Fic: Undertow 12/?
Apr. 30th, 2006 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
polgara_5Title: Undertow
By: Polgara
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own none of the recognizable characters. They belong to their respective creators and distributors.
Distribution: My site – Worlds of Possibilities, ff.net, Wormhole Crossing, and TtH.
Spoilers: Everything for Buffy is fair game. Everything up to and including season seven of Stargate SG-1. There will be very specific spoilers for season seven. You have been warned.
Setting: Takes place right after Homecoming of Stargate and three years after Chosen.
Summary: When someone close to Buffy dies, she finds herself on Jack’s doorstep. Before long, events and emotions pull them into something greater than they ever imagined.
A/N: My author notes are here for a reason, please read. If you still ask questions that are answered here, I will not answer them again. Do not beg for updates, this fic will be updated every other Sunday like clockwork, nothing will change that. I repeat nothing.
A/N2: I’ve only altered canon slightly. Ignore the whole Jack/Sam thing, it doesn’t exist here. And I’ve created a previous relationship between Buffy and Jack. It will get explained eventually, just be patient.
A/N3: Special and huge thanks to my betas – Meri and Copper. You gals are fabulous!
Chapter Twelve
Jack looked at Buffy who was sitting next to him on the couch. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked, concern shining in his brown eyes.
“Which part? Calling Willow or staying here?” she asked, her gaze on the phone clutched tightly in her hands.
“Both parts.”
“Yes. I’m positive.”
He waited a few minutes before he said, “I was just checking ‘cause you’ve been holding that phone for fifteen minutes now and you haven’t dialed.”
“I know,” she said irritably. “I’m just…”
“It’s okay, take your time,” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and squeezing slightly.
She took a deep breath and held it for a moment before releasing it slowly. With a deliberate movement, she dialed Willow’s number in Cleveland, and then held the receiver up to her ear. She closed her eyes and waited for someone to answer.
“Hello?”
Buffy smiled at Willow’s familiar voice and opened her eyes. “Hey, Willow.”
“Oh my goddess, Buffy! Where have you been? Where are you now? Are you okay? Are you coming home now? What…”
“Willow! Breathe,” Buffy said with a small laugh. “I’m fine.”
“We were so worried. Xander wanted to track you down, but I convinced him to respect your wishes. I mean we were all worried but you said that you would contact us in your letter. But then time went on and he got antsy, but I still held firm.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it. I just needed some time away,” Buffy said sadly. “How is everyone?”
“We’re good. We miss you.”
“I miss you guys, too.”
“Are you coming home soon?” Willow asked hopefully.
Buffy winced and her eyes flickered briefly over to Jack. “Yeah, about that, umm…”
“It’s okay if you’re not ready,” Willow said hastily. “Take all the time you need. So where did you go?”
“To visit an old friend of mine,” Buffy said, leaning against Jack.
“Hey! I’m not old!” Jack protested softly.
She rolled her eyes and slapped him lightly on the knee as Willow asked, “Who?”
“I met him in LA during that summer and we’ve just kept in touch.” She gripped Jack’s hand. This was it. The cat was going to be out of the bag. “His name is Jack O’Neill.”
“You’ve never mentioned him before.” Buffy could almost hear Willow’s pout on the other side.
“I know, but it was this big secret thing that’s kind of hard to explain. But he’s a good guy.”
“How good?” Willow asked with a teasing note in her voice.
“Willow!”
On the other end of the line, Willow laughed. “A definite hottie then?”
“Well, yeah,” Buffy said with a slight blush. Jack gave her a questioning look but didn’t say anything.
“So what have you been doing with Jack?”
“Actually… working.”
“Working? Where?” Willow asked, surprise evident in her voice.
“I can’t tell you, but Jack got the job for me.”
“Buffy, what are you into?”
The slayer sighed. “I really can’t tell you, at least, not yet. But it’s good.”
“What? Is he trying to steal you from us?”
“It was just supposed to be temporary,” Buffy said defensively. She snuggled into Jack a little more as Willow fell silent on the other end.
“Was temporary? Meaning it’s not now?” Willow asked in a small voice.
Buffy’s heart broke slightly knowing that she was hurting her friend, but she needed to do this. “Willow, they need me here.”
“We need you, too.”
“No, you don’t. Not really.”
“What about the next big apocalypse?”
“Faith or one of the others can handle it,” Buffy said. “That’s what they are there for.”
“No! We need…”
“And I need to be here,” Buffy said, cutting her off. “I need this. I’m making a difference here.”
“So you’re just going to abandon your calling?” Willow accused.
“No, just altering it.”
“Xander was right,” Willow said angrily. “We should have tracked you down and brought you back. If we had, you wouldn’t be abandoning us now!”
“You’re one to talk! What about kicking me out of my own house when I needed you the most?” Buffy said, tears springing up in her eyes.
“Has this Jack guy brainwashed you against us? That’s the only reason I can think of why you’d do this.”
Buffy looked up at Jack with her tear-streaked face. “I can’t do this,” she whispered, dropping the phone and running back to her room.
Jack picked up the phone. “Willow? This is Jack.”
“Ah ha! You were right there beside her! Did you make her do this? Did you brainwash her?”
“I didn’t make Buffy do anything. You, of all people, should know that you can’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do,” he said, straining to keep a civil tone.
“Buffy needs to come home.”
“I think she needs to do what is best for her.”
Willow snorted. “Like you would know anything about that.”
“Hey!” Jack said, his voice becoming deeper. “I know that she has spent the past ten years fighting someone else’s war. That she has made more sacrifices in that time than most people make in a lifetime. She has died twice, and watched her loved ones die. She’s been betrayed several times over by her friends, you being one of them. And you have the nerve to try and dictate her life?”
Jack’s temper had flared and eight years worth of pent up anger at Buffy’s friends found its outlet. “I think it was high time to let her make her own decisions about her life.”
“Like you’re letting her make her own decisions? You got her that job,” Willow shot back.
“I just gave her a temporary opportunity. I didn’t pressure her, she made her own decision. I never asked her to stay permanently, she decided that on her own. She’s a grown woman, she can do that,” he practically growled.
Willow fell silent on the other end. Sniffles could be heard and Jack fought back the guilty feeling about making a woman he hadn’t even met cry. He reined in his temper and wearily rubbed his eyes.
“Look, take a few weeks to adjust to this and I’ll get Buffy to call you again. But you can’t do this to her again. If you push, she’ll just keep running. You know that.”
“I do,” Willow said softly. “It’s just that we miss her.”
“She misses you, too. Just give her time.”
“Do you really think she’s going to stay there?” Willow hesitantly asked.
“I think so.”
“Take care of her.”
“I will,” Jack promised. They made a few more arrangements, said their goodbyes, and hung up. He returned the cordless phone to its stand and went to Buffy’s room. The door was slightly ajar so he pushed on it slightly to reveal Buffy curled up on her bed with her back to the door crying.
It pained him to see her hurting like this. She always put on such a strong façade that sometimes it was easy to forget just how fragile she was. To think that her friends, her support, could reduce her to this so easily made him see red. He wanted nothing more that to beat the crap out of her friends, but restrained himself because she needed him more.
Jack quietly walked to the bed and sat down. He leaned against the headboard and stretched his long legs out. Buffy rolled over and snuggled up to him. He wrapped his arms around her and began to idly play with strands of her blonde hair.
“So when are they coming?” She asked, her voice slightly muffled from where she had buried her face in his shirt.
“They’re not. I talked her out of it,” he said.
She looked up at him in surprise. “They’re not? You did? How?”
“I explained in my manly colonel voice that it was your life and you could do what you wanted with it,” he said with a small smirk. “Then I might have made her cry.”
“Oh, Jack,” she said disapprovingly.
“What? She made you cry! I thought it was only fair.”
“What about the others?” She asked, resting her head on his chest.
“I don’t know. Maybe she won’t tell them.”
Buffy laughed softly. “It will never happen. Willow is horrible at keeping secrets from her friends. They could just glance at her and she’ll go into full babble mode with no hope for return.” She sighed. “They’ll probably track us down and show up here to drag me back.”
He tightened his hold. “Never happen. I won’t let them take you. Even if they could take me down they’d have to fight everyone else.”
“Like who?”
“Like Daniel, for starters. Hammond, Dixon, Jeff, Sam, Teal’c…”
“Okay, I get the picture,” she said, a slight blush creeping up on her cheeks. “I’m a valuable member of the SGC now.”
“No, that’s not just it,” Jack said irritably. “You don’t seem to realize how much people like you. You’re fun, beautiful, intelligent, and caring. We only want to see you happy. If that means fighting off your friends from home so you can do what you want, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Buffy’s blush grew darker. It was always so hard to accept compliments so she busied herself by playing with one of the buttons on Jack’s shirt. “Thanks,” she said softly after a moment.
“Don’t mention it,” he said gruffly.
“Is this okay with you? Me staying here permanently, I mean?”
“Sure it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” He asked in confusion.
“Well, this is your life. I didn’t know if this felt like I was intruding or something. I kind of decided this without discussing it with you first.”
He placed a finger under her chin and tilted her head up to look at him. “It’s not a problem. I’m ecstatic that you’ve decided to stay. Who knows, having a slayer on our side could change the tide.”
“As long as you’re sure,” she said.
“Yeah sure you betcha,” he replied with a grin, releasing her chin.
Buffy settled back down and said, “I guess I should find a place of my own then, huh?”
Jack’s heart tightened painfully at the thought. “Only if you want to,” he said, twirling a lock of her golden hair around his fingers. Inside he was fervently praying that she’d decide to stay with him. The house had seemed so quiet and empty without her last week. He had hated it.
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“Buffy, you’re not intruding. I like having you here. Stay as long as you want,” he said, his voice rather insistent.
“Okay,” she said, causing his heart to unclench.
Several hours later, Jack awoke to find he was still in Buffy’s room. His neck and back were screaming in protest from sleeping in the strange half sitting position. He was loath to move however because Buffy’s warm body was still pressed against his.
It wasn’t the first time this had happened, but he cherished each time like it was the first. She looked so peaceful in her sleep when she didn’t have all the worries and pressures of keeping the world safe sitting on her shoulders.
His back sent out another screaming protest and he knew it was time to break the moment if he wanted to be able to walk the next day. Carefully disentangling himself, he got off the bed. He pulled the blanket from the edge of the bed up to cover her sleeping form.
He bent over and brushed a few stray hairs off her face before kissing her cheek. “Good night, sweetheart.” Then he silently went to the door, turned off the lights, and went to his own room.
XXXXXXXXX
Jack stared at his reflection in his bedroom mirror as he constantly adjusted his clothing. He hated to admit it, even if it was just to himself, that he was nervous as hell. He was about to change his relationship with Buffy. He was going to ask her on a date.
Even if she said no, this was going to change things. It would forever be a silent, invisible wall between them. Of course, he hoped she would say yes, but that would mean a change as well. If they entered a romantic relationship only to break up later, he’d be losing the best friend he ever had.
This was one of the toughest decisions he had ever made, but he wasn’t going to back out now. He was just so damn nervous.
It had been twenty years since he had asked someone out. What if he had forgotten how? What if he made a complete fool of himself?
God this was hard.
Jack looked his reflection squarely in the eye and took a calming breath. “Pull yourself together. You can do this,” he muttered. “Just like falling off a log.”
Satisfied with himself, he turned and then jumped in surprise. Buffy was leaning against the door jam with a smirk on her face.
“Talking to yourself? Isn’t that the first sign of senility?”
“Ha, ha, it is to laugh,” he said dryly, trying to calm his racing heart. He wondered how much of that pep talk she had witnessed.
She grinned. “Dinner is ready,” she said, pushing herself off the frame and leaving the room.
He exhaled loudly and followed her.
XXXXXXXXX
Dinner seemed to pass all too quickly for Jack and the next thing he knew the table had been cleared and dinner cleaned up. As he sat down with Buffy to play Rummy, he realized that it had passed in a blur and he didn’t really recall anything from it. Now time seemed to slow to a crawl as he waited for the perfect opportunity to ask her.
“Is there something wrong?” She finally asked.
“No, why?” He replied, looking at her from over top of his cards.
“I’ve won three hands in a row,” she stated flatly. “I’ve never done that before. You’re not even paying attention.”
“I am so,” he protested, laying down the five of clubs.
She rolled her eyes and picked up several cards from the discard pile. “No, you’re not.” She laid the five down on her side, along with the four and six of clubs, all of which had been in the discard pile. “What’s up?”
“I’ve been thinking,” he said, taking a card from the deck. He barely looked at it before throwing it on the discard pile.
“Thought I smelled something burning,” Buffy quipped, drawing a card from the deck.
“Funny,” he said, watching her as she made a decision about the card. “I was thinking that we should go out and do something one night.”
“What? Like a movie?” She asked, keeping the card and discarding another.
“Something like that, yeah,” he said. He set his cards face down and gave her his full attention.
“Sure. Do you want to see if the others want to join us when we go?”
He laughed nervously. “No, I want this to be just the two of us. Alone. Together.”
Buffy froze. Her eyes widened slightly. “You mean, like a date?”
“Exactly.”
“You want to go on a date? With me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Jack blinked in slight confusion. “Because… Well, because I’m attracted to you. Have been for some time now, to tell the truth. Just thought that…”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes,” she repeated, a shy smile appearing on her lips.
“Sweet.”
By: Polgara
Rating: R
Disclaimer: I own none of the recognizable characters. They belong to their respective creators and distributors.
Distribution: My site – Worlds of Possibilities, ff.net, Wormhole Crossing, and TtH.
Spoilers: Everything for Buffy is fair game. Everything up to and including season seven of Stargate SG-1. There will be very specific spoilers for season seven. You have been warned.
Setting: Takes place right after Homecoming of Stargate and three years after Chosen.
Summary: When someone close to Buffy dies, she finds herself on Jack’s doorstep. Before long, events and emotions pull them into something greater than they ever imagined.
A/N: My author notes are here for a reason, please read. If you still ask questions that are answered here, I will not answer them again. Do not beg for updates, this fic will be updated every other Sunday like clockwork, nothing will change that. I repeat nothing.
A/N2: I’ve only altered canon slightly. Ignore the whole Jack/Sam thing, it doesn’t exist here. And I’ve created a previous relationship between Buffy and Jack. It will get explained eventually, just be patient.
A/N3: Special and huge thanks to my betas – Meri and Copper. You gals are fabulous!
Chapter Twelve
Jack looked at Buffy who was sitting next to him on the couch. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He asked, concern shining in his brown eyes.
“Which part? Calling Willow or staying here?” she asked, her gaze on the phone clutched tightly in her hands.
“Both parts.”
“Yes. I’m positive.”
He waited a few minutes before he said, “I was just checking ‘cause you’ve been holding that phone for fifteen minutes now and you haven’t dialed.”
“I know,” she said irritably. “I’m just…”
“It’s okay, take your time,” he said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and squeezing slightly.
She took a deep breath and held it for a moment before releasing it slowly. With a deliberate movement, she dialed Willow’s number in Cleveland, and then held the receiver up to her ear. She closed her eyes and waited for someone to answer.
“Hello?”
Buffy smiled at Willow’s familiar voice and opened her eyes. “Hey, Willow.”
“Oh my goddess, Buffy! Where have you been? Where are you now? Are you okay? Are you coming home now? What…”
“Willow! Breathe,” Buffy said with a small laugh. “I’m fine.”
“We were so worried. Xander wanted to track you down, but I convinced him to respect your wishes. I mean we were all worried but you said that you would contact us in your letter. But then time went on and he got antsy, but I still held firm.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it. I just needed some time away,” Buffy said sadly. “How is everyone?”
“We’re good. We miss you.”
“I miss you guys, too.”
“Are you coming home soon?” Willow asked hopefully.
Buffy winced and her eyes flickered briefly over to Jack. “Yeah, about that, umm…”
“It’s okay if you’re not ready,” Willow said hastily. “Take all the time you need. So where did you go?”
“To visit an old friend of mine,” Buffy said, leaning against Jack.
“Hey! I’m not old!” Jack protested softly.
She rolled her eyes and slapped him lightly on the knee as Willow asked, “Who?”
“I met him in LA during that summer and we’ve just kept in touch.” She gripped Jack’s hand. This was it. The cat was going to be out of the bag. “His name is Jack O’Neill.”
“You’ve never mentioned him before.” Buffy could almost hear Willow’s pout on the other side.
“I know, but it was this big secret thing that’s kind of hard to explain. But he’s a good guy.”
“How good?” Willow asked with a teasing note in her voice.
“Willow!”
On the other end of the line, Willow laughed. “A definite hottie then?”
“Well, yeah,” Buffy said with a slight blush. Jack gave her a questioning look but didn’t say anything.
“So what have you been doing with Jack?”
“Actually… working.”
“Working? Where?” Willow asked, surprise evident in her voice.
“I can’t tell you, but Jack got the job for me.”
“Buffy, what are you into?”
The slayer sighed. “I really can’t tell you, at least, not yet. But it’s good.”
“What? Is he trying to steal you from us?”
“It was just supposed to be temporary,” Buffy said defensively. She snuggled into Jack a little more as Willow fell silent on the other end.
“Was temporary? Meaning it’s not now?” Willow asked in a small voice.
Buffy’s heart broke slightly knowing that she was hurting her friend, but she needed to do this. “Willow, they need me here.”
“We need you, too.”
“No, you don’t. Not really.”
“What about the next big apocalypse?”
“Faith or one of the others can handle it,” Buffy said. “That’s what they are there for.”
“No! We need…”
“And I need to be here,” Buffy said, cutting her off. “I need this. I’m making a difference here.”
“So you’re just going to abandon your calling?” Willow accused.
“No, just altering it.”
“Xander was right,” Willow said angrily. “We should have tracked you down and brought you back. If we had, you wouldn’t be abandoning us now!”
“You’re one to talk! What about kicking me out of my own house when I needed you the most?” Buffy said, tears springing up in her eyes.
“Has this Jack guy brainwashed you against us? That’s the only reason I can think of why you’d do this.”
Buffy looked up at Jack with her tear-streaked face. “I can’t do this,” she whispered, dropping the phone and running back to her room.
Jack picked up the phone. “Willow? This is Jack.”
“Ah ha! You were right there beside her! Did you make her do this? Did you brainwash her?”
“I didn’t make Buffy do anything. You, of all people, should know that you can’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do,” he said, straining to keep a civil tone.
“Buffy needs to come home.”
“I think she needs to do what is best for her.”
Willow snorted. “Like you would know anything about that.”
“Hey!” Jack said, his voice becoming deeper. “I know that she has spent the past ten years fighting someone else’s war. That she has made more sacrifices in that time than most people make in a lifetime. She has died twice, and watched her loved ones die. She’s been betrayed several times over by her friends, you being one of them. And you have the nerve to try and dictate her life?”
Jack’s temper had flared and eight years worth of pent up anger at Buffy’s friends found its outlet. “I think it was high time to let her make her own decisions about her life.”
“Like you’re letting her make her own decisions? You got her that job,” Willow shot back.
“I just gave her a temporary opportunity. I didn’t pressure her, she made her own decision. I never asked her to stay permanently, she decided that on her own. She’s a grown woman, she can do that,” he practically growled.
Willow fell silent on the other end. Sniffles could be heard and Jack fought back the guilty feeling about making a woman he hadn’t even met cry. He reined in his temper and wearily rubbed his eyes.
“Look, take a few weeks to adjust to this and I’ll get Buffy to call you again. But you can’t do this to her again. If you push, she’ll just keep running. You know that.”
“I do,” Willow said softly. “It’s just that we miss her.”
“She misses you, too. Just give her time.”
“Do you really think she’s going to stay there?” Willow hesitantly asked.
“I think so.”
“Take care of her.”
“I will,” Jack promised. They made a few more arrangements, said their goodbyes, and hung up. He returned the cordless phone to its stand and went to Buffy’s room. The door was slightly ajar so he pushed on it slightly to reveal Buffy curled up on her bed with her back to the door crying.
It pained him to see her hurting like this. She always put on such a strong façade that sometimes it was easy to forget just how fragile she was. To think that her friends, her support, could reduce her to this so easily made him see red. He wanted nothing more that to beat the crap out of her friends, but restrained himself because she needed him more.
Jack quietly walked to the bed and sat down. He leaned against the headboard and stretched his long legs out. Buffy rolled over and snuggled up to him. He wrapped his arms around her and began to idly play with strands of her blonde hair.
“So when are they coming?” She asked, her voice slightly muffled from where she had buried her face in his shirt.
“They’re not. I talked her out of it,” he said.
She looked up at him in surprise. “They’re not? You did? How?”
“I explained in my manly colonel voice that it was your life and you could do what you wanted with it,” he said with a small smirk. “Then I might have made her cry.”
“Oh, Jack,” she said disapprovingly.
“What? She made you cry! I thought it was only fair.”
“What about the others?” She asked, resting her head on his chest.
“I don’t know. Maybe she won’t tell them.”
Buffy laughed softly. “It will never happen. Willow is horrible at keeping secrets from her friends. They could just glance at her and she’ll go into full babble mode with no hope for return.” She sighed. “They’ll probably track us down and show up here to drag me back.”
He tightened his hold. “Never happen. I won’t let them take you. Even if they could take me down they’d have to fight everyone else.”
“Like who?”
“Like Daniel, for starters. Hammond, Dixon, Jeff, Sam, Teal’c…”
“Okay, I get the picture,” she said, a slight blush creeping up on her cheeks. “I’m a valuable member of the SGC now.”
“No, that’s not just it,” Jack said irritably. “You don’t seem to realize how much people like you. You’re fun, beautiful, intelligent, and caring. We only want to see you happy. If that means fighting off your friends from home so you can do what you want, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Buffy’s blush grew darker. It was always so hard to accept compliments so she busied herself by playing with one of the buttons on Jack’s shirt. “Thanks,” she said softly after a moment.
“Don’t mention it,” he said gruffly.
“Is this okay with you? Me staying here permanently, I mean?”
“Sure it is. Why wouldn’t it be?” He asked in confusion.
“Well, this is your life. I didn’t know if this felt like I was intruding or something. I kind of decided this without discussing it with you first.”
He placed a finger under her chin and tilted her head up to look at him. “It’s not a problem. I’m ecstatic that you’ve decided to stay. Who knows, having a slayer on our side could change the tide.”
“As long as you’re sure,” she said.
“Yeah sure you betcha,” he replied with a grin, releasing her chin.
Buffy settled back down and said, “I guess I should find a place of my own then, huh?”
Jack’s heart tightened painfully at the thought. “Only if you want to,” he said, twirling a lock of her golden hair around his fingers. Inside he was fervently praying that she’d decide to stay with him. The house had seemed so quiet and empty without her last week. He had hated it.
“I don’t want to intrude.”
“Buffy, you’re not intruding. I like having you here. Stay as long as you want,” he said, his voice rather insistent.
“Okay,” she said, causing his heart to unclench.
Several hours later, Jack awoke to find he was still in Buffy’s room. His neck and back were screaming in protest from sleeping in the strange half sitting position. He was loath to move however because Buffy’s warm body was still pressed against his.
It wasn’t the first time this had happened, but he cherished each time like it was the first. She looked so peaceful in her sleep when she didn’t have all the worries and pressures of keeping the world safe sitting on her shoulders.
His back sent out another screaming protest and he knew it was time to break the moment if he wanted to be able to walk the next day. Carefully disentangling himself, he got off the bed. He pulled the blanket from the edge of the bed up to cover her sleeping form.
He bent over and brushed a few stray hairs off her face before kissing her cheek. “Good night, sweetheart.” Then he silently went to the door, turned off the lights, and went to his own room.
XXXXXXXXX
Jack stared at his reflection in his bedroom mirror as he constantly adjusted his clothing. He hated to admit it, even if it was just to himself, that he was nervous as hell. He was about to change his relationship with Buffy. He was going to ask her on a date.
Even if she said no, this was going to change things. It would forever be a silent, invisible wall between them. Of course, he hoped she would say yes, but that would mean a change as well. If they entered a romantic relationship only to break up later, he’d be losing the best friend he ever had.
This was one of the toughest decisions he had ever made, but he wasn’t going to back out now. He was just so damn nervous.
It had been twenty years since he had asked someone out. What if he had forgotten how? What if he made a complete fool of himself?
God this was hard.
Jack looked his reflection squarely in the eye and took a calming breath. “Pull yourself together. You can do this,” he muttered. “Just like falling off a log.”
Satisfied with himself, he turned and then jumped in surprise. Buffy was leaning against the door jam with a smirk on her face.
“Talking to yourself? Isn’t that the first sign of senility?”
“Ha, ha, it is to laugh,” he said dryly, trying to calm his racing heart. He wondered how much of that pep talk she had witnessed.
She grinned. “Dinner is ready,” she said, pushing herself off the frame and leaving the room.
He exhaled loudly and followed her.
XXXXXXXXX
Dinner seemed to pass all too quickly for Jack and the next thing he knew the table had been cleared and dinner cleaned up. As he sat down with Buffy to play Rummy, he realized that it had passed in a blur and he didn’t really recall anything from it. Now time seemed to slow to a crawl as he waited for the perfect opportunity to ask her.
“Is there something wrong?” She finally asked.
“No, why?” He replied, looking at her from over top of his cards.
“I’ve won three hands in a row,” she stated flatly. “I’ve never done that before. You’re not even paying attention.”
“I am so,” he protested, laying down the five of clubs.
She rolled her eyes and picked up several cards from the discard pile. “No, you’re not.” She laid the five down on her side, along with the four and six of clubs, all of which had been in the discard pile. “What’s up?”
“I’ve been thinking,” he said, taking a card from the deck. He barely looked at it before throwing it on the discard pile.
“Thought I smelled something burning,” Buffy quipped, drawing a card from the deck.
“Funny,” he said, watching her as she made a decision about the card. “I was thinking that we should go out and do something one night.”
“What? Like a movie?” She asked, keeping the card and discarding another.
“Something like that, yeah,” he said. He set his cards face down and gave her his full attention.
“Sure. Do you want to see if the others want to join us when we go?”
He laughed nervously. “No, I want this to be just the two of us. Alone. Together.”
Buffy froze. Her eyes widened slightly. “You mean, like a date?”
“Exactly.”
“You want to go on a date? With me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Jack blinked in slight confusion. “Because… Well, because I’m attracted to you. Have been for some time now, to tell the truth. Just thought that…”
“Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes,” she repeated, a shy smile appearing on her lips.
“Sweet.”
