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Entry tags:

jake,
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It's been a strange week.

A tough one, really, if John's honest, and at least half of that is due to the amount of paperwork he's had to do. There's been an increase in activity since New Year's Eve, since people have had their power swapped, for lack of a better explanation, and it's not that everyone who has found themselves with new powers is bad, it's just that many of them are confused. And most of them don't seem to know what to do with themselves.

Even if they're not purposely committing crimes, it makes for a few more reports than there might have otherwise been, which means more paperwork for John and that's hardly his favourite thing to do in the first place. He's already had to fill out two separate incident reports for people who had accidentally smashed windows in stores without understand their newfound strength. No charges have been laid and both times the person had offered to pay for the shattered window, but it still needs to be written up among many other things.

It's a far cry from where he's come from, that's for certain.

When John leaves the precinct that night, he's weary, more tired than he'd like to admit, but he still takes the long way home, patrolling darkened alleys and the seedier parts of Darrow. It's probably a bad idea, probably one Karen would give him hell for, but he can't just leave it all alone, no matter how tired he is.

It's when he's heading back toward home, passing by a secluded bit of trees that he hears rustling and growling. It gives him pause and he stands there, not far away, his hand on the butt of his service weapon. Then out of the trees pads the largest wolf John has ever seen and he's so stunned, so taken aback by the sheer size of the thing that he doesn't even think to draw his gun.

Which is a good thing, it seems, because within moments the wolf begins to shift into a decidedly human shape.

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Jake hadn't expected anyone to be nearby. He'd come out there to practice, see what he could do with transforming at will and then changing back when he was ready. Luke had given him some tips and he was trying to use them though it was a lot harder to think straight when he was a wolf.

One thing he had remembered to do was keep a change of clothes nearby so he wouldn't have to walk around naked when he was back in Jake shaped form. What he didn't plan for was changing back and standing in front of John.

He'd smelled the other man, of course, but he wasn't good enough to discern who's smell belonged to who. He just knew it was human and he was curious.

So, he'd moved closer, changed and now he was standing there in front of John, naked and wide eyed.

"Uh." What the hell was he supposed to say here? "There's a logical explanation for this, mate. I swear."

"You're a werewolf," John answers simply, because that seems like the most logical explanation, even if in terms of the world he's come from, it seems utterly insane. There are times when John knows his life seems strange to others, the very idea of the Machine and Samaritan like something out of a science fiction movie, but they had been very much rooted in reality.

For John, though, even after all this time in Darrow, even considering everything he's seen, supernatural creatures and the very idea of their existence seems impossible and fantastic. But here is Jake, standing in front of him, very naked and having just been a wolf.

"Do you need my coat?" he asks instead of asking what he really wants, which is whether this is a new affliction or if it's always been the case.

"Not usually!" Jake said, holding his hands over himself and feeling his cheeks heat up. It took a hell of a lot to make him blush but ending up naked in front of John was evidently enough.

"And, uh, yeah, just for a second," Jake asked meekly. "I've got some clothes around here to change into but I have to find them and then I can -- "

Jake gestured with his hand, shook his head and sighed. "Explain what's happening. I promise, I haven't been a werewolf all this time that you've known me."

Jake says he hasn't been a werewolf all this time, which means it's most likely part of all the strange things that have been happening this week. That or he's been bitten since they've met and John has to wonder just how many of his partners over the years have ever had to think something like that. Certainly not Kara, not Carter. Finch, maybe, but only because he'd spent time in Darrow, too.

John just shrugs out of his coat and steps forward to offer it to Jake. He's not embarrassed by the nudity, it's difficult to come out of the military with such modesty still in tact, but he knows Jake probably is and so he doesn't mind passing over his coat.

"Go ahead," he says. "I'll wait here. Unless you'd rather I walk with you. I don't mind."

"No no, waiting here's just -- " Jake pursed his lips and nodded. "Waiting here's good. I'll be right back."

And he meant that. He wasn't going to run off in an attempt to hide from this especially since it would be worthless. It's not like he could hide long since John knew where he worked and he couldn't leave the city to try and let things cool down.

So, he used John's jacket to cover up his modesty and eventually found his clothes sitting on a stump. He pulled the jeans and shirt and, still barefoot, made his way back over to John.

He passed the jacket back silently. "So, sorry you had to see that."

"It's fine," he says, taking his coat from Jake and pulling it back over his shoulders. He can't rightly say he's seen stranger things, although living in Darrow has increased his inclusion in weird events, but even his life before this place had been odd. The Machine had been real to him, but he knows something like that, an artificial super intelligence, it would seem like science fiction to most people.

"That was... unexpected."

Then he glances down, sees Jake's bare feet and frowns. "Do you have shoes? It's still cold." Unless werewolves run warmer than the average human. Maybe Jake isn't feeling the chill at all. John can't say he knows much about werewolf physiology.

"I'm fine, actually," Jake said, shaking his head. Maybe he ran warmer because of the werewolf thing but though he felt the chill, it was tolerable and manageable. He wiggled his toes, dug them into the cold earth and sighed.

"So, were you around on New Years Eve?" Jake asked him, frowning. "I thought everyone in the city was there but maybe not. That's when all this happened."

It hadn't been just him he'd discovered the day after. Lois had been affected along with many others and no power seemed to be the same. It meant lots of people were walking around trying to control powers that were not easily controlled.

"City's still standing, right?" Jake checked when he realized he'd been out in the forest for awhile.

That makes John smile a little and he nods, then gestures for Jake to join him. He was on his way home anyway and while he thinks Karen is expecting him, he also knows she won't mind much if he stops in at Jake's apartment first to make sure he gets home okay. It may be true that he's a werewolf now -- something John still hears as being completely absurd in his head -- but that doesn't mean he doesn't still feel that same need to keep Jake safe.

"The city's fine," he says. "I've just been doing extra rounds because of New Year's Eve. I was there."

He had been distracted, though, caught up first in Peggy's apparent transformation and then in Lila's attack.

"This is what happened to you? This... you weren't bitten?" John knows he's basing his knowledge of werewolves off horror movies, but this isn't his area of expertise. It's not often he feels out of sorts, as if he's the one who needs something explained to him, but that's where he's standing now.

"No, no bites," Jake said, shaking his head and sighing. "At first, I thought maybe it had happened and I just hadn't realized it but then a guy who's usually like this told me he thought it was the city taking the piss out of a lot of people."

Jake had been around for awhile, seen a lot of pretty bloody bad shit but this whole thing seemed very, very invasive and scary. To know that you could be manipulated and changed so radically so quickly put him on edge.

"Midnight struck and I was changing in front of everyone," Jake said, shrugging. "Spent the night killing deer in the woods, I think, and wandered out dazed and confused the next morning. Still kind of trying to understand but it's a little better now."

John nods as they walk, quiet for a moment. That makes sense, at least, more than the thought Jake has been a werewolf all along. It's not that there's anything wrong with it and John doesn't think he's the sort to treat someone any different after learning something like this, but given that he'd sort of just stumbled about it now, he thinks he would have stumbled upon it a lot sooner if this had always been Jake's life.

"It's happened to a few other people I know," he says, but leaves it at that in terms of details. Their stories are theirs to tell and theirs alone. He'll treat this the same way, he has no intention of mentioning to anyone he'd run into Jake tonight and found him like this, except possibly Karen, and even then he'll leave out the details. She'll understand, too, she always does. Any secrets he keeps aren't meant to hurt her, but to protect others.

"You're okay, though," he says, even though it's partly a question. "The man who's usually like this has made sure you understand what's happening?"

"I understand what's happening but I don't really know how to control it very well," Jake said, wincing. "It's something I guess I've gotta work on unless I just ask him to lock me up for the duration."

He was pretty positive this wouldn't last too long. It would freak him out, make him worry, and then run its course before reverting him back to his regular human self. The only thing was that he didn't know exactly when that would be. Temporary wasn't a set time so he had to work on this a little, at least.

"That's not to say I'm going to attack people at the drop of a hat but I also don't really do well with transforming one part of myself. I go all or nothing right now. Inconvenient if I'm in my flat."

"And so you came out here instead," John says. It makes sense and he has the idea it's safer for Jake this way. In his apartment, he's bound to attract attention, especially if he can't fully control what he's doing, and then people are going to ask questions. Get others involved. Something like this, he can imagine people want to keep it under wraps.

He can also imagine how it might be helpful for police work.

"I don't know much about werewolves, just what I've seen in movies, but are your senses heightened?" he asks.

For things like that, he often uses Bear in his work, both the legitimate work for the department and the work he does with Karen, Dutch and Peggy. But to have someone who would be able to sense the same things and be able to communicate back what they're hearing or smelling would be an asset he's never even imagined before. The Machine had called him her primary asset, but he knows if there had been an option for someone like Jake is now, he would have lost that title instantly.

"Yeah." Jake shrugged. That had taken some getting used to as well. Being able to hear things he hadn't heard before and see things that he wouldn't normally see had made him a bit dizzy and nauseous. It was too much detail when you were used to only seeing a few of the details.

"Pretty handy for some things but I almost got sick a few times because I was seeing a little too much," Jake said with a shake of his head. "Not like spying but bits of dew on flowers, dirt embedded in shoes, things like that. Sometimes, when you're not used to that much clarity, it kind of makes you dizzy."

And thus, you feel like you're gonna throw up. Jake had held off though, managed to tough it out. "But, I guess werewolves get over that faster too since I'm okay now."

John tries to imagine that, how it might feel to have everything coming in with such intensity. When he had joined the CIA he had been trained to pay attention to every last detail around him and he's good at it, he's a very observant man, but that's an incredibly different thing than what Jake is describing. John imagines it must be like sensory overload. A form of torture.

But Jake says he's adjusted and John has to take that at face value. If it were too much, if it were constantly overwhelming, he has to believe Jake wouldn't be out here where he could be assaulted by endless scents and sounds and sights.

"Could you smell me before we saw each other?" he asks and he's trying not to smile, but the corner of his mouth lifts up as he glances over at Jake. "Do I want to know what I smell like to someone with that kind of enhanced sense of smell?"

"I could smell you but I also don't know enough to know who smells like what," Jake told him, shrugging. "So, I knew someone was coming but didn't know who it was."

Now that he could associate the smell with John, he'd know it for next time. If there was a next time and he had to sniff out John again.

"You don't smell bad, if you're curious," Jake told him, snickering. "Earthy but good. Kind of loamy but again, it's not a bad smell. Just like something rustic and old fashioned, if that makes sense."

John laughs, the sound surprised out of him, if only because he'd never imagined himself being described as smelling loamy. Old fashioned, though, certainly fits and somehow doesn't surprise him.

"No, that's... oddly nice," he says, looking amused. He'll have to tell Karen, just to see what she thinks of it. Mostly to see how hard she'll laugh. If he's not working, most things John does these days are with the goal of seeing Karen smile.

"Does it hurt?" he asks. "The transformation."

"Not...really," Jake said, shaking his heads even though they didn't hurt at all. "If it does, it's really quick because soon enough, I'm a werewolf and preoccupied with other things. First time it happened, it hurt like a bloody bitch."

He can remember how his hands had turned into claws, how he felt like bones were breaking and ligaments were tearing while his body adjusted to its new form. He hadn't cried but it had been the worst pain he'd ever felt.

"It's just -- " Jake frowned and chewed on his lower lip. "I know I shouldn't be turning into that so it feels more strange and wrong than anything. After that, I kind of have a one track mind."

"Find someone to scratch your belly?" John asks in the same low, steady tone he always uses. The only indication he's making a joke is in the slight twitch of his mouth and the way he first glances at Jake and then away once again.

It's a weird thing to be discussing. Even after all this time, Darrow still doesn't make much sense to him in a lot of ways. John understands greed and crime, he understands what causes bad people to do awful things and good people to do unexpectedly bad things. He understands -- and loathes -- the logic and motivation behind war, but he doesn't understand Darrow.

And yet here they are, whether he understands it or not. Jake is a werewolf, at least for the time being, there's no arguing with that. He had seen it himself.

"Ha ha," Jake said dryly, rolling his eyes. "Keep that up, I'll find my way to your apartment and leave a present for you in front of your door."

Werewolves still had to relieve themselves, didn't they? Jake hadn't really been paying attention but even if they didn't, he'd still find something to do to mess up what Jake expected would be a pristine apartment environment. John didn't strike him as the messy type.

"Hopefully there's no one in this city who's actually looking for something like that," Jake said, making a face. "There were some strange types in Brighton. Got off on things like that."

"I've been staying at Karen's and you don't want to make her mad. She's especially strong this week," John answers with a little smile, although he doubts Jake is truly serious about his threat.

At the next comment, he can't help but laugh and shrug. It doesn't surprise him to hear Jake say that and honestly it wouldn't surprise him much if there were people in Darrow who were drawn to that sort of thing.

"Maybe you should be careful about who you transform in front of," he suggests, still mostly joking. "Although given the size of the wolf you were, I think you'd be able to make your discomfort well known."

"I'd rather not transform in front of anyone but sometimes it can't be helped," Jake said, grimacing. "I don't have really good control on things. The guy, Luke, who's been dealing with this for awhile told me I could eventually control everything but it's not really happening right now."

If he tried to just turn his eyes, inevitably something else happened. Sometimes he could stop a full on transformation but other times, he just ended up as a werewolf in his bathroom, freaking out and trying to change back.

"I can just see myself getting pissed in the grocer's because they don't have the beer that I like and ending up a giant werewolf, crashing through the aisles. Kind of freaks me out to think about."

"Luke," John echoes, then is quiet for a moment. It's rare for him to be genuinely surprised by much, but hearing that name does throw him off just a little. There are other people named Luke, he's sure of that, but as soon as Jake says it, it makes sense. He had been the one John had called when he'd hit Spencer's cruiser that night and some of the other officers had talked about how Spencer's husband had been lurking around the scene of the accident the day after.

And it had looked an awful lot like he was sniffing things.

"I knew Spencer," he says. "Luke's husband. We worked together now and then. I didn't realize... but then, it was none of my business."

He shakes his head and sets it aside, looking at Jake again. "You change when your emotional state becomes volatile? Is that common?"

Jake winced at the slip, hoping Luke would forgive him for essentially telling his secret to someone that only peripherally knew him. He trusted that John wasn't going to go screaming it from rooftops but it was still a risk because who knew what could happen here and what sort of things could happen to make John say something.

"You're asking the wrong bloke that," Jake said, deciding to just move past what he'd done. "I just know it's happened to me a few times. Nothing bad, nothing that might have risked anyone else but..."

He shrugged. "What's that old saying? You wouldn't like me when I'm angry? Guess that point really applies when I'm like this. Good thing it takes a lot to make me angry."

"You were aware enough not to attack me," John says thoughtfully, watching as their apartment building comes into view. "Are you conscious of yourself as still being a person while you've changed?"

Given his admittedly limited knowledge of folklore, he would have thought a werewolf would attack blindly. That seems to be the way they're always written, the suggestion that they're monsters and little else prevalent in nearly all the stories he's ever read or seen.

But Jake hadn't attacked him. He'd come out of the trees and then changed, leading John to think he must be at least partly aware of who he is and the difference between right and wrong.

"I know that I'm not typically a werewolf when I do change," Jake said, trying to parse it out as best he could. When he was a werewolf, Jake was far away but still there. He didn't have control but he was there and he could recognize people if he wasn't too far gone in his transformation.

"It's not easy to explain," Jake said, wincing. "It's like I'm there but I'm not the dominant personality. I'm aware and I have recognition but I'm pretty sure if this wolf wanted to do something, it would overpower whatever control I do have when I'm changed."

So, he could recognize John and since he wasn't hungry and John hadn't done anything to him, it was easy to change. If John had been someone else or had maybe tried to attack him, things would be different.