Out of Hand
Title: Out of Hand
Author: md123
Pairing: Jack/Liz
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,586
Spoilers: "Sandwich Day," "Cooter," "Do-over"
Summary: Sort of AU-ish, though technically consistent with the aired episodes. Things get hot in the summer between "Cooter" and "Do-Over."
It all started when he left GE to work in Washington.
More precisely, it started when Liz found out from her best friend, television. She'd just said goodbye to Floyd again, to the one that got away. She was supposed to feel bad about it, about the reminder of what she'd almost had. But all could she could think about was Jack, that other man in her life. While she wasn't paying attention, he'd apparently had some kind of personal crisis and left the only company he'd ever known.
Not incidentally, he'd also left her.
**
And as with Floyd's original departure to another city, they started talking on the phone. This didn't have the pressure of an actual "relationship," so it was going better than Liz's last try at long distance. But yes, he confirmed, he was never coming back.
But it wasn't even a question who she'd call when the pregnancy scare occurred. And showing up at her door that night, just to make sure she was OK, meant a lot to her. He wasn't going to be Floyd, going to another city and just forgetting about her.
It occurred to Liz that evening, as they chatted about their days, that he wasn't her boss anymore. There was no good reason, other than distance, not to give Jack a chance. And so, when he said goodnight to head back to Washington that night, she gave him a hug as a pretext to sneak in a kiss. It was on the lips, although tentative and chaste, and it seemed to her like he was kissing her back. Jack seemed surprised, but not disgusted. He didn't seem to know what to say and left quietly.
**
It was about a week before he invited her down to Washington for the weekend. He'd rented a stylish townhome in Georgetown, a very upscale neighborhood of the city. Liz wasn't sure what would happen that weekend, so she packed some underwear that wasn't gray, just in case.
Jack greeted her with a kiss when he met her at the train station, which Liz found encouraging. After dropping off her things, they went out with some of his new friends, who were an odd bunch. One introduced himself as James but everyone called him "Cooter." It was a good time, and Liz allowed herself for the first time to appreciate what a charming, handsome, and above all, fun man Jack really was.
It wasn't long after they returned to his place that they started to make out on the couch. After a bit of passionate face and neck kissing, it was Jack that abruptly stopped it.
"Lemon, I should tell you..."
Uh oh, she thought. This can't be good.
"...I've made the decision to come back to GE."
It was much better news that she expected. She smiled a smile of genuine joy. "That's great! When are you coming back?"
"Separating from the government is harder than it sounds so... it might be several months."
She smiled warmly, and offered a congratulatory kiss. He stopped her.
"Elizabeth... I'm not sure what my ultimate position is going to be, I might end up right back in charge of East Coast television."
Her expression changed. "So we might be boss and employee again."
"Exactly." He didn't have to say any more.
Liz looked down and nodded. It'd be the guest bedroom for her tonight.
"But... on the other hand, I might end up in a different executive position..."
"What are you saying?"
"Well, I think it'd be alright to act on our mutual attraction for each other, as long as we didn't let things get... out of hand."
Liz thought about it for about a second. "Keep things casual? I think I could do that." After all, she would inevitably wreck it, destroy his attraction to her, and then things could go back to normal. "So what happens now?"
"Now? We go back to what we were doing."
And they did.
**
It was a hot summer. Liz actually thrived under the boundaries they'd set. Restricted to making out, with no activities whose names ended in "sex" or "job," Liz didn't feel the usual pressure to put out. Jack, who at this point only had an inkling of her sexual disfunction, wouldn't find out about her performance issues.
Inevitably, the long train rides gave Liz's mind a chance to wander. She'd been in a funk since Floyd left the first time, and that had been over a year ago. For that entire year, she'd wondered if her one chance at Mr. Right had slipped through her fingers. And here she found herself in something -- she didn't dare call it a relationship -- that felt really right. Despite all the aggravation he'd given her over the years, Jack Donaghy was objectively a catch.
On the other hand, they'd stumbled upon a real sweet spot for Liz. Even if Jack could somehow be persuaded to give up his dream of returning to GE, and he couldn't, a real relationship with Jack Donaghy would involve sex. And as Liz well knew, that was when things traditionally began to unravel, whether the man was straight or gay. So that path spelled doom and disaster.
In any case, these were dangerous thoughts to have, so she found a magazine to read and willed them out of her mind.
**
As the summer ended and TGS started its new season, she was visiting him in Georgetown again. For obvious reasons, their New York circle of friends and acquaintances would know nothing about their affair. But in DC, they could be open. Liz had spent a somewhat strange evening hanging out with, among others, Vice President Cheney. For someone she thought of as Darth Vader in a suit, he was oddly charming in person, in an understated sort of way. Perhaps that was true of most politicians.
The activities later that night made up for the weirdness of the party. After she fulfilled his bizarre request to braid her hair, and he'd given her a sensual back rub, here they were, under his covers, stripped down to a couple of pieces of clothing. He was on top of her, kissing one of her nipples, hips involuntarily thrusting on her crotch through a few pieces of cloth. His hands slipped into her underwear and caressed her ass. It was intense.
She surprised herself by thinking that sex with him, right now, might not be such a bad idea. Uh oh.
"Jack, wait..."
He stopped what he was doing and looked at her intently. "Yes?"
She swallowed, and looked disappointed. "I'm thinking this might be going somewhere we shouldn't take it."
"Indeed." He rolled off of her and looked away for a moment. "To tell you the truth, I've found our encounters enjoyable, but... anticlimactic."
She let out a half-smile/half-frown.
"And in any case, I think I may have found a way out of the administration. I'll probably be back in New York within the month."
"Well that's good." Liz had decidedly mixed emotions about it. Their little fling would be over.
With the mood now broken, she threw on a shirt, gave him a kiss, and went to sleep in his arms.
**
Jack neither called her nor returned her calls for three weeks afterwards. She thought it was his way of breaking up, and there was no way she could ever had guessed the actual spasm of shame he was enduring. It hurt a bit, but that was overwhelmed by her excitement that he would be back in her life, there in her building every day.
And so it was with great surprise that he showed up in his limo in New York one morning. She wasn't sure where they were, if they were officially over. She decided to greet him with a hug. That would be a safe bet.
He offered his hand. Oh, I guess that answers my question, she thought. She returned the handshake only to see him offering a hug. Finally, she gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder. That would definitely be OK.
She was happy to have him back. Devin was awful: not interested in the show, and when he was interested Liz regretted it. Jack's guidance had usually been terrible, but it usually also been, unfortunately, right. Devin's was merely terrible. When he fired the TGS dancers and replaced them with an all-male team, it was not only panned by the critics (Devin's detailed screening process had somehow neglected to hire men who could dance), but Jenna was driven hopelessly to distraction.
**
That wouldn't be the most confusing moment in her day. When Kathy Geiss egged them on to kiss, what should have been easy, given all that had happened that summer, proved quite hard. As useful as such a display would have been, it was pretty clear that Jack would be back in his usual position in a matter of days. It seemed to violate a boundary, to allow them to slip back into habits they absolutely could not afford to slip back into.
She grimaced, not out of disgust but out of concern and uncertainty. Jack, going through similar angst, made an absolutely pathetic show of puckering up, and it was clear it couldn't happen. Even if they had wanted to, the conditions weren't right.
So they didn't.
**
The day ended with Jack back in his proper place, seated in his office. As Liz left, she peeked in one last time to check on him.
"Did you need something else, Lemon?"
"No. I just like seeing you in there."
She paused and smiled at him.
"Are we alright?," she asked.
"Yeah. Everything back to normal."
Liz thought that was good. Their fling had been fun, but she needed him this way much more than any other way. This was the way things were supposed to be.
END.
Author: md123
Pairing: Jack/Liz
Rating: R
Word Count: 1,586
Spoilers: "Sandwich Day," "Cooter," "Do-over"
Summary: Sort of AU-ish, though technically consistent with the aired episodes. Things get hot in the summer between "Cooter" and "Do-Over."
It all started when he left GE to work in Washington.
More precisely, it started when Liz found out from her best friend, television. She'd just said goodbye to Floyd again, to the one that got away. She was supposed to feel bad about it, about the reminder of what she'd almost had. But all could she could think about was Jack, that other man in her life. While she wasn't paying attention, he'd apparently had some kind of personal crisis and left the only company he'd ever known.
Not incidentally, he'd also left her.
**
And as with Floyd's original departure to another city, they started talking on the phone. This didn't have the pressure of an actual "relationship," so it was going better than Liz's last try at long distance. But yes, he confirmed, he was never coming back.
But it wasn't even a question who she'd call when the pregnancy scare occurred. And showing up at her door that night, just to make sure she was OK, meant a lot to her. He wasn't going to be Floyd, going to another city and just forgetting about her.
It occurred to Liz that evening, as they chatted about their days, that he wasn't her boss anymore. There was no good reason, other than distance, not to give Jack a chance. And so, when he said goodnight to head back to Washington that night, she gave him a hug as a pretext to sneak in a kiss. It was on the lips, although tentative and chaste, and it seemed to her like he was kissing her back. Jack seemed surprised, but not disgusted. He didn't seem to know what to say and left quietly.
**
It was about a week before he invited her down to Washington for the weekend. He'd rented a stylish townhome in Georgetown, a very upscale neighborhood of the city. Liz wasn't sure what would happen that weekend, so she packed some underwear that wasn't gray, just in case.
Jack greeted her with a kiss when he met her at the train station, which Liz found encouraging. After dropping off her things, they went out with some of his new friends, who were an odd bunch. One introduced himself as James but everyone called him "Cooter." It was a good time, and Liz allowed herself for the first time to appreciate what a charming, handsome, and above all, fun man Jack really was.
It wasn't long after they returned to his place that they started to make out on the couch. After a bit of passionate face and neck kissing, it was Jack that abruptly stopped it.
"Lemon, I should tell you..."
Uh oh, she thought. This can't be good.
"...I've made the decision to come back to GE."
It was much better news that she expected. She smiled a smile of genuine joy. "That's great! When are you coming back?"
"Separating from the government is harder than it sounds so... it might be several months."
She smiled warmly, and offered a congratulatory kiss. He stopped her.
"Elizabeth... I'm not sure what my ultimate position is going to be, I might end up right back in charge of East Coast television."
Her expression changed. "So we might be boss and employee again."
"Exactly." He didn't have to say any more.
Liz looked down and nodded. It'd be the guest bedroom for her tonight.
"But... on the other hand, I might end up in a different executive position..."
"What are you saying?"
"Well, I think it'd be alright to act on our mutual attraction for each other, as long as we didn't let things get... out of hand."
Liz thought about it for about a second. "Keep things casual? I think I could do that." After all, she would inevitably wreck it, destroy his attraction to her, and then things could go back to normal. "So what happens now?"
"Now? We go back to what we were doing."
And they did.
**
It was a hot summer. Liz actually thrived under the boundaries they'd set. Restricted to making out, with no activities whose names ended in "sex" or "job," Liz didn't feel the usual pressure to put out. Jack, who at this point only had an inkling of her sexual disfunction, wouldn't find out about her performance issues.
Inevitably, the long train rides gave Liz's mind a chance to wander. She'd been in a funk since Floyd left the first time, and that had been over a year ago. For that entire year, she'd wondered if her one chance at Mr. Right had slipped through her fingers. And here she found herself in something -- she didn't dare call it a relationship -- that felt really right. Despite all the aggravation he'd given her over the years, Jack Donaghy was objectively a catch.
On the other hand, they'd stumbled upon a real sweet spot for Liz. Even if Jack could somehow be persuaded to give up his dream of returning to GE, and he couldn't, a real relationship with Jack Donaghy would involve sex. And as Liz well knew, that was when things traditionally began to unravel, whether the man was straight or gay. So that path spelled doom and disaster.
In any case, these were dangerous thoughts to have, so she found a magazine to read and willed them out of her mind.
**
As the summer ended and TGS started its new season, she was visiting him in Georgetown again. For obvious reasons, their New York circle of friends and acquaintances would know nothing about their affair. But in DC, they could be open. Liz had spent a somewhat strange evening hanging out with, among others, Vice President Cheney. For someone she thought of as Darth Vader in a suit, he was oddly charming in person, in an understated sort of way. Perhaps that was true of most politicians.
The activities later that night made up for the weirdness of the party. After she fulfilled his bizarre request to braid her hair, and he'd given her a sensual back rub, here they were, under his covers, stripped down to a couple of pieces of clothing. He was on top of her, kissing one of her nipples, hips involuntarily thrusting on her crotch through a few pieces of cloth. His hands slipped into her underwear and caressed her ass. It was intense.
She surprised herself by thinking that sex with him, right now, might not be such a bad idea. Uh oh.
"Jack, wait..."
He stopped what he was doing and looked at her intently. "Yes?"
She swallowed, and looked disappointed. "I'm thinking this might be going somewhere we shouldn't take it."
"Indeed." He rolled off of her and looked away for a moment. "To tell you the truth, I've found our encounters enjoyable, but... anticlimactic."
She let out a half-smile/half-frown.
"And in any case, I think I may have found a way out of the administration. I'll probably be back in New York within the month."
"Well that's good." Liz had decidedly mixed emotions about it. Their little fling would be over.
With the mood now broken, she threw on a shirt, gave him a kiss, and went to sleep in his arms.
**
Jack neither called her nor returned her calls for three weeks afterwards. She thought it was his way of breaking up, and there was no way she could ever had guessed the actual spasm of shame he was enduring. It hurt a bit, but that was overwhelmed by her excitement that he would be back in her life, there in her building every day.
And so it was with great surprise that he showed up in his limo in New York one morning. She wasn't sure where they were, if they were officially over. She decided to greet him with a hug. That would be a safe bet.
He offered his hand. Oh, I guess that answers my question, she thought. She returned the handshake only to see him offering a hug. Finally, she gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder. That would definitely be OK.
She was happy to have him back. Devin was awful: not interested in the show, and when he was interested Liz regretted it. Jack's guidance had usually been terrible, but it usually also been, unfortunately, right. Devin's was merely terrible. When he fired the TGS dancers and replaced them with an all-male team, it was not only panned by the critics (Devin's detailed screening process had somehow neglected to hire men who could dance), but Jenna was driven hopelessly to distraction.
**
That wouldn't be the most confusing moment in her day. When Kathy Geiss egged them on to kiss, what should have been easy, given all that had happened that summer, proved quite hard. As useful as such a display would have been, it was pretty clear that Jack would be back in his usual position in a matter of days. It seemed to violate a boundary, to allow them to slip back into habits they absolutely could not afford to slip back into.
She grimaced, not out of disgust but out of concern and uncertainty. Jack, going through similar angst, made an absolutely pathetic show of puckering up, and it was clear it couldn't happen. Even if they had wanted to, the conditions weren't right.
So they didn't.
**
The day ended with Jack back in his proper place, seated in his office. As Liz left, she peeked in one last time to check on him.
"Did you need something else, Lemon?"
"No. I just like seeing you in there."
She paused and smiled at him.
"Are we alright?," she asked.
"Yeah. Everything back to normal."
Liz thought that was good. Their fling had been fun, but she needed him this way much more than any other way. This was the way things were supposed to be.
END.