The Day After

[more_flexible]

Yesterday had been going so well. Jack had his pimp on, curled up with the Doctor, Izzie, and Jaime, and so many people had joined in watching Casablanca. But afterward...

He didn't want to think about it.

They had fought. It seemed like it began with the Doctor not approving of Jaime, but eventually it was clear that wasn't what it was about at all. He knew he shouldn't dwell on the missing time, knew that it didn't do any good. Knew it was eating him up.

Jack flopped back on the sofa and put his feet up as the jukebox ever-so-appropriately began to play the blues. Some of the songs, Jack even knew already.

Comments

[seer-of-god.livejournal.com]

"Ah, well it's good that you make your own decisions then," the Cylon said, somewhat relieved.

"How would he 'fix' this?" Leoben asked curiously. He sort of wanted to meet this Doctor but he thought they probably wouldn't get along very well.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Before here, he would have ruined him. Not killed...he doesn't kill. Not exactly. But now? He knows all he has to do is ask me not to see him anymore in that way he does and I won't. I wouldn't like it...but I won't."

Simple as that. Jack trusted the Doctor implicitely, loved him, nearly worshiped him. If he asked Jack to change, he'd try, and he'd keep trying until he'd succeeded. They both knew it...

"So we fought because I was afraid he might. Might try to do something to Jaime...but really that he'd try to change me. Tie me down. Ask me to change."

[seer-of-god.livejournal.com]

Yeah, they wouldn't get along. Leoben still couldn't decide if that Doctor was a frakking asshole or not, but he didn't want to find out.

"What a mess," he said despairingly, shaking his head and feeling even older than before. God, what tangled stupid webs of bullshit humans wove around each other.

"What's going on with Chase and the Doctor then?" He felt like telling Jack that the two of them should stop playing games and just get together or let it go before someone else got hurt, but he wasn't the human's therapist or father.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"The Doctor loves Rob. Rob...cares about the Doctor. I don't know. I think it's a lot like how I feel. It's sweet to see. I don't think it's a mess."

He cocked his head, thinking about that before looking ino Leoben's eyes.

"You think it's a mess?"

[seer-of-god.livejournal.com]

Leoben sighed thoughtfully. "I don't think it's a mess yet," he admitted reluctantly. "I just think there might be one someday."

He eyed Jack gently, keeping any hint of reproach out of his tone. There was concern and mild curiosity though. "What is it the Doctor plans on giving you? What do you plan on giving him? I mean, sure, you love each other but will you both just feel this way forever and go through people on this island like a starving man would a garbage can because he can't afford to pay for the loaf of bread he actually wants?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Um...what?" he asked, cocking his head. "You lost me with garbage and bread."

[seer-of-god.livejournal.com]

Leoben rolled his eyes. "If you two have something, why are you dragging other people into it? Why make do with second-best?"

He struggled to come up with words for what he wanted to say. Frakking human relationships. "Why not just decide you two can't be together and find happiness where you can? You don't have to commit to anyone but why...why bother with being so miserable when there's options?"

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Oh!" he replied, understanding finally. "I love him. He loves me. We'd be more miserable if we weren't together at all. This way works...it's just new. Trust me, I might not know about love, but I know misery. This isn't it," he assured Leoben with a laugh and a soft hand on his arm.

[seer-of-god.livejournal.com]

"What do humans call it then?" Leoben muttered, throughily frustrated and confused. No wonder he had never done well with any human males. They were all frakked in the head when it came to relationships.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He laughed a little and leaned into Leoben's shoulder. "Um...life?"

[seer-of-god.livejournal.com]

Leoben snorted. "Yeah, probably. It just blows my mind, I guess. It's so complicated and..." He would have strangled that Doctor by now.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"It's not complicated. It's..." he paused as an idea struck him and he smirked a little. "See, if you'd just come to bed with me, everything would make sense."

No one ever accused him of giving up in the face of a challenge...even if he was just teasing.

[seer-of-god.livejournal.com]

Leoben practically doubled-over laughing. "Oh frak no," he said after awhile. "God, you'd be the death of me."

He'd lived for too long in a world full of symbols, meaning, and purpose to detach from anything particularly something as intimate as sex. At least in terms of humans. With other Cylons, it meant a lot but it was just what they did. It was like breathing or touching. Instinctual. Another means of connecting.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack would have made a brilliant Cylon. Sex was as natural as breathing, and touch of all kinds was as simple as talking for him. The next best thing was watching Leoben laugh.

"No, I won't. You'll just wish it...or give in," he teased as he leaned in to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Thanks, Leoben. I don't think I got any understanding about this, but you made me feel better anyhow."

[seer-of-god.livejournal.com]

Leoben snorted, but he didn't argue. He accepted the kiss with a slight roll of his eyes and nodded. "You're welcome, Jack. Even if I don't get what you're talking about it half the time, I like talking to you too."

The Cylon didn't really understand but as long as the humans got what they were doing, what harm could it do?