Title: A Lonely Saturday Night
By Carol M. Rating: PG
Spoilers: IASW, The Camp, IOBE
Summary: Darien is lonely and bored. What's he going to do about it?
Disclaimers: Don't own them, just play with em
Author Notes: Wrote this and posted it on the IM fanfic list about a month ago. I posted it about two days after the Prey Chain Reaction aired on sci-fi. For those of you that don't know, Prey is a series that Vincent Ventresca was in a few years ago. You don't need to know anything about Prey to understand this story. Enjoy!
Darien stared hopelessly at the radio next to his bed. Elvis' "Are You Lonesome Tonight" played loudly, mocking Darien's own state of mind. Darien looked at his watch. Seven thirty. Another five and a half hours to kill until his bedtime.
His weekend of solitude had slowly turned into a weekend of hell. Friday night hadn't been so bad. He had ordered pizza and rented The Real McCoy and The Thomas Crown Affair. He hadn't realized the heist theme until he had gotten home with the videos. He figured he was subconciously paying homage to his cat burglar days.
This morning, he had gotten up and busied himself with back issues of Philosophy Now. He had read until his eyes had nearly fallen out. Then he decided to turn on the radio. That had been a really big mistake. Music always made Darien brood and tonight was no exception. He was bored and lonely.
On a normal weekend, he would be goofing off with Hobbes somewhere. In the past, they had gone bowling, to bars and one tragic night, they had gone to a nightclub. Darien still had nightmares about seeing Hobbes dancing.
But none of that was happening this weekend. Hobbes had finally seduced Sally in Accounting and had convinced her to go on some kind of weekend retreat with him. Darien had been excited about having the weekend to himself, but as it went on, he realized how much he missed his best friend. Hell, even Alex had weekend plans. She was up in L.A. with Rick, an Agency security guard. For two people, who supposedly didn't fish off the company pier, Bobby and Alex sure got around.
Roy Orbison's voice came on the radio. "Only the Lonely" crooned softly through the room. "Aahhh, enough with this crap," exclaimed Darien as he shut off the radio with a loud bang.
He had to have some human contact. He briefly though about Allianora. As much as he hated to admit it, he really missed her. She had screwed him over a lot, but in the end she had come through for him. He missed the random knock on the door that he would get from her every couple of weeks. Darien shook his head. Enough about Allianora. No offense to her, but he needed to see someone who was alive. What about Leila? he thought. No. He hadn't talked to her for a few months. She was probably dating some supermodel stud anyway and would laugh in Darien's face if he called her. He briefly thought about Eberts, but immediately ruled him out. There was only so much computer talk a guy could take. The ping of death had been quite enough.
A lightbulb flashed in Darien's head. Claire. He would go visit Claire. He didn't have her home phone number, but he did know where she lived. With a hopeful smile, Darien picked up his car keys and walked out of the apartment. With his luck, Claire probably had some hot date or something.
Claire took a huge bag of popcorn out of her microwave. She poured the popcorn into a large wooden bowl. "Here Pavlov," she said as she tossed a few kernels on the floor.
Pavlov hurried over and happily ate them up. Claire knelt down and petted Pavlov. "Mommy loves you, yes she does," said Claire.
She stood back up and got a coke out of the fridge. She carried the coke and popcorn to the couch in the front of the t.v. She sat down and found the t.v. clicker under the couch. She put the Sci-Fi Channel on. She was all ready for the Prey Chain Reaction. She heard a knock on her door. She looked at Pavlov, who had jumped on the couch beside her.
"Who could that be?" she muttered softly. She got up to answer the door, Pavlov hot on her heels. She opened the door and was greeted with Darien Fawkes. "Hey Keep," he said with a smile.
Darien took in the sight of her. She was dressed in a tank top and sweatpants. Her hair was pulled back and she wasn't wearing any make up. Very un-Keeplike. Darien liked it.
Claire looked at him with surprise. "Hey Darien, what are you doing here?" she asked with confusion. She suddenly looked at him with alarm. "Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself? Do you need counteragent?" she said in a panic as she reached for his arm to check his tattoo.
Darien shook his head. "No, no, it's nothing like that. I was , uh," Darien nervously looked down at his feet. "I was just in the neighborhood and I thought I would drop in and say hi. But if you're busy, I can go," said Darien as he pointed to his car.
Claire shook her head rapidly. "Don't be silly. I was just surprised to see you, that's all. Come on in," she said as she opened the door wider.
Darien stepped in the front door and knelt downt to pet Pavlov. "Hey buddy, you miss your old pal, Darien?" he said. Pavlov responded by licking his hand.
Claire motioned towards the couch. "I was just about to start watching this marathon of a show called Prey. I know it's not very exciting but..." Claire trailed off.
"It's a lot more exciting than being over at my place, let me tell you," said Darien as he walked over to the couch.
"I thought you normally hung out with Bobby and occasionally, Alex on the weekends," said Claire curiously.
Darien nodded. "I do, but they both had better things to this weekend," he said. Crap, he hadn't meant to sound so pathetic.
Claire responded warmly. "Well, I'm happy to have the company," she said sincerely. Darien smiled. "Thanks," he said softly.
Claire picked up the bowl of popcorn and handed it to Darien. "Here, have some popcorn," said Claire. She got off the couch. "Do you want something to drink?" she asked.
"Yeah, but I'll get it. You don't have to wait on me," responded Darien. He got off the couch, went to the fridge and got a coke. Then he returned to the couch where Claire had just plopped back down.
Claire looked at him. "You can take your shoes off and make yourself at home," she said.
"Yes maam, " said Darien as he took his shoes off. "So what's this show Prey about anyway? I'll bet there's some hot guy on it, right?" he said teasingly.
Claire scoffed. "Actually, I watch it for the science. It's a really good show. It's about this new species trying to get rid of mankind," said Claire.
"Sounds like the feel good show of the year," said Darien sarcastically.
Claire slapped him playfully in the arm. "Give it a chance. Oh, oh, oh, it's on," she said with excitement. Claire pointed at the screen. "Okay, that red-haired girl is Sloan Parker. She's the one who discovered the new species. That short, dark-haired guy is Tom Daniels. He is one of the new species, but he is helping Sloan save humanity from the new species."
"Why?" asked Darien with a mouthful of popcorn.
"I don't know, I guess he wants everyone to get along," she said. "Okay, okay, that tall, skinny guy is Ed Tate. He's my favorite character. He's this really smart scientist who constantly gets pushed to the background."
Darien nodded wisely. "Sure Keep, you love him for his brains, not his body. Come on, that guy is a stud and you want him. Little skeleton in your closet," said Darien with a smile.
Claire picked some popcorn out of the bowl and threw it at Darien. Darien took his own handful out and threw it at Claire. They both started laughing.
Claire suddenly looked at the screen. "Whoa, whoa, stop everything, Ed is speaking," she said.
Darien made a face.
Claire looked oddly at the screen and then at Darien. She looked back at the screen and then back at Darien again. Darien looked at Claire strangely. "What do I have something hanging out of my nose? A piece of hair out of place? What?" asked Darien as he started to wipe his face and fix his hair.
"No, no it's not that, it's just that, I just realized you look almost exactly like Ed. I mean the hair is different, but you have the same face. It's very interesting," said Claire. "Are you sure you were never an actor?"
"You mean in between burglarizing houses? No, i don't think so," Darien said with a smile. "So I look like your fave character, huh. Cool," said Darien with a small blush.
Claire looked at him nervously and smiled. "Small world. Not enough faces to go around, I guess," she said. "I guess so," said Darien as he took a handful of popcorn. They continued to watch the Prey Chain Reaction, laughing and throwing more popcorn through out the night. He was glad that he had decided to come over here. He was discovering that Claire was actually a really fun person to hang out with. Darien wasn't lonely anymore. He had Claire, Pavlov, Sloan, Tom and of course, Ed to keep him company.
That's all folks!