The Agents

Chapter Twenty

My eyes peeled open, taking a minute to adjust to the darkness around the room. I sat up and yawned, enjoying the feeling of waking up from a dream rather than a nightmare. I couldn't remember the last time I had even dreamed, let alone gotten a full night's sleep.

I climbed off my bunk and walked to my locker. I grabbed my usual clothes and walked to the bathroom. I changed and brushed my teeth before heading back into the dormitory.

I went to make the wakeup call, seeing as I was already late, but paused before the shout left my mouth. We had been down here over two weeks without a single day of rest and minimal complaints considering what these kids were used to.

Deciding, against waking everyone up, I grabbed a hoodie from my locker and walked to the door, letting everyone have the morning to sleep in. We could work out later.

I opened the door and went into the main room, surprised to find the lights already on. It was usually pitch black in here when I came out.

Walking over, I came to an abrupt halt as I saw Jaxon lying in a hammock hanging from the ceiling, his hands behind his head and whistling a random tune.

He looked up as I approached and a smile found a way onto his lips as I stopped in my tracks, staring him. "Like it?" he asked, a proud smile as he referred to the hammock he had decided to hang in our training room.

I cocked my eyebrow and opened my mouth to say something. Then, I closed it before opening it to try again. Giving up, since no amount of reasoning would penetrate his thick skull, I closed my mouth again. Sighing, I walked closer and said, "Scoot over."

He did as I asked, and I climbed into the hammock next to him.

For once, he didn't say anything sarcastic. He just laid there in silence, not even attempting to put an arm around me. After a minute, he said, "I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," I replied instantly.

"But I'm really hungry right now."

"Get some food then."

He thought about it a minute, "Wallace did just bring us groceries." I mumbled an affirmative, my eyes closing as I relaxed. "I think we have eggs now. I could make breakfast."

I scoffed, "You cooking? And for other people, not just yourself?"

"Who said I was sharing?" he mocked.

"You'd probably eat it all before it finished cooking anyways."

He chuckled, "Yeah, probably. Still, I can attempt self-control and patience."

"There is a first time for everything," I said.

We spent the next couple minutes in comfortable silence, each of us lost in our own thoughts. After a while, Jaxon asked, "Should we get Xavier a friend?"

"What kind of friend?"

He pondered for a minute before replying, "A girl bull dog."

"We'd probably end up with puppies."

"So? Puppies are adorable."

"And when we they start pooping everywhere, are you going to help clean it up?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, you mean like you cleaned up after Xavier?" I asked sarcastically, a joking smile on my lips.

"I did help clean up after Xavier!" he defended.

"When? Name one time you actually took Xavier for a walk and cleaned up after him yourself," I challenged. Gosh, I missed this. Just sitting with Jaxon, joking around and talking about the most random stuff we could think of. I missed just being his friend.

"Well..." he paused, really thinking about it. "Oh, alright, I never helped clean up after Xavier. But I totally would if we got puppies!"

"Sure, Jax," I said, chuckling. "Okay, say we do get a girl dog, and she and Xavier have puppies. Where are we going to keep them? There isn't enough room in Xavier's kennel."

"Build a bigger cage," he supplied, catching himself before he added "duh" to the end of his sentence.

"And when we have seven or eight full grown bulldogs running around, then what? There isn't going to be enough room down here to build a bigger cage."

"Then we'll build it somewhere else."

"Like where? You know Wallace won't let us use her office. We already tried that."

"Guess we'll have to get our own place then."

"You, Drake, Taylor, and me all living under the same roof. That sounds scary," I said, thinking about it.

"Or just you and me."

"Careful there, Jax, you're almost sounding like a committed man."

"Who says I'm not?"

I scoffed, "Jaxon Steele and committed have never and will never belong in the same sentence." My words had a sharper edge than I meant them to.

He must have picked up on it, because his words had a sharp edge as well. "There are a lot of things that have changed, Jay, and a lot of things you don't understand."

"Like what? That you were and always will be a player? That you're scared of commitment? I already knew that."

"You might think you know, but you don't know anything. I may have been a player, but that ended a long time ago. And I am not scared of commitment. You should know that better than anybody seeing as you're the reason why."

I don't really know when it stopped being a joke, but this was far from it now. This was becoming a full blown argument. "Apparently it didn't last, seeing as you left as soon as things started getting serious," I said, standing from the hammock to look down at Jaxon.

Jaxon stood up as well, facing me and saying, "I didn't leave as soon as things got serious. Apparently you hadn't noticed, but things were pretty serious as they were!"

"Woah! What's going on here?" Drake asked, him and Taylor coming to stand between Jaxon and me. We were so focused on each other that we hadn't even noticed them come in.

Ignoring them, I replied to Jaxon, "I did notice! I noticed you saying you loved me before you walked away without even a sinlge goodbye!"

"There was a lot you don't know, Jay."

He was trying to stay calm, but at this point, I was way passed casual conversation, any calm I had long gone. "Then why don't you enlighten me, Jaxon, to these many things I'm not aware of!"

Still trying to be patient, Jaxon explained, "I got a job offer in a different state, and it was one of the reasons I decided to retire. I didn't want to leave you for the job, but I had to."

"Why didn't you just ask me to come with you?" I asked, anger from being told I was less important than a job oozing into my words.

My outburst must have been the last straw because Jaxon shouted, "I didn't ask you to come with me because I was scared you would say no!"

Now I was shouting as well, "Maybe you should have asked instead of chickening out!" I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to calm down before continuing with, "I was in love with you, Jaxon. I would have followed you anywhere."

I couldn't take the argument anymore and turned away from Jaxon's grief stricken face. I started walking when I noticed all the recruits staring at us. Walking passed everyone, I called over my shoulder, "No workout today, you have the day off." Then, I was through the door. Finally hidden from all the prying eyes, I let loose the tears I had been holding in.

A/N: Hope y'all enjoyed the Jaycee and Jaxon action :)