True to You

Give Me Your Hand

"So is it safe to assume you had a good time?" Jimmy asked Elliot as she floated down the hallway beside him. Literally floated. Her feet may have been skimming the floor as he walked but they barely made any contact. He didn't think she'd noticed that she was doing it yet, she didn't understand it was possible. What she hadn't realised yet was that almost anything was possible. Except going back to your loved ones. That wasn't possible. But sometimes they came to you.

"I can't believe I just spent time hanging out with Layne Staley!" Elliot bounced on her toes and this time her feet well and truly left the ground. "He looks so good! Don't you think he looks good?"

Jimmy's enthusiastic smile was forced. "Sure, he, uh, looked great." Smooth move Jim. Introduce her to ultimate dream man. Fucking great move for making sure you strike out in your afterlife as well as the one on earth. He could have kicked himself. He gave her a sly, sideways look. She looked so happy he couldn't have wished that he'd done anything else but take her down the hall to hang with some of the Seattle guys.

"Hey." Elliot stopped still beside him and gave him a gentle nudge with her elbow. "You know I didn't mean it like that right?" She wrapped her fingers around his wrist. He avoided looking at her afraid of what she'd see in his eyes. Jimmy knew he was being ridiculous, they were friends. Back to the way they'd been when they first met. Friends. Dancing around that fucking fountain again. He didn't even know why he cared. She'd hurt him more than he'd ever imagined possible. Why should he care? After all when he'd died he was a fucking rock star, not only could he have any woman he wanted he had a great girl in Leana. But she hadn't been Elliot. No one had ever been Elliot. So here he was, avoiding eye contact so Elliot couldn't see how jealous he was of a grunge legend.

"Jimmy." Elliot squeezed his wrist willing him to look at her. "James..."

Wow. Way to take a guy out at the knees.

Reluctantly he looked down at her. She held his gaze with her earnest eye contact. "You have always been my favourite guy in a band." Now it was her turn to look insecure. "Even when we lost contact."

Losing contact. That was one way to put what she'd done to him. He knew logically he should have been angrier with her but maybe it was the time that had passed, maybe it was way negative emotions were suppressed in their new life or maybe it was just how fucking happy he was to see her after all these years, he wasn't.

Unwilling to think too deeply about his past pain over what Elliot had done Jimmy laughed. "Are you sure about that? You named your kid after him."

It was Elliot's turn to look uncomfortable. "Not entirely," she protested weakly a flush of colour rising up her neck. Jimmy was impressed, it wasn't often that someone felt strongly enough about something that they were actually able to blush anymore. He turned his wrist which was still caught in her clasp and gave her hand a squeeze. "It's not a criticism."

"Oh, it should be," she responded cryptically and returned the pressure of his fingers.

"Well it's not," he said as he tugged on her hand and got her moving along the hallway again. Such was the nature of their new life that the next doorway they came upon was the door to his room. "Come in for a drink." It wasn't a question and Elliot followed him inside as the door swung open at his approach.

When the door clicked shut behind them Elliot froze in place and spun in place, her eyes darting around the room. "What did you do?"

Knowing exactly what she meant Jimmy chuckled. "You mean the furniture?"

Elliot looked at him wide-eyed. "I mean the everything!"

"This is how I prefer it to look most of the time, the other look is one I save for guests. Mostly Val but King appreciates it as well. Not sure if appreciation is exactly the word I'd use to describe Val's feelings about that look."