"The Power of Ten" - Canon!AU fic - Epilogue
Fic content and rating:
”The Power of Ten” is a Canon!AU fic, rated PG for language. No warnings.
Brief synopsis:
Jack tells Ennis that he “had to ask about ten different people in Riverton where you was livin’.” Who were those ten people, exactly, and could their meeting with Jack possibly have impacted them - and given them power to impact Ennis in their turn - so that fate eventually would hold a different outcome for Jack and Ennis? This fic looks at that possibility and Ennis’s related trials and tribulations in a sometime slightly tongue-in-cheek way.
Disclaimer: Jack, Ennis and Brokeback Mountain belong to Annie Proulx, Diana Ossana, Larry McMurtry and Focus Features. I intend no disrespect and make no profit.
Links to previous chapter(s):
Chapter 1: http://gilli-ann.livejournal.com/25485.html
Chapter 2: http://gilli-ann.livejournal.com/26635.html
Chapter 3: http://gilli-ann.livejournal.com/27131.html
Chapter 4: http://gilli-ann.livejournal.com/27237.html
Chapter 5: http://gilli-ann.livejournal.com/28271.html
The Power of Ten: Epilogue
The truck sputtered, coughed and died with a groan. Ennis wasn’t sure he would ever be able to bring the wheezing motor back to life again. Somehow he had coaxed his tired old truck to keep going all the many miles down to Childress, though - and that was enough for now.
In the early morning light he looked up at the Newsome Farm Equipment sign, flashing a bright red, white and blue. “Quality - reliability - service” the sign declared proudly to the world.
The dealership looked impressive, big, and orderly. Lots of colorful flags fluttered on the morning breeze. A huge crimson combine and several smaller tractors were parked outside in the exhibit area.
The very first man he stopped to ask had been able to give him exact directions. Clearly Newsome’s was well known around town. It looked like a profitable and prosperous place. Ennis felt ragged and poor in comparison.
He waited nervously in his truck, fidgeting and biting his nails to the quick as the street came alive; shops opening, people getting to work, cars arriving at Newsome’s to start the new day.
And there it was, the car he’d been waiting for. Ennis was flooded with immense relief and gratitude. Jack’s blue and white Ford came down the street and made a sharp turn to stop right in front of Newsome’s.
Feeling vaguely like he was gonna throw up, Ennis got out a the truck, his heart beating like a drum, knees wobbly and palms sweating. He had washed some and shaved at a gas station outside a town, but still felt shabby and scruffy. He’d a liked to have been more rested and to have looked his best for this crucial moment.
It could prove the most important a his life.
A woman got out at the passenger side a Jack’s car. Slim and pretty with big fluffy blond hair, wearing a crisp white blouse and an elegant skirt, some sort a jewelry at her throat glinting in the morning sun. Her eyes swept the street, her glance meeting Ennis’s for the briefest of moments before continuing right on. A rumpled man next to a battered old truck held no claim to her attention, didn’t meet the standards of a possible customer, wasn’t someone who could afford even the least expensive tractor.
Ennis felt shaken nevertheless. He’d not planned on getting to see Jack’s wife. Till now she’d largely remained an abstract concept in his mind, if he thought a her at all. It didn’t make him proud to be loitering in the street, planning on stealing her husband away. Taking off permanently with the father a her son.
The woman - Lureen - turned back towards the car. And there was Jack, out a the car, his face shielded by his big hat, his movements somehow sluggish in the early light.
Ennis could have cried and jumped and hollered with relief. He took a couple of involuntary stumbling steps forward, wanting to run, to sprint right over there and grab a hold a Jack, to never let him go.
Drawn by the unusual movement, Jack’s glance swung his way.
Their eyes met, locked, held. It felt as if time stood still. Ennis could a sworn his heart stopped.
Jack broke the connection with a strained little shake a his head. He turned back to Lureen, said something, gestured towards the entrance of the dealership. She replied, and started walking away from the car, Jack’s shaded eyes following her for a moment.
Then he turned back to face Ennis, visibly steeling himself.
Ennis remained rooted to the same spot. His legs wouldn’t - couldn’t - move. His heart thumped painfully as he watched Jack walking towards him with reluctant, heavy steps.
The hope and delight that so recently made Jack float on air were nowhere to be seen.
He stopped right in front of Ennis and didn’t even smile.
Ennis was taken aback at his looks. Jack looked like shit. His face was pale, pinched and drawn, with dark circles like smudges round his eyes. Those eyes looked dull and lifeless now, and his expression was strangely guarded.
Ennis could a wept. The contrast to the Jack who appeared in Riverton last Saturday couldn’t possibly have been any greater.
“Ennis. What are you doin’ here? The Bighorn Mountains ain’t in Texas,” Jack said coldly.
Ennis looked into his eyes, doing his darnedest for once to put his own emotions on open display and to lay bare his heart and trembling soul.
“No, that they ain’t. But you are, Jack.”
Jack looked skeptical, doubtful, and reluctant to get into any a this again, having been burned so badly only a few days ago. He sure wasn’t making this any easier, but Ennis knew well enough he didn’t deserve better. He was on his own here.
“Jack, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. If you can forgive me, bud, I’m hopin’ we can start over. You and me, together - if you’re still willin’. I know it must be hard for you to believe me, believe that I really mean it now, the stubborn son of a bitch that I’ve been, but……”
Jack listened, but didn’t move, didn’t reply. His expression remained blank and his eyes unreadable.
Ennis drew a deep breath. He threw his last card on the table. Win or lose - this was all he had left.
“I love you, Jack.”
If he lived to be a hundred, Ennis knew that he’d never behold a sweeter sight than the tiny little flicker of surprised joy that reappeared deep in Jack’s tired blue eyes, the tentative delight that shaped his lips into the hint of a smile.
Jack shook his head in reluctant wonder and exasperation, reached out a hand to Ennis, and got some few words out inbetween a groan and a sob and a laugh.
“Damn you, Ennis.”
-The end-