Herc Hansen (stoptheclock) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-10-01 13:22:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log, hercules "herc" hansen, jessica jones (616) |
Who: Jessica Jones & Herc Hansen
When: Thursday 9/19
Where: A burger joint!
What: Getting to know each other, etc.
Rating: PG for Jessica's potty mouth. [ALSO a little spoiler-y for Pacific Rim, so if you care... now you know.]
Jessica wasn’t quite sure what exactly made her invite Herc out. Maybe it was the hunger, maybe it was because she didn’t want to bother anyone else. He was new so he didn’t know any better-- besides, Mary Jane and the Spiders (new band name, if you ask me) had a life outside of her pregnant ass. She dressed super casual, a hoodie and pants that might even be considered pajamas to some. She wasn’t trying to impress anyone. Part of her wished she had something to feed a dog. Jess even stopped to check her fridge. Nada. She made her way to the lobby, where she found a place to sit. Even with her hood yanked up over her head, she hoped the new-guy-with-a-kid-and-a-porn-name would recognize her. The last twenty four hours had been a whirlwind, and Herc still didn't know what to make of the situation he'd found himself in. It was real; that much he had finally accepted. Whatever power had drawn him back to 2013 was real. It hadn't sunk in until he'd woken up the next morning on a new couch after only a few short hours of sleep (which was typical for him; Herc rarely slept more than a handful of hours at a time, too used to being interrupted by a kaiju alarm or by a nightmare). Max had been snoring beside him, but when he felt his master move, he snorted awake and looked up at Herc with the same expression he always gave Herc when he first woke up: kindness mixed in with sadness, because they both knew what they'd lost. After a longer shower than he felt he had any right to, he'd gone shopping: food for him and Max, a leash for Max, dog bowls, a rawhide. He hadn't accepted that it was permanent, so he didn't get much. Just enough to last the day. They'd taken a long walk, and then they'd stayed in the apartment all afternoon, looking out over the city. Herc couldn't help wondering what Chuck would have thought about all of this. What he might have said. Jessica's offer came at the right time. Herc was starting to feel restless, and so was Max. He hadn't gone so long without anything to do in years. He hesitated once he reached the lobby, gripping Max's leash tight. The dog couldn't move fast, but Herc was loath to be apart for long. He hoped the young woman sitting down was Jessica, and so he approached her. He didn't look much like the Marshall he had when he'd first arrived; he'd reverted to something more casual and civilian as soon as he could. "Jessica?" Jessica perked up and removed her hood. Her hair looked a little bit like a bird’s nest. She didn’t exactly scream Mother Of The Year. Slowly, she moved up off the bench. “That’s me, you’re Herc? Herc Hansen?” A slow smile spread over her face. “I gotta say, that’s quite a name you got there. Were you a boxer? A … movie star? You know, before…” Jess looked down at the dog and addressed it like a human. A small wave and a nod. “Hello, Max.” She would have tried to pet him but she had a something much like bowling ball down her shirt. When she looked back up at Herc, she noticed he looked like a kindred spirit. Or maybe he was just tired. Sleepy people are Jessica’s People. "A movie star?" A brief look of confusion passed over his face as he tried to find an answer. He'd never been asked that before - but then again, most people he encountered knew exactly who he was. The confusion faded into a faint smile and he shook his head. "Neither. I was a pilot…" Before he was forced into more of a leadership role than he'd ever expected, and forced into the world of politics. "I played footy as a kid. Australian football." He shuffled from one foot to the other, unsure of himself in this new world. Where he'd been, Herc had been certain of his role and his place in what they had to do. There was no time for dinner with anyone if it wasn't a business dinner, let alone a young pregnant woman he'd just met. He cleared his throat. "Where are we going?" Jess motioned towards the doors and started walking. It was starting to get dark out-- not that she was ever scared of New York after dark. Super strength, plus now she had a big dude and a dog with her. “There’s a place down the street, they got burgers and fries. They got a patio, Max can hang out with us there.” She tilted her head for a moment and went back to the original topic, “A movie star, like-- nevermind.” Porn star, but she couldn’t bring herself to say it. This guy was just too nice. “Ahh, Australian. I can’t tell sometimes. You guys occasionally sound English. No offense?” Burgers and fries sounded like it would hit the spot, and Herc's smile widened a touch at the thought. He hadn't realized just how hungry he was until that moment, and he knew Max would like it too. They'd both lived on a hell of a lot less before, but if there was ever a time to truly indulge, it was now. "Right, Australian," he answered as he followed her out the door and to the street. He felt lucky to be used to large cities, but not knowing New York at all was still overwhelming. "None taken. There are worse things you could say." He knew plenty of Australians who would take offense at being compared to the English, but Herc was too world-weary to be one of them. There were more important things to be upset about, truthfully. "You're American? You occasionally sound…" He paused for effect. "American." “Occasionally?” Jessica laughed, glad that her harsh New York accent was unnoticed. Maybe it was more sour-sounding to someone like Kaine, who was living in Texas. Augh, Kaine, no, none of that. She smiled at him, “Yeah, I’m from around here.” She didn’t want to walk in silence, but wasn’t really sure what to talk to him about. He was from a kind of bleak future, wasn’t he? “Is it hard? To leave your kid behind?” Her hand was rubbing her belly and she didn’t even realize it. Herc knew he should have expected to hear that question -- or at least, now that he'd heard it, he felt like he should have expected it -- but he had yet to meet a single person who didn't know who Chuck Hansen was. His son's face had been everywhere Herc had looked after the breach had finally been closed. The questions he'd faced in the aftermath had been different; everyone knew what had happened. A lump formed in his throat, and Herc was quiet for a moment longer. "It's hard," he answered, his voice thick with emotion despite himself. "Every day. He's --" Herc glanced down at Max, almost as though he was seeking reassurance that it was okay to say it, to say that his son was dead. "He died." There was a difference in Herc's mind as to what happened to Chuck and what happened to Angela: his wife was killed, but his son chose his destiny. Her hand dropped off her belly. “Wow. I’m-- shit, I’m sorry.” Twice in one night, she puts her foot in her mouth to some nice new guy. “I’m really sorry.” Even before she was on her way to being a mother, she could imagine what that was like. She lost family. She still wasn’t going to hug him, though. Jess paused a few feet from the restaurant. She turned and looked at him. “Hey, hey, I’m sorry.” The all too familiar ache in Herc's chest was building again. It was always there in varying degrees, and most of the time, the pain was manageable now. It would always be there, for the rest of his life, and Herc was learning how to live with the Chuck-shaped hole in his life. His schedule didn't allow him much time to think about it, but late at night, he felt the loss keenly. "It's not your fault," he insisted, "but… thank you." The bags under his eyes were dark, the lines in his face deeper now as though the burden of that loss was dragging him down. He inhaled deeply, trying to ground himself again. "He died doing what he loved most. That makes it easier." That didn’t make it go away, but he was comforted by that knowledge. Jess felt weird, so she reached out and touched his upper arm. Gave him a little awkward squeeze. “Come on, let’s eat until we can’t move.” It sounded a lot better than My Whole Family Died One Time or I Was Kidnapped And No One Noticed. Misery doesn’t really like company. She continued walking up to the little eatery and took a seat on the patio. There was a low hum of people talking and places were lighting up, she loved it. “I feel bad that I haven’t heard of you… but we’re on the same level, you never heard of me.” It was an assumption, but it was usually a pretty good one. “Giant robots… how about we go back to the footy thing?” The gentle touch was nice - a little strange, and Herc sensed she wasn't exactly comfortable - but it was nice. He was used to seeing pity in other people's eyes, so that he barely noticed. The comfort wasn't something he was used to, however. People didn't hug him. Most people didn't know what to do with him. He chuckled lightly and shook his head. Max took a seat beside Herc's feet, heaving a deep sigh as he lowered himself to the ground. "Everyone... at home knows who I am and wants to talk about the giant robots, not about anything else. But I'm in charge of the program, so... footy it is." That was his way of saying he was glad they didn't know each other. He glanced around, marveling at the city. "What's good here?" Jessica picked up the menu and fumbled with it, almost as if it were a roadmap. “Where are the dinner specials--” She looked up at Herc so she could respond without being rude. “Hm? Here, like, right here? Or the city itself? I’ve lived here my whole life and I’m kind of biased.” Jessica hadn’t been too far from Queens. Even when she was adopted to another family, it was a Queens family. It seemed dull, but she was very lucky. She felt sorry for the guy. Maybe she felt sorry for everyone. Hey, that meant she wasn’t feeling sorry for herself anymore. Way to go, Jess! “Right here,” he clarified, but an answer about the city as a whole would have been useful too. Herc had been planning to go to New York and Washington D.C. soon, but it would have been through the PPDC; he had no idea how much time he’d have to be a tourist, so he hadn’t started thinking about what to do there. It was hard enough to plan one day ahead, most of the time. “But there’s no one better to tell someone about a city than a local. Locals know all the secrets, and there’s no telling how long I’ll be here.” He’d heard that some people had been there over a year, but that seemed impossible to him still. “I could use all the help I can get,” he added as an afterthought. If he was going to be here a while, there was a lot he’d need to know. Jessica sat back in her chair and counted on her fingers. “I got here in May, right at the end. So..., June, July, August… September. Wow. Four months? Shit. And yeah, I lived in the city before I was moved over a few dimensions. It’s all basically the same. I got this.” She watched his face to see if she would have to clean up her language. Her baby’s first words would have to be bleeped. “I get a double bacon burger and fries.” She patted her stomach. “But I got an excuse.” Four months. Herc blinked and stared at her for a moment before realising it wasn’t polite to stare like that, so he averted his gaze and looked down at Max instead. Four months. He couldn’t imagine still being in New York four months down the road, but maybe he’d better start planning ahead. He glanced back up at her, eyes darting to her stomach briefly, and the corner of his mouth twitched upwards just slightly. “Does hopping dimensions and going back in time count as a good excuse for a double bacon burger and fries too?” he asked. It sounded perfect, and Max grunted a little as if to say he approved. “Or am I going to have to come up with something better?” Jess grinned at his small attempt at a smile. But she wouldn’t let that stare go without a mention, “Yeah, I wasn’t happy when I showed up here. I wasn’t expecting any of this to happen. I even woke up with some new memories at one point. It’s really… kind of scary.” She rubbed her stomach, “People I know are here, they have already met my kid, because of space and time and all that bullshit. They know what I named her-- they told me I married her dad. Which is really weird considering I haven’t seen him in months and kind of … don’t really feel anything for him.” Hey, strangers are the best people to vent to, right? She went back to the subject that made him smile a bit, “Hey, it’s a perfectly good excuse. If I was in any shape to drink, I would suggest we do that, as well.” “I could drink for both of us,” Herc suggested, realizing that he finally had a chance to let go when he hadn’t been given one in years. There had been no time for that, and it’d been dangerous, too. The pilots couldn’t afford to be drunk or hungover too close to a possible kaiju event, and Herc always had too many other responsibilities in between. It must have been strange to know people from your future and for them to be able to tell you about what you did when you weren’t in that frame of mind yet. Herc wished he could relate in some way, but he was out of his depth there. “What’s her name? Are you going to use it here too?” Jessica shrugged, kind of sadly. They were brought waters and she took a sip from her straw first. “I guess we call her Danielle. I don’t want to … I don’t know what else I’d call her.” Suddenly she wanted to call the baby something else. It was her baby, after all. Luke was there but he was there for the night. He wasn’t there later, when she needed him. When she came to his apartment in Harlem. Fuck that guy-- “How’d you guys name your kid?” Herc was having trouble imagining what he would have done in her shoes, if they’d heard the name before they’d been able to decide on one. He thought back to how he and Angela had felt when they’d chosen Chuck’s name. There was a lot of pressure to pick the right name. The name would stay with the child forever (or until he or she changed it legally), and there were so many things to consider: nicknames, did it fit with the last name, would the child be teased for it, how would it sound if he became a politician or a famous businessman. To throw “this is your child’s name in the future” on top of that... well, it put Jessica in a difficult position, he thought. The memory of picking Chuck’s name brought a smile to his face - a wistful one, but a smile nonetheless. “We were hopeless. Couldn’t pick anything we liked most, even when we were in the hospital after he’d been born. And then… Charles was one we’d tossed around before, but we weren’t really sure about. Angela was less sure. But there’s history in the name, an old Australian aviator, so I’d suggested it. I remember we were sitting on her bed, looking at him, and out of nowhere she says the name again, and we just... knew.” Jessica liked his story, as told by her chin in her hands paired with a dreamy smile. “I don’t know how I feel about Danielle. That’s what everyone knows her as. She’s named after …” She squinted her eyes and puckered her lips. “Iron Fist? Do you know him? We know him. He’s the baby’s dad’s best friend. I might just call her Baby for awhile. Yeah. Like Dirty Dancing. Classic.” She then suddenly wanted to cry, or punch a dude. Perhaps while crying. “Dirty Dancing’s a good movie, don’t knock it,” he told her, trying to give her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. There was something about the way she looked right then that made Herc want to help, but that had always been a trouble of his: he’d always gone out of his way to help people in need. He couldn’t stop now, just because the apocalypse hadn’t started in this world. He leaned in a little, resting his arms on the table. Max sighed beside him, and Herc imagined he was probably thinking about food - as usual. Or maybe Chuck, since they’d been talking about him. “Do what feels right. You don’t need to call her Danielle just because everyone else knows her that way. This is… a brand new world. Follow your heart, and you’ll find the right one. Everyone else can get used to something different.” Jessica smiled, because Herc was right. She knew he was right because he had lived a long time, and had big thick arms, and a sturdy dog-- okay, he was right because she wanted him to be right. “I like the cut of your jib, you wanna signal that waitress that we’re ready now?” Herc might end up being a surrogate grandpa for this kid, if he didn’t watch out. |