Work Text:
Jethro Del Mar
by Buffy
A critically-acclaimed movie, one that looked likely to win awards. That's all it was, was a movie, a piece of fiction based on another form of fiction. It shouldn't have pulled him in like this.
He'd told everyone that he had a doctor's appointment, wouldn't be able to get into the office until after lunch. They'd all believed it, why wouldn't they? They all knew he wouldn't spend more time with a doctor than he absolutely had to, and none of them questioned that the doctors wanted to run some tests on his heart. The appointment had been early that morning, and by 11 he was at a theater in a residential area. That time of day, on a Tuesday, he practically had the theater to himself.
It felt like a sucker punch to the gut, to realize how much like Ennis Del Mar he really was. Closed-off, tight-lipped sons-of-bitches that destroy the ones they care about the most. Hell, who's to say that if things had been different he and Sharon wouldn't have ended up the same way as Ennis and Alma had. He was lying to himself just as much as Ennis was, after all.
Now he was sitting here, alone in the dark, watching the credits roll past while Willie Nelson sang something melancholy. How sad was it, that a movie had him swallowing around a lump in his throat? But here he was, doing just that.
As Jethro left the theater, he tucked his ticket stub safely into his wallet, with the single picture of Kelly he still carried with him. There was no "happily ever after" for the story, not in real life, not even in fiction. This was his reminder, the reason he'd kept silent. He knew that he and Tony could have something together, but he chose not to even start.
If he was like Ennis, Tony was like Jack. Tony wouldn't be satisfied with stealing what moments he could. He'd need more than that, and would try to find a way to make it work, no matter the opposition. And Jethro knew that there was no escaping the tire iron, not even in this day and age. So he suffered in silence, like Ennis, but didn't even have November to look forward to.
The vibration of his cell phone took him by surprise, making him bark an annoyed, "Gibbs," to whatever poor unfortunate it was that was calling. Of course, a case. "Just finished up here, I'll be there in twenty."
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