Jacklyn Baker (![]() ![]() @ 2010-02-01 19:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 04, jacklyn baker, john james searle, | jack and searle |
Week Four - Sunday
Characters: Jack Baker and John Searle
Location: Searle's room at the Hard Rock
Summary: Jack and Searle make up from their fight and Jack relays current events
Rating: B for best friends
Jack had to promise Jed that she would go to Searle's room and then come straight back and take her radio before he'd let her out of their suite. What happened to Alice had set everyone on edge and Jack was no exception. Thinking about what happened to Alice only led to thinking about what had happened to herself not too long ago and that wasn't anything she liked being reminded of. It made making up with Searle that much more important; even if he still hated her, he had to come wih them to the new place. Jack couldn't stand the idea of Searle left alone to get hurt, so if he wanted to dislike her, he could go right on doing that somewhere safe with group. But it really would be nice if he wasn't mad at her anymore. She was even mostly willingly to forget about Searle telling her she was going to hell.
She checked the radio against her hip one more time and knocked.
Searle was fiddling around with an iPod he'd picked up at the mall after returning to the Hard Rock when he heard a knock on his door. After his fight with Jack he'd wondered if Jed would come around to yell at him, but he never had. The knock was definitely not Jed's from the sound of it, and so Searle's mind immediately went to Jack. Setting the iPod on the table, Searle glanced toward the door before looking at the screen of his computer (another thing he'd gotten from the mall), which he was using to transfer music from CDs to his iPod. Did he really want to answer the door?
As a heavy weight settled atop his heart inside his chest, Searle pushed himself off the couch and went over to the door, unlocking it even though he felt nervous to see her. It wasn't that he thought he'd been wrong, but ... well, okay, he'd been wrong to yell at her. "Hey," he said, awkwardly, as he opened the door and he saw Jack standing there.
"Hey," Jack answered, just as awkwardly. She fidgeted for a moment, tugging on the hem of her T-shirt. "Can I, um, talk to you?" She didn't want to stand out in the hall if she didn't have to.
"Yeah." Searle opened the door wider, stepping back so Jack could come in. From the way she was acting Searle was fairly confident she wasn't angry with him, or at least not angry enough to want to yell.
Jack swallowed nervously and took a seat on the couch, trying to figure out what to say first. Part of her wanted to wait to tell him about Alice - she wanted him to come with the group because he wasn't mad at her anymore. Figure that out first. "Are we still fighting?"
Searle shut the door and headed over to the couch, easing himself down onto the comfortable cushion. This seating arrangement was comparable to when they'd fought in the first place, but he pushed that out of his head so he could answer Jack's question. "No, I...." Searle paused, scratching the back of his head. "I don't know. I still ... don't think it's right."
Jack could feel her heart sink; it sounded like as long he thought it was wrong, Searle wouldn't like her. "Do you know what happened to me when I got hit?" She didn't think she'd ever sounded so serious with him before but she couldn't look at him and spoke to her knees. "I tried to run away. I really did try but it didn't work. There were three of them and everybody's bigger than me. They held my arms so I couldn't get away and then they hit me over and over until Zoe found us and scared them away. They could've just hit me until I couldn't stand anymore or done something worse to me. What if Zoe hadn't come, what could I have done to make them stop hurting me?"
Throughout Jack's story, Searle only looked up at her once; the rest of the time, he couldn't bear it. She hadn't ever told him what happened to her when she got hit, and as she explained it Searle became aware that 'hit' was too light a word. She'd gotten beat up for some reason, or maybe no reason. And what could she do when people bigger than her held her down? A lump soared into Searle's throat as he couldn't help but picture the scene in his head, and he stared hard at the coffee table in front of the couch, trying to fight against the stinging sensation in his eyes. There was no reason for him to cry, and he was the older one out of the two of them, not to mention he was a boy. It was embarrassing to be feeling like that in front of Jack.
But all he could think about was how it was so unfair. It wasn't right that people were willing to hurt others, and it definitely wasn't right Jack had to think about protecting herself to the point of learning how to use a gun - or any kind of weapon. "I'm sorry," he said at length, his voice shaky but his eyes were dry for now. "Jack ... it's...." Searle finally looked at her, his brow furrowed and his mouth drawn in a thin line. "I don't know what to do or think," he admitted, in a soft tone. "I just know what I was taught, and this isn't the kind of place I was taught to live in. I'm scared. I know you are, too. I shouldn't judge you, but I care about you. I hear the word 'gun' and I think something so bad could happen."
Something twisted in Jack's stomach when Searle said he cared about her and she could feel her cheeks get hot. "I am scared," she admitted. "I don't want to hurt anybody. I still remember what it was like to be Jackie and go to school and stuff. I just don't want anybody to hurt me."
Searle nodded, looking away from Jack again. He still felt conflicted, but he didn't want to start another argument with her. What he thought was probably best was for him to just keep quiet about it for now and do his best to make sure himself and Jack were safe. Jed was pretty much policing her so the task might not be so hard. "Yeah, me either," he agreed. "You're my best friend." He took a deep breath. "We're not fighting anymore, okay?"
"You're my best friend, too." If she thought too much about what she was doing she wouldn't do it so instead Jack didn't think; she just turned to Searle and threw her arms around his neck.
The hug was more than welcomed, and Searle immediately returned it by winding his arms around her waist, feeling all of the awkwardness and tension of making up kind of fall away. He made a mental promise (he hoped he could keep) that he would definitely think before he did anything that could make him at odds with Jack. In many ways, even though he was part of a larger group of survivors, he felt Jack was the only person he had left.
Jack was blushing again when they pulled away and it seemed strange to be feeling so happy about something when so many bad things were happening. "Okay," she said, taking a deep breath, "I have more news. Kind of bad, actually. Somebody broke into Alice's house and she's okay - she's gonna be fine - but she got stabbed."
Just as he was feeling content, Jack gave him the bad news. Searle's eyes opened wide. "Stabbed? Where'd she get stabbed? Can Kathleen help her?"
"In her shoulder," Jack told him, wishing desperately that she didn't have to give bad news. "And I don't know, but Jed said she's gonna be okay."
Searle sighed heavily, resting against the back of the couch and letting his head flop back against the top. "Someone broke in," he repeated from before, then tentatively asked "and what did she do to them?"
Jack hoped they didn't go back to fighting once she told him. "She shot him," she said quietly.
After being quiet and still for several moments, Searle nodded. "I'm glad she's okay." Not so glad about the situation, however, but he wasn't sure if it could have been resolved any other way. Maybe that was just the way things were; maybe he would have to get used to hearing such news.
Jack nodded at him. "I'm not allowed out by myself anymore now. Like, at all. So you have to come with us, okay? We're going to be moving. Me, and Jed, and Alice I think now, too; and maybe Zoe. Someplace we can all live together and it'll be safer. You have to come, too." She searched his face, eager for some sign of agreement.
"I'm coming," he confirmed, not having to think about it for even a second. "I don't wanna be alone. And, hey, if you ever want to go out and Jed says it's okay if you go out with me, just tell me where you want to go and I'll come with you."
"Maybe." Jack wasn't sure Jed would let her out with just Searle anymore and it didn't seem like she could talk him out of it. After what happened to Alice, Jack didn't even think she wanted to be out in the city without Jed with her. "But for right now, we're just going to have to hang out in my room. Jed was even nervous about letting me come talk to you."
"Geez." Searle was a little surprised Jed didn't even want Jack to wander off in the same building they lived in, but then again someone had broken into Alice's house, so the same thing could happen in theirs.
"Hey, we can build a fort in your room like we did at the mall. Then when we get to the new place we can build a permanent one. It'll just be like mine and yours, and then whoever else gets to come in has to earn it." He smiled, and there was some mischievousness to it, because the adults (Jed) were pretty controlling and he and Jack could have control of their fort. "I can build pretty good stuff, so it'll be great. Just need the lumber."
"Yes!" Jack agreed. "Someplace just ours where we can have all our best stuff and the grownups won't be able to bother us. Our own place."
"Yep," Searle agreed, feeling lighthearted again, though he did want to go check on Alice and see how she was doing. "I'll look around for supplies next time I go out.
"Oh, and do you know where Alice lives? She's probably going to be staying in if she's hurt, right?"
"She's staying with me and Jed right now, actually." It was...strange.
"We should do something nice for her to cheer her up." Searle didn't know her very well, but maybe Jack did. "What do you think she'll like?"
"I dunno." The only thing Jack knew about Alice was that she was pretty sure the other woman hated her. "There's not really flowers or anything anymore. If it were me, I'd want all my favorite stuff and maybe something good to eat. You can make cake with applesauce instead of eggs, maybe we can make cupcakes or something?"
The information about applesauce as an egg substitute made Searle's eyebrows lift. "Yeah, do you know how to make them?" Because he had no clue, though it probably wouldn't be difficult to find a recipe in a book at a local store.
"I think I need a recipe." Her dad had showed her the applesauce trick, but Jack didn't think she could make a whole cake just from memory. And that was the problem; where would she get a cookbook?
"I'll get one," he assured her. "I'll go shopping." The world beyond the hotel seemed scarier now that two in their group had been hurt by outsiders, but Searle wasn't prepared to sit inside and worry.
Jack bit her lip because she was worried; she didn't like Searle going alone. "Okay...but take your radio. I'm not allowed to go but if there's anything weird, call on the radio and me and Jed'll hear it, okay?"
"Promise," he said, trying to look brave, but in reality he was extremely glad he had the radio in case he got into trouble. "We'll make them downstairs, so when I'm back with all the stuff I'll come get you at your room."
"Okay," Jack nodded. "Just be careful, okay?"