fandomhigh | Teamwork, Monday, Period 2

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Teamwork, Monday, Period 2

The class met at the edge of the causeway this morning, where a portal was scheduled to appear in a matter of minutes. Jack kept her remarks brief.

"It's Veterans Day, so you guys don't get a normal class. I booked us a portal to the Mall in Washington, D.C.," she said. "Once we get there, we're going to the Vietnam Memorial. It's a big black wall with names of dead soldiers carved in it. Might not sound like much, but some of the best people I've ever known have ended up names on walls like this. There's always some stupid war to kill more good people."

She paused there, brushing her hair out of her face.

"Some people like to leave flowers or notes at a place like this. Some just want to walk around. As long as you're respectful, that's fine, but if you are a disruptive jerk I will have your ass. Questions?"

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"Give it a hundred years or so and we're all dead," Jack pointed out. "I'd rather go down fighting. But I get why not everybody feels that way."

"Oh, I wouldn't have minded being dead," Cade said. "It's being the only survivor that karking sucks."

And this was more than he'd ever told anyone about life at home.

Yeah, Jack got that. She got it about three times over.

"You get guilty?" she asked. "Why you, why not somebody else?"

"Oh, I know why me," Cade said. "My father decided I was much too precious to stand and fight like I'd been taught and sent me away with the kids."

"Sucks that he decided that was his choice to make," Jack said, eyes flashing darkly.

"Which was why I stole a ship and went back to yell about it," Cade said. "So I have no idea where the kids ended up and got back to the surface just in time to have missed the fight."

Jack's eyebrows crept up. "So what did you do then?" she asked.

She probably would have gotten very drunk and found something to kill, but she recognized she was not a model of good coping skills.

Cade took a deep breath. "Pretended to be a grave robber when pirates arrived just after I did."

"Damn," Jack said, and then didn't say anything at all for a moment. "Sure wish there was something better to say than 'sorry that happened.'"

He shrugged. "It wasn't a highlight." He took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. "Don't even know why I've brought it up."

"I asked," Jack said. "And sometimes stuff just has to come out. I dumped a bunch of stories on my old squad way back when. Sometimes as soon as you get somebody to listen..."

She gestured there, indicating a great flow of words.

"Just glad you felt you could tell me."

"Well, you seem to karking get it," Cade replied after an awkward pause. "I blame the memorials. We don't have one of those."

"My ship had a wall of names of dead people who'd served on it," Jack said. "This seemed to be the earth version. Just ... bigger."

She glanced over. "Still probably smaller than what you'd need."

"I wouldn't know half the names to put on it, either," Cade said quietly. "There were a bunch of us."

Jack nodded slowly. "Anything you want to do today to remember them?" she asked. "I dropped off a flower at the wall for somebody."

"I was going to get drunk?" Cade offered.

"Always the right answer," Jack said.

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Teamwork, Monday, Period 2

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