Chapter 6

Clara

Days turned into weeks and they all blurred together as my training took hold. The commander hadn't been wrong when he said I was being thrown into the deep end, I was definitely out of my depth the first couple of days, but a week in and I had gotten the hang of things, even if I did go to bed each night feeling as though I had been run over.

It took a few days for my fellow recruits to accept me, they had expected me to lag behind and I did in the beginning, but I wasn't one to quit, or one to accept being second best. I pushed myself, harder than I ever had before. I cried, I sweat, I bled, I ate, I slept and I did it all over again.

It was three weeks before I saw Matt again, the longest I had ever gone without him and I swear I was starting to have withdrawals, he too seemed overly eager to spend time with me, but we both knew and accepted that that wouldn't really be possible for a while, he had his training and I had mine, but once my training was done I would be sent out into the world, maybe for a day maybe a week maybe a month, who knew, but at least then my time in the compound would mostly be my own. I would still be required to train and would have to attend certain meetings.

It was two days before the end of my training when a commotion on the ground floor drew my attention. I had been lying on my cot, staring at nothing, taking stock of all the aches and bruises that littered my body when cat calls and cheers sounded around A block, sounds that I had never heard here before.

Considering that A block was mostly made up of energetic men it was surprisingly quiet here. Something that I appreciated for the most part, considering all I seemed to do lately was train and sleep.

I stood from my bed and pushed the curtain across my door aside, giving me a prime view of the ground floor below where a group of men and women, all wearing army blacks had gathered around a few boxes.

“We come baring treats.” A voice called out and I felt a shiver run down my spine, I knew that voice. Jake was home.

I stood still, watching as people descended from every floor, eager to see the returnees and what they may have brought with them.

“Clara you coming?” Drake asked from the door next to mine. He was one of the recruits in my class, there were only five of us so we had gotten quite close, even though I had only been part of the group for four weeks.

I nodded not trusting myself to speak in that moment. None of the recruits knew about my crush on Jake, or my mortification that usually accompanied any meeting with him. I swallowed hard. I needed to get over this and fast. He wasn't interested, he had made that quite clear, and now there was every chance that we could end up working together in the future. I couldn’t afford for things to be awkward any more, not when it could jeopardise my career.

With a sigh of resignation I followed Drake down the landing to the stairs at the end, straightening my baggy tunic top as I went.

I had lived almost my entire life wearing clothes that were lose fitting, the army blacks that I had been kitted out with were skin tight, fitting perfectly everywhere and it was something I wasn't yet used to, so I spent all my free time wearing my old clothes, much to the confusion of my team mates. I knew they were unflattering, especially compared to the uniforms but I just didn't care. The only person I wanted to impress was Jake and he wasn't interested.

Determined not to let him rule my thoughts I stepped up to the rest of my team mates and joined in their speculation over what the guys could have brought back that was so exciting.

“Its got to be food right? I mean what else could have them all so happy?” Dean commented, his usual happy self.

“I don't know, maybe its something we haven't seen in years?”

“But like what?”

“Why don't you stop guessing and look?” Hunt commented, the only other girl in my team, she was always too serious.

As much as the conversation was distracting it hadn't managed to divert my eyes from Jake. Dressed in tight army blacks, he looked as delicious as ever, maybe more so now that I knew exactly what kind of training he did here on a regular basis.

I could see his muscles flex under the long sleeved top and swallowed a groan as my imagination ran away with itself.

“What's got your attention girl?” Drake questioned following my eyesight. “Oh I see, it's like that is it, new blood comes to A block and you forget all about me?” He said with a wide smile and a wink. Drake was a natural born flirt, it was like he couldn't help himself, I had even caught him flirting with a guy once or twice even though I was fairly sure he didn't swing that way. I shook my head and laughed, thankful for the distraction. Only my laughter drew the attention of the man I had been focused on.

“Clara?” Jakes voice sounded clear as a bell and I turned to see him standing two feet to my left, his face a picture of puzzlement. “What are you doing here?” He asked and I raised a brow, for once in my life not feeling entirely intimidated by him.

“I live here.” I stated as confidently as I could.

“But you're not.. I thought...”

“Maybe its not new blood.” Drake commented with a smirk on my right as his eyes swung back and forth between Jake and I, I elbowed him on reflex then winced slightly as he bent forward with a gasp, I hadn't meant to hurt him, not really.

“Shit West, of all the places you could hit, you had to get that damn bruise from yesterdays training. Fuck.”

“Sorry.” I muttered instantly feeling guilty and my attention solely focused on my team mate. “Shit Drake, breath.” I demanded when he started turning red in the face.

“I'm trying.” He wheezed before taking a deep breath and wincing. Without thinking I lifted the side of his shirt and almost swore again at the large purple bruise that rested across his rib cage. “Fuck, that looks bad.”

“Damn right, it feels bad.”

I ran my fingers along his ribs checking for breaks. “Nothing broken, but maybe you should get checked out anyway?” I suggested not noticing the raised eyebrows and amazed stare that was being directed at my back.

“Fuck, nah I'm good. Only two days left to go C, I'm determined to finish training without ending up in the damn medic bay.”

I furrowed by brows giving him my death glare as Matt had once called it.

“Don't look at me like that, like you haven't got beat up and refused treatment, you forget I saw your back last week.” He said with a raised brow and I had to admit he had me there.

“Fine, but don't come crying to me tomorrow. I'm not going easy on you 'cause you're hurt.” I stated.

“Wouldn't expect you to girly, now help me stand up straight, I want to see what all this fuss is about.” He muttered still clutching his side as I gave him a shoulder to lean on, literally.

A throat clearing behind me had my head swivelling and my cheeks heating when I realised that Jake had watched the whole exchange. “Don't do anything I wouldn't do.” Drake whispered with a wink before stepping forward away from me with a grimace and leaving me alone on the edge of the crowd with Jake. Now if only I could stop myself from embarrassing myself that would be great.

“I didn't realise you were old enough to sign up.” Jake stated as if to explain his earlier stuttering.

“Yeah, I turned eighteen four weeks ago.” I responded, keeping my reply short and to the point in the hope that I wouldn't start rambling the way I used to around him.

I watched as his brows pulled together. “Why did you sign up?”  He asked and I smiled slightly thinking that my earlier prediction had been right, he did think I had signed up for him.

“I've always wanted to. So what's all the fuss about?” I asked, feeling ridiculously proud of the fact that I was managing a normal conversation with the man that regularly had me salivating.

“Chocolate.”

"Seriously?” I asked feeling slightly amazed. It had been years since anyone in the compound had seen chocolate.

“Yeah, found boxes of the stuff.” he smiled slightly. “So hows training going? You've got what, five months left?” He asked seemingly okay with having a conversation when ordinarily all I would get was one word answers. It was confusing the hell out of me but I wasn't about to complain.

“No two days left.” I stated.

“I though you said you signed up a month ago?”

“Oh I did, Hicks put me on accelerated training. So I finish in two days.”

His brows furrowed as he tried to work that out but I smiled in the direction of my enthusiastic team mates who now all had a handful of chocolate bars each.

“Hey West?” Drake called with his usual confident air.

“Yeah.”

"Chocolate for a kiss.” He said holding a bar in my direction while wagging his brows and puckering his lips.

“I'll pass thanks.” I said with a laugh. “Try Hunt.”

“No thank you, I'm rather partial to my balls.” He stated with dead seriousness making me laugh again, he was probably right, Hunt would have his balls if he tried a stunt like that with her. “You not going to give me a kiss West?”

“Not in this life time, who knows where you've been?” I smiled wide.

“Fine then, I'm just going to have to dig into my memory bank for a suitable image, maybe one of you, naked.” He smirked and blew a kiss before running in the opposite direction as I swung out at him.

“Ass.” I muttered in his direction before Jakes throat clearing caught my attention again.

“So you and him huh?”

“What? Oh no, god no.” I stated with all seriousness.

“Then how?” He asked, letting his question trail off.

"Oh, he walked in on me changing last week. Guy has no sense of boundaries.”

“Want me to have a word?” He asked with a raised brow.

“Nah, I can handle Drake. Thanks though.”

“No problem. Look I've got to go debrief the chief but I'll see you around?” He said with a smile that had my heart pattering in my chest.

“Sure.” I smiled back. With one last look around the dispersing crowd I retreated to my room. The rush of chocolate couldn't possibly beat the rush of that conversation. A normal conversation where I didn't embarrass myself and Jake even smiled. Maybe things were looking up.

“Hey I didn't ruin things for you with lover boy did I?” Drake asked poking his head through my door without knocking, which was exactly how he had seen me naked last week.

“No, I don't think there's anything to ruin.” I muttered, wishing not for the first time that Matt was around for me to talk to.

“I wouldn't be so sure about that.” He said with a smile. “Night Clara.”

“Night.” I returned shaking my head before getting comfortable on the cot. Tomorrow would be our last day of real training, the day after was graduation day if you would, a day when we would be pitted in a friendly competition against seasoned members of the army, to see how we would fare. At the moment I was feeling confident but I doubted I would feel the same on the morning of.