JADA, ADRIAN, AND SMITH HAD STORMED INTO THE HQ AFTER THEY HAD FINALLY ARRIVED. "Hey! You have a diary?" Harcourt questioned Smith immediately.

"No," he answered.

"They found one in your trailer," Murn told him.

"Bullshit. I got a notepad, but I barely ever use it. But fuck that, we got a bit of an issue," Smith said quickly.

"We know. You're a wanted man," Murn said.

"Not that. Goff got out," Smith revealed.

"Goff?" Harcourt said slowly in shock.

"Yeah, we kept Goff," Adrian confirmed.

"Like a bunch of idiots," Jada added quietly under her breath, shaking her head.

"You kept Goff?" Murn questioned loudly.

"Because Peacemaker has masculinity issues. It's like a knuckle-dick's tiger," Adrian explained casually, making Jada sigh and roll her eyes.

"I didn't trust you guys! And I kept him because I wanted answers. And I knew he wasn't gonna get out," Smith told them.

"But then he got out and took over an Oriental woman," Adrian stated further.

"Asian," Smith corrected.

"I'm pretty sure she was Oriental," Adrian argued softly, making Jada sigh in disbelief at his ignorance.

"You're not supposed to say Oriental anymore, just Asian," Smith explained.

"Why?"

"Nobody knows why, it's just bad!"

"They do know why, asshat. Oriental insinuates 'other', so some people consider it derogatory," Harcourt clarified.

"It's kinda like I need a fucking snowflake scorecard, but fine!" Smith responded.

"Oh, the agony the straight, white dude goes through, imprisoned in a world where they suffer the unspeakable horror of occasionally having to substitute one word for another," Adebayo dramatically spelled out, pretending like it was the end of the world.

"For real," Jada agreed, rolling her eyes at Smith.

"I said fine!" Smith exclaimed. "And you know what? Maybe I find 'asshat' derogatory."

Murn stomped his foot down on the floor, "Can you stop?"

"Now, the Asian cop is Goff," Smith continued, getting back on topic.

"Insofar as how much he likes teal, though, we're clueless," Adrian shrugged, shaking his head.

"No one gives a fuck if he likes teal," Jada told him, giving him a frustrated look.

"I do! And you said you liked teal!" Adrian said, his eyebrows raising.

"Well, I changed my mind!" she shouted, holding her hands out. All of them looked at Adrian and Jada, not knowing where their arguing came from since they seemed to get along just fine the other day. Jada realized that they were all staring so she cleared her throat, "Sorry."

"God damn it, Peacemaker," Murn said darkly.

"Dude, don't you talk to me after you sent Pennywise-the-fucking-Clown out to help us," Smith said as he made his way over to Murn.

"Locke?"

"That psychopath murdered three cops and one was unconscious when he did it!" Smith yelled, making Murn's face fall even more than it already had.

"Hey, I, uh, found something," Economos spoke up as he looked at his computer. "I think I know where the raw amber fluid is coming from."

"You do?" Jada asked, coming over to see Economos's computer screen.

"Yeah," he said, typing on his computer to pull up what he wanted to show to them all. "This is the truck that Adebayo found visiting every three days."

"Right."

"I was able to access all the security camera footage and highest can footage in the area. And by stepping backwards, find out the route of the truck. It's consistent. Same truck, same path, every few days. And I was able to follow it back all the way to the start," he explained, showing a big ranch where the truck had pulled up to. "It's listed as Coverdale Ranch."

"A ranch?" Murn repeated.

"I'm guessing this barn is where all the amber fluid is coming from," Economos guessed.

"That barn is not big enough to produce enough to fill those vats every day," Harcourt pointed out.

"Butterflies burrow. You saw it below the Goff residence," Murn said, making Jada look over at him. He had never told her himself that he was a butterfly, but she was starting to realize how much he knew about them and how she missed that before.

"And at Glan Tai, where I kicked that gorilla's ass and saved all your lives," Economos added casually.

"You are really stretching out your fifteen minutes," Harcourt told him.

"The source is underground. We destroy their food source, we destroy the butterflies," Murn stated.

"What? How do we know that?" Smith questioned, but no one answered. "What the fuck is going on? There's something weird going on, and you think me and Vigilante are too stupid to notice!"

"Hey, everyone, look!" Adrian called out, making everyone look over at him sitting next to Eagly. "Which one's me and which one's Eagly?" he asked with a stupid expression on his face as he held his arms out like wings. Jada scoffed, shaking her head incredulously.

"Okay, you're half-right. But you score fifty percent on a test at school, what do you get? A 'D'."

"An 'F'," everyone else said at the same time.

"'F'. All right...School wasn't my bag. It's for dorks," he scoffed.

"We have reason to believe that the butterflies have a cow," Adebayo started to say. Jada had remembered that Murn had mentioned a cow to her once before, but never again after that.

"A cow?" Smith repeated in puzzlement.

"A large animal that they milk for amber goo, and there's only one on the planet. And without it, they'll die," Adebayo continued.

"When were you gonna give me that bit of information?" Smith questioned loudly, but no one answered again. "What is going on? Oh, and I'm the asshole here for actually believing we're a fucking team!"

"Everyone, get done what you need to get done. We leave at the break of dawn for Coverdale Ranch to kill the cow," Murn quickly said before he walked into his office. Smith stared at Adebayo with an angry expression before she walked away from him, not meeting his eyes.

Jada immediately walked out of the HQ, going over to her car...which she realized was still parked at Fennel Fields. "Fuck," she whispered in frustration, now having to call an Uber.

"Hey, Jada!" Adrian called out behind, making her close her eyes in annoyance. "Hey! Wanna go get drinks again before the mission tomorrow?" he asked eagerly.

She opened her eyes, not believing what she was hearing. "Are you serious?" she questioned quietly as she spun around to meet his gaze. It was like they hadn't just got into a big argument only minutes ago.

"Yeah!"

She scoffed, her mouth open in shock. "You're not fucking with me after what just happened before?"

"What? Oh, the argument? Nah, I'm over that! It was stupid shit," he told her, waving his hand. She scoffed again, poking the side of her cheek. "Wait, are you still on that?"

"Yeah, because it just fucking happened!" she said, her nose flaring angrily.

"Well it was stupid, you should be over it," Adrian explained, shaking his head like it was no big deal.

"Oh, like how you got over the fact that I didn't care that we made out?" she challenged, tilting her head to the side.

"Okay, yeah, fine, it took me a sec to get over it but now I'm over it! And besides, we can recreate it tonight where we aren't as drunk so you remember it this time," Adrian suggested with an excited smile.

"You have some fucking nerve saying that to me right now," she seethed, taking a threatening step forward.

Adrian's smiled faltered. "What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? You justified killing innocent human beings and you said my trust issues are stupid even though you know why I would be upset over it," she spat, a hurt expression on her face. "I have both of these issues because of Rick Flag, okay?He betrayed my trust, but then was also killed by your best friend Peacemaker, who, by the way, is starting to understand why killing innocents is bad, unlike you!"

"Flag wasn't innocent! He cheated on you!" Adrian argued, his eyes wide.

"That doesn't mean he deserved to die!" Jada shouted, holding her hands out.

"Yeah, but I thought you weren't gonna let him control your life!" Adrian brought up from their past conversation.

"Look, Adrian, just because you don't have emotions, doesn't mean that everyone else doesn't," Jada started, going for the jugular. "I'm allowed to still be upset over something. Oh, but no, since I'm a woman, I can't. Nope, I just have to go through it like nothing happened and get over it to tend to everyone else's wounds. Yep, that's my job. Being a mother or a daughter, or a girlfriend. Never being or helping just myself. Or I would be seen as selfish and a bitch. Unlike all you men that could go around killing innocent people without so much as a blink of an eye from anyone else. But if I were to do that...I would get shitted on.

And if I was man, I wouldn't even be having this conversation right now to explain myself because you would have already listened ages ago. But I'm just woman who always has to explain herself, or else everyone else would call me dramatic or not even believe me. People still wouldn't even believe me after the fact. Just like you, who can't believe I'm still on something that only happened just recently. But no, it's been too long already. I have to get over it. How about you get over the fact that I don't want to speak to you?" she finished before she walked past him, bumping into his arm before she walked back inside the HQ.

She stormed past everyone who didn't even know what just gone on, going into the bathroom and sitting on the toilet seat as she began to cry quietly. She hadn't meant for all of that to come barreling out, but it did. And she regretted it, but at the same time she didn't.

She knew that Adrian didn't mean to be an asshole like he was, but she was just so pissed off. And she knew that she was only blowing up at him to get him to stay away from her since she wanted to stop herself from getting attached.

She continued to silently sob on the toilet until Adebayo accidentally walked in on her, not realizing she had been in there. "Oh, my God!" she shouted, going to shut the door before she realized that Jada wasn't actually going to the bathroom. "Shit, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Jada sniffled, not daring to look up at the woman. "I'm — I'm fine, just...just tired," she told her, not in the mood to yell at her to get out.

Adebayo slowly shut the door, looking down at her. "You don't look fine," Adebayo said softly. "What happened?" Jada shook her head, not wanting to tell her. "Come on. I think we can...trust each other now, right?"

Jada closed her eyes, more tears falling as she did so. She then sighed, knowing that Adebayo wasn't going to leave if she hadn't said anything. "I...I did something bad. I, uh, fuck...I kissed Adrian the other night when we were drunk," she revealed to the woman, still not meeting her eyes out of embarrassment.

Adebayo tilted her head. "That's bad? From what I've seen before today...it really seemed like you guys were getting along," she pointed out.

"We were. But...I have this thing where I, uh...I don't like when I get close to people," Jada told her, finally looking up. "After my ex boyfriend cheated on me and then was killed by Smith, I just wanted to stop trusting people completely. So — so when Adrian just came in and — and broke down my walls, I-I felt vulnerable. And I don't like that feeling. I knew I was getting too attached so I pretended not to remember kissing him and I just snapped at him. He was talking about killing i-innocent people and I just got pissed and we — we got into an argument and I-I was really mad. But I knew I was forcing some of that anger as well — to cut him off," Jada explained as her voice cracked.

Adebayo looked down at her, feeling extremely bad that her mother was the reason why Rick was dead in the first place. Obviously, she couldn't reveal that fact, but that just made her feel guilty.

"I'm sorry. I had no idea," Adebayo said, trying to comfort her to the best of her ability.

"How could you have? You don't even know me," Jada responded. "But that's exactly what I wanted anyway," she added in a whisper, wiping her eyes with toilet paper.

"Jada, even though I've only just met you, I can tell that you're a good person," Adebayo started, being completely genuine. "And honestly, you might hate me for saying this, but I feel like you and Smith have been going through almost the same type of thing."

"What?" Jada asked slowly, giving the woman a confused look.

"You both act mean so you can push people away. You would rather not have any friends so you could never disappoint anyone or feel hurt if they disappointed you," Adebayo explained, and Jada swallowed hard. "But I can see that you both are starting to change! Really, I do! And honestly...I trust you guys...even if you don't trust me."

Jada stared at her, digesting her words. She was right. She had read her perfectly. Jada stood up slowly, facing her. "I am starting to trust this team, even if I object to it. You guys...I can tell that we are all fighting to the do the right thing and...that's what I want. So many things have gone wrong in my life and...I just want to do something right," Jada revealed, her eyes now only glossy from her tears; her cheeks red, as well. "But I always ruin it. I ruined it with Adrian now and probably this whole team next."

"I don't think you have. He's totally head over heels for you, girl," Adebayo told her with a low chuckle. "And you haven't blown it with me, so...don't worry," she added with a smile, placing a hand on Jada's arm.

Jada looked down at it before she slowly looked back up at Adebayo, a small look of gratitude on her face. "You know, I didn't think I could trust you at all, at first. But...you're a great woman and a great asset to the team. I'm glad Waller finally made a good choice for once," Jada replied with a small grin.

Adebayo nodded slowly, now feeling exceptionally guilty because she really wasn't trustworthy at all — not when she had planted that diary in Smith's trailer and that she was hiding the fact she was Waller's daughter. She then cleared her throat, pointing to the door. "I'm gonna use the bathroom back at the apartment. You can stay in here as long as you'd like," she said before she backed away, leaving the bathroom.

Jada exhaled before she sat back down on the toilet, thinking about Adrian. Her emotions were still conflicting. One side of her wanted to make up with him, and the other side wanted her to stay away from him because of her trust issues. She guessed she would just have to leave it up to fate and see what it wanted for her and Adrian...and how annoying he felt like being on a scale from 1 to 10.

I'm so sorry 😁