A/N: thank you for reading and reviewing! you guise are the best.

Fran


She had walked away after listening to those men talking. She had locked herself in the ladies room and cried until she had no tears left and then proceed to focus on her work and ignore the pang of pain that hit her every time someone mentioned Becker's name.

The best choice she had, no matter how hard it was, was to ignore him. As childish as it might seem, because no matter how hard she tried she couldn't stop picturing him laughing and making fun of her and the hurt returned and so did the tears.

"Jess"

She heard his voice calling her name but refused to spin her chair when he came to stand next to her like she usually did, or even flash a tender smile at him. Even if she was so tempted to do so right now.

"Hey, is there something wrong?" He asked, frowning slightly at her and the way she seemed to ignore him.

"No, I'm just busy" she spoke, typing something on her keyboard just to keep her mind occupied.

"Are you coming for lunch?" He asked, stepping a few inches closer to her. She unconsciously took a deep breath when he moved towards her.

"No, sorry. Maybe you should go alone, I have a lot of things to do." She could feel his eyes on her and the confused look adorning his handsome face.

"Are you okay, Jess?" He asked again, trying to make sure he had heard right; there was something different in the way she spoke and it was confusing him.

"Yes, I'm okay," she spoke still without turning her face to look at him, "Do you mind? I have lots of work to do."

"Oh…yeah, sure. Sorry to bother you"

He stood a good five minutes watching her, trying to process the fact that she had just kicked him out of her space, even if rather politely. He was still hoping she would turn around, flash a smile at him and tell him they would catch up later. She didn't. When he finally decided to walk away, he turned briefly towards her but she had ignored him once more.

Something wasn't right…


By the time she arrived home she was too sad and exhausted to eat anything; she should have been hungry since she had skipped lunch to avoid Becker, but she wasn't. All she really truly wanted was to crawl into her bed and stay there for days.

"You're home," Abby spoke walking out of her room and into the living room to sit next to Jess on the couch. She frowned at her roommate, noticing the lack of enthusiasm immediately, "Is everything alright?"

"Yes. I'm tired, that's all" Jess told her.

"Are you sure? Because you look more sad than tired," Abby stated, glancing at her.

"I just…didn't have a very nice day," she confessed.

"Did you have a fight with Becker? I caught him sitting in the locker room alone, he looked sort of confused and troubled."

She stared into space, looking for something in her mind that could distract her from picturing him alone but she failed miserably. He was in her head before she could stop it. Abby watched as her friend struggled with whatever she had in her head, waiting for her to open up to her for her own sake. Jess was not the type of girl who looked sad, she was always smiling no matter how bad the day had been, but today cheerful Jess seemed to have gone out of the window.

"What happened?" Abby asked finally, as Jess had refused to talk. "Did you argue?"

"You could say that…" Jess whispered, staring down at her hands.

"You know you can tell me everything, right? I am your friend, you can trust me."

She gave her a warm smile before telling her everything. The soldiers, their conversation, what she had heard, and what Becker had said. Abby stared at her for five whole seconds, her eyes wide open in disbelief.

"That's what he said?" Abby asked her, too shocked to say anything else.

"Pretty much."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, Abby, I'm sure my hearing is fine and the soldier wouldn't lie about something like this."

"I'm sure they wouldn't, but you know Becker. He would never say something like that…"

"But he did, Abby! He made fun of me with his friends, and he broke my heart…" Jess cried, tears slowly running down her cheeks.

"Did you ask him? Did you talk to him?"

"No…I won't. I don't want to, I don't want to see him."

"Jess, I know you're hurting and you're sad, but at least give him a chance to explain himself."

Maybe she should, maybe she would let him talk and then soon she would realize all had been a nightmare. Or maybe he would say yes to all of it and proceed to tell her he would never date such a colorful, rainbow looking woman.


Becker was confused. No, scratch that, he was going out of his mind. First it had been Jess who had been ignoring him and making up excuses not to spend time together ('I'm busy' 'I'm having lunch with Abby' 'a friend is coming for a visit') for God knows why, then it had been Abby, who although didn't look mad, was staring at him differently.
Something must have happened that he wasn't aware of, or maybe he woke up in a different dimension when the woman of his life hated him. Either way it was killing him.

"Abby, can I talk to you for a minute?" He called his friend, hoping she could explain what was going on.

"What?" She wasn't harsh nor rude, she was just colder, and all of her attitude was driving him insane.

"Did something happen that I'm not aware of?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Jess has been avoiding me, and she's more upset, rather than pleased, to see me. As if I did something terrible, but I have no idea what it is."

"I think you do," Abby snapped. Becker did a double take at how angry she looked. "You know exactly what you said!"

"Said about what? Abby, I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"The bag of skittles? Jess looking like a rainbow? Surely now you do remember?"

"I never said that!" Becker responded quickly, staring at his friend in incredulity.

"Becker, Jess heard your soldiers talking about it. She knows."

He turned his head to watch Jess typing something on her keyboard, staring at the screen before her. Suddenly it hit him how much he missed her.

"I have no idea what you're saying," he said again.

"Smith and Jefferson were talking about it in the locker room when Jess heard them laughing about it." Abby did what he had done before, stared at her friend and then turned her head back towards him. "She's heartbroken."

"Abby you know me better than this. You know the last thing I want is for her to get hurt, especially if I'm responsible."

"Then what happened? Why did your men say something like that?" Now it was Abby's turn to be confused.

"I have no idea, but I will figure it out!"

Before Abby could stop him he had stormed out quickly, marching towards the locker room.
She now feared for what was about to happen.


They were laughing, his men were laughing and he imagined it was because of that joke and suddenly his anger rose. Jess hated him because of them, she had stopped staring at him and sharing moments with him because his men decided it could be fun to make jokes about her. He wanted to kick every single one of them in the ass, or probably shoot them with an EMD.

"Smith, Jefferson," he spoke. Both men quickly turned to his direction and stopped laughing when they saw his expression. "The rest, out."

Nobody moved, they stood frozen in their spots and Becker was suddenly tempted to pull out his gun and shoot just to make a point. "All of you out now!"
They did as he said, quickly. Smith was the first one to move, he stood with his hands behind his back facing Becker. Jefferson, maybe purely out of fear at his Captain's anger, did the same.

"Can any one of you explain to me the 'bag of skittles' thing?" Becker asked.

Both men looked at each other but neither spoke. He moved closer, which made them stand up straight, facing a random spot behind Becker's head.

"If you don't explain to me what the hell happened I will make sure both of you never leave for a mission in your lives."

"It was a joke, sir," Smith spoke softly, still standing stiffly. "You were here, remember?"

"Did I make it?" Becker asked.

"No, sir."

"Did I force anyone to make it?"

"No, sir."

"Then why does Jessica think it had been created by me?"

The soldiers exchanged confused looks for a brief second before turning their heads towards Becker.

"We don't know, sir," Smith spoke again.

"Did you tell her?" Becker asked him.

"No, sir."

"Or you?" He asked Jefferson, who was unable to speak and only shook his head. "Then how?"

"It must have been a big misunderstanding, sir."

"You think so? Because the woman I lo…" He stopped mid sentence, turning his face away so his soldiers could not see the blush slowly creeping into his cheeks. He swallowed and began pacing around the room slowly. "Because Miss Parker believes I made fun of her and laughed at her and she refuses to speak and look at me. Something I'm having trouble understanding since the last thing I would do is to make fun of a lady."

"Sir I can speak to her if you wish," Smith offered. Becker smiled kindly at his soldier and shook his head.

"No, I will," Becker responded. "It's better if she hears an apology from me. The least I can do is explain what really happened."

He stood in silence, both men staring at their Captain for a brief second. Smith truly felt bad about it, they should have let the joke go instead of talking about constantly, or they shouldn't have made a joke about Miss Parker at all, especially knowing Captain Becker had a soft spot for her. Some said they were just good friends, some said she was crazy about him and had been for a while, but he knew it wasn't just a crush, they were in love but they were also too stubborn to do something about it.


He wasn't the type of man who followed instructions. He hated to be told what to do even though he was a soldier and he was supposed to play by the boss' rules. When Becker had told him he was going to 'do something about it' he thought he was actually going to. Then he saw him standing a few feet away from Miss Parker, watching her like a stalker, and he knew that the Captain was probably at a loss for words.

So when he told him to stay away, he didn't.

"Miss Parker," he called her name, taking advantage of the solitude surrounding her. They had never really spoken, only a few words here and there, but she was a great woman and most of the soldiers adored her. She made Captain Becker smile and when that happened ,everything went easier on them. They were truly grateful.

"Smith." She flashed a warm smile as she slowly spun her chair towards him.

"I was wondering if we could have a word?" He asked her.

"Sure. What about?"

"About the conversation you heard between me and Jefferson," He spoke quickly. "Miss Maitland said you have heard something, an exchange between me and my friend about a joke that has been made. I feel like I need to explain myself."

The minute he exposed the subject of their conversation he noticed the change in her demeanor. The smile to which she had greeted him with had disappeared quickly and was replaced by sadness.

"I…I'd rather not talk about if you don't mind," she whispered, looking down at her hands.

"I do mind. Ma'am, that was huge misunderstanding. Captain Becker would never say anything like that about you, ever. He loves too much…"

She suddenly, and rather quickly, snapped her head towards him. Her eyes were wide open and mouth slightly ajar.

"Wait, what did you just say?" She asked her voice turning into a whisper.

"That he would never…"

"No. The last part." She told him, her eyes watering slowly.

He was starting to think talking to her had been a bad idea after all. "…He loves you, a lot," he spoke. There was no point in pretending he hadn't said what he had said.

"Oh my god," she whispered, her hands flying towards her chest while tears ran down her face. She was smiling, which was weird considering she was crying.

"You didn't know about this, did you?"

"No…"

"Okay, he's gonna hate me for sure now."

"No, no Smith, thank you. Thank you so much!" she smiled and this time he smiled back.

"Oh, okay.".

"I gotta go." She bounced out of her chair, practically running towards the locker room. Smith watched her leave and couldn't help but smile.

If she was smiling and looked happy, he couldn't have done anything wrong, right?

TBC