Maybe it wasn't the best time to stop by then, but Jake was kind of wondering what time would be right. Plus, there were only so many sweets he could eat before he got enough of it. Just don't tell anyone he narrated that.

Anyway, this visit seemed a long time coming even if he still had no idea what to say.

Perhaps something short and simple?

"Hey."

Right. Horniness and those fews days where he was more likely to strangle someone than actually make out with them. At least she was smiling and not throwing stuff at him right now.

"Nothing at the moment, it's kind of weird to be honest," he said lightly.

He blinked at the question as he'd thought she mustn't have known, but then there was radio. He just hadn't been paying attention to it so what the hell was said on there, he could only guess.

"Messy. We took down an army of bloodsuckers," he said casually, like he hadn't been the one to get half crushed. "So at least it wasn't boring?"

Yeah, so he sucked at this too.

"No," he shook his head, panicking a little as he felt his opening slipping away.

Maybe it was better just to not say anything, but that wasn't fair and it'd just mess things up more. "No, I'm going to be staying away for a while. I..." he sucked in a breath. "There's kind of something I should tell you, but maybe this isn't the time or the place. I don't know."

"Right." Sheepish.

He glanced around, but he already knew they had the store for themselves for the moment. All this time back and he felt like he should have rehearsed this so he'd have the best way to get this out. Instead, he still had a jumbled up mess of emotions and no real answer.

"It's... There's this girl back home. I've kind of had a crush on her for a long time now and I kissed her. Cause... Well, it's complicated. I'll explain if you want me to, but you don't have to because it's totally unfair to you and I suck, but I don't want to lose you as a friend at least and it's not like that kiss is going to go anywhere but it wouldn't be fair not to tell you."

He'd already said that, hadn't he? The words had come rushing out with barely a pause to catch his breath and then he fell silent abruptly, not sure what to add. Wait yes, he knew what to add. "I'm sorry."

Jake flinched at the question, but he'd gotten this far and...

"It's... different. It's not like I went to Homecoming and only thought of her or anything like that? I thought I'd put it out of my system, but it's so complicated and she gets into my head when I'm there," he rubbed at his eyes.

"You're different."

That... was kind of distracting him from the whole Bella related angst at least.

"You like girls?"

Priorities.

Scully was having some of the same issues, because her mom was flying to San Diego to be with (the real) Bill Jr. and his family this week. And she'd had to give her brother a very lame excuse about why she wasn't going to be there herself.

Coming up with a better one for Christmas.... yeah, that was going to be tricky.

Getting her mind off that seemed like a good idea.

"Hey. Any new books on quantum physics?"

"How epic are we talking about? Lots of laser guns, or lovers divided by planetary distances?" Scully asked, wandering in to lean on the counter. "How was your weekend?"

"I slept. It was wonderful," Scully said very soberly. "So glad that assignment is over. You're staying for this week, right?"

"I'm considering it, but we have a horrible track record with holidays," Scully admitted. "Mostly Christmas. And Halloween. If he's not in Omaha, or Tacoma or somewhere, maybe we'll go to a Denny's for dinner." There could be worse fates. "If we do, you're welcome to come along."

"They do?" Scully tilted her head. "That might be more fun. Or disastrous. Or both." She grinned suddenly. "Can you see a food fight here?"

"I may stay for this even if Mulder is in town," Scully decided. "The food has to be better than Denny's anyway. I don't miss that part of being a field agent."