Here we go again!
"Hi, this is Freddie McClair, who's calling... ?"
"Right. Well, you're not exactly who I want to speak to right now."
"Sorry, what?"
"No. No; I mean, do you think I'm fucking stupid?"
"Mate, the way you've been treating Effy is confirmation enough that you're a raving fucking psycho. I don't need to come to your house to see that."
"I'm sorry. If you want to talk to me, you can do it at the hospital."
"No. No. No."
"Look, how many times do I have to fucking say it?"
"No."
x
Cook didn't know what would have happened to Freddie if he'd gone to Foster's house that day. The guy was weird... no doubt about it. Lucky Freds had enough common sense to stay away, yeah?
If you really felt like fucking things up, you could ask Cook if he was bitter about Effy and Freddie, but you wouldn't get a straight answer. He loved the girl and that wasn't going to change. He loved her a whole fucking lot. But there was one person in the world he loved more, and that was Freddie. You can sacrifice a whole lot for your best mate, and frankly I don't want to know how far I'd go for Freddie. Just a girl. There'd be other girls. Love you could get from friends... and sex you could get from pretty much anyone if you were as persuasive as James Cook.
It took a long time for Effy to recover. They had known it would. But things were good, things were okay. Panda and Katie were practically living at the hospital until she left; JJ and Naomi visited frequently too. She and Freddie were as loved up as he'd ever seen them, but that was starting to hurt a lot less. It was all starting to hurt a lot less.
As for their 'friendship', well, it was going strong. He was there in the clinic almost as often as Freddie was, and they had laughs. They talked about shit, sometimes even what had gone between them. Made fun of their past selves every once in a while.
"I love you, Cook," she told him once, "but not in the same way as I used to. And there's going to be a time when you feel the same way about me."
That time, Cook felt, was going to come sooner than Effy expected. Me and her were always too similar. Together we'd have burned the world apart. But mates is good. Mates is okay.
More pressingly than that, he had Freddie. And he was glad he had realised now that that was what mattered most.
x
Katie fucking Fitch.
Who would have guessed?
It wasn't anything serious at the moment... they were just fucking. But he was at least sixty percent sure that she didn't despise him any more, and hey, that's a good start, right?
There were more important things than that anyway. Important things like Leo and Annie, the latter of whom was four and the former six. Prettiest little kids you could imagine. Leo was the spitting image of his mother, all smirks and blue eyes even at his tender age, whereas Annie was the calmer one, very affectionate. Some people thought it weird that Cook lived with his best mate's family, but to be honest, he didn't care. Effy, Cook, and Freddie (plus the kids of course) were family. There was no-one who mattered more.
Thomas and Panda were in America now, which was difficult for Effy in particular, but they kept in contact. Emily and Naomi had actually ended up staying in Cuba; their diversion into Latin America was more due to Naomi's fascination with the politics than anything else. Emily and Katie were talking about some weird sciencey baby stuff, which made Cook feel... hopeful. The Three Musketeers still met up, close as ever - Albert was twelve at this point and a fucking terror - and even Karen was keeping in contact.
There was a time when Cook didn't see how there could be a happy ending to their story; Freddie, and Effy, and him. But now there was one, and it was perfect, and he didn't know why he had ever wanted more.
How's that? Sorry to Ceffy shippers, but I had to pick a side, and this seemed the most likely route.
