100 Theme Challenge #73

Sequel of #50, #51, #52, #54, #60, #68,  #69 and #70.

73. Bunny

Part IX

Jack saw Kenneth as soon as he entered the bar that afternoon, and a chuckle escaped him at the seat he had chosen, right beside his usual one. He joined him at the counter.

"You seem to be as much here as I am," he stated as he took his seat. The new barman was already preparing him his gin and tonic.

"That's because I knew you'd come here sooner or later," Kenneth smiled at him, but it didn't reach his eyes. He seemed tired.

"Everything okay, Mister Lewinski?"

"I'm fine, I just… think a lot when I'm alone in my apartment. I liked to come here to change my mood, but now James died, and I… I don't know."

Something was definitely wrong with him. He made a sign to the bartender to refill whatever what was in Kenneth's glass.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jack asked, his brows furrowed. It could distract him from that damn case. Kenneth sighed and took a sip of his drink.

"I've been thinking about what you said the other day, about the whole waiting thing. I told you I also have that feeling, and I'd be ready to bet many others do so as well. I don't know why we feel that way, but I could end up dead in an alley like James any day, and I'm not sure how I'd feel if I'd die without solving that waiting sensation." He stayed silent a moment, and Jack didn't know what to say, so he took a cigarette and lit it. He passed it to Kenneth after he took a long inhale.

"Why are we even feeling this way? Living with emptiness inside us, impossible to fill. Are we doomed to feel unfinished for the rest of our lives?"

"That's how you feel, unfinished?" Jack asked, and Kenneth nodded.

"Like a piece missing. Do you?"

Jack didn't respond right away and took the time to drink. "When I was younger, I used to be a brawler. I liked to fight, the power I felt when I won a fight. It wasn't until I destroyed half of someone's face than a FBI officer stopped me and asked me where I was going with my life, if I only wanted to destroy things instead of building anything. I was homeless at the time, I wasn't really good at anything except for breaking legs, but the officer saw something in me, he offered to pay for school if I promised to stop knocking heads with people. I accepted, I did good, and you see, Gary is now my partner. I don't like to kick people in the nuts as much as before, but if I have to, I'm paid for doing it. I help people to sleep at night, I solve crimes, and it was something I never realized I needed in the first place." He looked at Kenneth. "I think those pieces we feel missing inside us need to be provided by someone else, that there's no way we would be able to find them without a bit of help."

Kenneth stole his smoke. "So you're saying there's nothing we can do but to wait."

Jack shook his head. "I think it will come to us, and we will know by then. It's only a matter of not missing the opportunities." He took back his cigarette and took a long drag of it. "Not missing opportunities…"

Kenneth looked at his drink, his ruffled hair hiding his features. He thought for a moment, not sure what to say.

"I feel like I missed a lot of opportunities in my life," he finally said, distress piercing though his voice, and Jack wondered if there wasn't anything more to his meltdown.

"Well don't miss me buying you a drink. Here, let me get you another one," he offered, which brought a small smile to Kenneth's face.

"Thanks, but I'm not sure a drink will help me out of this."

"But it dampens the worries. Tell me, I never asked you; where do you work?"

"Um, I work at a desk, nothing exciting. It's pretty boring in fact, which gives me plenty of time to think. But I know what you're doing," he pointed his drink at him. "You're trying to change the subject."

"No, I'm trying to-"

"Mister Byrnes? A call for you, it's Mister Ramsey."

"I suppose this conversation is again for another time," Kenneth said, but he was smirking, and Jack took the phone.

"Hi Gary, what is it?"

(What is 100TC?)