A/N: This one ran long. Way long. And I'm not sure where it came from exactly or if you guys will like it. Two words: curve ball! lol

(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

9. Worth A Thousand Words - 2nd February 2036

"I really, really appreciate this," said Jack the moment he opened the door.

Jaime waved away the fuss he was making, smiled, and came inside.

"It's no problem," she promised. "You know I'm happy to help."

Jack nodded in response to her words, but honestly, he wasn't entirely listening. She looked different. He couldn't put his finger on exactly what it was about her that had changed but something had. Jaime was always pleasant enough to look at. Not Hollywood beautiful, not the girl all the guys ran after because she was just so hot, but nice looking, simply pretty. The fact she was always the quietest of their group, the one who always had her head down scribbling away, meant she wasn't noticed much. Now, Jack couldn't help but notice her and he wasn't sure why.

"You okay?" she asked, standing by him with her laptop and art supplies piled in her arms. "'Cause these aren't getting any lighter."

"Sorry." Jack shook his head, leading her through to the main room.

She hadn't been here before. Her sister had. Martha and Alex had come visit several times since Jack got this apartment. Tori and Dax too, plus Kwan on one occasion, and Aunt April as well, but not Jaime.

"This place is cool," she said, sitting down at the table when he gestured that she should. "Open, airy. I don't know, I guess I kind of thought it'd be more like a library. All dark and over-stuffed with books," she said, smiling to prove she didn't mean anything negative by that.

Jack would never accuse her of it. Jaime was always friendly and polite. She never seemed to want to offend or make a big deal. Between her decent looks and sweet personality, plus her ridiculous talent for art, it was amazing to Jack that she didn't have more friends or a family of her own by now. Of course, people said similar things about Jack when it came to having a girlfriend or a wife, children, whatever. He was starting to think maybe he just wasn't that guy.

"Speaking of books," he said, shaking his head free of too many thoughts.

"Right." Jaime nodded, spreading her papers on the table, opening up her laptop too. "I have so many ideas, so hopefully there'll be at least one here that you like. Like I said, the story was amazing!"

"Thanks."

Jack knew he was blushing as Jaime waxed lyrical about his book. He hated that he could never control that, even now he was thirty years old. Thankfully, Jaime either didn't notice or was too polite to mention.

They were talking about his debut novel, and though Jack had every confidence in it, it was a little strange to have her tell him how great it all was. Jaime spoke generally about the themes and the language, then specific plot points, moments, and quotes that had inspired the art she had created. One of these designs she had come up with would be used for the cover. Jack had no real eye for that kind of thing. He was a words person and could never create anything artistic - he wouldn't know where to begin. It was possible for him to hire a designer for his first venture into self-publishing, but when Martha got to hear about it, she suggested asking Jaime.

"Thank you, again, for doing all this," said Jack, as she handed him another sample idea to look at it. "I don't want you to think I only asked you because Mar said I should, or because you'd cut me a deal price-wise."

"I never thought that," Jaime assured him, looking anywhere but at him. "Honestly? Even if those were the reasons, it wouldn't matter. I love an excuse to just let fly with the art supplies, you know that. Plus, I'm one of the rare few who got to read your book before it hits the shelves," she said with a grin.

Jack smiled right back at her and then looked down at the paper in his hands. The artwork was a little more abstract and he tilted it this way and that before he could tell what he was looking at, and then he blushed some more.

"Yeah, I figured probably not that one," said Jaime, completely unabashed as she removed the sample from Jack's hands and replaced it with another. "I got a little caught up in Chapter 27. I knew the passion was building before that but wow, when Jennifer and Mark actually let it all go? That was kind of epic."

"Thanks," Jack muttered, clearing his throat.

He could write sex scenes, it wasn't all that difficult. He had the experience for it after all, and sometimes a romance called for a little consummating. Jack wasn't freaked out that people would read those words that he wrote, he could even deal with his parents reading it, so long as he wasn't there when they did, but he hadn't considered having to hear Jaime talk about it like that.

"What?" she asked, when she caught him squirming. "Jack, seriously, do you think I don't know anything about guys?"

"Of course not," he said, rolling his eyes, glad to see the next possible cover design was way more sedate than the last. "I know you date, you've dated, whatever."

"I have," she agreed, nodding her head. "And just because a person never actually... took part in an activity," she said diplomatically, "that doesn't mean they don't know how it all works when other people... partake," she said, giving all her attention to her laptop now as she called up digital copies of her art.

Jack wasn't seeing the mock ups with the title of his book and his name on them. He was barely aware of anything but Jaime's face and the words coming out of her mouth as his own mouth dropped open in shock.

"Did you just...?" he began, stopping short of asking the question in his head.

"Tell you that I'm a virgin?" Jaime supplied, finally looking at him again. "Yeah, I guess I did."

There was a state of shock evident on Jack's face and he was feeling it in spades. It was surprising enough for anyone to come out and tell you they never had sex, and Jack certainly wouldn't have expected Jaime to share that revelation with him, but more than that, he couldn't understand how such a thing were possible. As he already noted earlier this afternoon, Jaime was good looking - possibly more now than the last time he saw her somehow - and one of the nicest people he ever knew. It amazed him that she wasn't married or engaged or at the very least in a serious relationship, but as far as he knew she barely dated. Maybe it wasn't so weird that she never slept with anyone, and yet it felt like it should be.

"So, if you want my opinion, I think either of these two are probably the best choices," Jaime was saying then, gesturing to the pictures she spoke of. "I used a basic font because of the complexities in the artwork, but if you want..."

She stopped talking when she looked at Jack again and realised he wasn't listening at all, just staring at her like she had three heads or something.

"Are you really going to make this a big deal?" she checked. "Because it's not one for me."

"It's not..." Jack began, shaking his head before he realised he was actually lying. "Actually, I guess it is kind of a big deal. Jaime, I... I've known you your whole life. You're one of the best people in my life. How is it possible that some guy hasn't realised how great you are?"

"Maybe they have," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "Maybe it's just none of the guys that thought I was great were the one I was looking for, you ever think of that?"

She couldn't look at him when she said it, at least not properly. Her eyes were flitting all over the place, and she cleared her throat twice as she moved the papers around on the desk. Jack half-wondered if the use of the word man was important, if maybe she was saying that it was a woman that she would prefer, but he doubted it. Jaime was bold and confident in more subtle ways than some of his other extended family and friends group, but she would have proudly told them all by now if her sexuality were other than straight.

Jaime liked guys, she'd dated guys, there was never any suggestion that she wanted to do otherwise. It left Jack scrambling in his brain for some other explanation. That Jaime was waiting for someone, wanting someone she didn't think she could have. It would be odd if she couldn't tell anyone about it, not her sister at least, who probably would've told Jack by now, whether she ought to or not, most likely by accident - that was a thing Martha did when she got tipsy or ate too much sugar.

"Jaime?" said Jack eventually. "Am I missing something?"

"Apparently," she replied, turning to meet his eyes.

She looked pained, sort of awkward, but more on his behalf than her own. That was when the light dawned. Jack Mariano was not a stupid person. On the contrary, he had been valedictorian when he graduated high school and in the top ten perfect of his class when he left college too. He was smart like both his parents, quick-witted and all, and yet it would seem he had missed something that Jaime had been trying to make plain to him for quite some time.

"Huh."

"There it is," she said with a smile that was just a little sad. "I guess when I thought I was being obvious I was still underplaying. Yes, Jack," she confirmed plainly then, "I've been waiting... for you."

Jack felt as astounded as he was sure he looked. He shook his head and tried to process, pulling up scenes from across the years, conversations, reunions, all kinds of moments, trying to find the evidence that Jaime liked him like that. The more he looked, the more he could see it. He had been so blind.

"How long?" he asked, sure that he shouldn't but unable to help the curiosity.

"Oh, a while," Jaime confirmed. "Did you know Alison Forester failed art class at Stars Hollow High because her clay model project went missing and turned up later in pieces?"

Jack's eyes were wide as saucers when he looked at her then. At least he saw a pink tinge in Jaime's cheeks. Now she felt embarrassed about her behaviour, but Jack suspected it was more the fact she caused harm to another than her feelings for him that made her feel self-conscious. Certainly he didn't have words to give her right now. Finding out she had been holding a torch for him this whole time, since he dated Alison, through Becca, Mandy, Isla, and the rest. She watched them all come and go, and through it all, her feelings for him remained strong. She waited for him and never said a word.

"You never told me," he said eventually. "Why not?"

"Never seemed like the right time." Jaime shrugged. "You had other girlfriends, you moved away, things changed. Everything except how I felt about you. I figured someday I'd get over you, and yet." She shrugged once more and looked everywhere but at him.

Jack wanted to say something to make her feel better, something like an apology maybe, but that didn't seem right. Neither of them had really done anything wrong in all of this, it was just circumstances being what they were. Beside him, Jaime concentrated on her hands in her lap and then at a poster on the wall. Anything was easier than facing him after the confession she had made, one she had never planned on speaking of when she came here today. Now the truth was out and she didn't hate that he knew it, and yet she feared it changing things forever, in a way that couldn't be fixed. Perhaps the old adage of 'least said, soonest mended' would apply.

"So, let's pick a cover for this book," she said, looking back at the laptop screen and scrolling through the options one more time.

Jaime already knew she didn't have Jack's attention on the task at hand, before he ever spoke again.

"I'm sorry."

"For what?" she asked, smiling in spite of everything. "For not feeling the same way about me as I feel about you? That's not your fault," she assured him.

"I never... It's not that," said Jack, looking as pained as he felt, he was sure on that. "I just never looked at you that way, Jaime, not... Well, not until you walked in here today."

The way he was looking at her now, she might actually believe him. Jaime felt her heart hammering in her chest and her throat becoming dry. He couldn't be serious. Jack Mariano always looked on her as a friend, she knew, though not quite as much like family as he saw her sister, Martha, which was no bad thing. She wasn't dumb enough to believe he ever looked at her and saw a woman he might date, and he had just confessed that much. Today though, it was different. Today he saw her just exactly that way, or so he said.

"Seriously?" she checked, clearing her throat right after since her voice seemed to have developed a wobble somewhere along the line.

"Seriously," Jack confirmed, as honest as ever.

It was one of the things she loved about him. Over the years, Jaime had developed a list in her head of all the traits about Jack to admire and adore, and there were a lot! He was sweet and kind, trustworthy and honest, and as they got older, increasingly attractive to her in looks too. How he had come to so suddenly notice her this way, she couldn't understand, though it had been quite a while since they had actually been in the same room together. Now that she thought on it, it was well over a year.

"You look different," said Jack then. "When you walked in, I noticed, but I didn't know what it was exactly. I don't know, maybe it's just not seeing you for a while or... or maybe I'm finally over Isla?"

"Maybe," she agreed, mostly just for something to say.

This was so weird. Her emotions were so caught up on themselves that she wasn't sure which one was winning the battle to be on top. It was thrilling to have Jack look at her the way she had only ever seen him look at others before. At the same time, it was almost terrifying, and way too good to be true. Just when she thought she remembered how to breathe, she realised Jack had moved a little closer, and felt his hand in her hair.

"What are you doing?" she checked, almost unable to dare to dream she had the right answer in mind already.

"I don't know," he admitted, shifting a little closer. "Call it... an experiment?"

He was doing more than asking her if she agreed to the naming of what he was going to do. He was checking she was okay with it, and took the nodding of her head as his answer. When their lips met it was actually all too brief a moment for Jaime, but she was at least pleased to see Jack smiling when they parted.

"Huh."

"Yeah."

Jaime didn't have any more words than he did right now, but the look on her face matched his own, and that was enough. Jack almost looked as embarrassed as she felt too, which was how it came so easy to get back to choosing artwork for his book rather than talk about what just happened.

"I think it's gotta be this one."

"That's fine. I'll finalise the design and email it to you tomorrow."

The moment the decision was made, Jaime shut down her computer, gathered her artwork, and got up from her seat. Jack's mouth dropped open in surprise.

"You're leaving already?"

"Places to be, people to see," said Jaime, smiling as she headed for the door, "but... You wanna meet up soon? Maybe for coffee?"

She practically winced when she said it, like maybe she thought it was a bad idea the moment she asked. Jack couldn't help but smile. She really didn't get that he was up for this, that now he had realised the potential in their giving dating a try, he wasn't planning on backing out.

"How about dinner?"

"Jack..." she said warily, apparently not quite sure he could mean it.

If he were, she wondered if he was just humouring her, trying to be nice or whatever. That wasn't what she wanted, a pity date or something, and yet she somehow couldn't believe Jack capable of doing that to her.

"I'm serious," he said, looking very much so. "Why not dinner?"

Jaime considered for all of a minute and then nodded her head.

"Okay. Um, you wanna text me or something?" she suggested, still not sure how this was going to work logistically, but good grief, she wanted to try it anyway.

"Sounds good," Jack agreed, getting up to walk her out then.

They parted with all smiles, nothing more, nothing less, but that was okay. Maybe this would be one of those slow burn things. For Jaime it had certainly been simmering a very long time already. Jack closed the door when Jaime was gone and shook his head. To think she had been waiting for him all this time. Only now was Jack realising that, without knowing it, maybe he had been waiting for her too.