"Would it be totally out of character if I asked what was wrong?" Tru wondered from her position on the couch where Jack had carried her after they had returned to her apartment. She could get used to this, being waited on hand and foot, if only it weren't for the fact she couldn't walk without immense pain.

At first she had thought she was imagining things, or that she was projecting her own feelings on to him, but now, as she watched him mindlessly stir sugar into his coffee at the kitchen counter while staring fixedly out of the window towards the middle distance, it was obvious that something was bothering him. He was never this quiet.

Jack turned at her question, his eyes taking a moment to focus on her rather than on his own inner conflict. "Hmmm?"

"Jack, you've been spaced out ever since you came back from your mysterious 'errands'." she informed him, earning an irritated look for her use of air quotes "Did something happen while you were gone?"

"No." Jack responded simply, and just a little too quickly for Tru's liking, and she narrowed her eyes.

If she was honest with herself, she was actually a little hurt by his reluctance to talk to her. Yes they had proved only this morning that they were still on opposite sides over the 'fate' issue – her guilt remained as a bitter taste in the back of her throat, while Jack seemed largely unconcerned by John Bostock's death – but after everything they had been through in the last two days (three if you counted the rewind), she would have thought he might have been a little more inclined to open up.

Unless…

"Is it because of me?" she asked in a small voice, her heart twisting at the thought that in her neediness she had finally pushed him too far. "I mean if you want to go, that's okay. I'm sure Avery could-"

"No Tru." Jack interrupted with a weary sigh, muttering a silent curse at having let his distraction get to the point where she could pick up on it. "It's nothing to do with you." It was only a half-lie he told himself, since it was more to do with his newly discovered 'feelings' than her per se. He could think of very few revelations that could mess with your head more than realising you were quite possibly in love with your archenemy.

The whole concept sounded like the plot for some bad movie, or one of those dramas they showed on the Hallmark channel that he found so tedious. In fact, if this had happened to anyone else, he probably would have found it funny. However, now that he had had calmed down and had some time to let the notion settle in, he'd been beginning to think that perhaps it wouldn't be that scary.

There were a hundred reasons why he should think himself insane for even entertaining the possibility of feeling something for Tru, but for each argument his sense of logic threw at him he had been able to counter with the oldest of clichés.

She was his rival, his opposite – Opposites attract.

They had hated each other for over a year, and the emergence of his 'feelings' was all rather sudden – There was a very fine line between love and hate.

The list had gone on and on, and he had even begun to wonder if perhaps Richard was right, and that it had been inevitable, that he had just needed something to give him a push in that direction. Of course, having never quite felt this way before, that he could remember at least, he wasn't entirely certain what he should do about his recent discovery.

Tru was still the flip side of his calling, and they were never going to see eye to eye over the 'fate issue', and perhaps the biggest obstacle of them all – he didn't have the slightest clue how Tru would react were he to tell her what was happening. She had been through enough already in the last few days without his throwing her into a further spin. As such, it was probably for the best if he kept the knowledge to himself…for now at least.

"Jack!"

"Sorry," he shook his head, realising he had zoned out again, "what were you saying?"

"I was saying," Tru repeated slowly, "that if it's nothing to do with me then what is it?" Seeing his continued hesitation, she sighed, her tone becoming softer. "I know it's weird…with us being rivals and everything, but after all that's happened…even if we're not technically friends…I wouldn't exactly call us enemies anymore either." She paused, letting her words sink in. "You've really been there for me Jack, let me return the favour…please?"

During her speech, Jack had moved from the kitchen to take a seat on the opposite end of the couch and he was now looking at her as if he was trying to make up his mind whether to let her in on his meditations, but wasn't quite sure if it was a good idea. Seeing his weakening, and sensing that he genuinely wanted to tell her, whether he was aware of it or not, Tru pushed ahead.

"Talk to me." She prodded gently, hoping she sounded sincerely interested rather than just nosey. "What are you thinking about?"

"Life, the universe…everything." Jack shrugged, looking straight ahead, deciding silently that now was not the time.

"The answer's forty-two." Tru announced sagely. When Jack just looked at her as if she had lost her mind, she grinned. "That's right, I forgot you didn't read."

"I read," Jack retorted, smirking "I read all about that big soda shortage."

Tru shook her head, chuckling at the memory of their first meeting. "I should have known something was going on with you right from the start. I would have been suspicious when you never took my soda, but Davis talked me out of it." her smile became wistful. "It seems like a life time ago doesn't it?"

"More like several." Jack replied dryly before his look turned reflective. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." Tru nodded, though from the seriousness of his expression she had to wonder what she was about to let herself in for.

"When we first met, before you found out who I really was," he began, his tone almost, but not quite conversational "you didn't have a very high opinion of me did you?"

"That's putting it mildly." Tru answered, "I thought you were an arrogant, self absorbed pig."

Jack snorted. "Not much has changed then."

"A little. Now you're a stubborn, smart-ass pig." She informed him, though her smile belied the harshness of her words. "What about you, what did you think of me?"

She had expected some witty jibe about her being a superior holier-than-thou know it all, but Jack seemed to take her question seriously – far more seriously than she had taken his inquiry, and as she watched him deliberate over his answer, she found herself oddly curious about what it might be.

"I thought you were naive." He answered at last. "And I didn't understand how someone who'd seen as much as you had – the death, the loss – could still be so…innocent. I think I envied you in a way." His voice had become quieter as he spoke, as if his words were a revelation to him, as well as her.

"You envied me?" Tru raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Why?"

"Because it'd been so long since I'd been able to see the world without it being tainted by cynicism." He said, looking away from her. "You'd be surprised how many similarities you could find between our lives before the rewind mess started Tru; but while I just…lost it…you managed to hold on to the rose tinted glasses. You could still see black and white, good and bad. But for me…everything had just became grey."

After a moment of silence, Tru smiled wanly. "I don't think you've got anything to be jealous of anymore." When Jack glanced at her from the corner of his eyes, an eyebrow raised in question, she continued. "I've been thinking about…what happened…and I was thinking maybe it was some kind of test."

"A test." Jack repeated, uncomprehending. "That would be a pretty screwed up test Tru."

"Yeah well, fate is pretty screwed up." Tru stated, her smile turning to a bitter grimace. "Fate took my mom, it took Luc," she didn't fail to miss Jack's wince at her last statement, but continued none the less "it tried to take Harrison and Jenson, but I still kept going, I kept doing my job and saving lives no matter what…but I guess this time fate finally managed to break me."

"What are you saying?" Jack asked, puzzled.

"You saw what happened today," she sighed sadly "I'm just not sure I can do this anymore, I don't know if I'm strong enough…I think maybe I don't deserve to have the calling after all."

"I think you're being kind of hard on yourself Tru." Jack told her gently, "You can't expect to come back from something like that overnight…it's just gonna take time is all."

Tru peered at him curiously. "Shouldn't you be doing a little happy dance or something?" she inquired. "You've been trying to get me to quit almost the entire time I've known you. What's changed?"

"Nothing's changed." Jack pointed out. "I still think you should stop messing with fate…but I'd want you to do it for the right reasons, because you knew it was the right thing to do."

"What does it matter as long as I quit?"

"There's no victory in it for me if you don't come around to my way of thinking first." He informed her with a smirk, watching her roll her eyes, and then turning serious again. "You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for Tru, you've proved that more times than I can count. You'll come through this, I know you will."

When he had finished, Tru tilted her head, studying him in silence. At first he didn't meet her gaze and instead, concentrated on the now tepid cup of coffee in his hands, but when after nearly a minute not another word had been said, he could stand the stillness no longer. Also, he was curious as to what had brought the contemplative half smile to her lips. "What?"

"I just realised something." She replied, her voice barely a whisper.

Jack quirked an eyebrow. "And what's that?"

"I just realised that you seem to know so much about me, but I know next to nothing about you…I guess I just wanted to even the balance a little. Spill."

"There's not much to know." Jack countered with a nonchalant shrug.

"That can't be true," Tru reasoned, "you're what twenty-six? Twenty-seven? You must have done something with that time."

Jack thought for a moment before answering, cautious about how much to say. Yes, he had had a life once; friends, a family, a career…but it had been so long ago that he could scarcely remember what it was like to be 'normal'. His distance from the rest of the world had begun to set in long before he had ever started reliving days.

"Honestly Tru, there isn't much to tell you that you don't already know. I had a life," he responded at length "but I can't go back to it. That's not me anymore." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "After Amy, my sister died, I had no family left. I fell apart for a while, I was so angry all the time. And then one day I just snapped out of it, but by then half of the people I'd called friends were gone…the rest of them vanished after I died. That's when I lost it completely."

Jack had no idea why he was telling her this, or why she would even care, yet now he had started, he couldn't seem to stop talking. "I couldn't be an EMT any longer – saving lives just didn't seem to mean as much as it once had – and without that I felt like I didn't have much of a purpose anymore. When you've got nothing and no one…you just stop caring about much of anything. I wasn't the same person I used to be…like you said earlier, I don't think I was much of a person at all at that point; instead I was what fate needed me to be. That's why I was the perfect choice for this job – I had nothing left to loose."

Silence fell upon them as Jack trailed off, amazed at just how much he had revealed to her. It wasn't as if he wanted her sympathy, he had made his choices and he lived with them…but he had just felt the need to explain to her why he was the way he was. Why he had been chosen to fight against her every day.

Each was lost in their own thoughts of the past for some time – what they had given up and what had been taken from them. This time however, it was Tru who recovered first.

Slowly, hesitantly, she leaned in and planted a soft kiss against his cheek. Jack's eyes fell closed as he savoured the radiant warmth she exuded, the faint scent of cherries that lingered on her skin, and he barely repressed the shudder that passed through him at her nearness. If he had had any doubts left about his feelings towards her, they were quite effectively pushed aside as she pulled back to meet his eyes.

He didn't quite understand what she had been trying to tell him, but whatever it was, it was…nice.

Jack smiled down at Tru as she slept against his chest, chuckling silently at the quiet noises she made and the random words she muttered. He'd never pictured her as a noisy sleeper.

They hadn't said much after she had kissed him, nothing of any real consequence anyway, both of them being a little overwhelmed at having had one of their most intense conversations to date, and neither being quite ready to address what it might mean, but at least the silence had been a comfortable one. When she had begun to yawn he had offered to carry her over to her bed, but she had reasoned that if she were able to walk, she would likely end up back on the sofa during the early hours anyway, so there was little point in her moving. He hadn't been able to argue with her logic.

He was about to try and get some sleep himself when a quiet tapping at the door caught his attention and he frowned. Who would be calling at this hour? He was tempted to ignore whoever it was, figuring that if it was important they would call again in the morning, but he knew that if they proved to be persistent they would probably end up waking Tru anyway. With a sigh, he carefully shifted from under her, placing a cushion under her head in lieu of his chest, and walked quickly over to the door.

When he opened it and saw who was standing on the other side, he didn't know whether to be relieved or worried. "Harrison," he greeted, "What can I do for you?"

Jack had expected some angry tirade from Harrison at his having yet again found him in his sister's apartment, but the younger man was eerily calm as he spoke.

"We have to talk."

TBC...