He’s breathing heavy and trying to catch his breath. “Those are bad for your health.”

She wants to tell him that war was bad for her health and everything since has been coping, but they’re not close, and he hasn’t earned her past.

“Jogging with headphones on is bad for your safety.” She takes one last pull of the cigarette before flicking it to the ground. She nods at him, and he steps closer and stomps it out.

She inhales. Despite his strenuous activity, he smells divine, delectable even. She openly stares at his broad shoulders, his biceps, the hard form of his pecs and abs, and the fuzzy happy trail that starts at his navel and dips down into his–

“Uhh,” he steps back. He looks at her, surprised by her forwardness, and based on the red tinge to his high cheekbones and the tips of his ears, a little embarrassed.

“I’m still a woman, Kyle; but you know that.”

He has the good mind to look ashamed. “I’m sorry about that. That’s not like me, not anymore.”

“I was in the army, Doc. I’ve heard much worse, and I’m used to being a girl infiltrating the boys club.” She shrugs. There’s no bad blood between them. For a civilian, Kyle’s a good guy. She trusts that in her absence, Alex Manes has a great partner.

She’s not one for being the third wheel anyway. She’s tired of it.

“You were built to be a soldier, you know?” It goes beyond the physical. He’s loyal, dedicated, and pragmatic.

“I’m a lover – a healer, not a fighter,” he responds.

She leans in close, coming to his chin from where she’s perched on the truck bed. “Who says you can’t be all three, Valenti?”

He smirks. “Touche. I thought you left,” he says. He’s studying her, and she frowns.

“I am leaving. Had to enjoy this view one last time,” she waves at the sunset, and he nods but doesn’t say anything.

A silence befalls them, and it’s more comfortable than she cares to admit.

“I think what you did – covering for Max – it was brave,” he says. He’s leaning beside her in the truck bed now.

“More like stupid,” she snorts. “But it was the right thing to do at the time.”

He nods knowingly, his eyes are intense on the side of her face, but she doesn’t look at him.

“Love makes you do stupid things,” he sighs as if he’s speaking from experience, and maybe he is. “Everyone in this town is in love with Max Evans.”

“Is everyone in this town in love with Liz Ortecho?” She shoots it back as a friendly jab, but it sounds more acidic than she intends.

He gives her a sympathetic smile, and she feels like she somehow gave him too much.

“I’m not in love with Liz,” Kyle says. “I love her, don’t get me wrong, but I always knew we weren’t meant to be,” he stares out into space as though he’s deep in thought, and she stares at him.

“We were friends. We still are, and she brought out the best in me. She was safe, and I made her feel safe. We were –are – comfortable, you know?

” I love her, and I will always love her. I’ll do anything for her, but I’m not in love with her. We were never like that,“ he scratches at his chin and shrugs.

"It’s crazy, isn’t it?” She kicks at the dirt. “Being drawn to things you know you can’t have? Is that your thing?”

“Emotionally unavailable women with one foot always out the door?” He steals a look at her– heated– and she doesn’t miss it. “Yeah, Liz broke me in with that. Haven’t shaken it since,” he jokes. “You?”

“Unavailable people who are in love with someone else is on my list,” she scoffs. “I’m usually the runner,” she gives him a soft smile. “I guess I have a knack for finding decent guys and having shitty timing.”

“I know something about that too,” his grin is flirty. “You’re no one’s second fiddle, Cam,” Kyle says quietly. “You’re a great person, and someone will be smart enough to see that and reciprocate.”

“No need to get all sappy on me, Doc. I know,” she snaps back. Then softer, “Ditto though.”

“Until then, you just–”

“Get under someone else to get over someone,” she deadpans loving the way she catches him off guard with her blunt nature.

“Yeah,” he jokes.“That’s exactly what the doctor orders.” He hops off the truck bed and stands in front of her. “Take care, Cam.”

“Oh, I can,” she says seductively. The heels of her boots lock around his calves and pull him forward into the space between her legs. “But I don’t want to. You’re not going to give me a hero’s goodbye? I’m offended.”

He’s startled, but it becomes something more, and he leans into her space, hands pressed down on each side of her and caging her in.

She shudders at his proximity. He’s practically nose to nose with her now. “I don’t think that’s what they meant when they said support our troops.”

She laughs, and he joins her but doesn’t back away.

“You’re trying to get me arrested for public indecency?” His breath is hot against her face, and the heat of his body so close to hers makes her pulse race.

“From what I recall, you didn’t have a problem with it before,” she breathes, chasing after his lips with hers. His scent is intoxicating. “I did interrupt your workout, but you can get that cardio in another way.”

He has the good sense to look embarrassed, but then he practically short- circuits when she runs her nail down his bare chest and raises her brow in askance. “Yes?”

His dark eyes blaze, and he nods. Her lips fasten to his hot and heavy before he can finish nodding his head.

He pulls away for a breath.“Shit,” he mutters under his breath. Then he’s back on her again, falling forward until they’re in a heap in the bed of her truck.

“Birth control,” she gasps between wet, hot kisses. “I’m assuming …”

“I’m all cleaaaa–” he moans when she wraps her hand around his dick through his shorts. “Wow. OK,” he grunts.

She flips him over until she’s on top, and she pulls her shirt over her head. Her loose ponytail comes undone, and her blond, wavy hair falls just above her bare breasts.

“Make me forget, Doc,” she rasps as she grinds into him. He goes for her belt buckle, unzipping her pants, and she pulls his face into her neck, eyes rolling back when he bites. “Make me fucking forget!”

And he does.

Jenna Cameron had rather unceremoniously disappeared around the same time that Max died. She hadn’t really told Kyle and Alex that she was leaving and then didn’t answer their calls whenever they tried to get in touch with her. They had sort of gotten into a nice flow with the three of them and it felt weird to just go back to how things were before she joined the Project Shepard crew.

But now she was back with just as little fanfare. 

“When do you even get back?” Kyle asked, shaky hands fumbling for the water bottle. Jenna ended up taking it and opening it for him. Her hand grabbed his chin and forced his head to tilt back so she could pour water into his burning eyes. 

“Yesterday,” she answered, holding his jaw so tight that it prevented him from wriggling out of her grasp or the stream of water aiming for his eyes. He did instinctually try to get away from it, but the cold water definitely felt better than the horrific stinging.

“You didn’t tell me?” 

“Was I supposed to?” 

Kyle groaned from the stinging and the water and definitely not from her dismissive voice. The fact of the matter was that he had willingly become her new scratching post after Max Evans which sort of felt like he had way too much in common with the fuckhead but he tried not to think about it that way. Jenna Cameron was a force to be reckoned with and, what could he say, he liked a woman who could single-handedly fuck him up.

However, they only had one night of him laid out on the couch and her hot breath on his skin before she up and left. Again, an unceremonious ending.

“How does that feel?” she asked, her voice low and quiet as she leaned into him. She held his eye open and soft blew into it and then did the same to the other. It was easily the weirdest turn on he’d ever encountered.

“Uh, better? Still can’t see for shit,” he admitted, finishing it with a cough.

“Yeah, you probably won’t get your sight back for about thirty minutes. It’ll burn after that too, probably be irritated until tomorrow,” Jenna said, sighing as she moved out of his reach which was significantly more disorienting than it should’ve been, “Sorry.”

“It’s… fine,” Kyle said and then coughed once more. His lungs felt like he’d just fucking inhaled literal pepper. Reality was a joke.

“Still, sorry,” she said. He found it extremely annoying that he hadn’t seen her in months and now she was here and he couldn’t see her. He rubbed at his eyes. “Do you need to do anything down here?”

“Well, I was coming to read files, but I can’t really do that anymore,” Kyle sighed. She was silent for a moment and he tried to remember the last time it felt so awkward with her. He blamed it on the pepper spray.

“Okay, well… You want me to drive you home? Since you can’t see?” Jenna offered. Kyle nodded and squeezed his eyes shut. He tried to open them, but everything was still blurry and his eyes burned and he needed a drink. Or a nap. Or both.

Kyle let Jenna lead him to her car and he tried to not be too pouty as he slumped into the passenger seat. Again, silence and this one was only slightly less awkward. The more he thought about the awkwardness, the more he realized it was probably because she hadn’t answered his calls after she disappeared.

“So, uh,” Kyle started, “Where’d you go?”

“A couple different places, didn’t really find what I was looking for,” Jenna answered cryptically. He would’ve rolled his eyes if they didn’t burn like hell still.

“Are you leaving again?” he asked.

Jenna sighed, “I don’t know.”

“Well, if you do, give us a head’s up next time. Alex and I were kinda relying on you and you bailed,” he said a little more honestly than he intended. Jenna simply sighed again.

Sometime during the ride to his apartment, his vision started to come back. That didn’t keep them from burning through, so he kept his eyes shut and let the silence soak in. She helped him inside and dropped him onto his couch. It felt oddly reminiscent of the last time he was with her.

He heard her rustling through the kitchen and, within a minute, he had a paper towel covered ziplock bag full of ice on his eyes. He almost moaned from the relief and she patted his knee. Then again they were silent.

“Are you mad at me or something?” he asked, “You’ve never been talkative, but you sure as hell aren’t the silent type.” She let out a breathy little laugh. It was a nice sound that she didn’t do often enough. In fact, he could only think of one time he’d ever heard her laugh in the three months they worked together and it was whenever he’d begged her to use him.

“I thought you were mad at me,” Jenna said, squeezing his ankle. He moved his feet out of the way and felt her sit on the couch.

“I’m not mad. Worried, yeah. For a minute there I thought I’d fucked up with hooking up with you and ran you out of town and Alex spent, like, four days tracking you down to make sure you weren’t dead,” Kyle admitted. It was probably too honest, but he was in pain and didn’t really give a shit. It stressed Alex out for different reasons than it did Kyle, thinking his dad had gone after her before going after Kyle.

Jenna squeezed his ankle again.

“It had nothing to do with either of you. I needed to clear my head,” she said. He pressed the makeshift ice pack on his eyes.

“I get that,” he said, “Tell us next time though.”

“Maybe.”

When they fell silent again, it was significantly less awkward and it had everything to do with the fact that her hand was still on his leg. She was touching them which meant they were okay. She wasn’t freaked out or uncomfortable with him. They were just picking up where they left off. You know, with pepper spray in Kyle’s eyes.

“I went to find my sister,” Jenna admitted. Kyle lifted the ice pack off his face and looked at her. It was the first look he’d really gotten of her since she came back. She looked good if not stressed and a bit blurry. “And I couldn’t.”

Kyle slowly sat up. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I think Master Sargent Manes knows which Manes I align myself with,” she said. Kyle licked his lips and rubbed his eyes once more.

“We can figure this out, let me call Alex,” he said. She smiled. A big, genuine smile. It stopped him from grabbing his phone immediately. “What?”

“You’re way too fucking good to be dealing with the people you do,” Jenna told him. He furrowed his eyebrows, but she simply cocked her head to the side in response. “I’m not just gonna flee this time.”

“Good. You’re needed here.” 

She took a deep breath, sort of like the idea of that scared her. It made him rethink her entire given reason for leaving. Kyle reached out and grabbed her hand in his.

“We’ll figure this out, I promise.”

“We fucking better or I’ll do a lot worse than pepper spray people.”

Kyle grinned.