'Scenes from a Mall', Jack, Daniel, (Dreamverse Chapter Two)
The long awaited sequel to 'In These Dreams'.
Jack. Meets. Bjorn.
This is officially now a WIP.
~3,200 words, PG-13 for language. My thanks to princessofg and tejas for their advice and support. :-)
SCENES FROM A MALL
Jack came out of the shoe store and turned left. He was straightening out the handles of his shopping bags and stepping around a couple of teenagers who’d decided to neck in the middle of mall foot traffic when he heard a familiar voice.
“Borders!”
“Oh, no, you don’t.”
“Just a few…. “
“Forget it!”
And there was Daniel, coming around from the other side of a jewelry kiosk, half-facing Jack. His right arm was stretched out towards his goal. He was laughing. “Booooks!”
His left arm stretched in the other direction, held fast in both hands by the man who was laughing with him, restraining him, all the while shaking his head. “No bookstores! We have an agreement, remember?”
Daniel tugged, still laughing, and turned his head back to look at the other man.
Jack could see the moment that his presence registered. Daniel’s head snapped back to the front, and his laughter vanished. “Jack!”
“Hey,” Jack replied, letting his gaze wander carefully, casually to the man at Daniel’s side.
About Daniel’s age, maybe a couple of years younger, an inch or so shorter, broad-shouldered. Shaggy hair, dark blond, with a neatly trimmed beard that was several shades deeper into the brown end of the spectrum.
Piercing blue eyes that were watching Jack with interest. “Hello.”
“Daniel?”
“Oh! Um. Jack O’Neill. Bjorn Ludvigsen.”
Bjorn stepped forward, holding out his hand. “A pleasure.” He spoke with an accent that was subtle, but definitely there.
“Likewise,” Jack said airily, shaking hands firmly and resisting the urge to run away. “Daniel talks about me all the time.”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “Jack.”
Bjorn laughed. “Shall we say, most of the time?”
“No, we shall not,” Daniel said firmly.
Bjorn shrugged. “We shall not,” he said to Jack, completely straight-faced, as he lifted his right foot and kicked Daniel lightly on the ankle.
Jack assumed that whatever Daniel said to Bjorn in response was extremely rude, but as he didn’t speak… Scandinavian, he only had the laughter in Bjorn’s eyes to go on.
“Danish,” Daniel said when Jack’s eyes flicked back to him.
“Right.” Right. Bjorn was from Denmark. Daniel had told him that. Had told him more about Bjorn than he would ever have cared to know. Starting with the fact that he existed, and more specifically, existed in Daniel’s life.
Jack wanted to say, ‘Well, this is awkward’, but maybe it wasn’t for Bjorn. Maybe, hopefully, Bjorn didn’t know how Jack had made a fool of himself months ago by declaring his love for a man who was already taken, and who was frankly not all that interested anyway. ‘World’s worst idea’. Logic and reason aside, that still burned and always would.
Jack wanted to slide his hands nonchalantly into his pockets and rock back on his heels like he was having the best time and could stand here all day chatting like this, but he had the damn shopping bags in one hand. And one hand in the pocket wasn’t going to do it. Two hands equaled insouciance, one hand was just a guy who didn’t know what to do with his hand.
“So,” he said, insouciantly.
“So!” Daniel responded brightly. “Shopping.”
“But no bookstores,” Bjorn said, smiling at Jack in a way that seemed to say, ‘you know what he’s like, right?’
“Yeah, shopping. No bags? You two just getting started?”
“Well, no. I just bought a replacement strap for my watch and Bjorn had a new battery put in his.”
“Invisible shopping,” Bjorn said. “No bags.” He seemed to smile a lot. Well, why wouldn’t he? Lucky Danish bastard.
“How about you?” Daniel asked. “Much more to do?”
“Two more stops,” Jack answered. “Half an hour tops.” He shrugged. “If I’m lucky.”
“Ah. Bjorn and I are going to look at DVDs and shirts.”
“Respectively?” Jack asked, not giving a damn.
“What?” Daniel said.
“What?”
Daniel shut his eyes briefly and shook his head. “So, anyway, guess we might as well….”
“I have an idea,” Bjorn said, meeting Daniel’s eyes.
Daniel blinked. “Oh?”
Bjorn turned to Jack. “I think we should only be about half an hour as well. I thought that if you don’t have to rush home we could all maybe meet for a drink. There is that little bar by the south-east entrance.”
“Oh,” Daniel said. “Great idea. You don’t have to rush off, do you, Jack?”
Jack coaxed his lips into a curve as he tried to gauge Daniel’s expression and intent. “Well….”
Daniel laid a hand on his arm. “Come on, you’ve got time for one drink.”
That was clear enough. “Sure. See you there?”
“See you,” Bjorn said, with another friendly smile.
Jack smiled back, ignoring the way his arm was tingling. “If you haven’t turned up in an hour I’ll know you lost the argument.”
Bjorn shook his finger. “No bookstores!”
~~~~
Jack arranged his purchases underneath his chair and tried to decide whether it would look bad if he ordered his beer before the others showed up. If it was only going to be one drink, then he really should wait. And if he wanted to gulp one down before they got here, well, that wasn’t such a hot idea either and he needed to get a grip.
So it wasn’t going to be much fun. So he could put up with it for the space of one beer. Daniel had asked him to, more with his touch than with his words. He didn’t reach out all that often, and it was still freaking Jack a little that Daniel had touched him in front of Bjorn. Made him feel like he did when he was fifteen years old and passing notes in English class to his best buddy’s girl.
Anyway, Daniel wanted this little tea party, for whatever reason. Jack shuddered at the thought that Daniel might want them all to be ‘friends’. Not gonna happen. And he didn’t really think Daniel could be either that insensitive or that optimistic, so it had to be something else.
Maybe Daniel just wanted Jack to have the chance to put to rest any doubts he’d been having about Bjorn. Observe them together, size Bjorn up. Accept and move on.
Torture. But probably healthy. Jack sighed, and then quickly pulled himself together as he saw Bjorn headed for the table, followed by Daniel.
“We are here!” Bjorn said, grinning.
“Guess you won the argument.” Jack inclined his head in acknowledgment.
“I hate you both,” Daniel said cheerfully, propping his bags between the chair legs and the wall. “What are you drinking? I’ll order.”
“Dos Equiis,” Jack requested.
“The usual?” Daniel asked in passing, with a hand on Bjorn’s shoulder.
Bjorn nodded. “Carlsberg,” he told Jack, his eyes following Daniel to the bar. “I am boringly predictable. I like the taste of home.”
“Understandable. I sometimes get a hankering for lutefisk.”
“My grandmother used to make that. It was very bad.” Bjorn shook his head and laughed. “I think maybe the Minnesota recipe was a better one?”
“Everything’s better in Minnesota,” Jack returned smoothly, while absorbing the fact that Daniel definitely had been talking about him.
“I’ve seen very little of the States; no Minnesota, and I’ve not been to the South at all. I think I would melt, probably.”
“Probably better not to risk it,” Jack agreed. “So what have you seen besides Colorado?”
“New York City, I saw. Two weeks I had before coming here. Fantastic place, incredible. Seattle, I went to for a conference, four days I had. Not nearly enough.”
“No. And two weeks isn’t nearly enough for New York, I’d guess.”
“Well, if you don’t sleep….” Bjorn grinned.
Jack tapped his fingernails on the tabletop. “I’m old. I need my sleep.” His smile hurt his face.
Bjorn laughed, once. “If you say so, Jack.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Daniel and I went one long weekend to western Iowa. Many Danes there, museums, windmills.”
“Been to Wisconsin? When I was a little kid in Chicago, my dad used to drive up there to Racine to buy kringle.”
Bjorn nodded enthusiastically. “Kringleville! I want to go there, and Chicago, too, of course. Many Danes among all the other ethnic groups in Chicago. And many museums to make Daniel happy if he comes along.”
“Comes along where?” Daniel asked, arriving and setting down bottles in front of Jack and Bjorn with his left hand. His right hand held a pint glass.
“Chicago,” Bjorn said.
“Whatcha drinkin’?” Jack asked.
“Sam Adams… Sam Adams something.” Daniel held up his glass and stared at it blankly.
Jack snorted.
“I tasted it. It’s good.” Daniel settled into his chair, crinkling his nose at Jack.
“Whatever it is.”
“And when did you start drinking Dos Equiis?” Daniel retaliated.
“Taco Night at a little restaurant Sara and I used to go to.”
“Oh,” Daniel said. His eyes were surprised and then apologetic as they met Jack’s.
Jack tilted his head to one side, closing and opening his eyes. It’s okay.
Daniel nodded.
Bjorn was watching them. Jack noted that he wasn’t smiling.
They’d barely gotten started on their beers when Daniel’s cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and looked at it. “It’s work,” he said. He flipped it open. “Nyan?”
Jack looked at Bjorn, who had the resigned look of a guy who’d been interrupted on more than one occasion.
“I really need to take this,” Daniel said apologetically to Bjorn and, to a lesser extent, Jack. He got up from the table and began to head out of the bar.
Crap! Jack twisted his glass on the tabletop and watched Bjorn watch Daniel walk away.
Bjorn turned back to him. “Sometimes this Nyan makes me very jealous.”
“I’m gonna assume that’s a joke.” Jack raised his eyebrows.
Bjorn chuckled. “Yes, Jack. My little joke. And it’s not always Nyan calling, anyway. I just like his name, so I remember it most often.”
“Nyan’s a nice guy. He’s a big help to Daniel.”
“That’s exactly what Daniel says.” Bjorn took a long swallow of his beer.
Jack did likewise.
“Do you have questions for me?” Bjorn asked.
“’Scuse me?” Jack straightened in his chair.
“I thought perhaps you had some things you would like to ask me.”
“Not so much,” Jack said, immediately irritated and trying, but not very hard, not to show it. “What did you have in mind?”
“Whatever would most set your mind at ease, I suppose. Daniel’s welfare is of some importance to you, I think, so you might have concerns about our relationship.”
“Funnily enough, I let Daniel pretty much run his own life. Seems to be working out for both of us that way.”
“I wasn’t suggesting interference on your part; just concern. I am happy to answer questions about my background or my future plans.”
“I’m not concerned with your future plans.” Okay, that definitely came out sounding snippy, but Jack at least hadn’t thrown his beer in the guy’s face. Stay calm.
“And you already know my background.” Bjorn eyed him seriously.
“Daniel’s told me a little about you. I haven’t had you investigated, or anything.” Not that he hadn’t thought about it. Jack took a sip of beer.
Bjorn grinned slightly. “I did wonder a bit, considering what you and Daniel do for a living. Not,” he inclined his head, “that that’s any concern of mine. I have gotten very good at not asking Daniel all the questions that he mustn’t answer. I have learned not to get too aggravated by his secrecy and his sudden changes of mood from one day to the next.”
“I don’t think we should be sitting here talking about Daniel,” Jack said flatly.
“But you refuse to ask questions about my fascinating self! What do we talk about then?” Blue eyes pinned Jack.
How about your imminent demise? “Right. Okay. Tell me something fascinating about yourself, if you feel you absolutely must.”
“That is better,” Bjorn said cheerfully. At any rate he sounded cheerful, but Jack wasn’t quite seeing it in the eyes. “You know what it is I do, of course?”
“You’re some sort of professor at UCCS.”
“Associate.” Bjorn nodded. “I teach ‘Languages and Cultures’. Mostly Scandinavian, with some other European countries tossed in. And I fill in sometimes where I can in the History department.”
“I can see why you and Daniel get along,” Jack acknowledged.
“You know how it was we met? He has told you this?”
It seemed to Jack that Bjorn’s accent was getting stronger. Which was interesting. What would cause that? “He might have mentioned something about it. I’m sure it had something to do with books.”
“Yes! Daniel comes sometimes to our university library to consult texts that are not readily available in other places. It was there that I met him.”
Jack smiled encouragingly and repressed the urge to say something about ‘geeks’.
“He caught my eye immediately. You can understand.” Bjorn looked at Jack appraisingly. “Yes, you can understand that.”
What the…. “You got something you want to say? Say it.” Jack was beginning to get seriously annoyed, and Nyan was no longer at the top of his list of people with whom to be seriously annoyed.
“I can see how much you care about Daniel. That is my only point.”
“Not much of a point.”
“I still think that you should be asking me the questions, Jack.”
“Fine. What’s your favorite color?” Jack didn’t care any more how sarcastic he might be sounding.
“Orange. Is this your best question?” Bjorn looked mildly amused.
Jack shrugged dismissively. “I’m not getting what it is that you want from me here. Say what’s on your mind. Or don’t. I really don’t care either way.”
“All right.” Bjorn looked at him broodingly for several seconds. “I want for you to know how much I care for Daniel.”
“Fine. Good.” Fuck.
“I would never wish to hurt him in any way.”
“So? Don’t.”
Bjorn pushed his beer aside and leaned forward, arms on the table. “I will not always be here in Colorado Springs. Someday I will leave, get another position. Maybe Denver, maybe someplace far from here.”
“I can understand that. But why are you telling me this?”
“Someday, I think I will go back to Denmark. One day.”
“I hope you have a very nice trip when the time comes. Again, I don’t quite see why you feel the need to tell me.”
“Daniel already knows. We enjoy being together. We’re not trying to plan a future.”
Jack’s leg twitched “So, what? I’m sorry?”
“But when we talk, we talk like we will be together for a very long time. I am in love, Jack.”
Jack’s heart clenched. He leaned back in his chair. “Is this conversation over yet?”
“Daniel… but you did not want to talk about Daniel.”
“Please,” Jack said through tight lips.
“I thought you should know these things.”
And didn’t that just beg the question of what Daniel had told Bjorn. And speaking of Daniel, he was walking back into the bar and heading for their table. His steps hesitated for a fraction of a second when he saw Jack’s face, and then sped up. He reached them and sank down into his chair. “Sorry about that. Did I miss anything?”
“I was just telling Jack that I’ve remembered something. I must go, Daniel.” Bjorn picked up his beer and drained it.
“What?” Daniel looked at Bjorn incredulously and then at Jack.
Bjorn pushed back his chair and stood. “Jack, can you see that Daniel gets home?” He put out his hand.
Jack stood, confused and wary but knowing when to do the polite thing. They shook hands. “Not a problem.”
Daniel looked up at them. “What’s going on?”
“I will see you at home later, Daniel, hmm?” Bjorn bent and brushed his lips against Daniel’s.
“I can come with you,” Daniel said, beginning to shift his weight.
Bjorn put a hand on his shoulder. “Stay and finish your beer. You have barely touched it. I will see you later.”
Bjorn walked away swiftly. Daniel stared after him with his mouth hanging open. It closed with a snap as he turned his attention on Jack. “What did you say to him?”
Jack spread his hands and shrugged. “Honestly? He did most of the talking.”
Daniel’s knuckles rapped several times against the table. “For instance.”
“You sure?”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “Did he say something you don’t want me to know?”
“I only meant, are you sure you want me to be repeating things that your boyfriend may have intended to be private between him and me?”
“Yes, goddammit!”
“Fine, then. He told me he’s in love with you and that some day he’s probably going back to Denmark. That seemed to be the gist.”
“The gist.”
“There was more, all along those lines. At least as far as I could tell.”
Daniel looked at Jack coldly.
“Hey,” Jack said with quiet force, leaning forward and pointing for emphasis, “I tried to stop him several times. I didn’t want to have that conversation. You take it up with him.”
“You’re telling me… you’re expecting me to believe that you didn’t say anything to him to make him leave like that.”
“You can believe whatever you want to.” Jack stared him down, ice in the pit of his stomach.
Daniel stood so quickly that his chair nearly tipped. “I’ll call a cab.”
“What?” Jack blinked.
Daniel bent down to pick up his packages. “I’ll see you at work Monday.”
“Daniel. There is no need….”
Daniel started to walk away.
“Jesus Christ,” Jack muttered as he pushed back his chair and gathered his shopping bags. “Lunatics. Both of them. Fucking….”
When he got out into the mall proper, he didn’t see Daniel in either direction. He pulled out his cell and punched in Daniel’s code as he walked.
“What?”
“I’m parked down by Sears.”
There was a long pause. Jack rolled his eyes.
“Okay.”
Daniel was slouched on a bench fifteen feet away. Their eyes met as they hung up their phones. He stood as Jack approached and they walked silently through the busy hallway, and out through Sears to the parking lot.
The silence continued in the truck. Which was fine with Jack. Daniel was pissed? Well, he was pissed, too. Silence was what he needed right about now. Silence, and something stronger than a Dos Equiis as soon as he got home.
“Thanks,” Daniel said quietly before he climbed out of the truck in front of his apartment building.
“Any time,” Jack answered, looking out through the windshield. The door closed behind Daniel, and Jack checked his mirror and pulled away.
~~~~
The doorbell rang at 10:42 that night. That would be Daniel, of course. It somehow seemed inevitable that it would be Daniel, and that Jack’s hard-won calm would be stripped away from him.
Jack put down the nth drink of many and went to let him in.
Chapter Three: http://sidlj.livejournal.com/153813.html, Rapprochement
Jack. Meets. Bjorn.
This is officially now a WIP.
~3,200 words, PG-13 for language. My thanks to princessofg and tejas for their advice and support. :-)
SCENES FROM A MALL
Jack came out of the shoe store and turned left. He was straightening out the handles of his shopping bags and stepping around a couple of teenagers who’d decided to neck in the middle of mall foot traffic when he heard a familiar voice.
“Borders!”
“Oh, no, you don’t.”
“Just a few…. “
“Forget it!”
And there was Daniel, coming around from the other side of a jewelry kiosk, half-facing Jack. His right arm was stretched out towards his goal. He was laughing. “Booooks!”
His left arm stretched in the other direction, held fast in both hands by the man who was laughing with him, restraining him, all the while shaking his head. “No bookstores! We have an agreement, remember?”
Daniel tugged, still laughing, and turned his head back to look at the other man.
Jack could see the moment that his presence registered. Daniel’s head snapped back to the front, and his laughter vanished. “Jack!”
“Hey,” Jack replied, letting his gaze wander carefully, casually to the man at Daniel’s side.
About Daniel’s age, maybe a couple of years younger, an inch or so shorter, broad-shouldered. Shaggy hair, dark blond, with a neatly trimmed beard that was several shades deeper into the brown end of the spectrum.
Piercing blue eyes that were watching Jack with interest. “Hello.”
“Daniel?”
“Oh! Um. Jack O’Neill. Bjorn Ludvigsen.”
Bjorn stepped forward, holding out his hand. “A pleasure.” He spoke with an accent that was subtle, but definitely there.
“Likewise,” Jack said airily, shaking hands firmly and resisting the urge to run away. “Daniel talks about me all the time.”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “Jack.”
Bjorn laughed. “Shall we say, most of the time?”
“No, we shall not,” Daniel said firmly.
Bjorn shrugged. “We shall not,” he said to Jack, completely straight-faced, as he lifted his right foot and kicked Daniel lightly on the ankle.
Jack assumed that whatever Daniel said to Bjorn in response was extremely rude, but as he didn’t speak… Scandinavian, he only had the laughter in Bjorn’s eyes to go on.
“Danish,” Daniel said when Jack’s eyes flicked back to him.
“Right.” Right. Bjorn was from Denmark. Daniel had told him that. Had told him more about Bjorn than he would ever have cared to know. Starting with the fact that he existed, and more specifically, existed in Daniel’s life.
Jack wanted to say, ‘Well, this is awkward’, but maybe it wasn’t for Bjorn. Maybe, hopefully, Bjorn didn’t know how Jack had made a fool of himself months ago by declaring his love for a man who was already taken, and who was frankly not all that interested anyway. ‘World’s worst idea’. Logic and reason aside, that still burned and always would.
Jack wanted to slide his hands nonchalantly into his pockets and rock back on his heels like he was having the best time and could stand here all day chatting like this, but he had the damn shopping bags in one hand. And one hand in the pocket wasn’t going to do it. Two hands equaled insouciance, one hand was just a guy who didn’t know what to do with his hand.
“So,” he said, insouciantly.
“So!” Daniel responded brightly. “Shopping.”
“But no bookstores,” Bjorn said, smiling at Jack in a way that seemed to say, ‘you know what he’s like, right?’
“Yeah, shopping. No bags? You two just getting started?”
“Well, no. I just bought a replacement strap for my watch and Bjorn had a new battery put in his.”
“Invisible shopping,” Bjorn said. “No bags.” He seemed to smile a lot. Well, why wouldn’t he? Lucky Danish bastard.
“How about you?” Daniel asked. “Much more to do?”
“Two more stops,” Jack answered. “Half an hour tops.” He shrugged. “If I’m lucky.”
“Ah. Bjorn and I are going to look at DVDs and shirts.”
“Respectively?” Jack asked, not giving a damn.
“What?” Daniel said.
“What?”
Daniel shut his eyes briefly and shook his head. “So, anyway, guess we might as well….”
“I have an idea,” Bjorn said, meeting Daniel’s eyes.
Daniel blinked. “Oh?”
Bjorn turned to Jack. “I think we should only be about half an hour as well. I thought that if you don’t have to rush home we could all maybe meet for a drink. There is that little bar by the south-east entrance.”
“Oh,” Daniel said. “Great idea. You don’t have to rush off, do you, Jack?”
Jack coaxed his lips into a curve as he tried to gauge Daniel’s expression and intent. “Well….”
Daniel laid a hand on his arm. “Come on, you’ve got time for one drink.”
That was clear enough. “Sure. See you there?”
“See you,” Bjorn said, with another friendly smile.
Jack smiled back, ignoring the way his arm was tingling. “If you haven’t turned up in an hour I’ll know you lost the argument.”
Bjorn shook his finger. “No bookstores!”
~~~~
Jack arranged his purchases underneath his chair and tried to decide whether it would look bad if he ordered his beer before the others showed up. If it was only going to be one drink, then he really should wait. And if he wanted to gulp one down before they got here, well, that wasn’t such a hot idea either and he needed to get a grip.
So it wasn’t going to be much fun. So he could put up with it for the space of one beer. Daniel had asked him to, more with his touch than with his words. He didn’t reach out all that often, and it was still freaking Jack a little that Daniel had touched him in front of Bjorn. Made him feel like he did when he was fifteen years old and passing notes in English class to his best buddy’s girl.
Anyway, Daniel wanted this little tea party, for whatever reason. Jack shuddered at the thought that Daniel might want them all to be ‘friends’. Not gonna happen. And he didn’t really think Daniel could be either that insensitive or that optimistic, so it had to be something else.
Maybe Daniel just wanted Jack to have the chance to put to rest any doubts he’d been having about Bjorn. Observe them together, size Bjorn up. Accept and move on.
Torture. But probably healthy. Jack sighed, and then quickly pulled himself together as he saw Bjorn headed for the table, followed by Daniel.
“We are here!” Bjorn said, grinning.
“Guess you won the argument.” Jack inclined his head in acknowledgment.
“I hate you both,” Daniel said cheerfully, propping his bags between the chair legs and the wall. “What are you drinking? I’ll order.”
“Dos Equiis,” Jack requested.
“The usual?” Daniel asked in passing, with a hand on Bjorn’s shoulder.
Bjorn nodded. “Carlsberg,” he told Jack, his eyes following Daniel to the bar. “I am boringly predictable. I like the taste of home.”
“Understandable. I sometimes get a hankering for lutefisk.”
“My grandmother used to make that. It was very bad.” Bjorn shook his head and laughed. “I think maybe the Minnesota recipe was a better one?”
“Everything’s better in Minnesota,” Jack returned smoothly, while absorbing the fact that Daniel definitely had been talking about him.
“I’ve seen very little of the States; no Minnesota, and I’ve not been to the South at all. I think I would melt, probably.”
“Probably better not to risk it,” Jack agreed. “So what have you seen besides Colorado?”
“New York City, I saw. Two weeks I had before coming here. Fantastic place, incredible. Seattle, I went to for a conference, four days I had. Not nearly enough.”
“No. And two weeks isn’t nearly enough for New York, I’d guess.”
“Well, if you don’t sleep….” Bjorn grinned.
Jack tapped his fingernails on the tabletop. “I’m old. I need my sleep.” His smile hurt his face.
Bjorn laughed, once. “If you say so, Jack.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Daniel and I went one long weekend to western Iowa. Many Danes there, museums, windmills.”
“Been to Wisconsin? When I was a little kid in Chicago, my dad used to drive up there to Racine to buy kringle.”
Bjorn nodded enthusiastically. “Kringleville! I want to go there, and Chicago, too, of course. Many Danes among all the other ethnic groups in Chicago. And many museums to make Daniel happy if he comes along.”
“Comes along where?” Daniel asked, arriving and setting down bottles in front of Jack and Bjorn with his left hand. His right hand held a pint glass.
“Chicago,” Bjorn said.
“Whatcha drinkin’?” Jack asked.
“Sam Adams… Sam Adams something.” Daniel held up his glass and stared at it blankly.
Jack snorted.
“I tasted it. It’s good.” Daniel settled into his chair, crinkling his nose at Jack.
“Whatever it is.”
“And when did you start drinking Dos Equiis?” Daniel retaliated.
“Taco Night at a little restaurant Sara and I used to go to.”
“Oh,” Daniel said. His eyes were surprised and then apologetic as they met Jack’s.
Jack tilted his head to one side, closing and opening his eyes. It’s okay.
Daniel nodded.
Bjorn was watching them. Jack noted that he wasn’t smiling.
They’d barely gotten started on their beers when Daniel’s cell phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket and looked at it. “It’s work,” he said. He flipped it open. “Nyan?”
Jack looked at Bjorn, who had the resigned look of a guy who’d been interrupted on more than one occasion.
“I really need to take this,” Daniel said apologetically to Bjorn and, to a lesser extent, Jack. He got up from the table and began to head out of the bar.
Crap! Jack twisted his glass on the tabletop and watched Bjorn watch Daniel walk away.
Bjorn turned back to him. “Sometimes this Nyan makes me very jealous.”
“I’m gonna assume that’s a joke.” Jack raised his eyebrows.
Bjorn chuckled. “Yes, Jack. My little joke. And it’s not always Nyan calling, anyway. I just like his name, so I remember it most often.”
“Nyan’s a nice guy. He’s a big help to Daniel.”
“That’s exactly what Daniel says.” Bjorn took a long swallow of his beer.
Jack did likewise.
“Do you have questions for me?” Bjorn asked.
“’Scuse me?” Jack straightened in his chair.
“I thought perhaps you had some things you would like to ask me.”
“Not so much,” Jack said, immediately irritated and trying, but not very hard, not to show it. “What did you have in mind?”
“Whatever would most set your mind at ease, I suppose. Daniel’s welfare is of some importance to you, I think, so you might have concerns about our relationship.”
“Funnily enough, I let Daniel pretty much run his own life. Seems to be working out for both of us that way.”
“I wasn’t suggesting interference on your part; just concern. I am happy to answer questions about my background or my future plans.”
“I’m not concerned with your future plans.” Okay, that definitely came out sounding snippy, but Jack at least hadn’t thrown his beer in the guy’s face. Stay calm.
“And you already know my background.” Bjorn eyed him seriously.
“Daniel’s told me a little about you. I haven’t had you investigated, or anything.” Not that he hadn’t thought about it. Jack took a sip of beer.
Bjorn grinned slightly. “I did wonder a bit, considering what you and Daniel do for a living. Not,” he inclined his head, “that that’s any concern of mine. I have gotten very good at not asking Daniel all the questions that he mustn’t answer. I have learned not to get too aggravated by his secrecy and his sudden changes of mood from one day to the next.”
“I don’t think we should be sitting here talking about Daniel,” Jack said flatly.
“But you refuse to ask questions about my fascinating self! What do we talk about then?” Blue eyes pinned Jack.
How about your imminent demise? “Right. Okay. Tell me something fascinating about yourself, if you feel you absolutely must.”
“That is better,” Bjorn said cheerfully. At any rate he sounded cheerful, but Jack wasn’t quite seeing it in the eyes. “You know what it is I do, of course?”
“You’re some sort of professor at UCCS.”
“Associate.” Bjorn nodded. “I teach ‘Languages and Cultures’. Mostly Scandinavian, with some other European countries tossed in. And I fill in sometimes where I can in the History department.”
“I can see why you and Daniel get along,” Jack acknowledged.
“You know how it was we met? He has told you this?”
It seemed to Jack that Bjorn’s accent was getting stronger. Which was interesting. What would cause that? “He might have mentioned something about it. I’m sure it had something to do with books.”
“Yes! Daniel comes sometimes to our university library to consult texts that are not readily available in other places. It was there that I met him.”
Jack smiled encouragingly and repressed the urge to say something about ‘geeks’.
“He caught my eye immediately. You can understand.” Bjorn looked at Jack appraisingly. “Yes, you can understand that.”
What the…. “You got something you want to say? Say it.” Jack was beginning to get seriously annoyed, and Nyan was no longer at the top of his list of people with whom to be seriously annoyed.
“I can see how much you care about Daniel. That is my only point.”
“Not much of a point.”
“I still think that you should be asking me the questions, Jack.”
“Fine. What’s your favorite color?” Jack didn’t care any more how sarcastic he might be sounding.
“Orange. Is this your best question?” Bjorn looked mildly amused.
Jack shrugged dismissively. “I’m not getting what it is that you want from me here. Say what’s on your mind. Or don’t. I really don’t care either way.”
“All right.” Bjorn looked at him broodingly for several seconds. “I want for you to know how much I care for Daniel.”
“Fine. Good.” Fuck.
“I would never wish to hurt him in any way.”
“So? Don’t.”
Bjorn pushed his beer aside and leaned forward, arms on the table. “I will not always be here in Colorado Springs. Someday I will leave, get another position. Maybe Denver, maybe someplace far from here.”
“I can understand that. But why are you telling me this?”
“Someday, I think I will go back to Denmark. One day.”
“I hope you have a very nice trip when the time comes. Again, I don’t quite see why you feel the need to tell me.”
“Daniel already knows. We enjoy being together. We’re not trying to plan a future.”
Jack’s leg twitched “So, what? I’m sorry?”
“But when we talk, we talk like we will be together for a very long time. I am in love, Jack.”
Jack’s heart clenched. He leaned back in his chair. “Is this conversation over yet?”
“Daniel… but you did not want to talk about Daniel.”
“Please,” Jack said through tight lips.
“I thought you should know these things.”
And didn’t that just beg the question of what Daniel had told Bjorn. And speaking of Daniel, he was walking back into the bar and heading for their table. His steps hesitated for a fraction of a second when he saw Jack’s face, and then sped up. He reached them and sank down into his chair. “Sorry about that. Did I miss anything?”
“I was just telling Jack that I’ve remembered something. I must go, Daniel.” Bjorn picked up his beer and drained it.
“What?” Daniel looked at Bjorn incredulously and then at Jack.
Bjorn pushed back his chair and stood. “Jack, can you see that Daniel gets home?” He put out his hand.
Jack stood, confused and wary but knowing when to do the polite thing. They shook hands. “Not a problem.”
Daniel looked up at them. “What’s going on?”
“I will see you at home later, Daniel, hmm?” Bjorn bent and brushed his lips against Daniel’s.
“I can come with you,” Daniel said, beginning to shift his weight.
Bjorn put a hand on his shoulder. “Stay and finish your beer. You have barely touched it. I will see you later.”
Bjorn walked away swiftly. Daniel stared after him with his mouth hanging open. It closed with a snap as he turned his attention on Jack. “What did you say to him?”
Jack spread his hands and shrugged. “Honestly? He did most of the talking.”
Daniel’s knuckles rapped several times against the table. “For instance.”
“You sure?”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed. “Did he say something you don’t want me to know?”
“I only meant, are you sure you want me to be repeating things that your boyfriend may have intended to be private between him and me?”
“Yes, goddammit!”
“Fine, then. He told me he’s in love with you and that some day he’s probably going back to Denmark. That seemed to be the gist.”
“The gist.”
“There was more, all along those lines. At least as far as I could tell.”
Daniel looked at Jack coldly.
“Hey,” Jack said with quiet force, leaning forward and pointing for emphasis, “I tried to stop him several times. I didn’t want to have that conversation. You take it up with him.”
“You’re telling me… you’re expecting me to believe that you didn’t say anything to him to make him leave like that.”
“You can believe whatever you want to.” Jack stared him down, ice in the pit of his stomach.
Daniel stood so quickly that his chair nearly tipped. “I’ll call a cab.”
“What?” Jack blinked.
Daniel bent down to pick up his packages. “I’ll see you at work Monday.”
“Daniel. There is no need….”
Daniel started to walk away.
“Jesus Christ,” Jack muttered as he pushed back his chair and gathered his shopping bags. “Lunatics. Both of them. Fucking….”
When he got out into the mall proper, he didn’t see Daniel in either direction. He pulled out his cell and punched in Daniel’s code as he walked.
“What?”
“I’m parked down by Sears.”
There was a long pause. Jack rolled his eyes.
“Okay.”
Daniel was slouched on a bench fifteen feet away. Their eyes met as they hung up their phones. He stood as Jack approached and they walked silently through the busy hallway, and out through Sears to the parking lot.
The silence continued in the truck. Which was fine with Jack. Daniel was pissed? Well, he was pissed, too. Silence was what he needed right about now. Silence, and something stronger than a Dos Equiis as soon as he got home.
“Thanks,” Daniel said quietly before he climbed out of the truck in front of his apartment building.
“Any time,” Jack answered, looking out through the windshield. The door closed behind Daniel, and Jack checked his mirror and pulled away.
~~~~
The doorbell rang at 10:42 that night. That would be Daniel, of course. It somehow seemed inevitable that it would be Daniel, and that Jack’s hard-won calm would be stripped away from him.
Jack put down the nth drink of many and went to let him in.
Chapter Three: http://sidlj.livejournal.com/153813.html, Rapprochement