“Happenstance” by Scripted Starlet

Chapter 1: The Break-up

Disclaimer: I regret that fact that none of my disclaimers will ever be as good as I-am-LMR’s. I resign to the fact that none of my stories will ever match up to Rene Balcer’s teleplays. And I resent the fact that Dick Wolf owns everything and I own squat.

Rating: T

Setting: Alternate Universe and Pre-CI. You’ll see what I mean.

A.N. Yeah, I couldn’t keep away from you people that long. This is my fun ‘what-if’ story. It’s been sitting around in my notebook since March but thanks to a certain depressing epic, I hadn’t the chance to write it… until now.

…

“You’re dumping me because of your cat?!”

Detective Robert Goren held up the tattered tan scratching post, waving it around as though it was evidence of a crime. Which in his mind it was.

“Not just the cat, Bobby. I swear to God, if you would just get your head out of your ass and listen to me for once in your miserable life—”

“I am listening to you. And correct me if I’m wrong but I think I heard the words ‘Whiskers is frightened of you’ come out of your mouth.”

“Well, she is! It’s your size, you know. Poor thing sees you sliding out of my bed in the morning and she throws a hissing fit. She’s clawing up the curtains and shedding fur everywhere and guess who has to comfort her, huh? While you’re off in the shower using all of my soap because of your ridiculous size. Guess whose responsibility it is?”

“Responsibility?” he bellowed, slamming the post down on the coffee table. “She’s your pet!”

Oh, it was on now. Of all the excuses Bobby had heard for being sacked—and he’d heard plenty—this one really took the cake.

“She could’ve been yours!”

Actress Lola Ebsen was in the moment, wiping her face for tired tears. She was too emotional. Bobby really didn’t like that about her. And he also didn’t like the way she was tossing clothing inside of her suitcase—uncaring of whether it landed linearly and totally unconcerned with the likelihood that these unfolded garments would get wrinkled.

God, he found her aggravating sometimes. She was as high-strung as he was low-key. He conserved his energy for choice moments while she blasted it every chance she got like some overemphatic foghorn. But perhaps that was the attraction…

“How many times have I asked you to move in with me, Bobby?” she continued, clamping one hand tight atop her breast as though she was nearing a heart attack.

Subtle, he thought.

“How many?!”

“Lola, my apartment is—”

“Rent controlled! Excuses, excuses. You don’t love me!”

“Of course, I love you.”

His assurance was more of an investment, really. He wanted to love her. And most of the time she was so much fun that he honestly did love her, but it was scenes such as these that prevented Bobby from falling too deeply.

“Where’s the proof?” she shouted, heaving a fist in the air that was packed with a wad of multicolored socks. “Where’s the grand gesture?”

Bobby eyed the socks and winced. What was she planning on doing with those? Put on a puppet show?

“Look, we’ve only been seeing each other for eight months. If you’d give it some more time—”

“Time! What time? I hardly ever see you as it is.”

He widened his arms in a gesture of helplessness. “Lola, don’t do this. You know that work has been—”

“What about me?” she interrupted, not letting him get a word in edgewise. “You think I don’t have a career? You think I don’t have opportunities of my own. Prospects I’ve been holding off because of you?”

“Career? Prospects?” he repeated stupidly, watching as she half-sat, half-hopped on the suitcase to be able to close it. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“I’ve been offered a role.” She undid the mangled zipper and began pounding the pile of clothing, trying to beat it into containment. “Not just any role—television! And I almost didn’t take it thanks to you.”

“Why?” he asked, even though he already had an inkling.

“They film in California.”

Suddenly Bobby broke into a sweat. He felt the vice of desperation clamping around his throat as the longest relationship he’d had in years was drifting perilously close to an end.

Another bitter end…

No, he had to stop her. He simply could not let this happen.

“Lola, I’m sorry!”

She tossed her head and long black locks flipped left and right. “Nope. Don’t want to hear it.”

“I’m sorry about work and I’m sorry about not being around as often and I’m—” Well, he definitely wasn’t sorry about Whiskers. “—I’m… hell, I thought that we’d come to an understanding here! The reason why I’ve been busting my ass since Christmas is that I’ve been paying my dues. And that’s why I got the transfer now. That’s why I’m moving up.”

Lola stumbled backward as she finally managed to get her luggage sealed. She straightened proudly as though nothing embarrassing had happened and shot Bobby a withering look.

“You told me the hours would be the same.”

“The same, yes, but not at the same times. I’ll be going to work from morning to early evening. Lola, this is not like Narcotics. No stints. No stings. It’s a steady shift.”

“You said that you’d be on call!”

“Well, every police detective is on call.”

“So nothing’s going to change, then. You’re still going to come back exhausted most nights and you’re still going to have to leave at odd hours. What use are you to me, then?”

Bobby’s mood prickled. And not from the insult so much as the subtext.

“Is there somebody else?”

She snorted. And he thought he detected a note of deflection.

Angry now, Bobby crossed the short distance between him and her. “Is there?”

She folded her tense arms and looked up at him indignantly, her mouth curled as though she had a lemon tart on her tongue.

“No.”

Bobby was just beginning to relax when Lola took a daunting step forward, bringing her China doll features inches away from his atypically clean-shaven mug.

“Not unless you count my pocket rocket.”

She turned her back on him and it was then that Bobby realized he’d gone too far. What had he been thinking? Lola was far from perfect, but she was one of the most trustworthy persons he’d ever known.

“Lola…?” He laid a guilty hand on her shoulder.

“What are you still doing here?” she asked harshly. “This is so pointless.”

Bobby sucked in his pride and his voice trembled with vulnerability. “Please don’t leave.”

This seemed to stir her and she moved to face him. “Bobby—”

“Please.”

She licked her lips nervously and set her a warm hand on his forearm. He dipped to kiss her and Lola let him for a little while, pulling him close and deepening the exercise that had become so familiar to them both. When they finally broke she pushed him away as gently as one would a child. All her fire had been exhausted.

“Godammit, Bobby.” She dug both hands in her hair and did a little spin. “What do you even want with me? I’m such a mess.”

“You’re not a mess,” he said immediately, hopeful now that she would change her mind. He knew this woman, and she was nothing if not flighty.

“It’s not just you,” she huffed, in another world as she paced. It was probably the only habit she’d picked up from him. “You know how hard it has been for me to find work. I mean, look at me. I’m not getting any younger.” Her gaze skid down and she gave her waistline a peripheral scan. “Or thinner, for that matter.”

“You look great.”

She seemed doubtful and so Bobby seconded his statement by embracing her again. He draped over her and supported the back of her neck as he kissed her with all the attraction he’d ever felt. All of the beauty that he admired and she constantly took for granted thanks to her prick of an agent and stick-thin competitors.

If he could just get her into bed, then maybe he’d be able to whelm her with what she’d been missing. What both of them had been missing for nearly three months now. That was all they needed, Bobby figured.

To reconnect.

“Lola,” he murmured tenderly. She responded as she usually did, by sighing softly against his mouth. “Lola, you always look beautiful to me.”

Her head gave a weak shake.

“I mean it.” He cupped her cheek and she opened her round enigmatic eyes. Those same eyes that had bewitched him in the subway last summer.

“Bobby, this could be my break,” she emphasized regretfully. “I have to take it.”

Defeated now, he dropped his hand. “So that’s it?”

“Don’t,” she warned him.

“Eight months and you’re gonna throw them all away, just like that?”

“Stop it,” she snapped. “You don’t really love me, Bobby. I know it, you know it—hell, even my friends know it! We’re just not compatible enough. And it’s not for lack of trying, is it?”

He stood there confusedly, feeling drowned by his capricious girlfriend’s sudden wave of composure. He was hurting all right, but it wasn’t for love. It wasn’t for her. It was for the idea of love with her. And the fact that he’d just ruined another relationship by leaving it unattended.

It was the work, he knew. It’s always work.

Disappointed in himself and only himself, Bobby took a seat and let his head hang. “No, it certainly isn’t.”

Lola sighed, not so softly, and then walked into the other room. When she returned she had the requisite pack of smokes pressed between her fingers.

“Here,” she offered.

“You know I quit.”

“So did I. We can relapse together.”

Realizing that he wasn’t going to be able to deny himself, Bobby accepted the sad Virginia slim and Lola lit it for him. He watched her hands as she toyed with the lighter, remembering all those nights he’d show up at her apartment feeling strangely excited as she opened the door. What color would her fingernails be tonight? he’d always anticipate.

Lola took a long drag and began speaking wearily. “Look, I’m sorry about the shouting.”

“It’s fine. I just hope your neighbors don’t mind.”

“I didn’t know how to tell you and, well, you know how I get. I think I imagined it would be less painful if I just made a big scene. Stormed out.”

“Ever the actress,” he commented wryly.

Lola smiled at his backhanded compliment and kissed his cheek.

“What sort of role is it?” Bobby asked, resisting the urge to comment on how soft her lips were. How much he’d miss them and all the things she did with them when they were on the other side of the country.

“One of those crap teen dramas. I’ll be playing the mother.”

His eyes widened.

“I know, I know. Who the hell would believe I know anything about anything when it comes to raising a child, right? Let alone a teenager.”

Bobby sat back and chuckled. “You’ll do great.”

She blew a perfect smoke ring and stared off into the space inside of it. “You think so?”

“Who could relate to a teenager better than you, Lo’?”

She wasted no time snapping her fingers. “Just when I was beginning to forget why I was breaking up with you.”

“You’re breaking up with me?” he blinked.

“Bobby…”

“But this is just so sudden. I can’t believe that—”

“Cut it out!” she shrieked, laughing in spite of herself as Bobby yanked her over to his side. As was common in situations such as these, Lola squirmed, fought, and eventually tumbled right into his lap. And as was uncommon in positions such as these, their mutual amusement abruptly came to a screeching halt.

Two sets of eyes met and two pairs of lips crashed longingly and Bobby knew, just knew, that this would be the last time.

“When are you flying out?” he asked a few moment later. His Adam’s apple was working overtime to compensate for the knot in his throat.

“Thursday night.” Her eyes were glistening.

“But what about your apartment?”

From out of nowhere, a sinister orange face appeared in the crack of the doorway. A fearsome tail rose behind it and Bobby had to smirk at the sight.

“And what about Lucifer over there?”

She cocked her head to look and then pinched his thigh in punishment. “My cousin’s going to sublet the place. It’s a win-win. Gets her out of that hellhole in Brooklyn and gives me the opportunity to come back if the show’s cancelled.”

“If?” he wondered aloud.

“Bobby…” Lola slid off of him. “You do realize that it’s over, right? I change my mind on a lot of things but never boyfriends. It’s not in my nature to dwell on the past. I have to live in the now. I might even stay in California if the work’s better. Please tell me that you understand.”

“I understand,” he swallowed again, doing his damndest not to deflate in front of her. “But… but you still haven’t answered my question, Lola.”

“What question?”

“What about Lucifer?”

She rolled her eyes and reached for the ashtray. “Well, I don’t know. I hear flying a pet over is sort of expensive. Do you want her?”

“Lola, not even the pound would take her.”

“So there it is.” She slapped her knees. “The relationship’s over and the truth comes out.”

“Consider it my consolation prize,” Bobby said, butting the glow from his cigarette before he straightened. “I guess I should get going.”

“So soon?” In an instant Lola had scrambled to her feet.

He frowned. “I thought you said we were over.”

“Yes, but I still have four more days in New York. Don’t you at least want to spend the night?”

Bobby ran his eyes over her Lola’s supple curves and ample length, imagining what it might mean to be with her again. What it would feel like to say goodbye in such a way. He thought about it, considered it… but ultimately concluded that it wasn’t possible.

Goodbyes like that—they weren’t in his nature.

“I’ll miss you,” he whispered into her ear, holding her tightly against his chest before he walked out of her life forever. “And I’ll be wishing you all the luck in the world, you do know that?”

She was crying again. She always cried. Sometimes it annoyed Bobby, but tonight it was taxing him dearly.

“Please,” she whimpered.

Unsure of whether she was asking him to stay or leave, Bobby erred on the side of caution.

And as his feet hit the sidewalk he kept thinking the same unfortunate thought,

Alone again.

…

A.N.

All right, so that might not have seemed like much ‘fun’ but break-ups are rarely neat and tidy, are they? I’m interested as to whether anyone can already predict where I’m going with this. You guys are great guessers.