Her thoughts are spinning in spirals making her second-guess herself. 'Why do I still want to see him again?'
They keep getting interrupted by the sudden sound of what she hopes is Jack coming into the room. It sounds like him. She can hear his voice, she's sure she can but he's not there. Small sounds coming from the other house that go quiet almost as soon as she hears them. She strains her ears trying to hear what's going on in the other house, but she can't hear anything.
Her eyes find their way to the few stars that are bright enough to shine through, and she wishes on the first one that catches her eye. Not wishing for anything in particular just wishing for well, or everything. For answers, for some sort of reason to all of this, to see him again. To just be able to ask him what he meant. Ask him if he really didn't want to see her again. To just ask him why, and some Star somewhere must have heard her because at that very moment Jack opens his bedroom door and collapse onto his bed.
He didn't see her when he walked into the room but he can feel that she's closer now than she was earlier. As much as he had wanted to concentrate on the movie she was the only thing his mind would let him think about, but now that she's right there he's not sure what to do. He wants to talk to her, he wants to jump across the gap, he just wants to be next to her. He doesn't though. He just lies on his bed staring up at the ceiling, feeling the darkness and silence that settles over the world after ten o'clock.
Iona just watches him through the open window worried that if she breathes too loudly he'll disappear.
They sit like this for a while. They stay like this until only the streetlights and the stars are the only light around. They stay like this until the air cools to the point that Iona starts to shiver and she tucks her toes under the blanket on her window seat, but she doesn't dare move more than that. Jack can feel the cold too, he can feel that she's cold, and falling asleep in the window seat.
'You're going to be sore in the morning if you sleep there.' He thinks still watching her from his bed in a way that makes it look like he's been asleep.
She stirs more awake at the sound of his words. 'Head to bed, Princess. You need to sleep.'
Iona sits up again now and stretches. She watches Jack trying to see through the dark if he's really awake or if she just imagined it. Jack is trying to convince himself that if he's just using their telepathy then he's not really talking to her and that means that he's not breaking his promise to her dad. So telling himself that he can just be thinking about what he wants to say to her, and if she can hear it then that's still not him breaking his promise. Ah but dear reader there is a small catch here, and one that he quickly realizes. You see if Iona knows that she's hearing his thoughts then she's going to go tell her mom or start asking more questions about if she is an Esper, what Links are, and why her dad doesn't want her to know about either of those things, and we all know that if she starts asking questions about this her dad is going to think that it's because Jack told her something about that. That would mean that he broke his promise and he's sure that that will only make things worse. He's not sure exactly what would happen but he's not ready t risk finding out.
So our poor boy finds himself in a bit of a predicament here. What will he do? What's going to happen to them if they can't talk and he can't even use their Link to tell her everything he wants to? Luckily it's moments just like this when genius seems to touch your human minds, and lucky for Jack that's exactly what happens, or what he hopes is genius.
He sits up not taking his eyes off of her in case he really had fallen asleep and this is just some REM state hallucination that might drift away when he wakes up.
"Iona?" He tests to see if she's really real if she's there if she's awake.
"Jack!" She leans part of herself out of the window to get closer to the sound she's been waiting all night to hear again. "Are you there?"
She asks because, as much as he's worried this might just be a dream, she's worried that she's once again imagining that he's talking to her. Keep in mind Dearest Reader that she doesn't know that she was really hearing his voice in her head. As far as she knows his words were just her own wishful thinking replicating the voice she came to know today.
"Hey, Princess..." He pauses planning the words before he can form them. "I'm sorry Princess."
"You've already said that." Iona cuts him off, "You said a lot of things, and I can't understand any of them. Why would you agree to stop talking to me? Do you not like that much?"
"Iona...no, I like you. I like you so much."
"Then why?"
"Iona, I'm sorry." He moves to the edge of his bed, trying to get closer but afraid that he'll get too close and she'll just close her curtains again. "I'm sorry I can't talk to you."
"But you're talking to me now." She tries to navigate through the hurt and the pain that's rising up in her every time he apologizes. It doesn't make sense when she's only known him for a day. She can't understand why she feels like a part of her has always known him and now that she's found him he's leaving. Of course, we know it's because he is her Link, but she doesn't know that. He knows that. He feels how it's hurting her, and it makes this all so much harder. Once again he feels desperate to go back in time and slap his past self for making that promise. This won't be the last time he feels like that.
Jack takes a deep breath and tries to start over. "I can't talk to you, but if I could I'd tell you that I didn't mean to hurt you.
I thought I had to promise your dad that I wouldn't talk to you. I didn't want to make things worse for you. I didn't want to make him mad. I just wanted to make things better."
"I already did that." Iona says feeling her heart leaving her chest like it's trying to find a home next to his heart instead, leaving an empty ache that hurts too much for her to question it.
"I just wanted you to be okay."
"Do I look okay now? I don't even know you but this hurts too much." The way her voice waivers breaks him and he's not brave enough to look into her eyes cause he knows they're holding back tears. He knows because he can feel them pricking up behind his own eyes.
"I'll fix this. I promise. I can't talk to you now but I'll find a way to fix this. I'll convince your dad to let me see you. He'll have to let me see you again. I just can't talk to you for now. I'm sorry, Princess, I'll make this okay. I will." He swears, making more promises today. Promises he won't regret.
"And where does that leave us now?" She asks now sitting back in her room, hugging a pillow like it's the last defense keeping her safe. Keeping her heart safe, but it's too late for that isn't it. It already belongs to the bad boy next door who's promising to try find a way to see her again.
"I still can't talk to you for now." It takes everything inside of him not to jump across to her. To hold her close to him until her tears are dried and gone. He doesn't though. He knows if he does it'll only make this so much harder. It'll only make things worse. "I'm not going anywhere though. I can't talk to you but I'm not leaving you. I'll be right here. Just like your shadow. Silent but yours. Only ever yours, I promise."
'Don't leave me.' She thinks not trusting herself to speak the words out loud. It breaks him to have to close his curtains but he knows if he doesn't this will have been for nothing. "I'm sorry, Princess."
She watches his window for a long time before pulling herself up and stumbling into a cold bed. She wraps the blanket from with window seat around herself while she lies on top of the sheets. She falls asleep like this, trying to push the empty feeling as far away as possible.