So we all know how last time my excuse for not updating sooner was the holidays, right? Well this time it's the post-holidays, and school, and playing with my new hacking toys. . .I am almost into ONI's network. . .and then I can reveal everything about Jorge to his masses of fan girls! Weeee!

This chapter isn't as funny as the others, and I await the virtual bricks through the reviews and my PM box. Just shut up and read. And don't forget how 'tired I am from school' or whatever. And be nice to me.

"So where are we headed to today?", Carter asked as the other Spartans rose, and the van rocked as Jorge (apparently) woke up, and slid out from under the van.

Yume shrugged, still a little bothered by what had happened the night before. In grade school, she had been known to bully the other kids around at sleep overs, snuggling up against them for no apparent reason. She thought that now she was in high school, she had grown out of it, but. . .

She froze. A thought had just occurred to her. If she was still doing that in her sleep, then all those nights she spent with marines in the glassing. . .had she been doing it then, too?!

"Hey. Heeeeey." Emile knocked her on the head with his fist. "You there, kid. Wake up."

She gave him a sharp look. "Why not book a hotel before we do anything."

Kat nodded and Thom winked at her, as if he knew exactly what she was trying to avoid. The rear door opened and Jorge climbed in, shifting the luggage and sitting down.

"What did I miss?", he asked cheerfully. Yume gave Thom a look that dared him to speak.

~##~

"How did you get the Mayflower?!", Yume exclaimed. The Mayflower was an extremely old and popular hotel in Seattle. The shopping center, Westlake Center was right next to it, as was Macy's, a mammoth cloths store, its building disappearing into the clouds.

Kat winked, and shrugged coyly. As Carter pulled up in front of the hotel, a man in a uniform walked up to the car. He held his hand out for the keys, and waited for Carter to get out as another man walked round to the back of the van to get the luggage.

Emile glared at the little man requesting the keys. "And why should we trust you?"

The little man sputtered nervously, "B-because this is my job!"

"Oh, okay.", Emile sighed, stepping out of the van, and Carter handed the man his keys. The man trying to get the luggage had his hand on the handle, and was just about to open the back when Jorge decided he wanted out.

The smaller man was flung back into the car behind them as Jorge swung the back door upward. "Sorry, didn't see there." Jorge chuckled as he picked the man up under his armpits and set him on his feet.

"Quite alright sir" The man tried to lift one of the suitcases in the back, but his face turned beet red in his struggle. Sweat drenched his uniform. "Urgh!"

"Don't worry about it. I'll get it." Jorge grabbed a suitcase and strapped it across his back with a belt.

"Are you sure-"

"Quite sure." He replied, carrying two suitcases under each arm. "Can you get your bag, Yume? I seem to be out of hands."

Yume nodded, swinging her backpack over her shoulder and her medic bag over her head. She silently wondered how exactly Jorge was going to fit through the front door easily. Of course, he stuck in the door and banged his head on the door frame.

Kat walked to the granite front desk and checked them into two rooms. She flounced back over to them, proud as a cat that had just killed a mouse. "Up, up, up we go." She chanted, gesturing to the elevators.

"Jorge should go on his own. He might exceed the weight limit.", Emile japed. Jorge dropped a suitcase on Emile's shoulders.

"UGH. He might. . .even without the luggage." Emile moaned, barely able to lift the suitcase with one arm. "Who put bricks in their suitcase?"

"I'm sorry!" Jun exclaimed as if he had been holding in a secret for a long time. "I just had to have her! Who knows what would have happened to Snipy if I left her at base?!" Yume tried to suppress a laugh, but failed and had to turn away.

Noble sighed, and in an attempt to break the awkward silence, Jorge cleared his throat, "So, what floor are we on, Kat?"

"Thirteen.", she replied. With that Jorge maneuvered into the elevator, bumping Jun's shoulder on the way, in a reassuring gesture that Spartans used. Jun swiped two fingers over where his name would normally be if he was in armor in a 'Spartan Smile'.

The rest of Noble followed on pairs, and Yume rode upwards with Emile and Jun, the two most unstable if the team. If I was religious, I would be praying right now, she thought to herself, wondering how much danger she actually was in. It was a small, tight space. There was not a lot of chance she would live if she made the wrong move. . .

~##~

"I wanna die. I am so tired." Jun whined, collapsing onto the bed, his sniper rifle in one hand.

"Get that thing off the bed!" Emile snapped at him, waving at his sniper rifle.

Jun jumped up. "Snipy is not a thing! She is a companion. Which is more than you are!"

Emile was just about to make a snappy comeback when Carter walked in from the girls' room. " Lock it down, you two. We're going shopping."

Jorge, Thom, Emile and Jun gazed at Carter dumbly, frozen.

"Shopping?"

Carer nodded grimly. "Yeah. Clothes shopping."

~##~

"It is huge." Rosenda whispered breathlessly, looking up at the tall Macy's skyscraper.

Yume nodded, kid of bored. She hated this store. She hated clothes shopping. She hated trying things on. And she felt like she should apologize to the guys of the group for bringing them there.

Kat and Rosenda walked in, leaving the rest in the dust. "You ready?" Jun gulped.

The rest of the men nodded.

"Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" Thom pumped his fist in the air.

The group of Spartans strode through the doors, Yume trailing, out of place, behind them.

"Soooo, what do we do first?" Thom clapped his hands as they stood just inside the store. "Kilts or cosplay?"

"I doubt they have either of those here." Yume scoffed, looking bored, but slightly surprised Thom knew about cosplay.

"Do they have any Mark VI s? I do need a new suit." Jorge looked around as if he expected to see a sign that read "SPARTANS COME HERE" in flashing letters.

"No. Let me tell you something: Macy's is a stereotyping, clothing-selling juggernaut. They sell stuff for the people they want to represent them." Yume explained.

The male Spartans glared at her, sizing her up, as if to fight her. "Are you a 'normal person they want to represent them'?"

Yume shook her head, "By no means. And neither are you."

Thom spun on his heel, pointed forward, and proclaimed, "To the women's section!" Emile smirked, Jun kind of smiled awkwardly, and Carter sighed, rubbing his temple.

"Let them enjoy themselves, Commander." Jorge advised. "When and where else will they et to do this?"

"I just hope they don't get it in their heads that it will be like this when we get home. They're Spartans. They don't belong here." Carter scowled. He wished he was with Kat.

"Even Spartans are human, sir. And so are you." Jorge tapped Carter on his shoulder, and then loped forward, following the three preceding them.

Elsewhere in the store. . .

"Kat! How does this look?" Rosenda posed in a skin-tight dress. It was quite the opposite of the cloudy-gray drab they always had to wear on base—even off duty.

"Great." Kat purred, sporting a blue slip that barely hit her knees, the same color as her armor.

Rosenda frowned. "Little tight, though. What do you think Holland would do if I showed up at briefing in it?"

"That's about the only 'formal occasion' we get." Kat pulled the slip off.

"I dunno. We just might get invited over for dinner one night, or maybe a wedding. . ."

"Yeah, and maybe we'll get married and have kids!" Rosenda laughed and pulled the dress of, flinging it onto the bench.

"Hmm." She studied herself in the mirror. Her dark tan, scars, and defined muscles made her stand out, but even so, unless some one knew her, there was no way to tell she was a Spartan.

"Okay, I have to take something home with me. This or this? I don't know. They both look good." Rosenda held a Mickey Mouse T-shirt and a pleated skirt in front of her.

"Well, I don't know, either." Kat bit her lip. "What's that thing that the Headhunters say. . .? Some way of deciding things. . ."

Rosenda thought for a moment. "When in doubt, blow shit up?"

~##~

"Geez!" Jun covered his eyes with his hands. "Put a shirt on, lady!" His reaction was due to a manikin displaying underwear.

"Yes. Yes. I have wanted to do this to someone with no reaction forever!" Emile walked up to another female manikin, and grabbed her chest. He frowned, "This lacks. . .reaction." He dropped his arms to his sides. Then a determined expression came over his face, and he lifted the manikin clear off its stand. "I'll take this, please." he laid it down next to the nearest cashier.

"That's not for sale, sir."

"It is if I want it to be." Emile scowled at the small woman, grabbing the manikin's hand.

"Then it's yours. Keep it. On the house." The woman ushered him away, the manikin under his arm.

Jorge walked down an isle of sweaters, looking bored. His walked smack into one of the hanging cardboard pictures, tearing it from the ceiling. The picture was a nice scene of a woman in the snow. It triggered some kind of memory in him, some stirring of warmth. . .

"Hey, Jorge!" Thom walked up behind him. "We're getting' outa here! They called security on Emile!"

Sure enough, several poorly trained guards jogged over to where Emile had picked up the manikin.

"C'mon. Carter and the rest are meeting us outside!"

"What about Kat and Rose?" Jorge puzzled, the picture still under his arm.

"They'll be fine. They're still pretending we don't exist."

In the shoe section. . .

"Do civilian women always where these?" Kat staggered in a pair of high heeled boots.

"Yeah." Yume answered, having left the guys as soon as Emile picked up the manikin. There was no way she was going to get caught in the cross hairs of that battle.

"Girls are dumb." Rosenda grabbed onto a table displaying shoes to keep from falling over, a pair of obnoxiously bright staccato heels on her feet.

"Some of them. You don't see me in heels." Yume shrugged.

"No, I see you are wearing the good ol' combat boots." Kat unzipped her boots.

"Let's get going." Rosenda packed the heels back into their box.

"Not getting anything?" Yume inquired.

"I decided that if I couldn't decide on one thing, I might as well get nothing." She shrugged, straightening up. Yume was ashamed at how short she really was compared to Rosenda. . .and all the others. They could all pick her up off the ground and throw her.

"That's the opposite of most peoples' thinking. . ." Yume chuckled, following the two taller women out of the store. . .in their shadows.

Was it as bad as I said? Did you hate it? Well, I have been trying to study but Jun stinks at math and Carter is less than a whiz at chemistry, not to mention ALL OF NOBLE doesn't know a thing about US history. I'd just say screw it and ignore them, but Kat keeps using my computer to hack things. . .the other day I had ONI at my front step with a SWAT team and a search warrant. And Jorge keeps sitting where I can talk to him so we ended up playing cards, and I lost all my cash. Note to self: Never play Stripper with Jorge. . .Please review this.