Time For An Explanation

[capj_harkness]

Who: Captain Jack Harkness, Buffy Summers and, at some point, Spike.
Where: Buffy's room.
When: A couple days or so after Owen came to Jack about his deaths.
What: Jack found out from Kaylee that Owen learned his fate from Spike. Jack didn't tell Spike the details of his friends' recent deaths, but Spike spends an awful lot of time with Buffy.

Comments

[first_summers]

Buffy was actually in her room for once, which was a strange occurrence in itself. Most of the time these days, she was in Spike's room, which had sort of become their room after she'd just neglected to sleep in her own for months. But the hotel hadn't helped her move everything over, so she'd taken a little bit at a time, when she actually remembered... So now she was determined to get the last of it, because she couldn't find a certain left shoe and she desperately needed it...

The knocking made her jump a bit, it was so unexpected, and she collided with some empty hangers as she pulled her upper body out of the wardrobe. A hand run through her hair was enough to ensure no bits were standing up like in a Frankenstein movie, then she hurried over to the door.

She greeted the man on the other side with a bright smile and her usual happy Buffy attitude. "Jack! Long time no see!" A frown, then an added, "I think. Time's been a bit wonky for us lately, I think. Or maybe just for me. Or..." She trailed off and her frown deepened as she noticed something. "You have serious face."

[capj_harkness]

"Yeah," he agreed. "Yeah. I have a problem." He gestured towards the room behind her. "Can I come in?"

[first_summers]

Buffy just nodded, stepping back to let him in. She looked back at the room and very quickly hurried over to the couch to scoop up the pile of clothes and mismatched shoes to deposit them on the floor. Jack needed someplace to sit if this was serious.

[capj_harkness]

Jack stepped into the room, but didn't sit. He slid his hands into his pockets and glanced around.

"Moving out?" he asked, though the answer was obviously yes. He smiled a little, though it didn't reach his eyes. "Tell me you found a way out," he told her.

[first_summers]

Well, alright then. She sat at one end of the small sofa, but left the other open for Jack in case he changed his mind.

"I wish I could," she replied with half a smile. "Just figured it was time I hauled the rest of my stuff next door, since I'm always there.'

[capj_harkness]

"Ah," he said. With Spike, of course.

"That's kind of... peripherally what I wanted to talk to you about," he said awkwardly. "Spike."

[first_summers]

Buffy frowned at that. An uncomfortable frown that meant she had no idea what was headed her way. "What about Spike?" she asked carefully, almost hesitantly. Jack and Spike hadn't had the most positive relationship in the past, after all.

[capj_harkness]

Jack looked away from her for a second, then returned his gaze to meet her eyes.

"Did you tell Spike about what happened to Owen?" he asked without any further preamble.

[first_summers]

She stared at Jack in confusion, then tilted her head as she thought. "I might have a long time ago," she offered, trying to actual recall the instance. "If I did, it was just in random conversation."

[capj_harkness]

Jack nodded. "Look, I know you didn't mean anything by it, but Spike has apparently, not-so-randomly, told Owen about it," he informed her. "Has he happened to mention that to you?" He searched her face for any flicker of recognition of what he was talking about. "There was a card game, I guess?" he prompted.

[first_summers]

Buffy felt like she was missing something, like a giant invisible demon elephant was about to sit on her and Jack was putting off the warning to duck and roll.

"He mentioned a poker game," she supplied with a bit of a shrug. "Said he had fun. Got in some real male bonding time. Not that he called it that of course, male bonding isn't a Spike sort of thing, but..." She trailed off and then shook her head. "I don't understand why the big serious face about this," she told him honestly.

[capj_harkness]

Jack looked at her like she was a stranger for a moment before shaking it off.

"He told Owen about his future," he repeated sternly. "About his future deaths, to be specific. And I don't appreciate it," he added pointedly, since the gravity of the actual deed didn't seem to be getting through. "I told you that because we were sharing the burden of that sort of loss, of command, not so your boyfriend could blab it to Owen if he happened to show up."

He'd assumed she had a certain amount of discretion, but then... why had he done that? He didn't really know her. They'd barely met. Of course, he hadn't counted on sticking around either. Or on Owen showing up. If he'd known Owen was going to appear, he probably would have exercised a great deal more discretion himself.

[first_summers]

Buffy sat a little straighter, her senses now on alert because she felt very much like something was about to attack her. "What, you think Spike intentionally went out of his way to tell the guy he was going to die?" she questioned with an almost accusatory tone. "You think he rubbed it in to make sure it really got to him? Spike wouldn't do that. He probably didn't even think twice about comparing number of deaths with someone in a line of work like ours. Especially over a damn poker game."

[capj_harkness]

"I don't care why he told him," Jack retorted. "Does it matter? You don't tell someone something like that. Why did he need to know? Owen is mortal."

Jack took a deep breath and stepped back, trying to regain his calm.

[first_summers]

"How the hell were either of us supposed to know that Owen didn't know?" Buffy shot back, completely on the defensive now. "That's not something I'd keep people in the dark about, even more so since we're all stuck here and none of it will happen anyway. If Spike said anything about it, it was probably one of his macho 'I'm a Big Bad Vampire' speeches and he just mentioned off-handedly that Owen's numbers were pretty good too. It's a badge of pride for him."

[capj_harkness]

"Why would Owen know?" Jack countered. "It hadn't happened to him yet."

He hadn't gone there to fight with Buffy and he really didn't know what he'd expected her to say that didn't involve vehemently defending Spike, but, he supposed, he must have expected her to at least understand where the problem was.