Disclaimer: I don't own 30 Rock.
Note: This story will be five chapters long and I will post once a day until it's complete.
Liz thinks that love is being willing to leave New York for (or with) someone.
This is what she tells Jack (in a much more bumbling, circuitous kind of way) when Ray gets promoted to Vice President of Printers (he works for HP, which is one of the reasons why Jack's never been able to get along with him). The job, she explains, requires them to move. To Seattle.
Jack twists his wedding ring on his finger. It's a little loose; he's lost some weight in recent months, which is pretty weird since Jack's as much of a stress eater as she is and, well, he's under pretty constant stress.
"Who do you want to take over as head writer for TGS once you're gone?" he asks briskly.
She stares. "That's all you have to say?"
He cocks his head, his expression blank. "What do you want me to say?"
"You're my best friend." (They don't say things like this to each other very often, but they've done it often enough that her tongue doesn't stumble on the words.) "Don't you care that I'm moving across the country?"
He shifts in his chair. For a moment she thinks she sees guilt, or maybe regret, flash through those blue blue eyes of his.
She wonders why she's pushing this point. She knows he'll miss her—when he moved to DC that one summer, he flew back once a week just to see her, ostensibly because he wanted to make sure she hadn't regressed to her old lettuce-in-hair ways—but what she doesn't know is whether she's hoping he'll try to talk her out of going. Not that it matters what he says, of course. She has to go.
"I may be your best friend, but Ray's your husband. I'll miss you, but we both know that you have to go," Jack says, echoing her thoughts.
Liz twists the hem of her sweatshirt between her fingers, dissatisfied with his response. "Well. Fine." She clears her throat. "Ridiculous as it sounds, Frank should be my replacement. He's stood in for me before and we've seen that he can take the responsibility seriously."
Jack nods and makes a note on a piece of paper. She thinks it's an excuse not to meet her eyes.
She hovers there for a minute, waiting for him to say something else. Something to cut the tension between them.
"Was there something else?" he asks.
His uninterested tone cuts through her. She stands there, looking at him, and wonders what's wrong with the two of them. They used to be able to communicate. What happened?
"No," she says after an endless pause. "Nothing else."
Jack thinks that love is letting (or helping) someone do what's best for them, even if it's not what's best for him.
So when Lemon comes to his office one day, her cheeks flushed and brown eyes bright with excitement, and says, "Ray and I are engaged!", he does not curse or cry or try to convince her of all the ways Ray is wrong for her (the first two, he may do when he is alone later).
Instead, he smiles and says, "Congratulations, Lemon, I knew you could do it." Then he scratches his chin and adds, very seriously "Now does seem like a good time for a wedding, doesn't it?"
She looks at him oddly at that last bit but he pretends not to notice. If she's going to marry someone she barely knows (yes, she's been dating Ray for eight months, but he's so boring that it's impossible to really know him), why shouldn't he?
The next time he sees her, approximately four hours later, he's engaged to a twenty-something-year-old he picked up at a bar a week ago. ("Ohmygod," she said, near tears as he offered her the ring, "I thought I was justanotheronenightstand to you, but instead you were out all week looking for a ring!") (Actually, this is the same ring he once gave to Elissa, which has since been gathering dust in a drawer in his desk.)
When he joyously announces the news to Lemon, she stares at him with her mouth hanging open.
"I thought you'd learned your lesson after Phoebe," she says at last.
He can't stand the fact that there's something like pity in her eyes. It makes him angry.
"If I have to pretend to be happy for you, you can damn well do the same for me."
Oh, no. Did he actually just say that? Given Lemon's shocked, hurt expression, he'd guess so.
She clenches her jaw, her eyes glistening. "Congratulations, Jack," she says with stiff formality. "I'm sure you and Buffy—"
"Bunny."
"—Bunny will be very happy together."
Watching her leave, he thinks that she's making a terrible mistake. He thinks maybe he's just made one, too.