Catching Up With Dinner

Posted on Wed Sep 18th, 2019 @ 12:36am by Lieutenant Elara Evander & Lieutenant Commander Jacob "Jack" Devine

Mission: Down the Rabbit Hole
Location: Devine's Quarters - D Deck
Timeline: MD 5, 1830

Jacob had spent the last few hours in meetings with pilots and working on the watch schedule. The entire thing had to be ironed out by the time the Andromeda left space dock. Some of the juggling had been easy while some had been not so easy. Making decisions was his job and it always randomly made him popular with some and not so much with others. SQL, however, was not a popularity contest. The pilots didn't have to like Jacob. They just had to obey his orders. Granted, he tried not to make too many enemies but it just wasn't on the top of his list of things to avoid.

Elara would be dropping in soon. Jacob wasn't too worried about her perception of his quarters. His inability to sleep beyond five hours most days saw that his quarters got more attention than they needed, unless of course Zoomie dragged him out of his "hobbit hole" for some fun. That, however, never happened often enough to the detriment of his quarters and so stepping into his place with only 15 minutes to spare was not too worrisome. Well, so long as she was on time or a bit late and not early.

Passing the piano on the left wall, he ran his fingers over the keys for a brief moment, the trill of sound breaking the silence. No, not now. Got to hit the showers and change...

Elara showed up right on time, or so she assumed so, dressed in charcoal leggings and a white long sleeve comfy tunic. Her hair was down, she'd fixed it so it was curly rather than the crazy mess it had been when she'd unbraided it after her shift. Elara just hoped that what she was wearing was okay, she just was very over her uniform and figured that it wasn't formal so casual comfy was a good go to. She pressed the chime when she got to Jacob's quarters and waited.

He was buttoning his shirt when the chime went off. Jacob looked up in the direction of the front door, not that he could see it through the walls of his bedroom. He glanced at the time and laughed. Punctual. Why did he think he had a few more minutes? He finished the last few buttons on his way to the door and triggered the opening as his hands fell away. That's about the time he remembered that he hadn't done anything with his hair and so the first glimpse Elara got of him was Jacob busily running his hands through his hair in an attempt to tame it. "Hi, um, come on in." He dropped his hands and motioned inside in invitation.

"Oh...I'm early," she said, seeing the state Jacob was in. "I can...come back...just walk down the hallway or something...or go to my quarters and come back in like an hour?" Elara hadn't meant to make him scramble. She'd just not wanted him to think she wasn't coming or or her to show up too late. She really wasn't good with social situations, so she didn't understand the whole fashionably late thing.

Jacob laughed softly, one hand catching Elara's arm before she could retreat and drawing her inside. "Oh no you don't. I let you go and you might not come back." He was teasing of course. "And you're not early. I'm just running a little late due to a last minute complai-um-meeting." He stepped back letting her go and extending his arms on either side in a 'look at me' gesture. "Just tell me if I'm presentable enough or should I actually take a minute to properly fix my hair?" He was barefoot, dressed in black denim jeans and a button up shirt in a deep red that was open enough to show off the blue pendant made from the bracelet Elara had given him so long ago.

She smiled at him and stepped close enough to run her fingers through his hair before going to button up his shirt. "Do you really wear this everywhere?" she asked as she touched the blue pendant after buttoning up a button or two. Elara always kept Pippin a secret, well...at least after she swore Leo or her grandfather was going to make him mysteriously disappear. She knew that they didn't understand and they thought she was silly talking to the dragon, but Pippin kept her sane.

When her hands came up, Jacob ducked his head obligingly so Elara could fuss with his hair. He had a broad smile on his face and a hint of pink in his cheeks as he then watched her fingers fix his buttons and touch his pendant. "The one time I wasn't wearing it I ended up in a Cardassian prison camp." Fighter pilots were notoriously superstitious and Jacob was no exception. "So it hasn't come off since except for when I'm in the shower and that's pretty much to keep the cord from weakening."

"Understandable," Elara told him, a smile still in place. She buttoned one other button, but not completely buttoning the shirt up. She stepped back and looked around. They'd never had their own quarters when they were little, family quarters and their own rooms maybe...but so much time had passed and she was curious as to what actually made up his life. Elara knew that her quarters were standard like his and she didn't take along much, but it seemed Jacob had a keyboard on one wall. "Do you play?"
she asked curiously.

"Yes," Jacob answered, his eyes following hers to the keyboard. "Had to find something to fill time. My sleep schedule's been crap since dad passed. I can stay up until midnight and still find myself wide awake at four or five in the morning. Since alpha shift doesn't start until zero eight hundred, that's a lot of time to kill. Of course I didn't get my own keyboard until I qualified for my own room. Prior to that I just went to the holodeck whenever I woke up. Some of my roommates were rather deadly over the idea of getting woken up before they had to." The last he admitted with a crooked grin.

Elara smirked. "I don't blame them about not wanting to be woken," she told him. "At the Academy, my second year, I had a roommate who I think figured if she was annoying enough being such an early bird that maybe my brain would just give in...but that never happened." She shrugged. "I might be a night owl, but I like to sleep..."

"I learned the hard way to take my sleeplessness elsewhere after getting the shit kicked out of me by my two roommates back in our Academy days," Jacob admitted. He reached up with one hand and moved a strand of Elara's hair away from her face. "See, if you had just kicked her ass the message would have been well received." He grinned, hand falling to his side. "Are you hungry? Or maybe a drink?"

"I didn't feel like it was too fair to be mean to her," Elara told him. There were so many that were at the Academy at that time that were war orphans or they'd lost so much even if they still had parents or family. She smiled at him, there was such an ease to being with him. "And yes, I'm hungry...you did promise dinner..."

"Now you make me wish you'd been my roommate," Jacob said honestly. Her smile lit her eyes and there was just something about Elara's presence that rekindled that childhood hype. The suspicious part of Jacob's brain worried that he was relying too much on how she made him feel as a little boy, like he was the center of her world. There was no greater ego massaging feeling than to be that important to someone. Years had passed though. Life had changed for the both of them. They were now adults and all of that should have made anyone wary. But it didn't. He just couldn't muster up that caution.

And he'd been looking at her too long.

Jacob ducked his head and immediately motioned to the replicator. "Thankfully you don't have to rely on my cooking. What sounds good?" Having said that he wandered over to the replicator.

"Replicators are far more wonderful anyways," she told him as she just smiled at him even when he turned his head or moved. "No fretting over making sure that you have all the ingredients at hand." She moved with Jacob as she thought about his question. "I'm not fussy about eating. It could be something simple. What about pasta?"

"Too vague," Jacob answered, as they both stood in front of the replicator. "Do you have any clue how many kinds of pasta exist in just the Terran menu alone? And then there's the versions other cultures have." He looked down into Elara's eyes. "What was that dish you used to make us when we were kids? I seem to remember it having some kind of noodly thing in it." Granted 'making' was simply requesting from the replicator as they were now but it counted, right?

"It was just spaghetti and meatballs," Elara responded brightly. "But we'd always get the small meatballs...and I'd want mine drowned in Parmesan cheese..." He was right though, lots of pasta dishes, but she'd yet to meet one that she wasn't a fan of on some level. "What have you been eating all these years? I'm suddenly concerned," she teased.

"I eat just fine and if I remember correctly that spaghetti was more cheese than noodles," Jacob said, making a face. "Not that I minded the cheese but I wanted more sauce." Of course he ate it her way more times than not. Elara could be persuasive. "Computer, two plates spaghetti with miniature meatballs in sauce, one plate heavy on the parmesan and the other heavy on the sauce." Of course there were a few adjustments made before the two plates appeared. Jacob ordered a bread basket with garlic bread as Elara put the plates on the table. A salad was added and a couple glasses of wine before the pair sat down to eat.

As Jacob took his seat he brought his hand that was hidden behind him out and set a bowl full of parmesan on the table in front of Elara's plate. Grinning at her he said, "Just in case it's still NOT enough parmesan."

"Oh, it can go on the salad," Elara told him with cheer. "It definitely won't go to waste." Not that that was ever a problem since the replicator merely recycled what wasn't used. She remembered though as a child that her parents used to insist that she finish up every bit on her plate. "I feel so treated...such a fancy meal..." She couldn't stop smiling, though, it was so adorable how he fussed to make it far more than it even needed to be. "Tell me what I should know about grown up Jake?" she requested.

Jacob took a slice of the garlic bread with his left hand and picked up his fork with his right. He had always loved Elara's smile and the way it lit up her eyes and made them sparkle. He could remember a time when he used to work so hard just to make her laugh. "Twenty-three years, you'd think there'd be a lot to tell. In fact, I guess there is but since I lived through it all I'm not sure what you'd find of interest." He looked down at his plate as he swirled noodles around his fork. "I've been a pilot since I was sixteen, although that first flight was entirely illegal. I kind of took off with an experimental F180 thinking I'd get a bit of revenge for the loss of my father."

She giggled. "You doing something you're not supposed to, doesn't sound like you at all," she teased lightly. When they were younger, he'd always figure out ways around things that they weren't supposed to be doing. "So then I take it I've not missed a wedding or children?" Elara knew that she was right, but she figured she'd still put it out there. It wasn't entirely out of question, but she couldn't see someone giving up Jacob as a husband. "You make it sound like you just have been out there flying about."

"I move a lot," Jacob admitted, a hint of a smirk in response to her giggles. "There's not as much use for fighter pilots during peace time and there aren't many warships carrying squadrons. If you want to promote through the ranks you can't stay put. So, no, there's no wife or children." He ducked his head. "There was a pretty serious girlfriend once way before I started this journey but there hasn't been anyone since. So, yes, I've pretty much been out there flying around." He met her eyes. "What about you? Any serious relationships, kids, etcetera?"

"I can barely take care of myself, definitely don't have a significant other or kids," Elara told him. "The last serious relationship I was in was in my senior year at the Academy...and then we were assigned for the same cadet cruise. I think it was more the whole we both had lost everything and it was easier together kind of thing." She shrugged. "Been married to my work...science is kinder and easier than most relationships in this life I think..." She looked down at her salad and decided to put some cheese on it. Elara had come to terms with science being the thing that kept her sane...long ago.

"Maybe you need someone who will take care of you," Jacob suggested with a crooked grin before taking a bite of his spaghetti. Of course that would require letting someone take care of her and if Elara was anything like Jenn, that wasn't going to happen. The thought sobered him a bit as the silence fell while they comfortably tucked into their meal. It was a comfortable silence though, not awkward like one might expect. Of course how could it ever be all that awkward with someone who had seen you in your underwear when you were a scrawny kid?

She mused over the idea as she ate her salad. "I think I'm a bit lot for most people," Elara said with a shrug. She had a hard time with relationships because others always felt so clingy. She needed her space...a lot of the time because no one else understood how she functioned. She needed to be able to work without being nagged out of it if she was onto something. Elara just felt like her boundaries flexed depending on what was going on and that she needed someone who could flex with her. So far, that seemed like an impossible ask. "Such a challenge you're talking about throwing out there," she sort of waved off.

"Depends on the man I suppose. I mean, don't they say there's someone for everyone?" He was teasing, the mischief in his eyes evident as he broke off another piece of bread and looked her way with a grin. "I mean these days can't you scientists create the perfect match? Literally?" He was having fun with her, not believing that she could be a bit much for anyone. They'd always had quite a lot of fun growing up.

"I mean...there are a lot of variables and it depends on which ones you're most interested in, but I suppose...there is technically search perimeters that everyone could theoretically put together," Elara told him. "But actual people aren't always equal to numbers in every way. They're unpredictable and ever changing. To be honest, that's probably why I hear so many people in our department sounding like some character in a holoprogram are their significant other over an actual living breathing person." Elara was still surprised that Jacob hadn't found someone who was willing to follow him assignment after assignment, though she supposed that they all had their own forms of baggage and walls.

"I was kidding." Jacob playfully nudged her foot under the table with his bare toes. "Part of the enjoyment in any relationship is tied to the things that don't match. Without the differences life gets boring pretty fast." At least he thought so. The important thing was to love someone enough that those differences didn't matter because if you couldn't accept that person for who they were then the relationship was already doomed. He brought his fork to his lips and asked, "So what happened to him? Your senior year guy?"

"I think he's married to someone named Andrew and they have like a dog or something...I ran into him during leave a few years ago," Elara said. "He seemed weirdly confused that I hadn't gotten married." She shook her head. "We sort of realized that we weren't actually good for each other at the end...so I'm glad he found someone."

"I suppose if all's well that ends well..." Jacob let the words trail with a shrug. She didn't seem upset by the loss so there was no reason to offer any comforting turns of phrase. "And no one since?" He ducked his head catching her eyes. "No crushes, no side fling, no friends with benefits?" He couldn't help but tease though a huge part of him was simply curious.

Elara turned all kinds of red at his questions. It wasn't that it was embarrassing per say, it was because he was the one asking them. "I suppose...here and there...not anything in a while...and nothing serious," she told him honestly. "What about your previous serious girlfriend?"

Jenn. Well, turn about was fair play. "To be honest it was a very long time ago. I was young, pretty sure I was in love, and to make a long story short she died on 211 with dad. There hasn't been anyone serious since though to be fair I'm not sure you could actually call what we had serious. Sixteen is a bit young to really know your heart and to be honest she always was a bit out of my league. I was just too stubborn to accept it." Jacob shrugged, a faint smile on his lips. "I was such a mess back then."

"I don't know if any age is really too young to know your heart," Elara told him gently as she reached out and placed a hand over his. There was so much loss in their pasts, love was something that was precious but Elara always felt like it was fleeting. "People just like to think that if you're young that you don't know anything..."

The sympathy, the touch, that look in her eyes. Jacob ducked his head. "It was very real to me back then, fueled my anger to have so much taken away. I was actually stupid enough to think at sixteen I could go vigilante against an entire race of people. You know, that kind of pain that hurts so much that you just can't sit still, not that I was ever any good at that." He'd always been more of a 'doer' than a 'thinker' and it had gotten him into trouble on several occasions. All of his childhood friends had stories to tell, even Elara. "Like that time T'ska kept picking on you at school. What was I? Five?"

She smirked. "Were you even quite five yet?" Elara brightened and twisted her fork in the spaghetti. "You'd think Leo would have kept people from picking on me in school, but no...it was always you..." She beamed. "Mom used to always say it was my red hair or my curls or something else that I thought was a stupid reason to be bothered by other kids..." Elara looked down and spun the spaghetti on the fork more even though it wasn't needed. She realized in that moment that at the very least, they'd get to be stuck together for the next several months...and that was even more a welcomed thing than when she'd been told by the captain. Catching up with Jacob and seeing if they'd both really changed that dramatically was something to definitely look forward to. "Are you still the knight in shining armor now? Flying in on your dragon?"

"There's never an acceptable reason for one person to pick on another," Jacob answered, albeit probably a little too quickly. "And she's actually a Kaneda class but I've been in several models since I was officially given my wings. If you want, I can take you for a ride. She has two seats in the cockpit." On mission that second seat was occupied by Zoomie but it wasn't necessary for a joy ride that didn't involve her guns. "And I'm afraid I'm not much of a knight anymore. Armor's a bit rusty these days."

Cold shot through him at the confession stealing his breath away. Jacob closed his eyes at the rising panic his body hunching over the table in frozen horror, eyes locked on a distant point. Heart slamming against his ribs, he felt his breath catch. One. Eighty-one. Two. Three. Thirty-nine. Numbers filled his mind with faces at an alarming rate. Eyes staring. Cold. So cold.

Elara found herself dropping her fork, the clattering of it hitting the plate sounding louder than it actually was. Normally the buzz of the ship was something she could figure out how to manage, crowds she didn't do well with (there was always so much emotion within them), but this...this was different. It was like a curtain being pulled back...she hadn't realized it because she'd been so focused on her happiness in having Jacob there...to be together again that she hadn't noticed that this was the first time she was sensing his emotions. It had hit her, maybe more so because of her affinity for him. She reached across to cup his cheek, her head tilting, trying to understand what exactly had happened. Like a switch had been thrown. "Jake?" she whispered, worry lacing her tone.

Her touch startled him, a soft gasp escaping his lips as it all rushed back like waves receding from the shore. Jacob's vision cleared and his eyes darted back and forth for a second as if reassuring himself where he was, two shuddering breaths reconnecting himself to the smell of tomato sauce and spices and oh hell... "I'm sorry," he immediately apologized, setting his fork down. He could feel Elara's concern deep inside himself radiating outward in ripples and it was several seconds before he could gently push her out and raise his mental shields. Mouth dry he automatically reached for his wineglass and downed half of it then setting it aside he pushed his plate away.

She was worried and she had to hold back from moving around the table to hug him. That was the first thing that had come to mind. Instead, she pulled the hand that she'd touched Jacob's face with and set it in her lap. "You don't have to be sorry," Elara told him gently. Had she done something wrong? Said something wrong?
It suddenly felt different, like she'd lost him in some weird way. She waited a beat before speaking up quietly. "Are you okay?"

He finally turned his head to look at her. It didn't take an empath to know what she was feeling and he could sense her withdraw in uncertainty. Had he frightened her? "On the contrary, if I've alarmed you I have every reason to be sorry. And yes, I'm alright. Just a bit of the past stubbornly creeping in." Did he sound tense? Perhaps a bit and Jacob was torn between wanting her to understand and not wanting her to know at all. "I'm sorry, have I ruined things?"

Everything felt like it had changed. It wasn't just this feeling of pulling away, but he was tense and his language had changed. Elara didn't really know how to take it. She tilted her head down, her curls hiding her face a little. She was trying to process everything and how she really felt about it. There was a hard flash of when she'd been younger and Leo had insisted that she was too much and needed to leave Jacob alone.
Normally this would have sent her straight back to a safe zone. Long ago and far away, Jacob had been her safe place. "You hide from me," she finally said quietly, it wasn't said as an accusation...more just a realization. She wasn't upset about it, but it was different. Elara knew she should have realized it before, but it had been quite obvious when she could feel him so suddenly and then it was all taken away once again.

"Not from you, El, from everyone." Jacob rose to his feet and carried his half eaten food to the replicator and deposited it in the recycling unit and requested another glass of wine. He turned to see if she wanted anything but her glass was still half full as was her plate. So he returned to the table and retook his seat.

"I came into my empathy at the age of thirteen. I was a little on the late side but the strength of it more than made up for that. I've never experienced anything more terrifying. I was catatonic for a solid twenty-four hours even after my mother stepped in and pulled me into her shields." Jacob paused, drew a breath and let it out slow. "I overloaded. Drowned. I can vividly remember voices in my head so loud I thought my head would explode. There was love, compassion, kindness but it was all ripped apart by anger, hatred, despair. I couldn't tell where one thing ended and another began. And then my mother stepped in and it was immediate, blessed silence. I was in shock for some time."

His hands were cupped around the wineglass, eyes staring into the dark liquid. "It tethered me. I followed my father everywhere I was allowed to go and was pretty much all over the base when I wasn't with him but from that point I never left my mother's side, not until she could teach me how to make it stop on my own. It was several months before I could manage to leave our quarters and while she was delighted to have my attention all to herself for once, she never stopped pushing me to find my feet." Jacob took a sip from his cup, set it down. "By the end of the first year I had it down in spades. Locked up tighter than a Ferengi vault. But she didn't want that. We fought like cats and dogs through the year that followed as she tried to claw me out of the hole I'd sunk myself into, convinced that my self imposed emotional isolation was dangerous. By the end of that year we'd reached a compromise of sorts and I slowly started opening up to what I could sense around me." He looked at Elara, met her eyes. "Then she died." He picked up his glass again, raised it in Elara's direction. "And I am what I am."

Listening was easy. They'd been playing catch up and this was very much part of it, the stuff that wasn't easy. The stuff that had been in the missing gap that changed him from the sweet boy he'd been...the one that she'd adored and loved...that memory that she'd clung to all these years. "That sounds terrifying," she whispered after allowing a moment to pass. Elara couldn't imagine if they'd been together how she could have handled him in such a state where she'd been afraid she'd lose him. She also probably wouldn't have been too keen on him being isolated and them being kept apart. Nevertheless, she wished she'd been there to be there for him...sure he had his mom, but she still wished that it was a part of their lives they could have spent together.

"My abilities started to surface when I was eleven," Elara told him and looked down. "It started with really bad headaches...and then the emotions would flood me and I'd have a hard time figuring out if they were mine or others... Eventually, it was just this blanket of emotions I felt...and Mom did try to get me to learn things, but I was not a good student...and not a good daughter about it when I should have been." She was quiet. She knew looking back that she'd had all these opportunities and she'd lost them when she'd lost her parents. There was a lot of guilt there...not just with her feelings with her mother but her father as well. "Leo just always complains that I'm too loud to be around," she told him with a shrug. "So maybe it's better you have your shields."

Eleven. So young. It was appalling to Jacob and yet he realized had he opened up so young he would have had far more time to properly train before his mother was taken from him. He couldn't imagine Elara being difficult though. Jacob had always been the troublemaker of the pair, leading her off down paths of disobedience for the sheer adventure of it. He never meant any harm and he supposed that's why both their parents were lenient on their punishments.

"You reflect," Jacob said, setting his half empty glass down. "You're quieter one on one like this but louder in open spaces like the officer's lounge. It's messy but effective," and he offered the last with a smile. "Doesn't bother me though." He got up and shifted his chair closer to hers. "Here," and he offered her his hand, eyes meeting hers.

Elara blinked at him for a moment as she looked at him. She didn't really know what she did, she was just thankful when it wasn't so loud in her own head. All she knew was that Leo always complained about it...a lot. There was some relief in hearing Jacob say that even her 'loudness' didn't bother him. She supposed that it was good that neither of them had scared the other away...yet. She looked down at his hand for a moment, but then took it.

Her hand felt cool in his and for a fleeting moment Jacob worried his was too warm. He almost asked if she trusted him but he could sense it in the way she was merely waiting to see what he would do. "Initially I can't do this at a distance. Squeeze my hand if you want me to let to go." He didn't mean of her hand but he was pretty sure that would be evident as soon as he acted.

Just touching her amplified the emotional traffic hovering like a cloud inside her mind. Jacob resisted the urge to tense amidst the onslaught and instead moved in very close, slipping between Elara and the outside world and wrapping around her as his mother had done for him so long ago, driving out the noise. The quiet that remained was not without emotion but for the moment it was their own. Letting someone be this close wasn't something a telepath or an empath generally did because while their minds were separate for the moment it wouldn't take much of a push on either side to intertwine. He remained quiet, but it wasn't exactly working out the way he imagined it would.

A gasp escaped her lips as the silence hit her like the wind had been knocked out of hard. She was a flurry of emotions, unsure which to grapple towards at first. Panic was definitely hitting her hard. Being able to have her emotions so close to her and not the constant buzz around her was difficult, more so than she’d have expected. She tried to let her own bottled emotions drift away, but she found it hard to even give up her own internal noise on top of what Jacob had already stripped away.

Tears streamed down her face and she felt like she couldn’t take the vacuum that it felt like it was anymore, even with him there with her. “Jake,” she breathed before rapidly squeezing his hand.

He removed himself as deftly as he had moved in, feeling entirely foolish for thinking he could somehow help. "I'm sorry, I didn't think..." No, he didn't think. Why did he assume that would be the answer? A way to help? He let go of her hand and rose from the table to collect a box of tissues which he brought back to the table and set in front of her. "I should have asked, should have explained myself but I just thought..." Words. Why were words so hard? "I'm so sorry, El."

She watched him as she wiped away the tears, he was upset and she hadn't meant to do that. Elara knew that he'd been trying to help. It was just...such a stark difference. "It hasn't been that quiet in my head for a long time," she told him quietly. "It was just far too quick...and different than I'm so used to." She smirked a little. "And maybe being that alone with my own emotions was a little scary..." Getting to her feet, she reached out her hand towards him again, palm up. Having that quiet was so scary, but she realized that there had been a slight relaxation in it. Like a small weight had been temporary lifted from her...before she couldn't stand the quiet and she'd let the panic win. "You thought," she told him gently. "You were just trying to show me your bubble that you live in...to chase out all my noise..."

"I should have known not everyone loves the quiet," Jacob said, relieved to see her smile and know she wasn't angry with him for the trespass. He really should have asked. He looked down at Elara's hands then reached out and gently took them, pretending to shiver at their touch. "Anyone tell you you're like ice?" He pulled her in closer to his body. "Someone ought to make you wear mittens." He grinned down at her and teasingly said, "I can replicate you a pair."

Elara just beamed a bit at the tease. "Just what I need...consoles not cooperating because of mittens." She shook her head and squeezed his hands. "Is it hard for you? To allow me into your bubble?" Elara asked curiously. She didn't mean the act of letting her into the bubble with him, but allowing that bit of vulnerability in having her so close. Things were certainly different and they were different, but she still wanted to understand and know him better. She knew she couldn't know everything now all in one go, but she also didn't want to give up her time with Jacob in that moment.

"Initially, no." Jacob looked up from studying their hands together to meet her eyes. "Twenty-three years and I still trust you, El. Maybe because my memories of you were forged in childhood where there was no life experience to taint the way I felt. I mean... I know we're different people now but I really didn't think about that when I did that and I should have." He frowned a little, concern in his eyes. "And I can't believe you've adapted to live with that much noise inside your head. I couldn't." He smirked. "I have enough of my own to be juggling everybody else as well so I'm not sure how you exist in the middle of that storm and keep your wits about you."

"I don't always, but I do tend to spend a lot of time on my own and that makes it easier," Elara told him. She held tight to his hands as she raised herself just a little on her toes and placed a kiss on his cheek. "You're still sweet, Jake...and eventually I just might need to know how to do your trick of shutting the rest of the universe out." She paused for a moment. "But right now, we could just sit and talk..."

He blushed, ducking his head. The show of affection was unexpected and he wasn't the little boy who once wiped off her mushy kisses. "I don't know about that, El, but if you ever want to learn let me know. I can teach you." Letting go of just one of her hands, Jacob led Elara to the couch and they both sat down.