"Jack!"

He stopped. Almost didn't want to turn around. He recognized that voice.

David.

Jack wanted to talk to no one right now, let alone David Shepard.

But, to keep walking would have been rude.

(Would he have cared?)

So, he turned around.

David jogged up to him, stopped, exhaled.

"Um..." He glanced around awkwardly, apparently unsure of what he had planned to say.

Jack crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Michelle told me." David finally spoke, slowly, as if he was not sure if the words he chose were the right ones. He put his hands on his hips, looked up, stared Jack in the eyes. "About...everything."

Jack's heart skipped a beat. He gulped. Of all painful subjects.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He lied.

"Why the mail was stopped. What happened while I was on Pilgrimage with your father..." David continued as if Jack had not spoken. "And...I just wanted to say..."

He broke eye contact with Jack for a minute, sighing, looking around, almost uncomfortably. He acted as if these next words were going to be difficult to speak aloud. He looked Jack in the eyes once more.

"I'm sorry for your loss, Jack."

Silence.

"I...really am. I mean it. It must be...really really hard for you, to lose someone that close, someone you loved. Especially when you had to hide it. I'm not going to say I know what that feels like, because I don't, I've never come close...but if you ever need me to, I'll try to understand. Again, Jack...I'm so sorry."

Jack blinked.

"So..." David rocked back and fourth on his heels. "If there's anything you need from me, ever..."

He extended a hand. Jack stared at it. Took it slowly, with caution. They shook.

David gave Jack one last sympathetic smile, a pat on the shoulder, and turned around, headed in the other direction.

All Jack could do was stare. And then,

"David!"

He hadn't thought. The name escaped him before he could control it.

David turned.

Jack sighed. Smiled - for the first time in days.

"...thanks."