By dinner, Lady Jaye had made a lot of new friends, as well as gained a few admirers. Cover Girl sat down beside her, eyes wide. "I heard about the training session," she said, her voice low. "How on earth did you manage to bring him down? I'm taking pointers from you from now on!" she said, impressed.
Jaye waved her fork. "It's nothing, really. I had some energy to burn and he happened to be there. Maybe now the guys around here won't underestimate us as much," she said with a smile.
"From what I heard," Cover Girl said, her voice still low, "the one you took down, he is really against women in this unit. Guess he'll think again before he runs his mouth," she said with a giggle.
The mess hall got quiet as Flint and Duke entered. Eyes glanced from Flint back to Lady Jaye. While embarrassed about all the attention (apparently she had been the first to take down the Warrant Officer), she held it in check.
Beach Head sat down next to Jaye and smiled. "Glad to see you're still in the same shape as when you left," he said. "I was surprised you joined the unit, to tell you the truth, but not surprised they invited you. I checked your file. Very impressive. Always knew you'd be great. Figured we couldn't take you too far away from Scotland, though," he chuckled.
Jaye smiled. "It's nice to see you, too. Not looking forward to the PT Hell sessions you usually do, but it's nice to see a familiar face," she said simply.
Beach Head looked startled then chuckled at her PT comment. "Yeah," he agreed, looking around, "I'll have them whipped into shape in no time."
Jaye was glad for Beach Head's support since it seemed that Flint's pride still rankled, judging by the look he gave in her direction when Duke slapped him on the back, laughing about something. She wasn't sure if it was directed at her or Beach Head, but she hoped she hadn't made an enemy.
She and Courtney were soon surrounded by guys, and they all began sharing their backgrounds. It seemed that they were a very eclectic group, coming from all areas of government and military backgrounds, as well as from several different countries. At one point, she realized she had lapsed into Russian with a former KGB agent, codenamed Oktober, when she saw that everyone at the table was staring at them. She blushed and translated for them. Oktober's broken English wasn't bad, but he seemed to enjoy meeting someone else who could speak his native language fluently. In fact, of the other foreign agents, there was not one she could not talk to in their native tongue. The only exception, of course, was the Native American, Spirit, who had joined the group. Jaye was not sure of his specialty, but he had an air of serenity around him that commanded respect from everyone.
Jaye had settled into life at GI Joe pretty easily. To everyone, she seemed a quiet, intelligent person with a wicked sense of humor. No one had a clue of how much she was hurting on the inside. She made sure of that, only tearing up at night when the thoughts of her former partner and family would sneak into her head. When that happened, sleep usually eluded her and she would go out to the main living area and watch TV, making sure to keep it low so that Cover Girl would not wake.
It was during one of those times that she first met Scarlett. Hearing the lock tumble, Jaye glanced up at the red head that stormed into the room and dropped her bag. She gave a start when she saw Jaye. "Who the hell….oh, you're the MI-6 agent….Lady Jaye?"
"Yes," Jaye got up and held out her hand, not sure how to read Scarlett. She seemed angry and Jaye didn't need it directed at her, but it seemed she had no choice.
Scarlett looked at her hand a moment then held out her own. "Scarlett. Intelligence. Aren't you supposed to be sleeping or something?" she asked, irritable. She had hoped to come home, grab a snack, and then collapse on her bed, not entertain some newbie.
Jaye shrugged and made a motion towards the kitchen. "You look tired. Want me to heat up some of the leftovers from dinner Courtney and I made tonight? It's no trouble," she said, keeping her voice calm although she was just as irritated at the interruption as Scarlett was.
"Whatever," Scarlett said, rolling her eyes. "Look, I'm just going to grab something and go to bed. I'd go to, if I were you…I hear Beach Head's calling ya'll early tomorrow for PT," she said in a soft southern drawl.
"Nice to meet you, too," murmured Jaye to Scarlett's back as she slammed the door. Good thing Cover Girl was not a light sleeper!