Hard Times
Summary: As an elite anti-terrorist unit, the Joes are used to sacrifices, but the little things are the hardest to deal with. Marvel Comic-verse based, Flint/Lady Jaye.
A/N: This is another story from my Christmas giveaway. Dromeda provided the prompt of Flint and Lady Jaye trying to find some time together while on base. Sorry for the delay, but between being under the weather and weather-related structural damage to the house, writing's had to take a backseat. Thanks to amykay73 and VR Trakowski for the beta.
Rating: Let's go crazy with a PG-13 for a little language.
Disclaimer: Insert any previous disclaimer from any other story I've ever written...

When he'd first set his sights on Lady Jaye, Flint had been warned. Colleagues had taken him aside on numerous occasions: he was risking a court-martial for sex, he was putting her in a position to be accused of favoritism, it would create tension with other teammates, he'd have to deal with sending her on dangerous missions. He'd heard the whole gamut – they hadn't told him anything he hadn't already considered – but he had had no doubts about his ability to handle any issues that cropped up.

What no one had bothered to warn him about was just how damn hard it would be for the two of them to find any time alone.

While the rest of the military was moving toward billets with private bedrooms, the Pit still used barracks – a hole in the ground just didn't have the space for anything else. Oh, as an officer he got his own room, but the partitions were paper-thin and Hawk's quarters were next door. It wasn't exactly a combination that favored intimacy – or tolerance from their notoriously light-sleeping CO.

It hadn't been so bad when they were based out of Fort Wadsworth. Whenever they had a few hours off-duty, they could run into the city for a real date before checking into a hotel for some fun. But they were currently in the middle of the Utah desert, miles away from anything. Hawk was generous with "weekend passes", spread throughout the week, but that didn't help when they were on different continents.

Flint nodded to the skeleton night crew as he headed toward the hydraulic ramp leading to the surface. He was proud that Hawk was taking Jaye along with him on assignments; it showed how highly their general thought of her abilities, an assessment Flint heartily shared. But it was wrecking holy hell on their sex life.

A smile formed as he caught sight of Lady Jaye and Hawk exiting the jeep. Even in her Class A's, she was stunning. Of course, she paid a seamstress to tailor her uniform, and he knew for a fact that she wore silk hose. And he seriously doubted that whatever she was wearing under the uniform came from the Quartermaster's stores; Jaye did like her little touches of luxury whenever possible, and he certainly appreciated the sexiness of her choices.

Flint cleared his throat as he stopped that line of thought; he still had to brief Hawk. Tearing his eyes from her body, he caught her expression and shrugged – she was the only person he knew who could convey an eye roll without moving her eyes.

"General, Lady Jaye," he said in greeting, updating Hawk on all that had happened while he'd been away. The general asked some questions, gave a few orders and then picked up his briefcase as he loosened his tie.

"Well, it's been a long trip. We can finish up the paperwork tomorrow," Hawk said.

"I'm sure she's ready for bed," Flint said in what he thought was an innocent tone, but the general's icy stare implied otherwise. Hawk might pretend that he didn't know about their relationship, but that also meant he didn't want to have to pretend.

"Goodnight, sir," the warrant officer added in a mild tone, lifting his shoulders as Jaye directed another non-rolling eye roll his way. What could he say? He'd missed her.

She did return his hug eagerly, pulling back with a warm smile.

"How did it go?"

"Fine. But how can a series of meetings leave me more exhausted than an all-out fire fight?" she asked.

"In nine days, you went from DC to New York, to The Hague and finally to Tokyo."

"Uh, jet lag. Is it still tomorrow or is it yesterday yet?"

"I think it's been today all day," he said gently.

"No, I'm pretty sure it hasn't."

Chuckling, he leaned over to kiss her. It had just started to deepen from 'warm welcome' to 'let's find somewhere private' when a wolf whistle from the guys unloading a truck caused them to break apart. Taking the heaviest of her bags, he escorted her around the vehicles in the bay to a quiet workstation in the corner.

"What's wrong?" he asked when he noticed a slight grimace.

"I've been wearing combat boots for too long," she said, leaning against the desk. "I think I've forgotten how to wear heels. Hell, even pumps hurt."

"Well, we can't have that." Pulling over a chair, he sat down and took her foot in his lap. After slipping her dress shoe off, he began massaging her foot.

"If you ever want a second job, you're hired," she sighed contentedly. "Name your price."

"I think we can work something out," he said, smiling as he ran his hand sensually up her leg.

"Ugh."

Flint paused, looking up in confusion. That definitely wasn't the reaction he expected or wanted. "Ugh?"

She gave him a weary roll of her shoulders. "Don't get me wrong, but can I get a rain check for tomorrow night? I'm beat."

"I head out first thing in the morning on a mission," Flint said, trying to hide his disappointment as he resumed the massage. He cocked his head questioningly when she let out a grunt, stood up and put her shoes back on.

"Let's go upstairs," she said with a tired smile.

"You sure?"

"I really don't want to wait another week or two before we have any time together."

"You're something else, you know that?" he said, kissing her before taking her bag again.

Flint was mentally mapping out ways to make their encounter extra special for Jaye, but when they reached the ladder heading toward the Quonset hut, they found Lifeline taping plastic over the trapdoor.

"The huts are off limits."

"Why?" Flint asked.

"Medical quarantine. Stalker's team is due back in a few minutes, and most of them are running a low-grade fever."

"Is it serious?" Lady Jaye asked.

"Probably not. There was a mini viral outbreak in the area, but we're not taking any chances. And the infirmary is for medical situations only," he called out over his shoulder.

Flint let out slow breath as he scratched his neck. The Quonset huts were their usual rendezvous spots. Since they were for show, no one else ever used them, but they came equipped with cots and showers. There were acres upon acres of desert out there, but sand fleas nipping at your exposed bits tended to be distracting, not to mention the embarrassing itching later, and the vehicles had been strictly off-limits for extracurricular activities ever since Shipwreck's Arbor Day party.

"Junk Room?" he suggested warily, and she nodded after a beat.

The Junk Room didn't appear on the official plan for the Pit, at least not the final one. In typical bureaucratic inefficiency, the Pentagon had changed the Pit's design during construction. As a result, they ended up moving the escape tunnel, and that left a partially finished, long, narrow room exiting off the bottom level.

Not wanting to waste the space, Hawk had added a doorway and created a new storage area. Fittingly, it was where they stored the miscellany supplies they ended up with through other bureaucratic mistakes – ninety-two reams of pink copy paper, spare parts to equipment they didn't have, eleven cases of Arctic wear too small for even Tunnel Rat. It was also used by various Joes to store personal belongings that took up too much room in the living quarters. A number of skis, surfboards, bicycles, golf clubs, Roadblock's cookbooks, Christmas decorations and a tuba no one was willing to admit owning were also stored away there.

Flint had seen the potential in the room immediately. After a day of taking inventory – and carefully rearranging boxes – he and Jaye had created a hidden alcove in the rear of the room, just wide enough for an old cot. It had been far away from the main Pit activities, and the generators covered any sound they made, making it the perfect secluded spot.

Or at least they had thought so until her next birthday, when they discovered their secret location was common knowledge.

Besides leaving a "Happy Birthday" banner hanging over the cot, the gang had run wiring for an overhead light, complete with a red shade and plumbed in a sink. They'd also left a cassette player with a stack of Barry White tapes, a full case of Army-issued condoms and a motel "Do Not Disturb" sign.

The guys might have meant well, but it was hard to get into the act when you were constantly wondering who was watching you. Then Jaye found the suspicious cache of blank videotapes on the other side of the fake wall, and they had moved to the huts after that.

Flint opened the door to the Junk Room, planning on barring it from the inside, but stopped short. Around a makeshift table, a group of Joes looked up in surprise, some of them trying to hide the piles of money in front of them.

"Want me to deal you in next hand?" Ace asked, a stupid grin on his face. "Or do you want to go to the back? Don't mind us."

The others around the table snickered until Flint glared at them. "I came for my backpack," he said, walking to a corner and picking up his camping gear.

"Are we going outside?" Lady Jaye asked with a sigh as they headed back toward the stairs.

"No, it's a contingency kit. I have a blanket and other stuff in case we ever needed to go ... somewhere else to be alone," he said, frowning as they started back up the stairs. He knew she was exhausted, and he felt bad dragging her all the way to the bottom of the Pit. "Want a piggyback ride?"

"I'm tired, not an invalid," she stated, giving him a quick grin. "So, where are we headed this time?"

"Let's try the gym. No one will be in there this late. We can block the door from the inside just to be on the safe side."

Lady Jaye raised an eyebrow as she spotted Scarlett sitting on a folding chair in the hallway outside their destination.

"Snake Eyes is using the gym for a training exercise for the members of Ninja Force. I wouldn't go in there if I was you," she said, turning a page in the magazine she was reading.

"What? No one was in there when we went by earlier," Flint said, stalking to the door and peering in through the window. "I don't see anyone."

"That's sort of the point of a ninja training exercise," Scarlett said, grinning as she looked up at Jaye.

"Do I want to know why you're here warning people away?"

"The Quonset huts are off limits, tonight's the weekly poker game, and Flint's leaving for a mission tomorrow. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what you two had planned."

Lady Jaye let out a laugh as she leaned against the wall. "And you didn't want us to interrupt their training."

"They wouldn't have stopped if you went in," the redhead said seriously. "That's another point of a ninja training exercise."

"Thanks for the warning, then," Jaye huffed out after a long pause. "It's bad enough about the Junk Room. Do you know who was responsible for that?"

"Consider it a group effort."

"Uh, huh. And the stack of blank videotapes that we found?"

"Let's just say Snake Eyes found out that certain cretins on the team planned to install a hidden camera."

"What did he do?"

Scarlett closed her magazine sedately. "He told me."

"I always thought he had a nasty streak," she said with an evil chuckle.

"All I did was tell the guys responsible to cut it off, or I would."

"'Cut it off' or 'cut it out'?" Lady Jaye asked.

"'Off'. I'm sure it was a Freudian slip."

"Any chance you were holding a katana at the time?"

"As a matter of fact, I was," the redhead said brightly, joining in Jaye's laughter.

"Thanks for that. We owe you."

"Yes, you do. My birthday's coming up. You know what I like," she said with a smile before getting up and folding her chair. "Flint, they're not going to come out of hiding because you're looking for them."

"They're in there?" he asked again.

"Let's go, big boy," Lady Jaye said, waving to her friend before tugging Flint away from the door. "I think I have some bug repellent in my locker."

"Let's go back to the vehicle bay."

"That's certainly private," she sighed.

Flint flashed her a lopsided grin. "Trust me."

"Isn't that what you said about putting a cot in the Junk Room?" she retorted as they started climbing the stairs back to the top level.

Once there, he escorted her to the far side of the room, keeping behind the heavy equipment to stay out of the way of the guys unloading the trucks. He pointed to the electronics repair bay; the room was completely enclosed to keep blowing dust wiped up by the hydraulic ramp out of sensitive equipment while it was being repaired.

"A room with big glass windows," Lady Jaye said dryly, finally smiling when he led her around the back to the steps leading to the room's flat roof. Normally, it was used to access the ductwork and utilities, but no one would be up there at this time of night.

Dropping the bags on the roof, he pulled her into a long kiss, only stopping when she eventually pushed hard against his chest.

"Easy, boy. No one can see us here," she said softly, "but anyone in the repair bay will hear us."

Letting out a growl, he started back down the ladder. "I'll lock it up. Make yourself comfortable."

He only intended to be gone a minute, but Clutch spotted him as he came around the corner of the repair bay. As soon as Flint saw the clipboard, he let out a silent curse, but it didn't take too long to answer the mechanic's questions or to sign off on his requisition forms. Quickly locking up the repair bay, he practically ran up the ladder to the roof, eager to make up for lost time.

When he got there, though, his shoulders dropped in shock. Jaye had spread the blanket from his backpack, taken off her shoes and jacket – and promptly fallen to sleep.

"Aw, honey, couldn't you have stayed awake for just a few more minutes?" he asked sadly.

With a sigh, he unlaced his boots, took off his web gear and undid his shirt. Slipping out of it, he knelt by her side and tucked her in as best as he could before leaning back on his haunches.

That was something else no one had bothered to warn him about – how completely he was going to lose his heart to her. How he found himself defining his life by the part she played in it, the way he couldn't even imagine his world without her in it.

Or the dark fears he never fully admitted to himself that maybe she didn't feel the same way, that one day she was going to leave him; the fears that turned him into a jealous idiot he was unable to control even though he knew she hated that side of him.

The team was going to be disbanded; it was only a matter of time now. There hadn't been any official word yet, but Hawk had already as good as told him that he wanted Flint on his staff when he ended up at the Pentagon. Alison wasn't going to reenlist once the team broke up – a lot of the team weren't – but would she be content to stay in D.C.?

What would he do if she wasn't?

Was there anything he wouldn't do to make her happy?

Realizing he had a lot to think about, Flint laid down behind her. He had to leave in a few hours anyway, and he'd be able to sleep on the flight out. He'd let her rest for a bit and then wake her up so she could go to her quarters before everyone else got up.

Brushing an errant strand of hair from her face, he kissed her cheek gently. "I love you, babe," he whispered and went to settle down.

"I always wondered if you said that before I drifted off to sleep or if I was dreaming." Rolling over, Jaye smiled at him. "Using your shirt to tuck me in was a cute touch, too."

"You're awake," he squeaked out.

"Mm, hmm."

Flint didn't have to worry about what to say next because she wrapped her arms around his neck and tugged him down for a long, passionate kiss. "Consider it positive reinforcement," she purred afterwards.

"Just how positive?" he growled as he pulled his shirt away and started working on the buttons of her blouse.

"As much as it takes to make you comfortable. I love you, too, you know."

"I know," he panted out, shrugging as he gazed at her. He loved her, he really did, but saying it was ... difficult. Admitting the feelings ... changed things; it was so much easier to show her how he felt. Considering he was brave in every other aspect of his life, Flint wasn't proud of his hesitance in telling her.

And her accepting smile didn't make him feel any better about it.

"Although I have to say, your comment about staying awake 'just a few minutes more' isn't want I wanted to hear," she joked when he continue to watch her.

"I meant I would have kept you awake once I got back," he said. "You're going to enjoy yourself, I promise."

Showing her how he felt – now that was something he was good at, and he was going to outdo himself tonight.

A loud rumble eventually caused both of them to look up, and Flint swore as Roadblock drove a Brawler down the hydraulic ramp from the surface. Unlike most of the team's vehicles, it was tall enough that the driver had a clear view of what was on top of the repair bay roof. Jaye grabbed his arm, and they slipped behind a vent.

Flint closed his eyes as he leaned back against the ductwork, holding Lady Jaye close. She rested against him, using his chest as a pillow. "Wake me up if I fall asleep," she whispered.

"Do you just want to go to bed? You're beat," he forced himself to ask.

"I'm not that tired, and this is the last time we'll have to see each for at least a week. I want to make the most of it."

"If anyone will let us have some time alone," he grumbled, but she ran a soothing hand along his shoulder.

Despite his annoyance, he smiled at the simple touch and the reaction it always had on him. Kissing the top of her head, he drew her closer, savoring the feel of her body until they could get down to business.

When Roadblock called to Clutch to fix the steering pin, Flint got ready to yell out for them to leave it until morning, but Lady Jaye's shoulders started shaking. Looking down, he realized she was laughing quietly into his undershirt.

"Don't," she warned in a whisper. "It only takes a minute to make that repair. They'll spend more time wanting to know why you're up here and why you want them to go away. And Clutch is there – he'll never leave if he knows what we want to do."

"You have more patience than I do," he groused lightly, but relaxed when she started caressing him again. It wasn't the way he wanted to spend their time, but it was pleasant – not a substitute for sex, but that was coming soon enough. Besides, he knew Jaye liked to cuddle, and they didn't usually have time to linger.

There really wasn't anything he wouldn't do to make her happy. Well, there was that one thing.

"I meant what I said earlier," he whispered cautiously.

"That you'll keep me awake?" she teased.

"No." Flint paused for a beat and took a deep breath. "I do love you."

Any lingering nervousness he felt faded the moment she looked up at him, her eyes brimming with moisture. The sheer happiness in her expression made him regret that he hadn't admitted his feelings sooner; the kiss she gave him convinced him to tell her again often in the future.

He'd spend the rest of the night showing her how much he cared – if the guys would just finish the damn repairs and go away.

The End