CHAPTER TWO
The approach
.
I get up in the mood to kill Lisa for leaving me at the party with Kent, but also aware that she probably got lucky herself. So she had to ditch me.
I was also in the mood for wearing my gray top with a slightly rounded neckline. Tighter than the t-shirts I usually wear. But camouflage pants and brown boots remain the rule.
Bravo had the morning off, hence the 'party' that the guys arranged, and we'd only have the briefing in the afternoon. So I obviously get up a little later, and make my way to the cafeteria to eat there, calmly, which is a great way to eat. A lot of frogmen around me are devouring their food, very quickly, but I ignore them.
Jessica sits in front of me, after deviating from the many stares she receives from the frogmen. She's probably about five years younger than me, but she looks older than me, because of her lip fillers, botox and makeup. She's living proof that the excess of procedures that are supposed to make you look younger, ages you. But she's beautiful, no doubt about that. I'm just not sure how her kids will look like.
She got a banana, yogurt and granola to eat, with black coffee. I'm eating pancakes, maple syrup and bacon.
"You got out of the gathering early last night" she says, mixing her yogurt with the granola. She also refuses to call that a party, and I like her more for that.
"I did. I was trying to escape Sommers" I chuckle.
"And did you? We saw him kinda following you. We knew he'd be annoying", she says, while distractedly licking her fingers and driving the frogmen around us crazy.
"He was. Clay and Jasonrescued me" I joke, but not totally joking. I was very relieved and thankful for their help. "They escorted me to my cabin. Honestly, this Kent guy gives me nausea".
"That was nice of them. Glad they were there, then" she casually says, but I instantly notice the hint of jealousy, and the look that she gave me when I said they rescued me. But I choose to ignore her. Maybe she's just one of those 'pick-me' girls.
We finish eating, and decide to take a walk around the Camp, and, for obvious reasons, both of us also decide to walk closer to the gym area. I, at least, try to disguise my true reasons the best I can; Jessica not so much.
Sonny sees us walking from a distance and waves at us, walking to where we are.
"Well, well, if it isn't the queen" he glances at Jessica, and she smirks, "and the fairest of them all" he glances and winks at me, and I hold back a smile. He's a flirt. Brock and Clay are working out, shirtless, and Full Metal is playing golf. Jessica glances at me discreetly, she's liking the view, too.
"At what time's the briefing today?" Sonny asks.
"At 1400 hours" I answer, and Brock comes closer.
"Will you girls have lunch before briefing?" he charmingly asks, staringa lotat Jessica, and she answers that 'she'll see' about it, because she 'had a big breakfast'. She doesn't seem too interested in him. But she smiles at him, just in case, to keep him happy. And Brock melts. I keep quiet, because obviously Brock isn't interested in my answer.
Ray and Jason are arguing about something when they approach the gym. Jason is sweating and wearing shorts, t-shirt and a cap, probably he was running, by the looks of it.
"Well?" Clay asks me, sitting on his bench. Sonny, Brock and Full Metal are looking at me, too.
"Well what"
"Lunch" Clay simply repeats, and Jason and Ray walk closer to us. Jason makes a shadow next to me, between me and Sonny, and sips water from his bottle. Sonny unconsciously takes a step to the side, to make room for the team leader in the circle.
"Oh. Sure. I eat lunch. Everyday" I answer, confused, because I thought that was obvious.
Apparently, it wasn't, because some of the guys chuckled. "Ok then, good. Food truck" Clay answers, and looks around, silently asking for the time. "1230" some of them mumble, and Jason nods, stern. He's breathing hard and blinking a lot, still blinded by the sun. I nod, accepting the time for our formal lunch.
I can't restrain myself, I have to tease him. "You know, if you wear your cap like it's supposed to, you wouldn't have that issue" I casually let Jason know, smiling with my lips closed.
He opens a daring smile, still breathing hard and blinking. He touches his cap, that is backwards. "What can I say? Deep down I'm a rebel".
I smile and shake my head, walking away. He knows that's what he's known for. A rebel special ops team leader.
.
.
At 1228 hours, I get out of my cabin and walk to the food truck, looking at my phone and lazily carrying my jacket with me. I arrive at the place at 1230 hours and thirty seconds, and everyone is there already, looking at me and anxious, including Jessica. She suddenly changed her mind.
"You're late" Jason tells me, but teasing and smirking. I shrug, smirking, and walk behind him to sit on one of the two empty chairs of the table, next to Brock, with Sonny in front of me and Clay close. The other empty chair is next to Jason, but I didn't want to hear him and Jessica flirting, she was sitting on his other side. I notice that his playful smile was instantly gone.
The second I sit, almost everyone stands up at the same time, to walk to the trucks and order their food. And they order a lot of it.
"You guys can go, I'll hold the table" I say to Jason and Jessica, who are still sitting. There are big groups of frogmen wanting to get a table, not that they wouldn't gladly eat standing up, but they'd never admit it, they love tables too. And the lunch at the cafeteria is not as good as those at the food trucks.
"We'll stay. You can go" Jessica joyfully says, answering as if they were a couple. "I'm still thinking if I'll even eat, actually. Maybe I'll just stick to my drink". I smile, thanking her, and stand up, but I hear Jason's voice behind me.
"You sure you don't mind?" he asks her, and she probably shook her head, because he walks behind me to the taco stand. The place is kinda full, so he walks really close, and I can actuallyfeelthe size of his frame while I stand in line. He occupies a lot of space.
He decides to be amicable and starts a conversation. "How are you liking your first long deployment? Boredom aside".
I turn a bit to answer him. "It's different, I like it. Reminds me of when we were training as recruits" I say, and he smirks, nodding. "Except here sometimes soldiers don't make it back" I add, feeling down. He nods, stern.
"How many times have you been deployed here?" I ask, curious, taking one big step to the side because the line walked. I didn't notice it.
"Many. This is my 12thtime here. Not sequential" he says, pouting.
"Jesus. Twelve different years you stayed here. I was at the beginning of my career with the District Attorney twelve years ago" I say, chuckling.
"Oh, did you work with a civilian prosecutor, too? Didn't know that" he says, obviously not knowing a lot about me.
"Yep. Four years, after college. I was specialized in homicide cases, had my own team", I say, proud. I worked a lot during those first years of my career, and it paid off.
"Huh. Team leader?" Jason asks, playful. "It seems great. How did you end up here, then?"
He sounds interested, but I alert him. "It's a longer story". He shrugs, as if he doesn't mind, and slightly touches my back to make me walk the line.
"Well, I left the DA's Office,then joined the Navy, because I wanted to work in the JAG Corps. There, I assisted some of the prosecutors, again, leading my own team. Another seven years, give or take. Then I took my Officer course. Then I joined DEVGRU a year ago". I finish, breathing in.
Jason softly chuckled. "Well, you definitely climbed the ladder. But they don't take any Officer or former JAG lawyer into DEVGRU" he wisely points out. And points with his head, alerting me to walk the line.
I smirk, because, well, I wanted to sound mysterious. "No. They don't".
He waits, but I keep quiet, and he raises an eyebrow. He kept quiet during the party too, so he knew he couldn't ask me to tell.
"Ma'am" the Afghani calls me, impatient, because I was next in line and didn't realize, since I was busy staring at Jason and trying to look mysterious. I turn and quickly walk the two steps, ordering my meat tacos. I decide to make my way back to the table with my diet coke, to wait for the truck to call my name, since it would take a few minutes. The guys are sitting at the table in different positions, so I sit on one of the empty chairs, facing Jessica, who was slowly sipping her diet coke. The drink had to last through our entire meal.
"Are you really not having lunch?" I ask her, almost whispering. She was thin enough. Borderline sick thin, actually. Then she had a boob job, obviously to look less thin. I don't understand the purpose of it.
"I told you, I'm good. I'll eat something after the briefing, ok", she lies.
"Can you tell us something about the briefing?" Clay asks, anxious. He couldn't wait another hour, he's bored.
"No. I'm feeling lazy. You'll know soon enough" I answer, sincere, and Clay squirms from his chair.
The guys stand up, one by one, to get their food, and Jessica glances at the front, where Jason is. I turn to look, he's talking to some older guy, probably about the hard life in the Navy, or about himself. The truck guy calls my name and I get up to take it, but Jason yells that he'll get mine, gesturing for me to sit. I sit back down, not complaining. I like gentlemen. I'd definitely be one, if I was a guy.
"Thanks" I mutter, when Jason places my taco in front of me, and Jessica smiles at him, all melted and kiss-ass. He likes the kisses, and sits next to her.
"So, new girl" Ray starts a conversation with me, teasing, and I smile back at him, because he was always nice to me, "We almost haven't seen you this week. Davis too. What ya'll been up to?"
"Something cool" I say, not sounding cool, at all. "The result of Davis' hard work, of course. I'm just helping her out".
I hear someone mutter 'kiss-ass' from my side. Probably Sonny. I ignore him. I'm not a kiss-ass, I just like to recognize a job well done.
I explain the mystery. "This op that you'll be briefed today relates to it. But we're still looking for some data, and waiting for the intel that maybe you guys can bring us from the next op".
They nod, accepting the explanation. Jason and Sonny, however, seem a lot more anxious. They're obviously dying of boredom here. From what I've heard, they have been there for three weeks with pretty much nothing to do.
"What were you doing before joining DEVGRU?" Clay asks, curious. I found it interesting that he didn't ask anything about my experience with Foxtrot. Hopefully Blackburn kept his mouth shut.
"Before I took the Officer course, I was assisting a JAG prosecutor. I joined the JAG right after I joined the Navy" I answer.
"You didn't have to. Join the Navy. You could have just applied to be in the JAG" Ray wisely says.
"I know. But I wanted to. I knew I might not want to be in the JAG forever, and I was right. Besides, I really wanted to learn how to handle some guns" I admit, and most guys' faces twitch. Probably something else, too. They love their guns.
"Which prosecutor did you assist?" Sonny asks, anxious. He knew a handful of them, of course.
I softly chuckle. "I didn't work in any cases against you, Sonny. But I worked with a bunch or JAG prosecutors. I had my own team and was assigned to assist in cases where capital crimes were committed. And other serious crimes".
"Death penalty?" Ray asks, surprised.
I sigh. "Yes".
The table squirms, thinking about the gravity of those crimes, except for Jessica. She was used to seeing everything, probably. Or she pretended to be a bad ass. Let her, I'd find out soon enough what she was made of.
"Is that why you got a spot in DEVGRU so fast?" Jessica asks, curious. She also sounds envious, probably thinking that I'm younger than I am, or that I was favored by someone.
"That helped" I answer with honesty.
"And what else helped?" Jessica interrogates me when I keep quiet. The table is silent, waiting for my answer.
"A job well done, I suppose" I answer, and Jessica was definitely not expecting that answer. The guys smirk, they understand me. They are all here because they did their job well, and they expect nothing less from the rest of their crew.
Ray asks, playful, "Elaborate on that, if you can".
I smirk at him. "I'm good with analyzing information and people, I did that when I was in JAG. I helped a little more with some... demanding cases. The Captain, and some other people, thought they could use my skills in DEVGRU" I explain, shrugging. Jessica and the guys nod. But Ray and Jason also look at me with suspicion and curiosity.
"What cases?" Jason asks, raising his eyebrows. I really don't want to talk about them now. Especially because not all of the guys had clearance. And the cases involve other people.
"It's a long story. I'll tell you someday, with more time. Promise". I can't promise, but whatever.
"You have good friends in the Navy, huh" Jessica says, and I don't like her tone.
I sigh, getting tired of her jealousy. "I have a lot of enemies, too" I bluntly inform her.
.
.
Reiss Julian, a CIA agent designed to interrogate theprisoners, is already waiting in the briefing room when we walk in. He introduces himself, and glances at the door when Lisa walks in behind us, and they smirk at each other. Yes, Reiss is the guy that liked Lisa's cleavage the night before.
But there's no time to tease her, because Bravo Team is sitting down and loudly talking.
Blackburn gets in and explains to them that we're investigating something that could link to a new terrorist cell in Afghanistan, and they'll have to go on an op tonight to take down a weaponry that might be theirs, and capture possible members of said cell. Next, they would be interrogated by Reiss.
The guys are incredibly excited, not because the op is exciting, but because of the fact that there could be a new terrorist cell operating here. Jason even 'high-fives' with a couple of the guys, and I can't help but to smile, watching them. They hate boredom even more than I do. They're like teenagers.
"Yes! Finally. I told you guys, this is war zone" Jason loudly says, with his husky voice. Sonny laughs and Jason smiles at him, excited, "Let's go guys. Come on" he says, standing up, and the guys quickly follow him outside, loudly talking and celebrating. Forgetting that they're gonna risk their lives that night.
The room is suddenly quiet, and all we hear is the noise of the nerds typing stuff in their computers. And their breaths. They breathe loudly, probably because they keep the air conditioning in the same temperature as Antarctica in the summer.
"They really hate boredom" Lisa explains to us, and we nod. We noticed.
.
.
I wait near the entrance of the interrogation rooms at dawn, for the guys to come back from the op. They walk, happy, and have three prisoners with them, ready to be interrogated by Reiss. I could say that they did a great job, especially because I'm very aware of the fact that to bring someone alive is a lot harder than to bring a corpse. But the weaponry was empty, unfortunately. The terrorist cell moved the weapons, possibly. Maybe not. But I thought they did, and so did Lisa.
"Hey. Thanks for the gift" I playfully say to the guys, and Ray, Clay and Brock grin at me, sweaty. They were holding the prisoners. The other ones smile at me too, happy to get something. Jason passes by ignoring me and even Jessica, close to us. He's grumpy.
"He's grumpy" Jessica points out, as if I had no eyes.
It's evident that she says that to remind me that she knows him longer and better than I do. But she forgets that I'm an Officer assigned to work with Bravo. I'mreallynot trying to get into his camouflage pants, because any sexual or romantic relationship between us would be illegal. That'sdefinitelynot my type of relationship. Fortunately, to appreciate his looks is not illegal. That I can do. But discreetly.
I have some time to kill, because I need to wait until Reiss interrogates the prisoners and gives us something new to work on. And then I'd be working for long hours that day. So I take a walk around Camp and then decide to go to the shooting range, that probably would still be empty, because it's very early.
I get one of the guns and the bullets and precisely aim, shooting right on the head and chest. I push the button so the target is brought closer to me, and I pout. I missed two of the center shots on the chest area, not by much, but still. I'd still kill the dude, but I wanted the shot to be exactly at the center. I sigh and throw the paper behind me, and go again, compensating for the nonexistent wind, even though there isn't any. But just in case. Usually I'm good at it, but I was really hoping to be great someday. This time, three of the shots are a little more down and to the left.
"Son of a bitch. There's no wind. This was supposed to be relaxing", I grumble while looking at the paper with the target drawn, and I really wished that shooting targets relaxed me. I love it, but I'm stressed out, as usual.
"You need to compensate for your loss of grip. And strength" I hear a low and muffled voice behind me, and turn, pulling down my ear protectors. Jason is there, holding my first target and looking at it, and a lot closer to me than I thought when I heard the voice.
I look down at the gun I'm holding, it's quite heavy but not that much. I'm not so weak, I think so, at least. I frown.
He notices my confusion, and walks to me, with a neutral expression. He's clean and his hair is slightly wet. He's wearing a black sweatshirt, it's still chilly at this hour.
"You're shooting in a fast and uninterrupted sequence, aiming before the first shot. The strength of your hand and forearm will decline after each shot" he touches my forearm, then looks at my annoyed face, because he's calling me weak. "It's a natural thing, it happens to everyone" he patiently explains, smirking. "A lot less to me, of course, than to you" he finishes, chuckling and dazzling me with his bright smile.
I smile back at him, thinking about the pros of being Jason Hayes' friend. He could totally teach me this kind of things, and I decide to take advantage of his wisdom.
"Let's say you're right" I partially admit, and he smirks, "How can I compensate without pausing between shots?"
"Well, the most efficient way to do it" Jason looks at me, playful, and raises his eyebrows, "is to work out your arms" he teases, chuckling, and I laugh at his smugness. I realize that he's a lot more playful than he appeared to be, at least to me, anyways. He continues and takes the gun from me, then walks to the stand.
"Here" he holds the gun with both of his huge hands, almost covering all of it, and I can't stop myself from thinking about what else these hands would be capable of. I'm really not some sex addict, actually, on the contrary, but hey, I'm not dead either, and there are some things that I'm sure all women think about, every now and then. And there are specific men that have something about them that brings up that side of ours without any effort. The naughty side.
"Look, you cover your right hand like this" he continues, placing two huge rough fingers in an angle, over the right hand. I do have some trouble to focus and listen, because he leaned a lot towards my direction so he could diminish our height difference and show me the positioning of his hands from his point of view. He keeps his position and his hands like that for a few seconds, probably noticing that I wasn't really focused on what he was saying. I know that because when I get nervous it is quite evident; I either lick my lips or bite them, unconsciously, but when I realized that I was biting my lip I tried my best to disguise it, and squinted at his hands for the entire time, pensive.
"U-hum. I see it. Yes, got it. Is that all?" I say, turning to face him, and he was already looking at my face. Not, like, too close, but a bit too close for my comfort. It was close enough for me to see that he has warm brown eyes, almost green, and that his skin has freckles on it, which I call 'gunpowder freckles'. They're the result of years of him exposing his face to grenades, heavy weapons and bombs. I think they're sexy as hell, because they remind me that these soldiers risk their lives daily, for decades. These details I'd hardly notice on a regular basis, because he's much taller than me. I can also tell he smells amazing, a mixture of soap and manhood, whatever that is. Ok, maybe heisa lot closer than I realized at first.
After that second of hesitancy, which seemed a lot longer for me, because I could analyze his entire face, he turns back his face to the gun and the reason why he's standing in such an uncomfortable position. To teach the dumb girl how to properly hold a gun.
"You hold your fingers like that, especially the pinky finger, because the two last fingers of your hands are always the strongest ones" he says, and it really surprises me, I didn't know that. I hum in response, amazed, and he clears his throat, stands erect again, and continues his lesson, pointing the gun at the target in front of us, while I stand beside him.
"So, when you know you're pulling the trigger for more than a couple of shots, in a fast sequence, you just press these two fingers onto your right hand, and it would hold it in place almost perfectly, and compensate", he explains, showing me what he meant, without pulling the trigger.
He brings the gun down and turns to me, with a serious face, and hands me back the gun.
"Well, you definitely have the talent and patience for teaching" I say, smiling at him with gratitude. I'm truly not a kiss-ass, I was being honest, I really thought he explained it well. "I think I got it" I tell him, taking the gun from him and walking past him to the narrow stand. I put my ear protectors back on, and turn to look at him, to see if he'd get the ear protectors or what, so I could shoot to see if the lesson worked. But he's many steps away from me, walking backwards with his hands in his pockets.
"Yeah. I'm just glad I could help. I'll go get some sleep, but let me know later how it worked out" Jason says, pointing to nowhere with his head, then he turns and leaves.
"O-kay" I say to myself, because he's already gone. I feel kind of a burden, because he probably was just unwinding before sleeping and he saw me all frustrated and tried to help, and I didn't even pay that much attention to his lesson. So I'm hoping that I really understood what he said, because I tried hard to focus, it wasn't my fault.
I position my hands and fingers like he taught, and shoot again, in a fast sequence. I push the button to bring the target to me, and I'm very pleased to see that yes, I now can shoot a target with both accuracy and precision. I'm really proud of myself. I mean, like I said, I was always good at shooting with guns, but I don't think I ever shot with such precision. I'm feeling great, so I decide to take the paper target with me, rolling it and walking with it to my cabin. I should glue it on the wall, to have some decor in there. It's really a depressing room, that one, and I'm not a depressive person.
But if I keep my room like that for two months, I might turn into one.
.
.
Three and a half hours later, and fucking Reiss still couldn't squeeze any good intel from the prisoners. Now I'm angry as fuck, I mean, it's his profession, right? He was designated to work in Afghanistan, with a special team, and he can't seem to get information from an unimportant terrorist. But apparently I am the only one who thinks that way, because Davis is trying to calm me down in the cafeteria. Or maybe she's just defending her boo.
"It's usually like this, Vicky. In Afghanistan, we've been here for so long, that they are trained to withstand interrogations and already know even the order in which the CIA will ask them the questions" Davis says, then eats her pancakes.
"Well, fuck it. Change the fucking order, then. For fuck sake" I grumble, and apparently I say it quite loud, because Sonny releases a loud laughter near us.
"Katniss, your mouth is dirtier than my grandpa's butt on the day after Thanksgiving" Sonny playfully says, glancing at my braid, and me and Davis laugh as soon as we register his words. His teases are the best. And Ray and Jason also think so, because they're laughing out loud, walking behind him
"Sorry" I mumble, blushing. "I'm just anxious about those interrogations", I try to explain, and was about to say that I don't usually swear like that, but I'd be lying. People just usually don'thearme swearing, that is the truth. I swear a lot when I talk to myself.
"Well, I can relate to that" Jason casually says, smiling while sitting on the bench across the table, in front of me. "Waiting and doing nothing drives me mad" he explains, as if he was confessing something.
Everyone chuckles, and I tease him. "Yes. We've noticed it. More than once".
"Yeah. I get grumpy. Sorry about that" he explains to me, with an apologizing smirk.
"This time it's worse, though, right Jace?" Ray says, seated next to me. "The last op took place at a house where Jace was before, many years ago. And I think I was there too" Ray explains, and Davis and I are surprised.
"That must've been awkward" Davis says, looking at Ray and Jason. Jason is looking a little grumpier again, gazing at my plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, barely touched.
"Just a little. It just shows us that the war never ends, right?" he says, looking up again at us, serious.
"Yeah, it never will. But that doesn't mean that what you did back then was useless" I say, trying to cheer him up, and he looks at me, stern. "Because back then all your actions were also necessary. Who knows how the world would be if you weren't there at that house?"
Jason continues to look at me, without reacting, and I glance at Ray and Sonny. They are slightly nodding, agreeing, and smirking. I look back at Jason and he's nodding and smirking too. Apparently these operators need someone to cheer them up on a weekly basis, because I noticed that they are all very dramatic about everything. I was just stating the obvious, but they must be filled with guilt and regrets, and doubting themselves a lot. I love what they're doing for our country, but I also feel sorry for them, because the reason why they are so dramatic is because they are tested everyday, and every op could be their last; they never know.
"Are you gonna eat that?" Jason suddenly asks me, pointing at my crispy bacon covered in syrup. It's glistening, it does look tasty.
"Well... I was" I answer, sincere, discreetly pulling my plate closer to me, just in case he doesn't hear it. Jason pouts. I look at them, "Didn't you guys have breakfast already?"
"Just once" Sonny answers, standing up. "I'll just go get me some tiny pieces of bacon and pancake".
"Yeah. I'll go get me some pancakes too. With lots of bacon" Jason says, standing up and sounding annoyed because I didn't let him eat my bacon. What a baby. Probably he steals food from everyone and they let them. That wouldn't happen to me, no. I stand by Joey from Friends: nobody touches my food.
While the guys are serving themselves, Jessica appears and walks to the counter, ordering coffee, and stops to joyfully talk a while to Jason. Then she comes to our table.
"No news yet. But I think that soon Reiss will find out something, ok? Patience" she says, and walks out of the cafeteria, fast.
As soon as she's away, I turn to Davis, 'curious neighbor' mode on.
"Hey" I come closer to Davis, and she hunches with me, "what's up with Obsessive-Jessy over there? She's always glued to Jason".
Davis smirks, and hunches even more, glancing at Jason while she talks. Her 'gossip mode' was full on.
"So, the thing is, that Jessica has been working with us, every now and then, for like, two and a half years. Then when it's her turn to work with us for three months, she always obsesses over him. Like that. I was like that from the beginning, I mean" she says, and we both look at Jason, as if we didn't know who she's talking about, but he glances at us at that exact time. We quickly disguise it, and stand erect. But Davis couldn't restrain herself, she had more gossip.
"Word is, and you didn't hear it from me, that they may have slept together at the end of the second period that she was with us, and he just kept things casual, but she obsessed even more. Now I don't know if they are still sleeping together, every now and then, but probably yes, I mean. Why wouldn't he? Right".
I nod, understanding completely. She's beautiful, even though she's kinda boring and clingy. But I was gobsmacked about the duration of her obsession.
"Jesus, but, like, what the hell happened between them that she's still obsessing so hard over him? And only seeing him for like, twice a year?"
"Exactly" Davis says, and adds, "And I found out that she always applies to work with us for any extra period, in case the CIA needs a replacement. But unfortunately for her, that never happened. Yet I wonder, what the hell happened that first night, huh" she finishes, raising her eyebrows at me, and I raise my eyebrows at her, both of us with our mouths naughtily open when the guys come back.
"What's the gossip" Sonny wisely asks, and we immediately change our expressions to blasé.
"Bout what?" I ask, naive, looking down and picking my scrambled eggs from my plate. They are cold as fuck by now, but I pretend they are delicious.
They come back with their plates full, except for Ray, who just got a small portion of eggs and black coffee.
"They won't tell us" Jason says, smirking at me and Davis, "It's girls' stuff" he mocks, with a smug expression. Obviously he noticed that he was the subject of said 'stuff', and Davis and I glance at each other, blushing.
We ate in silence for a few seconds, when Davis suddenly starts to gossip about another special team, and we listen, hunched down and attentively, about how awkward was the situation between the team guys when one of them slept with the fiancee of the other. Apparently guns were pulled.
"How's your target?" Jason casually asks me, when all of us stand up to walk back to the Command Center, even though nothing new came up, because Jessica or Reiss would've called us.
"Dead. With both accuracy and precision" I state, standing proud and cockily smiling. Jason laughs, with a relaxed demeanor, while we walk behind the others.
"I'm glad he'spreciselydead, then. But your aim was pretty good already".
I pout. "You don't need to lie to me. I know you can shoot from here to that guy" I point at a guard on a higher position, near the entrance to the Camp, "and then shoot again and hit the exact same spot".
"Actually" Jason says, smiling, and points his finger to a lonely tree almost twice the distance from where the guard was, "from here to that tree".
I turn to stare at his cocky and smiley face. "Why would you want to shoot at a tree?"
Jason stares at me and in a heartbeat, he sincerely laughs. That delicious laughter again.
"Good point" he playfully says, when he recovers. "To show off, perhaps" he adds, with a crooked smile.
I smirk at him. "Well. Thanks for the tip" I say, "Because nobody ever told me any of that technical stuff that you said. I wish they did". I stop at the first step of the ladder at the entrance of the Command Center.
"U-hum. Glad I could help" he huskily says, standing straight. "If you want, I can teach you how to fire our bigger weapons" he says, friendly.
I chuckle. "You don't need to rub that in my face".
He gets serious. "I'm serious", then he squirms, glancing to the sides, "I mean, the guys and I sometimes practice our shooting in a separate area, with our long-range weapons, and you can watch us, if you want. And shoot, if you want to. Davis goes there with us too, sometimes. You know, not always. But sometimes".
"Oh" I say, surprised, because I only shot those weapons twice when I joined the Navy and for Officer training. They're so expensive that the Navy is afraid we'd break them. With reason. "Wait. Seriously? Well, of course. Yeah" I say, grinning. That's really exciting.
"Yeah. Ok" he says, grinning back.
I nod, then point with my thumb to the door behind me. "I gotta go. To pretend I work on something until Reiss actually gives us something to work on".
He softly chuckles. "Sure. U-hum. See ya, then" he says, nodding and walking backwards.
I turn around and walk into the Command Center, and Davis, who was looking at some maps on a table, glances at me.
"What happened? Did Reiss find out something?" she asks, attentive.
"What? I don't know. Why?" I ask, frowning.
"Oh. Nothing. You were all smiley and shit" she says, turning her attention back to the maps.
Oh. Damnit.
But I really meant 'Fuck'. I'm just trying to go easy on the swearing.
.