Re: [Taxi: Cat & Jack]
[Did he know she'd take it as a compliment? Very probably, Jack knew by now how little Cat liked to be considered simple, easy to read. Anna Karenina and war stories and if experience had taught him anything, it was that he knew but a fraction of the whole. It was easier to call when she was very clearly different. But he thought of Helena.]
So she keeps you under control. It sounds exhausting. That and your sister, and nothing to round out the pleasures of family. Did Helena or Sasha kick off before Russia, or both? [Guess. But Cat circled back to history, and Jack eased open the mental book. He'd seen expensive women going quietly mad of boredom, but that hadn't been his.] Originally? Medical, I think. It was by degrees, she started very quietly but you couldn't be quiet in that house. It was too ugly for theatrics. It didn't put her on center-stage, it took her off stage altogether. [But Newt had survived, even after Jack had departed. How he'd managed their father, Jack hadn't the slightest. But he had.]
He wouldn't. But guilt doesn't listen to reason much of the time and I wonder sometimes if I made it worse. I'd shout back. I'll ask Bob. [Gear-shift, because Bob was easier. Bob. Perhaps he'd learn more about Newt from Bob.]
You talk far too much without saying anything to begin with for anyone who doesn't listen. [Acknowledgment, because Jack remembered passion as far easier to sustain than the other. Passion survived long after you loathed each other - or worse, bored each other. But it was a compliment of sorts, and it was unsuppressed amusement when he said it.]
Talking about why, do you mean? [A glance in the mirror.] Or do you mean something else?