Spoilers: After cattle incident and snippets of S2 episodes
Disclaimer: I wish I owned the characters. Especially Eric...drool Ahem. blinks Did I say that outloud?
Pairings: Caitlin and Eric
Author's notes: I am here. Is this a brilliant masterpiece? Prolly not. I mean, this is coming from a person who was just too lazy to spell 'probably' in the previous sentence...

Chapter Forty Three

"So that was the ex, huh?" Jake slipped his head into Caitlin's bedroom.

"Uh," Caitlin was startled and sat up on her bed, "yeah. Eric and I used to date."

Jake paused a moment, waiting to see if it was appropriate for him to enter her room. She seemed quite upset when she entered the house after Eric left. Caitlin had gone straight upstairs.

Caitlin motioned for him to enter. "I wasn't expecting to see him so soon," she sighed.

"So he's the reason I'm here, I take it?"

"What?" she exclaimed incredulously. "No!"

Jake raised a questioning brow. He knew Caitlin fairly well, but not enough to get invited home for the holidays. It had left him wondering why - until that night. "You know it wouldn't be the first time a girl brought home a guy to make her ex feel jealous," he offered, as he sat down beside her. "And there's nothing wrong with it."

"I didn't..." Caitlin paused mid-sentence and then let out a frustrated breath. "Okay," she said softly. "I guess that might have been in the back of my mind."

Caitlin couldn't believe it. Now that she was faced with the truth, she realized that was exactly the reason she had brought Jake home for Christmas. She couldn't believe she was one of those kind of girls. It was something Taylor would do. Not her.

"God, that sounds pathetic."

"Don't beat yourself up," Jake laughed. "It's all right. Especially if he was pretty special to you."

"No," caitlin protested, turning and meeting his gaze. "It's not. I never intentionally set out to do this. I would never use someone like that. I'm really sorry."

"Hey," he nudged her with his shoulder, "don't worry about it. I'm an actor. I'm pretty good at playing along." He paused. "or at least that's what I'm paying good money to learn how to do it."

Caitlin laughed. "Well, in any case, I really am sorry."

"I don't mind." He shrugged. "I mean, it is a good cause and all."

"Yeah, right."

Her thoughts flashed back to her conversation with Eric that night. He seemed regretful about the breakup. It even had almost seemed like he had wanted her back. Her breath caught in her throat even at the memory. She had felt that instant pull to him, even when he had broken up with her like he did. She had definitely not gotten over him.

"You know, I could probably be persuaded to even let your little friend think we're together."

"What?" Caitlin was sharply pulled from her own thoughts by the offhanded suggestion made by Jake. "What did you just say?" she asked, slightly confused.

"We could play up our friendship," Jake said slowly. "When he's around. I mean it couldn't hurt? Depends what kind of reaction we're going for."

"I-I don't even know what to say about that." She slowly shook her head, as she rose from the bed.

Caitlin hated playing games. She was above it. But glancing back at Jake, she caught herself considering it.

"Well, what do you want?" Jake asked sincerely. "Do you want him back? Or do you want to just make him hurt?"

She couldn't believe he was even asking these questions. Jake had never seemed the type of a guy to play games like this. He didn't seem manipulative enough. But apparently she was wrong. "I couldn't," she said finally. "It's just not me."

Really?

"I couldn't do it," she said again, her resolve stern. "It wouldn't be right."

"Well it wouldn't be right if we were doing it just to hurt the guy," Jake agreed. "But if you're doing it to make the guy keep his distance, that would be different, wouldn't it?"

Caitlin considered this. Eric and Griffin were best friends and he was bound to be around the ranch a lot during the Christmas break. Her thoughts drifted to their close encounter again. She could not let it happen again. She did not think she had the resolve to resist touching him or kissing him when he was that close.

"Okay."

"Okay?" Jake frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Okay, I'll do it," she breathed, nodding her head. "We'll pretend to be a couple to make sure he keeps his distance."

>>>

Stupid. Stupid.

Eric could not believe he allowed himself to lapse like that, in front of Caitlin, of all people. He had run through that conversation a million times since he returned from the Lowe's ranch, and everytime he found himself staring at her, mezmerized by her eyes and overwhelmed by the desire to kiss her. There had been no other ending. He could not resist.

But she could. She had.

Of course she could, dummy. You're the one who dumped her and left her brokenhearted.

But how could he have known that he had hurt her in that way? For all he knew, she had moved on to the next guy, the next day.

'What? Are you stupid?' a small voice in his head scoffed. 'You know deep down that she cared a lot about you. More than you deserve.'

Eric groaned as he threw himself onto his pillow. "I blew it."

'No argument here.'

So what was he supposed to do? He had no right to ask her to forgive him for being such a dick. What he had done to Caitlin was almost on the level of unforgiveable.

'And she has a boyfriend now.'

"Jake." The name still left a bitter taste in his mouth. "How happy could she be with the guy?" he asked out loud. "He's an actor for pete's sake!"

He could have been overreacting. She had not told him out-right that they were dating - that she was seeing him. In fact, she walked away.

That was a good sign, wasn't it?

Maybe I could ask her to forgive me?

Eric hoped against all hope that he was right. Maybe Caitlin could forgive him and they could work things out. He had been afraid, overly sensitive when he had left for college. But he had regained his bearings. He knew that Caitlin was the one. He knew that she was the one he saw a life with.

He just hoped it wasn't too late.

>>>

Uncomfortable fawning. That was the only thing she could call it. As they entered the Malt Shoppe, Caitilin did not know the extent of Jake's intent to make their coupling believable in front of Eric. First it began with his arm draped around her, until the next thing she knew, they were holding hands and he was making googly eyes at her.

"You know, you'd never make a good actress," Jake whispered into her ear, as she shied away at the intimate act.

"What do you mean?" she asked, glancing briefly over at Eric, who was sitting with Jordan and Brett, who had come home that weekend.

"You keep staring at him."

Caitlin turned and met Jake's amused gaze. "I'm just not used to this," she said under her breath, trying to remain casual. "I don't like to play games."

"Well, I have to say it's got his attention though," he mused. "Because his eyes haven't left you since we arrived."

"Really?" She bit her lip, trying to stop herself from sounding so invested.

She was over him. And that was that.

"What else is he doing," she asked casually, making sure to keep eye contact with Jake and force herself not to look over her shoulder. "Just for curiosity's sake."

"Uh, yeah, right," he chuckled. Jake paused a moment and then smiled at her. "And the way his friends seem to be clinging to his shoulders, it seems he doesn't like it too much."

Her heart skipped a beat. Eat your heart out, Anderson. "Oh, really?"

"You know, this could almost be considered cruel and unusual punishment, ya know?"

Caitlin thought about it a moment and suddenly she realized her guilt had dispersed and was replaced with delightful glee at the thought that Eric was suffering. "And your point?"

Jake shrugged, raising his hands in surrender. "I'm at your beck and call, madmoiselle," he said, bowing his head. "I don't know the guy from Adam. For all I know, he deserves a little bit of torture."

"Right." She nodded. Slowly, she turned her head slightly, just enough to see Eric out of the corner of her eye. He was still watching them. "He never was one for subtlety," she said to herself.

"Do you really want him to get riled up?" Jake asked mischieviously.

She furrowed her brow. "What do you..." She was unable to finish her sentence as Jake's lips were unexpectedly pressed against hers.

Her mind swirled as she felt his warm hands pull her closer and kiss her more passionately. Caitlin didn't know what was happening. After a moment, she felt Jake break the kiss and her head cleared. Her hand subtley wiped her lips, as she glared incredulously at Jake. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Pushing his buttons," Jake smirked, as he motioned with a jerk of his head to the commotion behind them.

She heard the harsh screech of metal legs against the linoleum floor. Spinning around she swallowed hard as Eric's stormy eyes met hers, and the guilt flooded over her. Brett and Jordan seemed to pull at him, in an attempt to make him sit down, but he jerked his arms out of their grasp and out of reach. He paused a moment. It seemed to Caitlin that he might just march over to their table and cause a scene, but all he did was spin on his heel and walk out of the Malt Shoppe.

Her heart plummeted to the pit of her stomach. God, what did I do? She glanced over at Jordan and Brett, who just shook their heads in disdain. "What did I do?" she whispered, as she let her head hit the table surface.

"Caitlin?"

"Jake, just don't say anything."

"I-I'm sorry," he blurted out. "I just thought that was what you wanted? You wanted a rise out of him."

Caitlin sat up and stared at him, and on impulse, she hit him on his bicep. "Not like that!" she cried. Turning around, she stared out through the display window at the miserable gloom of the clouded afternoon. "I didn't want to hurt him like that."