Jayla Rin woke up the next morning in a puddle of spit, with a raging headache.
Uuhhg. What time is it? Why didn't Orrin wake me up?
She attempted to sit up, gasped and quickly scrunched back down. She didn't have any clothes on.
She sat for a minute, wondering what to do. She heard rustling of sheets behind her and her heart leaped to her throat.
She recognized the mottled back and ribs of L.J.
She leaned over the bed and puked onto the floor. Partially from hangover and partially from horror.
What the hell happened last night?!
Her choking woke L.J up, and he groaned and reached over to hand her a glass of water from his end table.
"Th-Thanks…" She said shakily, sipping it slowly. "What the...did we...last night..?"
L.J shrugged. "Honestly i'm not sure if we'll ever know. I keep my own private stock here so after we got bounced from the ramen shop, we came back here for more...that's all i've got."
He stood up and walked backwards to the bathroom with his pants over his arm in front of him. After putting them on, he came back with his kimono and handed it to her. Finally, he pulled the blanket over his shoulders to hide his upper body. "Don't need to give you any more reasons to throw up right now." He smiled a bit.
Jayla was lying on her back, staring at the ceiling, with the kimono draped over her.
"That doesnt' make me throw up." She rolled her eyes. "It just...startled me the first time."
L.J lay next to her. "What did you expect?" He smirked.
"Nothing!" Jayla said quickly. "I mean...well...not that."
L.J nodded and smiled a bit. "I understand, i was just teasing."
They were silent for a couple minutes when they heard a quiet humming in the doorway.
"Black coffee for the both of you?" Asa asked.
"Please." Jayla said. "And i hate to ask, but would you mind finding Orrin for me? Last time i got drunk i locked him in a bureau drawer."
Asa shook his shell back and forth as he floated out to the kitchen. "You guardians are a full time job."
"Asa," L.J asked, looking out the doorway. "Do YOU know what happened last night?"
The ghost paused from filling the coffee mugs and looked sideways at him. "I'll never tell."
L.J shakily stood and brought the coffee over to Jayla.
"Thanks again," She said shyly, sitting up, but keeping the kimono draped over her.
"No problem, chief." L.J sat on the edge of the bed next to her. Jayla forgot to glare at him that time.
Asa left to find Orrin, and Jayla and L.J sat in silence for a bit.
"You'll probably want to shower before you go..." He started.
Jayla stared at him for a second until he quickly clarified. "ALONE; alone...i mean, if you've got half the hangover i have, i figured it would help..."
Jayla stood up, turned around and slipped into the kimono. "Maybe later." She said, sitting back down. Her head started spinning the moment she stood up.
L.J nodded. "Of course; anytime at all."
They were silent again for a minute or two, until Jayla looked up at him. "What kind of an accident was it, that a ghost couldn't heal you fully?"
L.J laughed a bit, sounding surprised. "Where did that come from?"
"Please, i have to know." Jayla went on. "I've been wracking my brain; i can't think of any way that it's possible."
L.J took a long sip of his coffee, and his crazy blue eyes darted around the room for a minute, as if trying to figure out how to start.
"Well...that's because it wasn't from an accident. My first fireteam...was me, another hunter named Alec Wren, and a warlock named Lyssia-4." He shook his head and smiled a bit. "That girl had moves; we always told her she could cut a rug. She was better than Lakshmi-2. And Wren had the dirtiest, most juvenile sense of humor...anyhow.
We were dealing with a Cabal issue on Mars. We got cocky. To be fair, they didn't behave the way we'd come to expect from them. We were captured."
Jayla swallowed hard, the coffee burning her throat on the way down. She thought she saw where this was going.
"It just got weirder from there. First, they killed Lys and Wren's ghosts. They spared Asa obviously, but you'll find out why.
They beat us to hell, and dumped battery acid on Lyssia, made her drink it, all that. She completely corroded and melted from the inside out. And-" His voice caught a bit. "And they dismembered Wren. But they made sure they spent their final breaths with me. To make me mad...make me hurt, i guess. Hurt will...its one of those things that gets inside your head...drives you crazy. It makes you do crazy things."
Jayla nodded knowingly.
"They kept me chained to the treads of a damaged tank, deep in the bunker. It was at least several months. During that time, they would kill me or have me fight, gladiator-style and have Asa bring me back. Obviously tho….there's been some permanent damage." He leaned over his shoulder and traced the scar going up under his chin with his thumb. His icy eyes stared off over Jayla's shoulder and she could see the grief and vivid imagery he was reliving. "I never knew there were so many painful ways to die."
Hot tears burned the backs of Jayla's eyes. How awful.
"They about wore him out before some guardians from the Vanguard sprung me loose. There was still something wrong tho. To this day…" He paused. "I hate being rezzed. I can...i wake up tasting my own blood. I smell the fuel from the tank, i hear the Cabal...I hear Lys and Wren's screams. It...it all comes back. Every time. No matter what i do, no matter how long it's been."
The "mental-patient" look was starting to creep back into his eyes as he looked into Jayla's. "I saw Lyssia-4, when i watched the Gladiator come at you the other day."
He looked down after he said it. "I'm sorry I stole your kill."
"It's okay." Jayla answered. E.K.C seemed lame now.
"The first month or so after i got home to the tower...I was going crazy from grief and guilt. I committed suicide...repeatedly. In different ways...hoping each time would be something Asa wouldn't be able to do anything about. Hoping he'd let me rest. He wouldn't. I hated him for it for a while.
It made everything worse. The cycle was endless...and horrible. The Vanguard relieved me. I locked myself in these quarters...i'm not quite sure for how long. I do know i didn't eat or sleep for days. Asa wouldn't let me out; he was afraid i'd keep trying to kill myself, or that i'd kill him to keep him from bringing me back.
Then one day...I went out. I stayed alive. I walked around the bazaar...and came back. Each day i'd walk a little farther, until i left the tower again. Ate again. Slept my first night..." He smiled a bit. "Slept my first nightmare-free night. Ran missions again... finally joined a fireteam again."
He sighed and leaned back against the wall, winded from his long story.
"But," He finally said. "You better believe there isn't a day that goes by, where Lyssia and Wren aren't the first thing on my mind when i wake up, and the last memory i have before I fall asleep."
Jayla nodded and she could feel her lips trembling. She knew that feeling all too well.
She couldn't bring herself to look at him; she looked instead at the kimono she was wearing. That stupid, cheesy floral kimono that she hated because it epitomized L.J's personality, or so she thought. Someone who couldn't possibly understand how she felt and the experiences she had, someone who was carefree, a flamboyant smart-ass...except he wasn't. She never would have believed any of this about L.J if she hadn't heard it from him herself.
She bit her lip and blinked a couple times ."W-Why are you telling me all this?" She asked finally.
L.J smiled a little and shook his head. "Because you asked!" He answered. "No, for real, mostly because...mostly to give you hope. You and Darren are the first fireteam i've had in years, and the Vanguard hoped that...that maybe between your loss and mine, that we could help each other. That was the main reason i agreed to do this to begin with. Why i didn't take your attitude personally. I've been there. Not exactly the same; i didn't lose Reno-13, but I lost Wren and Lys. And we'll never stop missing the three of them. But i'm -ironically enough- living proof, that somehow it's possible to make it thru. That you're not alone. That healing...and some semblance of a normal life is possible. Or at least coping is. You'll get there. I hope...i hope someday, in some small way i can help you."
Jayla nodded silently, the tears she fought now catching in her eyes and spilling down her face. She took a deep breath and wiped them with the sleeve of the kimono. "Th-Thankyou. You already have, really. I'm...I'm glad you're here. That Asa wouldn't let you give up. That...i'm glad that you're in my fireteam."
The brightness and light that shone from L.J's eyes and smile made her start sobbing all over again, and he leaned over and squeezed her shoulder gently. "Me too chief. Me too."