by Natalie Reid
Turning around the room, she felt her stomach lurch and her spine tingle at the sheer speed at which they were travelling. She laughed and reached down for Tom’s arm so she could hold on. He spun her about a few more times, but on the last, she felt herself turning in his grip. He slowed her down to a stop, and although she could see nothing but drifting mist, she could tell that Tom was standing in front of her now. Close, for she could hear his breathing and feel the warmth coming from his chest.
She suppressed a shiver as she felt his fingertips brush the skin near her temples. The few wisps of hair that framed her face moved as he slowly slid the glasses from her eyes. The clouds vanished and Tom’s face came into focus. He was staring at her. Not at the wall behind her, not at the glasses or his hands. He was staring at her.
“If this is my last day here,” she said in a quiet voice, “I just, I just wanted to say…”
Before she could find the words she was looking for, the door to Tom’s lab opened. A scientist that she had seen walking around before poked his head in and raised his eyebrows after finding the two of them standing so close together.
“Hey virgin,” the scientist remarked coolly. “Tag’s looking for you.”
The man left quickly, leaving Jessie feeling like she wanted to punch him for no reasonable explanation at all. However, when she turned back to Tom, his face was frozen in a stunned expression of pain, as if he had just been slapped. When he caught her staring, he hurriedly turned away and gave her his back. He cleared his throat and began shifting objects along the shelf. He acted like an injured animal, and she knew she should go, but she didn’t want to leave without saying something first.
“Uh,” she stuttered, sounding surprisingly feminine. “Was he looking for me, or for you?”
She couldn’t stop her face from heating up as she said this, but unfortunately Tom did not take it in the way she had intended.
“Don’t mock me.” He shook his head but did not turn to face her.
She gathered her courage again, and announced firmly, “I don’t think it’s anything to be ashamed of. In…in fact, I find it downright refreshing. It’s nice to finally find someone like m-me.” She couldn’t believe she had just admitted that, but there it was, weighing down the air, yet making it feel lighter all at once.
Tom swung around to face her, but she found she couldn’t take his gaze. She gulped and stared down at her shoes.
“You should probably go find Tag,” she offered in a weak voice.
She took a step back and chanced a glance back up at him. He looked hurt, but not in the same way as before. Before his pride had been wounded; now he just looked sad.
“If I don’t see you tomorrow,” he spoke faintly, “…goodbye.”
She nodded and told him goodbye, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had missed something important. As he walked down the hallway, she stared at his retreating back in confusion, wondering why she felt this way.
Chapter 9
Back to Basics
Commander Vin sniffed at the cold street air as he waited for Ritter to park his bike and walk over to him. The sun had already started to go down, and the incoming night was causing the air to bite even harder.
When his right hand man strolled up to him, jamming his hands in his pockets as if nothing at all was amiss, Vin shot him a cold stare and asked, “Is something wrong, Ritter? You’ve been constantly late, and several times when I’ve asked where you are, no one seems to know. I’ve had to ask an agent more than once to take care of your duties.”
Ritter shrugged. “We’ve got so many new recruits these days, what should it matter? A bit of extra work would do them some good.”
Vin took a step towards him so that he could stare him down. “You need to get your head out from underneath this city. The underground rebellion hardly poses a threat anymore. I don’t need my second in command obsessing about a bunch of tunnel rats. Now get your priorities straight and head back to base. Ward’s given us a name.”
“I didn’t think you’d need me to take out one person,” Ritter responded, coolly taking a step back from his boss.
Vin shook his head, saying sarcastically, “Don’t you know it’s illegal to kill a human.” His voice flattened, and he shoved a folded piece of paper into Ritter’s stomach. “Make this one look convincing. It’s not some east-ender that people will think just lost the will to live.”
Ritter looked down at the paper and nodded. “Right. I’ll see what I can do.”
The rumble of a Task Force motorcycle sounded to his right, and he looked over at the street to see a rookie agent staring at him. “Get lost,” he growled.
The man took off right away, and Ritter shook his head, muttering about racking nosy rookies.
It wasn’t until he was already half a block away that the brutal pounding of Griffin’s heart let up. He, a civilian, was riding on a Task Force agent’s bike! Not only was that a serious criminal offense that could land him in prison, but it also meant he was personally insulting each and every member of the Task Force. Everyone knew how possessive they could be when it came to their bikes.
But, after assuring himself that he wasn’t being followed and was not yet going to be thrown in prison, he actually let himself smile. His test run had worked! There were so many recently recruited members on the Task Force at present that he had easily passed for one.
Griffin drove around in blissful triumph, just cruising around the neighborhoods that he always had to walk through on foot, when a flash of auburn hair caught his attention.
His heart immediately started back up again on its rant. His head grew faint and his hands grew shaky. Melissa walked calmly down the street, unaware of the effect she was having on the poor man. However, soon Griffin found that he was losing his balance on the bike, and just as he was about to pass her by, he tipped back so much that he was thrown from his seat.
His body hit the ground hard and he was sent rolling. His bike swerved onto the side-walk and then hovered in place as if waiting for its rider to come back on.
Griffin let out a low moan and tried to get up. When he did, he found it easier than he expected, for a pair of hands had wrapped around his arms to help him to his feet.
“Oh, I’m sorry, thank you so much,” Griffin gritted out through the pain.
He realized that someone was helping him up, but it did not occur to him who it might be until he turned his head and saw the worried face of his Melissa staring back at him. He hadn’t passed out when he had crashed into the ground, but now he felt dangerously close to doing just that.
Her face brightened in recognition upon seeing him. “Oh, hello. You’re the guy at the coffee shop.”
Griffin just stared, a dumbstruck expression frozen on his features. The day at the coffee shop had been nearly a month ago. Did he really leave such an awkward impression that it had stuck this long with her?
“Are…are you okay?” she asked, giving him a smile.
He blinked and finally found some words to say. “Yeah…yeah.”
“Your bike is just over…” She pointed over to where it was waiting, and stopped herself when she noticed the Task Force insignia on it. She looked up at him in surprise. “I didn’t realize you were…” Her face turned red and she looked down. “Oh, I feel so embarrassed now. I thought you worked at that coffee shop.”
The hand that was not holding Griffin up went to her cheek to hide the blush that was creeping up. He couldn’t quite believe everything that was happening, but something inside him just clicked, an instinct he guessed, and he finally found the strength to speak.
“I’m not a Task Force Agent.” He put more weight on his own feet so she no longer had to hold him up. “I was just fixing one of their bikes. I, uh, I work at a repair shop actually.”
She took a timid step away from him so she could better see his face. “I guess I still owe you a cup of coffee, though.”
“Oh, no, not at all,” he said with a smile.
He immediately regretted his words, calling himself all kinds of stupid for passing up on that opportunity.
“My name’s Griffin, by the way,” he said, offering her his hand.
“Melissa.” She took off her glove and placed her small hand in his.
He didn’t think he had ever felt such a warm handshake, but that was probably because his heart was furiously pumping blood throughout his whole body, making him feel like a red surging plasma man. He just made that up, but it sounded right.
She took her hand from his and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You work at a repair shop?”
His mind suddenly drew a blank. He worked at a repair shop, didn’t he? He had just said that, right? “Yeah,” he breathed out with an unsure nod.
“I’ve actually got this microwave that hasn’t worked for ages. It’s just been sitting in my kitchen. Maybe you could—”
“Oh, definitely,” he interrupted. “Bring it on over and I’ll take a look. Or, better yet, I can come over to your place and pick it up. That way you won’t have to be lugging it through the streets.” The second after the proposition left his mouth, he regretted it. He thought he sounded way too forward. He shouldn’t have asked to see her place so soon. She would think he was a…
“Sure, sounds good,” she said pleasantly.
“I-I’m sorry?” he stammered out.
“I live just a few blocks away, in apartment building eleven B.”
He nodded and tried to tell himself that this was actually happening. Then his mouth played a cruel trick on him by saying, “I can give you a lift over there if you like.”
Melissa gave him a tentative smile and then looked over at his hovering bike. “Are you sure?”
“You’re not scared, are you?” He had meant to ask this in genuine concern, but it came out sounding more like a challenge. Again he scolded himself, only to find that Melissa was consenting.
“Alright,” she said, taking a step closer to it. “I’ve always wanted to ride on one.”
Griffin couldn’t believe his dumb luck. It took nearly all his strength to keep from passing out as Melissa got on the bike behind him and wrapped her arms around his middle. He knew he would have to thank Harper when he got home. The bike really was the secret to getting to know Melissa.
* * *
Carver looked sternly down at his young soldier, and then over at her expectant sergeant. The results on his tablet showed scores even higher than her previous physical, yet that did nothing to erase the severe expression that etched its way into his features.
Jessie subtly shifted her weight from foot to foot as she awaited his reply, careful to hide her apprehension. Denneck was behind her to her right, and she could sense that he was just as anxious as her. Sergeant Jeddick was to her left, and Doctor Tag stood somewhere behind her, tapping away on his tablet. This time they were not in the woods, but a facility inside of the military complex in BLES.
Tom had decided not to join them. He had told Tag that there was no reason why two doctors needed to be there, and that he had other experiments he was working on. When Tag had informed Jessie of this before her physical, somehow it made going through it all the more difficult. It meant, if she did well, that awkward conversation they had yesterday would be their last. But, if she failed, they would have to see each other with that same conversation weighing things down between them. Even though flying with him had made her feel lightheaded with joy, what had followed after seemed to have unraveled all the good that it created.
Of course, Tom was not the only one she was preparing to miss. Last night, when visiting Ben, she had warned him that she might not see him for a while. His expression had looked so desperate, that she found herself immediately promising to come back as soon as she could.
As she waited for Lieutenant Carver to make his decision, she found she was sufficiently torn in what she wanted the outcome to be.
Finally, after running a hand through his brown hair and giving a slight tweak of his mouth, he announced, “Paid leave.”
Jessie blinked and stared down at her boots, as if she would understand this better by glaring at their shined surfaces.
“Paid leave?” Denneck repeated. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
“She will report back to the base each and every night,” Carver explained. “And is free to treat the days as her own vacation time. But I will not yet clear her for active duty.”
Jessie continued to stare at her shoes. She knew she was fit enough for active duty; she was more than ready. For some reason Carver just didn’t want her to fight, and the only logical explanation she could come up with was that he still wasn’t certain that she was human.
“With the size of our army, don’t you think we should put all of our available soldiers on active duty?” Jeddick reasoned. “I don’t think we have the luxury of just sending our pilots on vacation!”
However, Carver shook his head, responding roughly, “I’ve made my decision. If you don’t like it, take it up with Commander Hender.”
Jessie finally looked up to watch him disappear through the doors, taking with him her ticket back to the skies, back to feeling normal.
“Don’t worry kid,” Jeddick said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “We’ll get you flying soon enough.”
He started to make for the exit as well.
Denneck stood in front of her and shook his head in apology. “I know that wasn’t the answer you wanted. But, be patient. You’ll get back up there soon. If he doesn’t realize that, I’m sure Commander Hender will soon put him in his place.” He clasped his hand around the bend of her arm. “Why don’t you pack up your things? I’ll meet you in front of The Eye when you’re ready.”
She nodded silently and watched him leave the room as well. It occurred to her that she hadn’t spoken this entire time. The truth was, she wasn’t sure what she was feeling. Yes, she wanted desperately to fly again and fight alongside her friends, but being on paid leave…that meant, for the first time in her life, she could do what she wanted with her days. Of course, she didn’t mean to waste them away doing the things people on vacation normally did in Aero City. Drinking at Mercury’s, sleeping around, paying to enter the adult playgrounds that Ward had created over the past few years. None of these things were appealing to her. She could really only think of one way she wanted to spend her time off.
Jessie had almost forgotten that Tag was still in the room with her, until he appeared beside her and gave her a wide grin. For some reason his smiles always unnerved her, and she hoped that he wasn’t about to start a long conversation.
“That was an excellent display of physical ability,” he prided her. “Very agile, very quick,” he said, stressing this last word more than the others.
“Thank you.”
She started to walk for the doors, and Tag hurried along beside her.
“Have you always been this way, Jessie?”
“What way?” she asked, giving him a sideways glance.
“Well, so quick! I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s quite remarkable!”
She shrugged. “I suppose so.”
They were at the doors now, and they both stepped out into the hall. However, Tag rushed ahead to stand in front of her so that she felt she couldn’t move forward without being rude.
“Tell me,” he continued with renewed vigor. “Can you remember how many lights were in the room we just came out of?”
“There were twelve embedded into the ceiling,” she replied. “Why?”
He smiled brightly, but pressed further. “And how many doors are there on the ground floor of this building?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Twenty eight.” Shaking her head, she asked, “What’s this all about?”
“So much, Jessie, so much! I—” Tag was stopped from saying anything further as someone called out down the hall.
“Jessie!”
She recognized the voice, and her heart-beat quickened before she even turned t
o see Tom hurrying towards them.
“I hoped I would catch you before you left,” he said. “One of the sergeants told me that you’re going back to your base.”
“Yeah,” she replied, rubbing a hand across her arm. She didn’t know what else to say.
Tom shot a brief look over at Tag, before asking her, “Do you think we could go somewhere and talk for a minute? I have to tell you something.”
Her hands felt faintly weak. She gripped them behind her back as she said, “Sure.”
“Thanks,” Tom replied, but he did not move right away. Instead, he looked back to Tag with a strangely intense look, and Tag looked back just as hard. Jessie had no idea what that was all about, but she figured it was best not to ask.
And then, before she knew it, Tom was leading her down the hall, pressing his key inside of a wall slot, and ushering her inside a vacant room. The room was plain white in color, and had nothing more than a few tables and cabinets that looked half stocked with bottles of drugs and medicine.
“What is this place?” she asked.
He seemed distracted by her question, and waved it off, saying, “Just a storage room.” Then he looked at her with an intent expression, really looked at her so that she began to grow light-headed, as if he was willing her mind to spin with his eyes.
“What was it you needed to tell me?”
“I…” Tom stuttered, but shook his head in despondency. Once again, his hand came up to his hair, and she realized how much she was going to miss seeing that. He winced, let a strained and defeated breath escape from his lips, and said, “Nothing really. I just thought you might have needed an escape from Tag.”
She debated on whether or not to thank him, but she could read him enough to know that he was lying.
“I don’t believe you,” she said.