[FANFIC] The Very Last Episode II Ben/Rachel
Title; The Very Last Episode
Fandom; The OC/Real-Life
Couple; Ben McKenzie/Rachel Bilson, slight mentions of Ryan Atwood/Summer Roberts
Rating; R
Summary; Last part in my little Ben/Rachel trilogy!
Part I; The Alternative Episode Part II; The Next Episode
Part Three
The Very Last Episode
Rachel was pacing Ben’s apartment, she’d thrown on her clothes from the night before, her hair a tangled mess as she nibbled on her little finger. When Ben entered the living room with a cup of coffee for her, she looked up startled, as if she had forgotten she was in his apartment at all.
“I should have known!” She called out suddenly, Ben looked up, not knowing quite what to do or say. “We didn’t want anybody to know and now everybody knows and now its all a mess and…” She began to ramble as Ben took a few steps closer towards her, as soon as she felt his tough yet soft hands on her arms; she stopped and looked up at him. Swiftly, when she laid her eyes on his crooked grin everything just felt so much better.
Ben nodded his head towards his couch and slowly pulled her down to him, he cupped her face and she managed a soft smile.
“I know…this isn’t what we wanted but honestly, I don’t want to hide what we are!” Ben replied softly, just as Rachel was about to say something else, he pressed his middle finger to her lips. “I love you and to say I want to hide that is not okay!”
“But what about Adam? This could cause tension on set, Josh could get mad!” One small tear began to make its way down Rachel’s cheek and Ben hastily wiped it away, whilst the other hand still cupped her cheek.
“Adam will be okay. He’s our friend and he’ll happy for us!” Ben tried to sound confident for Rachel but inside he wasn’t so sure, he’d heard about Adam bad-mouthing Rachel offset from a few people but hadn’t quite wanted to believe it. “And as for Josh, well…” He paused and gave a great smirk. “I think he’s been waiting for us to get together for quite some time!” He winked and nudged her nose with his own and Rachel gave out a giggle, just the sound in his ears made him believe that everything would be okay.
After a few moments, her laughter died down and she looked at her fingers for a while before looking back up at Ben, she smiled softly, looking deeply into his eyes, Ben looked back, his eyes gleaming.
“What?” His voice was low as if he hadn’t really wanted to interrupt the silence but desperately needed to know what was wrong. Rachel shrugged before smiling.
“I love you.” Ben couldn’t help but let out a large grin, he always did when she said those words to him, they made him feel like they were just for him and that made him feel amazing.
“I love you too, always know that.” Silence was once again welcomed when the two of them met each other with their lips.
*****
When Rachel headed into the studio the next day, she was nervous as hell. Sure, the tabloid and the public loved when two people started dating off-set, the people on-set, not so much. They always looked so disapproving, as if to say why can’t you control yourself? They then assume that your going to be getting it on with the co-star every moment you can, which will apparently make their job much harder. Then there’s the rest of the cast, part of them will feel supportive, part of them will say it better not affect the work especially if you break up, always a cheerful reminder but for Rachel it was worse. There was Adam. Though she’d only dated Adam briefly, she still cared about what he thought, he had a tendency to ignore her and when he wasn’t ignoring her, he would say something sarcastic or even hurtful; she wasn’t looking forward to his reaction about her latest relationship status.
Peter and Autumn were the first people she saw, they were standing by the buffet table, Autumn sipping on some coffee and Peter about to bite into a bagel, he’d gotten so accustomed to them since playing Sandy for four years. He was always sneaking bites when they were done filming a scene featuring them. She was apprehensive at first, though she’d always gotten along with the cast, except for the occasional day with Adam, she wasn’t quite sure what they would think of her and this worried her.
She headed up to them, picking up a slice of toast along with her and a cup of coffee before saying her hello’s.
“No Ben in sight, eh?” Peter chuckled to himself as if he’d told a hilarious joke; Rachel blushed but was aware he was only teasing. “I thought maybe you two would be joined at the hip now your out of the closet, I admit, I had my suspicions.” Rachel raised her eyebrow and Autumn laughed, hushing him.
“We all were hoping we’d get a little, something-something from you two. I for one have been a Ryan/Summer fan since the pilot episode. I wanted Ryan to be Summer’s white knight.” They all laughed at the referencing to certain plotlines from the first season of the show. Peter nudged Rachel gently.
“Real happy for the both of you, keep him smiling.” Peter was a lot closer to Ben then Rachel and was always looking out for him, Rachel grinned and nodded.
“Me too! The Rymmer fans are probably going wild!” Autumn exclaimed, taking another sip of her coffee.
“Thanks guys, means a lot.” Rachel said before heading over to water fountain, next to it was a bench, which perched Adam, he was reading over his script with a furrowed brow. Rachel quickly grabbed a plastic cup so it looked like she had a purpose to be going over there, she placed her cup under the fountain waiting to see if Adam would speak, he scarcely glanced at her before commenting.
“One co-star to another then, huh?” Adam said, not particularly loud, he didn’t want to attract the attention of those around him, only Rachel. She looked over at him, the water was beginning to overspill her in her cup because she was staring at him, so confused. All of a sudden, there were splashes of water on the floor which finally caught her attention. She muttered ‘Shit’ beneath her breath whilst grabbing some paper towels. “Nice work, Rachel.” It was another of his sarcastic jabs.
“Excuse me?” Rachel asked, a hint of annoyance in her tone. Adam looked up, sighing as if her presence was irritating him.
“I was talking about your perfect ability of feeding the floor your water.” Rachel ignored the voice in her head that was ready to fight back. He glanced back at his script.
“No, before that. You said something about co-stars.” Adam threw his script on the empty space beside him, stood up, grabbing an empty cup and filling it himself with water, he took a sip.
“I was saying, it seems to be a trend for you lately.” Rachel looked at him quizzically, what the hell was he talking about? “Let me make it clearer.” He sneered. “You’re leeching from one co-star to another.” Neither of them noticed Peter and Kelly inching a tad closer towards them. “I mean, I suppose it’s one way to stay relevant on the show. Your characters a little stale and now that Summer’s over with Seth and Marissa’s dead - is there any need for little miss Summer Roberts?” Rachel stared at him, completely stunned.
“Are you actually suggesting that I’m only with Ben to stay on the show?” Rachel said with disgust. Peter looked at Kelly, who looked appalled. They weren’t supposed to be listening but Kelly noticed Adam’s venomous stare and was slightly concerned. Adam scoffed and shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, you didn’t stay with me for long. The public lost interest, maybe? Bottom line, your one of those Hollywood whores who jumps from one guy to another just to get her fifteen minutes extended.” Peter threw his - thankfully - empty glass on the floor, the glass shattering on the floor, gathering the attention of just about everyone in the room.
“Hey! That is completely inappropriate and uncalled for! Who the hell do you think you are talking to Rachel like that? You’ve got some nerve.” Peter looked furious and Kelly was worried when she saw him clench his fist, she feared for Adam’s face. She was just about to pull him back when Rachel interrupted.
“No, it’s fine Peter. I’m not with Ben for fifteen minutes Adam, I’m with him because my feelings are real.” She turned to go but quickly turned back, not caring who would hear her next comments. “And Adam, if for once in a lifetime, you managed to remove your head from your ass, then maybe you would have realised me and you didn’t last long because you’re a fucking bastard who holds no respect for women.” Rachel turned around and stormed off set into the ladies room, Autumn quickly following after her.
*****
Ben grabbed a cookie of the table that was covered in food, he was just preparing to shoot a scene about the aftermath of Ryan’s father returning, it was supposed to be stressful stuff. He admitted to himself that he was slightly gutted that Rachel had already left, he had wanted to see her just for a bit but they had no scenes together today, he would have to see her when he got home. He rubbed his eyes, they were stinging as hell at the moment and he couldn’t stop his damn sneezing! He hoped he wasn’t coming down with something. He saw Adam standing at the side, going over something in the script with Josh, he figured he needed to talk to Adam about Rachel, he just hoped Adam was going to be childish about the whole thing, as he could often be.
As he nibbled, he headed over to Peter, the scene was between Seth, Ryan and Sandy having a discussion about Ryan’s father. He nodded his head, Peter looked up from his script, grinned and put it down on the nearest table.
“How are you?” Ben shrugged. He was good. Better, life couldn’t be better for him. He was with someone amazing and now they didn’t have to hide it anymore! “I thought maybe you would call in sick or something, be at home with Rachel actually.” Ben looked confused. What?
“Why would I do that? I’d just see Rachel after work.” Peter nodded, silently wondering if he was about to cause trouble but he had a feeling it was too late now, Ben was only going to question him more.
“Well yeah…but I thought with everything that happened this morning with Adam and Rachel that you would be at home.”
“What happened this morning?” Oh yeah…he was definitely about to cause trouble. Peter cringed. Shit, how was he going to get out of this one?
“I thought maybe, Rachel might have told you. Ben, I don’t want to cause anything…”
“You’re not causing anything, Peter. What happened this morning?” He repeated his question, Peter sighed, he could see that whatever it was, Peter was regretting ever mentioning it.
“Well…” Peter waited, he just knew something bad was about to go down, Ben could be very protective of those he loved. “I don’t really know how it started, me and Kelly just overheard some things and then I intervened, telling him he was out of order.” Ben didn’t say anything, he just waited, he was getting anxious. Peter sighed but continued. “He was saying how Rachel was leeching from one co-star to another, anything to stay in the public eye or something. He erm…” Peter trailed of; this would definitely send him over the edge. “He also called her a whore.”
“What!?” Before Peter could figure out what was happening, Ben stormed over to where Josh and Adam were standing, Josh looked up to see a thunderous Ben heading their way.
“Ben-“ Ben ignored him and before Josh knew it, Ben’s hands were around Adam’s neck, shoving him up against a wall. He wasn’t a violent person by nature but Adam had crossed the line. People all around him were trying to fight him off but Ben ignored them, he was telling Adam to stay away, he was telling him to never dare talk to Rachel or about Rachel like that ever again.
*****
Ben picked up his phone and dialled Rachel’s number, he wasn’t exactly sure what her reaction was going to be when he told her, he knew she wouldn’t be ecstatic but he hoped that she wouldn’t be furious with him.
“Hello?” He couldn’t help but let out a small smile at just the sound of her voice.
“Hey.”
“Ben?” Her voice sounded muffled and he could hear her sniffing as though she’d just been crying, he now knew why. “Are you okay?” She sniffed again. He sighed with regret.
“I know about this morning.” There was a long silence between them.
“I wasn’t going to tell you. I knew you’d be mad…are you mad?” She asked.
“Yeah.” He told her bluntly. She wept a little louder. “Not at you!” Ben quickly added. “I mad at him! Jerk! I can’t- I just-I just called to tell you something and I’m hoping that you’re not going to be mad at me…”
“…okay?” Rachel waited, she was anxious yet scared to find out what Ben was about to tell her. Ben was just about to say something, when he sneezed. Damn sneezing! “You okay?”
“Yeah, I just think I might be coming down with something.” Ben groaned. Rachel nodded, forgetting that Ben couldn’t see her.
“Aw, poor you!” She cooed. “So…you were saying?”
“Yeah…Peter…was the one who told me and well I…I got mad. I was fucking pissed, I sort of…grabbed Adam by his throat-“ He heard Rachel gasp and he cringed, it was about to get worse. “…and I threw him up against a wall.”
“Ben! I can’t believe you did that…”
“I know! I’m sorry, I just…I got so angry with the way he spoke to you, you do not deserve that and I know you Rachel! I know you’ve been crying since because you think he’s right and that everyone’s going to believe it. Tell me I’m wrong?” Rachel didn’t say anything, she had been crying ever since. “Rach…?”
“I’ve got to go.” Rachel said after a few more moments of silence and hung up. Ben groaned and shut off his phone. Damn it!
*****
Ben was just sitting down to watch some television when he heard a slight knock on his door, it was pretty late and whilst he was wondering who it was, he let out another sneeze. He got up to open his door and was surprised to see Rachel standing there, holding a brown paper bag. He hadn’t spoken to her since their phone call, he’d been freaking out pretty much ever since. He couldn’t stop the smile.
“Hey…can I come in? I come bearing hot soup!” She held up her brown paper bag looking all cute-like. Ben chuckled and stepped aside.
“Of course.” Rachel stepped in, heading straight for the kitchen and grabbing a bowl for the soup. “Why did you bring soup?” Rachel picked up the bowl, grabbing a spoon, headed over towards Ben, lightly pushed him on the sofa, sitting next to him and gave him the bowl.
“You said you weren’t feeling well and I felt bad after the phone call, so I thought I’d bring you some.” She looked slightly worried, it suddenly hit Ben that maybe Rachel had been worrying just as much as he had. “I’m sorry I shut the phone of on you, whilst I can’t say that I’m happy you did what you did but I am thankful. You defended my honour and that meant a lot.” Ben leant over and placed a small kiss on her lips, she chuckled but playfully poked him. “But this does not mean, you are allowed to go all Ryan Atwood on my ass, punching people when you are not happy, got it?” Ben nodded, grinning, Rachel smirked. “Good. Now eat your soup.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Ben said taking a spoonful but not before pulling Rachel in for another kiss.
*****
Rachel stirred, she turned over and lay on Ben’s chest for a while, he had been sniffing the entire night but she couldn’t help but still want to hold him. She noticed him smiling which meant that he was awake.
“Good morning!” Ben said as he stirred and opened his eyes, though it took him a while. He sniffed, letting out a small sneeze.
“How are you feeling?” Rachel asked, Ben reminded himself that he needed to get ill more often, Rachel was just so darn cute when he was.
“Better.” They laughed, they both knew it was a lie. They were just looking at each other, whilst smiling, Rachel was just about to say something when she let out a sneeze. Ben laughed whilst Rachel just looked horrified. “Looks like someone isn’t leaving this room. We’ll just have to stay in bed…” Rachel giggled whilst grumbling. It was now Ben’s turn to be a cute boyfriend.
The End.