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horshoesandshakshuka · 6 years

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Jazton Blurbs: Prompts #8, 15, 19

A/N: As requested by @allbe0418 about a million years ago, I’ve got some Jazton blurbs for y’all today below the cut! It’s from that prompt list I posted back in, like, January oops... Many apologies because I couldn’t come up with anything for 18 (angst is tough for me, my dudes), BUT I went for it on the others. They’re in chronological order, rather than numerical, so that’s why the numbering is out of whack.

Also, I don’t actually ship Jazton (oops?), so I had trouble finding the inspo to write them romantically. Still, I hope this is in line with their characterization and their dynamic and that you enjoy! xo, christina

Characters: Jaz Khan and Adam Dalton (primarily), Joseph McGuire, Preach Carter, Amir Al-Raisani, Hussein Larijani

Requested?: Yes/No

Total WC: 1385 (this got out of hand, but then again, my writing always does lol)

Requests: Open!

#19: Things You Said When We Were The Happiest We Ever Were (WC: 206)

[A/N: I tweaked the prompt a little... it’s more from Dalton’s POV rather than a mutual memory]

Between the missions, the wedding, the anniversaries, the kids and the little forever they had carved out together, Jaz and Adam had a lot of good moments over the years. But for Adam, there was always one moment that made his chest feel all gooey and warm. (Which is ironic, because in the moment, he was two milliseconds away from a bullet in his brain.)

They were thousands of miles from home, beneath an overpass in a kill box of a city, sabotaging an Iranian secret police convoy in order to rescue Jaz. Call Adam crazy for saying that was the happiest moment of his life, but when the doors of the truck swung open and revealed Jaz’s squirming and bloodied- but very much alive- form, it was only the adrenaline pumping through Adam’s veins that kept him from collapsing from relief and sobbing from happiness as McG performed a few basic first aid measures.

“I got you!” Adam assured her breathlessly as he and McG hoisted her out of the truck and transported her into the back of the van that Amir, Preach and Hussein had just arrived in. “I got you! You’re alright!”

Their girl- Adam’s girl- was alive and they were going home.

#15: Things You Said With Too Many Miles Between Us (WC: 452)

Jaz sat at the kitchen table alone, waiting for the kettle to steam and the water to boil. In the days following the mess in Tehran, Grandma Carter’s No-Fail Nap Time Tea had been essential to getting a good night’s sleep, especially since the guys were gone. Without them, home was eerily quiet and her only company was Patton and Xander, which was truly depressing. But, if all went to plan, they should return from Bogota soon enough.

Speak of the devil- the sat phone was vibrating on the communications desk, right next to the laptop that DIA sent their mission directives through. Jaz shot out of her seat and lunged for the phone. It had to be one of the guys checking in from Bogota. She hoped they had good news.

She pressed the phone to her ear. “Hello?”

“Jaz, hey.” Dalton’s voice came through the line, calm and collected. “It’s Dalton.”

“Hey, Top.” She smiled softly. “How was the mission?”

“Successful. How are things there?” He asked before she could ask for any more details, which Jaz was certain was intentional.

“Everything’s good.” She assured him. “I took Patton for a run and then hit the gym. I played some video games and beat my own high score for the hell of it. I was about to rack up when you called.”

“Oh-ho-ho,” He laughed. “Somebody’s getting cocky.”

Jaz smirked as she repeated the words she had said to Xander not too long ago. “Nobody beats me.”

“Maybe at video games, but just wait until we get back to the shooting range.” He teased lightly.

“We’ll see about that.” She chuckled. “How are the-?”

A muffled voice cut in that was too quiet for Jaz to discern to whom it belonged. “Top, stop pretending like you can’t hear me. You’re not that far away!”

“Who’s there?” Jaz asked curiously.

“Nobody,” Dalton responded immediately. “You were saying?”

“I was gonna ask how the team is doing.”

“It was a close shave, but everybody’s-” Before he could finish, Jaz heard a voice that sounded like McG’s arguing in the background: “Come on, Top! Tell Jazzy I said hi. I know she misses me!”

“Yeah, right, Joseph.” A second, sarcastic voice remarked. That must be Amir.

“What are you two, twelve?” A third voice, serene and deep, asked. Given the tone, the last voice was Preach for sure.

“Would you guys be quiet?” Dalton hissed, annoyance lacing his voice, before remembering Jaz was on the line. “Uh, sorry, Jaz. That was just the guys being... them.”

“It’s fine.” She said lightly before adding, “Hey, Top?”

“Yeah?”

She smirked. “Would you tell them I said hi?”

Dalton groaned, but Jaz could hear him smiling.

#8: Things You Said When You Were Crying (WC: 727)

[aka a continuation of That Fire Pit Scene from 1x11]

The boys had returned from Colombia earlier in the afternoon and Xander had cleared Jaz that morning, which called for the traditional team celebration- horseshoes, beers, and grilling.

Jaz was happy they were back; being alone on base felt wrong. She missed the smell of Amir’s cooking; the sound of Preach’s soft and affectionate tone that he used when talking to his girls; the thrill that shot up her spine when she would beat Top in their weekly Tuesday target practice competition at the range. Hell, she even missed the way McG teasingly called her Jazzy, which might have been a sign that the Apocalypse was imminent. Or maybe she just really wanted things back to normal. All she had while they were gone were video games, sessions with Xander and Patton, the couch-hogging, slobber-kissing Wonder Dog.

The evening was casual, the food was good, and the nighttime sky was chilly. After the others had gone to bed, Jaz and her CO sat in front of the fire, sharing a blanket, sipping beers and watching the fire flicker in front of them. Their conversation had ventured into uncharted waters-- to Top’s past, before Jaz had known him.

“To do the things we do… you have to be able to tap into another part of yourself. But I don’t like that guy, that Adam Dalton.” He looked back at her, eyes shining with tears. “But he’s a part of me and he doesn’t go away.”

For a few moments, the only sound was the crackling of the flames in the fire pit. Jaz didn’t know what to do or say. Top wasn’t one to wear his heart on his sleeve, to bare his feelings to anyone; he liked to keep his emotions in check and his feelings close to his chest. He would argue that emotional control was a prerequisite to do his job.

That being said, people don’t typically share their innermost thoughts unless they want a response, so Jaz scooted closer to him and looped an arm around his shoulder in a show of support. She didn’t know if he was looking for more- and maybe, just maybe, she hoped that he was- but once that line was crossed, they couldn’t go back. She had to be sure and she just wasn’t yet, so she held herself back.

Dalton gripped his beer bottle in his hand tightly, like it was a stress ball. “In Tehran, after you were taken, I shot a civilian in the leg just because I wanted information. It was out of left field, but my body just did it, like it was the natural thing to do.”

“When I had the shot on Jarif, I felt the same thing.” She squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. “It’s reflexive. You use your best judgment in the moment, but the bond we have as a team causes us to do some crazy-looking shit.”

His bright blue eyes met her dark ones and she could’ve sworn she saw a glimmer of mirth there as he murmured, low and slow. “Sometimes we have to improvise.”

She nodded, one of the corners of her mouth turned up into a soft smile. “And sometimes we don’t sleep so well afterward, but we learn from it and we strive to do better.”

Dalton took a deep breath, wiped the tears away, reached for her hand and squeezed it gently. He offered her a small, tight, appreciative smile. “Thank you, Jaz- really. Another day of these thoughts rattling around in my head and I would’ve had to check myself in to see Xander.”

She laughed quietly at that. “While that’s always a good option to have, I’m always around to talk, too.”

“Noted.” He yawned and stretched his hands over his head, out of her embrace. “I’m beat. I’m gonna go rack up. You should probably do the same.”

“Wouldn’t want to mess with your beauty sleep schedule.” She teased with a smile.

“You know you wouldn’t.” He teased, scooped up their empty beer bottles and trudged off toward the bunks.

She was too lost in her thoughts to respond immediately, so he was already out of earshot when she replied, “Night, Top” to the inky Incirlik sky.

Jaz stayed up for a while after that, watching the flames of the fire slowly die off, wondering when things had become so complicated.

#jazton #adam dalton #jaz khan #jaz x dalton #joseph mcguire #preach carter #amir al-raisani #hussein larijani #patton #the brave nbc #request #mine: blurbs #mike vogel #natacha karam #noah mills #demetrius grosse #hadi tabbal

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the314anoman · 5 years

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2018 sucked

it was probably the shittiest year of my life, and that’s not an easy title to claim. let’s recap:

it all started way back in early january, when our subway came under new ownership and we got a new manager, who had worked there for a shorter period than i had (yeah, i was part-time working during college, she was full-time, but w/e) and it all went downhill fast. our manager wasn’t bad, she just was just trying to deal with all the new regulations we were facing and the fact that we were Massively Understaffed™ for being located in a fucking mall. like, for contrast, our old managers let us get away with not turning the line coolers off at night if we were really busy, but under the new owners, we had to clean the legs of tables to get the salt of them. i decided to quit in march after having minors stay and help me close even though they were off the clock since they were required to punch out at 9:30 and still getting yelled at for staying too long and not making everything Perfect. it was so stressful trying to work both faster and harder, so i quit. then, college got out in april and i was looking for internships all over and applying everywhere, but i never got even so much as an interview request. so, june came and i just said “fuck it” and applied to other subways closer to home. ended up getting an interview the next day at a different subway, 2 miles from the old one. i got the job and starting working to find out the subway was also Massively Understaffed™ but the manager was more chill, so it seemed fine. turns out the reason the manager was chill is that he was high. like, all the time. this resulted in him having the memory of a goldfish. like, i specifically told him and his assistant manager that i couldn’t work one day and yet he still called asking where i was when i very plainly explained it twice. and he also scheduled a meeting on the day i request off for my niece’s baptism. at 8am. on a sunday. at the same time, i managed to get an interview at a local factory. it wasn’t really an internship nor in my field, but it was a job and it paid $12/hr so i was like, hell yeah, why not. i managed to get the job and started july 1st, which was great, buuuuuut... the job was super boring; it was pretty much doing the same repetitive tasks over and over again for 7.5 hours a day while ~~listening~~ being subjected to country music. BUT, we got 3 breaks a day and it was nice having a chill job. i came up with a lot of really good writing ideas for a novel that’s been a super long wip because my mind was mostly free during work since it was so repetitive. at this time, i’m still working at subway, mostly weekends and some 5-close shifts. i’m not getting a whole lot of sleep and so that probably explains what happens on july 25th, probably the single shittiest day of my life. i get into the factory and the normal manager is gone on vacation and one of my coworkers is taking over. she tells me that i’ve been missing the least important step in the process of making some parts that i’ve been doing for days now. so naturally, i mess it up a couple more times, but only when she’s watching, because ofc. this happens 3 times and the third time i kind of chuckle to myself because i’m literally only doing it when she’s watching. she takes this to mean i’m laughing at her and yells at me about how i think it’s a joke and blah blah blah, like that’s not what i meant at all but she won’t let me explain. THEN, i get out of work and i’m already on the verge of tears because i have a migraine from lack of sleep and i hate getting yelled at, and i see a text i got while at work (we’re not allowed phones on our person at all at the factory. national security stuff apparently) that my grandma is in the hospital and not going to make it. i just... lose it. i go home and just sit outside on a chair, cuddling my cat and gross sobbing for the first time i can recall. i’m supposed to work a 5-9 shift at subway tonight, but i am not in any state to work. i call them through tears saying i can’t work tonight, i’m visiting my grandma in the hospital in muskegon, an hour away. she’s unconscious when i get there. she dies an hour later, while me and my family are eating dinner downstairs in the basement where there’s no signal. eventually tomorrow comes. it’s now july 26th, which if you know me, is my birthday. my 21st birthday, in fact. you know how for most people, their 21st is the best day of your life? yeah, it was one of the worst for me. i still had to get up at 6am for the factory work, then run home, get changed, and work 5-9 at subway. the only bright spot were two helpful coworkers. one from the factory gave me a butterscotch shot, saying you should still try and enjoy your birthday and my subway coworker bought a hershey pie for me and gave me a hug and some helpful advice. (she had been through a similar experience with her mom passing, so she knew a lot about grief.) i took her advice on letting yourself be happy and decided to go to my friends’ meetup that weekend, which i had requested off from subway previously. it’s a while away, but this was planned a long time ago and i don’t get to see my college friends in the summer other than this, so i’m not missing this. but, when i’m almost there i get a call from subway insisting that i work this weekend to make up for missing my 4 hour shift yesterday. i’m furious because i missed it for legitimate reasons and i was already over 2 hours away and i was NOT driving back. (the reason they’re insisting is because they don’t want to pay my coworker overtime, despite the fact she’s living in a trailer park only off her subway income, too.) they say they might have to fire me and i’m like, sure, i have another job and i already put in my 2 weeks lol. so i go there and try to forget this whole week ever happened. the funeral is on monday, the factory gives me it off so i can attend. there’s lots of tears. lots and lots. my grandma touched a lot of people’s lives; she’s one of the kindest people i’ve ever known. she probably would have supported my sexuality if i ever told her, i regret not doing so earlier. i come back to my factory job on tuesday, and as if the universe is answering some unanswered “could things get any worse?” the hiring manager informs me i’m fired, as if it had to be july 31st, to add to the shithole that july 2018 was. this was a temp position to begin with, and i was leaving in a couple weeks anyway, but this is just another blow to an already grieving 21-year-old. i may have just lost both my jobs and my grandmother in the span of 7 days. i leave the factory and get in my car and just. scream. time passes. the pain of july slowly fades from a roaring inferno all over my body to a dull pulsing. good things start to happen again. i move into an apartment with 3 friends, get a job at the theatre after a lot of paperwork issues, i make the cut for an a capella group and find new friends, develop a crush on someone (something i haven’t really had since high school - but that’s a story for another time), and actually start getting my shit together. things are definitely looking up, despite the fact i had the worst month of life a couple months ago. ...and then comes december, as if it’s trying to challenge july to a battle for shittiest month ever. final exams are coming up, i spend a lot of the previous week leading up to exams rehearsing for performances (i had 4 performances in a week’s span), not much studying could be done. not that studying would help that much, as we would see, but w/e. i ended up forgetting my book with all the important formulas and relationships in it that are too complex to memorize, so i completely bombed that final, and therefore failed the whole class. i’m already having to take an extra semester, failing this class does NOT help. i barely stayed above a 3.0 gpa, a requirement for most internships. on the same day we got final grades back, my mom got a call saying my grandpa had died, only a week before christmas. my whole family went back up to do the whole funeral thing again. we are getting awfully familiar with this nursing home (my mom lost both her parents and an uncle in 5 months). finally, on new year’s eve i decide it’s either now or never to admit my feelings, so i ask my crush out. i get rejected, which is mostly what i expected, but it still knocks the wind out of me. so yeah, 2018 was super extra shitty for me. but at the same time, i feel like i’ve grown a lot as a person. i’ve made a bunch of new friends, gained a niece, learned a lot about pain, and done a lot of things i never thought i’d do. hell, i had the balls to ask a guy out, which was something that frightened me to my core. i went on a trip to dc and learned more about the injustices happening here, i went camping/hiking with friends, and went tubing behind a boat. so, i’m not gonna pretend it’s all bad.

#sorry about the super long post #but i needed to reflect on the past year #it's been life-changing #for better or worse

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