Blue and Black Hearts+Red And Black Fur (One Ship+Another)

Jack Makes Amends

Nick

If Jack wants to be in Nav's life, I want to make sure he's changed. I understand his point of view, I do, but he needs to be watched for a while after what he did in the past.

I walked over to where Jack was staying, he gave Bingo and I his address and number if we wanted to speak with him. Today I figured I'd hang with him to see how he's held up.

I came to his apartment, and as I walked over to the door all I could hear was crashing noises and yelling.

"GET THE FUCK OUT TERRY! I DONT WANT YOU NEAR ME!" I heard Jack yell, he was pissed more than hell, what was going on?

A Labrador came out the door before I could knock, they saw me standing there and just walked past me saying "Excuse me". They seemed to be in a rough state, they looked like they were pissed.

I walked closer to the door that was now open, "Jack? You in here?" I called out.

I heard Jack respond to me, "Nick? Is that you? Why are you here?" He sounded like he was going to cry. What was that fight about?

"I wanted to talk with you, may I come in?" I called to him, he obliged.
As I walked into his apartment, I saw him cleaning up something with his hands, it looked like dust.

"Jack? What're you doing? Shouldn't you get a vacuum?" I asked him.

He looked at me, knowing I was oblivious, he responded calmly, "It's not dust Nick, it's my mom..."

"Oh shit, sorry mate, want help?" I asked, he said no, and began to break down. I helped him as much as I could, and all he did was sit there and cry. I do not judge him, his mother is right now in his carpet... What happened between him and that Lab?

"Jack... Is that what you were talking about? Did they knock her over?" I asked him, he silently nodded.
*Sigh* "Jack, c'mere..." I held out my arms for him, he slowly approached me and let me embrace him. "I'm sorry about your mom, I know what you're going through mate."

"I know you do Nick, I just... I thought she cared about me..." So the Lab was a girl... Damn.

"Jack, I'm not sure we can do much more for your mom, we may need to... Ya know." He looked at me and teared up again, it pained me to see him in so much pain, considering he was my daughter's bio father. "Hey, I was gonna say we could hang today, but maybe we should just stay here." I told him, he seemed to want to stay as well, and asked me to sit.

"Nick, thank you for stopping by, I'm sorry about the me-" "Jack, don't apologize for anything right now, you haven't done any wrong okay? I want to sit here with you and discuss some things." I said calming him down.

"Okay Nick, what's on your mind?" He said still sad about his mother's ashes. Dude was broken in so many ways. He has literal writings from his family taped on his fridge telling him he's worthless.

"Jack, I want to understand what made you do what you did back then, and what you've done to make yourself better. I want to understand your thinking and how you intend to be in Nav's life going forward." I gave him a hug halfway through this sentence, which seemed to lift his spirits a bit.

"I did not think when I was a kid, if I thought about anything I would be sent into a spiral of emotion and rage. When Bingo told me she was pregnant with Nav, I flew off my handle, spewing words I don't think should even be repeated. I said things that I never in a million years would say again. When I realized that my troubles and jealousy caused so much pain for Nav, I stopped my loathing around, I changed my shit. I did what I needed to do to become the best me I could. I want to be there for Nav Nick, really I do, but I don't think I can right now. Not in my condition, my mind is returning to that state, and I don't want my little bean to be around her deadbeat father again."