By Cherilyn W. Gerard

June 27, 2001

Thanks to my homie, Jamie (Moochrette, Miss Moochrie) for this awesome, kick-butt award!!!

Disclaimer: I do not know Ryan Stiles, Drew Carey or any other cast member personally. I have never met any of them. This story is purely fictional. The Drew Carey Show and the characters contained belong to Warner Brothers & AOL Time Warner/ Mohawk Productions. Cher/Jennifer Nakamoto is a character that I have created. I have used the characters/settings (i.e.: The Warsaw) from the Drew Carey Show (without permission) to write my first fan fiction. If you have any problems or would like to use her in one of your stories, please email me first @ tweety@hi.net. Mahalo Nui Loa. Thank You Very Much. The Fiction Starts Now…

Author’s Note: This story takes place on our planet. Yet, In this story, Ryan Stiles is 35 years old. He has never been married and has no children. Sometime in the middle of the story, Ryan gets into character. Please know that when I say "Lewis" I mean Ryan in character. ;-) That goes for the rest of the cast when I use their character names.

Scene: The Drew Carey Show Studio Parking Lot. The parking lot was only half full because the cast and crew were still arriving. It was an early autumn morning. This would be the first day after Summer Vacation that they would be taping new episodes for the upcoming season.

Ryan Stiles drove up to the Drew Carey Show Studio parking lot in his brand new teal Chevy Tahoe. It was 9:30 A.M. He had been driving for at least twenty minutes from his home in Sherman Oaks, a suburb of Los Angeles, California. Although Ryan had picked up some coffee from the nearby Starbucks, he was still quite drowsy from yet another sleepless night. He had tossed and turned three nights in a row on his king-sized bed.

The strange thing was that Ryan could not figure out what was keeping him awake. He had family, friends, and a stable career…what else could he ask for?

Ryan put his script and coffee on top of the car. He grabbed his coffee with one hand and shut the door with the other. Beep Beep, Click. The car door was locked and the car alarm had been turned on successfully. Ryan loved his new car and did not want to risk losing it.

With his coffee and script in hand, Ryan treaded towards the studio, his third home. Of course, his second home would always be the Whose Line Is It Anyway? Studio. He loved his friends and he loved his career. He was fortunate to find a job, which he enjoyed, and that he was excellent at.

Looking straight ahead, Ryan ran his free hand through his soft golden locks and continued to walk toward the studio’s doors. He had missed the studio during the long summer break, but he had other things to keep him occupied. A slightly plump man with a fifties style crew cut popped out of nowhere, scaring Ryan half to death.

Ryan jumped and nearly spilled his coffee. He then realized who it was. It was his old pal, Drew Carey. "Sorry to scare you, buddy!" Drew let out a chuckle. "It’s good to see you." They embraced.

"Yeah," Ryan agreed as he let go of his friend. "I haven’t seen you since the Seattle Improv Festival After-party!"

"That was a great night…We all got drunk and had major hangovers in the morning, remember?"

"Oh, don’t remind me." Ryan put his hand to his forehead and shook his head.

Drew laughed sheepishly. "Oh okay then. Anyway, I came over to tell you that my agent called last week. Some crazy fan of mine wanted to make an official web page for me. And, it’s up to me for the final answer." "Best of all," Drew gloated, "She lives, in Cleveland, close to my house!"

"Oh really?" Ryan lifted an eyebrow in thought. "What’s her name?"

"Her name is…uh…Gail. That’s it." Drew smiled.

"Hmmm…sounds familiar. I might have met her once or twice. But, I have so many adoring fans that it’s hard to keep track." Ryan joked. Drew playfully shoved his friend making sure to keep an eye on the half-full coffee container in Ryan’s hand.

"Come on Drew, let’s get inside." Ryan finally said after five minutes of playful bickering.

"Yeah. Another day of torment…" Drew exclaimed as he and Ryan walked into the studio lobby. "When will it end, when will it end?" He extended both his arms up in the air and let out a hearty belly laugh, "What am I saying? I love my job!" Ryan couldn’t help but start laughing. After all, laughter is contagious.

They approached the Briefing Room. This was the room where the writers met with the actors and actresses to go over the script and put any finishing touches on it before the table readings started.

Softly, Ryan mumbled, "Ugh! I wish I could be back in Washington right now. I could fish awhile, relax by the lake, catch up with relatives…" He smiled at the thought. He did love his job, but enjoyed being with his family more than coming to work. Ryan opened the wooden door and plopped down in his usual seat next to Diedrich Bader (Ozwald Lee Harvey) and another close friend, Christa Miller (Kate O’Brien).

"Hey Ryan! How was your summer? Are you ready to begin another season of the Drew Carey Show, Lewis?" Christa joked. She pushed a lock of milk chocolate colored hair behind her left ear.

"I wish I was Kate." Ryan said sleepily. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.

Before Christa could reply, she heard another voice. "Lewis, you okay? You don’t look like your usual disturbing self." Kathy Kinney (Mimi Carey) said from across the round black table. Ryan hadn’t even noticed her arrival.

"Shove it, Mimi. I’m fine." Ryan muttered.

"That’s the Lewis I know and hate." Kathy said in character.

**10:02 A.M.; Briefing Room. --Drew stood behind a podium at the front of the room and began to speak.**

"Ahem." Drew cleared his throat, "May I have your attention please?" Drew shouted amidst the conversations between the other cast and crewmembers. "Welcome to yet another season of The Drew Carey Show!" Everyone in the room clapped and cheered.

"Alright," He went on, "Today, we’re going to do the usuals. Table readings, a practice run, and then a mid-afternoon shoot. Sounds good? If not, too bad. Also, today, as most of you may already know, the writers and I have cooked up a special surprise for Mr. Kiniski." Everyone smiled at Ryan. "This surprise is going to be completely improvised."

This caught Ryan’s attention. "Completely improvised?"

"Yes, Ryan, completely improvised. Don’t worry, we’ll break right after that part is taped and you’ll receive the rest of your script. As for the rest of you, don’t show or tell him about the surprise in store for him, alright? He’ll know soon enough." Drew paused to wink at Ryan. "Let’s get to work."

Ryan, almost too weak to get out of his chair, stood up and walked to the coffee machine. The studio’s coffee was neither as tasty nor as strong as Starbucks’ but it would have to do. After all, coffee is coffee. A second later, Ryan was back in his chair sipping hot coffee and reading his parts of the script aloud at the appropriate time with the rest of his fellow cast members.

**4:09 P.M.; The Taping – In character, Ryan, Christa, and Drew sat around their favorite Warsaw table. Ryan sat closest to the Jukebox.**

"But," Lewis protested, "At least your pee doesn’t glow in the dark like mine, Drew." Ryan was so great at acting, often times he even shocked himself.

Drew grinned. "Cool."

"It was one of our experiments at Drug Co.," Lewis said with a smile.

"Thanks for sharing, Lewis!" Kate said in disgust. "I’ll go find Ozwald." She stood up and walked out the door.

"Lewis, buddy, what’s been troubling you lately? Tell Doctor Drew." Drew patted Lewis’ shoulder.

"Doctor Drew? Like that could ever be true! But seriously, I’ve been feeling down lately. I always feel lonely." Lewis’ eyes saddened. "I know I have you guys, but I think I need something more."

"I know just the thing to cheer you up!" Drew said.

"Drew…" Lewis warned. It was improv time for Ryan, his script ended here. "Remember the time when we were at my house, we were eleven or so, and you let my neighbor’s vicious pitbull run loose? He literally trashed my house, man."

"Oh, shush," said Drew. "Close your eyes, it’ll be a great surprise, I promise."

"Alright…" Ryan wondered what could be in store for Lewis. Maybe it would cheer them both up. He covered his emerald green eyes with his large hands.

Drew quietly motioned for a lady to come through the door. The audience clapped and whistled. She was three years younger than Ryan, 5’7’’, Asian, and clearly physically fit. The flared dark denim jeans she was wearing complemented her bright pink spaghetti strap tank top and snow white sketchers shoes. She seemed slightly shy and was hesitant to approach Lewis. After a few moments, she came over and gave Drew a big hug. "I wonder if he remembers me," She whispered to Drew. Drew shrugged and gave her an encouraging smile.

"Okay Lewis, you can open your eyes now." The woman said while trying to remain calm.

"Finally!" Ryan gasped. He was surprised to hear a woman’s voice other than Kate’s. It was a woman he had never had the pleasure of laying eyes on. His face quickly shifted to a puzzled look. Ryan needed to stay in character. It was hard because she was so gorgeous. Drop Dead Gorgeous…Ryan wondered why the writers had sketched her in and not told him. He stood up and offered her his chair.

"Lewis, this is Jennifer Nakamoto." Drew said. Ryan shook her hand. He wanted to know more about her so he looked to Drew for more information.

Drew went on. "You two were high school sweet hearts, remember?" Lewis nodded. "But, uh, you two had broken up by the time graduation had taken place. You never told me why…Well, you two need to catch up, so I’ll leave you guys alone." Drew walked out the door.

Lewis’ puzzled look returned, so Jennifer said, "Lewis, I’m surprised you don’t remember me!"

"No, No, I do. I was just..trying to figure out why we broke up!" Lewis took the seat next to her. "And, I didn’t expect to see you back in Cleveland."

"You look great, Lewis." Jennifer said, trying to change the subject.

"Why did we break up, Jen-Jen?" Lewis said, "Oh yeah, you dumped me."

"Oh Lewis, I’m sorry." Tears welled up in her eyes. "I just thought it would be the best for the both of us. I wanted to move to Cali to go to college and then spend sometime with my parents in Hawaii. You wanted to stay here in Cleveland. Long distance relationships never work out, you know."

Lewis gently wiped a tear from her eye with his thumb. "Jen, you don’t know how many…" He said sadly.

Jen took his hand and placed it in hers. "Sleepless nights you’ve spent crying over me." After all these years, she still knew how to complete Lewis’ sentences perfectly. They paused and froze in place.

The audience applauded. "And….CUT!!!" The director exclaimed, "Ryan, Cher…that was outstanding improv that you guys just did. I knew you would be able to handle it."

"Thanks," Cher smiled shyly, "It was my first time."

"Your first time? I don’t think the audience would have guessed it. Ryan watch out, you’ve got some serious competition!" The director joked and then announced, "Everyone, the writers want to go over the next part of the script with all of you. Lets meet back at the Briefing Room in ten minutes." Then he went over to talk to Drew.

Cher started to walk towards her dressing room when she heard someone call her name. It was Ryan. She turned around to face him.

"The director was right, that was some great acting you did out there." Ryan said genuinely.

"Thanks. You were great as always." Cher replied, her already rosy cheeks turned a brighter shade of pink.

"Hi, I’m Ryan." Ryan stuck out his right hand, and Cher shook his hand.

"I know. And, I’m Cher. Cherilyn, actually. I guess we’ll be working together, huh?" She was quite nervous talking to her favorite actor.

Ryan could hardly speak as well, his tongue had suddenly twisted into thousands of knots. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Ry. Oh, I’m sorry, I can call you that right?" Cher asked.

"Yeah, of course."

Cher asked worriedly, "Ryan, what’s the matter? Something’s terribly wrong. I can see it in your eyes." She carefully touched his arm. Cher was going to touch his shoulder but he was just too tall. Ryan remained quiet. "Aww, come on. You can tell me, we practically know each other. Well, at least you practically know me, I’ve been writing to you for years! Oh okay, I have to freshen up, you can tell me later." She started to walk away.

"You’re Cher? Cherilyn Matthews?" Ryan finally said.

"Yeah, that’s me." Cher did not turn around. She kept walking forward, hoping that Ryan would follow her.

"Wow." Ryan caught up to her. "I didn’t realize that you’d be so…"

"That I’d be so…what?"

"Beautiful." He stammered and blushed.

Cher stopped at the guest dressing room door. Ryan held open the door for her and they walked inside. "Thanks. I’m, I’m trying to stay calm through all of this, you know, this being the first time we’ve spoken face to face."

"So, uh…what are you going to do tonight?"

"Well, I’m going back to the hotel and relax. We’ve got a hard day of filming ahead of us, tomorrow." Cher said somewhat playfully. Then she went on to say, "You know, it was really hard for me to keep my self control on the set this afternoon. I didn’t know whether to scream or faint."

"Do you want to go to dinner?" Ryan asked out of the blue, hoping for a positive response. He wanted to know more about her.

"Sure." Cher could not believe it. Ryan Stiles was asking her to go out to dinner?!

"How about 8:30? Sounds good?" Cher nodded, wrote the necessary information on a napkin and handed it to Ryan – who wrote his number on another napkin.

He stuck the napkin in his pocket, and as he walked out the door he said, "It was really nice to meet you, Cher."

Just breathe, Cher. Breathe deeply. She thought. Four minutes later, it was time to head to the Briefing Room.

As Ryan walked down the hall to his dressing room, he realized why he wasn’t able to sleep soundly the past few nights. Like Lewis, Ryan was lonely..and might have finally found his girl.

Please stick around and read Part 2...