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Tobias was off hunting, which meant Rachel had some time to do some training. Her gun is at the bottom of her bag back at their campsite - which is where it's been since even before Tobias arrived. She hasn't lifted it in ages, much less practiced shooting, but there have been other things to do.

Forget the job at the farm. She didn't understand it anyway.

Morphing was all well and good but the difficult part only lasted thirty seconds, a few minutes at most. After that, her mind is free to wander. Rachel wants to be distracted, occupied but hiding behind the mind of her morph is... not an option. Not right.

It was stupid. A couple of ghosts and she already knew she couldn't fight them. What was she going to do? Research? Watch and learn? They didn't need her for that.

Gymnastics was good to keep her mind occupied. If she worked hard enough, she'd be too focused on her body to think much. And things are fine anyway, she'll stress herself out over nothing.

She didn't want to go anyway.

She'll work up to gymnastics. Right now, she's running on the road out of Metropolis, working up her heart rate, stretching before trying anything new.

It was a stupid job.

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Jo smirked, half-heartedly.

"Mini-inquisition. Apparently cares about who's been around you."

Rachel starts to frown, confused. Why would Jo subject Tobias to an inquisi-

The widening of Rachel's eyes signals dawning comprehension. Also a soft, annoyed scoff and shake of her head, hands back on her hips. "Yeah, I've noticed that, too. Sorry."

She's going to be yanking some red tailfeathers tonight.

Edited 2008-11-22 08:27 (UTC)

"It was fine," Jo said with a snort, that said she hardly found it threatening or annoying. He was a bird and he shrugged odd but he still didn't even register on the chart as being threatening.

But something changed in her expression as she thought about it.

Rachel shrugged anyway. She isn't comfortable with the idea of Tobias interrogating people - not in front of her, and absolutely not behind her back. Especially when she's already told him she trusts them, when that should be enough.

But Jo's expression distracts her.

"What?"

Jo's not quite sure where she wants to go with this one.

It's hardly lacking in being hypocritical.

Jack could do to her what Tobias had.

"He mentioned something about your home."

He wouldn't. He wouldn't dare. Not unless it was something unimportant.

All the same, Rachel's jaw set and her face shut down outside of a cold glare and an arched brow.

"Yeah?"

That look Rachel's got has a warning in it.

"About you having left three years before he came here."

The word left has emphasis s not being that word exactly.

"Yeah?"

'Left' can mean a lot of things. But Jo's hesitation isn't making Rachel feel any better about what was told.

Jo far too smart for her own good is the problem.

"I can assume it doesn't mean you left them. You didn't turn tail. It mattered too much to you. You said that at the end you won. So, did you - are you-" Jo frowned it wasn't even something she wanted to be true.

"Because you aren't-"

God damn him.

Rachel's jaw set and she lifted her chin. She considered letting Jo flounder, forcing her to get it over with, say it, it wasn't that bad.

While pretending her own heart wasn't pounding.

"Living-impaired?" Her voice sneers, more sarcasm than she'd meant, but it's laid on thick. "Not now, not since I got here. Before here?" She shrugs, forced nonchalance. "I told you, I won. The job didn't include getting out alive."

Edited 2008-11-22 09:00 (UTC)

Jo frowned, watching her reaction as much as narrowing her eyes at the words.

"Nice to know that was supposed to be my hint."

"It wasn't."

Snapped and sharp and angry and hurt. He'd had no right.

Rachel swallows hard and starts walking, past Jo, toward the woods, not necessarily away, just needing to move.

There weren't supposed to be hints, there weren't supposed to be truths. What Jo knew had been enough without the details.

Jo watched her go, with a hard frown.

Her roommate, the person she's defended a dozen times to other people, is a dead/not-dead person. It's going to be very troublesome if other certain people figure it out.

Jo's not one of them.

Thank everything in the sky for Milliways.

"How'd this part happen?"

Rachel doesn't see how it changes a damn thing. Obviously, she's living here. Her hair grows, her skin breaks and mends, her heart beats. Just because she'd been dead previously doesn't mean anything to her current state.

Not like, say, inexplicable aging.

She pauses at the question and almost keeps walking regardless. But Jo's been something that no one else has and that calls for an extreme amount of loyalty.

She turns, unhappy but resigned and lifts both brows. "What part?"

"Coming here from-" There's a shrug slightly, her tone is inquisitive without being demanding. "-wherever. I got dragged in during the middle of fight. I thought it grabbed everyone that way."

"Technically, I was in the middle of a fight." Her brow furrows, not sure exactly what Jo's trying to say.

Or trying to play like she isn't sure.

"Just because Tobias remembers three years without me doesn't mean I didn't come here the second I croaked."

Jo nodded, playing her finger tips against her thighs in her pockets.

"Okay."

Rachel watches her for a moment, until she's certain she won't say anything else. Her nod is sharper than she'd meant for it to be, but since it shows how much she wants this conversation to stop, she isn't too upset about it. She turns to keep walking, not back to camp but maybe to the small river a few miles west, swim a few laps until she feels like strangling birds of prey less.

No one's more surprised than she is when there's apparently more to say.

"I didn't think it was important."

Jo didn't move. Rachel hadn't screamed bloody murder or known she was coming out with this. Space was hardly a surprising need she might have, so Jo was surprised when she turned about.

Oddly enough, Jo's lips curled into an ironic twist.

"We're all still here, regardless. Yeah?"

Jo's been something no one else has been: accepting.

Rachel blinked and the corner of her mouth lifted slowly, like her lips were trying to smile without alerting the rest of her. She shrugged. "Apparently."

She pauses.

"...regardless, I know one hawk that is going to have a really hard time flying with no tailfeathers tonight."

Jo chuckled.

"Try not to go too hard on him. I think I'm better at asking the serious questions than most people who're going through all of this for the first time."

Rachel's smile tightened just a little. "He knows how to deal with hard questions."

Which led to: why didn't he deal with this one?

Her arms crossed over her chest again, deep breaths creating forced calm. "I'll see you when you get back, huh?"

Jo wrinkled her nose with a disgruntled look at the reminder.

"Yeah. It shouldn't be too long. I'm not for lingering if they can't figure out their heads from their asses."

Rachel smirked and shrugged. "You know where I am if you need help educating them."

"If it could only start with that. So much simpler."

Jo's frown stay at the edges of her mouth.

"Want me to take a message to anyone or bring back anything?"