LEO
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22/01/2003
Panay, The Philippines
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"So, did she accept the apology?" Jed questions in between press-ups.

"I think so, surprisingly. I wasn't expecting her to. It's Nova, after all." I chuckle slightly, pushing myself up off the ground for another press-up.

"How the fuck did you get her to forgive you for that? I mean, if I was her, I'd be pissed off for days." Jed grins over at me, taking a break from the workout and swivelling his body into a seated position on the grass.

"Oh, I think she's definitely still pissed off. She might have forgiven me, but she won't let it go easily," I sigh, "I can't even blame her."

Jed nods in agreement, knowing fully well that I'm right. Nova remembers absolutely everything, she won't forget about this anytime soon.

"So, you think there's a traitor in our group?" Jed speaks quietly, raising an eyebrow and causing me to shoot him a warning glare.

"Careful with how loud you talk, North doesn't want everyone to know. Otherwise, they might just up and leave if they get word we're trying to weed them out," I mumble, shaking my head in frustration before glancing back at him, "but yeah, I do think there's someone here feeding information out to Altashih."

He gazes up at the sky as he thinks for a second, as though he's mentally trying to flick through every person in our group, figuring out who seems capable of this. After a minute, he groans dramatically.

"I can't think of anyone who stands out like that, who seems like they have this capable dark side of betrayal deep down."

He's right. There is absolutely nobody who fucking stands out. Who's acted off or slipped up at all, who hasn't engaged in our efforts. It feels as though we're stuck at a completely dead end, nothing more we can do.

"North and the other two Commander's are working out a plan to try and weed them out. They haven't told anybody what it is yet, but with all three of them on board; surely it will do the trick." I speak with a little more reassurance laced in my voice.

I don't actually know why I'm trying to reassure. Jed, or myself.

Jed doesn't reply, just nods slightly as he goes to lay back on the grass, but then sits back up quickly.

"Hey, who's Nova talking to?" He says quietly, earning a simple shrug of my shoulders.

"I don't know, Abe probably. The terrorist."

"Tara's in with Abe at the minute, and that certainly doesn't look like Abe." Jed mumbles, gesturing with his head to someplace behind my back. I slowly swivel my head around and follow his vision, face morphing into irritation as soon as my eyes lay on the scene.

Dylan fucking Holmes.

The preened, charismatic bastard from the Eagle Group runs a hand through his black hair as he looks down at her. He's so obviously flexing his biceps, it's embarrassing. Whatever they're talking about must be really fucking funny, since Dylan's tall frame is practically doubled over.

The fuck are they laughing about?

"Leo? Hello?"

Jed's voice snaps me out of my trance; shaking my head a few times before I look back over at him.

"That's Dylan Holmes. He's a prick." I mumble, glancing back at the pair of them in my peripheral.

"You think everyone's a prick, Leo." Jed chuckles.

"No, but I'm being completely serious. He is a prick. He's caused so much trouble in the Eagles that Kingston has had to give him suspensions. I came to blows with him once." I shrug  nonchalantly as Jed raises his eyebrows.

"When? Over what?"

"A while ago now. The Eagles had just gotten a new recruit, he was young and didn't seem as confident as the rest of us. He got brought in on a combined mission; when we were doing the planning, Dylan was just being a fucking asshole to him. It was as though because he was young he thought he could treat him like shit. So, I stood up for the kid." I sigh, Jed grins slightly.

"Did you win?" He snickers, earning an amused expression from me.

"Don't ask such stupid questions. Of course I did." I smirk as Jed pats me on the shoulder, both of our gazes returning back into the direction of the asshole and Nova.

He is now stood all up in her personal space as they chat. My best guess is that Nova hasn't figured out he's a prick, otherwise she probably would have beat him into the ground by now.

"Look at the way he's looking at her, like she's some sort of prey." I mutter under my breath, although I think Jed hears me anyway based off of his laugh.

"You act as though Nova can't hold her own. One wrong move from that guy and she'd beat him into the ground, pretty much like she almost did with you. Although, you can't blame people for wanting to speak with her." He shrugs, playing with a random blade of grass.

"What do you mean by that?" I raise my eyebrows, glancing over at him momentarily.

"I mean, as much as it might pain you to admit, she is attractive. She's smart, maybe a little too smart. Courageous, strong willed. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel anything for her; it's just an observation. It's understandable that people want to be around her." He explains hesitantly, shrugging once again.

I suppose I've never thought about it like that. What frustrates me the most is that I guess he isn't wrong about any of those things. Obviously Nova's fucking attractive, a blind man could see that. All rich dark hair, tanned skin, green eyes above her sloped nose that's all lined with freckles.

"I don't know," I mumble, trying to stop my jaw clenching any tighter from having to watch Holmes get all up in her personal space.

Why is this pissing me off so fucking much? It's probably just because it's Holmes, because I can't stand him. That's got to be it.

Right?

I'm subconsciously up on my feet as soon as I see one of his grimy fucking hands reach up and towards her face, clearly going to examine her nose. My legs are marching themselves, leaving Jed behind entirely as I reach their side; clearing my throat as they both glimpse over at my presence.

"Nova, I need to talk with you. Now." I speak affirmatively, resting one of my hands around her arm.

It's a complete lie, I don't have to speak with her about anything. Just as she opens her confused mouth to reply, a deep male voice interrupts her.

"What 'ya did to her nose, now that's no way to treat a lady, is it bud?" He says mockingly. This bastard knows he can provoke me. My jaw clenches as I shoot him a furious side glare.

"It's none of your fucking business what happened." I seethe, voice ice cold. Even Nova seems a little pissed off at his comment, probably because she doesn't consider herself as some sort of damsel.

"Well, I doubt talking with her alone would do any damn favours; say, Nova? Be careful around him, or 'ya might end up with a black eye next ti-"

Before he even gets another word out of that stupid fucking mouth, I let go of Nova's arm and push myself in between them, shoving my forehead down against Dylan's warningly.

Right now, I'm so fucking glad I'm 6'5. This prick looks like a midget. 

"Finish that sentence, and I'll knock your fucking teeth out." I growl. To my surprise, and relief that I don't have to get physical, he does back down; taking a few steps away from us.

"'Ya need to learn to control that damn anger," he quips over his shoulder as he strides away. I grab Nova by her arm and lead her to the side of one of the buildings before she can protest.

"And what was that little performance about?" She actually laughs, folding her arms, seemingly amused by the whole situation.

"He's a bad guy," I mumble, causing her to raise her eyebrows.

"I mean, at least he didn't bash my nose in." She bites her lips together slightly, as though trying to suppress a grin between her plump lips.

"Nova, you already know I'm so sor-"

"Relax, I'm just joking around with you. What's the deal with him, anyway?"

Nova? Joking around? Am I hallucinating? Did my scuffle with her actually result in a fucking personality change?

I'm snapped out of my thoughts by her impatient glare. I take a deep breath and heave it out dramatically, "I've had some issues with him in the past. He's just not a good guy. He's manipulative." I mumble, glancing away and off into nowhere in particular.

"So practically the same situation as us, then? We had issues in the past. In fact, we had an issue yesterday." She shrugs nonchalantly.

I shake my head, "no, this is different. You've surprisingly got a good side to you, I'm telling you he's bad through and through."

"And you seriously think I couldn't have figured that out on my own?" She raises her eyebrows, both of them twitching slightly in irritation.

How dare I. I forgot I'm not allowed to underestimate her.

All I do is shrug. "He looked like he was going to, well- oh Jesus Christ. Come on, Nova. You and I both know what he was trying to do."

"And that can concerns you how?" A corner of her lips curve upwards.

It shouldn't concern me one bit, since it's absolutely none of my business. But, it feels as though it's my business.

I can't understand why, and I can't even get my words out because it sounds so fucking ridiculous.

"Nothing, doesn't matter," I shrug, still gazing my eyes at anywhere that's not in her direction. That's one of the many things that has always pissed me off about Nova. No matter the situation, she never seems to have trouble holding eye contact.

She leans forward slightly, her voice lowering in tone. "I didn't know you were the jealous type, Hendrix," she flat out grins.

Jealous?

"Jealous? You're honestly fucking ridiculous," I sneer. But is she really so ridiculous? Why else did I want to physically remove Holmes' hands?

The thought of him getting close enough to lay a hand on her makes me want to tear him up. But that's probably just because it's Holmes. Or maybe it's actually because it's Nova, and since I sat her on the washbasin with guilt overcoming me yesterday, I saw a different side to her.

"Call me ridiculous all you want, you're the one acting like this." She rolls her shoulders.

As much as it kills me to admit that she's right, I now think that she actually is. Seeing Dylan get all up and close to her did have something simmering inside of me.

I can't reply, I can't even forge the words. I simply scoff, turning on my heels and striding away from her.

What the fuck has gotten into me?

—

"He still hasn't said a fucking word." Tara groans, resting her head dramatically on the table next to her bowl of soup, resembling a character from a soap opera.

"I think Nova would be the first to get anything out of him; she's the one who's been in there practically all week, after all." Jed shrugs, quickly diverting his gaze and taking a huge chug of water, almost as though he's been stranded in the fucking Sahara.

"Is she in there now?" Lisa asks, raising her eyebrows to which Tara nods, "has she even had any food?"

Nobody replies apart from a few mere shrugs. Lisa stands up slowly, "I'll take some food to her, just in case she hasn't eaten anything."

Before she's even fully off the bench, I'm volunteering myself for some fucking reason.

"No, Lis. You haven't even finished your own food. I said I'd swap with her for the night anyway, plus I'm all finished. I'll take it to her." I say in reassuring tone, resting my hand on her shoulder. Lisa goes to say something but clamps her mouth shut, nodding instead.

With that, I slide myself off of the bench; swipe up the nearest tin of soup and stride out of the mess hall, and I know a few confused gazes are following behind me.

The sky is littered with stars; dotted here there and everywhere, so bright that they look within reach.

I don't have a mind for finding many things beautiful, but the sky is one of the few things that I do. Green eyes flash across my vision, I shake my head and ignore it.

I could just stand, wedged in this exact place and get lost in the sky for hours. Tracing the intricate patterns of constellations, the serenity a stark contrast to the operation we're on.

The stars can see where the hostages are being held, they're entirely omniscient. We really are just flecks of dust scattered around their playground.

—

"Come on, Jac, take a strike!" I yell encouragingly to him, guarding the goal in the backyard of our family home.

I can only see him from the light of the stars. He musters up the strength and takes a strike, which I purposely don't save.

"Ah, damn! You scored again, bud. You're getting too good to play against your ol' big brother, here." I fake cry, making him giggle.

His mind seems to travel elsewhere as he points up at the sky.

"What are stars, Leo?"

I follow his arm and shrug, "just big balls of gas."

Jaques shakes his head, "no. Mommy said that they're our loved ones who've passed away. That they're watching over us," he insists, his big brown eyes; that bare an uncanny resemblance to my own, beaming at me.

I'm not one to deny my brother of any beliefs, so I pick up the soccer ball and kneel down beside him.

"Actually bud, I think Mom is right. They're all watching down and thinking what a good soccer player you're going to be when you're older." I grin, standing up and scruffing his head of dark hair. He nods enthusiastically at this idea.

"Right, well to be one of the best soccer players when you grow up, you have to train now so you're already way ahead of the others! Come on, take another strike Jac."

—

If what he said all them years ago is true, then that means he's watching over me right now. If I ever get the chance to see a shooting star, I'm going to think that it's Jaques kicking his soccer ball around in the sky.

I'm so lost in my thoughts that I completely forgot I've got a job to do. Subconsciously wiping the tears filling in the corners of my eyes, I head over to building 'C'. I pace straight down the corridor and knock on the door.

"Nova?"

Before I've barely even finished saying her name, the door swings open and reveals a hopeful expression on her face.

"He's spoken."