Vixen Scorned

Posted on Mon Apr 1st, 2019 @ 7:17am by Major Jacob Asher & Civillian Shae & Civillian "Mama" Edith Jackson

Mission: Interlude 1
Location: various
Timeline: immediately following 'Gumbo with Salty Tears'

After running from the dining facility following her exchange with Mama Edith, Shae began searching frantically for Asher, but then suddenly she stopped. She suddenly felt so weak for needing to seek him out, like she couldn’t handle her own problems. But she didn’t know how to handle this problem! Still, she did have a tendency to run to him, but she couldn’t keep doing that or people would begin to think her weak and helpless. So instead of finding Jake, she changed direction and headed for her quarters.

Jake went to Shae’s quarters to see if she was ready to go back to his place or if she needed to do anything else before they left. He knocked on her door. “Shae? I didn’t sneak over here, I swear! I just came by to see if you were done here so we could head back out to my place since we don’t have to be back until tomorrow morning. Shae?”

Shae opened the door just a crack, peeking out and keeping the door as a barrier between them. She looked at him for a moment, debating internally if she should tell him or not, then finally reaffirmed her decision to not say anything as she opened the door and stepped out.

“I’m ready,” she said in a deflated tone, then started walking down the hall.

Jake was immediately concerned. He caught up to Shae. “Okay, obviously something happened that’s upset you. I won’t push you, but if you want to tell me about it, I’m here. If you don’t, or if you want to wait until we’re back at my place, that’s fine, too. Whatever you need.”

Jake shut up at that point and just walked next to Shae, hoping he was succeeding at being a supportive presence without being intrusive. What the Hell had happened? If Corvus had said one more stupid thing, Jake was going to fill out the friendly fire incident report before they even left on the next mission to save time after. That or he was going ‘accidentally’ knock the bastard halfway into the event horizon when it was about to close.

“I don’t want to talk about it, I can solve my own problems,” Shae said in a surly tone, and just kept walking.

“I know you can,” Jake said, non-confrontationally. “I was just offering to listen to them.”

Shae started growling in frustration; why did he have to be so infuriatingly nice when she wanted to be grumpy! She came to a sudden stop, then turned around to go back to her room. “I need my bow, I need to shoot things,” she said simply.

Jake shrugged. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll just wait here I guess.”

Shae stormed back to her quarters and retrieved her bow and loaded up her quivers, but halfway through the second she started shouting. Expletives from languages all across the galaxy flew from her lips. Why wasn’t he fighting with her when she clearly wanted to fight?! Releasing her rage so vocally had allow a brief calm to settle over her, enough to finish loading up her arrows and start walking back towards Jake.

Jake recognized a few quasi-Japanese curse words, but the rest of what Shae shouted was lost on him. He said nothing as Shae stormed past him. Again he shrugged and turned to follow. If Shae needed to be angry, Jake would give her the space to be angry. All he had to do was somehow get her in the car and off to his place and she could be as angry or sulky or as whatever she wanted to be in private. He’d just go hang by himself and be there when she was ready to talk or whatever else she might need him for. Then got in the elevator and started riding up together. If he was the kind of guy who was bothered by silence or the changeable moods of women, the silence would have been uncomfortable, but Jake could show remarkable patience, understanding, and restraint. Those qualities weren’t unlimited, but they were bountiful, so he wasn’t even near his breaking point yet. He was just a little worried that Shae was going to go out of her way to test the limits of those qualities.

Shae just silently fumed. The fact that Jake wasn’t engaging her seemed to add to her anger and she didn’t know why. Maybe she was just getting tired of people putting her down, not just here but over the course of her entire life, and she had finally reached her boiling point and was done taking it. Her fuming reached its peak when she reached out to stop the elevator and press the floor that the dining facility was on. She was going to give Edith-kaasan a piece of her mind!

Jake sighed and followed Shae to wherever she was headed. She was clearly mightily pissed off about something, but she was a grown up and part of being a grown up was having the right get pissed off and even say things she might later regret, as long as she was ready to accept the consequences. Unless she actually became dangerous, Jake was going to let her work whatever this was out for herself.

Jake knew that his refusal to engage with her was, while the correct course of action, was probably adding to her frustration. That was fine as far as Jake was concerned. If she was going to say something she was going to regret, let her say it to someone else.

Jake wasn't completely indifferent, though. Seeing Shae in pain made him feel protective of her. At the same time he was being calm and supportive, he was also fighting the urge demand to know who had caused her so much pain. He wanted to personally show them just how Goddamned displeased he was with them in a way they would remember for a very long time.

Not to mention that they might ruin the remainder of his weekend. If that happened he was going to get damned grumpy. Damned grumpy indeed.

When the doors of the elevator opened, Shae marched, still fuming, straight to the dining facility. She didn’t care one way or the other if Asher followed her, because she didn’t have an issue with him, she had an issue with-

“Edith-kaasan!” Shae said as soon as she passed through the doors of the dining facility, looking around for the strange woman that had upset her so.

"Oh, holy hells girl," Mama said, hearing her name called out in the dining area while she was back in the kitchen. She nodded to her kitchen manager while she started wiping her hands on a dishtowel and making her way out of the kitchen. By the time she opened the door into the serving area, base security was already alerted.

"Shae!" Mama said, a smile spreading on her face. "Now, I don' tol' you I ain't gonna tell you what I'm plannin' on makin' special just fo' ya!" Mama walked across the space toward Shae, seeing Asher right behind her. That didn't exactly fill her with confidence that some sort of scene wasn't going to happen. She liked the General and the General liked the Major, but she heard a few things, she sure did. "I tol' ya it was go'an be a surprise and that's what it'll be. Y'all plannin' on doin' some practicin' with them weapons so unnecessary in my Dinin' Facility?" She took a step closer and lowered her voice. "Might maybe some folks'll might get the wrong idea that you're upset and goan about with them weapons."

Jake spoke up. "Shae. Hand me your bow and your quivers. Pretty sure someone will have already called Security because you burst in here armed and angry. If Security shows up, you don't want to have a weapon in your hands." Jake put his hand on her bow. "Give it to me, please, Shae. Now. Then you can curse Mama Edith up and down if you want and the worst that will happen is that you'll get taken into custody." Jake adopted the alpha male voice of command that sometimes got through to Shae when she was worked up. "Now, Shae. I mean it. Then you can do what you want."

Mama pursed her lips, "Ain't no unarmed person gettin takin into no custody in my Dinin' Facility only cause they a little anxious to find out what they special meal is!"

Shae balked at both of them. Did they really think she would hurt anyone? She'd honestly forgotten that she was holding her bow, it was so natural for it to be in her hand at all times! With a disgusted scoff, Shae handed the bow to Asher and then set her quivers on a table, then she returned her attention to Mama Edith.

"I am not here for a special meal," Shae said. "I am here because you are a liar! You make yourself look like a nice person, but that is a lie! You are mean! I told you that I could not understand you very well and you took advantage of that to trick me and confuse me. You say you were trying to help me, but I don't need help lying to people about what I am, I have been doing that my whole life! I needed help making friends without lies, which was what I tried to do with you, but you played that mean game trying to 'teach' me something, but you didn't say that until after I was already confused. And then you made me feel shame and fear for no reason when you said I would be taken away and studied! You even said your kin could take a picture of me, making me feel more shame, but the shame is yours! You should be ashamed for bringing in kin who cannot keep the secrets of this place! I am not the risk to the safety of this place, you are, and you should be ashamed of yourself for making me feel like I am responsible," she scolded firmly, her hands clenched into fists at her side.

Mama completely bypassed Shae at the moment and looked at Asher. "We got two choices here, either she shuts up her yelling and keep a civil tongue in her mouth where we go inna my office or those fine security folk comin up behind you gonna be told to take her away then restrict her from comin back here until she grow up and learn a few thing. But that decision goan come quick cause Mama ain't playin. Y'all hear me?"

Shae growled at the woman, then with a huff she grabbed her quivers and headed for the doors. "Mean liar woman, YOU ARE NOT OKAA-SAN TO ME! DON'T BOTHER APOLOGIZING WHEN YOU COME TO YOUR SENSES, I WILL NOT ACCEPT IT!" Shae shouted, then stormed out, brushing past Security on her way out. She'd said what she need to say to the woman, she wasn't going explain herself any further, although she did grumble under her breath in her mixed Japanese where she thought Edith could shove her special meal.

"Y'all make sure she know she come back here, those fine security folk goan get 'nother call and I will press charges 'gainst her," Mama said to Asher. "I run a respectable place and now, I'm goan make sure it come out with a 'no weapons' policy so these people tryin'ta have their meal in peace don' ha' ta worry 'bout violence." She waved the Master Sergeant over as she turned to head back to her office to write out the report.

"Edith," Jake said before the Mama Edith left the room. "Did you really say all of that to Shae?"

Mama turned and for a moment it looked as if she had quite a few words to say. Harsh words, accusatory words. Instead she asked the Master Sergeant to wait a moment while she walked up to Jake. Reaching out, she took his large hands in her smaller, older hands while she looked directly into his eyes, her hands bringing his to her ample bosom. Almost as if she were pulling him into prayer with her. "When ya go chasin af'er her this time, I want ya to think 'bout somethin'. I wan' ya to think 'bout how it is with us humans. How we hate an' kill each other over the color of they skin or which god they pray to. Then I wan' ya to think what they do with someone who ain't even human. Maybe not you, maybe not me or an'body else here, and nobody that get ta know her, but the ever'day common person who fear the color of the skin or the title of the book they readin' from. Ya care for her, then maybe ya stop worrin' so much 'bout what she wants and worry 'bout what she need."

She squeezed Asher's hands the one time before she let them drop and turned, inviting the Master Sergeant back to the office.

"Edith," Jake said, ignoring Edith as she had ignored him. "What she doesn't need is someone who has no authority whatsoever over her trying to tell her what she should and should not be doing. From here on out, stay in your lane."

Jake turned on his heel left the room before Edith could respond. He caught up to Shae. "You ready to go?" he said. He was pretty angry himself at the moment and didn't want to talk much either. But he would want to talk, eventually, and so he didn't want to go home alone. Before she could respond, he added: "We can talk later. I'm angry, not with you, not with you at all, but I'm angry, and I just want to get the Hell out of here and back to my house and I want you to come with me. If you don't want to, I won't make a fuss. I... I could just really use the company, and maybe you could, too."

"It's either your place or mine, and neither of us are dressed for Lethuan," Shae pointed out. "I am sorry for making a scene, and if I am in trouble for that then I will take my discipline without complaint, but I am not one bit sorry for a single word I've said to her and I will refuse to apologize for speaking my mind."

"No problem," Jake said. "Let's go." He didn't say anything as he led her to his SUV and didn't say anything as they drove out the gate and off the base. And then, when they were out of sight of the base, Jake simply reached over and gave Shae's hand a squeeze before putting his hand back on the wheel.

Shae did not squeeze back and she was silent the entire ride back to his house. When they got there, she took her bow and her arrows and walked out into the forest near the target range he had taken her before, and she began shooting at nothing in particular; snow, pine cones, then she accidentally hit a squirrel... It was dark by the time she made her way back to the house, and when she deposited her bow and quivers by the door, there were significantly fewer arrows than before, all destroyed in trees or from being struck by another arrow or simply lost from aimless firing. Her fingers were raw and the cuticles were cracked and bleeding from a combination of the dry, cold air and damage from trying to dig the precious arrowheads out of the tree bark. But she didn't bother to ask for a first aid kit, she couldn't even feel how much her fingers hurt, she just went upstairs and laid face down on the bed, sighing in relief from the heat of the glowing fireplace.