Jack's Workshop: Salene/Ryan/Jack

[_jack_]

Jack led Salene and Ryan away from the foyer to his workshop, walking quickly to get them to follow quickly, trying to keep the attention from their exit. As he reached the doorway, he turned and watched to make sure no one was following them, before facing into the room. "Uhh, take a seat," he moved to pick up some of his tools from one of his

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[_jack_]

Jack looked, and felt, ashamed of himself as Salene told him it was a bad idea to have moved on already. He knew that, deep down inside, he knew that, but he hadn't exactly moved on, just been...comforted. He was about to explain that, to tell them that he hadn't meant it just quite like that, but then Salene was standing up and she'd said it before he could. Anna. His heart raced at the very mention of her name, and he blushed. A smile started to tilt itself onto his face, when Ryan reacted, slowly at first, then going into that territory that he knew was dangerous.

Uncrossing his arms and taking a step back, Jack's mouth fell open and he tried to squeak out his explanation, his meaning, but he felt his stomach falling to the floor. "No no no, no wait, no, that's not," his hand came up to his hair and he ran his hand through it roughly. This was going all wrong, it was the nightmare of Ebony's lie all over, only to the wrong person.

Jack put his hands up in a surrender motion, "Just, let me explain. I don't, I didn't intend to move fast, with Anna, all we did was kiss, a couple of times, that's it," he waves his hands in front of him to indicate that it had stopped at kissing. "I didn't force anything, ok, and Anna, she, I'm not moving on, not yet, but I'm not going to just use her, either. I just, I was so sad, and upset, and Danni talked to me, but then, Anna cheered me up. She...she's very kind, and sweet and," Jack's voice became softer and he pressed his lips together. "I really respect her, and the company she's given to me, without expectations. I just, Ebony tried earlier to lie, to tell Kerry, and um, Macy, that I wanted to use her, that I would just get her pregnant, which, I so do not want to do," he stressed, looking Ryan firmly in the eye. It was certain suicide, to say all of this, but Jack had to. "I just, I had to tell you, from me, to you, before anything else happened, no matter what, I didn't want to sneak around, and I don't want you to get the wrong impression from anyone else," Jack swallowed hard and held firm in looking into Ryan's eyes, worried, but not afraid.

[_salene_]

Salene instinctively reached out to touch Ryan's arm as he reacted adversely. She wasn't feeling any less angry with Jack, for the love of crickets, Anna had only arrived yesterday and was just trying to settle herself, and her siblings, into life in the Mall, and already Jack was putting the moves on her?? She had it hardest of all of them, because she had to deal with Tatty and his, whatever that was, it certainly couldn't help for Jack to put moves on her and confuse her. He was recovering from a relationship that had, for many years, shaped who Jack was emotionally. Ellie lived in the Mall, with her boyfriend, that had to be hard on Jack, emotionally, and he was what? Recovering his emotions through putting moves on Anna?!

"Jack," she began to lecture him, stopping when he spoke again. Ebony had said he wanted to get Anna pregnant?! What? Salene looked completely confused now, "What? Ebony? Why in the world would she say that? Jack, what is going on?"

[_jack_]

Jack nodded, "Yeah, yeah that's what she said, she walked in here and caught," he paused to think of a better saying than "making out", "Uhh, she caught us uhh," he rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Anyway, she got all mean to Anna and scared her off and then when Kerry and Macy showed up she," he waved his hand in the air dismissively. "She went all crazy, said I broke up with Ellie so I could get with Anna to make Ellie jealous, and that I'd probably go so far as to get her pregnant," he stopped to look at them, squinting. "I'm not, you know, that's not me, you guys, Ryan," he looked away and tried to get his train of thought back on track.

"But look, after they left," his eyes shifted and he leaned out of his doorway to double check for Ebony or anyone, "she tried to use that fib as blackmail. She said she," he swallowed hard again, afraid to tell Salene the next part, afraid she'd actually blame him for this too. "She said she wanted me to bug your office, or she was going to go to Ryan and tell him that she caught me trying to get her pregnant. Which I so was not," he stressed again, shaking his head. "I told her I would, to get her to leave, but I won't, I just wanted to stall for time, you know, so I could do the right thing and come to you first, tell you both the truth," he had to look away, down to the floor. Ok, now he was afraid.

[tribal_ryan]

Ryan was fuming, the hand on his arm reminded him not to pound Jack, to get his emotions in check, but he was fuming mad. Nothing Jack said made it any better, he had kissed her, been caught kissing his sweet Anna, and then that he wanted to get her pregnant?! Ryan felt the surge of anger roll through him, if he had taken a pause, he would have remembered being sixteen and in love with a fourteen year old Salene, falling for her because she'd looked out for him, and needed him. But Ryan wasn't thinking clearly right now, Ryan was fuming.

Jack wanted to do he right thing, he'd tried to be, what was the word? Chivalrous? Ryan felt the anger easing only slightly, until he heard Jack explaining that Ebony was doing all of this to blackmail Jack into doing things for him. "God will she never learn? I'm going to give her a piece of my mind," Ryan began to move, anger, he was full of it and ready to pass it off to the first person doing wrong. But he stopped, it was Amber and Bray's wedding day, he didn't want to ruin that, to put a damper on things, no, she wouldn't win. "That's what she wants, Sal, she wants us to get mad about this and go out there and ruin Bray and Amber's day! God!"

[_salene_]

Salene felt like she was in some bizarro world, but on second thought, she realized it was nothing new, not in Ebony's bag of tricks. "Typical," she sighed, crossing her arms across her stomach, hugging herself a little and sighing. So why had Ebony stepped in when Moz had come to visit? Why bail Salene out if she was, what, trying to take over the City leader position? Did she think it would be that easy? As if Salene would just sit in her office and talk to the walls, telling them of everything she was doing wrong, her doubts and insecurities? "No...she wants to listen in, on the conversations, with the Militia, with my contacts, no, but why?"

Salene realized she was talking out loud, gesturing with her hands, and she began to pace a little, contemplating this information. First of all, she couldn't do something so horrible, not to Jack and certainly not to Anna. Imagining all of the bad things that could come out of telling Ryan that Jack was trying to get Anna pregnant, it wouldn't only have negative repercussions on Jack, it'd make Anna look bad, and gossip traveled at the speed of light through this Mall.

A stroke of genius hit Salene, and she spun, facing Jack and Ryan, a gleam in her eyes. "No, it's ok Ryan, this is the plan," she moved in closer, pulling both Jack and Ryan nearer, to talk in a huddle so she could keep it a harsh undertone. "You're going to bug my office Jack, go ahead and go through with it, do whatever set up she wanted, but you're going keep a recording, so I know what she hears, and maybe, do you think you could set up a bug wherever she'd have access to the listening device, so I could hear any thoughts leaked out of her? So I know what she's up to?" That's right...Salene would simply turn the tables on Ebony, and make sure that all really important conversations took place outside of her office. If Salene had to make appointments and go somewhere else to get her inside information then so be it, but for now she was going to let Ebony have what she wanted before catching her in her own web.

[_jack_]

Jack felt relief wash through him, not only had Ryan not beat him to a bloody pulp, praise be to zoot!, but now their minds were on other things, and they weren't blaming Jack for it! They actually got mad at Ebony, and realized that she was a culprit in this, not an innocent bystandard. Nothing she said to Ryan now would hold any water, or to Salene, at least not in the way of Jack and his intentions. This, this was good then, right? That meant that he and Anna were allowed to, pursue whatever it was they, were pursuing?

He jumped as Salene spun around again, looking at Ryan and then back to Salene, joining the huddle. "Oh yeah, yeah she was going to come here, once I got the bugs set up, to listen, I suppose I could bug the area, and rig it so whenever she listened it it set a tape to record but, well the only problem is I don't really have the supplies. I mean, I don't know where to get the recording devices. When, um, should I do this by?"

[tribal_ryan]

Ryan was surprised by the plan, was this his Salene? Working to dupe Ebony on one of her plots? It had been rather lame, after all, asking Jack of all people to do something for her, as if Jack liked Ebony. Ryan could remember that year when he'd been sent to the hotel to do work for her, how much he hated it, hiding from her Loco Militia, whinging and carrying on. He'd set up a bug there too, hadn't he, and he'd feared for his life when he'd gotten caught. Bray had saved him, Ryan remembered the stories, but now Salene was really suggesting turning the tables on Ebony? He almost felt better, and he would have smiled if it weren't for the fact that he was still quite aware that Jack had intentions with his Anna, and he was still confused over what they were exactly.

"Don't worry about that, you make a list of what you need and Macy and KC and I will work on finding it," Ryan nodded, looking to Salene. "Don't do it too soon, you have to make this look like you're still on her side, Jack, so you know, install the bugs after we've gone to bed, when the whole Mall is quiet, you gotta make it look real," Ryan remembered to keep his voice low, standing up and clearing his throat. "And well, I don't really understand your intentions with my Anna, but just know one thing, Jack. If you hurt her, I will break you," his right hand came up, forefinger out, poking Jack in the chest. Ryan meant it, as much as he liked Jack, he was protective of his kids, especially in the way of romantic interest. He hadn't expected that so soon with his kids, but Anna was a romantic type, all into the girly hair and makeup things, it was inevitable he supposed that she'd start taking notice of some of the boys around the Mall. Plus, Ryan could admit to himself, out of anyone in the Mall that was her age, Jack was the most suitable one, Ryan knew he could trust him to treat her right.

[_salene_]

Salene smiled, Ryan was helping her, this was so going to work. It had to stay between the three of them, though. She brought herself out of the planning going on in her head as Ryan poked Jack in the chest, but made no move to stop him or get in his way. She felt the same way, she knew she could trust Jack, and really, if Anna wanted to have a relationship with Jack that was her choice, but she'd make sure Anna was aware of all of the stakes on the table herself. She didn't know what Jack was, or wasn't, telling her, but Salene would be sure to get it all clear.

"Right, and keep this between the three of us, we don't know who we can trust around here to keep it secret. I love our Tribe, but we have some of the biggest blabber mouths around," she nodded at Jack and gave his shoulder a reassuring pat. "I'm going to have a talk with Anna, I hope you know that, Jack, about everything, to make sure she's on the same wavelength you seem to be on, alright? But don't worry," she gave him a sweet, warm smile, "I'm just doing the motherly thing, I won't tell her lies or make things out worse than they are," she gave his shoulder a slight squeeze before letting go. "We should probably rejoin civilization, before we're missed too much," she added, glancing back to the doorway.

[_jack_]

Salene's admission that she'd be talking to Anna worried, him, Anna knew everything about Ellie, right now, from his perspective. Was there anything Salene could say to her that would hurt whatever small relationship they'd built? Was he already worried about their relationship?? "No, and yeah, right, you should talk to Anna because you're a girl, and Anna's only heard my side of the story and yeah, I doubt Ellie wants to talk to Anna. I, she wouldn't, you know, give her blessing, because she accused me of having my eyes on another girl. Which wasn't true, at the time, I mean, Anna and I didn't really start getting to know each other until after Ellie and I, well after we officially put the relationship to rest," he motioned with his hand and nodded, his eyes moving about nervously.

Jack pressed his lips together and began making a list of supplies in his head. He still felt bad, it was bugging the city leaders office, afterall, but now it was approved. "And, yeah but, then I guess I still have to kind of, well, sneak around, with Anna, cause that's what Ebony has on me," he darted his eyes down and back up to Ryan. "Or, should I tell Anna about the plans? I mean, if she knows then she won't, you know, help them backfire, can, do you think we can trust her?" The hard feeling of being poked in the chest was still there, and the squeeze of Salene's hand on his shoulder, but he understood. Jack had absolutely no intentions of doing bad things to Anna, or using her, he didn't even know what they were doing, yet.

[tribal_ryan]

Ryan shook his head, the more Jack talked, the worse it all sounded. Ellie was going to be very upset, even Ryan knew that, even if she was with Luke now, and that put Anna in danger. He knew Anna could handle herself, but she was a sensitive type of girl, and a quick witted biting remark from Ellie would probably hurt her. A lot. "Listen, ok, Anna is sensitive, she's really gentle, ok? You have to be careful with that kinda girl, you have to put things right with Ellie cause I don't want any misunderstandings to happen Jack," he was scowling and frowning. What a mess. Ryan hadn't expected this kind of drama, not so quickly, with the return of his kids. Yeah he was glad they were settling in, but man had they settled fast. The next thing he knew, Kerry would be having girl troubles, Macy would be getting married, and Willow would have a crush. It all made his stomach hurt.

"What? No, sneaking around with Anna is not the way to go, god, Jack, I thought I could trust you," he felt his anger spiking again, but then he listened to the words that had just passed through his ears. If Jack was supposed to make this bugging thing look authentic, then he couldn't let Ebony know that she had no material on him. Ryan didn't really understand completely why that was, the complexities of blackmail and sneaking didn't exactly make sense to him, but he understood what Jack was saying on some level. "Yeah we can trust Anna, I guess, and I better have a talk with the boys, anyone else that I need to talk to Jack? Since you and Ebony have made a right mess of things?" Sometimes it was hard being the poster Dad of the Tribe.

[_salene_]

Salene's hand came up to pinch the bridge of her nose, Jack...sighing, she looked at him. This had to be hard on him, but it was looking more and more like Anna was his rebound girl, and rebounds never did any good for the reboundee. Jack had absolutely no idea how much work he'd just given the both of them, as parents. They were trying to ease into this, ten kids kind of thing, but then, Salene guessed, it wouldn't be real life if it didn't have it's complexities and stress.

"Look, both of you, there is a lot of detailing to work out. For now just go about your day as if this conversation never happened, ok? Let everything play out the way it would play out, only now Ryan knows the truth, and I know the truth, and so we won't actually take anything said about your relationship with Anna the wrong way. I'll touch base with Anna, and we'll make sure she knows what's going on, but don't talk to the boys. Just let everything slide, ok? For now? When it's time, everything will reveal itself, just play it cool, Ryan, and don't let on, to anyone else. It's important that this stays to just us, because Ebony is smart and quick and she'll pick up on any little discrepancy," she explained, leading the boys back to the foyer.