Author's note: Just a quick note to say another thanks for my reviews, really appreciate it and it's good to know that someone's enjoying my story. I'd write this for one person so two is twice as good. And I know that the last chapter was rather short but hopefully this will make up for it. Enjoy...
Jack got himself some cereal and sat at the breakfast bar by Shannon who was gossiping on the phone whilst giving herself a manicure. Old habits die hard, Jack guessed.
"So what's the deal with it then?" Shannon asked, holding the cordless phone in place with her shoulder as she painted her nails. "I think that's a little unfair. I mean, you'd think they'd go easy on you considering everything." She blew on her wet nails while she listened. "I guess. I don't really think it's fair though," she continued, surveying her nails. "Hey, Jack's here by the way, you wanna talk to him?"
Jack looked up. Who was Shannon talking to that would want to talk to him? Must be someone from the island he reasoned. There was no way he and Shannon would have anyone in common pre-crash.
"Okay, well I'll tell him you said 'hi'. Give my love to Charlie and Aaron," Shannon said.
Oh, Claire, Jack thought.
"Bye," Shannon said, hanging up the phone carefully, ever mindful of her wet nails. "Claire says 'hi'," she relayed, looking over to Jack.
Jack gave a small nod. "How's she doing?" he asked.
"Fine," Shannon replied, starting on her other hand. "Her and Charlie want to settle in LA with Aaron but their having green card problems, you know, her being from Australia, him being from Britain..."
"Yeah, I guess it's gonna be hard for the two of them to find a place they can call home," Jack replied, feeling a little sorry for them. He'd never really stopped to appreciate the fact that he and Boone both lived in LA pre-crash.
"I think they thought LA would be a nice middle ground but the US government begs to differ," Shannon said. "Sucks for them."
"Speaking of which, what about Sayid?" Jack asked aware that he, strictly speaking, didn't have his green card either.
"We're getting married so apparently they're willing to clear it. What with all the media and everything, plus the baby, I guess, they're pretty sure it's for real," Shannon explained.
"Well, that's something," Jack said.
Sabrina entered the room and got herself some juice, standing opposite Jack and Shannon. "So, where is my work shy son this morning?" she asked.
"He's sleeping," Jack replied, trying to think of some kind of spin he could put on it. "I think he's been up late reading Tom Sawyer," Jack said, somehow hoping this made Boone sound better.
"Ooh, Sawyer, I have to phone him," Shannon said, picking up the phone again.
"You have Sawyer's number?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, before we left the hospital I got everyone to give me a contact number. I want to stay in touch," Shannon explained as she dialled a number and waited on the line.
Jack thought that was pretty sweet. He hadn't imagined Shannon to be the sentimental type. After all, she apparently spent most of her life moving around, setting up home before getting Boone to bail her out.
"So he's just going to sleep all day?" Sabrina asked.
Jack looked up at her a little clueless. Oh, right, Boone, he thought. "No, he'll probably be in the shower by now actually," Jack said, knowing Boone was probably sleeping like a baby right now.
"He's not in," Shannon said as she put the phone down.
"I wish he'd sort himself out," Sabrina said. "I know you've all been through a lot but everyone else seems to be getting on with it. All he does is sit around the house all day looking fed-up with himself."
Boone was looking fed-up? Sure, Jack knew he was pretty down yesterday but before that?
"He's probably just holding off until he gets laid," Shannon said casually.
Both Jack and Sabrina both turned to look at her.
"Excuse me?" Sabrina asked, clearly a little thrown.
"Wait, what?" Jack asked.
"Sorry, Jack, I probably shouldn't have said that in front of you," Shannon said, starting to apply a second coat to her nails.
"Me? What about his mother? You don't think that's inappropriate?" Jack asked. Shannon could say some pretty stupid things but why would she offhandedly announce something like this? Shannon was about to reply but Jack cut her off. "Never mind. Did he say something to you?"
Shannon wasn't meeting Jack's eyes. Well, at least she has enough sense to know that she's done something wrong, Jack thought.
"Not much," Shannon said.
Jack looked at her for a beat. Okay, he was a very bad boyfriend. Sabrina knew he was upset about something, a fact that Jack had only noticed yesterday, and he'd talked to Shannon about their sex life, something Jack hadn't considered a problem until this very second, so Jack was going to go out on a limb and guess that Boone was upset at their lack of sex life. Well, I guess it had been... Jack thought about it. They hadn't had sex since they left the island. Jack was a very bad boyfriend indeed.
"Excuse me," he said as he stood up and left the kitchen.
He found Boone in the bedroom, sat at his desk, his laptop open in front of him.
"Hey," Jack said as he walked into the room and shut the door. He went straight up to Boone and gave him a long but rather chaste kiss on the lips. Boone seemed a little taken back but soon melted into the kiss, much to Jack's pleasure. As he pulled away Boone looked up at him, a little dazed.
"What was that for?" he asked.
Jack shrugged. "I dunno. I figure I don't do it enough," he replied.
"Well, feel free to do it whenever you want," Boone said with a smile as he turned back to the laptop. "Dammit," he said.
"What are you doing?" Jack asked, looking at the computer screen.
"I'm trying to check my e-mails," Boone replied. "The stupid wireless isn't working again. That thing's useless, I may as well plug it into the wall and have done with it," he ranted on.
"Come here, Boone," Jack said.
Boone looked up at him again. "Where's here?" he asked. "I am here."
"Come here. Give me a hug," Jack tried.
Boone looked a little confused. "Have you been drinking, Jack?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.
"I can't ask my boyfriend for a hug?" Jack asked. This wasn't exactly going the way he'd planned. But Boone stood up and put his arms around Jack so he guessed he could still pull it back on track. He wrapped Boone up in his arms and felt him lean into him, holding on tight. Jack put his mouth up to Boone's ear. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.
"Why are you sorry?" Boone asked, not moving.
"I'm sorry that I haven't been spending as much time with you as I should. I'm sorry that I put all my energy into myself and my job and I kind of left you out of the whole thing," Jack said, loving the way Boone felt, so warm against him and how he smelt so good even though he hadn't had a shower yet.
"You don't have to be sorry about any that," Boone stated. "You treat me better than anyone else ever has."
"Well then that's not fair," Jack said, pulling away slightly so he could look Boone in the eyes. "Boone, hasn't anyone ever told you how special you are?"
Boone shrugged. "Who would tell me?" he asked simply, but it seemed more of a statement than a question.
"Your mom?" Jack suggested.
"You've met my mom, she's not one for feeling words," Boone pointed out.
"What about your dad?" Jack wondered if he should have asked that. Boone had once mentioned that he understood Jack's father issues but other than that his dad had never been mentioned.
Boone looked down. "I don't think he thought I was so special seeing as he skipped out on me and my mom when I was five," he said, though he didn't sound as sad as he should have.
"Boone, I'm sorry, I'm an idiot, I shouldn't have mentioned your father," Jack said, pulling Boone in close again, wanting to make it better. He once told Boone that he would fix him and he wasn't going to stop until he'd completed his mission. He's saved his life that night but that didn't mean he'd fixed it all.
"It's okay, Jack," Boone said, really sounding as though it was. "If my dad hadn't left then my mom would never have married Adam and I would never have met Shannon and she would never have made me go to Australia to con me out of 50 thousand dollars and we would never been on that stupid flight and I never would have met you," he concluded. "So really, he totally did me a favour."
Jack smiled. He couldn't really argue with logic like that. "Well, just for the record, I think you're special," he said, and suddenly Boone was kissing him. He pulled Jack in as tight as he could and ran his hands all over his body. Okay, Jack thought, maybe there was a little pent-up sexual tension. Jack reciprocated ten fold and they managed to stumble their way over to the bed, their shirts getting lost somewhere along the way.