The hours passed. I busied myself by attending to superfluous chores around the ship—random maintenance, cleaning the weapons, and radio inspections. Anything to keep myself distracted. Sometimes, I just hated thinking.

With nothing else to do, I grabbed a large pile of laundry I needed to take care of before we arrived at Blood Gulch. I had grabbed a few more sets of the Kevlar suits I used beneath my armor. I must have forgotten to wash them because, frankly, they reeked.

As I headed down the hallway to the ship's small laundry room, I heard a frustrated growl and a soft thump coming from a doorway on the left. The door was ajar. I slowed my walk to a tiptoe and peered quietly inside the room. Damn. I'm such a spy.

It was Wash's temporary bedroom. He had sat down at a desk, doubled over in the chair, grasping his head in his hands. His helmet lay on the nearby bed… but, contrary to what I expected, his face was not that of physical pain; it was of… something else.

His eyebrows were knitted together, a sharp frown creasing his forehead. A vein throbbed in his neck, and his jaw was clenched tightly closed. His hands were clasped tightly around his head, winding through his hair.

I pressed as closely as I dared to the doorway, but, remembering what had happened during my last eavesdropping session, I stayed ready to pounce away from the door and run. He sighed heavily into his hands, relaxing his muscles and closing his eyes tightly.

"How… God. How much longer can I keep this up?"

He only spoke one sentence—that single question. He spoke not with that tone of contempt I was so used to as of late. He sounded aggravated, but… this was different. His frustration was permeated with a tone that sounded almost of regret.

What on earth was he talking about?

I didn't stay to find out. Wash had stood up and was now removing his armor; he probably wanted to change into a fresh under-armor suit before we arrived. I hurried down to the laundry room and cleaned my clothing quickly, returning to my own room as fast as possible.

This wasn't normal. I just couldn't put my finger on an explanation for this behavior. Was Wash still struggling to keep his composure after… after Epsilon? After all this time, was his mind still stable?

Something told me this wasn't the case… well, it wasn't the entire story, anyway. I knew this much: Wash was hiding something. Whether it had to do with Project Freelancer or not, I had no idea.

…But there was no way in hell I was going to ask. I did not want to be reminded of that disaster of a mission. Not now.

Back in the cockpit, Wash and I drove quietly. Command had contacted us and required us to turn off autopilot mode. Unfortunately, we had to drive the ship together again. On the plus side, however, this also meant we were almost at Blood Gulch.

Tension still saturated the air between us; my cold attitude toward him hadn't changed. In exchange, his furrowed brow and icy demeanor continued as well as we slowly descended back into Blood Gulch. We only said the necessities to each other; we knew that any conversation that strayed from the mission would surely lead to another fight.

"Agents Washington and Eleven, prepare for landing," Command said to us through our headsets. So far, our technology had not been acting up. We had set all of the radios to a different frequency than those at Blood Gulch so the AIs couldn't interfere with them. So far, so good. "You are approaching the planet's atmosphere."

"The engine energy balance control is right there," Wash said to me, pointing at my side of the controls. His tone was cool and reserved. He was restraining himself from adding in any insults.

"Thanks," I said calmly, trying my hardest not to give my voice any signs of sarcasm. I had a hard time being professional myself.

We approached Blood Gulch and I felt the familiar sensation of arriving back onto a planet. I smiled in spite of myself, thinking of the Reds and Blues.

It won't be long now.

Wash and I finally arrived at Blood Gulch. As per Hale's instructions, we were to stay here until he gave us further instructions. We just needed to wait for him to give us more information on the location of the AIs, their means of transport, and their number.

As we both approached Blue base, I suddenly had an extremely uneasy feeling about all this. For some reason, I had an inkling Wash and Tucker wouldn't get along too well…

"Hey, Wash," I said to him, pretending to be casual. It was so hard not to start each sentence with slight. Professional. Just be professional. "How about, so that we can cover more area, you stay over at Red base and I take Blue?"

Wash frowned, noticing my tone of voice. He knew I was still upset at him. "Why would we do that? We need to be in the same building just in case something happens with these AIs and we have to take immediate action."

"Well, having two bases covered would be a lot better than just having one defense."

"That doesn't matter. We can use Red base if we need to later. You're such close friends with them anyway." I bit my lip, repressing my sarcastic comeback. "Besides, the broken tank is at Blue base and I think we both need to be there just in case it picks up anything important. We both need to stay there."

I fell silent. The asshole's logic was unwavering. I thought hard, trying to think of any way to get Wash away from—

"Holy shit! Eleven!"

Tucker careened out of the base and gripped me in a tight hug. I laughed breathily, hugging him back. Wash watched us suspiciously.

"I guess you can't get rid of me that easily, can you?" I asked cheekily as he let go.

"I guess not! Damn, Ells." He nudged me slyly. "You just can't stay away from us."

Wash's frown deepened as Tucker turned to go and inform the other Blues of our arrival. I avoided the gray soldier's gaze.

"He calls you 'Ells'?" Wash asked suspiciously.

"What?" I asked, gulping. "It's just a stupid nickname."

"Just a stupid nickname?" Wash sputtered. "You know damn well it's not just a—"

"Eleven!" called Church from the base. We were almost at its doorway. "You're back already? Jesus, that was fast! What were you—" He stopped as the other Blues joined him and we entered the base. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked Washington.

"It's a mission, Einstein," Wash said moodily. "We have to stay here until we get clearance from Command to check out the AI situation. We're not on vacation."

Church rolled his eyes as Washington walked past, heading toward an extra bedroom.

The Blues turned to me, confused. "AI situation?" Tucker asked apprehensively. "What is he talking about?"

I sighed and explained to them what Hale had told me. Their eyes widened as they realized just how much trouble we were in—and, with the minimal information we knew, just how defenseless we were to the AIs' antics.

(( Happy 11/11/11! Don't forget to make a wish!

In honor of our CIA Agent's special day, I'm planning an extra surprise for all of you; unfortunately, it probably won't be posted until next week. Keep an eye out!

-Stella ))