Damn I haven't updated in awhile, well hope this suffices for now. And guys seriously T_T my story 'Selfish Breathing' needs some more love, it's going to be such a cute story.

By the way, after I am finished writing Skeletons and Selfish Breathing I will be leaving this fandom. This is the last chapter of the story, I don't want to write until the end. The only reason that this is posted is because it was written awhile ago. Thank you those who reviewed and stayed with this story. Thank you for the kind words, but I'm done with this.

Courtney Says

By: Calamity Now

Courtney settled herself down on a rather tasteful sofa and glanced around the living room. His life had obviously changed since the last time she saw him in that little shack he had called his home. The walls weren't stained and painted a pleasant cream colour, she sniffed, sensing the touch of a woman. Without thinking her eyes scoured to his end table where there were a bunch of framed pictures and analyzed each one, searching for a pleasant looking one woman. Unfortunately there were plenty.

"My god Duncan. Your apartment is so nice. No spiders or cobwebs anywhere." She complimented and padded across the room to where there were school pictures of a young boy on the wall.

"Except for Scruffy of course." Duncan added in and peered over his shoulder, eyes locking onto Courtney's ass.

"Scruffy…?" Courtney repeated absently as she lifted one of the many crudely carved wooden figures on Duncan's desk. It was of a woman with shoulder length hair and mad hips, it took her a minute to realize that it was of her. She almost felt touched, but then realized that there were plenty of other wooden carvings of people, animals, and things on the desk.

"My tarantula. He's in the aquarium in the corner." Duncan called and glanced again, watching her admire the carvings he had made when they were dating. "Never knew I was talented, did you princess? The one of you sucks unfortunately because it was my first."

"What are you talking about? It's perfect." She called out somewhat annoyed and picked up another figure that looked familiar. "Oh…my…god. You carved Dexter?!" she cried in disbelief and carried the wooden sheep dog into the kitchen. "It looks just like him! My god, how did you do it?"

"Easy." Duncan said and smirked proudly at the little puppy. "I just took off whatever wasn't Dexter."

"You read a book!?"

"What…?"

"That line is from that book…Lucas! By Kevin Brooks. You actually read something! I never thought I'd see the day…"

To her surprise Duncan laughed as he placed another pancake onto a giant stack. "Yeah. Remember in grade 8 when I used to stick gum in your hair and stuff? I remember listening to you talk to Bridgette and Gwen about that damn book and how amazing it was. So I decided I would read it and tear it apart all week…" he trailed off as he poured more batter onto the pan.

"Why did you like to bug me so much?" she asked dumbly, expecting him to say 'you were a nerd' or 'easy target'.

"Because, I liked you." He shrugged his shoulders and flipped the batter. "In fact, I liked you every day of every year we were in school together. Starting from pre-school." He said with a hint of uncertainty in his voice then mumbled under his breath attempting to figure it out. After a minute he gave a confirming nod and grinned.

"Then what? Ended when I left for college?"

Duncan kept silent and was very focused as he flipped the almost finished pancake, trying to ignore Courtney's seeking eyes. Hours seemed to have passed before he finally cleared his throat and tossed the last pancake onto a plate.

"Finito!" He cried and kissed his fingers. "Want to help me bring the stuff to the table?" He asked, glad to have an excuse to change the subject.

Reluctantly Courtney picked up the syrup and bowl of strawberries, eyes straying to Duncan's ass she moved to the table. He coughed and pretended not to have noticed. They both sat down at opposite ends of the table and silently chose what to put on their pancakes. It was almost awkward until Duncan finally cleared his throat and indicated his head to her pricey diamond ring.

"So Princess, shoot any kids out lately?" He asked casually, secretly trying to rile her up just a little bit.

"Yes, as a matter of fact I did four years ago. His name's Nathan and he's gorgeous." She sighed happily and reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her son.

Duncan took the picture of the four year old and smiled, he looked just like Courtney with the same nose and smile. His skin wasn't as dark as hers but a nice tan and shocking blue eyes that stood out in his face, obviously from his white half.

"He looks just like you. How's the husband? He treating you nicely?" Duncan said it easily, with no hints of suspicion but Courtney still jerked back slightly, shocked that he would ask such a thing.

She didn't want to lie to him, when they were dating there wasn't one lie between them. The night after a huge party Duncan confessed to making out with Heather and after Courtney confessed to have made out with Trent that same night. He told her every time he was going to do drugs, and told her afterwards about how much he hated himself, almost crying.

Courtney just smiled and raked her brain for anything that could change the topic, just like Duncan had done earlier. "What about you? Do you have anyone special in your life? I saw some pictures of pretty girls…"

Duncan shrugged his shoulders. "Eh. Not at the moment. I haven't had a girlfriend in over six months…a few one night stands though…" his voice trailed off and he grabbed more syrup to drown over his second layer. "My god I'm the best at making pancakes." He said smugly and grinned.

"These are really good…okay. Why haven't you had a girlfriend?"

"I don't know. I've just been thinking a lot lately. I was looking for a stand tonight then I ran into you." He smiled up at her with a smile that reached his eyes and Courtney vaguely felt her heart beat a little harder. "I may be missing out on some sex but…" he paused, and it looked as if he was considering his words then nodded to himself. "It's totally worth it."

"Still a charmer eh?" Courtney laughed and accidentally brushed his knuckles as she reached from some more strawberries.

"You know it babe." He winked, Courtney stuck a finger down her throat. "You seem different though you know. You've changed." He squinted his eyes slightly, as if trying to peer into her mind then relaxed, but Courtney didn't. Feeling her mind panic.

"Is that a bad thing?" She asked, finding it rather hard to pretend that she wasn't offended. What the hell was wrong with her as she was? And how the fuck did he notice?

"No…you've just…lost that flame you know?"

"What?! I have not lost my flame!" she insisted and her voice rose a few octaves. "What are you talking about?"

"You almost have pulled that stick out of your butt." He laughed and reached across the table, placing his hand over Courtney's fist in a friendly gesture. "Chill babe. It's nothing to be angry about. Some people just…can't go through life with as much passion as you had."

"Oh I have passion!"

They argued like that until they were finished eating, and couldn't think of anything else to argue about. Then Duncan got out a bottle of Scotch and two glasses, putting a couple of ice cubes in each and pouring only enough scotch in each glass to cover most of the ice cubs. Courtney took her drink but stared at it for a minute then glanced back at Duncan who was sipping his.

"Duncan…?"

"I want to catch up with you, princess. But I don't intend on listening to you bitch away sober." He grinned and clanked his glass against hers. "So, why don't you start. How long have you been so happily married?"

Instead of talking about her marriage she spoke about university, then adding in the part about her job and when she had met Stephen and how Gwen had wanted him so badly, even though she was Duncan's girlfriend.

"That bitch," Duncan had muttered as he started his second glass. A warm flush spread across his face and he nodded on listening to what Courtney was saying.

Then she asked Duncan about the years they hadn't seen each other and he described the dark times; being in a committed relationship and cheating on the girl the entire time. Watching his brother's life turn out to be so successful, while his continued down a dark shit hole. Then on a lighter note he mentioned his nephew, who was the boy in the pictures hanging from the wall.

Courtney was finishing her first glass as Duncan spoke about his nephew, and Duncan was done his second, his words slurring as he came to a conclusion.

They came up with a game after that of thumb wars, every time you lost you had to take a drink then talk about whatever subject the other wanted. They played for a long time. Duncan manoeuvred around Courtney's thumb and jerked his on top, pressing down on hers with as much strength as his thumb had.

"I ammmm the champppioonn, my friendd! Dun nuh dun dun! And IIII keep on fightinnnnngg tilll the enddddddddddddddddddddddd!" Duncan sang out proudly and waved his arms along with the song, "Nooo time fah looserz cuz I am the champpiooonnn….." he paused for dramatic effect. "Of the worrrrlldd!"

Courtney scowled and slapped his shoulder, hand slipping and running down his (bare) arm. Thatssnot fair." She declared and took a small drink from his glass. "And you better not have herpesh."

"Kay. Okay. I have…a quesstion." Duncan said seriously, "Doess hee…does he have a bigger dick than me?" If he did Duncan thought that he might just die. One thing he was always proud of was his 10 inch dick.

"Hess PUNY!" Courtney cried out and giggled like a maniac and Duncan joined her. "He can't - can't even fuck me he's so bad." She slapped his arm and leaned on his shoulder. "You…you were great! The best I've…had."

Duncan put his arm around her shoulders, "I ammm the chammpioonnn."

--

She woke up at around 4:30 am, drool dripping down her chin. Slowly she sat up and brushed her stringy hair out of her face and wiped away the saliva. Duncan was on the couch across from her with Scruffy crawling around on his shoulder, he seemed hardly conscious as the arachnid crawled onto his face and he mumbled something along the lines of,

"Bad killer spider."

"You know." Courtney interrupted, standing up and trying to ignore the throbbing pain in her head. "Tarantula's poison isn't deadly at all." Slowly she reached out and held her palm out in front of Scruffy, and after some thought from the spider it crawled onto her hand. "They only hurt."

"That…is not fascinating at all." Duncan yawned and stretched out his arms. "You've been asleep for awhile…you were talking in your sleep about some guy…I dunno…" he sat up and made room for Courtney to sit down. "You want some Advil?"

"Noo…no. I don't want any drugs. I'll just suffer." She groaned and sank into the couch and Duncan's arm. "Why are you topless?" She asked as her cheek pressed against his skin, goose bumps forming under her touch.

"Because I got really warm after all the drinking. Now let me go to sleep woman." he said gruffly and wrapped his arm tight around her shoulders. "Because I've been staring at the wall for awhile."

"What?!" Courtney yelled and smacked his arm. "No you don't. You're going to stay awake and talk with me, because I haven't seen you in what? 7 years? And I have missed you, ya know."

"Princess…we can talk in 7 hours." He groaned and tried to roll her off of his arm so he could get up and move to the bedroom. Unfortunately for him Courtney decided to move onto his lap and placed Scruffy on his chest. "Noooo. Fuck off woman. I'm so tired."

"No way. Talk to me now. Remember the first time we spent the night together? We just stayed up the entire time talking, until the sun came up. It was wonderful."

Duncan laughed and waved his hand, "fine. But first you have to make me coffee."

"Fine."