"You were just gonna sit on my legs," he said.
Jack turned to face him. "What?"
"You were about to sit on my legs," Boone repeated.
"No I wasn't," Jack dismissed.
Boone shrugged and stretched his legs out again, placing them in Jack's lap. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Jack replied. "But I think I hate everyone I work with."
"Really?" Boone asked. "All of them."
Jack nodded. "Yeah, pretty much."
"That's gotta suck," Boone commented.
"Yeah," Jack vaguely.
Boone looked at him. "Jack, you don't really hate them."
"They're idiots," Jack stated.
Boone nodded. "Yeah, I'd say you have the same level of maturity as our five-year-old," he commented.
Jack looked at him, clearly not impressed. "Don't you start," he said.
"Are they not bowing down to you? Is that what's wrong?" Boone asked. "You gonna have a sulk?"
"I'm not sulking," Jack dismissed in a rather sulky voice.
"Well you're pouting," Boone pointed out.
"Boone, I'm serious, I do not have the energy for this right now," Jack told him. "Do not try to be cute."
"Jesus, Jack, don't take it out on me," Boone said, rolling his eyes and turning his attention back to his book.
Jack sighed and Boone could tell he was looking at him, even though he refused to turn away from his book.
"I'm sorry," Jack said finally, sounding rather sincere about it and also very tired. Boone raised his eyes from the book and saw Jack looking all forlorn, which he could never really resist. "I had a shitty day, I just..."
"Want to be looked after?" Boone offered.
Jack smiled at him a little. "Something like that."
"First of all, you have to give me a real smile," Boone told him, which earned him a grin and a rather condescending look that he could live with. "And secondly, you have to stop being a shithead."
"Okay, fine, I'll try not to be a shithead," Jack agreed.
"No, don't try, just don't be a shithead," Boone insisted.
Jack smiled at him again. "Okay, no more shithead."
"And I don't just mean to me," Boone told him. "You don't have a license to go being a shithead elsewhere."
Jack rolled his eyes a little. "No shithead license, understood," he said, sounding a little impatient.
Boone looked at him a second. "Okay," he said. He folded his legs up so he was sitting cross-legged on the sofa and then patted his lap. "Legs up, give me your feet."
Jack obeyed and laid across the sofa, placing his feet in Boone's lap. Boone took the sock off one of his feet and began to massage the sole, watching as Jack closed his eyes and sighed deeply.
"What did I do to deserve you?" Jack asked.
"Oh, you don't deserve me," Boone told him. "Don't go thinking for a second that you do."
Jack opened his eyes and grinned at him. "I love you."
"I know you do," Boone told him. "Why do you think I'm doing this?"
Jack closed his eyes again, a contented little smile playing on his lips, and Boone watched as his body began to relax into the couch. He finished up one foot and then took the sock off his other foot and started work on that.
"Are you hungry?" Boone asked him.
"Don't stop," Jack mumbled sleepily.
"I'm not stopping," Boone told him. "I'm asking if you're hungry."
"Not really," Jack said.
"Have you eaten anything?" Boone asked.
"Yeah, I had some lunch," Jack replied.
"Have you eaten since lunch?" Boone pressed.
"I'm okay," Jack told him. "I just wanna go to sleep."
"You should eat something, Jack," Boone said.
Jack sighed in defeat. "Fine, I'll have a sandwich or something."
"Kitchen's that way," Boone told him.
Jack opened his eyes and gave him a look. "I thought you were looking after me."
Boone looked at him for a second and then sighed. "Fine, come sit with me," he said, tapping Jack's leg as he stood up.
"Really?" Jack asked in a rather pathetic voice. "But those kitchen chairs are hard. Sofa's comfy."
"Yeah, you're definitely worse than Noah," Boone told him.
Jack sighed and gave him an unimpressed looking before getting to his feet. He seated himself at the kitchen table as Boone got to work on his sandwich.
"So, you wanna tell me about this shitty day?" Boone asked him.
"I don't know," Jack replied. "I just feel like everybody wants me to be someone I'm not."
"Who do they want you to be?" Boone asked.
Jack seemed to think about it for a minute. "They just want me to be different."
"Different how?" Boone pressed.
Jack looked thoughtful again as Boone went over and set his sandwich down in front of him, taking a seat. Jack picked it up and took a bite.
"Do you think I'm a good leader?" Jack asked. "Like, on the island, do you think I did okay?"
"Is that what all this is about?" Boone asked. "You having a crisis of confidence."
"Look, I can do it," Jack said. "But do you think I can do it well?"
"I don't think there's anyone more qualified or capable," Boone assured him.
"Do you think I act different?" Jack asked. "When I'm being the leader type. When I'm in charge."
"Well, you have a pretty one-track mind," Boone told him. "When you're being a doctor then you're a doctor but when you're Jack, you're Jack. You're not very good at mixing the two."
"Do you think I take myself too seriously?"
"Where are you getting all this from?" Boone asked.
"Do you?" Jack pressed.
"Yeah, I guess," Boone allowed.
Jack looked at him. "You weren't supposed to say that."
"Oh, I'm sorry, was I supposed to lie?" Boone asked.
"Do you really think that?" Jack asked, looking wounded again.
Boone shrugged a little helplessly. "You take things seriously," he said. "I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but you're not exactly full of giggles and fun, are you?"
"You think I'm boring?" Jack asked. "Why would you even be with me if you thought I was boring?"
"I don't think you're boring, I never said that," Boone insisted. "I said you were serious, that's something else."
"You're serious," Jack said.
"Yeah, I am," Boone agreed. "But I'm not having a meltdown over it."
Jack looked at him and seemed to consider this for a minute. "This is a good sandwich," he told him.
Boone smiled. "Thanks."
"Do you think I need to be nicer to people?" Jack asked him.
"Like who?"
"You know Alice at work?" Jack began. "Crazy lady."
Boone laughed a little. "Crazy lady?"
"You know her," Jack said. "Nurse. Has something like seven kids and she seems to get confused who they actually are because she treats everyone like they're her kids. Especially me."
"Don't blame her," Boone said. "You're acting like my kid."
Jack gave him a look. "Do you know who I mean?"
Boone nodded. "Yeah, Alice, what about her?"
"She said I should be nicer to people. She says I'm too short with them," Jack explained.
"Thing about you, Jack, you have a real problem with authority," Boone told him. "You're not happy unless you're in charge but then when you are in charge you get annoyed that people ask you stuff. So, if I had to guess, yeah, you could probably be nicer to people at work."
Jack sat back in his chair and looked defeated. "But I don't like them."
"You don't have to like them," Boone told him. "Just get on with them. After a while you'll probably find yourself quite fond of them."
Jack sighed, not looking entirely convinced. "I bet you were a nice boss, weren't you?"
Boone had never really thought about it if he was honest. He was good at making business connections and making people feel comfortable so he guessed he was a nice boss. But he wasn't sure that everyone there looked at him fairly because of the obvious reasons behind his fast track to management so it was hard for him to make any real connections. "I got on with them," he replied. "I don't think we hated each other or anything."
"I don't think they hate me," Jack said. "I think they actually like me."
Boone smiled. "So don't blow it."
Jack nodded. "You're really smart," he told him. "You should put that brain to use."
Boone looked at him, probably a little more hopefully than he'd intended. "Really? You think?"
Jack shrugged. "I don't know. Whatever makes you happy."
Boone nodded. If he could work out what that was he'd be fine.
"It's time for bed now, right?" Jack asked.
Boone looked at him again. "You go, I'm not really tired."
"You're not gonna come?" Jack asked, looking a little disappointed.
"It's not that late," Boone replied. "I think I'm gonna stay up a while."
"Okay," Jack said, getting up. He leaned down and kissed Boone's cheek. "Night."
Boone nodded. "Get some sleep."
Jack gave him once last smile and then left the room. Boone sighed and wondered how he could feel jealous over Jack for having work problems when his biggest problem was that he didn't have any problems. He didn't have a whole lot of anything, he was simply floating. Which some people would probably quite like. Shannon, for example, seemed to thrive on floating. But Boone wasn't a floater, he was a swimmer. He just needed to find the water.