A/N: As often happens during the Christmas season my family decided to watch "White Christmas" and there's a scene where Phil and Judy tell Bob that their engagement was fake. Bob lectures them and Judy runs out of the room crying. Phil looked like he really wanted to go after her and make things better...which inspired this. Also I've always wanted Phil and Judy to have more closure so that inspired this too. Enjoy!
A Good Man
by angellwings
Bob had instructed him to leave Judy alone, but Phil just couldn't. It seems that he had good reason to try and avoid Judy's advances. She was the only woman that made him even think about seriously settling down. She was pushy, talented, passionate, warm, and downright adorable, not to mention she had something his other dates didn't. Brains. Bob had a point about the girls Phil had thrown at him. They weren't much for conversation.
Phil hadn't planned on doing anything more than flirting with Judy, and when he found himself maybe wanting to kiss her he would get himself far away. He didn't want to settle down. Just because he wanted Bob to get married didn't mean he wanted to get married himself. Even before this fake engagement business he knew that Judy was a threat to that. He'd been aware of the danger of her from the minute he danced with her at Novello's.
He had known that their "engagement" would lead to more than he intended the second she brought it up, and then after finally kissing her…well he was a goner. He had found himself believing the engagement was real every now and then, and on top of that was the terrible depressed feeling he would get when he remembered it wasn't.
He had almost worked up the nerve to do something about it when Judy had gotten that letter from Betty, and then Bob was yelling at them and telling Judy, "You might have been stuck with this weirdsmobile for life." She had run out of the room crying and Phil's first instinct was to go after her. Would being stuck with him really be that bad or was she crying because Bob was disappointed in them? He hoped it was the latter.
As soon as he had straightened things out with Bob he set out to find her. He needed to talk to her. He wanted to tell her that as far as he was concerned she was stuck with him for life, but that might not come across the way he wanted it to. He would probably end up telling some cheesy joke at his own expense. He finally found her sitting on the empty stage in the barn. He cleared his throat and sat down beside of her on the edge of the stage.
"Hi, Judy," He said as he voiced cracked a little bit.
She sniffled and nodded at him in recognition.
"Bob will bring Betty back, you'll see."
"I'm sure he will," Judy sighed. "But that's not why I'm upset."
"It isn't?"
"No, I…" She paused to think for a minute and then continued. "I suppose we're not engaged anymore then?"
"Well, you heard Bob…you wouldn't want to be engaged to a weirdsmobile like me would you?" He asked as he feigned a teasing tone.
She wiped her nose with her handkerchief and then looked up at him, "Yes."
He froze, "You would?"
"Haven't we been through this before?" She asked him with a small sad grin.
"All we came up with last time was that I was 'awfully available', Judy," Phil told her with a chuckle.
"Then you weren't really listening to me, were you?"
He gave her a small smile, "What do you mean?"
"My list of qualifications, you know, a real man, charming, handsome…"
"A superman," Phil finished for her.
"Not a superman, a good man," Judy told him with a warm smile.
This was his moment. He could make this engagement real with just a few words, "Judy, if I were to—I mean what if I asked you—would you marry me?"
"Do you mean it this time?" She smirked.
He nodded wordlessly.
"Then…absolutely I will," She told him simply. She scooted closer to him and took his hand. She leaned in and kissed his cheek, "So how does that cocker spaniel compare now?"
He smirked, "Let's find out."
He leaned in and captured her lips with his and then pulled away, "Oh yes, you're certainly better company."