A/N Because I have the most amazing fans, I wanted to do something for you guys for the holidays. This was by far the most requested thing, and I've been talking about doing it for a while, so I thought why not.

Thank you all for the support. I hope you enjoy the three chapter conclusion to Jean and Caden's story

It was a Friday night, nearly a Saturday morning, and Jean was polishing a crystal glass with a cotton rag, turning it over and over again in his hands. He was incredibly bored, and his boss had noticed this and suggested he clean up behind the bar to keep himself entertained. It wasn't working.

Usually, Friday's we're their busiest nights, the bar filled with drunk college kids celebrating the end of a school week, but the semester had ended a week before, and most of the students had returned to their hometowns for the summer. Jean was beyond grateful that he had this job as an excuse to not go home, though he had gotten plenty of complaints about it from both Nathan and his mother.

"Excuse me," a small voice interrupted, and he directed his attention upwards to the woman sitting on the other side of the bar from him, fixating her with his best smile. She hadn't been there minutes before, and he hoped him zoning out and not noticing her arrival wouldn't affect the amount of tip she gave him. "Could I get a gin and tonic and a rum and coke please?"

"Sure thing". He placed the glass he had been polishing on the bar and went to grab another one from the shelf behind him. "Long day at work?"

"What?" She asked, glancing down at the two empty glasses on the counter. "Oh". She chuckled. "They're not both for me. I'm in town for a conference at the university, and a colleague of mine should be joining me shortly. He just had to run back to his room quickly to change". 

Jean hummed thoughtfully as he began mixing the first drink. "A conference?" Jean asked. "Sounds boring. Should I make these drinks stronger than usual?"

She full out laughed this time, the sound very welcome in the sullen bar. "Just a tad," she agreed. "It's not as bad as it sounds though, I promise. It's just a bunch of history professors getting together and discussing teaching methods. My employer is paying for the entire thing".

"Ah, you're a professor then?" Jean asked, and she nodded. He finished the rum and coke and pushed it across the bar towards her. She accepted the glass and took a small sip, humming thoughtfully.

"Yeah. I teach at a small private school in Florida. We're actually so small that we usually don't get invited to these kinds of things so our employer thought it would be a good idea for us to come".

"Florida, huh?" Jean said, smiling a little bit. He poured gin over the ice in the second glass. "I'm actually from Florida".

"Really?" She inquired, tracing the rim of her glass with her pinkie. Jean put the other drink in front of the empty spot beside her. "You're here for college?"

"Yeah," Jean confirmed. He picked up another empty glass and began to polish it, but didn't move from his spot, happy to have someone to finally talk to. "Just finished my junior year".

"Wow," she said appreciatively. "What's your major".

"Political science".

"And are you planning on staying here after you graduate?" She asked, seeming genuinely curious.

He thought about the question, not for the first time. Honestly, he had no idea what he was going to do once he finished school, which was part of the reason why he was planning on staying for the full four years, even though he would have the credits by the end of next semester to graduate. "Well, I guess I don't-"

"Ahh, there he is," she interrupted, and Jean sighed in relief, dropping the gaze to the glass in his hand. "I was worried you'd never get here and I'd have to bore this poor young man all night".

"I'm not bored," Jean assured with a little laugh, raising his head again with his tip earning smile on his face. The second his eyes met those of the man across the bar, his grin wavered slightly with shock.

Am I seeing this right? How, after so many years, do we come to meet like this?

It was silent for a moment as they just looked at one another, and then Caden took a seat at the bar. "Hello Jean," he greeted. "It's been a long time".

Jean took a moment to compose himself before answering. He was here. Right there. So close he could reach out and touch him, lean forward and kiss him if he dared. The man he compared everyone to was once again in front of him. "It has," he agreed, setting down the glass he was polishing and bracing his hands on the bar to steady himself. It felt like his whole world had tilted.

Nathan wouldn't believe it.

"You two know one another?" Caden's colleague asked, looking between the two of them.

"Yes," Green confirmed without pause, holding Jean's gaze for a second longer before looking at his coworker. "I was Jean's high school tennis coach".

"Oh!" She said, surprised but somewhat delighted. "How fun".

"Yeah," Jean confirmed, smiling for real this time. Caden's eyes moved back to him. "It was".

"Do you still play for your university?" She continued, and Jean sighed heavily, dropping his eyes and shaking his head slowly.

"No. I played mostly because my parents wanted me to, not because I wanted to," he explained and she immediately voiced her understanding.

"So," Caden cut in, pausing after the word to take a quick sip of his drink. "What about the others then? I'm assuming you're still close with Nathan?" Jean nodded. "How's he doing?"

"Good," Jean answered, thinking back to the phone call with his best friend he had a few short days ago. "He just got engaged, actually".

Caden's eyebrows raised. "To Pearson?" He inquired, not sounding entirely surprised. At Jean's nod of confirmation, he huffed out a little laugh. "No shit. You standing up in the wedding?"

"Probably. They haven't exactly asked people to do that yet since they're waiting until after graduation to get married. I'd be surprised if I wasn't in it though. Lawson too, actually".

"Lawson is going to stand up in Glenn and Nathan's wedding?"

"I'm guessing," Jean said with a shrug. "Him and Nate have actually gotten pretty close over the last three years. They go on double dates and shit".

"So Lawson's met someone then?" Caden asked, propping his elbows up on the bar and leaning forward a bit. His gaze was unwavering and captivating, distracting in the way that it hovered on his face before dropping down to explore other parts of his body. Jean was just as bad, his teeth sunk into his lower lip to fight the urge to move closer and peer over the bar down at Caden and wonder if he looked as good pantless as he had years ago. "Is she nice?"

Jean cracked a smile at this. "His name is Sean, and he's almost as tall as me," He informed, enjoying the look of shock on the other man's face. "Super hot though. Hockey player".

"Really?" Caden asked. "Wow. I saw Lawson on television playing a few months ago, but beyond that I haven't given him much thought".

"Yeah," Jean agreed thoughtfully. "Most people don't. He's kind of underrated". Caden's eyebrows raised, probably thinking that was a strange thing for Jean to say about Lawson, who he had not been fond of. Things had changed since then, though, and Lawson's relationship with Nathan had resulted in him becoming a bigger part in Jean's life as well.

"How mature of you," Caden offered after a pause. "If I recall correctly, you and Lawson never got along well".

"What can I say," Jean acknowledged, shrugging his shoulders. "I've grown".

In response to this, Caden took a sip of his drink, eyes watching Jean above the rim of his glass. Beside him, his coworker shifted, clearly a bit uncomfortable by the fact that she had no input for the current conversation. Sighing, Jean glanced down the bar at the other customers, some of which were getting low on drinks. "Well, I should leave you to it then. I have drinks to fill and glasses to polish and tips to count". He really didn't want to move. For the first time in such a fucking long time, he was happy. Right there.

His happiness was

Right

Fucking

There.

"It... it was nice to see you again," he forced out, eyes dropping to look at Caden's drink. He hoped he ordered another one. He hoped he ordered them until close.

There was a pause that contained a lot of intense eye contact, and then Caden gave a soft, "It was nice to see you too".

Giving the woman one last smile, Jean moved to the other end of the bar, fighting to keep his eyes forward as he refilled drinks and cashed in a few tabs.

It was, of course, impossible to pretend that Caden wasn't there all the time, and he found his eyes moving down the bar to catch short glimpses of the other man, noticing all of the small things that had changed over the years and memorizing them.

It took a long time, because more often than not, when Jean looked, he was distracted to find that Caden was looking right back.

***

"When are you off?" Caden had asked him before leaving, leaning over the bar in order to keep his voice low as his coworker hovered behind him, waiting.

"Three," Jean answered, glancing at the clock on the wall over Caden's shoulder. Two hours. "Are you leaving?"

"Yes," the older man said shortly, moving back from the bar. Not another word was spoken to him, not another glance thrown, as Caden walked out of the door.

He was gone— just like that— walking out of Jeans life as quickly as he had walked back into it. Shaking his head, Jean began to vigorously scrub at the counter as his thoughts took over.

Caden hasn't been around for three years. It's not like he can undo all the healing it took to fix the wound he had left from leaving with five minutes of small talk and a hundred little glances.

But somehow, it seemed that he could, because for the last two hours of his shift, Jean could barely focus, making countless mistakes on even the simplest of drinks. His boss came out thirty minutes before his shift was to end and asked him if he needed to leave early, because something was very clearly wrong, but he hastily denied the request and cleaned up his latest spill.

He couldn't believe he had just let Caden walk away like that. After all they had been though, after all the time apart, it had to mean something that they had met again, in a different state in the middle of the night.

"Miller," his boss interrupted. "Your shift is almost up, so tell me why you've failed to clean the end of the bar".

Immediately, Jean's eyes flicked to the clock- seven minutes left– and then down the bar to where Green and his coworker had been sitting. "Oh," he said softly, moving in that direction, towards his boss. He hadn't been purposely avoiding cleaning there, he just hadn't wanted to return to that corner if Caden wasn't there.

She grabbed the money off of the bar and moved around the end of it to get to the register. "Wow. We usually don't get people to spend this much the weekend after school's out".

Jean, who was collecting the glasses, paused, his eyebrows drawing together in confusion. "They each got one drink".

"Then you my friend have one hell of a tip". Somewhat carelessly, Jean dropped the two glasses in the small stainless steel sink, ignoring the loud clang.

"Can I just-" he pulled the bills from her hands without finishing his question, looking them over carefully.

"What are you-" she cut off, and then laughed. "Looking for a phone number?"

"Maybe," Jean grumbled, because that's exactly what he was looking for. There was no way that Caden had just left. It didn't make sense. There had been something between them three years ago, and it had taken nearly that long for Jean to understand why it wouldn't have worked then, but there was nothing now that was in the way, so why would he just leave.

"You and Mr. Business man really hit it off, huh?"

"He wasn't a Businessman," Jean informed, checking the back for the last bill hand huffing in annoyance. There was nothing. Not even a mark of ink. "He was a professor".

"Oooohhhh," she voiced, scandalized, taking the bills back from him and turning back to the register. "A professor..."

"Not one from here," Jean said quickly, pressing the button on the screen that pulled up Caden's order. "He's just here for a conference".

"Ah". She began typing the amount of cash received. "Long distance then? Why would you want to get yourself into something like that?" There was a pause. "Or are you just looking to get laid".

"No," Jean grumbled, wiping down the counter with his rag. If Caden was going to let this opportunity slip for something as stupid as long distance... "doesn't matter anyway. He didn't leave anything".

"Untrue!" She said, finishing up the transaction and turning towards him. "He left you a fifty dollar tip".

Even though Jean didn't really want the money, he accepted it when she gave it to him, stuffing it into his pocket along with the rest of the tip money from his night. "Why don't you fill out your form for the night and then you can clock out. I can finish the rest of the closing duties on my own," she offered softly, apparently picking up on his sour mood.

"Yeah," he glanced at the clock. It was time for him to leave anyways. "Okay".

He did as she asked, calculating his tips for the night and recording them as he clocked out on the computer in the back. "Get some sleep!" His boss called after him as he left. He acknowledged her with a wave of his hand.

He wasn't going to sleep. It would be impossible after the night he just had. His mind was running wild, trying to figure out why, how, Caden could just leave like that. Maybe what had happened between them during Jean's senior year had meant far less than he thought it did. Maybe Caden had found someone else he was now faithful to. Maybe-

"Hey," a voice interrupted his thoughts, and Jean came to a quick stop on the sidewalk before taking two large steps backward and turning his head. Caden was just looking at him, hands shoved into his pockets as he leaned casually against the building.

"You're still here?"

"Well, I didn't wait, if that's what your asking," Caden responded, pushing himself off of the wall and closing the short distance between them. "I came back".

As Jean processed this information, he allowed his eyes to roam, starting at the man's eyes and trailing down to his feet. He looked good. Fit. Jean wondered if he still played tennis. "You're lucky I didn't take my bosses offer to leave a half hour early".

"Ahh. That I am".

Jean smiled down at his feet. "You know, I thought you'd just left".

"Hmmm," Caden looked thoughtful. "No. I'm not that stupid". Chuckling, Jean raised his head. "Can I walk you home?"

Yes yes yes.

"Shouldn't I walk you? I mean, I live here, so I know my way around. What if you, a ridiculously attractive man, gets lost or abducted in a place like this? How would I ever forgive myself?"

An amused look came over Caden's face then, and Jean breathed a really heavily sigh, because fuck he was still so hot. "Thanks for dialing down the flirting in front of my coworker".

"I wish I could say the same for the eye fucking from you".

"Ahh. Well, you do fill out the uniform well".

Now this was surprising, and Jean couldn't stop himself from grinning. All through highschool, even senior year when Caden had finally showed some kind of interest, he had never said anything to Jean that could be interpreted as flirting. Nothing was stopping him now though.

"Yeah," Jean began, still smiling. "Walk me home".