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Her phone buzzed, which in itself was normal enough. It was the main form of communication on the island after all. As she pulled it from her pocket, that little part of her that hoped was busy hoping, and all the practical parts of her were busy telling the hoping part not to. It would be an order, or someone requesting a report or some other silly thing. There was nothing to hope for.

Freezing was the only way to describe what happened to Sherry when she did see who the text was from. She must have read it three times before it even made sense to her. It was Jake, and he needed to talk to her. Sherry stood in the laundry room and stared at that message. The practical parts of her wasted no time trying to squash the hope-filled part under a ton of doubt and memory.



Her response was quick. s**t. What could he want to talk about? Did he want the necklace back? Or maybe he did want to be friends. She'd never said they couldn't be. She...she could try that. Maybe. If he wanted to. Or maybe he was going to tell her he never wanted to see her again. No, that's silly.

She tried not to hope, she almost didn't dare to. That little bit of her that never stopped hoping was still doing it though. Still hoping.

Sherry sighed as she set the phone down and forced herself to start folding her laundry again. She would just have to wait and see what he said.

She watched that phone. Another silly thing to do since it wasn't going to run away or anything, but still she watched it. Her laundry was almost forgotten about. Seriously. What could he want to talk about?

She probably should have told him no or something. Right? A rumble from Armagnac seemed to agree with that. What if he did want to be friends? She'd almost convinced herself that was possible, but what if it wasn't? Then she'd just continue being sad, secret-crush Sherry. Even if it wasn't a secret. Nobody wanted that. She didn't, and she knew he didn't. He'd said it was impossible. It was. She knew it.

Which meant he either wanted to tell her off again, wanted his gift back, or needed something. What was she getting so flustered over? It was probably work related. Yeah. Of course it was. He probably needed a lifer, or needed some bandages, or just... something. Research help maybe?

She jumped when the phone buzzed.

It's better if I tell you in person

What? If she hadn't been visibly flustered before, she was now. What did that mean? That could be anything. It could mean a string of apologies, it could mean he found out he was terminally ill, it could mean he wanted to discuss things.... No. She knew better than that. He certainly couldn't want to be angry at her, she'd made a point of avoiding him (which hadn't been too hard, considering he'd been in the infirmary for a while), but... She sighed just as the phone buzzed again.

What the hell did soon mean? Now? Tomorrow? He was being vague and it was only serving to make her more confused.



No sooner had she sent her question than a new message arrived:

Bed someplace quiet.

"Excuse me?" It might have been amusing if it didn't both confuse her and make her turn red. The next text didn't make it any better. Was he teasing her? Propositioning her? Trying to confuse her? (That one was certainly working.) Or did he just not know--

OH. OKAY. That made sense, he didn't know how to text properly. Too bad she was already rather red. Which she really shouldn't be. He hated her, they hadn't spoken in ages, and he'd only mentioned talking in person and beds. She could kick herself for letting it fluster her. Seriously. What was wrong with her?

Armagnac didn't seem pleased by it, either.

Sherry was now debating the whole thing. She did want to talk to him, but her reasons were different from his and-- Wait. Why someplace quiet? What--

The last text did not answer her question at all.

She spent several moments looking at her phone. Talking, personal, in person, someplace quiet... He hadn't even spoken to her yet and she'd been flustered, and she really shouldn't have been. This was clearly a bad idea. She was probably going to cry again.

But. What if he did need her help with something? She couldn't just leave him out in the cold, if that were the case. They...they should at least be able to have a functioning work relationship, anyway. Right?



She closed the phone, pocketed it, shoved the rest of her laundry in the basket and made straight for her room. Neutral ground might have been a better choice, but if...If he was going to try and be angry at her, he could at least do in her room. That way she could kick him out.

Sherry was in her room, thoroughly glad she didn't have a bunch of stuff to clean up. It shouldn't have mattered, but it did. She'd put her basket of half folded laundry in her wardrobe, and straighten her bed covers, tossing the extra pillows against the wall as usual. Aside from the desk and the chair, there still wasn't much else in the room. It might have been messier...but she'd been spending a lot of time in there over the past week, and well, things had been picked up. She didn't own a ton of stuff anyway.

She almost regretted saying ten minutes. It was a very long time to wait. Five would have been better, but she'd wanted to make certain she'd be back in time. Perhaps she also needed a few minutes to breathe.

Those extra few minutes were a terrible idea. All it did was let her think. There were a million things he could want to talk about, and the only ones that seemed plausible were either work related, or were going to hurt, at least a little. I can handle it, she told herself. She had to. This was all kind of her fault... and wasn't she just sitting her blowing everything out of proportion? Yes. Yes she was.

It was work related. It had to be. He wouldn't hunt her down to say mean things. He wasn't that mean. She also knew he didn't want to be friends. Which left work. She could handle work.

She also kind of hoped he wouldn't show. He hadn't texted her back... maybe he didn't need her.

At least he only had to knock the one time before the door opened. He hadn't had to wait more than a moment, either. She'd kind of been waiting for the knock.

Opening the door, she glanced at him for a moment before opening it wider and stepping aside, inviting him in. Part of her wanted to tell him to leave; she didn't know if she could handle any more heartache. She wasn't one to take things back though, and she'd agreed to hear him out. Her expression was as blank as she could make it, though she was pretty sure she looked nervous.

She waved at the chair in the room, offering it to him. He couldn't have shown up dressed any more casually. Heck, if she didn't know better she'd say he was wearing his pajamas. She'd seen him sleep in clothes like that before. Maybe he was here to mock her.

Her hand went to her scarf as she stepped closer to her bed, leaving him to close the door. If he took a seat, she'd follow suit. Fingers fidgeted with her scarf, making sure the pendant underneath was hidden. Shoot, she'd forgotten to take that off. She also wished she'd put on her coat, and maybe her boots. She was fully dressed otherwise, but she still felt vaguely exposed. Damn him and his pajamas.

"Hi," she said finally.

He looked nervous, near as she could tell. Crossing his arms, looking down... Sherry didn't know what to make of it, really. If he was nervous, then maybe he did need help with something? She didn't want to hope for anything more. Bits of previous conversations floating through her mind warned her against that. Of course, he'd been a bit nervous on the cruise, too, and that had been...

With a tiny sigh Sherry sat herself down on the bed facing him. She gave a small smile at his greeting, trying to read the expression on his face. "It's not a big deal," she said, waving her hand dismissively. Armagnac scoffed, and Sherry ignored her.

The lip biting that cam next was unconscious. Sherry didn't know if she should continue the conversation with random, nervous small talk, or just get right to the matter. She looked to the floor, then back to Jake. Small talk would only make things worse, if things were going that way.

"What did you want to talk about?"

His whole demeanor said he wasn't there to be angry, and she'd hoped for something like this... but to think he was actually apologizing? He looked really miserable doing it, too.

She watched him. Listened as he spoke and watched. When he finished speaking there was only silence in the room as Sherry tried to figure out exactly how to respond.

Apparently she was going to do it with tears. She could feel them building up in her eyes, though she didn't know if they were happy tears or something else. Something about this whole thing was extremely bittersweet. She'd wanted an apology, she'd wanted to be on good terms with him, but he looked distraught enough it made her sad. Even though he was asking for a second chance. A second chance at what, exactly?

Closing her eyes, she shook her head. "It's already been forgiven." She sighed, opening her eyes to look at him. "And you don't have to ask for a second chance. It's yours. I never..." She knew she'd have a hell of a hard time denying him that. Even if it was just friends.

"But... can I ask why? What... What's changed?"

Sherry nodded. Chester had indeed been right. Jake had been pushing her away for her own good, however silly that was. She still didn't know what happened before and she wanted to ask about it, but now didn't quite seem like the right time for that. So she kept listening.

A shiver ran down her back when he said he liked her too. No, no. That was wrong. He didn't... She'd wanted to hear those words and he'd just said them. She must have misheard that, or misinterpreted it. He couldn't... He did. Everything he said after that only confirmed it.

She did not know what to do with this information.

"You're joking." She regretted the words before she'd even fully formed the last syllable. He'd said the same thing to her and that had been a bad night.

"I mean, I don't understand. I understand why you pushed, but I don't... You don't have to protect me, you can't, not all the time, not from what's out there." She shook her head hoping to clear it. It was all too much. It was what she wanted but...

"Are you sure?" She leaned on the edge of the bed. Damn tears. Wiping at them was almost distracting. "I know you've been through a lot with everything. I didn't mean to walk out on you when you needed a friend, and if that's all your looking for now that's fine you don't have to say all of the extra stuff. You know how I feel about you and that hasn't changed and..." She paused to breathe. "I can be your friend. I'd like to see about..." More was what she wanted to say, but she couldn't bring herself to. "I had a lot of fun on the cruise. I knew I'd pushed it too far when you pushed back the next day. I don't think I can do that again. With everything you just said..." Sherry was confused.