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Ship: Jack/Angela
Spoilers: None. Set during the summer between season 1 and season 2
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Part 3 - Fishtastic
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Angela found Jack in the experiment lab. He'd pushed all of Zack's equipment to the side and was digging through a container of sludge with a tiny shovel and a pair of tongs.
She toed the door open carefully; trying not to upset the perfect balance she had between her sketchpad, pencils, sandwich, and the skull of their most recent John Doe.
Jack heard her struggle with the door and was quickly over to help, holding it open and gently rescuing the skull from the crook of her arm. He took in the rest of the objects she was holding and raised an eyebrow.
"Hey, what's with the sudden migration?"
"Dr. Saroyan brought in sushi for lunch. She and 'Zackaroni' are sharing it. The entire main corridor smells like fish." Her voice was laced with irritation, disgust, and a touch of petulance. She walked over to the counter and lay her items down next to Jack's things.
"What about your office?"
"Fishtastic. I figured I'd be safe here. I can always trust this place to provide an.. interesting aroma." She was sorting through the pencils she'd brought when she paused and glanced back at Jack.
"I'm not going to get in the way am I?" She asked, her tone uncertain.
"No, not at all." Jack smiled to himself and shut the door.
"In fact, stay as long as you like, I know how fish smells can linger."
Angela huffed.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Some people have no consideration."
"Yeah, what were they thinking? We like our rotting corpse smell just fine." Jack teased, placing the skull in front of her. Angela narrowed her eyes and stuck her tongue out, clearly not amused. He quickly smothered his grin and sat back down to work.
Angela flipped open her sketchpad to a drawing she'd already begun. She reached out to adjust the angle of the skull before her and picked up one of her many pencils.
"Any luck with a face?" Jack asked, conversationally.
"Not yet. I was having trouble focusing, I almost gave him a set of gills."
Jack laughed.
"That bad, huh?"
"Oh you have no idea. It smells like somebody found Nemo out there."
For a while they sat in a companionable silence, each working on their respective tasks. Jack occasionally glanced over to admire her profile and take in the way she worried her lower lip when she was really focused, but he managed to keep most of his attention on his work and not let her catch his casual observance. Angela was starting to really fill out her drawing and a face was coming to life on the page.
When she was ready to get started on adding in the detailing that would allow them to get a match on the face she sat back, laying her pencil down, to take a moment to review the piece in it's entirety and double check with the skull before moving on. She picked up her sandwich and was mid-chew when she hesitated and crinkled her nose. She swallowed with some difficulty and turned to Jack.
"Hodgins, what is the smell in here?"
"Tape worm excrement and remains." He replied blandly, barely sparing her a glance.
"Oh.. Lovely." With a look of disgust and sigh of inevitability, she pushed her lunch away.
"Wormtastic." Jack quipped with a grin. Angela stared at him, her face expressionless. Off her unimpressed look he straightened up.
"..Wormderful?" He tried again, leaning over to nudge her gently. She blinked slowly and Jack watched expectantly, a slight flush of embarrassment colouring his cheeks. Finally her face broke into a smile and Angela laughed despite herself. Jack breathed a small sigh of relief.
"You are such a dork." She teased. Jack smiled broadly and locked his gaze with hers.
"A small price to pay for seeing you smile like that."
Suddenly things in the lab seemed to get very quiet. Angela broke the stare first, turning her attention to her collection of pencils and picking one up to twirl it between her nervous fingers. Jack audibly drew in a deep breath and tapped his fingers against the counter.
"Right.. Back to work."
Angela nodded earnestly, despite the fact that he was no longer watching her.
"Yeah, I just have a bit more detail work on this face and then I should have something to turn over to Dr. Saroyan."
"Good, good. Yeah, I've gone through about seventy-five percent of this gunk, but haven't found anything yet."
They silently went back to work and the only sound was the scratch of pencil on paper and the skittish shifting of bodies. For a few uncomfortable moments neither one was very productive; Angela accidentally shaded into the man's eye, and Jack somehow managed to loose the little shovel he was using to the container of sludge, having to dig it out with the tongs and clean it off before starting again. However, the awkwardness soon wore off as they both became involved in their work once again.
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Angela was essentially done with the drawing, but she couldn't get the shading quite right. It was enough that it might hinder an accurate identification and she didn't want to leave any room for error in one of the first pieces she was to turn over to their new boss. She glanced around for something to use to smudge the crosshairs she'd sketched in across the cheekbones and under the eye and spied a rag sitting on the counter next to Jack. He was engrossed in his work, picking away at some small, solid object he'd found in the sludge.
She was already mid-reach when she realized Jack was also going for the rag. He was too caught up in his work to look up for the location of the rag and his hand was waywardly snaking through the air. Angela tried to avoid him, but when she dodged he dove and their hands inadvertently crashed together, catching them both by surprise. For a split second their fingers tangled awkwardly and they both just stared in silent fascination.
Angela had seen it coming and she was the first to react, pulling her hand back quickly with a nervous laugh. She smiled apologetically, colour rising in her cheeks.
"Sorry. I was just going to use the cloth to touch up a few spots on my sketch.. but I can just use my finger." She gestured to where Jack's hand was now loosely trapping the rag to the table.
Jack glanced from his hand to her face. He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then smiled lightly.
"Trust me when I say you do not want to use this rag. Unless of course that was just a ploy to hold hands, in which case.." He turned his hand palm up and waggled his fingers at her.
"Anytime, babe."
Angela's gaze slipped from his face to stare at his hand, her fingers twitching slightly. She opened her mouth to speak and then broke into a soft chuckle. She looked up with a raised eyebrow.
"Does that sort of thing ever actually work? I mean, even when you don't preface it with forty five minutes of digging through feces?" She asked, casually sidestepping his remark.
Jack didn't miss a beat.
"You mean like, 'did it hurt, falling from heaven?', and 'do you have a map? 'cause I keep getting lost in your eyes'? That sort of thing? Because you'd be surprised.."
Angela laughed.
"You don't actually use those do you?"
Jack smiled.
"No, but sometimes I pass them along to Zack, unleash him on the world, and make a night of it."
Angela clicked her tongue against the back of her teeth, making a disapproving noise.
"Oh Hodgins, Zack looks up to you!"
"Which is why it works so well."
She looked as though she might protest until Jack waved his arms in surrender.
"Hey, I'm just kidding! Not that those lines would be any worse than the ones he comes up with on his own.." He trailed off, standing up from his stool. He nodded to the cabinet behind him to answer Angela's questioning look.
"I'll get you a clean rag." He offered, turning away from her. With his back turned, Angela took the opportunity to straighten her hair and stretch her arms out, shaking away some of her stiffness and jitters. After a moment Jack glanced back causing her to straighten up quickly. He gave her an odd look and then finished locking up the cupoard, talking over his shoulder as he went.
"You don't have to worry, I'd never try a line on you. I can see it now, some guy being all 'God must be sad to have lost such an angel..' and then you'd say 'well, my name is Angela..' It's too ironic, not to mention too run-of-the-mill. No, for you I'd have to do something different."
"Oh really?" Angela paused, but when Jack didn't elaborate she couldn't help but question him.
"Like what?"
When he turned back from the cupboard, now carrying a rag in his hand, Angela watched as a slow smile spread across his face. A kind of lazy smile filled with confidence and mystery and clearly meant to charm. Unbeknownst to herself, Angela's lips parted to take in a quick breath and she brought one hand up to lightly tease the skin of her throat.
"I'll guess you'll just have to wait and see." He murmured, his voice low and rumbling.
As he passed the rag to her their hands collided again. This time more gracefully, their fingers brushing lightly as they slowly pulled apart.
Angela fiddled with the cloth and looked up, a wry smile of acceptance on her lips.
"I guess I will." She agreed softly, daring to hold Jack's steady gaze.
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A/N: This is the last part of the series - hope you enjoyed it.