The Week after Nightfall – Part 7

Jason was sitting in his office waiting for Jack. Normally on a Saturday night he would be out drinking with friends but he thought Jack might like some company when he got back from his visit with Dwayne's widow.

He hadn't known Dwayne well but he could empathise with the pain Jack was going through. There weren't many officers he knew that hadn't been through the ordeal of visiting a dead friend's family and trying to give them some peace of mind. He himself had done it twice and he could honestly say that he'd rather fight a war than have to do it again.

He heard the sound of a car parking and a few seconds later there was a knock at the door. He got up and let Jack in. He looked at his friend silently and saw straight away that he'd been crying. Of course he didn't mention it, but as he poured them both a scotch, he quietly hoped that the tears had come after the visit and not during. Jeez, what was he saying? This was Jack! He knew how to handle these situations. He passed over the strong drink and watched as Jack poured it straight down his throat. He took the glass back and refilled it.

'You staying here tonight?'

'I'm supposed to be getting back to Teri. She doesn't know I'm where I am.'

'Call her. You're in no state to drive all the way back to LA and it won't do either of you any good if you're in a bad way when you get home.'

Jack gave a small smile. 'I look that bad huh?' Jason looked down at him. He was sitting on a wooden chair, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. His jacket was unbuttoned, his tie was loose and he was turning his hat over and over in his hands. The blond hair was dishevelled where he'd obviously been running his fingers through it, and his eyes were red and bloodshot. Jason handed over the refilled glass of Scotch.

'Yeah you do. Call Teri and tell her you're staying at a motel or something. We can go out and have some drinks if you like and you can crash on my sofa.'

Jack knew it made sense. The prospect of a long drive, ending with having to deal with playing the role of perfect husband and father was not appealing right now. The idea of a night of relaxed drinking with an army buddy definitely was. In fact, it sounded like the best idea in a long, long time. He suddenly felt relieved that the day was over and noticed that he felt strangely empty inside. Maybe he could use this feeling to relax a little.

'OK Jay, thanks. A drink sounds good. But can we go off base? I don't really want anyone to see me here.'

'Sure Jack,' Jason understood why of course. 'I'll go change and commandeer a driver. Why don't you call Teri, get out of your uniform and meet me out front in about fifteen.'

He left and closed the door behind him. It didn't take long for Jack to put his jeans and T-shirt back on. As he took his uniform off, he felt like some of his troubles were coming off with it and he almost smiled with relief. Then he picked up his phone and dialled home. He figured Teri would be p!ssed but found that the thought brought no emotion from him.

'Hello?'

'Hey Kim, it's me. You OK honey?'

Hi Daddy! Yeah I'm fine. Will you be back soon? Mom says we can go for pizza and a movie!'

'No I'm not done here yet Kim. Is Mom there? Let me speak with her OK?'

Strangely, as he waited, his thoughts started to drift away, he found himself thinking about what he wanted to eat for dinner. He dragged them back, heard Kim yelling for Teri and realised that he hadn't thought up a good excuse for staying away yet. He improvised a quick cover story.

'Jack?'

'Hi sweetheart. Look, I'm really sorry but I'm not going to be back tonight. I have to go see somebody in Santa Barbara and it'll be really late by the time I'm done. So I'm just going to stay there for the night and get a motel room.'

There was silence on the other end of the line. 'Teri?'

There was more silence then he heard her take a deep breath. 'Is this about this morning Jack?' She sounded annoyed – which annoyed Jack.

'No! It isn't. I just.....have to see someone and I don't feel up to driving there and back in one night. It's been a long week honey, that's all. And I'm really sorry. I'll be back early, maybe we can do something with Kim tomorrow OK?'

There was another long silence, followed by a sigh. 'OK Jack, fine. I'll see you tomorrow.' She hung up without another word. He knew he should feel bad about lying and upsetting her, but he didn't. He didn't really feel anything, just – well, it was like there was a void inside his mind and nothing to fill it with. He just wanted to have a mindless evening and not think about anything. The stress of the last week had obviously been building up to a head and it must have cleared after he'd seen Judy, Jack reasoned to himself. At least for the moment he didn't feel angry, or sad, or worried and that was nice. A very welcome relief.

A horn beeped outside and Jack left the office quickly. Jason was waiting in a Jeep, driven by a young corporal. A minute later they were off base and driving to the nearest town. Barstow was almost forty miles away but there were plenty of smaller places close by where they could find a pool table and some beers. They stopped outside a seedy looking joint with peeling paint and a broken window – and it was still less seedy than all the other bars they'd passed. They could hear Country and Western music coming from behind the curtain that covered the doorway and the doormen wore jeans and checked flannel shirts. A few people stood outside smoking, warily eying the Army vehicle.

Jason turned to their driver. 'This is where people come to play pool?'

'Yes sir. It's the best joint in town. You really don't want to see the others sir.'

Jason looked over at Jack. 'What do you think?'

Jack shrugged. 'I've got no problem with it.' He'd been in far worse bars in his time and right now, he was dying for a beer. Who cared if the place needed a paint job? They jumped out, told the corporal they'd call when they wanted to get picked up and then ducked through the curtain.

It was gloomy inside because the place was only lit by dim electric candles on the walls. When his eyes adjusted, Jack could see the place wasn't big but there weren't very many customers, so it wasn't crowded. There was a pool table at the back and the décor was pure country. As was the music, Jack noticed distastefully - Hank Williams and Kenny Rogers wasn't really his style. The few customers scattered around the place stared at them until they'd paid for their beers, then went back to muttering amongst themselves.

Jack was surprised when he noticed he was starting to feel good. It was so long since he'd felt good about anything, the sensation seemed almost alien to him and he had to stop himself laughing out loud. He didn't know how long it would last so he resolved to have a good time tonight and make the most of it. He knew the meeting with Judy had not gone well but the unexpected good mood made it difficult for him to feel upset about that right now. He sank his first beer, bought a second round and challenged Jason to try and beat him at pool – a challenge his friend was more than happy to accept. He suddenly felt like a great weight had been lifted off him and he wanted to laugh with joy.

Jason watched Jack closely. He was not sure what to expect. They'd been friends for about seven years and Jack was the most hard-to-read person he'd ever met in his life. Every man dealt with trauma differently and when bad things had happened to Jack in the past, he'd always just locked his feelings away and held it all in. This time though – there was something different and it made Jason uneasy. He watched as Jack started to smile more and then laugh, he cracked a few jokes and made fun of himself when he missed an easy pocket on the table.

'Hell I must be getting old! I've gotta need glasses if I'm missing pockets like that. You want another beer Jay?'

'Sure. I'll get them though. You obviously need time to plan your strategy, you can't beat me playing like that!'

'Yeah, yeah, whatever....go get me a drink.......'

It was a couple of hours later. Jack was having a great time! He hadn't seen Jason properly for ages and it was nice to catch up. They just shot the sh!t, laughed about old times, talked about their friends. He wasn't even thinking about the last week! He'd switched to scotch after the third beer but Jason had stayed on the softer stuff – even mentioned calling it a night a couple of times. But not seriously. Jack had laughed and told him that he was getting soft in his dotage. Wow, he couldn't believe how good he felt! Obviously this was the remedy every time he got seven men killed - cry for a few days, scare your wife, drink yourself into oblivion one night, anger your friend's widow the next – and then go and have fun! Yeah! He'd have to remember this the next time he royally fked up! Jack laughed in his head. And he'd been drinking scotch for hours now and he wasn't even drunk! This was great, he couldn't believe how good he felt. Maybe all the bad stuff was over! Yeah, it must be – he'd been acting like a baby for long enough now...

Jason was getting seriously worried. Jack had insisted on drinking liquor and hadn't stopped. He was laughing uproariously at pretty much everything and his eyes had been glassy for an hour now. He'd suggested leaving twice but Jack had just laughed him off. This behaviour was so unlike him! Jack had always been good at dealing with stress – but there was only one thing this could be. Something had happened that he couldn't deal with. Something really bad. And because Jack was Jack, he couldn't handle not handling it.

Jason had seen this once before. He'd been on a live-fire training exercise with his men and one of them had misheard an order, resulting in him accidentally shooting his best friend. The guy had been a mess for weeks - drinking, fighting, breaking down every day, he'd even hit his wife once. But after a time his emotions all ran out and he felt nothing. So he'd thought he was over it and gone away for a drinking weekend with his friends, really lived it up – and ended up shooting himself in the head five days later. He'd mistaken his numb state for healing, had thought he was fine – but when the numbness stopped, the pain was twice as bad and he couldn't take it. That funeral was one of Jason's worst memories.

As Jason watched Jack, he became more and more sure of what he was seeing. Obviously Jack had been relieved to have gotten the visit with Judy over with, anyone would have been. But did he seriously think that that feeling of relief was it? That he could put all the hurt down now and walk away? 'Probably' thought Jason. 'He's always prided himself on being able to deal with absolutely anything. But what the hell do I do for him?'

If Jason had known about the other six men, he would have been well past the stage of simple worry right now.........

Jack went to the juke box and shovelled quarters in as fast as he could. How could he have thought he didn't like country music?! This sh!t was great! He made his selections and put his new favourite on first – 'The Gambler' by Kenny Rogers. This was the third time he'd put it on that night. Who needed AC/DC anyway? He turned and walked back to the pool table where Jason was waiting, noting for the first time that he felt a bit light-headed and the noise in the bar seemed to be coming from a long way away. There were two locals at the table asking if they wanted to play a doubles game.

'Yeah, we'll play.' He could take these guys with one hand tied behind his back!

Jason looked over at him. 'Jack, don't you think we'd better get going?'

'Go? Why?' Why would they want to leave? They were having fun! Jason looked resigned and agreed to the game quietly, Jack laughed loudly and put a $50 bet on the outcome. He'd won every game he'd played that night, he'd win this one too!

It started off OK. Jack put them three balls up, one of the locals responded in kind. They were big guys, dressed like the doormen outside and they played very seriously. The game went on and Jack WASN'T being serious, he joked with Jason and laughed whenever their opponents missed a pot.

'C'mon Jay, clean up! We got them on the run now!'

Jason wished he would shut up. Their opponents didn't look like they appreciated being made fun of. He felt so uneasy he didn't even pot one ball and Jack looked annoyed.

The locals went ahead by two and seemed to enjoy the fact that they were winning. Jack felt edgy and couldn't stand still. He was humming along to Kenny Rogers under his breath.

'......you got to know when to hold 'em......

.......know when to fold 'em.....

'......know when to walk away.......

.......know when to run........'

'Hey man, you gonna sing, or shoot pool?' The locals thought he was trying to play mind games with them but Jack was oblivious. He stepped up to shoot, still humming quietly - but he felt sticky and uncomfortable, and he could taste scotch in his dry mouth. His confidence had lost its edge. The music seemed very loud and the bar was hot so he shook his head to try and clear it but it didn't help. 'Focus Jack,' he whispered to himself.

He took his shot....and missed. All of a sudden his good mood totally evaporated and he stood up quickly, the end of his cue banging on the floor. One of the locals smirked at him, the other one came to the table and cleaned up. With only the black to go, Jack was suddenly furious. How the hell had THIS happened? He'd won every other game.....

The local took his time setting up the shot. It was an easy one, he was just rubbing it in. As he leant down to take it, he looked up to the two men he was playing and said;

'We saw you come in. You army guys, you think you're so good.....' And with that he grinned - and sunk the black. As the ball dropped in with a thud, his partner pointed his fingers like a gun, looked straight into Jack's eyes - and silently mimed shooting him.

Jack lost it. In a split second he'd launched himself across the table and pounded the guy as hard as he could in the face. He couldn't control his anger, didn't hear the scream of fury that came out of his mouth. He couldn't help himself – as the local had pretended to shoot him, he'd suddenly seen the face of the Serbian guard who had shot Dwayne in the back of the head. Red mist descended and he just went for the man, the enemy that had shot his friend, raining heavy blows at his face, hitting his mark with every one of them. He didn't hear Jason yell at him to stop and barely felt the blow from the man's friend that caught him across the jaw.

He turned on the other man - who was taller than him by about four inches and outweighed him by at least sixty pounds. With the ease born of years of training, he quickly dodged the second blow coming at his face, swivelled underneath it and landed a strong uppercut straight into the guy's solar plexus, instantly knocking the wind out of him. He collapsed into a heap, wheezing and unable to catch his breath.

This had taken just seconds, too fast for Jason to stop it. He moved towards Jack, who was turning back to the first guy, but Jason finally got to him and slammed him into the wall.

'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!!!' He pressed his arm across Jack's neck and leaned his bodyweight into him to stop him getting free. He looked straight into his eyes and said menacingly 'Get a hold of yourself Jack!'

The fire died in Jacks eyes as quickly as it had flared up and he stopped struggling against Jason's heavier bodyweight. He felt the tension leave his body and the bar swam back into focus. He could hear his heart thumping in his ears, feel the adrenaline coursing through him – but the urge to hurt people had passed. He nodded at Jason - yeah its OK, you can let me go – and slumped against the wall.

Jason slowly released his hold and looked around nervously. The first pool player was out cold with blood on his face and the second one was still gasping on the floor. The other people in the bar were staring at Jack with fear and shock on their faces. They had to get out of there now, someone was bound to have called the cops. He grabbed Jack's arm.

'Come on.' The small crowd was silent as they walked past and out of the door. Jason kept hold of Jack as though afraid he might suddenly lose it again. Once outside and down the street away from the bar, Jack shook his arm off and just said quietly 'You'd better call the driver.'

Jason did. He watched Jack as he made the call. His face was white and he was staring down the empty road, into the black darkness that the streetlamps couldn't reach.

MORE TO COME