Title: Imperfect Together
Author: Mindy
Rating: K+ implied sexy.
Disclaimer: I bow to Tina.
Spoilers: Not really.
Pairing: Jack/Liz
Summary: Jack asks a delicate question.
A/N: I have taken something slightly delicate and I hope handled it with respect.
-x-
"Darling?"
Liz's head turns on the pillow, eyes half-lidded. "You talking to me?"
"Do you see anyone else in the bed with us?" Jack asks.
Bless her clueless heart, she actually checks, scans the tousled bedsheets for another body. "No," she replies: "But I've never been darling-ed before." She turns on her side, props an arm under her head. "Do it again, I'll get it right this time."
"Baby?"
"Wait, what?" She scrunches her brow at him: "I thought I was darling."
Jack smiles languidly. "You're both to me."
"This is confusing," she sighs: "Is there anything else I should be answering to?"
"Sweet-lips?"
She pulls a face: "Hm. I probably won't answer to that. Or anything to do with any body part. Even sweet ones. Especially sweet ones."
"Well," Jack murmurs, his voice a weary rumble in his throat: "there is still my favourite endearment."
She adjusts her head in her hand. "What's that?"
He is silent a moment. Beneath the covers, his thumb grazes back and forth over her bare thigh. "My love."
"My love?" she repeats.
"Yes?" he answers.
"I wasn't…saying it back, I was--" she shakes her head: "never mind. What did you want to ask me?"
Jack draws in a breath, eyes scanning her face. "It's…delicate."
"I'm gonna get it waxed," she responds immediately, a little defensively: "I just haven't had time."
He narrows his eyes. "What're you talking about?"
"Nothing," she shrugs: "Not anything. Go on."
Jack shifts onto his side, mirroring her position. One hand supports his head, the other moves to her face, her jaw, fingertips tentative. "I wanted to ask you…about this."
Liz frowns. "I need a chin-wax?"
"No," he says softly: "no…" He pauses, lifting his eyes to hers before asking: "This…scar right here."
Her eyes lower, only momentarily. "Oh."
He pauses again. Then asks her: "How'd you get it?"
"Oh," she says again and furrows her brow: "Haven't I told you that story?"
"No."
She hesitates. "It's not in my personnel file or something?"
He answers carefully: "I don't believe it to have any bearing on your ability to do your job, so--"
"My sexuality has little to do with that," she points out: "but you had that in there."
"Well..." he muses: "Sexuality can impact greatly on work performance, in my experience. The reason I was interested in yours, however, was not…entirely professional."
She gives a bewildered smile. "You had the hots for me back then?"
He bobs his head. "I was…curious, I admit."
Her smile increases. "Yikes, Donaghy. You had it bad."
"I just wanted to hear it from your lips," he says, one hand running over her hip.
"Hear what?"
"That you were straight. That you liked men."
"Right--" she answers smugly: "Cos you had the hots for me. Even though I hated you."
"You didn't hate me," he says, eyes watching the lazy progress of his hand.
"You're right." Her eyes drop away as she recalls that earlier time. "Hate isn't strong enough. Loathe would be more accurate. Detest, revile--"
Jack cuts her off, voice smooth and velvety: "I trust you don't feel anything like that now."
"Of course not." She shifts a little closer to him, one hand gliding up his chest as she tells him impishly: "You're my darling now, my baby, my love."
Jack smiles down at her. "Is this your way of avoiding my question? Because if you don't wish to tell me, you really don't have to."
Her face falls a little, apparently having forgotten his former query. "No," she says quietly: "I'm not avoiding the question. It's not that I don't want to tell you, or won't tell you. I will, Jack. It's just…I'm not in the mood. Not right now. I'm…happy--"
'Understood," he whispers and kisses her lightly.
"I don't want to make a huge deal of it," she goes on, eyes wide and earnest: "It wasn't some awful, traumatic thing– well…it wasn't the best day of my life but--"
"Please--" Jack puts a finger over her lips: "Don't say another word."
She blinks uncertainly, then appears to relax. "Okay…"
His fingers move to her chin, he holds it between his thumb and forefinger, tips it up as he moves in to kiss her again, slow and gentle. Liz sinks back into her pillow, responds a little as he places a series of soft kisses on and around her lips, laying them randomly on each corner, the upper edge, then the lower, before heading up over her left cheek. The cheek he has kissed dozens of times, in exactly the same fashion. With her hands on his shoulders, she seems to tense at this -- recoil, almost, in a way that is barely perceptible. Jack feels it though and when he pulls back, her eyes are not closed with the ecstasy he is used to seeing when they are in bed. In fact, her face exhibits no sense of bliss at all. Her eyes look troubled, brows drawn together, as she bites down on her lip.
"What's wrong?" he asks softly.
"I'm…" she shakes her head, not quite looking at him: "Nothing. I'm aware of it now, that's all. Usually, I just forget it's there."
Jack nods. "I do too."
"Is it ugly?" she says, meeting his eyes suddenly.
"What?"
"Do you think it's ugly?" she asks, simply and straightforwardly, as though the answer barely mattered.
"No," Jack says. And before any doubt can set in, he moves over her, looking down into her eyes with undisguised tenderness. "I love this face," he tells her: "I love everything about it."
Her face relaxes into a lopsided smile. "Even my ears?"
"I adore your ears," he replies emphatically: "I'm devoted to your ears. The pair of them."
She snorts a little, pats his arm. "I love your face too."
Jack lifts his brows. "Even if my eyes aren't as blue as they once were?"
"I still like them," she says. She lets out a breath, watches one of her hands skate down his chest: "I love all your bits. Even your hairy bits."
"Thankyou, darling," he sighs, gives her another kiss. "I feel exactly the same way."
"I am going to get that waxed," she murmurs tenderly: "Really."
Jack smiles at her. "Even if you didn't, baby."
"I'd still be your love?" she finishes for him, brown eyes glinting.
He nods once. "You'd still be my love."
Liz is silent a moment. "Good," she murmurs before kissing him.
END.