"You have a strange idea of closure, kid." Jeff said mildly from his position on Jared's couch.

"It's progressive." Jared argued, not looking up from his doodle pad.

Two days after being unceremoniously dumped from Jensen's hospital room, Jared had seen it fit to call a crisis meeting. Somehow said meeting had turned into a pizza party, and the Sandy-Jeff-Jared guest list had expanding to include Chad, Chris, Steve, and thanks to the wonders of modern technology and a stupidly expensive phone system, Marc via loudspeaker.

"Dude." Chad shook his head, half sprawled across the couch arm and Steve. "I can't believe you're batting for the home team." If it wasn't for the shit-eating grin, Jared might have popped him on principle. "I'm so adding this shit to your imdb."

"How's your wife, Chad?" Sandy asked, her cyanide sweet voice bringing a hint of a smile to Jared lips. God, he loved his friends.

"Hussy." Chad hissed, but he accepted the beer Sandy passed him with a nod of thanks.

"Not helping." Said Jared in a singsong voice.

Chris frowned and leaned under Steve's arm to get a better look at Jared's pad of paper. "What exactly are we supposed to be doing here?"

"Progressive therapy." Jeff replied dryly, ducking a pillow Jared lobbed in his direction.

"Making a list." Jared stressed, underlining the words BIG LIST at the top of the page. "Of all the reasons why I hate Jensen Ackles, and never want to see him again."

"Did you, like, grow a vagina or something?" No one was fast enough to follow the movement of Sandy's arm, but from Chad's wince of pain, she had obviously landed on target.

"There's no stick figures, right sweetie?" Sandy asked hesitantly. Chris sniggered from the sofa.

Mildly affronted, Jared sniffed. "There is nothing wrong with my stick figures." He drew a pair of line stars in the corner of the page and scribbled them in color. "So, list."

"One. He's a bigger douche than Chad." Sandy said instantly.

Chad's upper lip curled. "Bitch."

"Douche."

"Would you two just fuck already." Jeff grumbled. The look on Sandy's face belonged in a MasterCard advert. Paper $2. Marker Pen. $1.50. Gas for hospital trip. $7. Sandy's Look of Horror. Priceless.

Steve, always the peacemaker, cleared his throat. "Two. He cheated on his boyfriend. Never a good thing."

Jared added it to the list as Chris asked, "Is one kiss considered 'cheating?'"

"Yes." Sandy said.

Over the speakerphone, Marc said, "No."

Whilst Chad ran a hand over his face and muttered, "Fuck, I hope not."

"Don't get me wrong, dude, I'm still gonna kick your ass for that-" Chris said mildly, making Jared wince. He often failed to realize just how much of a mess this drama was making of their circle of friends. Chris was as much David's friend as he was Jared's, Jeff had known Jensen since his early teens, and the both of them would probably be holding the same conversation with Jensen and David at some point. "I'm just a touch confused. Did Jensen actually cheat on Dave with you?"

"Aside from the kiss?" Jared asked.

Chris nodded. "Aside."

Well, um…"Not exactly, no."

It was Marc's turn to jump on the bandwagon. "And did he ever give you any impression he wanted to have steamy hot sex with you?"

Jared ignored Chad's gagging sound. "Aside from the kiss?" He asked, a little desperate.

"Aside from the damn kiss." Jeff grunted.

"We slept together." Jared said, only realizing once he had that, oops, possibly not the best way of putting it.

He got a "What the fu-" From just about everyone. Except Sandy, who simply rolled her eyes.

Hastily he amended, "In the same bed. Several times."

"Horny bastard." Marc said affectionately. "Any groping?"

"Oh blow me." Jared glared at the speakerphone and considered throwing the whole set at Chad, who was smirking behind Sandy' back.

"Did he?" Chad asked cheekily.

"No!" He yelped, then added, "You are not helping."

Chris made a noise that obviously meant, 'yeah, so?' and Jared turned desperate eyes on Steve for some support. "Anything else that might indicate intentions with a rating higher than PG-13?" Steve asked, looking apologetic.

"He came all the way to Vancouver after-" He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to.

"Yeah…about that.." Marc said hesitantly. Jared could almost see him scratching the back of his neck nervously. "I kinda asked him to. Well, I asked Sam to ask him."

"What?" Jared squeaked, his marker pen drawing a messy line across his unblemished list.

"Well he wasn't first on my list!" Marc said defensively.

"He called us." Steve spoke up, indicating himself and Chris with a jerk of his thumb. They had turned up a week after Jensen had left, and forever ruined his liver for Russian imported Vodka. "Sorry we couldn't get there any earlier." They had already apologized, and Jared had never seen the need to forgive them. They'd still made it. They'd still travelled all the way from-

"You were in England." He justified. "Not like you could just teleport to Canada."

"Looks like we beat Pretty Boy Ackles by a few thousand miles." Chris pointed out. "And no offence, but I have no desire to get in your pants."

Right…fine. So Jensen hoping on a train wasn't a declaration of love, it was a natural response to a friend in need…

"He sent me freaking flowers!" Jared flailed. This conversation was not helping. At. All. Instead of compounding the reasons why Jared should avoid Jensen like the plague and hook up with a Playboy Bunny, he was starting to wonder if maybe, just maybe, he was going completely crazy and imagining everything.

"He sends everyone flowers." Jeff said with a roll of his eyes. "What colors did he send you?"

Jared frowned. What did that have to do with things? "Um…yellow and pink."

"Sounds like a pussy." Chad snorted.

"Sandy?" Jeff prompted. Sandy nodded and smacked Chad across the head. "Thank you." He said. "Well I'm not seeing any declarations of undying love there."

"No?" Jared asked meekly. Crap.

"Nope. Yellow for friendship, pink for gratitude…any red?"

"Um…" Jared twitched.

"Lilac?" Jeff asked, brow creasing in disbelief.

"I suck, don't I?" Jared said meekly.

Chad snorted. "Yeah, well. I still think he's a pussy."

*****

"David?" Jared blinked the sleep from his eyes and looked at the digital clock on his DVD player. His living room looked like a battlefield, bodies strewn out where they fell, pizza boxes scattered around them like shrapnel. "S'up?"

Chris, Steve and Jeff had left in the early hours of the morning, leaving Jared with a bickering Sandy and Chad. Waking up to the buzz of his cell and seeing David's name flashing on screen was quite possibly the last thing he expected.

"Dave?"

Silence stretched down the line. For a minute, Jared thought that David might have called him by accident. He was surprised his number still lived on David's phone after all that had happened.

"Looks like it is an open fight now." Jared didn't reply. Jared couldn't reply. He'd never come between a relationship before. And now…

Neither of them hung up for a long time after that.

Read Part Fourteen To the victor go the spoils in the Louder Than Words 'Verse by SplashPink