[PRP] Displacement (Jack & Chel)

[medigel]

The first thing he realizes past the relaxation is the gnawing. It's louder than the duality of his memories somehow--body over mind for once--and his fingers itch with old impulses he had no conscious thought in forming. Before he knows it, he pulling out a pack from his coat pocket and tapping a cig out like he's done it all his life. But when did that happen now? He is relaxed. He is at odds. He is putting the cigarette to his lips and flipping the lighter and breathing it in until the itch goes away.

They're back. This at least Jack can focus on. All of them look more haggard for it; he wonders if any can see past his calm facade, past the sudden split of exhausting training and utter relaxation. The taste of sandwiches is quickly being overtaken by the taste of cooling smoke.

He nods at Shun, mouths, Later. At present, he was pretty sure all of them were going to need a few days to adjust to the new world.

"Give you a ride back?" he offers Chel as he puts the pack away.

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

"Yeah," she says in a hollow kind of way.

"Yeah." This time repeated with a heavy sigh, like she hasn't seen him in years. She wraps her arms around his waist and they walk back to the car in silence.

---

"Can I talk about it later?" she asks his prying mind when they're driving back. She isn't even sure where he's taking her. His house? Her house? Did it matter?  

[medigel]

There isn't a flurry of questions this time, for once. Just a curious look, and not even aimed at her, but rather at his car. It's older. Why is it older?

His window is rolled down some so the smell doesn't bother her. (Or him for the matter. His habit didn't make him sloppy in this timelines at least.) The consequence was that some of the chilly Ashdown air would sometimes slip through. Jack slaps the heater on and turns it towards her.

"Yeah," he answers, almost in an undertone. "Course."

He doesn't ask how the camera is back in his possession. It sits in the backseat like a quiet, forgotten child. They are headed, rather aimlessly, through town.

"Glad you guys came back safe," he says after a moment, glancing at her.
 

[chiickadee]

Chel has her face on the heater. She hates the cold; she always has.

"Doesn't seem like it changed much." Except Sunny; she was a touch less doomsday now.  

[medigel]

"Minus the lack of doomsday s**t?" he points out in tandem with her thoughts. "But yeah. Place seems mostly the same." Just not the memories. He draws on the cigarette and puffs out instead of pursuing that line of thought, disgusted that he's not feeling disgusted about it.

"You want something while we're out? Food? Or you just wanna go home?"  

[chiickadee]

It took Chel some time to catch up with the moment. "Since when d'you smoke?" she asked, and a frown so small its nearly fractional crosses her lips. You wouldn't even see it if you didn't know her, and Jack did know her.

Wanna go home?

And which place was home exactly? Jack's bed? Chris' couch? Shun's motorcycle? America's diner?

For a single, small moment, Chel is 17 again and she's longing to leave her parent's house and have a place of her own. But she works at a 7-11 and spent her wages on Christmas; Chel can't even dream of a home of her own. She just has spots in everyone else's lives.

"I need t'buy some flowers." It's abrupt and doesn't answer his question. The answer is back to his place, so she can sleep (goddamn she's tired; when was the last time she sat down?), but instead going to a grocery store to get some flowers strikes her as something that needs to be done right now. She had a grave to visit soon. She'd almost forgotten.

medigel

 

[medigel]

Jack's frown increased as he looked ahead once more. "I don't know." It was one of his least favorite feelings if not the worst of all, this lack of control. Except some Jack had done this. It was him. It just wasn't his.

"Who're they for?" he asked as he turned the corner. There was a local grocer that shouldn't have been far from them, assuming Ashdown's street layout hadn't changed.

chiickadee

 

[chiickadee]

"My great grandpa."

Chel watched his cigarette carefully, evauating it like a cat. She'd slept with plenty of smokers before; she'd probably even smoked once or twice in her past (not that she remembered). It just felt out of place on Jack. She decided she didn't like the worry it gave her, but she said nothing on the matter. Jack's life, Jack's choices.

"I'll visit him later, just ... need to get them. I almost fergot with everything."  

[medigel]

That was the first time he had heard any connection to a family member that wasn't Chris. "Sure thing."

As they pulled into the parking lot, Jack paused with the cigarette to his lips, turned the car off, and pulled the cigarette away. When they passed through the automatic doors, he put it out on a nearby trashcan and tossed it. A tight fist grasped the pack still in his coat pocket.

The gardening section was to the right of the entrance. "Looking for any in particular?" he asked as they began to browse.
 

[chiickadee]

"Cheapest," she told him.

She settled on a fistful of carnations that were slightly discounted because one of the stems had broken and the flowers were a little sad.

Chel was still cagey and rattled from the events prior. Not so much the casting but the visions she'd had on the beach. She could handle any sort of physical challenge; it was the mental stuff that wore her out.

"Your place," she said, leaning on him while the grocer rang her up. "I wanna sleep." She was trying to keep talking for his sake. Normalcy.  

[medigel]

"Mm." Chel knew him well enough; the grunt was one of relief, back by an arm that went around her with quiet need.

He managed a fistful of dollars and, when that didn't cover the cost, pulled out his credit card. "Saving the world," he told her, tiredly, firmly, "means I can buy the flowers." And a couple of candy bars on top of that, because why not. He had no idea what was going to be waiting in the fridge.
 

[chiickadee]

"Get some real food," she told him, but it lacked the usual bite.

"Ain't you tired too?"  

[medigel]

"Yeah." He pocketed his wallet and picked up the bag of their meager goods; his her arm as still around her as they walked, unless she chose to move it. "Different reasons is all. Apparently I was training to pick up a new trick while simultaneously keeping the portal up."  

[chiickadee]

Chel was used to hands, hands, hands everywhere. What was one more arm over the shoulder?

"Mm," she told him indifferently, leaning in to him as they walked. "Tell me when we're at yer place." She still felt a paranoia left over from the portal and the time before the portal; too many ears were listening. That's how she felt right now.

---

"You have your keys?" she asked, like this was a normal Tuesday afternoon.  

[medigel]

"Yes, but." He lightly banged on his door several times, and the door opened when he turned the knob. "Tada~" Jack even gave a small jazz hand movement to accompany it, smiling faintly.

The inside of his apartment looked basically the same, thank god. He dropped the grocery bag on the kitchen table and opened the fridge, looking for water.