Set Christmas Eve between seasons ten and eleven.
Gabrielle Jaeger let herself into the small church near where she lived on Christmas Eve. She had been told they had a decent choir who would be singing carols, and she had decided it was worth checking it out. Besides, she could do with some cheering up. It hadn't been the best couple of months for her. First, her ex-boyfriend Steve had blown back into town, made her fall in love with him all over again and then broken her heart with his drinking, then she and the entire ED staff had been held at gunpoint by a group of criminals hell-bent on raiding the ED and pharmacy's drug supplies. She herself had had the gun pointed at her, and minutes later the girl holding the gun had been coldly shot rather than her fellow criminal run the risk of leaving her behind, unconscious.
So yeah, she figured she was well and truly owed a pleasant evening. At twenty dollars a ticket, the church was provide food and drinks, including alcohol, and it seemed like money well spent.
She was surprised to see one of her colleagues there, Jack Quade. Jack had started at the ED just a few months previously after resigning his surgical post following some kind of emotional breakdown. At first, she had been reluctant to have him in the ED – he had a reputation as a womaniser; had, in fact, seduced one of the best agency nurses she'd ever had and humiliated her into quitting. She had been nervous to have him back, nervous that he might try the same with her. Not that she intended on becoming his latest conquest, but still, she hadn't wanted him around.
But he had proved himself to be an empathetic and capable doctor, and had never done anything to make her doubt his trustworthiness or integrity. And she had found herself enjoying his company. He was intelligent and funny and made her feel at-ease. She had to admit, she trusted him more than she had ever trusted Steve, both in the past and now. She could depend on him for an honest opinion, and that was incredibly refreshing.
Not to mention he wasn't exactly bad-looking. She couldn't deny finding him attractive. She'd never quite been able to forget the time she had been frightened by a patient's dog and had jumped back into his arms. He had held her a fraction longer than he'd had to, and she had felt safe and secure in his arms – not something he had ever expected to feel about Jack.
So she wasn't exactly disappointed to see him in the church – although she was a little surprised. Jack didn't seem like the churchgoing type. But then, she had to admit, she didn't really know him.
There was a seat next to him and she sat herself down in it. "I didn't pick you for a churchgoer," she said.
"I'm not," he said, looking slightly amused that someone would think he was the religious type. "But my –" he was cut off by the end of Away in a Manger and the resounding applause to it. He looked directly at a beautiful blond with an expression of love and pride and Gabrielle felt a twinge of jealousy. Who was she to him? "What did you think?" he asked, turning to her and flashing her a smile. He had the most gorgeous smile. Not to mention the most gorgeous eyes.
"They're good. We certainly didn't have anything like this back home."
"Back home?"
"Slip of the tongue. I meant Widgee." She had lived here for three years now, Sydney was her home, but often she found herself missing the small country town she had grown up in.
"What was it like?" he asked, and he actually seemed interested, unlike most people who asked the question out of politeness. "I've lived here all my life," he explained when she looked surprised at his interest. "I'm curious what it must be like."
"It's different," was the first thing that came to mind. "Kinder, in some ways, but also a lot more ignorant. People don't put much stock in formal education, even if it's needed to staff the hospital."
"I'd be tearing my hair out, then," he remarked ruefully. "Dan reckons I'm an intellectual snob."
"Dan reckons American remakes of foreign films are the pinnacles of culture," Gabrielle pointed out, remembering when Jack had been horrified to learn Dan thought so highly of the American remake of The Last Kiss. "I miss how everyone knew everyone else – even though sometimes it could be maddening when everyone knew your business – and I miss my family."
Jack nodded. "The only one of my family I get along with is my sister, but she means everything to me," he said.
"You don't get on with your dad?"
Jack made a face. "God, no. He's one of those working class redneck types. I think he was ashamed when I got my scholarship. Wanted me to be a labourer like him. I think the biggest disappointment of his life was when I showed zero aptitude for car mechanics."
"You're joking."
"Nope. But I get by. And I enjoy knowing that it shits my step-mum to know how successful I am. Stella at least gets that a scholarship to AUMEL is pretty damn good."
They chatted quietly during the rest of the performance. Gabrielle was glad she came, both because of the performance itself and the fact she got to spend one-on-one time with Jack. It certainly beat staying at home alone. She was still getting used to Steve being gone and it got lonely at nights, especially around Christmas when you were inundated with messages about family and togetherness. Jack was excellent company, and it was so nice to see someone socially, away from the politics and pecking orders of work. She was once again reminded that he was a very attractive man and that there was a certain degree of chemistry between them. Especially when his arm brushed against hers and he made no attempt to re-establish his personal space.
She found herself wondering what kind of boyfriend he would make, now that he seemed to be well past whatever demons had made him sleep around without much discern.
She found herself wondering if she was ready for a relationship so soon after Steve's decent into alcoholism and brutal first-stage recovery.
She found herself wishing that he would stop looking at that beautiful blond who had a wholesome, Jennifer-Hawkins type look about her.
The performance ended, and shortly after, the beautiful blond that Jack had periodically looked at with a combination of love and pride came up to him. He went to hug her, but instead she jumped into his arms and wrapped her legs around his waist with the grace and strength of a dancer. Gabrielle wondered if she did that as well as sing in the church choir. "Ooof, get down, you're getting heavy," he teased. She poked her tongue out at him but got down. "You were great," he said admiringly.
"I aim to please," she said, and it was obvious that she adored him. Gabrielle felt a twinge of jealousy and wondered if this was the same beautiful blond that Jack had a photo of next to his bed. Rachel had mentioned it, wondering if maybe she was a former love. Well, she looked very much like a current love, and she was certainly very affectionate with him.
Jack turned to Gabrielle. "This is Rebecca," he said. "My – "
Rebecca spotted someone, waved, and cut Jack off. "Come meet my dad," she begged.
Jack made a face. "Do I have to?" he whined in a voice that sounded like it had come from some awful Meet the Parents-type movie. Clearly, he had no interest in meeting this beautiful girl's father. If his treatment of Rachel was any indication of his treatment of women in general, then it was little wonder that he had no interest in meeting their fathers.
"Jack, it's been over two years and you promised," she reminded him. Gabrielle was floored. Two years? They had been in a relationship for two years? More than that, from what Rebecca was saying. So where had she been when he had taken Rachel to bed and heartlessly rejected her the next morning? And how old had she been two years ago? She didn't like more than twenty or twenty-one to Gabrielle. Several years younger than Jack, that was for sure.
Jack made a face. "OK, I'm coming, I'm coming. But you owe me."
"Sure," Rebecca agreed. "I'll meet you dad." She said this with an air of confidence, and Gabrielle guess that she knew Jack had no interest in spending any more time with his father than he had to, let alone introducing him to a beautiful young woman.
Jack turned to Gabrielle as Rebecca started leading – or, rather, dragging – him away. "Guess I'm going to meet her dad," he said, his tone and the look on his face making it clear that he far from relished the prospect. "I'll talk to you later, OK?" Gabrielle nodded, her mouth set in a thin smile. Things had been going so well with Jack, she had really thought they had a connection, and then this Rebecca had showed up and dragged him away to meet her father.
So they had been together over two years. Did they have some kind of on/off thing going? Or an open relationship? Or was he simply one of those deeply entitled surgeons who expected fidelity from his partners but not to give it himself? Surgeons, she thought scathingly. Richard Craig, Peter Frost – they were all the same. In a way, Rachel had been lucky not to get more involved with Jack that just a one-night stand. He clearly was about as good boyfriend material as Steve.
So why did it hurt so much?
She felt like an idiot. She had actually started having feelings for Jack, thinking that he had integrity and trustworthiness and would make a good boyfriend and maybe that she was ready to start dating again. She should have known. She should have remembered that Jack had coldly seduced someone he knew he had to work with the next day and then proceeded to spend that day ignoring her. Those weren't the actions of a decent man. They were the actions of a man who slept with whoever he pleased and to hell with who might get hurt in the process.
She went to the bar and got herself a vodka and lemonade, then persuaded the barman to give her a double even though it was against the rules. She downed it quickly and watched Jack and Rebecca through slitted eyes. She held onto his arm, looking as though she belonged there. Two beautiful people. And she was tall too, like Gabrielle, except slimmer. She looked like a perfect match for Jack, and Gabrielle's heart soured with resentment.
Two hours later the crowd was thinning and Jack found her. "Hey, sorry about that," he said casually, as if he hadn't just ditched her for another woman. Not that she had any claim on him. Not like she was his girlfriend or anything. Really, it had been her own stupid fault for thinking about him in a way that she should have known better. "You've had too much to drink, do you want a lift home?"
Gabrielle was on the verge of saying no – like hell she wanted to be in the same car as this – as this – she didn't know exactly what he was since he hadn't offered anything other than friendship, but she was convinced that he had behaved like a jerk – but common sense and civic responsibility kicked in. She knew the consequences of drink driving, and she would never forget Steve being brought home by the police after he had thought nothing of driving home – or at least attempting to – dead drunk. "Fine," she agreed, none too graciously, and she downed the last of her drink.
Jack looked at her, concerned. He had never known Gabrielle to become a sullen drunk like she seemed to be now; she had always become more chatty on the rare occasion that she did come out for drinks with them. But he decided not to say anything. Instead, he led Gabrielle to his car. "Where's Rebecca?" she asked, the girl's name tasting foul on her tongue.
"Her dad took her home."
"Still lives with her folks, then?"
"Just her dad. She's only twenty and studying so it doesn't make sense for her to stretch herself by moving out."
So Jack was dating a twenty-year-old student who still lived with her dad. Talk about coming down in the world. Wait, what was she coming? You couldn't exactly come down from the gutter that he had inhabited for a while. Rebecca was no doubt a step up for him.
They drove in silence which seemed to become increasingly frosty to Jack. He and Gabrielle had enjoyed a good rapport since he had come back, and he had found increasingly that she was the best person to talk to about anything – work, life, current events, movies – better than Dan, better even than Charlotte. He had been delighted when she had walked into the church – if nothing else, it was an improvement on an obligation to be at his sister's Christmas Eve choir performance - and at one point in the performance had found himself itching to grab the free hand that wasn't holding the program – the hand that was conveniently closest to him. But once the performance itself was over, she seemed to have gone out of her way to avoid him, and was now being cold towards him. In fact, he got the distinct impression that she would have told him where he could shove his offer of a lift home if she hadn't been well aware that she wasn't in a position to drive. Especially not with double-demerit points.
He pulled up her driveway and killed the engine. "Have I done something to offend you?" he asked.
"No." Her tone was sullen and reminded him of when he had told an eighteen-year-old Rebecca that he was not joining her Cancer Orphans group and insult the grief of those who truly had lost a parent in every sense of the world by pretending to feel something for his mother that he didn't.
"Bullshit. You've been cold to me ever since I offered to take you home. Have I done something in between the end of the performance and now?"
No, he hadn't, she realised bitterly. It had been all her fault for presuming Jack had an interest in her other than friendship. Even if he did sleep around, it was none of her business given he had always shown her the utmost respect professionally and personally. "No," she said, even more sullenly.
"Gabrielle..." he said in a tone that told her he would follow her into the house if need be in order to find out what was bothering her.
"Look, it's nothing, OK? And it was my own stupid fault anyway."
"I don't get it. What was your fault?"
"Thinking we had something special when you have a girlfriend," she admitted, feeling even more stupid now that she had said it.
"We do have something special. And I haven't had a girlfriend in nearly two years, since before I met you." He scowled himself to think of Deanna. How he could possibly have been fooled by her was completely beyond him.
"You – what? Yes, you do. Rachel said you have a picture next to your bed of a gorgeous blond and Rebecca looked pretty gorgeous to me." Way more gorgeous than Gabrielle could ever hope to be.
Jack started to laugh, and Gabrielle wanted to smack him. "You," he said. "Can be quite a twit sometimes. You really think a mere girlfriend would get me into a Church? Until they make science a religion, I'm the original atheist. Bec's my sister."
She felt the blood drain from her face and was glad that it was dark. "Sister? But – you look nothing like her – and – she wanted you to meet her father – and – something about two years – and – "
"Half-sister," Jack corrected, grinning despite himself. So this was what Gabrielle had been so upset about? "We have different dad's so we don't look alike except for our eyes. I guess Paul – that's Bec's dad – is my step-dad but I didn't meet him until my mum's funeral so I've never thought of him that way. Kinda hard to think of someone as a step-parents when you didn't meet them until after the parent they were married to died," he added ruefully. "I didn't meet her until two-and-a-half years ago when my mum was in end-stage cancer and she wanted to reconcile."
Even more blood drained from her face. Well, that would explain why Rebecca only lived with her father. And why Rebecca was so affectionate with him. And why he clearly adored her, since he had already established that she was the only family member he got along with, and that was something he didn't want to lose. "Oh, God," she said, feeling ever more embarrassed than when she had when she had thought Jack had ditched her for another woman.
"I can't believe you'd think I'd have a photo of my girlfriend on full display while I take another girl to bed," he said. "Or that I'd cheat on any girlfriend I did have."
She had forgotten how anti-infidelity he was. "Oh, God, I'm sorry," she said, and it was obvious that she was seriously regretting what she had said.
He let it go. "So... you were jealous because you thought my sister was my girlfriend?" he asked, stressing the words to emphasis the idiocy. Actually, if he and Rebecca weren't thoroughly used to being mistaken for a couple rather than siblings because of their exuberant affection for one another and complete lack of similar looks.
Gabrielle crossed her arms over her chest. "No," she said, lying through her teeth.
"You were too. You were so jealous that you got drunk and glared at me for two hours because you thought I was with another woman." Which actually was technically true, but not in the way that either of them meant it. Jack unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car. He walked around the front to the passenger's door and yanked the door open. "Out," he ordered in a tone that Gabrielle decided meant it was best for her to get out. "If I had known you had feelings for me, I would have done something weeks ago," he said. "Did you really think I was going to make a move on you given my history – given yours with Steve – I don't want a rebound girl, thankyouverymuch."
"Jack, I'm not – " she started to say, before yelping with surprise when he grabbed her hips and hoisted her onto the bonnet of his car with as much ease as if she were a ragdoll. He crushed his mouth against hers and kissed her hard, pushing his tongue into her mouth, searching hers out with it, raiding her mouth, except this was the most exquisite raid. His arms roamed her arms and back and she ran her fingers through his hair. "Jack," she cried his name, oblivious to the fact that they were practically making out on the bonnet of his car in a family neighbourhood.
He pulled away after a few minutes when it occurred to him that if he was going to put his hand under her shirt like he wanted, then he should take it inside. Or maybe just kiss her goodnight and take her out on a date in a few days. He didn't want to fuck this up by taking her to bed too early and treating her like just another conquest. "I can tell you're not on the rebound," he said, a touch smugly. "You don't kiss someone like that when you're on the rebound."
She blushed. She hadn't intended to act so wantonly. "I don't want to have sex with you tonight," she told him honestly. Given Jack's track record on one-night stand, there seemed something wrong with having sex with him on their first night together. "But I do want you t stay with me... if that's not too much to ask."
He smiled at her. "I would love to stay," he said. And then, being the gentleman that he was, he scooped her into his arms and started carrying her to her front door. "And by the way, Merry Christmas," he said.
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