The Good Ones Go

Chelsea reaches out and rings the doorbell with a shaky finger. She knows she still has the key somewhere in her purse, but it would feel like an intrusion now. She waits behind the big walnut-stained oak door impatiently until Travis pulls it open.

"Chelsea," he says as he looks her up and down. Her hair is in a messy bun, and she has dark circles under her eyes. Her face is pale, and her dress reeks of cigarette smoke. Travis let out a deep sigh before stepping out of the way so she can come in. It's midnight, and he's sure she's already spent a few hours driving around mindlessly hot-boxing her car before working up the courage to come here.

"Thanks," she begins nervously, "sorry. I haven't fixed things with Adam, and I couldn’t stay in the hospital another night," she tells him before slipping her heels off and walking into the living room. She takes a deep breath when she sees a woman on the couch drinking a glass of wine and runs her tired hand over her sad face.

"Hi, sorry to interrupt; I'm Travis' cousin," Chelsea says reaching out to shake the woman's hand. She's trying to ensure she's not cock blocking because she's done that to him more times than she can count.

"No, it's OK. I can understand having a bad day. I'll head out," the woman says while looking at Chelsea with a forced smile. She then turns to Travis and says, "we'll catch up later," before putting her coat on and showing herself out.

"Ugh, I'm so sorry, Trav. I always do this to you," she groans before dropping down on the couch. She hadn't noticed how sore her feet are until now when she throws them up on the couch and reaches over to give them a rub.

Travis sighs, "it's fine, Chels." Of course, it really isn’t. Chelsea is in love with another man. She's also married. Travis has to stop beckoning at her calls, but he just doesn’t know how.

"You were right about Cole's kid; I handed the case over," she tells him as she peels her own coat off and throws it over the arm of the couch.

"Good call," he tells her before leaning down to give her a hug. He scrunches his nose up and says, "maybe you should go change - you smell like cigarettes and hospital."

Chelsea lets out a laugh, "gee, thanks," then gets up and heads up the stairs to Travis' room. She reaches behind her to unzip her dress which slips right off. She opens the bottom drawer of his dresser where he previously stashed some of her clothes for times like these. She grabs a pair of leggings and a tank top before standing back up. A photo on the dresser catches her eye and she picks it up to get a closer look. It's a picture of her on Colson's lap with Travis right next to them donning his brilliant smile. It feels like so long ago that they were all happy.

"Chelsea," she hears Travis say from the doorway.

She realizes he caught her in her nostalgia so she quickly puts the picture down and begins dressing herself. "Yea?" she says without looking up at him. She knows his eyes are glued to every inch of bare skin, and she admits to herself that she kind of likes it.

"I know it's hard, Chelsea," he sighs as he sits down on his bed, "you don’t have to pretend with me." She may not be here for a talk, but he knows she needs it.

"But it shouldn’t be hard, Travis. I'm married for pete's sake!" she says picking her dress up off the ground and sitting down on the mattress next to him.

"You're right. So maybe getting married while you had these unresolved feelings was a bad move, but you made it, and now we're gonna get through it. It'll be okay, Chels, just give yourself some time, and don’t bury your emotions," he says as he rubs her back. He knows it sounds harsh, but he doesn't mean anything bad by it. He's there to help her.

For a moment Chelsea is mad. How dare he say she has unresolved feelings? That she has made a wrong decision in getting married? She sighs. Who is she kidding? Travis is completely right, and he's the only one telling her like it is. "Thanks, Mills. What would I do without you?" she smiles as she leans over on him. The comfort from his warm body is enticing.

Travis laughs as he wraps an arm around her shoulder, "sleep in a hospital for the rest of your life." He kisses the top of her head as he listens to her chuckle. Chelsea revels in the feeling that overcomes her at the feel of Travis' lips on her head. The way his lanky arm wraps around her feels like he's been molded to her, and she doesn't want the feeling to go away. "It's time to go talk to Adam," he summons the courage to say. He doesn't want her to go now that she's chased his company away, but he knows she has to.

Chelsea nods and gets up reluctantly. The pair walk back downstairs, and Travis helps her put her coat on. "I'll let you know how it goes," she says as she walks out and toward her car VW.

After the slowest drive of her life she pulls up behind a huge truck and sits for a moment watching the men unload the rest of their furniture. When she sees Adam walk out she pulls the keys out of the ignition and slams the door shut behind her.

He stops in his tracks and pockets his hands awkwardly waiting for her to approach him. The bag on her shoulder is heavy, her body is heavy, her burdens are heavy, but they all go unnoticed as the adrenalin surges through her veins at the site of him. Chelsea inhales deeply as she walks up to her husband.

"Hey," she manages while fumbling with the zipper on her jacket.

"Hey," he says back pursing his lips.

"Look, I'm sorry," she sighs, and he nods his head in response. "You were right, ok?" she reassures him, "I'm off the case."

"I was right?" he questions. He is scared now. What does she mean?

"There are other doctors, and he's my ex. It would have been extremely unprofessional to follow through with it," she clarifies before he jumps to conclusions.

"Oh," he says. He is relieved. For a moment he thought that, well, never mind. It doesn't matter. Nothing happened. "The movers just brought in the last of our stuff," he changes topics.

Chelsea nods. "So are we ok?" she asks. Though she apologized, things still don't seem right.

Adam shrugs flippantly, "yea."

Chelsea lets out a deep breath. It seems like he's avoiding the issue, but things are fine apparently, and she refuses to rock the boat anymore than she already has this past week.

"It's late, you should come in. I'm sure you're tired," he tells her as he turns around and opens the door for her.

Chelsea nods and follows him to the entrance. She rushes toward the kitchen and scrambles for the bottle of vodka from the bar. She chug, chug, chugs and places it back where she found it before Adam comes in. Half an hour later she is just the right amount of intoxicated as she sits in front of the flat screen with a cigarette in hand.

"I thought you were going to stop smoking," she hears Adam's voice from the doorway. When she doesn’t answer back he says, "are you coming to bed?"

Chelsea looks to her left and takes in the sight of the shirtless man before her. She licks her lips as her eyes move from tattoo to tattoo then clears her throat before shaking her head. She knows that won’t happen tonight even if she does go to bed, "not yet. You go ahead. I'll see you in the morning."

Adam doesn’t bother saying goodnight - he simply turns around and leaves. She listens as he walks up the steps and almost cringes as he slams the bedroom door shut. Why is he being so uncooperative? This is not the Adam she married. Chelsea grabs her keys from the table in front of her and shuts the front door quietly behind her.

Ten minutes later she's ringing Travis' doorbell again and fidgeting in the cold. When he opens the door he is shirtless too with a cigarette of his own in hand. Hadn't she just left his house? Why is she back already?

Chelsea throws herself onto him. She slams his body against the wall in the foyer with her hands on his chest, his hard chest, and her lips on his lips, his soft, soft lips. He kisses her back without hesitation. The cigarette is somewhere on the ground, and his hands are already pulling her tank up as she travels down to his neck with her lips and between his legs with her hand - "Chelsea!" she hears Travis shout breaking her out of her daydream.

"What?" she responds breathlessly as a blush creeps to her cheeks.

"Are you okay?" he asks as he pulls her inside and away from the cold.

She gasps at his big cold hand on her arm before tugging it away and saying, "yea, sorry just a little drunk." She isn't drunk, of course, just embarrassed.

"You've been drinking? Why aren't you at home asleep? What are you doing back so soon? Is Adam still mad?" He has so many questions to ask her as they walk into his living room.

"I don’t know, I just couldn’t sleep," she responds as she sits on the opposite side of the couch with a gulp. "And Adam says he's fine, but I don't know," she sighs anxiously.

Travis raises an eyebrow at her before saying, "ok, well, come on then." He extends a hand over for her to grab and follow him.

"Uh, no that's ok," she says nervously, "I'll just sleep on the couch." Her emotions are too R rated for her to be able to sleep next to Travis tonight.

"Really?" he laughs. He doesn't know why she's playing shy tonight of all days.

Chelsea is surprised. Could he really not tell what's happening? Because Chelsea can - why else would she be here right now? She wants him so badly. He's the only thing that ever keeps the demons away.

"Don't be silly, Chels. Come on," he grabs her by the hand and pulls her up the stairs to his bedroom. Chelsea doesn't know what to do. Her hand is on fire from his touch much like every other part of her body is from the thoughts she just had.

"You wanna change?" he asks as he shuts the door of the bedroom behind them.

Chelsea shakes her hand. She's nervous. Her heart is beating out of her chest, and she's lightheaded. Her teeth bite down on her lip as she glances at Travis' bare chest ravenously before saying, "no, I'm fine."

Travis smiles innocently and turns off the light. He gets into bed and pats the spot next to him. Very hesitantly Chelsea lies down. She's on the very edge of the bed, her knees are up in her chest, and her eyes are squeezed shut in fear of what' going on in her mind. She gasps when she feels Travis' warm arm around her waist, and her eyes fly open wide when she feels him pull her body into his so effortlessly. Her thoughts are flying a mile a second, and she's scared because what if she gives in, and what if she fucks up?

Is she sweating? Oh God, his touch is burning hot. Temperature seems to be her only sense working at the moment. Then she hears his voice. He knows. Ok so maybe he doesn’t know what's really going on, but he knows she's upset about something because he's singing gently into her ear. His voice tickles her neck, and she gets goosebumps that she doesn’t seem to notice. Suddenly the heat is gone and all that's left is the soft melody of his voice in her ear as her eyes flutter shut for the night.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. The alarm sounds the following morning. The warm body underneath her fidgets at the sound so Chelsea pushes herself up to turn it off. She lets her body fall back on the mattress and takes a deep breath. That must have been the best sleep she's had in years. She turns to her right to say good morning to Adam, and her eyes widen at the site of Travis' half naked body turning toward her.

"Morning," he groans as he reaches up to rub the sleep from his eyes.

"What am I doing here?" she asks with furrowed eyebrows. She doesn't remember ever coming. What had she told Adam?

"Wow, when you said you were drunk you really weren't kidding," he jokes chuckling at her reaction. What is she even freaking out about? She's spent the night there hundreds of times, in fact, he was almost beginning to wonder if she had permanently moved in at one point.

"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. FUCK," she shouts as she rushes out of bed and runs into the bathroom.

"What?" Travis asks before sitting himself up on the bed.

"Adam is gonna be so pissed," he hears her say over the running water.

Travis lets out a sigh. Adam. Colson. Adam. Colson. This is like a fucking game of tennis that he somehow got caught in. He gets up and walks into the bathroom after her. She's brushing her teeth when he stands himself behind her and wraps an arm around her waist. He watches her every movement in the mirror and can't help but imagine planting a sloppy wet kiss on her neck and watching the goosebumps form on her smooth skin.

"It'll be okay," he sighs, "just tell him you went to work early." The thought upsets him. She should be able to say she's with him. There should be no Adam. No one. Just them. Mindlessly he pulls down his boxers and stands over the toilet to take a piss.

Chelsea spits the mouthwash out into the sink upon hearing the sudden stream of urine. She looks over at his naked glory and shouts, "Oh my God, TRAVIS!" She's reprimanding him, but she has to admit he looks mighty fine naked.

"What?" he shrugs barely realizing he's exposed, "nothing you haven’t seen before."

She rolls her eyes at his response and a subtle smile creeps to her lips that he doesn’t fail to notice. "Just put it away," she tells him not really wanting him too.

Travis grins at her before pulling his underwear up, washing his hands, and heading downstairs to answer the ringing doorbell. Chelsea follows him down the stairs, slipping a pair of socks on. Travis' body disappears down the foyer, and she lets out a small laugh. Things are so much simpler when it's just the two of them.

She heads toward the foyer herself. It's time to get to the hospital or she would be late. "Hey, Millie, I gotta head out -" she stops mid-sentence when she sees who's at the door.

"Chelsea?" his voice resonates through her mind.

She lets out a small smile before saying, "Good morning, baby." It's a must to stay calm in these situations. She didn't do anything wrong anyway, so there is no ounce of guilt in her mind.

Suddenly Adam is processing everything. He's now more aware that Travis is practically naked, and that his wife has spent the night with him. "Really?" he says furiously connecting the dots in his head.

"Man, it's not what it looks like," Travis begins to defend them. He wishes Chelsea had just waited another minute because he knows she doesn't have time to deal with this right now.

"You are the last person that should be telling me that! You're the one that likes to jump to conclusions as I recall," Adam accuses referring to when Travis showed up at their honeymoon.

"Adam, really, I just couldn’t sleep last night, that's all," Chelsea tries to reason. She doesn't understand why Adam is so angry. She's spent plenty of nights with Travis. She has to admit that last night she was eager to make a mistake, but Travis made sure she didn't.

"That's all? You couldn’t sleep so you come to him? I'm your husband, Chelsea! Does that mean anything to you?!" he asks. He doesn't understand the point of being married to her if she is going to spend all her time with other men.

She opens her mouth to protest, but quickly closes it when she realizes that this relationship had been nothing but parasitic since their wedding day. "I've got to get to work," she tells him, "we'll talk when I get home."

"Chelsea," Adam calls after her. He doesn't want to talk later, he wants to talk now.

"What?" she snaps. "All you’ve done lately is criticize, accuse, or ignore me. I'm your wife. This is supposed to be a two way fucking street, Adam. You make me feel like I can't talk to you because I'm scared of getting punished, and I'm done." She turns back around and gets into her car praying work today would give her something to look forward to.