Finding Jess (First Wave) (16 page)

The women went back to answer the
many questions the children had until the door flew open and in walked a line
of women led by True whose arms were overflowing with fabric. Each of the women
had something in their arms as they came over to the picnic table.

“What is this?” Jess asked True
curiously as she looked at the smiling faces of the women around them.

“We figured that it was time for a
fairytale to come true for you. So we’re going to find you the perfect dress to
wear and do your hair and make-up. Just think of us as your fairy godmothers.”
True said with a wide smile as the other women nodded their heads.

“Really, you guys don’t have to do this.
I don’t need all this.” Jess tried to protest before she was interrupted.

“You may not need it, but you
deserve it. Besides, we’d love the excuse to act like women for once instead of
warriors.” True said with a nonchalant shrug that wasn’t fooling anyone. She
was obviously just as excited as everyone else.

“Ok… ok. I give up. Let’s see what
we can come up with.” Jess couldn’t help but smile as the women and children
erupted into squeals and shouts of excitement. It was worth giving in to see
them all so happy.

It was her last thought before she
was caught up in the rapid-fire chatter of the women as True grabbed her and
began holding dresses up to her. She barely had time to glance down at the
dress being held before the women were giving their reasons why the dress was a
‘yay’ or ‘nay’.

*****

Hours later, after the compound had
gone to sleep, Jax was still in the conference room going over the plan in her
head and making some adjustments based on what the girls had said their plans
were for the wedding party. She shook her head wondering when a party had
turned into a wedding/party.

Timing was going to be so crucial
that she was going to have to make adjustments daily to ensure that everything
would be executed perfectly. Including the surprises, she had in store for even
the Valendran team.

She turned quickly, gun drawn when
she heard a noise at the door she’d left partially open. She relaxed
immediately when she saw who entered. 

“Tell me my friend, what have you
learned? Will he be ready? Did you explain that we’ll have to fine-tune the
timing up to the last moment to ensure success?” She asked.

Gibly jumped up onto the conference
room table, walked over to where Jax was standing and rubbed up against her in
greeting before answering.

“Yes he understands and will be
waiting for your instructions.” Gibly responded. His ability to speak like the
humans was improving the more he communicated in their language. He didn’t
understand why they had to have so many different words and so many different meanings.
Things were much simpler in his native language.

“We can’t have anything go wrong on
this Gibly. Are you sure he’ll be able to handle what we ask of him? He is
broken. What we ask could be too much.” Jax voiced her fears over using him,
but in order to pull this off his participation was required.

Jax had only met him a few times
after she had caught Gibly meeting with him secretly. It had been more than
obvious to her that his mind was damaged, but he was highly functioning, hiding
his personal demons and pain behind a stoic mask of indifference. She could
well understand what he was going through and how easy it was to convince
others you were fine when you weren’t. However, you couldn’t escape the
nightmares that came and crippled your soul… she knew that all too well.

“He needs this in order to help him
heal. He has lost purpose; this will give him new one. Seeing pain of others
will help him release his own. And I will be with him.” Gibly said confidently;
his faith in the man absolute. He was in his nightmares; he knew what the man
was capable of.

Jax sat down with a sigh and patted
her lap. When Gibly settled himself in her lap, she began absently stroking his
fur while deep in thought. The plan she’d come up with playing out in her head
from start to finish, her mind coming up with potential problems that could
occur and how to prevent them.

“Your plan is good; it will work.
You need to relax and worry less. You are too much under stress.” Gibly mumbled
enjoying the feel of her hands rubbing gently through his fur. He really
enjoyed this human so much more than any of the others besides his Amia and
Tessa. She thought as he did. As did the man Jax was so worried about.

“He is perfect for this. I know for
fact.”

“I think so too Gibly; but it doesn’t
stop me from worrying. There is far too much room for error. We will never get
a chance like this again.” Jax said honestly to him while she continued to
stroke his soft fur. His rumbling purr vibrated loudly through her, calming her
strained nerves.    

“It will be perfect. No one suspect
a thing. Only the three of us know.” Gibly replied in a soft satisfied voice.
His human knew just where and how he loved to be petted.

He was just about to doze off when
a slight sound had him sitting bolt upright and jumping onto the table facing
the door. Jax immediately stood up and faced the door, gun again in her hand.
No one should be in the command area right now, including her and Gibly.

She waited in silence as the
far-off footsteps drew closer and didn’t relax the grip on her weapon when she
saw Reven come into the room.

“What are you doing here?”

Reven quickly took in the scene in
the conference room; Jax was standing at the head of the conference room table,
her rigid pose and weapon drawn in her tight grip. Gibly stood protectively in
front of her; teeth bared as if ready to launch himself at him at any moment.

He held up his hands letting them
know he wasn’t armed, but after this greeting, he’d make damn sure he was the
next time. He didn't expect anyone to be in the command center at this time of
the night, and he’d been so deep in thought he’d made a rookie mistake and left
his weapon in his room. He really hated looking so damn incompetent around this
magnificent woman.

“I’m not armed.” He said stating
the obvious, even though she still didn’t take her hand off of her weapon.

Lowering his arms back to his
sides, he took a longer look at Jax, while she and Gibly just stared at him
strangely. She changed from her earlier uniform clothing. Her long legs were
now encased in some kind of fuzzy looking pink pants that hung loosely from her
narrow hips. The bare hint of skin showed between the gap in her pants and the
tight white tank top that clung tightly to her well rounded breasts. The
muscles in her arms stood out while she continued to stand battle ready in
front of him.

He tried his best to rein in his
beast at the sight of so much of her beautiful skin showing. It was the exact
shade of the coffee he had come to love, when it had the perfect amount of milk
added to it. He had no idea if that was why he liked the drink so much or not,
but he couldn’t help but think of her creamy skin every time he drank a cup,
which had become often.

Her large black eyes stared almost
blankly at him, but he knew her mind was running just fine, her cheeks rosy
colored as if she was caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing,
which she was. Her long black hair was tied in a ponytail which trailed down
her back in curls. Her lean body still not relaxed in the least.

“I asked what you were doing here.”
Her question brought him out of his perusal of her beautiful body. Damn he
should know better than to let his mind wander around her! Or let his guard down
for that matter. Her beauty well hid her lethal abilities. He’d seen her
training with the others, and he’d seen the vids of the raids she’d led. She
was an amazing warrior, and he wasn’t sure if pitted against a Valendran, who
would actually win. Her stubbornness alone was a force to be reckoned with.

“You can relax. I couldn’t sleep
and decided to put some fresh eyes on the plan again to try to see if we’ve
missed anything. Not that I think you would.” He quickly added when she flashed
angry eyes at him.

“This is something I do even on my
own plans. I can’t help but run through it and try to find different scenarios,
things that can go wrong, so we can be prepared if they do.” He took a chance
and decided to sit down, and saw how it relaxed her immediately. Strangely
enough, Gibly relaxed with her.

“What have you come up with?” Jax
tried to act as nonchalantly as possible as she asked. She didn’t trust this
man even if Gibly did. There was something about him that just… she couldn’t
explain it. He made her nervous; however, not in a defensive way, in a much
more personal one.

“Do you mind?” He asked nodding
towards the white board. Although she’d let go of the death grip she’d had on
her weapon, her stance had only relaxed slightly, and he wanted to make no move
that would startle her. She seemed so… skittish around him. He wondered if she
was just as fascinated with him as he was with her, he truly hoped so.

At her sharp nod, he casually stood
up and strode to the board as she rounded the opposite side, keeping him a safe
distance from her and keeping a tactical advantage. Damn she was good.

Having erased and washed the plan
off the board before they had left the conference room earlier for security
purposes he had to start from the beginning as he sketched out the plan on the
board.

“I see a problem here, here and
here.” He said pointing towards three different areas of the board when he was
done.

Jax stood silently and studied the
locations that he was referring to. That one she was counting on and would have
to give him the bull shit excuse, she and Gibly had worked out already in case
anyone else had noticed that little flaw. However, the other two… she couldn’t
think of what problem he was talking about.

“What do you see?” She asked
curiously, listening intently as he explained the potential problems that he
saw occurring in those locations. She was truly impressed with how his mind
worked. Other than the one area she knew of, she hadn’t thought of the
possibilities he’d presented in the other two.

“You’re right. I hadn’t considered
that.”

Reven hid his smile at her grudging
admission and how much more relaxed she looked now. He could almost see her
mind working through the problems looking for solutions. She was so damn
intelligent he had no doubt that she’d come up with solutions, but figured he
might give her his thoughts anyway since she was so absorbed. Walking back to
the board, he outlined his ideas to prevent the problems and stood waiting for
her thoughts on it.

“I think here,” she pointed to the
location she was aware of and gave him her excuse to how that would be covered
and held her breath waiting for his response.

“I think that’s perfect. We should
really go with that.” He agreed after considering it.

“But here, we should go with your idea.
Force definitely the best option for us to close that particular area off.” She
almost hated admitting it, but his idea was perfect and carefully thought out.

“Here though…” He said pointing to
the last location with the marker still in his hand as he shook his head. “I
don’t like either of our options there.”

She stared at the area thoughtfully
and again had to admit he was right. That area was going to have to take much
more thought to make it work in their favor because of the location.

“Let’s start with what works from
each idea and see what we can do from there.” Jax grabbed another marker in a
different color and began writing on the board the pros of each plan. Seeing
where she was going with it, Reven started writing the cons of each on another
side of the board.

Chapter
Fourteen

Jax finished writing on the board
and stood back to watch Reven as he finished writing the cons on the board. The
muscles in his right arm bulged as he wrote quickly and efficiently on the
board. She couldn’t help but admire the way the gray sweat pants clung to his
sexy ass and his large thighs. The muscles in his back tightening the already
snug white T-shirt and molding it to his body as, he moved. She had to admit
that he was one good-looking man.

His dark-brown hair was peppered
with gray and cropped into what seemed to be a universal military cut, cut
closely on the sides and only marginally longer on the top. His chiseled face
showed the hint of shadow reflecting the lateness of the hour since he needed
to shave already. His unusual blue eyes shone like twin blue zircon gems… it
was then she realized he’d finished at the board, turned around and was
watching her staring at him. She blushed furiously as she realized she’d just
been caught staring at him!

She tried to pretend as if she was
focusing on the board behind him and stood up, walking slowly to the board as
if in thought. He knew she was pretending, the look in her eyes when she knew
that he’d caught her staring at him was almost comical, and he’d had to stifle
a bark of laughter.

However, that would have
embarrassed her, and he didn’t want to give her any reason to leave. If he had
to be stuck with another sleepless night, he couldn’t think of anyone else he’d
rather spend it with than the person who haunted his dreams. He loved the way
her mind challenged his, and he believed that he had the same effect on her.

So he hid his laughter and held his
marker out to her with a slight rise of his eyebrow, as if daring her to take
it from him and start discussing things with him. He had to stifle another
smile as she gave him an arrogant smirk and snatched the marker from his hand
so quickly he didn’t see her move.

He watched as she kept going to the
board and began talking about each point he brought up in turn while they both
discussed the options and hashed out a way to seal the gaps in her plan.

So intent on their task and the
lively discussion they were having, Reven didn’t realize that Banatar and Ivint
were seated at the opposite end of the conference room table listening intently
to their back and forth rapport.

“Ivint… I’m sorry I didn’t realize
you, and Banatar had come in. Do you have anything to add?” Reven asked with
surprise, he’d had no idea his friend walked in until he’d turned around to grab
the eraser off the table where he’d left it. He wondered how long they’d been
sitting there and why neither he, nor Jax heard them come in.

“Actually no, I don’t. The two of
you seem to have things well under control from what we’ve heard over the last few
hours. I do believe one or both of you have more than covered my thoughts and
suggestions on the matter.” Ivint said with a slight smirk at his friend.

Reven tried his best not to stare
at his friend in shock. Hours? They’d been sitting there for hours? How is it
possible he didn’t know they had come in? How could Jax not have known? Or had
she? He looked quickly at her to see if she was as surprised as he was and was
embarrassed to see that she was not. Why didn’t she tell him they had company?
Or had she thought he already knew? What the hell was wrong with him? Why
hadn’t he heard them come in? He needed to think… get some sleep.

“I said, we were just finishing up,
and since we’ve been up to all night, I was going to hit the shower and bed
before my shift. Thank you for your help with this Reven. It saved a ton of
time being able to throw it back and forth this way. High Councilor, Banatar.”
Jax gave a curious look to Reven, nodded her head to the other men and left the
room; his eyes followed her every step until she, and Gibly was out of sight.

“I see it was a good idea to put
the two of you together on this. It makes me wish I did it much sooner. It was
quite… um… enlightening to listen to the way you seemed to complement each
other on your strategies to the problem.” Ivint tried but failed to wipe the
huge smile off of his face. There were less than a handful of times that he’d
been able to get one over on his friend. Being able to sneak into the room and
stay undetected for hours was truly one he would never let his friend forget.
Even though he knew that his own skill or Reven’s lack thereof had nothing to
do with why Reven was so distracted and everything to do with the beautiful and
incredibly intelligent woman who had just walked out of the room.

She and Gibly had known before they
even walked in the door that they were there. He didn’t think anything got by
the extremely guarded woman. Her eyes were on them the moment they walked into
the room, scanning them quickly for weapons and doing an immediate threat
assessment. Satisfied, she’d given them the briefest of nods before turning
back to the board and her heated defense of her particular strategy in one
area.

He and Banatar had originally come
down early to go over a few things alone when they’d heard the voices in the
conference room. They hadn’t expected to see Gibly lying contentedly on the
conference room table, facing the door, as Jax and Reven had a heated exchange.

The first thing they noticed when
she turned her attention back to Reven was the grudging respect they were
showing each other and not the silent treatment that they usually did. In fact,
it was the longest he’d ever heard Jax speak at one time.

After the first twenty minutes, he
and Banatar silently agreed not to interrupt them and just listen. He was glad
that he did. He understood a lot more about her than he did before he walked in
the room and his respect for her, and her abilities grew. Where Reven’s battle
tactics tended to be more towards force and strength, with weaponry and
physical ability; Jax used more intelligence and fewer physically
confrontational methods.

She knew the limitations of her
people and had adapted her strategies towards their strengths instead, such as
speed and their different gifts in the right places at the right time. Such as
their ‘rock caller’ (he never knew there was such a thing, or that they even
had one) being put in the access tunnel with the partial cave in, where she
could cave the rest of it without being anywhere near it while trapping the
traitor behind it.

But it wasn’t only her unique
tactics; it was her ability to know when Reven’s brand of tactics were more
suited to the situation, and she willingly allowed him to take over in the
areas where she recognized his suggestion would work better. He was more than a
little surprised when Reven showed her the same respect.

“I’m sorry Sir. We were a little
caught up in what we were discussing, and I didn’t realize you had come in. I
should probably try to get some sleep as well. It was a long night. Sirs,"
Reven looked away from the smirk on Ivint’s face and the matching one on
Banatar’s as, he made his way out of the conference room. He knew Ivint would
catch up with him later, and he’d have to explain himself, but he’d much rather
put that off until he had a few hours of sleep and a clearer head.

Ivint watched his friend go out the
door and smiled much broader as soon as Reven wasn’t close enough to see it.
Things were obviously going to become more interesting around there very soon. He
just hoped that the traitor was caught before it got too interesting.

*****

Jax had barely gotten in the door
of her room when Sarex came barging in behind her before she could even shut
the door. Relaxing when she saw her friend, she shut the door behind both while
Sarex paced in front of Jax’s bed wringing her hands.

“What did you see?” Jax asked,
knowing it couldn’t be good if it woke Sarex up this early in the morning.

“Jax, I see her being taken again.”
Sarex turned her tear filled gaze to her friend.

“Sit down and tell me everything.”
Jax gently took Sarex’s hand and sat with her on the bed; listening intently to
the vision she’d had about Jess that woke her from sleep. She almost smiled
when she realized that Sarex’s vision was proof her plan was going to work
perfectly.

“Listen to me Sarex. I know your
visions are never wrong, but in this case, I can assure you it will not turn
out the way you think. Trust me. Please.” Jax knew she was asking a lot from
her friend, but she didn’t have a choice.

“But Jax, I saw someone take her
out of here, saw her fighting…” Sarex began until Jax cut her off.

“I know what you think you see. But
in this case… Sarex you know this plan will work. Please. I’m begging you to
trust me.” Jax grabbed her hand and gave her a gentle squeeze.

“Jax, I trust you with my life… but
what I saw….” Jax didn't realize she’d been holding her breath waiting for
Sarex to respond. She let out her breath slowly and thought for a moment how
she could fix this and assure her friend this was going to be alright.

“Sarex, I know what you saw. It’s
what I want… what I need for everyone to see happen. You know it’s our only
choice. We’re only going to get this one chance.” Jax was close to begging. She
knew if Sarex was upset enough about it; she would tell Banatar. And Banatar
would tell the Valendrans. She couldn’t take that chance.

“Jax… this is crazy. When they find
out they’re going to be furious; and rightfully so this goes too far. And
Jess…” Sarex didn’t like Jax’s plan at all, knowing her vision was part of the
plan frightened her even more. She couldn’t shake the feelings of fear and
hopelessness that she had felt from Jess in her vision.

“Can’t you see how important this
is? We have to do this, there is no other option. And according to your vision,
it works. You can’t fear something when you know that’s the outcome we want!
You have always trusted me before my friend, and I have never let you down.
Please trust me on this.” Jax was pleading with her friend to understand. To
trust her, even though her vision said she shouldn’t. Jax knew how hard this
must be for her sensitive friend to deal with; however, she didn’t know how
else to ease her mind.

“I really need some time to think
about this Jax. I’ll keep our secret and think about it. We can talk about it
later when you get up. Ok?” Sarex needed more time to think than she knew she
had, but she had to get away right now. She needed to get away from Jax so the
emotions rolling off of her in waves would stop clouding her own thoughts.

“I understand. Please really
consider this Sarex. It is the only way. I swear on my life it is.” Jax held
her friend's hands tightly as she stood up with her and walked her to the door.

“I know you believe that Jax. I’ll
think about it. Try to get some sleep.” And with that, Sarex walked out of
Jax’s room and back down the hallway to her own room, even though she knew she
wouldn’t be getting anymore sleep.

Jax stood in the doorway and
watched Sarex enter her own room and silently close the door behind her before
she did the same. Walking to her bed, she laid down and spread out her body,
trying to relax, even a little. She wasn’t the least bit surprised when Gibly
jumped up and lay beside her.

“Do you think that she’ll tell Banatar?”
Jax asked while she absently stroked Gibly’s soft fur.

“I do not think so. We will have to
wait and see.” Gibly had rolled over onto his back, so she could pet his belly
and almost purred his response to her, before standing back up again.

“I must go. He needs me. He having
another nightmare.” Gibly had walked to the door and waited for Jax to open it
for him.

“Are you sure he’s going to be
alright for this Gibly?” Jax asked again; she couldn’t remember how many times
she’d asked him the same thing. However, it was the one part of her plan she
was the least sure about. Not the plan itself, the person who was supposed to
take care of that part was what bothered her.

“He is perfect. You will see.”
Gibly replied before walking down the hall in the same direction Sarex had
gone. Shutting her door and laying back on her bed, Jax went over the plan in
her head again.

*****

“Good morning Amalaya.” Amun
whispered in Jess’s ear as, he nuzzled her neck with worry. She didn't sleep
much again; tossing and turning all night and that was after spending hours
just staring silently at the wall in the dark.

He knew something was wrong but
every time he asked her she would insist that everything was fine. He couldn’t
help but worry that maybe they had planned the mating ceremony too soon; that
she needed more time to heal before she was ready for such a serious
commitment.

“Mmmmm… good morning my love.” Jess
smiled as she snuggled her back closer to Amun’s chest and tried not to think
about what she needed to do today. She just wanted a few moments with him where
she didn’t have to think about the day of the mating ceremony. It was starting
to seem like the weight of all the secrets and lies were going to crush her… or
Amun’s love for her.

Amun knew immediately when her mind
turned from their embrace to her own troubled thoughts. She stiffened
imperceptibly in his arms, and her beautiful eyes clouded as if she was in
pain.

“Jess, will you please trust me
enough to tell me what is bothering you? Do you wish to wait before we are
joined together?” Amun sat up and gently rolled her, over so he could look into
her eyes when she answered him.