Resist

25

Despite nagging curiosity, everyone went to bed that night without visiting the infirmary to meet the new arrival. Eden declared him "In need of rest" and Gavin declared that "We would talk too much." Both statements seemed highly accurate.

The conversation started instead when Nessa had closed the door, the last one in the room, and we had began getting ready for bed. I loved Sicily in a sister-like way but she was a like a jury with her questions. 

"What is going on between you and Jack? How did we not know about this?" She said "we" like Nessa was interested too but the brown haired girl was relaxing on the bed, a worn book in her hands. In the back of my mind, I wondered where she had found a book.

"Well it wasn't something we were sharing," I answered vaguely. I loved that Jack had opened up and today I could see the change in him, a subtle step in the right direction. He had been laughing as he sparred with Will in that "this is highly enjoyable" way and he had even mock punched Tucker on the shoulder in punishment for a bad pun he'd made. But that didn't mean either of us were suddenly going to share everything, him about himself and us, and I about us.

Sicily seemed unamused with the way I had beat around the bush but also was nice enough to not push anymore when I obviously wasn't keen on sharing. I could feel her watching me as I moved around the room, getting ready to sleep. "Can I just ask you one other thing?"

I nodded, wondering what question she could possibly be craving an answer to. "What's Jack like really?"

My eyes snapped up from dousing one of the oil lamps in surprise. I wondered how Sicily had known he had a front on when no one else had seemed to realize it. When I didn't answer immediately, she elaborated. "I always have felt like he's putting on a hard exterior but never knew what it was he was hiding, you know? What's he like when he's just with you?" Her light wings behind her shrugged, showing her question to be purely curiosity.

I thought for a moment. I remembered that first time he'd taken me to the foyer and we'd flown. He had been amazingly sweet and so caring when I'd hurt myself. That had been my first glimpse into the real him. "He's caring, and compassionate," I told Sicily. "He cares so, so much." My mind was momentarily lost in memories, from when I'd first joined the recovery through yesterday. "But he's also such a fighter, there's nothing he'd rather do than take the head off Xavier himself. I guess it's because he cares so much for others that he wants to ensure we're all safe." Like he couldn't with his own family I added in my head. Jack had not told me the whole story but I knew terrible things had happened to them and I almost didn't want to know what. There was also the fact that whatever story lay there would be horribly hard for Jack to tell. I wasn't sure if it was even something he would tell me, maybe it was just something he needed to be able to bury and not return to.

Sicily smiled at me sweetly, like she thought what I had said was really cute. It was that look you gave someone when you saw how deep they were in; she saw how much I liked Jack in the way I'd explained him, in the way my eyes now glazed over as I thought about him.

I was in very, very deeply but if someone tossed a rope down into this hole, I wouldn't grab on and be pulled out; I had fallen into this hole that was Jack happily. 

I doused the last lamp, the room now lit only by the moonlight that filtered through the curtains. Sicily and Nessa were already in the other bed and I scampered into the other one, sillily afraid of the dark in the room. 

"Goodnight," I called to them. I heard one of them shifting, the blanket dragging on the mattress. Feathers shuffled as someone nestled into their pillow.

"Night," Nessa mumbled, already falling asleep. Her book had been tossed to the floor while Sicily and I were talking. 

"Goodnight Essie," Sicily called.