The Perfect Weapon Epilogue 1 part 6

[camillecarelli]

Judy smiled back, remembering the look of happiness on his face when she had given him that suggestion.

“That’s it! That’s all I needed!” he had exclaimed and reached out and hugged her tightly. She had smiled against his broad shoulder, then moved her face so it didn’t rub against his holster. He had taken off his jacket and left it downstairs; the absentee owners had turned off the air conditioning and it was a little warm in the house. And she wasn’t complaining, she kinda liked that gun holster, she thought smiling, knowing he could not see it. And, she sighed, she liked his hug, too. She and Sydney had talked more than once since that day on the roof about Jack’s new demonstrativeness, or rather, as Sydney put it, the resumption of his demonstrativeness. Hugging him back, she also remembered Sydney saying that her father gave good hugs, big, all enveloping hugs. She had sighed in his arms in that bedroom. Sydney was right. If only... She had shaken her head and looked up him, smiling, telling herself to be a little more patient. After all, she realized, he was not letting her go.

Then he grinned. “Hey, no big deal. All we have to do is cut a hole in the roof and voila! No more enclosed, tight spaces. Just the sky and freedom.”

She had smiled back at him, rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s me, always with the easy suggestions for you, Jack. Reinvent your life a while back. And now, just cut a hole in the roof. That’s all. No biggie. You must cringe whenever I open my mouth.”

No, he wanted her to open her mouth and... He let go of her quickly before she felt another big problem that was erupting and forced himself to make some inconsequential comment about the technicalities of installing a skylight while he remembered...

Sitting there next to her in the move theater he realized suddenly that he had not been on a date in a long time. He had been on a few, nothing special, nothing interesting. Oh well, he shrugged, he had always had a better time with Judy than any of those dates, it was no big deal if he’d rather be with her than some other woman making small talk.So, they sat there watching some stupid spy flick - and Sydney was right, he watched them only so that he could have the fun of ripping them to shreds with her or Vaughn or Judy or even, he grimaced, on occasion, Kendall - he had felt like something was missing. He didn’t understand it. Here he was with Judy, watching a movie they’d have fun arguing about later in her apartment while he ransacked her cabinets for snacks, talking and laughing until it was time for him to leave for his, as Sydney said, borrrring apartment. A full night, he had always felt. But tonight... he had felt...his hands wanted to do something and he kept rubbing them back and forth on his thighs, earning him curious looks from Judy. He didn’t know what he wanted, but he knew he needed to get up for a moment.

He touched her arm and she looked over at him, leaned toward him, and whispered, “Yes?” And he paused, shuffling the cards in his hand as he remembered now. Remembered that he had thought for a second, a nanosecond really, that he wanted to hear her whisper yes in some other darkened room and had jumped up at the thought. “Be right back,” he had muttered and left the theater. Striding quickly into the lobby he firmly quashed those thoughts and put them in the box labeled, ‘Inappropriate, wishful thinking’ and bought Judy a popcorn and soda. They had been rushed on the way in and hadn’t had a chance and Judy liked her snacks, even if he disliked popcorn. Then running his tongue around his dry mouth, he changed the soda order to an extra large. Might as well, Judy always complained if he gave her just a large size anyway.

Sitting back down next to her, he had handed her the tub of popcorn and her eyes had widened. “Jack, this is huge. How am I going to eat this by myself?”

He looked down. Oh, he must have ordered an extralarge snack too and hadn’t even realized it. “Sorry. Just eat what you can. I’ll.. Handle the rest. Throw it out for you.”

“Are you sure you hate popcorn?”

“I’m sure. You know I like Ruffles.”

“You’re too rigid... in your snack choices, Jack,” Judy shrugged and looked up at the screen with a smile. And then, he sighed, she had begun eating. He had never noticed her eating before, but somehow, that night, he had watched her put that stupid popcorn, popcorn he hated in her mouth with her hands, watched her fingertips brush her lips, watched her tongue come out and lick her lips. Then she absently licked her fingertips with her tongue and he could have sworn he actually gasped. What the hell was wrong with him? He’d seen her eat popcorn a million times and... tonight. She looked over at him, her face quizzical and held out the tub. Asked, “Sure you don’t want some? You look hungry.” He had shaken his head, grabbed for the cup of soda and taken a long drink. Then she had licked her fingertips again. Said, “Guess you forgot the napkins? That never happens? Are you distracted by someting? Oh, do me a favor - look in my purse-“ She pointed a wet fingertip past him, where her purse was sitting on the empty seat next to him and said, “I should have tissues in there or something...”

He picked up the tote bag she called her purse and began rummaging through it, looking for those napkins, tissues, whatever. Anything to not look at her lick her fingertips again. Damn it, why did women have to carry the kitchen sink around with them, anyway? He’d much rather get up and go get some napkins from the concession, but that, he knew would require getting up a different way than the problem in his lap, so maybe he should just keep looking. “Jack?” Judy whispered, “Give it to me, I’ll find it already. You’re making this too long.”

He nearly groaned and thought to himself, “You’re not kidding.”

She reached her hand out. “C’mon. This is not your area of expertise, you know...” She grinned and continued, “A snatch mission?”

Oh, it could be, he thought, then wanted to smack himself. What the hell was wrong with him? This was not good, he decided, shifting around in his seat, swearing at the tote bag. Oh, wait, there was a use for the stupid purse, camouflage he thought and plunked it down on his lap. Then groaned. “What the hell did you have in here?”

Judy bit her lip, “Um, sorry. My tape recorder is in the bottom.”

He grimaced, said “That’s okay, not a problem.” Pain, pain was good. Pain could make a big problem a small problem in no time flat. Much more efficient than the compartmentalization which had failed miserably. He handed her a napkin and watched, like a fool, as she blotted her lips. No way was he moving this tote bag anytime soon, he decided.

“Hope it didn’t damage anything I might consider important,” she said primly, then sucked on the straw of her drink, looking up at him from under her lashes.

Wait. A. Minute, he thought now. Had she been flirting with him? Then? This morning? Was Judy’s way of flirting that...sexual? Wow. What had he been missing?

Because, oh brother, he had missed it. For fear of being wrong. For...the confusion created in a man’s mind when the body took over. For Judy and Susan and Sydney and probably little Carrie too, would say, for the reason that he was a stupid man who couldn’t see an emotional truth even when it banged him on the balls.

Because then he had merely shaken his head and looked back at the screen and decided that the situation was rapidly escalating out of control. He had made that vow to himself that he would not make love to a woman again until he was really making love, and... then, sitting there in that theater, trying not to watch her eat or drink or lick her damn fingers - really, couldn’t she just use a napkin? He had told himself that it had been a long time since he’d had sex and clearly he and his hand needed to renew their acquaintance if he was almost ready to make out with his friend in a theater, both of them in their fifties! And she was a blonde, for the love of god. No, this must be wrong. It must be... Yes. But then again, he thought, seeing her hand go back into the popcorn tub and knowing what was coming next, he was afraid to think what choices his mind was making while his hand went into that tub with her and... Was that what was missing? Did he want to hold hands with her? Oh, STOP IT, he told himself firmly. Firm, that he was, he thought, shifting around.

Judy gave him a look and hissed, “Don’t drop my tote bag. I promise you that if you spill everything in it, you’ll be the one on your hands and knees on the floor picking everything up. Not me.”

He bit his lip, nodded and stared blankly at the screen, begging, begging for someone to get tortured, killed, decapitated, anything banal would do so long as it would calm him down. He was... pathetic. He need to get his mind off, although, it wasn’t his mind that wanted to get off. Oh, my god, he thought, rubbing his forehead, shifting around.

“Jack, what are you doing?” Judy hissed, earning her a hiss from a nearby theatergoer. She glared at the man, he turned around. Jack knew the feeling. Judy gave good glares.

“What am I doing?” he asked blankly, knowing that he had no freakin’ idea what the hell he was doing. But he needed to compartmentalize quickly before he embarrassed himself. Yup, shove all this inappropriateness down into that box. Nope, he wasn’t going to break a perfectly good rule about lusting after a friend. Nope. Nope. Not a good thing. Not at all. He would embarrass her, embarrass him. Possibly lose a friend. And he wanted Judy in his life. So... yes, just shove it all down and forget about it. He could do that. He told himself.

“Jack?” she asked, putting her hand on his bare arm. His bare arm. See, this is what happened when you wore casual clothes instead of suits and ties. You had bare arms and then she touches your skin with those cool fingertips and....

“Judy? Are you okay?” He asked, automatically putting his warm hand over top of hers.

“I...You’re making me nervous. All that shifting around. Stop it. Please,” she had ordered.

And that, he thought now, had been his mistake. Not the shifting of his body. But the shifting of his mind. He had stopped it. When, should he just start it and see what happened? What if... What if he just threw out the rule book, his rule book on not dating friends, on not dating blondes, on being cautious, well, just with Judy? Because... What if she had been flirting with him on the phone? What if she had hung up when he was in the shower because it... bothered her that he was in the shower? What if she touched his hand for the same reason, he realized that he touched her shoulder, because she wanted an excuse to touch? What if she had done that, that thing with the spoon partly as a play in the game between a man and a woman? What if he had sent those flowers as his own play in that game? What if.....

He looked at Judy, she looked back at him. She saw that click in his eyes, saw him look at her, saw the truth in her. And finally, she closed her eyes and said a brief thank you, she saw the truth for which she hoped for so long in his eyes. Her lips parted and her eyes grew wide. Then she realized that it was too quiet and looked sideways, knowing Jack would not want this moment to be too public, but... her hands were trembling.

“Jack, it’s your turn,” Dixon pointed out quietly.

“My turn? Oh, I pass,” Jack said, shaking his head, trying to clear it. But the combination of hope and anxiety and frustration was a potent one. Damn it, he needed to... try this out.

“Dad,” Sydney said loudly. “You can’t pass.”

“Yeah,” Vaughn agreed. “Those aren’t the rules.” Uh-oh, as soon as the words left his mouth he knew that somehow he had made a mistake.

“Agent Vaughn,” Jack said in that hissing tone, as he put down his cards and folded his hands on the table, “In case this feature of my personality has somehow escaped the microscopic examination under which you have placed it recently, playing by the rules is neither a sufficient nor a necessary reason for any action I might nor might not take.”

Everyone put down their cards.

“What did that mean?” Vaughn whispered out of the corner of his mouth to Sydney.

“You are in deep sh*t,” Sydney whispered back.

“Better you than me,” Susan whispered.

“Actually,” Marshall spoke up timidly. “I hate to say this, I mean I really hate to point out an error - not on your part, Jack, I mean, Mr. Bristow, I mean Agent Bristow. I mean, you’re scaring me again.”

“He’s scaring me too,” Weiss muttered. “Poor, poor Vaughn, I knew him well.”

Marshall nodded several times, then said, “But actually, it was Dixon’s error.”

“My error?” Dixon asked, breathing a sigh of relief. Marshall, as usual, had lessened the tension. Everyone picked up their cards again.

“Yes. Actually it was Judy’s turn. She was waiting, I think, for Jack to finish whatever thought it was that made him look so... I’ll shut up now.”

“Made me look so what, Marshall?” Jack asked, striving for patience. And control. Control would be a good thing. A very good thing.

“Hard.” Marshall said. Jack choked. Judy looked at him and bit her lip. Marshall rambled on, “Like you look when you’re trying to puzzle out something and everything is fully engaged.”
“Really? That’s how I look when everything is fully engaged?” Jack said blandly.

“Jack... I know I’d like to see everything of yours fully engaged,” Judy said into his ear.

He turned his head so fast he bumped her nose. Wow, he thought, then quirked his mouth trying to hide his smile. He had just gotten the answer, the final answer to his question, what if Judy wanted him too, and the best he could come up with was ‘Wow’? Well, actually, that wasn’t the best he could come up with, but verbal interplay was the only legal response he could come up with in public. “Don’t make me laugh,” he said, using the excuse of rubbing his nose to hide his mouth and his words. “I’m trying to scare the dream team over there,” he rolled his eyes toward Sydney, Susan and Vaughn.

Judy asked, “What did you mean by that, Marshall?”

As he began explaining, Judy whispered to Jack, “You do realize you don’t scare me? I like it, actually, “ she said in her prim little voice that he knew hid a world of trouble, “When you appear dangerous. Or angry.” Ah, he thought, that was one reason she liked to argue with him. “Or frustrated, that’s good too.”

“Luckily, I can do that without a lot of thought,” Jack said dryly.

“Of course you can. You’re a man, you spend most of your life doing almost everything without a lot of thought.”

Marshall was still speaking as everyone’s eyes glazed over. “Or let’s give an example. Like you were trying to uncover the secrets of the universe hidden in, say one of those Rambaldi boxes that you need a special key to unlock but you’d have to go to Malaysia, then Moscow, then Manhattan to find the parts to that key, then you have to go to Tunisia, Timbuktu and Terre Haute to find the parts to the lock to fit that key - Hey, did you know Timbuktu is a real place? I wonder how it came to be that Timbuktu came to mean, well, timbuktu?”

“Look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary,” Susan suggested.

“Yes, why don’t you, Marshall?” Jack suggested in that voice that alone was enough to make Vaughn wince, although he tried to hide it. Who was next? Not him, please not him.... “Susan here has the version that requires a magnifying glass to read it, a tool that comes in handy on occasion when she is looking for teeny tiny objects, such as, oh I don’t know? Her brain, for example.”

Everyone put down their cards.

Except Judy. She looked at her hand and said with a gleam in her eyes, “I believe I can end this. Jack, it’s my turn. Here’s a card.” She handed it to him.

He took it, looked at it and to everyone’s astonishment, smiled.

Judy smiled back and said, “Screw you.”

Judy whispered to Jack, “You do realize you don’t scare me? I like it, actually, “ she said in her prim little voice that he knew hid a world of trouble, “When you appear dangerous. Or angry.” Ah, he thought, that was one reason she liked to argue with him. “Or frustrated, that’s good too.”

“Luckily, I can do that without a lot of thought,” Jack said dryly.

“Of course you can. You’re a man, you spend most of your life doing almost everything without a lot of thought.”

Marshall was still speaking as everyone’s eyes glazed over. “Or let’s give an example. Like you were trying to uncover the secrets of the universe hidden in, say one of those Rambaldi boxes that you need a special key to unlock but you’d have to go to Malaysia, then Moscow, then Manhattan to find the parts to that key, then you have to go to Tunisia, Timbuktu and Terre Haute to find the parts to the lock to fit that key - Hey, did you know Timbuktu is a real place? I wonder how it came to be that Timbuktu came to mean, well, timbuktu?”

“Look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary,” Susan suggested.

“Yes, why don’t you, Marshall?” Jack suggested in that voice that alone was enough to make Vaughn wince, although he tried to hide it. Who was next? Not him, please not him.... “Susan here has the version that requires a magnifying glass to read it, a tool that comes in handy on occasion when one is looking for teeny tiny objects, such as, oh I don’t know? One’s brain, for example.”

Everyone put down their cards. Except Judy. She looked at her hand and said with a gleam in her eyes, “I believe I can end this. Jack, it’s my turn. Here’s a card.” She handed it to him.

He took it, looked at it and to everyone’s astonishment, smiled.

Judy smiled back and said, “Screw you.”

Jack looked at her and burst out laughing.

As everyone sighed in relief and then began to laugh themselves, Kendall commented, “He gets a beautiful woman to tell him to screw off and what do I get? Jack. This game is unfair. Let’s play a different game, one I can win.” He tossed his cards in Vaughn’s direction, as did everyone else.

“And that would be what, exactly? Go Fish?” Weiss asked.

“Old Maid?” Sydney suggested.

“Well, not Hearts,” Dixon said dryly. “Because I often doubt that you have one, so...”

As the table debated, Jack leaned to the side and whispered, “Screw me? Well, that sounds a lot more interesting than when I said that to Kendall. But tell me, is that a promise?”

“I did tell you it would be okay, didn’t I?” Judy said. “So, yes, screw...-”

“You know, Judy, as enticing as that sounds, given our current location, it’s out of the question. But... I would like to screw a certain set of conspirators, wouldn’t you?” She nodded. “I’m thinking that the best way would be to pretend, for a little while anyway, that... “ He took a breath and swallowed hard. “Nothing’s changed. Even though it has. Hasn’t it?”

Surreptitiously, she reached out and took Jack’s hand in hers under the table and squeezed it. “Yes, it has changed in some ways. In some ways, no, it’s only-“

“Deepened?” he asked softly. She nodded again and after squeezing his hand again, let it go. Not here.

“But yes, let’s play a little game of our own. People generally see what they expect to see -“

“Or what they’ve seen in the past because -“
“People have patterns,” Judy noted quietly, “As you always say. And Michael listens to you, learns from you. Patterns - That’s what they’re relying on with this card game plan of theirs.”

“Card game plan?” Jack frowned as he realized...

“Jack, how did playing-“

“Damn it. Relaxed. Playing cards relaxes me. And it allowed me to see the truth so much quicker...” He rolled his eyes as he knew how blind he had been. How... excellent had been Vaughn’s little plan. Subtle even. Nearly perfect. Geez. This was Vaughn’s version of Operation Perfect Weapon. He’d used not only his blind spot about Judy, but this card game to relax him, to put him back to a time when the stakes were not so high, when he hadn’t worried about the ramifications of every choice. When the risks were so much lower... Because of course, in a nicely circular way he could appreciate, there was so little risk with Judy. Well, not of the national security kind anyway, he thought, thinking of that night in the movie theater. With her, there was always the risk of not being able to walk out of a given situation. And, he thought with a sense of wonder, his heart. But...was it really a risk? This was Judy, that he would and had trusted with his life, his emotional life, before. And even if it were a risk? Did the potential advantages outweigh.... Well, he was no fool, he could do a cost benefit analysis. Yes, the advantages outweighed any potential risks. And what did he want? He almost groaned thinking of her comment suddenly about being on his hands and knees. How had he missed all those cues she had been throwing at him? If they had been bombs, he’d be dead. And somehow, he thought, looking over at her as she made small talk with Dixon, while he let his mind wander, he was going to pay for his denseness. He smiled. That would be fun. And he’d make her pay for... licking her fingers like that and sucking on that straw... To say nothing of that spoon moment. He sighed happily. Payback was a good thing. Even that b**** Martha Stewart would have to agree.

He looked up, feeling Vaughn’s eyes on him and looked at him noncommittally. Geez. He’d have to tell Michael he was proud of him, after he got done killing him that is. He turned in his seat to face Judy and felt the gun holster move against his shoulder. Hmm.

“Gin,” Judy was saying. “Let’s play gin. Marshall and Jack will both enjoy that. It’s all about odds and probability.”

“True,” Marshall said. “But then there’s also luck. And you never know with luck. Now, playing....”

“Jack,” Judy said, turning away as Marshall began talking to Dixon about playing odds in the game of Hearts. “So... are you done thinking?

“Yes. Thanks for your patience.”

“What’s a few moments?” she asked, shrugging, thinking of how long she had waited. “But this group card game is like -“

“The group dates, the parties from college? And...” he looked at her, spoke carefully. “Vaughn knows that my first date with Laura was at one of Dave and my card parties... I don’t think this was appropriate, even though...”

“Even though....?” Judy asked.

“Well, it worked. Which really annoys me. Really annoys me. Outplayed by Michael Vaughn.. But...”

“Jack. Tell me,” Judy coaxed. Then reminded him, “You know you will eventually.”

He smiled. “True. I’m a regular blabbermouth around you.” She snorted. “I am. Relatively speaking, anyway. Because... I feel safe with you.” Then he smiled, squeezed her hand again. “In, well, since that movie, in a dangerous sort of way.”

“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Judy smiled. “But, tell me. Why don’t you think this plan was appropriate?”

“Replicating my first date with another woman? I don’t think so. Because, well,” he looked down and looked up again, “I’m worried - doesn’t it bother you?”

“Actually? No. Because... let’s think about this the way Vaughn might have, looking for patterns as he was. If, let’s say, you had met me in college, graduate school, and asked me out-“

“You mean you wouldn’t have asked me out?” Jack asked, smiling. He put his hand up to his face and rubbed his jaw. When was the last time his face had almost hurt from smiling?

“Those were the dark ages, Jack. Women didn’t ask out men in those days. And in my book, they still don’t. There are just some things the man should do.” She raised an eyebrow, suppressing the grin that wanted to erupt, knowing that Susan was watching her carefully. She sighed. They needed to get out of here.

“Oh really?” Jack asked with a small smile, watching carefully as the rest of the table continued discussing what card game to play next. “As much as I anticipate with great... interest finding out exactly what that entails, what is your point?”

“If we’d met then, and gone out, what are the odds we might have ended up at one of these card parties?”

Jack inclined his head. “Ah. Good point. We would have either gone to the movies or a card party. And we’ve already done the movies.” He looked down and smiled again. On his hands and knees on the floor indeed. “But speaking of watching something, you do know that Barbie, Ken and Midge are watching us, waiting...”

“I may not be spy material, Jack. But I did notice the concerned looks, the wondering. Are Jack and Judy going to get together? Or is Jack going to screw this up?”

“Jack screw this up?” He raised an eyebrow. “Well, pardon me,” he said frostily, although his eyes were warm. So warm, she thought.

She raised an eyebrow of her own. “Well, I’ll forgive you eventually for making me wait this long. Eventually.”

“Sorry,” he said sincerely and reached for her hand and held it gently in his.

“That’s okay. You’re ready when you’re ready. But... I did think you were pretty ready that night at the movies.”

Oh yeah, he’d been ready. He began to chuckle, then squashed it and hissed at her, “Be quiet. I’m going to burst out laughing again any second and Sydney at least will catch on.”

“True. You know, part of me wants to say screw them---”

“What are you two talking about?” Susan asked. She couldn’t quite tell how this was going. The minute she spoke, Judy and Jack looked up but their faces assumed polite expressions that could mean anything or nothing.
Judy and Jack were talking incessantly, but they always did that with each other. What did they always find to talk about? They were both smiling, but they always did that with each other. They were both too good at hiding what they were feeling, Jack behind that damn mask of his, Judy behind a neutral facade that might have fooled her if her instincts had not pointed her in Jack’s direction. So, had progress been made or not? “Vaughn,” she whispered, “How do you think it’s going?”

“I’m... not sure,” he whispered back, staring at Jack and Judy. Sydney rolled her eyes. Was she the only one who could see the glint in her father’s eyes before he’d dropped the mask down? Vaughn spoke up, “Yeah, what was so fascinating over there?”

“Oh,” Judy said, “We’re talking about the proper tools needed for cutting a hole in Jack’s roof and then screwing the ---” Vaughn and Susan frowned. Sydney gave them both a speculative look.

“So, Michael,” Jack began, trying not to laugh ,knowing they was confusing the hell out of the dream team, “Will you help me with the skylight installation? I understand you’re handy with a screwdriver, after all. Gotten you out of trouble a time or two.”

“The skylight? That’s a lot of work,” Vaughn said, groaning. He could see the weekends in his future. “Eric?”

“Sure, why not?” Weiss shrugged. Then turning to Susan he asked, “Are you handy at all with tools?”

“That’s something you’ll have to wait to find out,” she answered, smiling again. “I don’t handle tools on a first date.”

Dixon shook his head trying not to laugh and offered, “I’ll help. I’ve been thinking of putting in a skylight in my house. We can practice on yours, Jack, then do mine.”

“Um, well, sure. Thanks,” Jack said. He smiled, remembering Mr. Greenlaw and Dave helping screen in their front porch. He was getting a life back again.

“Judy, maybe you’d like to help? Do you know how to use a power tool?” Susan asked. She grinned sheepishly at Sydney when she glared at her. Oops, suppose that had been a little yucky for Sydney. Oh well, in for a penny... “If you don’t, I bet Jack would be willing to teach you.”

“Oh, I could teach you. If you don’t already know,” Jack replied blandly. Then bit his lip at the look of shock on his daughter’s face. Ha. She got the double entrendre even if the other two did not. Good. A sqwicky payback for her participation in this game. Something that he had not had the fun of when he and Dave had hosted their card parties in the past. Card parties.... He glared at Vaughn, who began shuffling the cards a little faster.

Judy began to laugh, then turned it into a cough.“ Power tools? Machines? No, I prefer hand tools, myself.”

Susan looked surprised, then confused. Judy’s face was so... calm, she couldn’t have meant what she thought she had meant. Could she? And Judy was so... formal in public, generally. So, no, she must have just been talking about Home Depot kinda tools, not Jack’s... toolbox.

“Besides, I don’t do roofs well, remember?” Judy reminded Susan, trying to engage her attention. Jack was blowing the game, grinning like a fool over there. What was he thinking anyway?

“You really need to overcome that fear of yours,” Jack said, smiling, trying to keep from laughing. He had missed hearing women and their sexual innuendos. Turning toward her, he added softly, “I think you need to see a doctor about that. That fear. Find a therapy that works.”
“Do you?” Judy asked, smiling herself and tapping his hand where it lay on the table. He looked down. She touched his hand a lot. She always did that, as a matter of fact. He...liked that, he realized.

“Oh, yeah,” Jack said, grinning as he reached out and touched her shoulder in return, before returning it to his leg. “I think it will make all the difference. I could help. After all, what’s a little fear of heights? I bet I could devise a plan. I do have my doctorate in... helping women find their full potential, making them achieve the heights of possibilities, you know.” He bit his lip. Looking at her, watching the mischief enter her eyes, he smiled. He waited with anticipation for her next effort and rubbed his hand along his thigh trying to use up an excess of energy. He realized that for so long, he had felt so little hope, so little faith, so little.... love and now? He looked at Sydney and then back at Judy and smiled.

Judy looked down and reached her hand out and stopped the movements of his hand on his leg by the simple expedient of laying one finger on the top of his hand. Brushing her fingertip back and forth, she looked back up and said softly with a smile, “I don’t have a fear of the... subject matter of your dissertation, Jack. Just heights. Although I suppose it depends upon, with all that expertise you acquired doing your research, just how high you can---”

He gaped at her and she laughed aloud, drawing everyone’s attention.

Susan stared at her in astonishment once again. Judy could be so... stiff in public, so what was this? Was this a good sign? But then again, she had seen Jack make Judy convulse in laughter more than once, so... Who knew? This was so frustrating.

Jack looked up and then pushed his hand through his hair and redirected. “The skylights will make all the difference in the house. Thanks again, Judy, for the idea.” He was going to pay her back for this, he swore, as he shifted around in his chair.

“Wait. That’s right, I didn’t catch that before. But Judy? Judy gave you that idea?” Sydney asked.

“Is that such a surprise?” Judy asked as she finished the last bite of her sandwich and pushed the tray away, the last one to finish. Vaughn and Susan got up and began clearing the trays off of the table, but leaving that green jello behind for everyone. “That I’d have a great idea?”

“No!” Sydney exclaimed. “It’s just... I didn’t know Dad had asked you to look at the house.”

“Me either,” Susan agreed. Why hadn’t Judy mentioned that when she’d commented on the new ice cream shop she and Jack had tried Monday night?

“I didn’t know you’d asked Judy to look at a house either,” Vaughn said slowly, as he began dealing a new hand.

“There is much you don’t know, Agent Vaughn,” Jack said, with a smile. “Background research is not your strong suit, eh?”

Sydney asked, “So, you looked at that house with Judy, Dad? And then you bought it? The day after you showed it to her?” She looked at him carefully. This was becoming more and more obvious. She firmed her lips, suppressing a smile. Midge and Ken were looking confused when they should be jumping up and down, but the calm facades of the older couple were throwing them off of the scent. Hee. This was good. Playing both sides was good.

“Yes, I wanted her opinion.”

“Boy, Jack,” Will offered, as he dug his spoon into the jello repeatedly, “You’re all about asking people’s opinions lately, aren’t you? The Jack, he is a changin’. Jeans, sweaters and tshirts on the weekends. Going to the movies. House shopping. Growing your hair longer. What’s next, leaving your gun at home on a date?” Will asked, then muffled a groan when Sydney’s hard kick to his leg came a little too close to the center for comfort.

“I prefer to always have my gun handy,” Jack said dryly. “You never know when you might need it.”

“You don’t know when you might need it? I’ll let you know when the time, ah, comes,” Judy whispered and lightly touched his hand. She had done it again. Touched his hand. Flirted. This was fun. Like the kind of fun he hadn’t had, honest fun in a large group of friends, out in the open, in more than two decades. Such as at the card parties... He looked at the cards in Vaughn’s hands and frowned.

“True, that gun? You never know when you might need it,” Vaughn said, equally dryly, as he wondered what Judy had just said to Jack that had left a slightly-stunned look on his face. For half a second anyway, before he frowned. What was that about? Oh, who the hell knew with Jack. Vaughn added, “But you do know one thing. Life is full of surprises.”

“So, it is,” Jack responded, planning ahead, looking away from the smile on Judy’s face slowly.

“Speaking of surprises. My father asking you to tour that house,” Sydney began, watching Vaughn deal out the cards. “That probably took hours, he’s been so cautious-“

“Actually, no,” Judy said. “He seemed to have nearly made up his mind by the time I stood there and gave him the idea. He seemed to know what he wanted. Didn’t he?” she asked. She picked up her cards and sorted them without paying much attention. She could play gin in her sleep after all, after all those card game parties in graduate school that had been so popular at the time. “It was Monday after work. We looked at the house, we realized that skylights would make the house what he wanted. We got done looking around and I asked him, could he live in this house, could this be a home for him? Then he irritated me...“

“He’s good at that,” Vaughn said with a jaunty air that Jack longed to just smack right off his face. “One of his areas of expertise. Hey, Jack, maybe your next PhD could be on that? Irritating --”

“Shut up and live or keep talking and die, Pretty Boy,” Jack said. “Your choice.”

“Ah, words of love and affection from Jack Bristow. I’ll embroider them on a pillow as a housewarming gift,” Vaughn commented, laughing. Jack seemed relaxed. And still oblivious. Amazing. The radar was completely failing because the weapon sitting next to him held no real danger. Perfect. Just perfect. And subtle, the way he liked it. The way it had to be, if Jack knew what was going on too soon, the jig, she would be up, he thought, as he contemplated the cards in his hand. What a lousy hand, he was going to have to hope that something good would appear in the discard pile.

Judy laughed. “What a nicely functional family unit here. It makes me so warm inside to see how all my hard work has paid off.” She picked up the card Dixon had just discarded, then discarded one of her own.

Automatically, Jack looked at her discard then picked it up. Kendall carped, “How is this different from Screw Your Neighbor? You all are just picking up each other’s discards and I somehow doubt Jack’s going to discard anything I can ---” He groaned as Jack tossed a card onto the pile with a grin. “Use. I was right.”

“You really need to learn how to count cards or play the odds, Kendall. But then again, you’re not the only one,” Jack noted, folding his hand closed Good hand. He put the cards face down and sat back and relaxed. This was not a bad idea, actually, taking a long lunch, sitting around talking, playing cards. Socializing with colleagues, friends. It reminded him of so long ago and not so long ago, playing cards with Dave and their friends in someone’s apartment then, or Zamir, Nia, Syd, Vaughn on that last trip to Sri Lanka.

“Why don’t you write your next dissertation on that topic, Jack?” Kendall said snidely, giving a quick look in Judy’s direction. “Long shots and---”

“Hold on,” Weiss said suddenly. “Jack has a PhD? Why don’t you call yourself Doctor Bristow? I would. What’s your area of expertise, anyway?”

Sydney choked on her jello and Vaughn gave her a rap on the back. “That was unnecessarily hard, Vaughn!” Sydney protested.

“I have a lot of hardness left over from last night,” Vaughn muttered. “Just waiting to come out.” Sydney choked again.

“Game theory!” Jack spoke up quickly, shooting Sydney a quelling look for that choking moment. Vaughn couldn’t know that his protective shield had holes in it quite yet. “I did my dissertation on game theory.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised,” Weiss commented, nodding.

“Well, I sure was,” Marshall muttered. “Although maybe surprised wasn’t the right word. Shocked? Appalled? No, not appalled. How could I be appalled by that information which gave me-“

“I chose game theory-“ Jack interjected quickly, trying to cut Marshall off. Honestly, he felt like... a pimp or something thinking of innocent Marshall reading that manual. Although, Carrie looked happy today. Huh, maybe he had missed his calling in life. He could have been a relationship counselor, he thought wryly, rolling his eyes at himself. He began again, “I chose game theory because, honestly, it was so easy for me. Too easy...”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Judy whispered to him. “That research portion of your dissertation seemed pretty...hard to me.”

“Did it?” He paused, biting the inside of his cheek so he would not laugh aloud. Then taking a breath he asked, “Would you care, Doctor, to run an experiment to see if we could replicate the results?”

“I’ll have to check my calendar,” Judy said in a louder voice. “See when I’m available for that type of research.”

“Research?” Susan asked. Oh no, they were making a date to do research on what, those damn rats, they spoke of so often? C’mon, she wanted to moan. Experiment on each other. Can’t you see....

“Yes,” Judy said, looking down at her cards. “Jack and I - as you know, Susan - often discuss the effects of positive and negative reinforcement on rats. We’re thinking of seeing the differential responses of male and female rats to negative reinforcement after failure to run a sequence properly.”

“What does that mean?” Weiss asked.

“Well, actually, Judy,” Jack drawled slowly, his face assuming an annoyingly.... professional look, Vaughn thought in irritation, “I was considering running a test on rats to see how well they can anticipate outcomes once they identify patterns. To see if they can learn to avoid receiving the negative reinforcement.”
“Ah, that would be interesting as well, “ Judy nodded. “But I think that the rats would have to experience the negative reinforcement at least once. And you know my tender heart can’t take-“

“I don’t have that problem. Creating opportunities for negative reinforcement,” Jack pointed out.

“Negative reinforcement?” Carrie asked.

“Pain,” Sydney said succinctly, trying not to laugh and not to look at Vaughn and Susan.

“No. You don’t have that particular problem, Jack.” Judy agreed. “But then again, you have so much more experience dealing with those rats than I do, perhaps in time-“

“Enough with the rats, already,” Vaughn muttered.

“True. Gin,” Judy said, putting her hand face up on the table. “I win.” Everyone tossed their cards toward Vaughn, who grimaced, sure he was going to have nightmares of cards flying at him tonight unless a miracle happened and he was given something else to have sweeter dreams. He looked at Sydney out of the corner of his eye, but she appeared lost in thought as she gazed at her father. He sighed. He really wanted Jack tied up all nice and tight so Syd would stop worrying about him.

“Ah, Judy, I think we need to change the subject. So, back to my house. Are you going to finish the story about my house, or is this going to become one of your endless-“

“My words and my stories always have a point,” Judy said smiling. He liked to tease her about her tendency to ramble on with her stories.

Jack looked at her with a smile. “Do they? I suppose so. Eventually. Usually at my expense. So, go on.”

“I do believe I will, thank you, Jack,” Judy said decorously but her eyes danced. She was having fun too, he realized as she continued, “So, instead of answering my question, if this could be a home for him, he asked me, ‘How do you see this house, in your eyes? Could this house be a home for you? In your opinion, if you were buying?’”

“Ah, yes, he asked me that, or something like it, seventy-four times,” Sydney said with a grin. Jack rolled his eyes.

“And I said, yes, of course.”

“You said, yes, of course, this house could be a home for you?” Susan repeated. She glanced over at Sydney. Maybe this game hadn’t been necessary? She sucked at poker anyway. She couldn’t bluff. And what was she supposed to do with these cards? Oh, wait, they were playing gin, not poker. She was getting a little confused about what game...

“I just said that, Susan. It was a lovely house, nicely-open floor plan, it just needed some personality, warmth, some work on that greenhouse on the back-“

“And some skylights,” Jack finished.

“So, that’s when you bought it,” Sydney commented. “When she said-“

Vaughn elbowed her then whispered, “Do not be jealous. This is what you wanted.”

Sydney gave him a dirty look. Fool, she wasn’t jealous. She was chagrined. All of this gaming was probably unnecessary. It looked to her like her father and Judy were quite capable of playing the game between a man and a woman on their own. But, then again, did her father see Judy as a woman or just a friend? That was a question.

Vaughn gathered the cards and began dealing them out again.

Judy picked up her new hand and arranged the cards, then put them back down on the table as Jack did the same.“But I hope you didn’t rush into anything,” Judy said softly to Jack. “Buying a house is a major decision.”

“Don’t worry. No one’s ever accused me of rushing my…fences,” Jack said softly, for only her ears.

“No?” Judy asked, biting her lip to keep from laughing aloud and tipping their hand to those... children across from them.

“No. I have no problem taking my time, the time necessary to achieve my goals,” he said dryly, but with a grin, even as part of him goggled at how he was flirting with her. He had always had trouble flirting when it wasn’t an assignment, as Dave had noted more than thirty years before, but maybe this behavior was a result of that hard-won integration of his personality. How long had it taken? Okay, he didn’t need to be hit upside the head. She was flirting in a very..sexual way and so was he. This was a good game. Why had he resisted for so long? What a waste of time. And with a sense of wonder, he realized that she had waited for him. Waited. For him. Another gift. But how ironic that she had helped him find... what was it she always said? The man he was meant to be. And that man ended up wanting to be with her. Was that another circle? Or just... amazingly good luck for the both of them? Oh, did it matter? As Tippin had said, and he rolled his eyes, insight from Tippin, argggh. But as Tippin had said, who cared if you took a long time looking at homes as long as you ended up where you should be. Then again, he owed her for taking so long. He smiled, realizing he owed her, wondering how he could make it up to her. He picked up his cards and began tapping the edges on the table, not realizing the faces of the cards were showing to the table.

Part 6