping?"

Haley smiled as she stood again. "Nope. Get your shoes."

Alex looked toward her sister. "Where are you going?"

Haley picked up Jason's car keys from the table before he could reach them. "Ice cream, maybe a drive, maybe somewhere else if we see something interesting."

Jason stood and gently took the keys from her hand. "You're dangerously comfortable stealing expensive objects."

Haley smiled. "You like me anyway."

Jason leaned over and kissed her cheek. "Unfortunately, that's becoming increasingly obvious."

Alex watched them with the smallest hint of jealousy before deliberately returning her attention toward her notes.

Jason noticed.

Before leaving, he stepped around the table, leaned down, and kissed Alex gently.

"We're continuing tomorrow, and I'm bringing three new arguments that'll make you hate me."

Alex's competitive smile returned immediately. "Good. I've already got two ways to destroy your current position."

Haley watched them from near the door. "You two flirt like people trying to get expelled from a library."

Alex looked toward her sister. "At least we have conversations before kissing."

Haley's eyebrows rose. "Oh, we're competing again?"

Jason immediately stepped between them with both palms raised. "The scoreboard is dead, remember?"

Haley pointed toward Alex while walking backward toward the door. "Tell Professor Makeout over there to stop starting things."

Alex calmly picked up her notes. "Have fun eating ice cream while discussing absolutely nothing."

Haley smiled sweetly. "We will."

Jason looked between them and sighed. "This arrangement is going wonderfully."

...

Haley's visits gave Jason a break from debate preparation.

Sometimes they went for ice cream. Sometimes they drove around Los Angeles with music playing and nowhere important to be. One evening they grabbed burgers and fries before sitting on the hood of the Nissan at an overlook while Haley complained about a woman at a clothing store who had claimed orange wasn't her color.

Jason listened with the seriousness of someone receiving national-security intelligence.

"She said orange washes me out," Haley complained while stealing another fry from his carton. "Orange does not wash me out."

Jason looked her over carefully. "I haven't seen you wearing orange."

Haley pointed the stolen fry toward him. "That's because she damaged my relationship with orange."

Jason nodded slowly. "Tragic."

"It was."

Jason reached over and stole the fry back before she could eat it. "We'll rebuild."

Haley stared at his empty fingers after he ate it. "You stole my fry."

He held it between his lips and looked into her eyes. She wrapped her arms around his neck and began kissing and eating the fry.

Those small dates were easy.

They talked about random things, teased each other, kissed when the moment felt right, and generally avoided discussing anything remotely complicated.

Which created another problem.

Jason kept waiting for a moment when both sisters were together, relaxed, and nowhere near Alex's debate preparation.

That moment never appeared.

Every time Haley and Alex were together at Jason's house, Alex was thinking about the tournament. Every time Alex finished practicing, Haley either wasn't there or showed up ready to drag Jason somewhere.

Jason nearly told them several times, but he stopped himself each time. He hated delaying the conversation because Alex's tournament mattered. She'd been preparing obsessively for two weeks, and Jason knew exactly what would happen if he suddenly announced that he'd met Penny, taken her on a date, and wanted to keep seeing her.

Alex would say she could handle it.

Then she'd spend the next two days analyzing every possible implication instead of focusing completely on Caltech.

Jason wasn't going to do that to her.

So he made a decision.

'After the tournament.'

The tournament would end, they'd sit down somewhere private, and Jason would explain everything about Penny before asking whether they were comfortable with him seeing her again.

Until then, Penny could wait a little longer.

Alex had worked too hard for Jason to throw an emotional grenade into the middle of her preparation.

...

[1 Day before the tournament]

Jason and Alex were doing final prep. He went to the kitchen to get some juice boxes, and when he returned to the bedroom, he stopped. His heart was hammering like a jackhammer, and his eyes were stuck on Alex... Naked Alex. 

She was lying naked on her tummy, looking straight at him with a cute smile. And she had her glasses on. --😬😬 Cliff. Next one coming soon, maybe in a few hrs.