PROJECT ARCHIMEDES
A "Way of the Gun" Sequel

4. RUMINATIONS

December 20th, 2010
Midday

"So..." Henry said, leaving the statement open.

"So? So what?" asked Jack. The two were walking down the boardwalk on Main, headed toward a working lunch break at Cafe Diem.

Henry had discovered that being mayor was more than giving speeches a long time ago, and it made his job easier to have at least one day of the week an "office" day. He usually spent those in the allotted space in City Hall, not too far from the Sheriff's office. On those days, the two men usually took working lunches. Ostensibly it was to take care of business, but the two men mostly viewed it as a solid excuse to just have some guy time.

"So, when are you asking?" Henry laughed, slapping Jack on the shoulder. "What else would I be asking?"

"Oh, come on. Leading statements like that, you could have been asking me-" Jack began, but Henry interrupted him.

"What, Jack? What else could I possibly be asking you?"

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe if it was okay to close Main or something or other and…" he stopped, heaving a sigh and turning toward his friend, a sheepish grin on his face.

Henry stopped too, laughing and shaking his head. "You're going to make me say the words, hm? Fine. When are you popping the question, making the move, dropping to one knee and making sure that Allison is your lady?"

Jack blinked a few times. So did a few passersby. "Um," he replied, wittily.

Henry laughed a great guffaw and wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulder, leading him on. "Come on. If I have to get you drunk to answer the question, I will."

"But-"

"And 'I'm on duty' doesn't count, Jack. I'm the Mayor, remember? I think you ought to take the rest of the day off!"
It was an unseasonably warm day, for December. Though still unquestionably jacket weather, the clouds were for a change white and puffy, scudding across the clear blue sky. There was a bit of a nip to the wind, but it was a great day to be outside. The sky had clouded up briefly around ten o'clock or so, but now was crisp and clean.

Eureka was in full preparation for the holiday, and right now the last thing Jack Carter wanted to think about was being here for it. He had his family vacation after all, darn it! It would be the first Christmas that Lexie had stated she'd be at in the last seven years, and would likely be dragging Duncan and her boys along too. Not to mention he only got to see his brothers at Christmas time anyhow.

He'd invited Allie along, but they'd had another argument a few nights ago, and she really liked spending Christmas in Eureka anyhow. He couldn't wait to get out of here!

"Earth to Sheriff Carter," Henry prompted him as they walked into Cafe Diem and were greeting by the semi-obnoxious styling of a "Santa Baby" cover by some pop girl or other. The place was decked out in fully Christmas cheer, ornaments hanging from the ceiling, a really brightly lit tree in the corner by the fireplace, and several of the accent lights were outfitted with red and green gels to alter their color.

Like some mystical spirit of Christmas cheer, Vincent was standing in front of them as if by magic. Perhaps all he had to do was touch his finger to his nose and laugh heartily too? "Gentlemen! Spiced rum? Hot tottie? Egg nog?" he offered, waving a tray laden with each of the offered beverages. Henry reached out and grabbed a spiced rum and an egg nog, nodded his thanks to Vincent, and moved the pair of them over to one of the tables. He kept the rum for himself and pushed the other toward Jack.

"Well?" he asked, a mischievous and self-satisfied smile on his face.

Jack sighed and sipped the drink. "I don't know, Henry."

Henry blinked at him, surprised. "You're kidding me!" he stated flatly.

Jack shook his head. "It never seems to be the right time to talk about it. And it sure hasn't come up between us. I want to. Badly even, but there's something… I don't know… wrong, I guess." He thought about it for a bit, resting his chin on his hand.

"We fought about it a month ago, and that fight is hanging around like a ghost. It's kind-of scaring me." He shook his head. All he wanted was to go back to that night and take all his words back, all of them, and just fall asleep with her in his arms!

Henry leaned forward on both arms, all joviality gone, looking Jack dead in the eyes. "What's going on, Jack?"

Jack sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. That it didn't really relieve the stress was no reason to stop trying it, mind. "It's hard for me to say, Henry. Believe it or not I've tried broaching the subject a few times; slipped it in a conversation here or there. It just never pans out into a subject to talk about. She either gets really busy with something or shuts down, and it's just easier not to. You know?"

"You okay, Jack?" his friend asked.

"Yeah," sighed Jack. "Hell, man. I guess I'm happy just being with her. She blows my mind, and I love her desperately." He paused and took another drink. Henry likewise sipped his.

"I tell you I even picked out a ring?" Jack asked quietly.

Henry shook his head, not saying anything.

"Yeah, about a month after that whole C.F. with Baxter and that project of his." Jack looked out the window, and Henry thought for a moment that it looked like his friend was ready to break. He'd tried getting Jack to seek professional help for the aftermath, but the man was stubborn. No, Jack Carter gave stubborn a whole new meaning.

"Jack," Henry began, a small smile on his face. He tried to put as much reassurance into his voice as he possibly could. "Everything will work out the way it's supposed to. You just have to have a little faith."

Jack snorted a bit, glancing up at him. "Déjà vu, man."

"Hm?" asked Henry

"I've said the same words to Allie on more than one occasion. I feel like the response we got on the day of the Phoenix thingy." Jack's eyes were downcast, so he missed the slight twinge around Henry's eyes when he said those words. "I'm kind-of out of faith, Henry." He made eye contact with his friend then, but Henry had mastered his momentary discomfort.

One of Vincent's waiters, a young gal whose name tag read Kelley, came by the table and took their order. Henry went for a vegetarian plate, Jack, predictably for a bacon cheeseburger with fries. He noted the look in Henry's eyes and pre-empted him. "Don't start. This job keeps me running enough that I can have that on my working Mondays. Zoe and Allie are teaming up every other day of the week!"

Henry held up his hands in a gesture for truce and laughed. They sat in silence for a while, and Henry mulled over what he was going to say next. Was it his place?

"Jack, how much do you know about Kevin's father?" Henry asked quietly.

Jack blinked and looked at him. He was confused for the moment. Why would Henry be bringing this up? "Um... I know he died about the time Kevin was born. I'm not too clear on many of the details after that. It's not a part of her life she likes to talk about."

Henry nodded, considered, and then continued. "I was a professor at large at Harvard when Tess and Allison were in their grad programs. That's actually where Nathan and Allison met, but at the time she was dating a fellow by the name of Donald Aimes."

Jack shifted, uncomfortable about the direction this was going. "Henry..." he began, but trailed off.

"Donald was a good man. He was one of my students for a while, as was Nathan. His focus suffered for it a bit, I could tell the man was head over heels in lnove with someone, and he brought her to a class dinner I was hosting for several of my brighter students. She was an amazing girl back then, Jack." Henry took a sip of his rum and lost himself in memories for a while.

"She's amazing now, Henry." Jack said quietly.

Henry nodded, jarred out of his memories, and continued. "They had quite the whirlwind romance, if I remember. Don was a firebrand, though. Passionate about science in a way that invigorates those he works with, but ultimately misguided."

Jack quirked an eyebrow at that. "What do you mean?"

"He… Well let's say that like Nathan, Don had a particularly practical bent to his application of science. He advocated for a meritocracy, maybe even oligarchial rule, and wasn't shy about being vociferous. He tried to get me to lend support to his ideas and causes, but in the end we wound up parting ways. Once you balance the rest of the equation, Jack, it's our freedoms that make us great. It's protecting those values, those ideals of individual liberty that make us what we are. Don never saw that."

"He went a different course than Nathan, but by the end of that year I'd lost my best and brightest pupils to _politics_!" Henry almost snarled. There was a ghost of an old hurt in his voice, but Jack knew from years of friendship with the man that they were old demons, and Henry had battled them one by one over the years.

"So, where's this leading, Henry?" Jack asked.

"I don't know if it's what got Don killed, or not, Jack. It was within him to sabotage research that he thought was misguided and wrongheaded, but we never had any proof. He invited me to the wedding, even though we were at odds, he still respected me, and I him. It was a beautiful, but simple affair." Henry smile wistfully at the memories, living in another time. It had done him good then to be reminded that love could still happen. A few years before that Kim had left him. If only…

Jack waited for Henry to finish, but it looked like his friend was getting lost in the memories. "So, what happened?" he pushed.

Henry sighed and rubbed at his face with one hand. "About a year after the wedding, Don died in a lab fire. The lab was rumored to be working on genetic bio-weapons, but there was never any proof. Neither of the arson nor the research"

Kelley came by with their orders, smiled at them brightly and said she'd be right back with refills for their drinks. In unison they said "Water, please." then glanced at each other and chuckled.

Henry pinned Jack down with his gaze. "Think about it, Jack."

He was, but he didn't want to really make a show of it. Jack thought through the logic chain, as short as it was, and compared known facts with the situation. The similarities to his insistence a few years ago that insuring a cop was killing a cop floated up from his memory.

It was possible, likely even, that Allison feared that if she put on the ring and was ready to say the vows, he would be taken away. Like Nathan, who had left her a child. Like Don, who had left her a child.

"When was this fight you told me about earlier?" Henry asked. "Do you remember what day it was?"

Jack nodded, saying,"Yeah, um… Fifteenth of last month, just over a month ago."

Henry drew in a breath and held it, slowly letting it out through his nostrils. "That's the date of her first wedding aniversary, Jack. She hasn't said this?"

Jack stared at him blankly, then dropped the fry he was going to eat and put his face in his hands. He made a groaning noise that was lost in the relative racket of the eatery.

"Could I have picked a worse night for that!" he muffled into his hands.

Henry patted his forearm reassuringly, bud didnt' say much of anything.

As the music shifted to yet another classical Christmas song, this one thankfully by a better cover artist, they dug into their meals and tried to pass the rest of the hour with less heavy conversation.

Disclaimer: I don't own Eureka, it's characters, or its concepts, I'm just playing for fun and an educational experience.

Author's Notes: I realized about half-way through this that I had already brought Zane and Jo together and that I had violated canon by doing that before "O Little Town", so I guess I'm marching down the AU avenue. I am still imagining events very similar to what happened in that episode, even though it doesn't officially appear in the main continuity, but I won't be writing a variant on it. Assume though that events play out very similar, just that Zane and Jo version of the Santa's lap conversation is a bit more... interesting.

Obviously the Big M is hanging like a ghost between Jack and Allie. It's for a reason, hang in there with me.

Yes, I am marching back and forth in time here, trying to be narratively interesting while also obeying a chronology of sorts. Technically from this POV Grant's encounter with the wold-be assassin happens in probably two hours or so.

If you have speculations don't be shy, I have an outline but who knows? Inspiration comes from many sources.