Title: Not Like This

Author: Jedi Buttercup

Disclaimer: The words are mine; the world is not. I claim nothing but the plot.

Rating: PG.

Summary: Jack sat with Allison, heart aching for her as her shoulders shook with sobs. 300 words.

Spoilers: Eureka post-3.4 "I Do Over"

Notes: Mentions canon character death. Sorry for the brevity; I had the hardest time finding any motivation out of this episode.

Everything is going to work out the way it's supposed to.

How? Jack wondered to himself as he sat with Allison, heart aching for her as her shoulders shook with sobs. How could this possibly be the way it's supposed to...?

He couldn't deny-- not anymore, not even to himself-- the strength of the feelings he held for Allison. If her fears for Kevin hadn't driven her repeatedly into Stark's arms during the mess with the Artifact, he still believed it could easily have been his name next to hers on the marriage license and Stark the man she'd asked to walk her up the aisle. He'd swear on a stack of Bibles that the feelings had been mutual; it was just that, after everything that had happened, her feelings for-- and history with-- Stark had proven to be stronger.

But for all the rivalry-- for all the anger and frustration caused by Stark's smug, possessive comments, and for all the pain Jack had felt at the realization that he had lost the chance to put that blissful curve in Allison's smile-- he had never wished for this outcome.

Not like this. If this was "winning", he would have been perfectly content to lose.

Stark's last smile flashed before his mind's eye again, and Jack swallowed thickly, fighting back sudden tears of his own. Never, in all his daydreams of improbable futures, had he ever wished the man gone. He was the focal point around which half of Eureka turned; he was G.D.'s top scientist, Henry's student, the only father Kevin had ever known-- and the most entertaining verbal antagonist Jack had sparred with since divorcing Abby.

See you around, Jack.

I'll hold you to that, you bastard, he thought, and fumbled for the necklace still nestled in his pocket.

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© 2008 Jedi Buttercup.