Disclaimer: All publicly recognisable characters and places are the property of MGM, World Gekko Corp and Double Secret productions. But as newromantics pointed out: Jack does belong to me now!
Category: G
Classification: Angst, romance
Pairings: Sam/Jack, Kanan/Shalan
Spoilers: Divide and Conquer, Abyss
Summary: They're bound now, he and Kanan.
A/N: Huge big thank you for the instant beta to splashthecat who by now is pulling out all her extra grey hair again.
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He wakes up every night at 1:35 now. The damp sheets fall down his body to bunch around his waist. He shivers as a breeze enters through the open window and cools the beads of sweat from his bare chest.
They're bound now, he and Kanan. Even if Kanan's presence and his memories were never welcome, they come to him in dreams. He hates to think that they're alike but somewhere along the line, their lives took the same path. They both fought a war – he's still fighting – that had become bigger than anything in their lives.
Until Shalan and Sam. They might look alike, but they're not the same. It doesn't change the fact that as he's trying to catch the fleeting images of his dream, they become one. When Ba'al's knives carve into his chest, gravity making his limps heavy and unmoveable, he opens his eyes to find her watching him.
They're one. Kanan and him. They were both willing to sacrifice everything for her, for them. Both struggling against the greater good that divides them from Shalan and Sam. But he won't leave either of them and Kanan agrees. He never thought he'd see the day that he'd agree with a Tok'ra. It's hard not to when he can still hear Kanan in his head. When he can still feel the anguish of having left her behind.
They share the same burdens but different memories. They complete each other. When Kanan wakes up from dreams of leaving Shalan, Jack remembers fighting the unyielding force field. When sleep is elusive to Jack and only gives him memories of acid burning skin, Kanan reminds him who he died for over and over.
So he lies back down on the mattress and comfort comes with gentle touches and laughing eyes.
THE END