As Good as a Gold Card [Alyce, R]

[JACK WES URKIN]

Jack watched her wake up but did not stir, instead he simply sat on the side of the bed there and waited for her to say something. Part of him was still angry but part of him felt slightly sad. The tiny little specks of humanity that remained within him yelled and screamed at the top of their lungs, but at the very best all they did was cause him to be more concerned than normal.

"What?" Jack said with a rather disgruntled tone in his voice. He remembered quickly that she was injured and afraid, but there was a whole lot more going on in his mind than he let on. "Just rest. You'll need it. Be careful, too. You've got eleven stitches on your head. Don't bust them out." He sighed softly and looked away. This girl was a lot of trouble, that was true, but he had already decided he wanted to keep her around.

"I had a doctor here to see you, don't worry. You'll be fine with rest and relaxation. Don't try to move too fast." Jack cast his gaze to the side and tried his best not to look at her. Part of him felt guilty for all this. It was not the Doctor's words that made him feel guilty, but watching her as she suffered and bled, then she kissed him, and even now she felt as though he would beat her, after all of that. That part of him had no idea what to say or do.

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce nearly flinched as the first word flew out of his mouth and bit at her a little. But as his tone softened, she began to stop shaking. Her body uncurled a little bit. One of her hands went up to her head and a fingertip ran gently over the stitches, wincing as she did so. All eleven there. The only thing holding her head closed. She closed her eyes, unnerved by her near death experience.

"I'm sorry," she tried in a whisper. It was gentle. She had no harsh words for him. No hate. No anger. She knew she should. That she should run away and never come back and hate him until she was an old lady. But she couldn't. It was true, every word she said. She loved him. She knew that meant she'd probably die here, in this house. But she accepted it. Embraced it, in a way.

Then she gently moved so that her head was in his lap. Hoping upon hope he would embrace her. Love her. She needed it. But she didn't expect it. She didn't believe he could ever love her.

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[JACK WES URKIN]

Jack took notice when Alyce began to stop shaking and he glanced away for a moment. After nodding to himself, he looked back at her and gave her a once over. She was not bleeding anymore and the wound had been taken care of. The one on her lip had stopped bleeding long ago on it's own, thankfully, and would not even leave a mark. Hopefully the stitches on her head would not scar up, either.

"Don't apologize." Jack let out a sigh and shook his head. Here this girl was trying to apologize after everything that had happened to her. If he were any other man in the world, he would have felt ashamed for this. Not Jack. There was of course a certain degree of guilt that filled him, but he was hardly ashamed. He truly just wanted her to get better and healthier. "Just rest and get better." Glancing to the side, he picked a spot on the wall and stared at it for a while. That was what he was doing when she put her head on his lap.

For everything in the world, Jack was not empathic. He was not even sympathetic. It was hard for him to understand how people felt and what they wanted unless it was obvious. It made it very difficult to read people and he typically was on edge all the time. With a sigh, he put one hand down on her head and stroked her cheek, the other bracing her so that she would not move. It was all he could think to do right now. He was trying. Really, really trying.

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce nuzzled him a bit as he stroked her cheek. It was sweet, but she wasn't sure if he was doing it because he felt something for her, or because he felt like he had to. Either way, she accepted it all the same.

One of her hands reached up and grabbed the one that was stroking her cheek. She pulled it towards her lips and gave it a gentle kiss, rubbing it with her thumb.

"I love you, Jack. And I'm not saying that because I want anything from you. Not your sympathy, not your love. But because I want to give you something. I want to give you that love." She nuzzled him a bit more, turning slightly so she could look at him. The movement hurt her, made her wince, but she wanted to see him.

"It's not bullshit. It never was," she said in turn from an earlier comment made. She closed her eyes, trying to rest. Everything hurt, but it was almost a numbing, throbbing pain.

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[JACK WES URKIN]

Jack had gotten used to her affectionate little motions so the nuzzle came off flawlessly. There was no harm in what she was doing and while they were not exactly his thing, he was trying to do things. It was hard to say if he wanted to do them or felt he needed to, because he would never admit it, even to himself.

The gentle kiss phased Jack, but only for a second. He stopped to look at her and then nodded, deciding to let her do as she pleased for a while. She had been restricted and feared him, this was good and bad at the same time. What he really wanted was respect, but fear always seemed like the next best thing.

For a moment, she spoke. This made Jack angry at first, because he still had no idea whether or not to believe her, and then grumpy second. He let out a deep sigh when she finally closed her eyes and said nothing, not really sure how to even respond to it. There needed to be time for him to understand her, at least that was what he thought, and that was how it had to be. For now.

The thoughts circled his mind for a while, spinning and looping all around any rational response he could have had. In the end, Jack was still rather lost mentally because no one had ever shown him anything like this. Whenever he thought of what he did and how it was evil, he knew that he was. It had been accepted by him quite a long time ago. Now, however, the thought that he may have actually just been misunderstood popped into his mind. He hated that with a passion. When he saw himself, he never wanted to think "Oh hey, there I am! The big bad misunderstood guy!"

Alyce may have thought that she was going to die because of him, but the truth of the matter was that she was going to change him or kill him. Whichever came first.

"We'll train easier from now on, but you'll be resting until you're fully healed. No objections." Jack cast his glance to her eyes before letting out a soft laugh, "You'll be resting for a while..I'll carry you upstairs." Swooping down as he spoke, he lifted her into his arms and carried her out of the room.

Taking her upstairs, he was very careful not to injure her in any way or even bump things. When they got to his room, he set her down gently on the bed and handed her the remote for the forty inch plasma screen television on the wall. "You just lay here and rest. Alright?" Jack peered at her, giving her a once over as he stood there to her side.

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce laid against him as he scooped her up and carried her away like a knight. It was all very sweet and fairytale-like. If you ignored what happened before.

And then he laid her down on the bed so gently, placing the remote in her hand. She held it gingerly and then reached out for him.

"Please stay with me?" she asked in a sweet whisper, but before she could even wait for his answer, the need for sleep overcame her and away she slipped into blissful sleep.

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