JACK’S STORY CONTINUED

Author: Jindc
Disclaimer: "Dawson's Creek" belongs to the WB and the show's creators. No copyright infringement intended.

"So, Jack" Jen said with a devilish grin, "Are you gonna get laid?"

Jack blushed, and sheepishly said, "I hope so." He and Ben had been seeing each other for three weeks now. They talked on the phone every night. Sometimes the way he hogged the phone annoyed Grams, but she was actually very nice about the whole thing, which surprised both him and Jen.

He and Ben had done dinner, movies, all that dating stuff. They'd kissed quite a bit. Jack loved the kissing. But it was never in public. Jack was famous as the gay boy of Capeside, and Ben was still known as the gay boy of Wellfleet, and neither wished to feed the rumor mill of his respective town. They did their kissing in the back seat of Ben's car. Last time they'd been together they'd went a little further than that. When he told Jen about it, she screamed out, "You gave each other hand jobs!"

"Shh, Jen" Jack hushed her, "Why don't you broadcast it throughout the state?" The term hand job embarrassed him, especially shouted out like that. He knew that the whole Monica Lewinsky thing had allowed everyone to be flippant about blow jobs and the like, but he'd rather if people kept their voices low.

The hand jobs were a welcome addition for Jack. For a while now, he'd wanted to get more intimate with Ben. He'd been on the receiving end from girls, but giving as well as receiving from a guy he was crazy about was a whole new world. But the truth was, he wanted more. He wanted to be with Ben in privacy and comfort. He wanted to see Ben naked and touch every last bit of his body. Just thinking about it made his forehead knit up in frustration.

But now, he saw his chance with Ben. Tomorrow they were going back to Martha's Vineyard. Jack smiled in anticipation. That was where they'd first kissed. It was their place, and no one else would be around to judge or to gossip. Ben's grandfather wanted to sell his old summer place out on the island, and a realtor was going to show it first thing on Sunday to an eager buyer who was in from out of town for the day. The thing was that the house had been boarded shut for years and definitely needed some sprucing up in order to draw top dollar. Jack and Ben were supposed to fix it up as much as they could in one day's time and be back on the Cape by dinnertime.

* * *

Soon after sunrise on Saturday, a groggy Ben and Jack unlocked the front door to the little house, and almost immediately they were hit with the unmistakable aroma of mold and mildew.

"Holy sh!t, this is disgusting," lamented Jack. They would have their work cut out for them. There had been water damage from a leaky roof. They'd need to patch the roof, replaster the wall, do some painting in the other rooms, and clean the place from top to bottom. In about 10 hours time.

"Jack, I never dreamed it would be this bad," Ben moaned. He looked like he was going to cry. "We'll never get this place ready in time."

"Well, we'll have to do our best," Jack said softly with a squeeze to Ben's arm.

After a quick run to the hardware store for unanticipated materials, they began to work. Ben labored on the roof, while Jack hurriedly started painting. Hours passed without their even seeing one another. Finally around noon, a shivering Ben came in from the cold and offered Jack a sandwich and some coffee from his thermos. They sat on the floor and ate together.

"How's it going?" Jack asked.

"Well, it will keep out the water for the time being, until the job can really be done right." Ben answered as he chomped on his turkey sandwich.

Jack brushed a lock of Ben's hair over his ear, and kissed him tenderly on the cheek. Ben turned to Jack with a tired smile. Jack leaned forward and kissed Ben on the lips. Ben kissed him back and then pulled away. "Jack," he said, "we'd better not start or we'll never get this stuff done."

Jack was hurt. It wouldn't hurt anyone for them to mess around a little bit, take a break. Jack brooded in silence for the rest of the meal, and they went back to work. By late afternoon, Jack had finished scrubbing the bathroom and kitchen and mopping the floors. He was glad his experience at the Ice House was good for something. He smiled, remembering how Joey had belittled him for not knowing how to mop a floor. He had learned soon enough.

Ben had just finished repairing the walls that had water damage when Jack entered the room. It was starting to get dark inside the house. The electricity wouldn't be turned on until Monday. They looked out the window, and to their surprise they saw a raging snow storm with gusting winds.

"Oh, no," Ben muttered, "We'd better get on a ferry before they cancel the rides." They rushed to put away all their equipment and grab their coats in the gathering darkness. Jack was still annoyed about what had transpired at lunch, but now was not the time to discuss it. They ran out to the car.

Jack cleaned off the windshield while Ben warmed up the car. Ben pulled a shovel out of the trunk and cleared a path for the tires. Finally they set off on the treacherous roads in hopes of catching a ferry.

"Sorry, you just missed the last one for the day," said the ferryman, "It's getting too rough out there to run any more today."

Ben looked crestfallen, but Jack was quite pleased. To the ferryman, he said, "Excuse me, sir, but is there a phone we can use to call our families?"

"I'm about to close up, but that would be fine if you make it quick," he replied.

Jack hurriedly called the Ryan residence, and Jen answered the phone. He told her the situation, and she couldn't resist saying, "That sounds like a mighty convenient snowstorm you've got there, Mr. McPhee." Jack smiled and said, "Yeah, I know, I'm just heartbroken about it."

Ben called his parents and told them about the condition of the house. He seemed so down about it. Jack thought that he should be proud of all that they had accomplished in such a short time. Ben told his parents about the ferry and told them he'd come home as soon as he could.

Jack and Ben managed to find a shop still open, where they bought candles, flashlights, blankets, firewood, and food, and then they headed back to the house in the snowy darkness.

Jack and Ben were both exhausted and cold. They started a fire, ate their provisions, and sat back and took a moment to breathe.

"What a day," Ben said with a groan that seemed to say 'I'm sore all over."

"It HAS been a long day," Jack said and placed his hand over Ben's. "But it doesn't have to be over yet."

Ben looked at Jack with an indecipherable look on his face. Jack didn't know how to read Ben yet.

"What's wrong?" Jack asked.

"Nothing's wrong," Ben said. "Really, I'm just so fucking tired," he said as he closed his eyes and fell into slumber.

Jack just could not believe this. What was it about Jack that made boys he liked fall asleep on him?

Jack added some wood to the fire and blew out the candles. He snuggled up against Ben. At least he'd have that. That was something, wasn't it? He kissed Ben's cheek and fell asleep with his arm around Ben.

* * *

Jack woke up with a start. Where was he? Oh, yeah, on the cold floor of a crappy old house on the Vineyard. He stumbled around for the matches and started a new fire. He ran his hand across his face as he nursed the fire. This wasn't exactly what he had planned.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder. It brought such comfort, such warmth. He looked up into Ben's firelit face and smiled gratefully. His loneliness faded away as Ben bent to kiss him.

Jack had wanted their first time together to be in warm and comfortable surroundings. This room was neither, but it didn't matter. Everything else around them just fell away.

"Jack… Jack…" Ben murmured in his ear as Jack took him into his hands. Jack knew what he wanted to do to Ben. And what his body ached for Ben to do to him. His ears must have been burning red, but there was no one there to see, for Ben's eyes were closed in ectasy. Jack's heart was beating a mile a minute.

"Ben!…" Jack gasped, but no words were needed. Ben had read his mind.

Ben's arms were entwined around him from behind, holding him, stroking him, and Ben was inside of him with a rhythmic force that Jack could barely comprehend.

"Oh, God," Jack thought, "this can't be happening. But it is. It is..."

The night continued in an seemingly endless cycle of warm caresses, pulsing tension, lightning quick release, and exhausted, spent collapse. Jack couldn't keep his hands and mouth off of Ben. They slithered along the floor and bumped up against the newly plastered walls in a bruising, exhilarating dance that varied each time. Jack wished the night would never end.

They were awake when the sun rose on Sunday morning. Jack turned to Ben. He felt like he knew every inch of this beautiful man's body. He purred with satisfaction. "Ben," he said, holding Ben's chin in his hand and turning Ben's head to face him.

"Yeah," Ben answered sleepily with a serene look on his face.

"I love you," Jack said with conviction. He'd moaned these words many times over the last few hours, and so had Ben, but Jack wanted Ben to understand that he still meant it now. The morning after.

"I love you, too, Jack. I love you, too."

The End.