[Ana’s silence isn’t as comforting as he’d like it to be, mostly because he knows she doesn’t have a good answer to his question. He tries to focus on her hand instead, like if he watches the way it circles into the back of his palm, he’ll start to feel something again. If anyone can wring something out of him, it’s her, but the more he watches the more disconcerting it is that there’s no sensation to accompany the touch. Jack’s gaze drifts upward instead, head against her shoulder as he looks past her, lost in his own thoughts. Hearing the melodic way she speaks her own language is comforting, and he doesn’t even have to think about the response he gives, even if he’s not sure he can buy into a platitude like that.]
اعرف.
[He’s never been very good at speaking other languages beyond rudimentary conversation necessitated by his position as strike commander, but it’s a passible effort, even if he doesn’t sound quite as nice as she does. It’s more about the sentiment than anything, a simple, easily-conjugated verb mumbled into the fabric of her collar as he tries to let the tension ebb out of his shoulders.
She’s not giving up, which means that he won’t either, but he can’t help but think about the road to ruin they’ll walk in the process. At what point will this—will any of this—be worth either of their lives? What happens when Jack’s war takes Ana from him for good this time? He’s been running on the pain of his betrayal for so long that he isn’t sure what will be left to sustain him once all the rage has bled out.]
He hated me for what I let happen to you.
[Public relations nightmares and high-profile mission failures aside, that had been the true beginning of the end. Jack knows Ana’s final mission was more complicated than this, but he’d been the commanding officer. Bringing her home was his responsibility, and he’d failed. Gabriel never let him forget that, and without Ana’s mediating presence, there was no repairing the steadily-widening fissure between them.]
Thought it’d be easy to hate him right back, especially after all this, but—
[Once all the anger is gone, what’s left? Jack doesn’t finish the sentence—can’t. Too hard to swallow his pride and say that the truth of the matter is that he misses Gabriel more than he can bear.]
no subject
اعرف.
[He’s never been very good at speaking other languages beyond rudimentary conversation necessitated by his position as strike commander, but it’s a passible effort, even if he doesn’t sound quite as nice as she does. It’s more about the sentiment than anything, a simple, easily-conjugated verb mumbled into the fabric of her collar as he tries to let the tension ebb out of his shoulders.
She’s not giving up, which means that he won’t either, but he can’t help but think about the road to ruin they’ll walk in the process. At what point will this—will any of this—be worth either of their lives? What happens when Jack’s war takes Ana from him for good this time? He’s been running on the pain of his betrayal for so long that he isn’t sure what will be left to sustain him once all the rage has bled out.]
He hated me for what I let happen to you.
[Public relations nightmares and high-profile mission failures aside, that had been the true beginning of the end. Jack knows Ana’s final mission was more complicated than this, but he’d been the commanding officer. Bringing her home was his responsibility, and he’d failed. Gabriel never let him forget that, and without Ana’s mediating presence, there was no repairing the steadily-widening fissure between them.]
Thought it’d be easy to hate him right back, especially after all this, but—
[Once all the anger is gone, what’s left? Jack doesn’t finish the sentence—can’t. Too hard to swallow his pride and say that the truth of the matter is that he misses Gabriel more than he can bear.]