Woo! Chapter 2! We had one person get the thirteen points from the references, and now I'm gonna tell you what they all were anyway: the first one was a reference to Three Dog's radio show in Fallout 3, Dash's name reference ( ) is a reference to Rainbow Dash from MLP, they're playing Bullshit, and the nurse at the end is based on Nurse Redheart from MLP. Anyhoo, big thanks to Hawk-eye-33, TheShadeOps, justagenericusername, and Coffee Monsta for your reviews.

Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher

~Spitfire (and Kat!) out

Missing psychological exam. Yep. Shepherd was going to be up his ass about that no doubt. Prophet rubbed his forehead as he kept going through Jay's file. It was odd, the kid didn't seem to have any problem talking to psychologists, his history was full of the reports of his monthly visits, so why was this different? Why had there not been an exam in five years. Five years. Jay had told him that he'd been 'dealing with it' for five years. Whatever happened was hurting him horribly and Prophet had half a mind to list him unfit for duty, but he wanted to hear Jay's side of the story first. He wouldn't read any more into it. That would be going too far, being too invasive. He'd have to try talking to him tonight.

Dash was in the gym, preferring keeping in shape to lounging around waiting for orders. At the moment she was going through sparring drills on dummies.

That was, until Meat walked up to her, "You need a sparring partner?" he asked, flashing a flirtatious grin.

Dash smirked at him and shrugged, "Sure, I could go for kickin' your ass," she laughed.

Meat laughed as well as they stepped over to the sparring mat, "Ain't gonna be that easy, newbie."

Dash gave a cocky smile and got into her stance, "Prove it."

Meat frowned and went at her. He hit the mat only five seconds later with a very shocked expression. They went several more rounds, each ending the same way, but lasting longer each time. After about five matches they called it quits and went for the water bottles.

Meanwhile, in the infirmary, Doc was going over Jay's injury with him, inspecting the stitches and the wound itself.

"Oh yeah, these can come out now," Doc said to himself, giving the stitches a look over, "Lie down," he ordered, setting aside scissors and tweezers.

Jay obeyed without a word and lay back on the table. He took to staring at the ceiling as Doc removed all four stitches. It did not take long and Jay was able to sit up again shortly.

"So, when do you think I'll be able to get back to work?" Jay asked curiously.

"Just take it easy for today and tomorrow and you should be fine," Doc answered simply.

Jay nodded and pulled his shirt back on, "Anything else I need to do before I go?"

Doc shook his head in reply and Jay stood and walked out of the room, grabbing his bag from where he'd left it on his new desk before leaving.

Jay thought about simply going back to the barracks and hanging out in the rec room with everyone else, but decided against it and headed towards the gym. Prophet hadn't been mistaken when he'd said that Jay had been having a nightmare. They were common, but that didn't mean they didn't bother him. He needed to take his mind off of it and he planned on doing that by testing his limits.

Dash saw the other newbie, Jay, come into the gym and drop his kit by a punching bag on the other side of the room. She considered going to talk to him, but she was busy talking to Meat instead and decided to just leave him be. He looked like he rather be alone anyway.

She tried to focus on what Meat was saying, something about how he got stuck with the nickname 'Meat', but she couldn't help looking over his shoulder at the medic now pushing himself to do pushups one-handed. Meat looked behind him to see what had caught Dash's attention.

He gave a sort of half-chuckle, "Shepherd doesn't mess around with the recruiting, huh?"

"So, this 'one-four-one' is the best of the best?" Dash asked curiously.

"Of the best," Meat added on with a nod, "We're the top tier fighters from all over the world."

"That explains the accents," Dash commented with a chuckle, "Where're you from?"

"France," Meat answered proudly, "What about you?"

"Texas," Dash answered with a grin.

Jay was pushing himself hard, harder than he should have, he knew, but that didn't stop him. Jay was never one to stay down when he was losing. He didn't pause until he saw Prophet enter the gym, appearing to be looking for someone, until his eyes locked on him. He frowned harshly, and went back to his exercises.

Prophet walked straight up to Jay, completely disregarding the look he'd been given. Something had happened to give this man a sour attitude towards shrinks, it was all over the reports, Jay had never had a problem talking to them before, and now, for five years no psychologist has been able to get him to talk. Prophet was determined to be the one to change that.

He watched Jay for a moment, the man seemed to be trying to ignore him; his eyes caught on a large and strange scar on Jay's back and he became curious, "What happened?"

Jay paused again to look at him. Prophet was looking at his back, probably at the scars there. There were two that were visible, in the shape of an 'L'. The long side went from his shoulder blade down to his mid-lower back. The short side went across there. They'd been carved into his back with a knife.

Jay saw no harm in telling about it, he wasn't bothered by it anymore, "I was stuck in a Russian prison for a couple weeks," he answered, "I was bound to come out of it with some scars."

Prophet nodded to himself, he'd read the reports of the counseling he'd had after recovering physically. He remembered there being more than a few mentions of someone sticking by his side and helping him cope with the nightmares, even going, at Jay's request, to the sessions with him. That didn't seem to be the case anymore, however, and Prophet wondered if it had any connection to his current state. Of course, that had been more than seven years ago, there was a good chance the two had simply gone their separate ways.

Jay frowned deeply on seeing Prophet's brow furrow in thought, "Stay out of my business," he snapped, standing up from his work out.

Prophet sighed a little, 'Right… shoulda seen that coming…', "Where are you from, Jay?" he asked, it was a harmless question really, he was curious.

Jay gave a chuckle, "Technically, nowhere," he answered, "Grew up with both parents in the military, I moved every couple months, so I'm not really from anywhere," he explained before Prophet could ask.

"What's with the accent then?" Prophet questioned, "American? British? I can't fuckin' tell!" he laughed.

"Both," Jay answered, "My mum was a nurse with the SAS and my dad was a US Marine infantryman."

"Must've been hard growing up like that," Prophet commented, "Moving around all the time, probably missing one parent most, if not all, the time."

Jay shrugged, "It's all I know. I was fine with it, I had friends all over the world that my parents helped me keep in touch with. Got to see the world before I could want that to be any sort of reason for enlisting."

"Why did you enlist then?"

"Because I wanted to help people," Jay answered, taking on a more somber tone, "'Just like Mum and Dad' I'd always said as a kid, it's all I'd ever wanted to do."

There it was. It was the way he'd said he'd wanted to help people. Prophet was willing to bet Jay had lost someone. He knew that hit medics extremely hard, he'd seen it happen, seen the usually cool and collected fall apart and blame themselves for something they couldn't have stopped. But surely, he'd lost people before. He thought hard back to what he'd read of Jay's file. He'd only ever lost one person on the job, but he couldn't recall anything about it, that hadn't been his business. Prophet was getting close to what he wanted to know, he could tell, but he wouldn't try to press further for now, lest Jay figure it out and push him away again. Though he couldn't help but notice how unusually open Jay had been in some of his answers. Perhaps there was some small part of him that wanted help, but didn't know how to get it.

"That's enough about me. What made you want to be a shrink?" Jay asked after a moment.

Prophet smiled, "Same as you, just wanted to help people. Might not have known as early on as you apparently did, but it worked out I suppose."

Dash couldn't help but watch the conversation between Jay and that other man she hadn't been introduced to yet. It was a strange one and she could see several different emotions and thoughts running through both of them.

Meat noticed her wandering eyes and followed her gaze, "That's Prophet," he explained, "Team shrink. He's a good guy. Lord knows this Task Force needs him," he laughed.

Dash chuckled with him, but didn't say anything as Jay went back to his workout.

The rest of the workout didn't last long. When Jay reached up to grab hold of the pull-up bar his face twisted into a harsh grimace and he bent over in pain, gripping the right side of his chest. Prophet was down by his side in an instant, about to lay him back on his back, until he was pushed away, physically this time.

"I'm fine," Jay ground the words out, sitting back and coughing a little, trying to catch his breath; he straightened up a little to show the scarring wound on his chest, "Just hurts…"

"Maybe I should call Doc…" Prophet suggested, already standing up.

Jay grabbed his arm to stop him, "I'm fine," Jay stood up slowly, checked his watch, and sighed, "Pain meds wore off half an hour ago. It just hurts, no big deal."

"How long ago did that happen? It looks healed… Shouldn't it not be hurting like that?" Prophet questioned, he was an expert on mental health, not physical health.

Jay rolled his eyes, "A couple weeks ago. It is, mostly. And yeah, it should be, I got shot in the fucking lung by a sniper," he answered bluntly, "I'd be worried if it didn't hurt."

Prophet's eyes widened, "A sniper shot you… in the lung… A sniper. Don't they usually finish the job? How the hell are you alive?!"

"Because the General was standing right next to me…" Jay answered, "Him and my old team…"

Prophet's jaw dropped, "General Shepherd?" he asked.

Jay simply nodded, "That's how I got here… that's how he explained it to me anyway, my 'intuition and reflexes' were 'among the best he's seen' or something…" Jay shrugged a little, "any medic coulda done it honestly, it's just a medic's instinct I suppose…"

"Wait, wait, wait, back it up. What did you do?!"

Jay looked at the floor, "I ah… pushed him out of the way and caught the bullet in the chest…" he answered awkwardly.

If Jay was being honest with himself, it had been an impressive feat, and even more so impressive that he'd survived. He very nearly didn't.

"So, Dash, you know why Shepherd recruited you?" Meat asked, tearing his eyes away from the other pair.

Dash nodded and flexed, "My combat skills," she answered with a grin, "All I need's me, my fists, and my SPAS."

Meat laughed, "Impressive."

Dash dropped her arms and laughed as well.

Hey guys. Sorry about the wait on Stoic, I'm having technical difficulties with the document and also just got back from a vacation and writer's block is also a bit of an issue, but I promise I'll try to get it out soon. In the meantime I'll up the preview offer from last chapter to the first 1,000 words if you can tell me one reason I named this story Another End? As a sort of 'sorry I suck at being on time' kind of thing? Also this is kind of turning into more Jay's story than Dash's, but Jay is so much easier to write so it might just stay that way…

Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher

~Spitfire out