2. Phone call
Clarissa and Jack had been working together for three months when Clarissa decided to broach the issue. She had noticed Jack had been receiving fairly regular phone calls which always put him in a bad mood afterwards. And when Jack was in a bad mood, he went looking for a fight. Clarissa understood it was his way of gaining release but she still worried all the same. Particularly giving that he didn't seem very good at it, from the amount of cuts and bruises on his face.
They were working together, processing some fingerprint when his phone rang. Unable to deal with another one of Jack's bad moods and also in an attempt to satisfy her own curiosity, she grabbed the phone before Jack could reach it and read the name on the screen.
Chrissie Reed.
"I'm sorry Jack can't come to the phone right now," Clarissa said and put the phone down
"Why did you do that?" Jack glared at her
"Who is she?" Clarissa asked
"No one," Jack said sullenly "It's complicated," he added when he saw Clarissa was not satisfied with his first response
"It always is with you Jack," Clarissa said turning back to her work, leaving Jack to sulk.
They worked in silence for several hours; Clarissa knew it wasn't he time to push Jack for answers, so she decided to wait him out. They were almost at the end of their shift when he finally spoke.
"She was someone I cared about," he said quietly, not making eye contact with Clarissa
"Is she someone you still care about?" Clarissa asked gently
"No!" Jack said quickly. Too quickly for it to be convincing "I'm done here for tonight. I've got to go somewhere," he said pulling on his jacket
"Jack Hodgson you stay right where you are!" Clarissa said sternly "Don't you dare even think about going fighting tonight,"
"What are you, my mother?" he snapped
"No, I'm your friend" Clarissa said and suddenly Jack's face softened
"I'm sorry," he murmured sitting back down
"I know Jack," she nodded
"I screwed things up. With her, with my job, with everything," Jack sighed putting his head in his hands
"We all make mistakes," Clarissa said softly
"Do you make mistakes?" he said turning to look at her
"Of course I don't," she said with a grin "Haven't you realised yet, I know absolutely everything,"
"Well how do I solve this then?" Jack said gesturing to his phone
"By buying me a drink," Clarissa said and Jack snorted with laughter
"You're one of a kind, you know that?" he said and for the first time that day she saw him smile.
Jack didn't go cage-fighting that night.
Or the next.
Clarissa was proud of him for that. She was slightly less proud when he came in hung-over, but they could work on that. Anyway she was still nursing her own hangover, not that she would ever let Jack know that.
She'd keep making him think she was omniscient for a while yet.