The Fourth Cure of Hiccups

[Pengzilla]

The Fourth Cure of Hiccups

Type of story: One-shot

Main characters: Jack and Martha

BTTB rating: G

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: None.

Does story include spoilers: Nope.

Summary: Think way back into the era of JM happy times. Hayley and Scott's leaving party. Their first (of many) reunions. This is just another idea on what could have happened.

I made this ages ago, but I popped on here for the first time in ages, and realised that there was very little JM-love left on the fanfic board. So I decided to post this... Hope you like it, it's just a small bit of fluffy JM.

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It must have been 10 minutes since he’d seen her wander in the bedroom alone. She’d tucked herself around the crowd of people near the kitchen bench and escaped down the hall, and then he’d seen the bedroom door close behind her. He’d quickly scanned the room to make sure no one had caught him watching, and pushed himself up from the sofa and walked to the kitchen bench. He kept his eyes trained on the door, studying the broad oak and white paint, and waiting for it to open again.

He was still stood there leaning against the wall with his beer in his hand, totally transfixed on the door she hid behind. He’d ditched the Vodka-lime-and-soda as soon as she turned her head earlier, not wanting to admit that she’d gotten to him but also not wanting to look like a girl in front of the girl he liked. The girl he loved. They had yet to talk since, so he knew that when she saw him with his beer she would make some follow-up remark. He was looking forward to it.

His fingers itched with the beer label and he began to peel it off. Why wasn’t she coming out? He’d been looking forward to tonight so he could spend some time with her. Just to talk and joke with her, and maybe flirt with her a little too. The only thing that had stopped him from following her for this long was that he didn’t want to appear desperate. Even though he knew he was completely desperate when it came to her.

But he couldn’t help himself anymore. He’d stood and he’d waited and it had felt like he had been waiting for months. Waiting for her to open up to him again, waiting for a second chance, waiting for her to realise how painfully in love he’d become with her. So he glanced around the room and made forward through his neighbours and friends and through the corridor. He felt a little unsure and nervous as he neared the door, so he took a final drink and placed is beer on the table beside the bedroom door. He cleared his throat as he entered the room.

He leant his torso forward first, poking his head through the narrowly opened door as he spied in. She was sat on the bed facing the opposite wall, looking perfectly normal. She looked beautiful tonight.

“Hey,” he said softly, closing the door behind him so to return it to its previous state. He wondered if anyone had noticed him walk in too.

Martha didn’t respond; she just looked over her shoulder at him with glassy eyes and a pink face. Jack sped forward and circled around the bed quicker than he knew he could.

“Are you alright?” He was crouched down in front of her, his hands on the bed either side of her neat body.

Martha said nothing, keeping her lips tightly pursed. She looked down at him with wide, beautiful eyes that glistened a little more than usual. Her cheeks were a light pink and looked as if they’d just been pinched. Her dark, wavy hair was set back onto her shoulders, and he’d never until now how smooth the line of her jaw was.

Then she did something that made him smirk, that stopped him admiring her beauty and more so her nature. She splattered a little and breathed heavily and then began in a little coughing fit. He’d have worried she was choking or fitting if she hadn’t put her finger up to instruct him to wait a minute.

“No.” She finally answered, adding finality with a firm cough.

Jack frowned, “Why not?”

Martha sighed, looking extremely annoyed at something that wasn’t on the carpet. He double checked the ground near his feet as he awaited her answer.

“I’ve got hiccups.” She spat, anger punctuating her sentence. Jack began to laugh.

“Hiccups?” He nodded to himself with a smirk as he realised that she’d been holding her breath as he walked in.

“It’s not funny!” Martha barked, now becoming angry at him. “They’re not any old hiccups… these are colossal, persistent, embarrassing things that keep coming out of my mouth against my will.” She said. “And I can’t- *hick* -” Martha took a deep breath, and he read her lips as she uttered a curse and closed her eyes in an effort to keep her strength. She breathed out heavily and then continued with the conversation, like an annoyed mother of three. “- I can’t get rid of them.” She finished.

Jack was trying not to smile as he sat on the bed beside her, rubbing his thigh absently with his palm as he spoke.

“Did you know that you hiccup because something has irritated your diaphragm?” He informed her with a voice full of wisdom.

Martha looked at him with mock amazement. “Seriously? So… could you have irritated it with your unhelpfulness?”

Jack shook his head, protruding his bottom lip outwards as he thought. “Maybe… but it could have been your lack of humour.” He suggested.

Martha groaned. “You’re not helping.” She finished with a hiccup.

Jack smirked, “You want me to help?”

She sighed, “Well I wouldn’t usually turn to you for help, but I’m pretty desperate.” She said, “I’ve had them for like… 15 minutes – what if I’ve got that persistent hiccup thing… like on Grey’s Anatomy… Oh my God, what if I’ve got some underlying medical condition and I have to go to hospital and I die? I’m not even 21 yet!” She cried, finishing with a hiccup that made her clamp her hands over her mouth.

Jack laughed, “Okay, SOMEONE’S being dramatic.” He mused, raising his eyebrows. “But fine, I’ll help.”

Martha sighed, removing her hand from her mouth slowly as she rested them together on her lap. She turned her body to face his to listen.

“So you’ve tried the ‘holding-your-breath’ trick?” He checked.

Martha nodded.

“Umm… what about drinking water from the wrong side of the glass?” He asked.

Martha stared him down. “That’s a load of bull that teachers and parents used to tell us just for the amusement of watching us try to figure out which was the wrong side of the glass.” She said. “I’m not falling for that again.”

Jack chuckled, “Dang. I’m sure you’d look very cute.”

She smiled up to him, that smile where her lips curved more to the left than to the right and her cheeks flushed. He tried not to get distracted by her brown eyes that were sparkling and grabbing at his attention.

He had to close his eyes to concentrate.

“Umm… What about getting someone to scare you?” He asked.

Martha shook her head.

“Great! You close your eyes and I’ll leave the room and come in again to scare you!” He exclaimed, standing up as he prepared to run off. Martha caught his arm in her grip as she let out another hiccup.

“The whole point of being scared by something unexpected is that it is… actually unexpected.” She said.

The light in Jack’s eyes dulled and he sunk down to the bed. “Oh, yea.” He said, chuckling a little at his own stupidity.

Martha rolled her eyes. “Fool.”

Jack smirked to himself, watching her shake her head to the ground. His gaze roamed her face and neck and jaw and lips and continued to even when she flicked her head back up to him. He knew she was watching. It made the nerves in his skin buzz.

He felt his body urge to lean forward and tried to resist. But when he smiled as she did, and felt her eyes on his lips, he felt the clouds from the sky fall down into the room and they made everything harder to control. He knew she knew what he wanted, and it made his heart race. His next words made her heart race too.

“You could try… kissing?” He suggested, feigning his best innocent expression and tone.

Martha raised her eyebrows and he noticed her cheek tremble as she fought a smile.

“Is that a hiccup cure?” She asked.

Jack nodded slowly, his gaze swapping between her eyes and mouth constantly.

“Mm-hmm. A very good one, too.” He lied, letting his body drift forward. “Recommended by every doctor. And everyone. Ever.”

She found his ramble cute and the way he spun off lies just for an excuse to kiss her even cuter. But what was cutest of all was the fact that he thought he needed to make up reasons for her to kiss him, that he hadn’t realised that she was always having to think of reasons not to kiss him.

“Oh, well if it’s recommended…” She said, “Then I guess I should give it a go.”

Jack shrugged, “I could help, if you want?” He offered helpfully.

Martha scrunched her nose up, “Umm… Well… I suppose because no one else is around…”

“And it would be purely to help you in your time of need. I’m just doing it because I don’t want you to have to go to hospital and die.”

Their lips were inches apart now, and she could feel his breath on her skin.

“That’s kind of you.”

“Sure is.” He answered in a whisper, smirking a little as he hesitated in the kiss. It was literally killing him to hesitate like this, but he knew he was winding her up in doing so, which made the pain all worth it.

She sighed heavily and licked her lips in anticipation.

“Are you going to help me or what?” She asked in frustration.

Jack smirked. “I don’t know… I feel kind of used.” He feigned hurt.

“You’ll feel pain in a minute.” She snapped. “Now hurry up and kiss me.”

Jack laughed a little, deep and low and making Martha’s heart hurt even more. “I thought you’d never ask.”

And it worked.

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