When Does Love End? Ch. 04

This was meant to be the final part of the story but I've decided to add a fifth and, hopefully final section to finish it properly. I hope you enjoy.

As always constructive comments are welcome.

~~~~~~~~~ Chapter eighteen ~~~~~~~~~~

"What... what are you doing here?" Jack finally managed to speak after taking a moment or two to get over the shock of unexpectedly seeing his former girlfriend, "I thought... you... you would be living in London, with Peter."

"Jack... what.... I... you... you're.... in the... the army?" she stammered staring at him wide-eyed with a look of utter astonishment and not answering his question.

He couldn't help but grin flippantly despite the improbability of the situation and looked down at himself and his uniform, "Yeah... yeah I guess I am."

"I... I... never knew... where... where you had gone." Her hand went to her throat as she spoke.

"Didn't much care either I expect." He responded acerbically, having recovered some of his composure, "To busy being loved up with your new man. You know the one you replaced me with."

"Jack.... I... never..."

Just at that precise moment Franco strolled nonchalantly in through the hotel's main doors and, seeing the small group by the reception desk, made a beeline straight for Debbie, slipping an arm possessively around her waist.

"Hey babes, you all set for the night of your life?" he butted in to the conversation pulling her tight up against him.

"What... no, no I... I... wait...I?" she stared helplessly at Jack as her date manhandled her.

"Come on babe, who is this jerk." Franco glared contemptuously at Jack and started to pull her away from him, "Let's go you got a long night of pleasure ahead of you."

"No wait... wait... I need... to..." Debbie started to protest.

"You need what? My cock?" Franco laughed, "Let's go and you can have plenty of it."

"Your boyfriend I take it?" Jack looked back and forth between the pair of them for a second, his eyes filled with a pain she could clearly see but barely comprehend.

"Yeah, I am, so what soldier boy?" Franco smirked at him still trying to pull a resisting Debbie away, "And right now I need to give her some loving."

"No... Jack.... he's..." she tried to tell him.

"Have a nice night, Deb." His voice sounded pitiful and made her want to hold him, "It was... good to see you again."

"Please Jack, we need to talk." She looked desperately back at him as she was almost forcibly marched away, "Meet me tomorrow, at The Coffee Pot, please. At ten-thirty. Please."

"Come on babes. Forget the toy soldier, we need to get out of here. I have big plans for you." Her date persisted in trying to drag her towards the exit.

"Ten thirty.... Meet me... please." She repeated forlornly looking back at him.

Jack stood and watched silently as the only woman he had ever loved was unceremoniously steered away from him across the hotel foyer. Heading towards what was obviously going to be a night of passion by her leering arrogant arsehole of a boyfriend.

"Wow that was all totally unexpected." Claire's comment jerked him out of the moment, "I would never have imagined this happening when I came out for a drink."

"What... yeah, yeah I guess it was." He had forgotten she was there and nodded, his eyes never leaving his ex-girlfriend as she was maneuvered away from him.

"Look. Jackson, isn't it? If you want to have a drink with me, we can talk about this?" Claire asked pensively.

Jack shook his head, "Thanks all the same but I think I'll head up to my room and unpack."

"Ok just as you want but I can tell you she's trying to move on with her life now." Her words cut in even deeper into his heart, "Maybe you picked a bad time to come back."

"She did that a long time ago." He replied sourly and turned away, "And maybe I did."

Collecting his key from a rather bemused Jane, a thoroughly confused and miserable Jack made his way up the stairs to his room. Throwing his bag onto the bed he sat down heavily and wondered what had just happened.

He had never expected to see Debbie again and meeting her at the reception desk had been a complete shock for him. Feelings he had kept locked away for so long had surged to the surface and now he had to try to cope with them.

Then to see the cretin she now had for a boyfriend and his obvious intentions for a night of hard sex with her had left him feeling sick to his stomach.

What was she doing with a complete tosser like that? What had happened to Peter, the guy she had left him for? Why had she come back after being in London?

There were so many questions filling his brain he needed some time to think and try to make sense of everything.

He had never expected that she would be by herself after all this time. In truth, he had thought she would be married and living in London with Peter Wheeler. But seeing her with whoever the arsehole was, was just nauseating to him.

There was no need for him to analyse his feelings he knew exactly why he felt so miserable. He had never stopped loving her but he had kept it hidden, at least from himself, and under control until now. Seeing her again brought it all back and as he sat there, he thought about just picking up his bag and checking out. But it was late and, if he left now, he realised he had nowhere else to go.

Throwing off his uniform Jack decided to take a quick shower; he needed a drink and time to collect his thoughts instead of merely sitting around moping.

Once he had cleaned up and dressed, he headed downstairs.

Dodging the flirtatious receptionist Jane, he paused at the entrance to the hotel bar and looked around, immediately noticing that Debbie was ensconced at a corner table with her neanderthal boyfriend's arm draped around her shoulders.

He couldn't help but stare as Franco pulled her against him, kissing her firmly and trying to discretely grope her breast at the same time.

Unable to watch the sickening spectacle he turned away, concluding it would probably be best to avoid the hotel bar where Debbie was cuddled up with her prick of a boyfriend. He glanced across at the receptionist, Jane, who smiled invitingly at him but he knew she was working till ten.

Unsure of what to do now he just stepped out of the Royal Oak and stood in the street looking around wondering which way to go.

"Trying to avoid me?"

The voice behind him made him turn around quickly and he almost bumped into Jane, the pretty, coquettish receptionist.

"What... umm...no, its... err... it's not ten o'clock." Jack managed to splutter, "I thought you were working.".

Jane giggled and took his arm, "I got off early. Now we can go for that drink."

"Err... yeah great... so where shall we go then?" he agreed somewhat reluctantly, "It's been quite a while since I was last here."

She pouted, thinking for a second, "The Horse and Groom might be a good choice then. Do you know it?"

He told her he did and the pair of them turned and headed off through the darkened deserted streets. Walking along he tried to ignore Jane's frivolous chatter and come to some sort of a decision about what he was going to do now.

The last thing he had expected was to come face to face with her and now he had all the feelings he had kept suppressed were emerging again and he found he was at least grateful for the distraction of Jane's company.

"So, who was she?" she looked at him curiously when they eventually sat down in the pub with their drinks, "That blonde girl you were talking to back at the hotel."

"Just someone I used to know." Jack replied with deliberate vagueness.

Jane took a sip of her wine, "It seemed a bit more than that. Was she an old girlfriend maybe?"

He didn't answer and just took a mouthful of his beer.

"You both seemed surprised to see each other." She continued not getting a response from him.

"Let's just say she was probably the last person I thought I'd see coming back here."

"Did you live round these parts then?"

"Yeah, I did a while back." He told, "Before I joined up that is."

She considered his answers for a moment.

"Are you that soldier? The one from here who won some sort of medal recently? It was on the local news." letting the subject of Debbie and Jack's past drop for the moment, Jane tactfully changed the topic.

"Yeah, that's me." He reluctantly admitted.

Her brown eyes opened wide, "Wow, you mean I'm sitting here with a real-life hero."

"Hardly." He told her, "I was just lucky."

For the next hour or so they chatted about nothing in particular. Her mostly asking questions and Jack avoiding giving her to many direct answers.

"So, did you know her before you joined the army?" the conversation finally came back to Debbie.

Just finishing his second pint Jack studied the girl opposite him. Perhaps if things had been a little different, she might have been an interesting diversion for his leave. She was pretty enough even if she did seem a little air-headed.

"Yeah, I knew her before I enlisted." He replied quietly, staring into the distance as the memories came back to him.

Jane smiled and took his hand in hers "I'm not silly you know. You're still in love with her, aren't you?"

"Sorry. Is it that obvious?" he gave her a lop-sided grin.

She smiled sweetly "Sadly, it is."

He shrugged, "I'm sorry."

"Does she know what she's lost out on? A decent guy like you and you still love her after how many years."

"Too many." He took another mouthful of his drink, "It's about time I moved on to I guess."

After more than two hours and three pints Jack finally resisted the urge to invite Jane back to his room and simply said goodnight to her. Kissing her on the cheek, and ignoring the disappointed look in her eyes he made his way morosely back to the hotel.

He didn't feel any happier but talking to Jane had been a pleasant alternative to drinking alone and he had had the opportunity to think about what he would do with his leave now. Tomorrow, he decided, he would make some phone calls and think about moving on, maybe up to the lake district or even Scotland.

Everything was quiet when he got back, the bar seemed to have closed so he assumed Debbie was somewhere at home in bed fucking the oafish moron that was her boyfriend.

Feeling thoroughly miserable, he made his way up to his room and tried to sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~ Chapter nineteen ~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Why don't we go get a drink before we head off to your place?" Debbie suggested placatingly as Franco conducted her towards the hotel exit, "There's no need to rush anything is there baby?"

He grinned salaciously at her suggestion, "Sure babes why not, we've got all night to enjoy ourselves. Let's have a couple of drinks first. Relax ourselves for what's to come."

With that he turned her towards the hotel bar.

"Yeah, we have all night." She groaned under her breath, again unsure if she was going to be able to go through with her decision, despite what she had told Claire.

Finding themselves a table in the bar he rudely ordered a beer for himself and a white wine for Debbie, not bothering with either a please or a thank you to the girl serving them.

Don't you ever say please?" she queried.

He shrugged, "What for, its her job to serve us."

"Arsehole." She muttered under her breath.

Putting off the inevitable for as long as possible Debbie kept him talking for a while, trying to calm her nerves while she sipped her wine slowly and thought about what had just happened.

What was Jackson doing here? Why now, when she was trying to finally move on with her life? Was he with anyone? Was he married, she shuddered, her heart lurching, at the thought?

"What's up babes? You seem a bit distant." Franco leered at her, his breath warm on her cheek.

"It's nothing. I was just thinking about later." She lied, pretending to turn her attention back to Franco while her mind wandered repeatedly back to Jackson. All the feelings that she had so carefully secreted away had been brought back to her by seeing him again.

"Don't you worry about that darlin, by the time I'm finished you'll be walking bandy for a week." He informed her not realising at first that she wasn't actually listening.

She understood now why she had not been able to find him when she had returned home. Disappearing into the army as he had it was obvious now what had happened to him. Without warning the conversation she had had with Claire, about the local lad who had won a medal for bravery, came back into her mind.

Could that have been her Jackson. She forgot herself for a moment and thought of him as hers but then remembered he wasn't, he was almost certainly someone else's now.

"You listening to me bitch?" the loathsome Franco's voice brought her back to the present and she jerked her head up to look at him, "I'm not here talking to myself."

"Err... yeah... yeah... I'm here."

"Well fucking pay attention then." He told her rudely.

She tried talking to him but it was hard going as it seemed whatever she turned their conversation to, the obnoxious Italian just kept bringing it back to sex and his intentions for her.

"Fuck babe I can't wait to get you into bed, I'm gonna take you places you never dreamed of." Franco eventually told her, slipping his arm around her shoulders, caressing the bare skin of her upper arm.

Debbie sat staring ahead and felt like vomiting.

Even the touch of his fingers on her skin made her nauseous.

How could she have even considered having sex with such an arrogant cretin she wondered. He was probably the most obnoxious man she had ever met in her life.

"Yeah sure... umm... it'll be memorable."

"Great ain't the word for it. When I've finished, you'll never want to look at another man again."

"I'm sure I won't want to ever look at another man after I've been with you." She told him, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

If he noticed her cynicism, he didn't say anything, just pulled her up against him and kissed her, forcing his tongue in between her lips, he wormed it against hers.

Debbie didn't resist or respond to his kiss as his hand slid up onto her breast cupping it and kneading it gently. His thumb and finger finding her nipple and starting to tease it into a hard peak.

"N... no... stop... stop... not here." She shoved him away after a moment or two as she realised what he was doing.

"What's up gorgeous. Tits like yours are there to be felt." He sneered at her, "Chill out."

She glared back at him, barely keeping her temper under control, "Not in a bar in public they aren't."

"Like I just said chill sweetheart. I can wait. I'll have them naked soon enough. Just like in the alleyway." He laughed and sat back in his seat.

Shuddering at the very idea of what she had been intending to do Debbie came to a conclusion.

"I need to go the ladies hon. I won't be long then, when I get back, we can go to yours." She smiled and leant across to give him a brief kiss before standing up.

"Don't be long. I've got a hard on that'll cut glass." He smirked, "I need to get you home and into bed."

Well, it's not big enough to do much else with she thought to herself, chuckling, as she walked away from him.

At the exit from the hotel bar, she turned around and gave him another smile before stepping out of his sight.

Without a pause she carried on walking straight past the doorway to the ladies bathroom and out of the hotel's front door.

Outside she stopped dead and stared wide-eyed at Jack.

He was standing just a few feet in front of her with his back towards her, talking to a pretty brunette whom she thought she recognised. They were obviously together as the girl casually linked her arm through his before they headed off down the street together.

Her heart fluttered painfully as she saw him with another woman and she briefly considered going back inside and doing what she had come out intending to do but the mere thought of going anywhere with the vile Franco, let alone bed, made her stomach churn.

Debbie knew she was breaking her promise to Claire but things had changed. In reality she had known that they would the moment the soldier had turned around and she recognised him as Jackson.

She didn't know what was he doing here? Or why he had come back now? Or even who the girl was and what she was to him?

There were so many questions going round in her head and she knew she had to find out the answers to them.

A multitude of confused thoughts surged around her brain again as she hurried home as quickly as she could.

Opening her front door, she stepped inside of the flat and called out, "Hey it's me. I know I'm home early but you'll never guess who I've just seen."

~~~~~~~~~ Chapter twenty ~~~~~~~~~~

Jack was up early on the Saturday. Being in the military he always found it difficult to sleep in regardless of where he was, and he took his time shaving and showering before getting dressed.

Then, wearing jeans and a casual shirt, he headed down for breakfast.

By nine thirty he was all done so he took a slow stroll along to the café where he had arranged to meet old Henry.

The place was just as he remembered it and wasn't particularly crowded despite it being a Saturday morning. He stood for a minute to take it all in before he pushed open the door and went inside to the familiar smell of coffee brewing.

"Well, bless my soul if it isn't Jack Maitland?" Mrs Williams the owner of the cafe looked up and greeted him with surprise when he walked in, "Is that really you Jack?"

"Hello Mrs Williams. Yeah, it's me I'm afraid." He grinned back at her before ordering a cappuccino.

"I was sorry to hear about your mother. She was a lovely woman." She told him as she prepared his drink.

"Thanks."

"This one's on the house Jack. It's lovely to see you again. Welcome home." Her smile brought back happier memories of times he had spent in the café.

"Thanks. It's nice to see you again to." He told her genuinely.

Taking a seat at a table outside, in the shadow of the wall, he sat and waited, watching the world pass by. Barely ten minutes later he was joined by Henry, wandering up with his morning paper. He got the old soldier a coffee and sat down opposite his new friend.

"Well, well I see you're still here then?" the old man chortled as he settled down and picked up his drink.

Jack laughed, "Probably not for much longer but I couldn't go without saying goodbye."

"That's a shame lad. Things not as you expected?"

Jack looked at him, his eyes filled with anguish, "Yeah something like that."

"You want to talk about it, son?"

He shook his head, "Not at the moment. Things just aren't what I expected. Let's leave it at that."

Old Henry nodded but left the matter there, he understood that if the soldier wanted to tell him he would.

The pair quickly picked up from where they had finished when they got off the train and chatted amicably for the next half an hour as they drank their coffee.

"Where do you think you'll go then?" Henry enquired.

Jack shrugged "I'm not sure. Maybe back to the hospital, there's a girl there, or maybe up to Scotland for a holiday."

It was almost half past ten when, looking across the road from his spot in the shadows, Jack saw Debbie approaching along the other side of the street.

She was still some distance away but he could tell she was with her mother and between them was a small blonde-haired girl he had never seen before holding their hands.

As he stared at them his stomach churned as the realisation hit him and he suddenly felt sick all over again. She hadn't just moved on she had had a child as well.

They stopped and Debbie bent down, obviously speaking to the little girl who he had assumed was her daughter. Then she kissed her mother on the cheek and separating from them she hurried across to the café alone.