the desert rose in bloom (locked to spikyflyboy)

[notouchpolicy]

It came about as she was in the middle of training with Wade. Emma wanted to see Haylie in her office, and when she got there, Worth was waiting. An hour later, they were on a plane to Nevada on some hush hush recovery mission with orders to limit the body count, not get caught, and bring back some special plane

Comments

[spikyflyboy]

Since he'd been called in on a brief with Miss Frost, the plans and details she had for the covert ops air craft laid out while she questioned if he could fly it [it was a glorified Learjet, truth be told, and those were like riding a bike after you got into a Raptor] before calling in his team mate for this assignment. A friendly face was appreciated in the regard

[notouchpolicy]

Haylie couldn't help the laugh that escaped her at the snarky rock comment, shaking her head as she shifted her pack on her shoulder and started off in the direction they were apparently supposed to be going.

"I think we'll be lucky if y'don't die from heat exhaustion before we even reach the place." She replied dryly, although she was truly concerned about Jane's welfare on this mission. "Make sure y'keep drinkin' water." Of which there were half a dozen bottles in her bag.

[spikyflyboy]

"Don't worry," Jane smirked, pushing his own glasses up his nose, ignoring the sand in his hair, "I'm made of tougher stuff." He was fairly lucky that his assignments in the desert never really lasted long, and when it came to Iraq he'd mostly been out of the country or in the air.

Packing his GPS into one of the pockets in his tact vest, gun holstered on his hip. "Should we indulge in 'My little eye' until we get there?" Jane wasn't used to two people teams, he usually ran with a group of six for ground assaults. But then again, two man would probably prove easier for a covert op.

[notouchpolicy]

"Good t'know. Last mission I was on, Pyro and I got shot by Hendley. Why they thought sendin' the mutant hunter with a history of homicidal tendencies on a recovery mission with the kid he's been tryin' to kill since before I got here is beyond me." Sneering at the memory of it, she shakes her head and scoffs in disgust just thinking about it. "I'll be happy if we get through this without you gettin' shot." Because if Jane got shot on the mission, Haylie was going to start to think that she was cursed.

Walking alongside Jane, she shot a look of disapproval his way and resisted the urge to pinch her nose. "Dude, if you start playin' I-Spy out here, I'm gonna seriously consider lettin' you dehydrate out here."

[spikyflyboy]

He was seriously considering putting himself on the inactive list forever. "Okay, so I'm really going to have to see about getting a veto for missions." Jane had met Jack, briefly sure, but the guy hadn't held back on what he thought or what he did. "I tend to dodge. I'm fairly good and not getting shot."

And hopefully this would be one of those missions where, after the hike across the desert and the infiltration of a secret compound, they could go home and no one would be visiting medical. It would be appreciated, greatly.

"Not a fan of spot the obvious games? I'm shit at twenty questions." And they had approximately three and half minutes of hike time to kill if Jane calculated the distance and pace correctly.

[notouchpolicy]

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Until he grazed me with a lucky shot. As much as I hate the man, I have to admit he's a damn good shot." Scrunching her nose, she pushed her sunglasses up her nose more.

"How about y'just tell me about yourself?" She offered with a shrug, glancing around them as they walked. Haylie kept in step with Jane without a problem, sticking close enough that her hand occasionally brushed against Jane's, her skin emitting an abnormal amount of heat each time.

[spikyflyboy]

"You are most definitely going to have to narrow that down." The proximity wasn't an issue; Jane was used to being herded in formation, so having someone at your back almost literally meant having them at your back. "I can't just word vomit about myself or you'll have something like my grades for freshman year. They weren't that great by the way."

For all that Jane was comfortable talking about things, personal stuff didn't usually come up. He could chat aimlessly without problem, but too many things that were personal just got a little iffy. Being one of almost a thousand people on an aircraft carrier might look cosy, but in reality, most of them barely knew each other.

[notouchpolicy]

Haylie happened to laugh at Jane's comment about his grades freshman year. It was such a random thing to throw out there, in his oddly charming sort of nonchalance. "How about where you're from, if you have family, and how the hell you ended up in the Air Force."

[spikyflyboy]

"Um, born in Michigan, lived in Indiana, near my grandparents. I have two brothers and a half-sister, and I joined the Air Force because I always wanted to be in the air. Anyone who doesn't want to fly is simply insane."

Fact of the matter was, Jane couldn't think of anything other than being like his Grandfather, without his Dad around, his Grandpa became his hero and emulating him was all Jane really wanted to do. "How about you? You are clearly from New York, you can't even pretend not to be, family?"

They probably had a good fifteen minutes before they really needed to get their head in the game, and Jane had always been a pretty decent multitasker.

[notouchpolicy]

Suppressing the urge to ask about his parents, Haylie simply nodded and smiled at the bit about loving to fly. However, it was his mention of her being from New York that made her glance up at him and quirk her brow.

"Don't tell me that you're hatin' on New York. I don't know if we can be friends otherwise." She taunted with a smirk, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "My dad's a surgeon. Mom's a cop. My baby sister's married and I have a niece."

[spikyflyboy]

"Did I say that? I did not say that. I love the Big Apple, they have wonderful pie." He almost moved to New York, truth be told. Between the point of his powers activating and finding out if they'd actually keep him in the force or he'd be discharged, he'd contemplated what he'd do. "My little sister lives there now. For school, but she's pretty fond of New York."

Detaching his canister of water, Jane took a sip before capping it and replacing it on his hip. "Spent most of my time on air craft carriers though."

[notouchpolicy]

"Ooh, nice save." She winked, nudging him playfully and running a hand over her ponytail briefly. "Where's she studyin'? I went to NYU."

Haylie seemed pleased to see Jane drinking some water as they walked along; the heat and the sun seeming to beat down harder with every few steps. Not that she minded, really. It was almost refreshing, like it was charging her energy and making it thrum through her body. But the proper explanation was nerves, and the fact that it'd been a while since she discharged that pesky build-up. (She was mostly saving that for Daken, anyway.)

[spikyflyboy]

"She's at NYU, she's at the Fine Arts Institute? I think. Pretty sure she's doing a Master in Arts." With Lou, it was hard to tell where she was that week. But she'd done the photography thing, all the while painting Jane's apartment walls with God knew what before he pretty much told her to go to University.

"You see them much? The family?"

Jane was fairly certain he'd return to Washington with sunburn, but that wasn't anything new. Iraq and 'Stan usually left the soldiers with red faces and peeling noses anyway, and a little sunburn never killed anyone.

Damn you, LJ notifs. [shakes fist]

[notouchpolicy]

"NYU's a good school. I loved it." She nodded slowly, reminiscing for just a minute about her college days before he mentioned her family and that's when she immediately tensed.

"No. It's been seven months since I saw my grandparents, a year since the rest of my family. I don't get that luxury." The reply was terse, trying to hide any inflection of pain in her tone as she looked around for signs of the place they needed to be raiding.

Why do they suck so bad?

[spikyflyboy]

"Yeah, she likes it." Which was good, because the kid needed a direction. He was instantly aware enough to stop asking about family. He understood the not seeing people thing; he hadn't seen his mother in over a year, his grandparents around the same time, and while his siblings took the time to visit where he was stationed if they could, it wasn't ideal. But then, he was military, he knew what he'd signed up for. He got the feeling she didn't.

Coming to the top of the ridge they'd been walking along, leaning on some of the hard rocks, Jane took a look over the valley they'd come to. "So, as far as top secret compounds go, that," which was a large, grey bunker building in the middle of the desert with several hangers and off-shoot buildings attached, "that is not very well hidden."

BECAUSE THEY SEE US ROLLIN', THEY HATIN'.

[notouchpolicy]

"That's good. My sister went too." She nodded, thankful that he didn't ask about her family any more because really, she wasn't exactly in the mood to talk about how she couldn't see her family due to the fact that she was stuck on a fucking military base -- against her will, mind you -- in Washington.

Leaning against the ridge, she peered over the rim of her sunglasses at the base and gave a snort. "Why don't they just start shootin' fireworks off t'tell us they're here?"