3.
"I'm scared," Shawn said abruptly.
Cory, who had been in the middle of taking a bite of his cereal, stopped, spoon in midair. "Excuse me?"
"About Eric," Shawn explained softly.
Cory put his spoon down, food forgotten. "Why? What happened now?"
"Nothing, as far as I know," Shawn began uncertainly. "It's just, we never knew what was wrong... what happened in the first place. He's still not eating, even though he swears up and down that he is. He's still having those nightmares, and not sleeping. And the other day, I had something to tell him, and I came and touched him on his shoulders. You would have thought that I had hit him, he flinched so bad." Shawn stopped, brow wrinkled in thought. "What if..." he dropped his voice, "he was... never mind."
Cory looked at his best friend in growing understanding. "You think that night. You think he was raped."
The last phrase hung in the air. Finally Shawn said flatly, "Yeah, I do."
"Well, what do we do now? I mean, we can't make him tell us if he doesn't want to."
"I know. Believe me. But, I guess that I'll just keep doing what I've been doing. But... he's really starting to scare me." Shawn paused again and said softly, "It's his eyes."
"His eyes?" Cory repeated. "What about them?"
"Cory, his eyes are... dead. There's no emotion behind them. He used to be angry- at me, at everything- all the time, but I can't remember the last time that he even got mad."
"I still don't know what to do," Cory said. "Should I... should I call Mom and Dad?"
"I don't think that would help if he still doesn't want to talk about it." Shawn sighed deeply and stood up from the table. "I just don't know. I really don't know how to help."
As he turned to put his dishes in the sink, the phone rang. Shawn watched Cory expectantly as he answered it. "Hello? Oh, hi, Rachel." Cory shot a look at Shawn, and Shawn shrugged at him, not knowing why Rachel would be calling. "Um, he's over here, with me. Is something wrong?" Cory listened for a few moments, and then handed the phone to Shawn.
Shawn took it and greeted Rachel tentatively. She started speaking rapidly. "Look, I don't have much time. Like I told Cory, Jack's coming... I would say home, but he's coming to see you. In New York."
"What?" Shawn said numbly, having not understood anything Rachel had just said.
"Jack's coming to New York. Like, today."
"Why? What's going on?"
"Look, all I'm doing is giving you a heads up. His flight arrives at LaGuardia around 6 tonight. Can you meet him?"
"Um, alright," Shawn agreed, fumbling for a pencil to write down the information. Cory wordlessly handed him a pen and Shawn jotted down the flight number and gate on a napkin. After Rachel was done, she said briskly, "Okay. Thanks again for doing this. Take care and tell everyone I said hi."
"Okay. Rachel, what's-" He stopped speaking when he heard the dial tone. He turned back to Cory, who had the same look of confusion that he had on his own face. "So, do you have any clue of what's going on here?"
"No. Rachel just said that she needed to get a hold of you right away, and if I could tell her where you were."
"Well, she said that Jack's flying in tonight, and all she would tell me was his flight information. So I guess that I'll be going to LaGuardia later. Want to come with?"
"Can't. Topanga's got a late class, so I'm in charge of dinner and the like."
"Oh yeah, I forgot. Maybe I can convince Eric to come with me."
"Think he might?"
"Let me call and ask him." Cory handed Shawn the phone and Shawn quickly dialed.
"Hello?" Eric's scratchy voice answered.
"Eric? Hey, it's Shawn. Are you busy tonight?"
"No," he replied shortly.
"Well, I have to go to the airport around 6. Wanna go?"
"I guess."
"Okay. Well, I have some stuff to do, and then I'll swing by the apartment around 5 or so."
"Sounds good."
"Well, bye." Shawn hung up and said, "Well, he's going. Maybe Jack can help if we can't."
*****
The airport was busy and crowded, as usual. Eric looked around him carefully as the hordes of people pushed up to him, and he had to take a deep breath before catching up to Shawn, who was striding confidently.
As they got to the gate, they noticed that the airplane personnel were already deplaning, so that meant that they were late. "Hope that Jack stayed put," Shawn muttered.
"He should've. After all, he's never seen the apartment, so it's not like he could have just gone to it." Eric fell silent as he scanned the crowd. His gaze kept returning to a scrawny man who was sitting by himself in the waiting area, but the man was too skinny to be Jack. At least, that's what Eric thought, until the man stood up and came over to him and Shawn.
As the man came closer, Eric could see that it was Jack, but that he had lost a considerable amount of weight. His cheekbones were pronounced, and he looked haggard. Then he said, "Hey guys!" and sounded exactly the same. Eric felt the tension he had about Jack loosen up.
"Jack!" Shawn said, either not noticing Jack's appearance or choosing to ignore it. "Good to see you." They embraced quickly before Jack turned to Eric.
"Eric, man," Jack said in almost a whisper, before grabbing Eric and squeezing. Eric was torn between pushing Jack away and holding him tighter. They stayed together for long moments before Shawn cleared his throat and said in a falsely cheerful voice, "Well, we'd better get back to the apartment!"
Eric and Jack slowly let go, but not before squeezing the other a little tighter. "Um, so, where are your bags?" Eric finally asked.
"This is it," Jack replied, indicating his duffle. "I'm used to traveling light."
"Okay." The three of them quickly exited the airport, hailing the first taxi they saw, and making back to the apartment in record time.
"So, this is the living room/kitchen/dining room," Shawn pointed out, "And the bathroom's that way, and there's the bedroom. Grand tour's over. Now, I have to run. There's food in the fridge and all. See you later." Shawn left, leaving Jack and Eric still standing in front of the couch.
"Um. Well, wanna eat?" Eric offered.
"Not hungry. Why don't we just, I dunno, catch up."
"Okay, well, you go first."
Jack sat quietly for a while, looking down at his folded hands on his lap. Then he looked up, staring aimlessly into space. "I don't know what all Rach told you guys," he started hesitantly, "but here's what happened basically."
"Rachel didn't tell us anything, except that we needed to pick you up from the airport," Eric interjected quietly.
Jack nodded at that and then continued, "Well, it started almost right after we shipped out. You know we were stationed in Arkansas, helping out the children who lived too far for traditional schooling. I liked it, knowing that I was doing something. But I was, just always tired. Sometimes I'd crash right after we dropped off the last kid, and stay asleep until the next morning. Rach started getting worried, but I just thought that it was the high altitude or something." He stopped and threw his gaze back down to his hands. "I didn't notice the weight loss, either, until I looked around and none of my clothes fit. But it was weird, because none of it phased me. It was like I was watching my own life pass me by."
"Yeah," Eric murmured in agreement.
"One day, though, we were supposed to pick up one of my students, and when we got to the house, his mom told me that he had died. None of us knew that he was sick, and we all were sad, but I took it really hard, I guess, because he had so much potential. And... I started doing odd things. Like, I'd be grading papers, and find myself crying. For no reason. And I just felt so sad all the time. I never smiled anymore, Rach tells me. So, she and Jon, that's the other guy we work with, decided that I needed some time off, to de-stress. So here I am." Jack looked up at Eric with a watery smile. "So, you must think I'm the worst loser now."
"No, I just think that you're just going through some rough things right now. And these last couple of years haven't been the easiest for you. Maybe it's just a delayed reaction to what you had to go through." Eric clasped Jack's shoulder gently, a little surprised at himself for reaching out and actually touching someone else without being prompted to.
Jack didn't seem to notice his surprise, and continued, "Well, I didn't want to go home, to deal with my parents' questions, so I told Rach that I was coming here." He stopped and looked back down at his hands. "But if you need me to go-"
"No, you're staying here, with us," Eric said firmly. "And maybe we can get you to eat!"
"Look who's talking," Jack pointed out. "Eric, you must have dropped around 30 pounds since the last time I saw you."
Eric shrugged. "It's not like I couldn't afford to, unlike you."
"Still..." Jack trailed off, and then said, forcibly trying to lighten the air, "So, what have you been up to? Still liking your job?"
"It's okay, I guess."
"Anything new?"
Jack's innocent question sat in the air, and Eric had multiple responses float through his head before he shook his head. "Nothing special. You? I mean, is there anything new with you?"
"Um, yeah. But, I kinda need to do something first."
Eric took a look at Jack's serious face and accepted that. "Okay. Well, are you hungry?"
"Not really."
"Hey, I'm supposed to be taking care of you! So I'll just set out something, nothing big, 'kay?"
"If I eat, you do too."
"Deal."
