[For Jack]

[bennet_beauty]

Jane was beginning to worry. It wasn't that she had ever stopped, but now that the ball was fast approaching and months had now passed, she was beginning to worry once more that the subject of her physical intimacy with Carwood would be broached and Jane was still unsure as to what she was supposed to say to him or offer him

Comments

[has_2ls]

Jack had laundry again. It was getting to be a habit, him and laundry, and he barely let it pile up before he was taking a load up to the Compound to wash. Never would have happened that way back home but hey, some things changed, especially when he had all sorts of available time on his hands. He settled the basket down with a less-than-graceful move and grinned a little when he saw Jane sitting near the clothes box.

"Looking for something or just thinking? Because if you can get that thing to give me a decent pair of swim trunks, I'm your new best friend."

[bennet_beauty]

Jane looked up and felt as though she were the very picture of serious thought. Her lips were pursed together and she could not find anything suitable. Or, at least, suitable as far as she was concerned. "I am looking for something," she agreed. "But not anything in particular. I thought I might know when I saw it, but I seem to be mistaken in that regard."

[has_2ls]

Jack settled down next to her. "What did you have in mind? Cause I can try and ask it for you, but as a warning, it might give me something a little racier than what you're normally after."

He shrugged, sheepish. "At least, that's what it does when I try to pick for Sam. Gives me really short dresses. No class at all, that box."

[bennet_beauty]

Jane flushed pink at the seeming apt comment on Jack's part, averting her eyes to the side as she continued to pick out garments and study them, only to fold them in her lap carefully. "Perhaps at this juncture, a short dress would not be wholly amiss? Or perhaps something ... racy?" she said, but her innocent look betrayed her words.

[has_2ls]

Jack snorted. "You don't need that stuff, Jane. You're pretty without showing off everything you've got. But, if you really want me to ask it for something sexy, I guess I can try. I'll just think...Carterish thoughts. Cause I think you're gorgeous, but not that way, you know?"

[bennet_beauty]

Jane took a deep breath, trying to keep her panic at bay, but it was a terribly difficult task when she did not know what to do. "Carwood and I, we are due to have a talk anyday regarding our physical intimacy. I wish to be dressed in such a way as to please him."

[has_2ls]

Jack tried to stamp down his initial reaction, given he didn't really want to think about Jane in that way and tried to figure out how best to give her objective advice. It helped he'd met Carwood and thought he was an okay guy. Really okay guy.

"Look, I get wanting to wear something other than the neck to ankles get up you're used to, but I'm telling you, you're a pretty enough girl that he's not gonna care if you look sexy. I mean, I met him. I think he likes you a lot. That said, I'll help you pick a dress a man's gonna like, okay?"

He grinned a little and reached into the box. "Here's hoping, huh?"

[bennet_beauty]

Jane leaned forward as she furrowed her forehead with great anxiety. She had no manner of knowing precisely what she was supposed to wear and while she did not want to appear as though a harlot, she thought that she had read that men wished their women to wear something that could set their pulse to quite the scandalous pace. That was what she wished to do.

"I do trust in your luck," she assured eagerly.

[has_2ls]

Hmm. Black and short, maybe a little too short for Jane. Jack held the dress up so she could see.

"What do you think about this one? I'm guessing you have great legs under there, so this might work."

[bennet_beauty]

Jane studied it, but she had no manner of knowing what a man might wish to see and so was left without much knowledge at all whether it was a good idea. "I don't know," she admitted, reaching out to touch the hem of the dress. "Should I try it?"

[has_2ls]

"I think so," Jack said, giving her an appraising look. "I met Carwood though, and I'm telling you, he likes you just like you are. I don't think you need to do this, unless you're doing it for you."

[bennet_beauty]

Jane leaned forward to take the dress from Jack, studying it and sliding off of the machines as she wandered behind a hidden place in which she could change. "It may be that he likes me," she concurred. "But I do not think it is so terrible to wish to do something for him. Is it?"

[has_2ls]

"No, it's not," Jack agreed, pawing through the box while she changed. "But I'm just saying that the whole physically attractive thing isn't as big a deal as you might think. It matters, yeah, but there's other stuff that's way more important."

[bennet_beauty]

Jane shifted herself, wishing that her corset did not interfere so with the dress and cause a heavy allusion of padding. She shifted and adjusted into the black dress before stepping out to present it to Jack, having had to do away with her slip momentarily. "Well?"

[has_2ls]

Jack looked her over with a practiced eye, trying to forget about Jane's little sister nature and think more about how he'd look at Carter. Jane did have legs under there. Who knew?

He whistled lowly. "See, now that's classy. You look good, Jane. Mean that, wouldn't just say it to say it."

[bennet_beauty]

She continually pulled on the hem of the dress, thinking perhaps it was too short, but she took a deep breath to steady her panic and turned enough so that he could properly apprise the dress. "But it is black," she admitted. "Black has always been the colour of funerals, to me."