Entirely uninvited and perhaps unwelcome, Jack lets himself into the room as if it is his own. It feels like it is, sometimes, what with how often he lingers in it, at the side of one of its residents. Reyes has steadily infected his being, swimming through his veins like the serums the doctors injected him with, though Gabriel doesn’t come with so many ruthless side effects. Rather, he is quite the opposite of those drugs -- a drug of his own kind, one that counteracts the other, one that can steady Jack’s pulse and supply him with enough strength to somehow jump each impressively high hurdle set in place by the doctors.
It may help in the long run, all of the medication, the ‘training’ ( it’s nothing like any training Jack has previously endured ), the way physical and mental limits are discovered only to be pushed past. Jack actually thinks so sometimes, when he can feel the increases in strength, agility, or anything of the sort. He’s always reminding both himself and Gabriel that there are changes taking place, they just have to finish trudging through hell to find the major results. But even he, in his youthful optimism finds it hard to keep going sometimes.
Surely it’s the same for Reyes, but the older man is even more closed-off emotionally than Jack is, so the blonde is never quite sure when he’s struggling the most. That’s why he keeps his front built up; that’s why he fights so hard to be cheerful. He wants to serve as a reminder that things will get better.
❝ I saw that your roommate was still in the medical bay, so I thought I would pop in. ❞ He’s limping as he crosses the room to Gabriel’s bed, but just barely. He’s good at disguising his pain, but there are times where he settles for simply making it a little less obvious. He seats himself -- again, without an invitation -- at the edge of the bed with a dramatic sigh. ❝ Long day, huh ? ❞