
<Episode 49>
Jack sat up with a start. With more practice than he wanted to admit he was able to keep himself from screaming out loud. Going into one of the breathing exercises Emily taught him he sat there until his heartbeat was back under control. After a few moments of silence he lay back down and stared at the ceiling totally disgusted with himself. One night, just one lousy night. Why was one night of totally uninterrupted sleep too much to ask for? Especially tonight of all nights. He glanced over at Rachel sleeping next to him, her bare shoulder and back not covered by the sheet. Yeah tonight would have been the perfect night not to have one of those damn nightmares.
“You had another one,” she spoke up.
“Sorry,” he said softly, “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“I was already up. For somebody who can keep me guessing,” she turned around, getting under his arm and rested her head on his shoulder, “your nightmares run surprisingly like clockwork. So what happened in this one?”
“Not a whole lot changed from last time,” he told her. Rubbing her arm lightly he added, “Richie looked a little apologetic this time around though.”
“That something at least,” she said. “It might be a step in the right direction.”
“Maybe. I just want this nightmare to stop already.”
“I know you do, and so do I. but Dusty and Emily both said it’ll go away when it goes away.”
“I know it’s just frustrating,” he admitted. “I’m almost thirty and a nightmare is kicking my ass and keeping me up at night.”
“Jack we’ll beat this,” Rachel assured him. “If I can promise you anything I will promise you that.”
“Sounds like a lost cause to me,” he joked. Giving her a quick squeeze he told her, “Go back to sleep, there’s no point in both of us staying up all night.”
“You know,” she said as she lightly traced one of the longer scars on his chest with a fingernail, “I might have a way to help you to go back to sleep.”
“Oh really?”
“Yes really,” she said smiling at him. Jack started to say something but she quieted him with a kiss. He didn’t resist as she moved on top of him.
***
She knew the alarm clock was a few minutes away from going off. Normally waking up before the alarm would have annoyed her to no end. But right now she couldn’t really complain. In fact she could get used to waking up like this. She tried to remain quiet as Jack lightly kissed her on the neck and shoulder. Trying hard not to smile, and failing, she asked, “What do you think you’re doing?” She wanted to sound annoyed but it wasn’t happening.
“Nothing,” was all he said. “But since you’re up you wanna go for round three?”
“Any other day and I might think about it,” she said getting out of his grip and turned off the alarm. Holding the sheet against her chest she sat up, “But Melissa needed to see me early this morning.”
Jack lay back down saying, “The moment she smells me on you she’s going to know what we did.” With a half grin he added, “Twice.”
“Which is why I want to get to the shower before there’s a line. Do you have any idea where my nightgown went?”
“No idea,” he told her. “I wasn’t exactly paying attention all that much when things went flying.” Sitting up he looked around, “It’s on the other side of the dresser.”
“Thanks.” She reached out and grabbed it. Out of habit she stood up as she put it on. Realizing what she did she looked back and saw Jack grinning, “Enjoying the view?”
“I got no reason to complain.”
“Smart man,” she told him as she pulled it on. Going over to the dresser she picked out a fresh batch of clothes. Jack started to get out of bed as well but she stopped him. “Lie back down and get some rest, you got nothing important to do this morning. Try and get some more sleep if you can.”
“I’ll meet you later in the cafeteria if I can’t.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Leaning down she gave him another kiss, “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he said in return as he lay back down. Luckily their room was close to the shower and there wasn’t a line. Rachel wasn’t sure how keen the average Drakan sense of smell was but they were still trying to keep their relationship quiet. And she did not want to give anybody any extra hints than necessary.
***
“Oh my God,” Melissa said the moment she looked at Rachel. Her friend looked really annoyed real quick but she didn’t care. “You two…”
“Have I told you how much I hate it when you read me like that,” Rachel quickly said.
“I didn’t read you,” she informed her. “In fact I didn’t need to.”
“I ticked off a couple of people already taking an extra long shower.”
“That’s not how I knew either, although,” she sniffed the air a couple of times, “that would explain the aroma I’m starting to pick up.”
“Oh grow up,” Rachel said sharply. Melissa started laughing, partially because she realized she just won the bet. God she was glad everybody agreed to move their target dates after Jack was of commission for a few months. Oh great how was she supposed to prove it. “Alright if it wasn’t either of those then what was it?”, Rachel demanded.
“You got a little extra bounce in your step,” Melissa explained. “So either you found one of the hidden liquor stashes around here or…”
“Alright, alright,” Rachel cut her off. “So much for trying to keep things quiet.”
“Hey I’m the only one around here who knows you guys are a couple now. So I know the meaning behind the act. Everybody else…,” she trailed off.
“Just shoot me now,” she said hanging her head. Trying to get things back on track she said, “So has Jaime’s guys broken the encryption on that disc yet?”
“Not fully,” she said. “According to him there’s a couple of different files on that thing. They were able to crack a couple of them so far, but it’s nothing but minor things. Schedules, work rotations stuff like that. The other information on the disc has a tougher encryption program that’s proving harder to crack.”
Rachel nodded, “Jack’s Uncle Petey’s first rule of locks: the more elaborate the lock the better the prize inside.”
“That’s what we’re hoping,” she said. “But right now I’m not keeping my hopes up. It could be somebody’s diary for all we know.”
“Then I guess we’re no closer to finding that secret base then,” Rachel said.
“Actually I think we’re closer than we think,” Melissa said. “Using some of the information we gathered so far we were able to pick up a convoy here and there heading into the mountains where we think it is. Unfortunately we lose sight of them by the time we hit the mountains.”
“Well I doubt whatever he’s using is going to be in plain sight.”
“I know. Every cell we have has been climbing over each other trying to find it. However he’s hiding it he’s getting his money’s worth. God this is driving me nuts. Something in my guts is telling me this is going to be big, whatever it is, and we can’t even find it.”
“I’m just hoping we’ll catch a break before it’s too late,” Rachel admitted.
“So do I, so do I.”
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