Jackie woke up the next day to Catherine pacing around the room, whispering to herself while reading off of a notebook. Her hair was in a towel so she had obviously been up for quite some time. Knowing how nervous she was and not wanting to to break her concentration, Jackie just laid there silently and watched. A few minutes, and several laps around the room later, Catherine's eyes finally caught hers and she stopped in place. "How long have you been awake?"
"A few minutes."
"I'm sorry, did I wake you?"
"No, not at all. You were in the zone so I didn't want to interrupt."
"I'm so nervous. I haven't been to a job interview in so long. Hecht literally hired me straight out of college."
"Come sit," Jackie said, patting the bed. Catherine came over and Jackie placed her hand over Catherine's, "You're going to do great. You've already met him, so that's half the battle right there. At least you'll be a little more comfortable now."
"That's true. I don't know how you do it. A big part of your occupation is basically being a professional interviewee," Catherine joked.
Jackie smirked, "pretty much. It gets easier though. You just have to do your best and not dwell on it. You lectured in front of full class rooms for years and gave your speech in front of a packed hall, you have nothing to be nervous about. You're the most confident person I know."
Catherine leaned over and kissed her on the forehead, "you're right, I shouldn't feel so out of my element."
"You're a damn good professor. Not many college courses have waiting lists. No matter how intimidating you were, students were still drawn to you." As soon as the words escaped her lips she knew that sounded wrong. "Okay, bad example."
"Yeah, I'm trying to avoid that subject at all costs" Catherine laughed, before glancing at the clock. "We need to leave in about an hour so I'm going to start getting ready."
By the time Jackie packed and got out of the shower, Catherine was dressed head to toe, wearing her lucky black suit. It seemed like just yesterday she had laid eyes on her from across the lobby at Stanford for the first time in a year, wearing that exact suit. These last few weeks had flown by but at the same time it felt like they had never spent any time apart. "You look gorgeous" Jackie beamed, as she walked over to Catherine. "You've got this. You're Professor Fucking Stark!"
Catherine laughed at the remark and hugged her, "I'm so glad you're here with me during my interviews to offer your mood lightening remarks."
While Catherine was in her interview, Jackie took it upon herself to walk around campus. As she sat on a bench she watched as students passed by, socializing and enjoying each other's company between classes. She felt extremely nostalgic even though it had only been a year. She missed the normalcy college offered. She missed finally getting to experience going to school. She missed the friends she made and most importantly, she missed the way her and Catherine's relationship was back then. How easy it was regardless of the sneaking around. Who would have guessed a year later, they'd be out here in California trying to figure out how to make it work. In the middle of her daydream her phone started to ring, it was Catherine letting her know the interview was over.
"So tell me everything" Jackie said, once they met back at the car.
"It went really well I think," Catherine smiled. "He was really impressed with my article and watched my speech online and loved it, so I guess we will wait and see."
"That's great! See I told you, you had nothing to worry about" Jackie grinned, playfully slapping Catherine's knee. "So do you want to get some lunch around here to celebrate? I looked up some local favorites online as I was waiting."
"No, let's just get a bite to eat at the airport."
"Are you sure? We have plenty of time."
"Yeah, it's fine."
Jackie wasn't sure why Catherine was so eager to get to the airport. They literally hadn't left the hotel room except for their run yesterday. She hoped it wasn't because of her, she didn't want to ruin this opportunity for her. "Is this because of my little meltdown yesterday? I promise I'm fine. I'm sincerely excited for you, I even walked around campus today."
"No, not at all. I just don't want to get my hopes up and fall in love with this place if it doesn't work out."
"Okay, airport it is then" Jackie replied as she pulled away from campus.
The next two days flew by. As expected, Catherine's interview at UCLA went equally as well as the one at UC Berkeley, and she loved the campus even more than the last. Jackie was thrilled she loved it considering the proximity it was to her. With all of the interviews and travel, they weren't left with much time to just spend with one another. Before they knew it, it was their last night together and time seemed to be quickly slipping away from them. They hadn't talked much about their pending three week separation. Mostly because neither of them wanted to think about it, yet alone let it ruin their limited time together, but it was definitely heavy on their minds.
Catherine decided to cook a nice dinner for them since nutrition was something Jackie was definitely lacking in her life. After her interview they took a trip to the local farmers market and Catherine gave Jackie a crash course in healthy eating before returning back to Jackie's.
"I'm well aware of how to eat healthy, I just don't have the time" she said, trying to pull any excuse she could think of as they were carrying the groceries back up to her apartment.
Catherine just shot her a look, "that's a textbook excuse you know."
"Be honest. Do you think I'm fat?" Jackie pouted as she paused before going in the door, only being half serious.
"Totally" Catherine teased, poking her in the stomach as she passed. "It's not about weight, it's about health. You're going to get sick with all of this traveling you do if you don't get your immune system in check, and I doubt you want to be sick in Europe."
Jackie swallowed hard at the word. It's the first time either of them had spoken of it in days. "Let's make this interesting while we cook" she said, changing the subject.
"I'm afraid to ask," Catherine said wearily.
Jackie went to the cabinet and pulled down two wine glasses before grabbing a bottle from the counter. "It's called Never Have I Ever."
"Okay, how do you play?" Catherine asked as she unloaded the groceries.
"It's easy. When it's your turn you just say something you've never done before and if the other person has, they take a drink."
"Are you just trying to get out of cooking?"
"Maybe," Jackie grinned.
"Fine. I'll start" Catherine said. "Never have I ever lived off of take out food."
Jackie laughed and took a giant sip, "I figured I'd better drink a lot on that one considering it's all I live off of." She made her way over to the counter to start helping Catherine. "So how did you learn to cook anyway?"
"When my parent's died we lived with my grandma before she passed away. She taught me what she could but then when she got sick it became my responsibility, so I began teaching myself and took a couple of classes."
Jackie looked up at Catherine but her eyes never left the cutting board as she chopped. It pained Jackie thinking how hard it must have been on her to lose her family at such a young age, no wonder she was so tough. Mark's death was enough to rattle her own world so she couldn't imagine losing her entire family. "Where did you guy's go after your grandma died?"
"I had just turned 18 so I moved back into my parent's house, the house I live in now, and my brother lived with me for a little while before joining the army. Then once he left I came out here to Stanford then back home for grad school, and you know the rest."
Jackie placed her hand on Catherine's shoulder sympathetically. Catherine looked up and smiled, "it's okay. It was a long time ago." She could see the pain behind her eyes and knew just because it had been there for quite a while, it was still painful no matter how hard she tried to hide it. After a short pause Catherine said, "It's your turn."
"What?" Jackie asked confused.
"The game."
"Oh, right. Hm… let me think. Let's make this interesting," Jackie wanted to change the mood and lighten things up. "Never have I ever… slept with someone younger than me."
Catherine rolled her eyes at her as she reached for her glass of wine, "real original."
"Oh wait! Never mind, I lied" Jackie said, grabbing Catherine's glass before it reached her lips. "I forgot about Zach. He was slightly younger."
"You slept with Zach?" Catherine said with quite a bit of shock in her face.
Apparently Jackie failed to mention that piece of information. "Yeah, not my proudest moment."
"When?"
"Right after we broke up, so give me a break."
"Were you drunk?" Catherine was firing off questions faster than Jackie could answer.
"Unfortunately no. As soon as he fell asleep I tried to sneak out and he caught me, I felt terrible."
Catherine stared at Jackie with a disgusted face.
"Oh like you can judge."
"Where?"
"Where what?"
"Where did this happen?"
"His dorm." Jackie knew Catherine was a tiny bit on the possessive side, but was somewhat shocked at her sudden jealously over innocent little Zach. She was actually enjoying it.
Catherine started laughing, "that's cute."
"What can I say? How could I leave college without having a one night stand in a dorm room?"
"What, having sex all over campus wasn't enough for you? You just had to get that one stereotypical experience in to end with a bang? Pun intended."
"Am I sensing a bit of jealousy? I did end it with a bang, but it wasn't him. As I recall I ran into a certain someone in the library my last day, someone who drug me back to their house."
"Drug? Please. You were more than willing. I believe you literally tackled me."
Jackie laughed, "guilty."
"And jealous of Zach? Please. I would break that boy."
"Ew, I don't even want to picture that" Jackie said, shaking the image from her mind.
"Hence my disgust."
"Yes, because it was such a joy watching you take that man upstairs."
Catherine looked at her, annoyed that she was bringing this up again but they were interrupted when Jackie's phone began ringing. When she pulled it out of her pocket she saw it was Wade.
"Hey Wade, how's it going," Jackie held her finger up to Catherine to excuse herself.
"Hey Jackie, its going good but even better for you. I just received a phone call from the casting director of that movie trilogy you auditioned for. You got a call back!"
"Really? That's great. When?" Jackie looked back at Catherine who was busy over the stove and slipped back into her bedroom.
"I told them you're headed to Europe so they would like to squeeze you in before you leave."
"I don't know if that's possible Wade, I leave on Monday."
"Okay, well let me give them a call back and see if there's anytime this weekend that would work for them."
"Okay, sounds good."
"Alright well congratulations Jackie! Stop by my office sometime tomorrow to pick up the script."
"Thanks Wade, I'll see you then."
Jackie sat down on her bed for a minute to collect her thoughts. As vain as it sounded, she wasn't completely shocked that she got a call back after the praise she received after her first audition. Thinking back to that day, how upset she was. It was the first time her and Catherine had to say goodbye since reconnecting, and now here they were again. Funny that the same audition went hand in hand with each difficult goodbye.
Catherine looked back when she hadn't heard Jackie in a while and noticed she had disappeared. She wondered what type of news Wade had for her, probably something to do with that big movie considering Jackie left the room. She reached over and poured herself another glass of wine before continuing with dinner.
"Smells greats," Jackie said from behind her as she came back into the kitchen.
"Thanks, it's almost finished if you want to grab some plates. Catherine waited for Jackie to say something about the call but she didn't, which was causing a bit of awkwardness. Finally when they sat down Jackie took a sip of wine and said, "so that was Wade letting me know I got a call back for that movie."
"That's great! Why didn't you say something sooner?"
"It's just a tough topic and I don't want to put a damper on the night."
"Never would I ever not be supportive of your career" Catherine smiled.
Jackie's expression turned solemn before grabbing her wine glass and taking a drink.
Catherine just looked back at her confused.
"I don't deserve not to drink. Not after the way I acted at Berkeley, and I'd be lying if I didn't say I want you to get the job at UCLA. I need to work on my selfishness apparently." After she finished drinking her glass she grabbed the bottle and stood, "we need more wine."
Catherine grabbed her own glass and followed her into the kitchen. "It's not selfish. I'd be worried if you wanted me to be far away from you. Here pour me a glass then too, because of course I'd rather you not go to Europe" she said, placing her glass on the counter.
Jackie filled both of their glasses then hopped up on the counter. "Cheers to two selfish assholes trying to make it work."
Catherine laughed and clinked her glass with Jackie's. "If it comes down to it, we will still see each other every weekend. We will take turns driving to each other. Hey at least it'll keep things fresh, we won't get sick of each other."
"Never have I ever thought in a million years that I'd fall in love with a college professor in Bloomington, Indiana" Jackie smiled.
"Never have I ever thought in a million years I'd fall in love," Catherine replied.
Jackie drank, "you never thought you'd fall in love?"
"No. Why do you think I slept with students? They were guaranteed failed relationships that could never work."
"Why did you do that to yourself?"
"When you're use to being on your own for so long, you just get use to the emptiness. You're too afraid to fill it in fear that you'll have to experience that kind of pain all over again when you lose them."
"I didn't mean to leave you. I promise you if I knew how you felt I would've fought harder" Jackie said, taking Catherine's hands in her own.
"I know. It was my fault. I was too scared to admit that I had lost control."
"Well now you're shit out of luck because you're stuck with me, and I'm in control now," Jackie said with a tough look on her face.
"You wish," Catherine laughed. "I think it's safe to say it's an equal playing ground for once."
Before they knew it, they had stayed up all night talking and it was almost time for them to head to the airport. "I can't believe we've been up all night, at least I'll be exhausted enough to sleep through the flight home."
"Me either, even though we took advantage of every second of last night, it still feels like we got sucked through a time-continuum vortex. This all went too fast."
"Time-continuum vortex?" Catherine repeated, raising her eyebrow. "Is this another Neptune pick up line? I'm flattered, but I don't think we have enough time."
"Shut up," Jackie laughed, "you know what I mean."
"I do. It doesn't feel real to me yet. I think we might have spoiled ourselves being together so much. I might have to break the rules and let Ethan sleep with me to make up for it."
"No fair, I don't have anything to help me with the loneliness. I miss Ethan." Jackie frowned.
"You're going to be in Europe, I have zero sympathy for you," Catherine joked as she poked her in the chest.
Jackie laughed but her eyes shifted focus to the floor as pain suddenly began ripping through her chest. She didn't want to go to Europe, let alone for ten days. That was a lot of time to be away from home, and away from Catherine. "Are you sure I can't convince you to come?"
"You know I'd love to but I need to get back to Ethan, the poor thing has been getting quite neglected lately. The time is going to fly by, they're going to keep you busy and it's your last trip for Neptune so I'm sure everyone's going to let loose. You'll have a blast."
"You sound like a mom trying to convince her child how great summer camp is going to be," Jackie replied.
Catherine laughed at the reference but stopped as soon as Jackie looked up at her with tears in her eyes. "Porcupine! Don't start this!" Catherine frowned as she took Jackie in her arms. "My heart can't handle a sad goodbye."
"I can't help it," Jackie laughed as the tears escaped her eyes and rolled down her cheeks.
Catherine pulled back and took her face in her hands, gently wiping away the tears with her thumbs. "You know I'm just a phone call away whenever you need me."
"You know there's a nine hour time difference, right?" Jackie asked.
"I guess that slipped my mind. We'll make it work, I'll stay up late. Whatever it takes. I love you, you know that?"
Jackie slowly nodded with her head buried in Catherine's shoulder. They both stood there, clinging to one another tightly for a few minutes before they had to leave. Jackie let out a long breath trying to pull herself together, she couldn't believe how hard she was taking this. "I'm sorry, I don't think the exhaustion is helping. No more tears, I promise." Since last time was such a fiasco they decided Jackie would just drop Catherine off instead. When they reached the passenger drop off, Jackie got out of the car to help Catherine with her luggage. "We've got this. I'll see you in a few weeks, okay?" Catherine said, before giving her one final hug. Jackie slowly let go of Catherine's hand, letting her fingers slip through as she started to walk away. She stood there by her car and waved as Catherine walked towards the door but suddenly Catherine came back and hugged her one last time, dropping her bag and taking Jackie's face in her hands, kissing her right there on the curb. Catherine disappeared into the terminal before Jackie could even think, leaving her stunned on the street.
"Ma'am, I'm sorry but you're going to need to move your vehicle now" a voice said in front of her, bringing Jackie back to reality. As she drove away from the airport a big smile expanded across her face; simultaneously inside the airport, Catherine was wearing the same grin as she checked in for her flight.