Does Anyone Have a Map? [30 Rock; Jack/Liz]
TITLE: Does Anyone Have a Map?
FANDOM: 30 Rock
PAIRING: Jack/Liz
SPOILERS: Sandwich Day (2x14)
RATING: PG
SUMMARY:
*****
How did they get here? How the hell did they get here? And she doesn't mean 'here' as in the Earth or the airport (because Jack's not at the airport with her) or even New York. How did they get to this moment in time from where they started? One day they're meeting and he's re-tooling her show and she's calling him 'sir' and 'Mr. Donaghy.' Then, in what feels like the blink of an eye, he's the only person she can trust and count on (when they're not playing mind games with each other). He's stopped messing with her show (or at least not as much as he used to). He's become one of her closest friends, and he's just simply... Jack.
Liz can't for the life of her figure out how they got from point A to point B. It's kinda hard to think right now anyway, because she's running through the airport looking for an exit (any exit, really). She's thinking of the fact that she let Floyd keep her key (and she really really shouldn't have let him keep her key) and one of her best friends is about to leave her.
Or something less melodramatic.
At any rate she soon finds an exit and hails a cab -- tells the driver to take her back to 30 Rock. Her mind races the entire way there, which is probably good considering it takes her mind off of the fact that her cab driver is under the mistaken impression that he's driving a pod racer. What if Jack is already gone? What if he's on his way to D.C. right now without so much as a goodbye? Is Jonathan going with him? Because the poor kid is obviously in love with him. Liz certainly isn't. In love with Jack, that is. Really. But Jonathan totally is.
And who is this new CEO, the one that sent her the link to the creepy cat site? Oh God, what if it's Devon? She will not work with that man. Will. Not. Liz refuses to work for someone she doesn't respect. Or that's what she'll tell people anyway when she quits. But really it's because she doesn't want to smell self-tanning creme and listen to long-winded anecdotes about Project Runway.
If Jack quits then she's going to quit. She doesn't want to do this without him. Which is... kinda weird for her to think, given how they started out. Sure she's said the same thing about Pete (to Pete) before, but... her and Pete go back ten years and he's the best producer she's ever worked with. She's known Jack for a year and a half. Seriously -- how the hell did they get here?
She finally tells the driver to let her out a block away from 30 Rock; she's getting queasy sitting in this cab, and her hands kind of hurt from gripping the door handles so tight. When she gets out and starts jogging toward the building, she formulates her plan (while realizing that she really should use her treadmill more often).
She'll quit and then tell Jack that she's going with him. Pete can handle the show on his own anyway, she has total confidence in him. Jenna would be pissed but she'd get over it. Liz could find a place in D.C. close to the capitol so her and Jack could still spend time together. She's got enough money that she could afford to take some time off -- she could maybe swing a year or two without a job. In the evenings they could have dinner and share a glass of wine out on the balcony (she'll have to look for a place that has a balcony), and. Wait.
Liz furrows her brow as she gets on the elevator. She just thought about moving to D.C. with Jack. For Jack. What the hell is the matter with her brain? She and Jack are just friends. Close friends, sure, but just friends. Really and truly. She couldn't even get up the courage to leave her job for Floyd when he was her boyfriend. And suddenly she wants to upend her life for a guy who's just a friend?
Okay, so maybe Jack is a little more than 'just' a friend. Maybe he's the only person that can really see through her. Maybe he's the only person that has total faith in her and wants to help her be the best person she can possibly be. Maybe she can tell him more than she can tell her 'just' friends. And yeah, he's not bad to look at either, and maybe he makes her skin tingle when he touches her arm or her back. And maybe....
Oh blerg. Maybe Jack's not so much a friend as he is, well... a dude she's mildly interested in. Y'know. That way. Maybe that's why she can see herself upending her life for him. Maybe Jack, as bonkers as he is sometimes, is the only guy that gets her. Totally and completely. Crapballs. How the hell did they get here?
The elevator lets her off on her floor and Liz heads for her office, brow still furrowed. What the hell is she going to do about Jack? He'd probably think she was nuts anyway if she brings up the whole 'moving-to-D.C.-with-him' thing. And he'd shake his head in that 'you poor thing' way that he does sometimes. And then he'd point out that she's not the type of woman he dates before he goes on to list all the types of women he's okay with dating. And then she'd just roll her eyes and get annoyed with him, and they'd part on bad terms.
Yeah, Liz doesn't want that. So she should maybe not mention the whole D.C. plan. Maybe she should just say congratulations and goodbye. Yes, that sounds like a good plan. She might even shake his hand.
She opens the door to her office and jumps, "Meert!" when she sees Jack lying on her couch.
He sits up. "Lemon." And he looks kinda tired. She hates that she got all wrapped up in Floyd again when Jack obviously needed her. Floyd's not worth it, he proved that much to her over the past couple days. She's gonna ask him to mail back her key and she's gonna do it like an adult.
Or she'll send him an e-mail.
"Jack."
"How did things go at the airport with Floyd?" He looks kind of sad when he mentions Floyd's name, and again Liz wonders how the hell they got here. Jack never used to care about her lovelife.
Well... that's not true. He's never seemed depressed about her lovelife. "I caught up with him just in time to tell him I don't want him to die in an explosion."
Jack nods and presses his hands into the couch cushions, pushing himself up. "I'm sure he was glad to hear that."
"I let him hang on to my key, but now that I think about it, that was a really bad idea. I'm gonna ask him to send it back."
Again he nods, then looks up at her. "I do hope you're planning on confronting him over the phone rather than writing an emphatic e-mail."
It kinda sucks how well he knows her. "Yeah, definitely over the phone. Like I'd even think about sending an e-mail." She blows a puff of air, sort of a chuckle, through her lips while she gives Jack her best 'you're crazy' look.
It makes him smile, at least. "Good."
"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving GE?" She takes a step toward him, intruding on his personal space like she did just a few weeks ago when they were playing mind games with each other. And just like the last time, Jack doesn't step back but rather takes a step forward so they're in each other's space even more, and really -- how did they get here? A year and a half ago she didn't even want to go within five feet of Jack Donaghy, and now she's just willingly standing super close to him, all up in his personal space.
"It wasn't something I intentionally kept from you, Lemon. This is just something I impulsively decided to do."
She shakes her head. That answer is unacceptable. "No. No. Remember the last time you did something impulsive, Jack? Remember when you impulsively decided to get married?"
He doesn't answer, but his eyes shift downward, a little like he's ashamed. And he should be. Phoebe was a total nutcase.
"Do you remember how well that turned out for you, Jack?"
"I admit it wasn't my best decision, but--"
"So what makes you think that this is?" she cuts him off.
"Lemon, I've been demoted," he tells her, "Kathy Geiss has been named CEO. I was exiled to the twelfth floor."
And now a crapload more of the puzzle pieces have fallen into place. "You really didn't press the wrong button."
Jack shakes his head. "I wish that I had." His voice gets a little quieter, like he's telling a ghost story. "It was awful, Lemon. Any stories that you've heard about the twelfth floor and how terrible it is are completely true. It was bleak."
"So you're just gonna leave? You can't."
"There's nothing else here for me to do, Lemon."
She takes one more step forward and her heart starts to beat a little quicker. How the hell did they get here? "You can't go, Jack."
"I have to. My work here is done. I've gotten your show back to the level of popularity it should've been at, I've single-handedly designed a number of new microwave features, and I've gone as far as I can go with the trivection oven. The quadrivection oven is still decades away from being ready for the general public."
Liz feels a lump in her throat, and it's kinda hard to get her voice above anything but a whisper. "What about me?"
Jack's smile is warm, wistful, as he takes another step toward her. The toes of their shoes touch. "I've made great strides with you, Lemon. I have no doubt that you'll continue on the path toward success, both personally and fiscally speaking."
She shakes her head. "Not what I meant." Why is it so hard to talk now? "Jack, please don't go." Oh God, she's begging him? After only a year and a half she wants to beg him to stay?
"You'll do fine, Liz. I know it." The fact that he calls her by her first name makes it that much harder to talk.
And she has no idea what else she can say short of confessing her whole D.C. move idea. So instead, regardless of how 'ethnic' it is, Liz takes one more step forward and wraps her arms around Jack. Just like the last time she can feel his smile over her shoulder, but this time she can't smile back. She closes her eyes and hangs on to him and wonders how he went from being this totally annoying jerkface to someone she's crying over.
His hand slides up her back and her breath hitches. It kinda comes out as a half hiccup, half sob. And she can tell from the look on Jack's face when he pulls away that it's totally weirding him out. They stand there staring at each other while Liz contemplates how they got here. She contemplates what he said to her earlier, about having no regrets. That's the last thought in her head then as she blurts out, "Kiss me."
"What?" He looks genuinely perplexed, and a little like he thinks she's crazy.
"You said to never have regrets, and I think... no. I know. That I would regret not knowing if there's something actually happening between us or if I'm imagining it. So." She nods once, definitively. "I think you should kiss me."
"Liz..." He's still looking at her like he doesn't know what to do with her, and hearing her first name from his lips again snaps something inside of her.
"You kiss me, Jack Donaghy!" she demands (yells really -- it's a good thing her staff is gone for the day), and there's pointing and a little bit of crying... maybe some annoyance thrown in as well. "You kiss me right now, and kiss me like you mean it! None of that pathetic little peck-on-the-lips stuff. I mean a real kiss, with the holding and the full lip action and everything. You do it now or so help me God--"
She never gets to finish threatening him, though, because that's when Jack grabs her face and kisses her. And it's not that pathetic little peck-on-the-lips stuff. It's not awkward and it's not weird. It's immediately deep and intense... maybe a little desperate and aggressive. And maybe Liz still cries just a little bit while they're kissing. Maybe she has to choke back a sob or two and Jack holds her tighter. Maybe she even asks him to come home with her.
And she still has no idea how they got here from where they started. Nor does she have any clue where they're headed. Right now, though, she's pretty okay with that. As long as she and Jack end up in the same place.
FIN
{x-posted to jack_liz and 30_rock}
FANDOM: 30 Rock
PAIRING: Jack/Liz
SPOILERS: Sandwich Day (2x14)
RATING: PG
SUMMARY:
*****
How did they get here? How the hell did they get here? And she doesn't mean 'here' as in the Earth or the airport (because Jack's not at the airport with her) or even New York. How did they get to this moment in time from where they started? One day they're meeting and he's re-tooling her show and she's calling him 'sir' and 'Mr. Donaghy.' Then, in what feels like the blink of an eye, he's the only person she can trust and count on (when they're not playing mind games with each other). He's stopped messing with her show (or at least not as much as he used to). He's become one of her closest friends, and he's just simply... Jack.
Liz can't for the life of her figure out how they got from point A to point B. It's kinda hard to think right now anyway, because she's running through the airport looking for an exit (any exit, really). She's thinking of the fact that she let Floyd keep her key (and she really really shouldn't have let him keep her key) and one of her best friends is about to leave her.
Or something less melodramatic.
At any rate she soon finds an exit and hails a cab -- tells the driver to take her back to 30 Rock. Her mind races the entire way there, which is probably good considering it takes her mind off of the fact that her cab driver is under the mistaken impression that he's driving a pod racer. What if Jack is already gone? What if he's on his way to D.C. right now without so much as a goodbye? Is Jonathan going with him? Because the poor kid is obviously in love with him. Liz certainly isn't. In love with Jack, that is. Really. But Jonathan totally is.
And who is this new CEO, the one that sent her the link to the creepy cat site? Oh God, what if it's Devon? She will not work with that man. Will. Not. Liz refuses to work for someone she doesn't respect. Or that's what she'll tell people anyway when she quits. But really it's because she doesn't want to smell self-tanning creme and listen to long-winded anecdotes about Project Runway.
If Jack quits then she's going to quit. She doesn't want to do this without him. Which is... kinda weird for her to think, given how they started out. Sure she's said the same thing about Pete (to Pete) before, but... her and Pete go back ten years and he's the best producer she's ever worked with. She's known Jack for a year and a half. Seriously -- how the hell did they get here?
She finally tells the driver to let her out a block away from 30 Rock; she's getting queasy sitting in this cab, and her hands kind of hurt from gripping the door handles so tight. When she gets out and starts jogging toward the building, she formulates her plan (while realizing that she really should use her treadmill more often).
She'll quit and then tell Jack that she's going with him. Pete can handle the show on his own anyway, she has total confidence in him. Jenna would be pissed but she'd get over it. Liz could find a place in D.C. close to the capitol so her and Jack could still spend time together. She's got enough money that she could afford to take some time off -- she could maybe swing a year or two without a job. In the evenings they could have dinner and share a glass of wine out on the balcony (she'll have to look for a place that has a balcony), and. Wait.
Liz furrows her brow as she gets on the elevator. She just thought about moving to D.C. with Jack. For Jack. What the hell is the matter with her brain? She and Jack are just friends. Close friends, sure, but just friends. Really and truly. She couldn't even get up the courage to leave her job for Floyd when he was her boyfriend. And suddenly she wants to upend her life for a guy who's just a friend?
Okay, so maybe Jack is a little more than 'just' a friend. Maybe he's the only person that can really see through her. Maybe he's the only person that has total faith in her and wants to help her be the best person she can possibly be. Maybe she can tell him more than she can tell her 'just' friends. And yeah, he's not bad to look at either, and maybe he makes her skin tingle when he touches her arm or her back. And maybe....
Oh blerg. Maybe Jack's not so much a friend as he is, well... a dude she's mildly interested in. Y'know. That way. Maybe that's why she can see herself upending her life for him. Maybe Jack, as bonkers as he is sometimes, is the only guy that gets her. Totally and completely. Crapballs. How the hell did they get here?
The elevator lets her off on her floor and Liz heads for her office, brow still furrowed. What the hell is she going to do about Jack? He'd probably think she was nuts anyway if she brings up the whole 'moving-to-D.C.-with-him' thing. And he'd shake his head in that 'you poor thing' way that he does sometimes. And then he'd point out that she's not the type of woman he dates before he goes on to list all the types of women he's okay with dating. And then she'd just roll her eyes and get annoyed with him, and they'd part on bad terms.
Yeah, Liz doesn't want that. So she should maybe not mention the whole D.C. plan. Maybe she should just say congratulations and goodbye. Yes, that sounds like a good plan. She might even shake his hand.
She opens the door to her office and jumps, "Meert!" when she sees Jack lying on her couch.
He sits up. "Lemon." And he looks kinda tired. She hates that she got all wrapped up in Floyd again when Jack obviously needed her. Floyd's not worth it, he proved that much to her over the past couple days. She's gonna ask him to mail back her key and she's gonna do it like an adult.
Or she'll send him an e-mail.
"Jack."
"How did things go at the airport with Floyd?" He looks kind of sad when he mentions Floyd's name, and again Liz wonders how the hell they got here. Jack never used to care about her lovelife.
Well... that's not true. He's never seemed depressed about her lovelife. "I caught up with him just in time to tell him I don't want him to die in an explosion."
Jack nods and presses his hands into the couch cushions, pushing himself up. "I'm sure he was glad to hear that."
"I let him hang on to my key, but now that I think about it, that was a really bad idea. I'm gonna ask him to send it back."
Again he nods, then looks up at her. "I do hope you're planning on confronting him over the phone rather than writing an emphatic e-mail."
It kinda sucks how well he knows her. "Yeah, definitely over the phone. Like I'd even think about sending an e-mail." She blows a puff of air, sort of a chuckle, through her lips while she gives Jack her best 'you're crazy' look.
It makes him smile, at least. "Good."
"Why didn't you tell me you were leaving GE?" She takes a step toward him, intruding on his personal space like she did just a few weeks ago when they were playing mind games with each other. And just like the last time, Jack doesn't step back but rather takes a step forward so they're in each other's space even more, and really -- how did they get here? A year and a half ago she didn't even want to go within five feet of Jack Donaghy, and now she's just willingly standing super close to him, all up in his personal space.
"It wasn't something I intentionally kept from you, Lemon. This is just something I impulsively decided to do."
She shakes her head. That answer is unacceptable. "No. No. Remember the last time you did something impulsive, Jack? Remember when you impulsively decided to get married?"
He doesn't answer, but his eyes shift downward, a little like he's ashamed. And he should be. Phoebe was a total nutcase.
"Do you remember how well that turned out for you, Jack?"
"I admit it wasn't my best decision, but--"
"So what makes you think that this is?" she cuts him off.
"Lemon, I've been demoted," he tells her, "Kathy Geiss has been named CEO. I was exiled to the twelfth floor."
And now a crapload more of the puzzle pieces have fallen into place. "You really didn't press the wrong button."
Jack shakes his head. "I wish that I had." His voice gets a little quieter, like he's telling a ghost story. "It was awful, Lemon. Any stories that you've heard about the twelfth floor and how terrible it is are completely true. It was bleak."
"So you're just gonna leave? You can't."
"There's nothing else here for me to do, Lemon."
She takes one more step forward and her heart starts to beat a little quicker. How the hell did they get here? "You can't go, Jack."
"I have to. My work here is done. I've gotten your show back to the level of popularity it should've been at, I've single-handedly designed a number of new microwave features, and I've gone as far as I can go with the trivection oven. The quadrivection oven is still decades away from being ready for the general public."
Liz feels a lump in her throat, and it's kinda hard to get her voice above anything but a whisper. "What about me?"
Jack's smile is warm, wistful, as he takes another step toward her. The toes of their shoes touch. "I've made great strides with you, Lemon. I have no doubt that you'll continue on the path toward success, both personally and fiscally speaking."
She shakes her head. "Not what I meant." Why is it so hard to talk now? "Jack, please don't go." Oh God, she's begging him? After only a year and a half she wants to beg him to stay?
"You'll do fine, Liz. I know it." The fact that he calls her by her first name makes it that much harder to talk.
And she has no idea what else she can say short of confessing her whole D.C. move idea. So instead, regardless of how 'ethnic' it is, Liz takes one more step forward and wraps her arms around Jack. Just like the last time she can feel his smile over her shoulder, but this time she can't smile back. She closes her eyes and hangs on to him and wonders how he went from being this totally annoying jerkface to someone she's crying over.
His hand slides up her back and her breath hitches. It kinda comes out as a half hiccup, half sob. And she can tell from the look on Jack's face when he pulls away that it's totally weirding him out. They stand there staring at each other while Liz contemplates how they got here. She contemplates what he said to her earlier, about having no regrets. That's the last thought in her head then as she blurts out, "Kiss me."
"What?" He looks genuinely perplexed, and a little like he thinks she's crazy.
"You said to never have regrets, and I think... no. I know. That I would regret not knowing if there's something actually happening between us or if I'm imagining it. So." She nods once, definitively. "I think you should kiss me."
"Liz..." He's still looking at her like he doesn't know what to do with her, and hearing her first name from his lips again snaps something inside of her.
"You kiss me, Jack Donaghy!" she demands (yells really -- it's a good thing her staff is gone for the day), and there's pointing and a little bit of crying... maybe some annoyance thrown in as well. "You kiss me right now, and kiss me like you mean it! None of that pathetic little peck-on-the-lips stuff. I mean a real kiss, with the holding and the full lip action and everything. You do it now or so help me God--"
She never gets to finish threatening him, though, because that's when Jack grabs her face and kisses her. And it's not that pathetic little peck-on-the-lips stuff. It's not awkward and it's not weird. It's immediately deep and intense... maybe a little desperate and aggressive. And maybe Liz still cries just a little bit while they're kissing. Maybe she has to choke back a sob or two and Jack holds her tighter. Maybe she even asks him to come home with her.
And she still has no idea how they got here from where they started. Nor does she have any clue where they're headed. Right now, though, she's pretty okay with that. As long as she and Jack end up in the same place.
FIN
{x-posted to jack_liz and 30_rock}