"Oh. My. Gawd." Sandy shrieked in a high-pitched impression of the latest girl to throw herself at Marc and Jared. "You're like, those guys who hunts ghosts and stuff." With a bright grin, she jumped the final distance between herself and Jared and tangled her arms around his neck.

"Hey Princess." Jared grinned, catching her and spinning them both around in a circle. "How's my girl."

"Horny." Sandy giggled. "I've not had sex in months." She lamented, prompting an inner cheer from Jared. Skankerella was history.

"You know I'll-"

"Finish that sentence, Murray, and I'll castrate you on principle." Sandy said sweetly, not turning to great the incoming whirlwind that was Chad. Instead she brushed the skirt of her glittery back dress and twirled on her heels in Jared's arms. "Okay, votes out of ten for the chica in red at the bar."

Jared obediently peered over her shoulder at the pretty blond waving her hand airily at the bartender. "Shank." Jared dismissed.

"You say that about every girl I fancy." Sandy pouted, smacking him in the arm with her purse. "It's Christmas, have a heart."

Scooping her up, Jared made kissy lips at her neck, glaring at the blond when she turned and saw them. "There ain't no one good enough for my girl." He announced. "Christmas or not."

"Oh god," Sandy moaned dramatically, squirming until Jared set her down. She looked at Marc with something akin to desperation. "Tell me he's gotten laid since summer."

"Three whole times." Marc said proudly, throwing a brotherly arm around Jared's shoulders. Filming over the last months had done nothing but throw them even closer together. Jared thought season one had been rough. This season had just liked to kick them in the balls for shits and giggles, and then throw monsters at them. "With three different people." He added with a conspiratorial wink for Chad's benefit.

The thing about Marc? He couldn't hold his liquor.

At all.

He was worse than Jared, and by God, if that wasn't saying something…

"That's my boy!" Chad cheered, his attention flashing over to a scantily clad dancer for only a heartbeat before he was slapping Jared on the shoulder. "Nice to see you've put that writer dude out of your head."

Jared didn't mention that those people had all been men (and wow, hadn't that been awkward to get to grips with?), all been blond (because in the right light, 'that writer dude' had hair that looked golden), all been pretty (not as pretty as 'that writer dude', but then really, who was?), and all had left him exhausted and sleepy, with sticky sheets, and a horrible craving for chocolate chip cookies.

So it wasn't like he still had Jensen on the mind or anything…

"Oh my god!" This time, Sandy's shriek was real and wholly justified. Turning to follow her line of vision, Jared dropped his Corona, used a word his momma would have spanked him for, and felt his jaw drop down somewhere close to his knees.

"David?"

He'd not seen David since that day in the hospital, close to four months ago. He'd not spoken to him since he'd returned David's late night call and told him he was flying back to Vancouver.

He'd not seen Jensen either, but that was more than half the point.

But sure as hell, there he was, and huh…Jared really hadn't expected that. Of all the clubs in LA, he had to walk into this one.

David looked as good as ever, still wearing that god-awful leather jacket Jared had bought him for his twenty-first. He was clean shaved, smiling, and had his hand up the back of some chick's shirt.

A chick who was in no way shape or form anything close to resembling Jensen.

Jesus, what was with the women of LA? They were all…not Sandy, obviously, but- "Dude!" Jared yelled across the club, pushing his way through dancing drunks until he had a pathway that resembled the parting of the Red Sea.

By the time he reached David's side, his friend (ex?) had untangled himself from Hollywood Barbie, megawatt smile cutting Jared to the quick. "Jay!" he yelled enthusiastically, and pulled a startled Jared in for a quick bear hug.

Jared tensed, half expecting a switchblade between the ribs. David backed off without incident. Maybe he'd pinned a 'kick me' sign to Jared's back. He wondered if he could look without coming off as a dork.

Then he wondered if he had maybe just imagined the last eight months. It was entirely possible. That shit was in the rags all the time, right? Dude lives life as successful multi-billionaire until one day he wakes up from a comma and realizes he's on the dole, and his kids still hate him.

Not that Jared had any kids, but the point still stood. David was supposed to be grinding an axe with his name on it.

"Hey, dude." Jared said hesitantly, still waiting for the hidden assassin to jump him from behind the plastic palm tree. "How you doing?"

"I'm good!" David said, more than a little enthusiastic, and, Jared realized, completely off his head. "You met Cindy?"

So Hollywood Barbie's archrival. Close enough.

Jared shook his head, and endured a minute of simpering affection from David new pick up. When Cindy put her hand on his ass, his head snapped up and he came straight out with it. "Jensen not with you?"

David's face crumpled into a drunken frown. "Ain't seen him since the summer." He shrugged. If Jared hadn't known him so well, he'd not have seen the shadow that lurked in the depths of David's eyes, nor noticed the way his lips thinned out with anger.

Jared nodded mutely.

Looks like Jensen had managed to rid himself of them both.

Son of a bitch.

*****

Sam answered the door in a bleached out patchwork apron, and tried to close it again as soon as she saw Jared's face.

Sometimes being the Jolly Green Giant had its advantages. Case point: one grunt and a hard shove, and Sam's pink slippered feet slid backwards across the smooth wooden floor. "Not now, Sam. I'm on a mission." Jared said firmly, purposely skirting over the last mission reports that bounced annoyingly around his head, training words like abort, abort, and danger Will Robinson behind them.

David's drunken confession had his head spinning.

David was a moron.

And Jared was a bigger moron for thinking otherwise.

The whole point of his self-inflicted Jensen-free time was so David could swoop in and make Jensen forget that Jared ever existed. That's what best friends did after monumentally fucking up their buddy's relationship. They stepped back.

Way back.

Then David had to go be an idiot and take Jensen's fuck off at face value. True love was supposed to conquer all, yes, but generally there had to be some battles involved. Two years in a relationship should mean something, surely? If Jared had been in David's palace, he would have fought tooth and nail…and well, he'd already proved he was willing to climb into the guy's bedroom for Christ's sake…

But no. David was an idiot, as they had established, and Jared hadn't been able to eat cheesecake in nearly half a year.

He didn't give a fuck what Jeff said, that kiss meant something, goddamnit.

If David wasn't willing to kick/screw some sense into Jensen, then there was no way Jared was going to sit on his ass and let someone else make a move.

"Jensen!" He bellowed, completely ignorant of the time. Smart move, Padalecki. Yell for the deaf guy.

Jared skidded to a halt outside the greenhouse. He knew that there was nothing inside that could hurt him, not really, but the memory of David and Jensen together made him irrationally afraid of what lay behind that door. Steadying himself, he took a breath, twisting the handle and pushing, only to stumble back when the door remained locked.

"He doesn't go in there anymore." Sam said, appearing from behind him with a look of weary annoyance.

A blackboard eraser swiped across Jared's mind. Jensen didn't go into his greenhouse…it had been fucking impossible to drag the bastard out of there!

"Wha- why?" Jared stumbled over the words and playing dot to dot with the images forming in his head. Jensen hadn't spoken to Jared, or David, in nearly four months. Jensen didn't do his Allan Titchmarsh thing with the plants… no one had seen him…

Jared was freaked out. Officially.

The look Sam shot him wasn't all that pleasant. "You know why." She said flatly, and then tipped her head towards the hall, and the wide sweeping staircase within.

Jensen's house was the kind of place that you needed a ball of twine and a trail of breadcrumbs to follow in order to find your way around. It was stunning, and more than a little exciting. Jared used to play a game with Jensen's two cats, chasing them across the smooth floor and batting balls of wool for them to pounce on.

For all that he usually needed a map to find his way from kitchen to patio, there was one room he could find on autopilot.

Jared had never been able to decide if it was an office, or a study, or something out of Harry Potter. Three of the walls were lined with bookshelves. The fourth looked out onto the mountains. Jensen's computer…computers sat on a wide oak desk in the middle of the room. It might have been an author thing, but three wide screens framed the keyboard. Behind them, utterly oblivious to Jared's sudden appearance, Jensen tapped away quietly, probably wrapping up the last of his fifth book, or some new torture to throw at Sam and Dean.

To get Jensen's attention, Jared flipped the overhead light off, then back on again.

Surely there was some unwritten law that prohibited pretty from getting prettier. There must be, for the good of humanity, if not Jared's sanity. Every minute he had tried to forget about Jensen over the past quarter of a year felt like a waste of effort when Jared was fixed with his smile.

It was hesitant, skittish, but utterly Jensen, and Jared needed no invitation. He stepped across the threshold and back into Jensen's life.

Jensen's smile dipped into a frown of confusion, and suddenly those months apart meant nothing. Jared was still as adept as ever at reading Jensen's emotive face.

Confusion. Shy, tentative confusion.

"I missed you." Jared said, both explaining to Jensen and admitting it to himself.

And he had. So much it had hurt. Even now he checked his email a dozen times a day, hoping to find jrackles@goowy.com and an email full of insults, innuendo and procrastination aides. Instead he'd been inundated with SermUmore, Fuclongr and ViagRon. Which really hadn't helped much.

Jensen had managed to drive a wedge between Jared and his best friend. He'd dug his claws into Jared's heart and clung on with the unfailing tenacity of a pre-schooler and his favorite toy. He'd done a hundred other things to fuck with Jared's mind, the least of which was to be so fucking adorable that Jared couldn't get within a hundred paces without wanting to tuck him under one arm and snuggle.

Sadly, the cuddle effect was still operating at full force, even after all these months.

Absence didn't just make the heart grow fonder, it apparently made the heart crave cookies and major smoochie time.

Slowly, almost shyly, Jensen padded over to Jared, his feet wrapped in the most hideous fluffy socks Jared had ever seen. Jensen's eyes slowly focused, brightening in the dim light. It was obviously one of his better days.

Time to pull out the big guns.

Drawing on his-admittedly slowly- expanding knowledge of sign language, Jared signed, 'do you want me to leave?' remembering all too well Jensen's last words to him, and wondering if they still applied.

Jensen's smile kicked up a few watts. Signing back, he asked, 'do you want to go?'.

Jared shook his head.

Slowly, Jensen nodded. "You came back." He said, his voice the same, gruff hiss of a whisper that Jared remembered.

Jared could only shrug. "I'm a moron, apparently."

And if he'd known admitting that out loud would have earned him a kiss, Jared would have tried that trick years ago. Taken a little by surprise, Jared caught him by the elbows and pushed back, holding Jensen at arm's length and peering intently at the lamplight flickering in his bright eyes.

"Just so we're clear," Jared hastily said, trying to ignore the feel of Jensen's fingers as they brushed across his lips, "I'm taking that as an official invitation to get touchy feely." An eyebrow arched, and Jensen grinned in response. Jared nodded. "Good. And if you ever fuck me over like that again, sick or not, I'mma kick your skinny ass."

That, oddly enough, earned him another kiss.

He'd always said Jensen was a strange one.

Read Part Fifteen The first day of my life in the Louder Than Words 'Verse by SplashPink