Blind Justice

[Lillian Gray]

She continued the appearance of understanding, marking ticks on her board when needed, even with the lack of many official documents. It all made her look busy, and that's what she liked best. So long as she appeared to be doing something useful on board no one would bother her unless it was of the utmost importance. Except for Thatcher, that was, he tipped his head her way and beckoned her name.

So he wanted to apologize, she thought. Jessamine scowled. The team had learned much about each other in the caves, and that included Thatcher's snooping. Silence made her paranoid, and no longer did Jessie speak out loud without first being sure no one was listening. She didn't want to trust the man, but he seemed earnest in his apology and she figured, why not? He could say his bit and whether or not she still felt up to forgiving him, that part would come later. He could still try to talk in the meantime, dig a bigger grave.

"I have ears." She responded. Jessie stepped closer, then she leaned against the side rail with her back to the open air. "I'm not too fond of you right now, Thatcher."

She smiled coyly, her eyes betraying her. Jessie was angry. He knew her secret, and she didn't like that, because of his silence she felt he wanted something from her. No man would keep silent unless he were inherently good, or felt the information could be used in other ways. Something about bugging her room didn't give her any votes on kindness.

"What do you know?"​

 

[Kitsunemage]

Well, the little minx had teeth it seemed. Thatcher had to hold back a smile. Now was not the time to be mocking the subject of his questioning. It was nice, however, when they did most of his work for him.

He'd expected some reaction of course, anger perhaps, or maybe even a bit of hurt. But suspicion? Blatantly asking what he knew?

"Words of a woman with something to hide." Thatcher raised one brow questioningly, not afraid to let the chit know he had caught on her little mishap. If he had known something, he certainly wouldn't have told her. But her statement gave far too much away considering his current lack of knowledge. Which meant he had to find a way to snoop without snooping.

"But I have seen the error of my ways," Hardly likely at all, "and the captain has...admonished me quite severely." He let a bit of his disgruntlement show through with that. Paperwork, while on suspension. The man truly did know how best to get under Thatcher's skin. The same could be said the other way around-- but right now Thatcher had no leverage to cling to.

"I really am sorry, that I resorted to such... underhanded means. So I'll be frank with you. You're hiding something. What?" His eyes bored into hers with the certainty of a man who knew the truth, and was waiting to catch the lie. It was a look he'd perfected for interrogation. He had guesses, theories to work off of. He just needed one, little, slip. Anything would do.​

 

[Lillian Gray]

It wasn't entirely a slip. Jessie was wiser than that, to let herself be caught after playing the game for so long. She wasn't a perfect copy of her sister, other than in physical appearance. She had to choose her words wisely and only keep those near whom she trusted completely. Right now, the only few were out of reach.

"If you've really seen the error, you wouldn't be standing so freely on the ship." Jessie scowled. "Spying on a fellow crew member is reasons for suspension, depending on the circumstances, and currently I'm of an incredible value to the ship after our mission."

Jessamine didn't want to speak with him any longer. He was too curious, too eager to pry the information from her lips whether she spoke or he forced her tongue. The look in his eyes never faltered, and bore holes into her own eyes as if waiting for her to mess up, to say one thing that was out of place or out of touch with the reality of the ship. So, she presented her best salute in hopes he would copy the action. After all, she was on her way to becoming his superior officer.

"The information we discovered in the caves is highly confidential, and it would be grounds for dismissal if I were to discuss our findings." Jessie smirked. "Surely you understand why I would be nervous about your spying, I don't wish to be demoted over a simple misunderstanding. If I see you near my quarters, I'll have you put on leave."​

 

[Kitsunemage]

Thatcher raised his hands in surrender- the intensity of his scrutiny dying out, until he resembled nothing more than the simple man he'd been when she first met him.

"Very well. I can't argue with that." Nor did he have to believe it. If what she said was true, then there would have been no reason for her to freak out about the bug in her room before the excursion. Peeved, yes. But question what he knew? If she had nothing to hide aside from the details of their excursion, she wouldn't need to question what he knew. The bug had been taken out promptly upon their arrival- before she'd even been released from the medical bay.

Thatcher lifted his good arm in a sharp salute- the other still hung in a cast after all- and nodded his farewell.

"Good day, officer Astor." He left with one hand in his pants pocket, and whistling. Looking far too cheery for a man who had just been told off by a superior. But at least he knew now that his suspicions weren't unfounded. She was hiding something- and now he knew Dael was hiding it with her. Normally, that wouldn't be cause for concern... but the rumors he'd been hearing lately...

No, Thatcher would just have to get very, very creative.​

 

[Lillian Gray]

Her knuckles rapped quietly against the glass medical door. She could see him, and he her, but Jessie had to allow him that bit of transparent privacy to make him feel like he had some kind of a choice in greeting her. Luckily, Quinn allowed her to take her cautious steps inside the hospital room just inside the medical bay. He was wrapped from head to toe in bandages, but from what Jessamine had heard it was a vast improvement. Broken bones would heal.

But what about a broken heart? She wondered. The caves had left no question to what he believed in his mind when the spectral image of the twins' face had appeared in the crystal. That man loved her, and he'd discovered she loved another, and it broke his heart. Only, she was the wrong girl, the wrong twin. and it broke his heart all over.

"Hey, Quinn, how are you doing?" Jessie asked. She didn't expect much of an answer.

The girl sat down in a chair across the room, setting her meaningless clipboard down and settling into a relaxed position outside the confines of her twin. Quinn knew, and no one could see them. Keeping up an act which pained him, to be Tessa, would only wound him more cruelly than she possibly knew.

"I thought I might come talk to you for a while." She blurted awkwardly. "About what happened...in the caves."​

 

[Kitsunemage]

"Hey, if it isn't my second favorite twin." Quinn cocked a strained, halfhearted smirk. His normal cocky greeting- though all of the heart had been taken out of it. It was hard to put his effort into something so meaningless as arrogance after everything they'd been through- and to be goddamn honest, it hurt like hell.

And she still had Tessa's face.

"I'm doing as well as can be expected. That thing sure packed a punch, huh?" He started aimlessly meandering with his conversation, trying to find the ground he'd left when she walked through the door- for a brief moment, hope had sent him soaring, and then realization left him floundering as his wings melted. Icarus flying too close to the sun."Luckily the doctor's taking very good care of me. I get a pretty lady changing my bandages and bathing me every day. Heh, who am I to complain."

Quinn adjusted himself on the bed, wincing and muttering a small oath as his bones protested the action. He gave up halfway, and settled back into the sheets with a depressed sigh.

"What I wouldn't give for a drink right now." But there was no avoiding the inevitable topic at hand. The caves. The damned caves- a place where he'd been simultaneously broken, and reforged, and broken once more. Where before the beginnings of heartbreak threatened him, now worry consumed him. Tessa wasn't here. She was off somewhere gallavanting around in a nest of enemies- no matter Jessie's assurances that they wouldn't hurt her...

"I don't blame you, you know." He started, tilting his head just enough to look Jessie in her impossibly blue eyes. It hurt, just looking. Not because of the physical action of it making his bones creak in protest- but because worried and flustered, she still looked just like Tessa. The last time she'd looked at him like that... "You were only doing what you had to, to protect her. I'd say I forgive you, but I probably have to apologize first. I must have acted like a sleazeball to you."​

 

[Lillian Gray]

"What were you supposed to do?" Jessie scoffed, smiling first before her head inevitably turned towards the ground in shame. She'd pretended to be her sister for a long time, and he still wanted to apologize for acting as he would around her. Yes, his personality had certain traits which made him more obnoxious than others, but there wasn't a damn way Jessie was going to let him apologize for the misinformation on his part.

"Look, Quinn..." Jessie placed herself awkwardly at the side of his bed, her eyes shifted nervously from her own feet, to the center of the bed. She sat carefully on a thin strip of the mattress, being sure not to nudge Quinn the wrong way. "I don't know where she is or what she's doing. Odds are, I'm not going to make it off this ship alive. But I can promise that you'll see her again, I swear. Tessa's gonna come back, and whatever you two have between you, if there is something, you can talk it out with her then.

"I can't say for sure what she feels, or if she's changed. But Quinn, I came to check on you to make amends."

Before I'm killed, probably. Everyone is so damn suspicious.

"I broke your heart, and it wasn't even me. Tessa did it first, and then I came in for a second punch. Don't lie, I know I did. Otherwise why else would we have appeared in crystal form? Why else would we have whispered those words...not even us, just a desire." Jessie awkwardly placed her hand over Quinn's and sighed.

"You don't have to be happy with me, or even like me. We're enemies by nature. Rebel and Republic. We can go back to that, pretend I was never here, and a week from now, maybe more maybe less, Tessa will be back and I'll be out of the picture. But before I go, I just wanted to make sure we were okay, at least for now."​

 

[Kitsunemage]

"Hey, don't be like that." Quinn turned his hand over to grab hers, he gave it a reassuring squeeze before letting go. Lips finding their normal crooked smile, he continued, "You aren't the one stuck in a hospital bed now. No talking like you're going to die."

She was right. He couldn't deny the fact that it had hurt just as much seeing Jessie hurt as it had to see her in Dael's arms back when he thought it was Tessa. He still didn't know whether it was his delusional mind linking her and Tessa together, or if he'd come to admire the strength in his current blonde haired companion.

"'sides, I thought we were friends now." He said the words so easily. Entirely heedless of the fact that they should be enemies. That they should hate each other, and when he found out- orders or no- he should have turned her in.

"Look, Jess..." Determined this time, Quinn pushed himself up so he could look her in the eye. He had to convince her of the truth in his words. "I'm not gonna lie to you. Shit's going to be pretty crazy. I don't know how you managed it all this time- and frankly, I don't want to know. Plausible denial, right? What I do know, is that you're stronger than you think. You can get through anything, as stubborn as you are. Don't go giving up on us now.

"You don't need to feel guilty, or apologize for anything. I mean it. Just because I was too much of a coward to tell her how I felt, doesn't mean you can be blamed for coming into this not knowing. Heck, she doesn't know."

Something he would remedy as soon as he saw her- damn the consequences. He'd retire from the military if he had to.

"Dael isn't gonna let you die. I won't let you die. How could I possibly face Tess if I didn't do everything in my power to help her sister? We're okay, Jess. Nothing is gonna change that- republic or not. Heck, maybe we'll even be family one day. Wouldn't that be nice."​

 

[Lillian Gray]

"I know no one is gonna let me die." Jessie forced herself to chuckle, although in her heart she felt a mourning sensation like no other.

With each passing day, she was getting closer to her own personal retirement from the Republic ship. People knew who she was, what she really was, and each day that passed meant her sister was gathering more and more information. In time, she'd have to come back, and when that happened Jessie's usefulness would cease. She'd never been useful as it was. Keeping her alive was a convenience to save face when their recruit, her twin, went missing without explanation.

Family...Quinn, we're already practically siblings at this rate. I've saved your life, and you saved mine.

"Yeah right." Jessie played it off as a joke, knowing he was utterly serious. "No way I can see Tessa walking down the aisle any time soon, you'd better impress her with a big ass ring."

How nice would it be though. Staying with this new family of mine.​