Chapter Text
Jack woke up with the feel of a baby bottle to his mouth before he opened his eyes to see Stef standing over him. "Stef, what are you doing?" He asked.
She put down the bottle. "Well, I'm making sure you're ok while also testing out some baby products."
He looks down at the blanket that he was swaddled in. The blanket felt unnecessarily comfortable holding him; even though he would never admit that to anyone. Then he noticed that his clothing was different from what he remembered putting on that morning. "Wait, wait, wait. K was I wasn't wearing pajamas before. Do you change me?" He once again questioned.
"yes, we changed you. Don't get weird," Mary said walking in as if this wasn't weird.
Michelle walked in behind her. "Jack, you own fifty shades of grey?" She asked excitedly.
"Ooh! Freeky-deaky!" All three women said in unison.
Tired of their enthusiasm and displeased that they had gone through his stuff he defended himself, "all right, ok, there was a month where everyone got it. I didn't get the other shades."
There weren't many things in his home that he would consider too secret, and the few things that he would were locked away, but the thought of them looking around his things made him uncomfortable. "Look, can you guys just stop poking around my home? I'm feeling a little..." He said before he was cut off.
"oh, um vulnerable? Whoops," she said holding up a pair of women's underwear.
He was confused because they weren't his before Mary interrupted, "actually, those are my gym panties. They must have fallen out of my coat pocket. "
"Enough," Jack said, "look, this day has been a nightmare from start to finish, ok? I just want to be alone." His day has started with a dream; it was more of a memory really. Walking into an empty classroom, a letter addressed to his full name on Miles's all too familiar handwriting. He had woken up before opening it, but he already knew what would be inside. After getting ready for the day he started at the letter again but didn't open it. He did this a lot; at least once every few weeks. Not to mention the rest of his day.
"we're not leaving you alone, ok? We're gonna stay here and tease you and help you forget about the scary test," Stef said like he was a small child.
"when Keith gets scared, I sing to him," Michelle offered before starting to sing a lullaby about a dog.
"stop! No," he said after just one line of the song.
"ok, we get it. You don't like to be goofed on. You don't like dog songs," Mary said, "what do you like?"
Jack, who had had more than enough of them bothering him, said, "I like getting revenge on those who've wronged me." It was probably not his greatest idea to tell his adult friends that he liked to do something so childish, but he was tired and couldn't keep up his cherad of being better than everyone else.
The ladies paused for a moment and looked at each other before looking at him. They were going to get revenge tonight. Sweet, sweet revenge.
They each took turns calling the doctor's office and leaving messages as they sat on his bed. Jack had friends in the past, but never ones that would have helped with something like this, never ones that would have sat with him after having his butt proved. Even back when he and Miles taught at Harvard, he wouldn't have told him that he was having a colonoscopy. These were the first friends that he could be so open around, who he would miss if he left them (unlike Miles, who had totally definitely did not miss and he never felt any sort of way about). Friend that he didn't have to prove how smart he was to.
They continued their prank calls until the inbox was full and could no longer receive messages.
"It's full. It's full. We did it," Jack announced as the others cheered. He looked around at the three of them and noticed how familiar their pants were. "You guys wearing my sweatpants?" He asked shaking his heading and smiled to himself, realizing that it didn't really matter to him.
"They looked comfy," Mary said.
"did you go through my dresser to get them?" He asked.
"yeah. And we found one draw that was locked. What do you keep in there, Harvard Jack? The other forty nine shades of grey," Stef teased.
"That's umm..." He paused trying to think of something that wouldn't make them curious And that would also not make it seem like a sex drawer. "It's nothing. It doesn't matter," he said as if that didn't sound exactly like what he didn't want it to sound like. He sighed to himself as he drifted off to sleep.
The three women made eye contact with each other when they noticed that he had fallen asleep.
"you guys know I can't keep. Secret," Michelle whispered, "if we look through his stuff .." she trailed off..
After about an hour of watching Jack's TV and eating his snacks, Michelle for a call from Keith asking where she was (she forgot to tell him) and she left. As soon as she was out the door, the remaining two made mischievous eye contact again.
They started by looking at Jack's keys. On his key ring was a house key, his car key, and another key that hadn't fit into his door when they brought him in earlier. None of them looked small enough to fit in the key hole, but they decided to give the mystery key a try. It didn't fit.
Stef, who was sitting on the bed because she was pregnant and didn't want to be standing, looked around before a metallic object on the bedside table caught her eye. "Mary," she whispered, "look. On the table."
Mary stood, grabbed the key, and smiled. She tried the key and the drawer opened Stef walked over, figuring what ever was in the draw would be worth seeing.
Inside was a small stack of things. On top sat a sticky note stuck to a stationary envelope.
Sorry -j
There was a small heart next to the writing. Under if, and in a different pan and hand writing was:
NO -M
"It looks like Jack has a last friend," Mary said before Stef had gotten a chance to read it.
"Could it be from Lynnette?" She asked.
"No, her name starts with an M."
They pulled the sticky note off of the envelope and found "Jack Griffin" written in similar hand writing as the second part of the sticky note on the front. Slowly they opened the letter and pulled out a paper that looked like it came from a note pad. At the top was the Harvard logo and it was lined with dark red ink. The note pad was probably handed out at some Harvard faculty event.
"you can't just fuck me and then lie about some reason that you have to leave. I know you go and get pissed after. You don't think I don't see you hungover the next day?"
There was no name but considering the words, it probably didn't need a name.
Under that were two pictures. The first was black and white. A woman was in the middle with a man that looked like a young Jack on her right and a man that looked almost like Miles Leonard on her left. They looked so happy together. The back was dated over 15 years ago.
"maybe she's M," whispered Mary as she pointed at the woman.
"Maybe not," Stef replied as she grabbed the photo that had been under it. "There is another picture of Miles Leonard and his book here."
The second picture was Miles sitting in a living room with a drink in one hand and gresturing side the other as he talked. His face was lit up in pure happiness. They flipped it over to find it dated a little over a year ago. With sloppy writing on it.
The day your book was published