AN: Here we go!
After a while, they all went to their dressing room to change into their private clothes, before they came out to a weird mixture of building and moving with the sets being taken apart and the whole crew and guest stars along with some spouses, like Lisa's and Courteney's husbands and Matt's wife had gathered for an impromptu farewell party.
They all mingled with the rest of the gang, all signing on one of the set panels, having drinks and soaking up each others company for the last time as a whole team of everybody working on the show.
He had sensed that she had been awfully quiet the whole evening, so he took her in his arm when they were taking group shots, holding her close to him and kissing her cheek like they used to back in the day.
To anybody who was not used to seeing them together, that must have looked an awfully lot like something a boyfriend or husband would do.
Somehow that did the trick, and her mood picked up a little bit after that, a bittersweet note remaining.
A little later, he saw her and Matthew sitting over in the last row of the audience seats, cups in their hands, just looking at the gathering on the stage.
He walked up the stairs to join them for a bit, and it really was a bittersweet sight, he thought when flopping down beside her, Matthew and him sitting to her right and left now. She leant her head on Matthews shoulder and grabbed Davids hand.
"I don't know what I will do without you guys" she said.
"Oh, I guess you will be just fine" Matthew said "you will make a few movies, have genetically perfect babys with your hunk of a husband and totally forget that dorks like us even exist".
They all laughed at that.
"I can for sure tell you that I will NEVER forget you. And the rest we will see..."
David was slightly surprised by this statement, but thought it would be better to leave it at that.
He had noticed that Brad had been absent today, and he told himself that she was probably being nostalgic and missed him.
But still, a little voice in his head asked if there was more to this... still not the time and place for that.
They remained like that for a while and just talked about this and that, before they went back down to the party.
As it got later that night, everyone started to leave, and as it was important to them, they all left the studio hand in hand, falling into one final huddle, agreeing that this was not a "goodbye" but a "see you later", before each of them going home.
David stepped into his house, still unable to process that it all was over now. He flopped down to his couch, poured himself a glass of Bourbon, before he headed to bed, not knowing what else to do now.
When he started to drift off to sleep, he heard the bell on his door ring.
...
Jen came home, unlocked the door and found the house empty.
Again.
On one hand, she was sad and just wanted her husband to be there for her and to console her , so that maybe she could start to look forward to the life ahead of her, on the other hand, she was relieved that he was not home. Because, if she was being honest with herself, he was not the person she wanted to be held by.
The person she wanted with her right now was the one person that would probably soon be on the other side of the country, out of her reach.
Which should have been fine, except it wasn't, at least if you asked her.
She had spend the last 10 years with a man she loved so deeply, and she knew for a fact that he felt the same.
They had always forbid each other to ever act on that though, for rational reasons. They did not want to ruin the show, not destroy the group dynamic, value their friendship.
But: the show was over, and even if they all surely would stay in touch, there would not be a "group dynamic" anymore, they would surely trickle apart, he would move away and how close of a friendship would that be if they never saw each other? And all that she got after that time was an absent husband she somehow felt drifting away already and the bittersweet memory of a love that could have been, but never was, with a man she fell for so hard?
Oh no, she was not going to let that happen! They both deserved at least one night together, come what may, she thought!
With that, she took the jacket and key she had just put down and headed back to her car to drive over to his place.
When she got out of the car, she did notice that the lights were already off, but she did not care. She still proceeded to the door and pressed the button of the bell.
It took a moment before the light in the hallway was switched on and before she heard steps behind the door.
When he opened the door for her, he was obviously surprised to see her there.
"Jen? What are you doing here?"
She looked at him, thinking of something to say.
"Taking care of unfinished business." She said while crossing over his doorstep, closing the distance to him while pushing the door shut, taking his face in both of her hands and urgently landing her lips on his.
