Dial Tone

For rubberneck, who asked, “What did Jack do after he hung up the phone that last time?”


Dial Tone
Kernezelda
Unbeta'd
Spoilers for Season Four episodes Terra Firma, Bad Timing
Disclaimer: None of mine



Click.

He held the phone to his ear for a long moment, listening for a word, a breath, a connection. Dropped his hand to his side, but couldn’t tear his eyes from the moon. Would he see a tiny flare, the accelerating blast of an alien ship?

No.

The phone buzzing in his hand was the last connection with his son. He’d felt it, didn’t want to believe it. Denied the sensation in his chest, the ache of permanence.

John was gone.

Jack Crichton walked into his house, strong and straight, pilot, astronaut, officer. He hung the phone up in passing. He’d have to use it again soon. Call IASA, Washington. Get men on the moon again.

His son had left the carrot. Jack had seen the stick, the alien who’d tried to kill John, who had killed DK and his wife. Enemies, out there waiting.

But not now.

Jack took an album from the bottom of the bookcase. It was thick and recently dusted. He slowly turned to the last page, empty, ready to be filled. Flipped backward through stiff sheets until he found the most recent photo.

Two of his children. And an alien. Olivia stood on the dock between John and Aeryn Sun, pointing at a passing gull. Susan had caught the bird in motion, the figures watching it blurred a little, sunlight off the water obscuring their faces. But something about it drew him. Three dark heads in a row, gazing in the same direction. They all looked human.

John had a life out there, in space. He had friends, and if he wasn’t just giving an old man false hope, a possibility of love and children.

Jack touched the picture, flat and slick under his fingertip.

His son was gone.