2001 AU

[jackabbot]

He’d gotten his orders two weeks ago, but he’d known they were coming down the pipe since September 11. The country was at war again and war meant casualties. Casualties meant medics and that meant deployment orders for one Sergeant Jack Abbot among countless others. He’d been given a week of preparation leave, which he was supposed to use to go visit his family and wrap things up, but there wasn’t a lot of family he wanted to visit and not much to wrap up. He didn’t even have a dog.

Instead he booked a flight to Seattle. If anyone asked, he said it was because Seattle was cold and rainy and he thought he was going to be short on cold and rain for a while, or at least rain. Afghanistan and Iraq could get really fucking cold in the winter. He knew that from the stories people told about the Gulf War. He ought to call it the first Gulf War now, he guessed.

He’d actually chosen Seattle because he’d texted Robby “just to check in” as soon as he’d gotten his orders and Robby had mentioned that he’d be at the ACEP annual assembly in Seattle this week. They’d seen each other several times after Jack’s first trip to New Orleans, but then he’d PCSed from Polk and their relationship had dwindled to text messages and emails, all of which were carefully written so that he was friendly but not too friendly, in case anyone ever saw something. Even still, if Jack was going to the other side of the planet and potentially (maybe even probably) not coming back, he wanted to see Robby again. He’d told Robby he’d be visiting Seattle at the same time and just left out the part where he made his travel arrangements after he’d talked to Robby.

He had a room at a hotel near the convention center and its hotels but not too near, and he had arranged to meet Robby in a bar that was between the convention center and Jack’s hotel. They tended to meet in bars since it was a completely public and defensible place to be, even if they didn’t always stay in the bar.

He was sitting in a booth this time instead of on a barstool, turning a beer bottle in his hands and waiting for Robby. He was late. Jack wondered if Robby would actually show or if this whole trip had been a stupid idea.

Comments

[physicianheal]

Robby's running late. The panel he'd been in had run over and he'd been sweating in the same shirt all day, so he'd gone back to his room and showered and changed and his hair's still damp as he walks into the bar. For a horrible moment, he thinks Jack left already, but then he seems him, tucked into a booth in the corner.

Robby knows better than to touch Jack when he sees him but, God, he wants to. It's been a while.

"Jack," he says, sliding into the bench seat opposite him. "Hey."

[jackabbot]

Robby looked fucking good, damp hair and all, and Jack stood up and held his arms out for a hug. Robby always let him decide how much touch was okay in public, but a quick bro hug was completely fine, even if both of them tended to want the hugs to last a little longer.

“Did you run?” he teased. “Or are fancy doctor conferences more physical than I expected?”

[physicianheal]

Jack stands up and holds his arms out and Robby immediatley gets out of the seat and wraps his arms around him, pulling him in against his chest. It's not a long hug, but it's enough to realise that Jack smells the exact same way that he always did.

"I showered. Entirely for your benefit," he says, into Jack's ear, before he pulls away. "You look good, man."

[jackabbot]

Jack gave Robby a solid hug, but they were both careful that it wasn't too tight or too long. Fort Lewis was just in Tacoma and he knew that even in civvies he looked like a soldier, especially right now.

Robby's statement about showering might be random, but they both knew it wasn't and Jack chuckled silently before he released Robby. That answered one question for Jack even though he hadn't seen Robby in three years.

He sat back down again and brushed his hand over his hair, which was cut so short it wasn't even curly, then waved a hand to get the waitress's attention in case Robby wanted to order anything.

"Same. How's the conference going?"

[physicianheal]

When the waitress comes, Robby orders a beer and some wings. "It's okay," he says. "Some useful stuff, but I just keep finding myself wishing I was in the ER."

He shrugs. "What about you?" Hair as short as Jack's probably isn't a good thing, long term.

[jackabbot]

"Yeah, I feel the same way when they make me go to trainings. Lemme just be a medic, right?" Jack agreed once the waitress was gone. He'd been in a lot of trainings recently, from reminders on how to conduct himself professionally in a foreign country to honest to god interrogation training in case he got himself kidnapped or something. The second he hoped he would never need and the first he was kind of offended that anyone would think he'd need, but he'd also met his fellow soldiers. Some of them definitely needed that.

"Oh, I've been a tourist. Went over to the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project, watched them toss some fish in Pike Place Market."

[physicianheal]

"Sounds more fun than my day. The last panel I was at was on antibiotic resistant strains of STDs." He smirks, but his expression softens as he looks at Jack. He'd be hard pressed to explain exactly how he's feeling, right then.

"You look good, man," he says. "It's been a minute."

[jackabbot]

“Oh, great, more things for me to look out for next time I’m on pecker checker detail,” Jack groused. He fortunately wasn’t on that detail very often anymore since he had made Sergeant, but occasionally everyone had to do it.

“Agreed on both counts. Are you done being a lowly resident and making the big doctor bucks yet?”

He’d sort of lost track of how many years of residency Robby had to do?

[physicianheal]

"I bet you don't have to deal with as many foreign objects in various orifices as I do," he says, mouth twitching into a smile at the look on Jack's face. Under the table, he shifts his foot, nudging it against Jack's.

"R4. Starting to think about where I might want to start applying for Attending positions."

[jackabbot]

“That is true,” Jack agreed. “Those don’t usually come to sick call.”

He smiled slightly when he felt Robby’s foot nudge his. No one would notice so Robby was finding ways to touch him anyway.

“Whoever gets you is getting a hell of a doctor.”

The waitress brought the wings and Robby’s beer and Jack waited for her to walk away.

“I’m at Fort Carson in Colorado, at least for now.”

Robby was probably going to be able to read between the lines, but there was a little more Jack could say without violating OPSEC if he didn’t.

[physicianheal]

"You don't know that. You've never been my patient." He takes a sip of his beer, nodding. "Never been to Colorado," he says, carefully neutral. He's also aware of the news, about everything that's brewing. "I guess you'll be out of the country for a while, anyway." He sets his beer down again. "I'm glad we have a chance to catch up. Really glad."

[jackabbot]

“And I think we should keep it that way,” Jack noted. He’d trust Robby to be his doctor, but he didn’t think either of them would enjoy that for a lot of reasons. For one, if he was ever under Robby’s care, he was in the ER and that just wasn’t a good day for anyone.

He nodded when Robby carefully suggested that Jack would be out of the country.

“I have my orders,” he confirmed. “I went to see my grandma recently. She gave me this just in case.”

He pulled the shiny St Michael medallion out from under his shirt with a fond half-smile. He was Catholic mostly so far as it was on his dog tags, but he also knew Robby would understand wearing a religious item from a grandma.

[physicianheal]

It's under his shirt, but Robby touches his fingers to the Star of David hanging against his chest. The waitress had brought a couple of side plates with the wings and he takes one, mainly to have something to do with his hands.

"How long are you in town?"

[jackabbot]

Jack smiled when Robby touched the pendant Jack knew he was wearing. He tucked the medallion back into his shirt and relaxed back against the booth cushions.

“A couple more days. I told everyone I wanted to go somewhere cold and rainy,” he joked. “And I get to catch up with an old friend too.”

He was pretty sure Robby would know that the second reason was more important than the first but neither of them would say so. Not in public, anyway.

He looked at the plate of wings.

“Did you order those for both of us or just yourself?”

[physicianheal]

"Interesting. I don't fly home until Friday." He nudges the spare side plate towards Jack in answer to his question. "Plenty of time for us to..." He shoots Jack a look, shifting his foot under the table so his ankle is between Jack's. "Catch up."

[jackabbot]

Jack took the plate and then a couple of wings. Robby’s foot was between his in the shadow of the table and neither of them was going to let on. He did squeeze his ankles together to acknowledge it, though.

“Other than this conference you gotta go to,” he corrected, because there was probably some stuff Robby really couldn’t or shouldn’t skip. Jack didn’t want him to get in trouble or have problems with anyone because he’d played hooky.

[physicianheal]

The corner of Robby's mouth twitches at the press of Jack's ankles. He shrugs, eating a wing and, when he's done, he looks up.

"There's a few things I need to go to, but I can definitely blow some of it off. You probably have better things to do than hang around waiting for me, though. Tourist shit."

[jackabbot]

These were good wings and Jack ate another one, then sucked the wing sauce off his thumb. He probably should have used a napkin but whatever. He shrugged.

“There’s some tourist shit I’ll probably go see, but I bet we can work something out in terms of schedules.”

If Robby wanted to spend time with Jack, Jack would make sure he was available, whether that was for a meal or coffee or something else.

[physicianheal]

Robby gets distracted, watching Jack suck on the pad of his thumb like that, and he actually shakes his head a little to get him back on track.

"The rest of my evening tonight is free," he says, reaching for another wing. "And tomorrow, I'm done by five. And then I'm all yours."

Two nights. That's a lot of possibility.

[jackabbot]

"Do you have a roommate at this conference?" Jack asked easily. "Wouldn't wanna disturb them if we want to see if we can find a Saints game on the TV or something. I'm guessing those won't be showing at any of the bars around here."

They had done a lot of not watching Saints games before he'd PCSed, although Jack made sure to always know a few details about the games in case anyone asked him when he went back to Polk.

"I don't have a roommate, obviously."

His hotel was probably not as nice as Robby's, but it was also not a conference hotel. Robby was the one who knew how likely it was for someone to stop him in the lobby "just to catch up", at which point Robby would have to figure out how to explain Jack being next to him.

[physicianheal]

"No roomnate, but I'm staying at the conference hotel, so it's not exactly private," he says. The main concern, obviously is being discreet, for Jack's sake. Robby would quite happily blow it off and spend the whole time in a hotel room, reacquainting himself with the man in front of him.

[jackabbot]

Jack ate another wing and then sucked the sauce off his thumb again. He glanced at Robby as he did, but kept his face neutral. He was teasing Robby and Robby would know that, but no one else was likely to catch it. They were wings. They were messy.

"My hotel room might be better, if only so no one tries to talk to you about some boring presentation you didn't go to but said you would," he agreed. "No minibar, though."

He wasn't staying in the minibar kind of hotel.

[physicianheal]

Jack's doing it on purpose and Robby knows that, but he's also not complaining. There's something intensely hot about knowing that they're talking about whole edging around the whole thing.

"That does sound better. And we can always swing by a liquor store."

[jackabbot]

"And a pharmacy," Jack added. "Forgot to pack a few things."

What he hadn't packed was condoms and lube because he hadn't wanted to presume that Robby was still interested in this. It had been three years, more or less, and Jack had been prepared for Robby to just want to have a meal with an old friend.

"You seeing anyone seriously?"

He doubted that, since Robby hadn't seemed like the type to be seeing someone seriously and flirting with someone else, but it was worth asking. Jack had continued to be seen with women the entire time he'd been going to New Orleans on a regular basis, but that was self-preservation and every single one of those women had known it.

[physicianheal]

"I bet you did."

Robby shifts down in his seat a little. He's tall enough that, when he does that, he can lift his foot, the toe of his boot coming up to rest against the bench between Jack's legs under cover of the table.

He shakes his head.

"Been a few here and there, but nothing serious. I get bored quick."