I don't know where I got this one. Enjoy. Counting Shadows. Do not own. Rights go to people who are not me.

Chapter 1

Corporal Courtney "Cover Girl" Krieger was off duty and enjoying some time with her friends Shana "Scarlet" O'Hara and Alison Hart-Burnett in town. Of course, they were joined by their male companions AKA boyfriends when they weren't on base; Wayne "Beach Head" Sneeden, Conrad "Duke" Hauser and Dashiel "Flint" Faireborne. The group liked being off duty or on leave even if Beach Head didn't want to admit it. Being off duty or on leave meant that you were able to spend time with those you cared about namely family or your girlfriend/boyfriend who does not exist because of fraternization regulations. Not that they were enforced strongly. They were part of a top secret military unit called G.I Joe that was dedicated to protecting the world against COBRA, a terrorist organization hell bent on world domination. Starting a family was out of the question for their line of work, now, unless they disbanded again, then that was an entirely different story. The group was making their way towards Courtney's apartment off base when they saw the fire. They exchanged concerned looks. Duke jogged over to one of the firefighters and asked:

- "What's going on?"

- "We've got a four alarm fire here. Everything's under control though sir." one of the firefighters said

Duke nodded and returned to the group repeating what he had been told. They were just about to leave when Courtney heard what sounded like a baby crying. She stopped cold and grabbed Scarlet's arm. The latter turning around to look at her friend with confusion.

- "Do you guys hear that?" Courtney asked

They all stopped and listened.

- "It sounds like a baby. That's still in the burning building." Courtney said to the confusion of the others, they couldn't hear anything.

The moment she said that, Courtney spun around on her heel and bolted back towards the building. She was past the blockade of firefighters and in the building before anyone could stop her. Wayne tried to go in after her but Duke and Flint tackled him just in time.

- "Are you insane?!" Flint yelled

- "I have to get her out." Wayne snapped

- "You can't go in there, if you go in, you could bring the entire building down on top of her." Duke snapped

Wayne resigned to waiting outside the building hoping that Courtney would make it out in one piece.

- "I'm curious, how could they not notice that a baby was still inside the building, they should have noticed? And why we were unable to hear it?" Scarlet asked

- "I don't know Shana. I don't know." Alison answered

Meanwhile, Courtney had pulled the collar of her shirt over her nose as she ran up the stairs. With every floor she went up, the baby's cries got louder. They were the loudest on the third floor and kept getting louder as she ran down the hall. She paused in front of one door because know the cries were loudest, figured that the child must be in that room promptly kicked down the door. She found that her hunch was correct, the child was in there. She stared at the baby, surrounding it was a dome of what appeared to orange energy. As she got closer, she heard a voice in her mind whispering:

- "Look after her. Protect her. Keep her safe. Take care of my sister."

Courtney looked around trying to find the source of the voice but saw no one. She walked over and pick the child up and when she did that, she felt a pleasant heat pass over her and watched open mouthed as the fire was extinguished.

- "What are you little one?" Courtney asked as the baby gurgled happily

Courtney looked at the baby, it was a girl and she couldn't be more than a year old. She had very light orange hair and to Courtney's surprise, the bluest eyes she had ever seen. There was a medallion around the girl's neck. The chain was made of what Courtney though was 24 Karat gold. The medallion was purple with a pair of gold dragons entwined around each other with rubies for their eyes. Courtney flipped it over and etched onto the back was a name: Bloom. She took it off and pocketed the medallion.

- "Bloom, is that your name little one?" Courtney asked the baby

The baby, Bloom didn't respond, she just gurgled.

- "Well, I can't just leave you here, I'll take you out to meet my friends and then we'll figure something out." Courtney said

Carrying Bloom, Courtney turned away from the room and went back down stairs and out the way she came in. The firefighters were busy scratching their heads trying to figure out how the fire suddenly extinguished like that. She walked over to her friends and said:

- "Look who I found."

- "AWWWWW!" Shana and Alison said at the same time before the former took Bloom from Courtney's arms

Courtney turned to the boys and pulled out the medallion.

- "What do you guys think of this?"

Conrad took the medallion and let out a low whistle.

- "Wow. Where did you find this?" He asked

- "It was around her neck Con. I suspect that it's made of 24 Karat gold and those are real rubies." Courtney said

- "What was something like this doing around her neck?" Dashiel asked taking the medallion from Conrad

- "Search me Dash. Her name is Bloom by the way. But that's not the weirdest thing that happened. When I found her, she was surrounded by a dome of what appeared to be orange energy." Courtney said

- "Okay, that is weird." Wayne said examining the medallion

- "It gets weirder, I also heard a woman's voice telling me; look after her. Protect her. Keep her safe. Look after my sister. And then when I look around, there was no one there. It was almost telepathic. And then, when I picked her up, there was a pleasant heat that passed through me and then the fire was extinguished. I swear, it was like magic. There's no other word for it." She said

- "Wow. Are you okay though?" Wayne asked

- "Yeah, I'm fine, you know, I didn't even notice the heat or the flames, it was almost as if I was being protected from the fire." Courtney said

Alison came over holding Bloom and asked:

- "What's her name?"

- "Bloom." Courtney told her friend

- "Bloom, what a cute name. Do you want to hold her Dash?" Alison asked holding Bloom out

- "Sure. Uh... how do I hold a baby?" He asked

- "Like this." Alison said demonstrating

-"She is really cute. And has really pretty eyes." Shana said

- "I have never seen blue... no wrong colour, cyan eyes on a redhead before." Courtney pointed out

- "Neither have I Court, what are we going to do with her?" Shana asked

- "I don't know but we can't just leave her." Courtney said

- "You're right we can't but we can't bring her back to base with us, Hawk would have an aneurysm." Shana said

- "It can't hurt to ask though. If the boys are reacting like that, what's to say that he won't be smitten at first glance." Alison pointed out

- "Good point, he likes kids but the others might be a bit harder to convince." Shana said

- "I suspect that the male population will also be smitten with this little scrap of red hair and cyan eyes." Courtney said

The three women burst out laughing. They laughed even harder when Dashiel, with a pleading look on his face asked:

- "Can we keep her?"

The men exchanged looks of confusion. Bloom just laughed along and clapped her hands.

- "Okay boys, who want to take her to meet Hawk?" Alison asked

- "ARE YOU CRAZY!" the men yelled

- "We can't bring her back to base with us. There is no way Hawk will let that happen." Conrad said

- "That and it's more than a little dangerous." Wayne pointed out

- "We lock the doors to the armoury right? And Lifeline and Doc lock the doors to the med bay at night don't they?" Alison asked "And don't the ninjas keep their sharp pointy objects behind locked doors?"

- "Well.. yes." Dashiel said

- "So what's the problem?" Alison asked

- "Hawk." Conrad said "And perhaps the rest of the base."

Courtney raised an eyebrow and Wayne stifled a laugh but snorted slightly:

- "Ah don't think that'll be much of a problem. Ah suspect that when our dear general takes one look at our little scrap, BAM, he'll be smitten." Wayne said grinning

- "Same goes with the rest of the base's population." Courtney said

- "All right, we'll bring her back to base but we need to come up with a backup plan in case it doesn't go over well." Conrad said

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

General Clayton "Hawk" Abernathy has learned to expect the unexpected since becoming head of G.I Joe. So when five of his soldiers walk into his office, one of them missing he can't help but give them an odd look.

- "Okay, what happened?" He asked

- "What makes you think anything happened Sir." Duke said

Hawk gives him a look before saying:

- "I know you guys well enough that I can tell when something happened that you are reluctant to tell me about Duke, so I ask again; what happened?"

Scarlet told the story, the others tossing certain things she missed. At the end of the story, Hawk was feeling more than surprised, he was not expecting that. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

- "So let me get this strait, you are trying to tell me that... the girl that Cover Girl found and saved has some form of magic."

- "Yes Sir." Flint said

- "And that you guys want to keep her and raise her as your own?"

- "Yes Sir." Lady Jaye said

- "More precisely, you guys want to raise her here? On base?"

- "Yes Sir." Scarlet said

Hawk sighed and weighed his options. It was either, let them raise the kid here or loose some of his soldiers. He sighed again and said:

- "Are you sure that her parents weren't there among the crowd? Or even lived in the building?" Hawk asked

- "No Sir. Ah even asked several people that lived in the complex while Cover Girl went and got the car. They said that they had never seen her before and the man who lived in the apartment that Cover Girl found her in said that he wasn't aware that she had even been there." Beach Head said

- "No one knew who she was or where she came from Sir. Hell, the only way we knew her name was thanks to this medallion." Duke said passing the medallion to Hawk

Hawk took the medallion and examined it. He had never seen craftsmanship like that before. It was very impressive he had to admit it.

- "So, the only thing you guys know about her is her name? You don't even know where she came from? Or the origins of this medallion? I must admit it, I have never seen anything like this." Hawk said passing it back

- "Cover Girl had a thought as to what it was made of. In fact on our way back, we stopped at a jewellers to confirm he hunch." Flint said

- "And what was it made of?" Hawk asked

- "Well Sir, the chain and the dragons on the medallion are made of 24 Karat gold, the purple parts he was unsure as to what they were made of and the eyes are real rubies of the highest quality. Her hunch was therefore proven correct." Beach Head said

Hawk whistled impressed. He stood up and said:

- "I'd like to meet the kid."

They led him out into the hall where Cover Girl was sitting and holding Bloom. She stood up and pulled off a salute with Bloom in her free hand.

- "At ease Corporal, so this is the kid you rescued?" Hawk asked

- "Yes Sir." Cover Girl said

- "May I?" He asked holding out his arms

- "Of course Sir." She said passing Bloom over "Watch her head."

Hawk was mesmerized by the little girl he held. The girls eyes were filled with wonder as she looked at him. She smiled slightly and she smiled back at him. Behind him, Scarlet leaned in close to Duke and whispered:

- "Sold."

Hawk passed Bloom back to Cover Girl before sighing, his mind made up.

- "Fine. I'll let you keep the kid but, you guys will be buying her supplies with your own money, no one outside the base is allowed to know about her and should I get one complaint from anyone on base, you guys will have to find some other arrangement. Am I clear?"

- "Yes Sir!" the others chanted

- "All right you guys. Go and get some sleep. Dismissed."

They all left. Hawk on the other hand returned to his office wondering how the hell he was going to tell the rest of the base about this arrangement.

And there you have it. The start to my new story. I hope you all enjoyed. Counting Shadows, out.