Left Turn

((Record again. I'm on a roll! Luckily, Haywire, your words are always such a reason to keep going!
So you liked Chance and all that? I am looking forward to a few dates, just waiting to see what happens with Jack. He's being boring at present. I'll have to kick him into gear, ne? Thank you SO much for reading and reviewing! AND OH MY GOSH! I burst out laughing. I love Bartok. He's my favorite character in any show. "This can only end in tear-s!" *hee hee* He's so cute. I got Anastasia just so I could watch him say "Stop with all the glowing and hissing already!" as many times as I wanted to. heh heh.

Ah yes, and Smaug is the dragon in The Hobbit.

Please enjoy another... ))

Left Turn

Babs leaned on the counter and fiddled with the dial on the washing machine. "Don't you ever get tired of him just dropping you off like this? He's sort of taking advantage." She eyed Jack with a half grin.

"Advantage?" Jack laughed. "I guess. But he's so cute when he goes through the routine. I figured it couldn't hurt to let him do it a little longer."

"Umm, it's been a month, Jack." She smiled and set her chin on her hand. "Don't you think it's time he stops trying to cover for you? I mean, if you want to come in and talk, you don't have to have your arms full of his dirty laundry."

Dropping the clothes into the bin, finding that Mick hasn't put anything red in his laundry since that first night, Jack refused to look up. "That obvious, huh?"

"Obvious?" she laughed. "Not really. You've still got me confused. I know you're coming here for some reason and for a while I thought maybe you were hitting on me or on someone who's here. But then, I'm the only one who is here and there really isn't anyone young enough to be sexy to you that does their laundry at this time of night."

"Except you?" Jack tilted his head and poured soap into the small cup he held. Things could have gone wrong but Babs was too smart for that. Just Mick's luck, however, to think up a scheme that would get the girl thinking he was after her.

"Well, yeah," she laughed and pulled herself up on top of the machine next to the open one he was presently filling. "Except he kisses you and acts like you're both a couple. So I figured if you're gay or pretending to be gay, you're not really interested in a girl."

Jack felt his face flushing. He selected the right button and closed the top, replacing the soap into the box. "No, I am interested in... a guy, yeah."

"A guy?" she asked softly. "I told you I got nothing against who you like and all. My brother's gay."

"You said that, yeah," he felt like he was repeating himself. But he still couldn't raise his eyes to hers. "I went to school with him."

"Hunh, yeah," she nodded. "I know."

"I didn't even look at him twice though. Actually, didn't know he was alive." He laughed with a chilly sense of dread in his stomach.

"So when you bumped into him in France, you had no clue that you knew him," she grinned and leaned forward on her hands, twisting slightly so she could drop her head to where his eyes were, stuck somewhere on the water heat indicator knob.

She didn't have to drop her head all the way, Jack's eyes flew to hers in surprise. "You know?" he gasped. How could she have known? They hadn't once talked about Chance, not since that first night.

"I figured it out," she laughed. "Don't worry, Jack. It wont' be the first time I've been talked to by a gorgeous guy only to find out he's using me to get to a friend or relative."

Shocked at the bitterness he sensed in her voice, Jack curled his forearms together and leaned heavily on the washing machine, the high whine of the water filling the bin in his ears. "I.. I didn't mean to..."

She smiled and patted his arm. "I know. And I'm blaming it all on Mick because he's a drama queen. Only you could have told me before."

"So you do know about me and Chance?" he winced, feeling in a sudden rush, the guilt he'd busily stuffed back into his mind the while he'd spent talking to her. "And it's my fault too, you're right. I could have told you," he muttered and fiddled with the cup measure.

"It's okay, Jack," Babs rocked back on her buttocks and pulled one foot up on top of the machine. She hooked her heel on the edge and pulled off the sandal that she'd walked around inside the laundromat in. Then she put that bare heel in between two machines and smiled. "Leigh sent me pictures from the trip and asked about you. I got the letter last week. I was pissed, yeah. But then you never asked about him and you genuinely seemed interested in me and what I had to say. And you kept on letting Mickey shove you in here. So I figured I'd enjoy it while I had it, you know? It's nice to finally meet someone slightly normal."

He laughed. "I am interested. I mean, not interested that way, but I like you. You're a really nice person and it's been nice to meet you. I.."

He paused, not sure how to go on, not sure if this was suddenly just too much. Honesty can make or break a conversation. But before he could say anything else, she lifted her hand and laughed.

"Look. Let me make it easy for you. Chance is at college. He won't be home for a long time and if you want, I can take your number and - "

"What? Oh shit.. no!" He laughed. "Oh no. If you did that... no. Look, that's nice of you, Babs, but I don't think your brother wants to talk uo me or anything. Okay?" It was funny. Saying it aloud, suddenly everything he'd been thinking became a dream, as if he'd been walking through his life after returning from France without remembering what reality had to do with living.

But now it was out in the light, things weren't as important. Chance, for instance. Jack realized how close to being scary and psychotic he'd gotten over it all. Chance was off at college. He was living his life and more than likely, the both of them had a really nice memory. And that was all it would ever be.

Surprisingly, he didn't feel sad over it all. There was no sense of desperation or giving up. Rather he sensed he had just come out of a fog and was glad of it. He grinned, clear headed finally. "Look, Babs. Okay, so Mick had this idea and it was whacked. But the truth is, I could use a good friend who I can really talk to. Mickey's okay, only he's always wanting to talk about sex and isn't very interested in... I don't know." He took a deep breath. "I like you, Babs. I'd like to get to know you better and I mean as a friend."

Babs rolled her eyes and fiddled with a gold chain around her bare ankle. "You don't have to come here to hang out."

"Yeah, but I can't think of a better place to hang out then the laundromat," Jack smirked.

The girl on the machine hooked a finger underneath the chain and then blushed. It was weird. He knew she was older than him, but just then, he couldn't help but feeling like she needed a little kindness, a little protection. She was so strong.

Before she could continue to let him off the hook, he rose up on the heels of his hands. "Hey, how about you join me and Mick when we go out this Friday? It's just to a bar and it's really boring, but maybe it's a start?"

She shook her head slowly. "I got kids." She shrugged. "Two of them. Can't be taking time off."

"What about if we I bring a movie over? It would be a kid movie, PG and all that." He grinned. "C'mon. You know you want to hang out with me. I'm gorgeous and I'll make your neighbors talk."

"Humble too, I see," Babs chewed on her lower lip.

He smiled. "That's okay. Look, until you're sure. I know it's hard when you've got kids. Things are different and having a guy come over is kind of weird. So I'll just have to keep on coming here until I've got a reason to drag you out of the house, huh?"

Babs whapped him in the chest lightly. "I don't like you. You're pushy."

"Coming from someone as pushy as you?" he said with a grin, "I'm going to take that as a compliment."