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Mar. 12th, 2009 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bringonthewonderAngela's had a few calls and text messages from Jack this week.
They were all short and can all be summed up, "I'm fine, everything's okay, I can't go into it yet, I miss you, I love you, I'll be home soon."
His plane is landing "around seven" he says. Angela tries to narrow down where he might be coming from, but there's simply too much traffic through Dulles for that imprecise a time to be much help. And that's before she factors in connections.
(She has also considered recording his phone calls and trying to isolate background noises to try to figure things out. But it made her feel insane and ridiculous, so she didn't get any further than setting up the digital recorder.)
She's done a lot of painting this week -- canvases covered in dark, angry, confused whirls and slashes of color. She's pretty sure she'll wind up painting over all of them, but at least they give her something to do when she can't sleep.
At 7:00 on Saturday, she sits down on the couch nearest the front door to wait for Jack. (Cell phone, land line, and digital recorder all on the coffee table. Just in case.)
By 7:14, she's asleep.
They were all short and can all be summed up, "I'm fine, everything's okay, I can't go into it yet, I miss you, I love you, I'll be home soon."
His plane is landing "around seven" he says. Angela tries to narrow down where he might be coming from, but there's simply too much traffic through Dulles for that imprecise a time to be much help. And that's before she factors in connections.
(She has also considered recording his phone calls and trying to isolate background noises to try to figure things out. But it made her feel insane and ridiculous, so she didn't get any further than setting up the digital recorder.)
She's done a lot of painting this week -- canvases covered in dark, angry, confused whirls and slashes of color. She's pretty sure she'll wind up painting over all of them, but at least they give her something to do when she can't sleep.
At 7:00 on Saturday, she sits down on the couch nearest the front door to wait for Jack. (Cell phone, land line, and digital recorder all on the coffee table. Just in case.)
By 7:14, she's asleep.
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Date: 2009-03-14 05:26 pm (UTC)"Right, because the only possible reason I could be upset right now is that I ate some sort of magic cookie.
"It couldn't have anything to do with the fact that my fiance went away for a fucking week, Jack, without so much as telling me where he was going."
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Date: 2009-03-14 05:30 pm (UTC)And yeah, he knew that she wouldn't be thrilled by the minimal information. But she would have been even less happy to know where he was and what he was doing.
And he hadn't wanted to disappoint her in the event that his plan didn't work.
"There were reasons I couldn't tell you, okay? But I'll tell you now. Whatever you want."
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Date: 2009-03-14 05:38 pm (UTC)He is a lot of things right now, but Angela so wouldn't put fine on that list.
Neither of them is.
Hell, none of them are.
She sits back down on the couch, with her face buried in her hands.
"What reasons could there possibly be, Jack, for something like that?"
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Date: 2009-03-14 05:43 pm (UTC)And then walks out.
He's back a few seconds later with a folder that has ridden safe in his messenger bag ever since he left his hotel.
He sits down on the coffee table and holds it out to Angela.
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Date: 2009-03-14 05:46 pm (UTC)Looks at the papers for a long, long moment.
"You went to see Greyson?"
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Date: 2009-03-14 05:49 pm (UTC)No way in hell was Hodgins going down there without someone to make absolutely certain that all the i's and t's were dotted and crossed with mathematical precision.
"Congratulations on your divorce, Ms. Montenegro."
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Date: 2009-03-14 05:51 pm (UTC)Probably not the reaction Hodgins was expecting.
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Date: 2009-03-14 05:56 pm (UTC)Angela is notoriously unpredictable.
But he was expecting something a bit more....verbose.
"I figured there wasn't any point in sending the private investigators down, since they were getting a great big nothing done." Hodgins shrugs. "So I had George gather up the papers and we went down ourselves."
Hodgins was out of patience for screwing around with middle-men.
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Date: 2009-03-14 05:59 pm (UTC)"I mean, not that I didn't want it to be resolved, but . . . it is my divorce, Jack. I just figured I'd be a little more involved in it."
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:04 pm (UTC)"I didn't want to say anything. In case I couldn't persuade him to sign."
The worst thing is getting your hopes up, and then getting them dropped from a very great height.
"And now it's done. It's over. We don't ever have to worry about him again."
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:07 pm (UTC)Call it a hunch.
"What did it cost?"
A girl likes to know what she's worth.
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:10 pm (UTC)For no more marriage, no more contact, no turning up in five years, nada.
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:12 pm (UTC)Angela almost smiles.
"Bastard's not much of a negotiator, is he?"
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:15 pm (UTC)"Oh, he sucks."
"He only countered once. I expected him to go up to at least five."
George had still had kittens. But George will get over it.
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:21 pm (UTC)"Jack, I need you to promise that you won't ever do anything like that again. I know you meant well, I know you have a hell of a vested interest in getting this taken care of, but I need my life to be my life."
It can't be something he steps in and fixes.
She's not a kitchen sink.
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:25 pm (UTC)They had both wanted to get this divorce pushed through as soon as the possibly could. And they had let Barassa leave them hanging more than long enough.
Was it that wrong to just take the most efficient shortcut?
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:28 pm (UTC)"But, no. I mean you can't solve my problems without involving me."
And, frankly, she's pretty sure that if he didn't know that, he would have told her where he was going.
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:32 pm (UTC)"But...you have been. Every step of the way."
Through everything. The search, the negotiations carried out by the private investigation firm, the string of failures to resolve the issue.
"Just not this last one."
Hodgins glances down at his hands, then back up again.
"Did you not want to get the divorce?" he asks quietly.
Was she secretly relieved that Barassa kept refusing to sign the papers?
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:37 pm (UTC)"But there was a loop on this, and I needed to be in it. Through all the steps. Even the last one."
Especially the last one.
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:43 pm (UTC)"I'm sorry," he says.
"I'm sorry I left you out of the last step."
"But...are we okay? Now that it's done?"
That's all he wants. For things to be okay.
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:46 pm (UTC)Probably.
"Just . . . do it again and I will do a hell of a lot more than slap you."
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:48 pm (UTC)Hodgins leans in. But doesn't kiss her yet.
He's clearly waiting for permission.
Just in case.
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Date: 2009-03-14 06:51 pm (UTC)And, maybe, just maybe, they really are okay now.
She can hope, right?