Turning Tables || Jake 'Hangman' Seresin x OC

takes one to know one

Jas was in a sour mood.

She had always lived at the behest of her emotions, and her moods were fickle at best. She was decidedly not a morning person, and everyone knew not to speak to her within the first half hour of her waking up. Her family learned to walk on eggshells around her. They knew that to Jas, their voices sounded like nails on a chalkboard in the morning, and they were better off letting her be. Learning to drink coffee hadn't helped, and she would still snap if any of her sisters (or her moms) asked a question or made a jibe.

In college, her roommate had suffered in much the same way.

As had every boyfriend, girlfriend, partner, and one-night-stand.

When she went to Med School, she lived off campus to spare everyone, including herself.

Don't talk to her in the morning, and you're golden. Joining the Navy, being yelled at, and given orders at the crack of dawn didn't do much to ease her moods. Jas had to learn to hold her tongue, which proved to be one of her biggest challenges.

She didn't like being told what to do, especially by people who were less intelligent than her. In short, she didn't like authority.

Jas had talked back to superiors on multiple occasions, and her record included several warnings for insubordination. Those warnings didn't do her any good when she saved a man's leg from amputation against direct orders. She should have been discharged. She should have been kicked out with no pension, no benefits, and stripped of her commendations, but instead, they sent her to Miramar to do routine exams on standard personnel and aviators.

Jas spent most of her days prescribing cough medicine and Tylenol. One would think that Navy personnel would be tougher than that, but if she got one more big burly dude insisting he was dying from seasonal flu, she would scream. But Jas was in no position to complain because she could have been discharged but wasn't. Someone had taken pity on her, but they still sent her on the most deadbeat boring assignment of her career.

That wasn't the reason for her sour mood, though.

No, that was all due to one man and one man only. Lieutenant Jake Seresin. Callsign: Hangman.

Pilot extraordinaire, according to himself, and the bane of Jasmine's existence at present.

Only an hour ago, they'd been flirting as he bought her a beer. She accepted it but rebuffed his advances yet again. She was having fun, and seeing his frustration grow with every rejection made her feel a type of giddy joy that it really shouldn't.

An hour ago, she had relished in his attention, and now, she was downing tequila shots and washing it down with beer.

Sometimes Jas wished she'd listened to her sisters more. To Birdie, who told her to think before she talked. To River when she told her not to join the Navy because her lack of filter and issues with authority would get her in trouble. Sometimes, on nights like this, when she wanted to strangle a man, Jasmine wished she'd listened to Maggie and stuck to flirting with and dating women. Her moms had said similar things, but she'd never been good at listening to them, either.

So, she watched Hangman teach a stunning red-headed woman to play pool, his cocky grin, green eyes lingering, and his hands wandering.

"You look miserable," a familiar voice said as she slid into the seat next to Jas. Caro had only been gone five minutes, maybe ten tops, but in that time, Hangman had started his little escapade, and Jas was contemplating murder.

Jas raised a hand to Penny and pointed at the shot glass in front of her. "I'm fine."

Caro snorted, taking a long sip of her beer. "You're staring daggers."