Post ep. 5 one-shot. I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm gonna do one of these for the rest of the season (thankfully there's only one episode left that I haven't watch yet). Tori is just too fun to write.

Did anyone else catch the little interaction between Tori and Brian at the bar when the shot goes back to the group after Jamie sees them? Tori is making a kissy-face at Brian and you can't see his face because he's turned towards her, but Shannen is clearly not impressed and she looks like she's going to hit him. Not sure what's up with that (scripted or not) but it was cute...

Jennie handed Tori one of the water bottles and climbed into bed beside her while the crew packed up the set. "So you survived the big scene…" And was apparently now so comfortable that she refused to leave.

"Yup." Scooting to sit back against the headboard, Tori knocked their bottles together in a mock 'Cheers!' "It was a lot easier once I knew Brian was off because of the Zach thing and not because of me." Even though they were out of earshot of the few remaining crew she dropped her voice to smugly add, "And we had liftoff."

That much had been obvious by her reaction… "I'm… happy for you?"

"Oh, please," Tori rolled her eyes. "Like it wouldn't be a total ego boost if the guy you were doing a love scene with got excited." Especially at their age.

Well, Jennie couldn't deny that. "Are you sure your ego is the only thing that got a boost?"

Pausing with the bottle at her lips, Tori tilted her head curiously. "What do you mean?"

Jennie gave her a look that said 'seriously?'

"Endorphins?" Tori guessed. "My nipples? What?"

That was a mental image Jennie had not needed… "Your feelings for him, you twit."

Oh, that. "Nope. I'm completely over it."

She almost sounded like she meant it, too… "Really? Because when he got excited you took the power back?"

Tori shook her head. "No. Because he has something going on with Shannen."

Jennie almost choked on a mouthful of water; let out a strangled, "What?!"

"Ooh," Tori gasped, giving a little wave to the grip whose attention Jennie had drawn. "I forgot to tell you. Yesterday when he snubbed me in the middle of the lot it was to go see her." Sad that she had to specify which snubbing it had been…

Well, that explained it… "Tor, I know you're upset he's been 'neglecting' you but that's just ridiculous." Brian and Shannen?

"I'm not upset…" Halfway through her denial Tori gave in with a shrug. "Yeah, okay. But you didn't see them. It was like a scene straight out of Dirty Dancing."

"Were they doing the mambo?" Jennie teased as the last crew member left.

"What? No. An actual scene. You know the one where Johnny beats up Robbie and then he goes to Baby for comfort but she's standing on the deck so she's higher than him when they hug? Totally like that." Except instead of another guy it had been her self-esteem that had taken a beating. "They hugged on the steps of her trailer then went into it, Jen."

Jennie was tempted to ask her best friend if she'd been high… "Tor, that just doesn't make sense."

Tori shook her head in her own defense. "No? You haven't noticed the little touches and familiar banter? They are definitely 'closer' than they're letting on." Yesterday all the pieces had clicked into place.

"They haven't spoken in twenty years," Jennie argued. "You think they started having an affair in less than a week?" As soon as she said it she realized it wasn't altogether impossible, given that she and Jason had slept together less than twelve hours in. Still… just no.

"No. Nuh-uh. He lied," Tori whisper-hissed."When I was in Peru Shannen said he'd told her I was trying to reach her but she was busy saving the world and sorry not sorry blah blah blah." She waited for Jennie to process before posing, "Why would he lie about staying in touch with her if it was completely innocent?"

Jennie lifted an eyebrow. "Uh, 'cause the rest of us hated her?"

"Uh, the rest of us didn't hate her," Tori disputed hotly. "I don't hate anyone." Not even when they deserved it.

"Really?" Eyebrow still raised Jennie submitted for Exhibit A: "Candy?"

Tori's lips fell into a pronounced pout. "We don't talk about that."

"Sorry," Jennie immediately apologized.

"Whatever," Tori waved it away. "So that's why I'm over it. I can't compete with Shannen."

Jennie scoffed. "But you were okay competing with his wife?" That was where she drew the line?

"You know what I mean." She wasn't competing with anyone, but if she were: "Sure Shay's awesome and this crazy beautiful pop star but Shannen is all Mother Earth and spiritual and she probably knows, like, all the positions in the Kamasutra."

"Tori!" Jennie was grateful she hadn't been drinking this time.

Tori shrugged. "Anyway, I'm just glad it's over. Now I can stop spending our sex scenes worrying about acting like I'm not enjoying acting like I'm enjoying it and focus on what's truly important instead. Like whether or not the camera is catching my good side…"

Jennie didn't know how to dispute her best friend's theories about Shannen – or make her feel better – without sounding like she was approved of the inappropriate feelings for Brian. She settled for a gentle, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Tori nodded after a somber moment. "It never would have gone anywhere but it was just nice to feel like someone cared, you know?" Like someone actually listened, which had made it hurt all the more when he suddenly stopped.

"What am I?" Jennie feigned offense, bumping her shoulder to the other woman's. "Chopped liver?"

She knew it wasn't the same… Banishing the creeping sadness to the far recesses of her mind, Tori leaned to put her head on Jennie's shoulder. "So tell me about you and Wyatt. I heard something about a romantic dinner. I want all the deets."

Resting her cheek against Tori's hair, Jennie demurred with a quiet, "I don't want to."

Tori looked up at her pleadingly. "Please, Jen? Let me live vicariously through you." Being 'Tori' wasn't so great at the moment.

Ugh. Relenting, Jennie unenthusiastically began, "Well, there is a very good chance…"

"That he's 'the one?'" Tori interjected.

Jennie pursed her lips. "That I'm in love with Jason."

Tori sat straight up and pointed an accusing finger at her best friend. "I knew it! I knew you were avoiding or displacing or whatever it is the shrinks call it these days."

Refraining from suggesting her best friend saw one to find out, Jennie let out a deep sigh. "Wyatt is nice and hot and fun and totally smitten with me and the sex is to die for. But there's no emotional connection there."

"Mmm." Tori returned her head to its previous position. "Emotional connection. I remember those."

"And Jason just gets me, you know?" Jennie continued pensively. "Even after twenty years. I don't have to pull my punches or control my bitchier instincts." Or pretend to like golf…

"Maybe controlling your bitchier instincts sometimes isn't such a bad thing?" Tori suggested, tone hopeful.

Jennie ignored her. "And he's like my snarky sparring equal; every conversation is like foreplay. Yesterday I had to leave his office before I pushed everything off his desk and told him 'Take me now, Mr. Director.'"

Tori cringed at the vivid picture she'd painted. "I'm not sure he's in a space where he'd appreciate having all his work thrown on the floor." He was currently a little too… high-strung. Although maybe that was just what he needed…

"But I'm trying to be a good person so when he said he was thinking about leaving Camille I tried to convince him that she needed him and to stay with her." Not the funnest conversation she'd had...

"Really?" Tori laughed softly. "That's what you're going with?"

Jennie shifted so her best friend could see her narrowed eyes. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that maybe," Tori explained, voice intentionally light, "Just maybe, you're trying to ease your guilt over what happened in Vegas. Or you're trying to keep him unavailable so you can avoid another in a long line of failed relationships if it doesn't work out." If she had any money to bet it would be on both.

"You don't believe I just want to be a good person?" Jennie pouted.

"Not 'just' that, no." To take the sting out of her words Tori soothed, "You're complicated that way. It's part of your charm."

Jennie gave in with a self-loathing sigh. "I hate that you know me so well."

Sitting up Tori took her best friend's hands into her own between them. "Jen, his relationship was imploding on its own before you ever came back into the picture. Granted you didn't know how bad in Vegas, but if it wasn't it probably wouldn't have happened. It's not your job to save their marriage." As for the second point: "Even if it doesn't work out between you and him, don't you want to be able to look back and say you had the lady balls to go for it and it was a hell of a ride while it lasted?"

"Stop!" Jennie chastised, pulling herself out of the reverie she'd settled into. "You're getting me all whipped up and I don't even know if he feels the same." Weren't best friends supposed to keep each other grounded?

Tori was fairly certain he did but her instincts had been totally off lately, so… "Talk to him. Use your big girl words." At the very least he deserved to have all the information before making a decision. Though now probably wasn't the best time for him to do that, so she tacked on a qualifying, "Once Camille is out of the woods, I mean."

The thought of having that discussion made Jennie groan. "What if he's just an ass about it? He can be such a dick sometimes."

"See?" Tori smiled encouragingly. "You're a match made in heaven."

Tori exited the bathroom of the bar at Alston House to find Brian holding up a wall. Just keep going, Tor.

"Hey…" Brian put a hand on her arm to stop her from walking right by him. "You okay?"

Giving him a blank stare she repeated his words from the day before. "Yeah. Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" See how much he liked it.

Brian's brow furrowed at her uncharacteristic curtness. "I don't know. I just feel like you've been avoiding me since our scene this morning."

She faked a smile. "Nope. Everything's fine." She was completely over it. You have no power over me.

Despite her assurances Brian didn't believe her. "Are you sure? Is it about the, uh, poking thing?" If he wasn't so comfortable with her it wouldn't have happened; if he'd known it would bother her so much he would have made a more conscious effort to keep it from happening.

Not so much fun thinking you've done something wrong, is it? Still, she didn't want him to feel bad about it… "Brian, I told you it was no problem. Just part of the job." From now on it was only about the job.

"Okay, now I know something's wrong…" Pulling her out of the way of a man that was trying to pass he finished, "You haven't called me 'Brian' since Vegas and that was only because you were play-acting a reporter."

Tori's mouth opened in disbelief. "Seriously? The last couple of days my hair could've been on fire and you wouldn't even have noticed, but I throw in two extra letters and suddenly you're Mr. Observant?" It didn't matter that she'd maybe done it on purpose to see if he would notice. Damn her mutinying subconscious.

Brian shook his head, not understanding. "What are you talking about?"

"You totally blew me off yesterday," she reminded him tersely. "Twice. And when I was freaking out about our scene you were just laying there surfing the net."

"I wasn't surfing the net, Tor. I was…" What he was doing didn't matter so he left it at that. "Look, I know I've been distracted, okay? And I'm sorry. Shay's fans are ripping her to shreds and I have this grown son all of a sudden out of nowhere…"

"You weren't too distracted for Shannen." She hadn't meant it to sound so bratty or jealous but there probably wasn't a way for it not to and it had to be said, for her own peace of mind.

Realizing what she was talking about Brian also realized how it must have looked. "Shannen's one of my closest friends," he defended, leading herto the bar proper to get out of the narrow hallway. "I was talking to her about Zach."

Ouch. And also, "I knew it! You're such a liar!" Or was he lying now, to cover up a secret affair? Tori was no further ahead than she was before.

Pulling out a stool, he nudged her into it when she made no move to sit. "To be fair I lied to a room full of fans and I just didn't tell you the truth."

Tori's lips pursed at the sad excuse. "Yeah, 'cause that makes it better."

Brian sighed as he took his own seat. "There was always so much tension with the cast and crap coming out in the media it was just easier to keep our friendship on the down low, you know?" She had to understand that.

"For the record, I never hated her." Though the brunette was absolutely testing the limits of Tori's benevolence now by trying to rehome all her pets… "I thought we were in this together, Brian. I needed your help to get through that scene and I could've helped you with your stuff, too."

"We are in this together, Tor," he reassured her. "But I couldn't tell you about Zach. I wasn't ready for everyone to find out about him yet."

Double ouch. She flinched at the implication. "You said you trust me." 'Always' apparently was less than a week.

Brian thought carefully about how to word his response. "Well, Tor… I didn't really know what we were talking about. I meant it in more of a 'with my life' way than a 'with potentially damaging information' way." Seeing her face fall he quickly justified, "Come on – you know you can't keep a secret for your life." Everyone knew that.

Tori scoffed at the blatant (and inaccurate) insult. "I'll have you know that I am keeping the biggest 'rock your world' secret right now as we speak."

"Oh, yeah?" Brian lifted a eyebrow. "What is it?" The question was part test, part curiosity.

"Oh… uh…" She hadn't expected that, and she panicked trying to find something that wasn't the real secret that wasn't actually a secret anymore because she was totally over it (except when she wasn't) but it would still make things awkward so obviously she couldn't tell him and… "Jennie has feelings for Jason!"

Whoa. "Really?" He honestly had not seen that coming, considering she and the bodyguard couldn't seem to keep their hands off each other…

Tori belatedly clamped a hand over her mouth; sheepishly mumbled, "Oh. Okay. I see what you mean." She would be rejoicing the fact that her secret (that wasn't a secret) was still intact, but she doubted Jennie would see much cause to celebrate…

Brian smiled at her guilty expression. "So we're good?"

No. Stay strong, Tori. "I just don't want to feel like our friendship is one-sided, Bri. You can talk to me." Damn it, Tori; giving him back the power? Sarah would be so disappointed in you.

"Alright…" Holding out a hand to shake he deadpanned, "Next time I find out I have a twenty-year-old son you will be the first person I talk to. Deal?"

Tori stared at him, unimpressed.

"I'm kidding," Brian conceded with a chuckle. "I promise I will bore you with all my non-sensitive problems from now on."

Pretending to take it under serious consideration she let out a melodramatic huff. "Fine. But if they're too boring I reserve creative license to liven them up before sharing them with other people."

Definitely in a league of her own… "Agreed." Standing, he offered her his arm. "Now how about we go celebrate finally getting this reboot off the ground?"

'Off the ground' was being entirely too generous… "We've only shot one scene," she protested, sliding off the stool and taking the proffered limb.

Brian gave her a cheeky wink. "Yeah, but it was the best one…"

God, how she wished she could hate him. Or at the very least not turn into a big puddle of goo at any scrap of meaningless attention he decided to throw her way… Just before they got back to the tables she pulled him to a stop. "Hey, Bri?"

They may only have been two letters but they made a world of difference… "Yeah?"

"Uh…" Tori lowered her voice to a nervous whisper. "Can you do me a favor and not tell anyone about the Jennie thing? I really don't want to end up looking like my doll."

"I guess I can do that," Brian gave in with a grin. "I kinda prefer you all in one piece, anyway…"