milliways_bar | (no subject)

"That and a few things that came up during the argument."

"Well, I don't know what happened between you two but when she spoke to me, she was only trying to help."

He sighs. "Yeah. It just stings that she mentioned all her concerns to you and didn't say anything to me. I'd rather someone tell me things like this to my face than having to hear about it."

"Jack..." Chris looks away, fidgeting.

"I don't think she would have said anything if I hadn't said something first."

"Why, what did you say?" he asks, a little cautiously. Likely it was the same things they'd discussed last week, but he still wanted to know if there was something she hadn't mentioned.

~~Ha! I almost answered as Sherry!~~

"Nothing I haven't already said to you." And others.

"Listen, Jack, if you want to be angry with anyone you should be angry with me. I was the one who spoke to her about our relationship."

~~...And that would just go beyond crack. "I did it all for you, Da--I mean, Jack!"~~

He reaches across the table and takes her hand. "Yeah, I probably should be, but considering we've already discussed this... Just...the next time you're worried about something between us, tell me, okay? I mean I'm not saying you can't talk with people about our relationship, but it'd be nice to have a heads-up," he says, a little irritation creeping in before he checks it.

"I know I'm not the easiest person to talk about this kind of thing, and there are a lot of times I don't want to discuss something. But there are a lot of times I've thought I should say something but didn't say it because I wasn't sure you wanted to talk about it." He looks up at her with a very small smile, adding, "And anytime you want to talk about this kind of thing and I'm avoiding it, well, feel free to smack me."

Chris looks at him, eyes narrowing. "I have to ask for your permission before I talk to other people about my feelings on our relationship?"

"I didn't say that. I'd just like to hear it from you before I hear it from someone else. Obviously if you're talking with someone and it comes up I don't expect you to go looking for me to ask my permission because you don't need it. It's just if you have concerns, I'd rather hear them from you than from someone else; just like if Michelle has concerns, I'd rather hear them from her than from you or anyone else. Just like I'm sure you'd rather hear anything I might have to say from me, not Tony, or Kim, or Michelle, or anyone else," he says a little irritably.

"Anything I said to Michelle was something I had already said to you before then. And I spoke to you after I spoke to her. What more was I supposed to do?"

He's pretty sure there were a few things that she hadn't really mentioned to the same degree that she had when they talked, but he doesn't want to get into an argument about who said what when.

"Well then this is just for your information as to why I was pissed off at Michelle," he snaps, before taking a deep breath and forcing himself to calm down. "Look, Chris, like I said, I know there have been a lot of times we should have talked about things and we didn't because I was avoiding talking about them. I want to fix that."

Chris sits back in her seat and looks at him. Annoyed but silent. She has nothing to say, she's not even sure what they're arguing about right now.

Jack sighs, not sure how the hell they got into this mess, or exactly where in the mess they are. He suspects it was somewhere around where Chris said "If you're going to be angry at anyone, be angry at me," then somehow got to "What the hell are you angry at me for?"

42 years old, married for 16 years, saved the world more than once, and he still doesn't understand the way women's minds work.

He leans forward, resting his elbows on the table and rubbing his forehead. "Can we start over?"

She sighs, "Fine. Where do you want to start?"

"Somewhere just after hello?" he says a little sacrcastically. He pauses a moment before adding, "Ramon's back in the bar."

"You saw him?"

"No, I spoke to Random, the man he's...seeing," he said, unable to find a better way to describe it. He sure as hell wasn't going to call him Ramon's boyfriend. "He confirmed that Ramon is back. I'm going to leave a note for the rest of security so they know he's back and to keep an eye on him."

"I see."

She's relieved that Ramon is no longer seeing the man who looked like Jack. That was just disturbing.

"The rest of security?"

He blinks for a second. "Oh shit, I keep forgetting to tell people. I've been accepted as a member of backup security," he says with a small, slightly sheepish smile.

She reaches out to touch his hand, smiling at him.

"Congratulations."

"Thanks. I guess the fact I can't turn anyone into a frog didn't count against me."

She smiles wryly. "I'm sure you'll manage somehow without the magical powers."

"Yeah, I'm sure I'll find a way. Besides I'm only backup so I likely won't have to deal with situations too often. Though it does give me more ability to do something about Ramon." He smile gets a little wider. "I have some authority in here now. There's a scary thought."

"Only scary for those who try to start trouble," she says.

She's quiet for a moment.

"So, why are you so upset with Michelle?"

He rubs his forehead for a moment. "I don't know. Because she's a good friend of mine but she didn't say anything about the conversation you two had until a week later, though she knew I was going to be upset about it. I mean, yeah, I know she wasn't in the bar for part of that, but even after she got back she still didn't come to talk to me for a couple days even though she knew that I knew by then. And though I don't expect her to approve of everything I do, it still kind of hurts when a friend tells the person you're involved with that they should probably leave you."