The question infuriated him.
“I’m fine.”
“Then stay focused.”
Jake looked toward Briggs.
“You going to let her coach me now?”
Briggs did not smile.
“She isn’t wrong.”
The room reacted immediately.
Not loudly.
Several soldiers exchanged looks.
Jake stared at Briggs.
“You serious?”
“Completely.”
Jake pointed at Emma.
“You know something.”
Briggs’s face went blank.
“I know you’re getting distracted.”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“Then worry about what’s in front of you.”
Jake turned back toward Emma.
She was waiting.
Again.
Always waiting.
Never rushing.
Never trying to prove herself.
That patience had become more unsettling than any boast could have been.
Jake raised his hands.
“You set this up?”
Emma frowned.
“Set what up?”
“This.”
“You invited me.”
“I know what I did.”
“Then why are you confused?”
A soldier near the cage looked down to hide a smile.
Jake saw him anyway.
“Everybody thinks this is funny now?”
Nobody answered.
That silence stung more than laughter.
Emma spoke calmly.
“You wanted them watching.”
Jake’s face hardened.
“They were already here.”
“You made sure they were listening.”
Briggs shifted his stance.
Jake glanced at him.
“You agree with that too?”
Briggs answered without hesitation.
“Yes.”
Jake stared.
The unexpected support hit harder than the crowd’s changing mood.
For the first time, Jake seemed alone inside the circle.
Emma did not celebrate it.
She simply raised her hands.
Briggs checked both soldiers.
“Continue.”
Jake approached differently.
No grin.
No commentary.
No glance toward the benches.
He tested Emma’s movement.
She answered with movement of her own.
He changed direction.
She adjusted.
For several seconds, the room watched two soldiers actually train.
The humiliation disappeared from the surface.
Something more honest replaced it.
Jake tried a quicker entry.
Emma redirected her position and made him turn.
He stopped himself.
His eyes widened slightly.
Briggs saw it.
Emma saw it.
Jake did not speak.
He tried again.
Emma gave him another angle.
Nothing violent happened.
Nothing needed to.
The difference was already visible.
Jake understood distance.
Emma understood it earlier.
Jake understood pressure.
Emma recognized when pressure was coming.
Jake was strong.
Emma never challenged his strength directly.
She kept making strength solve the wrong problem.
A sergeant near the benches quietly said, “That’s not beginner movement.”
The private beside him whispered, “No chance.”
Jake heard both.
He stepped away.
“Briggs.”
Briggs sighed.
“What?”
“Who is she?”
Emma lowered her hands.
Briggs looked toward her.
Emma’s face remained composed.
Briggs answered carefully.
“Sergeant Emma Carter.”
Jake shook his head.
“Don’t do that.”
“You asked.”
“You know what I mean.”
Briggs looked around the gym.
The spectators had moved closer.
No one was laughing now.
He looked at Jake again.
“You should probably ask her.”
Jake turned toward Emma.
“All right.”
Emma waited.
“What did you do before administrative support?”
The room became still.
Emma’s eyes moved briefly toward Briggs.
That was the first time she had looked to him for anything.
Briggs noticed.
Jake noticed too.
Emma returned her attention to Jake.
“I served where I was assigned.”
Jake gave an incredulous laugh.
“That tells me nothing.”
“It tells you exactly what you need.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Emma lowered her hands.
“You decided my job title told you what I could do.”
Jake’s expression shifted.
She continued.
“You decided where I belonged before asking what I knew.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“You called me office support.”
“You are office support.”
“Right now.”
Those two words changed the room.
Jake stared at her.
Briggs looked away for a moment.
A few soldiers exchanged glances.
Jake pointed toward him.
“There.”
Briggs looked back.
“There what?”
“That reaction.”
“I moved my eyes.”
“You know something.”
Briggs’s voice hardened.
“Turner, stop searching for an excuse.”
Jake blinked.
“Excuse?”
“You wanted a demonstration.”
“I wanted a spar.”
“You got one.”