The Journey

A/N Okay so this one has not been fully edited yet but I wanted to go ahead and get it published for several different reasons. I know y'all have been waiting for updates on "How It Happened" and "Surprises" and they will both be updated within the next couple of days. Hope y'all enjoy reading this as much as I loved writing it. It's all about what I really believe happened between our two love birds.

August 11, 2015

This was it, the last day of the Dancing with the Stars Live Tour. Next week she would be making her Broadway debut in "Chicago the Musical" in New York City. This was a dream come true and she was so excited for it, but she was also a little sad. She'd had so much fun doing Dancing with the Stars and now being on the tour. She's so incredibly grateful for the entire experience. She'd learned so much, not just from Val, but from almost all of the pros over the course of the last six months and she knew that she owed a huge part of her getting the role in "Chicago" to all that they had taught her and the new confidence that she had in herself as a result of doing the show.

She had become friends with everyone on the tour and she had loved every minute of it and it was going to be bittersweet to have it end. Especially since she knew that she wouldn't see most of them until she returned to Los Angeles after she finished "Chicago" in mid-October. She knew that they would stay in touch through social media, text, and telephone calls but it wouldn't be the same as being with them almost 24/7 the way she had been on tour, especially Emma, Witney, Brittany, and Sasha, as they had spent a lot of their days together.  And certainly she was going to miss Peta and Keo and little Ava too.

She really was going to miss everyone. But the person she was going to miss the most was Val. Everyone on the bus knew, as did their closest family and friends, but the rest of the world only suspected the truth. She and Val were dating and they had been since right after the show ended. Rue started thinking about how it had all happened. It seemed like yesterday and yet it seemed like a lifetime ago.

**Flashbacks**

They had known during the show that there was something between them, but they knew they couldn't do anything about it. Val had said time and time again that if you messed with the sexual tension and chemistry that it would ruin the connection. She'd taken his word for it, after all she had never slept with anyone that she was acting, singing, or dancing with so she didn't have the experience to be able to dispute his claim. She wanted to win, she wanted it more than anything, so they had made the decision not to even talk about their feelings until after the show ended. They both wanted to win bad enough that they were somehow able to push the feelings to the side and not focus on them.

But then they had won and suddenly they were on a flight to New York City and a multitude of interviews and appearances on GMA, The View, The Chew and more. But finally they had returned to Los Angeles on Friday afternoon. They had purchased their plane tickets together and purposefully flown back to Los Angeles the same way they had spent the entire journey, side by side. They'd hugged at the airport, not for any particular reason other than that it seemed like they had always been reaching for each other. More times than she could count during practices Val had always been reaching for her hand, even when he didn't need to or just little touches here and there. And she'd done her share of reaching too. It was the only thing that they would allow themselves.

They had parted ways for the weekend, each wanting to visit friends and family and get at least a little rest before the following week when they would be diving back into rehearsals for both the Dancing with the Stars Live Tour and SWAY. He'd called her over the weekend and asked if she wanted to hang out on Tuesday and she had said yes. She'd picked him up and they'd gone to Beverly Hills. They'd done a little window shopping and she'd even bought something at Cartier. They'd sat outside on the patio at the restaurant and simply enjoyed each others company. They'd talked and laughed and not for the first time she realized how happy and light she felt just sitting there listening to Val talk and just taking him in. He really did make her feel things that she had never felt in her entire life. She'd dated of course, was even with Jayson for over a year, but nothing compared to the way Val made her feel. She felt a certain peace when she was with him, hell not even with him, she felt that way every time she thought about him. He had brought to life pieces of her that she never knew existed. He'd believed in her in a way no one else, not even her family, ever had. She'd been incredibly hard on herself during the show, especially in the beginning. She wanted to be perfect. But he praised her and supported her every step of the way.