"I have another job!" Andre announced as he climbed up the ramp. Jade looked up from the pad she was working on and said "We don't need to know every time you turn a trick or two." Andre frowned and looked at me and I shrugged. Then it hit us and Andre's mouth dropped.
"I'm not a-!" Andre shouted.
"Oh wow quick on the uptake today. Did you put an extra scoop of thinking powder in your corn flakes this morning?" Jade asked, cutting him off. Andre puffed up like a balloon and started to argue with Jade. Which went as well as it normally does for anyone. He'd say something that Jade would top or she would cut him off and leave him fuming. While they did that, I took the pad from him and looked over the job that he had found.
A run to Ganymede, specifically Metropolis city. Different corporation this time. Some group called Future Enterprises. Odd. The "cargo" was some people that they wanted us to take. I shrugged and put it out of my mind. If someone wants to pay a little extra to take a different ship to a different planet, that's their business. It was a nice change from our last few jobs after Miami which had somehow all involved running from people or having incredibly nosy cops who only loosely followed the laws nosing around our home and us.
"Jade, go to the lower decks and make sure the beds are made for four people and then check that we have enough food and medicine for everyone. Andre, go file a flight plan to Ganymede with STC." When both of them looked at me I gave them both a pointed look and they left to do their jobs. "Cat, how are we with the engines?"
"Golden squares!" She sang out. "Good. Great ready because we're going to Ganymede tomorrow." I said and then covered my ears as Cat squealed in excitement. I honestly didn't know how she hadn't blown out the speakers by now. Maybe she fixed them on her own time...Or had modded them. My money was on the latter.
I looked over Nostromo and made decisions where people could and couldn't go. It was the first time that we had carried passengers and I was certain that there were parts of the ship that I absolutely didn't want them to go. Such as the engine room. Or the bridge. Maybe if this went well we could make a habit out of it. People aren't all that bad, so it could be a nice way to make some extra money.
Except for Sense-Freaks. Not letting them anywhere near my home. Or my friends. I shuddered at the thought of these….people and changed my locus of thought. Four people, a lot of money and a short trip to ganymede.
Jade walked by and we looked at each other. Neither of us said anything before we both moved on in different directions. I bit my lip and frowned. We hadn't talked all that much if at all since that day and things were really awkward between us.
It wasn't my fault though! I refused to say anything until she apologized. It's been a few days since she had been arrested by those corrupt cops and she seemed fine. I think. She hasn't been any angrier than usual so that's a good thing, right?
My thoughts were interrupted by something slamming into my back and launching me into the wall chest first. "Oops! That's my fault!" A cheerful Cat said while standing over me. I gasped for air and rubbed my now very sore chest and tried to glare at her through watery eyes. "What is wrong with you?!" I demanded as she helped me up.
"What? I tripped!" Cat snapped. I stared at her and she nibbled at her bottom lip and looked away. "Tripped doing what?" I growled. "Running? Or dancing?"
"Both."
You know what? My chest hurts way too much to figure her out. I groaned and shambled off in a totally dignified way to the med bay. Once inside, I took off my shirt and waited as the ancient scanner popped out and lights flickered over my chest. Thankfully nothing was broken, but damn did it hurt. I don't know how people in the flicks did that thing where they hit some piece of metal and then immediately got back up.
I call movie-magic bull.
"Oh." A soft sound behind me had me turning around and grabbing my shirt. I held it in front of me and stared at Jade. Jade who had a slight blush and seemed like she was fighting to keep her eyes on my face. "I'm just checking up on how much medical stuff we have." She muttered. "What are you doing?"
"Getting checked over."
"What happened to you?"
"Cat."
That was enough of an answer and Jade started rummaging through the drawers. I was starting to wish that she would leave because the silence was unbearably awkward. The SI chimed and a drawer opened to reveal an ice pack and some pain-relievers. Grabbing them, I turned away from Jade and wrapped it in my shirt before putting it on my chest. I dry swallowed the pills and leaned back against the couch-bed thing. Sighing in relief as the pain receded, I listened to Jade shuffle around the med lab.
"Vega."
"Yes Jade?"
She was quiet for a second and I waited for her to say what was on her mind, and she cleared her throat. "I just wanted to say….thanks. And I'm a little sorry. Only a little though." she said quietly. I smiled though I didn't let her see it. "You're welcome."
Jade grunted and I heard her boots thumping away from me and towards the door. Leaning back against the couch-bed, I closed my eyes and relaxed. "Why do you keep helping me?" My eyes snapped open and I stared at Jade, who was half hidden by the door. Her one visible eye seemed to bore into my head as she stared at me.
"I'm sorry?" I asked, not quite sure what I had just heard.
"Why do you keep helping me?" She asked a little louder and slightly slower. I frowned and stared at her, not really understanding the question. "We're friends. That's what friends do." Jade's somehow managed to glare harder at me and snapped "I literally kicked you out of my bed. I insult you all the goddamn time. Yet you still come help me when I get arrested and now you won't get out of my fucking head!"
Jade gasped and clasped her hand over her mouth before running away.
I stared at the space that had until seconds ago held one glaring angry gothic-woman. (Yes I know what goth is, I looked it up) "Oh no you don't!" I shouted. I hissed as I tossed the ice-pack aside and yanked on my shirt and sprinted after her. I followed the sounds of her thundering boots and the slamming of her room-hatch. Skidding to a stop before her room, I shoved the hatch open and dropped down the ladder. Clutching my chest, I swallowed the little burst of pain and turned around just in time to dodge a slipper.
"What is wrong with you?!" I demanded.
"Me? The fuck's wrong with you?!" Jade demanded.
"I didn't do anything!" I yelled. "Oh bullshit!" Jade roared. "You're such a liar!"
I stomped over to her, and she had been sitting on the corner of her bed, wrapped up in the blankets and for once looked so small. "Since when? How can I be a liar when I don't know what I'm supposed to be lying about?!" I roared back and felt a little sick. This wasn't one of our normal arguments or sniping at each other. She looked so small and unsure that I felt like a giant next to her, and more to the point I felt like a bully. It wasn't a good feeling at all.
"Jade. Please talk to me." I said quietly.
"Six months. That's how long that I've been here. Six months."
At first I didn't understand, and then I did. "Oh Jade." I sat down on the bed and pulled her into a hug. She typically resisted but I ignored her and trapped her into a hug. I pulled her head into my neck and held her close as she fought not to cry. "You lied. I couldn't have called you Beck." She whispered.
"Why?" I asked, equally quiet.
"Beck is-was...my everything. My boyfriend. Love of my life. I was going to marry him. I couldn't have called you him. You're not him. You're not in my head every time I go to sleep."
"To be fair, you were almost completely asleep. Not surprised that you confused me for him."
Jade didn't say anything except to sniffle. I bit my lip before asking what had been on my mind since she ran from the medbay. "Why did you say that I was in your head?" I felt her stiffen in my arms and I tightened the hug so that she couldn't get away. Or hit me. Or do both. She was quiet for the better part of a minute before she said "It's nothing. Just confused. I'm mad about it being six months and missing Beck. I only go for men. You're just an emotional rebound."
A little blunt for my tastes, but then it clicked. Oh. Poor girl. It didn't happen that often in this century, but every once in awhile you have people who are confused about who they like. The Alliance for all of its issues was a pretty welcoming place, and most of the outdated and bigoted thoughts towards sexuality died out a few decades after Jade was frozen. As such I had absolutely no idea on how to help her. Questioning, I think the phrase was.
I myself liked everyone, though I do have to admit to a preference for men. I gave a slight shrug and didn't say anything. I think the best thing would be to wait and let Jade figure herself out. She could be right in that I was just an emotional rebound or anchor for her. Or she could be getting a crush on me and just didn't want to admit it. Either way I was going to tease her about it later. I have to get my revenge after all.
"What? Nothing to say?" Jade said, trying to inject her usual levels of acid and failing miserably. "Nope." I answered cheerfully. "I'll be here to help you anyway that I can, but I think this is something that you have to figure out on your own."
Jade jerked from my arms and glared at me. "What's to figure out? There's nothing to figure out!"
I rolled my eyes. "I think there just might be. A little bit of one." Jade growled and I squirmed away, rightly concerned what she was going to do. She grabbed my shoulders and with a shove had me on my back and straddled me. "I'm going to prove that there isn't anything to think about." She growled.
I rolled my eyes again. (I do that a lot around her)
"Oh yea? How are you going to do that? Turn your brain off?" I snipped.
Jade glared at me and I stared back. Her hair framed around our faces, seeming to trap us in and she leaned down. What was she?
Oh.
Oh.
For such a waspish woman, she had the softest lips that I had ever felt. I closed my eyes and returned the kiss. My hands came up to her arms and I grabbed them, moving them so that she leaned closer and deepened the kiss. Her lips left mine, and my eyes opened to see hers were half-lidded and her mouth open.
I raised my head and kissed her. A light kiss, just to get her attention and bring her back to Earth. I think. Or maybe I just really wanted to kiss her again. Jade kissed me back, and her lips parted and her tongue swiped at my mouth. I opened my mouth and moaned as our tongues met and tangled together.
We pressed our bodies together and I moved my hands to her waist, pulling her as close as I could. Our heads angled as we deepened the kiss and our tongues continued to meet and tangle together. We only stopped when we both became light-headed from the lack of oxygen. Panting, we parted eyes still closed.
Jade lowered herself until she was again in the crook of my neck. I didn't know what to say, so I said nothing. "Fuck." Jade whispered. Followed by several more times uttering the word fuck into my neck.
"Backfired on you?" I teased.
Jade lifted her head up enough to give me one hell of a glare that had me flinching away from her. "Shut up. Just shut up. I need to figure this out." Jade snapped. I chuckled and pulled my phone out of my pocket.
Be up at 0800 to go pick up our passengers. I'm calling it an early night. I typed out and then sent Andre. "If I say here are you going to kick me out when you wake up?"
"No. Yes. Maybe. I don't know okay?"
I sighed. I stood up and pulled myself out of Jade's grip. She frowned and then rolled over into the pillow, her face practically in the wall. "Going to change, I'll be right back." I said and Jade grunted.
I made it into my room, my head spinning from the fact that Jade and I just kissed! I was giddy and confused. I didn't mess around outside of relationships, but I was open to it if Jade was. I think. I mean she's confused, I'm confused because that came out of nowhere and I hadn't really thought about her in that capacity.
I mean yea she's wickedly attractive and funny and smart but I never considered asking her to go on a date and a possible relationship and I think I'm getting ahead of myself aren't I? Changing into shorts and an oversized t-shirt, I made my way back to Jade's room, barely dodging Andre as he came up the walkway.
I didn't feel like explaining myself to him when I couldn't even explain anything to myself. I climbed down the ladder into the pitch black room and felt my way around for the bed. Finding it, I climbed in and tucked myself in, my back to Jade.
"Wow. Hoping for another make out session?" Jade asked snidely.
"That'd be nice. Though I can wait for you to figure yourself out. Though I'm open to you trying to prove something again."
"Shut up."
I fell asleep with a smile on my face, knowing that I had finally gotten one up on Jade. I'll deal with all of the questions later.
I think we were due some Jori. And some drama. Please, as always leave those reviews and let me know what you think.
-C.H.
