June 2, 2017, 3:05 AM

"That's..." Beth paused as she looked up at the wall. "It's interesting."

Jack sighed and shook his head. "You bring me here for my birthday, make me paint for you, and then criticize my work."

"Oh come on," she said playfully. "Don't pretend you didn't enjoy that."

"Maybe I did," he conceded with a grin.

Beth motioned toward the wall, pulling her phone out of her back pocket. "Go stand next to it so I can take a picture."

"You're not tweeting that," Jack warned, doing as she told him.

"Only you would do that," Beth reminded him, quickly snapping a picture and slipping the phone back into her pocket.

Both of their heads turned as they heard the sound of a door slamming.

"What was that?" Jack whispered.

Beth put a finger in front of her lips. "I may have made a tactical error."

"A what?" Jack asked in concern. Beth shushed him, quickly gathering up the paint cans and shoving them back into the duffel bag. She hid it under the stairs before grabbing Jack by the sleeve and hauling him toward the bathrooms.

"You remember when you had to reset the core?" Beth asked, pointing to the top of the bathroom stalls.

"You're kidding."

"There are only two kinds of people who would be in an abandoned building at three o'clock in the morning," Beth explained, "and we don't want to run into either of them."

As usual, Beth had a point. Jack hoisted himself up on top of the stalls, Beth close behind, and they carefully made their way across to the stairwell. Jack was happy that, even with all of the changes to the timeline, the Bradbury Swimming Hall was still as decrepit as ever.

"Over here," Beth whispered, waving him over toward a support pillar. Whoever was in the pool would be unlikely to venture to the second floor, considering the stairs were gone. At least, that's what they both clearly hoped.

The two huddled down together behind the pillar, trying to stay as quiet as possible. Jack was trying to block out the flashbacks of his many altercations with Monarch. He didn't have super powers to protect them this time. In fact, he didn't have anything to protect them.

That wasn't true, he realized, as he reached into the inside pocket of his jacket. He had that switchblade they'd lifted from that mugger back in January.

"Don't even think about it," Beth warned quietly.

Jack pulled his hand out of his pocket. "I'm not gonna be a hero."

"What the fuck is this?" a man's voice echoed out of the open door.

"Looks like some kind of weird impressionist art," another second voice said.

Beth snorted a laugh in spite of herself. Not loud enough for anyone to hear, but Jack frowned nonetheless.

"Man, I told you this was a bad idea," the man said. "This place was abandoned for a reason."

"This place isn't fucking haunted," the second man said angrily. "Probably just some fucking kids from the university."

"You think they're still here?"

"They better not be if they know what's good for 'em."

Well, it wasn't the police. That only left one other option.

"Did you hear that?"

Jack's eyes went wide as he realized he had knocked a piece of stone loose from the railing behind them. He could hear Beth breathe in deeply - no doubt she assumed she would have to take care of the situation. They looked at each other as they heard the familiar sound of a gun cock.

"Jack," Beth warned, quiet but forcefully, as he reached back into his pocket.

"Trust me," he whispered, pulling out the switchblade and peeking his head over the edge of the railing. After taking a deep breath, he hurled the switchblade across the pool as far as he could. It clattered loudly on the battered tiles of the pool floor.

The gamble paid off. Both men immediately headed to investigate the noise, giving them the opening they needed. Jack took Beth by the arm and pulled her toward the end of the hall. She looked at him as if he had lost his mind as he lowered himself down from the gaping hole in the floor and dropped to the first floor. The noise was enough to draw the attention of the two men.

"Fucking hell, Jack," Beth swore under her breath as she quickly hopped down.

"Hey!" one of the men shouted from the other side of the pool.

"Time to run!" Jack barked as they both took off at a sprint toward the entrance of the pool. Jack nearly tripped as a bullet ricocheted off the floor behind him. "Run!"

The two of them burst out of the front door like their pants were on fire. Jack had been happy that Beth had parked far enough away that the two thugs hadn't spotted the car, but he was definitely wishing it was closer now.

"Go go go!" Jack shouted as Beth fumbled with the keys.

"Shut up," she hissed through clenched teeth. Finally, she was able to get the car started, and with a loud squeal of the tires she peeled out onto the road.

Jack breathed a sigh of relief as it became clear that they had successfully escaped. Beth was painfully silent as she drove them back home.

"You don't have to feel bad," Jack offered after a few minutes.

"I nearly got you killed on your birthday," she told him flatly.

"You couldn't have known the place was already occupied," Jack replied with a chuckle. "Besides, they liked my shitty art."

Beth laughed. "Stop, I'm trying to be mad at myself."

"As the birthday boy, I forbid it."

She glanced at him briefly as she continued to drive. "You're really not mad about this?"

"Well I mean getting shot at on my birthday certainly isn't ideal," Jack admitted, "but this doesn't even come close to making the list of worst birthdays ever."

Beth sighed in frustration. "You should be mad."

"Do you want me to be mad?" he asked with a frown. "Pretty sure they didn't get a good look at us or the car, so since neither of us has any fresh bullet holes, I'm not particularly concerned."

"I'm glad I got a picture of it," Beth said after a moment.

"Me too, because we are never coming back here." Jack was happy to see Beth smile again. "I'm glad you didn't have to wrestle those guys into submission."

"Me too," she told him. "I mean, I could have."

Jack grinned. "I know."

June 2, 2017, 3:45 AM

Beth hung the car keys on the rack just beside the door as Jack moved forward to take his shoes off. He hung his coat on the coat rack and turned around, surprised to see Beth was missing. She hadn't gone far - just to the living room - but it was just enough that Jack knew his work wasn't done.

He understood why she was rattled. Being shot at was upsetting, and he knew she blamed herself. There was no reason for her to blame herself, but he knew Beth.

"Well, I don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep," he announced as he stepped into the living room. Beth was next to the bookshelf, staring at one of the pictures on the top shelf.

"I'm sorry," she muttered without turning around.

"I told you it's not a big deal," he reminded her as he walked across the living room toward her. "It's not like I've never been shot at before."

"You've never been shot at because of me."

"That is a blatant lie," Jack told her with a laugh. "You need to give yourself a break."

Beth turned her head to look away from him.

"Hey!" Jack barked, prompting her to turn back toward him. "It's my birthday. Stop pouting."

"I'm not-"

"You're pouting."

Beth pursed her lips before crossing her arms over her chest.

"Give me your phone," Jack ordered.

"Excuse me?"

Jack made a grabby hand motion toward her, to which she just furrowed her brow. "Okay fine, send me the picture then."

Beth sighed, pulled out her phone, and unlocked it before handing it to him.

"Beth I can't believe you did this to me," he complained with a frown.

"What?"

Jack turned the phone around to show her.

"Oh my god, Jack."

"My eyes are closed!" he lamented dramatically, pointing at the screen.

"Jack Joyce."

He laughed as he moved forward, pulling Beth into a hug, much to her obvious dismay. "Thank you for the perfect birthday," Jack whispered in her ear as he hugged her tightly. He breathed a sigh of relief as, after a moment of tense hesitation, she returned the hug.

Jack blinked in surprise when, as he tried to release the hug, Beth kissed him.

"Oh shit," she breathed, her eyes filled with panic. Clearly that hadn't been planned. As she tried to pull away, Jack instinctively grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

As he kissed her, he could feel every muscle in Beth's body tense, as if she were terrified, but before Jack could react, he felt her hands reach up to the side of his face. She leaned into him with enough force that Jack was worried he might lose his balance. As he felt his hands wrap around her back, he began to feel the anxiety creep up on him.

Jack broke away from her, breathing in deeply as he saw Beth's expression turn to confusion. "I'm sorry," he told her, trying to catch his breath. "I can't do this."

"What?" Beth asked, her tone a mixture of confusion and pain. He could tell she was expecting him to hurt her, which wasn't making things any easier.

"Beth, there's something I haven't told you," Jack began, taking a deep breath. Beth stared at him anxiously. "Beth, I'm... I'm transgender."

Beth's expression changed from curiosity to surprise, and Jack felt like he was about to collapse into a black hole. "Jack, I know."

That was not what he was expecting her to say.

"You know...?" Jack repeated, trying to process what she had said.

"Yeah, I know."

"H-ho, how, how do you...? How long...?" He was having trouble formulating words. He thought he would feel relief that she wasn't surprised, but for some reason it was just making everything worse.

"I've known since February."

"February?" Jack nearly shouted. "You've known since February and you didn't say anything?"

Beth stared at him speechless.

"What's going on?" Beth and Jack both turned toward the stairs to see Will groggily staring at them.

"Sorry, did we wake you?" Jack asked, breathing a sigh of relief at the distraction.

"Are you both okay?" Will asked with a frown.

Jack glanced at Beth, then turned his attention back to his brother. "Yeah, I just couldn't sleep. I was gonna go get some fresh air."

"Jack..."

He ignored Beth's plea and headed for the door. He needed some time to think.