The Last Goodbye

[dottycow.livejournal.com]

Title: The Last Goodbye
Author:  
Fandom: Franklin & Bash
Genre: Break-up, Implied Slash
Pairing: Peter/Janie implied Peter/Jared
P.O.V (Narrative): 3rd Person
Rating: PG-13
A/N: This is my first attempt at a Franklin & Bash story, although I've been writing fanfiction for a while. just a short one shot. I couldn't sleep and figured this was as good a way as any to battle my insomnia. initially I couldn't decide whether to write this idea as a one shot or a chaptered story, but I chose the one shot figuring I could alway attempt a more in-depth, chaptered thing at a later date if I get time/inspiration. Anyway, I hope you guys like it.
Disclaimer: I own nothing... at all... even my imagination is on loan!!!!



The Last Goodbye

It started out like any other argument between the pair, but something felt different this time and Janie couldn't quite figure out what. They were arguing about Jared again, as always seemed to be the case of late. Peter was feeding her all the usual defences, all the reasons that she was obviously overreacting. That her accusation that Jared was jealous of their relationship was blowing things out of proportion. And she couldn't help herself, the thought that she'd been afraid to say out loud suddenly spewed from her lips before her brain had time to stop it.

"For God's sake, Peter," she cried, interrupting Peter's speech. "He's obviously in love with you!"

Peter paused for a moment, staring at her, with a blend of shock and what Janie had thought looked like fear etched on his face, before coming to his senses and responding. But Janie wasn't aware of what he was saying. Sure, she knew he was talking, probably babbling about the many ways that Janie couldn't be more wrong, she could see his lips moving, but her mind was to preoccupied with the pandora's box of thoughts that sentence had unleashed to make sense of his words.

When she had first started seeing Peter she'd known that they were close, practically family, but she never could have imagined just what that meant. The forgotten dates because he's been hanging out with Jared and lost track of time. The broken promises because Jared had had a run-in with his father and needed Peter to stay for a while. But despite it all Janie stayed, because she loved him and she believed he loved her too. So she would convince herself that she wouldn't want to be with Peter if he was the kind of man who could leave his best friend in distress, that his devotion to the people he cared about was one of the things she loved the most about him. It was only now that Janie could admit to herself that that devotion had never extended to her with quite the tenacity that it did to Jared.

It was kind of ironic really, Janie thought, that Jared had actually been instrumental in her and Peter getting together in the first place. She had noticed Jared in their Constitutional Law lectures, watching her from across the room and, while at first she had been flattered by the attention, after a while she had started to feel uncomfortable, so after one of their lectures had let out she decided to confront him. She was halfway through informing him of how he was coming off creepy and stalkerish when Peter had swooped in to save the day. The rest of her rant died on her lips as he flashed her his trademark smile and apologised for his friends behaviour, and offering to take her out to make amends. She was instantly smitten, and so, feigning reluctance, agreed to his request. She noticed out of the corner of her eye that Jared was now openly scowling at the two of them, but at the time she had just assumed he was put out by his friend stealing the girl he'd been eyeing out from under him. Looking back now, Janie supposed that should have been her first clue, although there had been many others. Jared always seemed somehow tense around her, his shoulders would stiffen and his jaw would clench ever so slightly, almost imperceptibly, whenever she and Peter were openly affectionate towards one another. She'd tried to talk to Peter about it, still at the time concerned that Jared may be harbouring some residual feelings for her and not to wanting rub his nose in the fact that Peter had her, but Peter insisted she was imagining it, and so she'd let it go. But it was the things within her relationship with Peter that she had deliberately ignored, like the fact that he had become much less affectionate when they were at his place, which she forgave, putting it down to sparing Jared's feelings, even if Peter did deny that they were hurt. And he became overly affectionate when they were out in public, and it was only now, looking back, that she realised that it was only when out with his friends that he became so tactile. The time Peter had missed her birthday because Jared had needed a shoulder to cry on over something his dad had said, although the specifics were never given. Even professionally Peter put Jared first, they were Franklin and Bash, and yeah, they claimed to have had some kind of debate or coin-toss or something (Janie hadn't really been listening to the specifics when Peter told her this story) she knew that Peter would have let Jared have his way eventually. She had always believed that Peter's inability to upset Jared was down to the fact that since they were children Peter had held the role of Jared's rock, and he felt some kind of obligation not to let him down. But now, with the previously unspoken words now out there in the universe, the rose tinted view she'd had of the situation cleared and it all made sense. Every lingering touch, every contented gaze, every fond smile. taking a deep breath, she swallowed thickly against the emotions settled in her throat as she cut Peter off for the second time that night, effectively ending their relationship with her next sentence, spoken just loud enough for Peter to hear.

"And I think you're in love with him too!"

Comments

[hope-calaris.livejournal.com]

That's really lovely, thanks for writing and sharing!

I like the fact that Janie was desperate to ignore what was really going on, all the tiny details like Peter being less tactile with Jared around that she chose to ignore. It's a bit heartbreaking, but very realistic at the same time.

(And only two small things: I'd have liked another two or so line breaks for the last paragraph just to make reading easier. And the next time you post [because I really want to read a chaptered fanfic of this ^^] could you please make sure that you use the community's default font type? I think you accidentely dragged some word formation into the lj editor.)

[dottycow.livejournal.com]

Thanks for reading... I'm glad you liked it. I had intended to put a line break in before she started examining the things in her relationship with Peter that served as clues but I must have accidentally deleted it... :-S

also, sorry about the font, I'm really not sure what I did there, but I'll definitely try to use the community default in future. :-)

[misslola89.livejournal.com]

I love this. Third-person POVs are my favourite to read since they're an unbiased take on the relationship in question and this was no exception. I like that Janie was trying to excuse everything Peter did but that eventually, she couldn't ignore the truth. And I like that there are only two spoken lines but that they influence the entire story.

In other words, keep writing F&B fic!

[dottycow.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It really means a lot that the small amount of dialogue worked for you.
When I first started writing character based work I was writing short scripts, so usually I'm quite dialogue heavy. I'm glad it worked this way. :-)

[jekesta]

Oh, this is LOVE. I agree with Fob, there being so little dialogue, but it being so important, just worked really well, I love her just ignoring whatever Peter was saying because it would be babbling about Jared and she's heard all that before. And all her thoughts leading her to realise it wasn't one sided from Jared were kind of perfect.

Jared had needed a shoulder to cry on over something his dad had said, although the specifics were never given

I just really love that somehow.

And I love how there might have been a cointoss or something for the names, but really she just thinks it's Peter LOVING HIM.

And:

Every lingering touch, every contented gaze, every fond smile

OH GOD THEY ARE SO BEAUTIFUL TOGETHER. Sorry, but they are. Those are totally the things that mean they're in love. Their complete *fondness* for each other. It's sparkling.

I really liked this, I hope you write more!:):):):)

[dottycow.livejournal.com]

every now and then comes a TV show that has a Bromance where you just know the B is just a facade and it's all romance really... This is one of those times...they really are just too cute together.

With the line about Jared needing a shoulder to cry on over his dad, I needed it to be something that Janie wouldn't feel was worth missing her birthday, but that would be important enough to Jared that Peter would drop everything for him.

I'm glad you liked it.

hopefully the muse will strike again and I'll have more Franklin and Bash goodies soon. :-)

[vic-amy-z.livejournal.com]

I know I've left on a comment on this once already, but LJ appears to have eaten it! Damn you, LJ...

Okay, this was a beautiful little insight into why Peter and Janie could never work. I love your descriptions of all the little things that Janie has noticed that, on their own, might not seem like much but when you look at them all together... I agree with the other comments about the dialogue too. You don't need to say any more than what's said in those 2 lines.

The broken promises because Jared had had a run-in with his father and needed Peter to stay for a while.

That is just perfect and it tells you everything about Peter and Jared's relationship. I really enjoyed this and I hope we'll be getting more stories from you soon! Thanks for sharing...

[dottycow.livejournal.com]

stupid live journal, eating your comment >:-(

thank you for reading this.... I'm glad you liked it.

I'll admit that I was able to draw on personal experience for all the little things that Janie had overlooked... I was in her shoes when I was about 18, although my way of dealing with it was to get blind drunk, phone the Peter of my story and ask him out right if he was sleeping with the Jared of the group... his response was that he can't deal with this right now, so he handed the phone to said Jared character... I think Janie handled it better than I did... :-P

I loved the way Peter was just there for Jared through all the Leonard stuff... he just got it... so sweet. :-)


hopefully I'll have an idea for more stories soon.... :-D