The Perfect Weapon: Chapter 2017: Part 2: cont'd and concluded
NOTE: Part 2 of this chapter is uploaded in two posts. 2nd of 2.
Chapter 2017: Part 2 cont’d and concluded
“For you.” Judy handed Jack the bag.
“A gift for me? Why?” Jack looked into the bag, smiling slightly as he saw the lavender and silver paper. So carefully wrapped, so typically Judy.
“Consider it a graduation gift. You’re done with your individual therapy.” Judy nodded as Jack looked up in surprise. “You know that. We’ve discussed it.”
“So we have. I just wasn’t expecting it so soon.” Jack looked back toward the kitchen. “And Irina will not be happy-“
“Oh, Irina...” Judy sighed regretfully. “She will need more individualized therapy.”
“Shopping can be good therapy,” Susan muttered in an aside to Sydney. Maybe she should write a book about that, after her dog versus man book.
“Not with my mother. She is not a good mall shopper.” Sydney laughed. “You should have seen her at the Gap.”
“Are you going to dine out on that story forever?” Irina reached into the utensil drawer and gave Sydney a handful. “Go set the table.”
“I can’t. Dad and Judy are deep in conversation there.”
“I’m sorry, we don’t have any chairs in here yet,” Jack apologized. He knew he was ready to graduate from therapy, but he would miss Judy. Surely there wasn’t any hurry, not yet.
“I’m fine.”
“No, I’m sorry. Why don’t you sit on the table?”
“Why don’t you open your gift?” Judy asked, leaning against the table. “Surely you’re ready to graduate from therapy, aren’t you?”
“Yes, of course. But I will miss you, our conversations,” Jack said softly. If circumstances had been different, he knew he and Judy would have been good friends. Perhaps, one day...
“As I will too, of course. But those conversations were a necessary step in your recovery and so is this.” Judy shoved the bag at Jack again. “Go ahead. Open it.”
Irina frowned as she watched Jack and Judy. She rubbed her forehead, then froze as a hand fell gently on her shoulder.
“What are you doing?” Dave whispered.
“Eavesdropping, of course.” Irina shrugged. “Dave, do you ever...” Irina nodded at Jack and Judy. Jack was leaning down to listen intently to Judy’s words with a small smile on his face.
“Those two?” Dave shook his head. “Nah.”
“Jack hugged Judy the day she suggested putting those skylights in,” Irina blurted out. “I know what you’re going to say. Jack is recovering himself including the part of him that used to be physically affectionate and it meant nothing-“ She broke off and touched the chain hidden under her shirt.
“Lorena...” Dave touched her hand, knowing she was touching her chain. Irina was occasionally fixated on what might have been if she had not made a different choice in Panama. “I know that for some reason, you feel that Judy and Jack might have gotten together-“
“Intuition. Instinct.”
Dave opened his mouth and then shut it. There was no arguing with women’s intuition, but...then again, Irina was a deeply logical person. She could use that logic to defeat her anxiety. “Think about it. Judy is a blonde. She’s also his therapist. And on her side, Jack is just...he takes too much patience. What you find fascinating personally, Judy would find...trying to her patience.”
“What do you mean?” Irina bristled. “He is fascinating. And Judy is so patient-“
“Professionally. Personally?” Dave grinned. “Not in the slightest.”
“Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know!” Irina smiled. Dave was wrong and she was right. There was something there, something that perhaps neither Jack nor Judy knew. But she did. “But sometimes I worry about might have been-“
“I know Judy has talked with you about your tendency to obsess about might have beens,” Dave said gently.
“I know. I just... Sometimes, I look around, like today, and see our family and think that if I’d chosen the Rambaldi heart document instead of your portfolio, this might all be so different.”
“Yeah. Looking at the outside from behind a prison fence would be a different perspective,” Dave agreed.
“Or behind the bars of my own self-made prison of exile.” Irina curled her hands around the top rail of the chair. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”
Dave covered Irina’s hand with his and squeezed gently. “Something like that.”
“Can’t you just rip it open like a normal person?” Judy teased as Jack carefully removed each closure of Scotch tape on the silver paper.
“This is normal for me.” Jack moved even slower, hearing the faint sound of Judy’s teeth grinding together. “I’m sorry I don’t have a pencil for you...”
“I would just-“
“Shove it in my eye?” Jack smiled, then at the flare of fire in Judy’s eyes, ripped the paper off quickly to stare at a slim book. “Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. I haven’t seen this book in...” He traced the embossed title with his fingertip, wondering what final lesson Judy was trying to impart to him.
“Me either. I had actually forgotten all about it until the day when I hid that picture of you inside Of Human Bondage and-“
“The perfect bookend for that was Things Fall Apart, of course.” Jack rolled his eyes. “Or were you thinking of our session in which I discussed Panama and how both Irina and I thought of that poem-“
“He told her that?” Irina frowned. That moment had been so...intimate, the moment in which she’d finally felt the deepest connection with Jack.
“Therapy only works if you are honest with your therapist,” Dave said quietly. “Do I need to tell you that?’
“No, Dr. Dave,” Irina said mockingly. “Shut up. I’m trying to listen.”
“Are you going to allow me to speak or should I just sit here...” Judy levered herself up onto the table and swung her legs. “And wait while you extricate yourself from this mood you’re in?”
“Ah. The prissy voice. You’re either having fun at my expense or getting aggravated.” Jack nodded. “I should probably look inside, given your penchant for hiding treasures - to use that word loosely - within books.”
“Who the hell uses the word penchant?” Weiss asked.
“Jack,” Irina and Dave said in unison.
“Shh!” Sydney complained, “I want to hear too.”
Vaughn threw up his hands in disgust. “What would it take for the man to get some privacy? You know he won’t like it--”
“Ugh. He’s right.” Weiss backed away from the doorway. “And I don’t want to be punished by having to share bed space with Kendall or-“
“You must tell me all about that horror,” Maddie urged, taking Weiss by the arm.
“It was worse than any dream Alfred Hitchcock ever had...” Weiss whined. “Kendall in...smiley face boxer briefs and with a drawerful of...sex toys!”
“I may die of fright! Although Hitchcock had nothing on scary movies. Have you ever seen Monkeys in the Attic?”
“Ugh.” Irina groaned. “Not that movie. I hope they were all on drugs when they made that film.”
“Why” Vaughn asked, watching Weiss reach for an olive on a dish, only to pull back when Susan slapped at his hand.
“Because if they had been sober, that would be far more disturbing...” Irina checked her kitchen timer, then turned her head, hearing Jack’s voice reading... What was that?
“Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold…
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction; while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
“The Yeats poem...” Jack whispered, holding open the book to the flyleaf. He read the inscription silently. “To Jack, “ it read. “Who proves the lie to this poem. Who, I know, even in the midst of anarchy and loss, can have both conviction AND passionate intensity. I know, even if things fall apart, I know that your center can and will hold. Hear your inner voice. Have faith. Always have faith. Judy.”
Jack touched Judy's signature, then looked up. “I..hardly know what to say. But...thank you.”
“That is all you ever need to say, Jack. That is all.” Judy smiled at him and tentatively touched his hand. She stopped as Kendall walked through the room. “Well, that and-“
“I knew there was a restriction,” Jack laughed. “May I guess?”
“Of course.”
“I would venture to guess-“
“If you’d said venture to conjecture it would have rhymed,” Judy said smugly. She knew how to irritate him as well as he knew how to do the same to her.
Jack snapped his back teeth together. “I would venture to guess that in addition to a thank you, the best way to express my gratitude to you for helping me find my way again, is..” He looked back toward the kitchen, knowing Irina was listening. “Is to make a conscious and daily commitment to be open and honest with the people I love, to...talk. Even when I might not be comfortable doing so. And to have faith that they will be worth my trust, as I must be worthy of theirs.”
“Those sound remarkably like vows to me,” Sark whispered. “Not that I would know, but...”
“You’re correct, Julian,” Irina said softly. She started when Sydney squeezed her hand, so intent in her focus on Jack that she had forgotten anyone else was there.
“So for helping me to learn those lessons...” Jack held up the book. “Well, then...” Jack looked down, then back up. “Thank you.” He surprised them both when he reached out and gave Judy a quick hug.
“Well.” Kendall glanced at Dave. “I wouldn’t like it if Jack were hugging my woman.”
“Since there is not the slightest chance of your having any woman in the near or distant future, let alone one you might possible refer to as yours...” Dave drawled. “I think I’ll just ignore your comment.”
“Ignoring Sylvester’s comments is usually the best tactic for preserving sanity,” Maddie agreed as Jack and Judy entered the kitchen. “Whether speed dating or over dinner.”
“You didn’t like Sylvester at...speed dating?” Jack asked Dave’s cousin with a smile. “Allow me to guess - He wore out his welcome in ten minutes?”
“Eight actually. No, that’s wrong, it was less than eight minutes. He asked what I was interested in-“
“Here we go...” Kendall crossed his arms over his chest.
“I told him that my interests were computers and sports.”
“And so?” Dave asked. “I would think most men would like to find a woman with those interests.”
“You would think.” Maddie rolled her eyes. “But Sylvester here told me, ‘Oh. So you want to be a man.’”
“Oooh...” Everyone moaned.
“Hey, I just thought-“ Kendall protested.
“Do not feel too badly,” Irina said with a smile that turned into a smirk. “Sylvester was merely threatened. As insecure men often are. And keep in mind, this is a man with furry pink handcuffs in his nightstand.”
“Pink fur? Wouldn’t that itch?” Maddie turned to Kendall. "Or let me guess -- you have some perverted Barbie fetish?"
"No, that was my first wife, Kat--"
"TMI!" Vaughn groaned.
“That pink fur does it, for the record,” Weiss groaned. He perked up as Irina looked into the oven. "Is it time yet?"
Irina stood up and nodded briskly. "Yes. Would you go set the table, Eric? Perhaps Dave, who is doing nothing as usual, could help."
"I'm not doing nothing--" Dave protested.
"Double negative," Irina said automatically,as she reached for two oven mitts.
"Oh geez. If the grammar police have arrived, I'm outta here," Dave grumbled as he grabbed a tablecloth from the linen drawer.
Irina poked his shoulder with her finger. "Outta is not a word, Dave. Correct enunciation is the sign of--"
"A pedantic, anal-compulsive..." Dave said over his shoulder as he went into the dining room.
"Good distraction, Irina," Vaughn said softly. Watching Irina put on an oven mitt was about as surreal as Sydney said seeing her in the Gap had been.
Irina's hand paused for a moment, then continued pulling on the mitt. "Thanks, Michael.”
Sydney and Weiss glanced at each other and then smiled.
"Are you staying? I hope you are. My...mental health depends upon it." Irina smiled.
"C'mon!" Kendall blustered.
"You can leave, Kendall. No one invited you after all," Susan pointed out. "So if you're going to stay, then sit and be quiet."
Kendall frowned, then left and went into the kitchen and sat down obediently. Weiss grinned.
Irina shook her head as she pulled the dish out of the oven and she and Sydney began to dole the meal out on plates. "Judy, are you staying?"
Judy leaned closer. "Of course. I wouldn't miss this for anything. Can I help?"
"Here, Dr. Barnett." Sark handed her a bowl of salad. Everyone grabbed the pieces of the meal and sat down at the table, except Irina who hovered behind Dave, then set a plate in front of him.
"That smells good. Really good." Dave sniffed appreciatively as Irina set a place down before him. "Wait a second. Why are you serving me?"
"So suspicious." Irina pushed the fork toward Dave's hand. "Just eat."
“Alright, already,” Dave complained although he eagerly dug into his meal. He lifted the fork to his mouth and then stopped. The smell was so familiar it was uncanny and...He looked up at Irina.
“I swear, Dave. If you don’t put that fork into your mouth, I will shove it in there!”
“Now, that is the Irina I know.” Dave inhaled the aroma. Scent, as he knew, was a particularly strong stimuli to memory and he could have sworn that this was... He took a bite and his eyes opened wide and he began to chew slowly.
Sydney looked at her father as they both remembered how slowly Dave had chewed when he’d first been freed, using the hard-learned lesson of delaying the swallow to draw every last morsel to its fullest in the face of hunger. This was a different kind of hunger. “Dave?” Jack asked.
“This is...not only lasagna.” Dave clenched his hands together. “This is...my mother’s lasagna recipe, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” Irina touched Dave’s arm. “Remember, you had her write it down for me on an index card for my recipe box? The one I never really used.”
“You never made the recipe...” Dave whispered, closing his eyes against the tears. “You never did. Until now.”
Irina nodded. “No. I was too arrogant. A terrible flaw. Along with lack of imagination, right?”
“Imagination is sometimes overrated,” Dave responded. After learning of his parents’ deaths, he had never allowed himself to hope that he would taste this lasagna again; the replacement of hope with grief had been a terrible substitution. “It can lead to illusion and delusion...”
“Do not pull a Jack and intellectualize what you are feeling, Dave,” Judy said softly. Dave looked up and nodded thoughtfully.
“Oh, I love that...” Jack whispered to Judy. “Give Dave good advice and tweak me at the same time. A doubleplay of your own.”
“You’re right, Jude...” Dave nodded. “I am just so overwhelmed... I know it must seem ridiculous. To be overwhelmed by one bite of lasagna.”
“Well, no. Not to me.” Irina touched Dave’s arm. “I was hoping that this meal would mean something to you.”
“Why?” Dave curled his hand over Irina’s.
“Then, I missed the opportunity to use this wonderful recipe and...so much more. At great cost. And so... you missed your parents. I cannot give you back your parents, but I did remember how you said you wanted to taste your mother’s lasagna one last time. That wish is one I can fulfill.”
“Thank you...” Dave whispered brokenly, wiping tears from his eyes. “Thank you...”
“Thank Jack too. He kept my recipe box to give to Sydney someday and that card was in there. Waiting. Waiting in the hope chest.”
“Oh. That’s why Jack kept referring to you as Pandora. For opening the hope chest.”
“Yes...” Jack wrapped his arm around Irina’s waist and gently tugged on the chain. He smiled down at her.
“You mean for opening Dave’s portfolio in Panama,” Irina whispered as Dave turned back to his plate and began to eat his lasagna, so slowly that she wanted to hurt him. Feeling her palm begin to itch with the need to smack him, she turned to face Jack. “Opening that was what gave you hope.”
“Yes and his words opened your eyes...So...” Jack smiled and put his free hand on Dave’s shoulder. “The three of us together-“
“Make a perfect circle?” Irina began to laugh. Jack and his circles. She faced everyone. “Let’s eat.”
"I really can’t believe you’re getting your belly button pierced, Mom," Sydney complained as they finished cleaning up the kitchen after dinner with Vaughn and Weiss.
"It’s my wedding present to your father." Irina smiled. She knew Jack was planning their wedding and wanted it to be a surprise. She had a surprise of her own. "But if you don’t think the belly button is...intimate enough for a wedding gift and a honeymoon, I understand there are other piercings..." She waited.
Sydney opened her mouth, then closed it. She nodded. "Sure, Mom. If you want to get a genital piercing, go right ahead. Would you prefer the labia or clitoris? And do you want me to take pictures so that you can send those to Dad via email?"
Irina blinked, then began to laugh. "My little girl! You’re all grown up."
"Geez!" Vaughn muttered and throwing up his hands, left the room.
"Hey, where’re you going?" Weiss called out, following him. "This conversation is just getting interesting!"
Irina sighed. "Really, sweetheart. Couldn’t you have fallen in love with Weiss?"
"Couldn’t you have fallen in love with Uncle Dave?"
"Ew." Irina nodded. She had heard the kids use that word.
"Exactly. Ew." Sydney smiled at her mother. "So, that’s what you’re getting Dad for a wedding present? A belly button piercing?"
"Yes. Why?"
Sydney hesitated as her father came in bearing the last of the silverware and put them in the dishwasher. Under cover of the clattering of cutlery, she whispered, "Welll...I think you should consider getting him a toaster."
"A...toaster?" How prosaic. Although Jack certainly had loved toast in the past, so why--
"Yes. You have noticed that he didn’t have one in his apartment." Sydney watched carefully as her father sat down at the kitchen table and began to shuffle a deck of cards.
Irina nodded and leaned forward eagerly. "Do you know why?"
"He threw our last toaster through a window. I haven’t seen him eat toast since. I don’t know why. Do you?"
Irina looked over at Jack sitting at the kitchen table. She could still remember the first time she’d made him toast while he sat at the kitchen table and - "I think... Yes, I do."
"Practicing for our wedding, honey?" Jack asked, motioning Irina toward him.
"Which will be when, Jack?" Irina demanded, tapping her foot on the floor.
“Well, to tell you the truth...” Jack said softly as he stood up and began to walk toward Irina.
“The truth. What a unique concept.”
“I thought we were talking about the wedding?” Jack asked with an innocent face, that he knew would...His eyes flicke downward. Yes. “I was planning it for the week following that mission I’m going on-“
“They one you’re going on without me?” Irina surmised. What was he planning? It was something. After all there was no substitute for prior planning.
Jack frowned. “Unfortunately, given my conversation with Kendall earlier, it appears that I won’t be able to get back into town until the morning we’re leaving for our wedding, honey.”
“Is that so?” Irina looked over at Sydney with a smile she hid behind her hair. “That’s a shame, Jack. In fact, it’s more than a shame. I’m not very happy about it at all.”
“Is that so?” Jack flipped Irina’s hair over her shoulder, then curled his hands around her arms and pulled her close. “How odd. Because you don’t look unhappy.”
Irina looped her arm around Jack’s neck and touched the corner of her smile with her fingertip. “How odd. Because neither do you.”
"You look..." Jack bent down and licked Irina's lower lip. "Devious. Thoughtful..."
"So do you."
Jack and Irina looked into each other’s eyes and slowly smiled, recognizing that they each had a game in play. “Jack...” Irina moaned softly as she saw the heat in his eyes. “Why is everyone still in our house?”
“I don’t know!” Jack grumbled. “But if they insist upon staying, then they have to pay the consequences...” He whispered, before taking her mouth in a long demanding slide of lips against lips and tongue against tongue.
“Oh!” Irina gasped.
“Oh...” Sydney groaned. “Does it ever end with you two?”
“No...” Jack and Irina responded in unison.
TBC at Chapter 2017: Part 3: 1 of 6