Prompt #6: Hello my friend we meet again, It's been a while where should, we begin... feels like forever 'My Sacrifice' - Creed
A/N: Set post-Sevogda, in an alternate season 5.
Jack lays on the bed fully-clothed, too exhausted to even bother with undressing. He glances at the clock on the bedside table, its bright red numbers showing a time when most people would have been asleep for hours.
He waits.
His cell phone vibrates in his pocket; he'd forgotten to take it off silent. He flips it open, glancing at the caller ID even though he already knows who it is. He lets it ring a few times while he contemplates whether or not to answer. (Of course, he'll answer; he always does.)
"Hello, Irina."
"Did I wake you?" She doesn't sound the least bit apologetic. He wonders again where she is and what she's been doing since she walked away in Sevogda.
"No," he says.
"Why not? It's three in the morning."
"I was—" He pauses, considering whether or not to tell her the truth. He decides he will; if he doesn't start now, he never will. "I just came back from the hospital."
"Oh."
He hears the unvoiced question – all the unvoiced questions, and knows she'll never ask.
"Nadia woke up, for a moment. Just for a moment." When she doesn't reply, he continues. "There's hope, Irina."
"Jack, I—" There's an uncertainty in her voice that he doesn't recognize, and he wishes he could see her. He remembers when Sydney was five and had a fever; Irina sat by her bed all night and didn't move until the fever broke. How could he ever have doubted her love for their daughter?
He wonders how much worse it is now that she has to rely on other people to tell her how Nadia is.
"Where are you?" he asks, though he knows she won't tell him.
"You should get some sleep." She hangs up.
Jack holds his phone. He thinks about calling her back but decides not to. It's one thing to accept phone calls from an international terrorist; it's something else entirely to make a call to one, regardless of whether or not you're married to her.
Irina crosses the floor of her hotel room and steps out onto the balcony. After so many months of living in a dirty cell, she needs to feel pampered, and though the hotel is one of the best she's ever been in, there's still something missing. After her rescue, there's been a need for something that she cannot quite define.
Maybe that's why she keeps calling Jack, she thinks. There's something unfinished between them and Irina doesn't think she'll be able to rest until there's closure, either way.
She thinks of what he's just told her: Nadia woke up.
It doesn't matter that it was only briefly; the fact that she woke up at all is a miracle in itself. It's been a long time since Irina allowed herself to hope, but as she looks out into the distance and thinks of her family, she lets herself believe.
She calls a week later. As Jack answers, he realizes he's been waiting for the call, and he's not quite sure what to make of that.
"Why aren't you asleep?"
"I'm starting to think that the only reason you call is in the hope of waking me up." He settles back against the pillows and waits for her to speak again.
She laughs, and it's been so long since he heard her laugh that he feels a physical ache.
"I miss you," he dares to say.
She says nothing for a while, then, "You could go to prison for that, you know."
He smiles. "Would you break me out?"
"Maybe." A brief pause. He can tell she's smiling too. "Are you busy?"
"At three in the morning?" Now it's his turn to tease: "Wait, so are you calling to find out if I'm sleeping alone?"
She laughs again. It's good to laugh with her; he thinks of those early days when it was so easy to be with her.
Suddenly Jack's cat jumps off the edge of the bed and runs out the room. Jack frowns, and reaches for his gun. "I have to go," he whispers, and hangs up.
"I—" Too late. Irina smiles. She leans against the wall and waits.
There's a soft meow, and something warm winds itself between her ankles. She picks up the cat as the lights suddenly come on.
"Normal people knock or ring the bell."
Irina studies her husband; he's dressed for sleep and carrying a gun. She's relieved to note it's not pointed at her and turns her attention back to the cat.
"Breaking and entering is illegal," Jack continues.
Irina scratches the cat's head, eliciting a purr from the animal. "You don't sound like you missed me."
Jack crosses the room and hugs her, then pushes her back against the wall, trapping her with his body. The cat gives a startled meow and slips out from between the two of them.
"She scratched me," Irina says, holding up her finger.
"Hmm." Jack takes the finger into his mouth. "Better?"
Yes, Irina thinks, this is what was missing. "How's Nadia?"
"About the same. The doctors are positive, though."
"And Sydney?"
He pauses. "Sydney's pregnant."
Irina's too surprised to say anything. Jack's hand brushes across her belly.
"Our baby's having a baby."
She smiles.
Jack presses against her again. "Stay tonight."
She wraps her arms around him and closes her eyes. "Where else would I go?"
They make it as far as the couch.