Hello everyone. I hope you enjoyed the short, quick follow up "A Shoulder to Cry On", the sequel to Whispers in the Wind. While that was pretty much a 'bad ending', this story takes place in the Veggie Romance series canon (yes, it's a series). This is an interquel to Hugs and Kisses, and takes place before Very Veggie Romance...which is still in the planning stage. *sigh*

Anyway, I hope you enjoy. This is my first Mr. Lunt/Ellen fic, and there are some mentions of drugs and cheating, but nothing explicit.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I thank you for giving me the ideas for this story, and for giving me the talent to write. You deserve to be praised, now and forever more! Amen!

Story Title:Lost Without You

Genres/Tags: Angst/Romance

Summary: He was lost without her in his life. It was something that he'd admitted to himself a year and a half ago, ever since their breakup. Mr. Lunt/Ellen. Takes place directly after the end of Hugs and Kisses.

Disclaimer: I own nothing of Veggie Tales or the characters. I own my notebook, my God-given imagination and my pencil.

Lost Without You

Mr. Lunt shut the door leading into his apartment, viewing the living room and the kitchen. He sighed as he saw the various pizza boxes, burger wrappers, old styrofoam cups and other random items covering his living room floor. Realizing that he hadn't cleaned up in at least a week, he decided to go ahead and get a trash bag and throw away all the trash. He went into the kitchen and pulled out a large black bag from under the sink, then went into the room to start cleaning.

It was a good thing that Ellen didn't live here anymore, or she would have had a fit.

Great, he thought to himself, not even five minutes in my own house and I start thinking about her. I'm surprised I am at all, considering that she's not even thinking about me.

Then again, he hadn't been able to stop thinking about her ever since the fiasco with Eddie and Julian at Big Idea, where Bob and Madame Blue had gotten together. When he'd seen Bob comforting Madame Blue in the hall, he couldn't help but remember the time Ellen had lost a very close family member of hers. He'd held her while she cried for hours, her tears soaking his shirt. It had really dampened his mood, as he realized for the first time in a very long time that he genuinely missed Ellen.

Pa had tried to cheer him up, but reminding him of his old flame didn't help matters. Mr. Lunt remembered walking out on him in a huff, driving straight home and not waiting for everyone else.

And even after he'd left, he still thought of her. He thought of her smile, her ability to light up any room she was in, her no-nonsense, but caring, geeky nature, and her drive to make people happy. She reminded him of Larry in some aspects, except that Larry was sillier and probably more of a science fiction geek than she was, having seen Pie Wars 27 times.

He looked over on the mantle and saw one of the few pictures that he and Ellen had taken. She had taken all the others after their breakup, but he had managed to keep at least three. His favorite, which sat on the mantle, was the one they had taken on the set of the Pirates movie, when he'd given her a bouquet of freshly cut flowers. He sighed as he looked at the picture, sadness and regret showing in his face.

"How could I have been so stupid?" he said aloud, his voice slightly choked up. "I let you go, the one person who managed to give me something to live for. I'm...lost without you."

It was true. He was lost without her in his life. It was something that he'd admitted to himself a year and a half ago, ever since their breakup. He didn't tell anybody about this, naturally, because he hated it when people worried about him. His friends, Pa in particular, often wanted to help him out with his problems, but Mr. Lunt would have none of it. He didn't want to reveal his sordid past to anybody, especially his friends.

It was bad enough that his life before he came to Big Idea already sounded like something out of a soap opera.

Before Ellen came into his life, Mr. Lunt was sure that he was lost in life. His family, what with its dysfunctional ways, was involved with crime and other ungodly pursuits; as such, they were poor and had no means of supporting him when he left for college. He was the only one of his family who actually went to school and got a good education. His older brother was a convicted criminal, and his little sister was out on the streets selling drugs. He couldn't turn to his family for help.

His friends that lived in New Jersey would do what they could to help, but they all had their problems to deal with amidst his. In fact, most of them had ditched him later on in life, turning to new pursuits and leaving New Jersey. He definitely couldn't go to them for help, as most of them had turned to the wrong side of the law.

His problems didn't stop there. When he got to acting school, he found that his niche was playing as evil, greedy characters. And while he stood out from the crowd by joining a small film company instead of places like Golden Globe, he later felt that the characters he played were really a part of him. He couldn't separate art from reality as well as he could before. He didn't go to his friends, as they wouldn't get it and probably would think he was insane.

He had God in his life, but there were times that he felt the Man Upstairs had turned a deaf ear to him, as most of his prayers weren't getting answered. There had been a time when he stopped going to church because he didn't see the point in it. He almost became an atheist during that time, because he felt as though he couldn't go to God for help.

That last part turned out to be false, though. He later realized that no matter how much he thought so, God was always there to listen, and to give him the strength to persevere. One night, so overwhelmed that he'd fallen face first on his bed in tears, he called out to the one Person he'd neglected for three years.

"God, if you can hear me, please help. Give me a reason why I should keep living. I'm on the verge of just giving up altogether. I don't care if it's somebody, or something-just...just show me that You still care about me, and want me to be happy. If it's a person, lead me to meet them. Let that person love me for who I am, not for who I was. And...forgive me for leaving You, as well as doubting you. I swear, I'll never do that again."

God did answer his prayer. Like a beacon guiding a ship in a stormy sea to shore, God directed Mr. Lunt to meet Ellen a few months later, during the filming of the Pirates movie.

She was more or less a new actor, and obviously one of the "fresh faces" that Pa had been talking about bringing to the Pirates movie. Mr. Lunt had, of course, tried to be his smooth, suave self when introducing himself, and Pa and Larry sighed all the while, used to such a thing by then.

To his shock, Ellen didn't respond to any of his charms the way most of the girls did. She actually told him, "Look, Mr. Lunt, if that's all you've got to win me over, you don't have a chance." And before he could even work up a response, she walked off.

Mr. Lunt was, at first, very upset about this. No, scratch that-he'd been furious. He told Pa and Larry that they had made a mistake in casting her and that they should pick another actress. Working with the girl who'd taken a blow at his pride was not going to improve his mood. But Pa insisted that they keep her, seeing as there was no other actress they could find who had good chemistry with him on screen. Mr. Lunt had reluctantly agreed with the grape then, seeing as the only other option was to have one of the fangirls show up, and that would have complicated matters.

It was probably due to the fact that he couldn't wrap her around his finger like everyone else that he began to fall in love with her. She didn't really return his feelings at first, because she'd probably learned from one of the other actors that he was a notorious womanizer, and immediately decided that he was toying with her like he did with everyone else. Mr. Lunt did everything he could to show that his love for her was genuine, and one time he flat out asked her why she didn't respond to his charms like everyone else did. She told him that the reason why was because she wanted to see who he really was under the teasing remarks and sarcastic demeanor. She wanted to see who he really was under the mask he'd built around himself.

It wasn't until he was evicted from his old apartment, lost his brother in a shoot out at the local prison, and had to deal with fighting in the family, all in the span of a week, that Ellen got to see who he really was under the mask. Pa and Larry tried to get him to talk about it so they could help, but Mr. Lunt snapped at them to leave him alone. The resulting shouting match could have been heard from a block away. After saying some things he immediately regretted, he took off, and Ellen went after him to bring him back, seeing as Pa and Larry were too hurt and angry to do so. Tracking him down to the hotel where he stayed at, she gently talked him down, stating that he could be fired from fighting with his coworkers.

When she told him that even though everyone was mad at him, he still had a friend in her, he completely broke.

He opened his entire self up to her, including things that not even his friends knew, things that were between him and God Himself. He told her that sometimes he was afraid that he would become the actual characters in the movies he played, to the point where he thought he was going crazy. He told her that he could never find someone to love because they all thought that he was weird, and most left him when they found out about his undesirable past. He told her that she would probably leave him, too, after all that he'd said.

Mr. Lunt paused as he looked around his now clean living room. He remembered the conversation they'd had immediately after his breakdown.

A gentle nudge brought him to look up at her. Her expression was sympathetic. She said, "Hey, I think you need something to take your mind off of things. You wanna come to my house and watch 'America's Got British Judges'?"

Mr. Lunt's jaw dropped, and he started at her as though she were crazy. He couldn't believe that he had poured out his entire being to her, and her only reaction was to ask him if he would like to watch TV with her. He felt very angry, as it seemed like it was a waste of time, but he was also very overwhelmed with what had just happened. He couldn't really come up with what to say.

After what felt like forever, he finally said, "Yeah. But Ellen, please tell me something."

"What is it?"

"Will you promise not to tell anybody about what I've told you? It would ruin my career in ways you wouldn't believe."

Ellen nodded. "I promise on my life that I won't tell anybody. I won't ever use your past against you. Ever."

Mr. Lunt stared at her in shock. Those were words that he hadn't expected to hear. Most people who heard of his story were quick to blackmail him into doing whatever they wanted. He was surprised by what she said next.

"So, do you like to eat cheese curls while you watch TV?"

"Yeah!" he responded. "I love the jalapeno ones."

And to his amazement, she laughed, and her features quirked into the most adorable, heartwarming smile he'd ever seen.

"Me too," she replied.

Ellen wasn't perfect, of course: she was quick to jump to conclusions, and carry intense grudges against those who wronged her. But that mattered little to Mr. Lunt. He was happy to have someone who loved him for who he was now, not the person who lost his way years ago. He was happy to know that God really did love him, flaws and all, and that He was indeed answering his prayers, as many good things happened to him after he and Ellen got together.

The fact that he really did enjoy all those times together made his breakup with her even more painful. He had been doing everything he could to be faithful to her. He really did. But when his ex-girlfriend, the very beautiful and tempting Charlene, appeared on the set of 'Good Egg of Gooseville' later and asked him if he wanted to come back to her for old times' sake, it was very hard for him to reel his emotions in. A voice whispered in the back of his mind, "Go ahead. It's not like Ellen's around to see you." So he did what that voice told him to do, and pulled Charlene in for a greedy kiss. Things quickly escalated from there, he remembered, for that kiss turned into a full blown makeout session that had him shoving her against the wall.

Not even a minute after that, he regretted his decision.

The door that led to the break room slammed shut ominously behind Mr. Lunt, and startled, he hastily broke off the intense kiss with his ex-girlfriend to turn around and see what was going on.

Ellen stood behind him, fresh out of her costume and back in her regular clothes. Her expression was full of shock at first...and then, anger took over like a tidal wave. It practically shook her entire frame as she glared at both gourds.

"So...I guess I was right," she said at last through gritted teeth. Her tone was venomous.

Mr. Lunt's jaw dropped open. "W-Wait, Ellen, that wasn't what it looked like!" he blurted.

"It looked to me like you were kissing your ex-girlfriend when I left. It looked to me like you haven't changed at all from when we first met each other!" she shot back.

"Ellen, please!" Mr. Lunt pleaded. "I-I...I was wrong. I shouldn't have done that."

"But you did it anyway," Charlene cut in, her smirk full of malice towards Ellen, "and you enjoyed yourself, didn't you? I mean, honestly. How could you settle for this plain old rebound? I know you move on to girls faster than you can blink, but that's just pathetic."

Mr. Lunt turned around and stared at her, shocked and angry. His face was starting to turn scarlet, not out of embarrassment, but out of anger. "Charlene, don't you dare say that about her. She's-"

"Obviously not important to you anymore!" Ellen shouted.

"I second that statement," Charlene said spitefully, taking sadistic glee in watching the female gourd get enraged.

"Ellen, that's not true, really, it isn't!" Mr. Lunt pleaded.

"Save it for the jury!" she screeched. "I don't want to hear another word out of your mouth!"

"But-"

"Uh, is everything okay in here?"

All three gourds turned to see Mr. Nezzer standing in the doorway. He looked concerned as his eyes swept across the three gourds: Charlene with that rude smirk on her face, Mr. Lunt with his mouth open, and Ellen looking ready to burst into tears of anger and sadness.

"No, it's not," Ellen said, her voice hot with anger. She turned towards Mr. Lunt, and the gourd flinched. He'd never seen her that angry. "I never want to see you again, Mr. Lunt. I thought you were different from all the other gourds who liked me. I thought you had changed. But it seems I was wrong."

With a hard glare at Charlene, Ellen turned and stormed out of the room, pushing right past Mr. Nezzer. Mr. Lunt took off running, leaving Charlene alone.

"Ellen, please! It's just a misunderstanding! I-I didn't mean to, honest, I didn't!" he shouted at her retreating back. "ELLEN!"

The door leading out to the parking lot slammed shut. Mr. Lunt's expression melted into a sorrowful one. The weight of what he'd done crashed down on him like a tidal wave, and it threatened to bring him down under with shame.

Charlene's voice filled the air then. "Hmph. Well, I'll be seeing you later, Lunty. This time, I'll be sure to be as faithful to you as possible," she said. With a flip of her hair, she walked out of the studio.

Mr. Nezzer looked at her, and then at him. "Mr. Lunt, are you alright?" he asked.

When the gourd spoke, he was in tears. "I...I just lost the reason why I'm still here. Of course I'm not alright."

And before Mr. Nezzer could respond to that, he walked off.

Mr. Lunt sank into his bed with a sad sigh. The moments after that had been horrible. He'd rushed home after work to see that Ellen had beat him to it and taken all of her things back. She had only left a few things, including the pictures, for him to keep, but everything else was gone. When Charlene came over to his house demanding to know why he didn't show up, he'd blown up at her, telling her that it was her fault for seducing him and making him cheat on Ellen, and that her cheating habits was the reason he broke up with her in the first place. Insulted, Charlene left in a huff. After that, Mr. Lunt realized that it was also his fault because he had given into the temptation to kiss Charlene in the first place. That night, he sat in bed and cried himself to sleep. The heartbreak was almost too much for him to bear.

When Mr. Nezzer asked him about what had happened he next day, he lied and said the whole thing was over a simple misunderstanding. The zucchini believed him, and he swore that he wouldn't tell anybody about it. Mr. Lunt was glad that it wasn't Pa who'd asked him, because not only would the elder grape figure out his lie, but also force the truth out of him.

Well, Pa still hadn't forced the truth out of him, even though he had more or less encouraged him to save Ellen from that jailbird Carlos Rivera. Mr. Lunt knew that if he told Pa the truth, he would be angry at him for cheating on his girlfriend and lying to his friends about it. Then again, that hadn't stopped the grape before from finding out the truth, so now it was just a matter of time until he found out.

He remembered the conversation he'd had with Pa that night, talking about his feelings for his old flame. He did love Ellen despite how hard he'd tried to let her go, and he wanted to make amends and heal the rift between them. But he didn't know how he would go about it. No doubt Ellen would assume he was back to his playboy ways. And Carlos looked like the type of guy who would be very possessive of her.

No doubt he could turn to God for help on this one, as well as his friends when he finally mustered up the courage to tell them the truth. They would help him, no questions asked.

And even though, they'd broken up due to his careless mistake, he'd make sure that history didn't repeat itself twice.

Before he turned off his lamp to go to sleep, he looked at one of the other pictures he'd kept. It was one of the few that she'd taken by herself, for despite being an actress, she was very camera shy. She looked very cute in that picture with her pink jacket lined with white fur and a small white hat with a few snowflake accents.

He sighed. "Ellen, the next time you see me, you won't be looking at the gourd who broke your heart a year and a half ago," he said with conviction. "You're going to be looking at a changed gourd who's determined to show you that he loves you."

Placing the picture back on the table, Mr. Lunt turned the light off and went to sleep, dreams of reuniting with Ellen coming to mind.

THE END

I finally came up with the whole reason behind Mr. Lunt and Ellen's breakup. Basically, the whole "simple misunderstanding" story was really just a lie told by Mr. Lunt, who didn't want his friends to find out the real reason they broke up. I always saw Mr. Lunt as the playboy type of person (maybe because of the accent?) and he would later be driven to change if he fell in love for someone for real, rather than toying with their affection. And I always saw him with a pretty bad background-and NOT because he grew up in New Jersey. I just wanted to give him enough problems to show that he's just as "human" as everyone else in the cast, women being one of his weaknesses. Hopefully, I didn't overdo it.

Next one-shot may be based on Pa and his past. I think out of all the characters in Veggie Tales, Pa's my favorite. I had a whole bunch of fun writing about his antics in Hugs and Kisses, so coming up with his backstory will be fun~

Read and review. As always, no spamming or flames, please. And no random comments. Some guests on here have been making really random comments that aren't even related to the story.

-God bless, iheartgod175