By the time she got off duty, her head felt like it was being used by a mariachi band. She was glad the girls were asleep so she could go straight to sleep after taking some aspirin.
The last person she expected to run into was Flint. Jaye had just left the control room and entered the maze of hallways when she almost ran into the warrant officer. He reached out to steady her as they nearly collided. He gave her a lopsided smile and asked if she was okay.
Jaye looked at him, a confused expression on her face. He seemed much nicer than he had earlier in the control room. His next words to her made her feel like she had lost her mind.
"So," began Flint, still giving her that little smile, "I was wondering if, well, next time we're off, you wanted to go grab coffee again."
Jaye felt like she wanted to scream, her head pounding. "When we were in the control room, why did you pretend it hadn't happened?"
It was Flint's turn to look confused. "I wasn't in the control room tonight, or at least, I didn't see you in there."
"Sorry," mumbled Jaye. "I need to go."
She really needed that aspirin now. What the hell game was he trying to pull? she thought. Shaking her head, she made her way back to her quarters, thinking she really needed to be in bed.
Over the next few days, Lady Jaye continued to have just as confusing conversations with Flint as before. At times, he was almost hostile to her, while others, it was like he was trying to get her to go on a date with him. She felt like she was slowly losing it! Her best bet, she thought, was to avoid him all together, which she tried to do unless they literally ran into one another.
A few nights later, she awoke from a familiar nightmare with a silent scream, sweat dripping off her. She ran to the bathroom and was sick. Sitting back on the cold linoleum, she thought back to the dream. She hadn't had it for several months - her last few moments with her former partner, when he had tried to gun her down. Why had it come back after all this time?
She knew the answer to it as soon as her heartbeat began to slow down and her head began to clear. With all the confusion about Flint, she figured she had really been losing it when she could swear she was seeing glimpses of her former partner. She had seen his face as one of the Greenshirts, but when she approached the man, it had turned out to be someone different. Another time, she had been on her way to the mess hall with Cover Girl and could've sworn she saw him turn the corner in front of them, but when she had rushed ahead, there had been no one there. She had to think quick for an explanation as to why she had run ahead, when Cover Girl had questioned her. A third time, she thought he was ahead of her on one of Beach Head's courses, but of course, as before, it wasn't him.
She was really losing it, she sighed to herself, leaning her head back against the wall. First with Flint, then with glimpses of Michael, now Zartan…..
She called herself an idiot in several different languages. She should've known, should've guessed that the warrant officer wouldn't have gotten that friendly, that fast. Zartan had been playing with her the whole time! The glimpses of his once familiar face, along with Flint's confusing behavior, was starting to make sense. Her next thought almost made her sick again – should she report the incident to the Joes? Zartan had impersonated a team member, which was serious, as well as infiltrated their base. She just didn't know if it was directed at the Joes…or at her. Combining that with her run-in with her uncle….
She felt a little better after taking a cold shower. Glancing at the clock, she saw it wasn't worth going back to the bed, knowing Beach would probably call them for PT soon. She got dressed and wandered into the kitchen, knowing she'd better have something in her stomach before going through one of his hellish courses.
