Twenty Bells: [Action/Voice]

[simplestgift]

[He'd won her a stuffed penguin. She'd been hanging on his arm and squeezing it with a giant grin on her face. Everything felt, finally, like it was going to be okay. Like this trouble between them since sleeping together was just a little thing.

He turns away to grab a strawberry daiquiri for her, still holding her hand. When he turns back, she's gone.

He wanders Lucetiland for a while, looking for her, shaking, still holding the drink, but he knows what's happened. When someone dematerializes while you are touching them...

She was just there, grinning, cheeks rosy. The warmth of her hand hasn't quite faded yet.

He sits on a bench in the middle of the park, staring into space, and nothing in the world draws his attention until, mechanically, he draws out his journal. He's shaking too badly to write, so he has to voice it, and he sounds weak.]

Dawn Summers was sent home.

Comments

[voice] Next day is good!

[simplestgift]

[Archie is in the middle of staring at breakfast. He's actually pretty grateful when Jack interrupts.]

Yes?

07

[all7seas]

Kennedy, I've a proposition for you. I need a man to help crew the Joanna for...for however long it takes. A voyage. I thought you might be just the man.

[simplestgift]

[Blinking. Pause.]

A voyage. And the purpose of this voyage?

[He's pretty sure the purpose is "distract Archie Kennedy," considering he'd tried this tack on Jack when Buffy was kidnapped. Not to mention it's not the first time in his life someone has tried this with him.]

[all7seas]

To patrol for New Feathers what might get dropped in the sea. And to try to listen to Kipinn.

[Jack could care less about New Feathers dropped in the sea. It's totally a distraction for Kennedy.]

[simplestgift]

[That works. Times like these make him cling to Horatio more than usual, but there are always journals, and...

He's not sure if he's feeling it, but maybe he'll feel it once they set out.]

When?

SUPROSE!

[all7seas]

"Dunno. Soon?" It might be that the draft announcement would interrupt them, but Jack had learned that if you wanted to do something in Luceti, you had best do it soon before the possibility dissolved. "It's only...Buffy shouldn't be left alone just now."

[simplestgift]

Buffy won't be alone. She's still waiting for McCoy, but Jilly will be there. Moreover, Archie isn't looking forward to watching Jack comfort the woman he loves.

But Buffy understands. It isn't that he has an objection to her coming, but he's not looking forward to feeling like the third wheel.

"You two will have the cabin, then. I'll sleep on deck."

He wishes Horatio was coming, but he doesn't think Jack would agree to it.

[all7seas]

"She's not coming on our bloody voyage, man!" Exasperation. "Pirates only. Not for girls!"

[simplestgift]

A pause.

"Then...what?"

[all7seas]

"I've just got to see to it that she'll be alright to leave before we go. That's all I meant by it, though I have been trying to teach her to sail."

[simplestgift]

"All right, then." A huff of breath. "I'll tell Horatio."

Really not feeling it. And that means something is very wrong.

[all7seas]

But Jack KNOWS that things are very wrong. He knows because two years of yearning hit him all at once as he memories returned; the intensity of loss. And he knows the dream of a dozen little Kennedys running about, because he spoke it directly into Archie's brain on a sail for freedom.

"Tell him---perhaps he'd like to come along?"

........Guh, Sparrow. SHUT it. Don't......nrrf.

[simplestgift]

A pause.

"What?"

1/2

[all7seas]

2/2

[all7seas]

MaybeHoratioHornblowerwouldliketojoinusonthislittleventure?

[simplestgift]

A longer pause.

"I'll ask him."

Is this...an indication that Jack, maybe, perhaps, likes the captain? Jack disliked Archie at first, didn't he?

[all7seas]

No, no no no nonononononono. Not an indication. Not even an indication of an indication of an indication. There is no liking. Not a smidge of liking. And one of the two men may not survive the voyage but at least in Luceti souls come back.

"Just...tell him he can tag along, if he likes. If you want him."

[simplestgift]

"That's...very kind of you, Jack." A beat. "I thought you hated him."

[all7seas]

"Hate is possibly not the right word what I would use in this particular and highly specifical circumstance of a dislikeable nature. Possibly."

[simplestgift]

A beat. "I will speak with him. It would do him good to be at sea again."

[all7seas]

"Right. It'll be a wondrous thing to see Hornblower cresting the waves once more, I'm sure. I'll try to find him a floaty lifejacket."

There had to be SOME spite in there, somewhere. After all, this was Horatio Hornblower.