Supplement to "Bacon and Eggs".
As per reader request: Jason and Jodi back story and the continuation of Harm and Mac through Christmas 2002. Also includes the bridge between 'Bacon and Eggs' and its follow up that is currently on the stove and cooking now.
Summary:
Harm & Mac: As soon as Mac realizes she let Harm too close for comfort, she retreats, leaving Harm insulted and kicks off the silent treatment. Harm discovers an unsettling tidbit about his father and, when he seeks out Mac for moral support about it, she's missing. Harm does the right thing by accident and wins her over.
Jason & Jodi: YN3 Tiner was a bit of a jokester at his first duty station babysitting booters in an Orlando 'A' school. Despite warnings from his Chief, he falls for a quiet and sad bookworm of a student with no complications..Then Sadaam invades Kuwait, orders are cut, and Jason and Jodi face the biggest complication of all. -- Now, twelve years later, things have changed. Why is Jodi so harsh? Why is Jason so spineless? And why can't they meet in the middle like they used to?
POVs: Tiner, Harm, Mac, and a little Jodi.
Author's note: The Orlando scenes depict what life was like in the enlisted Navy late 80's. All characters and conversations in Orlando, except for Jason and Jodi, are based on real people and events. Women were not yet allowed in combat environments at the time, and the story of 'Vic Evans' and her sub duty request is absolutely true.
Apologies: (A) Does not fit with the episodes during the 2002 season (B) A little bit more Jason and Jodi than Harm and Mac. There was a lot to cover. (C) Not sure if the dates match up between Orlando events and Jodi Young's history in Bacon and Eggs. Once I get confirmed background on Tiner's age and year of enlistment, Jodi will be edited to fit in both stories.
JAG: "Stay" by Kesselia Banta Part 1
**Barracks 173 Parking Lot. NTC Orlando, FL. August 1989**
Boot camp graduated hundreds of fresh, virgin sailors every Friday afternoon, and every Friday evening, those brand new uniforms either climbed on busses and planes to get to schools and duty stations, or just marched right across the street to check into the schools right there on the same base. In Barracks 173, they checked in at about the same rate they checked out, about twenty bodies a week, but the school lasted so long that the seven story tall building housed a thousand students at a time. As each wing on each floor slowly emptied, another wing on an other floor filled up just as quickly, turning out electronics geeks on a ten month long conveyer belt.
It was a production line, a factory job, and Petty Officer Jason Tiner had his duties mastered within a few months. He was one of the few real yeomen in the neighborhood, but as brand new YN3, his job was to make sure the clueless company yeomen did theirs. He was in dungarees today because of a watch he had to stand soon, and the iron-on crow on his short blue sleeve was so new and black it looked like he'd stenciled it with a Sharpie marker.
PN1 Apples was a small woman and easy to get along with, and ETC Dicks was cool as long as you caught him after a cup of joe in the morning. It was quiet a shock for the booters to deal with the A school Company Commanders because they didn't yell in their faces and nobody was ever dropped push- ups. The last twenty-ish of their last companies graduated that afternoon and were prepped to be shipped out some time over the weekend. But PN1 Apples and ETC Dicks turned right around and marched to the parking lot to pick up the first twenty of their next companies.
PN1 Apples called out to the courtyard and the parking lot to get all the booters to stand the line. ETC yelled the same but louder. The First Class ushered a small line of women in dress blues to stand at attention with sea bags at their feet, and ETC managed to get the small line of crackerjacks to do the same thing not five empty parking stalls away.
All of the booter snoopy bowls were perfectly squared on their heads, and Tiner deliberately made sure his wasn't, just so he wouldn't look like a boot. But then, he had a crow on his sleeve now. He couldn't look like a booter if he wanted to.
Tiner stood on the curb behind the PN1 and ETC until it he was summonsed, but he hardly stood at attention. Individually, the PN1 and ETC welcomed the new companies, told them what floor they were on and where they would bunk once they were let into the building, and basically acquainted them with the general bullshit of living here. PN1 identified her yeoman first and glanced back at Tiner. He hopped off the curb and strutted over to the brand new sailor. He hardly looked at her as he prepped the clipboard for her. "What position did you hold in boot?"
She was at practiced attention and staring straight ahead, even if his shoulder got in the way of her line of sight. Her voice was fairly quiet, but clear enough. "Company Yeoman, Petty Officer."
"Good. Then this won't be rocket science for you." He grinned a little and pointed at the stencil above his pocket. "Do you see this?"
Her eyes flicked only to see what he was pointing at. "Yes, s-. petty officer."
His eyes lit up. He almost got a 'sir' out of her. "Can you read it?"
Her brown eyes flicked again. "It says, Tiner, sir."
Twenty-one-year-old Tiner ate this up. "Actually, it just says, 'Tiner'. Not 'Tiner sir'."
"Yes. Tiner."
He flicked a grin, "Very good." He shifted to stand next to her and handed her the clipboard. "Do you remember you're primary duty as a company yeoman?"
She took the clipboard and flicked her eyes forward to rattle away. "Yes. The company yeoman must know the location and status of every person in the company at all times."
He smiled down at her, "Oh, you're gonna make my job so easy. Why couldn't I get you a day I wasn't on duty?"
She breathed a nervous grin at that, completely unsure how to take this man. The PN1 called an At Ease, and Tiner's fresh company yeoman immediately stopped the life back into one foot. She didn't relax her shoulders, but did lift the clipboard to finally look at it. The muster list was blank. "It's empty."
Tiner ducked his chin at her. "You *are* quick. Good to know they're not picking morons out to fix our ship board radar equipment."
"Yes, s-" she exhaled through her nose looking none too pleased about this badgering.
Blue eyes smiled arrogantly down at the woman. "Name, rank, and social."
Brown eyes flew open again and stared at the air mechanically, "Young, Jodi K, Seaman apprentice, 663-22-0633."
Tiner's eyes chuckled for him. She was pretty even if she hadn't been permitted to put on make up yet. Her hair was blonde and the standard bootcamp-bob was tucked back deep into the blue pisscutter. She had full lips that twitched with uncertainty from time to time, and big brown eyes behind those brown BC glasses that hung with a mild sadness. She was like the quiet and shy librarian a man was driven to coax back to life.
He strived to make that full mouth crack into a grin. He took her hand that had the clipboard and pulled it up to her nose. He put a finger on the column headings of an empty muster list and read slowly as if to teach reading to a first grader. "Naaaaammme. Raaaaannnkk and S.S.N. stands for-"
She snatched the clipboard away from her nose and pulled it away. She shot him a look of true insult.
His eyes widened with glee and his mouth went round with surprise. "Ho! She does have a personality!" Like this was a rare discovery.
She flattened her lips, yanked the pen from his hand and pulled the clipboard up to her nose. She wrote in her name, rank and social. "Do you enjoy this job, Petty Officer Tiner?"
"Yes," he said, squaring his feet in front of her again, "But not as much as you're going to." He stepped back to rattle off the same old speech and wrote notes upside down on her muster list so she wouldn't forget. "The companies muster for breakfast at 0600. That means you are in the quad mustering your company as they come off the quarterdeck by 0500. When you've taken roll of everyone in your company, you give your muster list to me. If you can't find somebody, you come *get* me. If *we* can't find them, *we* go to the Division Chief and all (respectfully speaking) hell breaks loose."
He handed the clipboard back to her. "Second verse same as the first in this same spot once the company returns from school everyday. Enjoy completing this muster list of your *leeetle beeety* company today, and by Monday muster I'll start giving you preprinted lists. By the time you graduate and get one of *these*" he pointed hard at the crow on his shoulder, "You'll have approximately two hundred shipmates to keep track of. Any questions?"
In a few seconds, she glanced up. "Is that all?"
He smiled with the dramatic act of being impressed. "You got all that the first time?"
"Yeah, muster my company twice a day and if I get stuck come to you."
Tiner blinked.
"Right?" She didn't look humored by any of this, but she wasn't shuddering like a scared boot anymore. That was something.
"Close enough for government work." Tiner smiled genuinely at her as he swiveled away so he could give the same abuse to the other company's unwittingly new yeoman. "Welcome to A school."
Two, seven story, L-shaped buildings cuddled up to tower over a rectangular courtyard, affectionately known as the Quad. The old palm trees nearly reached the height of each barracks, the concrete was swept three times a day, and the well-graffitied picnic tables were usually littered with students, in uniform and out. Today, it wasn't. It was Payday Friday and most everybody was off having a good time somewhere else, especially the booters.
Tiner turned over his watch at 19:48 and fetched a bag of Frito's from the geedunk shop. He'd missed evening chow, but he probably wouldn't have straggled one-point-two miles to get to the galley anyway. Even with his watch over, he couldn't leave area, so he figured he'd sit in the courtyard and watch the usual entertainment as the drunks and stragglers came in from the E-club. The first wouldn't roll in for hours though, and the place was going to be awfully quiet until then.
He munched his chips as he stepped out to the quad and spotted the nervous blonde company yeoman. In lack of a civvies chit, she'd changed into her dungarees for the evening, had bought a brand new paperback out of the shop, and sat alone at a picnic table with her nose in it.
Most booters, in fact *all* booters marching straight over from RTC were eager to throw their sea bags into brand new lockers, slap on some previously unavailable make up or cologne, and run like hell off base for the evening, if not the whole weekend. This was the first time he'd seen someone stay behind the first night out of boot camp. Suddenly, there was a mystery to be solved.
Tiner strutted sailorly over, sat down directly across from her, and stared at her as he munched loudly on his chips to get her to look up.
Her eyes peaked over her book.
The bag of chips flicked her direction. "Want a Frito?"
Her brows flicked a little. "No, thank you." She tried to look down at her book again.
He continued to stare at her just to make her squirm.
Her eyes drifted to him from under her brows.
"I can think of a dozen things you'd rather be doing right now than read a book."
Her eyes shifted quizzically, she sat up a little, "Such as?"
"Go see a movie? Go shopping? Read a newspaper? Eat fast food?" These were the usual cravings of an escaping booter.
She lifted the Stephen King in front of her and pointed out the one he'd missed. "Reading a novel?" You didn't get that in boot camp either.
Tiner put his elbows on the table and shoved his cheek onto his fist. "Why aren't you trying to plunge back into the civilian world your first real weekend of freedom?"
"Maybe I never wanted to be a civilian in the first place," she said from behind her book.
Tiner's eyes lit in understanding. "You're a brat."
She nodded, then shrugged. "I *was* a brat." The book flopped down, "Now I'm active duty."
"Huh." He sat up. He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're gonna be one of those straight-laced, Four-Oh, lifers, aren't you?"
She moved no more than her eyes to look at him. "That's the plan."
He hacked in frustration. "Don't you laugh at anything?"
She lifted a brow at him.
He chuckled and slapped the table. "C'mon! You just got out of boot camp! Why are you acting like your dog just died!?"
The tip of her tongue touched uncomfortably on her canine tooth. Her eyes shifted away in thought and back at him even more saddened than before. Then her nose went back into her book.
Tiner's shoulder's melted. "Oh man, I'm sorry." He felt like a complete dope. "What kind of dog was he?"
Her eyes moved up again.
Tiner tried to make up for it by being caring about it. "What was his name?"
Young inhaled a long breath and closed her book. She faced him but licked her lip nervously before she spoke. "It was actually my little brother."
Tiner's mouth abruptly closed.
"Are you done trying to make me laugh now?" Her tone sounded like a little kid with a saddened but curious question, but it was obvious she just wanted him to go away.
They stared at each other for a long minute, and Tiner felt like he could see everything in her soul. She was numbed after a horrifying experience, but it had been long enough to make her want to just sit blankly and sadly about everything. She was like a child, so alone and depressed that she just wanted to sit in a corner and be left in peace.
After all that teamwork and lean on your shipmates crap they shoved down her throat for two months, she was still so unable to shake it that she preferred to sit and hide in a paperback when she had every opportunity to do anything else.
Tiner came to the conclusion that what she really needed was somebody to care. Tiner folded his arms on the picnic table, angled his head without breaking the stare, and said it as clearly as he decided it. "No."
Her shoulders slumped a little and her brows slanted at this.
He flicked the forgotten bag in her direction again, "Are you sure you don't want a Frito?"
Jodi couldn't believe the nerve of this guy. Her eyes rolled in the air and almost smiled over this, "Yes, I'm sure I don't want a Frito."
Tiner's eyes warmed at her, but he didn't know it at the time, "What's your name?"
She smiled and pointed at the stencil over her breast pocket. "Can you read this?"
He didn't even look at it. "No. I'm a yeoman. I can't read." He laughed a little. "You're *first* name." He turned away and smiled out a teasing curse, "dork."
She picked a chip out of his bag and threw it at his face. "My first name is 'Jodi', dork."
Tiner blinked at being whapped by a flying corn chip, but his eyes shined at her afterwards. "Jason."
"Chasing?" She started to grin with confusion. "Chasing what?"
He cocked his head a little and shifted, shoving his snoopy bowl forward over his eyes to hide them. "Well, I'm chasing you at the moment."
She actually laughed with noise this time, but still rolled her eyes in disbelief.
"*Jay-son*," he said again so she would understand it this time. He removed the cover from his eyes but this time tucked it back way too far. Now the snoopy bowl was on the back of his head revealing a few innocent brown curls above his forehead. He bit his lower lip a bit, delighted to get this woman to crack a smile.
"Jason?" She asked softly, her eyes were hung on the way those baby blues were looking at her. "You're not going to go away, are you?"
He folded his forearms on the tabletop and leaned over with a twinkle in his eye. "Do you really want me to?"
Jodi's eyes studied him, still unsure about all this, but the expression on his face was cute. She didn't realize she was blushing at her loss for words until it came out in a true, wide smile.
Tiner smiled from ear to ear back at her. "Then I guess I won't go."
As per reader request: Jason and Jodi back story and the continuation of Harm and Mac through Christmas 2002. Also includes the bridge between 'Bacon and Eggs' and its follow up that is currently on the stove and cooking now.
Summary:
Harm & Mac: As soon as Mac realizes she let Harm too close for comfort, she retreats, leaving Harm insulted and kicks off the silent treatment. Harm discovers an unsettling tidbit about his father and, when he seeks out Mac for moral support about it, she's missing. Harm does the right thing by accident and wins her over.
Jason & Jodi: YN3 Tiner was a bit of a jokester at his first duty station babysitting booters in an Orlando 'A' school. Despite warnings from his Chief, he falls for a quiet and sad bookworm of a student with no complications..Then Sadaam invades Kuwait, orders are cut, and Jason and Jodi face the biggest complication of all. -- Now, twelve years later, things have changed. Why is Jodi so harsh? Why is Jason so spineless? And why can't they meet in the middle like they used to?
POVs: Tiner, Harm, Mac, and a little Jodi.
Author's note: The Orlando scenes depict what life was like in the enlisted Navy late 80's. All characters and conversations in Orlando, except for Jason and Jodi, are based on real people and events. Women were not yet allowed in combat environments at the time, and the story of 'Vic Evans' and her sub duty request is absolutely true.
Apologies: (A) Does not fit with the episodes during the 2002 season (B) A little bit more Jason and Jodi than Harm and Mac. There was a lot to cover. (C) Not sure if the dates match up between Orlando events and Jodi Young's history in Bacon and Eggs. Once I get confirmed background on Tiner's age and year of enlistment, Jodi will be edited to fit in both stories.
JAG: "Stay" by Kesselia Banta Part 1
**Barracks 173 Parking Lot. NTC Orlando, FL. August 1989**
Boot camp graduated hundreds of fresh, virgin sailors every Friday afternoon, and every Friday evening, those brand new uniforms either climbed on busses and planes to get to schools and duty stations, or just marched right across the street to check into the schools right there on the same base. In Barracks 173, they checked in at about the same rate they checked out, about twenty bodies a week, but the school lasted so long that the seven story tall building housed a thousand students at a time. As each wing on each floor slowly emptied, another wing on an other floor filled up just as quickly, turning out electronics geeks on a ten month long conveyer belt.
It was a production line, a factory job, and Petty Officer Jason Tiner had his duties mastered within a few months. He was one of the few real yeomen in the neighborhood, but as brand new YN3, his job was to make sure the clueless company yeomen did theirs. He was in dungarees today because of a watch he had to stand soon, and the iron-on crow on his short blue sleeve was so new and black it looked like he'd stenciled it with a Sharpie marker.
PN1 Apples was a small woman and easy to get along with, and ETC Dicks was cool as long as you caught him after a cup of joe in the morning. It was quiet a shock for the booters to deal with the A school Company Commanders because they didn't yell in their faces and nobody was ever dropped push- ups. The last twenty-ish of their last companies graduated that afternoon and were prepped to be shipped out some time over the weekend. But PN1 Apples and ETC Dicks turned right around and marched to the parking lot to pick up the first twenty of their next companies.
PN1 Apples called out to the courtyard and the parking lot to get all the booters to stand the line. ETC yelled the same but louder. The First Class ushered a small line of women in dress blues to stand at attention with sea bags at their feet, and ETC managed to get the small line of crackerjacks to do the same thing not five empty parking stalls away.
All of the booter snoopy bowls were perfectly squared on their heads, and Tiner deliberately made sure his wasn't, just so he wouldn't look like a boot. But then, he had a crow on his sleeve now. He couldn't look like a booter if he wanted to.
Tiner stood on the curb behind the PN1 and ETC until it he was summonsed, but he hardly stood at attention. Individually, the PN1 and ETC welcomed the new companies, told them what floor they were on and where they would bunk once they were let into the building, and basically acquainted them with the general bullshit of living here. PN1 identified her yeoman first and glanced back at Tiner. He hopped off the curb and strutted over to the brand new sailor. He hardly looked at her as he prepped the clipboard for her. "What position did you hold in boot?"
She was at practiced attention and staring straight ahead, even if his shoulder got in the way of her line of sight. Her voice was fairly quiet, but clear enough. "Company Yeoman, Petty Officer."
"Good. Then this won't be rocket science for you." He grinned a little and pointed at the stencil above his pocket. "Do you see this?"
Her eyes flicked only to see what he was pointing at. "Yes, s-. petty officer."
His eyes lit up. He almost got a 'sir' out of her. "Can you read it?"
Her brown eyes flicked again. "It says, Tiner, sir."
Twenty-one-year-old Tiner ate this up. "Actually, it just says, 'Tiner'. Not 'Tiner sir'."
"Yes. Tiner."
He flicked a grin, "Very good." He shifted to stand next to her and handed her the clipboard. "Do you remember you're primary duty as a company yeoman?"
She took the clipboard and flicked her eyes forward to rattle away. "Yes. The company yeoman must know the location and status of every person in the company at all times."
He smiled down at her, "Oh, you're gonna make my job so easy. Why couldn't I get you a day I wasn't on duty?"
She breathed a nervous grin at that, completely unsure how to take this man. The PN1 called an At Ease, and Tiner's fresh company yeoman immediately stopped the life back into one foot. She didn't relax her shoulders, but did lift the clipboard to finally look at it. The muster list was blank. "It's empty."
Tiner ducked his chin at her. "You *are* quick. Good to know they're not picking morons out to fix our ship board radar equipment."
"Yes, s-" she exhaled through her nose looking none too pleased about this badgering.
Blue eyes smiled arrogantly down at the woman. "Name, rank, and social."
Brown eyes flew open again and stared at the air mechanically, "Young, Jodi K, Seaman apprentice, 663-22-0633."
Tiner's eyes chuckled for him. She was pretty even if she hadn't been permitted to put on make up yet. Her hair was blonde and the standard bootcamp-bob was tucked back deep into the blue pisscutter. She had full lips that twitched with uncertainty from time to time, and big brown eyes behind those brown BC glasses that hung with a mild sadness. She was like the quiet and shy librarian a man was driven to coax back to life.
He strived to make that full mouth crack into a grin. He took her hand that had the clipboard and pulled it up to her nose. He put a finger on the column headings of an empty muster list and read slowly as if to teach reading to a first grader. "Naaaaammme. Raaaaannnkk and S.S.N. stands for-"
She snatched the clipboard away from her nose and pulled it away. She shot him a look of true insult.
His eyes widened with glee and his mouth went round with surprise. "Ho! She does have a personality!" Like this was a rare discovery.
She flattened her lips, yanked the pen from his hand and pulled the clipboard up to her nose. She wrote in her name, rank and social. "Do you enjoy this job, Petty Officer Tiner?"
"Yes," he said, squaring his feet in front of her again, "But not as much as you're going to." He stepped back to rattle off the same old speech and wrote notes upside down on her muster list so she wouldn't forget. "The companies muster for breakfast at 0600. That means you are in the quad mustering your company as they come off the quarterdeck by 0500. When you've taken roll of everyone in your company, you give your muster list to me. If you can't find somebody, you come *get* me. If *we* can't find them, *we* go to the Division Chief and all (respectfully speaking) hell breaks loose."
He handed the clipboard back to her. "Second verse same as the first in this same spot once the company returns from school everyday. Enjoy completing this muster list of your *leeetle beeety* company today, and by Monday muster I'll start giving you preprinted lists. By the time you graduate and get one of *these*" he pointed hard at the crow on his shoulder, "You'll have approximately two hundred shipmates to keep track of. Any questions?"
In a few seconds, she glanced up. "Is that all?"
He smiled with the dramatic act of being impressed. "You got all that the first time?"
"Yeah, muster my company twice a day and if I get stuck come to you."
Tiner blinked.
"Right?" She didn't look humored by any of this, but she wasn't shuddering like a scared boot anymore. That was something.
"Close enough for government work." Tiner smiled genuinely at her as he swiveled away so he could give the same abuse to the other company's unwittingly new yeoman. "Welcome to A school."
Two, seven story, L-shaped buildings cuddled up to tower over a rectangular courtyard, affectionately known as the Quad. The old palm trees nearly reached the height of each barracks, the concrete was swept three times a day, and the well-graffitied picnic tables were usually littered with students, in uniform and out. Today, it wasn't. It was Payday Friday and most everybody was off having a good time somewhere else, especially the booters.
Tiner turned over his watch at 19:48 and fetched a bag of Frito's from the geedunk shop. He'd missed evening chow, but he probably wouldn't have straggled one-point-two miles to get to the galley anyway. Even with his watch over, he couldn't leave area, so he figured he'd sit in the courtyard and watch the usual entertainment as the drunks and stragglers came in from the E-club. The first wouldn't roll in for hours though, and the place was going to be awfully quiet until then.
He munched his chips as he stepped out to the quad and spotted the nervous blonde company yeoman. In lack of a civvies chit, she'd changed into her dungarees for the evening, had bought a brand new paperback out of the shop, and sat alone at a picnic table with her nose in it.
Most booters, in fact *all* booters marching straight over from RTC were eager to throw their sea bags into brand new lockers, slap on some previously unavailable make up or cologne, and run like hell off base for the evening, if not the whole weekend. This was the first time he'd seen someone stay behind the first night out of boot camp. Suddenly, there was a mystery to be solved.
Tiner strutted sailorly over, sat down directly across from her, and stared at her as he munched loudly on his chips to get her to look up.
Her eyes peaked over her book.
The bag of chips flicked her direction. "Want a Frito?"
Her brows flicked a little. "No, thank you." She tried to look down at her book again.
He continued to stare at her just to make her squirm.
Her eyes drifted to him from under her brows.
"I can think of a dozen things you'd rather be doing right now than read a book."
Her eyes shifted quizzically, she sat up a little, "Such as?"
"Go see a movie? Go shopping? Read a newspaper? Eat fast food?" These were the usual cravings of an escaping booter.
She lifted the Stephen King in front of her and pointed out the one he'd missed. "Reading a novel?" You didn't get that in boot camp either.
Tiner put his elbows on the table and shoved his cheek onto his fist. "Why aren't you trying to plunge back into the civilian world your first real weekend of freedom?"
"Maybe I never wanted to be a civilian in the first place," she said from behind her book.
Tiner's eyes lit in understanding. "You're a brat."
She nodded, then shrugged. "I *was* a brat." The book flopped down, "Now I'm active duty."
"Huh." He sat up. He narrowed his eyes at her. "You're gonna be one of those straight-laced, Four-Oh, lifers, aren't you?"
She moved no more than her eyes to look at him. "That's the plan."
He hacked in frustration. "Don't you laugh at anything?"
She lifted a brow at him.
He chuckled and slapped the table. "C'mon! You just got out of boot camp! Why are you acting like your dog just died!?"
The tip of her tongue touched uncomfortably on her canine tooth. Her eyes shifted away in thought and back at him even more saddened than before. Then her nose went back into her book.
Tiner's shoulder's melted. "Oh man, I'm sorry." He felt like a complete dope. "What kind of dog was he?"
Her eyes moved up again.
Tiner tried to make up for it by being caring about it. "What was his name?"
Young inhaled a long breath and closed her book. She faced him but licked her lip nervously before she spoke. "It was actually my little brother."
Tiner's mouth abruptly closed.
"Are you done trying to make me laugh now?" Her tone sounded like a little kid with a saddened but curious question, but it was obvious she just wanted him to go away.
They stared at each other for a long minute, and Tiner felt like he could see everything in her soul. She was numbed after a horrifying experience, but it had been long enough to make her want to just sit blankly and sadly about everything. She was like a child, so alone and depressed that she just wanted to sit in a corner and be left in peace.
After all that teamwork and lean on your shipmates crap they shoved down her throat for two months, she was still so unable to shake it that she preferred to sit and hide in a paperback when she had every opportunity to do anything else.
Tiner came to the conclusion that what she really needed was somebody to care. Tiner folded his arms on the picnic table, angled his head without breaking the stare, and said it as clearly as he decided it. "No."
Her shoulders slumped a little and her brows slanted at this.
He flicked the forgotten bag in her direction again, "Are you sure you don't want a Frito?"
Jodi couldn't believe the nerve of this guy. Her eyes rolled in the air and almost smiled over this, "Yes, I'm sure I don't want a Frito."
Tiner's eyes warmed at her, but he didn't know it at the time, "What's your name?"
She smiled and pointed at the stencil over her breast pocket. "Can you read this?"
He didn't even look at it. "No. I'm a yeoman. I can't read." He laughed a little. "You're *first* name." He turned away and smiled out a teasing curse, "dork."
She picked a chip out of his bag and threw it at his face. "My first name is 'Jodi', dork."
Tiner blinked at being whapped by a flying corn chip, but his eyes shined at her afterwards. "Jason."
"Chasing?" She started to grin with confusion. "Chasing what?"
He cocked his head a little and shifted, shoving his snoopy bowl forward over his eyes to hide them. "Well, I'm chasing you at the moment."
She actually laughed with noise this time, but still rolled her eyes in disbelief.
"*Jay-son*," he said again so she would understand it this time. He removed the cover from his eyes but this time tucked it back way too far. Now the snoopy bowl was on the back of his head revealing a few innocent brown curls above his forehead. He bit his lower lip a bit, delighted to get this woman to crack a smile.
"Jason?" She asked softly, her eyes were hung on the way those baby blues were looking at her. "You're not going to go away, are you?"
He folded his forearms on the tabletop and leaned over with a twinkle in his eye. "Do you really want me to?"
Jodi's eyes studied him, still unsure about all this, but the expression on his face was cute. She didn't realize she was blushing at her loss for words until it came out in a true, wide smile.
Tiner smiled from ear to ear back at her. "Then I guess I won't go."