#jackava

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Jack/Ava, really nice guy who hates only you.

[Do you know how happy I am to finally get part of their story down?It has taken so long]

Ava sees Crosby walk into the Officer's Club and lifts her hand. "Harry!" she calls, "we've got an extra chair!"

Crosby comes over and gives Ava the same flat, polite smile he always does. "I'm meeting some people," he says, giving Jack a nod. "But thank you."

Ava waits for Crosby to belly up to the bar before turning back to Jack. "See?" she says. 

Jack sighs. "This again?"

Ava puts her hands flat on the table and gives Jack a hard look. "He's the friendliest man on base to everyone else, but I've tried for weeks to get him to join us, and he always has an excuse."

"Because he's the friendliest man on base and always has plans," Jack says, tone flat. But there's a smile at the edge of his mouth. "He's never been anything but polite to you."

"He used to be nice to me," Ava replies. "Ask after the other nurses and if I've had word from home, but ever since you and I started setting each other, he's frozen me out."

"No, I'm sure that's not…"

Ava sips her whiskey and watches Jack's face as he thinks back over the last several weeks since they officially started courting. He can be hard to convince sometimes, but she appreciates that he will stop and think. It's also nice to watch him do it. The low, warm light in the O-Club softens the tired lines at his eyes and makes him glow a little. He's so handsome when he's relaxed, still upright in his posture, but languid in his movements. She imagines sometimes what it'll be like if they ever sneak away to London together. How relaxed could he get if he wasn't on or near base? 

"Okay," Jack says, pulling Ava from her thoughts. "Looking back on it, you have a point. He really has changed around you."

"I can't figure out why," Ava says. "Can you?"

Jack thinks again. He shakes his head. "No, I can't." He replies. He gives Ava a determined look. "So, I'll ask him."

Ava shoots out a hand and grabs his wrist. "What?! No!" 

Jack gives her a confused look. "But you want to know, don't you?"

Ava nods because, yes, she does. But also, no, she doesn't. What if she's committed some faux pas she's not aware of? What if she said something he wasn't meant to overhear but he heard it anyway? What if he thinks she's not good enough for Jack?

"Ava," Jack murmurs. He lays his hand over hers on his wrist. "Harry's a nice person. He must have a reason, or he doesn't realize he's changed his behavior."

Or he thinks I'm just a trampy hick, and you deserve someone better, Ava thinks. The thought makes her grimace, and her fear slips away into annoyance at herself. "You're right," she says. "It's easiest to ask him."

Jack takes her hand from his wrist and kisses her knuckles. "I'll be right back," he says. He stands and picks up his nearly empty glass. "Want another while I'm up?"

Ava downs the rest of her drink and passes him the glass. She watches him walk up to the bar, where Harry's got replacement navigators collecting around him like he's the main attraction at the county fair. Ava holds her hands, one in the other, and tries not to think too much as Jack places their drink order, then wades into the crowd of navigators and pulls Harry aside. 

It's not that she really thinks she's not good enough for Jack. She knows her own worth. Really. And she's explained to Jack why she gets nervous about it sometimes. How growing up how she did and the rumors about her stick to her like burrs even though she knows those rumors aren't true and that some people just need to push others in the mud for their own amusement. 

But she and Harry got along before. They really did. And the only thing that's changed is that now she wears the sweetheart brooch Jack got her. It's heart-shaped with a B-17 etched on the outside. His graduation photo from flight school is in there. The moment she's off-shift, she attaches it to her dress or her blouse and doesn't take it off until lights out. And ever since she started wearing it, Harry's been distant. 

Jack comes back to the table. He sets down their drinks before taking his seat. He's got a look on his face like he's been slapped. 

"Well?" Ava asks, never one for a long silence when there are questions to be answered. 

Jack blinks and shakes his head, then looks at her. There's a tenderness on his face that she's never seen before. Like he's just realized something very important. "Um, he doesn't hate you. You haven't done anything wrong," he says. He clears his throat, then reaches for her hand. She gladly gives it. "It's…" 

He looks at her again. Ava bites her lip to keep from demanding an answer. "We remind him of his early days with Jean," Jack finally says. "He says we both look completely smitten when we look at each other, and it's just hard for him to appreciate it with her so far away."

Ava blinks a few times. "Oh," she says. She presses her fingers to her mouth. "Oh, that's…that's quite the compliment," she manages. 

Jack nods. "I agree," he says. He takes a drink of his whiskey and squeezes her hand. "And as he was telling me, I was thinking, 'Well, that's not bad at all; that's a nice thought, really'."

"It is," she says. She clutches her glass and watches his face. The way he can't stop looking at her with this new tenderness. Like maybe he's just realized they could have something very permanent. It's something Ava hasn't let herself hope for just yet, even with his photo in her brooch. But now she feels the want of it, deep in her body. "It's a very nice thought,"  she adds. "I feel like I could think it for a long time."

The smile that blooms on Jack's face makes her almost cry. He looks so pleased. So content. So truly happy. She's done that. Her saying that made him do that. 

"Me, too," Jack agrees. 

Ava smiles back, hoping it's even half as obvious how much she cares about him as his smile was for her. They sit and they hold hands and they sip their drinks, and when the music starts, Jack leads her to the dance floor and holds her close, and Ava thinks that, yes, this is something she wants to think about very much.