Day 6: I Can't Wait For You

Characters/Pairings: Jake/Rose; Susan; OC

Rating: M

Content warnings: graphic sex scene; medical/institutional settings; swearing

Don't forget that you can find me on tumblr: we - are - all - of - legend - now and that my ao3 account is wearealloflegendnow (even though I haven't posted there yet)!

~TLL~

Jake opened the front door of his apartment, inhaling the scent of freshly made sugar cookies and letting the sounds of the Wicked soundtrack crash over him. Jake grinned. Rose loved Wicked. He kicked off his shoes and followed the sweet smell to the kitchen, where Rose was mixing a large batch of frosting. As soon as Jake crossed the threshold from the hallway, she put the bowl aside and turned. Rose was impossible to sneak up on.

"I made cookies!" she announced, smiling in the way he loved the most. She crossed the kitchen and folded herself in his arms. "Welcome home."

Jake snuggled into her, kissing the side of her neck before lifting her into a spin, her legs going around his waist. Jake held her there, nose to nose.

"How was your day?" Jake asked, gazing into her big blue eyes. Jake would drown and die in those eyes – that's how much he loved them.

"Boring," Rose admitted, her bottom lip brushing his own. "How was yours?"

"Better, now."

Why would Jake want to talk about his day when he was here with her? Rose was the best part of his day, always.

Jake kissed her deeply. Rose's mouth opened to let him in, her legs tightening around his waist. Jake adjusted so that his hands were under her skirt and then spread his hands wider to feel the lacy underwear that left most of her bottom bare. Jake could feel the warmth and wetness coming from between her legs and he got even harder. They broke apart for a messy breath and Jake worked Jake's shirt over his head, abandoning it on the floor so that she could run her nails down his back.

Jake nibbled at her neck. Even the feel of his shirt against his nipples was threatening to put him over the edge, like it had been years rather than hours since the last time they'd made love.

Jake put Rose on the counter, flipping her skirt up and pulling her underwear down over her ankles. He leant into her, his hand going up her thigh.

"Oh, Jake, here?" Rose asked, as if she were protesting, but Jake knew better. She was already breathless, her hips already lifting off the counter in anticipation of his fingers.

"I can't wait for you," Jake said.

He kissed her again, barely being interrupted as she pulled her shirt over his head and flung her bra to some far-off corner of the kitchen. Jake bent his head, taking one of her pink nipples into his mouth while his hand kept going slowly up the inside of her leg, ghosting over her clit. He knew how she liked to be teased, barely feeling his fingertips until she bit his lip and demanded him inside of her.

"Jake," Rose sighed, her hips nearly completely off the counter, trying to get him to touch her more thoroughly. "Jake."

Jake touched his index finger to her clit, going in slow motion. Rose's hips bucked again.

"Jake, please, more, more, please."

Jake slowly slid one finger inside of her, curling it against her g-spot. She ground down on the palm of her hand, his fingers soaking with a few short movements. Jake slid another finger inside of her, leaning back a little to take in the picture of her – naked but for the pencil skirt flipped over her hips, her head tossed back, her long hair about her breasts, the way his fingers were moving in and out of her. Jake stayed like that, watching her face and her breathing change as she came, a scream in her voice as she called his name. Jake felt like he was going to explode if he wasn't inside of her, holding her, moving together as one – but he also wasn't done with her yet. Jake dropped to his knees in front of her, sliding her along the counter until he had her thighs wrapped around his temples.

"Again?" Rose asked, sounding dazed. Jake gently bit her thighs before skimming his tongue along her clit. He took her clit a little between her teeth, rewarded by the little gasp from her. "Again, Jake, again."

Jake licked along every inch of her, putting his tongue as deep inside of her as it would go, and then doing it all over again. Jake made sure to take his time, leaving her trembling and screaming his name before he stood up and pulled off his own pants. One of Rose's shaking legs went over his shoulder, the other went around his waist, pulling him slowly inside of her. Jake braced himself against the cupboard over her head, moving in and out at a slow pace that he knew was sweetly torturous for both of them.

"Jake." Rose tilted her head up, her eyes meeting his. They were nose to nose again. "Kiss me."

Jake did, letting her kiss herself from his lips. They stayed locked in that embrace, Jake struggling to keep an even pace, even as her fingers slid between their bodies to touch herself. Rose bit down on his lip.

"Fuck me, Jake," she cried. "Please, just fuck me."

Jake slammed their hips together, bending his head to get one of her nipples in his mouth. Her legs widened, her hands hanging around his neck so that he would hit all the right spots. Jake waited until she had orgasmed again before he let himself go, holding himself inside of her as his head bowed down to her shoulder. They were both covered in sweat as they slid down to the floor and Jake had never been so relieved that Rose was a neat freak as they laid side by side on the tile, legs still wrapped around each other, heads using each other's shirts as pillows. Jake pulled her in for a sweet kiss.

"I love you," he said.

"I love you too." Rose rubbed her thumb across his lips, such affection in her eyes that Jake wanted to melt. "Are you going to help me with dinner tonight?"

"In a minute," Jake said. "I just want to cuddle some more."

"Me too," Rose agreed. "We're just doing the usual tonight, so it won't take long. Someday you're going to get sick of my food."

"Never," Jake promised. "I'll eat whatever you make me, even if you cook sawdust every night."

That got her sitting up before he was ready for her to, throwing his shirt at him. "I don't cook sawdust."

Jake laughed, taking the hint and starting to get dressed. "I said if, Rose! If!"

"Whatever," Rose scoffed. "Get your apron on."

"Yes ma'am," Jake said.

After all, it wasn't like he ever told Rose 'no'.

(-.-)

Susan stared blankly ahead, not even trying to conceal her disappointment and her fury as she said, "This is what you call improved?"

"Mrs. Long," said Dr. Chance, his leprechaun brogue smooth with sympathy. "For the first time in nearly ten years, Jake knows his own name. I'd call that an improvement, wouldn't you?"

"It's been over ten years," Susan grumbled under her breath. She pressed her forehead against the two-way mirror, knowing that Jake couldn't see her or hear her.

She watched her twenty-five-year-old son chatter happily, going about the motions of making dinner, not realizing that he was in a padded room with no kitchen. He didn't realize that he was alone. He didn't realize that the girl he was talking to had died when they were just fourteen.

"We're continuing to work with him and we believe we've hit on the correct combination of human drugs and magical treatments. Since he's started on this regimen, he's not only started responding to his own name, he seems more aware of reality –"

"HE JUST FUCKED A WALL!"

It had been over a decade of watching Jake just sit. He aged and she aged and he just sat, lost in his own mind. They said his brain had been too deeply traumatized by the events of Homecoming and the fact that Rose had sacrificed herself to take down the Huntsclan; Jake just couldn't process that truth. Susan had tried screaming. The doctors had tried all the drugs. Lao Shi and Fu had tried all the magic. Jake had just continued sitting there, lost in his own mind. Susan knew that she should be grateful to Dr. Chance and this experimental trial that had brought some semblance of Jake back but that person on the other side of the wall was not her son. It was not who he should have grown up to be.

"Mrs. Long, he knows how old he is. His delusions have matured with him. He believes she's there and that they are living together in an apartment. That doesn't stop him from recognizing his nursing staff or even pictures of your family. Watch."

There was a knock on the other side of Jake's cell door.

"Come in!" Jake called cheerfully. "Hi, Nurse Patel."

"Hello, Jake. I've brought you dinner."

"Thank you, Nurse Patel, but Rose already cooked."

The nurse used a key to fold down a small section of the wall, turning it into a makeshift table and put the tray down on top of it.

"Make sure you eat all of it," Nurse Patel ordered. "I'll be back for the tray in twenty minutes."

"Okay," Jake said agreeably. He went over to the table and mimed pulling out a chair before going to the other side of the table and sitting on the floor. "Dig in, Rose. It looks delicious."

"How does he do that?" Susan asked. "How can he think both of those things are true?"

"The beauty and the mystery of the human brain."

"It's not beautiful," Susan said, feeling like she was on the verge of a breakdown. "It's … It's …" She didn't even have the words for what it was. It was devastating. It made her physically ill. It was a thief, taking away his entire life. "Is he ever going to be a hundred percent better?"

Dr. Chance hesitated and Susan knew what that meant but she still needed to hear him say it.

"We'll never stop working with him but if we were to walk in there right now and confront him with the fact that Rose has been dead this whole time, it would probably send him back to where he was six months ago. Worse, where he was six years ago. It's a long process and it is a process with no guarantees. We're not going to give up."

Susan looked back into the room. Jake was feeding his imaginary Rose bits of mashed potato, although he turned the spoon around and fed them to himself.

"At least he's happy," Susan admitted. "At least we get to know that he's happy, even if it's with a ghost."

"You can go in and see him, you know. Jake would probably love a visit from his mother."

"No," Susan said, turning her back on Jake. "Thank you for all you've done. Please, don't give up. But, I won't be coming back here. Whoever he is, he's not my son anymore. He hasn't been for a very long time."

And Susan walked away.