Fandom-All My Children- Things Invisible to the Naked Eye-PG
Title: Things Invisible to the Naked Eye
Pairing: David/Greenlee, Kendall/Greenlee
Fandom: All My Children
Prompt: 07-igloo
Summary: David and Greenlee have a marriage of convenience he wishes was more. He wonders about Greenlee and Kendall’s relationship and discovers things even they are not aware of.
Word Count: 3,921
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing related to All My Children.
*****
David could always tell when Greenlee was restless.
She’d get this far off look in her eyes, stuck in a daydream or a memory .He’d asked her about it once or twice, but she’d give him a vague and polite reply and change the subject.
He knew better than to push his wife, so he let it go.
They were friends. That was their deal when they got married. She was to help him get back at the town that had banished him, and he was to help her get back at the people she felt betrayed her.
He’d resisted at first, but then came to realize it would be good for both of them, and a lot of fun as well.
And they had been having fun. Getting closer and getting revenge-setting the town on fire as they liked to stay.
But sometimes he’d catch Greenlee with that faraway look in her eyes, and a wistful expression on her face, and he knew there was something missing.
At first he thought it was Ryan, the moron who had so quickly forgotten about her to “jump into bed with her best friend”. Followed by being “down on the floor with her worst enemy”, as she so eloquently put it.
Then he saw the expression on her face when she saw Ryan and Madison together and David knew that her sadness had nothing to do with Ryan.
Greenlee was over him.
Then two things happened that cleared up the mystery for him.
****
He’d gone to Fusion to surprise her when she was working late one night. Taking the side elevator so she wouldn’t see him, David had watched as Greenlee sat back in her chair, that same wistful look in her eyes and a sad smile on her lips.
She was looking at pictures of some past campaigns that she and Kendall had worked on.
All the photos were of the two of them.
“You miss her, don’t you?” he asked, softly.
Greenlee looked up, annoyed at being caught in a vulnerable moment.
“Miss her? That backstabbing, faithless former friend of mine? Ha!”
David smiled. He knew Greenlee well enough to know the difference between when she was “protesting too much” and when she really hated someone.
“What? Why are you smiling?”
“Because you know you don’t hate her. What’s more, you DO miss her! Why don’t you call her? I’m sure she has no idea you’re even alive!” David said.
“You’re right. Knowing Erica she would rather die herself than let Kendall know about me being alive. Then she might have to deal with her daughter’s wrath at how she tried to force me out of the company.” Greenlee sighed. “Or, more likely she’d probably just take Erica’s side.”
“Why would she do that? She loved you Greenlee.”
“Please! If she loved me she’d never have slept with Ryan-again.”
“She thought you were dead, Greenlee,” David reminded her.
“I don’t care! What does that have to do with it? You think I’m dead for all of two seconds and you have to sleep with my fiancé? Who does that? Why do that?” Greenlee’s eyes filled with tears for a moment, which she brushed aside impatiently.
“Maybe she wanted to feel closer to you,” David suggested.
“What? How would sleeping with someone I slept with make her closer to me? “
“I-“David didn’t say what he really felt. That Kendall’s feelings for Greenlee were always more like those of a lover than those of a friend. Sleeping with Ryan and being close to him might have seemed like the closest thing to being with Greenlee.
Instead he said, “Maybe because she and Ryan both loved you?”
“Oh, so they had to sleep together? Why didn’t ‘t they just uncork a bottle of champagne and dance around my grave?”
David shook his head and smiled. There was no use talking about things when Greenlee was feeling this way. She tended to see things one way when she was hurt.
So he opened up his arms and she came to him and wrapped hers around his shoulders.
He could feel her tears against his neck and hugged her tighter.
***
The second time was the evening a package arrived for Greenlee.
“What is this? “ She wondered, as she examined it for a return address or postmark. Not finding anything, she opened it and was stunned when paper with a familiar handwriting flew out of the envelope.
She picked it up and started to read it
Dear Greenlee,
I know you hate me at the moment. Mother told me. I’m so sorry about what happened with Ryan. I just needed to feel close to you and that was the only way I could think to do it.
I’m also my mother gave you such a hard time about Fusion. I told her to step off and let you handle things until I get back and we can resume handling them together
And I will be coming back.
Alone.
Things just didn’t work out for me and Zach. Too much water under the bridge and all that. Too many betrayals, too many lies. He couldn’t deal with them anymore. He couldn’t’/t forgive the past and he couldn’t trust the future. It’s funny-the only one who has ever really accepted me for who I am is you. Even after all we’ve been through, I know in the end you’ll always be there for me. (Yes, I’m sure you are shaking your head no and muttering under your breath.)but think about it and tell me it’s not true). I will be back soon. You can ream me out and yell at me and throw things at my head, but I’m still going to be there and I’m not leaving. I can be as stubborn as you, remember
Speaking of remembering, I’ve sent you a DVD of the two of us. Some of our greatest and most infamous moments together.
Just notice how even when we supposedly hated each other, we really loved each other.
Love and <3,
Kendall
Greenlee looked at the DVD in her hand and then back at the letter.
David stood there, wondering.
“What was that about?”
“Nothing.”
“Come on Greenlee, it’s obviously not nothing. Tell your husband what’s going on. He didn’t know whether it was good or bad news. Greenlee had tears in her eyes, but the scowl on her face when she read the letter had softened a great deal.
“It’s Kendall. She’s coming home.” She gave David the letter and went back to staring at the disc.
David smiled. “Sounds like good news. Very good, right?”
“I don’t know how to feel about it,” Greenlee admitted. “On the one hand I’m furious with her, but on the other hand I believe everything she says in this letter.”
“She means it,” David replied and thought that she meant it in ways Greenlee could possibly never imagined.
***
They watched the DVD together, and David was fascinated by what he saw.
He wondered how he, and all of the citizens of Pine Valley, could not see that what these two felt for each other was more than friendship.
Probably because if you were only looking at the surface it was not obvious.
They looked like many other best friends in some of the scenes. The video was a mixture of stills and live footage of events like holidays and birthdays and Erica and Jack’s wedding. When you glanced at those and weren’t looking for it you would miss the way their eyes met in some of the pictures, or the way Kendall would look at Greenlee, her face soft and her eyes filled with longing.
Other pictures were more obvious.
The two of them seemed to shut out the rest of the world in some of them. Like the photos of when Fusion was launched in the kitchen and the two of them were laughing and Greenlee’s face had lipstick smudged on it. Her eyes were on Kendall, and the sparkle in them was only for her.
Then came a series of videos of their infamous fights.
“Oh no,” Greenlee laughed. “I can’t believe she found footage of these and added them to this video!” She shook her head. “Look at us-oh my God!” David looked, amazed to see Greenlee jump on some guy’s back and hold onto his neck as Kendall kicked him in the groin. The guy was determined to get Greenlee off him and she was just as determined to hold on. David had to laugh as well. She and Kendall were like a tag team. One blow from Greenlee, one from Kendall. Back and forth until the guy was on the floor and the two of them were on top of him, forcing his arms behind his back and yelling at him to give up.
He laughed when Greenlee spontaneously ran to Kendall and grabbed her hand, raising their arms in victory. He also laughed when the next moment they pulled away from each other and went to opposite ends of the bar.
“What happened here? You two were on the same side during the fight.” David asked, puzzled.
“Oh, we had some stupid misunderstanding earlier in the day. You know the problem with me and Kendall back then was that even though we were so much alike we always mistrusted the other’s motives.”
David looked at the footage as it continued. Greenlee was talking to Trey, Kendall’s brother, and Kendall was talking to Aiden. Their focus, however, was on each other. Every few moments Greenlee’s eyes would flash at Kendall or Kendall’s would flash at Greenlee. When they were leaving the bar they had a heated exchange, but David saw something else.
Greenlee was flushed, her breathing was uneven. Her eyes were burning into Kendall’s.
Kendall looked the same, only she seemed to be trying to reason with Greenlee over something.
The men and everyone else around them receded in the background and there was just the two of them.
The footage from the bar continued for a few minutes after Kendall left.
Greenlee looked visibly excited.
“Oh God, what a rush that was! Beating up that jerk-it was fun!”
“You were protecting Kendall, and she was protecting you.”
Greenlee looked at the screen.
“Yeah,” she said, softly. “I miss that.”
The next “fight” between them was the one they had at Fusion. Kendall had kept the footage from the security camera.
There wasn’t any words, but Kendall had added the song, “Let the Bodies Hit the Floor!” to it and David had to admit it was fun to watch.
He glanced at Greenlee.
She was smiling. And there it was, that flush on her cheeks.
It was there in the video, too. The two of them looking like any second they’d tear each other’s clothes off.
Every man’s fantasy, David thought, ruefully.
He watched as Kendall grabbed Greenlee when they were on the floor, and started spanking her.
Greenlee managed to squirm away and pulled herself on top of Kendall.
There it was again. That look in her eyes.
That wasn’t just anger.
That was desire.
For a moment he could see Kendall respond, and then the two of them started to fight once more.
This went on for a few minutes, with Greenlee squirting lotion on Kendall, and then Kendall squirting some back.
The fighting only stopped when Palmer walked in and threw water on the two of them.
Seeing Greenle soaking wet, her blouse clinging to her made David uncomfortably horny.
Not a good thing, as he and Greenlee had a platonic marriage.
But damn, she looked good. She was very sexy when she was angry.
After Palmer had lectured them and left, they hesitatingly made up and shook hands.
The way they held each other’s hands for a few moments longer than necessary was not lost on David.
“Those were some wild days,” Greenlee smiled.
“Yes, well now Kendall is coming home you can have more of them.”
“I don’t think Kendall and I are going to be fighting any time soon,” Greenlee said, softly.
“So, you’ve forgiven her?”
“Yes, but don’t tell her that. I want to tease her a bit when she comes back,” Greenlee nudged him, conspiratorially.
“I’ll bet you will,” David thought.
****
So now Greenlee was restless.
He felt her pent up energy from all the way downstairs where she paced back and forth.
David was torn.
He couldn’t reasonably be jealous of Kendall. Obviously Greenlee thought they were friends and nothing more, and Kendall probably did as well.
But what if Kendall didn’t? What if she decided that she wasn’t going to waste her time searching anymore when the only one she really wanted was Greenlee?
And how would Greenlee respond if she did say that?
Not that it mattered, he reminded himself. Greenlee was a free agent, and she could do as she pleased.
***
“You ok?” he asked, as she got back into bed.
“Yeah, just a little restless,” she admitted.
“Come here,” David pulled her toward him so that her head was resting on his chest. He tightened his arms around her.
Everyone needed comfort sometimes;
That night Greenlee tossed and turned, and the name she called out in her sleep was Kendall’s.
*****
Kendall showed up at Wildwind the week after she sent the DVD, and she waltzed right in like she hadn’t been away at all and nothing had changed since she’d gone.
She caught Greenlee by surprise, so of course she gave Kendall a huge smile when she entered the room.
But then, true to her words Greenlee pretended she had not forgiven Kendall when of course, she had.
By the time Kendall had run across the room to hug her Greenlee had regained her composure and greeted Kendall with a frosty “What are you doing here?”
Kendall grinned at her. She knew Greenlee too well to be taken in by that. “Greenlee, I am so happy to see you!” she exclaimed and hugged her again, picking her off the ground this time.
“I don’t recall asking you to come visit me,” Greenlee said, using her haughtiest tone.
Kendall burst out laughing.
“Ok, you really are trying to make me think you’re still mad at me, aren’t you? Well, I don’t believe it! You missed me as much as I missed you. I could tell by your smile when I walked in. But fine- if you want me to beg for forgiveness I will prostrate myself before you, my Queen,” Kendall giggled as she got on her knees and fluttered her eyelashes.
Greenlee’s dimples started showing as she desperately tried not to laugh. “Get up, you look ridiculous,” she said.
“Oh my, the ice is so thick in here I feel like I’m in an igloo! What can I do to melt the frostiness?” she wrapped her arms around Greenlee’s legs and hugged them.
This time Greenlee could not control her laughter and started giggling uncontrollably.
“Ok, ok, I give! Get up you lunatic!” she pulled Kendall to her feet and they hugged.
They both held on really tight.
David saw all this from the entranceway and smiled. Greenlee looked so happy it made him happy. He felt a pang of sadness though, thinking how nice it would be if he were the one who made Greenlee’s face light up that way.
“Kendall, good to see you. It’s been a long time,” David reached out to her and she hugged him. She remembered how David had saved Ian’s life as well as her own.
“Congratulations are in order, I see,” Kendall smiled at the two of them. “I brought some champagne. Should we toast to the happy couple?”
“Sure, why not? I’ll get the glasses,” David walked away to get the glasses and Kendall started
grilling Greenlee.
“What happened? Why did you marry David? My mother told me it was for revenge-is that true? Is that the only reason?”
“My God, you don’t waste any time, do you?” Greenlee shook her head. “David and I are friends. I wanted to be married to someone who was my friend. Someone I could trust and who wouldn’t hurt me. Yes, it was partly so we could get back at some of the hypocrites and self appointed judge and jury people in this town. But I also wanted to have fun.”
“And are you?” Kendall wondered. “Having fun?”
“Yes, yes I am. Now that the feud with your mother is over it’ll be even more fun. I can concentrate on my marriage and not waste any energy on Erica or my snake of an ex.”
“Greenlee,” Kendall sighed. “I told you I was sorry about that. And so was Ryan. But we thought you were dead.”
“See, I don’t get how that is a defense. It doesn’t make sense to me. You were grieving me so you slept with my fiancé? How is that ok?”
“I- it wasn’t about trying to be ok. It was about trying to hold onto a piece of you, of your memory. Does that make sense?”
Greenlee shook her head. “No, but it sounds like what David said to me. I guess some people must think like the two of you did. But it doesn’t make me feel any less betrayed by him. And look at what he did afterwards. Having an affair with Erica, of all people!”
Kendall decided not to pursue it further. She knew that if she started talking about how Ryan really loved Greenlee and how they belonged together, etc. Greenlee would just shut her out.
Besides, she really wasn’t so sure if they did belong together any more.
“Let’s stop talking about me. What happened with Zach? The letter was kind of cryptic.” Greenlee sat down on the couch and motioned for Kendall to do the same. “Did something else happen between you? Because it sounded odd that he’d just get up one morning and say he couldn’t forget the past and didn’t trust your future.”
“Well, it didn’t happen overnight. We were away a few months, trying to build up our marriage again. But no matter what we tried-romance, hot sex, time alone to just talk-nothing could change the memories. They tainted everything. And you know Zach. He’s not the most forgiving person. Yes, I know I’m not either,” Kendall responded before Greenlee could do anything more than roll her eyes. “But we did try. We tried and we failed.”
“I’m sorry, Kendall,” Greenlee said, softly stroking Kendall’s arm.
“God I missed this!” Kendall exclaimed, pulling Greenlee closer to her. “I missed us.”
“Me too,” Greenlee admitted.
“Well then it’s good that she’s back, right Greenlee?” David came in holding a tray with three glasses. “Shall we have the champagne? Make a toast to friends reunited?” He popped open the champagne and it splashed on Greenlee and Kendall, causing them both to laugh.
“Some things never change, right Kendall?” Greenlee asked.
“I know. It seems we never can have champagne without that happening!” Kendall agreed.
“So we’re continuing a tradition I see,” David smiled, but inwardly he couldn’t help feeling a bit left out.
Kendall and Greenlee had so many shared memories.
“To the return of old friends,” he raised his glass and Kendall and Greenlee joined him.
“To old friends,” they said in unison.
Although they all touched glasses, David noticed that their eyes were only on each other.
****
After they had a couple of glasses of champagne Kendall said she should be heading home.
“The boys are still with Zach” she explained. “We didn’t want to uproot them too abruptly. But I should be getting home, anyway.” She looked tense and Greenlee could understand why. This would be Kendall’s first night in the house without Zach. It was natural that she was not looking forward to it.
“Stay here for a while!” Greenlee said, enthusiastically. “We have lots of room, and you don’t want to rush back to that house by yourself. Come on, we can talk all night-it’ll be like a slumber party! Remember when we had those?”
“Yeah,” Kendall said in a wistful tone. “I do. We used to have fun.”
“Yes! So, say you will stay-right David?”
David was a bit taken aback, but figured Greenlee was right.
They did have the room.
He was a bit uneasy though.
Something told him this wouldn’t be a good thing for his marriage.
That was just it, though.
In Greenlee’s eyes (and everyone else’s) theirs was a marriage of convenience.
Greenlee didn’t know it was becoming more to him.
***
They did stay up until all hours talking and reminiscing. When it looked like Kendall was getting sleepy Greenlee came back into hers and David’s bedroom.
She lay beside him, restless once more.
Greenlee kept sitting up in bed, thinking she could hear Kendall call her.
“Why don’t you go to her Greenlee? You’re obviously worried about her, and it will probably be the only way you’ll get some sleep tonight.”
“I just don’t want to disturb her if she is sleeping- or intrude you know?”
David smiled at her. “I doubt she’d think it was an intrusion if she is awake. She’d probably welcome the company.” Privately he thought that if any two people ignored the concept of boundaries it was Kendall and Greenlee. He thought it wise to keep that thought to himself.
Greenlee nodded and kissed him lightly on the lips. “I’ll be back later if she’s alright,” she assured him.
David knew he wouldn’t see Greenlee again that night.
***
When she got to Kendall’s room Greenlee heard sobbing.
“Kendall? It’s Greenlee. Can I come in?”
Kendall muttered something Greenlee assumed to be a yes, and walked in.
Kendall was in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin, her face red and her eyes swollen.
Without a word Greenlee slid into the bed and joined Kendall under the covers.
She put her arm around Kendall’s waist, and Kendall responded by holding onto her hand. Greenlee moved up on the pillow so that she could pull Kendall’s head to her breasts. For a little while the only sound was that of Kendall crying and Greenlee making comforting noises.
“It’s going to be ok,” Greenlee murmured. “You’ll get over Zach, meet someone else, and have a good life.”
Kendall sniffed. “It’s not about Zach. Not really. I did love him, but I think that we’ve known for a long time that it just wasn’t going to work. In spite of our romantic declarations of “always, only you”. There’s a reason why that never quite worked out for me.”
Greenlee waited for a moment then asked, “What is it?”
Kendall turned so she was facing Greenlee and said: “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for,” “Can you imagine? After all he and I went through, not to mention the children. I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.”
“Maybe you and Zach will find your way back to each other. Maybe what you’re looking for is right in front of you.”
“Yeah well, Greenlee-right now the only thing in front of me is you.”
Greenlee laughed and kissed Kendall softly. “Go to sleep. You’re delusional.”
Kendall laughed too, but she wondered why she had said that to Greenlee.
More than that, she wondered what that kiss from Greenlee really meant.
If it meant anything at all.