I Dream of Jensen (Part Eight)
Title: I Dream of Jensen
Author: queeberquabbler
Fic Prompt: Disney's Aladdin
Pairing: J2
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for swearing. No warnings otherwise--it's your standard J2 :)
Disclaimer: See Master Post.
Jared’s eyes slowly flutter open, and he finds himself looking at a ceiling he doesn’t recognize. He bolts upright at once.
“Jensen? JENSEN?!”
“Shh, easy,” a different voice responds. Jared looks to his right and finds Jim there, pressing an ice pack to the side of Jared’s head. “You wanged yer noggin’ pretty good on the floor when you passed out, so do yourself a favor and 86 the sudden movements.”
Jared takes the ice pack from Jim as the security guard helps him lie back down. “Where’s Jensen?”
“Well, you been out for a while, so Jensen went back to your place to let the dogs out and feed ‘em and all that.” Jim smiles at how touched Jared looks by that, but when the young man’s lower lip starts to quiver, Jim grunts in discomfort. “No need t’ get emotional, kid. Jensen’s the kinda guy that helps out because he likes to, not ‘cause he’s expected to, y’know?”
Jared nods, then winces as his head pangs. He readjusts how he’s holding the ice pack and smiles in relief as the wonderful cold soothes his goose egg. “Tell ya what,” Jim says. “If you promise to keep your head completely still, I’ll tell you how it is I know Jensen and he knows me. Deal? Don’t nod, just blink twice.”
Jared smiles and blink-blinks as ordered, and Jim takes his seat at Jared’s bedside. “All right,” he begins. “Long story short, I was his last master.”
“Yeah, kinda figured,” Jared answers. “Jensen mentioned that he was with his last master a really long time.”
“Yup, over 30 years. Found the lamp while I was serving in Vietnam. We were holed up in this abandoned village. Couldn’t go anywhere ‘cause we were completely surrounded, so we had to wait for back-up. And there was a storm…made all the roads muddy, so there were more delays…” He sighs as he thinks back on it. “Anyway, one long afternoon, me and a buddy of mine were pinned down in this little house, trying to avoid the sniper outside. One of the bullets hit a lock on a box and broke it open. Lamp was inside it. I didn’t know what it was, but I thought it was too pretty to leave behind, so I smuggled it out. Kept it with me the rest of my tour.”
“And you didn’t rub it once?”
“No,” Jim laughs. “Ain’t that a kick in the teeth? But no-I didn’t even see it most days, ‘cause I had to keep it hidden. T’ be honest, I forgot all about it until after I got back to the States. Only found it again by chance a couple-a weeks later, when I was lookin’ for something else.”
Jared smiles, enjoying hearing about someone else going through the whole genie experience. “What happened then?”
“What d’you think happened? I rubbed the lamp while I was polishing it, and out came Jensen. All huge and frightening…” He grins as he says it. “Weird t’ think back at how scared I was of the guy at first when we went on to become such good friends…”
Jared nods in sympathy, remembering his own reaction at first seeing Jensen. “I’m a little ashamed, too,” he admits.
“Well, Jensen won’t hold it against ya. In fact, he was probably a lot more scared of you than the other way around. He’s had some really bad masters over the years…”
“Has he told you about any of them?”
“Yeah. Some of the worst ones. And I can tell you wanna hear about ‘em, but that’s Jensen’s story to tell.” Jim can see the disappointment written across Jared’s features, but he sticks to the zipped-lip promise he gave Jensen years ago and keeps his mouth shut. Instead, he pours Jared a glass of water and helps him to move up a little so he can take a sip. Then the two just sit for a few moments in silence, Jared resting, Jim remembering.
“What did you wish for?” Jared finally asks.
“Well, first off…this is gonna sound weird, but I wished that I never had to sleep again.”
Jared chuckles. “Yeah, that’s a little weird, Jim.”
Jim holds his hands out in a ‘well, there you go!’ manner and smiles. “Jensen thought it was weird, too, and he asked me why I’d want to give up sleeping. I told him to hold off on granting the wish so he could find out. So he agreed. And the next morning, he was almost afraid to come out of the bottle and face me.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Night terrors,” Jim answers in a very low voice. “PTSD from the war. I'd start screamin' in the middle of the night, but I'd still be asleep, and nothing could wake me up. And when they got really bad, I’d try and rip the skin off my arm. A few times I'd even grab a knife and start stabbing. Thank God I only hurt the mattress…”
“God, Jim…I’m so sorry to hear that,” Jared says, and Jim nods his thanks. “But why didn’t you just ask Jensen to take away the night terrors?”
Jim gives a long sigh before he replies this time. “I guess I felt like I owed it to my buddies that didn’t make it…to remember what we went through, and what they fought and died for. Probably doesn’t make any sense…”
“No. It does.” Jared smiles in sympathy. “Go on.”
“Well, I also knew that I couldn’t keep hurting myself like that, and I didn’t wanna risk hurtin’ anybody else, so that’s why I wished to never have to sleep again. And that morning, Jensen granted it without question. Haven’t slept a wink since. Don’t even get all that tired, to be honest.”
“But you’re always drinking coffee!”
“That’s ‘cause I like the way it tastes,” Jim smiles. “Anyway. Only downside is that I had to sit there and listen to Jensen screamin’ his head off in his lamp all night. Didn’t bother me, I just hated that I couldn’t help the poor guy.”
Jared’s eyes widen at the implication. “Jensen gets nightmares?”
“Bad ones,” Jim nods sadly. “What’s worse, if you ask him about it, he’ll always lie and say he’s fine, go back to sleep. But trust me, Jared, he has them. Every night.”
“What are they about?” Jared watches Jim turn away, and he reaches out to grab his arm and keep him from standing up. “Jim, please. He’s my friend too. I want to help him, and even if there’s no way I really CAN help him…at least if I know what he’s going through, I can at least be there, y’know?”
Jim buries his face in his hands as he nods. “I know,” he says into his fingers, and as he lifts his head again, Jared sees traces of moisture around Jim’s normally piercing eyes. “Most of the time, he has guilt dreams. Like, the world is ruined. All the plants and animals are dead, and it’s all his fault for granting the wishes of bad people. Other times, it’s darker stuff…memories of when he was abused…” Jared gasps, and Jim nods sadly. “I’m afraid you heard me right, kid. Some of his past masters used him as more than one kind of slave.”
Jared has to wipe away the tears in his eyes at that, and he looks away from Jim. “But most of ‘em are about James,” Jim says from behind Jared.
“Who is James?” Jared asks, his voice a little watery.
“That’s definitely something only Jensen can tell you,” Jim replies. “I’ll put it this way, though: Jensen’s been a genie for 400 years, and he still ain’t over what James did to him.”
The two facts hit Jared like daggers to the heart. He’s over 400 years old? And all that time, he’s been in pain… GOD, Jen, how the hell do you deal with it all? He pictures Jensen laughing and being silly and then replaces it with an image of Jensen crying in the dark of his lamp. He can’t fit the two of them together, no matter how hard he tries.
Then Jim clears his throat and starts again. “Anyway, back to my wishes. I didn’t make the second wish for nearly ten years after the first one. And Jensen didn’t mind one bit-he liked being free to come and go from the lamp as he pleased, and I just liked having the smart-ass around. Then one day, an old friend of mine said he was in trouble and needed some money, fast. He was a good friend, so I loaned him the cash on the spot. Wrote him a fat check and sent him on his way. Next thing I know, the cops are at my door, telling me I just helped finance some bank fraud thing…paper trail led back to me.”
“Some friend,” Jared remarks, and Jim nods.
“I got it all cleared up, but I never wanted to fall for anything like that again, so I wished that I could see through any lie. Turned out to be one of the best things I ever did for myself. It’s also the reason I can see through yer Glamour, Jared.”
“Remind me never to play poker with you,” Jared smirks, and Jim chuckles. “So? Wish number three?”
“That’s the only one I regret, ‘cause it didn’t go the way I planned. Not even CLOSE.” His eyes shine with years of guilt as he looks upon Jared now. “This was just a few years ago, right after I started working here. A few idjits snuck into the studio after hours to steal some equipment, and I tried to stop ‘em. Got my guts skewered for my trouble.”
“Holy shit! Did you have the lamp with you?”
“Back in my car, yeah. I somehow made it over there…lost a lot of blood, still don’t know how I did it. But I got the lamp and rubbed it, and Jensen went out of his gourd with panic. He shook me to keep me awake long enough to wish for him to save my life, and here I am today.” The guard looks ready to cry as he finishes his story.
“What’s wrong with that?” Jared asks, not understanding the problem. “He saved your life, Jim! You’re still here because of Jensen!”
“Yeah, and Jensen’s still stuck in that damn lamp ‘cause of me, too!” Jim barks. He winces, waves that he’s sorry, and speaks again when he’s calmed down. “I was always plannin’ on using my last wish to set him free. I PROMISED him, Jared. And when I was sittin’ in that parking lot, bleedin’ out like a stuck pig, I kept refusing to make the wish to save my life. I tried to get the words out to free him instead, but I was fadin’ fast, and that’s when I heard him in my head. He said, ‘Jim, if you set me free, I gotta live with you being dead. And that ain’t living.’” The tears are falling freely now, but Jim keeps talking. “So I let him save me,” he cries. “God help me, I let him save me.”
Jared ignores his pain and sits up to give his old friend a hug. Jim falls into the embrace without any hesitation, and Jared holds on; it’s obvious that this has been weighing on the guard for a very long time. Jared’s glad he can be there for him, and he pats him on the back until finally, Jim is ready to let go. He wipes his eyes with a Kleenex and takes a few breaths to steady himself before he speaks again.
“Then he was gone,” Jim says. “Just, poof! Gone. I still had the lamp, so I looked inside, but his little room had disappeared. Everything was dark. And I realized, that was it. I’d made my three wishes, and now our time was over. I never even got to say good-bye, or thank him for being my friend.” Jim shakes his head, still stung by the memory. “But I knew he was in the lamp, and I knew that he could hear me if he really wanted to, so I promised that I’d keep him safe and make sure that his next master would be a nice one.” He offers Jared an emotional smile. “Seven years later, you swung by the warehouse and asked me if we had any genie lamps, and I knew my wait was over.”
“So no one’s ever asked about genie lamps this whole time?” Jared asks.
“Well sure, a number of times! Doesn’t mean that I told them where the REAL one was. They just took away cheap props, and Jensen’s secret remained a secret. The end. Hope you enjoyed my little tale.”
Clapping a hand on each knee, Jim stands up. “How’s the head, Jared?”
“Still hurts, but I’ll live.”
“Good.” He knocks on the wall, and it comes out as a clang instead of a thump. “Now do us all a favor and don’t freak out when you find out where you are in two seconds. Jensen had to stow us in here to get us off set-you know, t’ keep anyone from seeing us leave via Genie Transport.”
“Huh? What are you-?”
A light from Heaven shines down in the area in front of Jared’s bed, illuminating the rest of the room. Which is round. And sports blue walls. And he knows he’s seen that crescent-shaped sofa before. The puzzle pieces slide into place in Jared’s befuddled mind, and just as he thinks his life can’t possibly get any weirder…
“YOU TWO READY TO COME OUT AND PLAY?”
Jensen’s God-like voice falls on top of him and Jim. Jared holds a hand over each ear as Jim steps into the light and gives ‘God’ a thumbs up. Then the security guard grins back at Jared.
“We’ll be out of the lamp in a second,” he swears.
“That’s a second too LONG!” Jared yells back…into his own bedroom. He’s now in his own bed, and his own dogs are jumping onto the mattress to cover him in kisses. Jensen is normal again, as is Jim, and the two of them trade smug smiles as they wait for Jared to come to grips with his latest batch of Impossible.
“Thanks, Jim,” Jensen says. “You want a lift back to your place?”
“I’ll take a simple teleport, thanks.”
“You got it.” Jensen snaps his fingers, and Jim disappears. Then Jensen sits down on the end of Jared’s bed. “All’s well that ends well, huh? How you feeling, Jared?”
“I’ve been better,” Jared replies between doggy kisses, and Jensen chuckles.
“Not exactly the end of the day you planned for, I know. But at least you’re all right. That’s the important part.”
“If you can call being sore all over and having scrambled eggs for brains all right…” Jared means it as a joke, but it’s clear that Jensen doesn’t take it that way. The genie quietly slides off the bed and grabs his lamp.
“Get some rest, masss…Jared,” he mumbles, sounding every bit as dejected as he looks. “Tomorrow will be better. I promise.” Jensen switches off the light and heads out the door.
Jared tries to get up so he can go after him, but his head pangs, his back shrieks, and his leg muscles cramp up, sending him falling back into bed. The message from his body is clear: get some REST, dammit!
Okay, Jared thinks as he yawns. I’ll clear things with Jen first thing tomorrow. Right now… He yawns again. Sleep sounds…nice. Jared snuggles into his pillow, and the dogs snuggle into him.
In the back of his mind, he swears he hears Jensen wish him sweet dreams…
Later that night, Sadie whines into her human’s ear and nudges him with her cold nose, begging him to wake up. “Ungh,” Jared breathes at last, and Sadie licks his cheek. He yawns wide and asks, “What’s the matter?”
She takes his hand in her mouth and gently tugs, and he gets the hint. “All right, I’m coming, I’m coming.” Jared switches on the light next to his bed and sits up, but the world tips on its side-a touch of vertigo from his hard landing when he fainted. He holds himself perfectly still until the sensation passes. Sadie is whining again, standing in the doorway of the dim room, as Jared finally stands and follows her.
“What’s the matter?” he asks again, yawning between the first and second word, and she leads him into the kitchen. Harley is already there, sitting in one of the kitchen chairs and resting his head on the table. Jensen’s bottle is only an inch in front of his nose. “Is something wrong with Jensen?” Jared asks, now much more alert, and Harley’s muffled whining is all the answer he needs. He lifts up the lamp and peers inside, but it’s too dark to make anything out.
That’s when Jared hears it: soft, sad, but definitely there. Sobbing. Uncontrollable sobbing. And there’s only one place it could be coming from. He must have had a nightmare, Jared thinks, recalling what Jim told him earlier that night. Moving back to the wall, Jared flips on the kitchen light and peers inside the lamp again. He gets a slightly better view for his efforts, now able to make out the crescent-shaped sofa and the little TV. But he still can’t see Jensen; Jared figures the genie must be on his bed, and he recalls how close to the wall the bed was when he was in there. Definitely out of view from the spout.
The sobbing goes on, and Jared’s heart hits rock bottom and breaks. “Jensen?” he calls softly. He doesn’t get a reply, so Jared taps his finger nail against the metal to substitute for a knock on the door. “Jen…a-are you all right?”
The sobbing turns to sniffles. “Aw shit, did I wake you up?” Jensen calls back.
“No…no, Jensen, you didn’t. The dogs did. They brought me in here. They’re so worried about you…and so am I.”
Blue light appears at the bottom of the lamp, and Jared holds it away as smoke shoots out. Jensen appears right next to him, still blowing his nose in a wad of tissues. “I’m sorry, everybody,” he tells them all, looking just miserable. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I can help you get back to sleep if you want.”
“No, Jen, you don’t have to.”
“Yes I do,” Jensen insists, already hurrying Jared and the dogs out of the kitchen. “I mean, I WANT to. Yeah. Look, here’s your comfy bed,” he zaps the pillows and they fluff themselves, “pillows all fluffed and ready.”
“But Jensen-”
“I know, Jare, I’m so sorry. Just lie down. Go back to sleep.” The genie brushes the back of his hand over Jared’s forehead, and the human’s eyelids droop and shut. He does the same to the dogs, and only when he’s sure everyone is asleep does he float back to the kitchen.
“Stupid, Jensen,” he whispers at himself. “STUpid.”
And he goes back into his lamp and ties a gag around his mouth so he doesn’t wake them again.
The next morning, all Jared can think about as he showers and gets ready is Jensen. The fact that it’s his first full day of acting on the show doesn’t even register for a moment: he needs to get his friend to open up. Jared’s dreams were filled with images of Jensen crying himself to sleep. In one of them, Jared’s giant hand reached out to grab the little genie and keep him safe, only to squish him by accident instead. And Jared knew it was a dream, but it rattled him all the same.
I HAVE to help him somehow, he resolves as he brushes his teeth. At least get him to open up and TALK about it. I’m not letting him spend one more night thinking that he’s all alone and no one gives a damn about his problems. I give a damn! He spits out his toothpaste and nods his readiness at his reflection, then heads out to the bedroom.
The laughter throws him at once. It’s Jensen’s, and it’s coming from somewhere on the bed, but all Jared can see is Harley. The dog is licking away at something between his paws, and from the little peals of laughter that catch Jared’s ears again, he’s pretty sure he knows where Jensen is. Kneeling on the mattress, Jared looks down and, sure enough, finds a little, two-inch version of Jensen, fully at the mercy of Harley’s kisses.
“I think he likes you,” Jared jokes as he lies down next to the dog.
“Thanks Captain Obvious.” Jensen’s bare chest is covered in slobber, and Harley now seems to be working on licking straight through the denim on Jensen’s itty bitty knees. Jensen is attempting to push the huge doggie nose away, but Harley just nudges the little body back and keeps on kissing. “A little help here?” Jensen asks.
Jared rolls onto his back. “Nah, not yet.” Propping himself up on his elbows, Jared points out Jensen’s back with his knee and says, “Think you missed a spot, Harley.”
The dog moves his head and starts licking Jensen’s back, and Jensen laughs. “Whose side are you on, Padalecki?!” Jared just laughs right back as Jensen starts to squirm. “Stop it!” the genie begs, “I’m ticklish!”
“Is that so?” Jared pokes his finger into Jensen’s side and starts tickling him as well. Jensen shrieks at the dual assault, and Sadie whines in concern as she joins them on the bed.
“He’s fine, Sadie, we’re just tickling him!” Jared moves in to tickle again, but his fingers touch thin air. Jensen is gone. “What the...?”
A shadow drapes over him. “Payback is a bitch!” Jensen’s booms, and a huge finger comes out of nowhere and starts tickling Jared’s side. He laughs and wriggles on the mattress, but more giant digits keep him from escaping. Jared’s eyes are soon watering, and through his blurry vision, he discovers Jensen squatting over him, his body now big enough that it fills in the entire room. “I don’t think Jared knows how much you two love him,” Jensen hints to the dogs, and at once, Sadie and Harley make a dog pile on their human and kiss him silly.
“Okay, all right, Uncle, UNCLE!” Jared cries.
Jensen snaps his fingers, and he’s back to human size and completely slobber-free. He pulls a new shirt on-a navy blue tee that’s juuust the right amount of tight. Jared admires Jensen’s new look as he stands up, and Jensen smirks at him.
“Might wanna change clothes before you head to work,” he says, pointing out the drool and dog hair all over Jared’s shirt.
“NOW who’s Captain Obvious?” Jared sends back, and Jensen laughs as he heads out of the room. Jared is smiling as well as he goes back to his closet, but it fades as he remembers what he wanted to do before they left. He takes his shirt off and calls out to the other room, “Hey, Jen?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you get back to sleep last night?”
There’s a pause, and Jared waits with his new, maroon-red shirt in his hands. “Yeah,” Jensen answers eventually. “Why? Didn’t you?”
“No, I slept fine.” But only ‘cause you put me to sleep instead of letting me stay up and talk to you, he thinks, surprised at how bitter he feels. He emerges from his bedroom ready to tackle the subject again, but Jensen shoves a SIGG into Jared’s hand first.
“Made you a smoothie. Get your shoes on, we’re running late.”
“But…” What about you? What about our talk? What about letting you know I care? Jared doesn’t the chance to ask any of it, because Jensen talks over him.
“Already walked the dogs, don’t worry.”
“But!”
“But WHAT?” Jensen asks, pausing to stare into Jared’s face. His eyes are red from crying instead of sleeping, and the dark circles aren’t winning him any Hey, I’m Fine contests. But the moment for Jared to speak up is gone as Jensen’s digital watch beeps. “Shit, now we’re REALLY running late. I’ll get the car, you just get yourself down there in five seconds or we’ll miss the train!”
And in a poof of blue sparkles, Jensen is gone. Jared can only look at his dogs as they come over for their good-bye pets. “What the hell just happened?” Jared asks them. They just give his hands a lick, so he kisses them on their foreheads and heads out the door.
“We’re talking before the end of the day, Jensen,” he mutters under his breath. The car’s horn honks in reply, and Jared yells “YEAH, I’m coming!” as he dashes down the stairs.
On to Part Nine
Master Post
Author: queeberquabbler
Fic Prompt: Disney's Aladdin
Pairing: J2
Rating/Warnings: PG-13 for swearing. No warnings otherwise--it's your standard J2 :)
Disclaimer: See Master Post.
Jared’s eyes slowly flutter open, and he finds himself looking at a ceiling he doesn’t recognize. He bolts upright at once.
“Jensen? JENSEN?!”
“Shh, easy,” a different voice responds. Jared looks to his right and finds Jim there, pressing an ice pack to the side of Jared’s head. “You wanged yer noggin’ pretty good on the floor when you passed out, so do yourself a favor and 86 the sudden movements.”
Jared takes the ice pack from Jim as the security guard helps him lie back down. “Where’s Jensen?”
“Well, you been out for a while, so Jensen went back to your place to let the dogs out and feed ‘em and all that.” Jim smiles at how touched Jared looks by that, but when the young man’s lower lip starts to quiver, Jim grunts in discomfort. “No need t’ get emotional, kid. Jensen’s the kinda guy that helps out because he likes to, not ‘cause he’s expected to, y’know?”
Jared nods, then winces as his head pangs. He readjusts how he’s holding the ice pack and smiles in relief as the wonderful cold soothes his goose egg. “Tell ya what,” Jim says. “If you promise to keep your head completely still, I’ll tell you how it is I know Jensen and he knows me. Deal? Don’t nod, just blink twice.”
Jared smiles and blink-blinks as ordered, and Jim takes his seat at Jared’s bedside. “All right,” he begins. “Long story short, I was his last master.”
“Yeah, kinda figured,” Jared answers. “Jensen mentioned that he was with his last master a really long time.”
“Yup, over 30 years. Found the lamp while I was serving in Vietnam. We were holed up in this abandoned village. Couldn’t go anywhere ‘cause we were completely surrounded, so we had to wait for back-up. And there was a storm…made all the roads muddy, so there were more delays…” He sighs as he thinks back on it. “Anyway, one long afternoon, me and a buddy of mine were pinned down in this little house, trying to avoid the sniper outside. One of the bullets hit a lock on a box and broke it open. Lamp was inside it. I didn’t know what it was, but I thought it was too pretty to leave behind, so I smuggled it out. Kept it with me the rest of my tour.”
“And you didn’t rub it once?”
“No,” Jim laughs. “Ain’t that a kick in the teeth? But no-I didn’t even see it most days, ‘cause I had to keep it hidden. T’ be honest, I forgot all about it until after I got back to the States. Only found it again by chance a couple-a weeks later, when I was lookin’ for something else.”
Jared smiles, enjoying hearing about someone else going through the whole genie experience. “What happened then?”
“What d’you think happened? I rubbed the lamp while I was polishing it, and out came Jensen. All huge and frightening…” He grins as he says it. “Weird t’ think back at how scared I was of the guy at first when we went on to become such good friends…”
Jared nods in sympathy, remembering his own reaction at first seeing Jensen. “I’m a little ashamed, too,” he admits.
“Well, Jensen won’t hold it against ya. In fact, he was probably a lot more scared of you than the other way around. He’s had some really bad masters over the years…”
“Has he told you about any of them?”
“Yeah. Some of the worst ones. And I can tell you wanna hear about ‘em, but that’s Jensen’s story to tell.” Jim can see the disappointment written across Jared’s features, but he sticks to the zipped-lip promise he gave Jensen years ago and keeps his mouth shut. Instead, he pours Jared a glass of water and helps him to move up a little so he can take a sip. Then the two just sit for a few moments in silence, Jared resting, Jim remembering.
“What did you wish for?” Jared finally asks.
“Well, first off…this is gonna sound weird, but I wished that I never had to sleep again.”
Jared chuckles. “Yeah, that’s a little weird, Jim.”
Jim holds his hands out in a ‘well, there you go!’ manner and smiles. “Jensen thought it was weird, too, and he asked me why I’d want to give up sleeping. I told him to hold off on granting the wish so he could find out. So he agreed. And the next morning, he was almost afraid to come out of the bottle and face me.”
“Why? What happened?”
“Night terrors,” Jim answers in a very low voice. “PTSD from the war. I'd start screamin' in the middle of the night, but I'd still be asleep, and nothing could wake me up. And when they got really bad, I’d try and rip the skin off my arm. A few times I'd even grab a knife and start stabbing. Thank God I only hurt the mattress…”
“God, Jim…I’m so sorry to hear that,” Jared says, and Jim nods his thanks. “But why didn’t you just ask Jensen to take away the night terrors?”
Jim gives a long sigh before he replies this time. “I guess I felt like I owed it to my buddies that didn’t make it…to remember what we went through, and what they fought and died for. Probably doesn’t make any sense…”
“No. It does.” Jared smiles in sympathy. “Go on.”
“Well, I also knew that I couldn’t keep hurting myself like that, and I didn’t wanna risk hurtin’ anybody else, so that’s why I wished to never have to sleep again. And that morning, Jensen granted it without question. Haven’t slept a wink since. Don’t even get all that tired, to be honest.”
“But you’re always drinking coffee!”
“That’s ‘cause I like the way it tastes,” Jim smiles. “Anyway. Only downside is that I had to sit there and listen to Jensen screamin’ his head off in his lamp all night. Didn’t bother me, I just hated that I couldn’t help the poor guy.”
Jared’s eyes widen at the implication. “Jensen gets nightmares?”
“Bad ones,” Jim nods sadly. “What’s worse, if you ask him about it, he’ll always lie and say he’s fine, go back to sleep. But trust me, Jared, he has them. Every night.”
“What are they about?” Jared watches Jim turn away, and he reaches out to grab his arm and keep him from standing up. “Jim, please. He’s my friend too. I want to help him, and even if there’s no way I really CAN help him…at least if I know what he’s going through, I can at least be there, y’know?”
Jim buries his face in his hands as he nods. “I know,” he says into his fingers, and as he lifts his head again, Jared sees traces of moisture around Jim’s normally piercing eyes. “Most of the time, he has guilt dreams. Like, the world is ruined. All the plants and animals are dead, and it’s all his fault for granting the wishes of bad people. Other times, it’s darker stuff…memories of when he was abused…” Jared gasps, and Jim nods sadly. “I’m afraid you heard me right, kid. Some of his past masters used him as more than one kind of slave.”
Jared has to wipe away the tears in his eyes at that, and he looks away from Jim. “But most of ‘em are about James,” Jim says from behind Jared.
“Who is James?” Jared asks, his voice a little watery.
“That’s definitely something only Jensen can tell you,” Jim replies. “I’ll put it this way, though: Jensen’s been a genie for 400 years, and he still ain’t over what James did to him.”
The two facts hit Jared like daggers to the heart. He’s over 400 years old? And all that time, he’s been in pain… GOD, Jen, how the hell do you deal with it all? He pictures Jensen laughing and being silly and then replaces it with an image of Jensen crying in the dark of his lamp. He can’t fit the two of them together, no matter how hard he tries.
Then Jim clears his throat and starts again. “Anyway, back to my wishes. I didn’t make the second wish for nearly ten years after the first one. And Jensen didn’t mind one bit-he liked being free to come and go from the lamp as he pleased, and I just liked having the smart-ass around. Then one day, an old friend of mine said he was in trouble and needed some money, fast. He was a good friend, so I loaned him the cash on the spot. Wrote him a fat check and sent him on his way. Next thing I know, the cops are at my door, telling me I just helped finance some bank fraud thing…paper trail led back to me.”
“Some friend,” Jared remarks, and Jim nods.
“I got it all cleared up, but I never wanted to fall for anything like that again, so I wished that I could see through any lie. Turned out to be one of the best things I ever did for myself. It’s also the reason I can see through yer Glamour, Jared.”
“Remind me never to play poker with you,” Jared smirks, and Jim chuckles. “So? Wish number three?”
“That’s the only one I regret, ‘cause it didn’t go the way I planned. Not even CLOSE.” His eyes shine with years of guilt as he looks upon Jared now. “This was just a few years ago, right after I started working here. A few idjits snuck into the studio after hours to steal some equipment, and I tried to stop ‘em. Got my guts skewered for my trouble.”
“Holy shit! Did you have the lamp with you?”
“Back in my car, yeah. I somehow made it over there…lost a lot of blood, still don’t know how I did it. But I got the lamp and rubbed it, and Jensen went out of his gourd with panic. He shook me to keep me awake long enough to wish for him to save my life, and here I am today.” The guard looks ready to cry as he finishes his story.
“What’s wrong with that?” Jared asks, not understanding the problem. “He saved your life, Jim! You’re still here because of Jensen!”
“Yeah, and Jensen’s still stuck in that damn lamp ‘cause of me, too!” Jim barks. He winces, waves that he’s sorry, and speaks again when he’s calmed down. “I was always plannin’ on using my last wish to set him free. I PROMISED him, Jared. And when I was sittin’ in that parking lot, bleedin’ out like a stuck pig, I kept refusing to make the wish to save my life. I tried to get the words out to free him instead, but I was fadin’ fast, and that’s when I heard him in my head. He said, ‘Jim, if you set me free, I gotta live with you being dead. And that ain’t living.’” The tears are falling freely now, but Jim keeps talking. “So I let him save me,” he cries. “God help me, I let him save me.”
Jared ignores his pain and sits up to give his old friend a hug. Jim falls into the embrace without any hesitation, and Jared holds on; it’s obvious that this has been weighing on the guard for a very long time. Jared’s glad he can be there for him, and he pats him on the back until finally, Jim is ready to let go. He wipes his eyes with a Kleenex and takes a few breaths to steady himself before he speaks again.
“Then he was gone,” Jim says. “Just, poof! Gone. I still had the lamp, so I looked inside, but his little room had disappeared. Everything was dark. And I realized, that was it. I’d made my three wishes, and now our time was over. I never even got to say good-bye, or thank him for being my friend.” Jim shakes his head, still stung by the memory. “But I knew he was in the lamp, and I knew that he could hear me if he really wanted to, so I promised that I’d keep him safe and make sure that his next master would be a nice one.” He offers Jared an emotional smile. “Seven years later, you swung by the warehouse and asked me if we had any genie lamps, and I knew my wait was over.”
“So no one’s ever asked about genie lamps this whole time?” Jared asks.
“Well sure, a number of times! Doesn’t mean that I told them where the REAL one was. They just took away cheap props, and Jensen’s secret remained a secret. The end. Hope you enjoyed my little tale.”
Clapping a hand on each knee, Jim stands up. “How’s the head, Jared?”
“Still hurts, but I’ll live.”
“Good.” He knocks on the wall, and it comes out as a clang instead of a thump. “Now do us all a favor and don’t freak out when you find out where you are in two seconds. Jensen had to stow us in here to get us off set-you know, t’ keep anyone from seeing us leave via Genie Transport.”
“Huh? What are you-?”
A light from Heaven shines down in the area in front of Jared’s bed, illuminating the rest of the room. Which is round. And sports blue walls. And he knows he’s seen that crescent-shaped sofa before. The puzzle pieces slide into place in Jared’s befuddled mind, and just as he thinks his life can’t possibly get any weirder…
“YOU TWO READY TO COME OUT AND PLAY?”
Jensen’s God-like voice falls on top of him and Jim. Jared holds a hand over each ear as Jim steps into the light and gives ‘God’ a thumbs up. Then the security guard grins back at Jared.
“We’ll be out of the lamp in a second,” he swears.
“That’s a second too LONG!” Jared yells back…into his own bedroom. He’s now in his own bed, and his own dogs are jumping onto the mattress to cover him in kisses. Jensen is normal again, as is Jim, and the two of them trade smug smiles as they wait for Jared to come to grips with his latest batch of Impossible.
“Thanks, Jim,” Jensen says. “You want a lift back to your place?”
“I’ll take a simple teleport, thanks.”
“You got it.” Jensen snaps his fingers, and Jim disappears. Then Jensen sits down on the end of Jared’s bed. “All’s well that ends well, huh? How you feeling, Jared?”
“I’ve been better,” Jared replies between doggy kisses, and Jensen chuckles.
“Not exactly the end of the day you planned for, I know. But at least you’re all right. That’s the important part.”
“If you can call being sore all over and having scrambled eggs for brains all right…” Jared means it as a joke, but it’s clear that Jensen doesn’t take it that way. The genie quietly slides off the bed and grabs his lamp.
“Get some rest, masss…Jared,” he mumbles, sounding every bit as dejected as he looks. “Tomorrow will be better. I promise.” Jensen switches off the light and heads out the door.
Jared tries to get up so he can go after him, but his head pangs, his back shrieks, and his leg muscles cramp up, sending him falling back into bed. The message from his body is clear: get some REST, dammit!
Okay, Jared thinks as he yawns. I’ll clear things with Jen first thing tomorrow. Right now… He yawns again. Sleep sounds…nice. Jared snuggles into his pillow, and the dogs snuggle into him.
In the back of his mind, he swears he hears Jensen wish him sweet dreams…
Later that night, Sadie whines into her human’s ear and nudges him with her cold nose, begging him to wake up. “Ungh,” Jared breathes at last, and Sadie licks his cheek. He yawns wide and asks, “What’s the matter?”
She takes his hand in her mouth and gently tugs, and he gets the hint. “All right, I’m coming, I’m coming.” Jared switches on the light next to his bed and sits up, but the world tips on its side-a touch of vertigo from his hard landing when he fainted. He holds himself perfectly still until the sensation passes. Sadie is whining again, standing in the doorway of the dim room, as Jared finally stands and follows her.
“What’s the matter?” he asks again, yawning between the first and second word, and she leads him into the kitchen. Harley is already there, sitting in one of the kitchen chairs and resting his head on the table. Jensen’s bottle is only an inch in front of his nose. “Is something wrong with Jensen?” Jared asks, now much more alert, and Harley’s muffled whining is all the answer he needs. He lifts up the lamp and peers inside, but it’s too dark to make anything out.
That’s when Jared hears it: soft, sad, but definitely there. Sobbing. Uncontrollable sobbing. And there’s only one place it could be coming from. He must have had a nightmare, Jared thinks, recalling what Jim told him earlier that night. Moving back to the wall, Jared flips on the kitchen light and peers inside the lamp again. He gets a slightly better view for his efforts, now able to make out the crescent-shaped sofa and the little TV. But he still can’t see Jensen; Jared figures the genie must be on his bed, and he recalls how close to the wall the bed was when he was in there. Definitely out of view from the spout.
The sobbing goes on, and Jared’s heart hits rock bottom and breaks. “Jensen?” he calls softly. He doesn’t get a reply, so Jared taps his finger nail against the metal to substitute for a knock on the door. “Jen…a-are you all right?”
The sobbing turns to sniffles. “Aw shit, did I wake you up?” Jensen calls back.
“No…no, Jensen, you didn’t. The dogs did. They brought me in here. They’re so worried about you…and so am I.”
Blue light appears at the bottom of the lamp, and Jared holds it away as smoke shoots out. Jensen appears right next to him, still blowing his nose in a wad of tissues. “I’m sorry, everybody,” he tells them all, looking just miserable. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I can help you get back to sleep if you want.”
“No, Jen, you don’t have to.”
“Yes I do,” Jensen insists, already hurrying Jared and the dogs out of the kitchen. “I mean, I WANT to. Yeah. Look, here’s your comfy bed,” he zaps the pillows and they fluff themselves, “pillows all fluffed and ready.”
“But Jensen-”
“I know, Jare, I’m so sorry. Just lie down. Go back to sleep.” The genie brushes the back of his hand over Jared’s forehead, and the human’s eyelids droop and shut. He does the same to the dogs, and only when he’s sure everyone is asleep does he float back to the kitchen.
“Stupid, Jensen,” he whispers at himself. “STUpid.”
And he goes back into his lamp and ties a gag around his mouth so he doesn’t wake them again.
The next morning, all Jared can think about as he showers and gets ready is Jensen. The fact that it’s his first full day of acting on the show doesn’t even register for a moment: he needs to get his friend to open up. Jared’s dreams were filled with images of Jensen crying himself to sleep. In one of them, Jared’s giant hand reached out to grab the little genie and keep him safe, only to squish him by accident instead. And Jared knew it was a dream, but it rattled him all the same.
I HAVE to help him somehow, he resolves as he brushes his teeth. At least get him to open up and TALK about it. I’m not letting him spend one more night thinking that he’s all alone and no one gives a damn about his problems. I give a damn! He spits out his toothpaste and nods his readiness at his reflection, then heads out to the bedroom.
The laughter throws him at once. It’s Jensen’s, and it’s coming from somewhere on the bed, but all Jared can see is Harley. The dog is licking away at something between his paws, and from the little peals of laughter that catch Jared’s ears again, he’s pretty sure he knows where Jensen is. Kneeling on the mattress, Jared looks down and, sure enough, finds a little, two-inch version of Jensen, fully at the mercy of Harley’s kisses.
“I think he likes you,” Jared jokes as he lies down next to the dog.
“Thanks Captain Obvious.” Jensen’s bare chest is covered in slobber, and Harley now seems to be working on licking straight through the denim on Jensen’s itty bitty knees. Jensen is attempting to push the huge doggie nose away, but Harley just nudges the little body back and keeps on kissing. “A little help here?” Jensen asks.
Jared rolls onto his back. “Nah, not yet.” Propping himself up on his elbows, Jared points out Jensen’s back with his knee and says, “Think you missed a spot, Harley.”
The dog moves his head and starts licking Jensen’s back, and Jensen laughs. “Whose side are you on, Padalecki?!” Jared just laughs right back as Jensen starts to squirm. “Stop it!” the genie begs, “I’m ticklish!”
“Is that so?” Jared pokes his finger into Jensen’s side and starts tickling him as well. Jensen shrieks at the dual assault, and Sadie whines in concern as she joins them on the bed.
“He’s fine, Sadie, we’re just tickling him!” Jared moves in to tickle again, but his fingers touch thin air. Jensen is gone. “What the...?”
A shadow drapes over him. “Payback is a bitch!” Jensen’s booms, and a huge finger comes out of nowhere and starts tickling Jared’s side. He laughs and wriggles on the mattress, but more giant digits keep him from escaping. Jared’s eyes are soon watering, and through his blurry vision, he discovers Jensen squatting over him, his body now big enough that it fills in the entire room. “I don’t think Jared knows how much you two love him,” Jensen hints to the dogs, and at once, Sadie and Harley make a dog pile on their human and kiss him silly.
“Okay, all right, Uncle, UNCLE!” Jared cries.
Jensen snaps his fingers, and he’s back to human size and completely slobber-free. He pulls a new shirt on-a navy blue tee that’s juuust the right amount of tight. Jared admires Jensen’s new look as he stands up, and Jensen smirks at him.
“Might wanna change clothes before you head to work,” he says, pointing out the drool and dog hair all over Jared’s shirt.
“NOW who’s Captain Obvious?” Jared sends back, and Jensen laughs as he heads out of the room. Jared is smiling as well as he goes back to his closet, but it fades as he remembers what he wanted to do before they left. He takes his shirt off and calls out to the other room, “Hey, Jen?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you get back to sleep last night?”
There’s a pause, and Jared waits with his new, maroon-red shirt in his hands. “Yeah,” Jensen answers eventually. “Why? Didn’t you?”
“No, I slept fine.” But only ‘cause you put me to sleep instead of letting me stay up and talk to you, he thinks, surprised at how bitter he feels. He emerges from his bedroom ready to tackle the subject again, but Jensen shoves a SIGG into Jared’s hand first.
“Made you a smoothie. Get your shoes on, we’re running late.”
“But…” What about you? What about our talk? What about letting you know I care? Jared doesn’t the chance to ask any of it, because Jensen talks over him.
“Already walked the dogs, don’t worry.”
“But!”
“But WHAT?” Jensen asks, pausing to stare into Jared’s face. His eyes are red from crying instead of sleeping, and the dark circles aren’t winning him any Hey, I’m Fine contests. But the moment for Jared to speak up is gone as Jensen’s digital watch beeps. “Shit, now we’re REALLY running late. I’ll get the car, you just get yourself down there in five seconds or we’ll miss the train!”
And in a poof of blue sparkles, Jensen is gone. Jared can only look at his dogs as they come over for their good-bye pets. “What the hell just happened?” Jared asks them. They just give his hands a lick, so he kisses them on their foreheads and heads out the door.
“We’re talking before the end of the day, Jensen,” he mutters under his breath. The car’s horn honks in reply, and Jared yells “YEAH, I’m coming!” as he dashes down the stairs.
On to Part Nine
Master Post