Title: From This Day On...
Verse: Multi-continuity AU
Series: Pursuit
Rating: T
Warnings:Xeno.
Pairings/Characters: Jack/Arcee
Notes: Set a few months after Pushing Forward. Jack is 32. Arcee is a brat.
Summary: Some things change more than they stay the same.
Words: 213
Prompt: 3. And I'm all mixed up, feeling cornered and rushed. They say it's my fault but I want her so much.
Jack looked up at the wide, blue sky and prayed to whatever deity was listening to grant him patience. He was still sore, the wound on his shoulder tender. Mikaela had said he was lucky that the shrapnel had not hit anything vital. He didn't feel very lucky. He felt frustrated. He had never been wounded in combat before. Not like this. He never would have expected Arcee to lose it. To flip out, and do a complete about face. It was as if she suddenly noticed the spattering of white in his otherwise dark hair, finally noticed the barely formed laugh lines. Suddenly she was as frantic and worried as she had been indifferent before.
"Are you well?" She asked, casting him in shadow as she went to stand beside him. He hated how her voice was tinged with worry, uncertain.
"I'm fine." He said, forcing a smile on his face. He leaned against her, ignoring the twinge of the stitches.
"Jackson Darby. You are a terrible liar." She ex-vented loudly and looked down at him.
He looked up and gave her a little smile. "You always say that."
"You almost died."
"But I didn't."
She was quiet for a long time. "I don't say it enough, but I do love you."
"You never say that. You've never said that." He said, knowing he sounds tetchie, and wholly unlike himself. "Never once. Do you know how much it hurts?"
She ex-vented again. "I-I'm so sorry."
He looked up at her, his heart skipping a beat in his chest. He gave her a wan smile.
"It's fine. I love you, too."