Deep Within, Chapter 6
Title: Uncertainty Stinging Clear
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,193
Pairings: eventual Cougar/Jensen
Fandom: The Losers
Series Name: Shades: Deep Waters on AO3 or find it here on LJ
A/N:Thank cougars_catnip for a wonderful beta job again. :)
A/N 2: Sorry about the wait I've been bogged down with work.
They're back at Fort Bragg and both Cougar and Jensen are acting normal and not.
It's driving the rest of them crazy.
When Clay corners Cougar and tells him to knock off the odd avoiding/not avoiding dance he and Jensen are doing, it's confusing and irritating and really he doesn't need the headache, Cougar just blinks at him like the innocent feline he is.
The heart of the matter is that they really aren't avoiding each other. They're not. They just don't interact even if they're in the same room. Jensen doesn't speak to Cougar, Cougar doesn't look meaningfully at Jensen, but they're still definitely in each other's orbits.
Pooch compared them to the two ships at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 while he was trying to explain the whole situation to Jolene over the phone-the woman just laughed at him and started giggling about their 'masts' touching, causing Pooch to groan and despair that she was his wife. Roque, the fucker, was sitting right next to him and chuckled at his dismay.
As it was, none of them need have worried because as soon as they got word of their liberty-three whole weeks, Clay figured it was the higher-ups being nice because of the shitty intel they had given them or they wanted to get rid of his team and their antics for at least a little while, especially after the small scuffle Jensen and Roque got into with some cocky Cherries who thought they were the best on post-Jensen disappeared. Cougar was tense for a few days after, the two of them may not have been communicating but hell if he wanted to kid to disappear especially when he was just getting ready to bite the bullet and corner the kid about their unique abilities. That was when they got a phone call, a rather gravely female voice coming out and ordering Clay to get himself and his men up to New Hampshire, or there would be hell to pay, damnit. It didn't take much of the woman's rather . . . disturbing threats and impressive imagery for Clay to realize that this must be Caitlin Jensen.
He couldn't help the sigh he let out after hanging up the phone and ushering the others to grab their bug-out bags and get moving. Glancing at Pooch and muttering at him to call Jolene and ask if she wanted to come, he grabbed the keys and watched as Cougar tensed up slightly, his excitement barely discernible with the poker face he was wearing. Pooch drove and Clay had to navigate because while Cougar could track targets and maneuver his way through various terrains on foot the man was shit at navigating roads and Roque got road rage even when he wasn't driving if he was paying attention to where they were going and the people around them. Navigating the winding forest road towards the house was troublesome because of the twists and all the small side roads leading to other properties but Clay had to admit it was rather beautiful, in its own way.
The modest dwelling the older Jensen sibling and her daughter lived in was larger than Clay honestly thought it would be when they finally broke through the trees shortly after sunset had begun. The older two story Arts and Crafts bungalow was made of dark stones and the parts that weren't were painted grey, its windows glowing in the twilight that had settled. Clay couldn't help the grimace that crossed his face when he noticed the note on the front door, already thinking he had to teach the woman about security and wondering why her brother hadn't taught her already, considering he was paranoid enough. They walked into the house as the note instructed to and were immediately surprised to hear a female voice shouting in another room.
"Damnit Jacob, now look what the two of you have done! Your team is supposed to be here soon, the two of you aren't even trying to hide, and you've torn up the damn sofa! Do you know how long it took me to reupholster it last time? And that was almost four years ago!" They could hear a little girl giggle as they sat down their bags and looked at each other, curious to see what their manic teammate had done. Jolene couldn't help but hide a grin behind her hand as she listened to the woman she'd met once or twice after Jensen had joined the team.
"But Lin-," Jensen didn't get to finish his statement as his sister interrupted him, "No, no buts, your teammates and Jo are here. Go find the damn sofa cover and put it on while I go apologize to them. And Beth you best help him clean this mess up as well, you know better than he does and I expected better of you. Christ."
The woman that walked into the formal living room that was connected to the entryway surprised Clay; she was rather petite compared to her brother's bulk, he had been expecting her to at least be as tall or almost as tall as Jensen but she was short with hair darker than Jensen's sandy blond and eyes so blue they almost glowed. She wasn't exactly slim but he could tell she was in good shape, her movements fluid and her eyes sharp as she took them in, a hand resting on a cocked hip. Her clothes surprised him, he figured they'd be as animated as her brother's but instead she was just in a plain dark purple button down with a grey shirt beneath it and dark jeans. It was so mundane and simple he had to wonder whether the woman in front of him was really the one who had sent Jensen the tee with the crazy bear on it.
"So you're the Knife Maniac, the Gear Head, the chain smokin' Psycho Magnet, and the Cat in the Hat, huh? Funny, I expected ya'll to be more impressive. Heya Jo-Jo," Jolene couldn't help it as she burst into a fit of laughter and walked over to the blond and tugged her out of the room, leaving the men standing there stupefied.
It was Roque who broke the silence, "All the women in our live are twisted somehow, aren't they? Is it us, because I'm beginning to notice a pattern here, Clay. We just seem to attract the crazies or we're related to them." Pooch just snorted and moved to follow his wife, calling behind him, "Don't complain, Roque, they have to be at least a little crazy in order to put up with just one of us. Hell, they put us all on the same team because we're crazy, didn't they?"
Cougar didn't react and began to slink across the room, heading in the direction of a little girl's giggling and Jensen's complaints about evil conniving sisters, leaving his commanding officers to flounder by themselves in the formal living room before they, too, moved in the direction sounds of the two older females talking and mocking Pooch in the kitchen.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,193
Pairings: eventual Cougar/Jensen
Fandom: The Losers
Series Name: Shades: Deep Waters on AO3 or find it here on LJ
A/N:Thank cougars_catnip for a wonderful beta job again. :)
A/N 2: Sorry about the wait I've been bogged down with work.
They're back at Fort Bragg and both Cougar and Jensen are acting normal and not.
It's driving the rest of them crazy.
When Clay corners Cougar and tells him to knock off the odd avoiding/not avoiding dance he and Jensen are doing, it's confusing and irritating and really he doesn't need the headache, Cougar just blinks at him like the innocent feline he is.
The heart of the matter is that they really aren't avoiding each other. They're not. They just don't interact even if they're in the same room. Jensen doesn't speak to Cougar, Cougar doesn't look meaningfully at Jensen, but they're still definitely in each other's orbits.
Pooch compared them to the two ships at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 while he was trying to explain the whole situation to Jolene over the phone-the woman just laughed at him and started giggling about their 'masts' touching, causing Pooch to groan and despair that she was his wife. Roque, the fucker, was sitting right next to him and chuckled at his dismay.
As it was, none of them need have worried because as soon as they got word of their liberty-three whole weeks, Clay figured it was the higher-ups being nice because of the shitty intel they had given them or they wanted to get rid of his team and their antics for at least a little while, especially after the small scuffle Jensen and Roque got into with some cocky Cherries who thought they were the best on post-Jensen disappeared. Cougar was tense for a few days after, the two of them may not have been communicating but hell if he wanted to kid to disappear especially when he was just getting ready to bite the bullet and corner the kid about their unique abilities. That was when they got a phone call, a rather gravely female voice coming out and ordering Clay to get himself and his men up to New Hampshire, or there would be hell to pay, damnit. It didn't take much of the woman's rather . . . disturbing threats and impressive imagery for Clay to realize that this must be Caitlin Jensen.
He couldn't help the sigh he let out after hanging up the phone and ushering the others to grab their bug-out bags and get moving. Glancing at Pooch and muttering at him to call Jolene and ask if she wanted to come, he grabbed the keys and watched as Cougar tensed up slightly, his excitement barely discernible with the poker face he was wearing. Pooch drove and Clay had to navigate because while Cougar could track targets and maneuver his way through various terrains on foot the man was shit at navigating roads and Roque got road rage even when he wasn't driving if he was paying attention to where they were going and the people around them. Navigating the winding forest road towards the house was troublesome because of the twists and all the small side roads leading to other properties but Clay had to admit it was rather beautiful, in its own way.
The modest dwelling the older Jensen sibling and her daughter lived in was larger than Clay honestly thought it would be when they finally broke through the trees shortly after sunset had begun. The older two story Arts and Crafts bungalow was made of dark stones and the parts that weren't were painted grey, its windows glowing in the twilight that had settled. Clay couldn't help the grimace that crossed his face when he noticed the note on the front door, already thinking he had to teach the woman about security and wondering why her brother hadn't taught her already, considering he was paranoid enough. They walked into the house as the note instructed to and were immediately surprised to hear a female voice shouting in another room.
"Damnit Jacob, now look what the two of you have done! Your team is supposed to be here soon, the two of you aren't even trying to hide, and you've torn up the damn sofa! Do you know how long it took me to reupholster it last time? And that was almost four years ago!" They could hear a little girl giggle as they sat down their bags and looked at each other, curious to see what their manic teammate had done. Jolene couldn't help but hide a grin behind her hand as she listened to the woman she'd met once or twice after Jensen had joined the team.
"But Lin-," Jensen didn't get to finish his statement as his sister interrupted him, "No, no buts, your teammates and Jo are here. Go find the damn sofa cover and put it on while I go apologize to them. And Beth you best help him clean this mess up as well, you know better than he does and I expected better of you. Christ."
The woman that walked into the formal living room that was connected to the entryway surprised Clay; she was rather petite compared to her brother's bulk, he had been expecting her to at least be as tall or almost as tall as Jensen but she was short with hair darker than Jensen's sandy blond and eyes so blue they almost glowed. She wasn't exactly slim but he could tell she was in good shape, her movements fluid and her eyes sharp as she took them in, a hand resting on a cocked hip. Her clothes surprised him, he figured they'd be as animated as her brother's but instead she was just in a plain dark purple button down with a grey shirt beneath it and dark jeans. It was so mundane and simple he had to wonder whether the woman in front of him was really the one who had sent Jensen the tee with the crazy bear on it.
"So you're the Knife Maniac, the Gear Head, the chain smokin' Psycho Magnet, and the Cat in the Hat, huh? Funny, I expected ya'll to be more impressive. Heya Jo-Jo," Jolene couldn't help it as she burst into a fit of laughter and walked over to the blond and tugged her out of the room, leaving the men standing there stupefied.
It was Roque who broke the silence, "All the women in our live are twisted somehow, aren't they? Is it us, because I'm beginning to notice a pattern here, Clay. We just seem to attract the crazies or we're related to them." Pooch just snorted and moved to follow his wife, calling behind him, "Don't complain, Roque, they have to be at least a little crazy in order to put up with just one of us. Hell, they put us all on the same team because we're crazy, didn't they?"
Cougar didn't react and began to slink across the room, heading in the direction of a little girl's giggling and Jensen's complaints about evil conniving sisters, leaving his commanding officers to flounder by themselves in the formal living room before they, too, moved in the direction sounds of the two older females talking and mocking Pooch in the kitchen.