[for greg]

[more_flexible]

After spending time in the clinic with Mimi, Jack had walked home slowly. His eyes were drawn to the sky and he got a small bit of reassurance that even if the island changed, the stars hadn't. There was Mimi...right next to Jaime, 30 degrees away from Maureen. The star would be there for so much longer than Mimi would be here. They'd burn on after they'd all gone.

This was his first inkling that some of them...some of them wouldn't disappear. Some of them would be dying here.

He hadn't cried. He wouldn't, not in front of her. He'd dance and hold her, comfort her and be strong. He'd take care of things. He'd take care of people. It was what he did so long as he was beyond the walls of his hut. Inside, though, well, he wasn't ready for that just yet.

Jack sat on the porch and the dog joined him, resting his muzzle on Jack's knee. He scratched the dog's ears absently, his eyes fixed on a bright white dot in the sky.

Comments

[misanthrope_md]

He wouldn't have found anything inside anyway, as House wasn't there.

It was probably fifteen minutes later when House walked up the same path that Jack had just taken, leaning heavily on his cane and looking tired. He stopped at the top step of the porch and looked at Jack.

"Hey."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Hey," came the soft reply, Jack's eyes fixed on the sky. "...Busy day."

[misanthrope_md]

"Yeah."

House hesitated, then added, "I saw you with Mimi earlier. Didn't want to interrupt."

So he'd left for a while, waited, then come back to check on her once more after Jack left, before coming back to the hut.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I stayed for a while. Danced with her one last time. Held her...for a while." His voice grew progressively softer, but he never looked away from that single star.

"She's okay with dying."

[misanthrope_md]

"Yeah," House said, "I got that. Sort of a dubious quality to have in a patient."

He paused. "... you okay?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"No."

Simple, straightforward. No point in lying to him. Jack was about as far from okay as he could be.

[misanthrope_md]

House closed his eyes.

"I'm sorry."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Everyone's sorry," Jack responded. The clear white dot he was focused so intently on began to blur, even as he tried so hard to keep from letting the grief overtake him.

[misanthrope_md]

"That's not what I meant," House said. "Not some pointless platitude."

He sighed. "I meant, I'm her doctor. I'm sorry I can't do more."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He tried to take an even, steady breath, but even that betrayed him. With effort, he looked away from the blurred point in space and turned to look at Greg.

"I can't do anything, either."

[misanthrope_md]

"You don't have super powers, Jack. Hell, you aren't even a doctor. What are you supposed to do?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I..."

He fixed things. Kept shit together and running. He made things work even when it seemed like there was no hope. He was a self styled hero...and there was one girl who he had grown to love so very much, and he couldn't do a damned thing. He couldn't hold on to her, and she was going to be lost in the darkness.

And that was when Jack broke, taking one shuddering breath and burying his face in his hands.

[misanthrope_md]

Oh, christ.

House carefully lowered himself onto the step next to where Jack was sitting and gathered him into his arms.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack turned into him, pressing his face to Greg's shoulder and let it all out. Everything he'd been holding back for Mimi's sake, for Tosh's sake...for everyone's sake and his own sanity. But he needed a release or he'd explode and this was it.

He clung to Greg like a little boy until the tears slowed and he could catch his breath. It was only then that he pulled away again.

"I've never seen anyone die slowly. Waste away. I picked her up to dance with her. It...it was like holding a little kid."

[misanthrope_md]

House kept an arm around him, fingers gently stroking Jack's hair. "It's how things happen. Death is ugly, especially when it's slow."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I've been through war, Greg. I can handle gore and gunshots and screaming. Torture. The most horrible things you can imagine. But Mimi doesn't deserve this. To hurt so much. To...fuck, I don't know how to do this..."

[misanthrope_md]

"Jack... I think there's enough morphine and Vicodin to get her through the worst of it. It's not going to help her get any better, but it should make her comfortable."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"How do you do this, Greg? How do you just watch someone die?" he asked as he continued to hang on.

[misanthrope_md]

"Just like you do anything else that's horrible," House sighed. "You just do. Because you have to."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack gripped Greg's shirt in his fist for another minute, just long enough to stop sobbing and for the tears to slow, then he pulled away.

"I'm going to bed. I didn't get any rest in bed with her," he said quietly.

[misanthrope_md]

"Me too," House said, carefully getting to his feet. "I mean, I'm exhausted."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack nodded and followed along, exhausted more than he had first thought. Padfoot followed along and Jack closed the door behind them.

"Greg...how much longer, do you think? Honestly?"

[misanthrope_md]

House hesitated. He pulled off his shirt before answering.

"A few days, a week? I would be surprised if it were any more than two."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He stripped off his own clothes in silence and climbed into bed, groaning as the dog joined him before Greg could get in as well. Jack was in a rare mood and the lab was obviously worried.

The dog had stopped noticing when the man got stoned, but this...was different.

"I'm going to be in the clinic a lot, then."

[misanthrope_md]

House sighed a little, but didn't kick Padfoot out of the bed before getting in, just shooed him down to the foot, where he lay across Jack's feet.

"You can be there as much as you like."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Like anyone there could make me leave," he murmured. At this point, there was an unending crowd in there, anyhow.