Redesign Me, State of the Art (Jalex)

Maybe You Would've Been Something I'd Be Good At

Alex's POV

"You alright?" Tay asked as she adjusted my collar. I was quite a bit taller than her, so she was tilting her head up and standing slightly off her heels to be able to fidget with the edges of the fire resistant coat fabric to make sure they were secure. I hadn't really talked to anyone besides her since last night, other than to make sure that everything was in order, or to answer a few last minute questions about what was going on. She was looking up at me with wide, solemn, brown eyes. As I stared back into them, I felt like she could see right through me; something not many people were able to do. I was increasingly glad that Tay had become someone I could call a friend. She vaguely reminded me of Hayley actually and the thought made me smile. Wanting to appease her worrying mind, I half-nodded at the question. She gave a look that told me she wasn't buying anything I was selling, but decided not to push any further.

"Ready to go?" Rian asked, walking up behind Tay.

"Yup," she answered, brushing the jacket's shoulder padding off with her palms before gently giving my forearms a reassuring squeeze. Tay had pretty much been by my side for the duration of the past twenty four hours. We became the heads of organizing and formulating all strategy behind the project and had isolated ourselves in order to finish in a timely manner. We were able to bond fairly quickly. She had even come into my temporarily new room in the middle of the night, having heard me thrashing about and crying out for Jack from down the hall. She refused to leave until my breathing evened out and the tears stopped flowing, but ended up falling asleep next to me. Because of this absence in the troops, her authoritative position was soon replaced by Rian. Even though I was kind of the mastermind behind the whole situation, I was grateful that he had taken over and had a handle on running everything for now. He was a surprisingly incredible leader once he stepped out from behind Tay's five foot two shadow.

"Cool. Everyone's pretty much piled into the van. There are only a few stragglers and you guys. We should get going in at least the next five minutes if we want to be on schedule," he informed us. We acknowledged his orders and he smiled nervously before walking away.

"He's not mad at me... because you... last night, you know..." I began to ask her.

"Who Rian? Oh god no. He thinks you hooked up with two different guys in the span of a couple of hours. He is the farthest thing from jealous that I was in your bed holding you while you cried last night," she confirmed.

"Oh thanks, when you put it that way I sound super manly."

"Yeah, cause making out with a bunch of dudes is totally more manly right?"

"It wasn't a bunch! I told you! Just Ja-," the name caught in my throat and our excited demeanors were again restored to ominous ones by the grim reminder of what was to come for the rest of the day. "We should, um, get to the van," I suggested.

"Whatever you say sergeant," she saluted me, trying to lighten the mood once more. My lips had resealed themselves shut and I only offered the repetitive motion of nodding my head. She sighed and grabbed my hand, leading us out the front door and across the lawn to the beat up passenger van.

We were pretty much able to find a use for everyone's power once we figured out what we had to work with. In reality, I could've probably just gotten past the guards invisibly and walked through the door to Jack's room, but this mission wasn't just about saving him. It was about taking down this company once and for all.

I slid into one of the seats lining the back walls of the huge vehicle, scooting down to make room for Tay to sit next to me. Rian came around and closed the back doors before jogging over to the driver's seat. He hopped in and peaked his head through the window that connected the front of the van from the back.