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Tweak says, "make him a big garlic-y omelet"

Captain Jack Harkness (foreverjack) wrote in marinanova,
@ 2017-02-07 09:59:00

Entry tags:

aidan reilly, ianto jones, jack harkness, kitty pryde (aoa), martha jones

Day 414 / Open action
Jack's out and about today but he's starting to like Mistletoe Days less and less the longer he's here. And especially just now – given the current delicate state of his blue-band relationship, getting caught by a bot today just seems like it'll be asking for trouble!

Nevertheless, he will inevitably get caught. A man can't live without his coffee, and he's determined to make up for his binge drinking over the last couple of days (or twenty years) by getting back into his early morning swim routine.

He's kind of looking for Ianto too. A little too nervous to actually call him and get this talking thing started, more kind of hoping he'll just run into him and – well. Things will just happen.

((OOC: Decided to put this in a separate post for easier navigation on potentially long threads!))

((Note: NSFW happenings in the Ianto thread (surprise surprise!!!) ))

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notrosesshadow
2017-02-14 05:07 am UTC (link)

Martha squeezes his hand back. She feels herself straddling a the line of wanting to be there for Jack while realizing that she's yet again meeting his needs and not making hers known. But when does she ever make her needs known. Not unless something horrific happens to her.

She focuses her attention on him though, and she does feel for him.

"That's... wow. I'm sorry, Jack. Are you still together? Or have things blown up badly enough that you've taken a break?"

She remembers those twenty years as well, and she wonders if it was enough to cause an unhealable rift in their relationship. She hopes not. Martha always rooted for Jack and Ianto.

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foreverjack
2017-02-14 10:41 am UTC (link)

As has been established extremely well over the last few days, Jack is not at all good at noticing when other people have things they'd like to tell him but aren't telling him, so that could well be another big storm brewing for later!

"Uh," he says again, realising that even this question doesn't have a simple answer. "Well, he's been staying with Spike since the morning after the time shift." A hard little laugh. "Feels like a hell of a lot longer, considering those other memories! But..." He glances down at his wrist, where the blue of his sex band is still peeking out from beneath the leather of his wriststrap. "But we haven't dissolved the blue bands or anything, so I guess you'd say we're on a break. Funny, really - I hadn't even thought about the bands. Hadn't thought about wanting to sleep with anyone else and not being able to, even with the those memories of being able to so fresh in my mind."

Which throws up some interesting thoughts about exactly how he feels about Ianto, how invested he actually is in this relationship.

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notrosesshadow
2017-02-15 07:14 pm UTC (link)

Perhaps it'll be a storm. Perhaps Martha will just turn to someone else. She's not volunteering any information, nor is she really giving off any signals. It's an inner battle really. One she's not sure how much longer she'll keep fighting. She turns her attention to Jack.

"That bodes well that you've not thought about dissolving the bands or sleeping with anyone else. So now we need to get you talking. Effectively. What would you say to him if he were here right now?"

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foreverjack
2017-02-18 10:19 am UTC (link)

He will be devastated that he didn't notice, especially after this whole thing with Ianto!

He gives her a rather sheepish smile at the compliment, because he's currently incredibly confused about where he's actually at with wanting to be monogamous for Ianto and yet having been very definitely not so for twenty years in his memory and what he actually wants and how much he actually has changed and. And. Yeah, very confused.

"I don't know," he shrugs helplessly. "I don't want to lose him and I want to change enough to make things work but I need him to see he needs to work with me on that and make some changes too. And if we do get stuck here forever like we did in that future, I have no idea how to reconcile my need for variety with his need for commitment."

So, not exactly answering the question What would you say to him. Because he's still trying to figure this out!

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notrosesshadow
2017-02-20 01:04 am UTC (link)

Martha leads him to an out-of-the-way bench and sits down with him.

"All right. Take a deep breath. Relationships aren't easy, and yours is a hell of a lot more complicated than most I've ever seen. But we can work through this. You can work through this. Think about how you feel. How did the future make you feel? How does it make you feel now? Feelings are good."

Nevermind that she's pushing hers down.

"Try getting in touch with yours, Jack."

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foreverjack
2017-02-22 09:47 pm UTC (link)

He goes with her because in a funny way he trusts her with this sort of thing more than he would anyone else. She's known him longer, seen him in action, seen him with the Doctor, and she's the only other person he knows (apart from the one she's married to) who's walked away from the Doctor. Martha knows her own mind, and he respects that, and probably places a higher value on it than she realises.

He sits down with her and looks at her and swallows. Feelings, right. He gives her a rather sheepish little smile. "Mostly, it made me feel helpless. Like there's no hope. I mean, people have been telling me we can make it work, but that feeling's still there, that I'm not worth the work, not when he's got everything he wants in Spike."

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	notrosesshadow 2017-02-23 01:57 am UTC (link)
	Martha wasn't used to seeing Jack's ego so deflated. And she was starting to wonder how much of that ego was a defense mechanism. But she can work with this. She thinks. "Ah. What does he get from Spike that he can't get from you?" (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

foreverjack
2017-02-23 05:08 pm UTC (link)

Perhaps she doesn't understand him as well as he thinks she does. Or perhaps he's just got so used to putting on his mask of bravado that it's become impossible to penetrate even by those who know him really well.

After all, Ianto seems to have the same impression of him, that he's unfazeable, untouchable. He certainly doesn't feel that way, certainly not now.

"Spike gets him," he says helplessly. "Spike seems to know what he needs and even if he doesn't, he feels he can talk to Spike. And Spike's a romantic, which seems to be what he wants. All I have to offer him is fantastic sex, and that doesn't seem to be enough any more!"

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notrosesshadow
2017-02-24 07:22 pm UTC (link)

It's difficult. Martha feels like there's two or three questions she needs to ask, and she's not sure which to pursue. She only had a semester of psych courses. And that was enough to refer people to therapists. No amount of study she did here would ever make her as good as an actual trained therapist. She decides to continue on the current topic.

"Do you want to be romantic with him? To start to notice what else he needs and to be more approachable yourself?"

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foreverjack
2017-03-08 11:07 am UTC (link)

"I..." Hesitating because however seductive he can be, romantic gestures have never really been his thing. But the second part has an obvious answer. "Yes! Of course I'd like to be aware of what he needs and of course I want him to feel he can talk to me. I honestly had no idea I was so intimidating and hard to approach! Not to people who actually know me, I mean - the people I'm close to. Everyone seems scared to talk to me in case I'll bite their head off or just ignore them or - I don't even know!"

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notrosesshadow
2017-03-08 07:09 pm UTC (link)

Martha almost retorted that she was happy to meet him head-on in any argument, but that wouldn't help anything.

"Right then. I'm going to challenge you Jack. Every day, I want you to sit down with Ianto and share something with him. Share something that happened that day and how it made you feel. It can be as mundane or as complex as you want. Good or bad. If you want to get really crazy, you can ask him about your day. But the goal is to open up yourself. Let yourself be vulnerable."

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foreverjack
2017-03-10 04:30 am UTC (link)

"Every day?" he asks sceptically, extremely doubtful about his ability to pull that one off.

Except, the more he thinks about it, the more it sounds like exactly what they need. "I guess I can do that," he says eventually, steeling himself up to the idea the way someone else might steel themselves up to going into battle - for him a much easier thing to do! "Kind of, initiate openness so he feels he can talk to me?"

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	notrosesshadow 2017-03-13 10:58 am UTC (link)
	"Every day," she reiterates. As he continues to talk his way through it, she nods encouragement. "That's exactly right. And how about this? Do it every day for five days. You can of course keep going after five days, but just make five days your goal. Then check in with me." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

foreverjack
2017-03-16 03:40 pm UTC (link)

Okay. Five days sounds a lot more achievable than forever. Baby steps, and all that.

After a moment to take it all in and assess it, because he's not the sort of guy to agree to something he can't commit to, he nods. Even smiles a little. "All right. It's a deal!"

And then, because this all feels so horribly scary, he asks for reassurance: "You really think it'll work?"

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	notrosesshadow 2017-03-22 09:16 pm UTC (link)
	Martha squeezes his hand. "If you make the effort, I really do think it'll work." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

foreverjack
2017-03-24 05:54 pm UTC (link)

"I hope you're right," he says, on a sigh. "I could really use something that'll work right now!"

He takes a breath and then looks at her, uncharacteristically open and unsure of himself. "When I was talking to Spike yesterday, I kind of made a realisation that, well... this whole unapproachable thing. I think it comes from when I was a Time Agent, initially. I put on this whole great big... aura of mystery and aloofness, to stop people asking awkward questions. And then when I got stuck in the Nineteenth Century, it became even more necessary. I think - I realised it's something I actually created myself. I just... I don't know how to turn it off any more!"

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	notrosesshadow 2017-04-05 09:29 pm UTC (link)
	"You do turn it off. Not often, but I've seen you turn it off before. This will help. Trust me on this?" She smiles up at him. "Please... just trust me, Jack." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Perfect icon :-) foreverjack 2017-04-10 03:34 pm UTC (link)
	She's asking a lot, but there's probably no-one else he would trust as he does her. He looks at her for another long moment, and then lets out a rather explosive breath, squeezing her hand and then letting it go. "Okay. I'll try. Thank you, Martha." Leaning in for a quick kiss to her forehead, and then getting to his feet. "I think I'd better go and find him." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Thought it was appropriate. notrosesshadow 2017-04-11 09:06 pm UTC (link)
	Martha smiles up at him and waves him off. "Good luck," she whispers once she's sure he's out of ear shot. A moment later, she walks off in the opposite direction. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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