| "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" | ||
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Somewhere above the Atlantic The rumbling of the plane engines created a white noise that threatened to lull Jaime into sleepiness. He sat, back to the wall, rifle resting across his knees. His gloved hand absent-mindedly stroked the shoulder stock as he sat, thinking. Thinking about the situation. About what was happening, with this loan business, with being around Paige again, about everything. Upon thinking of her, his eyes searched the plane for her. He finally spotted her, hunched over her laptop, probably filling her brain with more data than a normal person should be able to hold. But then there was little normal about Paige. He saw her smile, something that so rarely happened back when she was in Section...something that was rare in anyone back at Section. Laying his rifle down on the seat next to him, he rose quietly and moved over to her, feeling but at the same time not feeling the thousands of metres of empty air that lay under his feet. "How's my girl?" he asked. My girl. The phrase hadn't been deliberate, had just kind of slipped out. It's true what they say about old habits dying hard. Hell, he wasn't even sure she was still his girl. He met her gaze steadily as she glanced up at him, typed something into the laptop and clicked it shut. "Sit." Jaime sat in one of the empty seats she indicated with the statement, a small smile on his face that he couldn't help, not that he'd really want to anyway. She smiled softly back. "I don't want this to be awkward." Jaime reached out and brushed a strand of hair away from her face, "Since when..." he paused as she looked down at the floor. "Since when is it ever awkward between us any more?" She looked up at him, a thoughtful look on her face, as she seemed to absorb what he was saying. She tried to apologise for not saying goodbye, but he understood. He knew what it was like, being told what to do and having to do it then, there, no questions. He asked her if she was happy in SIA, and her response was pretty much what he had expected to hear. He knew this girl, knew how she felt. She would never actually be happy unless she was out of the game altogether. But like she said, it's better than Section. "I think," he said, sitting up straighter, "the last time we were on a plane heading out into the elusive unknown, we were at a tie in a game of naughts and crosses?" Paige giggled softly, "and I thought I was the one with the good memory," she quipped. "Ah, see, you're not the only one with the good memory," he whispered, leaning in close to her. The proximity of her sent a shiver down his spine. "Apparently," she breathed out, eyes closed. "I remember," he brushed his lips softly against her cheek, "I remember how you feel." She admonished him, sitting back up straight, and he sat back, a smile on his face. She gave him a look that said this wasn't the time nor the place, to which he just shrugged. He had really only wanted to stir her up a little. "I have a few days before I ship out to Virginia, where I'm to be officially on loan, perhaps," he gazed into her eyes, "perhaps you'd like to have dinner or something with me?" "I could do dinner." "Good." He replied, producing the pen and paper he had filched earlier on to do some scribbling on when he was bored. "Until then, perhaps you would indulge me in a game?" He drew the first X on the paper and sat back, passing her the pen. They continued to play the game for a while; eventually deciding that some sleep before they reached their destination would be in order. Jaime returned to his seat and reclined, plugging his headphones into the plane's classical music channel and drifting into sleep to the strains of Brahms. Russia. 0240 hours. The cold early-morning air only proved to make the parts of his face that were covered by the black balaclava feel warmer than they already were. He travelled near the back of the group of black-clad figures, half crouched as they moved quickly but quietly to their target. He heard the mark call over the comm. unit and saw a figure peel off the group and head in its own direction. They continued down the track until he heard the next mark call. Mark Two. That was his stop. He moved up the line, nodded to the figure he recognised as Paige, moved off up the incline that would eventually lead to his designated spot, nice and high with the best view of the action. Upon arriving at his post, he immediately checked his surroundings, making sure he was secure, that there were no traps, no alarms, anything that would alert the people down below that there was someone up in the balcony. Once he felt that the area was secure, he hunkered down and found the section of ground that gave him the best coverage of the target area. Flicking down the bipod from under his rifle's barrel, he set his position and looked down the scope at the scene below. As he surveyed the area and adjusted his scope for the distance, he radioed in that he was in position. All he could now was watch, and wait. "Alpha Six, Alpha Two," that was Paige. "Six here. Go ahead." Paige asked for a survey of the area, she was unsure because everything seemed so still, almost peaceful. Jaime scanned the whole grounds, looking for something, anything that could compromise the mission. It was all clear, and he reported so back to Paige. "All clear, Two. The jungle is quiet." Return |
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