[for Dale || Monday, Oct 2]

[more_flexible]

Showered and sated from the day at the beach, Jack left Eric and headed off to Dale's hut with a bounce in his step. He'd gotten some clarity, and not just from the sex. It was the intimacy and the friendship...and talking to River had gotten him thinking about things he hadn't thought he needed on the island. But maybe having a plan wasn't so bad.

But not tonight. Tonight he and Dale would drink some wine, play some cards, and hopefully had gotten all the deep, meaningful things out of the way so they could just have a nice night together.

Platonic life partners. Just the idea made Jack smile.

Comments

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"I generally like to think of myself as a virile young man," said Dale, picking at the spaghetti between sips of wine. "Perhaps not as young as I used to be. But that's still an impressive track record, Jack. I can imagine you're tired."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He shook his head and moved on to counting out the spades and clubs as he chuckled. "See? That's why I don't settle down. If I had one person, I'd break them. Or they'd chafe...see?" he asked as he figured out what was missing.

"Ok, we've got no Queen of Spades but we've got a joker, and we're missing three out of four Aces so let's just chuck the last and play without them," he said, shuffling expertly and dealing Dale seven cards.

"The game is Rummy. Know it?"

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"I know about five kinds of rummy," said Dale, picking up the cards, "you might want to go over just which one we're playing here, Jack. Before I help myself to some more of the wine."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"The one where we don't count points or try to do much more than empty our hand while we get a little drunk," he explained as he moved his cards around and put them in something like an order. "Sound okay?"

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I think I can manage that," said Dale as he sorted his own hand. Not really much to work with there. "I'm not sure we can get very drunk on one bottle of wine, but it's worth a shot."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Drunk enough to get you into bed at the end of the night," he teased, flipping the top card on the pile and waiting to see if Dale had anything to lay down.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

Dale scowled at his hand one more time before pulling from the pile. He had an excellent poker face, he just wasn't playing poker at the moment. "Let me give you a hint, Jack," said Dale, tossing an eight. "I'm a sure thing."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, I know. That's what I get for it being your house and your bed," he laughed, drawing and tossing a two. "I like staying here, Dale. I don't know if I told you that."

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"It's nice having you here, Jack," said Dale honestly. Two wasn't going to do him a speck of good. "I'm going to miss you when you get that new place of yours built."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He took another swallow of the wine and made a face. Normally the stuff got a little better once you got used to it, but this...this just stayed awful.

"Life mates, remember? I'll be around," he said easily, rearranging his cards for no good reason. "It's nice to sleep with somebody. I haven't been grabby in my sleep, have I?" he asked, knowing he hadn't but half wishing he had.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"No more than could be expected from someone with whom one is sleeping in such confined quarters," said Dale, tossing another eight which, if he'd known he was going to get, he would have kept the partner of. "I've been quite comfortable."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack picked them both up and laid down four of a kind. "Me too," he said as he discarded a 4. "I saw Rob today at the beach. He thinks it's doing me a lot of good, having someone to talk to."

Hopefully that came out as casually as he hoped it did.

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"That's good," said Dale, picking up the 4 to lay down a run of hearts. "A load off your mind, I'm sure, to be able to tell him not to worry." He resorted his hand and threw a jack, not without a little smile on his face.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I guess. It's helpful, I guess. He's big on me having a safe place. Not like I'm going to wallow in victimhood," he scoffed as he picked up the jack and laid down a 10. "I think he just wants to be able to boss me around."

[dale-cooper-fbi.livejournal.com]

"Well, he's a doctor," said Dale with a little shrug. "They see so much, it's really no wonder they get a bit protective of the ones they care about. They know what the worst case scenario is, and probably in entirely too much detail."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

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