callmemajor | (no subject)

"As I'll ever be," Jack murmurs back.

Lorne gives his hand one last reassuring squeeze and takes a quick glance at the box of detergent before opening the door and stepping into the hallway.

"Looks like it's about half-full," he calls down the hallway.

"Good, good," comes a voice from about halfway down. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to go to the store just yet."

Lorne takes a deep breath and pulls Jack down the hall towards the voice.

Jack's taking it all in silently: the cool, neat house, the gadgets and electronics that make up modern life--even the smell is different from his own boyhood home.

He gives his shirt collar a nervous tug to be certain it's flat.

It occurs to Lorne as he steps into the kitchen that this is probably a conversation he should have had with his mom alone. In fact, he's not even sure how one goes about coming out to their mother.

But when she looks up from the crossword she's doing at the kitchen table and says, "Evan? Why didn't you tell me we had company?" he figures there's no reason to say anything in particular. He's always been a firm believer in actions speaking louder than words.

"Mom?" he starts, holding Jack's hand even tighter. "This is Jack." He looks at Jack with a soft, somewhat nervous smile. "Jack, this is my mom. Maureen," he adds almost as an afterthought.

[ooc: Off to class, back in a couple hours. :)]

And it's that simple.

Jack smiles too and says quietly, "Hello, Mrs. Lorne. It's lovely to meet you."

Maureen looks from Lorne to Jack to their joined hands and back to Jack.

"Well," she says softly, just looking at them for a moment, then, "It's good to meet you too, Jack." She stands and offers her hand for Jack to shake, then apparently changes her mind and pulls him into a quick hug. "And none of this Mrs. Lorne business. You're not one of my students."

Jack hesitates a moment before he puts his arms around her, tight. "Thank you, Mrs. L--Maureen," he says quietly.

Lorne smiles at them both, and Maureen pulls back to look Jack over quickly. "You should have said you were inviting a guest, Evan."

"It was...a surprise visit," Lorne says. Coming out is one thing, explaining something like Milliways is on a whole other scale of complicated. "Jack just came down from Missouri."

The key to lying to his mother, Lorne has learned, is to include a grain of truth.

"I'm ex-Air Force," Jack says, hoping that's enough context--and will explain his no-longer-regulation haircut.

"Oh?" Maureen says. "Did you two meet at work?"

"Something like that," Lorne answers. "I thought I'd take Jack down to the base and see if I can't convince Perkins to let me take a bird up."

Jack nods. "I haven't been in a plane for a while."

Maureen smiles, satisfied with the answer. "Do you think you'll be back for supper?"

Lorne glances at Jack. "I'm not sure. Jack can't stay very long."

"At least one night though," Maureen says with a concerned look. "You don't want to be driving all the way back to Missouri already."

"I think one night will be all right," Jack says and smiles faintly at Lorne.

"Good," Maureen says, nodding. "Then I'll expect you both for supper, and I'll put some clean towels in your room, Evan." She glances between them as if to confirm something. "Unless you want me to make up the guest room?"

"No, clean towels will be fine, Ma," Lorne says. "We should probably get going though, if we're going to be back for supper."

Jack just smiles and murmurs, "Thank you," feeling there's nothing here he can add that won't make things more complicated.

"All right, then. You boys have fun," she says, leaning up to kiss Lorne's cheek. "And be careful."

"Thanks, Mom," Lorne says smiling and picking up a set of keys from the kitchen counter as he leads Jack out the door. "We will."

"Bye, Maureen," Jack says, giving her a little wave, and then murmurs to Lorne, "She's going to notice I don't have a car."

"Damn," Lorne mutters. "Well...hmm..." He thinks for a moment. "You could've taken the bus? I didn't say you drove."

"The bus works," Jack says, and then pauses to kiss Lorne because it suddenly feels like a long time since he has.

Lorne smiles into the kiss, holding Jack close for a long moment.

"C'mon," he murmurs. "Let's get you into the air."

Jack grins at him and gets into the passenger seat of the car.

Lorne starts the car and heads off down the dirt road leading away from his mom's house. "It's not going to be like the jumper," he says. "There won't be much for privacy, and we'll have to communicate through the radio."

"That's fine," Jack says. "Just like old times."

His fingers are twitching a little with memory right now. The planes he flew, of course, basically had a throttle, a horizon marker and a switch to raise and lower the wheels--and not much else.

Lorne hesitates for a moment before saying, "I can probably let you take over the controls for a while once we're up, if you'd like."

Jack looks at him and smiles. "That would be wonderful."

He reaches over to touch the back of Lorne's neck a moment.