milliways_bar | (no subject)

Beer, they say, is the drink of champions. Ok...she totally made that up, but Kaye is partial to some underage drinking and watches him from a wobbly barstool.

He's kinda cute in a 'nothing like Roiben and way too old for her' way.

He glances at her, nods, then goes back to drinking.

His beer. No touchy!

A nod? Well that was slightly jerkish. Not that she knew him, yet.

"Heavy drinker?" She quirks an eyebrow, spinning the stool partway round. Wheee!

He eyes her again. Is she going to steal his beer? Or shoot him in the face?

He hates it when people do that.

"Only when I'm here."

Most likely she'll distract him and make off with all his worldly possesions.

"Then you won't mind if I have it?" The grin, slightly impish, brightens.

"How old are you?" Jack's a doctor! He doesn't like seeing people do stupid things.

Which is why he drinks more and pulls a cigarette out of his pocket and sticks it in his mouth.

"Twenty-one." She states firmly, without hesitation.

Kaye stares longingly at the cigarette, the corners of her mouth turning downwards.

"Really?" Jack questions, sternly, turning to light the cigarette.

Ahhhhhhh. Calmination.

"Really." The innocent face assures him doubly so. Kaye has always been a good liar.

It's easy when you know how.

"Those'll kill you." Her fingers twitch and she sucks in her lower lip, eyes never leaving the lighter and it's target.

He's dating a liar. He knows how to read them.

"So they tell me." He takes a deep breath, lighting it, and blowing the smoke out.

It was a mistake. She knows now. Thinking the craving was out of her system. Because, damn, doesn't she just want to grab that cigarette from between his lips and take a long satisfying drag.

But even from her perch she can smell the poison, it makes her throat close up and she coughs a little.

He sets the cigarette in the ashtray and pushes it far from her. "Sorry."

He really is.

Her nose itches and her eyes mirror the surprise she feels.

"It's ok." She taps the Bar gently and a mug of black coffee appears.

"I used to smoke, myself. Just...different now."

Beat.

"You from Earth?"

"I used to not. And then I started hating everything and decided to do it again."

Jack's life inna nut.

"Yeah, I am. Massachusetts. You?"

"Too old to have teen angst." Kaye intones, brown eyes sparkling over the rim of her mug.

"New Jersey. What you got against this place?" Her eyes skim over the Bar, narrowing at points.

"Adult angst." Jack shrugs. "It's worse."

He shrugs. "Nothing against this place. Better than the island."

He does glance around. And he does know she's not there. Doesn't stop him from hoping. he really is sorry

"Worse than having your whole life turned upside down, huh?"

Kaye wraps her hands around the mug, keep them warm. She never really wanted the beer anyway. She always has to try her luck.

"Lost your best friend? Got an eating disorder? Died? Enquiring minds want to know?"

She's bold. Encouraged by the coffee heating her veins and the boredom.

"It is having my whole life turned upside down." Jack sighs. "Lost my best friend, plane crashed on some island, having people shooting at me, trying to kill me, shoving me in gun storage closets, and not all in that order."

"Sounds like a TV show."

She snorts. Amused by something she doesn't choose to share with him, then quiets; mood changing as rapidly as the wind.

"I lost my best friend too. It sucks."

"Yep." He nods. "So does being shot at."

"Almost got sacrificed." She beams suddenly in the manner of 'let's compare battle-wounds.'

"I win."

"Ah. Okay. Yeah." He nods. "I...survived my plane falling apart?"

"My best friend got drowned by a Kelpie."

It seems wrong somehow to use this to win a game and guilt gnaws at her belly, so she quickly adds:

"My boyfriend forgot I existed."

"Ow." Jack winces. "I kissed another woman, and when I went home and told my wife about it, she interrupted me to tell me she'd been having an affair and was leaving me for him." a bitter laugh escapes him. "Her mother came over for what I thought was a bridge game. She helped her pack."

Kaye eyes him for a couple of seconds, clearly considering.

"Ok...you win. You get to keep the beer." She fumbles in her pocket, finally extracting a silver zippo-lighter.

"Wanna see a trick?" Her cheeks warmed. Honestly, she doesn't know what to do. When you're so fucked-up yourself, fixing anyone else is impossible. So Kaye falls back on half-quiet stares and things she knows how to do.

"Sure." Jack smiles wearily.

"Watch carefully." The corner of her mouth flipped upwards.

The lighter carefully balanced on her fingers she flicked it over and under each digit, fast enough to be a silver blur, shimmering in the dull light. From her pinky it went right back to the beginning, where she snapped it open one-handed, the flame sparking up.

Except, Kaye's learned some new tricks since that day in the diner and if Jack looks carefully at the flame it might appear to be someone dancing. Glamour is kickass.

Jack smiles again, his head tilted. "Quite a feat."

Awe. That's the sound in his voice.

"Easy when you know how." Kaye echoes her earlier thoughts, grinning widely.

The flame changes again, two people dancing now. A remnant of some long forgotten fairytale, Kaye watches them twist and turn.

It's ironic. They burn each other even as they embrace.

This isn't lost on Jack. He sees it.

It makes him turn away.

"It's pretty though. Even when it's painful." Kaye reaches her fingers out to it, forgetting entirely that it isn't anything but fire.

She yelps, snatching her hand back and the lighter clatters to the bartop, an ordinary object again.

"Let me look at it." Jack says, stretching his hand out to her.

"It's just a bit singed." Her voice is shaky.

The girl who expects to play with fire and not get burned. The girl who peers at him with odd eyes.

We are both broken. Me, by nature. You by circumstance. Strange thoughts swirl in her head. Her fingers smarted.

She holds out her hand.

"Yeah, just a little. No bad burns." He pats Bar, murmuring something and a small tin of cream appears. He smooths it over her fingers. "That should help some."

"Tell me you're a doctor..."

Kaye says, broken out of her reverie by the sharp assault of chemicals and medicine drifting to her nose

"I'm a doctor. Spinal surgeon to be exact...but I know how to handle most of what comes at me."

"In that case, you should really know better than to smoke."

It's not disapproving, just a mention and she wiggles her fingers, wincing at the jolt of pain.

"I'm Kaye." No profession, no nothing, just Kaye. She fluffs at her unusually, natural blonde hair, pushing it out of her face.

"I know." Jack grins. "I'm Jack."

"Good to meet you, Doc."

Kaye puts out her hand to him, briefly shaking his. What Jack probably won't realise until later is that this distraction is exactly what's needed for a rifle through his pockets.

"Later." Then she's gone, shaking her head at how easy that was. A good distance away, she looks at her spoils.

Huh... Well, that was unexpected.

Well she was nice.

He gets up a while later, his pockets feeling lighter. He doesn't stick his hand in the pocket till he was back in the hatch's gun closet.

"Fuck."