Disclaimer: I don't own Tru Calling.

A/N: Takes place four years after the last episode. Carrie is long gone. Follows events of my TC fic Similar Opposites.

ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

XXX

"Jack, how long have you been working for me?" Richard Davies questioned one spring morning as Jack Harper entered his office.

"Not even a 'hello'? A 'good morning'? A 'how have you been'?" Jack asked with a smirk, leaning against the wall beside the door and crossing his arms over his chest. At the older man's determined stare, he replied, "I don't know… about five years?"

Nodding to himself, Richard leaned back in his chair. "And how many lives have you claimed?"

"There's been too many to count, and I'm not really into keeping tallies," Jack answered, starting to become confused. "What's this about?"

"Well, Jack, lately you've been slipping. And we can't have that." Richard waited a beat, and then continued, "I hired a sort of… private investigator to follow you."

Surprised, Jack pushed himself away from the wall. "A private investigator to follow me? Well, you've never done that before," he stated obviously.

"He came in earlier this morning to tell me what he'd found out. He had some interesting things to say," Richard said. "Showed me some interesting pictures."

"Well I hope he caught my good side," Jack cracked, hiding his nervousness with years of practice. "Maybe you can give me the best one and I can send it out for my next Christmas card."

"I was quite surprised," the older man pushed on, "to find my daughter in some of the shots, not to mention the notes he had taken down about what you were doing." He locked gazes with Jack, challenging him. "So explain."

"There's nothing to explain. You told me to keep my eye on her when I first started, and that's what I've been doing."

"Keeping an eye on her, huh? Jack, it wasn't that long ago that you told me that the two of you had been more than just enemies. From the looks of things, it seems lately you've started keeping more than just an eye on her again."

Richard opened the manila envelope sitting in front of him and turned it upside down, letting the pictures inside fall onto the desk. He held up one of Jack and Tru drinking coffee together, her hand resting comfortably on his arm as they both laughed.

"I don't want any of your sarcastic comments, Jack. Tell me what the hell is going on."

"I love your daughter."

The declaration had come out from Jack's mouth before he'd even had a chance to consider his words. He was, after all, speaking to his boss and mentor, not to mention the father of his opposite; the woman he was supposed to hate.

He hadn't even said those words to her. Or, actually, to anyone in his entire life. It wasn't exactly something people expected Death to say.

Richard clasped his hands together on top of the desk, scrutinizing his successor. "I thought that was over," he said slowly. "You said she ended it when she found out about us working together."

Jack shrugged in a 'what-can-you-do' manner. "She did. But then we… un-ended it."

"So you've been lying to me for all these months?" Richard questioned, his voice threateningly calm. "Is this why she's been saving so many victims? You told me it was because she had found another person to help her. Is that person you?"

"No," Jack half-lied. He only helped her sometimes. "Look, Richard, you're one to talk about our relationship. You had the same exact one fifteen years ago!"

"That didn't stop me from doing my job," Richard said in a hard tone. "And look what it did to me in the end! I had to kill my own wife because I couldn't take it anymore! I don't want that happening to you and Tru someday down the line!"

"It won't," Jack said firmly.

"How do you know?" Richard asked, and then shook his head. "She won't even speak to me," he added quietly.

Jack stood in the center of the room, not knowing what to do or say. "It's been five years. We're both tired of doing this," he finally admitted.

"The only way to end it isn't really an option, though, is it?" Richard rubbed his forehead with his hand. "Get back on track, Jack. This is your job."

"Are you going to fire the guy you've got following me?"

Richard took a moment, and then shook his head. "No."

XXX

"Hey, where have you been since yesterday? I had thought you were going to stop by last night," Tru Davies said in way of greeting Jack the next day as he gave her a brief kiss on the cheek and sat across the outdoor table from her. She pushed a cup of coffee towards him.

"I had some stuff to take care of," Jack replied, waving it off and sipping the beverage. He discreetly glanced out of the corner of his eye, watching the passing crowd to see if anyone was watching them. At her odd look towards him, he smiled and said, "So, only a few more classes and then you're done with school for the semester."

"Yeah," Tru nodded. "It's crazy. I still have another year, but it feels like I've been going for forever. Well, I did audit the class that first year." Trying not to think too much about that year, or the past in general, she plastered a new grin on her face, directing it towards her… Jack.

"I know, I was there," Jack smirked. "Of course, you hated me back when you started-"

"With good reason," Tru interjected with a smirk of her own. "You were a lying, self-absorbed jerk." She knowingly avoided the fact that they had been (and still were) fighting for different sides, and that that was the real reason she had hated him. They both knew it anyway.

Rubbing the back of his neck so he could check some nearby bushes, Jack shrugged. "Well, you weren't exactly a field of daisies yourself."

"Oh please," Tru rolled her eyes, and, noticing his distracted glances, asked, "What's going on?"

He turned back towards her, sipping his coffee again. "Nothing."

Tru didn't look convinced, but let it go. She had learned over the past few years of hating, then tolerating, then befriending, and then 'seeing' him that sometimes, it just wasn't worth it to push certain topics, especially if it was going to start yet another argument between them. She liked their odd, barely-understandable pairing.

"You know," Jack started casually, "we haven't had a rewind day in awhile."

Shifting in her seat, Tru shrugged. "So?"

She knew she should have cared more about the fact that he had just pointed out, but if she were being completely honest, she was glad no one had asked for her help lately. It was hard enough to get though finals at school, working at the morgue, and her own personal issues, without the added stress of saving someone's life on top of it. Besides, it meant that she and Jack could find a few moments of peace between them, without competition lurking behind their every question, word, or movement.

She'd been considering she and Jack's status a lot lately, wondering what it would be like if neither of them had the calling; if they would have a normal, healthy relationship, instead of one filled with unsaid words and secrets kept in the dark so the other wouldn't get hurt. She'd never addressed him as her boyfriend, and he'd never called her his girlfriend. The word 'dating' had never come up at all. However, he didn't see other girls, and she didn't see other guys.

Ironic that the longest-lasting relationship she'd ever had was with the man she was supposed to loathe.

Of course, without their shared link, they probably would have never met in the first place. A gift and (most definitely) a curse at the same time.

"Well, I'm just wondering. It's been two weeks and not a single victim has asked for your help. What, you figure out how to get rid of the damn calling without telling me? 'Cause if you did, I need to know so I can get a real job."

"No," Tru said, almost wistfully, then added, "And you should be laying off the gambling anyway." She shrugged with a sigh. "I guess nobody has needed my help."

"Well, that just means everyone is in their right mind, and know that coming over to my side is the correct choice."

If he weren't shooting her a charming smile, Tru wouldn't have let Jack's comment slip by so easily. But she'd learned that if you're going to be hanging around your reverse on more-than-friendly terms, you have to let some things go.

It was who won the game of 'savior' that mattered, anyway.

"Hey, Jack?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever wondered what it would be like if… we didn't have the calling? Or if we lost it, somehow?"

Staring her straight in the eye, Jack said seriously, "All the time."

XXX

"Hey Davis," Tru greeted her co-worker as she entered the morgue later that afternoon, grabbing her lab coat to put on.

"Hey Tru," Davis replied, shuffling through some files. He looked up and gazed behind her suspiciously. "So… no one walked you in today?"

Rolling her eyes, Tru shook her head in the negative. For the first few months of her relationship with Jack, she'd decided not to tell anyone. It had been difficult enough readjusting to literally sleeping with the enemy, she hadn't needed the extra anxiety of Davis and Harrison trying to talk her out of it, or always telling her Jack was just using her. He'd agreed readily, not wanting to make any more trouble with those on Tru's side.

However, eventually they'd asked so many questions about her change of heart with her counterpart that she'd had no choice but to tell them the truth. Now, both of her confidences were still wary around the man they had always considered Death.

"Any new additions to the morgue today?" Tru questioned as she looked over the files Davis had been poring over.

"Uh, yeah," Davis said, searching his desk for the file. He found it and passed it over to Tru. "Troy Wilkins. Got hit by a car on his way home from work."

"Was it an accident, or did the driver purposely hit him?"

"It seemed to be an accident," Davis admitted. "But you never know."

"All right, I'm gonna check it out," Tru said.

"Happy rewinding," Davis called after her. "You know… if it happens."

"Thanks." Tru entered the examination room, closing the office door behind her.

A man who she was assuming was Troy Wilkins was placed on the metal table in the middle of the room. Tru stepped forward and came to a stop beside the body, which was covered from feet to neck with a sheet. His blank, glassy eyes stared up at the ceiling, and Tru waited patiently, ready for the head to turn and ask for her help, once again pitting her against fate.

After twenty minutes of sitting and waiting, Tru was beginning to lose steam. She had sat in the same position eleven times before in the past two weeks, and none of those times had ended up with a rewind either.

Jack's words from their earlier coffee date came back to her. 'Well, I'm just wondering. It's been two weeks and not a single victim has asked for your help. What, you figure out how to get rid of the damn calling without telling me?'

Had she lost the calling?

Tru sat for another fifteen minutes, and then finally decided that the man wasn't going to ask. She placed the sheet over his face and walked back into the office.

Davis looked up from his computer. "Nothing?"

"Once again, no," Tru replied, leaning against his desk. "I don't know what's going on. I haven't had a rewind in two weeks."

"Maybe somebody is giving you a break?" Davis shrugged. "You've been doing this for five years, this has to have happened before."

"I've never gone this long without a rewind," Tru informed him.

"Well, maybe…" Davis began, then diverted his eyes and trailed off.

"Maybe what?"

"Maybe… since you and Jack are together, it's thrown off the cosmic balance. Maybe the fact that you two are no longer true opposites has screwed up your calling."

"Davis," Tru warned. "I don't think that's it." But it did make some sense. "Why can't you just accept Jack?"

"Because he's Death, Tru!" Davis burst out. "You go out there with the intent to save lives, and he goes out there with the intent of making sure they stay dead!"

"It's… complicated," Tru said. Everything Davis had ever said about her relationship with Jack were the exact things they both tried to ignore.

"Tru… why are you with him? How do you know he isn't just using you? I mean you won't even speak to your father because he's working for the other side, but you get back together with Jack? What changed between you two?"

Tru looked away from her friend. She'd always tried to avoid explaining her feelings, and the pain she was experiencing from his comments were starting a burning sensation behind her eyes. "I guess that after awhile I just realized that even though he's trying to stop me, he's the only one who understands what it's like to carry a burden like this. I started seeing where he's coming from; what might motivate him. And once I got past his jerky, annoying, sarcastic outside, he wasn't that bad."

After a moment of silence, Davis sighed. "If you're happy, then I'm glad for you. And I know you and I have our differences, and sometimes in the past I've sort of sided with him. But still, I just don't-"

"Trust him, I know," Tru finished for him.

She looked out of the blurry window into the hallway, and caught someone looking in. The person noticed her watching them, and rushed out. Tru chased after, leaving Davis in a confused daze.

"Hey!" Tru called out. "Hey you!"

The person turned around before they exited out of the morgue, and Tru caught a glimpse of the man. She took a quick mental note on what he looked liked: goatee, beady eyes, a hat covering his tangled hair. He looked like the guy she had seen earlier when she and Jack had been walking to the morgue.

"What was that about?" Davis asked after he had caught up to Tru.

"I don't know," she responded.

XXX

"Hey, sister-of-mine," Harrison said as he entered Tru's apartment that evening. "Ready to go?"

"In a second," Tru responded, and then entered the kitchen. "You know, sometimes I think you only hang around me for free food," she said as she watched him shove a handful of chips into his mouth.

"Yeah, well, the company is okay too," he cracked, giving her a nice shot of the chewed food before he swallowed. "We're already running late."

"We? You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago. It's already six-thirty," Tru pointed out, grabbing her purse and shooing her brother out of the apartment, locking the door behind her.

"I had some stuff to take care of," Harrison said vaguely.

"What is it with guys and that phrase?" Tru asked rhetorically as they got into her car and sped up the street.

"Eh, Avery and Tyler are used to us being late."

After Jenson had died, the three medical students had decided to meet once a month for dinner. This worked out for everyone, since all had busy and mismatched schedules and limited free time. Once Harrison had started becoming friendly with Avery and Tyler, he'd begun tagging along with his sister. It was easy for Tru to stay friends with them when she made this sort of commitment.

"Speaking of… what's going on with you and Avery?" she questioned, glancing out of the corner of her eye towards the passenger side.

Harrison shrugged nonchalantly, but didn't answer. Instead, he started humming a song, and Tru just laughed, dropping the subject. She'd noticed the growing flirtation between her friend and her brother, and wondered where that was going.

"You know, Tru, Dad mentioned that he's been trying to call you a lot lately, but you're freezing him out. Now I know we've all had our differences with him, but what's going on?"

Her good mood deflating at the thought of the lying man she called 'Dad', Tru just shook her head. "It's just some… stuff."

"Stuff?"

"Yeah, like none of your business stuff," she said in a teasing voice, hoping he'd leave it there.

When she had found out months before that her father was the one Jack worked for, she'd decided not to tell Harry and ruin the good relationship father and son had going. Harry had really been starting to appreciate their dad more and more, first with giving him a job, and then the free apartment. Tru still thought it all seemed suspicious, but she wasn't sure if that was because her father was an untrustworthy murderer.

They reached the restaurant a few minutes later, and, once the car was parked, headed towards the group's "usual table".

"Hey Tru! Happy I'm-almost-done-with-med-school day!" Avery greeted enthusiastically as the new arrivals sat down. "Hey Harrison," she added, her voice a bit softer.

Harrison gave her a casual nod, but Tru noticed him smiling into his menu.

"Where's Tyler?" asked Tru, noticing the missing person.

"Oh, his sister was having some big dinner for the family," Avery replied, shrugging it off. "So what's new with you guys? It's been forever!"

"It's been a week and a half, Avery," Tru corrected with a grin. "Nothing new to report."

"Nothing?" Avery looked disappointed.

"Nope. You?"

"No," she said. "We need to become more social."

Harrison nodded. "I agree. Of course, maybe some of us are being a little too social," he said, casting an eye towards his older sister.

Avery looked intrigued. "Oh? What does that mean?" she questioned her fellow med student with glittering eyes.

"It means," Tru began, looking away from her menu only to glare at her brother, "that some people need to stop worrying about other people and their personal… affairs."

"Good word choice," Harrison snorted under his breath.

"Oh, you're one to talk," Tru shot back.

"At least I'm not screwing the world up."

"At least I'm mature enough to figure things out on my own."

"At least I'm not flirting with Death."

"God, first Davis, and now you? Can't a girl get a break?"

"I am so confused right now," Avery interjected, looking back and forth between the siblings. "Are you dying?" she directed towards Tru.

After sharing one more annoyed look with Harrison, Tru shook her head. "No, just some normal brother/sister… banter."

"Banter. Right," Avery nodded, still not understanding.

Tru sighed as her brother and friend began another conversation, leaving her to peruse the menu once again. She and Harrison had had many 'discussions' about the subject of her relationship with Jack, but never in front of anyone else before. Though Avery was one of her closest friends, she still hadn't divulged her secret to her, which meant explaining Jack would be very tricky. So, the woman knew nothing about that particular part of her life, except that Jack was 'an annoying guy who follows her around all the time'.

"…Yeah, so I'm not sure if I want to keep the 50 inch, or go smaller," Harrison finished.

"I haven't been to your place since the Christmas party," Avery said, referring to Harrison's annual holiday bash.

"Well then, you've got to check out the home entertainment center soon, in case I decide to get a smaller flat screen."

Avery smiled. "I may just."

Tru glanced between the two, then turned away and made a face. Luckily, the waiter popped over before they could continue.

XXX

Jack was sitting in his apartment, flicking aimlessly through the channels on his television. Normally, his nights that didn't end a rewind day were spent with Tru, but she was out for her monthly dinner with her friends.

He had never really noticed before now that he had quite little in his life when you factored out the calling and the woman that came along in that package.

Maybe, if he lost his power, he'd get a real job instead of relying on bets and gambles to get by (besides, he wouldn't have the advantage of knowing anything ahead of time). He'd make some real friends, some buddies he could go out drinking with. He'd solidify his relationship with Tru, maybe think about their future…

Before he had the chance to smack himself out of his un-Jack-like thoughts, his cell phone rang across the room.

"This is Jack," he said when he had reached the device, half-expecting it to be Tru, telling him she was 'creeped out' by being alone at the morgue this late, which they both knew was a fake line so he would go and join her.

This girl had really changed him.

"Jack," the voice on the other end said. "You're about to have a rewind day."

"Who is this?" Jack asked.

"It's Richard," the man responded.

"How do you know there's going to be a rewind?"

"Because I just killed a man before his time."

Jack fell back onto his couch. "What? Why?" Normally it was just their job to make sure the victim stayed dead, not kill them in the first place.

Richard sounded hurried as he explained, "He overheard us talking, and apparently also picked up on you and Tru having a very unexplainable conversation about saving or letting victims go. He confronted me about it, told me he was going to go to the police, and then the press, about our jobs. I had no choice." He waited a beat to let his successor digest this information, and then continued, "What's done is done, Jack. This is your chance to redeem yourself. Make sure he is in my office at ten-forty, and I'll take care of the rest." He paused. "Make sure he stays dead."

The line abruptly went dead. Jack pulled the phone away from his face and stared at it for a moment, before jumping into action. He knew Richard well enough to know that the scheming man was going to call the police- if he hadn't already done so- and report the murder, finding a way to make sure it couldn't be traced back to himself. Besides, if the day did end up rewinding, Jack would tell his boss what had happened the first day, and Richard would have more time to clean everything up.

He checked his watch. Eleven-oh-eight. The body was probably already on its way to the morgue, where Tru would be starting her graveyard shift.

He was going to tell Richard what happened if the day re-winded. If all went well, he'd be back in the older man's good graces in no time.

He was going to tell him.

Wasn't he?

XXX

Tru opened the door to the examining room and held it for the two men carrying the newest body into the morgue. "Right on the center table," she directed. Maybe this person would ask.

"Good night," they both said as they exited, leaving Tru alone with the body.

She knew that most people would be thoroughly horrified at the idea of having to spend the entire night around corpses, but not her. After years of working at the morgue and having the dead ask for her help, she was used to the chilling quiet of the building when she was the only one there; the magnified sounds and the knowledge that at any given moment, any of the deceased around her could make her day start all over again.

Recently, she'd gotten into the habit of calling Jack, and making up some lame excuse of a reason for him to come down and spend the shift with her. Usually, and quite surprisingly, he'd agree, playing tough-guy-hero and promising to protect her from any of the scary noises. And even though half the time a body would come in at eleven-fifty-nine and ask for her help, restarting the entire day and forcing she and Jack to retreat to their opposite corners, when it all was over and one of them had succeeded, he'd still come back that night.

He was such a mystery to her.

Tru looked over the paper she had been faxed by the officer who had been at the crime scene and saw the name, Don Chambers. She glanced towards the man lying on the table, completely hidden by a stark white sheet before looking back at the information in her hands.

"Time of death: approximately ten forty-five pm," Tru recited out loud. "Found at…"

She trailed off slowly, and even though she prided herself as a kick-ass type of girl who could withstand any sort of surprises, this one had her nearly floored. The place this man was killed in was her father's law firm building. In her father's office, to be exact.

Tru pulled the sheet back slowly from Don's face, recognizing the tangled hair, goatee, and empty, beady eyes of the man who had been in the morgue that afternoon, watching her.

Beginning to piece everything together, Tru looked back down at the papers. "Shot straight in the heart…" She bit her lip, placing her gaze back on the dead man in front of her. "It couldn't have been suicide."

Suddenly, the shiver of anticipation ran down Tru's spine, and she knew she had not lost the calling. Don's head turned, his face pale as a ghost, and yet communicated with her as if alive.

"Save me," he pleaded.

XXX