searches_forhim | A First Time for Everything

Nothing in their meeting led Jack to believe Jane had any doubts about meeting him. He would not have thought ill of her for having them. On the contrary, he appreciated her intelligence. Women in New York had a tendency of being a little smarter about their safety than most yet he still encountered a number who were willing to go home with him moments after meeting. He preferred Jane hands down.

It wasn't just the thrill of the chase. Jack longed for a relationship with substance. He had taken for granted a first love and he never wanted to miss an opportunity for love like that again. There were days that he wondered if he missed his chance. Jane made him hopeful that he didn't. She sent him the name and address of a place to meet that wasn't too high or low end. Perfect.

He arrived fifteen minutes early, hoping to wait for her and rid some of his nervousness, only to find Jane pacing outside the Japanese restaurant. Jack immediately wondered if a change of plans was at hand. He quickly gave her a curious grin once she spotted him. "If you're allergic, you don't have to keep 'em." He uttered softly and handed her a bouquet of yellow roses.

"Oh... wow. They're beautiful." She took the flowers, a bright smile on her face. She loved roses, but always felt strange buying them for herself. "Thank you." They were in the peak of bloom and she could smell their fragrance without having to hold them right under her nose.

"Did you find the place okay? I didn't know where you live so I had no clue how far of a trek it would be for you."

He took a breath of relief seeing Jane smile so bright at his offering. Jack had contemplated whether or not meeting for dinner was the type of thing to bring flowers to. It paid off to listen to his mother who insisted always that women loved flowers. The yellow seemed to suit his date though they weren't known as the romantic gesture but a friendly one. Friends first didn't seem like an awful idea to him.

"This isn't a ways away from where we met. Wasn't hard to find at all," he answered with a happy smile. "Shall we go in?"

She nodded and let him open the door for her, then stepped inside the restaurant. Once inside the hostess showed them to a cozy table for two near the window. It was the table Jane always sat at when she ate there, but she was usually alone. She liked people watching and it had a great view.

"I have to admit that I don't know much of the city outside of this area. I grew up in a small town and New York intimidates me. I know within a five block radius of my apartment and the university and that's it."

She was so...small. Jack couldn't help notice not only their difference in statures but her presence. Small in a good way. He had grown accustomed to bossy women in New York but he definitely didn't prefer them. It seemed he had to submit to their whims or fight a constant battle. Neither was his preference given his family history.

Jane didn't demand or ask much of him. Sure, it was just a first date but there were nuances that he observed that only solidified his thoughts. As she opened up about living in the city, Jack was certain. A part of him felt bad for her while secretly happy to find a woman he might possibly open up to. "Rightfully so. Few cities are the size of this one. Maybe only second to Tokyo in congestion."

Jack gave a supportive grin. "I miss clean water, air and green grass but my job here affords me the luxury of much travel so I can't complain."

Jack seemed so sweet and genuine that Jane did not feel at all intimidated by his size. He was at least a foot taller than her and twice as wide, but he looked more like a teddy bear to her than a giant. Not that he looked squishy, he appeared to be quite fit. Not that she was checking that out.

"So do I. This coud not be more different than where I grew up. Not to mention all of the light pollution makes it really hard to observe anything in the sky." She picked up her menu and opened it even though she already knew what she was going to order. Jane was a creature of habit.

"So you travel a lot?"

Jane would be surprised at his size given how scrawny of a lad he had been until his father's death. His height increased exponentially soon after. Jack seemed to blossom once his tyrannical father had passed. It wasn't a subject he ever talked about. He mentioned the good and dismissed the bad in his life. There were worse childhoods and definitely worse fathers.

He idly looked at the list of food available, clueless what to order. His eyes were on the woman in front of him, easily able to see her over their menus. "I wondered what work you could be doing here. It's fortunate that I see a star or two in the night sky here. I've gotten to know the planetarium well to avoid getting homesick."

A server approached their table before Jack could respond about his travel. He waited for Jane to order, hoping for a clue on what to eat. Their server never said her name as it seemed to be the way in New York. She looked barely twenty and was so soft spoken that it had been hard to decipher if she was truly Japanese or possibly descendent from another part of the orient.

Jack finally chose a soba special with gyoza and a small plate of salad to start. His gaze returned to Jane with a small friendly grin, blue eyes inquiring 'Now where were we?'

Jane would be grateful if the subject of fathers never came up. Her mother had left when she was too young to remember, so she and her dad had been on their own. They were two peas in a pod, and as close as any father and daughter could be. He had passed away just after she got her undergraduate degree, and she still missed him every day.

Jane ordered several different sushi rolls and a salad, just so they would get their first courses at the same time. She knew the waitress was the daughter of the chef who was working at the restaurant only because she needed the money for school. She was a decent enough waitress, but preferred spending her time alone, reading. Jane always left her the biggest tip she could afford.

"I was about to say that I can't believe we never ran into one another before today, if you're really at the planetarium all the time. I take the train to one upstate where you can see a lot more than here. I just got back from spending the summer in New Mexico, actually. Now that is where you want to go to observe. I had to come back to use the university's computers to crunch all the data I gathered, though. They have the best in the country." She was talking about herself too much. She blushed and took a sip of her water.

"Sorry, I tend to babble when I'm nervous."

He appreciated the servers silence though knowing nothing about her. She would receive a sizable tip just for giving them space to talk. There were few things that Jack hated more than a pushy presence. He watched Jane go on for a couple good minutes and restrained a wide smile of amusement. He shook his head, objecting to her stopping herself.

"Nonsense! I am intrigued. And now more so since you stated being nervous," he teased gently with his grin growing. Jack had been leaning in and listening attentively. He not only followed her story but her body while she spoke. Specifically the language her body added to her words. There was no hiding her love for her work. He had a hard time believing she was acting out of nervousness.

She rolled her eyes at herself. "Great. I shouldn't have said anything. Do you ever do that? Think something in your head, and tell yourself 'never say that out loud', and then the next thing you know you're actually saying it?" She really hoped it wasn't just her.

She hadn't realized he was watching her so closely or she would have gotten even more nervous. She had no trouble presenting in front of hundreds of people, but one-on-one was different. More intimate. More chance of seeing disappointment or rejection on the face of the person right in front of you.

"Well you're not getting any more out of me until you tell me about Tokyo. And everywhere else you've been."

"I think all of humanity has fallen victim to that. Some eventually fine tune the mind to mouth filter but many are much worse than yourself," he offered gently with a warm smile. Jack was highly observant. The second he sensed Jane paying attention to his intense gaze, he would have toned it down or even stopped it entirely and brought attention elsewhere.

As it was, he leaned back at her demand (still smiling but a less 'amused at her expense' smile). "Everywhere?" Jack questioned. "I was in her majesty's army which accounted for three years of traveling to many towns, villages and cities. Some of which I'm afraid I've been sworn to secrecy about. But maybe I can tell you the countries. Or simply about Tokyo?"

"I wasn't asking about all of humanity, I was asking about you." He seemed reluctant to talk about himself. She was not sure if it was shyness or because he was trying to hide something. Then he mentions he is sworn to secrecy and alarm bells start to go off.

"Why don't you just tell me about your favorite places." It was Jane's turn to sit back, sip her water, and watch him as he talked. She was no great judge of people just from body language by any means, but she trusted her instincts most of the time. The trouble was Darcy's voice in her head, as usual, telling her that New York is not like a small town in the woods of Washington state and you can't just trust people even though you want to.

He was secretive in nature. Possibly a product of his troubled childhood or having a parent who constantly conversed. Jack was reserved and ever observant. He probably started to appear awkward and hesitant with a red blush lightly coloring his cheeks when Jane seemed to lose patience with him. She had sat back--a sign of disengaging, and sipped her water (could be construed as a further sign).

"My favorite places are usually cities filled with unique architecture. Most of Europe. It's what brought me here to New York. And has me traveling back and forth from Boston. I don't have just one place. The Sistine Chapel is a marvel. Budapest, Rome, and I don't believe Washington D.C. --the Capitol building and the likes--get nearly the credit they should for the buildings built at the time."

Hopefully that would appease her. Jack enjoyed witnessing her exuberance when she shared with him. However, he understood conversations were better had when two people shared. It was his downfall in relationships. He was accused of being closed off. Being a good listener wasn't enough. Sadly, he learned at a young age how hurtful it could be to share inner most thoughts with the wrong person.

Jane was the exact opposite. Instead of buildings, she loved nature. Instead of hiding her feelings and trying to read other people's every movement, she was an open book, and took other people as the same. Some people might have called her naive, but she saw it as being optimistic. A large part of her was afraid that living in the city too long would change her.

"Have you designed any buildings I would know? Wait, architects do that, right?" She wasn't entirely sure what he did, when it came down to it. She leaned forward again so she could see him better. The restaurant was generally dark and relied on small candles on each table to provide ambiance.

"What exactly do you do?"

Opposites often attracted. Jack might not have opted to visit the great outdoors over an ancient city, but he had often admired the architecture of the skies. He learned from a young age that few people could be trusted. It was why he kept to himself and observed. Some could be trusted. A discernible eye and good judge of character helped him see who to allow in. So far, the list was small in numbers.

"Yes, architects do that. I designed a building that's in the process of construction in Australia. I'm afraid that's the only one to date. Mostly, I renovate existing structures. My current title is lead structural engineer, under Urban Planning and Development for a company contracted by many governments. I've had two contracts here in New York. I doubt a city like this would consider my designs but I'm content bringing life back to their dilapidated harbor for now."

His voice was a little lower in speaking about himself than it had been questioning Jane. He was confident in his work but never did well talking about his talents. Jack made the attempt all the same as his date leaned in again and engaged. A compliment lingered on his lips but instead of being uttered in a word, his eyes watched her with obvious admiration. He hardly glanced at the server as their first round of food was brought to the table.

Jane could see the difference in him between when he was listening and when he was talking. His voice was softer, his shoulders slightly less perfectly straight. She found it downright adorable.

"So you like to take things that are broken down, fix them up and improve them to make them even better than they were before?" This was not that dissimilar from what she did. She looked at the existing theories and formulas, studied their practical application, then modified them or added to them to try to make them provable.

The waitress brought their salads, and Jane picked up her fork before she smiled across the table at him.

"You don't get asked about yourself very much, do you?" It was a shame. His lips had this way of curling at the ends when he talked, and his eyes grew more animated and sparkled in the candlelight.

He only gave her a nod in reply to her question of rehabilitating structures. Jane had hit the nail on the head. He not only revitalized and improved old buildings but docks, warehouses, lighthouses and boathouses to name a few. She was also right about not often being asked about himself.

Jack had just stuffed a dumpling into his mouth when the question was asked. He gave a small smile while chewing. "I have a habit of veering away and bringing the focus on the work itself. Few things are worse than men in love with the sound of their own voice. Anyone, for that matter. Usually...it's the work that I'm actually asked about anyway," he said after swallowing. He took a bite of the small salad next.

Jane was rather proud of herself. The first step to building an equation or theory up was breaking it down to its most basic form. Now she had done the same with Jack, or at least one aspect of him. It said a lot about his personality, though. She hoped it only applied to buildings and not people, because she didn't think she needed to be renovated.

"You definitely don't come off as someone who likes to hear themself talk. But you don't need to be shy about who you are, either. That's why we're here, right? To get to know one another." She munched on her salad, enjoying her favorite ginger dressing on top. She preferred the small portions, as she tended to get full easily.

"So do you have any brothers or sisters? I'm an only child of a single parent, so I tend to get jealous of people with big families."

Edited 2012-10-22 18:36 (UTC)

It was good that Jane felt she didn't need to be renovated. Jack couldn't say the same without bending the truth. His early obssession with building may have been a side effect of having things wrong with him that he was unable to build or fix and expressing it in play. Rhona had taken him to enough headshrinks to remember hearing something like that over the years.

He nodded along with what Jane said, his cheeks feeling a little warm regardless. His grin was genuine so she needn't worry on putting him off. The ginger dressing was in fact very good and Jack found himself eating more before finally responding. "No. Same as you. Never was jealous of big families though." Was ignored enough being the only one.

While his thoughts ventured somewhere unpleasant, he managed to hold his casual expression. Between his father's obvious dislike of being held down by a family he hadn't planned, and his mother's job as a nanny to a girl who had been born a few years before Jack, it always seemed everything took precedence over him. He decided on leaving that part out and contributed something else.

"Do have loads of aunts and uncles and cousins in Glasgow though. And my mother cared for a little girl a few years older than me when I was a wee lad, until my father passed." His eyes stopped remaining fixed on Jane's and returned to eating more salad before finishing his last statement. He was hungry or searching for a way to move the focus off of him again.

Good job, Jane, she thought. Honesty had been working well for her so far, so she decided to stick with it, even if it did bring the mood down.

"I'm so sorry." She put down her chopsticks and reached across the table for his hand. "I lost my dad too. Almost two years ago, right after I graduated from undergrad." It was still difficult for her to talk about. He had been her everything. Her whole life it had just been the two of them. If she hadn't had Erik Selvig to help her through she might not have made it. It seemed strange to her that she had finally found something they had in common, and it was something so tragic.

Edited 2012-10-23 02:05 (UTC)

His face fell at her apology but Jack immediately regarded her with tender eyes. He wouldn't let his experience trump hers. She was tender enough to reach for him and he turned over his hand to hold hers. It took a moment for him to realize Jane was alone in the world. He knew what that felt like, even with his mum and other relatives. The pad of his thumb softly stroked where it reached on her hand as they spoke.

"It's been many years for me." He would be honest with Jane. No one deserved deception. "Those who knew him in Scotland say my father was gone long before his death. So I can't say I ever really knew the man." Jack preferred to think his father was the Kevin Flanagan he rarely got glimpses of than the constantly drunk and brooding man he knew. "But I have my mum and other relatives. And always room for new friends," he ended with a soft smile.

Jack was interested in more than friendship but it didn't seem appropriate to say then. Besides, he hoped they could be friends. Relationships were empty and short-lived when the time wasn't taken outside of romantic escapades. He would gladly trade seeing different women for one who could steadily be there. In part, it was why he hadn't allowed himself a serious romance before establishing his career. He couldn't end up resentful and bitter like his father.

Jane was relieved that he didn't pry further about how her father had died, and that he didn't ask about her mother. Both were sad stories that were likely to end in tears, and that would definitely be a date ruiner. His hand was warm, and the caress of his thumb made her heart skip a beat. The touch was as tender as his heart seemed to be.

"Friends are the family you choose, isn't that the saying?" Friends were all she had left, and she had plenty. They did not fill the hole left behind by her father, though. It was a big one, and some days it felt like it would consume her like a black hole. Those days were happening less often with time.

She reluctantly pulled her hand away so she could resume eating. The waitress returned, this time with Jane's sushi order on an elaborate plate made to look like a boat. Jane realized she had fallen victim to her usual dilemma - her eyes were bigger than her stomach.

"Feel free to try anything you want. I may have ordered too much." She grinned. 'May' was an obvious understatement.

Considering his noodle bowl hardly did justice to his two hundred twenty pound frame, Jack would gladly take her offer. A part of him saw the invitation as a sign of her generosity and wanting to share with him specifically. All his awkwardness was gone. Jane revealed her pain in her own way and he had done the same. There would be time later on to have those important talks.

He offered a nod with a smile in reply while using chopsticks to get a bite of his noodle bowl ready. "Leave me anything you don't want. I never turn food down. Which made for some difficult dining experiences in Indonesia. But the people there were so warm and giving that I was a glutton for punishment."

Friends were important to Jack but he had few that could wear that title. A 'friend' required a lot of trust. Once they had his, they always would unless they betrayed it. So for Jack, he remained friends with a pal from high school, military and university. None so far in his career after being slighted enough times to put him off from getting involved personally in business.

"New York hasn't been the easiest place to make more than an acquaintance. People I've met seem to always have an agenda. I mean, my landlady is nice. Even she continuously tries to set me on dates with her granddaughter. Who might be a lovely woman but I really like my flat. And relationships haven't worked out how I'd like with women here. I'm not... as exciting as they'd like. Beware," he smirked.

Jane nodded and picked up a spicy tuna roll, then plopped it into her dish of soy sauce. Her skills with chopsticks were still dodgy at best.

"Do you have a hard time finding restaurants here that are as good as the real thing? You've been to Indonesia and eaten authentic. The places here must pale in comparison." She carefully picked up the roll and waited for it to stop dripping before she popped it into her mouth. She chewed as he talked, chuckling softly.

"You have a hard time making friends? Try being a vampire like me. I study the stars, so I mostly sleep during the day and work at night. If I am up during the day I'm either writing my thesis or in the lab by myself crunching numbers. Excitement isn't something high on my priority list." It was true. She liked stability and predictibility in her personal life, because her research and passion were so undefined and possibly undefinable.

Edited 2012-10-26 20:05 (UTC)

"Sometimes. ...I could do without ever eating monkey brain again," he answered slightly tongue in cheek while being completely genuine. "This city does well with authenticity given all the immigration. Even better with regulating just what can or can't be cooked." Jack had made quick work of the bite he had put in his mouth to answer Jane then took another expertly with the chopsticks.

He found himself staring again, captivated by her warmth and openness. Jack dropped his eyes quickly. He physically used the excuse of setting down his food for a drink of water. "This is the city that never sleeps! Besides..." he replied immediately after swallowing his sip, picking up his bowl and preparing to dive in again after speaking. "Vampires are quite popular these days. I'm surprised you were available to eat with me tonight."

Jack gave her a wink, flirting and appreciating her statement about excitement in her life. He couldn't tell if she was being earnest about it. No man wanted to consider himself boring. He considered himself disciplined. Structured. Reserved but he was playful without being loud or the life of the party. His humor was more sarcastic and under breath. He didn't drink or smoke and would prefer to lay out in Central Park than crowded in the Beatrice Inn.

A First Time for Everything

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