Title: True Love after Loss (redone) Ch.1
Author: Bubblebear488
Pairing: Duncan/OC, LoVe.
Rating: R
Spoilers: all season 1
Summary: After season 1, Duncan meets someone new, who changes his life forever.
Okay so i know this has been posted before but i realized it needed to be changed. I really loved this story because it was one of the first ones i ever wrote. But looking through my old comments i realized it needed some serious grammer/spelling work, as well as changes in plot, and characterization since my OC is what some deemed "too Perfect" so here it is the first installment of the new 'True Love after Loss'. Hope you like it.
The sun slipped through the blinds and danced up the side of the bed and made its way across the faces of the tired bedmates. He stirred in his sleep and finally opened his eyes and let them adjust to his surroundings, he peered down and it took him a moment to realize who was in his arms. She wasn't a fling, or a one night stand, they didn't even have sex, she was his everything. They had been dating all summer and were coming up on their 2 month anniversary, which seemed big to him. He didn't move, he didn't want to wake her from her peaceful sleep, her face was curved in a slight smile and he wished he could jump inside her head and find out what made her so happy. What did she dream about? Who did she dream about?
When he watched her eyes start to rouse under her lids, he snapped his shut and pretended to be asleep. He could feel her stretch under him and gently remove his arms from around her. The bed dipped while she slipped out of it gently, trying not to wake him up until he actually had to. She walked toward the bathroom and he could hear the shower start to run. All he could do was think about the time he had spent with her and prey that she would never leave.
He got up and slowly made his way to the bathroom, opening the door silently he slid in, watching her through the shower curtain, yet all he could see was the silhouette of her naked body. She wasn't like the other girls she had her own way of looking at the world and herself.
"What do you think you are doing, you little pervert?" she said with a playful mock in her voice. They had gotten intimate on more than one occasion, but were still drawing the firm line between third and home. He didn't know her plan with him, but he was willing to wait as long as she needed.
"Rachel you are truly killing me." He said pretending to stab a knife through his heart. She peeked her head from around the corner and looked at him with a devilish grin.
"What, do you want to join me?" she asked slipping a leg around the shower curtain and rubbing it up and down the door. She loved to tease him, but along with the grin he could see the slight hesitation in her eyes, awaiting his answer.
"No" he replied with a silent grumble, then replied "You like it way to hot for me" noting the fact that she had set it to the highest temperature. "I don't feel like having second degree burns.
"Well I'll be out in a couple of minutes then you can change it to your 'pussy setting'" she quipped. "Plus, we need to hurry, you have school today" she added knowing that he had forgotten.
"Oh crap! It isn't Monday it can't be!"
It had been a long summer started with Aarons and his parent's trial. His parents had gotten off with 1 year probation, and 100 hours of community service each, for covering up the murder. Aaron on the other hand was up for 2 counts attempted murder, 1 count statuary rape, and 1 count first degree murder. His trial was going to be a lot harder.
He had been in a daze for the weeks that followed Aarons arrest, he had decided to go back on the Zoloft his mother had him on, and become the zombie that she adored. He paced in front of the pharmacy counter in the grocery store, waiting for them to fill his prescription when he heard a strange noise behind him.
She was 5'9 with a light auburn hair and fiery green eyes; she had an hourglass shape, much different from the anorexic 'I wanna be a model' types he was used to. He watched her dance down the aisle swaying her hips and dancing around in circles. She did so with a pair of headphones that covered her distracting her from the outside world. She was also humming, her eyes closed in a somewhat meditated state.
He heard the man at the pharmacy clear his throat and he jerked around immediately, slowly walking up to the counter. There were two bags waiting there, before he could reach out he saw a hand dart in front of him and grab the one on the left. He could smell her perfume; it was citric and reminded him of something Lilly used to wear. She skipped off turning her head and yelling over her shoulder, "Thanks Larry!"
Still stunned by how much he seemed to notice about this girl, 'he was rarely out of comatose long enough to notice anything anymore'. He wondered how she knew the pharmacist, his brain lost in thought he almost didn't realize he had the wrong bag.
Reading the side he whispered the name to himself "Rachel Rembok." Before his brain had a chance to catch up to his feet, he sprinted forward and lightly tapped her shoulder. She stopped in her tracks, she turned around abruptly. He had expected her to be shocked or angry that he had snapped her out of her trance. But instead she graced him with a small smile, one in which turned into a grin "You must be Duncan?"
He was shocked, how did she know his name? Did he know her? "Yes, how did you know?" he asked quizzically. She lifted up the bag and pointed to the name printed on the front.
"I think I jacked your bag by mistake" she added. He struck his forehead with him palm in a 'No-Duh' gesture, and then placed his attention on her while extending his hand out.
"I'm Duncan Kane, but I think we've already established that" he said making her smile even brighter.
"I thought you would be taller" she said with a slight tilt to her head, before shrugging "huh." He again was confused, suddenly remembering the vast media circus that had ceased to stop following him everywhere. She took his hand and added "I'm Rachel."
They shook hands and she giggled when it didn't stop. He felt embarrassed finally releasing her. They stood in silence a couple of seconds before she stated boldly "Zoloft is bad, I can't believe you're on it."
"You little peeper" he grinned.
"Hey I can't help it; it was right next to your name… I am nothing if not a sucker for detail" she added biting her tongue between her teeth in an innocent look.
"Well let's see what we have here" he said looking at her bag, "Ritalin?" he asked slightly surprised as well as amused.
"Yep I have too much energy, and an overactive imagination, when those things mix only bad things can happen" she teased. "My shrink thinks I'm nuts, we pay the guy $300 dollars an hour and all he can come up with is a prescription of Ritalin for me and some aspirin for himself."
That last part made him laugh, reminding him a lot of Lilly, and how she used to describe herself.
He realized he laughed out loud, retracting the act with a simple "Sorry," as if not to make offence to her condition.
"No prob, that's why I said it, if I can't laugh about my problems then what good are they." They both laughed and he slowly passed over her bag. She gave him his and turned to walk away, before spinning back around, as if she had just had a great idea.
"Do you want to go get some coffee" she said wincing her eyes as if waiting for the blow of rejection.
"Sure, I have no where I need to be." He said moving his hand signaling for her to lead the way. "But I have to warn you, there are going to be tons of reporters following our every move."
"What are you famous or something?" she said looking confused.
"Kind of, I thought you knew who I was; you said you expected me to be taller?"
"Oh, I say that to everyone" she giggles and pushes his shoulder playfully.
"No way! School can't be back in session! I just started to enjoy my summer." He whined looking into the now steamy bathroom mirror.
"Well it is, and I'm not going to let you be late. Now stop pouting and start making some coffee, I need my morning buzz." She commanded with a whip of her finger toward the door.
"Like you need more of a pep." He grumbled. "God I hate morning people." He stated back to the shower.
Rachel was a senior at a high school outside of San Diego called Poway High, he had heard of them before but never gave it much thought. Her grandfather recently died, and she came up to Neptune to supervise the storing of his summer house. When the movers were gone she decided to stay the summer and had them leave a bed, fridge, and TV. She lived off a couple grand she had saved up over the years, and finally ran out of money.
Her parents died in a car accident two weeks before her 15th birthday, in their will they left her their name and a 9 million dollar inheritance. But as a sick joke (or as she puts it) her parent's lawyers had convinced her father to put such an inheritance, into a large trust fund she was to get when she turned 21.
So she lived with her Grandfather in Poway, staying with her best friend in Coronado for the summers. She hated Poway almost as much as he now hated Neptune, and secretly planned to move down to Neptune when school started back up. However Rachel lacked the power to keep secrets, Duncan thought, and he had convinced her not to.
"Why?" she pleaded.
"Because I don't want you to get caught up in this world, I have seen it destroy people, and I don't want that for you." He said pleading as well.
"Fine I'll go back to Poway, and you will never see me again" she said pouting.
"Of course I will, I will come and get you all the time, I promise" he grabbed her arms and pulled her into his embrace. They had only known each other for a couple of months but she was his everything. He still cared for veronica, but this was different. He felt so free with Rachel, enough so that he had told her the whole story, about EVERYTHING that happened. He had expected her to flee, but all she did was nod, and pull him close comforting him. Saying, "You didn't know it's not your fault; you thought you were doing the right thing by letting her go."
She had forgiven him and for some reason that was all he needed. She sat in on his testimony at Aaron's trial, and comforted him with smiles and positive hand gestures. She had a knack for making everything better with a smile.
He didn't have a chance to see Logan and Veronica during the trial, their testimonies were to be kept separate, as to not influence one another's stories. So they were never in the same room, but he called Logan a couple of times to see how he was doing.
Logan recovered from Weevil's beating quite quickly, yet that didn't stop Duncan from wanting to know how he was doing. Yet later he found out that Logan and veronica were back together, after a surprise to her apartment the night of the attack.
At first he was upset, one of the reasons he was going back on Zoloft. He really thought he loved Veronica, after a while he realized the veronica he loved no longer existed. So he congratulated the two, with some encouragement (demands) from Rachel, and they remained cool.
She skipped into the kitchen, wearing a pair of blue wash jeans and a light pink t-shirt, her hair pulled back into a slick ponytail her face dashed with a light layer of makeup. She hopped over to the coffee pot and poured herself a mug.
"So, what time do you have to go today?" he asked with a sudden frown.
"Well I better go now, I have late day which means I don't have to get to school until 9:15 but I need about 45 minutes to get there, then I have to go through registration." She pouted not wanted to go either.
"I'll see you soon" he said trying to cheer her up, pulling her into a hug. He kissed the crown of her head slowly walking her toward the door grabbing her bag on the way out.
His Parents found it necessary to go to every out-of-town charity event imaginable to try to boost up their reputations after the trial. This gave them some time alone to act like a couple living in sin.
Yet there was no sin, the first night they had fallen asleep on the couch watching a movie, the next morning he found her asleep in one of the guest rooms. After a while, she got more comfortable with him and realized he wasn't the kind of guy to push her into bed. So they kept their sleepovers Dawson's Creek (pg) style, well up until recently, when they discovered the beauty of third base. Celeste and Jake were too caught up in their own lives, totally oblivious to what their son did while they were gone. Yet both liked and respected Rachel, Yes! Even Celeste liked Rachel.
Duncan showered quickly, ran a brush through his hair, and ran out the door. For some reason going back to school was not as scary anymore. He reached school in record time, parking in his designated spot before running over to the all-too-familiar yellow X-terra.
"Hey, man" he yelled seeing Logan walk around the back.
"Hey, why are you so chipper?" He asked, "Get a little something, something this morning?" he added wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
"No, I just missed you man, can't a guy be happy to see his best friend" he quipped.
Logan lifted his hands in a mock surrender, "I'm just saying, you look like you've been having some serious fun."
"What? You two having fun without me again?" Veronica mocked from behind. They both turned and smiled at the little blond.
"No baby, how could we?" Logan said bending down and sweeping her into a kiss. "Good morning."
"Good morning" she replied now giddy.
"God they've been doing that all summer, your lucky you haven't been around Duncan. I am almost blind from their disgusting PDA's" Wallace groans, making his presence know.
"Yeah Duncan, where have you been?" Veronica asked sliding out of Logan's arms. They continued walking toward the school, moving together in a group.
"I've been around; I've actually been kind of seeing someone." He said trying not to draw too much attention.
"That's great man!" Logan gushed. "What's she like?"
"Lets get to class I'll have you meet her later, but I just have to say she absolutely perfect." He looked at veronica, which didn't seem phased at all, she knew that he needed someone and she was glad he found someone he liked.
Okay so it isn't as different as I promised but I am waiting for some later chapters to make the real changes. This was one of the first stories I ever wrote so there was a lot to change. PLEASE REVIEW I cannot go on without reviews!