| "Castaway Lines for Anchoring" | ||
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June 1, 2008 Paige's Place 0230 hours "C'mon, c'mon!" he stated impatiently. "Okay, okay, relax," she stated back just as impatient. He rolled his eyes to which she shot him a dirty look. "There will be o eye rolling." He stamped his foot in defiance. "And no stamping of any feet." "But Jordy said..." "I am well aware of what Jordy said but I'm on the phone...long distance." The boy scowled at her but she held her ground. Joshua was laughing softly on the other end of the line. "What are you laughing at?" "Nothing," he said stifling his laugh. "You think it's funny dealing with this one, huh?" "No, I just..." "Yeah, you just...you just talk to him." She handed the phone over to Brian with a smirk, "deal with him smartass." Brian stuck out his tongue at her and took the phone, "Hello?" Paige watched as he looked back up to her and started giggling. "Yes," he said into the phone then spoke to her directly. "Joshua says to stop glaring at me and give me some space." Paige snorted and walked into the kitchen leaving Brian in the living room. Not, let it be known, not because she was listening to Joshua's request through the child, but because she had fish to clean. She dropped the two fluke into the sink and started running the water and grabbed her cleaning knives. She hated cleaning the fish but she hated it even more when the dock boys offered to do it, they could never get just the right cut for her. Brian's voice floated over to her interlaced with giggling and some questions but at least Joshua was keeping him busy enough so that he wasn't harassing her. And yes, even though he was nine years old, the boy was well disciplined in the art of harassment. Ten minutes later, the fish cleaned, Brian returned to the kitchen. "Joshua wants to talk with you." "Can I trust you to wrap these up and put them in the fridge?" "As long as I can trust you not to cook them." "What?" "I've heard about your cooking. Maybe we should invite Jordy over to dinner." He ended his statement with a sweet smile that Paige saw right through. "Maybe I should drown you out in the bay next time," she retorted. "Pfft," he snorted, "you just try." But a second later he grinned, "I got MY fish covered." She smirked back grabbing the phone and walking into the living room. "So, what exactly did you tell him about my cooking?" "Nothing. He told me you guys went fishing and HE caught all the fish again. I thought Jordy might want to join you guys for dinner. Whatever inference he made about your cooking is all him. He's a smart kid, you know?" "You're an ass," she replied flopping down on the couch. "I've been called worse," he agreed. "So, what's going on with Saf and the hearing?" "It's going okay. We're still sorting out the background but I'm confident we'll be done in another day or two." "And then she's coming back, right?" "So far, so good," Joshua said. "That's not good enough Joshua," Paige said slowly. "I know but it's all I got right now." The phone was silent as Paige thought about what exactly they were doing with Saf. Joshua had called late last night and told her what was happening but it didn't ease her mind. "You okay?" he asked. "Yeah, I'm just...I just want this over." "I know you do." "When are you coming back, or aren't you?" "I'll be back, I've got a couple months left on the SIA assignment. But I've got a lot of shit to take care of here." He sighed heavily. "Man, I just want to get some fucking sleep." Paige yawned. Her, too. "Alright, let me go, the impatient one is back." "Alright. I'll call you later. Have fun today." "Will do," she hung up the phone. "You ready or what?" "Yeah, let's go. Can we ride with the top down?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kendra Books They entered the store and Brian immediately lost himself in the books along the far corner. "What's doing?" she said as Jordy approached. "Nothing. How bad did he harass you?" "Oh, yeah, remind me to kick your ass for that little 'anything you want, it's on me' comment," Paige said with a grin. "Ok." Jordan said. "Don't forget to kick my ass for..." "Alright, I've had enough harassing for one day," Paige grinned at her. "C'mon, I have something to show you." Paige followed Jordy to the back of the store, still within eyeshot of Brian but away from everyone in the store. She pulled out a book, that to Paige looked very old. Jordan grinned opening the book carefully. "One of the last of it's kind." Paige suffered up a smile. "Fascinating." "You suck," Jordan said closing the book. "I'm sorry. I'm just not into...old books." Jordan arched an eyebrow at her. "Seriously," Paige explained, "I'm really happy for you that things are going well here. Believe you me I'm even jealous. I just tool around with no purpose in life, but you, you got this thing going on here..." "Why did you let them force feed you that data?" The question took Paige completely off guard. Where in left field did that come from? "I...I dunno," she stammered. "I'm sorry to spring it on you but it's been bothering me since I knew. Why didn't you come to me, to us, Saf or Baz, and tell us? Why did you carry that around?" Paige just looked at her. Hearing it now, the option of telling her teammates seemed certainly reasonable. "They say hindsight is 20/20." God, that sounded worse out loud than it did in her head. "What does that mean?" Jordan asked. "Well, consider yourself in my position. Couple days fresh out of Section, having no idea what the pecking order is, Joshua telling me this was the deal they made, Michael...well, Michael is just Michael, and Gray..." "Gray?" "Yeah, he was there. I thought it was the deal. I tried to say no, but there's no talking to Joshua and Michael when they're hell bent on something." "I know," Jordan agreed. "How would it look if I come to you and tell you I let them beat me down, drug me, tie me to a chair and force feed me data for eight hours? What would you have done?" Jordan thought about it for a moment before speaking slowly. "I would have probably...no, I did do that." Paige tilted her head in question. "Before the Cardinal mission, Joshua threatened to send me back to Section if I didn't make a copy of the warehouse data for him." "Shitting me?" Paige asked shocked. "No," Jordan shook her head. "Wow. What the hell would he want that for?" "Well, I asked him that, I asked him if he planned on giving it to you. This of course after he told us about the original data and that deal." "What did he say?" Paige asked alarmed. "He said yeah," Jordan answered. "Weird. He didn't give me any of it." "Maybe he will." Paige shrugged, "maybe." "Does he always have to force it?" Jordan asked carefully. "No. Not anymore. It's a simple exchange now...I memorize his intel and he fucks my brains out." Jordan's mouth dropped open as Paige grinned. Sometimes shock value could be amusing. "Are you serious?" Jordan asked. "Yeah. Not so crudely of course, but yeah, that's pretty much how it worked out in the end." Paige cringed inwardly, she sounded like him. "I can't believe you're so nonchalant about it." "You asked and that's the truth. Ironically, it's quite liberating." "How is that remotely liberating?" "Because he has to protect his data," Paige said simply. That moment of revelation certainly needed revisting. "That's a dangerous game." "Irrelevant." "And that's it, then?" "For now. Until the next game," Paige said quietly. That didn't sound so good either once it was spoken out loud. "What is the next game?" Jordan asked. Paige shrugged, "damned if I know." "I dunno, Paige. This is just..." "Bizarre, I know. Same game just a different ballpark." Jordan slowly nodded her head, "I think you're right." She shook her head some more, "does Saf know?" "No, I never got a chance to tell her." "Will you?" Paige shrugged, "I think she knows something's up between me and Joshua. I don't think that's too hard to figure out. I mean, Baz did. I know she'll ask..." Paige stopped for a moment. "I don't want you to think that I don't trust you, or that I don't cherish us being a team, because I do. I do more than I'll ever show, but at that point in time, I was doing what I thought was best for me and for you guys. If I had told you then what had happened? Who's to say Joshua wouldn't have pulled the plug on the whole thing and taken us all back into Section?" "No, I understand. I'm just...shocked I guess it went as far as it did." "Well, I'm still learning and I'm still watching. After all, the best way to stab someone in the back is to be fully behind them." Jordan sighed. "You know I'm here." "I know," Paige said pulling her into a hug. "I know." Brian bounded up to them his eyes shining. "Jordy?" Jordy smiled and knelt down. "Find a book?" "Uh huh," he held the book out for her. She inspected the book carefully, "Moby Dick. Great choice." "You sure it's okay, for me to have it?" "Of course, I told you, it's on me." "Cool, thanks," he gave her a big hug. "Can you come over and cook dinner for us?" "Brian," Paige admonished. "No, it's cool. I'd love to come over." "We went fishing this morning and I caught two HUGE fluke," Brian said stretching out his arms. "Paige didn't catch anything," he added quietly with a knowing grin. "Okay, well, with that kind of invite how could I say no?" "Cool, we'll see you later, k?" "Yep." She nodded to Paige. "What time?" "Whenever you get off, we'll be tooling at the apartment or down by the docks." Paige was led out to the car by Brian with his new book tucked under his arm. They got in and Paige started her drive home. "Man, I can't wait to eat those fish," Brian said with a grin. "I bet you can't." "Oh, and by the way, I did notice that Jordy never baited her hook yesterday and that you let the fish you caught go." Paige grinned shaking her head as she drove through the light traffic. "You understand...we had to try." "Yeah, I know. I appreciate the gesture." Return |
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