"I will deal with you when I'm ready," Jase continued staring at the marble surface, his body hunched in primal restraint.

"Deal with me?" Paige stood with the dizziness of anger and adrenaline. "What are you going to do? Tie me to a chair? Lock me in a room with a bucket?" The flash of rage instantly took hold. She was angry with Jack, shaken up and angry with herself, even. But Jase's tone hit the nerve Paige tried her utmost to soothe every day, this time a boldness taking her to a place she hadn't dared to go to before.

"Sit down and shut up!" Jase slammed an open hand onto the marble with his back still towards her, feeling the sting in his palm. His brain barely had time to process the image of Jack's hand reaching for her before the surge of white fury dismissed any rational thought, and it still pulsed in his veins.

"You know what? I can't... I've fucking had enough, I can't do this anymore," Paige shook her head to dispel the frustrated tears that threatened to form. Jase turned around, inhaling deeply to settle his temper.

"You think you have a choice in how this goes?" His features settled, illuminated by the muted lighting of the kitchen.

"It's my fucking life! My life! I should have a fucking choice. I can't live like this anymore, this dynamic between us, it's so toxic-"

"We would never have this problem if you-"

"If I what!? Obeyed your every order without question? Never left the apartment?" She scoffed in vexation. Jase took a step closer to Paige's furious form, his green gaze hard and unrelenting. She was, without a doubt, the most frustrating and complicated assignment he'd ever had. Somewhere along the way, he'd forgotten what he was doing there. The emotional eruption she'd had in the throes of PTSD flashbacks had made it piercingly clear he was the single biggest threat to her livelihood. If Lorres and the agency were cooling off, and would take her on to keep her close, Jase forced himself to believe it would be the better option for both of them.

"Why are you so against your own personal safety?"

"Because no one will tell me what I'm being protected against! You want me to believe it's a vague threat of IS and a fatwa on my head?" The torrent of suppressed thoughts and theories she had been burying burst to the surface. "You think I don't know your real job is me? It's not to protect me, is it? Is it?" She repeated, watching Jase's features closely as they changed; defensive, guarded...

"You have no idea what you're talking about," he replied eventually, his voice a low growl.

"Then enlighten me! Stop 'protecting' me from my own life!"

"I'm not arguing with you over this. I don't argue, Paige. You want to work with the agency, go ahead. Once those papers are signed I won't be a part of your life anymore," Jase's tone was cautiously yielding, the same exhaustion Paige felt laced through the words.

"That's all I wanted," she muttered weakly. It was the truth, and somehow she knew it was also a lie.

"I'm sure you'll be fine working with Jack," he smirked joylessly.

"I've managed to stomach you after everything you did, haven't I?" Paige retorted hotly. She regretted it the moment the words escaped her lips, and in the same instance was furious with herself for that. He deserves none of my kindness, none of my understanding or patience. Jase nodded despondently, hands on his hips as he processed the harsh statement. He rubbed his face wearily with a large hand, displaying a newly scuffed and bloodied knuckle.

"I can't believe I'm explaining this; but if you can't see the difference between someone performing under duty and orders, and someone getting drunk and assaulting you in the street when he gets you alone; then you're not as clever as I thought."

"It wasn't just under orders though, was it?" Paige stated darkly, a tremor in her voice. "Did they tell you what to do, how to do it? How to look at me? How to caress my cheek and placate me? To cut a slit in my trousers and stroke your fingers against my thigh? What if the camera wasn't there, what would you have done after that?" All of the burning questions constantly flooding her conscious rose to the surface. He had betrayed her, and it had left her reeling. She had been confused, petrified, and humiliated that she hadn't seen it coming. Jase implored himself to stay silent, but the final insinuation stabbed at him like a dagger to the gut.

"I would never-" he began, feeling a heady sickness descend.

"Then why did you do it?" Paige cried. "Are you telling me you didn't think that was where my mind would go? You tortured me, tied me to a chair, reached between my legs and sliced my trousers open, and the way you toyed with me... you knew exactly what you were doing!" Tears sprung in her eyes now, salty and hot with the wounds her mind tried to suppress.

"That's not..." Jase stumbled. It hadn't been what he intended, all those months ago in the Jordanian desert. But didn't he know? Of course you knew. Tie a woman to a chair and send a man in, what is she going to be afraid of? He had known, really. Deep in the recesses of his mind he was aware her brain would have raced there, he just didn't allow it to make him too cautious with how he treated her. He knew he would never violate somebody in that way, and that had been enough for him to carry on with the task at hand. He had never stopped to consider whether Paige was reassured with the same knowledge. Didn't some part of you want that to be the case? Wasn't it better for you if she was as petrified as possible?

"That's not what? Did I misunderstand? Misinterpret your intentions? You've preached for months about how I shouldn't trust anyone- standing here vilifying Jack, probably feeling like a martyr for scaring him off. How dare you tell yourself you're any better than him- how fucking deluded can you get?" Paige shouted in the intensity of a rage she could no longer suppress. Months of sleepless nights haunted by Jase and the ghostly memories erupted in anger, longing to slash his carefully constructed ego to shreds.

"You have no idea who I am, there's no comparison between me and someone like Jack-"

"You're right! Jack's quite upfront about being an arsehole, you can read it on him the minute you meet him. He's not a psychopath-"

"You don't know me!" Jase bellowed, the boom echoing through the house. "You have no idea what I've done for you. What I have sacrificed for you. You know what- I was going to leave you in your perfect little bubble-"

"Perfect?"

"-The belief that everyone else is out to help you and I'm the only bad guy, the one intent on wrecking your life. I've sacrificed the truth all this time so you could have that, but it's not enough for you. It's been me protecting you from the start," Jase jabbed his index finger at his chest, finally releasing himself from Paige and the obligation he felt to preserve her wellbeing. "It was me who tried to stop the recordings of our interview from going to the CIA. And when I found out they'd been sent, I had to find a way to handle it. You think they would have just sat on it, and done nothing? It was either I went in, or they held you for days until agents arrived and subjected you to the kinds of things al-Raheem did and more. I would have had no say- none of us would have had any say, it would have been entirely out of our hands- of your hands. And they wouldn't have stopped- I know those guys, they do what they do for a reason Paige, they would have enjoyed it. Especially with you," Jase's eyes glinted. Paige resisted the urge to interrupt and dispute his telling of events, but she knew she was close to uncovering a truth she knew she had been missing.

"So it was me," he continued. "It couldn't be Ant, Rob, any of your guys, it had to be my team. I didn't trust anyone else, and I knew Charles and whoever else above him in the agency would trust my judgement, my findings. Somebody had to hurt you, I wasn't going to let it be anybody else. So yes," his voice cracked suddenly, choking on the admission. "Yes, I hurt you. And I did it well. I know how they work, I know what they look for. If I didn't go far enough, if you weren't scared enough, it wasn't realistic enough... they would have sent the agents anyway and it would have all been for nothing. I had to bring Anthony in, talk him through it, make sure he knew you were safe..." Paige stood rigidly still in stunned silence. You didn't expect that. All this time, she'd guessed perhaps he was there to watch her for the CIA rather than be her security, but this...

"So there you have it- when we got back here I resigned from active duty. Ant called me the night before he was forced out, begging me to watch over you. He didn't trust what they might do, and with good reason. It wasn't Lorres' idea for me to stay with you. She was going to pin agents on you, watch your movements, tail you... Ant knew you'd be safest with me. I knew I'd hurt you, badly... somehow it seemed a way to make it up to you; to watch over you here, keep an ear to the agency... It was precautionary, yes, but I didn't trust them. I let you live in misery this whole time because I knew you were safe with me-"

"Why didn't you say anything?" Paige breathed headily, a fizzing in her brain making her fingertips prickle. Jase laughed bitterly, shaking his head.

"Because I didn't want you to live like that! How fucking ironic, right? I was already the bad guy, so what; I was going to force you to live with me and tell you a huge government division you believed were helping get your life back on track actually had you under surveillance, and at any given moment it was possible they'd either bring you in or silence you forever? I didn't want you to wake up every morning with that looming over your head, knowing you were trapped here, up against a nearly unbeatable threat... I made the choice. I let you hate me instead," an engulfing wave of exhaustion washed over Jase, a freedom from everything he hadn't been able to say, and the gnaw from the sick pit of guilt he held.

"I don't-" Paige took a stumbled step backwards, horror and shock overwhelming her dainty features. She couldn't finish her sentence, trembling with a nausea that overpowered her. The trauma she'd bared, the memories from Jordan, the anxiety that clung to her every living moment around Jase... it was all thrown into disarray. It was all different, distorted, but no less terrifying. A lurch in her throat told her it changed everything, but she wasn't sure in what way, or why.