Note: In this chapter I am hoping to reveal Jill's past, and why she is the way she is. There will be very little actual dialogue or interaction between Jill and other characters, this is mainly going to be Jill's reflections and strategies. I am hoping this chapter will reveal a little bit about who Agent Jill Barre is, as opposed to Jill Paxton.
"Marlin what the hell?" Vesta demanded. Marlin's sister stood with both hands on her hips, lower jaw protruded out and head cocked to the side. Marlin had seen this look too many times before. He fully prepared himself for a full blown lecture. "I swear Marlin if you did ANYTHING to take advantage of that poor sweet girl I will cut off parts of your body that I am pretty sure you want to keep!" It came out sounding only slightly less intimidating because she was whispering. Vesta had come home as usual bright and early to start with morning chores, and Jill had still been sleeping soundly when she arrived. Marlin also had been sleeping, on the couch, when Vesta had rudely pulled him awake.
"I didn't do anything!" Marlin hissed back. "Why the hell do you think I'm on the couch!"
"Well what am I supposed to think, there's a girl sleeping in your bed? You had better not done anything! I will not have you messing around with her emotions like you have Celia's. She's a sweet girl!" Marlin groaned, it was too damn early in the morning to be having this conversation, and he was still tired from last night's events. Didn't help that seeing JIll's shapely legs had made him feel like he was once again back in high school with all the hormones raging through his body. He shouldn't have been that turned on by the sight of legs. Maybe it had been too long. He had not done anything like that with Celia precisely for the reasons his sister was yelling at him for. He had not wanted to use the girl, and he specifically had NOT been trying to mess with her emotions. Marlin concluded that Celia must have informed Vesta of all the "gory" details of the "break up" on the drive to Mineral Town the previous night.
"So just what the hell happened?" Vesta asked, her eyes narrowed.
"She thought she heard something in her house. She came over here, asked me to check it out. When we got there house was locked. She'd locked her keys in her house. It was late. The Inn was closed, and she was going to sleep in her barn. I figured here would be better," he explained.
"Want to explain what she's doing in your bed?" Vesta asked.
"I didn't think it would be appropriate to offer your bed or Celia's bed without either one of your consent, so I offered mine," Marlin answered.
"Well, little bro, I certainly hope for you case you were a gentleman," Vesta warned. At that moment Jill emerged from Marlin's bedroom, gratefully, fully dressed in the clothes she had been wearing the previous night; a large sweater and a pair of baggy carpenter style jeans. Marlin was happy that her clothes left everything to the imagination, because even as she was standing there fully clothed, he could still see the image of her bare legs in his mind. Good Goddess Marlin, snap out of it, it's not like you're some hormonal teenager! He chastised himself.
"Good morning dear! Marlin told me about your little mishap last night, did you sleep well?" Vesta's voice had turned from full on scolding, to welcoming hostess. It always amazed Marlin how quickly Vesta could change her demeanor.
"I did, thank you," Jill replied, "I just feel bad for being so much trouble to your brother."
"Trust me honey you weren't," Vesta answered. Like, hell she wasn't, Marlin thought, but let the subject drop. Vesta was already pissed at him about Celia, didn't need her being pissed at him about Jill. He ran his fingers through his messy mop of black hair, and exhaled deeply. This was going to be another less than stellar day.
I need to be more careful! Jill thought to herself while she was pulling out some weeds from her field. They seemed to multiply exponentially overnight. There had already been massive amounts when she'd arrived. It had been clear that Takakura had done nothing to the farm, except animal upkeep during the time when Jack had "passed away," and his doting "daughter" had arrived.
Many agents would have halfheartedly done the farm work, focusing heavily on the case. That is where most agents made their mistakes. Under cover work was not simply about the case. That is where the intricacies of her position came into play. Bob had once told her, "To be a truly good undercover agent, one has to actually 'become' the person they are trying to portray." Jill took that above and beyond what most agents did. She had become so many personalities over the past four years, she sometimes didn't even remember what her true personality was.
In the same token, that was her favorite part of the job. Jill loved being able to create a personality for the fictional person she was portraying. It was similar to acting in a movie role, except this had more at stake if mistakes were made. Jill was usually very good at creating the exact type of personality that her mark was looking for. She very rarely miscalculated, and therefore was very rarely replaced. With very few exceptions, her cases ended in arrests. The most recent exception being her last case. As many times as Bob had assured her it had not been her fault, she could not help but feel as if it had been. She should have seen the signs. But she and Agent Larkin had been partners for three out of the four years she had been on the Undercover Unit. She had mistakenly broken her father's rule number one: "The only person you can ever trust is yourself." She had trusted Agent Larkin.
Jill had been raised to be an agent. From a very young age her father trained her to be a cold, calculating investigative machine. After school he would take her outside to do some rigorous physical training, target practicing with both knives and guns, and various forms of martial arts or fighting. Jill knew many different ways to kill a person using her bare hands alone without leaving a mark. Her mother's meek and obeying personality had not interfered with this father/daughter training time. It was the reason why she had been accepted into the FIA program right out of high school. Most applicants had a mandatory two year waiting period where they would go to college and get some general education credits. FIA of course took over if they were accepted, and they would finish their degrees while training to be an agent. Jill had been fast tracked due to some strings her father had pulled, and her natural ability. Very few exceptional applicants were fast tracked the way she was. Naturally, she had been expected to join FIA. She had never even contemplated any other line of work.
She had followed in her father's footsteps easily. When Bob had selected her to be on his team, it had been by her merits, and her merits alone. She often felt she had to work harder than other agents to prove to herself that she deserved to be where she was. She had decided to use her mothers maiden name Barre when she became an agent to avoid people knowing her relationship to her father. Bob was one of the few people that knew that her father was a part of FIA.
Working in the Undercover Unit had it's challenges. Mostly because Jill would often be selected to become a romantic partner to a person of interest. She was chosen over other female agents not because of her looks, (several agents on the Undercover Unit were more beautiful than she was) but because one trait that Jill possessed that others did not. Jill Barre did not fall in love with her marks.
Jill had been taught that love was not a part of her live. Romance had been drilled into her as frivolous and unnecessary. Anytime that her father had seen her developing feelings for the opposite sex, she would be punished. She cringed at the memory of how many laps she'd had to run when her father caught her kissing her teenage boyfriend, Luke. Luke had been the only person who Jill had ever had feelings for; until her father found out. Luke had been banned from seeing Jill, and shortly thereafter had started to date the ever so willing Selena.
"Relationships," he had said, "are only necessary for the advancement of position, power or prestige. Love is a lie that men tell woman to get laid, and women tell men to get what they want." Jill's father had only married her mother because she had gotten pregnant. He had also figured having a "wife figure" would help him advance in his career. While Jill had not been totally convinced of her father's theory, she had never been in a real relationship since Luke. Her father had seen to it in her young formative years, and in her adult years it had been because of her job. Sure she would have the occasional flings, but she would never allow herself to get emotionally attached to one man. Many men had used her as a result, but she had also used many men herself.
Jill thought over the previous night's events. The look on Marlin's face when he'd stepped out of the shower room had been unmistakable. It had been raw attraction. Jill would take whatever advantage she could take. She wondered what Jill Paxton would do in that moment. Jill Paxton would probably try to avoid Marlin for a little while, and look embarrassed every time they encountered each other. She briefly wondered what it would be like to really be Jill Paxton, shy little farmer girl. She imagined Jill Paxton would be the kind of girl to easily fall in love. She would be the kind of girl that would wear her heart on her sleeve. That was the girl that Jill would become. She sighed and closed her eyes. Yes, becoming Jill Paxton would be much different from who she really was.