14 [Video/Text]

[yeahscience]

[Jesse's back, bitches! He's yawning and rubbing at his eyes, so evidently, it hasn't been very long since he woke up.]

Yo, how long was I out for...? I had the weirdest dreams. Like I was all fighting dinosaurs, and then I was a pirate, and then we were on the moon, and then I was a little kid running around here...

[He hesitates, going back

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[yeahscience]

Jesse laughed, letting himself be pushed towards the bed, which was, you know, a little more what he'd had in mind all along. "You too, baby," he assured her, kissing her again, tugging her down to the bed with him. "This place blows without you."

It hadn't been as bad as last time, partly by virtue of the fact that he wasn't in the middle of a breakdown when she went down, or on drugs, and partly because he now knew she'd have to wake up sometime. He hadn't freaked out, he hadn't cried or tried to punch anything or shoot an imaginary ghost. He'd gotten up every day and taken the dogs for a walk and gone to work like he was just some normal guy.

But it was all just... a routine. Trappings. It made Sarah and Locke happy to see him like that, he knew; it'd make Claire happy to know he could keep it together like that, probably. He'd stuck to the routine because he didn't know what else to do, and the rest of the time, he drifted around lost, at a loss. Here was the spot in his day he'd used to go smoke a bowl, which he'd replaced with seeing Claire, so now what did he do? Not to mention sleeping alone.

But now, his bed was happily occupied again, and a good while later he curled up around her and pulled her in close, pressing kisses to her shoulder and the back of her neck. "Mm... I missed that, too," he all but purred, grinning broadly.

[yeahscience]

"Yeah." Jesse nodded, his own smile fading a little. "Yeah, I know." Whatever, he'd probably try to act like he didn't care later on, but he did, a little. He'd loved Christmas when he was a kid, before everything went to shit. Now... maybe he'd spent the last few Christmases hanging out in parking lots or the mall (and once, memorably, at a strip club), and maybe Claire's penchant for decorating had been a little overwhelming... but privately, he'd been pretty psyched.

He sighed, rubbing her shoulder lightly. "We'll just have to have it late, that's all. Right?" He hesitated, considering. "Maybe... really late, because I'm sort of, you know, working on something, and it's not really... finished, yet."

[yeahscience]

"I don't know about that, yo. Mine's pretty sick." Jesse grinned, but teasing or not, he maybe seemed a little nervous. He'd already been working on Claire's present for a while, now, but he wasn't all that confident in his art skills anymore. He'd already finished three drafts, only to throw them all away for not being good enough.

Besides, she was pretty good at being all thoughtful and shit. Her present probably was better than his.

He rolled onto his back, looping an arm around her shoulders. "Um... we can do it in, like, maybe a couple weeks?" he hedged, hoping that was enough time.

[yeahscience]

He winced slightly. "Yeah. It's cool." Dealing with Pink hadn't been as soul-suckingly awful as he'd figured it would be, actually... But he didn't want to talk about that with her. It seemed like they worked okay together when they had a common goal, but that didn't mean they were exactly likely to become best buddies.

"--Hey, who took the dogs while I was out, anyways? Did he? 'Cause that was like... almost two weeks ago." He rubbed her arm lightly, and added, in a quieter voice: "You'd been down for ten days."

[yeahscience]

Jesse grinned slowly, leaning down to kiss her. "Our boys," he echoed, deeply pleased. "Mi puppies es su puppies, huh?" Granted, Mr. Muggles would probably pretty much stay Claire's dog. He got along with both the current dogs just fine and all, but if he had a choice, he pretty much always tended to gravitate to the big brown lab.

Actually... He glanced around the room, eyed the closets and the creaky floorboards. "I could always take Iz over here," he offered. "Might have to, like, clean up some first, cause I know he's got a better nose on him than I do, but. Then Chester and, um, the other one, they got room to make friends." And Jesse could roughhouse with Izzy without worrying about squishing Mrs. Bennet's prize show dog.

[yeahscience]

"Why would I?" He gave her a genuinely puzzled smile, wrapping his arms loosely around her. "I like the dogs. They're cool. And they, like... I dunno, it was good having them around, when you-- weren't here."

It had been part of the routine, part of the machine that kept him going. He had to get up, because he had to walk the dogs. He had to go to Claire's after the lab, because he had to feed the dogs, play with the dogs... maybe check if she'd woken up for the eight millionth time, too, but also, the dogs!

"As long as we get them together once in a while, and all. Like you said, you're here all the time, so it ain't like you'll miss him." He bit his lip absently. That was... not exactly what she'd said, but what she had said was making him think.

[yeahscience]

He refocused, glancing back down at her with a frown. "Did I go back on drugs and try to shoot anybody this time, you mean?" he asked, more sharply than he meant to. He grimaced and softened almost immediately, rubbing a hand over his face. "Sorry. But, you know, no. I'm still..." Sober. "...good. On that."

He was quiet for a second, then shook his head, mouth quirking humorlessly. "It sucked. It totally sucked. But yeah, I was okay."

[yeahscience]

"I know. I know. I just..." He shook his head again and rolled onto his side after her, leaning in to kiss her temple. "I know you're not like that." It was a holdover from his folks, maybe, who'd always asked how he was, was he doing okay, when all they really wanted to know what was he was taking. Hell, even John Locke did that. Even Mr. White. It was a messed-up little code, like how you look good meant you look sober, like he couldn't have ever gotten a new haircut or something.

He dropped his head, kissing her shoulder softly in apology. "Come on, tell me about your friend, what friend? Like from back home? Another superhero?"