For drinkupmehearties

[shieldofrohan]

The door to Jack's cell opens just before dawn. Éowyn stands there, dressed for riding - breeches under her gown, her hair braided back close to her scalp - and looks at him for a moment, hand on hip, before beckoning for his things to be brought. His sword will be given back to him: his gun will not. She knows, after all, that if it comes to a fight with swords, she is a more than equal match for him, but her experiences in the Capitol have let her know just how dangerous a gun can be in the wrong hands.

Outside, the horses are waiting. She has chosen a mare for him, docile and easy to ride, with a high saddle that should be easy to stay in. Even with their experience in the Arena, she's loath to trust his riding. There's a big difference between staying in the saddle for an hour or so with adrenaline pumping through your veins, and staying in the saddle for the long day's ride that lies ahead of them.

Her own horse, of course, gives her no such worries. The grey stallion has borne her well since the Pelennor Fields, and she's more comfortable in his saddle than she could ever be with both feet on the ground. As they head out into the courtyard, he raises his head and whickers at her, making her smile.

Faramir stands beside the horses, though he is not dressed for travel. As she approaches, he goes to meet her, ignoring Jack for the moment as he ducks his head to kiss her. "You are sure of this?"

"I am sure," she answers, with a fond smile, and leans up to kiss him in return. "Do not linger here too long, love. Emyn Arnen is not nearly so fair without you in it."

He laughs, low in his throat, and traces his fingertips over her cheek. "How can it be made fairer by my presence, when you are already there to illuminate it?" Straightening up with a kiss to her forehead, he smiles. "I will be a few days, no more. Travel well, my lady. And for my sake, if you should see an enemy, ride away, and not towards them."

Éowyn smiles, shaking her head, and pulls away. "Jack, do you need help mounting, or can you manage?"

Comments

[drinkupmehearties]

"Ah." He'd figured it would be something like that. Jack takes a slow breath, plucking at a loose thread on his breeches and watching her fiddle with the pen.

"Glad to hear it, even so. I enjoyed meself as well." With much less guilt and compunction, he could tell. Jack draws his gaze back up to her, pausing, unsure how to continue for a few seconds. He clears his throat, leans into his chair. "What would you like to do, now? What's it mean to you?"

[shieldofrohan]

"I meant it. I have to tell him." Éowyn bites down on her lip until the sting of it is stronger than the sting of threatening tears, and takes a deep breath. "But... I do not know, Jack. Truly. I think you are safe from his wrath." Faramir never has been a very wrathful person, in her experience. "If you are not, I will defend you. I will not let this fall onto you."

She sighs again, putting the pen aside and sinking her head into her hands. "Is this what they have made me?" she asks. It's not clear whether she's talking to him.

[drinkupmehearties]

His mouth opens, as if he's just about to argue the point again. It'd be much simpler not to tell, Jack would maintain. Simpler, and it wouldn't lay his fate on another man's forgiving nature and inclination towards generosity. But she's stubborn, he knows, and clings frustratingly tight to her principles.

He sighs, too. "I know you meant it, luv. Not a worry. I've lived through much worse an' come out on top." Lived. Died. Had a noose around his neck, a pistol in his face, a sword in his gut -- all way before he'd even taken a step into those Arenas back in Panem. It was all par for the course at this point, honestly.

The last bit she says brings a questioning glance from him. "What do you mean?"

[shieldofrohan]

She looks up at him, pushing her hair back with one hand, and bites her lip.

"I had honour, once. Before Panem." She's done things in her life before then that she wasn't proud of, but she always did them in an attempt to do what was right. It's painful to think that it's Panem that got her to a place where she can be so purely selfish - but it's less painful than thinking it was inside her all along. The one thing that she's always, always had is her pride and her integrity. "Now look at me."

[drinkupmehearties]

Jack crosses his arms over his chest, brow arched a bit. "Aye, I'm sure. Now you're gaddin' about with rogues instead." If she wanted to rest blame and responsibility on Panem, far from him to contend it. For him, the Capitol had not exactly shown him anything new -- about humanity (and the low, vile depths that people would go), or about himself. He enjoyed being selfish. He knew it then. Knew it now.

[shieldofrohan]

"That isn't what I meant." Well, it may have been. A little. She sighs, trying to smooth the sharp edge from her voice, and pinches the bridge of her nose for a moment. "'Tis not a matter of the company I keep. 'Tis a matter of the things I have done with you, without excuse or justification, without thought to honour."

Which does feel a little like he might be a bad influence. But that really isn't her main point. It's herself she's upset with, not him.

"I fear my uncle would be sore disappointed in me."

[drinkupmehearties]

With such uncertainty about the near future hanging over his head like this, it's hard for him not to feel a touch prickly. But, she also wouldn't be wrong. As much as he feigned ignorance at times, Jack could be a terrible influence -- sometimes (or if he were to be truthful, most times) knowingly.

Jack rubs a thumb against his lower lip, frowning. "He could well be. And that'll be hard for you to see, I would imagine. But time will pass, luv, and that disappointment will fade. And in the meanwhile, perhaps it'd do you good to remember you're human. We all, no matter who we are, stumble now an' then."

[shieldofrohan]

Éowyn opens her mouth to argue, then closes it again. It doesn't seem likely to help, saying But I ought not to let myself stumble without checking myself or But that is no excuse. It may be true, but she's aware enough that he won't see it that way.

Instead, after a moment looking around the study, she turns her full attention back on him. "If he asks you, tell him the truth. It will be easier that way, for all of us, not to be too deeply entangled in our own falsehoods."

[drinkupmehearties]

Jack inclines his head, unable to hide his slight hesitation. "I'll do me best. I don't suppose there's much wiggle room in it, anyhow." He's never had a good track record with telling the truth -- whether that took the form of half-truths, wild exaggerations, or just flat out lies. But Jack is fairly certain that even if he lied until he was blue in the face, her word would carry much farther in this situation.

And provided this didn't go too far south, keeping to the truth might help to curry good will. He figured he needed as much as he could possibly get if he were to ever see the Pearl again.

[shieldofrohan]

As if hearing that last thought, Éowyn says quietly, "You will not be here forever. Soon you will go your way, and I mine, and all this will be past. We need only wait until the King weighs in your favour - and he will. In time."

She truly believe that. Aragorn can be hard, but she has never known him be cruel, and she thinks he will listen to her, when it comes to it. And then Jack can return to his ship, and to his world, and leave her to her own life.

That thought oughtn't to sting.

"I know what it is to lose one's freedom. I owe you better than that, for your friendship."

[drinkupmehearties]

"You're doin' what you can, luv. And what you ought to." Much like her, Jack despises the idea of being trapped and stripped of his freedom -- whether in the way it'd happened in Panem, or here, like this. But, he doesn't fault Eowyn for it. He knew very well that there were consequences to the work that he did, and this was just a matter of facing those consequences again. And truly, if not for her, this might not have gone as well as it had so far.

"True enough, this'll all be past and done. Provided he weighs in good favor, o' course." Another minute hesitation, as Jack chews on his lip and considers his next words. "But I wouldn't have to be on me way forever. I could -- " Some gesturing by him, " -- Come by, from time to time. And see you. If you'd like." She would probably not think it the best idea, given their history and what's going to happen soon. But Eowyn was important enough to him that Jack would prefer not to omit her from his life permanently.

[shieldofrohan]

"That seems..." It seems pleasant. It seems right. It seems like something she might say herself, if she allowed it. Éowyn looks down at her hands, and takes a deep breath. "It seems unwise. To say nothing of unlikely. Your world is not mine, Jack. When you go, I would wot you go for good, back to your own lands. Or seas."

There's a hint of a smile there, wistful and quickly passed. She sighs, and shakes her head. "We parted forever once already. Most do not get the chance to do so twice. Three times seems over-zealous."

[drinkupmehearties]

A faint smile flickers across his face. "Unwise, aye. No doubt in that." Jack doesn't sound at all discomfited by that notion, even saying that; he can't imagine that he'll be very welcome in this place, after Faramir is told what happened and if things go well with the King. But then again, even so, Jack has done many dangerously unwise things in his life. That wouldn't be the first or last.

His smile warms. "But, that's fair enough." While there was no real home for him to go back to -- not with the Pearl right here -- there is a part in him that misses those familiar waters in his own world. And his crew, no doubt, were as eager as him to get back to the venture that they'd initially set out on. "Nonetheless. I'm glad to have seen you for this last time."