Prequel to As Lovers Go 1
Now, that my Claire Saga has come to an end, I am starting a prequel. It’s kind of....a peak as to how David got his act together and what convinced him to become a father to Claire. It’s pre-Claire, obviously, but, she will make some appearances later on.
*I’m taking a lot of liberties with this in terms of dates and actual events. Don’t get hung up on them. The timeline is rather....screwy. It is roughly two/three years before Claire.
It started off as this one shot:
I’m using that as the jumping off point for this prequel.
**Like my last fic, this is all made up. I don’t even pretend that it is even the slightest bit true.
***
July 2010
Emily groaned in frustrated as she took her time getting to her front door. Someone was knocking so hard she felt sure the door itself would fall over, and yet, she didn't rush. Checking the peep hole, she rolled her eyes and wrapped her terry cloth robe tighter around her body.
"Don't let him do this to you again." She whispered to herself, in a stern tone. "You don't owe him anything." Breathing in slowly, she made up and down motions with her hands to calm her self down. Mantra's like this were sometimes the only way she could get through an 18 hour day on set with her co-star.
Finally, when she felt she was ready, she opened the door just wide enough so that she could see out of it. It was in no way an invitation. She was not completely surprised that he was at her door. In fact, a small part of her suspected he would be showing up. Still, that didn't make it right.
"What do you want, David?" Her voice wasn't cold, but wasn't welcoming either. Emily found it best to play the bitch. Sincerity and kindness would only get her into trouble.
The man before her looked like he had been hit by a truck. His clothes were disheveled, his eyes were sunken and he was unnaturally pale. In the early years, she would have taken pity on him. Scratch that. She HAD taken pity on him time after time but now, it was far too late for that. He didn't need pity. He didn't need sympathy. He didn't need her. What he needed....was to figure himself out...and not even she could do that for him.
"Emily..." His voice was rough. He had either been crying or drinking and by the whiff of whisky she got when he opened his mouth, she got her answer.
"It's 1:30 in the morning. We have to be on set at 8. Go home." It was hard for her to say the words. Her heart was screaming at her to pick up the pieces of the man, she once considered her best friend, and fix them. But, she had spent too much of her own time and energy doing just that. She didn't have any left to give to him.
She moved to close the door, but his strong hand came up to stop her. With his hand on the door, she couldn't move it, so she was forced to stare into his pleading brown orbs.
"I can't go home. I don't have a home to go to." He rasped. His body was hunched over in the most defeated posture she had ever seen. "Please Emily, I can't go to a hotel. The vultures are all over me. Please don't make me do it."
"I can't make you do anything, obviously." She snapped and then shook her head. Once again, she was going to have to clean up his mess. She was weak. It was plain and simple. She loved the man before her and yet, she hated him at the same time.
"Please..." His words broke and tears filled his eyes. Sighing at her own weakness, she opened the door wider and walked hurriedly away from it. She wasn't about to be any closer to him than she had to be.
Emily took in his appearance as he stumbled over to her familiar sofa and sat down. His head went directly to his hands, as if he was too ashamed to even look at her. Crossing her arms over her chest, she let out a bitter chuckle. "So, she kicked you out for good this time?" Emily was standing on the other side of the living room. He would have to look up in order to see her.
"Yup." He grunted. "Even threw my clothes out onto the front lawn." Emily's brow arched in surprise. Just when she was starting to think Jaime was a push over....she went and did something like that.
"Well what did you expect? Sexual harassment, David? Really? You sure know how to pick em." She was being the meanest she had ever been towards him. It was her only defense against his charm.
"I didn't fucking sexually harass her!" Emily had heard all of this already. As soon as David got the news from his lawyers earlier that day, he had told Emily.
"Oh I'm sorry. You just lied to her about getting a job and then tried to get her to sleep with you."
"She was a willing participant!" His voice rose as he roughly pulled his hands away from his face and looked up at her. "I certainly didn't force myself on her like she is saying. She was after me as much as I was after her."
Their argument was getting heated and Emily unconsciously stepped closer to him as she spoke. She liked that she was towering over him. It made her feel powerful. Something she rarely felt with him. "You shouldn't have been trying to get into her pants in the first place! How many women do you need at one time? Or....are you trying to beat out Tiger Woods? If I were Jaime, I'd have left your sorry ass a long time ago."
In a rush of anger, David stood up then and faced her head on. They were both breathing hard and he was staring her down with an intensity she had never seen before. "If you were Jaime, none of this would have fucking happened!"
Her face crinkled in incredulousness. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Rolling his eyes at her question, it was his turn to bite back a bitter laugh. "Oh don't play dumb with me, babe." He snarled. "If you wouldn't have turned me down two years ago, none of this would have happened."
Before David could even blink, Emily's hand collided with his cheek so hard that a loud slap was all that could be heard through out the apartment. Her hand stung as much as his face did and they both stared at each other in complete shock. She had never hit him before, not off screen anyway. He was so taken back that he couldn't even formulate a response.
The slap seemed to sober them both up, because seconds later, Emily turned on her heels and practically bolted out of the room. Lines had been crossed. Things had been said in the heat of the moment that shouldn't have been said. David's legs gave way. Luckily, the sofa was right underneath him and he collapsed onto it, and not the floor.
"I'm sorry." Emily said, as she rushed back into the room with a fresh cooling pad from the freezer. She wasn't at all afraid of him and she wasted no time placing it on his right cheek that was already beat red. She had spent five years mothering him. It was second nature to her. He took the pad from her and she sat down beside him. But, she still maintained her distance.
"I deserved it." David responded in self disgust. "I shouldn't have said that....even if it is the truth." Just when she thought her anger was dissipating, he had to go and say something that would rile her up again.
"It's not the truth!" Emily replied. "We got carried away. ONE time. That was the end of it."
"Only because you wanted it to be!"
"Because you were married. Jesus Christ, David. You ARE married. You have children! What was I supposed to do? Just forget all of that for a fling?" His piercing gaze was back on her then, and he let the cooling pad drop out of his hands. It hit the hardwood floor with a dull thud.
"I loved you! I still do. You know it wouldn't have been a fling. I would have gone and filed for divorce right then and there if you hadn’t turned me down."
Emily was shaking her head before he could even finish his sentence. "You are unbelievable. I don’t even think you know what love is! I'm sure that's what you tell all the women you sleep with. You go and parade the women you fuck on set right in front of me...and I'm supposed to believe I would be different? Give me a break. I'm sure you're wife felt the same way."
"I fuck them because I can't have you. Because... I can't live with the god damn emptiness every single day."
"Bull shit." She spat. She refused to let herself believe his words. He was a player. He would always be a player and that would never change. She had to face the facts, even if it killed her to do so. "People don't change. You only want me now, because I rejected you.”
Emily had no idea what was possessing her to say all the things that had been pent up in her head since he had confessed his feelings for her. But, she couldn’t stop herself. She loved him, but she couldn’t ignore the facts in front of her. The idea that he could play her like he played his wife made her want to slap him all over again. “No.” She shook her head, as if to rid herself of any other ideas. “You would be happy with me for a few months...and then some bimbo would strut around the set in a pair of sexy heels and I’d be old news.”
David did something unexpected then. He moved like lightning, and before Emily knew what was happening, his lips were crashing down against hers. Her arms told her to push him away. But, her brain didn't seem to be winning the battle her heart was fighting. He pulled away before she had to, and they booth stared at each other with swollen lips and panting breaths.
He was so close to her that it was hard to tell where Emily ended and David began. "I know you love me." He said, in a serious tone. "I know you feel it too. Why should we go through life miserable apart when we could be happy together?"
Emily had been asking herself that same question for two years. She never had come up with an answer. It was easier to convince herself that David could never fully be satisfied with her and her alone, rather than allow herself to hope for a better outcome.
"Because you'll hurt me...and I wont survive that." Of course she felt it. The infuriating man beside her had had a hold of her heart since day one and it had been killing her ever sense. Distancing herself didn't work. Therapy didn't work. Even dating another man didn't work.
"I wont." He insisted, with a strong shake of his head. "God Emily, I'd spend my entire life proving you wrong." She was silent then and he had no idea what she was thinking. For once, he couldn't read her. Her eyes were swimming with tears. The inner battle raging inside her body was consuming her. Her heart was screaming to just do it. Take the plunge. See what happens. But, her head was telling her to run away and never look back. Emily looked at him one last time and then took a deep breath and stood up. Smoothing her robe down once again, she walked away, and made it all the way to the doorway of the living room before she said anything.
David had been expecting the same reply he had gotten before, so his jaw nearly hit the floor when she said, "one year."
"What?" He was too flabbergasted to say anything else.
Crossing her arms in defense, she felt the need to lean against the door jam for dear life. "One year. You prove to me that you can get your shit together for one year...and I'll agree to go on one date with you."
David thought perhaps he was hallucinating. Was she really saying what he thought she was? "What....what does that mean?" He stuttered, like a school boy.
Narrowing her eyes, she felt the need to hide behind her cool exterior once again. "That means you end your marriage once and for all. That means you focus on your career and your children because they certainly will need you during all of this and you stay the hell away from other women. Don't hit on them. Don't flirt with them. Don't have sex with them. Don't go and get obliterated on whisky and don't you dare go on another party binge in the valley. Be the man I KNOW you can be....and I will go on one date with you."
David didn't even bother to argue her terms. Instead he focused on the date. "Just one date?"
"It would be dumb to agree to anything more. The date could be horrible." She sounded so much like her television alter ego that it scared him. "I'll re-asses after the date."
He was still shocked and raised his eye brows to show it. His eyes were as wide as saucers. "You...you're serious about this? I get my shit together and you will go out with me?" David suddenly felt completely sober.
"Yes." She shrugged. It honestly seemed like an okay solution. She didn't think for a second he could last even half a year with her terms. But, there was always that teeny tiny bit of hope that he could....and who was she to deny that hope? At least then, she would know for sure and she could get over him once and for all.
"What about your boyfriend?" The jealousy in his tone was not lost on her.
"Micheal?” She shrugged. “I don't think it's going anywhere."
"You don't think? So...you get to have sex, but I can't?" He wasn't appalled, just trying to understand the terms.
"We’ve only been dating two months. This isn’t about me. It’s about you. You say you love me, David? You say you want to be with me and only me? Then prove it." He didn't have anything to say to that. Instead, he just stared at her.
"What if the divorce takes more than a year?" Jaime had kicked him out, seemingly for good. But, that didn't mean she was willing to grant him a divorce. She was so pissed at him that he was sure she was going to make him suffer in some way.
"It has to be started. Legally. You can't be living in the same house as her and 'working it out.'"
"Okay." He nodded and wanted to pinch himself because he was starting to think he was in some bizarre dream.
"Okay." Emily responded. "This conversation is over then. You can sleep in the guest room. You know where it is. Goodnight." She rushed from the room faster than she had before, and he was left in state of shock.
He didn’t bother making his way to the guest room. Though he felt sober, the alcohol had made him sleepy and slightly dizzy. Laying down on the sofa, he put his large hands over his face and let out a satisfied sigh.
Emily was giving him a chance. With a determination he had never felt before, he closed his eyes....and imagined what life could be if he succeeded.
*This fic is going to be a bit darker than As Lovers Go. David isn't the same David (yet). It's going to be a lot of trials and tribulations as they both face their demons. But, if you've read As Lovers Go....you already know how it ends. So...that should help, right? ;)
*I’m taking a lot of liberties with this in terms of dates and actual events. Don’t get hung up on them. The timeline is rather....screwy. It is roughly two/three years before Claire.
It started off as this one shot:
I’m using that as the jumping off point for this prequel.
**Like my last fic, this is all made up. I don’t even pretend that it is even the slightest bit true.
***
July 2010
Emily groaned in frustrated as she took her time getting to her front door. Someone was knocking so hard she felt sure the door itself would fall over, and yet, she didn't rush. Checking the peep hole, she rolled her eyes and wrapped her terry cloth robe tighter around her body.
"Don't let him do this to you again." She whispered to herself, in a stern tone. "You don't owe him anything." Breathing in slowly, she made up and down motions with her hands to calm her self down. Mantra's like this were sometimes the only way she could get through an 18 hour day on set with her co-star.
Finally, when she felt she was ready, she opened the door just wide enough so that she could see out of it. It was in no way an invitation. She was not completely surprised that he was at her door. In fact, a small part of her suspected he would be showing up. Still, that didn't make it right.
"What do you want, David?" Her voice wasn't cold, but wasn't welcoming either. Emily found it best to play the bitch. Sincerity and kindness would only get her into trouble.
The man before her looked like he had been hit by a truck. His clothes were disheveled, his eyes were sunken and he was unnaturally pale. In the early years, she would have taken pity on him. Scratch that. She HAD taken pity on him time after time but now, it was far too late for that. He didn't need pity. He didn't need sympathy. He didn't need her. What he needed....was to figure himself out...and not even she could do that for him.
"Emily..." His voice was rough. He had either been crying or drinking and by the whiff of whisky she got when he opened his mouth, she got her answer.
"It's 1:30 in the morning. We have to be on set at 8. Go home." It was hard for her to say the words. Her heart was screaming at her to pick up the pieces of the man, she once considered her best friend, and fix them. But, she had spent too much of her own time and energy doing just that. She didn't have any left to give to him.
She moved to close the door, but his strong hand came up to stop her. With his hand on the door, she couldn't move it, so she was forced to stare into his pleading brown orbs.
"I can't go home. I don't have a home to go to." He rasped. His body was hunched over in the most defeated posture she had ever seen. "Please Emily, I can't go to a hotel. The vultures are all over me. Please don't make me do it."
"I can't make you do anything, obviously." She snapped and then shook her head. Once again, she was going to have to clean up his mess. She was weak. It was plain and simple. She loved the man before her and yet, she hated him at the same time.
"Please..." His words broke and tears filled his eyes. Sighing at her own weakness, she opened the door wider and walked hurriedly away from it. She wasn't about to be any closer to him than she had to be.
Emily took in his appearance as he stumbled over to her familiar sofa and sat down. His head went directly to his hands, as if he was too ashamed to even look at her. Crossing her arms over her chest, she let out a bitter chuckle. "So, she kicked you out for good this time?" Emily was standing on the other side of the living room. He would have to look up in order to see her.
"Yup." He grunted. "Even threw my clothes out onto the front lawn." Emily's brow arched in surprise. Just when she was starting to think Jaime was a push over....she went and did something like that.
"Well what did you expect? Sexual harassment, David? Really? You sure know how to pick em." She was being the meanest she had ever been towards him. It was her only defense against his charm.
"I didn't fucking sexually harass her!" Emily had heard all of this already. As soon as David got the news from his lawyers earlier that day, he had told Emily.
"Oh I'm sorry. You just lied to her about getting a job and then tried to get her to sleep with you."
"She was a willing participant!" His voice rose as he roughly pulled his hands away from his face and looked up at her. "I certainly didn't force myself on her like she is saying. She was after me as much as I was after her."
Their argument was getting heated and Emily unconsciously stepped closer to him as she spoke. She liked that she was towering over him. It made her feel powerful. Something she rarely felt with him. "You shouldn't have been trying to get into her pants in the first place! How many women do you need at one time? Or....are you trying to beat out Tiger Woods? If I were Jaime, I'd have left your sorry ass a long time ago."
In a rush of anger, David stood up then and faced her head on. They were both breathing hard and he was staring her down with an intensity she had never seen before. "If you were Jaime, none of this would have fucking happened!"
Her face crinkled in incredulousness. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Rolling his eyes at her question, it was his turn to bite back a bitter laugh. "Oh don't play dumb with me, babe." He snarled. "If you wouldn't have turned me down two years ago, none of this would have happened."
Before David could even blink, Emily's hand collided with his cheek so hard that a loud slap was all that could be heard through out the apartment. Her hand stung as much as his face did and they both stared at each other in complete shock. She had never hit him before, not off screen anyway. He was so taken back that he couldn't even formulate a response.
The slap seemed to sober them both up, because seconds later, Emily turned on her heels and practically bolted out of the room. Lines had been crossed. Things had been said in the heat of the moment that shouldn't have been said. David's legs gave way. Luckily, the sofa was right underneath him and he collapsed onto it, and not the floor.
"I'm sorry." Emily said, as she rushed back into the room with a fresh cooling pad from the freezer. She wasn't at all afraid of him and she wasted no time placing it on his right cheek that was already beat red. She had spent five years mothering him. It was second nature to her. He took the pad from her and she sat down beside him. But, she still maintained her distance.
"I deserved it." David responded in self disgust. "I shouldn't have said that....even if it is the truth." Just when she thought her anger was dissipating, he had to go and say something that would rile her up again.
"It's not the truth!" Emily replied. "We got carried away. ONE time. That was the end of it."
"Only because you wanted it to be!"
"Because you were married. Jesus Christ, David. You ARE married. You have children! What was I supposed to do? Just forget all of that for a fling?" His piercing gaze was back on her then, and he let the cooling pad drop out of his hands. It hit the hardwood floor with a dull thud.
"I loved you! I still do. You know it wouldn't have been a fling. I would have gone and filed for divorce right then and there if you hadn’t turned me down."
Emily was shaking her head before he could even finish his sentence. "You are unbelievable. I don’t even think you know what love is! I'm sure that's what you tell all the women you sleep with. You go and parade the women you fuck on set right in front of me...and I'm supposed to believe I would be different? Give me a break. I'm sure you're wife felt the same way."
"I fuck them because I can't have you. Because... I can't live with the god damn emptiness every single day."
"Bull shit." She spat. She refused to let herself believe his words. He was a player. He would always be a player and that would never change. She had to face the facts, even if it killed her to do so. "People don't change. You only want me now, because I rejected you.”
Emily had no idea what was possessing her to say all the things that had been pent up in her head since he had confessed his feelings for her. But, she couldn’t stop herself. She loved him, but she couldn’t ignore the facts in front of her. The idea that he could play her like he played his wife made her want to slap him all over again. “No.” She shook her head, as if to rid herself of any other ideas. “You would be happy with me for a few months...and then some bimbo would strut around the set in a pair of sexy heels and I’d be old news.”
David did something unexpected then. He moved like lightning, and before Emily knew what was happening, his lips were crashing down against hers. Her arms told her to push him away. But, her brain didn't seem to be winning the battle her heart was fighting. He pulled away before she had to, and they booth stared at each other with swollen lips and panting breaths.
He was so close to her that it was hard to tell where Emily ended and David began. "I know you love me." He said, in a serious tone. "I know you feel it too. Why should we go through life miserable apart when we could be happy together?"
Emily had been asking herself that same question for two years. She never had come up with an answer. It was easier to convince herself that David could never fully be satisfied with her and her alone, rather than allow herself to hope for a better outcome.
"Because you'll hurt me...and I wont survive that." Of course she felt it. The infuriating man beside her had had a hold of her heart since day one and it had been killing her ever sense. Distancing herself didn't work. Therapy didn't work. Even dating another man didn't work.
"I wont." He insisted, with a strong shake of his head. "God Emily, I'd spend my entire life proving you wrong." She was silent then and he had no idea what she was thinking. For once, he couldn't read her. Her eyes were swimming with tears. The inner battle raging inside her body was consuming her. Her heart was screaming to just do it. Take the plunge. See what happens. But, her head was telling her to run away and never look back. Emily looked at him one last time and then took a deep breath and stood up. Smoothing her robe down once again, she walked away, and made it all the way to the doorway of the living room before she said anything.
David had been expecting the same reply he had gotten before, so his jaw nearly hit the floor when she said, "one year."
"What?" He was too flabbergasted to say anything else.
Crossing her arms in defense, she felt the need to lean against the door jam for dear life. "One year. You prove to me that you can get your shit together for one year...and I'll agree to go on one date with you."
David thought perhaps he was hallucinating. Was she really saying what he thought she was? "What....what does that mean?" He stuttered, like a school boy.
Narrowing her eyes, she felt the need to hide behind her cool exterior once again. "That means you end your marriage once and for all. That means you focus on your career and your children because they certainly will need you during all of this and you stay the hell away from other women. Don't hit on them. Don't flirt with them. Don't have sex with them. Don't go and get obliterated on whisky and don't you dare go on another party binge in the valley. Be the man I KNOW you can be....and I will go on one date with you."
David didn't even bother to argue her terms. Instead he focused on the date. "Just one date?"
"It would be dumb to agree to anything more. The date could be horrible." She sounded so much like her television alter ego that it scared him. "I'll re-asses after the date."
He was still shocked and raised his eye brows to show it. His eyes were as wide as saucers. "You...you're serious about this? I get my shit together and you will go out with me?" David suddenly felt completely sober.
"Yes." She shrugged. It honestly seemed like an okay solution. She didn't think for a second he could last even half a year with her terms. But, there was always that teeny tiny bit of hope that he could....and who was she to deny that hope? At least then, she would know for sure and she could get over him once and for all.
"What about your boyfriend?" The jealousy in his tone was not lost on her.
"Micheal?” She shrugged. “I don't think it's going anywhere."
"You don't think? So...you get to have sex, but I can't?" He wasn't appalled, just trying to understand the terms.
"We’ve only been dating two months. This isn’t about me. It’s about you. You say you love me, David? You say you want to be with me and only me? Then prove it." He didn't have anything to say to that. Instead, he just stared at her.
"What if the divorce takes more than a year?" Jaime had kicked him out, seemingly for good. But, that didn't mean she was willing to grant him a divorce. She was so pissed at him that he was sure she was going to make him suffer in some way.
"It has to be started. Legally. You can't be living in the same house as her and 'working it out.'"
"Okay." He nodded and wanted to pinch himself because he was starting to think he was in some bizarre dream.
"Okay." Emily responded. "This conversation is over then. You can sleep in the guest room. You know where it is. Goodnight." She rushed from the room faster than she had before, and he was left in state of shock.
He didn’t bother making his way to the guest room. Though he felt sober, the alcohol had made him sleepy and slightly dizzy. Laying down on the sofa, he put his large hands over his face and let out a satisfied sigh.
Emily was giving him a chance. With a determination he had never felt before, he closed his eyes....and imagined what life could be if he succeeded.
*This fic is going to be a bit darker than As Lovers Go. David isn't the same David (yet). It's going to be a lot of trials and tribulations as they both face their demons. But, if you've read As Lovers Go....you already know how it ends. So...that should help, right? ;)