"No," Boone replied. "Jenson?"
"No. Mary?"
"That's an old person's name," Boone said. "Nicolette?"
"That's a faux rich name if ever I heard one," Jack replied. He didn't remember it being this hard with Sarah. But Sarah was pretty strong headed, she knew what she wanted and she knew how to get it. Boone usually got his own way too but it took him a damn sight longer to work out what his own way was.
"Bernadette?" Boone suggested.
"No," Jack said. "We haven't even agreed on a surname yet," he pointed out. "You thinking Carlyle-Shepherd or Shepherd-Carlyle?"
"Oh no, no double barrel names," Boone said, shaking his head. "I am not giving my kid a double barrel name."
"Why not?" Jack asked.
Boone rolled his eyes. "Because you see someone with a double barrel name and you automatically think they come from money."
Jack looked around at the not so cheap house. Okay, so they got a good price for it because it was a wreck but the market value right now was pretty high. "Not exactly a stretch, is it?" he commented.
"That's not the point," Boone said, looking a little irritated. "You think that they're all posh and upper class and stuck up and righteous and..."
"Okay, okay," Jack cut in. Boone's rants could be cute but right now he just wanted to make some kind of decision. And then he realised that, if they were only going with one of their names, maybe Boone was trying to dodge the whole responsibility thing again. "So let's go with Carlyle," Jack said, gauging Boone's reaction. But he didn't really have one.
"If you want," he replied with a little shrug, looking over the name book again.
"Do you not care?" Jack asked, getting annoyed. And also getting annoyed at the fact that he was getting annoyed. Let's face it, if he got the opposite response, his reaction would have been exactly the same.
Boone looked up at Jack. "Seems fair," he said. "Your DNA, my name, our baby."
Which, of course, made perfect sense but Jack didn't think Boone would think so. Maybe he was underestimating him. Maybe he wasn't trying to dodge anything at all. In fact, he seemed really excited about the whole baby thing so Jack wasn't sure where his doubts were coming from.
"Alex?" Boone asked, already looking back at the book.
"For a boy or girl?" Jack asked.
"Boy."
"No."
"Girl, then?"
"No."
Boone rolled his eyes. "Then why did you even ask?"
"I don't know," Jack said, feeling far too tired for all this right now. "How about we go with Baby Carlyle for now and pick this up later."
"Okay," Boone said, putting the book down on the kitchen table. He then looked at Jack expectantly.
Jack sighed and looked around the kitchen. "A boon is a gift," Jack said absently, staring into space. "No 'e' though."
"I think a 'Jack's' a gift too if you ask me," Boone smiled.
"It says Boone means good in that book," Jack continued.
"Good at what?" Boone asked suggestively.
Jack picked up on it but let it go. He wasn't really in the mood right now. He was tired and he was feeling a little disconnected. Not from Boone, just in general. He felt kind of far away. "Just good," he replied.
Boone started flicking through the book. "Jack is from John which means 'God is merciful'," he read out. He shook his head. "That doesn't fit you."
"It doesn't?" Jack asked, not fully paying attention if he was honest. He didn't care all that much what his name meant. It's not like it was going to have a huge impact on his life.
"Fits the other John pretty well though," Boone smiled. Jack looked at him. "Locke," Boone explained.
"Oh, right," Jack nodded. Yeah, Locke would totally buy that whole 'God is merciful' crap. If God was around, Jack didn't think he was all that merciful.
Boone started flicking through the book again and then started laughing.
"What?" Jack asked.
"Shannon means 'wise one'," Boone replied. He put the book down on the table again. "I guess those meanings really are a bunch of crap then, huh?"
Jack nodded. "Just a name," he said.
"Right. 'What is in a name?' and all that," Boone smiled.
"We've got plenty of time to think about all this," Jack stated.
"I don't want a totally boring name," Boone said.
"I thought we were dropping this," Jack replied.
"I'm just saying. Nothing boring. But nothing stupid and outlandish. Something in-between."
"Okay," Jack replied, closing his eyes.
"Where are you?" Boone asked.
Jack opened his eyes and looked at him. "I'm here."
Boone raised his eyebrows. "In your head," he clarified.
Jack shook his head. "Nowhere," he replied. "Really, actually, nowhere. I don't know."
"You must be thinking about something," Boone insisted.
"I don't know what I want to call the baby," Jack stated.
"I thought you said it didn't matter yet," Boone pointed out.
"It doesn't," Jack agreed. "Not yet."
Boone looked at him. "So, then, what's the problem?"
Jack thought about it. He was fairly sure there was no problem. In fact, that wasn't even what he was really thinking about, he'd just said it so he could answer. The problem, if you could call it that, was that he wasn't actually thinking about anything. And he didn't really want to. Was that a problem? He looked at the clock. Too early to go to bed. He didn't think he'd sleep anyway.
"Jack?"
Oh, right, Boone was still waiting for an answer. "No problem," Jack replied. "I'm sorry, my head feels a little fuzzy."
Boone looked a little worried.
"What?" Jack asked him.
"Well, last time you went all quiet and introverted like this was after, y'know, and before..." he paused. "Y'know."
"Relax, not gonna happen right now," Jack assured him. "Asshole Jack is gone."
"You weren't being an asshole," Boone said.
"I practically accused you of raping your sister," Jack said. "I was being asshole."
"Okay, you were being a bit of an asshole," Boone conceded. "I forgive you."
Jack smiled at him. "I just want to be able to do a simple task like this."
"Simple task like naming our baby?" Boone asked. "How is that a simple task? You have to live with this decision for the rest of your life. And so does the poor kid."
"Great, now it's even more complicated," Jack said.
"It's not complicated, it's just not simple either. It falls in a category somewhere in-between, like most things in life," Boone told him. "Stop looking at everything in black and white, you can't tell me you believe that's the way the world works. Lot of grey areas, Jack. We're a grey area."
"We're not a grey area," Jack insisted. "I love you."
"Yeah, I love you too, what's that got to do with anything?" Boone asked.
"I'd say it's got quite a lot to do with things," Jack replied, hoping that Boone was going somewhere seriously good with this.
Boone rolled his eyes. "Because we're bi," he explained. "Grey area. And I'm not entirely sure how that links into the original topic anymore or even what we were actually talking about come to think of it but..." he trailed off.
"Let's pick this up later," Jack suggested.
"Yeah, let's do that," Boone agreed.
"How about we go watch something not too mentally taxing on TV?"
Boone smiled at him. "Gets my vote."