(Originally posted: 03/27/07)

Title: Just Once
Characters: Rhonda, Helga
Rating: PG-13/T
Words: 778
Warning: CRACK!
Summary: Rhonda's career crumbles, which of course means her life is over. Drinks all around!
A/N: Written for my lovely friend, lightbird. Her prompt for me was "fall from grace".

"This can't be good."

Rhonda pulled her face out of her shot glass and squinted around.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Helga Pakati," she greeted.

"It's Pataki." Helga leaned against the bar, surveying Rhonda's slumped form. Rhonda noted that the girl even managed to have sorry taste in plain white t-shirts.

"Tha's what I said. So, what brings you to this (hiccup) part of the neighborhood?"

"I just got off work," Helga said, by way of an answer, and sat down on the stool beside her. "You?"

Rhonda was just about to reply with, "Where do you work - the Fruit of the Loom factory?" when something along the lines of "I LOST MY JOB" came out instead. She dropped her forehead to the bar with a dull thump.

"Oh god." Helga looked as though she'd regretted sitting next to her, and quickly looked around for an escape.

"It's not fair!" exclaimed Rhonda, her arms attempting to convey the girth of the unfairness. "I was on the brink of it all, Pakaki! My fashion lines were up there with the pros! I was this close - THIS close - to success, worldwide fame at my fingertips! But then that jerk - that bastard! That was all it took. It all jus' poof! Y HELLO THAR, UNEMPLOYMENT. More scotch over here!"

"Um. I'm sure you'll, uh, make a comeback."

"NO," Rhonda spat and lifted her glass before the barman was done pouring. "It's all over for me. MY LIFE is over. Done with. Kaput. So long, Hogwarts, I'm back off to the land of Muggles. I should jus' (hiccup) jump off a bridge while I still-"

"Listen, princess," Helga interrupted, waving the barman away, "That's too bad about all that, but I didn't come here to exchange tears over your sob story. You think I don't have better things to do?"

Rhonda stared.

"STFU! Okay, so maybe I don't," Helga confessed. "But - look, I've been in your shoes before, okay?" She avoided Rhonda's eyes, instead opting to watch her own thumb as it grazed the edge of the bar's smooth surface. "I... I know what it's like to have something horrible happen... and to think your life is over. To have the rug pulled out from under you, and your dreams just sort of crumble away..."

Rhonda raked her mind for what Helga might be talking about, but fell short. She thought she'd kept up with her old pals' lives well enough, what with all the little outings Nadine continued to pull her to over the years, but obviously not. Come to think of it, she wasn't even sure what Nadine was up to these days. The thought made her feel lonely.

"But sometimes you just have to keep trudging through, you know?," Helga continued. "Crappy as it might seem, sometimes these things happen for a reason... and things turn out okay in the end." Finally, she looked up again. "I mean, it's not like I really give a damn what you do with your time - but getting wasted? Doesn't help. Trust me. Why don't you just go home?"

Rhonda frowned. "Can't go home. Too many beautiful fashion statements. Remind me of my pain."

Helga sighed and shut her eyes. "Alright, fine. FINE." She jumped off the stool and tried to pull Rhonda into standing as well.

"What - what are you-"

"I'm taking you home before one of those lust-eyed construction guys has a chance to take you to his."

Rhonda glanced over at a table of greasy men in neon vests. They were indeed looking her way and drooling like starved hound dogs. "I told you, I don't want to go-"

"Not your home. Mine."

"Yours?" Rhonda said with a snort.

"You can crash on my couch for a night or two until you figure things out."

Helga tried again to pull Rhonda off her stool, but she clung to the bar stubbornly. Helga let go and sighed once more.

"If there's one thing that I learned from things gone crappy, Rhonda, it's that - sometimes - I do have to give a damn," she said, stepping back and looking at Rhonda with unfamiliar eyes. "Just let me do this one, stupid, nice thing for you. Just once."

Rhonda stared at Helga's proffered hand with a lifted eyebrow. It was a very strange thing to have Helga Pataki of all people offering to do something nice for you, but considering her options, it really didn't seem like such a bad offer. She only hoped Helga's apartment wasn't any worse off than her outfit.

"Jus' once," she said, rolling her eyes, and took Helga's hand.