The Complexities of Dating a 'Friend'

Author: Sunnycouger (foolofatook_@hotmail.com)

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: You all don't honestly think that I own any of this do you? Roswell and all its characters are property of Melinda Metz and Jason Katims..I just take them out to play sometimes...

Category: Dark fic

Summary: Alex/Laurie fic set in the RBB continum! Tess drags Alex to a themed restaurant and while there they see Laurie with a date? How does Alex react? He's as cool and suave as usual of course...

Authors Notes: If you haven't read RBB all you really need to know is that Alex and Laurie know each other very well...Laurie is Tess' best friend who are now living together, Tess loves driving Alex slowly mad...the rest you should be able to pick up along the way...if not, go read Roswells Big Brother at roswellsbigbrother.tripod.com!!!

I should say that I dedicate this fic to Fez, who has been busting my head so much in the past year that she can't find any Alex and Laurie fic (that may be because they didn't share a scene together, but hey...each their own ) [plus, I'm trying to convert her to the possibility of Draco and Ginny in the HP universe so this is what I had to do *shakes head*

Um, one other thing: certain things are said in the course of this fic about a well known sporting event and certain games in this event and I should say that views expressed are not my own opinions (well, mostly ) So hopefully no one will take offence...

Are you all sitting comfortably? Well, lets get on with the fic...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Alex considered himself a smart guy. He had a lot going for him upstairs. He had a head for computers, he was sensitive, he knew music, he liked languages...generally an all round smart alec. A good egg. An intelligent guy, well at least in comparison to his 'friends' who he would be killing later. Why then, he wondered, was he now standing outside this particular doorway preparing to chap and throw himself on the mercy of the occupant? Was he that dense? Did it sound like it was a good idea?

Okay Alex, all you have to do is lift the hand, chap the door. Give it a second and then run. At least then you can say you tried.

Despite this, he couldn't quite get his hand to knock the door...maybe because he knew he would be face to face with that famous Guerin temper and stubborn streak. Maybe because Kieran could be there.

Maybe because he had absolutely no idea to what he was going to say to apologise. Somehow 'I'm sorry I was an ass but I hate your boyfriend and I am kinda confused about how I feel about you, so give me a few weeks and I'll give you a better answer.' Probably wouldn't cut it...

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a loud squeak as the door opened. "Eeek!"

He looked up to see Tess Harding standing there looking like she'd seen a ghost. She immediately glared at him and hit him repeatedly on the arm. "For crying out loud, Alex! You nearly gave me a heart attack! What would have happened if I had just reacted...you would be lying in a heap on the floor."

"Dead?" He asked as he rubbed his arm.

She stopped hitting him and looked at him aggressively. "Of course. What are you doing here, Alex?"

"Being pummelled?"

"Apart from that." She said as she closed the door behind her. "Do you think it's a good idea to be here?"

Alex looked at her. Of course it wasn't a good idea, but if Laurie just had to come and find him she'd just be madder. He gulped. Yes, it was definitely better to get it out the way early. "Well, I figured I should come and apologise earlier...so she couldn't stew on it for a few hours."

Tess eyed him suspiciously as she looked at her watch. "It's just after 9am...shouldn't you be at Brody's? Or sleeping?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "They tossed me. So I decided to some over nice and early to apologise..."

Tess looked at him sympathetically. She clearly thought this was a mistake and didn't want to clear up his blood off the floor. "Alex..." She winced slightly as she tapped his arm. "Good luck."

He rolled his eyes. The girl had to learn to chill out. "Tess, Tess, Tess...trust me. It'll be fine. So, is she in? Is she alone?"

Tess nodded her head. "That she is...listen, I'm going to meet Amy and Jim because they want the house decorated and they want me to test some colours for them but, you know...I won't be *that* long. So, you know...if you want to wait until I come back?"

He shook his head. "Do I look like I need a bodyguard? Especially one as short as you?"

She whapped him again with a scowl as she opened the door behind her. "Your funeral Whitman. Just don't bleed on the carpet...go over to the wooden floors so it's easier to clean."

"You know you're wasted in nursing, seriously...you should take up stand-up comedy." He groaned as he followed her in and spotted the bald cat looking at him from the sofa. "Hmm, I see the hell cat hasn't decided to go back to hell yet..."

"Leave Wilson alone, you make him feel bad."

The cat meowed as it stood up and stretched it's claws out in a long stretch. He took a step back as the cat jumped down, meowed at him again and turned away towards Tess' room. He shuddered. That cat hated him. "He looked at me and showed his claws. He's still evil."

"Stop it. I thought you were told not to insult him while you were here."

He shifted as he groaned. "Fine. If you like the cat more than me, keep it."

"We do." She smirked at him as she walked back to the door. "Laurie! Alex is here."

Alex smirked back at her as he turned expectantly to the door. "Maybe she's asleep?"

Tess let out a laugh. "Oh no, she's not asleep...she's definitely not asleep."

Just as she finished talking Alex span around to see Laurie open her room door and walk out. She looked at him angrily with her arms folded across her chest and he could have sworn the temperature in the room plummeted at least 15 degrees. She did look a lot like Michael when she was pissed he realised. You could tell that they were related. Of course, she looked a lot lot better than Michael did.

A LOT better.

"What are you doing here? Kieran's not here but I can give you his home address if you want to go around and insult him some more? Or maybe you would like me to tell you everything I've done in the past month so you can go report it to Michael? You know, I can draw diagrams and everything."

Alex flinched as he turned to Tess briefly who was standing just outside the door.

"Guys, I have to go. Laurie, give me a call if you need anything. Alex..."

"Don't bleed on the carpet, yeah, I got that." He turned to Laurie as Tess shut the door and sighed. What would be a good thing to say? "Laurie...I am so sorry."

She looked at him unimpressed. "Yeah, sure you are."

He shook his head as he began walking towards her. "No, I am. I am really sorry. I mean, I felt so bad about it that I got thrown out of Brody's. I mean, Brody threw me out because I couldn't stop telling everyone how bad I felt!"

"Oh, Brody threw you out? I feel really bad for you!"

"Well, I was just trying to get some advice..." He muttered as he avoided looking at her. "They were hopeless..."

"Oh, and you told Michael because of that?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "Well...maybe not. That was an accident. He kinda provoked me..."

She groaned and shook her head as she brushed past him. "Whatever. I don't care."

He turned around and looked at her as she lounged on the sofa. "I care. I care that I hurt you."

She shook her head as she looked at him. "Sure you do. You care that you screwed up! That's what you care about! To hell with what I feel, or what Kieran felt! Just care about yourself like usual!"

He shook his head determinedly. "No! Not just that, I care that I upset you. That you are angry at me. That I made you unhappy."

She pursed her lips in that infuriating manner that she always had when she was trying to keep calm. She was one of those people who were gentle and quiet until they were rattled when they inevitably blew their tops and let rip. As it stood, Alex had only seen this happen once and it had terrified him so much that he had vowed never to be on the receiving end of what Laurie had gave Maria that day. But, as she sat there, looking at him thoughtfully, it was obvious that he was more than likely going to get worse.

He walked back over and kneeled down in front of her. "Laurie, I don't know why I did what I did. I was just...confused."

"You have no right to be confused now! For crying out loud, did you give a damn about how I was feeling? You don't know what I was feeling about Kieran and you could have ruined it! Was that what you were going for? Did you care?"

He winced as he backed up. She had said it. He could have ruined it. He could have ruined her relationship with Kieran and he didn't care. That, deep down, was what he had intended to do as wrong as that was. He didn't want anyone else to be with her. He didn't want another guy to take her out, kiss her, hold her hand. And he certainly didn't want another guy spending the night with her.

"I care...that I hurt you. I care that you are with someone. I care that you are in love with him...I care about a lot of things. Mostly, I care about you."

"That's not your place to care about me." She looked at him and her expression softened as she continued. "Besides, I never said I was in love with him."

"You...you're not?" He hoped that he had been able to keep the excitement out of his voice. "Really?"

She looked at him intently for a second, never taking her eyes of his before standing abruptly and pushing past him. "That's none of your business."

He let his head fall back to look at the ceiling. What had he done to deserve this? He would never work out how a woman's head worked. How could they switch from one emotion to another? "Laurie! Come on, you can't be like this!"

She span abruptly and walked over to him and stuck her finger in his chest. "No! *You* can't be like this! We have moved on. Just because you are single now you can't act like this. I do not need a chaperone and I certainly don't need a hypocrite like you as one!"

He looked at her angrily. He had come to apologise but she clearly wasn't interested. Why had he bothered with it? She was just like her stupid brother and he had no intention of letting her get away with calling him a hypocrite. "Well, as far as hypocrites go why the hell didn't you tell anyone you were dating? Was it something to be ashamed of?"

She glared at him, her angry blue eyes boring into his. Alex shifted back slightly but didn't flinch under her gaze. If she could dish it out she could take it.

"It was nothing to be ashamed of. I was just trying to protect peoples feelings!"

"Whose feelings?" He yelled back.

She looked at him, her blue eyes suddenly softening and glistening. "No one who matters now."

"Really?" He looked at her and sighed. What was the point? She was clearly uninterested. "Whatever. I came to apologise. I did it. Tell Kieran I'm sorry when you see him tonight."

She nodded her head and folded her arms across her chest. "Fine!"

"Fine!" He looked at her and closed his eyes. What was wrong with him? He never did this. He never fought with her. Hell, he never fought with anyone, but especially not her over nothing. "Laurie...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said what I did..."

She shrugged her shoulders. "Forget it. You're entitled to your opinion."

He took a step towards her and bent down so he could look at her at eye level. "I am sorry. I mean it. I'm a loser who let my own feelings cloud over what was good for you. I was selfish and I'm sorry..."

She looked at him and sighed. "Why?"

He looked at her confused. Why what? Why had he let his own feelings cloud his judgement? Because thinking about her was driving him crazy. Why was he selfish? He realised what he had missed and it was killing him because he didn't want anyone else to have it.

"Why what?"

"Why...why did you wait as long? Why did you wait until it was too late? Why was it okay for you to have someone but not me? Why can't you accept that you sometimes don't get two chances?"

He winced as he looked at her. Ouch. That hurt. That hurt a lot. "I...can. If that's the way it is, I can accept that. If that's what you want."

She looked at him and nodded her head. "That's what I want. We can't keep going over the past. I mean, we are adults and you know..." She said as she walked to the door. "It's okay for us to be just friends...like we always have been."

He sighed as he felt like his heart had dropped to the floor. What had he really expected? Nothing... "Like always..."

He walked to the door as she stood at it with her hand on the handle. "So, I accept your apology. And, I'll see you soon."

He noted that she was definitely not sounding normal...her voice was almost squeaky. Like she was trying to sound happy. "You...bet. So...I'll see you later?"

She nodded her head as she pulled a smile out of the bag and used it on him. "Definitely."

He nodded and leaned in for a hug. Just to make sure everything was good. "Okay, bye Laurie..."

"Bye, Alex..."

He probably held onto her longer than was needed and that was probably what started it. He really should have pulled away sooner but something kept him holding on. Maybe it was the smell of her shampoo, maybe it was the proximity of her. Maybe it was the fact that she was holding him as tightly as he was holding her. Nonetheless, whatever it was, it was probably, in hindsight a big mistake.

He moved to pull back but before they could come out of the embrace they looked at each other. In that second Alex wasn't entirely sure what happened but for some reason the next thing he was aware of was her hand coming up behind him guiding his head down as his hand did the same to her before suddenly he leaned in and kissed her. He closed his eyes and allowed the feeling of euphoria take over as for a split second he felt like he was floating. This was what he had missed when him and Isabel were coming towards the end. The way the world would just fall away. She had found it with Jesse but he knew that he would only be able to find it with another person...a person he had gave up. That he now held in his arms, that was now kissing him.

That was dating someone else.

He almost got lost in the kiss before that realisation sank in and he pulled back almost at the same time that Laurie did. He had just kissed another guys girlfriend! He wasn't that kind of guy. He didn't do things like that. He looked at Laurie who now had a similar horror struck expression on her face.

"Oh god, I am so sorry..." He stammered as she brought her hand up to her mouth.

"Um, no...no, my fault...um..."

"No! I mean...I shouldn't have...you know..." He shook his head quickly. Life was cruel. How could he suddenly get the chance to kiss her yet feel so bad about it. It was really his own fault. He should have a different personality that wouldn't care about little details like that. "Um...I think...I think..."

She nodded her head as she looked at him awkwardly. "Yeah, um...me too...um, you should probably..."

"Go. Right...exactly. We should just..."

"Yeah, pretend it didn't happen...yeah, just you know..." She stuttered as she took a few more steps back from him and avoiding his gaze.

"Exactly. We um, we will just forget it. Um, yeah...so, I'm going to go...."

She looked relieved as she nodded her head quickly and indicated to the door. "Good idea. I'll...see you, Alex."

He opened the door and walked out it quickly. "Bye...um, sorry again about everything..."

She nodded her head as she closed the door quickly behind him. He looked at it longingly as he walked to the wall and banged his head against it. "You are a complete idiot. You are the dumbest man on the planet. You should go jump in the nearest river to save yourself the embarrassment of appearing in public again. Idiot."

He groaned as he walked away slowly. Well, he had done it. He had managed to top last night on stupidity...and he had managed to blow the whole thing. DeLuca would have been proud of him. Meant that Sean was no longer the complete screw-up of them all. No, that honour fell on Alex.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Alex had drove for a while, hours in fact, in an attempt to ignore the fact that he would be going home to either face one of three things: Kieran at his door ready to pound him. Tess at his door ready to pound him or Michael at his door ready to pound him. He groaned as he drove up the street. At best he would be sporting a rather fetching black-eye, at worst he would be sleeping in a rather fetching hole in the ground for the next eternity. He stopped the car and looked at the rain battering against the window and sighed. It was like a Shakespearean thunderstorm: you always knew that something bad was going to happen.

He turned the engine off and was about to get out when his cell-phone went off. He picked it up and answered it. "'ello? No, Kyle...no it didn't go well. Well, when you look up disaster in the dictionary from now on there's going to be a picture of me underneath...no, what do you mean? You mean Tess didn't tell you? Oh...so Tess hasn't been home yet then. Does the Sheriff know that you two are alone in his house?" He smirked as he waited on the reply from the other end of the phone. "Now now, lets try and play nice Valenti. Listen, meet me at the Crashdown about 10.30 and I'll fill you in on what happened. Yeah...okay, see you later. Oh, and Valenti? If you are with Tess when she gets home tell her she's not allowed to kill me. Um, no...i didn't really do anything but you know she can over-react sometimes. Bye."

He hung up the phone and tossed it onto the passenger seat as he walked quickly towards the house. He sighed as he grabbed his key out his pocket and ran towards the door ready to go in, change, call Liz and sleep until he had to get up to meet Kyle: completely ignoring any people who would be at the door ready to kill him.

What he didn't expect was to trip over someone huddled close to his door. "What the...!"

He jumped back to have a look to see who was there ready to yell at them for scaring him half to death. That was when the figure stood up and pulled their hood back. "Hey."

Alex's eyes widened. He didn't see this coming. "Um, hi...Laurie. What are you doing here?"

She shrugged her shoulders as she looked at him. "Um...getting wet?"

He looked at her and immediately smiled apologetically as he opened the door and let her in. He threw his wet jacket off. "Um, are you okay?"

She turned around and looked at him. He couldn't help but noticed the way her hair was clinging to her face which was slightly flushed. She really was beautiful. Not that he didn't know that already but...

"I wanted to ask why you kissed me earlier. You know I was with someone..."

He took a step back and ran his hand through his hair awkwardly. He would rather take the pounding... "It was a mistake...i mean, I didn't mean to. I was leaving and everything..."

She looked at him. "You shouldn't have done that."

"I know, but, in my defence you didn't exactly stop me..."

Her eyes widened and she walked over to him. "Are you blaming me?"

He shook his head. "No. It's just...i know it was wrong."

"It was wrong." She agreed as she rubbed her eyes as she turned away from him and continued quietly. "Isabel said that this would happen. She said it months ago. You should have heard her this morning when I told her."

Alex stood up straight and looked at her. "Isabel? What did she say? What do you mean you told her?"

She span around and looked at him. "She said that you would work out what you wanted and this would happen. We'd be here..." She indicated with her hands. "Like this."

He sighed as he looked at her. "I didn't mean..."

She shook her head. "Forget it. That's not why I came here."

"It's...not?"

She sighed and nodded her head. "I called Kieran..."

He winced and turned around. He could go stick forks in his head and it would be less excruciating than hearing this. "You know, I really don't need to hear this..."

She shook her head as she looked at him. "Don't you want to know why?"

He groaned and turned around. "If I said yes I would probably be..."

"I called him to meet up." She interrupted. "I called him to tell him what happened, and that I couldn't go out with him like that again."

He opened his mouth to respond as she looked at him unsurely. "Don't...think I expect anything or that...I just, you know...it didn't feel right anymore and Isabel was right when she said you can't force yourself to feel something that's not there..."

He felt his mouth turn dry. She had broke up with Kieran. She was single. He could tell her everything...yet he couldn't bring himself to actually talk so he was standing there with what he knew was a vacant, Neanderthal like expression. "So...um, you are...single...that's good? Bad? I don't know..."

"You don't know?" She sighed and nodded her head, looking slightly disappointed and more than a little agitated. "Yeah. Anyway, I just thought you should know since you reacted so badly to the whole thing..."

She immediately grabbed her jacket and stormed towards the door. He looked at her, he had clearly done something to upset her yet he had no idea what. "Laurie?"

He stepped in front of her and bent down to look at her. Her eyes were filled with tears. "What's wrong?"

She shook her head and tried to get past him. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me!"

She turned around and shook her head. "You kissed me. YOU. Kissed. Me. First. You acted weird all night and you made me think that maybe you..." She took a deep breath as she turned and looked at him. "I thought that I did the right thing today...i thought it was right, so I do it and I come to tell you. Hoping that...and what do I get? I get an 'I don't know.' This isn't fair!"

She pushed past him and ran out the door. He looked at the door for a second and replayed the whole events in his head. He had clearly missed something: she had come to his house, in a rainstorm, waited outside it, come in, told him about breaking up with Kieran and he had said...

He groaned as he brought his hand to his head in realisation. Why hadn't he told her what he wanted to instead of making her think that he was indifferent? He ran out the door and looked as she walked away quickly. "Laurie!"

"Leave me alone!" She said as she continued walking.

He ran up and stopped in front of her. She moved to get past him but he stepped in her path. "Just let me explain, okay?"

"No." She said simply as she pushed him away onto the road.

He groaned as he ran up to in front of her again. "Laurie, I'm sorry. I was a jerk. I am so glad that you split with Kieran."

She shook her head. "I don't care what you think."

"I know I was an idiot..."

"No kidding," she said as she walked on as he walked backwards trying to stay looking at her.

"I...I'm sorry..."

"I've heard that enough today, thanks."

"Laurie!"

"Alex!" She responded angrily.

"I love you." He stopped and immediately brought his hands to his mouth. Where had that come from? She stopped and looked at him. He backed off expecting the worst. Damn his mouth for not consulting his brain before it worked...

She looked at him softly. "What?"

He took a deep breath and looked around. "I...um, I love you..."

She looked at him and a smile tugged at her lips as she took a deep breath. "Do you mean it?"

"Well, I wouldn't say it if I didn't...Izzy knew, that's why we split..."

Laurie nodded her head. "She said so...she said I had to give you time and you'd realise but..."

He smiled at her as he took a step towards her. "But?"

She looked at him and smiled. "I didn't think you would."

He looked at her and sighed. "I am sorry...i didn't know what I was supposed to say."

She smiled and whispered to him. "I'll tell you a secret, you weren't supposed to say anything."

He grinned at her, his heart fluttering, his thoughts racing. He bent down and kissed her gently, her lips tasting vaguely of peach lips as her hands found their way to behind his head. This was it. This was perfect. This was exactly what he had wanted for a year. And now he had it and it was better. He pulled apart from her reluctantly and smiled at her.

"Yeah, that was more the response I was going for..." She said with a giggle as she looked at him.

He blushed slightly before laughing. He looked at her and bowed lowly. "Ms DuPree, may I request the pleasure of your company for the afternoon?"

She looked at him and grinned as she took his arm. "I would be honoured Mr Whitman..."

They began walking away slowly as she lay her head on his shoulders and began laughing. "I can't wait to see Michael's reaction to this..."

Alex grinned. Bring him on. He felt he could take any of them now. He felt invincible...he felt complete. At last.

~ Fini~