If You Don't Love Me, Pretend

In the past two days, Darcy had tried to call Jon twice. The first time had been after Ashley dropped her off – she was in a terrible mood and hoped that he would have a reasonable explanation as to why he left her that morning. He didn't pick up.

The second time was the next morning and it had rung three times before being cut off. She didn't know what to do at that point. To be so clearly rejected felt like she was being stabbed directly in the heart.

The doorbell rang and Darcy looked back at the front door over her shoulder. She wasn't expecting anyone and who the hell showed up uninvited anymore? Salesmen. Door to door salesmen.

She pushed herself off the couch, put on her best bitch face and stomped to the door. Hauling it open, she was prepared to tell whoever it was to fuck off but when she saw a woman standing in front of her, she took a step back and paused.

Rachel. Definitely unexpected.

"Is Jon here?"

"No," Darcy answered, stepping backwards and going to close the door.

"When's he going to be back?"

Darcy reopened the door and stared at Rachel blankly. Words were escaping her – surely Jon had told her that he wasn't going to be around as much. When she finally realised that Rachel was still waiting for a response, she ran her hand through her hair, pushing it back over her head.

"He got called up," she explained with no emotion. "So, you can stop coming around."

"I didn't know that you two were together," Rachel said with an apologetic smile. Darcy raised an eyebrow.

"We aren't," she said slowly, watching Rachel carefully.

Rachel frowned, "You're like this with everyone, then?"

"Like what?" Darcy crossed her arms.

"Standoffish and rude?"

Darcy looked into the air, pretending to think before looking Rachel directly in the eye, smiling and saying, "Yes. Look, you need to leave because I'm supposed to be watching the Pay Per View."

Rachel turned around with a nod but she barely moved three feet when she turned back around, she looked perplexed.

"Has he not made a move yet?"

"What?"

"I've been waiting for him to tell me that you two are together for what feels like months," she explained with a laugh. "He's not usually so shy about his feelings."

Darcy gritted her teeth.

"I don't know what you're talking about. Goodbye."

Darcy started to close the door again, but Rachel stepped forward and put her hand against the wood preventing her from doing so. Darcy glared at her.

"But you, too. I know that you don't like me and I can only assume that it's because I regularly fuck Jon."

Darcy scoffed, "You walked into the bathroom when I was naked in the shower-"

"There's no need to get defensive about it, he's a good-looking guy. And there are worse guys around."

Darcy reached forward and moved Rachel's hand from the door. She stepped forward, making sure that Rachel moved backwards and further away from the house.

"I don't have these conversations with my friends let alone the whores that sleep with Jon," she spat. Rachel barely looked offended. "You can call him and ask him when he's getting back because I don't have a fucking clue."

Darcy slammed the door shut, not caring that Rachel had started to speak again. She had a Pay Per View to watch.

Sitting on the couch in front of the television, Darcy decided to call Colby. Survivor Series had finished over an hour ago and she knew that he always had his phone him. He also wouldn't be ignoring her.

He answered almost instantly and she could hear the smile on his voice.

"Darcy! Were you watching?!"

In the background, she could hear whatever song was playing on the radio and Jon telling Joe to stop talking.

"Of course, I wouldn't have missed it for the world," she told him honestly, smiling at his excitement.

She had been enticed from the moment they appeared on camera. Even with the knowledge that they would be debuting she was surprised. She had to laugh at their turtlenecks – no way were they happy about wearing them – but that didn't even matter because they all deserved to be on the main roster.

"What can I do for you pretty lady? Or did you just call to tell me how great I looked?"

"You caught me!" She played along. "Don't tell Leighla, though, I can't imagine she'd be too happy with me."

"It's our little secret." He laughed with her before she quickly went quiet. "What's up?"

"You're with Jon right now?" She asked him, not wanting to sound nervous but she was pretty sure she hadn't succeeded.

"Yeah," he said, sounding more serious than he had seconds before. Her change in demeanour had him a little worried. "Do you want me to put him on?" She sat up straighter in her seat and was quick to make sure that didn't happen.

"No, no!" Maybe she should have sounded less defensive. "I just need you to pass on a couple of messages."

"Okay. Fire away."

She knew that she needed to just come out with it or she'd never say it. So, once she started she wasn't ready to stop.

"First of all tell him that he's the scum of the earth and then tell that son of a bitch that Rachel came around. He forgot to tell her he wasn't going to be around for a while."

Colby repeated what she had spat at him, his voice uncertain and partially worried. What he told Jon was word for word what Darcy had said and she could picture the look on Jon's face. Confused, livid and perhaps a little anxious. They had a drive ahead of them and he surely didn't want to be in the car with Colby's nosy tendencies.

"Do either of you want to tell me what's going on?"

"No." She snapped, faintly hearing Jon's voice say the same through the phone. She didn't at all feel sorry for Jon. He deserved the grilling he was about to receive. Maybe Colby and Joe would knock some sense into him. Maybe they'd be able to get an explanation out of him.

"Okay then... Was that all, Darcy?" Colby asked her, sounding exasperated. Inwardly, she regretted calling him. Not for Jon's sake but for Colby's. He didn't need to be pulled into the middle of whatever was happening. But if he was her only means of contacting Jon...

She was quiet for a second, calming herself down and thinking of something to say.

"I'm super proud of you boys," she said eventually with a soft voice. "I believe in The Shield, okay?"

"At least that's someone."

Darcy fell asleep on the couch shortly after getting off the phone with Colby. The thought of sleeping in Jon's bed had crossed her mind but she couldn't bring herself to do it. Although it was infinitely more comfortable than the couch, to her it seemed like the worst possible idea.

The couch felt too close to what had happened, being in the bed would surely kill her.

She hadn't even been asleep for an hour when her phone rang and woke her up. Colby's name flashed across the screen.

"Colb, everything okay?" She asked in a slight panic – he was the last person who would call her in the middle of the night.

"Darcy, don't hang up."

It was Jon's rough voice that came through the phone and Darcy sighed heavily.

"What?" she asked gruffly, sitting up and rotating so that she was leaning against the back of the couch.

"I need to explain." She could hear that he was tired – exhausted even – but he didn't sound like he was going to let her hang up without a fight. "Rachel just pops around. You know that. I don't call her and organise anything. I didn't know she was going to come over."

"So?" she asked, shaking her head as she tried to will away tears.

She couldn't quite work out why she wanted to cry – whether it was because he was finally calling her, they were talking about Rachel or just he sounded so sorry Darcy did not know. She wasn't sure she wanted to.

"I would have turned her away, Darc."

"Well done," she responded sarcastically, her usual snark returning despite the ache that tore through her chest. That's not what she needed to hear. "Kick the habit."

"Darcy..." he said in a warning tone. He knew her well enough to understand that it was a defence mechanism.

"What?" she snapped. "What do you want me to say? That I don't care? That I'm totally fine with being left here by myself without so much as a goodbye?" Her voice had risen far beyond what was normal for her. It was straining to maintain its level, but she pushed through. "This isn't a 'you broke my heart type of thing', Jon, this is a 'you clearly don't respect me' type of thing."

"Of course I respect you!" he barked back before immediately lowering his voice. She could only imagine that he was in a hotel room – perhaps even a hallway. They might not have even made it to the hotel yet, he could be in the car or in a gas station bathroom. "Why the hell would you think that I don't respect you?"

"Oh, gee, I don't know," she muttered before sighing and rubbing her eyes. "Look, I need to sleep. You should call Rachel-"

"I'm not going to fucking call Rachel."

"- and let her know when you get back."

She didn't give him a chance to rebut, ending the call almost as soon as she finished speaking. She threw her phone across the room, not caring where or how it landed. It started ringing again almost instantly but she ignored it.

a/n thanks to:

ETF is officially the longest story I've ever written! So many words!

I uploaded the other fic, it's called Fade to Black.