(Untitled)

[learnwhatsreal]

Sitting and waiting had never really been one of Jenny's strengths, and now, anxious for Jason's return, it seemed all but impossible. She'd been on edge before, after finding him with that chair, but now it seemed even moreso. There was nothing she could do for him here, after all, but it wouldn't have been right to deny him when he'd asked only

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[dickgout]

Jason practically limped back in, he was so tired.

But he was clean, scrubbed almost raw, and he'd brushed his teeth until he tasted blood from his gums, and then again just in case. New jeans, didn't bother with a shirt. He just needed to get home. Now, home didn't really exist for Jason in a place, like he thought it did for his sister.

Home was more of a space, where it was warm or cool or just plain comfortable, where he knew he was safe and dry and secret when he needed it. Right now, home was Jenny's lap, which was where he buried his face, after prying her knees down from her chest.

"I'm sorry," he whispered.

[learnwhatsreal]

Jenny let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding when she saw Jason walk in, no matter how he looked, and didn't need to hesitate to hold him close once his head was in her lap, fingers threading through his hair. Being the one in this position, comforting instead of being comforted, was something vaguely foreign to her, but for him, she didn't care. It was enough just knowing that he was alright, enough just to feel him there with her.

"Don't be," she murmured, shaking her head a little, her tone as reassuring as she could make it. "It's not like... like you could've asked for it to show up, right?" That was just the way it worked. All of them had things they needed to deal with here. His just happened to be considerably worse -- and definitely more gruesome -- than everyone else she knew.

[dickgout]

"It was the biggest mistake I ever made," Jason said hoarsely, sitting up-- only to pull her down beside him, so he could wrap her up in head to toe contact. "I never shoulda let Amy talk me into it. But I was hooked and she seemed so smart and like she loved me, so how could she be wrong?"

He inhaled the scent of Jenny's hair. "I was tryin' to let him go."

[learnwhatsreal]

There was only so much Jenny could piece together from what he was saying, but that Jason said he was trying to let him -- presumably the Eddie he'd mentioned -- go, she had to assume that they'd been holding him captive or something. Which, yeah, was fucked up, but with the rest of what Jason was saying, she didn't see how she was supposed to hold it against him. Amy was the one who sounded crazy, even if she wasn't going to say so.

"It - it wasn't your fault," she murmured, letting her hand smooth over his hair again as she settled beside him, keeping him close. After not being able to touch him before, having him so near her now felt better than she could've imagined. "Trust me. I -"

She faltered there, though, biting her lower lip to hold back what had nearly come out. It wasn't like it was something she'd thought through, or even something she would have expected from herself. She could be reassuring in other ways. Attempting to cover any obvious mistake, she said, "I don't need to have been there to know that."