Lost & Confused

[SageTavers]

She waited until she could just see it in his face, as if he was relaxing just a little, and she let her hands work to the back of his neck lightly for a moment, sinking forward just a bit so that she could rest her head against his shoulder once again. Though much closer at the moment then she had before. One of those hands stayed at the back of his neck, kneading lightly at the muscle there before her other hand just continued back up into that hair thinking as he said what his dad might've preferred.

The smallest of frowns tugged at her lips. She wasn't a hundred percent sure she believed that, only because would his dad have cared enough to come yell at him about Sage? It was the only reason she wondered. Jack was a bit clouded on the subject and reasonably so, but she didn't argue with him. And he almost sounded like he was begging so she didn't argue about talking to her dad.

She didn't want to talk to the man anyway, but if Jack thought it might help. She pressed her features lightly into his neck and took a deep breath of him. She'd spent the last few days convincing herself that he didn't need her around, and just this right here undid that. He seemed to need her just as much as she needed him.

"I missed you..."

She whispered it and those fingertips clung just a little more demanding as she said it.

[Jack Malone, Jr.]

How could he not relax when she went for his hair each and every time he needed - and wouldn't admit - to calm the fuck down? To just relax and regain his bearings. Even as her hand moved to the back of his neck and began kneading, he only rolled his head slightly to the side to give her better access, and there it was. Another of those sort-of-sighs before his expression had changed entirely, despite the thoughts he had about his father - the mentioning of his mother, and the concern of talking to Sage's father.

There wasn't anything he could think of that would help, and that was what made the situation far too difficult. It was different when it was he delivering the short end of the stick .. flip it around, and Junior would lose his mind, slowly but surely. The most he was hoping for was that he'd catch some sort of break - not fuck the guy over - and get out of it alive, and as they'd talked of, be better at what he did. He just wasn't sure he trusted any of it-- after all, he didn't trust people willingly. Just the same, he didn't expect to be trusted.

Her statement did cause a faint grin to form, even if only briefly.

"Missed you too." The words were mumbled, and he lifted his head just long enough to glance down at her before moving his hand to lift her chin up to him, just to steal another kiss as he was prone to doing. It was followed by a second, that lingered just a little longer than the last. "M'thinkin', though.. if.. I play by his rules.. maybe I'll get to come around more. I don't know how long this whole thing is supposed to last.. but maybe not too long.."

Yeah. Jack was royally confused.

[SageTavers]

She wouldn't fall asleep. No. Though there was a large part of her brain telling her to lull off into nothingness, if she only had a few hours with him, she didn't mind relaxing, but she wasn't going to doze off. That was an insane thought, didn't matter how tired either of them was. She licked her lips lightly and blinked a few times as he used his hand to tip her head back up so she was looking at him again.

It was always more then pleasing when he 'stole' those kisses. Really to steal them she had to be pretty unwilling, and she wasn't, she returned each and everyone of them, her fingertips curling into his hair a little more, pulling him a little closer, letting her forehead rest against his as he started to talk again.

She wished he had more information. She couldn't imagine how frustrated he was considering how frustrated she was.

"Can't go with'ya can I?"

It sounded insane really. He was basically a prisoner on a leash and she was offering to go right with him. That really spoke to how off her rocker she was at times.

[Jack Malone, Jr.]

Perhaps they weren't really stolen, then, even if the way he went about them were pretty sneaky at times. If they hadn't been caught and returned, though, where would the fun have been? Her fingers curling into his hair a bit tighter was just the icing on the cake. Forehead to forehead, though, and Jack closed his eyes before letting his head drop back down.

But hell, he wished he had more information. He only knew what he'd been told, and quite frankly, it wasn't that horrible considering the guy hadn't decided to off him right off the bat. It was only horrible in the sense that, other than being a complete dickhead - and addicted to having Sage around - he was lost as to what to do with himself when it wasn't possible.

Her question didn't sound insane, really; no more insane than his confession that he would've kidnapped her and ran. In fact, it got a very brief, short, laugh out of him before he shook his head lightly, which really only amounted to lightly rolling his head from side to side.

"M'not so sure how that'd go over. I'll be sure to ask though, for next time. Don't think it'd bid well on the whole trust factor if I brought you back with me just yet."

Which was true. He couldn't imagine how that conversation would have went.

"I'll just be sure to get out every now 'n then. As long as I don't fuck him, his words - not mine - , it should be alright.."

[SageTavers]

She couldn't help but smile lightly as she felt his head drop back down just a bit. He was relaxing, just enough. She didn't suspect for him to go all out relaxed, how could he? She didn't let go either though. Didn't plan on letting go until he told her she had to because he had to go, and it was possible she might not let go at that point.

Oh his laugh. It damn near had a shiver running up her spine. It was good to hear. Really good to hear, even if he was laughing at something she said, it didn't sound malicious.

"What you don't think going to your ... what... kidnapper and asking if you could bring your very personable pretty girlfriend along would be awkward?"

She said it with a wide smile and couldn't help but let out a short laugh herself, pressing her nose lightly into his to give him another quick kiss, before he said that the guy had told him not to fuck him, she scrunched her nose up just a bit.

"I'd prefer that you didn't fuck him either..."

She said it with a bit of amusement without really thinking about it.

[Jack Malone, Jr.]

In a sense, the only times he wasn't able to fully relax was when Sage wasn't present. When she was, it was just a matter of a few touches to his hair - the lack of feeling so goddamn alone - and eventually, he'd settle the fuck down, regardless of how serious of a situation he'd been involved in, or was involved in.

No, there was no malice in the laugh. Truth be told, it was funny only because he could picture bringing her back and requesting that she be allowed to stay with him -- just for one fuckin' night as he probably would've said. It'd be a no-go for sure, but damn if he wouldn't try it.

"Yeah, it'll be fuckin' awkward. What'd be even more awkward, though, is if it was allowed 'n then your dad went snoopin' around." And with that said, he shifted his hand so he could poke her in the side.

More truth. It'd be awkward in more ways than one, though he didn't elaborate and just caught that next kiss from her. Then came that admittance, and.. Jack smirked. Dark brown's rolled lightly, and he shifted his head off to the side slightly just so he could look up at her more easily.

"Think I'm that type? Ain't fuckin' no one. Especially not some guy that pistol whipped me, thanks.. but no, thanks. I'll pass."

He paused for a good moment though before moving his head back into it's previous position; the devil-may-care expression took over for all of a split second as he regarded her silently. Ut oh. He was pondering. Watch out.

[SageTavers]

It had always been invredibley difficult to keep that smile off her face when she was around him, even in a serious situation as this seemed to be. He made her smile. It hadn't been so obvious at first because all they did was throw sarcastic comments back and forth at each other but once that didn't dominate every aspect of everything they said he still had a tendency to make her smile.

"Ah. Yeah. Dad won't snoop. Ain't stayin' there anymore with his blessings. Told him he couldn't figure out how to protect his own ... and if it were his job to protect me I'd end up dead. He's like ... super guilt man these days I could probably get away with just about anything."

She sounded damn serious too, and then he was responding to whom he would rather not be fucking. She was smirking and studying him, and kind of watched that expression that was spreading over his features. She let out a bit of a grunt before she was letting one of those hands slide to that spot underneath his ear, playing at the flesh there for just a moment.

"mmm...what just popped into that head of yours?"

Yeah they were spending too much time together if she could read him as well as she was starting to read him.

[Jack Malone, Jr.]

"Mr. Guilt man. Sounds int'resting."

But in a sense, he could relate all too well. It was like his own father had made it his personal vendetta, or taken it upon himself to play hero in every goddamn case there was known to man, and ignoring him and the two sisters he had yet to even go meet. It was inevitably why his mother left him, and why Jack had been left with nothing more than sitters and nannies when he was a child.

"Guess that's the way it goes when you work those kind'a jobs." ..As if he didn't work them, too. In his defense, though, he wasn't slipping up and accidentally having kids. "But at least you're not stayin' there anymore; that's good. Maybe when shit settles back out you can stay with me." And not just part of the time, he meant.

Still, his fussing remained the fact. He didn't want any of them getting involved, because he knew how it would've went down had he been the one with the power over someone else; and we'd just say, they wouldn't last too much longer, after cops started sniffing around. He would've killed them and been done with it; no questions asked. If he had that detonator, and the capsule in someone else? It would've been nothing but goddamn threats and waiting for them to fuck up just so he could push it.. because, Jack was Jack. And even if he was a cop.. he thought more like a criminal. Acted more like a criminal.

When she took to studying him, just as he was watching her, he snickered some and tried to bite back the smirk that was forming when she decided to paw at the spot just beneath his ear. Of course, his head tilted off to the side some. Really? What was he pondering?

"Nothin' popped into my head."

It was a lie, and though he could lie like a snake and be believable most of the time, this was not one of those times. And the half-bitten-back smirk said it all, even if he'd averted his gaze out towards the sky over the lake.

[SageTavers]

"Those kinds of jobs...yeah."

She was eyeballing him as if to say 'whose calling the teakettle black now?' Though she didn't say it because the look was enough of a say it. And then there was that shift in her look, another one, something a little different, he brought up her staying with him more permanently when things settled down for him. Hadn't they had a bit of a conversation that sounded similar. She looked around at where they sat, fuck in this same spot hadn't it? Though it was nice to know he still thought that, still felt that way even though things had gotten crazy for him, he wasn't worried about her staying with him.

She could barely breathe when she walked in her bedroom at her parents room let alone sleep there, so she'd been sleeping at Jack's pretty permanently.

"Why do you think I'm staying somewhere else? Not allowed to go back to your apartment....can't stand my parents house. No real options there."

Those eyes of hers were narrowing almost instantly then when he started in on that snicker. He actually snickered before he said nothing popped into his head and she just laughed and shook her head.

"If you just didn't' get some kind of thought or idea then please put a crown on my head and name me the queen of fucking England."

She leaned in without really thinking about it and pressed a kiss to his lips at that blatant lie because she couldn't help herself, because she missed him. Her fingertips slid from his ear, right back into his hair, over the top of his head, and then down the back to meet its twin at the back of his neck, pulling back from that kiss she just shook her head.

"Bad liar there slick." She gave a bit of a playful tug at his hair as she said it.

[Jack Malone, Jr.]

Jack picked up on that look entirely too easily, and just rolled his eyes in response. Right. Like it applied to him, too. She hopefully knew, by now, that he was the least likely to do things by the book, or hell, even on the mark. The path he followed was one he made, regardless of the guise he used - and the power that came along with such ranked positions. He'd planted himself intentionally, out of spite, and it only grew and grew as he went-- even if, at the current point in time, he'd been unofficially stripped of both his badge and pistol. Talk about a kick in the face.

Nevertheless, it was very much in the same spot - very much in the same position - that they'd had the similar conversation in concerns to her staying with him more than just two nights here, a night there. And he still meant it. Of course he did. He'd gotten entirely wrapped up in her, and that was indeed the entire reason he'd snapped so goddamn easily when his father had showed up, ranting about a friend of a friend who'd informed him of he and Sage. Why, then, would it change just because of a mishap? An error that he practically brought on himself for being irrational and sloppy, as it had been put.

"Y'know I would let you stay at my apartment, even if I wasn't there-- but, with people watchin' it, it isn't safe."

Who'd been behind the people keeping Sage away from the apartment? He'd prodded his proverbial handler into doing what he could to make it happen, and that much - whether he said so now - he was thankful for. The very, very, last thing he wanted to happen was for her to pay for his fuck up, or become collateral damage.

When she laughed, he just kept that utterly deviant grin of his, and studied her further as she spoke. Oh, she could read him that well, huh? Unfortunately, he had no crown to put on her head.. and had very much had a thought drip right into his head. So, in the end, all he did was laugh right before she pressed that kiss to his lips. He could've kept it going, and probably would have, had those fingers not delved back into his hair. And damnit, if the kiss didn't have his eyes closing, that did; he even leaned into her hand as it moved over the top of his head and down the back before coming to the back of his neck. When she pulled back from the kiss however, he tried to stifle a sigh, and both hands moved to wrap around her middle, tightly, just pulling her down against him. The tug to his hair and accusation only drew a faint smirk out of him this go-round.

"Mmno. Not bad. C'mon, it wasn't that subtle, was it?"

The idea running through his head? No, it wasn't subtle to him.. of course not.

"Just thinkin' on how to spend the rest of the day. That's all."