InsaneJournal

WHO: Jackie Frost & Johnny Justice
WHAT: They have a Talk. It doesn't end well.
WHEN: Wednesday night.
WHERE: Jackie's room at the Black Phoenix.
RATING: PG.


JOHNNY: Johnny did not want to do this. Of all the conversations he feared in the wake of the zombie event, this one was at the top of his list. As if attacking, biting and infecting his own girlfriend wasn't grounds enough for epic shame, the fallout had been even worse. Things had been said between the two that couldn't be taken back, and unlike a lot of the barbs that flew the weekend past, they were things that couldn't be so easily swept aside as lies and untruths spawned from a magical curse.

Johnny stood outside Jackie's door for almost fifteen minutes, his hand raised several times to knock, before he summoned up the will to actually go through with it. He rapped thrice gently on the door, drew in a deep breath to steel himself, and prepared for a chill.

JACKIE: There wasn't one. At least, no more than Jackie's normal effect on the temperature surrounding her.

She opened the door, and stepped aside to let Johnny in, not saying anything until he'd come through, and she shut the door behind him. "So," she crossed her arms, and regarded him coolly. "Let's talk."

JOHNNY: Johnny suffered an extremely awkward moment when Jackie opened the door; he flinched forwards as if to embrace her, or kiss her cheek, or show other form of obligatory affection, but finding no opening, was left to recoil. He moved past her with open discomfort, making his way into the center of the room before turning to face her. His body language was solid and tense, the same he might exhibit before going into combat.

"Okay." He said lamely, making an effort to adopt an equally cool tone. Unfortunately he had no ready follow-up, and an awkward silence fell for a long moment before he spurred himself on. "Jackie, you said-- we said some pretty serious stuff during this whole zombie thing."

JACKIE: "And you attacked me," Jackie replied, blunt and unsympathetic. Her icy stare remained steady on Johnny for a moment, and then she looked away, exhaling frostily through her nose.

"You attacked me, and I don't just mean that you bit me, Johnny, and yet the first thing I hear from you is, 'We need to talk.'"

JOHNNY: Johnny opened his mouth immediately to defend himself, but found himself cowed by Jackie's follow up words. He'd spent most of the day being reassured by his friends that he wasn't responsible for his actions, so this sudden assault burst his guilt bubble pretty soundly.

"I wasn't myself." He practically mumbled, "I wouldn't ever try to hurt you like that, you should know that! That's not the kind of person I am."

JACKIE: "If I should know that, then you should know that, so why are we having this conversation?" Johnny was getting a taste of no-nonsense Jackie, upfront and biting and not willing to play her usual games. "You're contrite to everyone but the person you hurt most, Johnny Justice, regardless of what was said by either one of us."

JOHNNY: For someone who was thoroughly indoctrinated with Jackie's usual games, the no nonsense version was coming as a slap in the face. He'd been expecting the usual cooing, the placating, the docile girlfriend act he normally received whenever things got controversial. He couldn't even hide his bewilderment, which was writ plain on his face.

"I'm sorry I bit you!" He blurted, far more aggressively than would be necessary for the apology to sound earnest. He began to gesticulate as his tone rose defensively, "I couldn't control that! Just like you couldn't, afterwards! But you were bit too, and you said all that stuff too, and so you know that... you know that some of the stuff we said..." His lips moved helplessly, as he couldn't bring himself to actually voice the last few words: was stuff we meant.

JACKIE: True though that may be, and as tired as she may be with the games she's been playing, Jackie wasn't about to finish that sentence and agree with Johnny. Rather, she stared at him stonily, and then moved across the room to sit in an armchair; her arms were still crossed, her eyes were still on his.

"Some of the stuff we said was what, Johnny?" She kept the ball in his court.

JOHNNY: Johnny's lips formed into an angry line at this maneuver, and any hopes that Jackie would be sharing in his anxiety - thus ensuring they could work through this together, as a couple - evaporated. "You meant it, didn't you?" He finally said, with a sense of fatality, as though owning up to a fact he'd known all along. "The stuff you said about us dating? That wasn't just you being mean because of the zombie thing. You just... you don't even care, do you?" He waved an arm, apparently to indicate her, the armchair, and the evidence he apparently saw at this very moment.

JACKIE: "Do you care, Johnny?" Jackie volleyed back, quiet and steely. "I nearly got myself killed on Sunday, infected or not, and you didn't even drop by to say hi. You waited, and you jumped to your own conclusions about what we said to each other." Finally, she uncrossed her arms so she could brush aside her hair, careful not to touch any bruises. Again, she looked away, and sighed, suddenly tired and exasperated. "Just man up and say it already, Johnny. You've been wanting to since May. Don't try and pin the blame on me."

JOHNNY: "Of course I--" Johnny began to sputter indignantly, hands flailing angrily at the accusation, but he couldn't even muster the strength to finish. He dropped his arms, his shoulders sagged, and her cast an exhausted, yet combative glare the way of his obstinate girlfriend.

"Maybe this just isn't working, Jackie."

JACKIE: "There you go," Jackie sighed, waving her hand as though shooing the words away from her, or dismissing Johnny from the room. "This just isn't working." Staring at a distant point on the wallpaper, she continued, only bothering to put the slightest tinge of bitterness in the words that came next. "Now you don't have to worry where my allegiance lies, what I'm 'really' up to, if I might secretly be seeing NeFarious on the side."

Her gaze snapped around to land on Johnny again, and she pushed herself up out of the chair. "Go on. Go give Ayita and Erik and Queenie and everyone else the good news."

With that, she strode over the window, her back to Johnny and her arms crossed again as she looked out over the city of Neopolis, clearly waiting for Captain Justice, Jr. to leave.

JOHNNY: Johnny remained standing in the middle of the room dumbly, as if in shock by what had just happened. His hands trembled, alternating between fists of combat and open palms of supplication as both impulses alternated back and forth through his mind. Finally, with no recourse becoming clear to him, and the reality slowly sinking in, her just let his hands fall loose - and moved towards the door to let himself out without another word.