bitten_notshy | De Ulloa Residence, Later Saturday (Reply)

Emma rushed off with Sebastien and Tony, and Jack's relief was like a dissipating cloud filling the room. He loved all three of them, of course, but dealing with them and his sister was beyond what he could manage with mere manners as a weapon.

He owed Emma. But he usually did.

"Alone at last," he smiled at Rivka. He wasn't even sure where to start this conversation, the one about the last dozen years; he just knew it was precious to get to have it at all.

Rebecca	"Your friends all care about you a lot," she said tentatively as she smiled back at him. She'd relaxed a little with the others gone, but Jack wasn't the only one unsure how to start this conversation.
Jack	"They seem to," Jack said slowly. He still wasn't sure how real the acceptance was; the weekend seemed like a dream. "Sebastien's kept me since I was seven, and Emma and Tony are very dear to me."
Rebecca/Rivka	Rivka nodded, knowing too well that they'd all been there when she couldn't. Not that that mattered now. "He's you master then?" she asked, already having assumed it was the case. "And he's sending you to school?" She so wanted to fall into Yiddish with him, but - somehow seeing Jack in more of his element, she felt less comfortable with it.
Jack	"He was," Jack said. "He gave my my freedom when I was 14, so ... for almost four years I've been here by choice." There was pride there, and the passing thought as to how quickly those years had passed. He hesitated before switching languages to continue. //I've only been at school since we came to the colonies.//
Rivka	She looked confused and a little proud. //...why?// There wasn't anything Rivka wanted more than a better life for Jan, but even at 14, Jan would have been young and possibly influenced, and she didn't know what had happened in the intervening years.
Jack	//Why which?// Jack asked, also a little confused. //Though that answer to both is -- had you heard of Sebastien before you came here?// His guardian had earned his reputation for eccentricity, after all.
Rivka	//Why did you stay,// she clarified, making a face at him. It had been perfectly clear if you were reading her mind, thank you. She raised an eyebrow slightly, curious where he was going. //Your - guardian, he is a detective. And - there are rumours about him in most cities he's been.// The eyebrow went up further, encouraging explanation. Big sister? Yes, yes she was.
Jack	//Where would I have gone?// Jack answered lightly, raising an eyebrow. Freedom and money were valuable things, but you could have all the freedom and money in the world and still find managing on your own difficult at such a young age. Jack believed he could have done it -- but it wouldn't have been nearly as pleasurable as the life he'd had. And, too, there was the fact he'd been rather firmly in love with Sebastien by that time. //He's eccentric,// he added, //He lives on his own terms. And people like to talk about such men.//
Rivka	He had a point, and Rivka shrugged a little, looking down at the truth of that statement. There had been nothing for him at home - not that she thought he considered their family home given the circumstances, and a fourteen year old on his own without family or friends might have ended in worse places. //People like to talk about men that give them reason to talk,// she replied softly. Looking up, Rivka tried to catch Jack's gaze. //He is a good man, a gentleman?// She was asking so much more than his social status.
Jack	//He was the first person to treat me as more than a thing in the way,// Jack said, then faltered as he realized who he was talking to and switched back to English. "Perhaps the second." //I'd do anything for him.// It wasn't an answer to what she'd asked, but it was what he had to offer.
Rivka	She met the correction head on, refusing to be upset at what must have seemed like the truth to him. There wasn't much reason for Jan to think anything else. "And you are - you are safe with him?" He was a beautiful boy. It was a valid question even if he would be insulted at it.
Jack	Jack gave her an aggravated look, then spread his arms and twirled slowly. He found her eyes again before he spoke. //Do I look unwell?//
Rivka	//No,// Rivka admitted, looking apologetic. //But I would be a poor big sister did I not ask.//
Jack	//I know,// Jack said. //I think I know, anyhow. I'm still getting used to the concept.// He picked up a teacup for something to do with his hands. //There were more of us//, he said bluntly. //Weren't there?//
Rivka	She sat down finally, her hands unconsciously twisting in her skirts. //Four others,// Rivka agreed. //Raisa, Faigal, Chana, and Mendel. Chana was the baby when you - left. She died a year later. Raisa and Faigal are married and have babies now.// She looked down. //I don't know where Mendel is. He traveled to Berlin and never came back.//
Jack	//Four happy endings,// Jack observed. //Lucky.// Luckier than he'd expected, anyhow. He would have bet on them all being dead. He was not an optimist. //You're the eldest, of course.//
Rivka	Rivka wasn't sure if their sisters counted as happy endings. God knows they worked their fingers to the bone and were already old before their time. She nodded. //I will give you Faigal and Raisa's directions. If you wished to write them.// It had to be offered, but she wasn't sure it'd be accepted.
Jack	//Would they remember me?// He wasn't declining, or accepting; he was only asking. //And could they read?//
Rivka	//The rabbi can,// Rivka said with a small shrug. The other question - she couldn't answer. Perhaps he blamed them for what happened and perhaps he was right to, but she wasn't going to accept the possiblility that they'd just forget their brother.
Jack	//Then I'll write to the rabbi.// He was only halfway saying that because he thought it was what she'd want to hear. He scrabbled about for a notepad and pen. //I don't know what I should ask you. What do you want to know from me?//
Rivka	She made a face. //This is so strange, isn't it. We should already know everything, but -// Rivka's shoulders dropped a little. //You're too grown up to need a big sister.//
Jack	//Eighteen on Monday,// Jack agreed. //And you probably don't have much use for a baby brother. We could be friends, perhaps?// He knew it wasn't nearly enough, yet somehow it felt generous.
Rivka	She could use a baby brother, proud though she was of the man little Jan seemed to have become. "Friends then," Rivka agreed, offering him her hand.
Jack	He took her hand easily, bowing his head over it just a touch. "It wasn't a problem for you to get tonight off, was it?" he asked. "I hope I can see you more often. I'm home a few times a month." He remembered his plans to move to 2009 and shoved them to the side; he'd have to make a final decision after he'd known this sister more than a weekend.
Rivka	Rivka looked down, away from him for a moment. "It was fine," she lied. No servant was able to get two nights off in a week without being thrown out without a reference, but it didn't matter. Changing the topic now, so she didn't have to admit to that. "There was something I wanted to ask you that I'd heard."
Jack	"It wasn't," he apologized, reading her easily. "I didn't think. What was your question?"
Rivka	She shook her head. "It was worth it," she clarified. "I had - " Rivka tilted her head to look at him, unsure what his reaction would be. "I had heard something worrying about your - guardian. That the gossip isn't just because he 'lives on his own terms.'" She wasn't going to spell it out beyond that.
Jack	"Ah," Jack said, a touch of weariness in his tone. He knew she wouldn't believe him if he feigned ignorance; he wouldn't have believed himself. "That." He tilted his neck to the side and decided to mention the least damaging rumor in hopes it would embarrass her enough not to go for another. "If he were - ganymede - and public about it - he could be jailed. You know that." He could be jailed for more than loving men.
Rivka	"That -" Rivka was blushing and adding one more thing to her list of what she was worried about. "- wasn't what I meant." Oh Lord, was her little brother engaged in? No, he had that Miss Frost on a string. There couldnt be that too.
Jack	"It usually is what people mean," Jack returned. "I'm behind on my gossip. Spit it out, then."
Rivka	Rivka ground her teeth, glaring at her little brother, her accent almost overwhelming her words. "Fine then," she said quickly. "Is he your lover then? Is he - a wampyr?"
Jack	"Yes," Jack said, stepping closer to her. His voice was utterly matter-of-fact, and almost a growl. Never mind he'd asked for it. They were going to have this fight sooner or later, if she wanted to be his sister; may as well get it over with. "If you're going to come to his home and say such things -- yes. And I would die for him."
Rivka	She took a step back instinctively, looking down and backing away quickly from the physical threat if not the mental one. "Say such things like ask for the truth?" Rivka asked.
Jack	She fell back and, ashamed of himself, Jack did as well. "I wouldn't strike a woman. I apologize. I get -- protective." Maniacally, single-mindedly so. "What does it mean, if things are as you say?"
Rivka	"I don't know," she said quietly. "It's - nothing like I expected. I can't think it's the best thing for you." Because she had a right to judge somehow.
Jack	Jack made a rather rude scoffing noise. "Perhaps not, but it's what I want. And I don't remember anyone ever being too terribly concerned with what was best for Jan."
Rivka	//Except your Senor de Ulloa?// she asked softly, trying not to give anything else away in the question.
Jack	//So it's always seemed,// Jack said, but there was a flicker of something less than his usual absolute confidence. //I'd be long dead without him.//
Rivka	//I always cared,// she said softly before switching languages again. "If he's as good a man as you say, you don't owe him anything for it. You've more than served him well enough for years."
Jack	"You weren't there," he told his shoes. "And I swear, Rivka, it's not like that. I'm not that easily -- used. I was sixteen before he'd let anything happen." Clearly, she needed more information on her baby brother's disturbing sex life.
Rivka	It truly was too bad the term 'tmi' had not yet been invented. "And you're not even eighteen now," she pointed out. "So -" Rivka frowned. "And what about your Miss Frost?" She just needed something to distract her from the too vivid pictures in her brain.
Jack	"Sixteen is of age," Jack pointed out right back. "Emma is Emma. She -" Was confusing, was what she was. "Do you really think her in love with me?"
Rivka	"Are you in love with her?" Look at Jack not being the only one in the family to answer a question with a question.
Jack	That was a very good question. "No," Jack said defensively. "If things were different I could think about it" -- with Rose or Tony, if not with Emma -- "but they aren't. She knows it."
Rivka	And if there wasn't a vampire in the way, he would be free to explore that possibility. Rivka raised an eyebrow at him.
Jack	Jack raised an eyebrow right back at her. "I'm too young to settle down." Pay no attention to the fact that thirty seconds before he had announced that he was years into a relationship with a wampyr.
Rivka	She looked amused and relaxed slightly, moving closer to him to try to lay her hand on his arm. "Says the man who argued he was happy giving his life to his -" she couldn't think of a word in English that would be both inoffensive and accurate. Finally she settled on "Guardian." Somewhere in that contradiction of logic was her brother.
Jack	"Oh, that's entirely different," Jack said lightly, as he tried to pull her into a hug. It wasn't entirely common to this era; he suspected his sister would forgive him.
Rivka	It wasn't expected, to be sure, but Rivka smiled and held him lightly, almost as if she was afraid he was going to break or disappear into thin air. //I will believe you, Jan,// she murmured, forgetting for the moment the difficulties and just remembering her baby brother.
Jack	"And I thank you," he said, relaxing against her. They'd have difficulties, but this was his sister. That was what mattered.