Just me and my shadow... (RP for brave-soldier)

[little_leaf]

Chicken Little has flown the coop.

"Great." Jane sighed, hiking up her reading glasses to better see the text message she was reading. All of the triplets had condos in the same building, each of them on a different floor. It let them stay close, have privacy...and watch John.

Who didn't go out alone often, at least not outside of work. As a rule, he could be trusted on his own during cases he was deep into, otherwise he stayed home or at the office by choice. Now that he had a girlfriend, that would probably change...but John out alone and sans a case still felt like trouble.

Jane texted Jock back after a moment's thought.

Your problem tonight, not mine. I have a broken heart to nurse, bugger off.

Jane tossed her phone on the coffee table right after, vowing not to answer another text message for the rest of the night. She knew Jock would at least pretend she was still wounded by Bob's treachery, but she was pretty sure John had told him everything. After all: twins usually did. They all knew what she was really brooding about...at least Jock would preserve the gentle fiction, and her last scrap of dignity.

Men sucked.

That was her story, and she was sticking to it as she burrowed deeper into the cushions of her ratty old sofa with its threadbare maroon cushions, trying to make herself read the deposition for an eviction case she was taking to court in two weeks. She found herself scanning the same paragraph repeatedly, though, remembering the feel of stiff whiskers against her cheek, the sinewy back under her hand, the bright and adorable smile that made her forget everything and feel like she was something rare and amazing...

Why the hell did John have to be...John? She wouldn't blame Paul if he'd deleted her number the second she was out of sight. Bloke like that could have his pick, war hero with an irresistible accent and that lethal grin...

"I do not care." she muttered to herself, trying to make herself believe it and failing. "I don't care...didn't fancy him that much anyway. I can do much...oh, bollocking shitbags, someone just beat me unconscious and leave me to my fate..."

Comments

[brave_soldier]

When Paul woke sometime before 6pm, he felt like a new man. A hungover new man, but a new man nonetheless. A shower got him in a good mood once more, making him feel like a human being again. Even if he felt like an absolute ass for what happened earlier. He'd dropped the case on Robertson's desk with nary a word, and gone straight home where he crashed the minute he hit the bed.

He felt like he could've slept the night through, but he set the alarm so he didn't sleep for twenty hours straight. Fixing himself some tea, he found himself thinking about the events that happened in the morgue. He shouldn't have snapped at them like that, and knew he needed to apologize. To one of them in particular. Reaching for his phone, he thought about how to phrase this.

How about that pint I owe you? Heading to Clery's on Dartmouth, if you'd care to join me. Paul sent the text, convinced he'd be ignored. But even if he was stood up, he could use the drink anyway. Grabbing his jacket, he pocketed his keys and headed out.

[little_leaf]

When the text alert went off, Jane frowned in confusion. She had personalized alerts for her brothers, so it wasn't them...

Dropping her file, Jane rolled over, grabbed her phone...and gaped as she read the message. Her heart swelled with hope, but she wasn't sure if she should trust it. What if he changed his mind? What if he didn't mean it like before? What if...

Forcing herself not to over analyze it, Jane tugged off the off-the-shoulder sweatshirt she wore over jeans and a black tank top. Adding some cute ballet flats, a faux pearl lariat necklace, and some makeup, she ran a brush through her hair, grabbed a hoodie, and hoped for the best as she headed out.

The place was easy to find, and cozy without being overly commercial as she arrived and walked inside. Still silently praying for a nice evening (and more, if she was very lucky), she scanned the room for some sign of Paul.

[brave_soldier]

Paul had saddled up to the bar, hailing down a bartender and ordering a Guinness. A proper Guinness, served the way it should. 45 degree angle, 3/4ths of the way, before letting it settle and then filling it up. Paul wasn't much of a drinker, so when he did drink, he liked it to remind him of home. There weren't many places that served it right, so once he found one, it was a Godsend.

He found a seat facing the door, more on instinct than anything else. He didn't like having his back to the door. The habit also made it easy to see Jane when she walked in. He smiled and rose to his feet, moving to the chair opposite his and pulling the chair out for her. "I'm glad you came. I was afraid I'd scared you off."

[little_leaf]

Spotting Paul, she walked over with a shy smile, stopping to offer him a friendly one armed hug before settling into the chair he offered.

"To be honest, I figured you would lose my number after this afternoon." she confessed sheepishly, peering appreciatively at his Guiness and gesturing to it as she draped her purse strap over the back of her chair. "Never been here before, do they do it up right here?"

[brave_soldier]

Sheepishly, he returned the hug lightly, waiting until she was seated to tuck the chair in toward the table. Moving to the seat opposite her, he found himself grinning broadly at the realization that the woman knew her beer. "Would I come here otherwise? They certainly do. It's on me, if you want one. The least I can do. And before we go any further, I need to apologize for my behavior earlier. I was... well, not myself to put it mildly. You had the right intention, and normally I would agree with that. It's just... well, it's been a particularly bad few days."

[little_leaf]

Jane raised a hand to stop him before he could go further, shaking her head. "No apology is necessary...having John as a brother, I'm used to it. All of it, so now that I'm here? Water under the bridge, if that's okay with you."

She offered him an impish grin. "And I'll definitely take one. I was born in Dublin, Da taught my brothers to drink, and they taught me. Maybe if you're real nice to me, I'll even bust out the accent for ya."

[brave_soldier]

Paul found himself smiling softly at that. "You already have, lass." He motioned to the waiter, then down at his drink before pointing to Jane. The man nodded and moved off to get his drink. His eyes flickered back towards her. "And water under the bridge it is. I could use the break from work, anyway." He took a drink from the glass and looked at her absently. "So, Irishwoman, are you? I wouldn't have guessed, your American English is flawless."

[little_leaf]

"When?" she laughed, unaware of it and pausing as Paul placed her drink order. "We came here when we were four. Mum and Da spoke Gaelic around the house, we grew up Americanized. Use a lot of the slang, though."

She paused to regard him with a thoughtful little smile, resting one elbow on the table and absently toying with her necklace. "You stick out like a sore thumb here...proper Sussex boy like you. Or is it London? Your time here's affected your accent. That and John is better with placing them than I am."

[brave_soldier]

His smile faltered for a moment. "You said 'Sweet Mother Mary'." He couldn't forget that. His heart almost dropped at the sudden use of the name. He cleared his throat, pushing that aside for now. "Yes, I can imagine having proper Irish parents, they used plenty of the colloquialisms the Irish use."

When she commented about his accent, he chuckled. "Londoner, born and raised. I have been here about six years now, so that my accent is fading, well, that doesn't surprise me. I never had the thickest accent to begin with. Bostonians have their own quirky accents as it is. Rather difficult to ignore when you're surrounded by it. 'Pahk the cah in the yahd,'" he quipped, not quite losing his accent as he took a stab at the Bostonian accent.

[little_leaf]

"Oh, pfft." she snorted with a laugh when he pointed it out, blushing as she rolled her eyes. "That's Mum, we all do her when we say that. It's a thing."

Then he tried to mimic the Boston accent, and Jane dissolved into merry giggles, covering her face with one hand.

"Bloody hell, that's awful!" she got out through her laughter. "And yet somehow you make it adorable. I'm blaming London, I love that city. I was six the last time I visited my Gran in County Couric, we spent a week there as part of our vacation."

[brave_soldier]

Paul found himself grinning at her laughter, not much caring that she was laughing at him. He'd make himself the butt of all the jokes in the world if it meant hearing that laugh again. "London is a great city. I miss it sometimes, but I can't see myself moving back anytime soon. I rather enjoy my life here, irregular schedule and all. It's rewarding."

He took another drink, just as the waiter appeared with her Guinness. Grinning, he held out his glass, toasting her. "Slainte!"

[little_leaf]

Jane grinned as he toasted her, raising her own glass. "Slainte...and as my da loves to say, may Scratch always find you with your best foot forward, and never catch you with your rotten arse bare!"

Pausing to take a healthy swallow of her beer, she set her glass down with a contented sigh, licking a stray bit off her lips, then met Paul's gaze with a sheepish grin before she started giggling again.

"Da didn't get hammered a lot, but when he did? He made up goofy toasts." she chuckled. Why did she find laughing so easy around him? It felt good...nice. It came easy...she felt good just sitting there. It was...liberating.

[brave_soldier]

Paul arched his brows at that toast, but drank anyway, certain an explanation would come. He didn't expect the giggles that escaped her though, and his smile broadened. She explained the origin of the toast and chuckled. "Hm, seems like a fun thing to do while out drinking. 'Here's to those who wish us well, all the rest can go to hell.'" He took a drink at that and chuckled himself, setting down the glass. "You hungry, by any chance? I haven't ordered yet, but I certain mean to. I'm starved."

[little_leaf]

"Now that's a toast Da would appreciate." she giggled, pointing at him approvingly. When he mentioned food, she nodded, tapping the table to emphasize her words.

"Yes, you need food. You've probably had as many meals as you've had nights of sleep recently, so order something big." she warned. "Or the only thing you'll be kissing tonight is goodbye to any chance you have of kissing me goodnight."

[brave_soldier]

A broad smile spread on his lips. "Well, mustn't allow that to happen. I was inclined to the fish and chips, if that satisfies your requirement? Or do I need to order the entire side of a cow in order to fulfill it?" A chuckle escaped him. "Now that I know I have a kiss awaiting me at the end of the evening, I must make sure I meet all prerequisites. I'm not about to let a chance like that pass me by," he quipped, handing her a menu for her to look at.

[little_leaf]

"Oooh, fish and chips!" Jane chirped brightly, visibly pleased as she promptly passed her menu back to him. "Make it a double order...and if this place is worth its salt, they'll make us a Guinness sundae for dessert. And you'll eat every bite."

She paused, her gaze flicking over him with a slow, warm smile.

"And you were getting kissed the second you said good morning to me on the street, sailor." she informed him playfully. "I'm just gonna make you work for it."

[brave_soldier]

He found himself smiling broadly at her. "Dear Jane, I think I would do backflips for you, if you asked it of me. It might be a bit awkward, though. I haven't done backflips in... well, it's been a very long time," he concluded with a chuckle.

The waiter swung back around and Paul places their orders before returning his attention to her. "So, tell me about yourself. And I mean yourself, not your sibling."

[little_leaf]

Jane blushed fiercely at his remark, trying to hide it behind a swig of her beer as Paul ordered for them. When he asked about her, though, her smile faded just a touch and she found herself staring into her beer.

"That's...not really an easy task." she explained slowly, shrugging as she risked a glance up at him. "My brothers and I are triplets. Very close...very broken triplets."

[brave_soldier]

He watched as the smile faded a bit, and he knew his own had done the same. Identification issues, then. Close with her siblings. Her fellow triplet siblings. "You don't seem very broken to me. Perhaps you're overly protective with John, but I can see why."

Paul remained silent for a moment, pursing his lips. "My sister and I... we're not very close. I envy you that sort of relation, really. It must be nice, knowing you have support whenever you need it." He's never had that before in his life. Just briefly, but it hadn't been Henri that provided it. It had been Mary. He rubbed his chin lightly, clearing his throat. "So, you like jogging. What else do you like to do in your free time? Let me guess: knit. You knit jumpers in your free time."

[little_leaf]

She chuckled a little at the crack about knitting jumpers, and she absently decided to try her hand at it. Just to make him one, just to make him wear it.

Just to maybe be able to take it off of him.

"That's the thing people always assume...but the thing is? You don't have support." she replied hesitantly. "Not when part of the trio is broken. Then over identifying turns into co-dependency and just..." She trailed off, swirling her beer around in her glass before taking a sip.

"John is brilliant, he's a gift made manifest, and it destroyed him. Jock's a genius, and John's his twin...he's kind of broken by default. I'm the one that has to pick up the pieces. It's all I've ever known."

[brave_soldier]

"You're the reliable one. The steady one. The one they turn to when things go wrong. And one day, you find yourself wanting to do something for you." Up until that point, Jane probably assumed that he had been talking about her. Up until that point, he'd been talking about them both. "So you join the military to support yourself, to give yourself the education you never would have had otherwise. Suddenly, you realize that having a proper channel for yourself is precisely what you've always needed in your life. You don't have to worry about the alcoholic sister, or the father that abandoned you, or the fact that you barely remember your mother." Paul gave her the faintest of smiles. "You just know that you've found out what a relief it is to be able to put it all behind you and just be yourself."

He stopped then, lapsing into silence. "I know, Jane. Or, at least, I can imagine. Everyone wants to get away from their lives for at least a little while. So let me ask again. What do you like?"