Twelve Days - December 18 - Jack/Liz
Title: What to Want, What to Need
Challenge: The Twelve Days of Christmas!
Prompt: 30 Rock, Jack/Liz, Mitch's wedding.
For: frey_at_last
Word Count: 902
Rating: PG
Note: This became something completely different than I intended... I will expand on this idea again at some point, with more of the Lemons (and maybe less melancholy).
Summary: Jack and Liz at a Lemon family wedding.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue!
*
Jack is surprised to find that Dick and Margaret Lemon still like him and, even more surprisingly, approve of him as their daughter's boyfriend. Not that he is an inherently objectionable man -- if he were, he wouldn't have gotten away with nearly as many mistakes and/or acts of malice as he has during his nearly fifty years on earth (passing the blame can get a person just so far) -- but he assumed there would be some tension due to the last day he spent time with them. (And if there had been, he would have reminded Liz's parents it was his *mother* who brought about the Christmastime eruption of rage and resentment in their family. Passing the blame, by the way, is more satisfying when it's warranted.) Thought that they wouldn't *hug* him -- an act of nonsexual affection he's only particularly comfortable engaging in with Liz, and even then it feels somewhat odd, and seems much more natural when Liz is naked and the show of affection is, in fact, sexual -- that Margaret wouldn't kiss him, and that Dick wouldn't say, "You just get better looking by the day."
He responds with a wary smile and turns his focus to Liz, whose own smile looks awkward, fake, as it has more and more often recently. "As he keeps telling me," she says, glancing briefly at him.
"I've said that *once* and you can't fault someone for speaking the truth," Jack replies coolly, jokingly -- he knows the days of his handsomeness becoming more and more striking is over and has admitted as much to her -- in an attempt to make Liz actually smile.
It doesn't work.
His attention stays on her as she greets her parents, hugs and cheek kisses and cheerful words.
"Can you believe Mitch is getting married?" Margaret says.
"No, I can not!" Liz replies.
He rests his hand on her back.
*
While they're sitting in the pews -- third row, Liz by the aisle and Jack next to her cousin, Allison -- Liz is silent, which results in Jack hearing too much of Allison's conversation with her boyfriend. (Sadly, the conversation isn't tawdry or full of tension; she's merely describing her recent trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond. She had two five-percent-off coupons, so she bought a second set of hand towels and... no, it's not possible for him to listen to any more of this.) He isn't sure what to say, isn't sure how to ask the woman he's currently dating why she seems so unhappy. (He's never gotten an answer to that question he was okay with hearing, even when the response wasn't about the ways in which the woman believes he's failed.)
He settles on: "Are you okay, Lemon?"
She nods. "Yeah. Of course. And I would cool it on calling me Lemon. This place is full of Lemons, so, you know. Confusion could be rampant." She pauses. "Thanks for coming with me, by the way."
"You don't need to *thank* me. We are--"
"Doing it?"
"--involved."
"We've been dating for three months. Almost, I mean. That doesn't obligate you to go to a family wedding." She pauses. "Right? I guess I don't know a lot about relationship rules. No, I'm right."
"I've known you for over two years. That isn't the same as being a man you've recently taken up with."
"Fine, then. I'm glad you feel obligated."
"That isn't what I said." He hesitates, watches her slump in her seat. "If I asked if you're experiencing a hormonal imbalance--"
Her posture improves, but in this instance her straighter spine doesn't make him feel more at ease. "Don't, Jack. Just... don't."
"You could," he says, as gently as possible, "tell me what's wrong."
There are several moments of silence as she stares at her brother, who is standing at the altar.
"I am *happy* for him," she begins. "I don't want you to think I'm not *happy* for him, because I am. I love my brother. I want him to be okay. But he was seventeen for over twenty years and he's getting married before me. He grew up in a year, and I'm still the same person I was *ten* years ago. I'm not any closer to being a wife or a mother or--" She stops suddenly; turns to him. "I'm not saying I want you to propose. You don't want that. *I* don't want that."
Though he wasn't intending on asking Liz to marry him, the words... wound him, for lack of a better way to describe his initial reaction. Wound him, for reasons that aren't entirely clear. (He agreed this wasn't serious.) But it wasn't an intentional blow, so he doesn't allow it to stick, doesn't let himself consider it for more than a few seconds.
"But... I don't know. I thought I'd be in a different place by now. Not that I don't like where I am. I like you. I like this. Us. But." She shakes her head. "I don't know. Forget it."
He puts his hand over hers. "You will have everything you want, Liz. You'll have everything you want because you deserve it."
She nods before she looks away. Her fingers slide between his. Leaning closer to him, she rests her other hand on top of his. "I hope you're right."
"I am."
Jack exhales. The music begins.
END
Challenge: The Twelve Days of Christmas!
Prompt: 30 Rock, Jack/Liz, Mitch's wedding.
For: frey_at_last
Word Count: 902
Rating: PG
Note: This became something completely different than I intended... I will expand on this idea again at some point, with more of the Lemons (and maybe less melancholy).
Summary: Jack and Liz at a Lemon family wedding.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue!
*
Jack is surprised to find that Dick and Margaret Lemon still like him and, even more surprisingly, approve of him as their daughter's boyfriend. Not that he is an inherently objectionable man -- if he were, he wouldn't have gotten away with nearly as many mistakes and/or acts of malice as he has during his nearly fifty years on earth (passing the blame can get a person just so far) -- but he assumed there would be some tension due to the last day he spent time with them. (And if there had been, he would have reminded Liz's parents it was his *mother* who brought about the Christmastime eruption of rage and resentment in their family. Passing the blame, by the way, is more satisfying when it's warranted.) Thought that they wouldn't *hug* him -- an act of nonsexual affection he's only particularly comfortable engaging in with Liz, and even then it feels somewhat odd, and seems much more natural when Liz is naked and the show of affection is, in fact, sexual -- that Margaret wouldn't kiss him, and that Dick wouldn't say, "You just get better looking by the day."
He responds with a wary smile and turns his focus to Liz, whose own smile looks awkward, fake, as it has more and more often recently. "As he keeps telling me," she says, glancing briefly at him.
"I've said that *once* and you can't fault someone for speaking the truth," Jack replies coolly, jokingly -- he knows the days of his handsomeness becoming more and more striking is over and has admitted as much to her -- in an attempt to make Liz actually smile.
It doesn't work.
His attention stays on her as she greets her parents, hugs and cheek kisses and cheerful words.
"Can you believe Mitch is getting married?" Margaret says.
"No, I can not!" Liz replies.
He rests his hand on her back.
*
While they're sitting in the pews -- third row, Liz by the aisle and Jack next to her cousin, Allison -- Liz is silent, which results in Jack hearing too much of Allison's conversation with her boyfriend. (Sadly, the conversation isn't tawdry or full of tension; she's merely describing her recent trip to Bed, Bath and Beyond. She had two five-percent-off coupons, so she bought a second set of hand towels and... no, it's not possible for him to listen to any more of this.) He isn't sure what to say, isn't sure how to ask the woman he's currently dating why she seems so unhappy. (He's never gotten an answer to that question he was okay with hearing, even when the response wasn't about the ways in which the woman believes he's failed.)
He settles on: "Are you okay, Lemon?"
She nods. "Yeah. Of course. And I would cool it on calling me Lemon. This place is full of Lemons, so, you know. Confusion could be rampant." She pauses. "Thanks for coming with me, by the way."
"You don't need to *thank* me. We are--"
"Doing it?"
"--involved."
"We've been dating for three months. Almost, I mean. That doesn't obligate you to go to a family wedding." She pauses. "Right? I guess I don't know a lot about relationship rules. No, I'm right."
"I've known you for over two years. That isn't the same as being a man you've recently taken up with."
"Fine, then. I'm glad you feel obligated."
"That isn't what I said." He hesitates, watches her slump in her seat. "If I asked if you're experiencing a hormonal imbalance--"
Her posture improves, but in this instance her straighter spine doesn't make him feel more at ease. "Don't, Jack. Just... don't."
"You could," he says, as gently as possible, "tell me what's wrong."
There are several moments of silence as she stares at her brother, who is standing at the altar.
"I am *happy* for him," she begins. "I don't want you to think I'm not *happy* for him, because I am. I love my brother. I want him to be okay. But he was seventeen for over twenty years and he's getting married before me. He grew up in a year, and I'm still the same person I was *ten* years ago. I'm not any closer to being a wife or a mother or--" She stops suddenly; turns to him. "I'm not saying I want you to propose. You don't want that. *I* don't want that."
Though he wasn't intending on asking Liz to marry him, the words... wound him, for lack of a better way to describe his initial reaction. Wound him, for reasons that aren't entirely clear. (He agreed this wasn't serious.) But it wasn't an intentional blow, so he doesn't allow it to stick, doesn't let himself consider it for more than a few seconds.
"But... I don't know. I thought I'd be in a different place by now. Not that I don't like where I am. I like you. I like this. Us. But." She shakes her head. "I don't know. Forget it."
He puts his hand over hers. "You will have everything you want, Liz. You'll have everything you want because you deserve it."
She nods before she looks away. Her fingers slide between his. Leaning closer to him, she rests her other hand on top of his. "I hope you're right."
"I am."
Jack exhales. The music begins.
END