"He's on the radar already. If he backs off, it can still go away." Mari scowled herself, now. "That was the only 'make it work' that got through to him."

There was another important aspect to it Mari failed to mention that Jack wanted to point out, but his thoughts stopped for a moment at the words 'It's like he wants to die', and he grimaced by reflex.

Jack furrowed his brows. She hadn't understood. "Make it work." he said.

Jack watched his cup as Mari talked. Narrowed his eyes at it as he thought. The 'caring about his dumb ass' was a problem, and, unfortunately, Jack could relate.

Jack scoffed as he pulled his water cup closer to him.

Jack looked about as pleased to be asked this as she was to talk to Devin about it in the first place. She sat back fully as the server came returned. She needed a few seconds to figure out how to convince Jack to help. "Thanks." She flashed a smile, picking up the menu and spouting off the first thing she saw. She barely paid attention to what she was asking for.

Jack ordered the same as Mari, whatever it was. He didn't care enough to actually pick something at the moment. He handed the server his menu, and after they collected both of their menus the server left.

Jack looked at Mari when she spoke, temporarily distracted from his negative thoughts.

It wasn't hard to piece together what Mari probably meant to ask there, but Jack held his tongue on a response. He was growing irritated with how they were speaking about it here, maybe about something else too. His immediate thought had not been a nice one; he kept it to himself.

So Mari did feel safe enough to talk about it here. Jack's serious frown relaxed into something more tired. If that wasn't an issue, then it left uncovered a deeper reason that Jack didn't want to talk about it here.

Mari didn’t care if it helped the other guys. She only cared if they stayed out of the way while they did their thing. Her concern would be security, first responders, and how the crowd reacted at that point. Lord knew her love of history sometimes turned into a “historical disasters” binge, and it was full of why yelling “fire” in a crowd was stupid.

Jack hummed a note in acknowledgement at Mari's words, but didn't comment. Instead, he pulled his arms in closer to his sides, a little embarrassed about having answered what appeared to had been a rhetorical question.

Jack didn't bother grabbing onto the handrail when he got onto the bus, partly because of his injuries that he was internally berating his body for having, but also he was confident that he didn't need to. He ended up being right in this case.

That could be a problem. Mari sat back slightly, frowning as she considered where to go with that. On one hand, the less Jack knew, the better, and talking about this in public wasn't ideal. On the other hand, Danny wasn't the kind of guy who would tolerate Jack asking questions. She swallowed and glanced around again before taking a breath.

Jack narrowed his eyes when Mari glanced around again. He could feel himself begin to tense as she started to explain. Unease writhed and skittered between his ribs. One of his hands on the table twitched as he wanted to gesture for her to stop, but wasn't sure how.

The server was gone too fast for Mari's liking. She scanned the menu without reading to buy time. She could feel Jack's eyes on her, though, so it wouldn't last long. After a moment, she shifted in her seat and lowered the menu to the table, sighing. A quick glance around to ensure nobody was close, and she leaned forward so she could speak quietly.

The way how Mari glanced around and kept her voice low turned Jack's confused curiosity into caution, and he frowned along with it. He got the impression that maybe this was something they shouldn't be speaking about in public.

Jack wrinkled his nose at her limo comment, and put on a little grin for her. Everything was okay now. Yet, he could feel his emotions begging to spiral still. It felt like something had its talons pierced tightly in his heart, and it was always pulling down. Heavy.

"Water," Jack answered. He took a menu in his hand but looked at Mari instead of reading, still waiting to hear what her favor is. Mari, however, seemed to be preoccupied with the menu.

Mari flicked the fidget spinner slowly now, not focusing on it. "I... kinda have a favor to ask." She shifted in her seat, watching Jack for any reaction. "Feel free to say no, of course, but I'd appreciate it." She didn't want to tell him what it was right away. If he said no, she would tell Devin she had no way to prove things with Danny's daughter were all right.

Jack's eyebrows furrowed and he tilted his head a little bit. He wondered what kind of favor would warrant this much hesitation from Mari. Was it embarrassing? Or particularly bad?

"Makes sense." She watched him still, gears in her mind turning at the way he finished his thought. She almost asked outright what they were now, but she didn't want to make Jack admit to a relationship in public. Not after how she learned about his sexuality. She had theories, though. She could try to drag it out of Griffin later if she couldn't stand it anymore.

Jack stopped his finger drawing when Mari asked her question, thinking about it.