Disclaimer: I do not own the hit sitcom 'Reba,' but that would be so cool if I did! LOL!

Title: Undeniable Chemistry

Couple: Brock/Reba

Rating: T (PG-13)

Summary: Things have finally calmed down and become peaceful with the Hart family now that everyone's happy, but that soon changes when Brock's feelings for Reba begin to resurface.

Note: This is set shortly after the series finale of 'Reba.' This is my idea of what would have taken place if the CW had ordered the "back nine" episodes to give 'Reba' a full sixth season. I am dedicating this fanfiction to Reba McEntire and Chris Rich because their chemistry on this show was undeniable.


Chapter One: Episode 6x14 – Some Unresolved Feelings

Reba Hart had just gotten off of work after a hard day at the office and was finally getting to relax with a glass of red wine and a good book when someone came bursting through the front door.

"Hey Reba," said her ex-husband, Brock, while walking towards her at the couch. "How's it going?"

The fiery redhead put down her book and wineglass on the coffeetable in front of her and turned to him with an unpleasant look on her face. "Brock, if I had known that you were going to spend more time over here since we got divorced than I would have just stayed married to you so I could see you less often."

"Ha, ha. Very funny." Brock stared at her in response with boredom and then shook the comment off. "I just came by so I could pick up Jake for soccer practice because Kyra's stuck in traffic and doesn't have time to pick him up; it's in a half an hour. Do you have a problem with that?"

Reba got up from the couch and let out a sigh. "I'm sorry, Brock. I didn't mean to snap at you, it's just been a really hard day at work. You know ever since Van left my real estate office to join Steve Norris it's been tougher at the office."

"Why? Didn't you guys get someone else to replace Van after he quit?"

"Yeah, we did," Reba nodded her head. "But the guy acts like Van when he first started working for me, only goofier—if you can actually believe that."

Brock laughed at statement and then sat down on the arm of the couch while still looking at her. "Really? Goofier than Van? I thought no one on this entire planet was goofier than Van—except for maybe Barbara Jean."

"Yeah, it is hard to believe, especially after Kyra posted those embarrassing videos of Van on YouTube a few months ago when he was acting like "The Doofus," but I am telling you—this guy is weird."

"How so? I mean, what does the guy do, dance around and talks to himself in the mirror about 'getting in the zone' like Van?" Brock questioned Reba with a smile on his face, actually enjoying a conversation that didn't include arguing or Barbara Jean's name for once.

"No, of course he doesn't do that…he does worse. He talks to himself in the mirror, dances around like crazy in front of everyone, and sings karaoke songs every morning before work in the office!"

Brock laughed amusingly and tried to cover his mouth to stop when Reba slapped him on his right arm. "That's hilarious! I gotta meet this guy! Is he around Van's age too?"

"No, he's a couple of years older than Van, but he acts like he's five years old!" Reba took a few steps away from Brock, cupping her face in her hands for a moment, and let out another sigh.

After getting up off the couch, Brock put his hands on Reba's shoulders and rubbed them for few moments, unconsciously trying to relieve all of the stress and tension in her neck like when he used to when they were married. "I'm sorry, Reba. I didn't know that this new guy was such a pain for you. I really hope you have a better day at work tomorrow."

Reba smiled at her ex-husband for a second, and then realized that she was enjoying the neck rub he was giving to her a little too much so she walked away from Brock so he would stop rubbing her shoulders.

"Jake!" she called for their 13-year-old son. "Are you almost ready to go to soccer practice yet? Your dad's been waiting down here for five minutes."

"I'm almost ready, Mom!" he called back to her.

"Well hurry up or you're gonna be late!" she responded quickly and then turned around to look at Brock again. "So how are things going with you and Barbara Jean?"

"Good," Brock nodded and moved closer to Reba so that they were now both in front of the staircase waiting for Jake. "Things are getting better between us everyday, and she really enjoys her new position at the news station."

"That's good to hear," Reba said and grinned at Brock happily. "I'm glad to see that things are going better between you two and BJ's enjoying her new job."

"You know, Reba, it is still kinda weird to hear you say that Barbara Jean is your best friend. I mean, after all you hated her from day one and all she's ever done is annoy you."

"Yeah, I know, but I've also grown to like her over the years too because she's always been there for me—even when I didn't her want to be, but that's beside to point. I understand that she's a part of the reason our marriage didn't work out in the end and her crazy obsession with me has actually gotten some of the neighbors to move away, but she's still a sweet person and I always respected for that. Barbara Jean is a member of our family now, plus we honestly wouldn't be the family we are today without her. And whether that's a good or a bad thing, I couldn't tell ya."

He let out a light chuckle and nodded in agreement. "Yep, that's for sure. We wouldn't be the craziest, most dysfunctional family in Houston without Barbara Jean."

Reba was about to say something back when Jake came running down the stairs with his soccer bag slung over his shoulder. "Okay, I'm ready to go, Dad."

"All right, son. Hey, why don't you go get in the car and I'll be there in a minute. I just need to talk to your mom about something first and then we'll go."

"Okay. Bye, Mom."

"Bye, honey. Have fun at practice." Jake gave his mom a quick hug and she blew him a kiss goodbye as he walked out the door.

"So what do ya need to talk to me about?" Reba asked Brock after sitting down on one of the stairs.

Brock sat down with her while putting a hand on her knee without thinking about it. "I wanted to thank you for your support when Barbara Jean and I were separated."

"Which time?"

He glared at her and said, "The most recent time. Hopefully this time will be the last time we have serious martial problems. You know, it's not easy goin' through that stuff when you love someone so much and you don't know if it's gonna work out or not."

Reba rolled her eyes and sarcastically responded, "Yeah, you're right. I wouldn't know anything about how that feels like. Our separation and divorce was just a piece of cake for me."

The blond quickly got up from the stairs and stared straight into his ex-wife's eyes. "Oh, come on, Reba! Are you going to bring up our divorce every time we see each other so I feel guilty about it for the rest of my life?"

The redhead was taken back with wide eyes and got up swiftly to confront him. "Well, I'm glad to see that something positive came out of our divorce. You should feel guilty, Brock! You're the reason our family was torn apart!"

"That is not fair and you know it, Reba. We were having problems with our marriage long before I had an affair with Barbara Jean."

"Oh, so that makes you sleeping with her and getting her pregnant with Henry while being married to me okay?"

"No, it doesn't, but I thought you were glad to have Barbara Jean in your life now?" Brock argued back, trying to defend himself the best he could.

"Yes, I am glad to have her in my life now, but it took six years to do it! Think about it. Do you know what Barbara Jean was to me before I could accept her as my friend?"

Brock remained silent; his head hung low in shame.

"For years all Barbara Jean ever was to me was a reminder that our marriage failed—that I couldn't keep you happy enough to stay with me and the kids. And I hated her for it. I hated the fact that you felt like you had to be with her to feel good again when you had a wife sitting at home with three children to take care of. God, you have no idea of the pain you and Barbara Jean caused me, Brock. I couldn't get out of bed for a week! All I could think about was you being with her, living the life that you were supposed to have with me—your wife."

Reba paused a moment as tears were welling up in her eyes. Brock was about to open up his mouth and say something when Reba cut him off.

"And you wanna know the worst part about all of that was? Despite every immoral thing you did to ruin our marriage, I would have still given you another chance to come back to us because I still loved you and I thought that maybe it was worth the fight after 20 years of building a life together! But obviously you weren't willing to stay…so I guess I wasn't willing to fight for you…and now here we are six years later." Reba finally finished what she wanted to say and dried her eyes after a few tears had fallen down.

"You were still in love with me when we were getting divorced?" Brock asked his ex-wife in barely above a whisper.

She stared at him in shock and then anger, flinging her arms up impatiently. "Is that all you've got to say after everything I just said to you?!"

"Answer the question, did you?" Brock's voice was suddenly becoming louder and more firm.

"I think I made myself pretty clear, Brock. I hope that I don't have to repeat it again."

"So you did still have feelings for me when we were getting divorce. Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"What difference would it have made? You made up your mind about marrying BJ because you got her pregnant and you thought it was the right thing to do. That's the end of the story."

"Well maybe—" BEEP! The sound of a car horn suddenly cut Brock off from finishing his sentence.

"C'mon, Dad! We're gonna be late for practice!" Jake yelled for his father from the driveway.

Brock looked to the front door and then back to Reba. Their blue eyes were locked into a gaze that seem to last forever until Reba finally spoke up. "You should go. Jake's going to be late for practice otherwise."

He tried to move closer to her, but when she stepped back he got the picture. "I'll talk to you later, all right?"

"Fine," Reba said in an almost irritated tone. "Just bring Jake home at a decent hour so he can finish his homework before going to bed."

"Okay." Then Brock left the house, leaving Reba to wonder what had just happened between them.


(One day later…)

Reba was cleaning up the living room when Brock suddenly came through the front door.

"Hey, Reba…I think we need to sit down and talk."

"Why?" she asked him without looking up at him while polishing the coffeetable.

He walked down past the steps and stood right above her. "Because a lot of unresolved feelings came out yesterday that I think we never discussed when we were getting divorced."

"In case you've forgotten, we got divorced over six years ago, Brock. We don't need to talk about anything concerning that anymore."

"Yes, we do," he insisted. "The argument we had yesterday made me realize that we never really had any closure before we got divorced and I married Barbara Jean."

Reba got off of the ground and glared at him straight in the eyes. "Oh, well I think we had plenty of closure when your pregnant mistress showed up in my kitchen on Van and Cheyenne's wedding day while you were hugging me!"

Brock's eyes widened from her outrage and pointed a finger at her. "I thought you were over that by now. God, Reba, you can't have it both ways! You can't say that Barbara Jean's your best friend one day and then say that she's still your enemy the next. You either like her or ya don't."

"I do like her, Brock, but I still hate the part that she had in the destruction of our marriage! And she wouldn't have been if were able to control yourself more! At least she regrets being one of the reasons why we got divorced, but you—you never want to admit it. You never want to admit that if you hadn't had an affair with Barbara Jean, our marriage might have lasted!"

"Okay, fine, I'll admit that. If I hadn't been an idiot, our marriage might have had a chance, but there's no guarantee it would have."

"Don't you dare start pulling the 'what-ifs' on me, Brock. What you did was wrong! Even if our marriage had failed without Barbara Jean in our lives that still doesn't make what you did with her right."

Brock lowered his head and refused to speak as Reba continued speaking her mind about the subject.

"You know what kills me the most about this whole thing? You honestly thought I would have gotten over the fact that you cheated on me so easily and that I really didn't care that you were marrying Barbara Jean right after you divorced me."

Her ex-husband gaped at her in shock, completely stunned by what she had just said. "How the hell can you say something like that! Do you really think that I thought that Reba? I mean, after all the years we shared together, is that really what you think?"

"Actions speak louder than words! And your actions were booming all through Houston!"

"What are you talking about?"

"Let me refresh your memory in case you forgot, okay? You let Barbara Jean come to our daughter's wedding when I said I wanted you to come alone, you tried to get me to sign a permission slip form for bigamy so you could marry Barbara Jean out of town before our divorce was final, you brought her over to my house for my parents' anniversary after I specifically told you not to, you announced to an entire birthing class that you're going to be a better father to Henry than to our children, and then you—!" Brock cut her off by covering her mouth with his hand.

"Stop it, okay? I've heard enough," he uncovered her mouth and stepped back some. "All right, I get it. Maybe my actions did tell you that I wanted you to get over us quickly, but that's only because I didn't want to see you in pain, Reba. You were my wife for twenty years, my best friend in college, and the one person I can always go when things get rough…"

"Like when things get rough between you and Barbara Jean?"

Brock sighed and rolled his eyes for a second. "Do we really need to get into that right now? Barbara Jean and I are finally rebuilding our marriage and making things work again. I really don't want to talk about all of the problems that we've had in the past when the two of us are finally on the right track."

Reba patted him on the shoulder for a quick two seconds and nodded. "I'm sorry, you're right. I didn't mean to bring that up; I was just trying to make a point."

"And what's your point?"

"Look, all I'm trying to say is that although I got past you cheating on me eventually, that don't mean that it doesn't still hurt from time to time. Don't get me wrong, you're both my friends and I love you both as part of my family, but what you two did to me will never be erased from my mind. A part of me will always be upset with what you did, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about you any less. Families stick together and that's what we're gonna do, okay?"

The blond smiled softly at his ex-wife and opened his arms to hug her. She accepted the invitation and hugged him back. Brock closed his eyes and enjoyed the brief, pleasant moment that he got to share with Reba. They didn't get too many moments like these anymore, and he wasn't going to waste a single second of it. The divorced couple parted about a minute later and locked eye contact once more.

"You know what amazes me, Reba?"

"The fact that you've been here a whole five minutes and you're shocked to see that I haven't kicked you outta here yet?"

He laughed and replied, "Yeah, but I was actually thinking about something else."

"About what?"

"About the chemistry we have."

"What chemistry?" Reba asked, starting to sound annoyed by him again.

"C'mon, Reba, you know what I'm talking about. Don't try and deny it."

"Deny what? We're divorced. We haven't had 'chemistry' since we were happily married."

Brock gave her one of his sexy, sly smiles and just nodded. "Okay, whatever you say. I'll see you later," then he walked towards the door.

"But you know, I think one of these days you'll actually admit it…" he said before grabbing the door knob to close it behind him.

"Out!" Reba yelled for him to leave and Brock shut the front door closed.


How was the first chapter? Should I continue writing it? Please review!

Shining Friendship