(Untitled)

[trigger_man]

Ever since Jack got back from visiting Beckett's New York--to find that more time had passed in the bar than in her world, not that that really made much difference to him--he hasn't been spending much time in the bar itself.  New York had been sensory overload everywhere he looked, and while he'd been able to bottle up his reaction to it most of

Comments

[ikissdhimbck]

She's out later than she'd like to be. Not that she's squeamish about walking around unescorted in the dark -- she does have her Colt strapped to her hip, after all -- but ever since the vampire attacks and the disturbing reports she's been gathering about her friends, she's been playing it close to the bar.

Tonight, however, there were some complications in the stables. Beaut's been favoring one leg over the other, and it took a little time and a little coaxing, but she eventually discovered the reason why.

So Kate is heading up the path, hunkered down against the cold, cowboy hat pulled over her ears and hands buried in the pockets of her coat. The moonlight might be glinting off her spurs as she walks in Jack's direction.

[trigger_man]

Jack's on his way back to the bar to warm up when he hears the jingling noise.

--Keys jingling in the guards' hands as they come down the hallway, the rattle of chains as he's hauled up onto his toes and stripped--

He turns toward the sound, quickly, tensing before he has a chance to think about what might actually be causing the sound.

[ikissdhimbck]

The sudden rush of moment, and the quiet hush of sound that accompanies it, is enough to draw Kate's attention away from the path ahead. Her head snaps up and she moves with a start, assuming a defensive posture in preparation for god knows what anymore, be it vampires or murderers or crazy drug lords.

She starts to apologize when she spots --

"Doc?"

[trigger_man]

He spots the woman the same time she sees him. His eyes immediately go to the gun on her hip, then take in her height and build, sizing up how he could take her down before he has a chance to let rational thought stop himself.

He relaxes slightly, however, when she calls him Doc; or at least, as much as he can relax.

"Sorry, no. Just his double," he says, forcing a polite smile.

[ikissdhimbck]

Kate could easily be overpowered by him -- or any man, really -- one-on-one; she has no delusions about that. Which is why, in the same span of time he used to size her up, she used to gauge the distance between their bodies and how quickly she could get off a sure shot from her six.

But once she'd seen that face... He looks so much like the man she buried. Not the Doc upstairs in room #25; the one waiting for her to get back. But the man at four-and-thirty, who she led into a massacre; who died in her arms in an eighteen-ninety-one cabin in the middle of Colorado.

She blinks, realizing she hasn't been pulling air, and shakes her head a little to clear the mist from her mind. Her heart is racing, but somehow she manages to relax her posture, hand drawing away from her hip.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she breathes. "Jack. It's been a while. I thought..."

She shakes her head and laughs a little to chase away the sadness.

"Wrong timeline."

[trigger_man]

His smile turns a little tight. It seems like everywhere he turns in the bar he meets someone who knew that earlier version of him, and it hasn't gotten much less disconcerting.

"Wrong Jack. I take it you met the other version of me that was in here before," he says, trying to sound pleasant even as he's coming down from the adrenaline rush.

[ikissdhimbck]

Her smile falters only slightly when she notices the tightness to his expression, and the effort in his words. She dips her head almost shyly, hands lazily slipping back into her pockets.

"Yes, I had. But I'd heard about ... Doc told me you two 'met'."

She takes a few unassuming steps in his direction, shrugging slightly.

"If it's any consolation, I'd only met the other... uh, 'you' twice or so. So I don't think I know anythin' you wouldn't," she comments with an apologetic smile.

[trigger_man]

Jack nods. "Guess that's a good thing. Can't be easy for anyone on either side of the situation."

He glances out at the lake, then back at her. "So you and Doc are...?"

[ikissdhimbck]

"Gotta be worse for you," she says sympathetically. "'Course, it's always strange when a different version of a friend comes waltzin' through that door. But you... you're new t'Milliways, aren't ya?"

That's enough of a trip without having to worry about 'past lives' inside these walls.

"Doc an' I?" She pauses half a beat, smiling softly. "We're what you'd call 'complicated.' Most recently, though, I've been callin' it 'family.'"

[trigger_man]

"Fairly new. I've been here for a few months. I take it you've been here much longer than I have, considering you and Doc are 'family'--unless you knew him outside here.?"

[ikissdhimbck]

"Gosh, I've been here for more'n eighteen months, and I still feel 'new' some of the time," she chortles, shaking her head. "Doc an' I met here, but ... we've been through a lot."

You've been through a lot, she thinks, but wisely does not say. Instead, she nods her head toward the path ahead.

"Were you headin' back in? We could walk t'gether, if y'didn't mind?"

[trigger_man]

"Sure, it's pretty cold out here," he says, trying to rub some circulation back into his cold hands. Not that he feels it much on his right. "And from what I've heard, that's an understatement. I guess this place doesn't get any less weird the longer you're here."

[ikissdhimbck]

The corner of her mouth twitches wryly.

"Afraid not. Most of us get by, learnin' t'lean on each other. Speakin' of which--"

She half turns, bringing her arm around to offer him her gloved hand. "--I should properly introduce myself. Kate Barlow, Texas, year eighteen-eighty-eight."

She smiles a tad more warmly.

"Welcome t'Milliways. Belatedly."

[trigger_man]

Jack's mouth twitches into a smile as he takes her hand and gives it a brief, firm shake. "Thanks. You and Doc are from around the same time then, at least?"

Probably best he doesn't say anything about her first comment; leaning on someone else isn't exactly his strength, especially not now.

[ikissdhimbck]

"Round about."

As she turns forward again and slowly starts walking up the path, she briefly tells him about the less-than-traditional relationship she and the outlaw have.

"Doc's about seven years removed from me, back in eighteen-eighty-one. You heard of the Lincoln County Wars? He's just now settin' himself straight followin' that."

For one's definition of 'straight'.

"I was teachin' when I first stumbled in, with an arm full'a books. Caught his eye, seein' as how he used t'teach himself--" Yes, and for no other reason, of course, "--struck up a friendship right off the bat. Almost lost him once. But he ... had some good friends here, patched 'im up."

She smiles softly.

[trigger_man]

"You're a teacher? Anything in particular, or is it more of a one-room-schoolhouse kind of thing? And knowing the kind of people that come in here, it doesn't surprise me they'd be able to patch him up better than at home."

It's mostly his own aversion to doctors and any kind of medical setting that kept him out of the infirmary when he first came in.