The Thing At The Door

Chapter Twenty-One: Changed For The Better

Jack currently sat at a little sub-desk off in the corner of Carly's office. It had been a couple of days since Jack's first day working as Carly's assistant, and he was finding himself falling into a routine.

Since Jack was only a secretary's assistant, he didn't really do much. Lately, his biggest projects were retrieving copies from the printer, and getting Carly's coffee in the morning. Now that he thought about it, his job wasn't very different from home life.

Today, however, there was a drastic change in Jack's new work routine. Carly had to talk to some of her co-workers about work related things, so decided to just get her own coffee on the way back. With nothing to copy and no coffee to retrieve, Jack just sat sadly and waited for a job to pop up.

Being an assistant wasn't necessarily boring, but it wasn't really fun either. For most of the workday, Jack just sat at his little sub-desk watching Carly repeatedly slam her fingers down onto her keyboard. He was very surprised that the keyboard hadn't broken already from her constant physical abuse on it.

With a long, deep sigh, Jack stood and paced the small office. There had to be something he could do, or maybe something he hadn't done that he should do...

Jack snapped his fingers as he remembered that he hadn't informed Mikage about the situation. At this point, she had no clue that Jack had a job and she didn't even know that Jack and Carly had resolved their fight.

"I can't believe it," Jack breathed as he made his way to Carly's desk. "I completely forgot about Mikage."

He laid eyes on Carly's forgotten cell phone, and decided to use it to call Mikage. After searching in the phone's history, Jack found his friend's number, and dialed it. Mikage picked up on the first beep.

"Yes? Is this Jack?"

"How did you know?" Jack smiled. He had missed his friend. "But never mind that. Let's get straight to the point."

"What point?" Mikage asked curiously.

"Okay, don't get too excited," Jack warned. "But I got a job...!"

"No way! That's amazing, Jack! I'm so proud, but what job?"

"I'm a secretary's assistant at a newspaper company," Jack explained. "Or to be more specific, I'm my girlfriend's assistant."

"Oh...Well, that's still nice!" Mikage said, sounding as if she was trying to convince herself rather than convincing Jack. "Are you there now?"

"Yes, but Carly's on break, so I am too-"

"No! That won't do," Mikage frowned, and continued. "If you're at work, you shouldn't be talking to me! Go ahead and work, okay?"

"Wait, Mika-" Jack heard the clicking sound that phones make when someone hangs up on you. Jack scowled. He absolutely hated when people did that to him. It was just so annoying.

As if on cue, Carly entered the office holding a file of papers in one hand, and two cups of coffee in the other. The hand holding the coffees shook with uncertainty, so Jack rushed to help her.

"Thanks," Carly sighed, quickly taking a sip from one of the coffee cups. "You can have the other one, if you want."

"Sure, thank," Jack answered, taking the other cup into his hands. "You were gone for quite a while there."

"Quite?" Carly asked, mocking Jack's unusually formal language. He gave her a look, and she continued with a laugh. "Well, yeah, I got sidetracked by some of my co-workers. They asked me if you and I would want to go out to eat after work."

Jack suddenly choked on his coffee, and it dropped his mouth to Carly's dad's dress shirt. "Aw, man. And it's not even mine..." Jack grumbled, licking his finger and fiddling with the stain.

Carly opened a drawer on the side of her desk, and stood with a napkin in her hand. Jack watched as she spit onto it, and began wiping the stain away.

"You have no idea how many times that's happened to me," Carly said with a shake of her head. "Much too often, I'd say. So, I've gotta be prepared."

Once the stain was only slightly visible, Carly returned the damp cloth to her desk drawer, and smiled down at Jack. "You're welcome, but what do you think about dinner with our co-workers?"

"Nah," Jack sounded, taking a sip from his coffee once again. He was really feeling like going out today. "You can go, but I think I'll just go home."

Carly pouted her lip, and said, "No, that wouldn't be fair. If you don't go, I won't go. Okay?"

"...Okay, then." Jack took another sip from his coffee, and Carly furrowed her brow.

"Wow. I didn't think we'd settle that so easily..." Jack laughed, and she smiled. After a couple minutes of silence, she remembered the file she had brought in.

"Anyway, I've gotta file these papers. You can help, too. You remember how I taught you on your first day, right?" Carly asked, walking behind her desk to sit down in her office chair.

Jack grinned slyly, and joked, "No, can you explain it again, please?" Carly gave him a reprimanding look, and he backtracked. "No, I'm kidding. I remember, I do!"

Carly handed Jack some of the papers from the file, and he brought them back to his desk with his coffee. They silently filed the papers until five o'clock - the end of the workday. Jack and Carly gathered their stuff, and clocked out of the building.

On the side of the road, they hailed a taxi, and gave the driver directions for home. Carly glanced at Jack, and smiled up at him. Without turning to look at her, he spoke.

"What is it?" he asked. Carly was silent, so he finally turned to look at her. "Carly?"

"I'm just...I dunno, proud? Yeah, I'm really proud of you today." Carly grasped Jack's hand, and thumbed his palm.

"Yeah," said Jack with a grin. "I get that a lot."

"No," Carly restarted, slapping Jack's arm with her free hand. "It's just great seeing you working and acting super professional. I've never really seen this side of you before."

"Hmm," Jack sounded, unsure whether to take Carly's words as compliments or insults. "Thanks, Carly, but that's not necessarily true. When you watched my first Fortune Cup, didn't see a serious side of me then."

"Well, yeah, but this is different. I know I keep saying this, but you've really changed from the day I first met you."

Carly shyly looked away from Jack's violet eyes, and Jack smiled wider. She could be so cute sometimes. "You know whose at fault for my change, though, right?"

Jack watched as Carly slowly turned back to face him, and shake her head. He leaned forward, and ruffled her hair. "You."

The taxi driver glanced at the cuddly couple though his rear view mirror, and rolled his eyes. It was like watching a soap opera, or something.

"So, thanks, Carly!" Carly furrowed her brow, at Jack's apparently sarcastic outburst. "Thanks for changing me!"

"Hey, it's not my fault!"

"Then whose fault is it? It's not mine!"

"What are you talking about? Of course it's your fault..."

The taxi driver once again glanced at the couple through his rear view mirror, and squinted. That escalated very quickly. They're relationship was definitely a soap opera.

A/N: It's been about a week since I last updated. I'm super sorry about the wait. This was basically the last chapter, but there will be an epilogue that'll be up in a few days.

I hope things have moved in a realistic consistency, and by that I mean that I hope things haven't moved too fast. Feel free to tell me if they have.

Anyway, thanks so much for reading! Thanks so much for previously reviewing, too! Please tell me what you think about this chapter :)