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 Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:14 pm
Chel pushed the bag of chips on him. "Eat." One of them had to.
She listened and let him ramble on, wondering if he realized just how closely Peyton's story paralleled her own. She said nothing on the similarities, letting Jack finish, wondering what she had done to prevent the beanstalk from hating her. Possibly he did.
"And why do you hate her?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:38 pm
"Short story? Because she's a piece've s**t." He opened the bag with a little difficulty and nibbled on a chip for her sake, but he didn't taste it. "A ********' piece've s**t."
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 2:48 pm
Chel cracked a smile because Jack would never, ever change.
Now that her job as nurse was done, she put her head down on the bed, trying to find a comfortable position between her skin and metallic bracelet. Her eyes closed, content to lay there for a little bit, because actually she was completely exhausted. It just hadn't occurred to her how tired she was until the adrenaline ebbed away.
"Eat the whole bag," she insisted. Her head bumped against his leg but she was too tired to care. "Any chance I get the long story?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:12 pm
He stared at the wall and willed himself to gain laser vision. Rather petulantly, he grabbed another chip, twisted the bag closed, and dropped it on the nightstand. "Mm. Not if you're that tired," Jack replied, turning his head to glance down at her as he pressed the chip to his lips. "You should get some sleep."
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:23 pm
"M'awake. Really." Just because her eyes were closed didn't mean she was drifting off to sleep any time soon. "C'mon, your boring voice will put me to sleep anyways." She grinned at her own joke.
"Heard that," she said, referring to the chips. "Eat."
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 3:58 pm
" You eat," he retorted mulishly before crunching down on the chip. He could taste sour cream and onion this time and surreptitiously licked his fingers of crumbs. "It's not even a real story anyway. We're just two people who can't stand each other, butting heads until it draws blood. One day, that just wasn't enough." He shifted the ice pack to his other hand, leaned his jaw into it, and went back to considering the wall for a long time. "You weren't there I believe, but there was a mission months ago in the Sahara. Giant worm with parasite goo. Caelius had us bombed and burned alive to get it out of our system. ******** worst, burns. "Creedy didn't get quarantined, so she went around visiting everyone trying to help or some s**t. I was one of the stops. Kept talking about how she still felt like she cared what happened to me 'cause've what happened in a different timelines, kept trying to figure me out." A humorless cough of a laugh left him. "Stupid b***h. I was stuck there, though, listening to her prattle on and on like she thought she could get ahold've me. Eventually, I just snapped. Lunged out've my cot and tried to strangle her. Couldn't have worked obviously, but it felt good. I got a tech called on her before it got too violent." He remembered the feeling of his flaking red skin breaking apart like thin plastic, the blood, the pain, her soft touches that sent infernos up his arm, and found himself tensing.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 4:15 pm
"You want vomit on your sheets?" she questioned.
But as Jack leaned into his story, so too did she give up the fight on the chips. "Remember the burns," she interjected between the story.
The more Jack talked the more upset her stomach felt. That could have been her. She could have been strangled. He could have killed her a thousand times over.
So why didn't he just do it already? The agony came in waiting.
Worse yet was that she wanted to support Jack in his hatred of Peyton, but she really couldn't find the heart to do it. It sounded like Peyton had really done nothing wrong except try to be a friend, same as her. In fact, she respected Peyton a little more for it. It was nice to find solidarity in a strange place. She wondered where things had gone so wrong. "Seems like it happens a lot," she said airily, as though it was an old joke shared by friends. Whilst saying it she patted him on the leg, as if to solidify her point. She felt Jack's body seize up and said, "Shh don't lose yourself now." There was a short pause before she said, "Unless you want to." She would never be able to control Jack anyways- best let him do what he wanted if that was what he needed to do. There was a very noncomittal shrug that came from the girl with her face buried in blankets.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 4:45 pm
There it was again: the casual joke. The hand not holding the ice pack became a fist in his lap, but his irritation was pointless. He was a declawed cat at the moment: he could puff up his fur and glare, but ultimately the only thing left to him was his bite, and he was too drained to bother. His fist unclenched as she patted his leg, and the tension went to his shoulders instead. "Yeah, a few other times," Jack muttered to the wall. "The night all the non-runic glass broke. Gentry. The desert. The last fight. Stuff before Deus. Maybe even your cousin a little." Over a year now and he hadn't changed: still a trainee, still a dipshit, still so weak. His only hopes now were his projects, and even those he began to doubt in his moment of brooding. "Haven't lost myself," he said quietly. "S'the opposite. This is who I've always been."
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 5:05 pm
There was a lot of s**t she didn't know about, judging by his list. But to Chel, that just meant more to learn about. "Yeah but you're also the guy who carried my a** to the infirmary. Ya fixed Shiloh and Ian from what I heard. Abbi likes ya and I don't think that angel could like a truly mean soul. Ya deal with Finn and I think you're happy for him n' Riptide. Dealing with Finn is like a whole nobel prize in itself" Chel's voice was wheezing lightly, but not too strained to function. Just overexertion. "You're a lot of guys. They're all okay."
She waits a moment or two for Jack to push her off the bed, or maybe even to attack her again. "I'm here for all of it if you need me." Now she's unsure if she's speaking to Jack or two herself. "So smash a plate against my head 'er put me in restraints. I don't care anymore." The words are swollen and drawn out, a tiredness in her voice finally giving way to her real thoughts. Chel's long since lost her point. "I'll be here for whoever you wanna be." She coughs a few times into her arm, careful not to get anything on Jack's bed, and then resumes face first in his sheets. She doesn't dare look at him. She was too afraid to find out what she might see.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 5:22 pm
He didn't move at all. He was an old banana of a young man still wishing he could bore holes into the wall with his eyes alone instead of being faced with something like himself. It struck him that this was the most meaningful conversation they'd had to date, and yet they weren't even looking at each other. It probably spoke volumes about their relationship. He set the ice pack off to the side now that it was mostly melted. A warm thumb traced the cold spot where the cables had bit into his skin. He wondered if Chel still felt her restraints even without the monitoring device. Again, he didn't say anything for a long while. Then: "That's the problem with you, Craft. You need to start caring about yourself."
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 5:38 pm
"Then you gotta do the same," she turned her head enough to look at his elbows- that was a start. "Gotta see yourself the way I see you." Up from the elbows to his chest, settling on the banana bruise. "Ugly blonde hair 'n all." Finally she came up to his nose and a light smile graced her lips. Chel was slowly learning how to smile again. She was fortunate enough that it had always been pretty natural to her.
Her bracelet beeped, as it did every once in a while and she jumped, eyes squeezing shut again. Her entire body shivered momentarily, her hands pulling at the bedsheets in an involuntary crunch of her body. She was thankful for the subject change. "Hate when it does that. S'like they know when I'm tryin' to sleep." Her tone and facial expression was miserable, but she's still trying to play it off as jokes. She stuck her arm under his leg, just to silence it.
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:14 pm
The scoff was an automatic reflex, but he considered her words. "I always care about myself," Jack said after a moment, some of the old sass returning. "This was just a momentary break from it. And my hair's ******** great, thanks."
In a way, he needed the sense beaten back into him. Whether that was all that was beaten into him, though, he wasn't sure. It was still a little too easy for him to fall into revenge fantasies.
The sudden jump startled him enough to turn and look at her, making a face as she stuck her hand under his leg. "Is it intermittent or...?"
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:29 pm
"What's intermittent mean?" she asked.
The beeping finally ceases, giving the room pardon from its incessant whining. "God finally."
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:36 pm
"Irregular, no real pattern." He allowed himself a little smirk. "Like your logic."
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Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2014 6:46 pm
"One, rude. Two, I guess so. I think there's probably some sort of schedule to it but I'm not exactly watchin' the clock."
She pulled the hand out from under Jack's legs, sitting up more straight since the beeping had now jarred her into a more alert position. Examining the bracelet provided, as always, no results. It was cryptic as ever.
Before Jack could protest, Chel clambered over Jack's legs (careful not to actually put weight on them- she wasn't stupid) and took the other side of the bed to herself. "Shut up." Though she doesn't think so, she does have psychic powers of her own: the ability to predict when Jack was going to screech at her. "Or I'll rip your bandaids off and tear you a new one." She was curled next to him with her back to him, curled in a ball the same way she'd been the morning after they'd slept together- although now she was very distinctly marred and pink once more. Chel really did just want to sleep.
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