(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

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[justdidntseeit]

Kate's on the porch, watching the moon rise in the sky.

She looks over when the back door opens and offers a smile.

"If you're taking a walk, watch out for bunnies."

[justdidntseeit]

"True."

A beat.

"It's good that her parents have no idea her closet is a doorway to Monstropolis, too."

She winces a little.

"Boo's world is a little ... unconventional."

[trigger_man]

Jack raises an eyebrow. "Monstropolis?"

[justdidntseeit]

"Monsters included."

A small smile.

"They're friendly."

And helpful.

[trigger_man]

"Friendly monsters," Jack says, shaking his head slowly. "Yeah, I think that counts as 'unconventional'."

[justdidntseeit]

Soft and wry, "I think I'd take that kind of strange over terrorist attacks and nuclear bombs."

[trigger_man]

"Yeah, same here. Doesn't sound like the monsters are the dangerous ones. Plus, I guess a kid can never have too many good parents," he says with a slight smile.

[justdidntseeit]

"She's found herself a whole network of family here," Kate says with a nod.

She combs a loose lock of blond hair behind one ear, her thoughts shifting to Jack's own daughter.

"Is Kim still in the city?"

[trigger_man]

Jack swallows. Last he'd heard, before he was taken to China, Kim was living in LA somewhere, not Valencia. It's something he has to be grateful for, considering everything that had happened the day before he entered Milliways. Even if she didn't want to talk to him, just knowing she was alive was something, though the memory of what she'd said the last time he'd seen her wasn't far behind.

"Yeah," he says, his voice raspy as he realizes his mouth's gone dry. He swallows, tries again. "Yeah. I...I don't really know where, though. We haven't talked in a while."

[justdidntseeit]

"Oh, I -- "

Kate's known Jack and Kim for a month on her side of the door; she knows about some of the distance and estrangement they're both trying so hard to bridge. She's seen it at Cedars-Sinai, and at Jack's apartment when she stops in.

But with eight years between then and Jack's now ...

"Jack, I'm sorry."

She wants to ask more, but she isn't sure if she should.

[trigger_man]

"Thanks. It's...a lot's happened over the last few years. It works out better this way."

Safer for Kim at least, and that's something he can live with.

"How're you and Bill doing?"

[justdidntseeit]

"We're good," she says, and she can't help the tiny half-smile that tugs at her lips.

"He's going back to work soon, so we're getting ready to go back to South Carolina."

[trigger_man]

"Whereabouts in South Carolina does he work?" Jack asks.

[justdidntseeit]

"A small town you've probably never heard of," she says with a soft chuckle. "Wheelsy, it's between Columbia and the coast. He's the sheriff."

[trigger_man]

"Doesn't ring a bell," Jack says, shaking his head. "Quiet place, I take it?"

[justdidntseeit]

"As a mouse."

She shifts her weight, leaning one hip against the railing.

"The closest Neiman Marcus is in another state."