Hi, It's Me Again... Pt One

Posted on Sun Mar 3rd, 2019 @ 2:11am by Civillian Shae & Major Jacob Asher

Mission: Aftermath
Location: Infirmary/Lethuan
Timeline: Current

Jake walked through the corridors to the infirmary to see how Shae was doing. The nearly complete failure of the team's first real mission was still on his mind. They managed to get their hands on Lord Yu, but he was senile and mostly useless in his current condition. After surgery to treat the ancient System Lord's wounds, he was transferred to some black site medical facility where he would be cared for, but also studied. As Jake understood things, they were going to try and find a way to get useful intelligence from the old snake, if that was even possible.

Also on Jake's mind was Shae. He was drawn to her, had been since they first met. Attracted to her was a better word he supposed. And he felt very protective of her, even though he knew she could take care of herself. He was wise enough not to treat her like she was made of glass and to respect her abilities in the field, while still treating her with kindness and compassion where he felt he could. But when he saw that she had been injured...well, it had been difficult to stay professional. Which was odd. They'd just met a very short time ago. Yet Jake was drawn to Shae, attracted to her, very, very attracted to her. He also felt silly about it sometimes. She was closer to Corvus' age, and Jake's background and Shae's background were so different and yet...Jake was very, very attracted to her.

Jake was carrying a plate of something special Mama Edith had whipped up specifically for Shae, and something for himself as well. It was meal time and he was hoping to share a meal with Shae, to give him an excuse to hang out with her and talk for awhile.

Jacob Daniel Asher, you are completely hopeless

Jake walked into the Infirmary and quickly found Shae. A smile quickly formed on his face when he saw her. She was awake, so he walked right over to her bed. "Hi, Shae. I brought food. I hope you're hungry."

Mostly, Shae was tired, having not slept at all during the night they were on Hen Da Ye Huihe, not to mention that the medical people have given her some pills to help with the pain in her leg, so she was starting to get a little loopy.

"They cut off my pants..." Shae said with a pout. She was wearing a medical gown as expected, and what was left of her clothing had been left in a bag and was in a nearby chair along with her gear. "I really liked those pants..."

And you looked damned good in them Jake thought. Then grinned. "When you're better, we can see if we can find something else you like. Until then, I'll make sure someone brings you some of our stuff to choose from. The uniforms come in a few different patterns. You can pick one that best suits you and your needs. You look great as always, but I'm guessing you feel like crap. Getting shot with bullets sucks. I don't really want to know first hand what getting shot with a staff weapon feels like. Think you could eat? Mama Edith down in the DFAC made this special for you. Only things you can eat, I promise."

"I've never had to watch what I eat before; is that much of your food really that harmful to me?" Shae asked with a grimace as she sat up and worked her lower half into a cross-legged position under the light blanket that covered her. "And getting hit by a staff weapon is not fun, and this wasn't my first time, wasn't even the worst injury I've had, and yet somehow it hurts worse... How does that make any sense?!" she said as Asher rolled the tray table closer with Shae's meal.

Jake chuckled. "Okay, in order: No, most of our food isn't harmful to you, but your physiology is a bit different, closer to an Earth canine or an Earth fox more exactly, and some food that we eat will make them very sick. So you just have to be careful. Like I said, the kitchen staff have been warned to always have something safe for you to eat on hand ready to eat or ready to be prepared short order. As for why it hurts more..." Jake's face fell. "Might have something to do with how the mission went really wrong and you got shot and we still came away with practically nothing. Damn. I'm sorry Shae. We...I didn't put my best foot forward this time out. I'm sorry about that. Anyway, get ready to be amazed!" Jake removed the cover from Shae's dish to reveal a rack of ribs and some of the fixings. He'd thought about getting her a half rack, but he knew she had an appetite. "Behold! Mama Edith's Alabama Barbecue, with all the fixings on the side!" Jake laughed at the look of confusion on Shae's face. "Mama Edith works in the DFAC...dining facility, the place where our food is prepared. Alabama is where she's from, and Alabama barbecue is a way to prepare meat. It's really, really good!"

It smelled really good! Shae was more than familiar with a rack of ribs and how to pull them apart and eat them, so she had no trouble at all digging in to her meal, and wow, what a meal. "Oishii..." she said with a dreamy expression around a mouthful of the rib meat. She tasted a few things she recognized, like molasses, but some of the spices she couldn't quite identify, but being unable to identify the flavors didn't diminish its savory tastiness! There was also some corn and other stuff on her tray that she didn't quite recognize. "What is that?" she asked once she had picked the first rib clean, pointing to the coleslaw and potato salad before tearing away another rib, only to find that the meat was so tender that it completely separated from the rib.

Jake smiled as Shae dug into her meal. His was the same barbecue treatment, but on chicken, with most of the same fixings on the side. While he was a Reform Jew, coincidentally like Nathan was, and therefore not bound by Jewish dietary laws, he still didn't eat pork all that often, or shellfish for that matter. He was usually willing to mix milk and meat, as evidenced by the mac and cheese on his plate. Not that he never had pork. Just not often.

"The shredded stuff is coleslaw," Jake said. "A mixture of shredded cabbage and carrots. I've got some black pepper that you can sprinkle on it if you like. That's how I like mine. The other is called potato salad. A potato is a tuber, a root vegetable. It has to be boiled or baked or even fried to make it soft enough to eat. In this case, they cut them up small, boil them, and let them cool, then mix in onions and spices and mayonnaise and other stuff. Mama does it up really nice. They both compliment the barbecue seasoning nicely, if you ask me. I've got some macaroni and cheese on my plate if you want to try some. That's a pasta dish served hot mixed with a cheese sauce, sometimes baked to really bring it together. I don't usually eat this much at once, but this is all kind of like comfort food to me."

Shae took an adventurous bite of the potato salad only to decide that she did not much care for the flavor combinations, and when she shuddered at the taste of the coleslaw, she did not complain when Jake traded his macaroni for her coleslaw and potato salad.

“Thanks,” Shae said sheepishly. “Comfort food…” she then mused aloud around a bite of macaroni, something she found far more palatable than the coleslaw. She had never really thought of any kind of food as ‘comfort food’ before, but she could definitely understand how this meal could qualify, and they needed it especially after what had happened on Hen Da Ye Huihe. “What happened after I left Governor Lei Fang’s residence?” she asked as she continued eating.

“We had an uneventful night,” Jake said. “Lei Fang's chamberlain or whatever tried to offer me three different bed warmers, one woman, who I declined, then a different woman, who I also declined, in part because that’s not what I was there for, but mostly because I don’t think either of them were over sixteen years of age. Too young. Then he sent me a boy who might have been sixteen, too, who I also rejected. Then he sent me both the girls at once, which I declined. When I was younger I thought that might be fun, but I’ve already checked that box and it wasn’t quite as fun as I’d hoped and again, they were way too young. Then he sent the boy and one of the girls. Again, I declined. Then the boy and both the girls, and when I turned them all down, I think the chamberlain decided I was a eunuch and left me alone. For the record, not a eunuch. Just not a pedophile or a creep. I prefer the women I have sex with to be both adults and willing accomplices in the affair.”

Jake sighed. “Then things got weird. Some of Yu’s Zhanshi showed up. Their discipline was awful. Poorly maintained armor and weapons, shameful personal grooming, sloppy formations. I immediately got the impression that there was something seriously amiss in Lord Yu’s army. All of those things were signs of a lack of leadership. A serious, dangerous lack of leadership. It was setting off alarm bells for me. Anyway, they escorted us to see Yu. As we approached the palace under the ha’tak, it because clear that it wasn’t just these soldiers who were lax. It was most of the Zhanshi. Our escorts almost got in a fight with the throne room guards. Then were were admitted...and we found that Lord Yu was completely senile, completely gone, and that his First Prime Oshu had been running things but must have been losing his grip for awhile. We had just convinced Oshu that if he came with us and cooperated with us, provided us with information, we would see to Lord Yu’s care until he finally passed. Then the alarms went off. Some of Oshu’s troops turned on Yu and had shut down the defenses allowing Ba’al to begin an attack unnoticed. All Hell broke loose, as you saw. The rest is as you remember.”


Jake stopped eating for a moment and set down his food. “I screwed up somewhere, I know I did. And you got hurt. I’m sorry for that.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Shae said with a shake of her head. “Even if Ba’al’s forces hadn’t shown up, it sounded like they were a powder keg ready to ignite regardless. I chose to stay and in so doing I accepted the consequences. I appreciate the sympathy, and most definitely the meal as well, but it wasn’t your fault, just a matter of poor timing.”

Jake shrugged. “Yes, perhaps. But when you’re in charge, everything is your fault, or at least you have to be hyper-critical about what you think is your fault. Things that are your fault you can do differently the next time. Things that aren’t your fault are therefore out of your control. Anyway, I should have pulled us out of there the minute I noticed something wrong with those Zhanshi. My gut told me something was wrong but I ignored it, in the vain hope that we could salvage something from what was clearly going to be a mess. I underestimated how much danger we were in and as a result the mission was mostly a total failure, and we all risked our lives for next to no benefit to our cause. I mean, we have Yu, and some of our best minds are trying to figure out how best to turn that to our advantage, but for the moment…”

Jake grinned. “But didn’t come here to talk about how messed up the mission was. I came here to have lunch with a beautiful woman. Tell me more about yourself. Anything you want to share. And ask me about me, if you want, and I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can. Maybe, when your leg is better, we can go exploring in one of the parks near Colorado Springs...that’s the nearest city. Some of the parks are beautiful.”

“Actually, I want to go home,” Shae said with a pained expression. “I’m not saying that I don’t want to work with the Tau’ri, it’s just…” Shae trailed off with a pained expression, not just because her leg was starting to hurt again, but because she didn’t know how to put to words her feelings for the moment. “Everything here is so unfamiliar and jarring, and I want to sleep in my own futon,” she finally said.

Jake nodded. “I understand. We have a tradition here on Earth. When a man has what we call a date with a woman, like sharing a meal he escorts her home. It’s an old fashioned tradition, but it’s usually enjoyable, unless the woman hates the guy or finds him annoying. Then it can get a little tense. So...when you’re ready...if you want, could I escort you back to your home? It’s fine if you don’t want me to, I mean, I’d understand…”

Jake felt like kind of an idiot. Here he was, tripping over himself because he wanted an excuse to spend more time with Shae.

“But I know at the moment anyway, that you’d probably like some time to yourself,” he finished. “So if you’d rather I didn’t, I do understand, really. I don’t want to be pushy or intrusive. If you just need space, that’s okay.”

“Am I allowed to answer yet?” Shae asked, blinking at the man. She was having a hard time following if he really wanted to spend time with her or not because he kept prattling on like he was looking for an excuse to leave! “Because I would have said yes before you started to back out of your offer to walk me home, because the snow on Lethuan is brutal even without an injured leg!”

It was Jake’s turn to blink...then laugh out loud. “Oh wow, yes, please, answer, and please answer yes! I promise, no more equivocation. Let me know when you’re ready to go and I’ll gear up for cold weather and make sure you get home safe! You have my word as an officer and a gentleman! If you want, I can even stick around for a little bit and help you out. You’re right, dealing with brutal snow with a bad leg would be very difficult.”

“I’m sure if I have any trouble, you’ll just throw me over your shoulder again,” Shae teased him. “I’ll be fine; like I said, this is hardly the worst injury I’ve ever dealt with. Can you find some pants for me, please? I will get dressed once I am done eating.”

Jake chuckled. “Shae, hopefully the next time I throw you over my shoulder and carry you off, it will be for a completely different reason and far more enjoyable reason than last time,” he said. “Sure I’ll get you some pants, but now I’m confused. Was that yes or no?”

“How can you carry me through the snow if you don’t come with me?” Shae pointed out with a chuckle, although she was confused by his ‘other’ reason for carrying her off; what did he mean by that?

Jake grinned from ear to ear. YES! he thought. I thought I had totally fucked that up! “One pair of pants coming up! We’ll swing by Supply on the way out if you want and you can take any cold weather gear or even rations if you want. I heard you thought those smelled awful. They do, and they really don’t taste that great...except when they’re your only source of a warm meal to fill your belly. Then they taste fantastic. I’ll go gear up, grab that pair of pants for you, and be back in a flash!”

“Whatever Corvus was eating was awful! No thank you, I have plenty of provisions at home,” Shae said with a shudder as she recalled the poor medic’s breakfast.

Jake chuckled. “Well, for emergencies I’ll bring some, but if you’re willing to share your provisions, I’m not a bad snare setter and if there are smallish edible critters I might be able to score a few. Anyway, I’ll be back.”

Jake left, whistling a happy tune, leaving Shae to finish her meal.