I'm having way too much fun with this story…

Just Eat The Ice Cream – Chapter Eight: Cookies and Cream

Somehow, some way, both sleeping children had ended up moving from the pillows they rested on to snuggled in Pitch's arms during the night. Jack woke with his back pressed against Pitch's legs and his head nuzzled into his stomach. At first he didn't understand why he was staring at Seraphina's feet, but a slight twitch of movement around his shoulders made hi forget that and look. Pitch had one arm around him and the other around his daughter. So that's why he was staring at a pair of pink sock clad feet.

Smiling, Jack scooted himself back a little, further into the warm embrace, and tried to go back to sleep. It didn't work- the phone rang at the exact moment he closed his eyes. He groaned unhappily at the loud ringing and tried to hide his face in the blankets beneath him.

Pitch lifted himself up, trying his best not to wake either of them, and walked to another room. Jack sighed as the awful ringing stopped. Gosh, he loved silence.

He actually did sleep after that, if only for a little while longer. Pitch had to come back and wake the two of them. Jack groaned as unhappily as Sera did- neither one of them wanted to move.

"Jack, you have to be at work soon," he said, shaking his shoulder, "And I have to head to work too."

Jack groaned. "I don' wanna goooo…!" He blinked open heavy eyes and frowned up at Pitch. "Can't I just stay and sleep all day?"

"Not if you want to keep your job," he replied. Once he was sure the teenager was awake, he moved to his daughter and picked her up. He said she needed some more sleep and that the babysitter would be here soon. Jack wished he could stay and sleep while a babysitter took care of him.

Sitting up and stretching, Jack spoke when Pitch came back down. "Ironic how when you get older you want to do things you didn't like as a child, huh?" he yawned, "Taking naps and getting carried everywhere…" Pitch just smiled and helped him to his feet- somehow Jack had managed to get his legs tangled in the blankets. When he was standing he had to bounce on his left foot and shake his right to free it from the grips of a fuzzy purple comforter. No wonder socks were seen as monsters, blankets came in a pretty close second!

He had to gather up all of his things for today- he was planning on stopping by Nick's to drop them off after his shift at the shop. And as Pitch allowed him to eat his breakfast, he asked, "Will I be seeing you again?"

Pitch smiled. "Probably not at the shop for a while," he said, "I've already spoiled Sera too much for her own good. You're always welcome to come back. I'm sure she'd love to spend more time with you."

"Thanks," Jack said, smiling and munching on some toast.

Sipping what Jack assumed was tea, Pitch said, "And feel free to stop by my office whenever you need to."

Jack blinked. "But I don't have the money to pay for it," he said, pouting.

Pitch shrugged his shoulders. "I have open gaps between patients… Still too new, not many people know I'm here. I'd be happy to have some company during those breaks," he said, "Of course with the hours you work; I don't expect to be seeing you any time soon." Jack laughed at that and said 'yeah'. He did work some pretty crappy hours.

Leaving was weird. Jack felt like he should have said goodbye to Seraphina before leaving. But he was already probably going to just barely show up on time, so any more wasted minutes wouldn't be in his favor.

He went to the counter and immediately noticed that the girl working there today was NOT Bubbles. "Who're you?" he asked boldly.

The curly haired girl introduced herself as Bella. (Why all the names that started with Bs?) She said Bubbles was out today and she was the one who usually drove the trucks. Jack made the comment at this point of saying, "So that's why I've never seen you before."

She seemed a lot nicer than Bubbles. She offered to have them trade places every few hours or so. So instead of having his legs fall asleep from standing for so long, Jack got to walk around, clean up tables, and not talk to annoying little kids. Why couldn't Bella work with him all the time?

Jack nearly died during the day because of her, though. She dropped an entire thing of ice cubes just as he was walking and he slid into the wall. He almost hit his head on the edge of the counter. She apologized profusely for it, but it still hurt. He was pretty sure he'd have a bruise on his chest after that.

When he finished his shift he ran to Nick's house to drop off his bags. Nick was home, thankfully, and he was able to put it in the extra room he had. He told his friend he'd be back around four in the morning, to which he replied, "I will wait with gun ready if is not you." Jack went to the club laughing like a fool.

Jack had honestly lost track of what day it was. He thought it was probably Tuesday. At the club he could never tell. Days blurred together in the flashing lights and pounding music. But overall it was a nice night. All of his customers mostly just wanted the chance to dance. He was honestly okay with that- less work for him to do.

Not to say it wasn't tiring. By the time he finished he was exhausted and was looking forward to sleeping. He walked back to Nick's by himself, semi wary as there were groups of people soliciting around some cars. He hoped he wouldn't be mugged.

Nick did in fact have his gun when Jack showed up. It kind of terrified him- he was pointing it right in his face. Jack looked at his old friend like he was crazy, and then Nick clicked it and nothing happened. He laughed loudly. "Is not loaded! Is just for intimidation!" he said, patting Jack on the back roughly. Jack chuckled nervously and walked with him back to the extra room. Nick told him to get a good night's sleep.

Many people probably would have thought that a man Nick's age giving a kid his age a room to sleep in would be pedophilic, but in reality, Nick didn't see Jack in any way other than as a little troublemaking teenager. (Which was what he was.) Nick was a child at heart, and loved spending time with his nieces and nephews and any other kid who didn't think he was scary looking with all his tattoos.

Jack yawned happily when he woke up- Nick bought the plushest mattresses. He loved it. He could bounce on it with a glass of red wine right beside him and it wouldn't even move. He compared it to sleeping on a big fluffy cloud.

Nick let him have a wonderfully meaty breakfast. Sausages and bacon and ham and anything else he wanted. Jack was just happy he was willing to make him all this. "I owe you one," he said as he bit into a sausage link. Nick laughed and returned to the fridge to get himself some stuff to have with his own breakfast. Jack noted the gold ring he always had on his thumb. A gift from his late partner- who Jack knew nothing about. Nick refused to even tell him if it had been a man or a woman. Jack had learned not to press into it and just Nick live his life in secret.

Or at least that aspect of his life. Everything else he did was no secret. He was such a gossiper that he often shared more of his own goings on than others'. Jack loved listening to him blabber about how his neighbor had been having strangely young men over at her house a lot recently. He kept calling her a hussy, which Jack thought was a fun word.

"Nick, if you keep me here any longer with your stories, I'm gonna be late for work and my boss is gonna fire me," he said at last. Nick groaned, throwing his hands in the air, and let him leave.

He got to work and was greeted by the familiar face of Bubbles. So much for Bella… Jack just got back to work, knowing very well that he'd only get to do anything else when he went on break. Nobody spectacular came in today, which was a little disappointing, but Jack did at least get to give out two strawberries to these odd little twins that came in.

The next few days went by pretty much the same way. Normally. It was only on Friday when he was cleaning the counters did he get a surprise visitor. Tina.

She came running inside, demanding to know why he wasn't at her house and why none of his stuff was either. "Look, Tina, it was obvious I was invading on your love life, so I stepped out," he said. He was actually a little disappointed it took her this long to notice his absence. "Your man didn't like me being there. He felt like I was a leech."

Pouting unhappily, she said, "Jack, you could have told me. I would have talked to Robin. I would have explained everything."

He waved his hand as he cleaned out one of the scoops. "Nah, it's fine. I'm staying with Nick for a little while right now. He's just as fun to hang with," he said, setting the metal thing into a bath of hot water. Again Tina pouted at him. "So where is Mr. Robin?" he asked.

"He's working right now," she said, "But I noticed you weren't at home, and when I couldn't find your stuff either I panicked." Jack rolled his eyes- of course, once they weren't together she noticed.

Jack rolled his shoulders. "It's fine anyway, Nick's got it," he said. Jack thought to himself about how badly he needed a cell phone. He had had to borrow Pitch's to get a hold of Nick in the first place. Having his own would have been better. "Hey, you know a cheap phone plan I can get?"

Tina rolled her eyes at him and wrote down the address to the place she got her phone service. "I've been telling you to get your own phone for years- now you suddenly listen to me?"

"Hey, it's not my fault. Cell phone bills are expensive," he grumbled, "Besides, I'm only getting it so I can call you guys whenever I need you. Or text Sandy…" Tina frowned.

"Well how'd you get a hold of Nick? I know for a fact that you didn't use my phone," she had her hands on her hips as she spoke, a clear sign that she was annoyed with him.

"I borrowed somebody else's," he answered, "T, it's no big deal. I'm doing what you said, so you should be happy."

"I'm mad you just up and left and didn't tell me," she said. Jack's face fell and he apologized softly. She was right- he hadn't even said anything when he left. He had just… left!

"Sorry T, next time I'll let you know," he said. She said 'good' and then headed on her way. Oddly enough, Tina did have to work as well. Jack was just happy to have cleared things up with her.

It was stripper night at the club again. Jack wanted to die. Even if it was female stripper night, he still got hounded. If anything it was worse this way- the club was filled with so many middle aged men! He was almost sure to get groped tonight!

He nearly hurled when he found Manny's 'friend' there again. Manny wasn't, thank goodness, at least he had some class, but the disgusting pervert who had grabbed his ass was. And what was worse, he had to service his table! He was positive he was going to throw up at some point during the night.

Jack made sure never to turn his back on the pervert. Each time he left, he went sideways or walked backwards away from him. He didn't trust him. Even as the man was gawking at the girls on stage, he still kept his guard up.

But Jack's luck ran out. He was reckless. He made one false turn and the man was squeezing his buttocks again. Scowling down at the sitting freak, he hissed, "Why the hell were you even allowed back in here?" He slapped his hand off, but was grabbed right back, even yanked forward so that he could really grope at him. Jack stomped the man's foot and stormed off, growling under his breath, "Why come to the fucking female night if all you're gonna do is grab at my junk?!"

He reported it to his manager, who went and kicked him out, and tried to go about his night normally.