Kadance

5f

Kadance's eyes get big when she hears that they are to have full clearance. Tommy didn't show it but he feels the same. Although that takes a bit of the fun out of things. He's never had full clearance before. He smiles slyly. This could makes things much more interesting.
"We're to have full clearance wherever we go? Even off planet?"

Jayse nods in reply as Tommy explains, "Although it came as a shock to me it makes sense. You'll be working with redliners and suiciders. There won't always be time to go through channels to get what you want or need. This way we can get whatever we want when we need it."

Jayse explains a little more bluntly, "With the suiciders there won't be time. If you fail we'll need access immediately to minimize fatalities."

Kadance swallows hard at his bluntness. His words bring home just how important her job is, and what the price of failure means. Kadance gets a little light headed as the full import hits her. Jayse steers her to a nearby chair.

"I see," she says faintly. She rally's a bit and continues, "I didn't realize that we'd be moving around so much." She looks up at her body guards, "will I ever have a permanent home?"

Again Jayse and Tommy look at each other and this time Tommy answers, "Probably not at first anyway. There are a lot of redliners and many have gone suicidal. You'll be busy calming them down for awhile before you can settle down yourself. Of course should you decide to quit your job then you could settle down at anytime." Jayse nudges Tommy hard at those words and gives him a warning look. Tommy turns to Jayse and gives him an innocent look in return.

Jayse interrupts before Kadance can say anything. "Redliners, suiciders especially are kept scattered. If one goes off it could set off others that might be nearby. What happens then...they either fight each other and allow the warriors time to neutralize them both or even more destruction and death. Neither the society as a whole nor individuals want that to happen. Many choose locations where they can get far away from people. That means extensive traveling."

"But they kept you, Tommy and Rory together." Kadance says in confusion.

Jayse sighs and closes his eyes. What happened to Rory is still too raw for Jayse. "We were only kept together because separating us at that time would likely have sent me over. Since we were the last of Sigma they felt the damage would have been greater to send me away. Protocol has a brother shadow the suicider. My only brothers left were both in the hospital. Losing my family like that and being denied the ability to be near the survivors would have sent me over. It's not pretty but it's true.

"Kadance you need to understand, although Tommy and I view each other as competition to gaining your affections we'd never actually hurt each other. We're all we have. One of us might get to the point where we'd have to leave, but we'd never let anything happen to you." Jayse says hiding his pain deep inside.

Kadance looks at him and gives him a look that tells him that she knows exactly what he's feeling and she'll talk to him about it later.

"I failed Jayse." Tommy's words are stark and raw. "I couldn't get him past the danger point. I'm part of the reason he's so angry. If it weren't...I wasn't there for Jayse like I should have been. I couldn't be." He looks at his prosthetic with hatred.

Jayse turns to Tommy, "No, Tommy, you did what you could. You knew you couldn't do all that was needed but you found someone that could. You sent Kadance to help me and that turned out a whole lot better than we could ever have imagined. I don't blame you if anything I owe you. You needed me and I wasn't there. I was too into my own misery to see your needs. You are by far better than me, you could see beyond your own pain and found a way to help me in mine.

"If they had sent someone from another Company after I gave Rory the final grace it would have sent me over immediately. Hell, Tommy I didn't even see you at the diner or the beach. You gave me the space I needed and let Kadance work her magic on me, that takes brains. Too bad you hated commanding so much." Jayse hesitates, "Or maybe not. You could have made a great leader had you wanted too, but I think choosing demo was in our best interest." Jayse finishes with a sly dig at Tommy. Tommy ignored the last part and looked horrified at the idea of leading.

"Huh." He shivers, "Me in command. That's perhaps the scariest thought I could come up with. I only accepted command of the demo team because all the others they tried to put in charge were incompetent idiots. Somebody had to train them right."

"I remember when you use to train all the demo teams," Jayse says quietly. "No one ever passed the final test because you are the best Tommy."

Tommy turns to him with anger evident for the first time Kadance has ever seen it. She is fascinated at what she's learning about these two. That Tommy trained all the warriors in demo she'd had no idea. That no one could pass the final she had no doubt. Tommy may be care free in most things but she gets the feeling that he could be very serious about some things.

"I can't see any reason for me to do that ever again. What I did wasn't enough. I failed to teach them to pay attention and it cost Sigma's life. They were too busy...." Tommy has to stop because he was losing control of his anger. "Don't bring that up again Jayse. My failure cost us our family, my son included." Tommy is able to gain control of his anger, but not the pain.

Kadance is very startled. She had no idea that they had children or that they could possibly be old enough to be assigned a Company. Although she has questions she doesn't dare ask them now. Tommy's face is closed and she could still feel his anger. She looks over at Jayse and is surprised at the look of sorrow on Jayse's face.

Quietly she says, "I see. Thank you for explaining." More briskly she adds, "Come on let's get going. It's getting late and I'm getting hungry. Trust the administrator to call me in when it was time for lunch." She stands up and the two make way for her then fall in behind her. Any that saw her stopped and silently stepped aside instead of talking to her as they were going to. They too could feel the anger and sorrow coming off the two men behind her and no one wanted to mess with it.