Cause I Made A Rope, Can Throw It Out To You? [One-Shot]
Summary: Jack and Ben found each other in a pretty unusual way.
Disclaimer: I totally own both of these men because they are beyond perfect. We have to keep our relationships private though so I'm obligated to say that I don't own them or any other characters. Title goes to Crash Land-Twin Atlantic, Cut to No One Does It Better-You Me At Six
A/N:At The End
"So kid, what's your story then, eh?"
"Um, it's Jack actually, not kid." He said to the annoying guy with the caramel coloured hair and annoyingly bushy eyebrows that would not stop talking to him.
To be fair though, he seemed like the kind of person who talked when he was nervous, and he surely had reason to be nervous so Jack was gonna it slide.
"Sorry. Um, Jack, what's your story? I'm Alex, by the way."
Jack chuckled, this guy, Alex, was clearly very nervous. Jack decided that yeah, he probably would tell him what his "story was" if only to calm him. Jack was a very caring person and he liked to do what he could to make others happy or comfortable.
He cleared his throat and began:
I met the love of my life in a strange way. I saved him. I literally saved him, and I'm so very very glad that I did.
I work as a lawyer at Jordan & Sons Co. It's a shit job, like good pay and everything, but the work is just horrible and depressing. So anyway, one day after a particularly boring work day I was walking home.
Jack chuckled. He looked at Alex, who was staring at him caterpillar eyebrows creased in concentration as he listened.
"You probably I was depressed by the way I'm explaining this. I wasn't, never have been, it's just that work was horrible. I'm pretty positive though, always have been, usually just positive thoughts and a smile, no matter how "fake" it is at first can get anyone through anything. And of course, my music."
Alex frowned. "That sounds great and all, no offence, but I don't see how that has anything to do with why you're here."
Jack chuckled for the third time, "Oh, all right, let me get back to the story then!"
So, where was I? Oh yes, walking home from hell. Hmm, okay, so there I was walking down a normal Chicago street, a street I walked everyday to and from work. Nothing exciting ever happened when I walked down that street, never, not one day. That particular day I didn't give a single thought to the notion that that could change. In fact, that it could change just a few minutes from where I am in this very story!
So, I'm walking with my ipod in, blasting music that made me feel like I could do anything in the entire world when I noticed a crowd.
This in itself was a bit strange. There is always a lot of people in city streets but they are always walking, going somewhere, in organized lines. They never just stop in one big clump. This peaked my curiosity, so I took out my headphones and decided to ask someone what the commotion was about.
I tapped a friendly looking red head girl with a septum piercing on the shoulder and asked her what was going on, she turned to me looking concerned, "There's a guy up there! He's going to jump someone needs to stop him!"
That was when I noticed that indeed, people were all looking up and police cars and fire engines were starting to show up. I followed everyone else and looked up.
The moment I did I saw that yes, there was a man up on the ledge of the building and yes, it did look like he was going to jump. Usually, in a case like this I would stand on the ground outside the building and feel shocked and sad that someone would want to do this, and hope that the police did something.
This time though, it was different, as soon as I got a good look at the man up there I felt the weirdest sensation in my gut, I did not want this guy to do it. I didn't know why but he could not kill himself, I wouldn't allow it.
Maybe it's just because I have a soft spot for a pretty face, and this man was way beyond pretty, light brown curly-ish hair, and cheeks that seemed like they would be adorably chubby but were actually just really sexy, but I decided that I would do something. I, Jack Barakat, would stop this man from doing it.
Before I, or anyone else, could stop me I was running into the apartment building. I have a lawyers mind so it wasn't really that hard to calculate which apartment that it was that the man was standing outside of. I found it after a moment of rushing and was really surprised to find the door unlocked.
I ran in and took the quickest scan around the room, noting that the man had a bunch of guitars, and I being a guitar player myself, instantly gained a lot more respect for the stranger. I soon saw the window he was outside of and ran to it.
"STOP!" I yelled frantically, surprised actually at just how frantic I sounded. I ran to the window and stuck my head out of it, almost losing balance myself before steadying myself and looking at the man.
He just stood there and looked surprised as well. I don't think he expected anyone to go into his apartment and stop him. Especially not some stranger.
He turned his head to look at me and when he did I vaguely noticed that he had two lip rings on the same side of his lip, which was pretty cool, and then I looked into his eyes.
The moment that our eyes met I felt this weird sensation, like this is right, this is where I'm meant to be. I was sure that he felt it too because he went as still as I did.
Now, I know, of course, that yeah, he felt exactly as I did, like we were the only two people in the entire universe.
He snapped out of it and asked in a soft voice a simple question that could change everything, "Why?"
Again, I vaguely noticed that he had a British accent, something that made me melt, made me want to talk to him all the time because it wasn't just the British accent, it was his accent. I thought about it for a moment and decided to answer with a question of my own, "Well.....why not?"
I don't know why but those seemed to be the right words to ask because his eyes filled with tears and he looked like he wanted to be hugged, I thought that he would come off the ledge and ask for the thing that he so desperately wanted, that he so desperately needed, but he didn't. He was stubborn.
"Because. Life's shit. For me at least."
I looked up at him, and down at the people below us, at the billboards surrounding us, and at the beautiful city that I lived in.
"Well....yeah. Yeah, life's shit for everyone." He looked at me like I was insane, knowing that these were not the words that you say to someone about to jump off a ledge and kill themselves, as he was about to say something I cut him off,
"But we all get through it. We just need one person to help us through, someone that we can tell all of our problems, that we can be with and be happy with. And if we have that one person then even if life throws all that it has at us, we know that we can make it because we have them. That one person that we love so much that we can do the most boring things with and make them seem as exciting as a roller coaster, that we can do the stupid-est things with but make them seem genius, at the time at least, have petty fights with that seem like the most important fights that have ever been fought at the time,that make you cry your eyes out and make your chest hurt like fuck, but afterwards you know that you need to have these fights just so you can make up with that person and love them, or maybe just have really great make up sex with, either way-
"That one made him laugh a bit too." Jack said as he looked at Alex who had burst out laughing after staring at Jack through the speech that he made with tears in his eyes.
Jack still thought that it was the cheesiest most cliché thing that anyone has ever said and doesn't understand why people get worked up when he tells this bit of his story, but he's gotta admit he loves seeing people get all teary eyed from something that he said.
-And if for some reason we lose them, they are never really gone, because we have them here, in our hearts, and here, in our heads. We have the memories, we have the secrets that only we know, that makes it so they aren't really gone. It makes everything okay. Or at least, bearable.
So, you shouldn't do this. You need to come down. Like, now. You need to start living. You need to do boring, yet exciting things. You need to have stupid, yet genius ideas. You need to have petty heart breaking fights that end up making you happier than you've ever been. You just....you need to come down."
He stared at me then, and bit his lip. I remember thinking that it was the cutest thing that I'd seen in a while and then I got scared. Maybe what I said had been too much. What if he thought I was just bullshitting to get him to come down. I mean, it had been a bit of an exaggeration, I'd never felt any of that before, but I'd heard things like that and decided to put them together and hope it worked. I just really wanted him to come down.
After what seemed like hours, but was probably about a minute, he finally said something. It wasn't what I'd expected but I'd take it. "Who are you then?" He asked, a teeny bit sceptically.
I smiled at him, "I'm Jack Barakat. And I just might be that one person."
He gasped and backed up. I backed up too and caught him as he jumped down back into the apartment. As soon as he got back in he jumped into my arms and started bawling his eyes out. I mumbled random things like "it'll be okay's" and "it's all right now's" and it was. It would be all right.
After a while he stopped crying and looked up at me from under his eyelashes like he was expecting me to leave.
I smiled at him reassuringly and asked, "What's your name then?"
He mumbled a shy, "Ben. Ben Bruce."
"Wanna go get some coffee then, Ben?"
He laughed, relieved and replied with a short, "Sure," and away we walked.
I put my hand in his and away we walked.
Jack stopped talking and looked at Alex.
"Well. That's it. That's my story."
Alex looked at Jack, he was considerably more relaxed ever since Jack had begun the story, but now he just looked shocked,"What? That's it!?"
Jack widened his eyes in surprise. "Well, yeah, what else is there?"
Alex scoffed like it was obvious, "What happened next? Why are you here? Come on Jack!"
Jack laughed, "Okay, here's the short version I suppose. That happened about two and a half years ago, we fell in love after that coffee date. It's been perfect since then, no, better than perfect. All that "bullshit" that I told him on the ledge. That actually came true with Ben. He's, as corny as it sounds, my soul mate. I don't know how life would be without him now. But about a month ago he got back from a doctors appointment and told me that they said he might have cancer. Since then I told him to make a bucket list and we've been doing the craziest things, it's been pretty fun actually. And now this is the appointment that we get the "big news" you know, like whether he has it or not. It could go either way really."
Alex looked at Jack sadly, but also with surprise, Jack wasn't breaking down in tears or punching walls when he had so much reason to, he just sat there with a sad smile on his face. At first Alex had thought that the other boy was there like he was, to get the news on whether his other half was pregnant or not, and he was shocked to find this wasn't true.
He wanted to tell Jack that he was sorry, but for some reason he couldn't because he knew that Jack didn't want that, it wouldn't be what he wanted to hear, so he just sat there in a silence, but he knew that Jack was okay with that.
~
It had been a few hours since Jack had told Alex his story. The other boy had left a short while after with the news that he was going to be a dad. Jack had cheered and been happy for the pair and had to console them that they would be wonderful parents after the predictable, "We're not ready" and "We can't do this" but they went away happy.
Jack couldn't help but wish that he too left the hospital with happy news. He was staring at the tiled floor, so tired and bored that he had started to count the dots on the tile. All of a sudden he heard doors open in front of him. He snapped his head up, he felt a hopeful look on his face.
It was Ben.
Jack was really nervous all of a sudden. He didn't know if he could take it. Finally he got the courage to ask, his voice cracking from hours of disuse and nervousness, "Well?"
He looked at the man that he loved so much, the man he had been through so much with and stared at his face. He didn't get a response.
Ben just gave Jack a weak smile.
xxxxxx
A/N: Okay, so I had a tad bit of writers block on my other fic and I wanted so write so I decided to write something else. I'm not really sure about this, but I had an idea and this was the result, I hope you don't mind the weird randomness of the pairing! Haha But yeah, thanks for reading this one shot!