[for gwen]

[more_flexible]

Jack had talked to Dream, the Lord Whatever, and as the sun dropped beneath the horizon the potential of dreaming was something he just wanted to avoid. Horrible was what the man had said, and he hadn't been off.

So, under the guise of 'pain relief', Jack had taken a joint and matches out into the grass near the treehouse and laid back to look at the stars. As he inhaled the smoke he wondered which of them he'd been to. Which of them he'd never be close to again.

Comments

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Excellent!" he exclaimed, slapping his hand on the ground with a dull thud. "Sit down and tell me about it. I've been to all sorts, you know. My favorite were those little smoky ones underground and in back rooms. The hell with the Blitz...people wanted to dance. Remember they were alive..."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

There's a moment's hesitation, Gwen weighing her innate need to be near him against her sense of self-preservation, but predictably the first wins out and she settles onto the grass beside Jack, cross-legged and eyeing the joint in his hand. "There's not much to tell, yet. We've just got the site, and the karaoke machine."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Who's building it?" he asked, taking another lazy pull and offering it to her. He'd done the same with Ianto who had politely and discretely seemed not to notice.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

Yes, well. Gwen's not Ianto, and she reaches to accept the joint in spite of the fact that she can't recall how long it's been since she was high, and that it's very obviously an ill-advised move on her part. Sod it.

"Ianto, Tosh and I," she answers, and takes a very brief hit, almost immediately coughing. "God," she says, blinking at the thing. "That's a bit strong, yeah?" Or, it's just been so long she doesn't know what strong really is anymore.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," he grinned. "It's the stuff I brought back from the other side of the mountain. There's no Vicodin, so I got it for Greg for when his leg is really bad. It's a lot better than the shit that grows by the Compound," he explained, curling an arm behind his head and watching her. "It does the trick."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

One more quick puff, handled a bit more gracefully this time, and Gwen passes it back, her head already swimming. "I'd say so," she answers, blinking. "D'you smoke a lot?" Seeing as how before she came to the island, she'd never even heard of Jack smoking so much as a cigarette, the fact that she's caught him getting high twice seems odd.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Not a lot. Just when I need to sleep or I hurt. The lack of the tech I'm used to here, see, I've never been really careful because I've almost always been able to get patched up quickly. It's different here," he said, taking it back and drawing the smoke once again.

"And today I met a man who wasn't a man before and he knew about me. Knows who I am. Or...who I'm not," he said quietly. "And I don't want to dream. So...yeah. Not a lot."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"D'you want to talk about it?" Gwen quietly asks as she scoots closer, although she thinks she already knows the answer to be no. Reaching out, she smoothes her fingertips over Jack's temple, the action artless, steeped in genuine concern.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Not much to talk about," he shrugged. "Two years gone and...oh, you know. You saw the film. He, this man, he was the Lord of Dreams. He knew me. Like...knew me. It was weird. He's human now and had no idea how horrible dreaming really is."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

For nearly thirty seconds, Gwen doesn't say anything, instead letting her hand fall away to her lap and then watching where it rest there. She'd tell him, maybe, about the dreams -- Nightmares, really -- if he wouldn't feel so guilty over it.

"It can be, yeah," she quietly contributes at length without looking up. "I don't think I want to meet this man."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"He's easy to spot if you want to avoid him. Taller than me, thinner than the Doctor. Pale, dark hair, dark eyes that look right into your heart," he said, taking one last, long pull and passing the joint again. "Have it, I'm done."

He rolled a bit to see her better, and smiled. "You should have a whole constellation, not just a single star."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

As she accepts the joint, Gwen flushes, but it's faint and difficult to discern in the low light. "Now you're just trying to flatter me," she gently chides him and takes a slow hit, but she smiles as she exhales. After studying the joint a moment, she decides, "I don't think I should have anymore."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He waved his hand dismissively. "Put it out," he said softly.

He was quiet for a minute, just looking at her. He could tell she was darker, a bit. Recognized that tone in her voice. And that smile...what a smile.

"I like your smile," he continued. "I like you a lot, Gwen. You're...nice. And pretty. And...Gwen. My Gwen."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

Part of Gwen wishes that she could deny that, could say she wasn't his, but it's a very faint sort of protest when compared to the part of her that wants so badly to see the Jack she left behind in the Jack sitting before her. He is fundamentally the same man, and she may say she understands the differences, but it's possible she'll never actually believe them.

"You're high," she observes, and her face is very hot now, and God help her she wants to touch him so badly her fingers are practically itching with need. "But I like you anyway, Jack." A thought occurs to her, and she giggles as she stubs the joint out. "You're pretty, too."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Probably a little," he grinned. "But it doesn't change the pretty that you are."

He was absolutely certain that made sense.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"We can be pretty together!" Gwen declares with a laugh, because for some reason that's highly amusing, and she has absolutely no idea that it could be taken as innuendo. He really is quite silly, Jack, thinking she's even close to being as pretty as he is.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He laughed along with her, the sound almost contagious. "We are pretty together," he managed, leaning forward and dropping his head into her lap in a fit of giggles.

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"Ohhh, Jack, just look at you," Gwen says, fastidiously petting the hair back from his brow. "You- You! You look just the same." Peering down at him, she smiles contentedly. "Except for being in my lap. Jack never did that back home."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"I better stop smoking pot then because in the future I'm clearly stupid", he said, giggles fading slowly as he looked up at her. "I like hair petting. It's good."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"You have good hair for petting," Gwen informs him, her lips pushing out into a contemplative pout as she cards her fingers through said hair. "You never would have let me pet your hair back home. But I don't think it was stupid. I think it was... It was..." Bugger, what was it? Oh, right. "Noble."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Noble?" he asked, and then he started to giggle again. "Noble. Oh, God...I kinda am, huh? Will be. Whatever. TIme hurts my head sometimes."

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"You are, you're very noble," Gwen replies with an emphatic nod which slows as her brows draw together. "Except for that whole drugging me bit, that wasn't so noble. But I forgive you!" Grinning again, she gives his head a pat. "Isn't that nice of me?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"It really is. That was a real fucker thing to do, wasn't it?"

[be-normal.livejournal.com]

"You had to do it," says Gwen with a slight shrug. "Pro-to-col," she adds, emphasizing each syllable. "They keep you in little boxes," she muses, her head falling back so that she can look at the stars. "But how do you put someone in a little box?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"...Smushing?" he asked, hoping he'd guessed the right answer.