The house felt weird. Jack couldn't really put his finger on what about it was really getting to him, but the announcements, the "presents" that morning had really set everyone into a tizzy that was different than the norm.
Right. The norm. As if that were a thing now.
Jack was determined to not let if phase him that much. He was feeling pretty good from his productive day with Cecilia the day before, even if his playful flirtations only managed to fill his quota for lady glares twice over. She wasn't a bad lady, and he couldn't blame her for being so "business-mode" about everything considering she had a hell of a lot on her shoulders. Honestly, everyone did, but Jack was used to being that smiling, dopey face poking in under everybody's rain clouds.
Even if it killed him. Or got him punched in the face.
Well, Juno had promised she wouldn't.
Jack knew this kitchen as well as his own by now, and he easily went around fishing out pots, pans, utensils and appliances that he would need for his lunch project. Pulled pork was tough to do without tossing it into a slow cooker overnight, but he wasn't willing to wait that long, or trust that he'd even be at the house in time to deal with it when it was ready. Thankfully, he had a way around that, tossing the dutch oven onto the counter and inspecting it to make sure it would work.
Next, he raided the fridge and cupboards for other things that he would need. Pork, vegetable oil, onion, garlic, salt and pepper, cumin, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, chicken broth, ketchup, apple cider vinegar, molasses, and honey. By the time he was finished, the counter was covered in containers, more than he'd bothered with in all the time he'd spent cooking that week so far, and he couldn't help but line them all up as if they were standing at attention.
"Alright, troops," he chirped, twirling a whisk between his fingers as he paced from one end of the counter to the other, reading the labels and trying to think if there was anything he was missing. "Don't fail me now."