Wanda and Jake

[x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com]

After dinner with Lil, Wanda drags Jake to a bar. She's determined he needs to relax and finally start talking.

(OOC Note: The second part of this happens later this evening.)



Jake hadn't said anything as they'd left Washington Square Park after Wanda had joined him, nor as Wanda had hailed a cab to take them to a bar in the Flatiron District. Twenty minutes later he had two empty shot glasses in front of him and was draining a third, with a bottle of beer waiting once he was done with the hard alcohol.

The bar was tucked away around the corner from the Flatiron Building, the sort of upscale place that had upholstered, high backed booths to discourage eavesdropping. Jake set his shotglass down with a thunk and peered at Wanda. "Go ahead. You've been waiting to say whatever you want to say for days now, haven't you?"

They had, of course, picked the booth with more than adequate enough sight of the rest of the bar - to them, it wasn't paranoia, more a way of life. Wanda's gaze snapped back to him, as she'd been staring out into the sea of humanity flitting through the bar. "You came to us for help," she responded, setting her beer down on the table. "But we can't actually help you if you keep everything locked up."

She grinned, the look a bit wry. "I know, that seems to be a bit of kettle call the pot black but, still. How long have we been friends, Jake? You should know by know that I will resort to shaking you upside down to get the results I want." Despite her teasing words, it was more obvious than before how concerned Wanda was. Jake wasn't the only one hiding things behind walls.

Jake looked away at that, signaling the waitress for another shot. He turned back to Wanda then, and reached into his pockets, pulling out his cell phone and a small white card. "I need you to do me a favor," he said, sliding the phone across the table to her. "Don't let me have either of these back until I'm very sober. And don't lose this," he set the card on the phone. Wanda was just able to see what looked like numbers written on the back of what appeared to be his father's business card before he set it down.

He picked at the label of his beer and sighed, searching for the right words. "It's just..." He shook his head. "I don't have any idea what to do. I don't have any idea what I can do. I've never..." he stopped, unable to finish. "Do you know this is the longest amount of time I've stayed in one place in three years?" He took the shot the waitress set down on the table and knocked it back.

The phone disappeared into her purse, which was dropped back onto her side of the table and well out of reach of Jake's potential future sticky fingers. A moment later and the card joined it; she read it before it went into her purse, an eyebrow lifting at the string of numbers.

"Considering what little you had with you when you arrived on my doorstep?" Wanda nodded. "I cannot say I'm surprised. That was my life for a number of years." From time to time, she even missed it but she traveled nonstop for different reasons. "It sounds like you were trying to run from something, even if it was yourself."

He blinked at that, a look of confusion on his face. "Really? Because I always chalked it up as hazards of the job that I loved. I liked it. I don't like not working. I get fidgety if I don't have anything to do." Like the last two weeks, he thought but didn't say.

"There's a difference between working and working yourself to death." She ignored the look he sent her way so she could take a sip of her drink. "Trust me, though, the longer you stay here the more we'll have for you. No, no, but I do understand - you're at loose ends now and it's probably driving you insane."

After all, she couldn't get mad at him for not staying in touch if she hadn't done it herself.

"It's not just 'loose ends'," he sighed in frustration. "It's--I have nothing. It's like everything I've done for the past dozen years--for my whole life--just ceased to matter. Do you know why I'm still here? Because I have nowhere else to go." He slumped into his seat, staring out over the bar.

"You have me," Wanda said quietly, taking his next shot for herself and downing it before he could protest. "And Amanda. And Remy, even if I'd never live it down if he heard me say it. It's more than some have. Less than what you started out with? Oh yes, there's no denying that. But your problem, Jacob Gavin, is you thinking that you have absolutely nothing left and no one to turn to."

She set the glass down a little harder than she might have, though not hard enough to break it. She knew exactly how much power it would take to shatter the shot glass.

Jake at least had the decency to look guilty. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "You're right. I've got the world's greatest roommate, even if roommate is just a fancy way of saying you're letting me sleep on your couch," he favored her with a small smile. "I just feel like I'd finally gotten to where I wanted to be and then the rug was pulled out from under me. I lie awake at night and can't sleep because I know my arm will be gone when I wake up, and I don't have any idea what to do about that," he confessed. "I want to call my sister and yell at her until I'm hoarse, and then never talk to her again. And all I can think is, what do I do next?" He spread his hands, clearly at a loss.

Under the table, Wanda pressed her leg up against his in a comforting move. "Here is what you're going to do next and you'll follow it to the letter. Trust me, I will eventually get my PhD. You're going to get very drunk with me tonight because you need to relax. After that, we're going to go back home - home, Jake, because it is home right now - and we're going to sleep. Tomorrow morning, I'll continue my research into what's been going on and you'll go from there."

He nodded, and after a moment's hesitation took her hand across the table. "There's a reason I keep you around," he said with a small smile. "It's not just because of the terrible things you do to my socks when I'm not looking."

With a snort, Wanda inched her way around to his side of the table until they were both squished into one section. Hand in hand, shoulder to shoulder, and she laughed. "That's because you had the nerve to put my underwear in the freezer! Do you know how blastedly cold that was?" She squeezed his hand. "Come now, drink up, time is marching steadily onward and we are nowhere near drunk enough."

"After what you did to my shoes, you're lucky it was just the underwear," he said with the closest thing to a real smile he'd had all night. He downed his beer and signaled the waitress for another round.



Around one in the morning...



It was far more difficult getting into the apartment than Wanda remembered it being. Then again, it was probably due to the fact that she and Jake were leaning very heavily on each other and they'd proven that you couldn't go two abreast through that door. So, giggling quietly, they'd turned sideways and almost fell through before she'd been able to get the door closed behind them.

"Have I told you how much I've missed you?" Wanda asked, staggering about in one high heel shoe, the other one clenched tightly in her fist. She was trying to get the other shoe off but it was being difficult.

"Twelve times," Jake replied, rubbing at his mouth in what was beginning to become a habit before stumbling over to the kitchen. "Once when I first showed up," he called over the sound of running water, "once when I found the little girl socks, once when I found what you'd done to the socks you'd replaced with the little girl socks..." The water shut off and there was a pause as he appeared in the doorway, draining a cup of water in long swallows. He wiped his mouth off with the back of one hand and continued, "...and, what was that, three? So, nine more times after that."

He leaned against the doorframe as he watched her hop around, wrestling with the stubborn shoe. "You know, I hear it's easier to take shoes like that off if you're not standing on them."

"Shaddup," Wanda muttered, falling back onto the couch with an oouf sound. From a sitting position she was able to finally get off the errant shoe; the couch was comfortable and warm and god, she just wanted to sleep. "Bed! Help me up, it's sleeping time for us. And for the record, I missed you. Hah! Hahaha! Ten more times after your original count of three!"

He snorted at that. "So that makes it an even baker's dozen?" he asked as he disappeared back into the kitchen. Speaking of bakers...Cake. There needed to be cake. He was realizing that if he didn't keep his left hand busy, it was going to disappear, along with the rest of his arm, and he wasn't quite ready for that just yet.

After a moment of rummaging, he emerged with a white bakery box and a fork. "Up you go," he said, pulling Wanda to her feet--a feat made more difficult than he'd expected because of their height difference, and the two of them wound up wobbling a bit before they finally regained their balance.

She gave the box a look as she threaded her arm through the one not carrying the box. "Are you going to eat that in my bed?" Wanda asked suspiciously as they carefully made their way to the back room. She didn't bother with turning on the lights as there was enough filtering in from the city to provide enough illumination.

Letting go, she made her way over to the large, heavy wooden dresser that she'd put in the corner; it had taken four people to move the daunting piece up the stairs and inside but it had been worth it. As Jake moved around behind her, Wanda stripped off her shirt and pants before rooting around for a shirt to sleep in.

He set the cake on the nightstand, kicking off his shoes and untucking his shirt. "Um. I'm going to share it with you in your bed?" he asked cautiously. He took a valiant stab at undoing the buttons of his shirt, but his fingers just didn't want to work right, so instead he simply pulled it off over his head and wriggled out of his pants, flopping down on the bed in his boxers with the cake box. "If it helps, I've got a lot of experience with chocolate in bed," he said with a wicked grin. "And strawberries. And strawberry sauce. And...I should stop," he said, popping a large bite of cake in his mouth.

Had she not been drunk, she probably would have laughed. But considering all the beer she'd had, and shots, Wanda just ended up giggling. Though the sound was muffled for a moment as she tugged her shirt over her head and her hair got caught before she was able to pop free. "Oh I just bet you do," she responded, going over so she could steal a bite of cake from his fork.

Jake fed her indulgently, then took another bite for himself as she settled in next to him. "I'm very good at not getting chocolate on the sheets," he declared. "Because that would be a waste of good chocolate." He fed her another bite, trying to stave away the gloomy thoughts that threatened to creep up when he wasn't looking. Instead he put an arm around Wanda and pulled her close.

Propping her head on Jake's shoulder, Wanda ate haphazard forkfuls of cake. She snorted at the one time he missed and got her in the forehead but, all things considered, his aim was pretty good. "You know the only reason I wouldn't be here tomorrow morning would be because I'm cooking," she told his chest. Because the cake was dominating his stomach, she'd thrown a leg over his knee instead of an arm over his stomach. The combination of warmth, cake and drink were starting to make her comfortable and drowsy.

"Yeah," he said quietly, scraping up the last of the cake frosting and licking it off the fork. He dropped the fork in the box, then set the box on the nightstand before turning to wrap his arms around Wanda. "I missed you too," he said finally, snuggling down under the covers.

It didn't take long for his breathing to slow as he finally fell into sleep. Ignoring the strong desire to fade as well, Wanda waited another five minutes before gently untangling herself from him. He muttered something but quieted down as she padded into the room she'd turned into an office and continuation of her library.

Despite the large amount she'd had to drink, it didn't take her very long to get her laptop booted up or for her to send several emails. Wanda was burning several favors from a number of contacts - savory and unsavory alike - but if they could dig something up on what had happened to Jake then she'd figure it was worth it. As it was far too late to wait for any answers, she simply shut everything back down and headed back to the bedroom.

For a moment, Wanda stood next to the bed and stared down at Jake's sleeping body - less one arm as his control had slipped away in his sleep. Rage bubbled up from her gut but she choked it back down since it wouldn't do her a bit of good now. She just climbed back into bed and snuggled back against Jake, falling asleep with the knowledge that when they did find out the answers, she was going to have one very long conversation with the people responsible for hurting him.