JENSEN’S POV

 

Mornings sucked. It wasn’t because of the long day to come. I expected that. That part was a given. Besides that was fun. Mornings sucked because my alarm was an annoying piece of shit that jerked me out of my nest of nice warm covers. Mornings meant that I couldn’t just be lost in my warm happy place. Mornings meant that I was running late for the third time this week and I was going to kill Jared for ringing my doorbell this early in the morning.

 

“Jarhead,” I said, fighting to get my shoes on. “Oh!”

 

It took me a moment to remember that I had a new neighbor and she was standing on my welcome mat, dripping wet. She actually looked like a half drowned kitten standing on my front porch. Her hair was plastered to her head and there was a faint crease on her flushed cheek. The rain had plastered the front of her shirt wetly to her breasts. Her perky wet breasts.

 

Until she turned away I didn’t even realize that she was talking to me. At 4 in the morning I almost missed the biting sarcasm in her tone. It came back in sharp relief when I caught sight of Jared snickering over her shoulder. I choked and stammered out an apology but she wasn’t having it. We watched as she stomped her way back to her house, that messy half ponytail thing that women do with their hair swinging and swaying with each annoyed step.

 

“Are you ever going to tell her that you could see right through her top?” Jared asked, his expression deadpan.

 

“Fuck off asshole,’ I growled at him with mock annoyance but I could feel the heat in my cheeks.

 

Of course it’d be too much to think that Jared would keep his trap shut. We’d no sooner settled into our makeup chairs than he started.

 

“Jensen got in trouble this morning,” he informed Jeannie in a child like sing song voice.

 

“He did?” Jeannie smiled indulgently at him in the mirror.

 

“Christ, we’ve probably woken her up every morning pick up this week,” I groaned.

 

“Whoa,” Jared pointed a finger at me. “What we? You’re the one that insisted that the pickup just honks,” Jared laughed.

 

“Shut up, Jay,” I moaned. “You don’t have to live next door to a pissed off neighbor.”

 

“So send her some flowers and an apology,” Jeannie half shrugged.

 

“Great so her husband can come and kill me? I don’t think so,” I muttered.

 

It wasn’t until we were filming a sidewalk scene that I remembered Jeannie’s comment about the flowers.

 

“Come on,” I tugged on Jared’s sleeve.

 

“Where are we going?” Jared demanded.

 

“Smoothing ruffled feathers,’ I muttered and dragged him into the florist shop.

 

Flowers. Flowers should be easy. Girls liked flowers. I glanced around feeling slightly alarmed. It looked like a botanical garden threw up in here.

 

“Good morning,” a woman smiled from behind the counter. “May I help you?”

 

“No,’ I muttered. “Just browsing.” I frantically looked around trying to find something that said I’m sorry.

 

“We need something that says ‘I’m Sorry’,” Jared informed her. “But nothing that would, um, be too,” he gestured with his hands.

 

“Have you thought about a fruit basket?” she opened a book on the counter that contained all of the things that they could put together.

 

Perfect.

 

A half an hour later I had a receipt for one big ass fruit basket and a promise that it’d be delivered sometime today. The next afternoon there was a Thank you note pressed against my door. I figured that would be the end of it. It wasn’t.

 

A week later I came home from work to see her unloading the trunk of her car. This time she had a kid with her. Our eyes met through the windshield and I hesitated.

 

Her son spotted us and tugged on his mother’s sleeve while I stifled the urge to groan. I love my fans. Hell, without them I wouldn’t be where I was but it got a little overwhelming sometimes. I just wanted to be left alone, especially when I was at home. I didn’t think that it was too much to ask for.

 

I was bracing myself for a confrontation when, much to my surprise, she just tilted her head slightly and pulled her son into the house. The little boy kept looking over his shoulder at us as she ushered him along.

 

“So have you talked to them yet?” Jared asked as he rested his plate of pizza in his lap watching me getting my ass handed to me by Halo.

 

“Talked to who?” I stifled the urge to glance at him. “Fucker,” I muttered under my breath.

 

“New neighbors?” He pressed. “Didn’t you say that she had a kid?”

 

“Yeah,” I tossed the control aside when I lost my last life. “Says he’s not allowed to talk to me,” I informed him around bulging cheeks as I took a bite of my pizza.

 

“What?” Jared looked genuinely startled.

 

“Don’t know,” I half shrugged and frowned at my pizza. “That’s what he said.”

 

“That can’t be right,” Jay scowled. “Did you do something else to piss her off?”

 

“How the hell should I know?” I thrust my plate away. “She doesn’t talk to me, if and when I see them, she just... nods.”

 

We both glanced at his dogs when Sadie cocked her head by my patio door, her tail wagging in a slow easy manner. Jay got up with a grunt and let his dogs out. He paused a moment and poked his head outside before quickly shutting the door and grabbing his coat off the back of the sofa.

 

“What are you doing?” I gaped at him.

 

“Recon,” he grinned. “The kid is outside.”

 

“Jay,’ I frowned at him but before I could say anything else he stepped outside.

 

I loved the big guy to death, but there were times when I was just a little jealous. Jared had an uncanny ability to put people at ease within moments of meeting them. He did it with me. It’s what made our original audition so seamless. When I tried it, I just came off like an ass, so I contented myself with letting him take the lead at press junkets.

 

“Working hard or hardly working?” He called out in a friendly voice. I got up and leaned against the door jam to listen. God, I was such a coward.

 

“Working hard, Mister Padalecki,” the kid called back with a laugh.

 

“You said my name right,” he laughed.

 

“Yep, my mom and I watch the show every week.”

 

Okay this was strange. They watched the show every week never once stopped to talk? It wasn’t like I needed my ego fed really I didn’t but it was weird.

 

“Who do you like better? Dean or Sam?” Jared asked.

 

“Sam,” came his immediate reply.

 

“Really?” Jay was genuinely surprised. I kept telling him that Sam was getting more and more attention. Jay had been knocking it out of the park but the guy was really so modest he never really believed me.

 

“Sam’s really smart and he went to college. Mom likes Sam too. She used to like Dean, but she said she’d take a guy with brains over beauty any day,” the kid informed him. Then his voice dropped to a stage whisper. “Besides Dean gets in fights with girls.”

 

“He does?”

 

“You’re not supposed to hit girls,” I could hear the scowl in his voice.

 

Whoa! It wasn’t like Dean ever went up and punched some poor girl. He’d never do that. He sure as hell wasn’t a pussy either and when it came down to it, them or Dean. Dean was walking away. Only a chicken shit would hit a girl and Dean was no chicken shit.

 

“That’s cool and no you shouldn’t hit girls but you know that Dean would never hurt a girl right? Not a real girl.”

 

“I guess so,” oh like he sounded convinced.

 

“So what’s your name?”

 

“Bryce Lucas.”

 

“How come you never say hi to Jensen?”

 

Nice Jay, just put the kid on the spot.

 

“Mom says that I’m not allowed.”

 

“Why?”

 

“She said that he shouldn’t be pestered when he comes home from work,” he parroted his mother. “Give the poor guy a break and let him sneeze in peace.”

 

Something I hadn’t even known was tight loosened in my chest. I hadn’t mysteriously pissed her off. She was actually trying to give me some privacy. It made me feel a little bad for privately thinking of her as a stuck up, snotty, bitch.

 

I shamelessly listened as Jared pumped the kid for more information. They’d just moved here from some little town in Florida. He missed his grandparents. He was in the fourth grade. He liked some little Japanese cartoon. Jay assured him that there was a cartoon channel up here. How he knew that I really wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

 

“Bryce Duncan.”

 

His mother’s voice cut across the conversation like a knife through butter. It was the ‘You’re in big trouble now young man’, voice. I knew that tone. My mother had used it once or twice. Jared ducked behind the fence.

 

“What have I told you?” She demanded.

 

Her Southern accent wasn’t Texas but it was thick and rich. She softened her consonants and lengthened her vowels. It was soothing and familiar.

 

“Not to bother the neighbor,” was his immediate reply. “But Mom,’ he started to say. -“Do you know who it is?”

 

“I know and don’t care,” she snapped. “You let that poor man be and do not make a nuisance of yourself,” she reigned in her sharp tone. “Go inside please and finish up the dishes.”

 

“But Mom,’ he tried again.

 

“Bryce don’t make me get after you,” her accent thickened with anger. “Now git.”

 

“Yes Ma’am.”

 

Jared glanced in my direction with wide eyes. I motioned for him to come back inside but he held up one finger in a wait gesture. I watched in horror as he stood up and peered over the fence before ducking again. Hadn’t he heard the kid? Mom was a big fan and now he was in trouble for bugging the neighbor. This was going to cost me a fortune in fruit baskets.

 

“He thinks that you don’t like him,” Jared called out to her.

 

Yep, dead man walking. I was definitely going to kill him. Best friend or not. They could always recast Sam. Sure, the fans would bitch for a little while but I was so going to kill him.

 

“Excuse me?” I could hear the frown in her voice “I don’t like whom?”

 

“Jensen,” Jared rose up and peaked over the fence. “I just don’t think that you’re a people person.”

 

“I like people just fine, Mr. Padalecki,” I could hear her moving around behind her side of the fence. “It’s nosey people that I don’t particularly care for.”

 

I leaned against the wall and thumped my head against it lightly. When I glanced outside the jackass that was Jared Padalecki had disappeared.

 

“I talked to him first. I didn’t mean to get him into trouble.”

 

I could still faintly hear his voice and realized he had gone over to her house. You never went over to a fan’s house! Bad things happened to people when they went over to a stranger’s house.

 

“Well thank you for clearing that up,” her tone was slightly dry and a little confused.

 

“Your son told Jensen that he wasn’t allowed to talk to him,” Jared continued.

 

Where could I hide a body that big? Maybe up in Whistler.

 

“He did what?” I heard her gasp.

 

“He told Jensen that he wasn’t allowed to talk to him.”

 

“I never said that,” she sounded horrified. “I told him he wasn’t allowed to bother him.”

 

“Jen don’t mind. He likes kids.”

 

There were sounds of more movement and then a pause.

 

“What?” I could hear Jared ask.

 

“Why are you picking up my garbage?”

 

“Cause you looked like you needed help.”

 

Yep that’s right, big ol’ friendly, helpful Jared. Whom I was going to kill the first chance I got for being TOO helpful. If the psycho fan didn’t get him first. Hadn’t he ever heard of Jeffery Dahmer?

 

“Hey, you know who I am.”

 

“As big as you are, you’re kind of hard to miss.”

 

I covered my mouth to muffle my laugh. She was sassy. Okay, so maybe I owed Jared one for testing the waters. She didn’t seem so bad, but there was the last test to go.

 

“Jared?” I called out in a confused voice.

 

“Over here,” Jared called out.

 

See we weren’t actors for nothing.

-They weren’t standing as close together as I’d first thought, especially since Jay possessed no concept of personal space. They each held packing materials.

 

“Hey man,” I glanced at Jay.

 

He was giving me the- ‘everything is fine,’ signal with his eyes. He could probably land 747’s with his eyebrows.

 

“Hey Jen, this is your new neighbor,” Jared informed me. “Sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”

 

“Do you generally pick up a person’s trash before asking their name?”

 

Her question was drawled out in a tone of complete innocence, with an underlying current of bite. I had to smother a laugh because Jared, who was normally the one who was quick to poke a little fun at people, his friends, and even himself, looked like he was at a loss for words.

 

“Beats a fruit basket,” he finally laughed and winked.

 

“Hey,” I frowned at him in objection.

 

Great, dickhead. Remind her that I’d already pissed her off. Whose side was he on?

 

“It was a nice fruit basket,” she laughed. “Thank you, and you can call me Liv.”

 

“Hey Mom?” Bryce called from the doorway. “The buzzer went off.”

 

“Pull it from the oven,” she told him.

 

“Okay,” he started back inside and turned around real quick. “Maybe you should ask them if they’ll help us get that entertainment unit together for some peach cobbler.”

 

“Bryce,” she hissed at her son.

 

Oh no! It was Jay’s fatal weakness, his kryptonite. Desserts. Homemade desserts, no less. Jared’s eyes got wide as his head swiveled towards the open door. I was helpless. Forced to watch as his will slowly crumbled. I wondered if I should warn her that she’d never get rid of him now.

 

“You bake?” 

 

Bryce picked that moment and came racing back out. “Yep, she bakes,” he informed us. “She made homemade peach cobbler. I got to pit the peaches.”

 

“From scratch?” I asked.

 

In this day and age most people just pick up a box from the grocery store or defrost something frozen in the microwave. .

 

“What kind of self respecting southern woman would I be- if I couldn’t make peach cobbler,” she nodded towards the door. “Ya’ll are welcome to have some.”

 

“Mom even has vanilla ice cream,” Bryce was literally vibrating with excitement.

 

“I won’t even make you work for it,” she laughed.

 

Her eyes sparkled with humor and mischief.

 

“But Mom, you make me work for it.”

 

“Builds character, oh, son-of mine, besides the way you eat I have to get something for my money.”

 

Jared happily followed the kid into the house. I was torn about what to do.

 

“I’m afraid my son misquoted me,” she held a hand out, not quite touching me. I appreciated that. It just kind of creep me out having a stranger touch me. It used to drive my Mom nuts when we went to church.

 

“It’s okay,” I shrugged but I couldn’t really bring myself to look at her. I was uncomfortable see anything that resembled hero worship or worse like I was on display at a petting zoo.

 

“I told him not to bother you, not that he couldn’t speak to you,” she bit her lip and hesitantly moved towards the house. “You’re welcome to cobbler.”

 

She didn’t pressure me. She left the decision in my hands. She simply left the door open. I hesitated a moment longer before following them in. I may want to kill Jared, but in the mean time someone had to watch his back.

 

As it turned out, she was an excellent neighbor. They were quiet except for the weekends. Then I could hear them laughing and playing in the back yard. She was friendly when we’d chat over the fence. She always made it a point to send Jared over with extra cookies for me. Best of all she never once mentioned the show or who we were. We were allowed just to be Jared and Jensen.

 

Her kid-- was fantastic. He was so very polite and always willing to share something about his day. There was something about him that just sparkled. He was so innocent that it spilled over. It made me want to absorb a little bit of it. He reminded me of everything that I’d left at home in Richardson.

 

Over the next few weeks I got used to Jared wanting to stopping over at Olivia’s before coming by to see me. He’d sometimes drop his stuff off before popping over to say hello to her. Sometimes he’d drag me over with him.

 

“Jen, she’s a single mom all on her own. New in town, we need to check on her,” Jared shrugged one evening.

 

“How do you know she’s a single mom?” I tore my eyes away from Hostel II.

 

“Dude, no ring,” he started to tick the points off. “No man sniffing around, there’s never a strange car in the driveway. Besides Bryce would have said something, hinted at something,” Jared shrugged.