A Guy Walks Into A Bar...

Interruption

Jeannie's POV

I could feel Jack's hand sweating and shaking in mine. But his grip was firm. Firmer than it should have been in his weakened state. It was as if he was afraid of losing his grip. As if I'd slip from his grasp. And I knew that he feared letting me go. Because he did still love me. I truly believed that. It wasn't something that he could fake. Not to me anyway.

"You're nervous," I say softly, looking at his hand in mine.

"Yes," he admits, "but so are you."

"Well...it's been twenty years. We've both changed so much," I say and look at his white face. "You thought I was a hallucination?"

"Yes," he nods, "the chemicals... My mind is..." He stops speaking and just stares at me for a moment, "I'm crazy," he finally says.

I give him a tender smile, "You don't seem crazy to me."

He looks away with a slight shake of his head and stares up at the ceiling. "I assure you, I am," he whispers.

"But truly crazy people don't realize that they're crazy. In fact, they usually think everyone but them is crazy," I try to clarify, hopefully to make him feel better.

His eyes meet mine again. They seemed darker. "I'm a big boy. You don't have to give me a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down. No need in trying to soften the blow. I know exactly what I am. And it's not sane. Not sane like you. Or like Junior. Many professionals have attest to the fact. They say I lack a moral compass. That things like the concenquences of my actions, don't even factor into my mind set. That I focus only on the rewarding factors that I'm after," he tells me.

"And you really believe that?" I ask him. "Junior told me about the night you were apprehended by Batman."

"And?" He asks.

"You put a gun in his face. Judging by how he explained it to me, I assume you did that with the intent to kill him. But you didn't. You couldn't. If that's not a moral compass, then what is?" I shrug.

A slight smirk comes to his face for a moment, "I never could get anything past you, could I?"

"You know why," I ask.

"Why?"

"Because I see you. The real you. Just as much today as I did twenty years ago." And from the depths of my heart, I meant every bit of it. He couldn't lie or bullshit me. He never could.

His eyes quickly float back up to the ceiling. I can feel his hand twitch in mine. "What are your intentions?" I can hear him ask as I watch his Adams apple move up and down in his throat as he swallows.

"My intentions?" I ask.

"Yes. I asked Junior the same thing. What is the point of your intrusions into my world?" He asks, still staring up at the ceiling.

"Our intrusions..." I stop myself before I sound angry. I stop and breathe. I stop and think. "Our son is trying to find himself and his place in this world. People can't always do that...you know...know where they're going until they know where they came from. Half of his DNA is yours. So basically, he only halfway knows himself."

"Surely the two of you could have come up with safer ways for him to do that," he says dryly, still staring up at the damn ceiling.

"He's like you," I tell him, "when he sets his mind on something..."

"Yes, I've figured that out," he sighs.

"Do you want us to leave?" I swallow.

Finally his eyes look into mine again. "Look, it's safer. What I want is irrelevant in comparison to your safety."