Revelations One Shots
Ben
"Last box." Ben said as he set a box on the floor. The small rental house was crowded with unpacked boxes and haphazardly arranged furniture. Kaylie was already driving herself nuts with the organization, and Jack looked a little like a deer caught in headlights as he surveyed the scene.
Not surprisingly, really. Kaylie had lived in the same house her entire life. And Jack had Ben to unpack for him.
Small talk ensued, then with a reassuring grin, Ben flared back to his house.
His empty, empty house. No one was in the renovated apartment above the garage. Dean had a house of his own, and Chavi was living in it with him now. She'd at least been a pleasant tenant, hadn't made trouble for him, or turned his thermostat down while he was at work.
Speaking of which...
He lit a fire in the fireplace. He had to be the only person in Texas that had a fireplace that worked.
He turned the thermostat up as high as it would go.
Then he turned the radio on and popped in a CD, turning up as loud as he wanted to.
Unwrapped a package of paper plates. He hated doing dishes, and right now he didn't have anyone he could sucker into doing them for him. He didn't have to eat often, his metabolism worked differently. But sometimes he liked to. He just didn't like the clean up.
Opened a beer, and walked around his house to make sure all the windows were closed. So that the glorious heat that was flooding his house wouldn't escape out into the yard.
Sat in his large well worn chair. Even with the music blaring it was too quiet. He hadn't lived alone in over eighty years. Oh there was a break after his Abby died and when he took Jack from Maggie. But he hadn't noticed.
He surveyed his house again, pausing outside Jack's old room. The bed and dresser were still there, the bed neatly made with the guest sheets. Now he had another guest room, not that he had many guests. But he had one now.
"Is this the last time we're moving?" Ben leaned against the doorframe, holding his beer, hearing eight year old Jack's voice echo throughout the now empty room. Devoid of anything that had marked Jack's presence now.
"Yeah, buddy. I think this is it." Ben had said as he hung Spider-man curtains up.
"Are there any kids here?" Jack had asked hopefully. Part of the reason they had moved from the beautiful tropical beach. The distinct lack of kids.
"I hope so." Ben said with a chuckle. "That's why we moved here."
He went over to the window, where now non-descript curtains hung. Seeing the tree right alongside the house.
Ben laid stretched out on Jack's bed as the fourteen year old carefully lifted the window and quietly crawled back inside. Ben let Jack get his footing before switching on the bedside light, and grinned, seeing Jack jump.
"Ben!" Jack said, wide eyed. "I didn't think you'd be home."
"Obviously." Ben said, trying not to laugh. "Where were you?"
"Out."
"Again, obviously. Let's try that again. Where were you?"
Jack shifted his weight from foot to foot and jammed his hands deep into his pockets. "I was out. You know, I went to the beach."
"Uh huh."
"Are you mad?"
"You snuck out." Ben pointed out.
"Yeah..."
"And that's kinda against the rules we set down." Ben said as Jack's dark eyes flooded with guilt.
"Yeah."
"So I guess I have to ground you."
"Well you don't have to..." Ben gave him a look. "Yeah, I guess it's kinda expected."
"Fine. Dishes. Lawn work. And you get to help mop the club before it opens."
"Aw man."
He'd never had kids of his own. He figured he couldn't have them at all, all things considered. And that was fine with him. His own life was messed up enough he couldn't imagine passing on those genes to some unsuspecting kid. Abby had accepted that. She may have yearned, he knew she did. And miraculously it hadn't been an issue for them. He walked out of the room, shutting the door behind him and went to sit on his own bed, where there was a picture of his Abby on his dresser. A period portrait, 1933, and he swallowed.
He'd gotten roped into helping Jack when he'd been so badly injured, and Abby, even as elderly as she had been at the time, enjoyed taking care of the child. Hating to see him in such pain and distress, but happy she could soothe some of it with her gentle, gentle hands. And then, far too quickly for him, she was gone.
Five year old Jack crawled into Ben's lap. His mother was looking for the Bad Men. And Ben was so quiet. He missed Abby, Jack did too. He stared at the lilacs on the table along with his babysitter.
"Where did she go?" He asked softly. His grasp on death wasn't very strong.
"She went to heaven." Ben said.
"Can we visit her?"
Ben remembered having to blink back uncharacteristic tears at that. "You can. If you're a really good boy."
"Can you come with me?"
"Where she went, I can't go."
"Oh." Jack said, his little brow furrowed in confusion. "I'll tell her you said hi." Ben chuckled a bit at that.
"Thanks, kiddo." He said as the small child traced a tear that had escaped.
Ben scrubbed his face with his free hand. He could hear the music from downstairs, but everything was so quiet. So he turned the TV on. Some random show he really had no interest in, but it filled the space around him at least.
He didn't know what he expected. This was all unfamiliar to him. He liked his life comfortable. The first three hundred years or so of his life was filled with so much pain, and hiding. Well, at least he wasn't hiding now. Comfortable? Surprisingly so, even if he learned as he went on what it meant to raise a child. He'd never expected to be called upon to really fulfill his promise of taking care of Jack, until Maggie went too far.
"You're joining the PTA. You. PTA." Jack said, trying not to laugh.
"Oh, you think this is funny?"
"It's hysterical. You're really not the PTA type."
"And what's the PTA type?" Ben countered. "I pay school taxes. Believe me, I pay school taxes out of my ass. They're completely taking me for a ride. I've got a kid in that school, so I'm completely invested in how my hard earned money is being spent."
"Okay, but they have cookies and lemonade there." Jack pointed out.
"Ugh." Ben said, scowling. "It's only for an hour. Long enough for me to piss people off."
"More than long enough."
"Hey! I'm a likeable guy." Jack laughed. "I am!"
"You own a strip club."
"Means I'm gainfully employed. Not my problem if the husbands of the soccer moms like to watch co eds dance naked."
"Next you'll be driving a mini van."
"Say that again and I'm turning the heat up ten degrees."
Ah, the thermostat. He moved out of his room and checked it. Working fine. It was finally heating up in there. Hard to have it as hot as he wanted when Jack was so purely human.
"Why is it so hot in here?" Kaylie whispered to Jack. Ben didn't think it was hot at all. He was wearing a sweater.
"Because I'm a fire demon and I'm naturally acclimated to higher temperatures." Ben said as he turned a page in his newspaper. Kaylie stared at him, green eyes clearly thinking he was putting her on and being sarcastic. He met her eyes with his own green ones. "Seriously."
Kaylie chuckled a bit and turned back to her homework she was working on. Jack cleared his throat.
"What?" Ben said. "I am." He figured it was time Kaylie knew. The kids were fifteen now, they'd been nearly inseparable for seven years.
"Kaylie..." Jack said, making his 'I can't believe I'm saying this with a straight face' expression. "He really is."
"Excuse me?" Kaylie said, putting her pen down.
"Oh about five hundred years ago, my mother was in the wrong place at a very wrong time, nine months later thereabouts, I made my grand entrance."
"Five hundred years...?"
"I stopped counting after a while." Ben said with a shrug. Kaylie was looking at them like they were both nuts. So with an aggravated sigh, Ben lit the napkin holder on fire, and she jumped. So he put it out. Never moving from his seat across the room.
"Uh...wow..." Kaylie said. "That was a cool trick." Jack was positively squirming. Ben was getting almost a sick enjoyment out of this as he got out of his chair and sat next to Kaylie.
"Okay. Pop quiz. Where's your heart?" Kaylie pointed to her chest. He took her hand and placed it over his chest where his heart should be. "Feel anything?" He said and she shook his head. "Come on, take my pulse." She pressed his fingers to his neck and groped for it as he grinned. "Not completely human." Kaylie sat back. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you. I got over that whole urge a long time ago."
"Ben!" Jack said.
"What? I did!" Ben said. The two teenagers had soon left for a long walk. A walk Ben was sure was full of explanations. But, surprisingly, Kaylie had come back for pizza that Friday.
PTA was a drag. He made it to six meetings. Then they banned smoking in the room, and that was that. Not that anyone listened to him. He wasn't a 'real' parent anyway. Could have fooled him, he thought to himself as he looked at one of the trophies in the case in the corner of his living room.
The dojo was crowded, with all the parents there for the tournament. And some that just liked to watch. Maggie had started him in martial arts, and Ben had kept it up. Jack enjoyed it, and he was good at it too. So Ben sat on the bench and watched the competition between Jack and another kid at his level. This was a big tournament, Jack had already taken top prize for form, to loud applause from Ben.
He watched the two kids spar, and watched the kid get taken down by Jack. Took the required pictures of him receiving his trophies. He'd gotten better at picture taking. No longer was Jack often missing half his forehead.
"I don't know about all this, Jack." Ben teased on the way home as Jack admired his trophies. "There's a distinct lack of blood."
Jack rolled his eyes good naturedly. "People don't have to bleed, Ben. It's okay not to get splattered with blood."
"Oh come on, not even a good nose bleed?"
"I lose points if I hit him in the face."
"I don't know, he was a cocky son of a bitch. You could have at least made him scream for him mommy like a little girl."
Jack laughed. "All right, all right. If I face him again, it's on the to do list."
"Thatta boy."
Not a 'real' parent. Sure, he was posing as an uncle, then a half brother, but still. What made a real parent? Was there some form he had to fill out? Some bullshit class he had to attend?
Ten year old Jack was screaming. Ben had never heard a sound like that come out of a boy that small as he took off toward the back yard. Jack was crumpled at the base of a tree, the broken branch laying beneath him. Along with an awkwardly angled leg. Tears of pain ran down Jack's face as he tried to get up.
"Jack, don't move." He said as he flared into the house, then back out to the backyard with the phone as he called an ambulance, sitting beside Jack and holding the trembling shoulders.
Hours later, they were back in his room, a large plaster cast on his leg. Once the bone had been set, Jack ceased crying. He'd also known far too much pain in his life. But it was still painful as Ben gave him a pain pill and a large glass of milk. Trying to make the boy comfortable, until finally he started reading to the child.
"'I cannot play with you,' the fox said. 'I am not tamed.'
'Ah! Please excuse me," said the little prince.
But, after some thought, he added:
'What does that mean--'tame'?'
'You do not live here,' said the fox. 'What is it that you are looking for?'
'I am looking for men,' said the little prince. 'What does that mean--'tame'?'
'Men,' said the fox. 'They have guns, and they hunt. It is very disturbing. They also raise chickens. These are their only interests. Are you looking for chickens?'
'No,' said the little prince. 'I am looking for friends. What does that mean--'tame'?'
'It is an act too often neglected,' said the fox. 'It means to establish ties.
''To establish ties'?'
'Just that,' said the fox. 'To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world . . .' "
"What does unique mean?" Jack asked sleepily.
"It means you're different from everyone else in the whole world." Ben said, setting the book aside. He was nearly out. About time, Ben was on chapter twenty one.
"You're unique. Like the fox, but different." Jack said as he finally fell asleep. Ben tucked him in carefully and turned out the light before quietly leaving the room.
His house was finally hot. Outside, it was summer, and everyone else was living in air conditioning. Ben? His house was over one hundred degrees. He liked it like that. He'd compromised through out Jack's life, it had stayed a balmy eighty degrees. Except for one night. That night he'd turned on the air conditioning.
"Ben. Her mother spent a wicked amount of money to get her hair and make up done." Jack said reasonably as he fixed his tie. Again. He couldn't get it straight. "She comes over here and it's a million degrees, it'll all be ruined and MY prom will be ruined."
"It's not a million degrees." Ben said. "Believe me, I'd be nearly in heaven if it was."
"Ben, that's not the point."
"Fine. Fine." Ben said and went over to the thermostat and pulled on a sweater. And a jacket. And turned on the air conditioning.
"Thank you!" Jack said. He looked in the mirror again. "Damn thing..."
"Come on, let me see it." Ben said as he straightened it. "There you go, now remember..."
"No drinking and driving."
"And..."
"If I'm going to be later than two, call."
"And..."
"Ben!"
"I'm serious. It's important."
"Yes I've got them." Jack said, blushing furiously at the turn in conversation.
"Hey, I heard at that PTA meeting that all prom is, is an excuse for teenagers to have wild sex."
"Ben!"
"Well, that's what they said." The whole prom thing was new to him. He didn't get it. But apparently it was a rite of passage. "So you've got the condoms?"
"I've got the condoms." Jack mumbled.
Ben grinned as he clapped Jack on the shoulders. Seventeen years old. Nearly grown up. He looked more like his father than he would ever know, but he was a good kid. Anyone would be proud of him, Ben sure was.
It all went so fast. This was something he thought he'd dread, and do the bare minimum on. Get the kid to adulthood, then...he didn't know what. Just something. But he'd done all the rites of passage that he knew of.
"Shift!"
"I'm shifting!"
"You're not!" Ben said over the grinding of the transmission.
"It's the stupid car!"
"It's not the stupid car. Shift!" Finally the car got into gear. "Good." Finally.
Road test passed. License in hand triumphantly. That was one down.
"John Hsiao. Saludictorian." The principal announced as Jack walked across the stage and received his high school diploma. Ben stood and applauded as Jack shook the principal's hand. He'd earned it. Hell, so had Ben!
He'd spent years watching Jack crumple up papers and toss them across the room in frustration. A few times he'd fallen asleep at his desk. Then there were the endless trips to the library.
"Mrs Perkins," his high school guidance counselor, "told me that how I approach high school is how I'll approach life."
"Well, I never went to high school." Ben said. It wasn't exactly offered when he'd been growing up. Especially to a kid who kept getting exorcized or burned at the stake. "Does this mean I don't approach life at all?"
"I'm serious!" Jack said.
Ben reflected on that conversation as Jack smiled for the camera at the foot of the stage. The official graduation photo. If Jack approached the rest of his life like he approached high school, the kid was set.
Sure, Jack hadn't gone onto business school. He was a paramedic. Not exactly a Fortune 500 job. But he was happy. And he was hard working. And he didn't accept hand outs, working for everything he had. In Ben's estimation, Jack was a man. He knew what he wanted in life, and he went for it. Somewhere along the lines, Ben had done something right. He had no idea what it was, but he did it.
"So...I'm graduated." Jack said later, after the party, when they were cleaning up.
"You survived high school. Told you it wouldn't kill you." Ben said with a grin.
"Yeah, I guess I did." Jack said, returning the grin.
"We should go on a trip." Ben said. "I still have that house on that island..."
"Trip?" Jack questioned.
"Yeah. You, me, Kaylie..." since she and Jack now pretty much came as a package deal, "I'm sure I can convince some woman who looks great in a bikini to tag along for me."
"Are you moving?" Jack asked, and Ben caught the questioning look in his eye. The real question. Was he staying? His job was complete, right? He'd fulfilled his promise, right?
Right?
"Nah. I like it here. Corpus is a nice place." Ben said, reassuringly. "Just a vacation to celebrate both of us surviving your high school years."
And Ben didn't miss the relieved sigh that leaked out of Jack.
"A vacation sounds like fun." He said with a nod.
Well, now Jack had moved out. Officially an adult by any definition of the word. Was his job done? Had he fulfilled all the requirements?
And why was he pacing through his too quiet, too empty house? Like something was missing?
He barely heard the phone ring, but caught it as the answering machine picked up.
"This is Ben."
"And this is Jack."
"We're not here. Leave a message." Beep.
Ben turned off the stereo and picked up the phone.
"Yeah? Oh hey Jack. Me? Not doing anything. Just hanging out. Dinner? Sure. I'll be over." Ben said casually as he hung up the phone, and left the house.