Comments | time_watcher: An Old Fence Post at the edge of town

time_watcher

An Old Fence Post at the edge of town

Dec 24, 2007 11:09

Jack's mood tended to vacillate from one extreme to the other over the holidays and though Ianto gave no indication that this bothered him one way or the other, Jack had decided to give the young man a break and take himself off to be moody in private ( Read more... )

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beenthroughthat December 24 2007, 16:54:13 UTC

Sam had been looking all over town for Jack for a couple of hours now . . . more, if you counted the time he'd spent out on the porch, smoking and watching to see if a familiar jacketed and Bluetoothed figure would bound up to the house next door for food.

Really, this would be a lot easier if his damned bike engine was working.

The sound of gunfire drew him, though, as such things tend to do, and he stood waiting and watching for a while, the hint of an inquisitive expression on his face.

time_watcher December 24 2007, 17:00:19 UTC

Not immediately aware that he was being observed, Jack was perhaps a little more accurate with his shots then he would have been if he'd known Sam was there.

Making one shot to cause the pebble to jump up in the air, Jack obliterated it with a quick follow up shot. It was a standard warm up he did to make sure he hand and eye coordination were up to par before he moved on through his routine. Almost as ritualized as a kata in martial arts.

He had to pause though, to reload the Webley and that was when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he quickly whipped around and saw Sam.

"Oh! Good morning, Sam." Jack said warmly.

beenthroughthat December 24 2007, 17:07:38 UTC

Sam gave him a nod and an enigmatic -- at least he flattered himself that it was -- half-smile, the admiration clear on his face. He too was familiar with the importance and sanctity of one's personal practice routine, and something about Jack's actions reminded him of that in a vague way.

"Harkness," he responded with just a touch of detachment. "Your technique is impressive. Interesting news broadcast the other night, by the way. Very, uh . . . informative, shall we say."

time_watcher December 24 2007, 17:15:02 UTC

"Meh, luck." Jack waved it off but then did a bit of a double take in response to Anders's next statement.

Smiling, he shrugged and began to methodically pluck the spent shells out of the barrel of the Webley.

"Sort of got shanghied into it by the news people. Luckily Dean had done them before I gather and could show me the ropes real quick."

Let the dancing begin.

beenthroughthat December 24 2007, 17:26:24 UTC

Been a while since Sam had done this sort of dance -- let's see if he'd manage not to step on any toes, shall we?

"Know the feeling," he offered casually. "I sure as frak wouldn't willingly have agreed to do the broadcasts with Piper on a semi-regular basis. You and your cohost on the other hand had much better chemistry."

Was there just the tiniest hint of a smirk there? Well, yes.

Sam shifted his weight very slightly from one foot to the other, waited a calculated half-moment, and added, "I gotta say, though, your sources must do some creative filling in of the blanks. Sure wouldn't expect you to make stuff up on the air."

time_watcher December 24 2007, 18:11:22 UTC

If anything Jack's smile seemed to grow wider, even more confident. He'd learned early that if you took control of a situation, sometimes you could turn it back to your advantage.

"Dean's a handsome young man, hard not to have chemistry with him," Jack said smoothly and as for that last bit, well he gave a relaxed shrug, as if it was really nothing to speak of. "You know how journalism is these days, all sensational all the time. I'm sure someone was making up a good story or so they thought."

Not ... entirely a lie.

beenthroughthat December 24 2007, 18:25:38 UTC

"It was creative, all right, I'll give them that," Sam said, the generic pronoun somewhat offset by the way he looked straight at Jack when he said it. "Doesn't exactly jive with my eyewitness account, though."

time_watcher December 24 2007, 23:00:03 UTC

Shit! Jack thought to himself as he tried to remember if they'd brought any Retcon with them from Cardiff.

Keeping his expression slightly vapid, he arched a curious eyebrow and slid the Webley into the holster on his hip.

"Eyewitness account?"

beenthroughthat December 25 2007, 02:01:59 UTC

Sam kept his expression carefully neutral, and nodded. "Good PR spin, the out-of-town frat boys. Frak knows I've been around enough to know that hazing rituals can get pretty damned dangerous, but I've never yet heard of a frat that makes its demonic-looking pledges root around in garbage cans then waylay people walking by."

time_watcher December 25 2007, 02:21:44 UTC

"Kids are getting more inventive these days," Jack said in as unconcerned a manner as he could manage.

beenthroughthat December 25 2007, 02:25:05 UTC

"Kids are going to get hurt, that's more my concern," Sam said in a lowered voice. "I've seen enough of the . . . paranormal, if you want to call it that, stuff to know those things weren't human, and quite frankly glossing it over so people don't worry about it kind of pisses me off."

time_watcher December 25 2007, 02:34:17 UTC

Damn it, he was going to make this difficult.

"You're right," Jack said after just the appropriate amount of soul searching, though what he was searching his soul for might have been a bit suspect.

"Listen, let's head back to my house and I can better explain what was going on over some coffee or a beer."

beenthroughthat December 25 2007, 02:36:32 UTC

Sam studied him for a moment or two, trying to gauge how sincere he was.

That was . . . frustratingly more difficult than he'd hoped, but finally he decided to just go with it.

"Yeah, okay," he said finally. "Not the best place for this sort of discussion out here."

NFB From this point please! time_watcher December 25 2007, 03:36:11 UTC

Smiling in a friendly manner, Jack nodded.

"Excellent, come on."

With a twitch of his head, he began to make his way back along the roads towards 69 Memory Lane. As he walked, he brought up basic small talk, the holidays, the weather, stuff that would be easy to fill the silence while not being too intrusive.

Walking up through the gates of the house, Jack flicked the barest glance up towards the well hidden CCTV but it was enough that they were met at the door by an efficient looking Ianto.

"Ianto! Just the man I was hoping to see. I don't know if you've met but this is Sam , a friend of Marie's. I brought him back for ... good question, what would you like to drink, Sam?"

Re: NFB From this point please! beenthroughthat December 25 2007, 04:14:58 UTC

"Nice place," Sam remarked after a quick glance around and a polite nod to Ianto. "Beer's fine . . . import if you have it, maybe something dark?"

Re: NFB From this point please! time_watcher December 25 2007, 04:24:23 UTC

"Oh I imagine we've got something that will suit the bill," Jack said, turning towards Ianto and there was the barest hint of a knowing look that past between them.

The young Welshman's eyebrow arched but his face was so deliberately bland that it was hard to tell if he was simply responded to the question about the beer or something else.

"Of course, Sir."

"Excellent. Come along, Sam. Let's go in to the study and we can talk."

Flicking with his hand, he walked off down a hallway. Leading Sam along a brief corridor, he opened a double door into a long, well lit room, dominated by very masculine furniture that had a 1940s air about it.

"Please, have a seat would you?" Jack invited, motioning towards a pair of wingback chairs that sat next to a tall built in bookcase.

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