for saffron

[more_flexible]

He hadn't slept in his hut, he couldn't, but he needed to go back for his things. He needed to change his clothes. He needed a book. He...needed to spend as little time as possible here right now.

He got his things and came out to the porch, staring off at the orchard and turning his attention to the goats in the pasture. There was no way John would have ever really liked it here. Shit, most of the time Jack didn't really like it. It was simply his life now. He'd gotten used to it.

Comments

[devilwoman]

Saffron hadn't seen Jack in several days, nor John, and though she figured it was just due to them all being busy, her doing things in the kitchen and visiting Roger in the clinic when Bill couldn't and the two men doing...whatever it was they did, she had an uneasy feeling. Something deep in her gut, an intuition borne of dealing with too many disappearances already.

She breathed an inward sigh of relief when she saw Jack on the porch of his hut, but just as quickly tensed up again when she got close enough to see the expression on his face. That closed off expression, that was so good at being unreadable to everyone except people like them. "Jack, honey?" she said, a question unspoken, but he would know what she was talking about.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack looked up and the familiar smile flashed brightly. Nothing wrong with falling back upon reflex.

"Hey, gorgeous," he said, the tone of his voice off just a fraction from normal. "I was wondering when you'd come over again."

[devilwoman]

"Well, wonder no longer," she said, sassy smile curving her lips upward, but the concern was still in her eyes. She went to him, raised a hand to cup his face, and studied his expression in a searching look. "Tell me."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

He unconsciously turned a little, pressing into the warmth of her hand.

"He's gone," Jack said simply. "Monday morning. Vanished from my arms. All his stuff. Just...he's gone."

[devilwoman]

"Ti wo de pigu," Saffron exhaled, her smile quickly fading. "Right before your eyes? Oh, honey, I'm sorry." John had been one of a kind, a fellow con who'd earned her respect out of the bedroom and her passion in it. And she knew - at least had some idea - of what he was to Jack.



[kick me in the bottom]

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"It's okay," he lied, the smile frozen in place as he fought the urge to look away or swallow hard. If he could keep up the facade long enough, he could, probably, believe the lie that he was fine. That it didn't matter. That the little bit of time had been enough.

"He wasn't happy here, anyhow." He might have been. It had taken Jack almost a year. John could have. Maybe.

If there had been more booze.

[devilwoman]

Saffron brought her other hand up to mirror the first one, rose up on her toes to press a soft kiss to her lips. "No, it's not," she said, as gentle as her small, unassuming presence would have people believe her to be before they actually met her. "But if that's what you want, honey, we can pretend."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

His eyes fell closed and he couldn't stop the shivering breath he exhaled against her lips.

"Pretending hasn't been working too well," he admitted. The thing about con artists was that even though lying was as natural as a heartbeat, it was useless when someone was good enough that they could tell. They layperson would buy any line of crap, and even if they didn't they didn't generally call you on it.

Helen was better than that.

"It's really not okay, but I'm not sure what else to do about it. It's not like I can get him back."

[devilwoman]

"Well, since we can't take this tama de hundan of an island and make it pay for continuing to do this to us, there's not much else can be done," she commented, pulling back from him but only far enough to be able to see him properly. "All we can do is go on, and make the most of what we still have." She knew it was easier said than done. She also knew Jack was strong - folks like them had to be.


[mother-humping son of a bitch]

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Do that every day," Jack replied, the streak of easy strength resurfacing with a flash of teeth and a squaring of his shoulders. He reached up and caught her wrist and tugged her closer once again. "What about you? You might be the only other person who know him...knew him...like I do."

[devilwoman]

She went to him easily, reached her arms up and wrapped them loosely around his neck. "I'm not happy he's gone, not in the slightest," she admitted, something she wouldn't have confessed to anyone else. The degree to which she missed some of the folks gone from the island was something she kept very close to herself.

"You still being here makes it a little easier, though," she continued in practically a whisper, close enough that he would hear her anyway.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

Jack slipped his arm around her and held her tight to his body. Most any other day it might have been seductive, may have seemed possessive or proprietary. Today he just wanted to hold her. Keep her close...as if he held onto people tight enough he could keep them from leaving him behind.

"You calling me easy?" he teased softly. "You're here...that helps, too."

[devilwoman]

It seemed like they were both needing the same thing, that physical closeness, and it especially helped just then for Saffron that it was Jack in particular, the one other person who would be affected by this disappearance.

"No easier than I am, honey," she replied, then snuggled tight into him, burying her face in his chest. "I'm glad I can help," she said, her voice muffled against his shirt.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

With one arm around her waist it was easy to bring the other up and around her shoulders. He cradled the back of her head and kissed the crown of her head, then sighed softly.

"I won't be here," he said after a minute. "I can't stay here right now. I'll be around, if you come looking...I just won't be here. Lucky for me I never have a problem finding another bed, you know?"

[devilwoman]

She nodded against his chest, and it wasn't hard to understand why he didn't want to be there. She wasn't concerned about her ability to find him should she need or want to.

"There's always room for you in my bed," she said, lifting her head to look up at him. "If you want it."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Might just take you up on that," he replied, looking down into her eyes. "You know, for being such a fraud, you're a damn good woman. Can't say I'm sorry to have you around, Helen."

[devilwoman]

Saffron laughed at that, soft and light. "Why thank you, but I think it takes one to know one, Jack honey. And likewise."

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"You want to go get something to eat? I can't stay here,' he said, not giving her much choice in leaving since he was guiding her toward the path, leaving the hut behind.

[devilwoman]

She would have said yes anyhow, but Jack started leading her in that direction and she just went along, sliding an arm around his waist as they walked.

"I guess you've probably heard about Eostre," she said. She couldn't imagine that anyone hadn't heard about that disappearance by now.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," he answered softly. "And Jane's sister Elizabeth and her husband, Darcy? They're gone. John makes...you're going to think I'm so morbid," he chuckled, then continued, "one hundred. He's the hundredth person that I've been close to who's left."

[devilwoman]

Somehow, she wasn't surprised Jack had kept count, but she was surprised at the number. "Renci de fozu...that many?" she said, eyes widening.


[merciful Buddha]

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"That many," he nodded. "To be fair, it's nowhere near the number of people I've left behind. I've told more people I'd be back in five minutes than...well, you know how it is."

At that, Jack smiled. A real smile for the fonder memories that often clashed with the guilt and reality of what he'd done before. Before he'd met the Doctor.

[devilwoman]

Saffron nodded in agreement. She did know how it was. She'd left a trail of husbands in her wake, and here on the island it seemed like it was all getting turned back on her. The price of getting a second chance, she supposed.

"You've been here so long, longer than me," she mused. "Do you ever wonder if you'll be next?" She'd wondered it before - if one day she'd wake up and find herself locked back in that trash bin.

[captainjack.livejournal.com]

"Sometimes. Usually I wonder who else is going to be next. I got left behind before I got here. Everyone was dead and I was on a satellite orbiting a nearly exterminated Earth. Nowhere to go, no one but myself. And then I wound up here. It's been..."

He'd sort of stopped paying attention at the two year mark, so he had to think about it for a moment before he declared, "Two years, six months, one week. Longest I've been anyplace since I left my home world. How about you?"

[devilwoman]

Earth. She'd gotten mostly used to all the talk about Earth-that-was from people for whom it was still a viable planet, but it was still a bit strange, in the way things there were despite knowing the oddest stuff was commonplace.

Then he gave the exact time he'd been there and she looked up at him in surprise. "Hang on. Two years, six months, one week? Maybe you haven't been here longer than me. Maybe we've been here the exact same amount of time." She wasn't sure what it meant, probably nothing, but it was still an odd coincidence. "What was the date the day you arrived? Here on the island, I mean, not where you came from."