Chapter 13
When the doors to Jack's office opened again, he was already geared up to start spitting insults are the R&D techs who tried to get shitty prototypes approved and in production, but his would-be tirade was cut short when his twin entered instead. Immediately, Jack's scowl turned into a wide grin that stretched from ear to ear, whereas Timothy just sent him a dopey smile.
Yeah, okay, that was weird.
Anyway-
"Timmy! Always nice to see my big brother completely surprise me with a visit!" Jack had already sprinted from behind his desk to go up to Timothy, ignoring the quiet protests from his twin as he wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug.
Tim was his favorite sibling, okay? (His only sibling, but hey, it still counted.)
"Jack, you asked me to come up today. I even specifically remember you telling me to dress like this, too." Timothy waved a hand down his front, gesturing to the get up that matched Jack's. They stopped doing the twin thing ages ago. As a matter of fact, they stopped around the same time Jack got his scar, which kinda ruined the fun of making people confused by their appearances, but Jack still insisted on having Tim dress up when he visited Hyperion.
"Yeah, yeah. Did anyone freak out on your way up? You stopped on a couple of random floors, right? Like I asked?"
Timothy sighed, giving his brother a deadpan look, and nodded his head.
"Someone on the ground floor dropped their coffee that they just purchased, and a few interns tripped over each other and ran into a door jamb." The older twin rolled his eyes as Jack laughed and followed him back to his desk, where Jack took Timothy by the shoulders and sat him down in his executive chair.
"Good, good." Jack said as he leaned on the chair, his hands on the armrests, successfully blocking Timothy in. "Gotta instill a little fear in these guys, keep them on their toes and all that. I mean, I do a damn fine job of that already, but-"
"Oh!" Timothy exclaimed, a light blush dusting his cheeks as that dopey friggin' smile came back onto his face. Jack narrowed his eyes at him, one eyebrow arched as he waited for his brother to continue.
"I met someone in the elevator on the way up." Timothy leaned one elbow on the armrest and propped his cheek on his fist, smiling at nothing in particular as he recalled the encounter in the elevator. "He was so cute, and so sweet. Ohhh I just wanna ruin him."
"Okay first off, ew. I don't want to hear about my brother ruining anyone." Jack stood up straight, crossing his arms over his chest. "Second off, last I checked you were into women who could probably kill you with one manicured hand tied behind their backs."
"Nisha could kill me with both hands tied behind her back and I would thank her. Besides, you know gender is a non-issue with me, and I know you are about as straight as a circle." Timothy countered, looking up at Jack with something akin to amusement.
"Jesus Christ, alright. Now is this guy someone you're planning on bringing home for Christmas or no? Because Angel is starting to get worried that you're going to die alone, Timmy."
Timothy laughed nervously, his blush increasing tenfold as he scratched the back of his neck. He leaned back further into Jack's chair and even started twirling it around slowly, ignoring the eyeroll Jack gave him at the childish display. Timothy let the chair go one full, slow rotation before he stopped it, facing Jack once again with a grin on his face and eyes shifting from his lap to Jack's face.
"I mean, maybe? I- God, I wouldn't mind, you know? If I see him again, I might ask for his number or invite him out for coffee, and see where it goes from there? He had the prettiest lips, too. Hard to resist and all that."
"Yeah?" Jack asked, only mildly curious about this guy who caught his brother's eye so easily. Then again, nearly everyone caught Timothy's eye, but still. "What's his name?"
At that, Timothy laughed softly, still smiling. "He had such a unique name, one that's hard to forget. It was Rhys." Timothy didn't see the way Jack froze since he was fiddling with his hands in his lap. "I think he even mentioned working with you recently? So you probably-"
"No."
Jack's tone had Timothy looking up at him in shock, the smile dropping off his face immediately at his brother's expression. "E-excuse me?"
"I said no." Fuck, what was he doing, Jack thought to himself as he turned away from Timothy's confused expression to walk to his office window again. "Rhys is...off limits."
"Off limits? Jack, what the hell are you talking about?" Timothy swiveled the chair towards the window and jumped up from it, striding over to where Jack stood. Jack didn't look at his twin until Timothy boldly stood right in his line of sight.
"He's busy with work projects, he doesn't have time for a relationship right now." It was a bullshit excuse. Jack knew it and so did Timothy. His twin stared at him for a few seconds, the time seeming like an eternity as Jack waited for Timothy to say something. Finally, Timothy opened his mouth, first to gasp in poorly concealed surprise and then to actually speak.
"You like him." Tim poked Jack's chest, hard, and continued. "You like Rhys and you're pulling that same bullcrap you used to years ago."
Jack huffed and slapped Timothy's hand away. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"You did this with Nisha, and then again with Moxxi-"
"Yeah okay fine, but then Nisha dumped me for you, which I still can't believe."
"Oh my god, let that go, Jack. It's been like five years, and in case you forgot, Nisha ditched both of us for Moxxi after that."
"I heard her and Mox are tying the knot pretty soon. I got an invite." Jack grinned, not so subtly trying to sway the conversation into more comfortable waters. Timothy saw right through that, too, and thumped his fist against Jack's chest, causing his twin to scowl at him.
"So did I, but stop avoiding the subject. You like Rhys and you don't want me to have him, or at least try to get his attention."
Jack didn't say anything in response, and instead stomped off to his chair and dramatically dropped down into it, kicking his feet up on the desk and crossing his arms over his chest. His expression was pinched in a way that Timothy recognized, and he knew his brother was battling with his own thoughts at the moment. Tim walked over to his brother's desk and hopped up on the surface of it, clasping his hands together in his lap as he regarded Jack.
"I don't like him," Jack said finally, voice quiet. "He's a good employee and he's useful, but I don't like him."
"I know you, Jack, and I know that you're a filthy liar, but fine. Keep telling yourself that." Timothy nudged Jack's leg with his knee, earning a small glare in response. "And I'll let you try your luck with him, but don't mess this kid up, Jackson."
That got a laugh out of Jack. "Jackson? Ohhh, what did I do to get my big brother all riled up?"
"Rhys seems like a really sweet guy, Jack. If you stop lying to yourself and decide to pursue him, I don't want to find out that you hurt him." Timothy nudged him again, this time hard enough to knock Jack's feet off of the desk, causing him to sit up properly in his chair.
"I already told you, I don't like Rhys."
"Then why did you tell me he's off limits?" This time it was Timothy who crossed his arms over his chest, looking down at Jack with a hard expression. Jack swallowed thickly and looked away.
"Like I said, he's busy-"
"The real reason." Tim put his foot on Jack's knee, stopping the CEO from swiveling away from his twin. Jack still avoided Tim's gaze, however, with his eyes focused on his brother's shoe, instead.
"I..." Jack balled up his fists, brows knitting together in frustration. "I don't friggin' know, okay! I barely even know the kid! I mean, he's easy on the eyes, that I will admit, but I don't like him, damn it."
Silence reigned between the brothers after that, with Timothy letting his leg go limp, his foot falling from Jack's knee and swinging from the desk. Jack leaned back into his chair, running a hand over his face and through his hair as he sighed heavily, avoiding Timothy's gaze for as long as he could. The silence was broken by Jack's landline buzzing, Stacey's voice coming over the comm and announcing that the R&D techs had finally made it to his office.
Jack looked at the phone and then finally at Timothy who still sat on his desk, now twiddling his thumbs in his lap.
"I gotta fire these assclowns. Are you staying?"
"Only if you buy me lunch afterwards."
"What kinda of guy would I be if I let my brother go hungry?"
After collecting Vaughn from his cubicle in Accounting, Rhys and Vaughn headed to the cafeteria to pick up their food and grabbed a table in the corner where it was relatively secluded. Around them, some people sat alone, furiously typing on laptops and tablet screens to finish up last minute projects before their lunch break was over, while others sat in groups of two or more to have actual friendly conversations before they had to get back to the daily grind. Once they were settled, Vaughn wasted no time to ask Rhys how his latest meeting with Jack went.
"Well," Rhys started, talking around a bite of his sandwich before he swallowed it. "It was okay, at first. Kinda pointless to me because it could have waited until the quarterly review, but I don't know why Jack was so insistent on getting the information right then and there.
"Then we got on the topic of some blueprints he was sent to review and possibly approve for production, but I noticed that they were knock offs of one of Torgue's busted products and told Jack, who then proceeded to call up the three people responsible."
"You mean you watched Handsome Jack fire someone?" Vaugh said after he chugged down at least half of his water bottle. Rhys shook his head, taking another bite of his sandwich and swallowing before he continued.
"No, but hold on, that reminds me." Rhys took out his ECHO and opened up his memo pad, jotting down a note to himself to speak with Roberts when he got back to his office. "I told him I'd fire the one from my department, but I wouldn't stand in on someone else's business when I had nothing to do with them. He basically told me to leave after that."
"Just like that?" Vaughn asked, tilting his head to the side and readjusting his glasses.
"Well, no, there was some other words exchanged, but afterwards, yes."
"Hm." Vaughn finished up his own meal and wiped his face free of any crumbs or drops of sauce, then gestured to Rhys. "When did you find time to charge it?"
"Wha-? Oh, um," Rhys rubbed his prosthetic, looking down at the table for a moment before shrugging. "Jack was really understanding about it? I don't know, man, it was kinda freaking me out, how nice he was being and all. He let me hook it up to a port in his desk while we went over stuff."
"Handsome Jack? Nice? Those are two things I'd never would have thought of going together."
"I know, bro, trust me. Jack was almost being gentle with me until we started disagreeing about the whole Torgue-prototype issue." The cybernetic man pushed his lunch tray away, instead propping his elbows up on the table and hanging his head in his hands, thoroughly confused the more he thought about Jack.
"And then as I was coming down to get you, I ran into his brother in the elevator."
Vaughn squawked, the noise drawing attention of a few people who were sitting close by to them, and Rhys rushed to quiet his friend with a hand over his mouth, shushing him with a slightly panicked expression.
"Dude!"
"Sorry," Vaughn said in a whisper as Rhys lowered his hand. "Jack has a brother? How did we not know this? We've been working here for a decade, we should know this."
"Vaughn, I'm pretty sure more than half of the people who work here still don't know that Handsome Jack's last name is Lawrence, much less that he has a twin brother."
"A twin!" Vaughn squawked again, giving Rhys an apologetic look when he once again covered his mouth up.
"Are you gonna stop?" Rhys' hand still covered his mouth, so Vaughn just nodded, apologizing again when Rhys removed his hand. "Look I know it's a surprise, but maybe Jack doesn't make it public knowledge for a reason? Like with his last name, or that fact that he as a daughter? We didn't even know about her until we moved in next to them, and that was by accident!"
At some point while Rhys was going off, Vaughn's attention had shifted from his best friend to the entrance of the cafeteria. Most of the other occupants were also focused on that spot, and it took Rhys a moment to figure out why. At the entrance of the cafeteria, Handsome Jack stood with his brother. The former of the two was grinning wildly, waving at a few employees who openly gaped at the pair, while Timothy rolled his eyes at his brother's antics.
Vaughn turned back to Rhys looking frazzled. "What was that you were saying about not making it public knowledge?"
"You do realize that your little game of scaring your minions is ruined now, right? They're not going to fall for it as easily, Jack." Beside him, Jack just laughed, causing a few people to move further away from them.
"And when I said buy me lunch, I was thinking more along the lines of that Italian place down the street."
Jack clapped his hand down on Timothy's shoulder, ignoring his brother's slight wince as he led him over to one of the lunch lines, immediately bypassing the entire line to cut to the front. Timothy said nothing as Jack ordered similar things for the both them.
"I'll put some special effects make-up on you next time, give ya one of these," Jack gestured to his scar. "But without all the pain and screaming. Besides, I gotta rub elbows with these losers sometimes, promotes some stupid notion that I'm no better than them and all that. I can easily get on their level, as my PR agent says."
"Jack," Timothy said as he grabbed the tray from the kitchen aide, nodding in thanks before continuing. "The only person in this entire building who knows you're not better than him is me. None of your employees would ever believe that you'd actually step down off your high horse."
"Speaking of horses, did you know Butt Stallion had a baby? Real beauty. I was thinking of putting the little thing into training to become a show pony."
"Please stop changing the subject." Timothy shrugged, looking down at his plate with a small smile. "But how cute is the foal? Does Angel like it?"
"Now who's changing the subject?" Jack grinned at his twin, nudging him with his elbow as he chuckled. Timothy rolled his eyes and shared a smile with his brother, following him over to an empty table. It was previously occupied, but as soon as the occupants saw Jack walk over, they had made haste to vacate the area.
How nice of them.
"So, Vaughn!" Rhys said, eyes wide and panicked, completely opposite to the grin he was wearing. "I forgot that I have a huge report to finish back at my office. Lunch has been a real treat, let me tell you, but I think I gotta go."
Rhys got up from the table, angling himself away from the brothers' line of sight and making sure his face wasn't visible to them. He slouched a little bit too, so that his height wouldn't make him as noticeable when he stood. It wasn't so much that he thought he was important enough to warrant their attention, but Rhys did just have very odd encounters with both of them, and he didn't want to push his luck.
Vaughn looked up at thim, already nodding along and wearing the same panicked expression. Across the cafeteria, many people were in the same boat, though only a few were making an effort to leave the presence of Handsome Jack and his twin.
"Oh yeah! You know what, me too! It's best that we both get out of here and back to work as soon as possible."
"Quite right!" Rhys smiled at Vaughn, making small motions with his hands to signal Vaughn to hurry the hell up. The shorter male nodded again and got up, and both of them hurried out of the cafeteria, keeping their heads low all the way to the elevator. They didn't dare breathe again until the metal doors closed and the machine began its ascent to their respective floors.
"What do you think is gonna happen now?" Vaughn asked, adjusting his glasses as he looked up at Rhys, who was leaning against the elevator wall.
"What, now that Jack has a twin? Honestly, I don't think it's gonna change much of anything." Rhys shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets and taking a deep breath. His stupid heart was still pounding in his chest.
"No I mean, at home? Do you think he's gonna have his brother over?"
"I don't know. Maybe? I don't see how that would affect us though. It won't make Jack any worse, if that's what you're asking. Timothy seems like he would be the voice of reason out of the two. He'd probably be a good influence on Jack's neighborly personality." Rhys hooked his fingers as he said neighborly, putting air quotes around the word. Jack was just peachy, a real fine example of a decent human being.
"Timothy?" Vaughn questioned.
Rhys shrugged in response. "Yeah, Timothy."
"Handsome Jack and Timothy."
"Yep."
Vaughn was silent for a minute, not making a move as the elevator stopped at his floor and opened with a hiss.
"Huh."