Lady Jaye woke with a start in her own bed. Her mind tried desperately to remember when she had come back to her room. One of her teammates must have found her outside and brought her back to her own bed. Out of habit, she glanced at the clock. It was a few minutes past eight.
"What time is it?" a voice asked.
Lady Jaye recoiled. The voice sounded so much like Flint, but she couldn't believe it was possible. She further recoiled when the man in question sat up in her bed. "Are you okay?" he asked.
Lady Jaye jumped out of the bed. "You died," she stammered.
"Hon, I think you might have had a bad dream," he said calmly.
His tone of voice reminded her of Scarlett's from the previous day, which only furthered her confusion. "No. It wasn't a dream, it was too real."
Flint looked down and ran his hand down his body. "I'm pretty sure I'm not dead, Al."
Lady Jaye just stared at him, her mouth agape. Her mind tried desperately to process the information. She was sure that her memories from the previous day were not from a dream, but the proof contradicting that was sitting on her bed. Her mind then offered another explanation. She reached her hand out slowly towards Flint. She expected her hand to pass right through him, but when it landed on solid flesh she let out a laugh and jumped into his arms.
"Oh thank God, it was just a dream"
He kissed her and then pulled away. "Be right back. Nature calls."
A shiver went through Lady Jaye as she felt a strong sense of déjà vu. The feeling got worse when her phone rang a few seconds later. She slowly picked up her phone and answered it.
"Jaye, it's Scarlett. I hate to bother you but I've torn through this office looking for the Alcatraz mission report."
The blood began to pound in Lady Jaye's head. She truly was reliving the previous day. Either she had a complex premonition the night before, or somehow the day had reset and started over.
She didn't hear Flint come out of the bathroom, and jumped when he put his hand on her shoulder. "Al, what's the matter? You're as pale as a ghost."
She looked down at the phone where she could hear Scarlett calling her name. "I knew Scarlett was going to call me," she said dumbly.
"Okay, that's not surprising. I would bet that Duke will try to get a hold of me sometime today."
"No!" she exclaimed with a note of hysteria in her voice. "I knew the exact question she would ask me. This morning started out exactly like yesterday morning."
"Alison, it hasn't," Flint explained. He grabbed her hands and led her to the bed where he helped her sit. "Yesterday morning you were on watch and I had spent the night in my room."
She shook her head. "No - not that morning, the other this morning."
Flint slowly blew out a deep breath. "Maybe you need to talk to Doc."
"I don't need…" she began but was interrupted by Beachhead's PT order. She waved her hand in the direction of the intercom. "See? That happened before too!"
Flint stood up. "I don't know what's going on, but maybe some fresh air is what you need. If you still feel…delusional afterwards, I'm taking you to Doc."
Lady Jaye finished PT and walked back to her room. She didn't bother trying to find Flint after the workout; she knew he was going to be sidetracked. Besides, she was afraid that he would make good on his promise to take her to the infirmary.
Once in her room, she undressed and headed for the bathroom. As she showered she tried again to sort through the events of the day. Flint had used the word delusional, and she was afraid that he might be right. It couldn't be possible that she was actually reliving the same day.
What scared her was if she really was reliving the same day that would mean Flint would be dead in less than four hours. She made a vow that since she now knew what was coming she would do all she could to prevent it.
The rest of the morning continued to play out in the same way as she expected. She went by the personnel office where Scarlett told her about Roadblock's lunch. They walked to the cafeteria where they met up with Ripcord and learned of the cancellation. Ripcord once again offered up Joe's Diner as an alternate, and Lady Jaye again turned him down.
Once Ripcord and the others left, she quickly ran to Flint's office. He was sitting at his desk, frowning at a sheet of paper. She walked up to him, took the paper out of his hand and said, "A bunch of guys are going to Joe's. Do you want to go?"
"Sure. I just need to take care of this first," he replied as he tried to grab the paper from her.
She took a couple of steps back. "This could wait. Come on, let's go now. They're all leaving."
"Maybe you should go, and I'll meet up with you when I'm done," he said.
"No, I'm not leaving without you. Dammit, Flint, I just…" want to save your life she thought. Instead she continued, "I just want to spend some time with you. This morning got off to a bad start, and all I want is some time off base."
He nodded and smiled. "You're right. Time alone has been hard to come by. Let me make this one phone call and I promise we'll get out of here."
Lady Jaye resigned herself to the fact that she wasn't going to change his mind. She sat down on one of the chairs and waited. She knew that the phone call was going to go longer than Flint expected. However, she hoped that there would still be time to leave the base before the Rattlers came.
As time went on, she became more agitated as she kept looking at her watch. Flint would glance up at her every so often and give her a concerned look. When he finally finished, he stood up and announced, "Okay, let's go."
They walked outside hand in hand. Lady Jaye was quiet. She knew deep in her heart that she was too late. They arrived at almost the identical spot to the one they were in the previous day when Flint once again spotted the Rattlers. He picked up his phone, and called Breaker. Once he got confirmation on the Rattlers he ordered them to their Skystrikers.
"No, Flint wait," Lady Jaye said desperately as she grabbed his arm. "I know you must think I have gone absolutely crazy, but you have to believe me. You can't go up in your Skystriker."
"Alison," Flint said soberly. "I know you're afraid something is going to happen…"
"I'm not afraid it might happen, I know it will! I watched you die after your Skystriker was attacked!"
Flint quickly turned his head towards the airstrip and then turned back to her. "Al, this is our job. Getting killed in battle is a very real risk. We take that chance every time we go into battle with Cobra. I still don't believe you're psychic, but even if you are, I have to go up there and help out our teammates. I'm sorry, but I can't let them down."
He raced away and she debated trying one last time to stop him. She knew it was useless and decided that if she couldn't stop him, she could at least try to protect him. She ran to her Skystriker and brought it into the air.
Instead of joining Ace's group, she stayed behind to be Flint's wingman. She shot down one Rattler, but took no joy in it this time. She wondered if he had a loved one who would be mourning his death.
She kept Flint's plane in her sights, and after he fired off one of his missiles, she noticed a puff of smoke from the plane's undercarriage. "Flint, you've got smoke below you," she reported.
"Yeah, my controls suddenly got sluggish," he replied.
Her heart began to pound. She saw a Rattler heading right towards him, but she was able to take it down before he got any missiles fired. She was pretty sure it was the same Rattler that fired off the shot that killed Flint the previous day, and for a moment she thought this day was finally going to turn out different.
However, the trouble with Flint's plane became more apparent. He suddenly plummeted a few hundred feet. "Flint!" she cried out.
"I'm trying!" he yelled out. His plane stabilized for a few seconds before it began to plummet again.
She let out an anguished scream as she watched his plane go down. She closed her eyes a second before the explosion.
"Lady Jaye," Ace said calmly through her headset. "You have to pull yourself together. We still…"
"Yeah, I know," Lady Jaye said through tears. "There are still Rattlers around."
She rejoined the fight. This time she saw that after a couple more kills, the remaining half dozen Rattlers retreated. She wanted to avenge Flint's death by going after them, and began to give them chase.
"Lady Jaye, don't do anything stupid. Come back down," Ace ordered.
She ignored him until she heard Duke's voice give the same order. She reluctantly turned back around and landed her Skystriker. Once down on the ground, she quickly walked away. She heard Ace call her name, but she held up her hand and waved him off. She passed by a grief-stricken Scarlett who also called her name, but she ignored her as well.
She calmly walked out to her car, got in and drove off the base.