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[mouthshut]

first.last@compass.net (3) (no subject) D12 63:19PM first.last@compass.net (6) Re: Mission D11 8:01PM first.last@compass.net (12) [text] D10 9:35AM

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Comments

[coffeebeforescience]

[Please. She knows the language. And she knows it's a bit vulgar.]

I wouldn't want you to try it at all. You're not an ODST.

[mouthshut]

[Just a smidge yes. He had no choice in this remember.]

No, I'm not. But it doesn't change what I had to do.

[coffeebeforescience]

[She's still amused by that. They held him down.]

No. [One more trace of the lines, then she shifts to move away from the bunk.]

[mouthshut]

[Shut up, he thought they were going to kick his ass for what he did!]

You're thinking again. [And he shifts around so he's sitting on his bunk.]

[coffeebeforescience]

When am I not?

Don't hit your head.

[mouthshut]

[He almost says something but doesn't and shakes his head as he hunches down.]

I won't, but I'd like to know, besides the obvious about John and Cortana, what's going on in yours.

[coffeebeforescience]

[Hm. She leans on the bed again, standing now on tiptoe.]

You really want to know? I'm worried. Perhaps frightened.

[mouthshut]

[He just looks down at her and nods.]

Understandable on a ship like this.

[coffeebeforescience]

[Turning her back to him, she stifles a sigh.]

I worry about John, whether or not he knows what he's doing. Cortana, whether or not she thinks as I do. And you. I worry about you. Us.

[mouthshut]

[He frowns for a moment and holds up his hand as he picks out things to say.]

John is a smart man, he's capable if he's lived as long as he has doing what he does. If Cortana thought as you do I doubt John would get along with her for so long. [And he just looks at her back at that last part, mulling it over.]

Nothings changed. About us. You, me.

[coffeebeforescience]

[The Cortana comment stings. Implying, perhaps on accident, that John might find her intolerable. And that her own creation would surpass her in that department. She scowls, though he can't see it, and there's ice in her words.]

I think some things have changed. Your opinion of me, for example.

[mouthshut]

[No, just not tolerable in the long term. In short doses perhaps, but few seem to like working with her for so long. He's probably the only exception, at least from what he can tell.

But there is a sigh at that.]

My opinion hasn't changed, if it had I wouldn't be offering you my pants. [Jacob now is not the time to point that out even if it is to show he still cares.]

[coffeebeforescience]

[She's well aware that she's generally difficult. Still, it doesn't need to be said quite like that.

She takes a deep breath, and the nonexistent lord only knows how she manages to say this so blandly.]

You know, don't you?

[mouthshut]

[He's sorry he's not more diplomatic. He's not an admiral.

He does however stare at her and looks confused, even if she can't see it. He can guess, Spartans, children, something else in there...but that's about it.]

I thought we covered my being telepathic when we first met. [No, he doesn't know what she's talking about. He'll play this cool.]

[coffeebeforescience]

[If he wants to pretend that he doesn't know, then she can live with that. She knows he figured things out, and she handed him the deniability he needed to not face up to whatever she might someday be given over to. She knows what she's done, what she deserves, and that someday, somehow, all her sins will be laid bare.

But if he wants to pretend, she'll pretend.]

Nevermind. Forget I said a word.

[mouthshut]

[Ah so it was that then. He knows it now, the way she says it. And it's that well, it's that which makes Palmer treating her so horribly make sense. It makes sense why the others would treat her like that.

Not that he thinks they should but details.]

I don't know it all, Catherine, and frankly I don't want too. Whatever you've done is what you've done and you'll be judged in whatever happens after death for it. Not me.

[coffeebeforescience]

Don't throw religion at me, Jacob.

[She shakes her head.]

I push people away for a reason. Don't you think I'll do it again?

[mouthshut]

Of course not.

[He shrugs and doesn't sound bothered by this at all. In fact he had been expecting it.]

It just won't hurt as bad this time. [He's done it, he's used to it. There's no child here to worry about. He could live with it.]

[coffeebeforescience]

[This is serious, now, an analysis of him, hardly a conversation anymore. What she's testing for, she doesn't exactly know, but she is and she knows it's terrible.]

You're expecting it. That's probably safe.

[mouthshut]

[He should have expected this, and a part of him had and he's quick to relax and roll with this. He'll let her look for whatever it is she wants.]

It's you, I'm thankful you haven't stopped talking to me after everything.

[coffeebeforescience]

[She can't explain why she pushed him away, not really. It just wasn't something she needed or could do.]

After everything that's happened here? I admit, I find myself questioning you, but not to that degree. Whether I like it or not, I need you. And I still have feelings for you, apparently.

[mouthshut]

[And he could respect that, even if he wished it had gone differently.]

It's never changed things before with you. [And then she's saying that and he looks down.] Only apparently?

[He's teasing, but it's soft.]

[coffeebeforescience]

Loath as I am to admit it.

[She glances over her shoulder, looking back up at him.]

[mouthshut]

If my feelings for you had changed, I wouldn't be here right now.

[And he's being honest, his face pretty much an open book on that.]

[coffeebeforescience]

[Softly:] Right here?