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

Posted on Sun Mar 3rd, 2019 @ 2:12am by Civillian Shae & Major Jacob Asher

Mission: Aftermath
Location: Lethuan
Timeline: Current

So together they worked and Jake explained not only about the Air Force, but the other militaries as well, their different functions, and cleared up some terminology and shorthand they had been using that confused her, all to the dulcet Jazz in his MP3 player. By the time they were done, she had enough arrows to fill several quivers, and the pain medicine was in full affect, and coupled with fatigue she was swaying at her work table by the time she set the last arrow aside.

Jake slipped his arm around Shae’s waist and caught her as she swayed. “Hey, now,” Jake said. “I think that’s enough for tonight. Those painkillers can really sneak up on you. Why don’t I help you over to your bed?”

“Yeah, I think that might be a good idea,” Shae said, then issued a heavy yawn. She opened the doors of the wardrobe to show him where her futon and blanket were folded and stored. “If you can lay it out by the fire, I’m going to get changed while you do that,” she said, then knelt by the wardrobe to get a robe from the lower drawers.

Jake set up the futon as instructed and laid out the blanket. He was still wearing thermals under his uniform, so he shed the uniform, and the thermals, down to his shorts. It was plenty warm in Shae’s little house, and if he got under the blanket and started sweating, he’d overheat, either wake up dehydrated, or sick as a dog, if the fire went out. He wasn’t embarrassed or particularly body conscious. He was well put together, athletic, but his form was marred by the odd scar here and there and the stray burn, from bullet wounds and shrapnel mostly, though there was that time he ended up going mano y mano with a guy with a really ugly knife. Luckily, Jake’s knife had been uglier, and Jake was better with ugly knives than the other guy was. Still, Jake got cut a few times and the PJ with them had to do some down and dirty meatball surgery to stitch him, and then repeat the process a few times when he tore the stitches out because they were on the move somewhere they really didn’t want to linger.

While Jake wasn’t really body conscious, he was just a tad concerned that Shae was going to freak when she realized that he’d disrobed that far. To occupy his time, so he wouldn’t just standing there feeling like he should yell ‘SURPRISE!’ when Shae turned around, Jake turned his back to Shae and worked on laying his clothing neatly just near enough to the fire to pick up the warmth, but not so near that that a stray spark were start a fire and burn down Shae’s lovely home, asphyxiating them both in the process. Then he crouched in front if the fire, still with his back to Shae to continue give her privacy. Well, Jake’s eyes might have been giving Shae privacy, but his mind was painting very distracting, very vivid pictures of what she might be up to.

As she disrobed and slipped into a plain white yukata, Shae’s body also revealed a myriad of injuries, a few poorly stitched wounds and some more staff burns, the worst of which was a deep burn scar on the back left of her ribcage. That one had been awful, it got infected and for near two weeks she had basically waited to die as she struggled to breathe. But she embraced each and every scar, her hope being that if Inari ever caught her, Shae would be undesirable as a host with all these scars. Now dressed for bed, she put her other clothes away and turned to see Jake kneeling by the fire. Oh my…

“You could have crawled under the blanket instead of sitting there and getting cold,” Shae said with a grin.

Jake was a total gentleman...but even he had his limits. So he snuck one peek...and his heart nearly broke for Shae. The scars didn’t make Shae any less attractive to him. If anything, they added character. But they looked like they were hard earned from taking painful wounds. A silent rage filled Jake. He wanted to kill Inari with his bare hands, to choke the life out of her because of every hurt and harm Shae had suffered to do events set in motion by the cruel Goa’uld with a taste for Kitsune. But then he remembered that Inari currently occupied the body of Shae’s mother and it all felt futile. He turned back around and waited for Shae to finish. When she spoke he turned around.

“Well,” Jake said as he turned. “That didn’t seem fair and I was feeling pretty warm anyway--wow! Um...sorry. You just look...lovely. Really, really lovely.”

And she did. She had been beautiful in a state of undress. Clad in the simple white robe she was...stunning. It wasn’t because it covered up her scars. Jake wasn’t bothered by her scars. At least not that way. She just looked so...soft. That was it. Shae usually seemed very hard. She had to be, to protect herself. But now, like this...stunning.

“Oh, ano, thank you,” Shae replied with a blush as she handed him another robe that she had rolled up. “I don’t have another pillow, so you can use this, maybe?” she offered sheepishly, still slightly self-conscious since he’d pointed out how lovely he thought she looked. She partially banked the fire so it could burn down to embers, then climbed into her bed and lay on her side, leaving enough room for him to slide in beside her. “You are fair to look upon as well,” she admitted softly, hoping that in the dying light that he would not notice her blush growing anew.

Jake grinned and did an internal high five to his inner self. “Thanks,” he said, simply. He climbed in next to Shae and lay on his back. He looked at her next to him as she watched him and grinned at her. “You know, if I slip my arm around you and you rest your head on my chest, I could rest my head on your pillow, and both of us would be more comfortable. Besides, it will be warmer that way.”

“Or I could boot you out into the snow,” Shae counter-offered with a mischievous grin.

“Yes,” Jake said, grinning. “That’s an option. But I’m cute and I’m warming your bed, even if you don’t cuddle up to me, so I don’t think you will. Oh, well. I’d say your loss, but it’s more like our loss. Anyway, goodnight.” Jake turned on his side to make sure there was enough room and shut his eyes. “I’m here if you change your mind, Little Fox.”

“Oyasumi, Asher,” Shae replied, still grinning as she closed her eyes. She would gravitate to him during the night, and by morning they were cuddled together with her back pressed against his chest, and she ended up using one of his arms as a pillow while his other arm was draped around her waist to hold her close.

Jake felt weight on his arm, and something warm and soft under his other hand and when he became fully aware of his surroundings, he grinned like the cat who’d eaten the canary. At that moment he couldn’t think of a better place to be than right where he was. Shae was so beautiful, so peaceful. Not a care in the world. He wanted to kiss her, at least on the forehead, but he waited. He wasn’t hesitating. He was consciously deciding to wait. When he kissed her he wanted her to be conscious and to know it was him kissing her. So he just held her and enjoyed the feeling of being close to her.

Shae took a little longer to come around; she was normally up with the sun, but those painkillers had done a number on her and she was dead to the world for longer than normal. When she did finally stir, it was with a groan. Damned leg! How did a graze hurt so much more than the deeper wounds she had survived over the years? Of course, she didn’t understand how nerves worked or how they made people experience the sensation of pain, or how the deeper burns had destroyed the nerves, causing those wounds to hurt less. The fire in her leg didn’t feel as bad as yesterday, but it was still more than enough to force her to pull herself away from the warmth of Asher’s embrace to go searching for her pills.

Jake chuckled. He was a little disappointed she’d gotten out of be, but he understood. “I would have gotten those for you. I was just waiting for you to wake up. Need any help?”

Shae looked over at Jake with a hint of confusion, her sleep-addled mind requiring a good minute to recall that he had stayed to wait out the snowstorm. “Oh, sorry, I forgot you were here… I’m not used to having people over,” she said as she took a pill and chased it with some of last night’s tea, now cold and quite unpalatable, but she hadn’t been willing to wait for fresh tea. “For a while, Jess was coming around often enough that I bought an extra cup and bowls, but I never brought her around to my house to share a meal. So you’re the first,” she said, then started to build the fire up once again.

Jake nodded. Feeling like he could stand now, he got out of bed and helped with the fire. “Please, go back to bed and stay off of that leg a little while longer. I’m here, I can help. Let me get dressed a little and I’ll see to the fire and...I assume you want tea? I watched what you did last night. Let me see to that, at least. Then you can tell me what else to do. Like you said, you have to do all of this yourself usually. You’re hurt. Let me help.”

“It’s not as bad as yesterday, just really unpleasant to wake up to,” Shae said with a shrug. “I’m alright as long as I’m not moving, so if it makes you feel better that I’m at least resting, I’ll let you do some stuff for me. Fair enough?” Then she offered him the bowl she’d used to collect snow the night before.

“Fair enough,” Jake said as he took the bowl. He got partially dressed, but not fully. It was cold at the moment, but the building retained heat very well and it would get quite warm before long. As he went over to collect snow from outside, he clarified his answer. “Shae, you have spent far too much time only around people who want you to do things to make them feel better. I’m not on ‘make Jake feel better’ duty today. I’m on ‘help Shae feel better duty’. Back in a sec.” Jake left to fill the bowl with snow.

The snowstorm had left very high snowdrifts for them to look forward to walk through when they were ready to return to the gate, but it was beautiful to see so much pristine snow with the sun shining brightly.

“I appreciate the distinction,” Shae said as he returned, then directed him to bring her an urn with some rice from the bushels so she could get started with breakfast. “Last time I let someone tend to me, I was later turned over to the Goa’uld, so it is strange to me to let someone help like this,” she admitted as they worked together.

Jake filled the urn with rice and came back with it as instructed. “I know. I mean, I didn’t know about you being turned over to the Goa’uld, but I know it’s strange to let anyone help you, let alone someone you haven’t known very long. It’s okay. I’m patient. I figure you’ll eventually decide to let me wait on you hand and foot once you realize how irresistible I am. So, how did you get away from the Goa’uld they turned you over to?”

“You must be really confident in yourself to be so certain of that assertion,” Shae said with a soft laugh. “As for the Goa’uld, thankfully I never saw him, only his Jaffa, and they cannot run as fast as my fox; they had me cuffed, I tripped one up and slipped my cuffs as I transformed and ran back to the Chappa’ai. It was unbearable to shift with my injury, especially when I had to shift back to human to dial. I didn’t bother to risk going back for any of my things, just ran naked through the gate once I dialed an address, then as soon as the connection gave out I dialed a new world in case they saw the address. That’s actually how I found Lethuan, it was an address I had been meaning to try but never visited before, and it was quite an unpleasant place to be naked. So I dialed another address I knew would be warmer, got some clothes and later I came back.” Then she pointed to a shelf. “Can you bring me that pot there, yeah, that one, and then the big white vegetable. Yes! And then pick some dried mushrooms from the jar over there,” she instructed as she got the urn of rice boiling. The paper-wrapped parcels she had retrieved from the snow the night before were actually cuts of meat and she had been using the snow to preserve excess meat from her hunts, and she was able to cut up the now thawed meat to make a hotpot for their breakfast.

Jake ran around and grabbed all of the things Shae asked for and brought them to her. “Music?” Jake asked. “Or is it too early? I usually listen when I do my pale imitation of cooking. I’m not sure it makes the food taste better, but it’s fun.”

“Sure,” Shae said with a grin. “I like what you were playing last night, but what else have you got?” she asked out of curiosity.

“Hmm…” Jake said. “Same genre or something completely different?”

“Do you have anything different?” Shae asked. “Oh, do you have anything from Japan?”

“Uh...HAH!” Jake said after a second. “So, yes and yes, but not what you’re expecting! A buddy of mine was stationed in Japan. I’m friendly with his family, his daughter calls me Uncle Jake. Anyway, she got turned on to this band over there,” Jake worked the MP3 players and found the song he was looking for. “Anyway, she put some of their music on here for me. Wow. This is going to be funny. So, there’s a genre of music called Heavy Metal. It utilizes a lot of electrical instruments played really loudly and, in my opinion, a lot of yelling. That said, some of it is interesting. This is from a band from a metal band from Japan, three youngish Japanese girls sing lead. The band is called Babymetal and the song is called...Megitsune. Here goes!”

Jake turned the volume up a bit higher than the night before, to do the music justice, but not enough to be unbearable, and hit play.

When the song started blaring through the magic boxes, Shae dropped her knife in dumbfounded surprise; she wasn’t entirely sure what she had been expecting, but this was not it! It was strange to hear the familiar sounds of a shamisen along with the electrical guitar (not that she knew what was creating that sound), but she did like the beat of the drums. And then the vocals! She had not expected such deep lyrics to accompany such a sound!

“I-I can’t decide if I like this or not, but it is interesting,” Shae stated as she picked up her knife and resumed cutting and chopping. “Do you understand what the song means?” she asked curiously.

“Unfortunately...no,” Jake said. “My pseudo-niece tried to explain it to me, but I don’t really speak ‘pre-teen metal fan’ so I didn’t really follow. I know a few words of Japanese, but not enough to follow it spoken that fast. Can you? If so, I’m betting your version is going to make more sense than a giggly twelve-year old’s version.”

“Some of the sounds, pronunciation, is different than what I speak, but I can understand it,” Shae said, pausing so she could really listen and translate. “‘It’s okay, women are actresses. We are not foxes, not deceiving, but maiden foxes. Girls become like ideal woman, smiling at face, crying at heart, saying ‘It’s alright’, we never show our tears. A fox, a fox, I’m a female fox, women are actresses.’” When she was done, she looked to Jake to see what he thought.

“That’s…” Jake said. “That’s horrible. I mean, brilliant, but horrible. No one, male or female, should have to ‘smile at face’ while ‘crying at heart’, but...I suppose everyone does from time to time. Still, it’s not the way I try to treat the women in my life. I’m sure I’m not always successful, but I do try to be better.”

“I don’t think it’s a reflection of how women are treated,” Shae said with a curious tilt of her head. “If this Japan culture is anything like the way I was raised, then it’s just the way things are. The women were always reserved with their emotions, especially in public; it wasn’t that anyone thought those feelings weren’t important, those feelings were just private. But that was simply our way, and it sounds like from this song that it may be similar in Japan,” she observed.

“You’re probably right,” Jake said. “Like I said, lots of different cultures on Earth. Sorry. I don’t usually apply my social mores to other people’s cultures unless it’s to stop someone from being hurt. I’ve been deployed to places where women and girls are treated so horribly, it would make you cry, or enrage you, or both. I’ve told you about those places. Terrible. Some customs were never okay, even in the time they were developed.”

Shae nodded in agreement. “You know, I wonder if the Tau’ri cultures and religions inspired the Goa’uld, or if the Goa’uld inspired the cultures and religions, and where do my kind fit in with the Japanese cultures, how did we come to adopt those cultures?” she asked curiously. It wasn’t something he was likely to have an answer to so she didn’t expect a response, but it still tugged at her curiosity.

“I’m not sure,” Jake said. “I can tell you that even before we knew about the Goa’uld, there were theories about the Earth having been visited by ‘aliens’. Maybe some of your people visited what would become Japan a very long time ago and inspired local legend while taking inspiration from the locals themselves.”

“That’s a thought,” Shae replied as she considered it. By now the urn with rice was sitting off to the side and the deep pot was filled with thinly sliced meat, chunks of vegetables, and mushrooms and simmering with some sauces she had Jake fetch for her, all while his MP3 player kept playing; were the musical girls asking for chocolate now? Chuckling at the song, she had Jake fetch some more snow so she could make fresh tea and have some water to wash up after their meal. “How much free time are we allowed to have until we must do another of these team missions together? Ah, that is to say, I would like some time to look into tradable materials to help introduce trade between Earth and other worlds,” she said.

“Well,” Jake said. “The general gave us a two days, three at the outside before he intends to tell us about what we’re doing next, so maybe after that meeting, and yeah, we meet a lot. It’s a thing. Anyway, after that meeting, we can approach him about engaging in trade with some of the cultures out here. Waiting until then has the added advantage for me that I can more reasonably ask, as a personal favor, if you’ll wait for your leg to heal a little more before you go galavanting through wormholes. And by ‘a little while’ I mean until you don’t need painkillers that hamper your ability to function and defend yourself. Please? I promise I’ll back you with Nathan about trade missions through the gate. Deal?”

“Not at all an unreasonable request,” Shae replied with a nod of acceptance. “I would still like to see what your world has to offer so I have some idea of what’s tradeable, even if it is just pictures on your, er, technology, touch, picture things?”

“Absolutely,” Jake said. “But that might have to wait till we’re back Earthside. Those tablets can be used two ways. They can store information and you can access just what’s on the tablet, or they can connect to a larger external network, without the use of wires, and you can access all of the information that network has access to. Here, there’s no network for my tablet to interface with, and I don’t have anything stored on it that would help in this case. When we get back to the base, I can show you how to access those networks.”

“Oh, like how the GDO has nothing to communicate with until the Chappa’ai is open?” Shae replied, displaying at least some understanding of what he was talking about. By now, she was taking the hotpot off the fire and setting the kettle on for tea and wash water. “Bowls and chopsticks,” she said, pointing to a shelf. “So what is on your tablet now?” she asked out of pure curiosity.

“Books,” Asher said as he went to get the bowls and chopsticks. “More music. Games. The one I brought with me is my personal tablet, so it doesn’t have any secrets on it that I don’t want the Goa’uld or anyone else who isn’t cleared to get there hands on. Heh. Graphic Novels...stories told with drawing and writing. I really should have wiped my personal information from it, but I didn’t. Oh! And pictures! Family, friends, family pets.”

“Oh, can I see your family?” Shae asked with excitement. She took the bowls and dished out some rice. “I’m sorry if that’s invasive, I’m just… you know, curious, a little jealous… I’ll shut up now…” she said as she handed him a full rice bowl.

Jake took the bowl and smiled. “I’d love to show you some pictures of my life. Wait here.” Jake went over to his pack and pulled out his tablet. He turned it on and brought it over and sat down next to Shae. “Give it a second...okay! There we go, and...here. My mother just sent me a ton of my baby pictures she’d just scanned into her computer...right before the Yu mission, actually. Wow. I haven’t seen these in years. So, that’s my mom, Miriam, and that guy’s my dad, and the squishy looking thing all bundled up is, believe it or not, me.”

“Oh, she is lovely!” Shae said softly with a smile. “Are you sure that little guy is you? He looks far too cute to be you now,” she said to tease him.

“Yeah,” Jake said. “I don’t recognize me either. Here’s some of me when I’m a little older. I can see me in these. That was my pet cat, Erasmus. Razzy was a lot of fun. He was also opinionated, pushy, and at times obnoxious. In other words, he was everything a pet cat is supposed to be.”

“I have never had a pet before…” Shae paused, then her face scrunched up as a funny thought occurred to her. “How weird would that be, a fox with a pet cat!”

Jake laughed. “That would be a riot. That reminds me. I had the strangest experience as a teenager. It was night and it was dark out and as I was walking I saw something kind of slinking by in the dark, moving rather catlike. It stopped when it sensed me and looked at me and it’s eyes did that thing cats’ eyes do at night so I said ‘Aww...here, kitty, kitty,’ and made all of those stupid kissy noises people make because we think a cat is going to come to that and not say ‘uh, what the Hell is wrong with that guy?’ So there I am, saying here kitty, kitty and making kissy noises and the next thing I know I’m jumping six feet in the air because it started barking at me. And that, my dear, was my first encounter with a wild fox. I like you better.”

“You make what kind of noises?” Shae asked, and when he demonstrated she squealed with laughter. “And your pets like this? That is so funny!” Of course she would miss the punchline that he had seen a wild fox, but seeing wild animals was nothing new to her, and these noises he made amused her to no end! “Oh, you aren’t eating! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to distract you, so please eat, it’s best when it’s still hot,” she said, having been eating straight from the hotpot all along.

Jake set down the tablet and started eating as well. It didn’t take him long to realize how hungry he was. “Wow! That is really good! That settles it! We’re eating at your place more often! That, or as soon as I find a place in town, you’re coming over and making dinner!” He winked at Shae and went back to eating a bit, explaining the kissy noise thing. “I think it’s just that the noise attracts the pet’s attention and they start to investigate, and then if they decide you smell familiar or at least don’t smell dangerous, they come over. Cat’s are very independent though. Sometimes they come when you call or when you make stupid kissy noises or snap your fingers. But to be honest, I think Razzy just came when he heard noises that he associated with food, or warmth, or scritches or snuggles. Otherwise, he just ignored you...oh, unless he wanted to stalk you or play with you. Other than that, he couldn’t be bothered to notice us.”

Shae laughed. “I actually don’t know much about pet cats. I’ve seen them, I know their behavior is different than wild cats, but other than that I really don’t know much. Your Razzy sounds like quite the character,” she observed. “And I would be happy to cook for you and even the rest of the team sometime. I’ve never done this before, but somehow it makes it taste better to share it with someone like this.”

“I agree,” Jake said. “And I’ve been a bachelor a long time, so I’ve spent a long time cooking for just me. It’s boring and lonely, frankly. Cooking for and even better, with, other people is much more satisfying.”

They ate in silence a bit more, occasionally their eyes would meet and they’d smile at each other. Finally, Jake spoke.

“Thanks for bringing me home with you,” he said. “I really needed the companionship and I’m glad it was with you.”

“No, thank you,” Shae said with a small smile that seemed to radiate with more emotion than her earlier laughter. “It was nice to have someone to talk to and to help me out. It really means a lot to me that you returned with me.”

Shae’s small but expressive smile sent a thrill through Jake. “Thank you for trusting me. That means a great deal to me. I hope that trust continues and grows as we get to know each other better.” Jake grinned. “So...we have the whole day and even part of tomorrow if you want to stay that long. I’d love to spend that with you. Looking at more pictures, exploring more music, and whatever else you want to do. It looks beautiful outside. Cold, but clear. And the air here...no industry, no vehicles powered by combustion engines, so no air pollution. Of course, I don’t want you walking far...hey! Have you ever built a snowman? Or to be gender neutral, a snow person? Or a snow animal? Oh wow, have you ever been in a snowball fight? Yeah, if you agree to hang out with me for even a little while longer, we could have a lot of fun! And I could help you with anything you need around the house and give you time to heal and rest.”

The tone of Jake’s was filled with an infectious, childlike joy at the thought of just hanging out and playing with Shae, of letting go of all of his command responsibilities for a day or two and just being himself with this little alien woman who was stealing more of his heart everyday. Then he had an idea.

“Hey,” Jake said. “As much as I want you all to myself, how about we invite some of the others back here so everyone can breathe some really clean air, have a snowball fight, build snow...things and generally loosen up? I bet we can even build a snow fox if you wanted to. What do you say?”

Jake looked Shae in the eyes. “It would be a lot of fun, Shae. I think you deserve some fun, don’t you? Fun and friends. Two things everyone needs.”

It was hard to not be affected by Jake’s excitement, and Shae found herself smiling and laughing. Then came the idea to bring other people over!

“Oh my!” Shae exclaimed. “Just to play in the snow, right? I’m not sure we could fit many people into my house,” she replied, looking around with concern; what little space she had in her hut was mostly taken up with all her winter provisions!

“Just to play in the snow, I promise,” Jake said. “Ree will be thrilled. She’s been looking for an excuse to spend time with you. She’s a tough kid in a profession filled with men who underestimate and marginalize her at best, and mistreat her at worst. Women are new to the profession she’s in, I heard she explained that, right? She has to work two or three times as hard to earn the respect of the men she works with, and she rarely encounters another woman in her career field to share the burden with. In her own way, she’s a warrior, and in your way, so are you. Great friendships have been built from less. Okay, well, we should clean up and head to the gate. We’ll have to open it so I can call through and get Nathan to send people through.”

“I have not had much of a chance to converse with her outside of merchant talk with breakfast on Hen Da Ye Huihe, but what you say helps to put some context to something she said to Corvus,” Shae said, then quickly shoveled some more meat and rice into her mouth. “I’ll get changed while you’re folding my futon,” she said, then grabbed a few more bites; this girl could really pack the food away! “But just a moment, I’m almost done…”

Jake packed up her futon and then took a moment to clean himself up. When he was ready, he got dressed again, boots and all. He pulled on his balaclava but pulled it back from his face and head for the moment. He put his tactical vest on with the few extra magazines he brought with him and strapped on his Glock 19. He put on his pack and picked up his M4A1. “I’m going to wait for you outside so you can have a little privacy,” he said. Sometimes being a gentleman sucked, but if Shae was ever going to disrobe for him, like with a kiss, he wanted her to be doing knowingly for him, because she wanted to, and not because he was hanging around hoping to sneak a peek. For better or for worse, that was just the kind of man he was. “See you in a bit.”

Once he was outside, Jake took in several lungfuls of Lethuan’s very clean, fresh air and then sighed. Some would say that nothing happened between him and Shae last night, but in Jake’s mind, they’d be wrong. Something very special happened between them between last evening and this morning. Shae had started to trust him. That was a good start. Sometimes a good start was all you needed.