"You don't think it's wrong?"

"No… I think it's wrong," Junior gripped her cup a little tighter, telling herself honesty was a virtue. "Hate the sin, not the sinner, that's what they teach at church… It doesn't seem like changing works too well for that sort of thing. You can repent, but I think daddy gets lonely out here,"

"Well, I'll stay as long as he'll have me,"

Junior fixed him with a look, "You promise?"

"Promise," Jack glanced over at Ennis, leaning up against the wall, watching them carefully.

"You're not gonna go run off on him, are you?"

"In sickness and in health, I'll be there!"

Junior's nose wrinkled… this wasn't going where she wanted. This was beginning to sound like marriage, with her being the preacher, but she had one more thing to say.

"You'll treat him right?"

"Until the day I die." Jack crossed his heart in theatrically. Junior snorted and cracked a smile.

Junior made a point of grilling Jack over his job and life story. She wasn't too pleased he left his wife, but she was happy he was using the money he had to help Ennis. He felt like he was getting interviewed by a father-in-law all over again. Preacher and Father-in-Law all rolled into one teenage girl…

She left a short while later, Ennis making her promise not to tell Alma Sr. about meeting Jack.

Now getting Ennis to agree to this "'As long as you'll have me' thing"….

….

"Goddamit Ennis! Please," Jack couldn't take it anymore. He could feel the tears, warm, welling up behind his eyes. He couldn't, he tried, he tried and he was sick of trying. If Ennis didn't want to be with him, right here, right now, when he had money in his pocket and a plan, Ennis would never want him.

"Ennis, please! Your life is shit, how much fucking worse could it be with me?!"

"We could be dead, Jack,"

"And that's what's stopping you? Because this is sure fucking living right here! Look around at your own fucking life! Is this living?"

"Jack…" The tone was warning, Jack wasn't listening. All Ennis ever did was warn him.

"I thought if I…. just this once…" He wasn't trying to hide the hurt.

"And you keep thinking, because NO amount of thinking is gonna change the world. It's against the LAW, Jack,"

Jack watched him walk out the bedroom door, following him down the hall into the kitchen.

"No one would need to know! We can keep quiet! Move up to my parent's place. My ma knows. Ennis! Goddamit, Ennis!"

Ennis wasn't listening; he knew this speech, he'd heard this speech a million and a half times. Always a little something new thrown in for good measure, but essentially the same. "Keep quiet, just like we did just now with Junior? And what about yer Dad, eh? Does he know? What would he do, hn? If he found out about you living with another man on his property? We're sick, Jack,"

"Not being with you is making ME sick, Ennis!"

"Jack…."

Jack grabbed him by the shoulders, pinning him to the wall.

"No, you listen to me! All you've ever been doing is dragging me around. Only seeing me when it's convenient for you.I'm tired of being your fuckin' mistress, Ennis! When your divorce went through, I thought we finally had a chance to be together, but no, you didn't want it. And you know what? Now I'm giving you a second chance, paving the way with gold, money, and you still don't want it! What does it take to please you, Mr. Ennis Del Mar? Because I'm just not enough for ya,"

Ennis looked at the floor. His stomach felt sick like that day he watched Jack leave for the first time. "You're enough for me,"

"What? What was that? Cuz I didn't hear you. All you keep telling me is go away, go away, so what was that? Are you finally gonna admit the problem's you?"

"If I don't have nothin else, you're enough for me," He breathed, not believing he was saying this, "living feels a lot like dying when you're not here," He gritted his teeth, trying to take in the courage to finish, "If Hell exists, I'm going to it." He couldn't string all these words and make them sound proper, he just couldn't. Never had a way with words… "If I'm already dying and going to hell, I might as well be with you,"

Jack blinked. If that wasn't the closest thing to "I love you" he'd ever heard from Ennis…

Ennis coughed, "Just don't go getting any funny ideas about it, we're living together, not marrying,"

Jack could hardly believe it. I'd been what he was hoping for, but never got what he hoped for. He never expected to actually hear it. The most he was expecting a silent nod of acknowledgement and defeat.

Tension dissipating, Jack laughed, bringing his hands to either side of Ennis' face, "If you could marry me, would you?"

Ennis looked at him, knocking his hands away, "That's the craziest fuckin' thing I ever heard,"

Jack snorted, "I don't know, times are changing,"

"Yeah, well, pigs will fly before that happens." Ennis thought on it, "No, you'd make an ugly wife, and I ain't bein' your wife,"

"Aww, so you're not gonna cook me breakfast every morning?"

"Nope,"

"Good. You cuz you can't cook worth shit."

"Hey! I've gotten pretty good with them TV dinner things,"