"Near to You"

by: singyourmelody

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters; I'm just borrowing them for a bit!

Chapter 2: In the Know

Although she was home, Phoebe missed London. She longed for the smells of the city and sounds of cars, the people and the tea. She definitely missed the tea.

She had just finished typing an email to Regina, her roommate in England, when she heard a knock on the door.

"Phoebe?" Will asked as he entered.

"Hey, what's up?" Phoebe responded. She had been home for two days and, except for the conversation they had had the night she arrived, she had barely had a chance to talk to Will, mostly because of the craziness of the holidays.

"Well, I promised the little kids I would go see their snow fort in the woods and since it's almost dark, I figured I better go soon. Do you, um, do you want to come?" he asked, a little nervously. Since when had he become nervous talking to her?

"Sure, let me get my coat," she responded, smiling.

Once they were walking side by side, the snow crunching beneath their feet, it was like old times. They chatted about their respective colleges; people they met, Phoebe semester's abroad, Will's multiple major changes. Will knew there was one question he was dying to ask.

"So, Phoebe. Where's this hunky manly Brit, Dylan was talking about?" Will said, stopping and turning to face her.

Phoebe looked into Will's eyes. He was obviously teasing her.

"Ooh! There's their fort!" Phoebe exclaimed, looking over his shoulder and brushing past Will and closer to the fortress of ice and snow.

"Dodging my question I see. Well. . ." he said, bending down and picking up some snow. "You may have to dodge something else!" Will said as he threw the snowball that landed square in the middle of her back.

"You did not just do that!" Phoebe exclaimed as she turned around.

"Um, I think I did." Will took off running to the other side of the fort, gathering snow as he went.

"William Beardsley, you are so dead!" Phoebe said chasing Will and chucking snowballs at his head.

0-0-0

Helen looked out the window of her and Frank's bedroom. Phoebe and Will were coming back from their walk, laughing and occasionally throwing snow at each other. Helen watched as Phoebe stopped walking abruptly. Will didn't notice at first and kept going. Suddenly, Phoebe took a running start and barreled right into Will, knocking them both to the ground. Helen could hear the two of them laughing as Frank came out of the bathroom adjacent to their room.

"What are you looking at?" Frank asked as he pulled back the covers.

"Phoebe and Will," Helen answered simply.

"What'd they do now?"

"Nothing. That's the thing." Helen responded.

"I'm sorry, I don't follow." Frank questioned as he got into bed.

"Well, I just can't seem to shake the feeling that there is something there."

"Where?"

"With Will and Phoebe!"

"Huh?"

"Ugh! Frank! You don't see anything different about their relationship than say, Dylan and Christina's?" Helen asked as she climbed into bed next to him.

"Well they certainly spend more time together. And they seem to actually get along pretty well. But I don't think that that means anything." Frank reasoned.

"Frank, I know my daughter. Her face lights up when Will comes into the room," Helen said pointedly. Frank looked at her with disbelief.

"Well Will certainly speaks fondly of Phoebe. And he does always try to help her out around the house when they are both home, and touches her arm a lot, and . . . hmmm. Okay" he said slowly, "so what if you are right? What are we going to do if Phoebe and Will are in love with each other?" Frank asked.

"Well let's not get ahead of ourselves now. This might all be nothing; they just might be good friends. Or they might be secretly in love with each other."

"How are we going to know which one it is?" Frank questioned.

"I don't know, Frank. I don't know if Phoebe or Will even know which one it is," Helen said softly, as she turned out the light.

0-0-0

"Hey, do you want some tea?" Phoebe asked as they entered the house, brushing snow off of their jackets.

"Tea?" Will snorted. "Dylan's right, you are a British snob now."

"What? It's just tea. I can't help it that my love for tea was awakened in the Mecca for tea drinkers! Besides, I have this one really great kind that I brought back with me. It'll make even the worst skeptic a believer. You have to try it!" Phoebe pleaded.

"Well, if I have to," Will said smiling as Phoebe put the kettle on the oven top. He sat down on a kitchen stool across the counter from her. A comfortable silence fell between them.

"So tell me about your girlfriend," Phoebe said.

"What girlfriend?" Will asked, raising an eyebrow.

"The great William Beardsley doesn't have a girlfriend? They were crawling all over you in high school, especially after your Student President win."

"Well, I've had opportunities, but there's always something holding me back" Will said. "I can't even really explain it; it's like for some reason, none of the girls I meet are ever good enough."

"Wow, cocky much?" Phoebe asked as she got out two mugs from the cupboard.

"No, no, I don't mean to seem cocky. It's just. I haven't met anyone I connect with and who is in it for the long haul. It's seems stupid; this is college, the time where I am supposed to be having fun in the dating world. And I want to! I just want it to be with someone I can actually have a relationship with. Someone I can laugh with and just be myself around. And now you are looking at me really weird," Will trailed off.

Phoebe snapped out of her trance; she had been staring right at Will. "N-no. I don't think that's weird at all. I think it's refreshing," Phoebe said quietly.

"Refreshing huh? And still no mention of Mr. London?" Phoebe looked up from her mug as Will said this. "C'mon, you know you want to tell me," Will encouraged.

"Okay, okay. Fine. Here's the whole story in a nutshell. I went to London to study. I met Peter. We hung out a lot. We started dating, sort of. It was never official, official, but I was definitely into him and he turned out to be into Sara, one of my classmates on the program with me, which I found out when I came home early one day from class," Phoebe explained, without looking directly at Will. "So that's my sob story. It was stupid of me to think there was something more there than actually was and it was a complete lapse in judgment to tell Christina about it. As much as I love her Will, I can see that she definitely blew it way out of proportion here."

"Well I pretty sure she was hoping you would bring back two of whatever man-type they have over there," Will responded placing his mug in the sink. He turned to head up the stairs. "And for the record, Phoebe, any guy that would pass you over is a complete and total idiot."

"Thanks, Will, but you don't have to say those things and go all big brother on me," Phoebe said.

Meeting her eyes for one last time that night he reached out and touched her hand ever so lightly. He replied, "Trust me, I'm not," before going to bed.

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