Title: Scenario 4: All That Matters
Author: J'Kitty
Fandom: Askewniverse
Feedback: jabinkle@unity.ncsu.edu
Pairing: J/SB
Rating: R for language
Disclaimer: Kevin 0wns j00!
Archive: Sure, go 'head
Type: Sunburst from "He Went Away"
Summary: Jay Happy, Bob Sad
Notes: Yes, Bob came to North Carolina because I live here. Mneah! Characters from Dogma appear, but no spoilers.


Bob left without many expectations. He didn't expect that Jay would find him, and he didn't expect to be happy for a long, 
long time. At least until he'd contracted amnesia and gotten rid of this wasting love sickness. So with few expectations, 
and even fewer hopes, he began thumbing his way from New Jersey.

Things went as well as could be expected for a lone hitchhiker. There were nights when he couldn't get picked up, and ended 
up sleeping in the bushes, or in parks. And there were nights when his rides expected a little compensation... at which point
he exited the vehicle.

Within a few weeks, he'd made his way down the seaboard. He'd seen some truly beautiful country, and met some good people. 
Some strange, but mostly good. He found himself, finally, in North Carolina. Perhaps the farthest away from New Jersey you 
could ever hope to look without crossing the Mississippi. Nothing was there that he'd even be remotely interested in, should 
someone decide to start searching for him. Plus, it was warm.

_A few days,_ he told himself. Just a few days. No more, no less. But the few days stretched into weeks, and then a couple 
of weeks into a couple of months. And while he wasn't really miserable anymore, he certainly wasn't happy. Not the carefree 
happiness he'd had with Jay. At least when Jay had deigned to be there.

He decided. It was time to go. He had to get out of here, this place was starting to be tinged with rememberances of Jay. He 
wasn't sure how far away he'd have to get, but he was willing to thumb until he got there.

A tractor trailer pulled onto the side of the road for him, and he thanks the driver as he hauled himself into the driver's 
seat. He sighed mentally at having to leave his latest home, and wished he'd never left.

"About time you got a clue."

He looked over, and the truck driver had become Metatron. Or always was. Or... whatever. Metatron was there, in the cab.

Bob squinted.

"Yes, yes, I heard what you were thinking. You want things the way they were. Well maybe if you'd done the right thing to 
begin with, things wouldn't be in this state of affairs."

Confusion.

"You 'eard me. Did you ever tell Jay what you expected of him? Set down relationship guidelines? I thought not."

Bob sighed to himself, "I wish things were they way they were."

The alarm went off, and the radio DJ announced, "We're playing your top ten hits! So stayed tuned!" The radio was loud 
as hell. Bob slammed his hand into the snooze button and turned over. Jay bounded into the room, "Wake up, ya tubby fuck. 
We's got herb to sell! Nootch!"

Bob sat straight up in the bed and looked at the calendar. It was the right day. Nothing had changed. He was in his room, 
in Jersey. He'd been crossing the South Carolina line when... Metatron.

Bob was back. He looked at his things in bewilderment. The things that he'd packed to take with him were where they'd 
always been. His bag was in the closet, and his coat was hanging from the door knob. It was like he'd never left. He drug 
Jay down to the bed, and stared into his eyes. They were blank. Nothing.

Jay didn't remember.

No one remembered that Bob had spent months hitchhiking away from Jay. Because he couldn't handle Jay. Jay didn't remember 
there ever being a Bob and Jay. Didn't remember their moonlight dinners, and park visits, and running from the cops when 
they'd been caught boinking in the bushes at the park.

Bob got up, and walked into the bathroom. He stood in the shower and cried, because Jay would never know that he'd loved 
him, and been loved by him. He could never bring himself to inflict that much pain on either of them again. When he finished 
weeping for what had been and never was, he dried himself, dressed, and put on his trench coat.

No one outside seemed to know that Bob had ever been gone. Dante and Randal simply threatened them with a restraining order 
again. The day was bizarrely as it had always been.

So, at night, they would watch their porn, and jack off together. And when Jay picked the movies, the women were short and 
dark haired with chocolate eyes and shy smiles. And when Bob picked them, they were tall leggy blondes, with clear eyes and 
unrepentant grins.

Jay went to bed, wondering what Bob could possibly be thinking behind that silent visage. And Bob went to bed knowing what 
Jay was thinking. And he knew that Jay thought he didn't care. Sometimes, he cried for that. But only in the shower, where 
it didn't show. Because Jay was, overall, happy. And, in the end, that was really all that mattered, wasn't it?