What It Means To Love Jack Harper

by xjoiefulx

This is pretty much future fic with a slight backtrack into the past. It's the ways the weather makes Tru love Jack Harper how he had managed to crawl in underneath her skin and alter her life in ways that it rocked her to the core of her being.

Title: What It Means To Love Jack Harper
Fandom: Tru Calling
Pairing: Tru Davies and Jack Harper, with slight mentions of Harrison, Davis and Luc
Synopsis: This is pretty much future fic with a slight backtrack into the past. It's the ways the weather makes Tru love Jack Harper - how he had managed to crawl in underneath her skin and alter her life in ways that it rocked her to the core of her being.
Words: 761

Author: xjoiefulx

Dedication: This fic was written for Hider as a smallish birthday ficlet. I had promised her some TRUJACKLOVE when the inspiration hit and well tonight - the muse she was being mind to me. So, Hider - I hope you enjoy this. I've never written Tru&Jack fic before or any Tru Calling - so please let me know if it was any good or not. Remember...feed back is my crack, yo'!

There were days when it rained in sheets of heavy cold downpours and there were others that were so bitter outside Tru would have to pull her jacket tight around her body to keep the biting wind from seeping in beneath the layers of clothing she had dressed in and stinging her smooth skin.

Those were the days that she loved to hate him most, because they were the days that she loved him hardest. He was her polar opposite or as one would say, her opposing force in this race against destiny, fate or whatever metaphorical spin you wanted to put on it.

The loss of Luc had turned her bitter, cold and burning on the inside and had awoken a deep fierce competitive nature within her that she hadn't known existed before. Never in her life had she ever thought of or entertained the idea of being that close to someone - so close that she might just almost be willing to share her secret with him.

The secret that she knew had become her destiny, passed down from her mother and now it was her turn to carry out the sacred duties of saving the lives of those who weren't supposed to die before their time. Davis had described them as, unnatural deaths, murders, suicides - deaths that happened before they were supposed to.

That day in the cemetery as she knelt down, placed the rose inside the casket where Luc lay undisturbed and peaceful, kissed the tips of her fingers lightly and pressed them ever so gently to his cheek a single tear fell down her cheek. She ground the rest of them out by shutting her eyes briefly and bit them back.

She'd been aware of another presence behind her. She hadn't been alone in the cemetery and the other person there wasn't just Harrison either. As she looked back over her shoulder she could see Jack standing off in the distance next to a tree. Bitter agonizing grief, pride, fear, pain and contempt drug her up off her knees as she rose to her feet and strode towards him purposefully - her eyes blazing with ardent fury and set with heavy resolution.

Tru hadn't been listening when Jack had said, "I take no pleasure in being right," but something somewhere in her heart couldn't deny that look on his face. It was something strangely peculiar like something in his eyes had told her that he had meant what he said, though she still persisted in setting him straight. He had just made sure the man that she loved with all of her being died before his time, though if Jack were to tell it, he just made sure fate was carried out as planned.

He had just been trying to keep the balance between life and death, by ensuring that nothing - not even Tru could step in and keep it from happening. If taking Luc from her was what he had to do to make sure she understood that this was bigger than she realized, then it would be a lesson that she would just have to learn to accept.

Jack had warned them all that death was inevitable in one way or another, and that what Tru was doing was messing up the universe. Every time she saved a life that was destined to die, she changed the history of that person's life and anyone else around them. She was dabbling in something bigger than she realized, messing with the order of the universe and it wasn't happy.

Hating him that day for taking Luc away from her made it so much easier for her to embrace life and her ability to save the lives of others even more. It helped to put everything into perspective for her - gave her a new meaning and reason to keep fighting the good fight and saving lives.

She saved Harrison, but had lost Luc. Jack had been right, there were consequences for what she had done but her pride would not yet let her admit that. There was no way that she was going to let him see how deeply conflicted she had become towards her calling - his calling. It hadn't mattered. All that had that day, was the fact that she was standing in a cemetery grieving the man she had been in love with and being grateful that she had managed to save her brother's life once again - beating Jack at his own game.

Now four years later as the cold bitter wind tries to rip through her, she stands in front of his grave remembering what she had said to him on top of the Eddison building the night he helped a woman die.

"I wish it were you," she had stated plainly - coldly.

There is a constant ache inside of her heart so deep and wide lazily stretching across the canvas of nothing more than an empty place that's permanently taking up residence inside her chest. It no longer matters how many tears she cries, there is simply nothing left to fill the empty aching void left inside and all she possesses now are remnants of hollow heart.

They tears don't heal her, not the way they should. The only thing they possess is a built in release for all of the pain that she carries with her every time she thinks about the day he died - the day she could no longer save him from.

She'd sat with him for hours until Davis had to have Harrison physically remove her from the morgue. The day would not rewind and somewhere deep inside she had known that searching for another body to rewind the day would not result in the best outcome and it would take things to a whole new level with a new guideline of unexplained consequences to face.

Love had altered her life in such a way that she almost hadn't been ready for it when it came, but now standing in front of his grave, kneeling and tracing his name with the gentle tips of her fingers she realizes exactly what it had meant to love Jack Harper.