Disclaimer: Not my characters, and I make no money from them.
AN: This is likely to be the last chapter for a little bit. Thanks to elena62 for helping me with a couple errors!

Chapter 21

"Yeah, but that's not what he said," Jack grunted up at Ennis, staring through the metal bar, as he lifted the weight. Ennis leaned forward to spot, but Jack didn't need it, not at a hundred and fifty pounds. Ennis found himself frowning. The 'little bit' Jack claimed to have worked out was clearly an underestimate. Jack didn't even seem to be exerting himself.

"He said it was a team-building year."

"Bull shit." Jack placed the bar back on its holder and looked up into Ennis's eyes. Ennis met Jack's gaze head-on. "He said he's got the best recruits."

"For team-building," Ennis muttered as he took his place lying on the bench, still warm from Jack's imprint.

Jack took up the spotter's position overhead. "He said that last year."

"You ever think maybe it takes more than one year to build a team?"

"Well shit, Ennis, this is college. The players have only got four. Sappo needs to get off his ass and build while he wins."

Ennis grunted a laugh and hefted the bar into the air, bringing it down to his chest. Jack watched him, silent for once. Five reps in, Ennis hung the bar back up. "How high are you going?" he asked Jack.

"Well, I maxed two twenty-five when I was here with Jason, so I guess maybe up to one-ninety or something."

"Shit."

"What?" Jack stepped closer, well into Ennis's personal space as he stood up. "Are you a weakling, don't think you can handle it?"

Ennis caught the joke with an underplayed smile. "Anyway, it isn't about lifting weights. That thing," Ennis motioned towards the laden bar, "and a moving person aren't near the same."

A wolfish grin came across Jack's face. "Is that a challenge?"

"If you want to take it as one." Ennis wiped his hands with the small towel he held and stepped back, leaving the bench open for Jack.

"In that case, maybe we better call it quits now, before I'm too tired."

"Suit yourself," Ennis shrugged. "You got the muscle but not the endurance, huh hotshot?"

Jack's only answer was a playful whip at Ennis with his own towel before he went to unrack the weights.

The two of them had been going at it nearly non-stop. Just now, they both worked mid-days in their respective labs on opposite sides of the same building. The e-mails continued, but with less frequency and urgency, and the topic was more likely meeting for lunch than anything else. They cut out early some days, came in late on others. If there were such a place as heaven, maybe it was the days they dozed under the oaks near the physics building, or the mornings they awoke to a slow and lazy fuck.

One day, only two weeks into this post-homecoming routine, they took their home-brought lunches beneath and oak tree and stretched out in the cool grass at the edge where the shade started breaking into fragments of sunlight, moving with the wind. Jack ate first and lay on his back. Ennis was trying not to look at the arc of hip bone escaping from Jack's jeans, just above their loose hang. Jack caught him, but continued on with the conversation he was effortlessly holding nonetheless. When Ennis finished eating, he lay his heated forehead down against the chill blades of the green, perfectly kept grass-- kept with the money of poor students.

Next Ennis knew, he was blinking himself awake. A heavy weight pressed onto his back, and he stirred, confused as to where he was (though he seemed to know on instinct that the weight was Jack. A breeze raised goosebumps on Ennis's exposed back, and that was the only reason he even knew that his back was exposed. Blinking up again as his eyes adjusted to the light, Ennis caught a couple drifting gazes landing on him-- landing on him and Jack. The expressions were mixed, but most people looked away either way.

Fuck! Only then did Ennis jerk abruptly to full-wakefulness and roll away from Jack. Jack had been sprawled across Ennis's back, his cheek pressed to Ennis's skin, with Ennis's shirt otherwise pulled up under his own armpits. Jack started awake when his head and body hit the grass. "Wha?"

Ennis didn't answer. He knew that Jack had so little belief in him these days, and though people had seen them, nothing seemed to have come of it. Everything had been so beautiful up until now... Ennis reined in his fear as hard as he could.

"What's going on?" Jack asked, pulling himself to sitting and shaking out an arm. Ennis figured it must be asleep.

"Uh." Ennis ran a hand through his usually unruly hair, sparing a thought for the idea of a haircut. When he'd met Jack, his head had been nearly shaved clean, though he'd had some facial hair at the time. Maybe that was something to go back to, get as far away from the mad scientist appearance as possible. Not that it could change who he was or what he studied. "Nothing," Ennis answered. "Figure we best be getting back to work."

"Oh. Huh. Yeah." Jack sighed and stood with marked lack of enthusiasm about this idea. Still, Ennis had stuff to do, a meeting with his boss the day after tomorrow, so Jack could wait. It wasn't as if they wouldn't see each other later. Without thinking or realizing what he was doing, Ennis leaned over and dropped a quick kiss on Jack's cheek before he hurried into the building. He was halfway up the stairs before he realized he'd done that in front of the whole goddamn world.

"Uh uh. No no no. What?"

"Swear it," Dawn nodded and poked at her takeout container from the dining hall with her plastic fork.

"And you wanted me to get advice from this guy?"

Sara sighed. "Chris and Landon have been together for a while." She shrugged.

"Not long enough, I guess," Jack answered, leaning over to turn on his PlayStation. Sara gestured for a controller. Dawn waved Jack off, content with her food.

They talked about the Spectrum picnic while they played a first-person shooter. Sara explained her lofty plans at the same time that Jack tried to think of any way he could to make them more... base.

"I was going to order a chocolate cake."

"Probably save... work to just... make one. Have a guy pop out of it. Oh! Shit! There, where the hell are you?"

Sara laughed. "And what about for the girls?"

"That's why... fuck!... why we've got you."

Sara chuckled again.

"You're getting better at this," Jack hissed.

"Sara, he's coming from the right. See your map?"

"I see!" Sara squealed at Dawn.

"Alright, just help--"

The rest of Dawn's sentence was cut off by the door to the apartment swinging open. Ennis's told Jack he was going to work a little late today since he had an early morning meeting with the advisor-dude. He was back well before Jack had expected him. Jack paused the game and dropped his controller onto the coffee table, jumping to his feet.

"Uh, Ennis. This is Sara and Dawn, you 'member I told you about them?"

Ennis seemed to pause inside the doorway, and Jack could guess he wasn't so happy at being surprised like this in his own place, but Jack hadn't expected him back yet... and really, he wasn't planning on throwing the girls out regardless just for Ennis.

"You... you gals don't go home for the summer?" It was a hell of a stupid welcome, and Jack glared at Ennis as if to tell him so.

Dawn plopped her food down on the coffee table and turned to sit on her knees on the couch, resting her chin on her hands on the sofa-back. Her large eyes surveyed Ennis. Sara only half-turned, looking-- surprisingly-- far more threatened than Dawn did by Ennis's less-than-charming question. Dawn blinked widely, expressionless in the way Jack already knew to be the shy girl's hidden trickster shining through. Only when she was in a playful mood did Dawn cover up that she was in any mood at all.

Dawn finally answered, although Jack got the impression it was more because she was eager to see Ennis's reaction. "My dads live in Laramie."

Ennis jerked back a little.

"And my boyfriend has an apartment here. I'm staying with him this summer," Sara answered.

Ennis nodded. The room seemed unnaturally quiet to Jack. "Well," Ennis offered a hand, "I'm Jack's roommate, Ennis."

Sara giggled. "Right."

Dawn turned back to her food before Ennis got to offer her a hand in greeting. Nonchalant, she lifted her fork towards the TV. "We know who you are, Ennis." She turned her head upside-down to see him. "Nice to meet you, though. Jack talks about you non-stop."

"Hey, that is an exaggeration, I do not--"

"No," Sara answered, "Jack talks about naked guys and booze and PlayStation non-stop."

Even Ennis laughed at this, Jack was glad to see.

"Yeah, but," said Dawn, "that's all a cover because he doesn't want us to know how mushy-wushy in love he is. Which is pointless anyway 'cause we already know." She popped a bite of what looked like it might have been lasagna into her mouth.

"Jack," Sara called back over her shoulder, "are we going to finish this game, or are you just going to admit I'm awesome and you suck?"

"Mmm, I like these girls," Ennis laughed over at Jack.

"Haha," flat and sarcastic, Jack made a mockery of the fact that everyone was laughing at him.

Ennis more quietly told Jack that he was headed for the shower, and Jack stretched back out on the loveseat to finish losing to Sara at a very masculine video game. He thought he should feel insecure and torn down, but it had been too fun, and he had been through enough by now to know that it wasn't winning or losing a video game that made you a man or a woman.

"A picnic?" Ennis squinted up across take-out Chinese.

"They have it every year. Come on, no one will think it's strange that you're there."

"I don't know, Jack." Ennis shook his head and focused on the table in front of him.

"Yeah, I get it," Jack sighed.

They finished their meal in silence.

Summer was fully-arrived and the warm sun was streaming down from the sky when Jack, too proud to care what Ennis had to say about this event, showed up at the little park on the north-eastern bank of the Laramie River. He hauled two heavy-laden grocery bags of soda out of the back of Teng's car, bribed and borrowed again. Jack was going to have to think of something to do for Teng in return for all that Teng had done-- was doing-- for him. He was also probably going to have to consider getting a car of his own, or maybe he and Ennis could split one. A family car. The idea was both terrifying and heartwarming.

He wrapped the plastic grocery bags around his wrists and hefted a watermelon in his hands before kicking the door shut and lumbering down the paved path towards the picnic tables. The plastic cut into his wrists, but overall he was ok with the weight. It made him feel good, made him feel more masculine and less... less gay to work on his muscles. Jack shoved the thought aside to worry about or not some other day.

"Heeey! Man!" Chris came up and slipped the watermelon away.

A girl named Mandy started unburdening Jack of his sodas. Her girlfriend, Serene, was helping Mandy put all the food out.

"Isn't Ennis coming?' Jack turned to see Paul at his elbow.

"Huh? Oh no, he can't make it," Jack brushed off the question. He was worried that folks would think less of him if Ennis didn't want to meet them, wasn't as open as all of them were. It was a big enough deal to Jack that he'd managed to come here today without causing a fight. Paul nodded and went off talking about something else. Abortion laws were a big deal right now, with some grumblings in the state government, but Jack had never been interested. Wasn't like it had the least to do with him. Eventually, though, a couple more people joined in the conversation and it steered around to the World Cup. Jack had never liked soccer, and no one here did either except a couple of the gals, but the discussion got heated when they came to the old soccer versus football debate and why the rest of the world would give a damn about kicking some ball around. Serene loudly protested that football was barbaric and foolish, and she lost instant credibility among the guys. About that time the hot dogs and burgers were ready, sufficiently distracting them all from the argument. Afterwards, Jack and the guys and one girl-- Melissa-- hit the court for some four-on-four.

Game concluded, Jack was walked off the court joshing with Chris about how Chris's team-- skins (mostly because it wasn't the team Melissa was on)-- had got their asses handed to them on a platter by a team with a girl on it. Melissa spun around, her long black braid flying behind her. "You better shut up, Jack. I can kick your ass in basketball, or out."

"She's totally on the women's team, yo," Chris jutted his nose up in the air. "I wouldn't expect to beat her."

"Don't say yo like that; you sound gay," Jack shot back.

Chris laughed sharp and pretended to hump the air in front of him, grunting and calling, "You have no idea!"

"Jesus," Jack muttered. He sat down at the picnic table to rest, Dawn leaning close up beside him to hand him a bottle of water before sitting opposite him. He thanked her and drank deep.

That was one thing he noticed about being around Spectrum folks. The guys were no more or less physical with each other than guys in classes, than guys every day, but the girls-- They were always brushing, touching, leaning, hugging the guys. The physics and astronomy chicks Jack was friends with wouldn't do anything like that. Was it something peculiar about physics girls, or was it the Spectrum girls? Jack didn't know enough other girls to compare. Well, back in his single days he'd met plenty of girls who were brushing and leaning, but they'd clearly had motives. Obviously all the guys here were off the girls' market, so none of the touching could be for that same reason. Maybe it was just because the guys weren't on the market. Jack did notice that girls tended to hug each other and stuff. Maybe they liked to touch people, and this was the only place where they could include guys in that without the fear of being goosed. Jack smiled around the lip of his water bottle, imagining goosing these girls just for fun, to keep them on their toes.

Everyone was splitting the chocolate cake Sara had spent too much club money on, in Jack's opinion, when Dawn's eyes darted up and opened wide-- a hard gesture to miss, big as they were. A hush floated over the table, though it was mostly Dawn's side. Sara turned and smiled her brightest smile, one Jack had come to think of as her 'real' smile among all the others she gave, and chirped, "Hi Ennis."

The remaining conversations stopped abruptly, and all eyes turned to the place behind Jack. He spun around.

"I, uh, brought these. Hope... hope there's still room in your all's stomachs." Ennis was giving the chocolate cake a confrontational stare as he set down a bag of popsicles on the picnic table.

"Where'd you come from?" Jack asked, still shocked.

"Sage," Ennis answered matter-of-factly. "You gonna... can I sit down?"

A bunch of murmurings ran around the table as people scooted specifically so Ennis could have a spot next to Jack. Jack hoped Ennis saw that this was the kind of subtle thing that would only happen with this group, that it was the main difference between this group and any other, and nothing else.

Chris laughed. "I thought you made him up!" Sara giggled. Someone cut Ennis a piece of cake and slid it to him, and a cup of lemonade magically appeared in his hand.

"I don't know," Melissa continued speaking to Prashant, Matty's flavor-of-the-month. "We don't hang with the guys much, but I've heard it's going to be another team-building season."

"Bull shit," Jack shot back. "Team-building is keyword for 'we don't expect to do crap this year'."

Melissa shrugged. "I mean, it's fine... but I thought last year was a team-building season..."

"It was," Ennis mumbled around a bite of cake.

"At some point you've got to stop team-building and start team-playing," Prashant nodded.

"There you go," Jack waved at Prashant. "That's what I've been trying to say all along."

"Well," Melissa smiled up from regarding her cup of soda, "maybe this year's the year, then."

"I'll drink to that." Jack raised his water bottle and she her plastic cup. The clapped them together, Ennis and Prashant scrambling behind to be included.

"Be nice to see a championship," Ennis nodded.

"Maybe someone forgot to tell you, Ennis," Dawn answered in her deadpan humor, "but we're a football school."