Law & Order [Jack McCoy/Claire Kincaid]
Title: Tell Me I Was Dreaming
Pairing: Jack McCoy/Claire Kincaid
Rating: PG-13
Theme Set: Alpha
Spoilers: Mild spoilers for seasons 4-6, esp. "Aftershock"
Disclaimer: Law & Order and all characters there from belongs to Dick Wolf. I own nothing except the sentences themselves (and Ruthie).
Author's Notes: I might be reading too much into their relationship, but I always believed there was more to Jack and Claire than just sex, so be prepared for a lot of introspective stuff. Also, if you're wondering who Ruthie is, she's Claire's little cousin (whom I did make up). Anyway...
#01 - Comfort
It was a comfort for both Jack and Lennie to be here, at the restaurant where they had celebrated their last victory, the last time they had been together with Claire.
#02 - Kiss
Jack spent almost a year trying to tease that first kiss out of Claire Kincaid, but oh, how sweet that first kiss was.
#03 - Soft
The softness of her cheek against his shoulder, the silkiness of her dark hair, and the lightness of her breathing made Jack marvel anew at the fact that, somehow, out of all the men she could have had, Claire had chosen him.
#04 - Pain
Jack was thankful, at least, that the M.E. had determined her death was instantaneous...he didn't know what he would have done if his Claire had suffered before she finally succumbed.
#05 - Potatoes
Claire couldn't help but smile as she noted the takeout meal Jack had purchased and realised that he had remembered she liked curly fries more than the traditional straight variety.
#06 - Rain
The rain lashed at the window, bringing visibility down to nothing, which was perhaps a blessing because neither Jack nor Claire had thought to draw the curtains, and they certainly weren't thinking about that now.
#07 - Chocolate
"Come on, Jack, it'll be fun...I'll even make hot chocolate afterwards," Claire wheedled, already hearing the music of the skating rink.
#08 - Happiness
Claire had never known such total happiness as she did right now, with the man she thought of as a surrogate father joking around with his partner to her left and the man she loved more than anyone else in the world sitting on her right with his hand occasionally squeezing hers under the table.
#09 - Telephone
Sometimes, when a case really got going, Claire felt like Jack was the one doing all the work, and her sole function was to answer the telephone when the defence attorney called to complain about the fact that Jack was still prosecuting their client.
#10 - Ears
Jack reached over and gently tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind one of Claire's ears, saying softly, "I would never let anything happen to you, do you hear me?"
#11 - Name
She was one of the few people who knew his full name was John James McCoy and could get away with calling him anything but Jack, although she didn't do it very often even when they were alone.
#12 - Sensual
There was something sensual about the way Claire moved, Jack thought, even when she was doing something completely unsexy like filing papers.
#13 - Death
Jack replayed the message on his answering machine twenty times, hoping it would change itself magically, but no, it was always the same: Claire had been involved in a DUI.
#14 - Sex
"Believe me, I think about more than sex, Claire," Jack said, a teasing note to his voice, "but don't tell anyone or they'll start expecting me to do it all the time."
#15 - Touch
Claire wouldn't admit it even to herself for the longest time, but she thrilled at the slightest touch from Jack, even if all he did was accidentally brush her hand while handing her a stack of paperwork.
#16 - Weakness
Jack had a weakness for beautiful women...or ugly women...hell, Jack had a weakness for all women, but the first time he met Claire, he wondered why he had ever even looked at another woman.
#17 - Tears
As he stood in the cluster of mourners, watching the pallbearers lower Claire's casket into the neatly dug hole in the ground, Jack didn't even try to stop the tears rolling down his face.
#18 - Speed
"Jack, you must be the only person in the world who can get a speeding ticket during rush hour in Manhattan while riding a motorcycle," Claire yelled over the wind, clinging to his waist for dear life.
#19 - Wind
"You look a little winded" was all Claire said when she saw Jack stagger into the office, but the truth was she was more than a little worried about what could have happened to him.
#20 - Freedom
They couldn't even agree on the fact that at least they had the freedom to disagree about the death penalty, Jack thought in frustration, because Claire would only dredge up the fact that he had opposed the war in Vietnam and somehow spin it so it seemed like he was opposed to war in all its forms.
#21 - Life
"Life is a gift, Jack," Claire said softly, looking at him steadily, "and I don't believe we have the right to take that gift away from someone...we didn't give it to them."
#22 - Jealousy
Irrational or not, Claire thought as she left the office, she was at least aware enough to realise that Diane was jealous of her...probably because the former ADA still had her cap set out for Jack.
#23 - Hands
Probably because of his father, Jack had always noticed people's hands first, and he could definitely appreciate the delicate strength of Claire's.
#24 - Taste
"I love the taste of winter," Claire sighed rapturously, twirling on her ice skates before stopping to laugh at Jack, who was still trying to stand up in his.
#25 - Devotion
"If he's still in love with her even after she's dead, that's some kind of devotion," Jamie commented dryly; Lennie just shook his head and sighed, knowing the new ADA didn't believe in the slightest that Jack McCoy loved anyone but himself that much.
#26 - Forever
She'd promised him once that even if one of them died, they would be together forever, but right now, forever seemed so distant.
#27 - Blood
Jack had expected Claire's dead body to be covered in blood...after all, she had died in a car accident...but she just looked almost like she was asleep, except for the nasty bruise on her neck that showed where she had broken it.
#28 - Sickness
Losing someone that close to you was like a terminal illness you knew you would never recover from, Jack thought, and in his tired brain he wondered if he should start praying to St. Jude, who was supposedly the patron saint of hopeless cases, to heal the hole inside of him and bring his Claire back to him...but somehow, he didn't think that St. Jude would listen to a sixty-year-old man who hadn't bought into the Catholic faith in almost fifty years.
#29 - Melody
Claire told him that the song was called "Take a Little One-Step" and that she had taught her favourite cousin to ice skate to the same song; now Jack knew he would never hear that melody without thinking of Claire.
#30 - Star
Without thinking, Jack put his arm around Claire's shoulder, and the two of them looked up through the window at the single star that was bright enough to penetrate the Manhattan night lights.
#31 - Home
Claire's apartment had never felt like "home" to her, and neither had her mother and stepfather's house, but somehow, Jack's bachelor pad felt like it wanted her and she belonged there...and in that sense, it was more her home than anywhere else she lived.
#32 - Confusion
"I'm sorry, did I not make myself clear when I said I wasn't obsessing over Claire?" snapped Jack, who suspected nonetheless that it was true.
#33 - Fear
Fear was bad; being afraid was about yourself and you had to fight it, but with the message on his answering machine pounding in his ears and not knowing if Claire was all right, Jack was very much afraid whether it was selfish or not.
#34 - Lightning/Thunder
Claire felt like a bolt of lightning had shot through her whenever Jack kissed her, but at the same time she never wanted it to end.
#35 - Bonds
"Ruthie, you don't understand, there's a real...connection between the two of us, and...I love him," Claire admitted; it was the first time she had ever said that aloud...even Jack didn't know yet.
#36 - Market
Several times Claire had thought about looking for another job, but the market for Jack McCoy's former ADAs was not a big one...and besides, she was beginning to suspect that she was falling for him, the same way she had fallen for Judge Thayer only...harder.
#37 - Technology
Jack didn't pretend to understand all the new technology that had cropped up in the latter half of his lifetime; thank God Claire began to understand it.
#38 - Gift
Claire had once told him that life was a gift, but to Jack, the gift was only every day of his life that he had been able to spend with her before she died.
#39 - Smile
Claire raised an eyebrow, giving Jack that crooked little half-smile he loved so much, and said, "So the Man of Steel has a heart after all."
#40 - Innocence
"In our line of work, when somebody kills someone else, they get punished appropriately, and if that means they have to die, then that's what it means," Jack said hotly to Claire; he had no idea that in less than forty-eight hours he would have cause to regret those words with all his heart, but at the time it was just an innocent, if fiery, remark.
#41 - Completion
Jack couldn't help but feel that one of the best times of his life was getting to celebrate the completion of a case with the people he cared about most, especially Claire.
#42 - Clouds
"Cacky, what does that one look like?" Ruthie asked, pointing, and Claire looked up at the cloud; she sat down hard as she realised that it looked exactly like Jack McCoy's profile.
#43 - Sky
Claire almost fell over laughing as she realised that Jack was simply lying on his back, staring up at the sky with a comical expression of helplessness on his face.
#44 - Heaven
"I never knew if I believed in heaven, Lennie, but now I do, and I'm sure Claire's there...if she doesn't belong there, no one does," Jack said quietly.
#45 - Hell
"I'm pretty sure the lowest circle of hell is ice for a reason, Claire," Jack grumbled as he picked himself up off of the slick surface of the ice rink for the umpteenth time, only to fall again.
#46 - Sun
"John James McCoy, if you start singing 'You Are My Sunshine', I swear to God I will shut you in a cell and leave you there the next time we're on Riker's Island," Claire threatened, her hands on her hips as she stood in a shaft of sunlight.
#47 - Moon
The full moon overhead shone so brightly that, even had Claire and Jack not had their eyes closed as they kissed, they would never have realised that the street lamp above them had gone out.
#48 - Waves
Claire watched the waters of the East River bob up and down and seriously considered pushing Jack into it if he started singing that stupid song again; it had been cute the first time, but now it was just annoying, which in retrospect was probably why he kept doing it.
#49 - Hair
Jack had had pitch black hair when he started working at the DA's office, but while most men in the office dyed their hair, he left his alone because Claire had told him the salt-and-pepper mix was sexier.
#50 - Supernova
Claire had never seen a supernova, but lying in Jack's arms, she was pretty sure she knew what one felt like.
Pairing: Jack McCoy/Claire Kincaid
Rating: PG-13
Theme Set: Alpha
Spoilers: Mild spoilers for seasons 4-6, esp. "Aftershock"
Disclaimer: Law & Order and all characters there from belongs to Dick Wolf. I own nothing except the sentences themselves (and Ruthie).
Author's Notes: I might be reading too much into their relationship, but I always believed there was more to Jack and Claire than just sex, so be prepared for a lot of introspective stuff. Also, if you're wondering who Ruthie is, she's Claire's little cousin (whom I did make up). Anyway...
#01 - Comfort
It was a comfort for both Jack and Lennie to be here, at the restaurant where they had celebrated their last victory, the last time they had been together with Claire.
#02 - Kiss
Jack spent almost a year trying to tease that first kiss out of Claire Kincaid, but oh, how sweet that first kiss was.
#03 - Soft
The softness of her cheek against his shoulder, the silkiness of her dark hair, and the lightness of her breathing made Jack marvel anew at the fact that, somehow, out of all the men she could have had, Claire had chosen him.
#04 - Pain
Jack was thankful, at least, that the M.E. had determined her death was instantaneous...he didn't know what he would have done if his Claire had suffered before she finally succumbed.
#05 - Potatoes
Claire couldn't help but smile as she noted the takeout meal Jack had purchased and realised that he had remembered she liked curly fries more than the traditional straight variety.
#06 - Rain
The rain lashed at the window, bringing visibility down to nothing, which was perhaps a blessing because neither Jack nor Claire had thought to draw the curtains, and they certainly weren't thinking about that now.
#07 - Chocolate
"Come on, Jack, it'll be fun...I'll even make hot chocolate afterwards," Claire wheedled, already hearing the music of the skating rink.
#08 - Happiness
Claire had never known such total happiness as she did right now, with the man she thought of as a surrogate father joking around with his partner to her left and the man she loved more than anyone else in the world sitting on her right with his hand occasionally squeezing hers under the table.
#09 - Telephone
Sometimes, when a case really got going, Claire felt like Jack was the one doing all the work, and her sole function was to answer the telephone when the defence attorney called to complain about the fact that Jack was still prosecuting their client.
#10 - Ears
Jack reached over and gently tucked a stray strand of dark hair behind one of Claire's ears, saying softly, "I would never let anything happen to you, do you hear me?"
#11 - Name
She was one of the few people who knew his full name was John James McCoy and could get away with calling him anything but Jack, although she didn't do it very often even when they were alone.
#12 - Sensual
There was something sensual about the way Claire moved, Jack thought, even when she was doing something completely unsexy like filing papers.
#13 - Death
Jack replayed the message on his answering machine twenty times, hoping it would change itself magically, but no, it was always the same: Claire had been involved in a DUI.
#14 - Sex
"Believe me, I think about more than sex, Claire," Jack said, a teasing note to his voice, "but don't tell anyone or they'll start expecting me to do it all the time."
#15 - Touch
Claire wouldn't admit it even to herself for the longest time, but she thrilled at the slightest touch from Jack, even if all he did was accidentally brush her hand while handing her a stack of paperwork.
#16 - Weakness
Jack had a weakness for beautiful women...or ugly women...hell, Jack had a weakness for all women, but the first time he met Claire, he wondered why he had ever even looked at another woman.
#17 - Tears
As he stood in the cluster of mourners, watching the pallbearers lower Claire's casket into the neatly dug hole in the ground, Jack didn't even try to stop the tears rolling down his face.
#18 - Speed
"Jack, you must be the only person in the world who can get a speeding ticket during rush hour in Manhattan while riding a motorcycle," Claire yelled over the wind, clinging to his waist for dear life.
#19 - Wind
"You look a little winded" was all Claire said when she saw Jack stagger into the office, but the truth was she was more than a little worried about what could have happened to him.
#20 - Freedom
They couldn't even agree on the fact that at least they had the freedom to disagree about the death penalty, Jack thought in frustration, because Claire would only dredge up the fact that he had opposed the war in Vietnam and somehow spin it so it seemed like he was opposed to war in all its forms.
#21 - Life
"Life is a gift, Jack," Claire said softly, looking at him steadily, "and I don't believe we have the right to take that gift away from someone...we didn't give it to them."
#22 - Jealousy
Irrational or not, Claire thought as she left the office, she was at least aware enough to realise that Diane was jealous of her...probably because the former ADA still had her cap set out for Jack.
#23 - Hands
Probably because of his father, Jack had always noticed people's hands first, and he could definitely appreciate the delicate strength of Claire's.
#24 - Taste
"I love the taste of winter," Claire sighed rapturously, twirling on her ice skates before stopping to laugh at Jack, who was still trying to stand up in his.
#25 - Devotion
"If he's still in love with her even after she's dead, that's some kind of devotion," Jamie commented dryly; Lennie just shook his head and sighed, knowing the new ADA didn't believe in the slightest that Jack McCoy loved anyone but himself that much.
#26 - Forever
She'd promised him once that even if one of them died, they would be together forever, but right now, forever seemed so distant.
#27 - Blood
Jack had expected Claire's dead body to be covered in blood...after all, she had died in a car accident...but she just looked almost like she was asleep, except for the nasty bruise on her neck that showed where she had broken it.
#28 - Sickness
Losing someone that close to you was like a terminal illness you knew you would never recover from, Jack thought, and in his tired brain he wondered if he should start praying to St. Jude, who was supposedly the patron saint of hopeless cases, to heal the hole inside of him and bring his Claire back to him...but somehow, he didn't think that St. Jude would listen to a sixty-year-old man who hadn't bought into the Catholic faith in almost fifty years.
#29 - Melody
Claire told him that the song was called "Take a Little One-Step" and that she had taught her favourite cousin to ice skate to the same song; now Jack knew he would never hear that melody without thinking of Claire.
#30 - Star
Without thinking, Jack put his arm around Claire's shoulder, and the two of them looked up through the window at the single star that was bright enough to penetrate the Manhattan night lights.
#31 - Home
Claire's apartment had never felt like "home" to her, and neither had her mother and stepfather's house, but somehow, Jack's bachelor pad felt like it wanted her and she belonged there...and in that sense, it was more her home than anywhere else she lived.
#32 - Confusion
"I'm sorry, did I not make myself clear when I said I wasn't obsessing over Claire?" snapped Jack, who suspected nonetheless that it was true.
#33 - Fear
Fear was bad; being afraid was about yourself and you had to fight it, but with the message on his answering machine pounding in his ears and not knowing if Claire was all right, Jack was very much afraid whether it was selfish or not.
#34 - Lightning/Thunder
Claire felt like a bolt of lightning had shot through her whenever Jack kissed her, but at the same time she never wanted it to end.
#35 - Bonds
"Ruthie, you don't understand, there's a real...connection between the two of us, and...I love him," Claire admitted; it was the first time she had ever said that aloud...even Jack didn't know yet.
#36 - Market
Several times Claire had thought about looking for another job, but the market for Jack McCoy's former ADAs was not a big one...and besides, she was beginning to suspect that she was falling for him, the same way she had fallen for Judge Thayer only...harder.
#37 - Technology
Jack didn't pretend to understand all the new technology that had cropped up in the latter half of his lifetime; thank God Claire began to understand it.
#38 - Gift
Claire had once told him that life was a gift, but to Jack, the gift was only every day of his life that he had been able to spend with her before she died.
#39 - Smile
Claire raised an eyebrow, giving Jack that crooked little half-smile he loved so much, and said, "So the Man of Steel has a heart after all."
#40 - Innocence
"In our line of work, when somebody kills someone else, they get punished appropriately, and if that means they have to die, then that's what it means," Jack said hotly to Claire; he had no idea that in less than forty-eight hours he would have cause to regret those words with all his heart, but at the time it was just an innocent, if fiery, remark.
#41 - Completion
Jack couldn't help but feel that one of the best times of his life was getting to celebrate the completion of a case with the people he cared about most, especially Claire.
#42 - Clouds
"Cacky, what does that one look like?" Ruthie asked, pointing, and Claire looked up at the cloud; she sat down hard as she realised that it looked exactly like Jack McCoy's profile.
#43 - Sky
Claire almost fell over laughing as she realised that Jack was simply lying on his back, staring up at the sky with a comical expression of helplessness on his face.
#44 - Heaven
"I never knew if I believed in heaven, Lennie, but now I do, and I'm sure Claire's there...if she doesn't belong there, no one does," Jack said quietly.
#45 - Hell
"I'm pretty sure the lowest circle of hell is ice for a reason, Claire," Jack grumbled as he picked himself up off of the slick surface of the ice rink for the umpteenth time, only to fall again.
#46 - Sun
"John James McCoy, if you start singing 'You Are My Sunshine', I swear to God I will shut you in a cell and leave you there the next time we're on Riker's Island," Claire threatened, her hands on her hips as she stood in a shaft of sunlight.
#47 - Moon
The full moon overhead shone so brightly that, even had Claire and Jack not had their eyes closed as they kissed, they would never have realised that the street lamp above them had gone out.
#48 - Waves
Claire watched the waters of the East River bob up and down and seriously considered pushing Jack into it if he started singing that stupid song again; it had been cute the first time, but now it was just annoying, which in retrospect was probably why he kept doing it.
#49 - Hair
Jack had had pitch black hair when he started working at the DA's office, but while most men in the office dyed their hair, he left his alone because Claire had told him the salt-and-pepper mix was sexier.
#50 - Supernova
Claire had never seen a supernova, but lying in Jack's arms, she was pretty sure she knew what one felt like.