Thanks to: dreamcatcher33, Valandil Eluch, and kipperoo453 for the quick and encouraging reviews. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter :)

Title: Too Much Truth
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: See chapters 1, 10, and/or 20


No matter how late Jack stayed up, the ranch hand in him always had him up right as the sun rose. Ennis grumbled as the bed shifted, letting go of Jack's weight. Jack wasn't sure if they would make it to Riverton today; that was a long forty-five minute drive to make whilst hung-over.

He crawled into the kitchen, tugged himself up to the counter and grabbed the coffee pot. The "modern" appliance looked quite out of place in a small kitchen in an old house, but he appreciated the decreased work load.

He poured himself a cup of coffee, still on his knees, then turned and leaned against the cabinets, metal handle jabbing into his bare back.

He could hear Ennis' loud snores from across the hall. He had no idea how he had slept through that. But he picked that deep raspy snore, the nameless love, the painful sex over everything Lureen had tried to give him. He wasn't quite sure why. It was often painful to watch Ennis close his eyes, know he liked to imagine it wasn'ta manhe was fucking. Jack tried not to dwell on the thought too much, but sometimes it overwhelmed his power to ignore the truth.

It had been so long since Ennis had kissed his face, looked in his eyes while their tongues battled, and even then he had jerked away when the truth became too real for him.

Jack turned the thought over in his mind, let his coffee grow cold as he stared blankly at the peachy sun rise. He didn't notice Ennis run out of the bedroom, didn't notice when he only made it half way to his destination.

"Ugh..." Ennis collapsed on the green shag rug, not looking forward to cleaning his mess up. "Jack..."

"Ennis?" he was shocked out of his reverie, not at all mad with Ennis for making the sad memories disappear. "What's wrong?"

"I got sick." He moaned and put his cheek against the cool wall.

"That's ok. Yeh go back ta bed, I'll clean it up." He set his coffee mug on the sticky linoleum floor and crawled over to Ennis avoiding the pile of sick on his way there. He smoothed sweaty hair of his guy's forehead and frowned, "Yeh've got a fever bud, I think yeh've got the flu."

"Naw. I'm never sick."

"Yeh are now."

Ennis slapped his hand away angrily. "I'm jus' hung-over, is all."

"Mmk." Jack gave up placidly, not wanting to fight again, not after last night. "Let's get yeh back ta bed."

"Load a help yeh'll be. Yeh can barely take care a yerself."

Jack's stomach plummeted. He didn't know Ennis had felt that way. He tried to hold his composure, even though he felt like he was about to hurl, himself. "Oh. Sorry 'bout that..."

Ennis' head dropped to his chest and he started snoring lightly. Jack leaned against the wall next to him, looked and the vomit and frowned. He should just leave that for the sick man to clean up. But no, he thought, that's not what love is about.

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Ennis woke with a pounding headache, curled in a ball on the floor. He felt like his stomach was about to burst open. He crawled back to bed, scanned the room for Jack, didn't find him and went back to sleep.

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Jack was in the living room on the phone, something he was amazed at the fact that, but lucky that Ennis owned.

"Hello?" A young female voice answered the other end tentatively.

"Junior?" He hoped it was her.

"Yes?" Oh thank God. He didn't know what he would do if Alma had answered. She probably would have yelled at him and slammed the phone down.

"Yer daddy's sick, got a flu er summin'. Won' be out fer a while."

"Ok. That's alright, Francine 'n' I didn' bring all our stuff."

Jack chuckled, "I should hope it doesn't all fill jus' one bag each."

He heard her young giggle on the other end. "Ok, thanks fer lettin' us know. Yeh'll have Daddy call when he's gonna bring it up?"

"Shore enough."

"Oh, and Mr. Twist?"

"Call me Jack."

"Ok. Well, Francine talked to me, 'n' I guess what you 'n' Daddy got, it's still wrong 'n' all, but if it's ok with her, it's ok with me."

Jack smiled so wide he thought his face would split. "Thanks Jr. That shore means a lot ta me, 'n' I'll let Ennis know."

"Yup. I gotta go now, Momma's comin'."

Jack smiled, leaned his head against the couch and hung up the phone. He knew a way he could make Ennis happy, even if it wasn't his doing, and that was good enough for him.