InsaneJournal

Who? Jack and Wendy
Where? Near Tampa, Florida
When? Backdated to last week
What? Some man and wife time
Open? No/Gdoc


Jack had thought he would have been pressing his luck if he had asked Wendy if they could stay. But he couldn’t deny Dan the want to spend as much time as he could with his Mom. But he also didn’t want to be too far away either, so instead of going to a hotel he slept in the van. And it wasn’t too bad really. He could even shower inside if he wanted too. Which he did that morning. He didn’t go for super fancy, like he had the day he’d taken her to the Doctor, or returned for the test results, today was strictly a blue jeans and polo sort of day. He planned to get some things done.

He’d already confronted the super, with threats to turn him in, with a deal, he buy the supplies needed to do some repairs around the building, and Jack would do them himself, free of charge. While he hadn’t specified just who he would be turning him into, the man straightened up and lived up to his end of the bargain. Paint was bought, lightbulbs, even screws and wood to take care of wonky steps, supplies to fix a few cabinet doors and drawers.

But first. First he had to see Wendy. So that’s where he found himself. He knocked, and hoped.

***

Wendy had not slept very much since the diagnosis. She had all sorts of acronyms buzzing around in her head and her thoughts flitted from Treatment plans to ‘What’s going to happen to Danny?’ to ‘I’m going to lose my hair’ and back to chemotherapy or radiotherapy or both (what a choice), and then a little jaunt down towards ‘I AM GOING TO DIE oh god’ and then back round again.

Dan was helpful. He knew a hell of a lot about oncology - he even sounded like a proper doctor at times, which amazed her - and he was able to explain a lot of the jargon and the stuff in the handouts and information packs, give advice on the different types of treatment. But this was hard on him, and she knew it. She could see when he was struggling to separate ‘My mom is sick again’ and ‘Discuss the various options with the patient, help them understand’. Last night, when neither of them had been asleep at 2am, he’d finally admitted to her that she’d died when he was just 19. He’d cared for her, and she had died, and now he worked in a hospice, doing the same thing over and over.

She knew he’d been looking after Doc, taking him out places while she’d been at the doctor or at work, so she’d asked Doc to take him somewhere nice today instead. He’d grumbled (he was sixteen, she’d woken him up to ask him, she’d expected it) but she thought he seemed pleased all the same. So the pair of them had left about half an hour before the knock on the door. She’d spent it sitting on the couch, drinking black tea and smoking and trying not to cry. She was scared and nervous and exhausted and terrified, she needed something, even if it was amazingly stupid to keep smoking when she’d just been told the cigarettes were killing her.

She answered the door, hoping it was Jack, and managed a small smile when it was. “Come in,” she said, and stepped back to let him inside. “The boys are out,” she said, and laughed a little at calling Dan a boy when he was older than she was, and suddenly, she was crying.

***

Anything Jack had been about to say died on his lips as she started crying. Without thinking he stepped in and wrapped his arms around her. Holding her as close as he could. He knew how scary this was. He’d been there before. “Hey. Hey. We caught this early. Odds are so high in your favor, you’re going to beat this.” God how he wished he could be there for her through it. Maybe maintenance would wait for another day.

“I know you’re going to beat this.” He had already talked to the doctors, had already set up an account that he threw cash at. Enough that he knew all her treatments were taken care of, and then some.

His hands caressed her back as he just let her cry. Even if he wanted to himself.

***

She clung to him and sobbed her heart out.

She cried for Danny, far too young to be on his own even at sixteen. She cried because she was scared, because what if it didn’t work, because it was going to hurt (She knew pain. They were old friends by now, but not like this), because it was huge and terrifying and she didn’t know what to do, even with Dan taking so much time with her. It wasn’t fair, damnit! So she cried, and Jack held her close.

For eleven long years, all she wanted was for Danny to be okay, for the pair of them to always have a roof over their heads, and for just one more hug from her Jack. And now she was wrapped in his arms once again. Sure, there had been hugs after he’d arrived but she’d held back, and quick reassuring ones at the doctors, and he’d hugged her after she’d gotten her diagnosis and she’d hardly reacted at all, but this hug, oh god. She was falling apart, utterly broken, but he was there and he was holding her together and she never wanted it to end.

She’d started trying to say things after a few minutes, but it was just scattered bits of sentences, small nothings that couldn’t even be put together to form anything coherent. Eventually, she fell quiet, her head aching and her eyes all red and puffy, but she never moved away from Jack, not once.

“I missed you,” she said, when she had her breath back. “So much.”

***

Jack didn’t mind holding on to her. It was one of his favorite jobs as a husband. Especially when she needed him. But he knew this for what it was. Even through the barely coherent words. This was eleven years of having to put the pieces back together that she should have never had to. And basically doing it alone. Something else she shouldn’t have had to do alone. And he loved her. In every shape or form, she was his wife.

He had alternated between lightly patting her back, stroking it and simply running his short nails over it. He continued to do so even when her tears seemed to slow down. “I missed you too.” And he had. It had been what? Almost a year? Since he’d seen her. “But I’m sorry I… I’m sorry you have had to miss me. I should have searched for something else. I should have listened to Danny. Or my gut. I just…” Was an idiot.

He leaned back just a little bit to get a peek at her face. Even red and puffy, she was still the most beautiful thing he’d seen in his life. “I bet you could use some water. And I need coffee.” Not that he wanted to let her go. Not in a million years. But needs needed to be met.

***

She buried her face in Jack’s chest as he apologized, then glanced up as he looked down at her. Nodding, she sniffled a little, before taking a step back and trying to act a hell of a lot more pulled-together than she actually felt. “Could you make me some tea as well?” she asked, straightening herself out and wiping at her eyes.

She should go and get her mug. And put out the cigarette. Maybe crack open the window a little in case there was a breeze, to clear the air in the living room. But she didn’t want to move away from Jack just yet.

***

“I could definitely try. I can’t say me and Dan drink a whole lot of tea, so if I get it wrong, you'll have to forgive me.” Jack winked down at her, before he stepped away, toward the kitchen, he lifted her hand and placed a light kiss on it. His fingers trailed lightly over hers as he let go.

It wasn’t a far walk, the apartment was pretty small. He’d purchased a small coffee pot that worked in the van, and that had gotten moved into the apartment. Being the wiseguy that he was he put some water into the machine and left out the grounds basket. And simply used the machine to make her some hot water that he could pour over the tea bag of her choice.

“Wendy, darling, how do you like your tea?”

***

God, but she loved him. Still. Eleven years later, or however many it had been for Jack, and he could still shock her into realizing just how much she loved him with just a touch to her hand. Danny had asked her a few months ago why she hadn’t ever dated again, and she’d told him there was only ever one man for her, but she hadn’t known just exactly how true those words were. How could she? Her husband had been dead for over ten years. But now? God almighty.

She watched him go into the kitchen before going to tidy up after herself. The cigarette had fallen into the ashtray already and was mostly gone, having smoked itself to ashes while she’d been clinging to Jack, so she simply stubbed it all the way out. She lifted her mug, and went back into the kitchen, still wiping at her face. She felt wrung out and achy, and her skin felt too warm and too tight after crying for so long. Jack would make tea, she would wash her face and then it was time to take painkillers anyway. She was okay, she was fine, everything was fine (it wasn’t, not really, but she had a lot of practice at things being Fine).

“I take it black,” she replied, and then paused. “...are you boiling water in the coffee pot? Jack, there’s a kettle on the stove,” she told him, and hid her smile behind her hand.

***

“Well that’s easy enough.” Jack did note that they all liked their drinks black. No cream, No sugar. Nothing to taint the pure taste. He could respect that. “Oh. I… Yeah.” He drawled as he glanced at the kettle. Well, he could put the heated water in it? “Does it have to be in the kettle? I made sure the basket wasn’t in so you shouldn’t get a taste of coffee.” And Jack meticulously washed the maker.

He smirked as the hot water dripped into the pot. She was laughing at him. He stepped up to her, and lightly touched the top of her hand. A brow raised. “You know, I won't be offended if you laugh at me. There’s a lot I can’t do without you. I can make eggs. And fry bacon as long as I’m paying attention to it. But I can’t do it without being bathed in grease.” He was pretty much a lost cause.

***

“No, it’s, that’s… I’m sure it’ll be fine. Really,” she replied, before looking up at him as he walked closer. She was still smiling as he admitted to an almost complete lack of cookery skills. “So if you and Dan were left to your own devices, the pair of you would just live on eggs, bacon and coffee? I’m going to have to get better at teaching Doc, I think.”

She set her mug down on the kitchen table, and then moved her hand very slightly. Turning it just so, she was able to take hold of his hand in hers, and brought their joined hands round between them. Looking down, he had a couple of scars she didn’t remember, and she brushed her fingertips over them before looking back up. “I’ve missed over half your life, Jack,” she said as she realized it. The hand she was holding was not a young man’s hand, after all. “Tell me about some of it, please? I need… a distraction, something that isn’t ‘Cancer’.”

***

“He’s got us signed up for cooking classes, but I don’t know if that’s going to do me any good. I have hope for Dan though.” With the way things worked on the station he didn’t know if anything would come of the cooking classes. It seemed like there were obstacles at every turn. Not that he was complaining, there were some good cooks other than he and Dan. And it kept the late night dining down to a minimum.

“Okay. I can cook up a good distraction. And no matter how crazy this sounds, keep in mind every bit of it is true.” Jack looked down at the scar she caressed. He didn’t doubt that she would believe him. After all, she had lived through the whole other page. “See, Dan has a friend named Bryn, and how they got to the … Hotel, is harder to explain so I’m just going to go with it. They got there, just as the hotel was taking ahold of my mind. You had just crammed me in the freezer. Dan and Bryn came and let me out, and forced, whatever it was that was trying to take over, out of my head. Bryn was going down to Sidewinder, to get a snowplow so we could leave. You me and Danny. It didn’t like that I was free, and while me and Dan were walking through the kitchen it launched knives at us, and how I managed to walk a way with just that little scratch, is beyond me.” That was just a small cliff’s notes version of his story. He looked at her in the eye, trying to read what she was thinking.

***

Wendy raised an eyebrow at the slight pun, and then listened, keeping hold of Jack’s hand with both of hers as he spoke. It all sounded more than a bit fantastical if she thought about it too much, but she knew Jack wasn’t telling lies. “You got out,” she said at the end of it, a bittersweet smile on her face at the thought of it. She didn’t question who the man in front of her was - she knew he was her husband. But at the same time, her husband had died in the Overlook, eleven years ago. This version of Jack had escaped with a cut finger, while her version had been blown up in the boiler room. Glancing down, she found the small scar again, and brought his hand up so that she could kiss the scar.

“We knew, you know. We knew it wasn’t… it wasn’t you. The things that place said… that it did to Danny, me and Dick, they weren’t you. You have a temper, yes, but. Not like that…” she told him, and then, “I’m glad you got out. Even if it wasn’t here, I’ll know now that somewhere, you got out.”

***

Jack smiled down at her when she kissed the scar. She could always melt him so easily. And then she explained. And even though he had heard it from two different Dans, and the woman he’d grown old with, the Wendy that went through it all… It just meant so much. He pulled her closer and wrapped his arms around her.

“It’s why we’re here. We want you to get out too. In my here, we didn’t catch it as early as we did, now. And you had to go through a lot. It was rough. Dan…” They hadn’t caught it early enough at all. He cleared his throat. It was hard to think about a world without her in it. “We wanted to change that.”

***

“He told me. He didn’t want to, but I made him,” Wendy said softly, tucked in against Jack once more. “He saved you, and now he’s trying to save me.”

She stayed pressed against him a little while longer, but her back was beginning to start complaining even louder than usual, so she had to go get her painkillers. Pulling back reluctantly, she made her way over to the sink to get some water, before opening the nearest cabinet and lifting down the box with all her tablets. She found the ones she needed, and took them with the water. “I have a bad back,” she explained, before looking back round at him.

***

He frowned slightly. At least he didn’t have to go into detail about what had happened to Dan’s version. His frown deepened when she pulled back. But when she explained the frown went away. “Yeah, I’ve got a pharmacy down in the van. No Oxy or anything like that but the stuff I have works pretty well. I’ve got it in stages, for how intense the pains are.” There had been talk about surgery, but Jack had not liked that talk.

“I can give you a massage later?” His eyebrow raised slightly when she looked back at him. He moved to get the hot water as it finished dripping into the coffee pot. He collected her mug, and a couple of tea bags, and just before he started to pour the hot water over the bags, he paused. “Uh. One or two?”

***

Wendy smiled at the offer of a massage. “That would be lovely,” she replied, although it possibly wouldn’t help that much. The only things she’d found that really helped with the pain were the painkillers. Having Jack putting his hands on her again, though… that would help in all kinds of ways, she realized, just as something else occurred to her as well.

“One is fine, thanks,” she said as she put her own pharmacy back in the cupboard. She closed the door carefully, then turned to face Jack again. “You don’t have to sleep out in the van, you know. You’re more than welcome to stay here. With me.”

***

Fishing the second teabag out he added the hot water. Trying his damndest not to stare like a moron, not allow his mouth to move without any words. But it was a good thing her mug was on the counter and not in his hand. “Are you sure? I mean, you could definitely kick me out after, because I still snore.” But he’d had close to a normal sleeping pattern down now.

Jack was proud that his voice didn’t crack, didn’t shake, but he was still grinning like an idiot. Like his high school crush just told him that she liked him too. He chanced a peek at her as he busied his hands with pouring the rest of the hot water back into the machine, filling it with coffee grounds, and flipping it on. Though the last he had to try three times before he actually hit the button.

***

“I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t sure, Jack.”

Wendy walked over to stand beside him as he fumbled at the coffee machine. His grin was gorgeous, and she couldn’t resist reaching up to brush her thumb along his lower lip. She barely touched him, before letting her fingertips trail over his cheek. “I still can’t quite believe you’re here,” she admitted.

***

Jack closed his eyes, an automatic reaction to his touch. He’d craved it. Missed it. He bit off a groan that wanted to pour freely from his lips. After a moment he whispered. “Some small part of me wants to say something corny and romantic, another wants to sweep you off your feet and kiss you till we’re both numb, but I don’t think our backs would thank us.” It was his way of testing the water. Would she hit him if he kissed her?

He opened one eye and peered down at her. That goofy grin still on his face. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to wipe it off for days. But then he’d always loved her. Even during the hard times. Maybe he loved her even more then.

***

She smiled back up at him, her fingers combing through his hair by now, while her other hand was pressed flat against his chest. “All of me wants you to shush, and kiss me,” she said. “Although you’re right about my back, at least. I can’t even manage going up on tiptoes to kiss you myself.” She didn’t bother mentioning that her bad leg was part of that as well. No point in detailing all of the injuries the Overlook gave her.

***

There, he had it. She wasn’t going to hit him for being too forward. For going too far. He turned his body into her completely. Everything else forgotten. Coffee ignored.

Jack wrapped his arms around her middle, trying to be as gentle as possible. He dipped his head and pressed his lips to hers without anymore ceremony, or invitation, needed. They weren’t kids anymore. And life had beat them up far too much to rush like his mind wanted him too. But he did let that groan free. He’d missed her. So so much.

***

Wendy’s arms wound round Jack’s neck as they finally (finally) kissed, and she nearly melted against him. Mindful of his back, she somehow managed to keep from letting all of her weight rest against him, and kissed him for as long as she could bear until the pain between her shoulder blades was too much. She broke off from kissing him, and lowered her arms as carefully as she could before loosely wrapping them around his waist. “It’s not… It’s my back,” she explained, and glanced up again. “I don’t want to stop,” she added, before she had an idea.

Stepping back just enough so that his hands weren’t all the way behind her, she took both his hands in hers and then started to walk backwards, leading him towards her bedroom. He wasn’t stupid, he’d catch on quickly enough.

***

“We could move to the couch? Make out like a couple of kids?” No, he didn’t really want to stop either. He had years to make up for, for her, and almost a year for him. He was sure he could handle her on his lap for a good long while.

But.. It seemed she had other plans. “Why Mrs. Torrance… I think I see where this is headed.” Jack didn’t hide any of the teasing flirtation in his tone at all. It took every ounce of willpower not to drop his trousers right there and follow her lead into the bedroom. He didn’t need a little blue pill, he just needed her.

***

“I should hope so, Mr. Torrance,” she replied, unable to keep the grin from her face as she said it, even with the pain in her back. The painkillers would kick in soon, and Jack was here, right here, and she was taking him to her bed, and honestly, if she hadn’t been in pain already, she would be pinching herself.

When they reached her bedroom door, she had to turn round and let go with one hand to open it. Her room was small and cramped - she’d given Danny the bigger room when they moved in a couple of years ago - with a bed, a wardrobe and a dresser in it and not much else. The photo album that Dan had given her sat on top of the dresser beside a little dish that contained her earrings and a couple of necklaces. Her work uniforms hung from the door of the wardrobe, freshly laundered and pressed, waiting for her next shifts, and that was it. She wasn’t going to waste time showing Jack round the room, though.

Two steps led them both over to the bed, and then she was looking up at him again. She reached up to touch his face once more. “I love you. I never stopped,” she said. “It’s only ever been you, Jack.”

***

The size of the room didn’t really matter just then. He only had eyes for her. If they had the rest of their lives he would show her, everyday, how much he loved her. As it was, they didn’t. He had to appreciate the time he was given. So his eyes fluttered closed when she touched his face again. That was something he would never get tired of.

“I’ve only ever loved you, Wendy.” Jack placed his hands on her waist and eased her back.