This fanfic takes place in the third season, which means Richard and Julia are married.
Playing games
By Joanne
It was a usual morning at Caroline's; Richard and Caroline were working enjoying each other's company without really talking.
They would have been startled when Annie flew in the door abruptly, but with it happening every morning, they hardly even noticed.
They did, however, notice Annie start to yell a second later;
"Oh you are so dead Richard!" she screamed.
Richard tried his best to keep his usual deadpan expression, but he found it really hard not to laugh.
"What did he do this time?" Caroline asked, not really surprised.
"I just talked to my new boyfriend David on the phone – or, excuse me, ex-boyfriend – and he broke up with me because of my 'mental problems!' Apparently he'd met a tall blond guy in the hallway when he left my apartment this morning," Annie said, looking angrily over at Richard, "who told David I was 'mentally deficient'!"
Caroline looked over at Richard. She smiled slightly, finding the situation very amusing.
"Oh, I think I met that guy too when I arrived this morning," Richard said innocently. "Probably someone you've slept with or something."
"Oh cut it out Richard, I know it was you! Only you would use words like 'mentally deficient'."
"I see, and what word would you use, if I may ask?" Richard said.
"Oh I don't know, how about 'nuts'?!"
"Okay, okay, it was me. But I thought you were finished with him, I was just trying to help."
"You are so going to die!" Annie hissed.
"Okay, kill me now and I'll die a happy man!" Richard said, smiling broadly.
Annie just mumbled "I'll get my revenge," and went over to the couch and sat down.
"Annie, you're coming to my dinner tonight aren't you?" Caroline asked, trying to lighten the mood a little.
"Of course. I mean it's not like I have a date or anything!" she said, glaring at Richard. "Hey, have you invited the dufus?" she said, nodding at Richard.
"No, I know him. He'd never wanna come." She turned to Richard. "Right?"
"Right," he simply said. But thinking of it, he realized it would actually be better if he went, even if it meant he'd have to have an argument with Julia. Annie might reveal things, considering she promised to get revenge and there would probably be alcohol involved. "Oh what the hell, maybe I'll come," he said.
"Great!" Caroline said, hiding her surprise. "It'll be fun, it's just going to be me, you, Annie and Del. Oh, and Charlie of course."
"Oh I'm sure Richie will enjoy it alright," Annie said smirking.
"Annie, I know your work shift just ended, but ours just started so we're trying to work here," Richard said, more than a little annoyed.
"You know, that's getting a little stale," Annie said.
"What, now you're quoting your 'dates' too?"
"Oh, bite me!" Annie rose from the couch and left the apartment angrily.
"Quoting…" Richard repeated, just loud enough for Caroline to hear.
"Richard, you were unusually cruel today. I don't think she deserved that," Caroline said.
"Well you haven't heard the whole story. Annie called the police and said that she thought I was the one who abducted some kid that disappeared."
"Oh my god, that's so mean!" Caroline exclaimed. "Did the police really believe her?"
"Well, yeah, they had to at least look into it, since it was such a serious accusation. They interrogated me for an hour! Apparently I look like some kind of pedophile to them."
"Okay, then she definitely deserved what you did to her. But don't you think this 'practical joke' thing has gone a little too far?"
"It's fun," Richard said and smiled wickedly. "Now we're even, but Annie seems to want to retaliate anyway." Richard got a worried look on his face.
"Ah, don't worry, how bad can it be?"
"You have no idea…" Richard said quietly.
Around 10 o'clock that night:
Caroline, Del, Annie, Richard and Charlie were sitting around Caroline's coffee table. Annie, Del and Charlie each had a beer, while Richard and Caroline preferred wine and were drinking that instead. Anyway, everyone had all had a fair amount of alcohol already. Everyone were talking and laughing, even Richard almost seemed to enjoy himself.
"Hey, let's play 'Truth or Dare'!" Annie suddenly shouted.
"Yeah, great idea," Del said enthusiastically.
"What? No that's stupid. It's a children's game!" Richard protested.
"No it's not," Charlie said. "I play it all the time with my friends!"
Richard looked at Charlie and sighed. "I'm not even gonna ask."
"Okay, come on, let's play!" Caroline encouraged.
"You guys can play, I'll just watch," Richard said.
"No that's against the rules," Annie said.
"How can I break the rules if I don't even participate in the game?!"
"If you just sat there and watched us play, you'd hear all the juicy confessions but you wouldn't need to do any yourself! Am I right here?" Annie said, and getting nods from everyone except Richard.
"Well I wasn't the one who wanted to play this silly game, why should I suffer?"
"Because if you don't play, Richie, I have arguments that will make you want to play. Strong, strong arguments…"
Richard, who of course was the only one who understood what Annie meant, quickly said,
"I can't wait to begin the game. I'm going to have so much fun."
Caroline looked at him in confusion, wondering what made him change his mind so quickly. But then she said,
"Well let's begin then."
"Okay, Caroline why don't you go first? After all it's your dinner," Annie said.
"Okay. Now who should I ask? I ask Del - truth or dare?"
"Truth of course! You guys already know everything about me anyway!" he said, proud of his quick thinking.
Caroline thought for a long while, then Annie whispered something in her ear.
"Oh…" Caroline said. "Okay, we have a question for you. Have you ever been unable to…to…perform, so to speak?"
"Unable to perform?! In some weird way that actually is a good euphemism," Richard said, amused.
"Maybe once," Del said quickly. "Okay, now it's my turn."
"Whoa, that's not good enough," Annie said. "When and with whom?"
"Okay, um, Caroline, you remember that Thanksgiving two years ago, when you and I were kinda fooling around---"
"---and you suddenly pulled a muscle, yeah," Caroline said. After saying it, she realized what he meant. "Ooh… I take it you didn't really pull a muscle, huh?"
"Nope."
"But why didn't you tell me? I would've understood, you know."
"Hey, only one question," Del said, getting away from the subject. "Now it's my turn. I ask Annie - truth or dare?"
"Truth!"
"Okay…um…" Del tried to think of something he didn't already know about her, which wasn't exactly easy.
"Oh great, he's thinking. We'll be stuck here all night," Richard muttered.
"Oh I know!" Del said. "Have you ever had sex with another woman." He smiled, pleased with what he thought was a great question.
"What kind of question is that?! No I have not!"
"Damn! I really thought so!" Del said.
"Yeah, yeah, leave your fantasies out of this. Okay, my turn," Annie said. "I ask Richard - truth or dare?"
Richard groaned inwardly. "Why does this not surprise me? I choose dare."
This way I won't have to answer her humiliating questions, that I just KNOW would be about Caroline
, Richard thought. Now all she can do is make me do stuff like running naked around the block, and even that would be better than to have to answer her questions!"Ah, you choose dare? Interesting…" Annie said.
"Yes, what do you want me to do?" he sighed.
"I want you to kiss Caroline!"
His plan had backfired. That was a detail his 'genius' plan didn't contain.
"Hey, what did I ever do to you?" Caroline complained. She seemed quite calm, but inside, she panicked just as much as Richard. She couldn't believe Annie could do that to her when she knew how she felt about him.
"No no no, I'm not doing that," Richard tried.
"Oh yes yes yes," Annie said. "For 30 seconds."
"30 seconds?! You know, that is one long kiss," Caroline managed to get out. Now she wasn't able to hide her nervousness anymore. She glanced over at her secret love quickly.
"Wait, wait!" Del said. "With or without tongues?"
"Um…without. I'm not gonna be too mean, since Caroline really is innocent. Just forcing her to kiss that geek is almost a little too cruel, even to be me."
Both Richard and Caroline let out a sigh of relief.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Stand up kids!"
Knowing there was no getting out of this, Richard and Caroline slowly stood up. Their eyes met and held for a second, then they walked closer to each other. They had been sitting on different sides of the table.
"Okay, you can start whenever you want to."
Richard and Caroline were now standing just inches apart. Richard slowly inched his head closer to Caroline's and their lips met awkwardly. Both were tense at first, but after a few seconds, both were enjoying it so much that the kiss intensified considerably. Suddenly Richard slipped his tongue into Caroline's mouth and met hers. With the alcohol in their bodies and the passion they were feeling, it was impossible for them not to do this. When the kiss ended Caroline had her arms around his neck and Richard's arms around her waist. Their bodies were as close to each other as they could possibly be and Caroline could feel Richard's breath against her mouth, warm and wonderful on her skin.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, then Richard let go of her and quickly started walking towards the door. His only words were an embarrassed "I have to go," and then he left the apartment.
"Oh god, oh god, what just happened?!" Caroline said.
"I think we all know what just happened," Annie said.
"Annie, he…he…he has feelings for me?"
Annie nodded.
"Oh my God. Richard has…feelings for me. No, that can't be possible. But the kiss, it was so…"
"He loves you, hon. Trust me."
"But how come I've never noticed anything then?"
"Well, he's very good at hiding his emotions. And besides he never realized you were in love with him either."
"What do I do now?"
"Well, he ain't gonna make the first move, so you'd better. He's probably feeling incredibly humiliated right now, thinking he was the only one who went too far."
"Yeah… I need to talk to him Annie. I mean, it's obvious he has feelings for me. That kiss…"
"Yeah, I know," Annie said. She turned to Del and Charlie, who had been listening to the conversation in silence. "Hey guys, we'd better leave if Caroline is going to call Richard."
Del and Charlie stood up.
"Good luck Caroline," Del said.
"Thanks, I need it," Caroline said nervously.
"I'll come over tomorrow," Annie said and gave her friend a quick hug, before she left along with Del and Charlie, leaving Caroline by herself, reflecting what had happened earlier.
Richard entered his and Julia's apartment. He reached out his hand in the dark and tried to find the switch, but as he did this, he could hear Julia's voice coming from the bed. "Oh my God," she whispered. "It's my husband!"
Richard turned the lights on and then just stared. There, in his very bed, lay his wife naked with a just as naked Italian man.
"Um, Reechard, let me explain," she tried.
"Get out," Richard just said. His voice was hard and his eyes cold as he looked at her.
The Italian guy was already getting dressed, while Julia had covered her body with the sheets.
"But Reechard. I have my needs too, you know. I could not sit here alone, waiting for you, while I knew you were at Caroline's, yearning for her."
Richard didn't have the strength to argue, not after the night he'd had, and not after all the fights he'd already had with Julia about this. Especially since he knew she was right.
"I want you out by tomorrow. Good bye Julia." There wasn't anything more that needed to be said. Both knew that the marriage was nothing but a failure and a big lie.
Caroline started to dial Richard's number for the tenth time in half an hour, then quickly hung up again. She didn't know why she was so nervous. There was no doubt how Richard felt about her, but she just couldn't quite believe it was true. It could have been just the alcohol talking, after all.
A knock on the door made Caroline jump. She stared intently at the door for a moment, before even thinking of opening it. There was another knock and Caroline slowly went and opened.
"Richard…!" was all she could get out.
"Hi," he replied. "Am I interrupting?"
"Interrupting? No no, I'm alone. Come in."
Richard slowly entered the apartment and sat down on the couch. Caroline tried to understand his mood, but it was just confusing her even more. She pulled up a chair and sat by the sofa, facing Richard.
"Julia and I are getting a divorce," Richard said tentatively.
Caroline swallowed. "What?"
"Yeah, she slept with some hunky Italian guy and that was the end of it."
"She did?! But…can't you two talk about it?"
Richard shook his head. "No Caroline. That won't help. The marriage was over before it even started."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I'm not."
"You're not?"
"No, it's strange," Richard said, "but it's actually a relief I found her with that guy. That way I don't have to feel guilty for leaving her."
"Oh. Well, um, congratulations on your divorce then," Caroline said and managed a small smile.
Richard smiled back. "Thanks."
"I was thinking…maybe we should talk about what happened earlier?" Caroline said. She was incredibly nervous but it was in the air and someone had to bring it up.
"Um, yeah, right. I thought so too."
"Oh, good."
There was an uncomfortable silence as no one knew how to proceed. Caroline started talking again:
"Um, Annie got these crazy ideas that—that…" she made a short pause, looking down at her hands. "that you had feelings for me," she said quickly.
Richard's head shot up. "She did?" he said nervously.
"Yeah. And I need to know---if it's true or not." She swallowed hard.
Richard was confused. Did this mean that she had feelings for him too
"Yes, for once, Annie is right," he finally said, sounding a lot more confident than he was.
"What? Really?"
"Yes," he said and reached out his hands towards Caroline. She took them and they stood up. Both were smiling.
"I dare you to kiss me," Caroline said, and Richard, without a word, bent down and kissed her. Kissed her like before, but now all feelings were out in the open and all inhibitions were gone.