Jack stepped off the plane and navigated through the familiar airport an hour outside his hometown, spotting his sister almost immediately when he exited the gate. "Hey there, Jackie," she whispered in his ear when she finally had her arms around him.
"Kimmy." He said, squeezing her back.
"I won't call you Jackie if you don't call me Kimmy," she laughed up at him as they separated. "Deal," he agreed, hitching his carry-on higher on his shoulder as they fell into step, headed toward the baggage claim.
"How are Dan and the kids?" He asked her as they walked through the airport — he'd come through it so many times, that nearly everything about it was familiar.
"They're good. Daniel got a promotion," she told him, "and Hallie just had her first ballet recital."
"You've got lots of pictures for me, I hope?" He asked with a laugh.
"Of course." She said — then, "soo…" pausing for dramatic effect. "How's Allie?"
"Mom told you," he sighed — it wasn't even a question. He supposed he wasn't really surprised.
She shrugged unapologetically. "You know how Allie's mother tells mom everything, and mom tells me everything."
He did know.
"So?" She promoted when he didn't offer up any information, "what happened? I guess Allie brushed over most of the details with her mother."
"Nothing happened." It was true…mostly. And wasn't that the point?
"Nothing ever happens, Jack," she pointed out. Kim had been telling Jack to pull the plug on the relationship for years, and not a single one of those reasons was because she disliked Allie. In fact, she loved her like the sister she'd never had but it didn't necessarily follow that she thought that the pair were in any way suited to one another.
"I know." He sounded resigned, thinking how it would be nice if the floor would up open up and swallow him whole — anything was better than the conversations he knew his sister was going to force him into on this trip.
"You do?" She was surprised —
"I know you've been saying this for years, I guess… I just didn't want to hear it."
"So?" She asked again, as they stood beside the baggage carousel — watching as the conveyor-belt squeaked loudly by — an assortment of brightly-colored luggage parading around in circles as they waited for Jack's nondescript navy suitcase, heavy with the gifts he'd brought for his nieces and nephews.
"We're not broken up, exactly." He admitted finally, wishing desperately that this conversation could continue without his involvement.
"So what are you exactly?" She pressed, "like on pause, or something?"
"Allie and I have been on pause for years." He shook his head, it was sad how true the statement was, and that he it had taken him this long to really notice. "We're both so little invested in it that we almost forget it's even there when we're apart," he sounded frustrated, and maybe a little resigned. "It's not a long distance relationship… it's a relationship that stops completely when physical distance is between us, which is like fifty weeks out of the year."
She nodded, biting back her tongue. She wasn't going to say I told you so, even if it was true, she was the nice sibling (or so she liked to claim). But she really had been saying this for years.
"So, what seems to be the issue now?"
He spotted his suitcase finally coming around and used it an excuse to briefly escape the conversation. Grabbing it off the conveyor belt and pulling the handle up out of it, dragging it on it's wheels behind him.
"You coming?" He asked her as he started towards the exit.
"Jack?" She said pointedly, the words answer me hung almost visibly in the air between them.
When he didn't respond she spun around on her heel in front of him, stopping them in their tracks — her neck tilted back slightly as she looked up at him.
"I know that face, Jackson. Don't you dare try to lie to me."
He rolled his eyes, but at her piercing brown gaze knew it was pointless. Of all the people in their family, she had been born with the most singular gift of wheedling things out of him.
"It used to be enough." He paused, and then, switching to a different trail of thought, "What Allie and I have is… it's easy, and it's… uncomplicated."
"But not enough?" She picked up his forgotten thread.
"I don't know, Kim," he sighed, running a hand across his jaw, pausing for words. "It just feels like when you're with someone, being apart should be… difficult, not the easiest thing in the world."
He looked suddenly uncomfortable, unable to meet her eyes, and the light-bulb went off over her head.
"There's somebody else, isn't there?" It was hardly even a question.
"…when did my poker face get so bad," he muttered under his breath, "what kind of an FBI agent am I, anyway?" But he didn't deny it.
"Mom's waiting," he reminded her a minute later, and they picked their pace up again.
"Who is she?" Kim pestered — she could be annoyingly persistent, and she knew she would get the information out of him eventually. Probably sooner rather than later.
Jack pretended he hadn't heard her, but deep down knew that resistance was ultimately futile.
"I'm not going to let this go," she pointed out when he still hadn't said anything. "Or would you rather do this in the car? With mom listening to every word?"
When he groaned she knew she had him.
"It doesn't matter," he finally admitted, "she is… off limits."
He'd been telling himself the same thing practically every single day for six months now, but so far it hadn't made a difference. Whatever he felt for Sue Thomas seemed to be growing continually stronger by the day, and he knew he would be in very real danger if he couldn't get it to slow down or reverse somehow. He wanted to laugh, if he had any control over that he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.
"You work together." She guessed.
Got it in one, "Yeah."
"And what is she like? 'You work together' is not a description that satisfies my unending curiosity."
The automatic doors at the pick-up area opened and they were hit by a blast of icy Milwaukee air, snow flurrying around them, sticking to their hair and clothes.
"Can we do this later?" Jack asked with a sigh — knowing that no matter how hard he tried, later was definitely going to come. He pulled his coat tighter around himself, eyes searching for their mom's van.
"Don't think that I'll forget, Jackson, because I won't."
"I wouldn't dream of it," He muttered, as they approached their mother's silver mini-van.
"Good." She said, as she pulled open the side door and climbed in.
Jack deposited his bags in the back and then slid in the front passenger seat. "Hey, mom." He said with a smile, before they exchanged an awkward hug over the center console.
"Good to see you, Jackson." She said, squeezing him tighter and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "How was the flight?" she asked, skillfully navigating out of the airport's pick-up/drop-off area before merging onto the highway.
"It was fine. Almost didn't make it to the airport in time, lot's of D.C. traffic." His lips quirked into a small smile as he remembered the clogged streets, and the taxi ride where he had opened the gift Sue had given him (two days earlier than technically allowed). An identical gift to the one he had gotten her.
"Well, I'm glad you made it okay." She said.
"How's dad?"
"Guarding the cinnamon rolls as we speak," she said with a laugh.
"So I'll be lucky if there are any left for me when we get there?" He asked lightly.
She just chuckled in response.
It was an hour and a half drive north from the airport to the Hudson's hometown of Appleton Wisconsin, which turned out to be plenty of time for Mrs. Hudson to lament how little she got to see her middle child, to wonder if he was eating well enough, and to hope that his job wasn't too dangerous. (She frequently told herself that Jack's was mostly a desk job, and was all too happy when he went along with that fantasy, constantly downplaying the level of field work and danger he frequently found himself in.)
He was grateful when she never once touched on the subject of his love life, though he knew it was likely to come up over his five day holiday, probably repeatedly, and with many different family members. His father especially had always had a soft spot for Jack's childhood sweetheart, and Jack wasn't dumb enough to get complacent, or to think he was going to be able to avoid the subject for very long.