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Title: "A Call Before the War"
Pairing: Ben Affleck/Matt Damon
Rating: PG-13 (language)
Summary: Ben gets a new job, sort of.
Disclaimer: Never happened.
Notes: Title ripped from the first Dennis Lehane book in the Kenzie/Gennaro series. Touchstone is owned and operated by Disney.


Late March, 2005


"We got it."

"Come again?"

"The Lehane gig. We got it. Just got out of the meeting with the Mouse House and, man, it's...it's ours. They're even letting me direct it, like we talked about."

"Are you serious?"

"Fuckin' right."

"Holy shit, that's... Ben, that's incredible! Holy shit, wait, I just said that. Ben...holy shit, man!!"

"I know, I know, you're the first person I called."

"Before your mother? I won't tell her."

"Better not. Hey, look, we're really gonna need to get cracking on revising this script now if we're gonna make the production time."

"When do they want to start shooting?"

"September."

"September? Jesus..."

"Yeah, I know it's gonna be tight, and, man, I got about a million different things going on in my head right now, and I need to sort them all out. We're gonna have to polish the script, look at locations, get together a cast..."

"Whoa, whoa, slow down. Just...wow. That's a lot of work."

"I'm not feeling the excitement, Matt."

"I'm just thinking about all the stuff I already have lined up. Couldn't they wait 'til spring?"

"Tried that. They're set on fall. 'Sides, think of shooting fall in Boston, man. It'll be great."

"Yeah."

"Again with the not-so-enthused."

"Look, it's just...you're talking scripts and locations and delving into this thing, and I'm fucking swamped right now. Rehearsals are starting for 'The Departed', I've got 'The Good Shepard' coming up, and you're wanting to start shooting in September, man, and it's just --"

"Just...stop."

"Stop?"

"It's alright, you don't want to do it, that's cool."

"C'mon, Ben, stop it. We're production partners. That's not --"

"What? What you meant? Well, fuck that. It doesn't matter."

"It does."

"No, it doesn't. Why don't we just face the facts -- all I've got going for me are my looks. And, in this business, that means an expiration date bigger than Pam Anderson's knockers. And I've reached it, man. I'm over. You're still golden. You're wise to distance yourself. Movie'll probably be crap, I'll ruin Dennis' vision, I won't be able to direct it right, and we all know you wrote 'Good Will Hunting's best parts."

"That's bullshit. You wrote more than your share of great scenes, you're not going to ruin anything, and you're going to direct the hell out of this. And I'm proud of you for doing it. You're far more talented than the crap you've been acting in lately and you know it."

"Do I?"

"You better. 'Sides, you're also insinuating that I'm not known for my looks and I resent that."

"Asshole. You know you're the best-looking man on the planet."

"Except for Brad Pitt."

"Except for Brad.

"And maybe George."

"And possibly Orlando Bloom. Oh, and Johnny Depp."

"Jesus, Ben. Anyone else?"

"I'll think about it."

"Bastard."

"The rumors are true."

"Tell you what, come up for the week, show me what you've got, and maybe we can work on it during my downtime, try to pare it down. And we're gonna both be in L.A. in a couple of weeks, we can work on it there. And we can look for locations while I'm in Boston."

"I don't want to take from your --"

"Ben. What'd I just say?"

"Yeah, yeah, alright. Thanks. You know I'm lost without you."

"Yeah, I do. And you know it goes both ways."

"Yeah, I do. See you Friday?"

"It's a date."


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