The Family Man

Chapter 4

"You're home," she said flatly.

He suddenly remembered his situation, and the words burst out of his mouth before he could bite them back: "If you can call this place home."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Do you have any idea what you put us through today? Did you stop to think why Bobby and Ethel are here?"

"...No." Jack answered truthfully. He shoved his hands into his pockets.

"They were here all day watching the kids. Where was I? Hunting down your ass all over town. Half of the people here think I'm deranged. Probably some in Arlington too. And Annapolis." Jackie practically glared. "Cell phone, Jack."

" I took the battery out," he mumbled. It had gone off for hours, and he hadn't been motivated enough to so much as glance at the Caller ID. Jack had chucked the Samsung in a garbage can outside of the senate when his life had seemed particularly hopeless. And now he had the audacity to shrug at her.

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Where were you?"

"In the city."

Jackie opened her eyes. "Why were you in the city?"

"Because I live there," Jack suddenly spat. "See this?" he waved around the room desperately. "This isn't mine. You're not mine. We're not even married. I dumped you ten years ago in Hyannis! Not in so many words, but come on. It was over." He nodded frantically and Jackie cocked an eyebrow. "I'm actually a very successful Senator. And I don't live in the suburbs. And I'm engaged."

Jackie raked her hair into a ponytail angrily and swiveled on her heel, shoving books back onto their shelves. "Funny, Jack. You're so goddamn hilarious! Seriously. Let's dig up the argument about our mediocre lives again! It's only been oh say, two or three weeks. When will you take responsibility for once in your life."

He sensed a migraine pulsing at his temples. "God," Jack muttered. His words might as well have been a broken record. He pressed his hands into his face. "Can you stop screaming at me, please?" Jack stared at her, beseeching.

She stopped her supercharged cleanup and looked up at him. He watched the frustration on her face simmer into regret. And within a moment, Jackie crossed the space between them and embraced her husband. Jack stumbled back in surprise. It took him about a second to realize that Jackie was not (as reasonably expected) throttling him. Her arms were wrapped around his shoulders, her face pressed into the crook of his neck. Jack's hands unconsciously settled around her waist. She felt so warm and somehow, still very familiar. Ten years...

"I don't want to fight," Jackie murmured against his skin. "It's been a long day. You're home and you're safe and everything else is bullshit. Okay?"

"Okay." He murmured.

Jackie granted him a flicker of a smile. She snatched her iPod from the portal, switched off the lights and left the room. Jack stood in the darkness, contemplating what he had just missed in the last two minutes of their argument. Or rather, what was missed in the last ten years.