Episode tag to 3.9 "The Fraternity," in which we witness the "double-date" Jack's "chance encounter" with Sue resulted in.
AN: "The beautiful part of writing is that you don't have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon. You can always do it better, find the exact word, the apt phrase, the leaping simile. ~Robert Cormier
I'm working on some more formatting changes which are in this and will be retroactively applied to past chapters as well. So once again, if you're following this and get notifications of a bunch of different chapter updates, there's nothing significant changed in the chapter itself, just formatting and maybe a word or two here or there because, as well as maybe a word change here or there because I'm obsessive and every time I look back at something I've previously written, I find either another error to fix or another word I want to change. However, I will be adding some chapters earlier, as I've had sudden flashes of inspiration for additional scenes that take place earlier and I've decided I want to keep these all in episode order. Once I actually add a new chapter that's placed earlier, I'll make sure that the chapter at the current end of the work has a note of which chapters have been added so you know where to find the new ones. But that'll probably be a bit longer, I haven't finished writing any of them yet.
"You know, you just 'happening' to show up in the park where I walk Levi . . . some might call that a 'chance encounter.'"
"Some might call it that. But that's the beauty of it. One never knows."
Sue made a face at Jack's retreating form, somewhere between amused and irritated. He walked only a step or two before she rushed a few steps to catch up, walking alongside him the way they had fallen into the habit of—so close their arms brushed as they walked, almost like they were holding hands without actually holding hands.
The thought made Sue smile, and she glanced over at Jack to find he was smiling too, though she had no idea if it was for the same reason or something else entirely. Rather than dwell too much on that, she said, "We should find out what times the movies are playing, make a solid plan."
"Well, I can think of a few movies I'd love to go to with you, but maybe not with 12-year-olds."
Sue looked at him in confusion and mild apprehension. "What kinds of movies?"
"Well, for instance, I know you can't hear the music, but the romantic storyline of Phantom of the Opera seems right up your alley, and meanwhile, I hear there are several creepy parts and jump-scares."
"Oh . . . well, you're right, I have been wanting to see that, but I get enough jump-scares day to day. Sorry, not what I like to spend my down time doing."
"Sure, typically," Jack responded, feigning casual indifference but with a distinct glint of mischief in his eye. "But typically your relaxing time isn't spent with me sitting next to you to catch you if you get startled. You know—traditional tricks of the trade for a double date." As he said the words emphatically, he signed it too.
Sue's eyes grew wide. Choosing to ignore the implications of the first part of what he'd said, she cried out accusingly, "I thought you said you didn't know what she'd signed!"
He laughed. "I know the sign for date, and I saw that she said 'we can.' It wasn't a far leap of logic to figure out that date with two fingers up on each hand instead of one would be a double date."
Sue shook her finger at him. "I think I've taught you too well, mister."
"Perhaps," he responded. "And yet, perhaps one may never know about that either."
She glared at him, though any menacing or threatening effect was ruined by the smile playing at the edges of her mouth. Up ahead, the conspiratorial duo had stopped walking and were leaned together watching Sue and Jack. Sue caught them watching and signed, It's a good thing neither of you are trained for surveillance. You two are as subtle as a hippopotamus.
Jack cocked his head. "What did you just say?"
"Nope, too late mister, you ruined your chances of me ever trusting whether you know what someone is signing or not. Better learn it all very quickly."
"Yikes! Okay, okay, I surrender! I promise I won't ever ask what someone said if I already know what they said!"
Lucy's eyes grew wide when he said that and Sue knew that the moment they were alone she was going to be interrogated by her best friend. No doubt Lucy had figured out what it was that Jack lied about not knowing. She may not be a trained agent, and obviously would be terrible at surveillance (and worse at undercover, she couldn't lie convincingly to save her life), but if there was information she wanted to know, Lucy could out-think and out-interrogate even the best and most seasoned agents of the FBI.
Thankfully, whether he was trying to distract Lucy or whether he just felt like changing the subject, Jack was signing to Amanda, What movie do you want to see?
I don't know, Amanda signed back. We have to go check the newspaper listings for what's playing right now.
Jack glanced back to Sue and said, "You have to check the . . . print . . . list?"
Sue smiled, "The newspaper listings," she replied, signing it at the same time. "But you're right, 'print' is part of the sign for newspaper. Good job, I didn't know you knew that word!"
Jack smiled and, with a mock humble-brag expression, said, "Yes, well, I am a man of many hidden depths."
"And so very good at keeping them hidden that we'd almost never believe they're there!" she teased.
"You just wait, Thomas. You may find out yet." He shook his finger at her like he was admonishing her, but the smile he was unsuccessfully fighting belied any actual irritation.
By this time they had made their way to the exit from the park. Amanda and Lucy turned right to head toward Lucy and Sue's apartment. Sue turned back to Jack to say goodbye, but to her surprise, he was turning right along with the others.
"Jack? Isn't your apartment that direction?"
The question was rhetorical since she knew exactly where he lived and had even been there a couple times, but he still cocked his head as though he was uncertain and asked, "Is it?"
She gave him her patented Sue Look, and he laughed and said, "I just figured I'd walk you ladies home before I head back to my place. Besides, that'll give me further to jog back after."
"Oh. Okay," Sue said, pretending not to notice Lucy and Amanda (who had stopped to watch this exchange, Lucy signing the gist of the conversation to Amanda) exchanging meaningful smirks again.
The short walk from the park to the apartment building was pleasant, filled with signs and laughter and more teasing. When they arrived at the building, Lucy and Amanda stepped up onto the stoop and turned back to see Sue bidding Jack farewell.
"Sooo . . . I'll call you once we know the plan, okay?"
"Sounds great," Jack said. "Just give it at least half an hour before you call, it'll take me 10 minutes to jog home and then another 20 before I'm out of the shower."
Sue's face started turning red as she tried not to think too hard about that concept, which was made more difficult as, over Jack's shoulder, she could see Amanda look questioningly to Lucy, who started explaining the cause. Sue tried to refocus on answering Jack.
"Oh, okay, sure. Um, why don't you just call me when you're . . . uh, out . . . dry . . . ready to talk . . . ?" She could feel herself blushing but couldn't seem to do anything to stop it. The silent giggles of Amanda and Lucy didn't help either.
Unaware of the spectacle behind him, he flashed his winning smile again and said, "Sounds great," then turned and gave a quick wave to the other two, who had sobered very quickly and were giving friendly waves goodbye. As soon as he had jogged far enough down the sidewalk they let all the laughter loose, and it was certainly not silent anymore!
What's wrong? Lucy signed. You don't want to think about Jack in the shower?
Amanda's giggles increased dramatically. Sue just shot them both a look and signed, Get inside.
Despite giggling all the way to their apartment and through the door, once inside they settled down and immediately started searching the newspaper for movie listings.
Oh! Amanda signed excitedly. National Treasure is playing! I wanted to see it but it took forever to get into the open caption theater!
"National Treasure?" Sue said and signed at the same time. "I saw some stuff about that . . . looks interesting. Enough action to keep the guys interested while enough fun to keep us interested!" she teased.
"Oh, don't worry," Lucy said, standing where Amanda couldn't see her lips, "I don't think you'll have any trouble keeping Jack interested."
Sue saw her friend's words and Lucy knew she'd seen, but when Sue pretended not to have seen it, Lucy didn't push the issue. She just smirked.
"Why don't you text Ben and see if that works for him?" Sue signed to Amanda, speaking out loud for Lucy's benefit. Though she was very good at ASL now, Sue knew first hand how easy it was to get lost when everything was in only the form of communication that was a little more difficult, so she tried to speak and sign as often as possible unless there was reason not to.
Which time? Amanda signed back.
Glancing it over, Sue responded, "It looks like it'll either be 5:30 or 8. It's Friday night, so no school or work tomorrow. Why don't we find out what the guys are thinking? Ask Ben first, since he'll have to check with his parents, and then if you have it settled by the time Jack calls I'll be able to just tell him."
Amanda was already texting Ben and may have missed the last half a sentence or so. Meanwhile, Sue turned back to Lucy and asked, "Are you sure you don't want to come with us? I mean, if this 'uh, thing' is something you can put off?" she asked pointedly, wanting to make sure Lucy knew that Sue was not fooled by this sudden cancellation of hers.
"No way do I want to be fifth wheeling with you lovebirds," Lucy teased.
"Lucy! Don't even joke about that, you know we can't date when we're in the same unit."
"Oh, right, of course," Lucy said knowingly. "You're just have this guy happily joining you at the movie theater because you both love watching PG movies with 12-year-olds."
"It's not—I just have—" Sue couldn't find the words for trying to defend herself.
"Look," Lucy said, "let's stop worrying about my stuff and whether I can put it off, and start worrying about what you are going to put on!"
Sue glanced down at her outfit. "What's wrong with this?"
"Uh uh, no way girl. You are going out to a movie with Jack! You can't just wear the same thing you wear to work! He sees you in that every day!"
"And if he likes me in that, why should I wear something else?"
"Ohhhhh, so you admit that he likes you!"
Sue dropped her jaw, and immediately became flustered again. "That's not what I meant! I just—it's just—"
Lucy just laughed and started pulling Sue toward her bedroom. "Come on, let's find something smashing for a night on the town!"
Within the few minutes before Amanda showed up at Sue's bedroom door, Lucy had managed to make it look like a clothing store had exploded. "Ooh, what about this!" she was saying, holding up a sparkly knee-length dress.
"What? No! Luce, that's something I'd wear to a fancy dinner, not to a movie!"
Amanda waved her hand to get their attention.
"Oh, hey," Sue said and signed, glad for the disruption to the whirlwind that is Lucy Dotson on a Matchmaking Mission. "Did Ben answer?"
Yeah, his mom said we should go at 5:30 and go get dinner after.
"See?" Lucy said. "You are going out to dinner too!"
"Not anywhere fancy though! We'll probably get burgers or pizza or something! And I haven't even talked to Jack yet, I don't know if–"
Just then her BlackBerry vibrated. Lucy gave a smug smirk and said, "Ohhhh, well looks like Jack made it in under half an hour. Guess he's really excited to talk to you."
Sue rolled her eyes yet again, but couldn't say much because, in fact, it actually was Jack. She held the microphone up to her mouth for her part of the conversation, reading his words on the screen.
"Hello?"
Hey, did you ladies get everything figured out?
"Uh, yeah, actually, if you're cool with going to see National Treasure."
Oh, I love that movie! Is that still playing?
"Apparently at the Montrose it is at least."
What time?
"Well, we were looking at the 5:30 showing, and thinking maybe we could grab a bite to eat after. You don't have to do that too if you don't want to though."
Actually, I was going to ask if I could treat you and the kids to dinner either before or after the movie, so that sounds perfect! Uh—I don't know where that theater is, though. Why don't I come pick you ladies up and then you can direct me how to get there? Does Amanda's friend need a ride too?
"Hang on, I'll ask." She turned to Amanda and signed, Does Ben need a ride or is he meeting us there?
Oh, I forgot to say! His mom will drop him off here! She wants to meet you.
Sue raised her eyebrows but said, "Jack, I guess Ben's mom is dropping him off here at—" Time?
Around 4:30 I think. So we can get to the theater early.
"—4:30ish. Do you want to come over at the same time? I guess she wants to meet me, if you're driving she should probably meet you too."
Sounds great! I'll see you then! Bye!
"Bye."
Sue took a deep breath and tried not to have too happy an expression on her face as she turned back to the others and said/signed, "Alright, let's figure out my clothes I guess."
"Yesssssss," Lucy whispered.
When Levi pawed at Sue to tell her the doorbell had been rung, she and Amanda had both gone through more outfits than what Amanda had gone through before school her first morning there. In the end, Amanda wore her short denim skirt that she'd changed out of earlier in the week, a bright green tank top, and a velveteen blue zip-up sweatshirt, along with a cute fedora perched at an angle on her head. Sue wore black dress pants with a white pinstripe, low-heeled black strappy sandals, and a black blouse with cap sleeves and pleating along the edges of the buttons that pulled it up slightly at the bottom and down slightly at the top, without pulling far enough in either direction to actually be revealing. She'd left her hair down, styling it just a little more than it had been earlier.
Lucy appeared in the doorway of the bedroom where both Sue and Amanda were putting finishing touches on their makeup (though Amanda's retouching was after Sue made her wash off the thicker layers she had already done and redo it more tastefully) and signed, They're here!
"Both of them?" Sue asked.
"Yup! Looks like they arrived at the same time."
Sue and Amanda looked at each other, gave one another a final once-over, gave one another a thumb's up, and then started out toward the living room.
Amanda went out first, and Ben greeted her happily, in that way that pre-teens can when they are experiencing their early awareness of the opposite sex but are also still children who just want to play.
You look nice, Ben signed.
Thanks, you too, Amanda answered, even though Ben hadn't changed from what he'd worn to school that day.
Meanwhile, Jack had no idea what the younger couple were talking about, because Sue had entered the room right behind Jack and he was unable to tear his eyes off her. "Wow," he said after several moments. "You look . . . great. I mean, you always look great, but you . . . wow."
Sue smiled shyly, and gave him a once-over in his fitted jeans, dressy-casual sweater, and fresh shave. "Oh . . . thanks. You clean up nice yourself, Agent Hudson."
Several beats passed before she finally broke eye contact with him and realized there was another person in the room. "Oh, and, uh, hi, you must be Ben's mom. I'm Sue." She was again signing and speaking together, partly so the kids could be included if they happened to look up, and partly because she wasn't sure whether Ben's mom was deaf or hearing.
"It's nice to meet you," the woman responded, also signing and speaking. "I'm Kathy." They shook hands and then went over the plan briefly. Sue made sure Kathy knew that Jack was planning to drive, and ensured Kathy was okay with that, and they made plans for Jack to drop Ben back off at home after they had eaten.
As Sue was grabbing her denim jacket to throw on against the chill in the air outside, Jack glanced over at Lucy, who had been grinning uncontrollably while she watched the entire scene unfold. "Hey," he said, "what time does your thing start?"
"My thing?" she asked, momentarily confused. "My thing! The thing I have tonight, is, um, it's not starting until 6 and it's closer to here than the theater so I don't have to leave for a while yet. I'd better start getting ready, though, and you all better head out if you're going to have time to hit the concessions!"
On the drive to the theater, Jack and Sue discussed favorite movies they'd both seen growing up, while the kids signed rapidly with one another in the back seat. It was such a pleasant drive that every one of them was almost surprised to realize when they'd arrived at the theater.
When they got to the ticket counter, Jack said, "Four tickets for National Treasure please." Sue reached for her purse to pull out money for her and Amanda's tickets, but Jack put his hand over hers to stop her. "Don't worry, I've got it," he said.
"Oh, Jack, you don't need to do that, we're the ones who invited you to—"
"I want to," he replied simply, exchanging the cash for the tickets and passing one to each member of their group.
"Fine," Sue said stubbornly, "then I'm getting the popcorn."
He smiled. "If you insist, but I warn you, I eat a lot of popcorn."
The kids were already at the concessions stand surveying all the options and discussing which candies they wanted. The way they were going, it seemed like they were intending to get one of everything. Hey, Sue signed, getting their attention, we can each pick one candy and then all share if you want to, and then we'll get popcorn and soda. Don't forget, we're going to dinner after this too!
Ultimately, they ended up with a soda for each of them, two large popcorns, and one box each of Jujubees, Junior Mints, Peanut M&Ms, and Hot Tamales. They quickly gathered up their fare and took it with them into the theater, where, after a brief moment of debate, they found a row of seats that would allow them a good view of the captions without getting a crick in their necks.
Once they were seated, they divided up the goodies, ultimately ending up with the 4 candies getting mixed together and then divided back out into the 4 boxes they'd come in, one for each of them; and with Amanda and Ben sharing one bucket of popcorn while Sue and Jack shared the other.
As the movie started, Sue and Jack were sitting next to each other, passing the popcorn between them, until eventually Jack decided to just hold it halfway between them so they could both reach.
Somewhere around when the main character declared that he would have to steal the Declaration of Independence, Sue realized that she and Jack both had their arms on the armrest, pressed against each other.
By the time the unwitting trio of adventurers had located the glasses in Liberty Hall, the popcorn was gone, and Jack's arm had somehow moved to the other side of Sue's, so that they were each still using the same armrest but with the palms of their hands lightly touching.
By the time the main character escaped FBI custody (in a way that had both Jack and Sue rolling their eyes) Sue's head was leaned against Jack's shoulder and his fingers were tracing patterns on her palm.
By the time Nicholas Cage's character grabbed his love interest into a furious kiss before entering the dangerous caverns, Sue's courage was bolstered and she whispered in Jack's ear, "That's all it takes."
By the time the lights were coming back on, they had separated, lest two 12-year-olds rat them out, but neither of them could stop smiling, especially at each other.
Dinner was pizza, and Jack again insisted on paying. The kids were so excited to discuss all the finer points of the movie (Ben particularly loved that the main character's name was the same as his, and Amanda slyly indicated that maybe she should change her name to Abigail) that they didn't notice Sue and Jack holding hands under the table for most of the meal, or how relatively quiet the two adults were. When they were about done eating, Ben asked Amanda to go join him for some of the arcade games in the back corner of the pizzeria. When Jack reached into his pocket for some quarters, Ben signed, No, I have money, and the kids took off.
"Isn't that sweet?" Jack asked. "Only 12 and already determined to treat his lady love himself."
"By that definition," Sue responded with a studied air of casualness as she carefully gauged his response, "given how determined you've been to treat me tonight, one could almost call me your lady love."
He shrugged. "Hmm. How 'bout that. I guess it could be seen that way, huh."
She considered him for a moment, suspicion and flattery battling for space in her expression. Before she could say anything, he winked and added, "But that's the beauty of it—one never knows."
That earned him a playful shove, which he responded to by grabbing her hand and kissing the back of her fingers. At that she went from playful shoving to nearly frozen.
He released her hands and started signing to her. Chance encounters, lady love, secret languages. We sound like the movie we just watched.
She furrowed her brow. "Jack . . . how has your sign language improved so much lately?" she asked, voicing what she'd been wondering all evening.
"A great teacher?" he responded with a shrug.
She narrowed her eyes again. "You've used several signs tonight that I never taught you."
"You, my dear," he said, tapping her nose, "are a fabulous teacher, but one with whom I don't have nearly enough time to learn as much as I want. So I started taking lessons from a merely great teacher—I've been attending intensive classes at Gallaudet for the very purpose of being able to communicate better with you."
Her eyes misted over. "Jack—really? That's—that's the sweetest—"
"Hey, hey," he said, his thumb brushing away some tears. "It's not supposed to make you cry."
"Only happy tears," she assured him.
They gazed at one another for a moment and were just about to lean in when movement caught their eyes—the kids had returned and were asking for dessert.
"Right," Jack said, "ice cream sundaes, and then we'd better get Ben home before his mother gets overly concerned."
They dropped Ben off first, then headed back to Sue's place. As soon as they arrived, Amanda ran up the stairs after signing that she had to go text Ben. Sue and Jack shook their heads in laughter as they watched her go.
"Didn't she just say goodbye to him, like, two minutes ago?" Sue asked as she and Jack walked up the stairs at a much slower pace, and side by side.
"Yeah," Jack said, "but in her defense, I've wanted to call you two minutes after saying goodbye too."
She opened her eyes wide. "Jack—"
Before she could say another word, he spun her fully toward him and kissed her, hard, fervently, and with a passion she would not have anticipated coming from him. Not on a first kiss, anyway.
When they finally broke apart, she stared at him in wonder.
"Someone," he said softly, "told me that's all it takes."
She smiled. "And someone . . . took far too long to do that. I think we have some making up for lost time to do."
Backing her against the banister, he said, "I like the sounds of that."
Breaking their second kiss before it could get too heated, she said, "Upstairs, sir. The stairway isn't nearly private enough."
They entered her apartment as quietly as they could, but Levi came running anyway, and Lucy followed in his wake. As they greeted Levi, Lucy said, "Oh, hey, I didn't even hear you two come in! If I didn't know better I'd almost have thought you were sneaking around!"
Sue laughed. "Considering how fast Amanda ran up here, I'm guessing she thundered through here like a herd of elephants, so I'm not sure how we could have been sneaking!"
"Uh huh," Lucy said suspiciously, giving Jack an odd look.
"Hey," Sue said casually, "um, I need to discuss—uh, a case with Jack really fast, would you mind taking Levi into the other room? I'll be there in a minute."
"Sure," Lucy said, her suspicious expression giving way to a knowing one. "No problem. Discuss your . . . case." As she was about to round the corner out of sight she added, "And Jack—nice lipstick."
The two looked at one another wide-eyed and Jack signed, Busted.
"Well, then," Sue whispered, sliding her arms around his neck, pressing her body flush to his, and brushing her nose against his, "we won't have to worry about getting caught."
AN: Okay, full disclosure: in most ASL curriculums I've ever seen, people are taught PRINT either at the same time as or later than they're taught NEWSPAPER so it would be kind of weird for Jack to know PRINT and not NEWSPAPER. Chalk it up to him still wanting to act like he didn't know as much as he knew, or just to me wanting him to ask a question that still revealed that he knew more than she'd known he knew. Whichever you prefer. :P