jcklly:
“Oh you’re Balo? It’s so nice to meet you as well!” Instead of shaking her hand, Claire pulled her into a hug happily, ecstatic just to meet one person she’d heard Jack mention. One person who she was pretty sure didn’t hate her son’s guts and want him dead. “Jack’s talked about you so much, I’m so glad we could finally meet!” Well, so much was an exaggeration. But considering the number of girlfriends she’d never known about, to be mentioned a couple times was, for Jack, a lot. “You and your brother - Zander, is it? - are always welcome at our house over the summer,” she chattered, “please feel free to come stay, I don’t like Jack being alone all summer anyway… If you wanted, we could even arrange for you to stay in England with him for a while? Obviously only if you wanted,” she added hurriedly. “Sorry, I just… get excited when I meet one of his friends.”
Balo freezes for a moment when Claire moves into to hug her, fear in her blue eyes as she tries to process if the move towards her is actually safe. It’s only after the woman hugs her, she relaxes, hugging the woman back tightly as she tries to push the guilt for even having to question it down. “Jack’s mentioned us?” She was a bit more surprised about him mentioning Zander then she was about herself, while she knew Jack had offered to let them stay with him, hearing that he had actually talked to Claire about it. “Thank you! Are you positive you really wouldn’t mind? I really appreciate the offer, we both do, honestly. It means a lot.” She wasn’t sure how much Jack had told her, and not knowing if he’d just brushed it off as wanting some friends to see or if Claire knew was concerning. “Wait - why would Jack be alone all summer?” He hadn’t mentioned that part of it to her. That only made saying yes even more tempting, to make sure he had company if he wanted it. “Don’t be sorry! I’m sorry you feel like you need to say sorry! Honestly, after everything Jack’s said, I was hoping I’d get the chance to meet you!” She hadn’t been sure if she’d be able to, after all - even if she’d offer to meet Jack in the middle, keeping her father away from the people she cared about was the biggest priority. She was willing to go back to her original plan in a second if she thought she needed to. So, she hadn’t exactly been certain she’d be able to meet Claire. “He’s said such good things about you, not that he talks a lot, you know how he is, but... what he’s said has been nice.” Sure, he complained about her worrying about him too much as well, but even that was good in her eyes. After all, she worried about him a lot also.










