PART SIX
-The Downward Spiral-

Jason watched the Human-Covenant War come to an end from a bed in the infirmary.

It had been one hell of a close call. The knife had ruptured one of his kidneys. If it wasn't for the emergency medical team waiting for him onboard the Darkwind, he wouldn't have made it off of the Ark. As it was, he was laid up for two weeks in an infirmary aboard the Say My Name once he'd made it back to Earth. Veronica had demanded it. She came to visit him often and usually spent the night. She didn't hold it against him that he was physically too weak for sex. When he got out of the infirmary, he made it up to her.

Three months passed. Jason felt out of sorts. The war was over. It took a long time for that to set in. Earth was safe. The Covenant was broken. The Flood dead and gone, no longer a threat. No one had been able to find the Master Chief...but war had its casualties. So as the days bled into weeks, Jason found things to do.

He spent time with Veronica. He worked on his relationship with her. He trained himself, kept his body in top shape and told himself that, someday, he was going to be a killer again. He hunted for Bennings relentlessly at first, but the man seemed to have disappeared. When he prodded Veronica for information, she only said that he had been transferred. She couldn't find anything else. No one came forward to tell Jason what Bennings had promised him before his trip to the Ark. The unknown situation grated on Jason's mind.

A month in, he, Veronica and Enzo were transferred from the Say My Name to the space station Cairo. The ship, apparently, was needed elsewhere. As time bled on in that way that it always did, Jason could feel his relationship with Veronica slowly crumbling. It was a tentative thing, the nagging feeling, but it was persistent.

He noticed it when he began to spend more time working out or walking the vast network of corridors with Enzo, talking about their respective pasts and potential future. He noticed it in every argument that began to blossom over little things. He noticed it when he went to bed instead of waiting up for Veronica to get back from the ONI center aboard the station. The more he noticed it, the less he fought it.

Jason knew that he still loved Veronica. But he was beginning to suspect that, perhaps, love was not enough.

"Man, that was depressing," Veronica said as she stepped off the Pelican. Jason nodded sullenly as he and Enzo followed her into the hangar of the Cairo.

"Yeah...all those names," he murmured. They had just attended a ceremony commemorating the end of the War, and all those who had given their lives for it. Lord Hood had presided over it, giving a solemn, grim speech, and it was shortly after that the Arbiter had told them that he and most of the Elites were leaving for their homeworld.

Despite this, Enzo had elected to stay behind. So had a number of other Elites, in an attempt to help stimulate the alliance their two species now enjoyed. Jason wasn't entirely sure how to feel about it, but when he thought about it, he realized that his best friend was an Elite and he'd been living with them aboard the Cairo for the past two months.

"What are our plans for the night?" Enzo asked, popping his neck with a sharp crack. Jason hesitated slightly, noticing the look Veronica gave him.

"Actually, me and Veronica were going to do something. Have dinner," he said, awkwardly.

"I'd enjoy some food in the company of friends," Enzo replied. Jason hesitated further.

"Alone," Veronica cut in. Enzo looked first to Veronica, then to Jason, then shrugged.

"Very well, I shall leave you to your mating. Contact me later, Jason." Enzo turned and walked out of the cavernous hangar, leaving the pair alone. They began making their way towards the living quarters.

"I thought you were going to tell him beforehand," Veronica said.

"I was...it just never came up," Jason replied.

They walked in silence the rest of the way. Jason just wanted a simple night. Somewhere, in the back of his head, he was worried that Veronica was going to break up with him soon. And, somewhere, even deeper, he was hoping she would. He had never had to break up with anyone before. Lindsay had died on him, and, before Veronica, she'd been his first and only. He felt woefully unprepared for this relationship and wondered how a more experienced man would handle it. Something told him Veronica would be difficult even for such a man.

They came to their bedroom and Veronica disappeared into the bathroom to change. Jason was confused at first, he'd seen her naked a million times, but she said she wanted to surprise him. Feeling a little better, he slipped into the closest thing he had to formal wear: slacks and a button down over a form-fitting, black t-shirt that Veronica insisted he wear very often. He didn't have any nice shoes, and settled for his combat boots.

He had just finished lacing them up when Veronica stepped out.

He glanced up, and stared.

"Holy shit," he managed.

Veronica was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a girly girl. She never wore makeup, she rarely did anything with her hair besides comb it and thrust it into a rough ponytail. Rarely did she wear flattering clothes. When Jason stared at her now, he thought he was looking at a different woman. She had applied, with surprising skill, a moderate amount of makeup, darkening her eyes and lips. She had sculpted her hair so that it clung close to her skull in a fashion he'd seen among some of the more image-concerned women aboard the Cairo, mostly from the media crews who'd taken up residency aboard the station.

And the short, red dress she wore was low cut and strapless, showing off impressive, pale cleavage. It hugged her hips and clung to her thighs, revealing a lot of her long legs. She smiled appreciatively.

"That is the reaction I was hoping for," she said.

"I am going to ruin that dress tonight."

Veronica laughed. "I figured as much. Come on, killer, let's go."

The night was going well. Jason had set up their dinner date in the observatory, as he had some pull with the local staff. He'd made more than a few friends in his time aboard the Cairo, surprising even himself as he came out of his social shell. He even found some candles and had them set up on a table next to the vast window that overlooked Earth and the fleet protecting it.

He had steak and she had lobster, their respective favorites. They talked about various things as they made their way slowly through the meal. Jason made Veronica laugh, and felt good about it. It seemed her laughter was a rarity nowadays. They talked about the war, the Elites, about the media circus that the Cairo had become. Jason wasn't looking forward to the interview he'd been roped into, schedule for later that night, either.

With the advent of the Human-Elite Alliance, as well as the end of the war, everyone wasn't sure just exactly how the Elites were going to integrate into human society. In an attempt to ease tensions between the two races, who were still peppered with those who hated the other side, the military had contracted the media to start a campaign of peace. It started on Cairo Station, which had the highest concentration of Elites living with humans.

Being one of the first, and apparently most prominent, members of humanity to have befriended an Elite, Jason was obviously asked a lot of questions. He'd been interviewed a few times so far, but nothing exactly formal. Certainly nothing on camera, like they wanted tonight. In fact, it was that interview that had forced Jason to procure some formal wear. But that was ahead of him, a few hours into the future, and Jason was happy now.

The keyword being was.

The dinner began to go bad when Veronica casually asked about a certain technician Jason had befriended last week.

"Wait, are you talking about Jena?" Jason asked. He'd finished with his steak, and was now letting his food settle. He felt a cold chill settling over him as he realized that he was heading into argument territory now. Veronica, to her credit, remained stoic.

"Yeah, her. I saw you talking with her yesterday," she replied evenly.

"Oh yeah. She recognized me as one of the Ark survivors. We happened to work out in the same gym at the same time, and we just started talking. She had a lot of questions about the Ark and we just kept talking about things whenever we run into each other." Jason kept his tone neutral, not defensive, but could already see a slight change in Veronica's face.

"I see...it sounded like she was hitting on you yesterday," she replied. Jason hesitated, probably not the best thing to do. Because Jena had been hitting on him.

"Maybe a little, she just got dumped by her boyfriend. You can't really fault her to that," he replied awkwardly.

"I can't fault her, no, but it didn't sound like you were shooting her down." Now Veronica was heading directly into hostile territory. Jason hesitated again, feeling agitation welling up within him. He was getting sick and tired of her accusing him of flirting with other women. It wasn't his fault he'd learned to make friends with both genders with relative ease. In the ensuing silence, Veronica continued.

"You were flirting back with her, weren't you?" she asked. "Where were you last night?"

Something snapped in Jason.

"I was in our quarters!" he yelled. Veronica looked shocked, her eyes widening several centimeters. It was rare that Jason raised his voice. She began to sputter a response, but he pressed on, giving in to his anger for once.

"And I am getting sick of this shit, Veronica! I'm tired of you accusing me of screwing around with other women! I never accuse you of this shit, I see you hanging around with guys all the time and I never ask myself, 'Oh, huh, is Veronica having sex with him behind my back?' I just go, 'Oh, she's probably talking to him about business', or, 'Oh, he's probably her friend.' And I leave it be. But you just...can't, can you!?"

Jason stood up suddenly, knocking over his chair in the process. Some part of his head was warning him that this was making him look guilty, another part said to hell with it.

"Where are you going?" Veronica managed.

"To my interview," Jason growled, walking out of the observation lounge.

Jason had cooled off, to some extent, by the time he reached the briefing room where the interview was to take place. He'd gone by the bathroom to wash his face and take a lengthy piss, trying to relax himself. As the anger began to fade while he made his way to the interview, Jason began to feel bad. Very rarely had he raised his voice to his lover, and he'd never flat out screamed at her like that. But, he decided, she had been pushing him a lot lately.

And, he thought grimly, wasn't this exactly what he had worried about during the war? What would happen between them once they didn't have the fighting to force them apart for days at a time? He had his answer, and it wasn't pretty. He was now crossing that bridge. Jason stepped into the briefing room, which had been converted into something less military and more casual and media-friendly for the interview.

He found a young, attractive woman in a well cut suit waiting to interview him. He sat down next to her and stared contemptuously at the camera.

"You all right, Sergeant DuPree?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine. Just tired. How long will this take?" A cameraman stood opposite them behind the camera, messing with it.

"Not long, ten minutes at most. Just some questions. My name is Amy, by the way, Sergeant DuPree."

"Good to meet you."

After a few more minutes of the cameraman screwing around with the camera, they finally got underway. Amy spent a few moments introducing Jason, chronicling a brief timeline of his time spent in the war, highlighting the major events, like his action at New Jerusalem, then at New Mombasa, Voi and then the Ark. Jason wondered how they'd gotten all that data on him, but figured it didn't really matter. Finally, they got down to the questions.

"So, Jason, you first met Elite Enzo 'Enslomee in Voi, correct?"

"That's true, and it's just 'Enslom." Amy gave him an inquisitive look and he wondered if she'd made the mistake on purpose. If she did, he thought it was a good move. "The Elites dropped the double-e suffix once they rebelled against the Covenant on Delta Halo," he explained.

"I see...interesting. Was Enzo hostile at first?"

"No, not at all. He'd been separated from his unit and I was on an important mission at the time, so I asked for his assistance and he was glad to give it."

"And this wasn't the first time you'd worked with Elites, was it?"

"No. I spent a fair share of time on Earth in between the Delta Halo and the Ark incidents, fighting a ground war against the Covenant with the UNSC, the ODSTs and the Elites. I came across the Elites often. While there were a few uncomfortable moments, I typically found every Elite competent and very willing to work with me and those like me."

"Uncomfortable moments?"

Jason sighed quietly. "Well, there's always going to be a few dissidents who aren't comfortable working with the Elites, and I can understand that. Even I was reluctant at first. But I got over it, and so did mostly everyone else I came in contact with, on both sides. The fact remains that the Elites were essentially blindly led on a false religious crusade by leaders who, for centuries, they had no reason to question. I think it's a true testament to the honor and logic that drives Elites that they were able to not only quit the Covenant, but join us against them, so quickly."

"I can see you're serious about this."

"I am. It's a serious matter. I know there's been some dissidence out there, and I know that there's even groups out there who completely oppose us working with the Elites. It's stupid. We need to learn this right here, right now, we both did unforgivable things to each other, so we both need to move on. Both of our races are in a pretty miserable place right now, we're rebuilding after a galactic, decades-long war, and we both have a lot to learn from each other. This alliance is one of the smartest things we could do at the moment, not to mention that we owe the Elites at least the simple kindness of respect for coming to our aide. I know no one wants to say it, but I'm not sure we would have made it if they hadn't come to the rescue."

"Well...I think that pretty much covers everything we were going to talk about. Thank you very much Sergeant DuPree."

Amy gave a brief outro while Jason mulled over everything he had just said.

"Was that...too much?" he asked when the camera turned off. Despite having a history of focusing on what was more entertaining rather than what was more beneficial or factual, the media, deferring to just how shaky a state humanity was in, was now looking to benefit mankind rather than entertain it, any way they could.

"No, I don't think so. Everyone's been tip-toeing around the subject lately and I think this...will shake things up. In a good way. I hope, at least. Either way, I can tell you were being honest. And that does count for something."

"All right, that's good. Do you need me for anything else?"

"Nope, that's it. Thanks again."

Jason stood and left. He considered heading for his dorm, where Veronica likely might be, but opted to walk around and hunt for Enzo instead.

He wasn't quite ready to speak to her yet.

A few hours and a long conversation with his best friend later, Jason made for his dorm. He always felt weird going to an alien for relationship advice. Enzo took it pretty well, though. Jason essentially just bounced his feelings off the big warrior. He just needed someone to listen and Enzo was the only one he trusted. Which said a lot, he realized, about himself. Six months ago he couldn't be in the same room with an Elite without shooting at it.

He came to his dorm, feeling tired, depressed and nervous. He was worried Veronica might not be there. He was more worried that she would be. When he opened the door and stepped in, he found her lying in bed, trying to read a datapad.

She set it down when he came in.

"Hey," she said quietly.

"Hey." Silence followed. "Look, honey, I'm sorry about-" Jason began, but Veronica cut him off, raising her hand.

"No, I'm sorry, baby. You're completely right. I've been hassling you a lot lately, and I'm really sorry about that. I just...get jealous, and nervous. But...look, I'm tired. Can we just skip to the part where we have makeup sex and go to sleep?"

Jason smiled and nodded tiredly. "Yeah, but do not give me shit for only lasting about five minutes. I'm tired," he replied, shedding his shirt.

"I'll consider it," Veronica replied, smirking.