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 Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 3:09 pm
Chel made a displeased noise and cut the kiss short, but not because she disliked it but because she had the spirit to rebel. No ideal picket fences, no knick knacks in their kitchen. A hole in the window.
His smile was good. It felt so long since she'd seen it.
"Naw, wouldn't fit me. Built for your bigass head," she murmured. It still bothered her. "If I forget again, make me remember," she instructed him. "I don't want to be alone. I don't want you to be alone." There were a lot of things she didn't want. Like she wished she didn't have to be the one at blame when the man who had sliced her neck in half was still walking free and exonerated for it.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 3:52 pm
"Mm." He bumped his forehead to hers. "I tried," Jack said. "You're very stubborn, memory loss or not. But I promise you won't get rid of me either." Even if it was frustrating as hell to keep getting this kind of stuff tossed at them. "At the very least we got more practice with sign language."
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:02 pm
Every day she worried that he'd begin to regret that tenacity. He should have.
She took a deep breath, glancing at the clock. They had a few more hours until duties. Good. She didn't want to begin the rounds of apologies, saying sorry until her lips went numb.
"Couldn't f'I wanted to anyways. Even f'you hated me ... unless you didn't want-" She buried herself further in him. Her home, her memories. Every time she'd buried herself in him before. "Didn't want me."
She was mumbling now, and a small fist formed to knock him in the shoulder. "I'll try not to ******** up." A promise she hoped would mean enough to him. I'll try not to be me for you.
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:52 pm
"Hey." He drew several circles into her back before knocking. Always. Yes. Eternity. "Birthday boy doesn't want to hear that."
Jack held her tighter for a moment before signing into the back of her shirt. "You wanna go to the house now? Am I getting another surprise?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 6:56 pm
"Birthday boy's birthday was a month ago," she murmured, knocking his hand away to take it in her own. Agreed.
She shook her head. "Nah," she kissed his knuckles thoughtfully. "Just wanted to show you how it's comin'. You ain't been there in a while."
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 7:14 pm
Sometimes he honestly forgot he had a house coming; work had a way of making him too engrossed. "I'll focus on that now," he said, tapping the top of her hand. "Not fair to make you do all the work. What's left?"
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Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2015 7:30 pm
"Later," she said tiredly, an inside joke and the truth. It sometimes drove her up the wall how quickly Jack's mind moved, how ready he was to plunge into the next job, the next task. Envious she was too, since if she had even an ounce of that behavior, she might not have been in the position she was now.
Let them be at peace, let them rest. Even Tenebrae was silent in the quiet. There was a silent adoration in her tone; one that now treasured what had been lost. "I got to catch up some."
---
But the hours did pass and the day went on. She left him feeling better at least, feeling whole again. There was a scary duality to being one half of a whole. Part of it was wonderful, was feeling secure and alive in another. The other part was feeling incomplete and empty, dysfunctional when apart.
There she sat on the steps of the house (which looking surprisingly well mended; still broken and eerie, but sturdier somehow. No doubt it was thanks to Dawson and Chris' excellent fortification). There was even a small, ambient layer of FEAR around the house that was projected from a domestic runic barrier.
When he did show up, she gave him a wave and stood up, prepared to greet him and show the progress.
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 8:36 am
For once, it was easier to get through his shift at work. Time seemed to slip past him faster than it had in weeks: probably due to that reunion high. God, but he was a sensitive b*****d.
He took in the house as he drew near, appreciative of the fact that it still looked like it could be haunted despite the repairs. Jack almost wanted to take his flashlight out like the good old days and wait until nightfall to investigate.
Warm mug in hand, he waved back and said, "Looking good. The house also isn't half bad."
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 11:02 am
For the record, Chel would have advised against waiting until nightfall, because there were a shitton of shadows when night fell. No thank you.
When he got close enough to touch she leaned forward for a short kiss and turned back to the door. It was such a small motion that she barely noticed, but it was the small gestures that made Chel who she was.
"C'mon I'll show you the inside," she said with a grin at his flirtation, taking his hand and leading him towards the door. Once the door was open and they were through she held onto the hand and gestured to the inside.
It was, for the most part, barren. That was the point though. All of the old debris had been moved, outlets had been outfitted with proper electricity and plastic covers, light fixtures outfitted with lightbulbs, chipping wallpaper replaced.
"This was actually s'posed t'be your birthday present," she told him, having half-lied earlier about "only wanting to show progress." It was the truth if "progress" was "the entire thing is done." "Lifted most our spare stuff over here already." Also not true; Chel had paid other people to help with the lifting, but the small furniture was there- things like side tables from Peyton, the spare couch she'd picked up at a flea market. It wasn't a liveable house by any means, but looked like the type you moved all your boxes into- finished.
She watched his reaction (if there even was one) carefully. "All that's left is like the bed and clothes and s**t."
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 12:44 am
It was the little things he had missed. Funnily, it was a little like falling back in love after a month without—or maybe more aptly, like trying to go sober and then falling off the wagon. (Throwing himself off willingly.)
It certainly felt a little surreal standing in the house now. Just as Chel couldn't wholly process marriage when it was right in her face, Jack mentally stumbled when he realized that moving in was actually happening now. This house was going to be a reality, and soon ("later") the rest of the plan would fall back into place. He'd been afraid to hope after her memory loss; it was easier to weather suffering than to be optimistic. And now there he was, hand in hand with his future fiancé, in what would eventually be the living room.
Jack gave a breathy chuckle after a few moments of this contemplation. "You ever imagine back then that you'd get to be this domestic?" he asked. "House and husband and all?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 1:09 pm
Chel had admittedly been hoping for something a bit more dramatic; something along the lines of dropping his coffee cup in astonishment at her amazing job. Of course that wouldn't have been very Jack and neither would it have been very Chel.
"S'not really that domestic," she argued, not wanting to associate with that word in the first place. "S'just movin' all our s**t from a tiny box to a bigger box." As for the husband part, she gave him a toothy grin. "And I don't have a husband. I got a boyfriend who can't find his balls." But she knocked into his side with her head anyways; as long as he remained with her she would never care what they were called.
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 2:50 pm
"I keep finding them in your mouth," he said quite seriously. "It's almost an issue."
He snorted as he drank more coffee. "S'for me, I've got a hell of an amazing girlfriend," he replied with a small grin, winding his arm around her waist. "Emphasis on hell. I'll take care of what's left for the house, it's the least I could do." He owed Chel more than that anyway, and he had to find a way to balance the debt.
Pressing a kiss to her, he squeezed her close. "How about we move in before Thanksgiving? Could host a small party here."
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 3:02 pm
Chel looked at Jack, bewildered. Had he really not noticed? The normally hawkeyed Jack ...
"Buddy, we can move in by tomorrow f'we take the day off. Hell we could move the bed and stay here tonight." All that was left was packing the bathroom, the kitchen and their clothing. There was the matter of Jack's room too, but nothing in Jack's room was essential to their living in the house and could be transferred at leisure. They all but lived in Chel's room after all.
(Except of course Barbara, she was sure he would argue).
"I tol' you it was a birthday present. Wouldn't give you a half-finished present."
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 9:46 pm
He seemed confused by that and blinked hard. Could they really? ********, he was really tired...Down went a third of the mug of coffee.
"I'm absolutely down for staying in if the heater's working," he said. "We could take the tv too, make it a movie night."
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Posted: Sun Nov 22, 2015 9:47 pm
"We did movie night for your birthday," she told him, poking his side. "You can't think of anythin' else you'd like to do?"
Emphasis on do.
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