Chapter 3
Waking Up
The first thing Jack noticed when he woke up the next morning was that the someone had turned up the wattage of the sun. The bright rays pierced his skull and stabbed into one of the worst hangovers he'd ever had - and he'd had a fair few. He groaned and tried to bury his head under a pillow.
It took a few seconds for the strangeness of this situation to sink in. The window in his bedroom didn't face east, so there was no logical reason why the morning sun should wake him. Unless it was already afternoon, in which case he'd been sleeping a lot longer than he thought.
Cautiously, Jack raised his head enough to look around, and felt a sudden sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach.
This wasn't his bedroom.
He was sprawled on what he guessed was Doug's bed. He guessed this for two reasons - one, he vaguely remembered it from the few times he had had reason to go in there when he was over at Doug's house. Two, Doug was sprawled over the other side.
"Shit," Jack muttered. "Shit shit shitshitshit."
Jack closed his eyes and tried to reconstruct the events of the previous evening. Okay. Focus. He had come over to Doug's house to ask him about that meeting at the gay bar. He remembered that much. They had started drinking, because it had been a tense situation. Then...
A fragment of memory floated into Jack's mind, of Doug leaning towards him, his shirt hanging open around his beautiful, muscled chest. His mind had felt warm and fuzzy and pleasant, so he hadn't stopped himself from reaching in, running his hands along Doug's sides-
Oh God, Jack thought, did I seduce Doug?
He nearly panicked, but another memory calmed him. Earlier than that - he was sure it was earlier, had to be - Doug had laid his head down on Jack's shoulder, turned his face to Jack, reached over to grasp the back of Jack's head and pull them together for a kiss. They had been drunk enough that it seemed natural at the time.
But still - Doug! Jack looked over at him, feeling the panic welling again. This was not a place he had expected to find himself. Doug was a friend, and someone he had never even considered as a possible lover. Hell, Doug was barely a friend more than he was simply Pacey's brother! ...But that wasn't true. That was defensive thinking. It was true that Jack and Doug had been hanging out on their own a lot, especially when Pacey was busy with the restaurant. And it was true that Jack had felt that they had a real connection...
But not this! Never in a million years- Jack closed his eyes as his headache began to throb painfully behind his eyes. Well, first things first.
He rolled out of bed - literally rolled, falling with a thump to the floor - and crawled, slumped, and shuffled his way over to the bathroom, where at least there was no direct sunlight. He fumbled for the mirror above the sink, pulling it back to reveal a medicine cabinet, and nearly crying in relief when his fumbling fingers finally found a bottle marked "aspirin."
He popped two of the pills into his mouth and took a swallow of water out of his cupped hand. He was about to put the bottle back when he remembered Doug. Doug would probably have it even worse than him; Jack was pretty sure that the Sheriff was not as used to alcohol as Jack was.
Groping around the sink he found a small glass, which Doug must have used for brushing his teeth, and filled it with water. Taking the pill bottle in his other hand, he took them both out into the bedroom, setting them on the bedside table.
The light was still painfully bright, and he pulled the blinds down with a fast, plastic "sherk" noise. The light dimmed just enough to take the edge off the headache.
The sound of the blinds woke Doug, who moaned against his pillow and grumbled something unintelligible into it. There was a pause, then a snort from the bed as Doug appeared to jolt into consciousness, raising his head and peering around the room blearily. Then he groaned again as the hangover seemed to hit him, and squeezed his eyes shut.
"There's stuff on the table," Jack said, leaning against the wall next to the window to avoid having to look at the source of the light.
"Mrmph," said Doug, groping until his hand encountered the glass and bottle. He slid over to the table and helped himself to the pills, taking a quick, efficient swallow of water to wash them down. He muttered something that sound vaguely like thanks and put his head back down on the bed.
It was about ten seconds before he shot bolt upright and stared at Jack, his eyes wide open.
Jack could see the memories beginning to leak into Doug's brain as it dawned on him exactly what they had done the previous night.
"Er... so... did we...?" he asked uncertainly.
Jack nodded miserably. "Yeah, I'm afraid we may have."
"Shit," said Doug.
"Uh-huh," Jack agreed.
"So... so..." Doug groped for words. "This was..."
"A mistake," Jack finished, deciding that it was best to get this settled right away. "This never should have happened. We were drunk, we lost control. It happens, but it shouldn't have and it was a mistake."
"Yeah. Yeah." Doug was nodding now, looking as though he was operating on auto-pilot while his brain retreated into hiding. "Of course. Obviously. I mean, there's no way."
Jack felt himself nodding in agreement. "Exactly. We just couldn't."
"Obviously," said Doug. "I mean, you know, I'm..."
"Still in the closet," finished Jack.
Doug frowned. "I was going to say 'seeing someone,' but that too."
"Right," said Jack, feeling embarrassed. "And you know, so, this was just one of those things."
"One of those things that happens," Doug echoed.
"Right."
Jack stared at the floor for a minute, feeling silly, before he made a move to get dressed, picking up his clothes out of the various garments strewn about the room. He put on as much as he could find; his shirt was nowhere to be seen.
He paused at the door, unsure of what to say. "So, um, I guess I should..."
"Yeah," said Doug, "probably."
"I'll just, uh, get going then. Hey, uh, call me." He paused, his face reddening. "I mean, not, you know, not in a second date kind of way - not that this was a first date or anything, I mean! But, you know, to see if we're playing cards this week still. Not that we wouldn't, for some reason. I mean for this. I mean, you know, in case we can't because of some other, completely different reason. That's unrelated. Because you know, sometimes one of us can't, and-" He stopped himself. "Uh, I'm gonna go now, before my IQ drops into negative numbers."
Doug nodded dumbly, and Jack slid out the door, mentally cursing himself.
He found his shirt in the living room.