For the rest of the day Fletcher a was still abuzz, but now for a slightly different reasons. He was a man on a mission. A mission to celebrate Jack. But when he tried to press Jack about it, he refused to open up.
"Come on, Jack, I just want to know!" Fletcher coaxed. "I know you don't know your real birthday, but you said Wren and Simon gave you one, so when is it?"
"I'm telling you, Fletch, it's not a big deal," Jack replied, burrying himself deeper into the book he was reading. "Just let it go, okay?"
Fletcher sighed. He'd been at this for about fifteen minutes, and he knew he was pushing his luck. Jack wasn't going to tell him anything.
...But maybe others would. A covert smirk worked its way across Fletcher's face. "Alright, alright, I'll leave you alone." He put his hands up in surrender and walked away as nonchalantly as he could managed. The moment he was out of Jack's sight, however, he was beelining for the study to talk to Simon.
"Why don't you ask Jack?" Simon countered when Fletcher asked him.
"He won't tell me! I've been trying for the past fifteen minutes and I can't get another word out of him about it."
"Then he probably doesn't want you to know," Simon replied.
"But—but—oh come on, I want to do something for him!"
Simon gave him a stern look. "It's not really doing something for him if he doesn't want it. Based on the reaction he's given you, I'd say he doesn't seem to want anyone to make a big fuss about it, which is kind of what you're doing."
Fletcher paused. Simon did make a fair point. But there had to be some sort of compromise he could come to. "Okay, well—what if we just did something small? Surely you guys have done something for him before?"
A thoughtful look came over Simon's face. "That...could work, yes."
The excited glint came back to Fletcher's eyes as he was immediately drawn back into the conversation by the tantalizing hint of progress being made.
"Okay, so nothing big—keep it low-key. Gotcha. But, Simon, when is it?"
Simon didn't reply right away. He didn't like the idea of giving away information Jack didn't want others to know. He could see Fletcher had good intentions, but would telling him be betraying Jack's trust? He glanced to the side, for once uncertain of what to do. He'd always been best at deducing what was factually correct. Moral dilemmas were not so much his strongsuit. However, there was one person he knew he could count on to give a wise answer in such a time as this. He looked back at Fletcher again. "Let's go ask Wren."
By now Fletcher was growing tired of running around the whole house just to get the answer to one question. The answer should have been simple, just a month and a day put together. Why did there have to be so many layers to it? But he tried to take a deep breath and relax. In the end if the group really didn't want him to know, he couldn't force them to tell him. He might just have to be ok with never knowing, depending on Wren's answer. As the two headed out to the back porch. Wren was sitting in a chair watching the rain patter down against the screen.
"Wren?" Simon asked, hesitantly. He never enjoyed breaking into her quiet moments.
Wren looked over at them with a simple, "hm?" Then when she'd properly taken in the two standing by the doorway, her expression softened a little and she gave them a welcome smile. "Oh, Simon! Fletcher! Hello." She gave Fletcher a sympathetic look. "Are you feeling any better from lunch?"
Fletcher felt himself blush a little, slightly embarrassed by his initial reaction to hearing Jack's past. "Y-yeah. I am, thanks."
"I'm glad. Did you two want something?"
