#jackabeth

The young man just sat on the side of the bed. He was just looking at the ground. With his elbows on his knees. It’s been a week since it all happened. How his life changed when he first got here and what he discovered about himself. He was in that room for nearly an hour. A room in Tenenbaum’s safe house. The door finally opened slowly and he put his head up to see who it was. It was Elizabeth.

“Hey can I come in?” Elizabeth asked him.

“Um sure.” Archie told her. She closed the door behind her and walked towards him. When she got to the bed, she sat to the left of him. As she saw down, she put her arms in her lap. She just looked at the man as he looked back at the ground after she closed the door. Elizabeth seemed concerned about him. Just staring at him for 10 seconds she finally wanted to ask an important question she had on her mind.

“Hey Archie I want to ask you something important.” Elizabeth asked him.

“Yeah.” He told her as he looked up to speak to her.

“After last week there was this question that was lingering in my mind. Since Archie isn’t your real name. Because it’s Jack....do you want me to call you Jack from now on? Or do you want me to call you Archie still?” Elizabeth was asking him. He was surprised seeing her ask this. She strangely look saddened by asking this. But to her this was important to know.

“I don’t mind either name actually. But I wanna call you by a name you feel more comfortable with. Maybe you might go with Jack because that’s your real name. I just don’t know. But it’s your choice and your identity. I just wanna respect that.” She was telling him.

“...call me Archie.” Archie told her. Hearing this got Elizabeth’s eyes to widen.

“What? Really? Are you sure?” Elizabeth asked him. She just stared at him with surprise.

“Yes. I really appreciate you asking me. Yet don’t be sad. Archie is my name. My name might of been Jack. But I’m Archie. And that’s my choice and that’s okay. So don’t worry. But thank you very much for asking me.” He told her, reassuring her. Elizabeth smiled back at him.

“Thanks.” She said and gave a warm smile. They just stared at each other for 5 seconds until Elizabeth decided to look at his chest. He had this usual military jacket on. She slowly raised her right hand to put it on his chest. Archie was surprised and confused.

“I honestly love this jacket you wear. It just feels....soft. Kind of like you.” Elizabeth told him as she looked back at his face.

“Yeah...I like it as well.” He told her. They just sat there for a good minute. She just had her hand on his chest. He didn’t wanna bother her. Including he liked that she was just touching his chest. But after that minute and thinking back to the whole asking about his name. He started thinking as he looked at her. She was just looking at his chest. These weird emotions went through his head.

He slowly got close to her and hugged her.

“Archie?” Elizabeth asked. Her eyes widened and she was surprised. She wasn’t expecting this. Just feeling the tall man wrap his arms around her. But after that she smiled and wrapped her arms around him too. She closed her eyes as she did that. But after that, she started to hear sniffing. Her eyes opened up and she was surprised. She then heard a little bit of crying.

“Archie. Are you okay?” Elizabeth asked him.

“I just met you last week. This may seem crazy...but you’re one of the most important people in my life.” He said as he was tearing up more. “I love you so much. Your smile, just who you are as a person. So many things about you are wonderful and I don’t care what people say.” He continued on.

“I was trying so hard to make sure you felt safe. I didn’t want you to see me like this. Because I really wanted to make sure you were okay during everything. After everything horrible thing you saw and the other things that happened to you. I wanted to make sure you didn’t change for the worse. If you saw me breaking down I worried you wouldn’t feel safe.” He told her as she can clearly hear him breaking down.

“I found out that my life was a lie...that I was a mistake...yet you and Brigid got me to keep going. But God it still hurts me inside. I am so sorry for crying.” He said as he started to sob more and even hiccup a bit. Hearing this broke Elizabeth’s heart. She got out of the hug and wanted to look him in the eyes.

“Hey....it’s okay to cry. I admire that you wanted to stay calm for me. The fact you did all of that for me? You taught me to be strong. But there’s no shame in crying. Please don’t think you can get emotional in front of me. It’s okay.” She told him as she put her hands on the side of his head. Including she gave him a smile to reassure him. “You’re really one of the bravest people I’ve ever met. And I admire you for just being you.” She told him.

“You aren’t a mistake. I love you.” She told him. After that she just looked at him. The crying was slowly stopping. She decided to wipe those tears with her thumbs. “You’re gonna be okay too.” She said.

After that, she thought about it. Then she did it. She slowly put her lips on his lips. Just for about five seconds. Archie was surprised by that. His eyes were widened and her eyes were closed. She took her lips off of his lips.

“I think I just got my first kiss.” Archie said sounding very surprised.

“Me too I think.” Elizabeth said. “Do you want me to stay in here with you for a while? I don’t have anything to do. I can stay here as long as you want.” She asked him.

“Are you sure you’re not busy?” Archie asked her.

“I’m not busy don’t worry. I just wanna be with you right now. I want to make sure you feel okay.” She told him.

They both just had lay down on the bed. She was close to his chest and held on to him. She had her eyes closed. He just lay there too and he closed his eyes. They just embraced each other, feeling so comfortable with each other’s company.

Despite his grief (whether real or fake Elizabeth cannot tell) Atlas had directed them to one of the safe houses his men had established throughout Rapture. Canned food and a (suspiciously dirty and stained) mattress would await them there. The other end of the radio had gone silent after that and Jack left it clipped to his belt in favor of holding his pistol in one hand and Elizabeth’s in the other.

It takes them a bit of time to find the safe house. Big Daddies and Splicers must be avoided after all and they’re running low on med kits. When they finally reach it, Jack replaces the planks and crates hiding the entrance while Elizabeth begins to poke around to see if there was anything else hidden away. The food consists of a few cans each of sardines, canned fruit, and potted meat. A couple jars of fresh water are tucked away in a corner along with a bottle of whiskey that is about one-thirds full.

Elizabeth moves their refreshments over to the small card table that the food rests on and neatly arranging everything before starting to consider just how they’re going to eat the canned fruit and potted meat without forks or spoons. She doesn’t hear or realize that Jack is done with keeping them well-hidden until she feels his arms wrap around her waist from behind. For a moment she’s taken by surprise but quickly she leans back against him, reveling in the comfort and warmth his large frame and build provides. His face presses into her hair (gross, grimy hair that’s been tangled with blood and Lord knows what else) and she feels him shudder and sigh against her in relief.

“I was worried for you back there.” Jack’s voice is quiet, only a whisper against the top of her head. “If you’d been down there alone when the Splicers came...” He trails off and his grip around her tightens in a way that Elizabeth perceives as protective. She remains silent and he continues speaking. “I don’t...I don’t think I could go through what Atlas must be going through right now if I ever lost you, Elizabeth.”

His confession fills her with a pleasant warmth and it makes Elizabeth’s cheeks flush a bit. Her hands curl around his wrists, thumbs rubbing over his knuckles. “I was worried for you too. I wish I’d been there with you.” She lets herself admit, because it’s the truth. A silly truth but she knows the extent of Jack’s strength and that he could probably take on fifty Splicers, maybe even a hundred, at once with that wrench of his.

“Good thing Atlas was down there with you. We’re lucky we’ve got him helping us out.” That remark makes Elizabeth grimace and she’s glad that he can’t see her face right now. The ever-lingering guilt in her stomach that had stayed with her since she and Jack had met in the Welcome Center was beginning to make its way up to her throat. She absolutely hated having to keep everything she knew, from Atlas’s true identity to all the lies he’d been feeding the younger man and to who Jack really was.

In the short time they’d spent together a bond had formed between the pair. Elizabeth wasn’t sure, however, if her feelings toward Jake were similar in how she’d felt about Booker or if they were something more. Maybe that was why she loathed what she was keeping from him. And the manipulation to do good by saving the Little Sisters instead of harvesting them for their ADAM, as Atlas had pointed out after he’d pulled her out of the submarine bay.

They stay like that; front to back, two bodies fitting together perfectly, for a few moments longer before Elizabeth releases Jack’s wrists. She swivels around so that his hands are at the small of her back. It’s her turn now to embrace him with her own tight hug and her head resting on his shoulder.

“I’m glad you’re the one that found me down here, Jack.” Her voice is muffled by his sweater but he can still hear her anyway. She picks her head to look up at him with a small smile and her hands slide up to cup his cheeks and tilt his face down so they can properly look at each other. One soft thumb rubs against his cheek, over a bandage covering a nasty cut she’d patched up for him, and he can’t help but smile back at her.

Seeing Jack smile makes the guilt in Elizabeth’s stomach lessen for only a moment and it’s long enough for her to think “fuck it” and lean up to kiss him. It doesn’t take Jack long to reciprocate and his grip on her tightens ever so slightly. A feeling like butterflies fluttering swells in her stomach and her heart beats wildly against her chest.

The kiss ends but they stay locked in their embrace, his chin tucked over her head, and she finds herself wanting this moment to last forever. Outside a Splicer can be heard stomping about and muttering to himself but he’s ignored as the pair cling tightly to one another. Elizabeth can feel Jack’s heart beating against her cheek and the rise and fall of his chest as he breathes.

For a short time they find comfort with one another. Two practical strangers oddly united by destiny. The Splicer beyond the small safehouse and everything else from Andrew Ryan to Jack’s mission to the crackle of Atlas’s voice over the radio is forgotten. All they focus on is the simple comfort of the embrace of another living and breathing another human being. For that long Elizabeth can forget about the secrets she’s kept, what she knows that Jack doesn’t, and the guilt that grows and gnaws on her from the inside out the more she spends time with and gets to know Jack Wynand and fall in love with him.