Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own athttp://download.archiveofourown.org/works/3077957.

Rating: MatureArchive Warning: Choose Not To Use Archive WarningsCategory: F/MFandom: Real Person Fiction, Benedict Cumberbatch - Fandom, British Actor

RPF, British Comedy RPF, CumbercollectiveRelationship: Benedict Cumberbatch/Original Female CharacterCharacter: Benedict Cumberbatch, Original Female Character(s), JJ Feild, Chris

Pine, Tom Hiddleston, Original Male Character(s)Additional Tags: Fluff and Angst, Fluff, Angst, Car Accidents, Eventual Smut, Tooth-

Rotting Fluff, Apologies, Curiosity, Coffee, Set!lock, Romance,Romantic Comedy, Drama, First Dates, Romantic Fluff, Celebrities,Star Trek: Into Darkness, Slow Burn, Slow Build, First Kiss,Paparazzi

Stats: Published: 2015-01-01 Updated: 2015-04-07 Chapters: 21/? Words:21718

Crash Into You

by GranolaSuite

Summary

Inspired by various quotes from BC about people taking 'sneaky photos' on their phones,and him challenging them about it... as you do.

If you have enjoyed this, please feel free to share on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Please, if you like it, hit the kudos button down the bottomand let me know with a comment. Us writers live on them! Like oxygen, water and food.

xoxo

Accidents Happen

The crunch of metal on metal, accompanied by a soft jolt on the car was all Sarah needed. Notonly could she not afford to fix her car, she was already running late. She had her boss on thephone, explaining traffic was at a standstill.

“Oh great.” She grumbled.

“What’s wrong? That wasn’t what I thought it was?”

“Been in an accident, so now I’ll be even later.”

“Sounds like you need to go home, get back out of bed again and start the day again.”

“Can I just do that? Please? Can I just go home and work from home today?”

“Look, it’s 10 a.m. already, so why not.”

“I have to go, the other driver is out of his car.”

“Bye.”

Seatbelt unclasped, and door handle clicked open, Sarah slid out of the car quickly, taking herphone with her as she went. The other driver walked around the front of his car, a much latermodel compared to hers, and inspected the damage. He looked at his car, at her car, back at Sarah,then back to his car again, shaking his head.

“Yeah, look, if it makes you feel any better, I’m none too happy about this either.” Sarah snapped.“I’m late for work, and now this.”

“You didn’t see me?”

“Yeah, I did, and because you’re turning into the street I’m currently in, you need to give way tome, not the other way around.” She argued.

Not only had he run into her, he was now trying to argue that it was her fault. The nerve of somepeople!

“You didn’t think it might be, perhaps, polite to give way to me?” he shrieked.

“No, not particularly, seeing as I’m running late.”

“Well,” he huffed, “that makes two of us, then.”

Sarah stalked over to the street corner and pointed to the “Give Way” sign bolted into theconcrete, not that he was paying any attention, taking photos with his phone when he couldeventually work out what was going on. She watched his frustration grow at trying to operate thecamera on his phone; the sunlight wreaking havoc with the light being thrown in the pictures.

Shortly after, she took photos of her vehicle as well. It would need to be towed, too much damageto the front passenger wheel for her to be able to drive it anywhere except off to the side of theroad. The one thing that the two of them could agree on was that they didn’t need to call thepolice, hell that was the last thing he wanted them to do. Sarah couldn’t be bothered anyway; noone was hurt, just something for insurance agencies to sort out amongst themselves.

“I really didn’t need this, not this morning.”

Sarah pulled a face at him, a look of bemusement. “And you think I did?”

“You were the one taking photos on your phone instead of watching where you were going,” heretorted, watching Sarah write her details out on a pad of paper she found in her glove-box.

“I was what?”

“Tell me, did you get a good photo?”

“Of what?”

“Oh don’t play dumb. I suppose you expect me to believe you were on the phone talking?”

“Uh, I do, because I was,” her answer was slow and confused all at once. “Listen, what are youtalking about?”

“Oh don’t give me that. I see you people, all the time. Oh, don’t mind me, just on the phone,making a phone call!” His hands were waving around in the air as he spoke, getting more workedup about the situation the more he spoke. “All the same.”

“Are you okay? Do you need an ambulance?” Sarah couldn’t help but laugh in his face. “Haveyou hit your head, perhaps?”

“Was it a good photo, would you like to take it again? I’ll even smile if you ask nicely.”

Sarah rubbed her face. “Look, I have no idea who you are, just give me your details so I can callmy insurance agency and get this sorted out. I don’t have time for your meltdown this morning aswell as mine.”

“What?”

“You heard me, just give me your details so I can get this thing here towed.” Sarah thumbed at hercar. “Come on, haven’t got all day.”

“So ... you weren’t taking photos?”

“Why the hell would I want a photo of you?” Sarah kept laughing at the absurdity of the situation,fishing her phone back out of her pocket to show him her call log. “Look, phone call to my boss,and look, no photos of you, whoever you are.”

Sarah watched on as he finished scribbling his details on her note pad and handed it back to her.Affording the paper a quick glance, she folded it up and put it in her pocket. He looked at her for aresponse, but got nothing. Nothing had registered with Sarah and, really, she didn’t have the timeto fuss over it.

“Do you need a lift somewhere?”

“No thank you, I’ll be fine. I’ll just get the car towed and get the bus or a taxi home.” Sarahanswered. “Thank you, anyway.”

A tow truck arrived shortly after, Sarah’s car strapped down to the tray and driven off into theearly morning London traffic which still crawled through town at a snails’ pace. She looked acrossat the man who had hit her, still standing by his car, on the phone, off the phone, back on thephone again. When he’d done, he tossed his phone into the passengers’ seat and walked across to

Sarah. There was something oddly familiar about him, though she couldn’t put her finger on it; theeyes, the face, the mouth, the height. She was sure she’d seen him somewhere, but couldn’t makeheads or tails of it.

“Look, I’m sorry I was a bit of a jerk earlier. Can I drive you where you need to go?”

“No thank you, that’s really quite alright.”

“Are you sure? I mean we’re both late now, so it doesn’t matter, does it?”

“Really it’s okay. Thank you.” Sarah shook her head as she pulled the piece of paper out of herpocket, looking over his details. “Thank you, Benedict.”

“Okay, well, if you have any trouble with the insurance people, you’ve got my details.”

She smiled curtly, and disinterestedly. “Will do. Thank you again.”

“Sorry again about before.” He’d slipped into damage control.

“Good bye.”

“Right. Okay.” Benedict turned and walked back to his car, starting the engine up and driving offinto the traffic.

Waiting for a taxi, Sarah pulled her phone out of her pocket and typed his details into Google.

Benedict Cumberbatch, London.

An Education

Sarah’s day went from bad to worse. That afternoon brought news that her car was a right-off. Itwas as old as the hills and the front end damage to the wheel and axle subsequently meant the carwasn’t worth fixing. She hung up the phone and kicked the desk in her front room.

“Can’t afford a new car right now!” She reasoned with the Gods, or whoever might be out therelistening.

Her friend Erin, however, found it infinitely amusing. She held her sides as she laughed in Sarah’sface. Loudly. Sarah looked at her, embarrassed and frustrated as they split a bottle of wine andChinese takeaway.

“How can you not know who he is?” Erin asked.

“How is it you know so much about him?”

Erin didn’t respond, but just gave Sarah the look.

“What?!” Sarah finally laughed. “I don’t watch a lot of television.”

“You mean to tell me you have that man’s name and address in your coat pocket?”

“Maybe, yeah.”

“Perfection on so many levels. Absolutely perfect.” Erin was slouched back into the couch, feeton the coffee table.

“Him or the situation?”

“Both. Both is good.” She stood up. “What’d he look like?”

“Uh, like that Sherlock guy we just watched.”

Erin rolled her eyes and mimicked her. “Coffee? Another episode of Sherlock shall we?” sheteased as she walked through to Sarah’s kitchen.

In her attempt to help ‘educate’ Sarah, there had been a forced viewing of Sherlock. There werealso internet boards, discussions, memes, and YouTube to contend with. Sarah had conceded that,while the show was quite good, it hadn’t changed her opinion of the man she’d met that morning.

“Still a complete jerk,” she reasoned.

“You know, maybe he was just running late.”

“So was I!” Sarah argued, “But I still managed to be polite.”

“What’re you going to do if he calls?”

“Ahhhh,” Sarah started. “I guess I’ll have to break the good news to him.”

“Oooo. That’s gonna look great for him. I’m surprised he hasn’t got people to handle this forhim.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want his people to deal with it.” Sarah got up and walked towards her kitchen.

“I’ll be back in a second. Want another drink?”

“Please.”

Rifling around in the kitchen, her makeshift filing cupboard accounted for nothing as she lookedfor the last insurance bill she’d paid. With her paperwork nowhere to be found, she moved ontothe fridge and refilled their drinks. The sound of feet running from the lounge could be heard, thefront door swung open before the unannounced guest had a chance to press the doorbell.

“Sarah?” Erin called. “There’s a gentleman at the door for you.” She fanned her face with a DVDcover before realising what it was, and hiding it behind her back; her face gave away herembarrassment.

“It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone.” He smiled at her.

“Promise?”

He winked in response. If someone had tapped Erin with a feather, she’d have fallen overbackwards.

Sarah came back through from the kitchen, expecting to see a door to door salesman on herdoorstep. No such luck. It was the same guy from the morning. Benedict Cumberbatch. The onlydifference was this time she knew exactly who he was. He was dressed casually, the same clothesas he'd had that morning; jeans, converse sneakers and a purple business shirt.

“Sarah.”

“Hey.” She tried to hand Erin both glasses of wine, resulting in her throwing the DVD case acrossthe lounge, knocking over a picture frame in the process.

The sound of breaking glass tinkled through to the front entry.

“I’m just going to crawl into a hole and die right now.” Erin took both the glasses. “Lovely tomeet you, Sir, please call again.”

Sarah snorted, half laughing, half embarrassed by her friend.

“Funny.” Benedict smiled.

“She is.” Sarah agreed. “What can I do for you? I’d have thought you were done causing me grieftoday.”

“I just called past to see if everything had been sorted today? I’ve been on set all day.” He pointedto his hair. “So I haven’t had a chance to call you, I’m sorry.”

“Well, you don’t really need to call me.” Sarah pulled the front door shut as she stepped out ontothe front patio. “Insurance normally sorts itself out.”

“Either way, you were pretty upset this morning -.”

“I was?” She laughed. “Good job, Mister ‘Don’t You Know Who I Am’.”

“Hmmm, though I can see you know now.” He teased as the opening bars of the Sherlock themepermeated through the lounge room windows.

“Shit! Sorry!” Erin called.

Sarah buried her face in her hands. “Apparently I needed an education.” She realised thediscussion was completely off topic, and somewhat strange, so changed it back to what he washere about. “So my car’s a write-off.”

“Hey?”

“My car. Too expensive to fix, so it’s being written off.”

“Fuck.” He breathed out. “Do you need a hire car or something to get around with? I’m sure I canget something organised.”

“Again, insurance will sort all that stuff out.”

“Okay, right, well if you’re sure there’s nothing I can -,”

“Pretty positive.” Sarah smiled politely.

“And I know you’ve got my address and phone number. I don’t think I should have to ask, but.”He stopped speaking when Sarah rolled her eyes.

“I’m not going to hand it out. I’m not stupid, and I’m certainly not like that. Your secret is safewith me.” She teased. “Gosh, you really do have tickets on yourself.”

“No, just...” his voice drifted off. “Look, what I’m saying is, if I can help, please give me a call,but please don’t hand out my personal details.”

“I won’t. Mr Whatever Your Name Is.” A smirk crept across her face. “Never seen you before inmy life.”

“Thank you.” Benedict walked backwards down the steps, hands shoved in his pockets.

“You owe me.”

“Tell me about it.” He chuckled. “Thank you, Sarah.”

Thank me for what? She thought, walking inside and locking the door behind her.

The Drink Made from Beans

There were no more odd visits, and no phone calls the remainder of the week. Sarah was thankful,at least. Sitting back and thinking about it, it was probably a mite strange that he turned up on herdoorstep to begin with. Erin asked her for an update on the situation daily. Did she have anynews? Had she seen him again? What was happening?

“So far as I know, I’m just waiting for my money to come through from the insurance. Howeverlong that takes.” She sighed down the phone line. “I need to get out and buy a new car.”

“Or just stick to the Oyster card.” Erin suggested.

“Yeah maybe.” She fiddled with her lunch on the bench. “How’s work?”

“Meh. Not as exciting as your life.”

“Trust me, nothing exciting happens to me.”

“Yeah except for He Who Shan’t Be Named.”

“Has nothing to do with me, will never be seen or heard from again.”

“He turned up on your doorstep.” Erin chimed.

“Sure. Okay. Whatever.” Sarah laughed.

The bus was crammed full of people. Sarah rued her choice and reminded herself to grab the Tubenext time. Much quicker, less cramming in of people; yes, definitely the Tube next time. Thecoffee van was the first stop as she stepped from the bus and into the street. It was different today,witches hats blocked streets off, and people crowded around, jostling for a place at the front of thecrowd and a peek at whatever was going on.

Vans, satellite dishes, cameras, trailers; a television shoot.

Sarah scooted around them and waited patiently in the queue for coffee. Just don’t stop me gettingcoffee, and you’ll all be fine, she thought, sliding closer to her destination. There we go, come tomumma. She took the coffee, handed over her coins, and turned to walk away. The cup hadbarely touched her lips when her body was jolted, the lid popped off, and warm liquid spilledstraight down the front of her outfit.

“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” She cursed, grabbing napkins and patting herself down.

“I am so sorry -.” The voice stopped as the body attached to it turned around.

“Oh come on! Are you blind? Do you need a cane?!” Sarah almost shouted.

“Sarah?”

“Yes, it’s Sarah.” She agreed angrily, before she realised she was looking at Benedict again, thistime in full costume. “Are you shitting me? Have you been sent to make my life hell?” Sarahcontinued to pat herself down with paper towel.

Benedict grabbed a handful of paper towel and tried to help, Sarah brushing his hand away.

“Seriously, just don’t.” She looked at him. “Just, bloody look where you’re going.”

“Hey, maybe this time you were too invested in your coffee instead of watching where you weregoing.” He argued back at her, waiting for a reaction.

“Oh, okay, so like the whole driving thing, too, right? All my fault.”

He could see Sarah was getting worked up. “I’m sorry, I was only playing. Completely my faultthis time. In fact, I’ll get you another coffee.”

“Don’t worry about it, I have to get straight back on the bus, go home and change.”

“It’s actually not that bad.” Benedict offered. “Just button your jacket up and you’ll be fine.”

“I’ve got an 11 a.m. with a client. I can’t look like this.”

“Could be worse, could look like me.”

“That’s true.” She agreed all too quickly, as she held her shirt out in front of her and inspected it.“Not too bad,” she mumbled. “Could be worse.”

A crowd had gathered, waiting for photo and autograph opportunities. Sarah looked around atthem slowly, hating the idea that she was the centre of some sort of attention.

“Do you want me to buy you -.”

“No, no, you’ve done enough today.” Sarah huffed. “If my luck is anything to go by at themoment, I’ll see you later.”

“Well, so far, I owe you a car and a shirt.”

“Let’s not go adding to the list, shall we?” She offered a smile and threw a napkin in the bin. “Ican see you’re busy, so I’ll leave you to it.”

Without waiting for a response, Sarah had turned and started walking away. Benedict watched asshe disappeared through the crowd of people, dark pony tail swaying behind her.

By the time Sarah turned to look behind her, he was buried in camera phones, photos, and blackmarker pens, smiling and playing for the crowd around him.

Why you? Sarah thought, continuing on her way.

Benedict looked up again, and she was gone.

Making The Move

Her kitchen was warm, inviting and full of the smell of the dinner she had cooked earlier. Erin hadshown up, in the middle of her own personal crisis. The only problem being, Sarah wasn'tlistening to her, her attention was drawn to her phone that had blinked at her only moment earlier.

She stared at the screen of her phone. It was still there. Maybe if she looked away again, it wouldgo away.

"So, I'm in a bit of a spot at the moment." Erin's voice broke up the background noise, thechattering of the television in the next room.

She kept talking, but Sarah was on another planet as far as their conversation was concerned.

It was still there. In fact, it had blinked at her to let her know she hadn't paid attention to it the firsttime.

"So, can you help me?"

"Sar?"

"Sarah!" Erin called. "What is going on?"

Erin looked down at Sarah's phone, then back at Sarah, and then back at the phone again. Herface dropped, before a wide eyed grin took over. It was still there. A text message.

From Benedict.

"Get ooouuuutttt!" Erin laughed. "Walk out that door, down the street, get on that bus and get thehell out of here!"

Sarah looked at her. "What do you reckon he wants?"

"I reckon he wants you to open the message and look at it, numpty!"

"Why has he got my number saved?"

"Well, probably the same reason you clearly have HIS number saved." Erin laughed. "Answer it."

Sarah hesitated a bit, picked the phone up and unlocked it.

"So, it looks like I owe you a coffee and a new shirt..."

Sarah screwed her nose up. "What the hell do I say to that?"

"You say yes please, get dressed and go where he says right now!" Erin laughed.

"Sorry, what was the issue you were having before?" Sarah wanted to change the topic, but Erinwasn't having a bar of it.

"No, no, not important right now. What is important is youuuu just got asked out for coffee."

"Hardly."

"No, you really did." She grabbed the phone and repeated the message again.

"What am I supposed to say to that?"

"You're supposed to say yes thank you that would be amazing!"

"Yeah because that's not overly enthusiastic at all," Sarah chuckled. "Plus, he was a complete dickboth times I've run into him."

"So you're admitting fault now?" Erin giggled.

"Great, now even you're taking his side." Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Im joking!" Erin found the fridge and refilled her drink. "So what're you gonna do?"

Sarah picked up her phone and typed a reply.

"You forgot the part about owing me a car as well..."

"You did not just send that?"

"I might've," Sarah laughed.

"That's a bit cheeky."

She didn't have to wait long for an answer.

"Technically, I don't. I paid my excess today, so you should have money through your insuranceshortly. So, can we work on the coffee next?"

She didn't respond immediately, instead she insisted Erin talk her through the issue that hadbrought her around to begin with. She was being evicted from her apartment. Not because ofanything she'd done wrong, but because her landlord's son had decided he wanted to move intothe place.

"But you love that place! That's so unfair!"

"I know, I know. Do you think I'd be able to stay here for a while, just until I could sort somethingout?" Erin’s eyes were big and round, and hard to say no to.

"I don't see why not, sure. Just don't be breaking anything, will you?"

"I said I was sorry about the picture frame!"

"Yeah, yeah. So when are you moving in?"

"How does tomorrow work for you?"

@@@

Benedict sat on his terrace, looking at his phone, waiting for a response. His car was already at thepanel beaters getting fixed, a new headlight, and a respray and the car would be as good as new.The fact that he'd run into Sarah twice in the space of a couple of days was weighing on his mind.Not in a bad way, of course.

He chuckled to himself about how horrified she had been about the coffee. He hadn't yet told herhow unimpressed they were that he had gotten coffee on his costume. That involved a completeoutfit change, and touch ups from the hair and makeup department, precious time indeed when

trying to stick to a schedule.

Still, his phone remained silent. There was no response, and there wouldn't be that night.

@@@

Sarah struggled up the steps, another heavy box in tow. For a single girl renting, Erin hadmanaged to accumulate enough trinkets, books, and art supplies to last a lifetime. The sun shonedown on them, the bed and bedroom furniture next on the list.

"Have you responded to him yet?" Erin asked as they struggled, and dragged a mattress throughthe front door and up a flight of stairs.

"Who?" Sarah played.

"He who shan't be named!" She played.

"No, not yet."

Sarah helped as the heavy mattress dropped on her foot. "Hey!"

"Give me your phone!"

"Why?"

"Don't argue, just give it to me." Erin demanded. "Hell, if I can't have him, I'm at least going tohelp you!"

"You're not sending a text on my behalf."

"Then answer him already."

"I will."

"When?"

"When we break for coffee."

"Well, then,” Erin walked away. “I'm putting the kettle on. Right now."

After much debate, Sarah decided she would go with a basic, simple approach.

"Yes, we can work on the coffee next."

"It's a bit sterile, but... It'll do." She offered as Erin watched over her shoulder.

"We'll find out when you get a response."

"Why am I so nervous?" Sarah looked at her friend.

Erin smiled in response. "Why do you think?"

Rain, Bus Rides and Cafes

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

She wasn’t sure how she got through her job interview, but she did. Smiling, nodding, and givingthe correct answers when needed. Close enough to home that she wouldn’t need to worry aboutanother car any time soon, Sarah was hopeful she got the positive outcome she needed. At leastsomething had to go right this week.

Until that happened, though, was the Laurel and Hardy show as she travelled to and from workeach day with Erin. The added bonus of her moving in was that she had a functional car. It alsomeant late nights, early mornings, a mad rush to get to work on time each day and fights with thechip and PIN machine at the supermarket on a bi-weekly basis.

“You are shitting me.” Sarah grumbled. “There’s nothing extra in the bagging area.”

Erin grabbed at the contents, took them out, and put them back in again. “I hate these things. Canwe just go through a regular checkout next time?”

The queue was ten people deep. Sarah looked over her shoulder, and back at Erin again,eyebrows raised.

“Yeah okay. Whatever.” Erin conceded. “Organised a date yet?”

Sarah smiled, and blushed wildly. “Shhhh.”

“Oh come on. No one knows who we’re talking about.”

“Just waiting to sort out his next few days.”

“So you’ve heard from him?”

“Maybe.”

“And you said nothing?”

“Maybe.”

“Sarah Ellen.” Erin hissed.

“Erin Jane.” Sarah mocked. “When I know something, I’ll tell you.”

@@@

Benedict sat at his desk; chin buried in his fist and went through his diary for the next week.Interview here, awards ceremony there, photo shoot somewhere in the middle. Oh, and Sherlockfilming. That was happening in amongst everything. Or, was everything happening in amongstthat? Either way, he was time poor.

He flipped the next page over. Saturday morning, a few hours spare, in the early morning. Adouble-check with Karon, and he was a free agent, for a few hours at least.

He picked up his phone and dialled the number; his hard thrumming in his chest.

@@@

Sarah’s heart stopped as she looked down at the phone in her hand. The bus rocked and rolled,swung into corners, and too wide around roundabouts. After she’d had the afternoon off for herinterview, she’d been into town to find herself some new clothes, perhaps some more befitting hernew job. Not that she had it yet, of course, but any excuse to buy new clothes was a good one.

The phone kept ringing.

She took a deep breath and answered. “Hello...”

“Uhhhhh.” His voice drawled on the other end. “Sarah?”

“Hello.” She started again. “How are you?”

“I’m good thank you. It’s Ben, Benedict.”

“Hello Ben Benedict.” She copied.

He cleared this throat. “So, how are you?”

“I’m well thank you. How’s your week been?”

“Good, busy, flat out really. How about yours?”

“Oh, you know, trying to survive the nightmare that is public transport. Particularly bus drivers.”

“Yeah, I stick to the Tube, personally.” Ben offered.

“You know, I had that idea, but it hasn’t quite worked for me today.”

“Next time then.”

“Absolutely.” She smiled. “So, you rang?”

“I did. I did.” Benedict stopped for a moment. “So, I have a few hours free Saturday morning.”

Sarah smiled. “Continue...”

“And I do still owe you a coffee.”

“Yes, I think you do actually. Do you know any good places where one might stumble across thedrink made of beans?”

Benedict chuckled down the line. “I might do, yes.”

Sarah laughed in relief. Lame coffee joke for the win, she thought. “Hell, I’m glad you laughed atthat one.”

Ben was laughing with her. “No, no. I’ll pay that one.”

Venue details were exchanged and a time agreed upon. Just after eight o’clock on Saturdaymorning. Sarah hung up the phone and chuckled to herself before she realised she’d missed herstop. She was too busy with her head floating around in the clouds. The bus clattered to a halt atthe curb, she got out and walked home quickly.

@@@

Rain pelted down as Erin ran up the front steps and into their apartment, her head covered with amagazine. Sarah laughed as she did a shake down in the entry.

“Hey, don’t you laugh at me!” Erin smiled. “I picked up something for you today on the wayhome, but unfortunately he’s a bit wet.”

Erin held out a magazine, drenched from the rain. On the cover, one Benedict Cumberbatch.

“Oh no, I don’t need that.” Sarah laughed as Erin traipsed upstairs for a shower and some warmclothes.

Freshly washed, Erin returned to the kitchen to help with dinner, and couldn’t help but notice asmall smirk forming in the corner of Sarah’s mouth. Erin looked at Sarah, Sarah looked at Erin.

Erin couldn’t help but laugh at her friend. “What?”

“Nothing.” Sarah tried to feign her innocence.

“Not nothing. What’s going on?”

“Nothing is going on. I promise.”

Erin stopped and looked at her. “You’ve got a date, haven’t you?”

“No, I have a coffee.” She corrected her friend. “A coffee.”

“When? When?”

“Saturday morning.”

“This Saturday coming?”

“Yep.” Sarah confirmed.

“Got clothes?”

“Yep.”

“Got shoes?”

“Yep.”

“Got condoms?”

“What?” Sarah laughed. “You’re an idiot. It’s coffee, not Perfect Match.”

“Well, best you read this article and get educated.”

“I don’t want to be one of them.” Sarah complained as Erin guided her over to the dining roomtable, sat her down and opened up the magazine. “Read.”

“No.”

“Read.”

“Later.”

“Sarah.” Erin put on a voice. “Please, darling, won’t you read about me. I’d love for you to beinfomarmated before our first date.”

“Informated?” Sarah was almost crying with laughter. “Did you stop at the pub on the wayhome?”

Erin was still laughed as she served up dinner and brought it over to the dining room table.

“You better read that, I had to fight off a teenager for the last copy. She was still crying when I leftthe store.”

@@@

Nerves wracked Sarah, a sleepless night and a mad rush of a morning and she was already over itby the time she left the house.

“Who gets up this early on a Saturday morning? Seriously?” She trudged along to the bus stopand caught the next one that approached.

She hadn’t dressed up. The last thing she wanted was to be two types of uncomfortable;unfamiliar with the person she was sitting across from, and in new clothes she hadn’t worn in yet.Jeans, a shirt, long coat and comfortable shoes it was.

It was just on 8a.m. when Sarah arrived at the cafe. A quick check inside the door revealednothing, he hadn’t arrived yet. Relief flooded her, being late was not her idea of fun, for anything.Sarah left the cafe, her coat lapels flapping about wildly in the wind. It was still cold, left overfrom the rain the night before.

So she took a seat at one of the outside tables and waited.

And waited.

Chapter End Notes

So, is he going to show up??

Lazy Breakfast

Chapter Notes

After organising a breakfast date, Sarah is worried she's been stood up.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Sarah waited until 8.45a.m. before she decided she’d probably been stood up. She gatheredherself up from the table and walked into the cafe to order a take away coffee. Disappointed, shepulled her phone from her jacket pocket.

A message.

Where are you? I’m starting to think I’ve been stood up?

She looked up to find Benedict standing in front of her. Sarah sighed and looked at him; shewouldn’t have recognised him in a fit. Black pants, a black knit jumper, grey jacket, scarf and flatcap. He could’ve been anyone she walked past in the street. Except he wasn’t.

“Where have you been?” She couldn’t help but smile.

“Me? I’ve been here for half an hour, at least.”

“I’ve been sitting outside.” Sarah gestured to the table she’d occupied only seconds ago.

Benedict rolled his eyes and gestured to a table at the back of the cafe. “Eaten yet?”

“Ahhh, no. Not yet. You?”

“No. Keen?” He shoved a menu in her hand and walked towards the table.

“Sure, why not.” Sarah followed, coffee in one hand, menu in the other.

An awkward silence fell. Sarah had no idea what to say. How do you open conversation withsomeone in the public eye? She decided to go with the obvious, the same line she’d use on anyoneelse.

“So. How’s work?”

A smile crept slowly across his face. “Not so bad, thank you. Bit of an incident with wardrobe theother day, but otherwise okay. How about yourself?”

“Yeah. Work is work. Waiting to hear back about a job interview sometime soon, so fingerscrossed that comes through.” She stopped. “What incident with wardrobe?”

“Coffee stains aren’t a good look on camera, or so I’m told.” He teased.

“Oh God.” Sarah groaned. “Really?”

“It’s okay. They make sure I have a few changes of clothes. I mean, I don’t mind, but I guesseveryone else gets annoyed.”

“Of all the people.” She laughed with a shake of the head.

“It’s alright, though.” He assured her. “How’d you go with your shirt? Was it okay?”

Sarah nodded. “Yep. Kept the jacket buttoned. All. Damn. Day.” Unable to keep a straight face,she started laughing, which started Benedict.

“Well, I mean at least we didn’t have to exchange details this time.”

“Speaking of which.” Sarah tapped the table. “How’s your poor car looking?”

“It’ll be fine. It’ll clean up no problem.” He looked around awkwardly, scratching the area justabove his top lip. “You sorted yourself with a car yet?”

“No. If I get this job, I won’t need to worry about it. Plus Erin moved in during the week and shehas a car, so that’s useful.”

They were interrupted momentarily to order breakfast. Sarah could see a few heads turn as othercustomers walked past their table but didn’t think too much of it. She looked around nervously,while Benedict sat and watched her take in her surroundings. He figured maybe she wasn’tentirely comfortable about the situation. He leant forward on the table, hands wrapped aroundeach elbow.

“So, Sarah.”

“Yes, Ben Benedict.” She teased.

“Tell me about you.”

“Me?”

“Yeah. You.”

“What do you want to know about me for?”

Benedict rolled his eye. “Because we’re sitting here in a lovely cafe, about to eat a fine breakfast,I’ve stuffed you around this week more than once, which tells me maybe we should have met tobegin with. So, please tell me about this woman I keep running into.”

Sarah scrunched her nose up, smiling. “Yeah, we do have this weird thing happening, don’t we?”

“We do. So let’s go. Talk to me.”

And so it began. Conversation ebbed and flowed, back and forth, up and down, with a few moredrinks for good measure after breakfast had been well and truly finished. A few more interruptionscame in the shape of autograph and photo hunters, but most people were happy to leave them be.

“Is this normal?” Sarah thumbed back towards the cafe door, two people walking out happily.

“They’re the good ones, trust me.”

“What, as opposed to those of us who want to take sneaky photos of you?”

Benedict blushed, pulled a nervous looking face, and fiddled with a napkin. “I’m really sorryabout that.”

Sarah leant forward over the table, chuckling quietly. “We don’t all know who you are, Ben

Benedict.”

“Just plain old Ben is fine.”

“Ok, Plain Old Ben.” She teased. “Have it your way.”

“My way?” He leant forward into his side of the table.

Sarah sat back, the focus and intensity of his eyes something she hadn’t seen before, or in a verylong time. “Or not, you know. Just saying...”

“So, this job interview.” He sensed her unease and changed the subject all together.

“Yes.”

“What’s it for?”

“School teacher.”

“You teach now?”

Sarah nodded. “I do. I teach adults, post secondary, but I’ve interviewed for a secondary teacherrole.”

“Beautiful. What subjects?”

“English and History.”

“Ooooh.” He smiled, Sarah noting his mouth formed a beautiful ‘O’ shape as he spoke.

“Good?” She cocked an eyebrow.

“Insanely good.” It was at this point that Ben registered that she really didn’t have a clue who hewas, and he liked that. Immensely. “So, you like kids, then?”

“Kids are cool, yeah. I have a little nephew at the moment who is an absolute corker.” Sarah’sface lit up as she started giving Ben a rundown of her family and, in particular, her nephew.

Again, the discussion bounced back and forth. Friendly banter bounced about until Ben looked athis watch, and brought an end to the breakfast date.

“So, I really would like to stay, but I have to go now.” He looked up at Sarah from his watch.

“Oh, okay, sure.” Sarah stood slowly, matching Ben’s pace. “Where are you off to?”

“Off to mum and dad’s for the weekend actually. Afternoon tea and all that.”

“Sounds lovely.” Sarah took her purse from her coat.

“No, no, put that away.” Ben pushed her hand away. “My treat. I owe you a coffee, and probablya shirt, too. Do I owe you a shirt? Did that clean up okay?” His speech sped up, a marker ofnervousness.

“Are you sure? There was more than one coffee there.” Sarah held out some money for him.

“Absolutely sure, put it away.”

With the bill settled, and Ben’s flat cap and sunglasses replaced on his head, they stood out thefront of the cafe quietly for a moment. Sarah watched the traffic pass by, and Ben watchedpedestrians, neither of them sure of what to say next.

“Well, thank you for breakfast.” Sarah thought she may as well break the ice. Two hours ofconstant chatter and they’d both suddenly fallen silent.

“My pleasure.” His eyes crinkled into his smile. “So, do you think perhaps, if your phone rangagain, and you saw my number, again -.”

Sarah was chuckling at his nervousness. “That pesky number that keeps popping up, yes.”

“Oh! That pesky number.” He played. “Do you reckon you might answer it though?”

“I might just answer it.”

“So I can call you again, then?”

“Of course you can.” She stopped. “Plain Old Ben.”

“Plain Old Sarah.”

“Old.” She rolled her eyes. “Thank you for breakfast. I appreciate the gesture, it was lovely.”

“No, thank you, it’s been great.”

“Goodbye, Plain Old Ben.” Sarah started a slow walk backwards away from him.

“Watch where you’re going!” Ben called after her. “Coffee, and all that.”

Chapter End Notes

The universe is rarely so lazy, so how long until these two run into each other again?

Baby Steps

Chapter Notes

Sick of waiting to hear from Ben, Sarah takes the initiative and gives him a callherself.

Will it pay off?

The lock clunked as the key turned. Sarah pushed the door open and walked into her apartment,music floating through from the kitchen, and Erin dancing while mopping the floorboards. Itwasn’t until Sarah started laughing that Erin realised she’d gotten home.

“Oh! Oh! Oh!” Erin threw the mop on the floor, grabbed her friend and dragged her into thelounge. “Tell me!”

Sarah smiled.

“Don’t just smile at me! How was it?”

“Lovely. Really lovely.”

“Aaaaaand?”

“And it was really lovely.”

“Still think he’s a jerk?”

Sarah blushed.

“Oh, you’re gone already.”

“No, no I’m not.” Sarah argued against the butterflies that were fighting for room in her belly.

“Yes you are.”

“I promise you, I’m not. It was just breakfast. He wanted to smooth things over.”

“You gonna see him again?”

“Don’t know.” Sarah shrugged with a smile. “Maybe.”

@@@

The following Friday

Benedict sat in his trailer, staring at his phone. He felt the entire day had been a write off, unableto concentrate, his brain floating back to the previous Saturday morning. To breakfast. To Sarah.He hadn’t heard from her since, but wasn’t overly concerned. He’d been busy, she was probablyalso busy, and that was the reasoning he was going to stick to.

Freshly showered, he stared at his phone, the screen silently blank. He shoved his phone in hispocket, grabbed his belongings and went home for the night.

@@@

Celebratory champagne was order of the night at Sarah’s apartment. A stop at the bottle shop onthe way home had procured them a few bottles, the first of which they popped shortly afterwalking in the door.

“So, heard from Ben Benedict?” Erin asked, using the nickname he’d come to be known as intheir home.

“No, oddly enough. I am sure he is busy with plenty of work and fine ladies.”

Erin gave her The Look. The one that said, ‘You have got to be kidding me’. She handed Sarah afull glass and leant against the kitchen bench. It was a small kitchen, but very suitable. Modernappliances, a fresh white and natural wood theme ensured the room was always nice and bright,excepting for the days the benches were piled high with dishes, Lights hung low over both theisland bench and dining table giving the room a cosy vibe.

“Ask him around for dinner.”

Sarah scoffed. “Yeah, sure.”

“I’m serious.” Erin reasoned. “Tell him you’re celebrating your new job, ask if he wants to comeover and we’ll get Chinese take away for dinner.”

Sarah looked at her.

“I can go away for the night if you want?” Erin hinted.

They looked at each other before Erin’s smirk got the better of Sarah and they laughed liketeenagers.

“Alright, you know what. I’ll do that.” Sarah pointed at her. “He’s only going to say no anyway.”

Sarah picked up her phone. “How’s this?” She started. “Congratulations to me, I have a new job.Celebrating tonight, keen to join us?”

“Yeah, that’s good. Add a smiley face.”

“Smiley face? I’m not sixteen.”

“Smiley face.” Erin teased. “Go on. That way he knows you’re happy.”

“I think congratulations to me was a fair enough give away that I was happy, but whatever.”Sarah added the smiley face and hit the send button. “Now, we wait.”

The wait wasn’t long. Sarah had hardly sat on the couch before her phone was ringing. Erinclimbed on the couch with her.

“Hello.” Sarah answered, pushing Erin and her long black hair out of her face as she trieddesperately to listen in.

A voice rumbled through the phone. “I hear congratulations are in order.”

“Yes! Yes they are!”

“Well done. When do you start?”

“Well, start of school term, so about 4 weeks away. I’ll finish up at my job in two and -.”

“Hang on, I’ll tell you what. I’m just leaving set now. I don’t feel like sitting at home on my owntonight, is that invite still open?”

Sarah’s eyes flashed over at Erin, nodding at her frantically. “Of course, come over. We haven’tordered yet soooo....” Her voice trailed off.

“Okay, I’ll just hop on my bike and be over shortly.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that. See you shortly.” He hung up before Sarah had a chance to answer him.

More cleaning happened in the following twenty minutes than had happened in the entire weekbefore that. Clothes thrown in the wash basket, benches wiped down, magazines and DVD’shidden in a bedroom (they would never be found, according to Erin), an even quicker vacuum,dishwasher emptied and loaded, which left them just enough time to rifle through the kitchendrawer to find the Chinese menu before there was a knock on the front door.

“Be cool, yeah?” Sarah whispered to Erin as she stopped her running at full pelt to the front door.

“If I was any cooler, I’d be in Frozen.” Erin smiled.

Instead, Sarah walked to the front door, took a look through the peep hole. Nerves kicked in asshe watched him peel off one glove, then a second before he unbuckled his helmet and pushed itfrom his head. Freshly washed brunette curls fell about his forehead as he bent over to tuck somebelongings into the storage box of his bike.

Once he’d finished sorting himself out, and with bike locked, he stepped up to the front dooragain, gave it another quick tap. His stomach was doing somersaults; he clicked his fingers a fewtimes and waited for the door as it opened slowly, Sarah’s head emerging from behind the door.

“Hey.” She smiled warmly.

“Sarah.” He liked how her name sounded rolling from his tongue.

“Come in. We have Erin with us tonight, too.”

“That’s not a problem.” He stepped in through the front door, took his boots and jacket off andlooked around. “This is nice, very homely.”

“Thank you.” Sarah smiled, pushing the door shut slowly.

“Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” Erin emerged from the kitchen, menu in hand.

“Yeah I am actually. Erin, thank you, it’s lovely to meet you officially.” Ben offered his handwhile Erin fumbled about with the menu.

“And you.” She gushed. “Really lovely.”

Ben turned to Sarah behind him and raised his eyebrows.

Sarah smiled. “Shall we order, then?”

Friday Night Usual

Chapter Summary

I've changed the title of this hot mess to Crash Into You, thought it was moreappropriate.

This chapter sees Ben & Sarah ... getting to know each other.... baby steps!

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Erin knew it wasn’t appropriate for her to be there, so she hatched her escape plan quickly. Dinnerwas ordered, and she volunteered to go pick it up. Sarah reasoned they could just get dinnerdelivered, so her plan changed somewhat; she went upstairs, leaving Sarah and Ben alone to chatin the lounge.

“Sit, sit, make yourself at home. I’ll just be back.” Sarah started up the stairs after her friend. “In amoment-o.”

Erin was in the bedroom getting changed into some nicer clothes, like she was getting ready to goout and party.

“What are you doing?” Sarah walked into her room.

“I can’t be here.” Erin reasoned.

“Why not?”

“Are you kidding me? He’s not here to talk to two girlfriends. He’s here for you. I’m going out.”

“You can’t just... go out. We ordered dinner.”

“So we’ll have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.” Erin shrugged. “Plus, I’m worried.”

Sarah looked at her in the mirror, confused. “About what?”

Erin leant in close and whispered. “I’m scared I’ll hit on him.”

“What? I know you better than that, I know you won’t.”

“Well, look at him!” She hissed. “God, look at him. Those eyes. He’s probably worked all daytoday and look at him. He’s stunning.”

“Oh hell. Just don’t do it.”

“No, I’m going out. I don’t want to get in the way.” Erin threw her coat on and stomped down thestairs. “So, I’ll probably be home really late tonight or tomorrow morning. I’ll text you if I’m notcoming home.” She wrapped a scarf around her neck as Sarah joined her at the base of thestaircase. “Benedict, it was lovely to see you again, but I’ve just been invited out to a party, so Iwill likely see you next time you’re around.”

“Oh, sure. Okay.” He nodded, not the least bit offended. In fact, he was somewhat relieved.

As Erin walked out the door, a delivery driver arrived with dinner; perfect timing.

“Friday night usual, but with one extra?” The driver smiled at her.

“Yes, thank you Jimmy.” Sarah pulled some notes from pocket. “Keep the change, yeah? Petrolmoney.”

“Thank you lovely, you have a good night.” Jimmy bounced back down the steps and was on hisway.

Finally, they settled on opposite ends of the couch, food spread out across the table, and a freshbottle of champagne.

“This is all very posh.” Sarah interjected. “Chinese takeaway, MSG, champagne.”

“Well, that’s my night made, then.” Ben smiled at her, sucking some lemon sauce from his finger.“You know, particularly the MSG component.”

Sarah laughed. “Good, glad to be of service.” She relaxed back into the couch, crossed her legsover and dug into her food. “So. Tell me about you. Last time it was mostly me. Tell me aboutyou.”

“What would you like to know?” Ben mirrored her position on the couch, sock covered feettucked in under crossed legs.

“Tell me about your work. You’re filming Sherlock at the moment I take it?”

He nodded, and started prattling on about filming, the length of days, being completely stuffed bythe time he made it home at night, but how nice it is to be able to come home at night instead ofbeing holed up in a hotel or a rental house.

“Do you have much travel coming up?” Sarah stopped. “And before you ask, I did Google you,but it scared me, so I shut it down again.”

Ben laughed, loudly. “Yeah, don’t do that. Hell, even I don’t do that.”

“You’ve not done it?”

“Not for a very long time. It’s not good for the brain otherwise.”

“What is good for the brain, then?”

Ben smiled at the cheekiness of her question and kept rambling on. The more they drank, the morethey relaxed, particularly Sarah.

“Hey, you know what.”

“What?” Sarah looked at him, the television completely ignored.

“Show me your bookcase.”

“My bookcase?”

“Yeah. You own books, right? English and History teacher is bound to have great books.”

Sarah snorted. “Bound.”

“Huh?”

“Bound, like a book.”

A laugh caught in his through. “Got me there.”

“Alright, come on upstairs.”

Sarah jumped from the couch and took off upstairs, Benedict hot on her heels. A quick detour toshow him around the house and they were stood in the upstairs landing looking at some verylarge, and very overflowing book shelves.

“Do you read a lot?” Sarah asked, watching Ben scour her bookshelves, his face changing justminutely enough for her to notice.

“I do, I do. A lot of research, but a lot of fun reading as well.”

“What are you researching at the moment?”

“Oh, a bit of this, a bit of that.” He smirked at her.

“Mister secret agent man.” Sarah teased. “Promise I won’t tell?”

“I know that.” He assured her.

“So, what are you reading?”

He watched her from the corner of his eye, smiling.

“Ben Benedict, you are not giving me side-eye are you?”

“Me?” He smiled, pointing back at himself.

“Yeah you.” She moved in close and gave him a playful tap.

“Come here.” He wiggled a finger at her.

“What?”

“Come closer.” He kept teasing.

Sarah moved in closer to him, careful not to stand on his toes as she went. Her heart sputtered fordear life as he leant into her ear. Her senses flooded with too many messages all at once. Thefreshly showered smell still lingering close to him, despite the food and drink consumed. Beforeshe knew what was happening, Sarah felt her fingers clutch tightly on the bright blue t-shirt he’dbeen wearing, right near his hip, as she waited for something, anything to happen.

“You’re a tease.” She smiled, trying to remain as calm as possible. “What are you reading?”

“Ready?”

“I think? Maybe? Okay, yes.” She nodded, feeling her own hair pushed aside by curls.

“Alan Turing and Richard the Third.”

“No.” She gasped.

“Yes.” He pulled away from her and watched her reaction; genuine excitement.

“War of the Roses Richard the Third?”

“One and the same.”

“Oh God. That’s me done for the night.” She laughed. “That’ll be excellent.”

“Martin will be playing that role soon on stage.”

“Martin?”

“Freeman? He’s in Sherlock with me.”

“Oh right, well I’ll be keen to get tickets either way.”

“You are such a history teacher.” He teased.

“That’s not a bad thing.” Sarah over animated.

“No, it’s a very good thing, if I may say so.”

“You may say so, yes.” Sarah laughed again, shaking her head.

Ben watched as her face changed, her eyes lit up and her nose crinkled into the laughter; she evendid a cute lip biting thing as she tried to stop laughing enough to form sentences.

The familiar clunk of the front door lock interrupted them. Erin was home, and it was close tomidnight.

“Only me.” She announced, throwing her coat and scarf on the stand behind the door. “You crazykids still around?”

“Yeah, we’re just up here.” Sarah poked her head around the book shelf, leant over the banister ofthe stairs and winked at her.

“Still here.” Ben called from behind Sarah. “But, I might head home now, though. Got a fewthings to do tomorrow.”

“Oh yeah, like what?”

“Running errands, picking up some parcels from the post office, domestic chores, washingclothes.”

“No!” she gasped. “You don’t do your own .... washing?”

“Hell I do.” He affirmed. “Self sufficient male, I’ll have you know.”

“I’ll mark that down in the notebook.” Sarah started down the stairs.

Ben gave Erin a quick wave goodnight as he passed her in the lounge, appreciating the gesture ofher going out for the night. Sarah stood on her doorstep and watched as Ben got himself ready forthe ride home.

“So, I’ll see you soon then?” Sarah tried her luck.

“You mean I haven’t completely scared you off, then?” Ben smiled.

“I would like to do this again, if that’s okay.” She repeated.

“Of course it is.” He stepped forward. “Here, give me a hug.”

Sarah threw an arm up around his shoulder, and the other around his waist, his riding jacketcrinkling and ruffling between them. Not wanting to appear too needy, she pulled back from thehug first, only to be surprised by a kiss on the cheek. A soft breath could be heard in her ear as hislips lingered gently, but not for too long a time.

“Good night Sarah.”

“Good night Ben.”

“I’ll call you this time.” He grinned, pushing his helmet down on his head.

“Sounds good. Look forward to it.”

Sarah stood in the chilly air, under the glow of the orange street lights and watched as themotorbike turned over. With a quick wave and a turn of the corner, Ben disappeared out of herstreet, and out of her life.

Until next time.

Chapter End Notes

And exactly what will these crazy kids get up to next time? Stay tuned!

A Premiere of Sorts

Chapter Summary

With Ben and Sarah falling into a pattern of not seeing each other for a fortnight at atime, Ben decides to take charge and fix that.

Chapter Notes

Thanks for reading, everyone! Please, if you like it, hit the kudos button down thebottom and let me know with a comment. Us writers live on them! Like oxygen,water and food.

xoxo

See the end of the chapter for more notes

The next week brought an unexpected surprise for Sarah. An invite. Not to a party, but to a filmpremiere. She was sat at her desk, second last day of work before she had two weeks off and hercell phone rang.

“Well, fancy that. I think we’re going for a pattern,” she teased at the amount of time it had beensince speaking to him.

“Hey, come on, I have texted you,” Ben’s voice laughed down the line. “You can’t say completeradio silence.” He was right, of course, and their comfort levels had increased as the fortnight hadprogressed.

“No, that’s true.” Sarah agreed. “How have you been?” She smiled into the receiver and hid herface.

“Very well, but incredibly busy.”

“Still filming?” She kept packing things up at her desk while talking.

“Yeah, will be until September-ish I think.”

“Wow. At least you’re in town.”

“And thus brings my phone call.”

“Is that so?”

“Hmmm. How do you feel about getting dressed up?”

“I feel very good about it.”

“Film premiere next Thursday night, would you like to accompany me? And by accompany me Imean I can get you tickets, a couple if you want to bring someone with you, or a few people.”

“For what film?”

“Uhhhh Star Trek?” She could picture his nose crinkling up nervously, like he was expecting herto knock him back.

“Another one?”

“Another one, yes.”

“I’m only joking. I’ve been Google-ing again you know.”

“Oh dear.”

“Oh, not so bad. I figure if I know you, I should know some of the stuff you do, shouldn’t I?”

“If you feel that way inclined.”

“I’d love to come along. I’m told you have a good part.”

Ben sighed with relief. “I think it’s a great part.”

“So, I’m guessing I’ll need instructions about getting there and who to see and whatever?”

“Yep. All sorted. Karon will be in touch with you and you ladies can work it out.”

“Excellent.” Sarah smiled. “Wow. I’m a little bit excited.”

What followed was a rather lengthy catch up while Ben had some free time at lunch. Theydiscussed what Sarah had been up to, Ben unable to make it to her farewell drinks the next time;press engagements.

“We will celebrate though, I think it’s worthy of a celebration.”

“Oh, definitely.”

“So you’re on two weeks leave after tomorrow?”

“I am a completely free agent for two weeks after that.”

“Good to know.”

“What are you planning?”

“Never you mind.”

@@@

A limousine had picked up Sarah, her father, and Erin. A Star Trek fan since he was a child, herfather was elated to have been asked along; his best suit pressed and ready to go. Both Sarah andErin had purchased new shoes and dresses for the night, Erin’s set a dark maroon and Sarah’s ametallic beige to offset her dark hair nicely.

Sarah stepped nervously out of the limousine. Nobody would notice them; they weren’t famousfor anything at all, so were able to walk the red carpet with ease. They arrived much earlier thanthe cast; Ben had kept her up to date with text messages throughout the afternoon.

It didn’t take much to work out when he’d arrived though. A pre-premiere cocktail party in afunction room at the theatre provided a great relaxant, though the three of them knew nobody sokept to their own company.

Posters for the film littered the function room, so you knew exactly where you were, and a riotouscheer erupted outside as the main cast arrived to walk the red carpet. Ben had already explainedthey probably wouldn’t see each other until the after party, and Sarah was okay with that. The lastthing she wanted to do was to have to walk the red carpet anywhere near him. While she didn’tknow his work well, she’d certainly become acquainted with his level of stardom in the past fewweeks since meeting.

Their seats were at the rear of the theatre and, once formalities were out of the way, the lightsdimmed and the film started. Sarah could see Benedict, half a dozen rows ahead of her with therest of the cast.

They snuck looks at each other throughout the film, until Ben got a ribbing from Chris Pine aboutturning around all the time. It didn’t happen again after that. However, watching him in the filmSarah wondered how she’d ever missed him to begin with.

@@@

“What’d you think?” Benedict had finally worked his way around the room at the after party andlanded himself with Sarah, Erin, and her dad.

“Dad’s the Star Trek fan, I’ll let him answer.”

“You didn’t like it?” Ben looked at her.

Sarah touched him on the shoulder. “Of course I did, but he’s the fanboy.”

“I loved it.” Dad nodded.

“Oh!” Sarah remembered. “Ben, this is Arthur, my dad. Sorry, I should have introduced you. Youknow Erin.”

“Lovely to meet you.” Benedict shook hands with Sarah’s dad before leaving again quickly tonetwork with a lot of the other big names that were at the party.

@@@

Later that night, and with drink in hand, Sarah walked across the room towards Benedict. She’dspotted him chatting to J.J. Field and was keen to meet him. A few glasses of wine helped with thecourage as she approached.

“Hey Ben.” She smiled, walked up behind him and placed a hand on his elbow gently.

It wasn’t the first time they’d had physical contact, but the reciprocated hand on the small of herback sent a shiver through her, in the best possible way. A shared smile spoke silent volumes andshe was instantly at ease.

“Sarah, J.J., J.J., my friend Sarah.”

“Lovely to meet you.” Sarah smiled. She was definitely familiar with JJ’s work.

“Likewise.” He gave her a rather gentlemanly kiss on the back of her hand. “I, however, willcontinue to make the rounds and leave you two to it. I’ll probably see you at Ben’s on the

weekend?”

“You will,” Ben answered for her.

“Goodbye.” Sarah smiled warmly.

She turned back to see Benedict smirking at her.

“What?” She laughed, her hand now around his back.

“You don’t know me but you know him.”

“That’s correct.” Sarah tipped her glass in his direction. “However, my Google-Fu is strong, and Ihave been doing my research.”

“Is that so?”

“This is correct.” Sarah was aware she was sitting in a very comfortable spot thanks to alcohol,and she didn’t particularly care. “I have learnt lots about you.”

“Oh okay. Good things?”

“Lots of good things.” She nodded. “I also binge watched Sherlock.”

“Oh no.” He laughed. “You didn’t have to.”

“Oh but I did.”

“Good?”

Sarah leant into his ear. “How did he survive?” She pulled back to look at him.

They were now standing with their bodies crushed against each other, unaware of 99% of theother people in the room, and smiling stupidly at each other. Ben leant back into her ear.

“I can’t very well tell you that.”

“Just a little bit?”

“Nope.” He shook his head. “You’re a shocker. So are you coming on the weekend?”

“Are you inviting me?”

“I am.”

“Then I’m there.”

“Good.” He smiled. “I’m looking forward to it already.”

“Me too.” Sarah nodded. “But we’re going to head off for the night. It has been a wonderfulexperience. Text me or call me, or something?”

“I will.” Ben agreed. “And, for the record, I’d kiss you if it weren’t for the sneaky cameras.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “Damn sneaky cameras, you’d think they’d have a bit more respect.”

“I know.” He leant in. “But I can kiss you on the cheek.”

“Well, that’ll have to do.” She agreed. “Good night Plain Old Ben, who clearly is neither Plainnor Old tonight.”

“Good night Plain Old Sarah, who is neither Plain nor Old tonight, but incredibly beautiful.”

Chapter End Notes

J.J. Field? A party at Ben's house? *drumroll please....*

A Good Enough Reason

Chapter Summary

So, we have a party at Ben's house with a closer group of friends. I wonder what thatcould me.

*Please note, I know absolutely nothing about where any of these crazy cats live, soi'm just making this up as I go along.*

Again, if you like it, feel free to share on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter etc, let me knowwith some lovely comments and that magic kudos button!

Chapter Notes

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An inky black sky interspersed with the orange glow of street lamps, and trees that reflected aluminescent green with fairy lights perched in amongst the foliage. Sarah did her best not to fallover while she was busy marvelling at it all.

She was thankful Ben had told her it was a completely casual affair, and that jeans and a t-shirtwere completely acceptable party wear, because the divots and loose rocks on the road wouldhave sent her scuttling in heels. Either way, shortly before 8:00 p.m. the following night, Sarahfound herself standing at Benedict’s front door.

A house like any other on a suburban street, completely against what she imagined, she stood andpressed the buzzer down gently. The sounds of laughter and chatter floated through the frontwindow which was open ajar.

The door swung open quickly. “Sarah!” It was J.J.

“J.J.!” She repeated his enthusiasm back to him. “How are you?!” She wished she had Erin withher to pinch her; surely this wasn’t real.

“I’m great, come on in.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her in the door. “Ben! Sarah’s here!”

Excitedly, he took her through the house and into the kitchen. First stop: drinks. Gin & Tonicbefore she was escorted to patio in the backyard, which was decorated with paper lanterns. Theyard also featured a lovely green lawn and simple garden beds that contained soft lights. Plenty ofeyes she didn’t know, or had never seen in the media were peeping at her, wondering who the‘new girl’ was.

“How’s your day been?” J.J. engaged her in conversation as they moved around to a table.

“Good, really good, just catching up on household chores. In between jobs at the moment -.”She’d started explaining her situation when Ben arrived from downstairs.

“Fancy seeing you here!” He smiled widely, his face lighting up at the sight of her.

“Ben!” Her equal excitement was not lost on those around them, nor was it lost on Ben, and theywere goaded for introductions.

Dressed rather handsomely, in very plain jeans, t-shirt, and an olive green knit cardigan, Ben madehis way around the yard and introduced Sarah to his friends, making sure to keep a close eye onher. It was only a quiet gathering, with a few select close friends.

“Listen,” Ben spoke quietly as they stood in a quiet corner of the backyard.

“Listening.”

“I’m going to be busy the next week or so, but I’d really like to see you again soon.”

Sarah could feel her insides bouncing around like a kid on a trampoline. Little did she know, Benwasn’t feeling any differently.

“Okay.” She nodded. “What do you suggest? I can turn Erin out for the night again.”

“Oh no, don’t do that.” He thought for a moment, giving his chin a scratch. “I have a magazineinterview next Saturday afternoon at a cafe restaurant type place. Do you want to maybe meet methere once it’s finished and we can get dinner and maybe catch a theatre show?”

“Let me think.” She played with him, watching as his face reacted from confident to very unsure.“Sounds really good actually.”

“It does?”

“Of course. It’ll be good to spend some quiet time together. You know, away from prying eyes.”She turned back to see a bunch of eyes watching on.

“It will.” Ben agreed.

It didn’t take anyone long to pick up on the closeness of the pair. If they weren’t huddled in acorner discussing history or English literature, they were following each other around as if no oneelse mattered anyway. At one point during the night they disappeared completely. Ben decided itwould be a good idea to give Sarah a tour of his abode.

Up through the levels of the house, through living rooms, kitchens, bathrooms and bedrooms untilthey reached the most important room; the library.

“So many books.” Sarah couldn’t work out where to look first.

Ben adored her reaction. In fact, everything that night had gone perfectly. She had gotten alongwell with everyone in attendance, even if some of them were celebrities themselves.

“Have you had a good night?”

“I’ve had a wonderful night.” Sarah didn’t look at him; instead she was too busy perusing thebooks on his shelves.

“You have?”

“Absolutely.” She finally turned to him. “Even though it was a complete litmus test.”

“Litmus test?” Ben chuckled. “In what way?”

“Dip the toes in the friendship pool. It’s okay. I’d do the same thing. In fact I will do the same

thing to you,” Sarah threatened, a glint in her eye.

“Of course you will.” He knew she was completely right, and loved that she picked up on it.

“The Sunne In Splendour. I’ve heard about this book, but I haven’t read it. It’s supposed to be thego to book on Richard III.”

“Borrow it if you like. At least then I’ll know someone else who’s read it and will know what I’mtalking about.”

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely I’m sure. Take it.”

“Thank you.”

“So. Change of topic.” Ben started, somewhat nervously.

“Okay.” Sarah looked up from the book.

“The boys quite like you.”

She smiled. “Which ones?”

“Well, J.J. appears quite taken, as does Tom.”

“Hiddles?” She scrunched her nose up. “Gosh, really?”

“Hey, I’m not telling you this so I can lose you to the dark side.” Ben raised his eyebrows, lipspressed together in a straight line.

“Give me a reason not to jump to the dark side, then.” She tried her luck.

Ben started mumbling to himself, his feet moving nervously. “A reason,” he mused. “She wants areason. Hmmm.” He pointed as if he had an idea. “I have chocolate?”

“Nope. Try again.”

“Coffee?”

“Closer.”

“More gin?”

“Hmmm. Could work.”

“Oh!” He played. “Got it.”

Without warning he leant in and kissed her. His hand moved slowly, from her shoulder around theback of her arm, his fingers gliding across the soft fabric of her jacket. Sarah felt his fingersentwine with hers as his other hand moved to rest gently on her cheek. His fingers slipped throughthe hair behind her ears, tangling and tugging on strands gently. Sarah’s arm moved up aroundBen’s shoulder as she concentrated on his mouth, the feeling of lips locked together, tonguessearching and finding acceptance easily.

It felt like an eternity for Sarah, but was realistically only a few minutes.

Ben pulled back, his forehead resting against Sarah’s. “Good enough reason for you?”

Chapter End Notes

Hmmmm. A kiss you say? Surely things can't all be smooth sailing.... or can they?

Scrutiny

Chapter Summary

Sarah finds out what it's like to be under the ever loving eye of the internet public.

Thank you so much for popping by to read. If you love it, leave kudos, or comments!Or both, both is good!

“Oh you have got to be kidding me?” Sarah was getting more frustrated the more she read.

“What’s wrong?” Erin came into the kitchen and sat across the table from her.

The internet was what was wrong. Since attending the Star Trek premiere, photos had begun tocirculate from the after party, particularly social media shots from Instagram accounts of otherpeople there.

Sarah was looking at a series of photos of herself, from that night, posted on a Facebook group.Everyone was clambering to find out as much information as they could about the mysterybrunette with Benedict Cumberbatch, especially considering they looked so ‘cosy’ and ‘loved up’.

“Hell.” Erin sat her chin in the palm of her hand. “What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know. I can’t walk around with this level of scrutiny. Look!” She shoved the iPad underErin’s face. “Can’t dress to save herself. Horrible hair. He deserves better. Gold digger. PR stunt.That’s just some of the stuff being said.”

“So don’t read it. Don’t join the groups, don’t read them. I sure as shit wouldn’t. I mean you havethe horse’s mouth right there to tell you anything you want to know. Shit, you probably have himon speed dial.” She reasons. “So, just don’t.”

Sarah breathed out heavily. Erin was right, of course, but it was like a train wreck; how are yousupposed to walk away when you can so easily see what’s being said.

“Have they found out anything yet?” Erin asked, scrolling down the page.

“Not that I’m aware of. I’m still ‘mystery brunette’.” She rolled her eyes.

“Mystery brunette is good. It’s way up the ladder from mystery bag.”

Sarah rubbed her face. “What am I supposed to do? I don’t want this level of attention. I start anew job in a few days.”

“So long as no one knows your name, you’ll be apples. I wouldn’t worry too much, they’re alljust jealous.” Erin paused for thought. “As they should be, too.”

“Hey?”

“Well, he’s a good looking rooster, they should be jealous. You got to kiss him, and not for filmeither.”

Sarah smiled. “Last week you said he was a weird looking unit.”

“I didn’t mean weird in a bad way.”

“Right, in an overly nice, sweetheart kind of way.”

“Hey, just supporting a sister.” Erin moved over to the sink. “Think Hiddles is free though?”

“He looked pretty bloody decent in Star Trek.” Sarah offered.

“That one I will pay, with big gold coins. Hell, I’d let him crush my skull, if you know what Imean.”

Sarah laughed hysterically. “Don’t say that! You’re giving me mental images that are not helpingme at the moment. I’m very delicate, it’s been a while. I might pay off like Mt. Etna if he touchesme again.”

“Good kisser then?” Erin offered her some chocolate. “Come on, we’ll go out with the girls. I’llcall Hannah and Celeste. The awesome foursome.”

“Fuck it. Let’s do it.”

“Don’t look at those bloody blog things.”

“You know what? Just get the girls over, we’ll watch some telly and order pizza, drink cheapwine and dance in pyjamas.”

@@@

Benedict sat in the lounge of his parent’s house, staring off into space. Wanda looked at Tim, andthey both looked at their son, lost in thought.

“Darling, what’s wrong?” Wanda set a cup of tea on the table.

“Just thinking about something, sorry mum.”

“Something or someone?” Tim pried.

Ben sighed. “Sarah.”

“The girl from premiere the other night?”

Ben nodded.

“So give her a call, then, invite her over. She seemed like a nice enough girl.” Tim encouraged.

“I might, if that’s okay?”

“Of course it is.” Wanda was keen as mustard to meet the girl who’d taken up her son’s attention.

@@@

Sarah, Erin, Hannah and Celeste sat around the television in the lounge, the four of them busy oniPads or iPhones, conversation swinging and swaying excitedly back and forth. They’d eatendinner, cracked a few bottles of wine, and were enjoying sitting around doing absolutely nothingtogether.

“So, Sarah, been up to anything interesting lately?” Hannah pried suddenly.

“Not really,” she answered slowly. “Why’s that?”

“Seen any good movies recently?”

Erin and Sarah exchanged a look. “What have you been telling them?” Sarah asked.

“I haven’t said shit.”

Hannah spun her iPad around. “Is this you?”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “How long have you been waiting to ask that for?”

“Oh, since I saw it the other day, you sneaky sneak, you.” She stopped realising what she’d justsaid. “Hang on. Did you just say that was you?”

“Depends on how much I can trust you?”

“Trust me with what?”

“To keep your mouth shut.” Sarah smiled.

“Scouts honour.” Hannah chuckled.

“You were never a scout!” Celeste chimed in. “But please, we won’t say anything.”

“Then, yes, that is me.”

Hannah looked at Celeste, both emitting a high pitched squeal; a thousand questions flying off atonce before it was demanded that they re-watch a recent episode of Graham Norton that Ben hadfeatured in.

“No, really, I don’t need to watch everything he’s been in.”

“Yes you do. He’s hot in this interview. He dances and... are you serious? Are you seeing him?”

“I’m.... friendly with him. Let’s go with that?”

“What does friendly mean?” Celeste piped up.

“It means we’re friends and we’re going to see how it goes.” Sarah figured that was technicallycorrect, and as good an explanation as any.

@@@

Ben picked up his phone and dialled. He’d moved out into the backyard to get some privacy,though Wanda watched like a hawk from the kitchen. The phone rang, and rang and rang.

Finally, an answer; the sound of girls laughing in the background.

“Hello?” It wasn’t Sarah’s voice.

“Errrrrrr...” Ben pulled the phone away from his ear. He’d definitely dialled the right number.“Sarah?”

“She’s just in the girl’s room. Who’s this?”

“A friend.” Ben smiled.

“Which one?”

Ben frowned. “What do you mean which one?”

“Well, Sarah has lots of friends... urgh-.”

“Sorry. I’m sorry.” Sarah had snatched her phone back.

“Hey.” Ben walked across the patio, kicking at loose stones as he went. “How are you?”

“Good.” She smiled. “You? How are you doing? Are you busy?”

“Not tonight, as it turns out.”

“Oh.” She was surprised to hear that.

“Sounds like you are though?”

Sarah walked into the kitchen to try and get some privacy, but was followed. “I just have a fewfriends over, that’s all. Some girls I haven’t seen in a while.”

“Oh, okay. I was going to see if you maybe wanted me to come pick you up and we could havesupper but that’s okay.”

“I’m sorry, Ben.”

“No, no, don’t apologise. Please don’t. My schedule’s just all over the shop.”

“I would like to see you though.”

Ben smiled widely. It as a lovely thing to hear after such a long time.

“You there?”

“Yep. I’m here, just, I’m here.” He chuckled. “So, maybe tomorrow? I’ll see what time I can getaway from here.”

“Where’s here?” Sarah shooed Hannah from her face, the three girls crowded around her trying tolisten in on their conversation.

“Just at mum and dad’s for the night. Nice to get away a bit.”

“Of course.”

“Alright, well I’m guessing your guests are keen for your company.”

“I guess so, yeah.”

“I’ll let you go.”

“You sure? You don’t have to.” Sarah blushed at the knowledge she was smiling like a completeidiot, the girls around her gushing over her facial expressions.

“Yeah, of course. Don’t want to crowd you.” He joked.

“Please. I wouldn’t mind.”

“Good to know. Good to know.” He stopped. “But seriously, if I get away from here early, I’llgive you a call, we’ll get a bite for lunch.”

“Sounds great.”

“Bye, Sar.”

“Bye Ben.”

Sarah closed the phone and her kitchen erupted with laughter.

“My name, is Khan.” Erin mimicked, clutching herself around the middle.

Fight or Flight

Chapter Summary

It was inevitable. Your picture is out there, eventually people are going to find outwho you are or, in this case, who Sarah is.

Chapter Notes

Thank you so much to everyone who has read or commented so far. I think these twoare in for the long haul, so strap yourself in and enjoy the next chapter.

As always, I love to read comments and suggestions, and watch the kudos tickingover. Please feel free to share this with others through FaceBook, Tumblr, Twitter,etc.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Benedict didn't get the chance to sleep in that he was hoping for. Thursday morning and he'd beenon the phone to Karon early. Hanging up, his next call was made with trepidation. Nimble fingersdanced over the screen of the phone, scrolled through the contacts and landed on the name hewanted. He listened to the dial tone. The only thing louder, the sound of his nervous heart.

It kept ringing.

"Hello." Her voice was tired, groggy, and a little bit annoyed. It wasn't Sarah's idea of a good timebeing woken up on one of the last days of her holiday.

"Errrr Sarah?"

"Hey Ben." She sounded happy to hear from him. Good.

"So, the thing is. I've been speaking to Karon, and everything's under control, there's no need foryou to worry, we're going to take care of this. The photos are out now, and there's probably not alot we can do to get rid of them all..."

Sarah sat up, rubbing her eyes. The rambling wasn't good, that meant nerves. "Ben, what are youtalking about?"

"Hey?""What's with the rambling?"

"You haven't seen yet?"

"Seen what?"

"Ummm. You're in the newspaper this morning."

"I'm what?"

Ben began slowly. "There's an article about you in the newspaper."

Sarah stood up and walked over to her computer. "Why am I in the paper?"

"Well, I was going to ask you if perhaps one of your friends might have said something tosomeone. I mean, I certainly haven't."

Only within the past week had they both decided that their relationship wasn't going to be forpublic consumption. Sarah was about to start working in a school and Ben, well, he just didn'twant to be fodder for gossips either way.

"Ben, I thought we'd agreed about this? The only people that know are Erin, Celeste and Hannah.I mean, my parents don't even know you exist yet. Though my fourteen year old cousin... She'sconvinced she needs to have your kids but, you know, she doesn't know that I know you. No onedoes."

"You don't think they would have said anything?" He asked warily.

"I'm fairly sure they wouldn't have said anything. Not that I mentioned implicitly not to sayanything.""Hmmmm."What about your friends, Ben?"

"No, they're fairly watertight." He dismissed, certain it wouldn't have come from anyone at theparty.""So now what?"

"Leave it with me," he spoke calmly. "I'll be in touch with Karon during the day and we'll dowhat we can. Why don't we catch up for dinner tonight, you can come out to my place, and wecan talk about where to go from here. What do you say?"

"All I heard then was you've offered to cook me dinner." Sarah tried to keep the conversationlight, even though she was having a minor freak out over the latest revelation.

Ben chuckled down the line. "I will cook you dinner, yes."

Sarah opened up Facebook, a local news service online and Tumblr to see what she could findout, and if there was an origin to the information. Her name had now spread so quickly that it washard to work out exactly where the fire started. Though, she gave them credit, they were a decentset of sleuths, as creepy as that was.

Her occupation was a source of joy for the fandom. A teacher: must be great with kids, andapparently Ben had made no secret in the past of wanting a family. So, in some corners of theworld she was considered the ultimate catch for Ben. Great for confidence, even if some of themalready appeared to be knitting baby clothes. Sarah couldn't even think about her next week with aclear head, let alone worrying about looking after children with a man she barely knew.

In contrast, there was a whole different side to the fandom, which she knew she shouldn't havebeen looking at. Her hair, her clothes, her face, criticised, analysed and picked apart. Her ownstupidity and lack of privacy settings on her Instagram account meant that her personal pictureshad been pilfered and distributed. She was smart enough to know that complaining to anyone thatposted them would out her. Another side effect was the four thousand one hundred and seventytwo friend request on Facebook and an astronomical number of new messages.

Regardless, she knew it best to switch off and ignore the talk. Instead, she opted to head out anddo the grocery shopping, which she promised Erin she'd do, given she had the time on her handsthat week."What are you going to do?" Erin called her the minute she saw something pop up on her newsservice.Sarah was walking through the grocers, picking up some fresh fruit. "I don't know. What can Ido?""I thought this was hush hush, for exactly this reason?"

"So did I."

"How much do they know?"

"Basically everything there is to know about me, probably except my cycle, though they'vealready pegged me as great mother material."

"Look, that is actually a very true point, but not what we should be worried about. You'd be abeautiful mum." Erin tried to lighten the mood. "And practicing, especially with him will be halfthe fun.""Erin," she hissed. "Not helping."

"I know, I know. Sorry. This is serious. Who do you think told?"

"Well, you Celeste and Hannah are the only one that know."

"Leave it with me, I will find this out."

"Did you delete them or leave them as is?" Ben placed a bowl of pasta in front of her and toppedup her wine.

"I left them as is. I didn't have time to go through them all."

"Have you changed your..."

"Yes, Ben." Sarah rolled her eyes. "All my privacy settings have been changed."

Dinner was quiet, Ben worried about Sarah, and Sarah tried to work out how to vocalise exactlywhat she was feeling about all of this. The constant spotlight was something she would either needto accept, and put up with as part of the package deal that was Benedict Cumberbatch, or she wasgoing to have to end things now before they got too serious. Ending it now would allow Ben toissue one of those "just good friends" statements and leave it at that.

Her decision was becoming clearer later that night. They'd spent what felt like hours making outon the couch like teenagers, Sarah relishing the feel of him on top of her. He was warm, and solidand, while a little on the thin side, she was at least able to write that off to his role as Sherlock.Ben had left the room to make coffee, and she checked her phone.

The harassment had moved into her email account, and she panicked. These people knew she wasa teacher, they knew her name, and there was even a mention of Erin in one of the press articlesthat afternoon. In addition, there were new articles, fresh from that afternoon. She'd been spottedby an eagle eyed fan out in her shopping trip; fresh photos from that trip accompanied theheadline.

She felt trapped, her eyes prickled with tears. Fight or flight had started, with flight winning out atthat very moment. Coming back into the lounge with a little smile on his face, Ben stopped whenhe saw Sarah.

"Sarah? What's wrong?"

"I don't think I can do this, Ben." She tried to smile.

"Do what?" The smile faded; he already knew what was coming.

"Us. I don't think this is going to work."

Chapter End Notes

It looks like Sarah's made her decision, but has she actually made a mistake?

Radio Silence

Chapter Summary

All the angst.

Sarah's broken it off, the media are still swarming, and then an unexpected call.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

Ben's shoulders dropped, and he placed the coffee cups down before continuing. Wracked withnerves, Sarah was close to tears.

"What do you mean it can't work?" Ben frowned.

Sarah said nothing.

"Sarah?"

"I think...," she spoke slowly, in an effort to calm herself, “that I'm not comfortable with theattention, particularly with the comments I've read in the past few days. I'm about to start a newjob and I can't have that kind of attention following me around."

"But, that's okay. We can issue a denial, it'll blow over in a few weeks and everything will goback to normal. It'll be alright, Sarah."

"I don't think it will be, Ben. There's blood in the water and now the sharks are circling. I'm sorry,but I think I'll go home now."

"No, Sarah, hang on. I want to talk about what you're worried about."

"I just told you, Ben."

"Well, can we maybe keep in touch while I’m in America next week and, when I get back, sitdown and come up with perhaps a... say... strategy on how to deal with this and keep it on the lowdown going forward?"

"I can't Ben, I'm sorry."

He nodded. "Me too."

There was no convincing her to stay, Ben watching as she walked off into the night, arms crossedin front of her, the lapels of her jacket flapping about in the night air. Disappointed, two coffeeswere poured down the sink, the house was locked up, and a small bag packed for his flight toAmerica the next morning.

@@@

"Please tell me you didn't end it just because of that?" Erin handed Sarah a cup of tea, the both ofthem sat at their kitchen table, a box of chocolate biscuits between them.

Sarah went through and explained everything in detail, not surprised to find out that Erin had beencontacted by the media for comment. She hadn't heard from Hannah or Celeste, but was certainthat neither of them would have mentioned anything. As a follow on effect, Erin had also receivedfriend requests.

Sarah ignored her phone, which rang unceasingly, soaked in a hot bath and bunked down in bed.To say she was disappointed was an understatement. Benedict had been nothing short ofcharming; sweet, intelligible, a calm in the storm that was his life and a complete dork all at once.If there was a way they could have kept things quiet before now, perhaps they wouldn't haveended up there.

Benedict slept terribly. Unable to get comfortable he tossed and turned until the early hours. Hehad meant to discuss the situation with Karon on the flight but exhaustion won over and hedropped off to sleep, earbuds in his ears and music dancing away in his ears. Not a usual featureon his trips, paparazzi were waiting for him on arrival at LAX, a multitude of questions aboutSarah. Who she was, where she was, was he happy, are her family happy? Needless to say he wasin a funk by the time he got into the car awaiting him at the airport.

@@@

Life hadn’t given Sarah much of an opportunity to think about anything other than Ben. Shestarted her new teaching role and her entire first week consisted of answering questions. Herstudents were all teenagers, they were on social media, they were into celebrities, turning Sarahinto a minor one by the end of her first day. She sent him a text late on the Thursday night:

Hi Ben, sorry to bother you, but I’m getting hammered at work here about you. Any chanceyou’ve had time to organise your ‘denial’ statement?

His response was swift, and not quite what she expected;

Not yet. Out of country. Talk soon.

She knew he was out of the country; she’d broken things off with him just before he’d travelled.His response left her slightly miffed though, by the next morning, an official statement had beenreleased stating that “Benedict and Sarah are nothing more than friends, who move in the samecircles and their privacy should be respected as such.” That was as straight of a denial as she wasgoing to get, but it was something.

If she rolled her eyes one more time at a ridiculous Sherlock and Watson joke at work, she wassure her eyes would slip out of their sockets and fly off into the ether, never to be seen again. Herparents were worried; they’d also been approached by the media for comment but had refused tosay anything on the basis that they knew of nothing to say.

“Who called you, Dad?”

“The Daily Mail.” She could hear him stifle a laugh on the other end of the line.

“Oh, Dad, don’t even go there,” she implored.

“So, there’s nothing to tell?”

“Not a thing to tell. I am a single lady.”

@@@

A fortnight after starting her new job, and a week after Benedict had touched back down in the

UK, and Sarah still had not seen or heard from him. She’d sent a text message, asking if he gothome okay, and it remained unanswered. What was worse than knowing she’d upset him, wasknowing she’d upset him so much that he was no longer returning messages.

It was another week still before she heard from anyone in Ben’s circle of friends. A few missedcalls from a number she didn’t know came through on her lunch break at work. Having waiteduntil she got home that night, she dialled the number.

Sarah waited, listening to the dial tone.

“Hello?” Sarah recognised the voice, but couldn’t quite pin it.

“Hello. My name’s Sarah, I missed -.”

“Sarah!” an excited voice answered. “It’s me!”

“Who’s me?”

“It’s J.J.” he stopped. “J.J. Field.”

Chapter End Notes

I wonder what JJ could possibly want?

Cloak And Dagger

Chapter Summary

In an attempt to help bring them back together, J.J. organises a party at his place.Sarah agrees, so long as she can bring Erin with her.

Chapter Notes

Sorry this has taken a few days to get up. My IRL novel has been throwing mearound with editing!

See the end of the chapter for more notes

Sarah was dubious as to the reasons behind J.J.'s call, so she let on nothing more than what shehad already explained to Ben. J.J. listened, understanding of her reasons but still, he offered adviceas to how things could possibly work with a little bit of careful planning.

"No, I don't want cloak and dagger type relationships," Sarah explained.

"No, it's not so much cloak and dagger. It's more knowing where you can and can't do things."

Sarah listened to him roll through stories from his love life and how quiet he had managed to keepsome of his flings. Eventually, J.J. managed to talk Sarah into coming to a party at his house thefollowing weekend. Sarah only had one condition, and that was that she was allowed to bringErin with her.

There had been plenty of discussion at home in the days following the revelation of Sarah'sidentity. Erin had tried, and failed, to find out who had 'outed' her friend to the prying eyes of themedia. The more they thought about it, the more it could have been anyone that Sarah workedwith, even if the original pictures had been somewhat grainy.

@@@

Ben arrived before Sarah, hoping that he could catch her before the night got underway.However, it was Erin that he saw first, J.J. had already absconded with Sarah, extolling the virtuesof his Third Star co-star. Ben could see them in the kitchen, their discussion looking somewhatanimated, while he tried to pay attention to Erin.

"She's been very quiet," Erin whispered, the discussion meant to be for their ears only.

"Is she okay?" Ben looked concerned.

"Disappointed, I think, annoyed."

"Well, that makes two of us then, doesn't it?" Ben gave her a courteous smile. "Any idea whoouted her to the media?" It was well known that Ben had a very tight circle of friends, news likethis being leaked getting frowned upon.

"She really does like you, though." Erin pushed. "You should keep trying."

"Got any hints?" Ben asked.

@@@

Sarah avoided him as long as she could with desperate glances exchanged over the course of thenight. A bubble of angst hung above the party, waiting to burst like an overstretched balloon. Thesubject of 'them' avoided at all costs by those around them, but finally brought to a head by Tom.

"Hiddleston." Sarah smiled as he sat down next to her.

"Miss. Sarah," he answered. "Are you going to ignore him all night or are you going to go talk tohim?"

"And say what? There's nothing to add."

"There's always something to add. I'm going to take Miss. Erin away with me, and you're going togo pull his bottom lip out of the gutter." He nodded in Ben's direction.

Slowly, she rose from her place and walked across the yard to Ben, his eyes rising to meet her asshe got closer.

“Can I sit with you?”

“Of course you can.” Ben tapped the spot next to him.

Speech evaded them for a few minutes, both of them working up the courage to say anything,until Sarah looked over to the corner of the yard to find Erin very happy in the corner with Tom.Her hand reached up to touch his arm as he spoke, her laughing at his jokes, and Tom genuinelykeen to be the one making her laugh.

“Look at these two, huh?” Sarah nudged Ben and pointed in their direction.

Ben smiled. “They look pretty happy about their lot in life.” He sucked a deep breath in. “Look,Sarah...”

“It’s okay.” She cut him off, sure of what he was going to say.

“No, it’s not okay,” he disagreed. “I should have been more careful. I’m sorry your privacy wascompromised, it must’ve been a horrible thing for you to go through.”

All she could do was nod in agreement.

“I have to do a bit of promotional work around the place, a bit of Japan and the like. I’ll be awayfor a little while. Do you think we could perhaps see each other when I get back?”

“See, the thing is now...”

“We’ll do everything completely different, one hundred percent under the radar.” He cut Sarah offbefore she could knock him back.

Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know that you can guarantee that.”

“We can try, though? Don’t you think?”

“Ben, I’ve had people follow me around the supermarket this week. They’ve sat across from my

house, they’ve followed me. I’ve seen my picture -.”

“I saw them too, and I’m sorry. I can’t control everything, though. I’m not that good.”

Finally, Sarah looked at Ben, his eyes full of hurt. “There are articles about me on the internet. Idon’t know where they’re getting this information from.”

“Can I make a suggestion?” Ben asked.

“Of course.”

“Let’s wait until I get back from my promo work. We’ll give it some time to die down. It alwaysdies down. Let’s keep in touch, on the phone, we’ll get to know each other a bit better, and thenwhat we’ll do is go from there. Once everything has died down, we should be okay.”

“Do you think it will though?” Sarah was doubtful, just that morning she’d seen something onFacebook about her regular cafe, and how she always gets a cappuccino and blueberry muffin.

“We won’t know unless we give it a try. What do you say?”

Sarah sat and thought a moment, chewing her finger nervously as she looked around the yard.Everyone seemed to have paired off, Erin and Tom were all over each other. J.J. was busy beingthe host and making sure everyone was okay, and a number of other friends she’d not met beforewere all comfortable in each others’ company. Then there was her and Ben, at an awkwardcrossroads, the both of them knowing what they wanted, but life seemingly getting in the way.She looked back at Ben again.

“I guess you’re right. We won’t know unless we try. But I really don’t want to be in the media.I’ve gotten enough grief from co-workers and students this week. It can’t happen.”

“You and I, together, we’ll do our best, and I know you don’t want cloak and dagger type stuff -.”

“Well he clearly kept his mouth shut.” Sarah looked over to J.J.

“Hey.” Ben scratched her leg. “I know you don’t want that, but if it’s for the best, and it helps us,then we should at least give it a crack. I’m not prepared to give up yet, are you?”

He was right, she didn’t want to either, and she shook her head. No, she didn’t want to give upeither. An agreement reached, Ben leaned forward and kissed her, slowly, and gently, a silentconfirmation between the two of them that all was right in the world again.

Chapter End Notes

So, everything seems to be right in the world again, but that's just the tip of theiceberg, I'm sure of it!

Brighton Beach

Chapter Summary

Sarah gets invited out to Brighton with Tom & Erin. Seems harmless enough...

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

“How have you been?” Ben asked.

“Okay, how about you?”

“Not so bad. Exhausted. Want to be home.”

“What are you up to now?”

“About to go into another screening. How’s everything going for you? Are you being left alone?”

“Sort of, sort of,” Sarah voice wavered.

“Sarah...”

“It’s just hard, once people have a sniff they look for anything, don’t they?”

“They do, but I can assure you they will get sick and tired and leave you alone.” Ben stopped,hoping to change the subject. “How’s Erin?”

“Hey?”

“Your housemate. How is she?”

“Oh, yeah she’s good. I don’t think she’s going anywhere any time soon. I think she’s at Tom’shouse now, though, doing God knows what.”

“I’m sure God doesn’t want to know what’ll be going on there.” He chuckled. “So what happenswhen you have the house to yourself?”

“I’m reading a lot. The Sunne In Splendour, actually, some weird guy leant it to me, so I’m givingthat a go.”

“Still? That was weeks ago. It’s only a quick read.”

“Maybe if you have hours between engagements, which I don’t. I’m a school teacher, remember. Idon’t have hours to waste on set.”

“Oh harsh!” He laughed. “I should’ve brought you with me to America, you can see what it’sreally like to work.”

“Okay, sure, superstar, whatever you reckon.”

It had been a fortnight since Sarah had seen Ben. In America for a press junket, he did his best to

call as often as he could. It was important to Sarah that he did, and she had explained she didn’twant to interrupt him when he was working. She had called once, and Ben’s phone could beheard ringing in the background of the interview.

Sarah still was asked at work almost every day if she’d heard from or spoken to Ben. For the sakeof her own sanity, the answer was always ‘No’, which went for Ben in interviews as well. They’dmade an agreement the night before he left that they were going to do things properly, quietly, andaway from the cameras for as long as possible at least.

Ben kept talking, as he was known to do, waffling from one topic to the next, when he noted hewasn’t getting a response.

“Sarah?.... Sarah?”

She was asleep.

He hung up the phone and headed into the darkened theatre.

@@@

Erin came bounding through the front door the next morning, clutching Tom’s hand for dear life.She’d been out all night and now, it appeared, she was spending the entire weekend away as well,stopping off initially only to collect clothes.

Sarah walked downstairs at the sound of cupboards rattling and cups clanging on the bench top.Erin wouldn’t know quiet it if ran up and bit her on the arse, add that to the fact she was more thana little bit excited about Tom, and you had an unstoppable combination.

“Sarah! Late start today!”

“What time is it?” she grumbled, clutching her robe closed.

“Ten.”

“Is that all? Hey Tom.”

“Hey Sarah. Heard from Ben?”

“Yeah, we spoke last night. He’s good.”

“Do you want to come to lunch with us? We’re going somewhere quiet, out of town a bit?” Tomoffered. “Bit of fresh air.”

“Come on, we’re going out of town, it’ll be fine.” Erin pouted at her. “We haven’t caught up insuch a long time, it’ll be fun. I’ve got a new jacket you can wear.”

“Well now, how am I supposed to say no to a new jacket?” Sarah smiled. “I’ll just go and getdressed. Give me a few minutes.”

“We’re going to go out to Brighton!” Tom called after Sarah as she walked upstairs. “Nice littlecafe down there, no one will bother us.”

“Sounds good.”

@@@

The three of them sat overlooking the ocean at Brighton, a place Sarah had been hundreds of

times as a child, some of her family still living there. A light lunch followed by cakes and a pot oftea, and Sarah felt better than she had in a while.

“How long until the boy gets back?” Tom asked while Erin disappeared to order food.

“Should be another fortnight, I think,” Sarah answered. “Looking forward to getting him backhere, so we can sit down in the same room together.”

“It’ll be good to see you two get your business together. You’re both a lot of fun.”

“Thank you.” Sarah smiled.

The subject wasn’t revisited again for the rest of the afternoon, Erin keen to show off what Tomwas getting himself up to work wise, and Sarah listening intently while her mind wanderedelsewhere. Tom and Erin left shortly after lunch to walk around on their own, while Sarah did thesame thing. She thought about getting the bus out to see her family in the area, they weren’t farfrom the beach, and it would be a nice thing to catch up with them.

Waiting at the bus stop, she looked around at how much the area had changed since being a kid.Memories flooded back and played around in her head, bus trips to the beach, chips, sweets, andsummer afternoons in hideously frilly bathers.

Sarah thought she’d heard a noise, but couldn’t place it, though it snapped her out of herdaydream. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she checked to make sure that wasn’t unlocked. Nodefinitely wasn’t that.

Click.

This time, she’d caught sight in the corner of her eye. A man standing a few meters from her, hisback now turned. A strap around his neck with the word ‘Canon’ stitched into it. The busapproached from the opposite end of the street, and pulled up in the curb at the stop. Sarahboarded, and looked for a seat near the back but was left with only two options, the very front, orthe middle of the bus.

She took the front.

Click. Click. Click.

She knew now that she was being photographed, and the rage bubbled inside of her, and not evenslowly. She stood her ground, refusing to turn around and look at the photographer. It would onlygive him more grounds to take ever more photos. However, the bus trip was short and she wassoon getting off at her stop.

Sarah stood, collected her bag and left the bus from the rear exit, being sure to pass thephotographer on her way, a sneer on her face. What happened next surprised her, thephotographer got off the bus at the same stop. He couldn’t have made it more obvious if he tried.

At that, Sarah lost her temper. It was obvious what was happening. Turning on her heel, shewalked back towards the photographer and yanked the camera from his hand.

“Are you done?” she asked.

“Done what?”

“I know what you’re doing.” She tore at the body of the camera, pulling out the memory card,while the photographer struggled to regain his equipment.

“Well, that’s what you get when you cheat on your boyfriend.”

“I’m not cheating on anyone.” Sarah threw the camera to the ground, the lens cracking as it hit theconcrete.

“Really? Dating Cumberbatch, lunching with Hiddleston? It’s going to be a great headline.”

“Except I have the memory card and you don’t.” Sarah ran for the next corner, the photographerhot on her heels.

Chapter End Notes

Well, well, well. I wonder how this will go down. How will Sarah get out of this?And will Ben respond well?

Take Responsibility

Chapter Summary

These two! I don't even know what they're doing to ME anymore.

Am loving the feedback, comments, and kudos, so please keep them coming.

Chapter Notes

See the end of the chapter for notes

“No, you know what, this isn’t good enough.” Ben paced back and forth across Sarah’s livingroom, hands on his hips.

“Ben, I’m sorry,” she repeated constantly.

“Sarah, it’s just not good enough,” he implored. “You can’t do this sort of thing. They waited untilI was back on home soil to print this shit. This is not fair on me, I’m trying to build my profile, nothave it tarnished.”

“He was following me through Brighton!”

“I don’t care!” Ben shouted back at her. “Sarah, I do not care! You ignore people like that!”

“Well, why would you care? It wasn’t you it was happening to.” She spat. “Don’t worry thatpeople are following me, taking my photo while I’m trying to spend time with family. But theminute it tarnishes your reputation, then it’s an issue.”

“They take my photo all the time! I can’t walk outside for a coffee without being hounded, but doyou see me doing that? No. Because I’m an adult, Sarah, I smile and nod and get along with mylife, doing what’s important.”

Sarah sat back in her couch, her face crumpling. They’d been arguing for over an hour, goingaround and around in circles. Ben’s face wore a permanent scowl as he was left to clean up afterheadlines that his ‘girlfriend’ had ‘attacked’ a cameraman, broken his equipment and then ran afterhim down the street. There were press releases, new equipment purchased and apologies flyingleft right and centre as he tried to calm the storm that had erupted shortly after he arrived home.

“You know, Sarah, I think this is it. I mean, you want me, then you don’t want me, but you’llhang out with all my friends out in public when I’m not around. I feel like I’m beating my headagainst the wall. Leave the cameraman with me, I’ll sort him out, but don’t contact me again.”

“Ben, that’s not fair.” Sarah rose to watch as he collected his jacket and walked towards the frontdoor.

“No, what’s not fair is me having to clean this up. I’m too busy to be doing this type of crap.”

The door slammed, a motorbike kicked over and he rode off into the night. Not wanting to leavethings like this between them, Sarah left after him, a taxi affording her a quick ride across town toBen’s house. She gave the door a thunderous rap and waited for a response.

The door swung open. “What?”

“You don’t get to just walk out on me.” Sarah pushed past and into the entry foyer.

“Really? You didn’t give me a lot of choice.” Ben slammed the door shut. “You don’t want to beseen in public with me, but you’ll go out with Tom for lunch?”

“I went with Erin and Tom, not just Tom.”

“That’s not my point,” he hissed. “You can’t be seen with me -.”

“Oh for pity’s sake, Cumberbatch,” Sarah spat. “You can’t keep yourself in one place for longenough to warrant a relationship. I’m not going to have a part time boyfriend.”

“I do my best when I’m here, though. I do my best.”

“Really? Once fortnight is the best you can offer?”

“I’m not going around in circles, Sarah. Leave.” He pulled the front door open.

“No.”

“Go on.” He gestured to the front landing. “I have to be up early for work in the morning, I don’tneed this.”

“That’s right. Sorry, I forgot, I get in the way of work.”

Sarah stormed out and spent the next hour walking home. It was a Saturday night, so she didn’tcare for being home at any decent hour. Erin was out, and would be all weekend. They’d hardlyseen each other since she’d taken up with Tom. She missed the laughs, and could have done withan ear that night. Instead, she went home, showered and climbed into bed.

Ben tossed and turned that night, unable to work through the situation in his head. Normally, oncehis thinking cap was on, he could sort through logical steps. He’d been through worse than thisbefore, much worse, but he couldn’t shake Sarah, or the look of desperation on her face as she’dapologised over and over again.

He climbed out of bed early the next morning, shaved and dressed, ready to be picked up for a tripto set. His fingers danced across the screen of his phone as he contemplated an early morning textmessage.

Come to set. Have coffee. Don’t want things to end like this.

@@@

A week on from his text message and he’d heard nothing. Instead Sarah chose to ignore him andbury herself in work, as she did when things upset her. She’d had meetings with her employer,who hoped she wasn’t bringing any pent up aggression to work. It took a bit to explain thesituation, as insane as it sounded, but she did her best either way to keep her head about water andher mind on an even keel.

Ben had tried to give her some space, ploughing through his own schedule of filming, interviewsand the like. It didn’t stop. Erin had taken some time away from Tom, at his insistence, so that shecould spend some time with Sarah and make sure she was okay.

“Yeah, you know. Shit happens, doesn’t it?” Sarah huffed, wrapped up on the couch in blankets,

pyjamas and socks.

“It does,” Erin agreed. “But we weren’t doing anything wrong by having lunch.”

“He does have a point though. I won’t be seen in public with him, but I’ll lunch with his friends.That’s a bit of a kick in the guts.”

“You gonna see him again?”

“I don’t think so.” Sarah shook her head.

“I worked out who it was that spilled your details to the media.” It had been weighing on her mindto mention it, but she decided she should.

“Who?”

“It was a mistake, though, so you know, go easy on her.”

“Who was it?”

“I think it was Hannah. She might’ve gotten over excited and tagged you in one of those photos ofyou and Ben at the Star Trek premiere. She told me once everything started going down. I didn’tknow how to tell you.”

“I guess it’s a bit redundant now, anyway. I’ve brought enough shit on myself to warrantdeserving that.”

“That’s not true. You didn’t deserve that.” Erin shook her head. “I don’t agree with that.”

Erin’s phone beeped at her. A text message from J.J. Field.

Are you at home? Is Sar with you?

She looked at Sarah, confused, before tapping out a reply.

Yeah. I’m home, Sar is here, too.

Less than a minute later, Sarah’s phone beeped.

Coffee tomorrow night. My shout. Pick you up at 6.

Sarah looked at Erin. “Why does J.J. want to have coffee with me?”

Chapter End Notes

*drumroll* things are about to get very... interesting.... stay tuned! The next chapterwill be much, much sooner than they have been lately. xo

Apologies!

I'm so sorry for being a hot mess! I've been completely snowed in working on my novel, but thesetwo are still kicking around waiting to talk. I'm going to try and give them some time tomorrow!

Thank you so much for waiting around.

In the mean time, if you want to have a look see what my novel is about:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24931878-red

Thanks! xo

Ulterior Motives?

Chapter Summary

Okay, we're back! The next chapter is currently just about finished, so watch out forthat one soon!

Where were we???

Right, so ... it looks like things have hit the skids with Ben and Sarah, again, andsuddenly J.J. wants to catch up for a coffee. He was a good help last time, so whatharm could it do this time?

The doorbell rang, and Sarah scuttled down the stairs to answer it. She’d spent the day chewingover what it could possibly mean, or not mean.

“He’s helped out before, with Ben, surely that’s it, isn’t it?” she whispered to Erin, who had comethrough from the kitchen.

“Or not.”

“Thanks for that.” Sarah rolled her eyes and opened the front door.

J.J. wrapped her up in a hug, a quick peck on the cheek as a greeting, before he let himself in thehouse and through to the kitchen to find Erin working on dinner.

“Hi, J.J,” Sarah mused as he walked away.

“Sorry, hello,” he answered, kissing the other cheek as she joined them in the kitchen.

Inane chatter kept the room abuzz for the next thirty minutes until Sarah reminded him they weregoing out for coffee. Erin was entertaining as always with stories about work, J.J. offering up hisown quips about a film he was currently working on, and Sarah joining in where she could,though work had been flat for her lately.

“You ready to go?” J.J. looked at her.

“Only waiting for you,” she answered sarcastically.

“Don’t wait up, Ez.” He smiled, guiding Sarah to the front door.

“Oh, I’m not known for doing that.”

They ended up in a restaurant, as opposed to a late night coffee shop, Sarah ordering a cocktail totry and relax.

“So, how are you?” J.J. leaned across the table and into the conversation.

“I’ve been better, but things will settle down.”

“You seen Ben lately?”

“No,” she replied, her answer snipped.

“Oh, okay. Going to see him again?”

“I doubt it,” her replies were showing her temper shortening.

“Right, sure.” He nodded, grabbing the menu and browsing over it.

He was nervous, skittish, and looking to be avoiding a particular element of conversation. Sarahwatched as his eyes travelled around the room, as if waiting for someone else to turn up. Hisattention back to the menu, and then back to Sarah as he realised she was watching him.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“You.”

“Me?” he chuckled.

“What’s going on J.J? What’s the point of tonight?”

He reminded her of Tom in so many ways it wasn’t funny, particularly in the looks department.J.J. was wearing his hair blond at the time for a film, and his blue eyes weren’t too dissimilar toTom’s. It struck her suddenly that she could be looking at a debacle on the spectacle of the“Lunch with Tom” incident, until she reminded herself that it didn’t matter anymore.

“Well, you see…” his voice trailed off.

“No, I don’t see,” she answered.

“The thing is…”

Sarah cocked an eyebrow at him.

“… I really like you, Sarah.”

“What?”

“And I’ve watched you and Cumberbatch try and get your shit together for an age now. Hewouldn’t know a gift from the Gods if they came and slapped his arse. I was hoping that you and Icould spend some time together.”

Sarah stood up, looking around to see if anyone else she knew was in the restaurant, thinkingwhat she’d just heard was a joke.

“I’m sorry, no. This is all still very raw for me, I’m sorry, I can’t J.J. You are lovely, I promise youthat you are, and I don’t want to not see you as a friend anymore, because I do like you. I justneed time to distance myself from this mess with Ben.”

“You can’t even just think about maybe going to see a movie with me?”

“No, matey, I’m sorry. I do appreciate your lovely words, though, but no. I just need to step awayfrom dating for a bit.”

She could read him like a book. He was upset, of course he was, it was to be expected, and shefelt terrible, she just wasn’t interested in anything at the moment. With that, she took her leave,walking out to the street and into the night.

It seemed strange, J.J.’s sudden profession of interest. Only a short time ago, he’d offered adviceon how to fix things with Ben and, next thing, he was trying to take his place. Sarah ran up thestairs of her flat, unlocked the door and walked inside to find Tom and Erin going for it on thecouch, in all their glory.

The room was deathly quiet, no one saying anything, and neither Tom nor Erin saying anything inreturn. Instead of creating a scene, Sarah walked upstairs and went straight to bed, not hungryenough to warrant interrupting her friends on the couch to try and make a sandwich.

Her phone lit up the quiet room.

Sorry if I overstepped the mark. I do like you very much, might seem strange, I know, but thereyou have it.

She felt bad. She couldn’t make heads or tails of any of the situations she’d found herself in lately,and decided to just worry about the only relationship she was in on a permanent basis, the onewith herself. Take care of myself, and the rest will follow, she told herself.

No, no harm done. Just can’t right now. She replied.

What if we just go to the pictures as friends. Nothing more, no expectations?

Sarah sighed heavily, sure she knew what the old ‘no expectations’ line meant.

Look sure. What harm can it do?

Round Two

Chapter Summary

So, a second coffee outing with JJ? Wonder what Sarah's getting herself into, here?

Are they both on the same page about what their coffee dates mean?

Also, good to see Ben home from promotional duties.

Sarah met J.J. at the local theatre at the end of her next week of work. Things had calmed downconsiderably after the incident with Ben, and her meeting with the principal, so she figured therewas no harm in heading out for dinner and a film.

She stood out front of the cinema, wind blustering and whipping at the lapels of her jacket, wispsof her hair flying everywhere. J.J. arrived late, and they snuck into the film just as the lightsdimmed. She reached into her pocket to switch off her phone to find it full of messages from Ben.

Sarah?

I’m sorry, please call.

I hate not talking to you.

I was an arse.

Can you call me please?

Right. I’m going to turn up on your doorstep if you can’t answer.

The film finished, and they made their way to a local late night cafe. Sarah looked at her phonenervously, still distracted by her messages, as she listened to J.J. prattle on about a film he wascurrently shooting.

So far, the coffee date had seemed harmless, their second in a fortnight. He’d tried to pryinformation out of her again, but she simply smiled and let on nothing other than the fact thatwhatever was going on with Ben, wasn’t going on anymore and she wasn’t looking for anyone toreplace him.

@@@

I’ll be home Friday night, a little after 9. Please come over. Need to see you.

He wasn’t giving up anytime soon. Ben had just sent Sarah a message from the other side of theglobe. It was some sort of televised red carpet event, and she watching it from the comfort of herkitchen, all the girls in attendance.

Silence fell across the room as Ben came into camera shot. Sarah felt herself flush shades ofcrimson up her neck and through her cheeks. He looked good. In fact, he looked great, and itmade the ache inside her all that more noticeable.

“Gah. I fucked it up,” she grumbled, watching a reporter shove a microphone under his nose.

The room watched on as Ben answered a few questions about Star Trek and Sherlock, before thecheeky questions about a girlfriend started.

“No, very single at the moment. Wouldn’t want to put anyone out with my hectic schedule.” Hesmiled curtly at the reporter, who went on to ask questions about Sarah.

“Oh come on!” She shouted at the television.

Ben refused to comment, brushing the reporter off completely before he walked away.

“That face, though.” Celeste looked at her. “If that’s not heartbreak, I don’t know what is. Youcould almost hit the pause button on it like Ralph Wiggum.”

@@@

Ben found himself in a taxi on the Friday night. It was warm, in fact, a little bit too warm and itsmelt like beer, cigarettes, and piss. However, it was taking him to his destination, so he couldn’tafford to complain. An early call the next morning meant he couldn’t be too late, but he needed totry anyway.

Fresh from his flight, he stood at Sarah’s door and knocked. The glow of the kitchen light seepedthrough the stained glass of the front door, so he waited patiently, collar turned up against the cold.

Sarah stood at the kitchen cleaning up from dinner when she heard the knock first, and then thetwist of the doorbell. She knew that silhouette anyway, her stomach twisting and turning in knotsat the thought.

Erin came bounding down the stairs figuring it was Tom for her, the door almost pulled from itshinges. The change in her facial expression made Ben laugh.

“I’m very sorry to disappoint, but would Sarah be home?”

“Yeah, she’s just in the kitchen. You seen Tom?”

“No, sorry, just got off the plane.” Ben volunteered. “Can I come in?”

“Sure.” Erin moved out of the way. “Did you bring me a souvenir?”

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s a joke, don’t worry.” She waved her hand. “You’ve been away, you know, souvenirs? Youknow, cute actors, and the like?”

“Not sure I know any, but I’ll remember to be on the lookout next time.”

Ben walked past her into the foyer, leaving his suitcase and jacket near the coat stand.Apprehensively, he walked past the lounge and into the kitchen, finding Sarah clutching the sinkfor dear life. She turned to look at him slowly.

“Hey.” He smiled.

“Hey.”

“How are you?” he asked quietly, leaning into the hutch against the wall.

“Good. You? How was your trip?”

“Busy. Glad to be home.” He shoved his hands in his pockets nervously. “How’s work?”

“Good. Really enjoying it.”

“Oh, good. Glad to hear.”

The silence was thick, neither of them sure of what to say to the other, or where to start saying it.Ben spied Sunne in Splendour on the counter, dog eared and with a bookmark in it.

“I hear that’s a good book.” He nodded in the direction of the counter.

Sarah smiled. “Yeah, it’s not bad.”

“Where’d you get it from?”

“Some weird bloke I met.” The humour was working for her better than bare honesty.

“Yeah, look.” Ben scratched the back of his head. “I reckon anyone that’d want to read thatwould be pretty weird. Probably a complete lout, too.”

Sarah smiled, shaking her head. “He’s not that bad, actually.”

“He’s not? Really?”

“No, he’s really not.”

“Got time for a coffee then?” He tried his luck.

“Of course. Garden variety or plunger?”

“Whatever’s going.”

Chapter 20

Chapter Summary

Ben's back in town, they've both had time to think. Can they come up with a solutionthat works for both of them?

Only a short chapter this week! :)

Ben left in the early hours of the morning, pleased with the night he’d had. Sarah saw him out thefront door with a kiss goodbye, and a promise that they would catch up properly in the next fewdays and have a proper debrief and discussion about everything that had happened in the last fewweeks.

That catch up came the very next morning; a text message followed by an impatient phone callfrom Ben saw Sarah in a taxi and heading towards his home. Erin stood in the bathroom next toher, trying as much as she could to help Sarah get herself ready.

“I’m okay, really. He’s seen me looking worse,” she hushed Erin with a wave of the hand.

“Ah yes, but today you go in for the kill. Much beauty, such pretty, much wow from Ben.”

Sarah laughed. “I’m sure I’ll be fine with what little makeup I have on.”

“Got protection?”

“What?” Sarah laughed. “That old line again.”

“Just saying, you know, sex for lunch is a good thing.”

“Is Tom here? I have a feeling Tom is here somewhere.”

“Mehhhhhyeah, he’s in my room,” Erin admitted.

“Is this why you’re in a hurry to help me and turf me out?”

“Partly, yeah.”

Sarah laughed. “Well, can’t say you’re not honest.”

“Of all things, I’m always honest with you.”

“How are things going anyway? They okay?”

“Yeah, we had a bit of time off and now it’s all good.”

“Oh, great.” Sarah nodded. “Good.”

@@@

“So, what do you want to do?” Ben looked at Sarah, sat across from him at his kitchen table.

She scratched her head, thoughts and words not matching up to form anything coherent. “Youknow, I don’t know, Ben.”

“That makes two of us, I guess.”

“I mean, I adore spending time with you. I think we’ve both been dicks about this whole thing,perhaps myself more than you.”

“Errr, not entirely true, but I take your sentiment in the spirit of the game.”

“Well, no, I mean, I can’t expect to play hide and seek forever,” she offered. “On the same token,I wasn’t prepared for what happened, so it became very scary, very quickly.”

“Okay, so if we were, to say, start over...”

“See, is that possible?” she asked. “I mean, I’m out there on public record now, so the minutewe’re seen together again, all hell will break loose. Again.”

“What do you suggest, then?”

“I don’t know what to suggest. We could play cat and mouse, but I’d like to go out occasionally,and not to your house and not to my house, but to the cinema. I caught up with JJ last week andwe went to the pictures together and no one bothered us. I don’t think I could do that if I werewith you, which is disappointing.”

“Disappointing for me, too, but I get invited to things that are, say, exclusive, and away fromprying eyes, so we could do that. Arrive separate, leave separate, that sort of thing. We could trythat?”

“That’s a bit poo.” Sarah looked at him.

“Poo?”

“Well, the idea of dating is that you’re together, correct?”

“Yes, just trying to circumvent the media, that’s all.”

“I could just put on my big girls’ blouse and deal with it?”

“Or that, I don’t mind.” Ben smiled. “Why don’t we just see what happens? Maybe shutting downsocial media for a while will help?”

“Oh, they’re all set to secret now,” Sarah snorted. “After that time, far out.”

“Good, good.”

Both were silent for a moment before a look crossed Ben’s face. Confusion, perhaps.

“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.

“Are we actually going to do this? Properly attempt this?”

“Uh, yeah.” She nodded. “We are.”

Ben smiled. “Got a television interview tonight. You coming?”

“Absolutely.”

Flash Photography

Ben clutches Sarah’s hand tightly as they sit in the car outside the television studios. A driver isdoing a quick drop and run, and they get themselves ready before a door is opened for them andthey step out. Ben first, and Sarah follows him not a moment later.

There’s a small contingent of fans outside, camera phones and real cameras at the ready.Excitement reached fever pitch once they realised it was Ben that had gotten out of the car,whispers becoming words, becoming loud conversations, becoming excited yelps and screams.

“You okay?” Ben asked, ignoring everyone else around them.

“I’m okay,”

“Just follow Karon inside and I’ll meet you inside shortly, okay?”

Cameras click, flashes going off in a reminder of a past life spent in discos, and Sarah followedKaron inside and waited in the green room, Ben appearing twenty minutes later. He didn’t stay forlong, instead being taken to a makeup suite in preparation for his interview.

She watched proudly from the sidelines as he spoke, humbly, of the last few roles he had been in,of Star Trek and of Sherlock, and what was coming up in regards to that. He spoke warmly of hisparents, co-stars and friends, and tried not to get dragged into discussions of the girlfriend nature.

“So, last we heard, there were rumours of you with a girl named Sarah?”

Benedict laughed nervously, scratching the space between his top lip and his nose. “What of it?”

“Well, you tell me.”

“No, I’m not telling you anything,” he chuckled.

Sarah cringed, in direct site of the chat show host.

“Nothing to tell, perhaps?” he tried.

“Correct,” Benedict agreed, and the topic was changed swiftly.

It felt like it was over before it began, Ben and Sarah making a hasty exit while the show was stillfilming. Wrapped in long coats and hats, they found a quiet spot near his home for a late supperand drinks.

“So, was it good for you?” Ben cocked his mouth up into a grin.

Sarah laughed, leaned over the table clutching her own elbows. “Yes, it was good.Overwhelming, but good.”

“What was overwhelming?”

“The flash photography.”

He nodded. “Sure. It’s definitely something that you need to adjust to. Not saying you personally,but as a person, like me, for instance. It’s something else to get used to.”

Conversation ebbed and flowed, rocked back and forth like the midnight sea, and soon they were

walking back to Benedict’s house looking through the wine rack.

Laughter gave way to a kiss, then another, and another, before they found themselves a tangledmess on the sofa. Hands on bare skin, fingers tangled and hastily removed clothes, a struggle withboxer briefs and then there was skin. Skin on skin. Ben, warm and solid on top of Sarah, lean andsmooth to the touch, no words exchanged but whispered declarations in the dark.

Sarah woke the next morning in Ben’s bedroom. Crisp, fresh linen, and the warm, fresh smell of ashower running. She climbed out of the bed, replaced the oversized t-shirt she’d been offered as asleep slip the night before and padded her way into the ensuite. Her fingers gripped the door frametightly as she watched quietly. A complete contradiction, a Khan body that was quickly shrinkingback to Sherlock proportions, though he already had the hair to go with that role.

“Morning.” Ben smiled.

“Good morning to you,” she replied. “Sleep well?”

“Amazing. You?”

“Wonderfully.”

“What do you want for breakfast? I need to be on set soon, but we can get breakfast.”

“You’re going to make me breakfast?”

“If you like.” He rinsed shampoo from his hair and stepped out of the shower.

“Eggs,” Sarah stated.

“You want eggs?”

“Yep.” She turned and walked back to the bedroom to dress quickly.

“How do you have your eggs?” Ben called.

Sarah snorted. “Please let me say it.”

“Go on,” he sighed, a joke he’d heard a million times before.

“Benedict,” she snorted, barely able to contain her laughter.

“You are so original. I’d love to sit in on one of your classes one day.”

“You’re more than welcome to, you know. You can give talks about the perils of being asuperstar.”

“The perils of dating one.” Ben slapped her with the towel and dressed quietly in front of her.

“Jokes like that will not get you invited to Christmas dinner.”

“Whatever,” Sarah disagreed. “They’d better be good.”

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