Title: One Year Anniversary
Author: Stress
First written: April 18, 2002-May 12, 2002
Edited and replaced: August 9, 2005
Summary: Part III of the Soul Mates Series; When Jack and Stress reach their first year anniversary, Stress tells a friend the story about how they almost didn't get together at all.
The Lobby of the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House
Back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. Stripes, Spot, Martini and Blink all watched nervously as Jack paced back and forth across the lodging house lobby. "Hey Blink, tell me again what you guys used to knock her out? It's been over an hour now and I ain't heard no sound coming from the bunks yet," he asked for the hundredth time since he helped Spot and Blink carry Stress up to the bunkroom.
"I've told you already. Me buddy said it ain't gonna hurt her. It' s just something to knock her out for an hour or two," Blink responded, speaking as if he were explaining it to a two-year old child.
"I don't know how I let you guys talk me into this. She's gonna kill me when she finds out that we drugged and kidnapped her, then tied her up just so I could talk to her. Martini, you must be crazy. This ain't never gonna work. I just can't go through with this!" Jack cried as he continued pacing back and forth, back and forth.
"Don't worry Jacky-Boy. Once she hears what you have to say, I'm sure that she'll forgive you for doing this to her." Spot tried to calm him down, but at the same time he couldn't say it without crossing his fingers behind his back. He didn't want to upset Jack but he was glad that they had tied Stress to the chair so that she couldn't hurt any of them when she woke up. She had a mean right hook when she was angry and there was no doubt in his mind that she would be very angry.
All of a sudden Stripes, who was sitting on top of the bottom step of the lodging house stairs, started shaking her head and pointing up the stairs. "I think that I just heard someone trying to scream up there. Do ya think she's awake now?" she whispered.
Jack paled and shook his head. "I didn't hear nothing, did you?"
Martini put her finger to her lips and walked up the first three stairs. "I did, but not no more. Why doesn't someone go check up on her?"
No one was surprised when every single pair of eyes in that room turned to Jack. "O.K., O.K., I guess I'll go check on her and make sure she's fine."
He moved slower than molasses towards the stairs. Spot and Blink, after looking at each other and sighing, walked up behind Jack and gave him a shove up the stairs. "All right guys, I can take a hint. Geez." Jack started to climb the steps but stopped when he distinctly heard muffled shouts.
"Go!" yelled Spot, Blink, Stripes and Martini in unison.
Jack shrugged and ran up the rest of the stairs. He slowly creaked open the door and saw that, at once Stress stopped shouting. She must have heard him walking up the stairs. He took in a deep breath of air and decided to go for it. As he slowly entered the bunkroom he asked her shyly, "Are ya awake, Stressie?"
The Bunkroom of the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House
This time, at least, her screams got a reaction. Almost as soon as she started to yell, she heard someone thunder up a flight of stairs. She stopped when she heard a door creep open and felt someone's presence hanging around the doorway. "Are ya awake, Stressie?" a soft, male voice hesitantly called.
Even if she hadn't recognized the voice, she would have known who it was by the name he had used. Stressie. She started to yell obscenities at her captor and was disappointed when they were censored by the gag she still had in her mouth.
She felt her captor come closer and knew he had paused when she no longer heard footsteps on the floor. She flinched at his touch when she felt him start to untie the knot that kept the blindfold on her eyes.
It took a second for her eyes to adjust to the sunlight pouring in through the window but when she had the ability to see again, she confirmed what she had suspected. She was sitting, tied to a chair, in the bunkroom of the Manhattan Newsboys Lodging House.
"Stress...," Stress turned her head to face Jack as she shot him the evilest look she could manage considering she was still gagged and tied to a chair. "Now, before you get angry and soak me, let me explain."
Stress tried to ask him "How are you gonna explain this?" but it only came out as grunts, thanks to the gag.
Jack pointed to the gag. "That was Spot's idea. We all know how much you like to talk but I gotta tell ya something real important and I really want you to listen to what I have to say, O.K.?"
Stress turned her head away in defiance. She did not want to listen to anyone who had her tied up like a Christmas present. It was August, for Christ's sake! Christmas wasn't for another 4 and a half months!
"I expected that, but I'm gonna talk anyways." Jack took a deep breath before beginning. "Well, I guess I'll start with what happened at Medda's the other night."
Stress cocked her head to the side. She was obviously listening to what he had to say without looking him in the eye.
Jack, taking heart from the fact that she was at least willing to listen, continued. "I know what you think you saw but that ain't what you saw. What I mean is, I ain't never seen that girl before. Your friend, Bookie, set us up so that you would see me and her together and never speak to me again! And it almost worked! So after I left Medda's, I talked to Bookie and went off looking for you. When I didn't find you, I went to ask Dave for some advice. You fell in love with him in one day and I wanted to know what he had that I didn't." Jack was pleased to see that at those words Stress had began to blush. She really was listening to him spill his guts. "But when I got there, you was already there and you ran out on me with out giving me a chance to explain what had happened. An' then yesterday morning I went to the lodging house to talk to you but instead I found your note. When I read the note I thought that you was gonna jump off the bridge. That's why I kissed ya with out any warning. I was just so glad that you wasn't floating in the water. But you ran away from me then, too. That's why I had to get you here like this today! Since you tied to that chair and all, there's no where for you to run to, so you gotta listen to what I'm been trying to tell ya. I mean, what I wanna say is -- I love you!" Jack blurted out, not sure how to say it the right way. He quickly turned his head so that he wouldn't see her reaction. All he could do was hope she wouldn't laugh.
Stress looked up at him and started to speak. Well, at least tried to speak. Jack, realizing that he wouldn't be able to understand anything she said while still wearing the gag, raced over behind her and started to untie it.
When she felt the gag fall away from her mouth, Stress opened her mouth to respond to Jack's last statement. "I don't understand, Jack. What do ya mean?" she asked, forgetting for the moment that the guy standing in front of her had just orchestrated her kidnap.
"Just what I said, Stressie. I... Love... You," he said simply as he bent down to untie her from the chair. He had a feeling that she wouldn't be running away from him anymore.
Just like Jack thought, even after she was completely untied, Stress remained seated in the chair. "No, Jack. This is some kind of sick joke. You thought that it would be funny if you guys tricked me here, ya told me that you loved me and then turned around and ran off with some girl in a dress." Stress refused to believe that a word of what Jack was saying was true lest he broke her heart entirely.
Jack smiled as he lifted her out of the chair and laid her on a bottom bunk, since she had made no sign of moving herself. He knew that the chair would be uncomfortable after sitting, tied to it, for two hours. "No joke, I swear. I love you and I've always had."
"Stop saying that! You don't mean that!" she screeched as she covered her ears with her hands.
Jack reached over and gently took her hands off of her ears. Sitting down on the bunk right next to her, he turned and looked straight into her eyes. "You gotta believe me. I've loved you since that day I met you and rescued you from your past. It just took me 'til now to realize that. I've waited four years, please don' t make me wait no longer," he pleaded as he stroked her cheek with his thumb.
Stress felt her defenses slipping away as she stared into his big brown eyes. She was prepared to forgive him for what happened at Medda's, for the incident at the Bridge, even the mock kidnap. But if he was playing games with her now, he would live to regret it.
As she sat next to Jack, letting everything he was saying to her sink in, Jack decided to go ahead and take the plunge. While Stress was silent and thinking, Jack leaned forward and began to kiss her with a passion that would be sure to tell her exactly how he felt.
This time, though, Stress put up no resistance to his kiss. She immediately responded, throwing her arms around his shoulders, rolling on top of him on the bunk.
They laid in that position for a few minutes after their kiss ended, every now and then their lips reaching up to meet again. In that one action, everything that needed to be said between them, was said. Well, not everything.
With her head lying on Jack's chest, Stress murmured, "I love you too, Jack."
Though Jack heard her say it, he pretended not too, just to make sure. "What did you say, Stressie? I'm sorry, I didn't quite hear you."
"I said that I love you, ya big lug!" she giggled as she reached for his cowboy hat. Jack started to tickle her and they both fell off the bunk and onto the floor, laughing.
When Jack playfully pinned her to the floor, he asked Stress the question she had been longing to hear. "Stressie, would you do me the honor of being me girl?"
Stress looked up at him with what could only be described as pure love in her eyes. "I thought that you'd never ask," she answered as she reached up to give him another kiss.