Those Three Words
He'd tried to tell her several times but kept getting interrupted.
Or kept getting cold feet.
They'd been dating for six months; it was perfectly acceptable to tell your girlfriend of six months that you loved her.
Perfectly normal.
Except...
He'd never said those three words before – not to anyone but his immediate family, anyway.
Oh, he'd had girlfriends, yes, but he'd kept the relationships casual for a reason: soldiers didn't make for good boyfriends in his opinion, not when he'd been on active duty and liable to be shipped off at a moment's notice.
Jess was... Jess was different. Everything about her, about their relationship, was different. It was as sappy as hell and would get him no end of teasing from his teammates and the soldiers under his command if they ever found out what ran through his mind sometimes but Jess Parker had done that to him.
She'd made him sappy, not that he showed it. At least not when they were with other people; when they were alone, he had no qualms about showing her how he felt about her. Actions might be louder than words but for Becker, they were also easier – hence the nickname Temple had assigned him just hours after they'd first met.
That said, he knew it was time to say them.
Those three words.
She deserved to hear them, though she'd never put pressure on him to say them. She had said them to him, though, more than once, and he hated that so far, all he'd said back was "me, too" or, worse, "I know."
He had tried.
His first attempt had been interrupted by their teammates; in hindsight, deciding to tell her while they were in the Hub, with Jess in her red chair and him standing beside her was probably not the best of ideas.
Nor the most romantic.
So, with romance in mind, he'd taken her to the Chinese restaurant they'd gone to on their first date. It was the same place she'd bought takeout for him when he'd been on stakeout so had a sort of sentimental meaning for them both. (Plus the prawn crackers were the best of all of the local Chinese places he'd tried before or since.)
He'd been about to say the words when someone at a table across the room from them had screeched. Loudly.
It'd taken him half a second to realise the woman was screeching because she'd found an engagement ring in her fortune cookie and therefore the noise was supposed to be a good sign – to Becker's ears, it was a good sign he wasn't the unfortunate sole he was going to spend the rest of his life married to her.
When he'd relaxed into his seat, he glanced across the table to see Jess's reaction. She was smiling along with the restaurant's other patrons but he knew her better than that and could see the glimmer of something in her eyes.
"Jess? Everything okay?" He'd asked her, reaching across the table to rest his hand over hers.
"Fine." She glanced at the happy couple again – indulging in a very public display of affection to seal their engagement – and almost flinched. "Just... It's sweet and everything but... shouldn't moments like that be done in private?"
Becker looked at them and immediately looked away again. "Moments like that definitely should be, yeah."
And it was then that he decided against telling her he loved her for the first time in a public place.
So now here he was, drying the dishes she passed him after she washed them, contemplating when he should tell her he loved her when suddenly...
"I love you."
The words left him of their own accord and Becker cringed as soon as he'd said them.
Great one, Becker, he chided himself. That's romantic. Tell her when you're in the middle of washing –
Her lips on his silenced the tirade of the cynical little voice in the back of his mind. He fumbled with the plate he'd been drying, only just managing to set it safely on the counter before he wrapped one arm around her, lifting the other so he could tangle his hand in her hair and kiss her back just as enthusiastically as she was kissing him.
When she pulled back, she looked as dazed as he felt but the smile on her face was brilliant, brighter than any he could recall seeing before.
"I love you," she told him, her gaze searching his.
Becker smiled and gave her hip a light squeeze. "I love you, Jess Parker."
Saying those three – well, five – little words earned him another kiss and the rest of the washing up was forgotten about as Jess set about proving unnecessarily that while actions spoke louder than words, sometimes words meant more than actions.
End.
So I wrote this for a Tumblr prompt a while ago and realised, while going through my computer clearing up some files and folders, that I'd never posted it here. (I don't think? I couldn't see it, anyway. Apologies if this is repost!) Enjoy, my fellow Jess/Becker addictees! xx