Author's Note: At LJ's Profiler Fans, there was a challenge to write a piece on New Beginnings. So I wrote a piece on Jack. I've always wondered how he dealt with the time Samantha disappeared after Tom's death. So here is how he deals with his grief and finds a means to wait for her return. The song I use in the piece and the title is Kiss From A Rose by Seal. Reviews are appreciated.

Jack stood before Tom Water's grave with bitter tears streaming down his face. This was where his Samantha last stood that he knew of. By killing this fool, Jack had thought to have his beloved girl grow close to him, instead she went away. Sinking to his knees, he picked up a red rose Samantha had placed on her worthless husband's grave. Looking heavenward, Jack screamed out his anguish and cradled the bloom to his chest. Since Tom's death two months ago, Jack hadn't been able to find his Samantha. Nearly every day Jack circled past the cemetery in hope, yesterday he'd missed because he had reluctantly gone to see his mother and from the freshness of the bloom, fate had played a cruel trick on him again.

Every day hurt more and more, Jack spent most of the holiday season drinking heavily and weeping before her image. Why couldn't she see what he was trying to teach her? There was nothing Jack wouldn't do for her, no one he wouldn't kill in the name of her love, including himself if she would but smile on him for a single instant. Tom would have never done half of what he had done for her, he'd never been worthy of the sublime Samantha. He proved his devotion time and again and still was ignored.

Didn't she understand how much his heart ached for her? Why did Samantha have to run away? Jack had hired more than a dozen detectives and prayed daily to no avail. Everytime he thought he hadn't any tears left, Jack would weep anew, finding more salt drops in his ocean of grief. His clothes were hanging on his frame which was growing more gaunt and skeletal by the day. Jack was withering away without his Samantha. Some nights he prayed he would wither away all together and never wake up when he sank into brief nightmarish sleep. What if she was truly gone for good? What would he do without his Samantha?

Since the moment he first saw her and she smiled at him, Jack had known she was his. Later finding her father and people of her past and getting further information about her had been a stroke of good fortune. Every detail of her life, Jack cataloged in detail committing it to memory, his own personal catechism. Now without her to play the game and flirt with, he felt so lost. Loneliness had been Jack's constant companion since his earliest days, now with Samantha so far from reach, Jack's desolation reached a new and terrible pitch.

Today as people were recovering from too much alcohol and making New Year's resolutions, Jack clung to a funeral flower from the grave of his worthless foe, simply because it had caressed his beloved's hand. The start of a New Year, a day which usually held hope and Jack was heartbroken with nothing but a single bloom to cling to for hope. Despondently, he wept to the heavens and cried outloud.

"Why? Please God, why? Just bring back my Samantha. Don't take my Sam from me. I'll do anything, just please bring her back to me! Bring her back!" Jack screamed and collapsed on the grass sobbing inconsolably. His sobs continued and his shouting diminished to a pleading litany, "Oh Samantha. Samantha my love."

A groundskeeper was walking through the cemetery with headphones on when he saw the grieving man. Pulling the headphones off his head and letting them rest around his neck, he headed towards Jack. It wasn't uncommon to see someone grieving, but something drew him over.

Jack continued, pleading, "Just a sign God. Just a sign you'll bring my Samantha back to me. Samantha."

Seeing the name on the tombstone and hearing the feminine name, the groundskeeper assumed that Jack was drunk and he informed him, "You got the wrong grave son, why not come back tomorrow when you're sober. There ain't no Samantha buried here."

Fury seized Jack, how dare this fool interfere with his grief! And for that matter, how dare he use improper grammar in the same sentence with Samantha's name. Samantha didn't suffer fools and Jack was positive her cultured ears would be offended by this butchery of the English language. Angered, Jack dropped the bloom to the ground and stood to face the interloper. The man stumbled slightly at Jack's rapid movement.

"No one interrupts my time with Samantha," Jack growled taking a step forward. Seizing the man by the head, Jack snapped the man's neck as he continued speaking, "And ain't is not acceptable grammar!"

Jack bent over the body with his gloved hands, checking to make certain he hadn't left any hairs or fibers for trace evidence, when his hand bumped the discman's volume and suddenly sound flowed around Jack. Around Jack a soft male voice swirled singing:

Now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the grave,
I've been kissed by a rose on the grave,
I've been kissed by a rose
I've been kissed by a rose on the grave,
...And if I should fall along the way
I've been kissed by a rose
...been kissed by a rose on the grave.
There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain
My power, my pleasure, my pain.

Jack shut the music off and took the disk from the player, then picked up the rose Samantha left. As he walked towards his car, Jack realized it was the sign from God he'd prayed for. Sliding into his car, Jack pushed the disc into the player in his car. Truly he preferred vinyl, but the harder it became to find the more concessions to the shiny CD he'd had to make. Driving away from the cemetery and leaving the corpse behind, Jack scanned through the CD to find the song that had captured his interest. When at last he found the track, his finger hit the repeat button.

He held the blossom to his face as he drove through the streets of Atlanta. Samantha would come back to him, Jack was positive. Not only had God given him a sign, but she would miss him and their game. Samantha needed Jack, just as he needed her. She WOULD return to him. A smile crossed Jack's lips as he reached for a cigarette and laid the rose aside. This wasn't a time to give into mourning. His lady was merely playing hard to get and being coquettish. Jack was seldom wrong and never when it came to his Sam. Tom's demise would serve to bring them closer, just not as he'd initially predicted.

Samantha needed to move past the technical aspect of Tom's death so she could truly see and appreciate Jack's artistry. Every offering Jack made, she resisted just as she resisted the violence that churned so gloriously beneath her surface. But in time, each gift proved irresistible and in time she would accept the violence within herself that she struggled vainly with. Over the past few years, Samantha had assigned many unpleasant names to their mating dance, but Jack knew it was merely a defense mechanism. Every mental caress wrapt around her heart and drew her closer to him.

This wasn't a time for Jack to indulge in self-pity. His time of exile was a time to be productive and to prepare. When his Samantha returned, she would be starved for their mental dance and ache for Jack's attentions. Jack needed to make plans and put things in motion for her return, he would be an inattentive lover if he did otherwise. Happiness began to radiate through Jack as he anticipated resuming his mental lovemaking with Samantha. As he drove down the road, the song played over and over as Jack began to plan...

There used to be a greying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
Ooh,
The more I get of you,
Stranger it feels, yeah.
And now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the grave.
There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain,
My power, my pleasure, my pain, baby
To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny.
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby?
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
Ooh, the more I get of you
Stranger it feels, yeah
Now that your rose is in bloom.
A light hits the gloom on the grave,
I've been kissed by a rose on the grave,
I've been kissed by a rose
I've been kissed by a rose on the grave,
...And if I should fall along the way
I've been kissed by a rose
...been kissed by a rose on the grave.
There is so much a man can tell you,
So much he can say.
You remain
My power, my pleasure, my pain.
To me you're like a growing addiction that I can't deny, yeah
Won't you tell me is that healthy, baby.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and the light that you shine can be seen.
Baby,
I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey.
Ooh, the more I get of you
Stranger it feels, yeah
Now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the grave.
Yes I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grey
Ooh, the more I get of you
Stranger it feels, yeah
And now that your rose is in bloom
A light hits the gloom on the grave
Now that your rose is in bloom,
A light hits the gloom on the grave.