Title: Soft Spot
Author: Mindy
Rating: K
Disclaimer: Tina's
Spoilers: "Problem Solvers"
Pairing: Jack/Liz
Summary: Post-ep. Jack thinks Liz is special. Liz knows this.
-x-
"You think I'm special," Liz states when they are back in his office and friends again.
Jack half-turns to look at her. "I beg your pardon?"
"That's what Tracy said," she adds, hovering at his elbow.
Jack resumes opening and pouring their wine. "I've always said you're special, Lemon."
"He meant in the nice way."
"As did I."
She rocks a little on her heels, hands clasped together. "That's why you came looking for me."
"That's right, Lemon," he murmurs as if indulging a demanding child.
"That's why you couldn't replace me."
"Correct."
"That's why you didn't want to crush me."
Jack hands her a glass of wine, leaning closer all of a sudden. "On the contrary, Lemon, I wanted to crush you with my bare hands, until you begged for mercy. I wanted to crush you more than I've wanted to crush anyone in my entire life."
Liz blinks up at him. "But you didn't."
"No," says Jack, letting the silence between his words stretch: "No, I did not."
"Because you like me," she simpers: "You think I'm special."
"We established that, yes."
"Because you can't do this without me."
"No…" he says slowly, taking a sip of his wine: "No, because I didn't want to do it without you."
"Which," she replies, waving a finger: "makes you just as predictable to me as I am to you."
He lifts a brow. "Really? How so?"
She gives a rather smug shrug. "I knew you'd take me back. I knew you'd forgive me."
"I knew you'd forgive me," Jack counters: "I knew you'd come running back."
"Did you now?"
"It was just a matter of time."
"Alright then--" She puts her glass on the cabinet, leans her hip against it: "if you're so smart, then what am I going to do right now?"
"Right now?" Jack asks.
She nods. "Right now."
He pauses, then smiles. "You're going to hug me."
She tilts her head. "Now why would I want to do that?"
"Because," Jack answers evenly: "since the moment we reconciled you haven't been able to stop thinking that nobody gets you quite like I do. And while you are well aware that I am quite possibly already mentally preparing a sarcastic crack for when you make such a predictably-you move, you are still willing to risk the rebuff. Largely because you are so very relieved to no longer be in that restaurant with some clown who'd just as soon let you go up in flames like a human candle, and so inordinately happy to be back here in this office with Yours Truly, who'd never let such a thing, or any awful thing, happen to you. And as I have noted before, there is something unabashedly puerile and uninhibited in you, Lemon, that seems to find it impossible to think and feel all of this without expressing it in some outwardly physical form."
Liz straightens, jaw set. "I no longer want to hug you."
"There's gratitude for you."
She takes her wine and heads to the sofa. "I am grateful, Jack, but I don't want to be completely predictable."
"But you are," he says with a low chuckle. "To me, at least, you are. It's one of the things I like best about you."
She turns, hitching her butt on the arm of his sofa. "What, that I'm easy?"
"You are not easy."
"I didn't mean that way."
"Neither did I," he answers swiftly: "You are not easy, and never have been easy. But you are, at least, consistent."
Liz humphs into her glass. "I'm still not going to hug you."
"How disappointing."
"Well. Not now, anyway," she mutters, eyeing him sharply: "I want to surprise you. Do it when you least expect it, when you don't see it coming."
"A surprise hug-attack?"
"Something like that."
Jack hums, pouring himself a little more wine. "I'll consider myself forewarned."
She narrows her eyes at him. "And you can make your snide little comments and pretend like you don't like it--" She pauses, then taps her chest with one finger: "but I know."
Jack begins to move closer. "You know?"
"Deep down…" She nods knowingly: "You love it."
"Is that right?"
"Yeah, that's right," she smiles, goofily confident: "Because you like me."
He bobs his head. "I have never denied it."
"You think I'm special."
"I always have."
"I'm your buddy, your go-to girl." She spreads her hands, drawing out her words: "I'm iiiirreplaceable."
Jack comes to a stop in front of her, lips curving upwards. "And so you are," he murmurs then leans in to kiss her cheek. When he pulls back, Liz is trying to mask her surprise. Unsuccessfully. He puts one finger under her chin and nudges her mouth shut. "Bet you didn't see that coming."
END.