Cracker Jack

"Here I thought I was meeting my new little brother, and they send you over?" Angel constantly had a hint of a laugh in his tone. He was one of the happiest people I'd ever met.

"It's been awhile, man. How's things going in the marines?"

"It's alright. It's better than prison."

"I guess that's true." I agreed. I could feel Jack standing behind me silently. I turned to face him, then gave him an encouraging nudge.

"Cracker Jack, " Bobby introduced. "Meet your brother, Angel. He's going to be around for awhile now."

Jack nodded once at Angel, but didn't say anything. Angel got to his feet and crossed the room quickly, reaching out with one arm and taking Jack into an attempted hug. Jack stiffly returned the gesture, but his face expressed absolutely no joy. I, on the other hand, reached out with both arms and hugged Angel tightly after he was finished with Jack. I hadn't been exceptionally close with Angel, but we'd bonded a bit after Bobby and Kevin left.

"What's your sorry ass been up to since I left?" He asked as I released him.

"Oh, you know," I grinned. "A little of this, and a little of that. Lately I've been showing your kid brother the ropes."

"Shit, Jackie," Angel laughed. "If you didn't have it bad enough because you're a Mercer, you really screwed yourself over by getting tangled up with a Grove."

"Hey, I resent that!" I crossed my arms over my chest and narrowed my eyes at him. "I'm not that bad. You were worse."

"Don't ever kid yourself. I'm still worse."

"Angel, maybe you and Jack should get to know each other a little bit. It'll be nice having a brother around that's closer to your age," Evelyn interjected, breaking up the conversation Angel and I had been having.

Jack stared at me with wide eyes. I felt a stab of sympathy for him; if he was scared to be alone with Angel, he'd obviously been through a lot more than I'd imagined. I squeezed his hand once, then let go. We were still standing close enough together that nobody would notice my gesture. Jack followed Angel into the kitchen, his shoulders slouching down.

Bobby leaned in closer to me before muttering under his breath. "How long do you think it'll take Angel to go and find Sofi?"

I gawked up at him, astounded. "He hasn't already? I would have thought he'd go there before he even came home!"

Bobby shook his head, still grinning. "Ma was really impatient. I told him before that if he kept her waiting too long I'd kick his ass. She really wants Jack to look up to him. Apparently, I'm not a very good role model."

"Says who? Jerry only had you to look up to, and he turned out pretty fantastic, all things considered."

"Well thank you!" Jeremiah smiled at me from where he sat on the couch.

I looked over at him abruptly. I hadn't realized that we'd been speaking loud enough to be overheard. "Um... you're welcome, I guess. Congratulations on the engagement. I think I'm a little late, but whatever."

"Thank you," Camille beamed from beside him. "We're planning on having the ceremony in the summer."

I smiled at her, but I felt a little bit smothered. Camille must have been the kind of girl that loved to talk about whatever was exciting in her life at the moment. I wasn't like that, and it made me a bit uncomfortable when people opened up so quickly to me. That was part of the reason that I was so close with Jack now; we were both kind of closed off from everyone else.

"Would you like anything to drink, Hayley?" Evelyn offered.

I nodded, feeling grateful for an excuse to leave the room. "Thank you, that would be nice." I quickly followed the old woman into the kitchen, where Jack and Angel were sitting alone at the table.

"I figured that you would be more comfortable in here. You seem to know my younger sons a lot better than the older ones," she explained, smiling sweetly as she left the room once again.

I sat down silently beside Jack, unsure of what conversation I had just interrupted. "Sorry, guys."

"For what?" Angel asked, taking a drink of juice from a glass that was decorated in yellow flowers. "Maybe you can come up with something for us to talk about."

"How about a mutual hate for that high school," I suggested, though I wasn't really interested in discussing school. "Or maybe what you both think of Jerry's woman out there."

"Now that's something worth talking about!" Angel grinned. "She's got Jerry pretty whipped, huh?"

Jack let out a timid laugh. "Yeah, it sure seems that way. Bobby's pretty chapped about it."

"Where's Sofi, Angel?" I asked suddenly, arching an eyebrow. It came out as a bit more of a challenge than I'd intended.

To my surprise, Angel's smile only widened. "I'm going to be on my way there as soon as I'm done with Jackie-Poo here. I just have to get to know him a little bit."

"That's going to take awhile. Just an hour or so tonight isn't going to cut it," I told him.

Angel looked around the kitchen, which reminded me of something that you would find in a grandmother's house. I supposed that Evelyn was old enough to be a grandmother. If Bobby actually cared about settling down, he could have had children by now. And Jeremiah seemed to be headed in that direction.

"I hope you aren't really fond of spending your nights with Hayley, Jack. You need to get out of this house more. Me and Bobby will show you around Detroit a little bit while I'm here."

"Hayley can come," Jack murmured.

"Yeah right," Angel laughed loudly. "If Hayley comes, Bobby will lose it. That's like saying that Sofi can come along."

"Hey!" I interjected. "I'm nothing like Sofi! And I actually kind of get along with Bobby. A little bit," I added as an afterthought. Just because we were constantly bickering, that didn't mean that I actually disliked Bobby. I couldn't say for sure if he had the same opnion about me, though. Bobby was hard to read at times.

"What's the big deal about this Sofi girl, anyways?" Jack took a small sip of his own juice, eyeing the two of us curiously.

Angel and I stared one another down for a long moment. I decided that it was better for me to shut up than to start something.

"She was Angel's girlfriend in high school." I stated. I didn't want to add that she had as bad of a temper as Bobby, but she and Angel had never been able to keep their hands off of one another for more than five minutes at a time.

"So?" Jack pressed.

I shot him a look. I hoped that it would portray that I would tell him later, but it was inappropriate at the moment. I got up and retrieved a glass from the cupboard, then filled it with juice from the fridge. When I sat back down, the conversation continued.

"So what, exactly, are you planning to show me?" Jack asked slowly.

"What aren't we going to show you?" Angel replied. "But for now, I've got a date with a hot chica down the street. Later, Jack. See you around, Grove."

He got to his feet and pushed his chair in toward the table before leaving the room. It was quiet in the kitchen, and we could hear the voices in the living room.

"Don't stay out too late, Angel," Evelyn was saying.

"Oh, and don't bother trying to go into your room," I could hear the smirk in Bobby's voice. "Jack has the other room now, so I stole your bed."

"Come on, Bobby, that's my room!"

"Not tonight, it's not."

I laughed a little under my breath. Jack was smiling, too.

"So, I guess you've met all your brothers now," I said.

He was quiet for a long moment. "What do you think they're going to show me?"

"It'll be fine, Jack. You'll probably get into a little bit of trouble, but you sure won't be bored. And they won't let you get caught, if they can help it."

"If they can help it," he echoed, grinning to himself. "I think I'm going to get along with Angel."

"I thought you would. But now I guess you know for sure."

"But I still think you could tag along sometimes."

"Sometimes, maybe. But not all the time. You've got a chance for a real family, Jack. You've got to take it. I won't be the one to screw that up for you."

He looked over at me, his eyes gentle. "Maybe it's your chance for a family, too."

I gave him a half-hearted smile. "I had my chance. Now it's your turn. You should probably get back in there with everyone else."

"You can stay for that part, at least."

I shook my head a little bit. "No, I should get back home. But you have fun, okay? Let me know what you think of Sofi if you get to meet her." I stood up and headed back into the living room, Jack close on my heels.

"Are you leaving already, dear?" Evelyn looked up as I strode past.

I nodded. "Yeah, I don't want Mom to get worried." I saw Bobby shoot me a disbelieving look. I ignored it. "Thanks for everything though. I'm sure I'll be back before you know it."

"You go walk her home, Jackie," she said firmly to her youngest son. "I'd hate to hear that she fell on the ice and there was nobody around to help."

I gave Jack a crooked grin. "Who's going to help him on his way home?"

"You mean Twinkle Toes?" Bobby teased Jack. "I'm sure he's graceful on that ice."

Jack grabbed his coat and glanced back at Bobby. "Let's play hockey sometime. We'll see who's laughing then."

"I'm down with that!" Jeremiah exclaimed, clapping his hands together once. "We'll get a pick-up game going one of these days."

"I'll see you guys later," I waved before opening the door and heading out into the cold. Jack followed without a farewell to the people gathered inside the cozy house.

My footsteps crunched as I broke through the top layer of snow. The only other sign of life on the dilapidated street was the sound of a car engine idling while someone waited for it to warm up. I waited for Jack to catch up.

"You could have stayed awhile, you know," he said quietly.

"I could have, but I felt a little bit out of place. All of that family stuff... it's just not my thing, you know?"

"It's not really mine either."

I smiled at him as we crossed the street. "I wouldn't get too comfortable with that attitude if I were you."

We fell silent as we continued to walk. I watched my breath cloud as it left my mouth each time I exhaled. When I reached my front door, I faced Jack.

"Thanks for walking me home."

He grinned a tiny bit. "I didn't really have a choice, did I? Evelyn won't let me be just a regular guy."

"That's because you're not a regular guy. See you tomorrow, Jack." I wrenched open the door and slipped inside, leaving Jack standing out in the cold.