Dog Days Are Over [[JACK && ALYCE]]

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce watched him as he spoke. Little he said surprised her. She always expected him to have had a horrible childhood. Parents always screwed with their kids in ways people could never measure. Being there or not.

"Hmmm..." she replied, handing him her plate as he requested it. "My turn for share time, I suppose." She paused before continuing with her story, almost as if collecting all her thoughts int coherent sentences. Because her life was any but.

"My parents were painters. In Spain. They made lovely frescoes and murals. But we were poor. Fairly often, no one wants to buy your art until you're dead. A man came to the door. Painting his own pictures in my young little head with stories of demons and vampires that I may one day be destined to kill. He offered more than my parents could ever provide, and they gave me up. He took me away to the country side to a sweet little farm. We had cows, pigs, chickens. But they weren't for eating. We treated them like pets. He trained me for years in the arts of being a slayer. When I reached the age of 18, it seemed obvious I wouldn't be called and we allowed ourselves to fall in love, despite it being forbidden. We got married, and I had a baby girl. Maria. She was beautiful. But then the slayers were called everywhere. I felt it. My husband told me I had to go out and fight the evils. It was my duty. I did, and almost got killed. I was stupid and the vampire followed me home. He got them while they were outside in the early morning. Before the sun arose...." She trailed off for a second, thinking of the way he'd strung them up. Like decorations. Tears sprang to her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away with her free hand.

"That's why I came to London. I had to get away. I couldn't live there anymore," she admitted. She couldn't look him in the eyes. It was the first time she'd spoken out loud about what happened.

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[JACK WES URKIN]

Jack had actually expected Alyce to burst into tears and try and cling to him. This surprise was more than welcomed, but it made him curious. Before now, he actually knew very little of the girl and had never really bothered to ask. Now, here she was trying to be nice and share things with him. The nice part he cared very little for, but the sharing part was what he was interested in. If she felt the need to explain herself and talk about her past because he had, well, that was fine with him. He would be more than willing to listen.

"Typical slayer heritage. You're not the first slayer to fall in love with her watcher, probably won't be the last." Jack shrugged his shoulders and thought about it for a moment, soaking in everything that she had just told him. It had been quite an adventure for her to get here. She had moved to London in order to get away from all the pain and the tragic memories that haunted her. He even saw the tears in her eyes that followed this story and he sighed softly under his breath, making sure that she had not heard him do it. For a few seconds, he stared down at her and then went to the sink, running a bit of hot water for the plates and silverware to rest in before returning over to Alyce.

"Come here." Reaching down, he picked her up by her waist and hugged her to him tightly. There was very little he could say in the matter right now, but he felt he needed to do something and not just leave her sitting there wiping her tears. That was no way to treat someone, even if you were an evil monster. Besides that, she was not just some random woman that he had picked up on the side of the road to beat and rape. This woman was to be his right hand. She would be his sword, his shield, his armor. She would be his trust, his strength, his life. Now was the best time he had to come down off of his high horse and actually show that he wanted her for something more than just a doll. She was many things to him, he just wished that she could know this without him actually having to open and say it. Still, he would do his best and try to show her that she was more. Let her feel it.

Hugging her tightly just a bit more, he leaned his head on her shoulder and kissed at it, trying to make her feel a bit better about everything that was going. The treatment she had suffered through with him, well, now that he thought about he was almost appalled. He was an aggressive man, but none of it was really called for. She was already broken and beaten long before he came upon her. It seemed that all he had really done was add insult to injury.

"I'm sorry." Jack whispered quietly, barely loud enough for Alyce to hear it, "I'm sorry for what I've done to you." With those few words, the humanity within him rejoiced all at once. There had been a major breakthrough, even if the inside of his mind was still twisted and depraved. Thoughts of hurting her and sexually abusing her still filled his mind, but at least on the outside he was able to conquer some of it and not hit her. Instead when she did and said something that provoked feelings within him, he might just be able react appropriately. At least, it would be a better reaction than anything he had previously made.

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce watched him as he walked over to her. She was slightly stunned when he picked her up and hugged her. It was sweet. Gentle. Something so different from what he had shown her before. It was beautiful.

And then he kissed her and apologized. It was the most human moment they'd ever had. It was their turning point. She hugged him tightly, the moment almost bringing more tears to her eyes. She felt something radiating out of him that didn't contain any sort of malice. She hugged him tightly, kissing him softly on his cheek, before holding him a little bit longer.

Then she released him, giving him one last kiss, before smiling deviously. "So whats this I hear about a surprise?" she asked, trying to move on to brighter pastures, but making special note of this turning point in her mind forever.

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[JACK WES URKIN]

This definitely was a turning point. There was no going back, either. Once he had down this, Jack knew that there was really no way to take it back. When she kissed his cheek and hugged him even tighter, there was nothing he could do but go with it. This was a one-way street. He knew what it meant and he had decided to go down it, even if it was something he was not all that certain of. Could not be certain of everything in life, was what he reasoned with himself, but he went forward anyway. Pushing was the only thing he could do now. Striving forward to see what would happen.

Nuzzling her just a bit with his cheek, he took a step back and looked at her. She mentioned the surprise. His eyes went wide. "HOLD ON!" Jack bolted across the room and opened the laundry door, only to have a St. Bernard puppy sitting on the floor chewing on one of his shirts. With a defeated sigh, he motioned her over and crouched down in front of the puppy, mumbling something about losing his shirt.

"He's a few months old, the owners needed to find someone to take him. I know them from an Art Expo I did last year. Purely by coincidence that I came across them this morning. I figured you might like him. He will need a good home, you know." Jack's eyes went to the side as he reached out and very sloppily patted the puppy on his head. It turned to look at him for just a brief moment before continuing it's current task of nomming his shirt.

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Jul 10, 2010 15:51:53 GMT -5 ALYCE JULIET AYERS said:

Alyce giggled loudly, her eyes glittering with a joy that they had been missing for quite sometime as she caught her first look at that adorable puppy. A St. Bernard. Gorgeous. She skittered across the floor towards them, almost ripping her dress in the process. She was so happy she hardly noticed. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him on his furry little head. He didn't seem to mind, or notice, as he kept on chewing on Jack's shirt.

"Oh Jack, you can buy a new shirt," she said as he grumbled. She felt comfortable saying such things for the first time ever. A wide grin on her face, complete with her dimples. "One of the older ladies whom loved my mother's painting always brought her St. Bernard with her when she came to come visit us. She said it was for protection. But he was as dumb as rocks," she said, giggling as she petted the puppy.

Then she kissed Jack softly on the lips, lingering there for a second. "Thank you," she whispered. Kissing him once more, she lingered again, just staring into his eyes, before abruptly turning her attention back to the puppy.

"What should we name him?' she asked, petting on him once more as the puppy separated an arm of the shirt from the torso.

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[JACK WES URKIN]

When he crouched down, Jack could literally hear the sound of Alyce giggling and running over to where they are. He could have sworn he ever heard what sounded like a chair falling over, but he assumed that she must have just hit it when she ran. Of course she practically knocked him down when she hugged the puppy, but he ignored this as he knew she was incredibly excited.

Nodding with a sigh, Jack watched the puppy and shook his head at how she spoke to him. Now that he was all nice and stuff, there was no more big and bad. Well, at least not now. Maybe later he could try something, but that would be later and definitely have to be in a different circumstance than the ones now.

Jack actually smirked and laughed slightly when she mentioned that the St. Bernard she met before was as dumb as rocks. He was not surprised by this, as they were not really the smartest of all dogs, but they were very easily trained. That was one of the saving graces of having this dog that would be big in the house. In the very least, he could potty train the dog rather fast.

The kiss caught him so off guard that he blinked at first and did not know what to do. This was a sweet kiss that lingered on his lips even after she stopped to speak. Then, before he could even say anything or recover from the surprise of the first kiss, she kissed him again. This time, however, he was more prepared than the first. As her lips met his, he kissed her back and wanted to tug her to him like he had earlier, but for now he had to settle for just her lips.

"You're welcome." Jack murmured, "Anytime."

"That's entirely up to you, Alyce. I was just calling him dog all morning. He doesn't really seem to care for that too much. Seems all he really was interested in was eating my shirt." Jack cringed when he tore the sleeve of the arm from the torso but took a deep breath and shook his head, "Going to have to teach him manners, too."

[ALYCE JULIET AYERS]

Alyce smiled at the puppy, positioning his head so she could look into his eyes. She studied him for a moment. He seemed content with doing the same for a second, then wanted to go back to ripping up the shirt.

"How about Lieutenant? And we'll call him Lou for short?" she said after a quick study, releasing him to continue his happy nomming of Jack's shirt. She petted him a bit more, looking at the dog lovingly. "Have you eaten today, Lou?" she asked, assuming Jack knew very little of animal care.

She leaned back into Jack's arms, sighing as she rested against him. "You do realize how much they eat, right?" she asked, closing her eyes. "They are expensive to feed. We should go get some dog food," she whispered, kissing Jack softly on the cheek.
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[JACK WES URKIN]

Jack looked between the two of them and shook his head. It seemed that they were already both quite happily on the same wave length. Hopefully that meant Alyce would be able to teach the dog not to rip through his shirts. Well, a man could hope.

"Lieutenant, huh?" Tilting his head to the side, he glanced at the dog and then ran his hand over the animal's fur. "That's not so bad. I'm not saluting him, though." He glanced to the side as he made the joke and then shut up immediately. This was still very deep water for Jack that made him uncertain of how to proceed. It was not something he had ever seen before and the best thing he had to go on was television, which he knew to be full of bullshit, so he was slightly out in the cold as to how normal things went.

"He's eaten, though." Jack pointed to the large bowl of food that was mostly eaten next to the washing machine. It would appear that the puppy also had a taste for the bowl, as it looked like it had been chomped down upon more than a few times. Next to it was a full bowl of water, "I had given him food and water right before dinner. He should be okay, plus there's plenty of puppy chow on the back deck. The woman at the counter said it was perfect for a growing puppy's needs." He shrugged his shoulders. It was true that he had no idea how to raise a dog, so the best he could do was listen to people that knew. "Plus a few toys." Another shrug came but with this one a slight smirk was present on his face. It seemed that they had already played a bit, at least.

This time, he wrapped his arms around Alyce and did not let her go. She felt so good against him, he realized, for the first time. It was like a breathe of fresh air. The day before, when he had injured her, he could hardly breathe. It felt like he did not even trust himself anymore. Today was an entirely new day, though, and it felt like it. His chest was no longer strained and he no longer felt so... angry.