With his hand still on Gabe's shoulder, Jack watched Matt go with a strange look in his eyes. It wasn't worry, though he knew at least some part of him should be concerned that Matt and Gabe had plopped an active mission right on his doorstep. He knew once Matt called it in, Camelot wouldn't waste any time before coming to get them. An hour, maybe two tops – then Camelot would whisk away their (hopefully mildly) injured soldiers to a location much more secure than Jack's shitty apartment. And that would be that.
No, it was more that Jack felt guilty, and that was the look that followed Matt out of the room. He'd actually been excited to see two guys looking a lot worse for wear at his door, so excited that he felt his insides start buzzing with vicarious adrenaline just to hear a fraction of the hell they'd been through tonight. God. Could he have been more of an asshole? Six months of boredom and a lack of human contact outside a handful of people who didn't take any shit from him could account for a lot, but not everything.
Being a Strange sure was the pits sometimes.
Jack's shoulders hunched slightly, but by the time he looked back at Gabe, an expression of concern and mild amusement was masking his low opinion of himself. He could get back to his never-ending pity party when he was alone again, before his next crazy idea to distract himself came along. Right now he had a job to do.
"Grandma tendencies notwithstanding, I think he probably worries about the right amount." Jack couldn't help laughing under his breath a little even as Gabe wobbled and grabbed Jack's arm to keep himself upright. Pretty typical male behavior to minimize how hurt you were. Jack recognized it instantly because he was often guilty of it himself, though usually when he did it, his injuries were much more obvious than Gabe's and so his protestations were twice as ridiculous.
Usually his protestations didn't include almost accidentally saying the name of his dead brother, though. As he eased Gabe down into the chair, Jack held back a sharp intake of breath, now fully aware of who Gabe was. Jack remembered Andrés Martinez, knew exactly what happened to him because he'd been part of the team sent in to clean up the mess while the dead and wounded were taken back to base. He saw the resemblance between the brothers now, though there was something different about Gabe that he couldn't quite put his finger on.
Immediately, Jack felt guilty again, thinking about what he did have his fingers on, the muscles in Gabe's neck and shoulder that he could feel even through his jacket. Time and a place, you dummy, he thought – well, yelled – at himself, and this isn't it!
Releasing Gabe's shoulder, Jack squatted down next to the chair and ran his hands through his hair, exasperated with himself, as usual. As if on cue, Lucky started tromping through the maze, pointedly ignoring the lanes Jack had built and crushing the cardboard beneath him. Jack sighed heavily, but with a smile on his face as Lucky finally broke through the maze and came right over to him, a knowing look in his one good eye.
“This is Lucky.” Jack scratched behind the dog’s ears and glanced up at Gabe, partially making sure his eyes weren’t rolling back into his head but also partially admiring the guy’s truly astonishing bone structure. Jack was incorrigible. “See what I mean about too smart?”