"It'll be a pleasure working with you, Lieutenant." Pierce looked over my file without even glancing my way. "Your file is very impressive."
"Thank you, I look forward to working here, sir." I tried not to yawn, the man was absolutely boring me and I haven't slept in hours.
He dropped my file and for the first time during this meeting and spoke to my face," You will be doing tasks as you did in the Naval Intelligence, but you will be giving our agents the information whilst being in a location of their choice not too far away from where the mission will be taking place, they will pick you up after mission complete, if mission failure and contact has been lost for more than 5 minutes you abandon post and set fire to everything. Now, I know you have no field experience—"
"I do have field experience," I interrupted, when he made a face I pushed my shoulders back and straightened my back, "Sir."
"May I ask what it was and when?"
"That's classified." I squirmed a little in the chair that seemed to be getting more and more uncomfortable.
"Soldier, there is no classified here, your CO signed an agreement with us."
"It's classified, sir." He got the hint.
"Ah, I see. Well our head agent will be showing you to your living quarters, and you'll be reporting to him tomorrow morning at 0600, ah yes Rumlow." He motioned his hand towards the man who'd just walked in, "This is Lieutenant Romero your new intelligence member, show her to her living quarters and report back to whatever you were doing before." I stood up and shook his hand, forcing an uninterested smile.
I walked behind him like a wounded little puppy who needed guidance all the way to the elevators in silence. He wore all black like the typical field agent and walked as if he were constantly at attention, which annoyed me. It's the lack of sleep, I'm telling you.
"Naval Intelligence huh?" he spoke just as the elevator doors opened, he pushed the '15' button and the elevator traveled down.
"Yup." I answered dully, counting the seconds until I got to see my bed.
"Our last agent got shot between the eyes." I scoffed and rolled my eyes, crumpling my black and blues uniform up in my hands.
"Sucks to be him." Now yes, I realize that that was a really rude comment but when one is sleep deprived as I am, it's totally normal, don't hold me accountable for the things that slip out of my mouth.
"How long were you in the Navy?"
"Not out yet, I'm serving my last two here. So six years." The elevator sprang to a stop and the doors leapt open, he walked out real fast so I did my best to follow him and take a mental note of where I was going.
He stopped in front of a door that obviously meant to insinuate that it's mine. "Tomorrow, at 0800 we're going to the range, you're expected to be there at 0730." I felt my shoulders physically drop and saw his head cock to the side.
"Is that a problem?" he squinted his eyes tightly.
"NO." I sighed, but my mouth just continued on it's own.. it has a mind for it's self, "look.. no offense but yes. I was right off the Egyptian coast literally 26 hours ago. It took me 2 hours to get to the airport in a small car that didn't have the capability of going over the speed of 35 miles, it took me 24 hours to get back to the states and I haven't even seen my family after a 15 month long deployment, man- uh, sir Whatever the hell I'm supposed to call you! In my defense telling me that I have to wake up," I paused to do the math in my head. "in 14 hours to shoot a fucking gun- excuse my language, makes me angry, yes! I'm angry and I'm expressing my feelings about it because I haven't eaten in 26 fucking hours! And expressing my feelings is good!" all my words came out in a rushed manner and by the end of my rant I was pouting like a child.
He stared at me for a moment, a really really long moment. I felt as if I was about to get into trouble and thrown into a pit to get punished for yelling at this man who was just showing me to where I will be living for the next two years.
"I can order you some room service if you like." He finally spoke.
I groaned and tilted my head back, "that would be really amazing."
"I'll order from your room." He leaned past me and opened the door, causing me to freeze up a little bit.
He let me walk in first and when I did, I gasped. The view, the fucking view was magnificent, the sky was a mixture of pink and orange, it was like a postcard picture.
"Wow."
"Never gets old." He walked up next to me with a phone to his ear.
"Oh," I jumped and realized that I hadn't actually formally introduced myself like a good little worker bee I am, "Lieutenant Galilea Romero." He took her hand and chuckled.
"Brock Rumlow, I lead the STRIKE team." My mouth fell open, I just yelled at my boss and complained about his ways… if this were the Navy I would have been banished and set in front of a firing squad.
"I.. I shit. I am so sorry.. oh my god.I… I'll report for duty whenever you need me to." I stuttered out, wanting to take back every last thing I had said.
"Make it 0930." I nodded and looked down, embarrassed. He turned his attention to the phone now as someone had answered. "yes I'd like to order room service to room 1509, make it the Dinner's Delight special, please. And charge it to room 1508. Yes. Thank you." He hung up the phone and turned his attention back to me, while my attention was pressed up against the sliding glass door, looking at the sunset.
"1508?"
"I'm your neighbor, I'll be the friendly neighbor who brings you brownies on the first day you move in, but only for today."
"Well, I hope my random dance parties and singing fits don't bother you too much, you can always just pound on the wall with a broom stick to get me to quiet down, I also talk to my grandma on Skype at random hours during the night or in the morning so you can just excuse my random crying fits right now." I laughed.
"I'll try to keep that in mind, Lieutenant. Enjoy your food." He nodded himself off and I gave him a small wave.
"Thank you!"
When the door closed behind him he paused. What the hell just happened? He thought, she's weird and awkward and not afraid to yell at people, they were going to get along just fine but even he had his limits, there was a line an employee can never cross and he was pretty sure she had just crossed it.
I ate my delicious food and set an alarm clock for 0830 and knocked out on the couch. I was planning on sleeping on the bed like every normal person does, but the couch just happened to catch my attention at just the right moment.
The sound of wind chimes woke me right up out of her deep slumber, I wasn't happy about the waking up part because I preferred the natural way of things, waking up on my own and not counting on a stupid device to do the job,but any sleep is better than none. But it didn't change the fact that it still sucked.
I walked into my bedroom and frowned at how amazing it is. It had a huge queen size bed with black and white printed bedspread sprawled across it. the huge walk in closet already had clothes in it that happened to be my size, the Navy probably sent over my measurements since literally everything about me is on file.
There was no time to set up my own stuff in the place to make it feel more at home, but the mess on the ground was a start. I dug around in my the bag I brought with me and found my Navy PT shirt and settled with some of the black combats they had placed for me. I placed my thick brown curls into a slicked back pony tail and sighed at the bags under my eyes, reminding myself that I did have some sleep but the bags were telling another story.
"Glad you could make it, Lieutenant." Rumlow walked over from his conversation to greet me when he noticed my presence. "Let's make sure you don't end up like the last guy." He nodded towards an opening booth.
I frowned and tried to hide the bitch look I was about to throw his way, "You guys take no time in the grieving process, do you?" I grabbed a glock from the table of weapons and checked the clip.
"We believe if you're stupid enough to get killed, you deserve it." he watched as I rotated the gun around in my hands.
"That makes me feel so much better." I said sarcastically and twisted around, walking over to the booth , feeling multiple eyes on my back.
When I was done with all of the tests they were giving me, a couple of the guys cheered, introduced themselves and gave me a pat on the back and congratulating me while the rest had their sour faces on in the corner while eating corn nuts.
"That was awesome! Welcome to the team, it'll be nice to have a woman's presence, Jack Rollins." A tall sandy blonde haired man with blue eyes held out a hand and introduced himself.
"Yeah, it's a bit of a sausage fest going on around here." We laughed and I took his hand, "Galilea Romero." I smiled.
"Couldn't be anymore true, I'm also pretty sure you beat Adams score over there." he nodded in the direction of a guy who was looking real bitter as of the moment.
"Well there's a first for everything." I shrugged and shoved the rifle into it's casing.
"Well a couple of the guys are going to go out to the Peter's Bar later, you in?" he nudged my arm when he saw me hesitate. "It'll give you a chance to know us when we're most vulnerable. Come on, you'll like it." he smiled warmly.
"What time?" I gave in, in a defeated tone trying to hide the happiness in my voice that I was already being invited to the teams after hours fun.
"6 o'clock." He looked up at Rumlow who was walking over, "I'll catch up with you later, you gotta be there." He said gave my arm a squeeze before walking of with the cool guys who introduced themselves to me.
"You did good." Rumlow acknowledged.
"'Good'? I heard I beat a score today." I smiled proudly but he didn't budge. Maybe the friendly neighbor thing was really only for a day.
"It's not a competition here, we work as a team and we expect the best from everyone."
"Oh… right. Yeah. Of course. I wouldn't expect anything less." I looked down, I really had a way of making myself look foolish in front of him.
His eyes softened while I was looking down, "But between me and you, you won by a landslide." I smiled. "I'll see you later. You have to report to a couple meetings in the right wing today."
"Alright. Hey, Are you going to the bar later?" I touched his arm to stop him from walking off, he flinched his arm back.
"I wasn't planning on it." he hesitated.
"Oh, well I'm going and it'd be cool to get to know everyone, it'll give me a chance to let you know that I'm not as crazy as you think I am." I smiled.
"I'll think about." He chewed at the edge of his lip and walked off, so I packed up the guns I used and went off to the meetings of the day.
I spent the day getting let in on mission procedures, rules and got issued a couple weapons and when I got home I did a skype session with my brother, sister and grandma while eating and putting my belongings away.
"When can you come home? Or we go and visit you?" my brother Roman asked with sad eyes, yes we were all named after random things, our mom was a think out of the box kind of gal.
"I'll ask command. But in the mean time I might need you to start sending my civilian clothes over?"
"Of course Lea, just let us know the address and we'll start sending." Grandmas voice spoke sweetly.
"Thanks, grandma. Hey Tamia, wanna help me pick out an outfit for tonight? The team is going out to a bar and I don't really have anything to wear, but you always make an something out of nothing." She grinned and made Roman and Grandma scoot over as I gave her a tour of my closet.
"The purple tank with the black jeans and whatever shoes match, of course."
"Of course." I repeated smiling, when I looked at the clock, it was 6:15, "Thanks sis, I'm actually kind of late. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Okay." She smiled sadly, it's always hard getting off chat, even after a 3 hour Skype session.
I rushed my clothes on, took my hair out of it's pony tail and ran some water through it defining the curl patter just a little better, and swiped on some mascara. When I was finished I ran out and flagged down a cab, making my way to the bar.
"Romerooooooooooooo!" Rollins dragged my last name out, he was clearly tipsy. He stumbled up and wrapped an arm around my neck. Well maybe he's little more than tipsy. "Go order a drink and put it on the Walker tab! He's buying drinks for all of us tonight!" Rollins slurred his words and gave a gentle shove towards the bar. I laughed and played along, and a free drink? A girl couldn't just say no to that...
I leaned against the bar, my smile slowly fading when the creep from a couple seats down winked at me.
"Whisky, on the rocks. Can you put that on the Walker tab?" I asked and the bartender nodded and started to put my drink together.
"How was the first day?" Rumlow creeped up causing me to jump.
"You made it!" I beamed, causing him to hide a smile that was totally obvious.
"I thought long and hard about it." he raised a finger to the bartender.
"Sure, of course. Long and hard." I tried to act serious but my drink got sat in front of me and I couldn't help but gulp it.
"Well that answers my previous question, that bad huh?"he asked as I scrunched up my face from the taste of whiskey burning my throat as it went down.
"Before I order another drink, what time do we report in tomorrow?" I played with the ice cubes in the cup and looked at him, his facial structure is very much so intact..
"Tomorrow is actually our weekend, but we work out as a team at 1100."
"Thursdays our our weekend? Sweet!" I slid the glass up for the bartender to refill my drink. "looks like I'm going to join these fools in some karaoke but I know my limit, trust me." I smiled as Collins tried to wave for me to come over.
Rumlow leaned his back against the bar along with me and laughed at Walker who was dancing to an old woman singing The Temptations.
"We should so go up there." I let out a loud cackle as Walker slipped and fell on his ass.
"Not going to happen, ever." He hid another smile but shook his head and swallowed another swig of his drink.
"Well I'm going to sing the best damn Britney Spears you've ever heard in your life!" I rolled my neck with attitude causing him to laugh.
"I'll be right here cheering you on." He nodded while smirking and I found my way over to Collins who gave out another holler, clearly happy to see me.
When it was our turn to go on stage we chose a Toxic by Britney Spears.
"Baby can't you see, I'm falling, for a guy like you." I sang looking straight at my boss who was smiling and nodding his head. It then hit me, I think my boss is hot. And it hit me again, absolutely fucking no. I directed my attention else where trying to avoid his gaze.
Brock's POV
"Boss, having a female on the team might not be the best idea." Adams came up as I watched Galilea singing next to Collins who had to lean on her just to stabilize himself.
"And why's that soldier?" I asked, now really wasn't the time for this, I haven't taken a day off like this is a long time, work is the last thing I want to be thinking about, even though it technically
"She's distracting and… distracted. Who know's what she'll do on the field, she might mess up and—" I cut him off before he could even finish that sentence.
"Adams, does this have anything to do with her beating your score? Because she's clearly proven capable of that much. She's going to do everything Johnson did, but better. Her file is better than his." I glared at him annoyed with this conversation. I know I hit a spot because of the look on his face.
"Enjoy your night sir." He said before walking out of the bar. I looked back on stage at Galilea with Rollins arm draped around her neck and singing.. well more of screeching at the top his lungs.
With the taste of ya lips I'm on a ride, you're toxic I'm slipping under. She moved her hips along with the song in just the right way to make me bite my lip. Her curly brown hair swayed along with her as she moved and her green eyes seemed to be looking everywhere but here.
The song ended and her and Collins exited the stage and met with a couple of the guys who were drunkenly cheering and hooting for them. I stayed in the back and observed, it wasn't really my scene, not anymore.
"Rollins, Walker, Brown, Ramirez, Adams and Rumlow!" she shouted and downed a shot, "I know all of your names I told you bitches!" she looked over at me and frowned, what's that all about? I turned around and ordered a shot, there was something about her that I just can't put my finger on. It's only her first day and I'm starting to go mushy. I don't do mushy. I do what is necessary to get a task done, but since Galilea's arrival something deep within me has sparked and is now spreading like a wildfire throughout me
Galilea's POV
After the guys starting taking shots that were literally on fire I decided to join Rumlow at the bar.
"Why aren't you joining the party?" I sat next to him.
"Someone has to be the responsible adult." I looked at his drink and back at him, the responsible adult doesn't usually drink.
"Those boys sure can drink. I maxxed my limit of 3 shots and a drink, I already have a raging headache." I pressed my fingers to my temples and rubbed them in circles.
"Weak." I hit him in the arm earning a chuckle.
"I would try to argue no, but I've been like this since high school." I laughed and ordered a ginger ale from the bartender.
"Who the hell is this bitch?" I wasn't sure of it at first, but the voice definitely came from behind me. I turned around to find a woman looking straight at me. She was blonde and snooty, looking just like one of the mean girls I went to high school with.
"Excuse me?" I asked confused and looked to Rumlow who hadn't noticed.
"What's the difference between me and you?" she stepped closer to me and I kept looking back and forth between Rumlow who now turned his attention to the woman, but didn't speak.
"Do you want me to answer that?" I can barely control what comes out of my mouth when I have a couple drinks..
The girl dropped her purse and swung a punch, I reflectively leaned back causing her to swing at nothing, this angered her. We now had a crowd watching with hungry eyes for a bar fight but as I said before; I have a huge fucking headache and I really don't feel like dealing with this.
"Oh now you're going to get it bitch." I stood up causing Rumlow to do the same, I expected him to grab me and tell me no but he didn't, she swung another punch and I caught her fist in my hand and sucker punched her right in the middle of her face. She fell to the floor clutching her nose with her hands that looked to be filling with blood, crying about how I abused her.
"We need to go." Rumlow grabbed my arm and did some kind of hand signal to the guys, causing them to scatter. He dragged me out of the bar and threw me against the brick wall. I was still in a state of shock
"What the fuck just happened?" I put my hands on my knees and hunched over trying to recollect my thoughts as to what had just fucking happened.
"This is exactly why we don't go out." He stood in front of me, looking angry. I slowly stood up and placed my hands on my hips accusingly. Something was off about all of this, I have never seen that woman before in my life.
"I didn't do anything! She fucking swung at me first! And she wasn't going to stop until I gave her a proper punch in the face. I have never even talked to the woman before!" His shoulders relaxed. "I don't understand." The guys walked out and gave me small sad smiles before looking to Rumlow.
"We cleaned it up, sir." Walker said purposely avoiding my gaze.
"Cleaned what up? The blood off her face or the floor?"
"Don't worry about it, Galilea. I'll walk you home." Rollins smiled sympathetically and stepped forward but Rumlow grabbed his shoulder.
"I got her, you worry about the tapes. Romero, let's go."
"What?"
"I said let's go." His voice raised slightly and I slowly pushed off the wall and the guys gave me a wave before walking back into the bar.
I tried to keep up with Rumlow but his legs we're longer than mine, the walk was silent as I was still shocked and trying to process what I had done wrong, I haven't even been in D.C. for an entire 24 hours, I haven't even met anyone aside from work, and now I'm getting into a bar fight. It didn't add up.
"That was a nice swing." He finally spoke, I frowned but didn't speak,
"Why are we walking not taking a cab?" I finally spoke after 2 blocks.
"You need to cool off."
"I am cool."
"Well why didn't you say so?" he hid a smile and I stopped dead in my tracks. He noticed a couple seconds later and looked back at me. "What?"
"You're playing some kind of fucking game with me, aren't you?" I crossed my arms.
"It was a test, you passed." I felt like crying, and not because I was happy that I passed their little test, more of because I was lied to. Collins came up after the range and asked me to go to the bar because it was another test. It was all part of the plan and that angered me. I thought I was making friends but I wasn't, hell, who knows if they actually like me or not, what if their acting was just that good?
I looked at him long and hard before straight up turning around and walking in the other direction. Before I knew it I felt a hand around my arm and his tall body blocking me from taking another step.
"That wasn't cool." My voice quaked.
"We needed to see how you'd handle yourself."
"I don't appreciate being deceived like that, I thought this was going to be a friendly little round of drinks to get to know the new girl, you lied." I took a step back, uncomfortable with the distance that wasn't between us.
"I'm sorry."
"You should be sorry, it was a dick move."
"Romero if you want to be a part of this team you cannot be having moments like this." He sighed, and my blood boiled.
"Shut up."
"Excuse me?" no one shoulder ever speak to their boss like this unless they want to get fired, but his not my real CO, he's a civilian and I am enlisted, I am the higher being.
"Shut up," I repeated, " I'm not going to hide my anger from you, I'm not going to act big and strong and be one of those girls who you get to think of as one of the 'bros', that's not who I am, I am a girl, I have feelings and it will not get in the way of my work because I know how to be professional, what you did was fucked up and you need to admit it," I saw the anger on his face but didn't dare stop, "you manipulated me. That is what you did and I don't care if every single guy that's ever been on your team has been through this, it's fucked up and I don't like you." I huffed. His lips quivered when I told him that I didn't like him. It was silent again as he just stared straight at me and I did the same, I stand by what I was said.
"You're right." He finally spoke.
"I know I'm right." I stated.
"What can I do to make it up to you?" he asked.
"Nothing, you're my boss so it doesn't really matter in the end, does it?"
"It does matter."
"Why?"I scoffed.
"You're the first female on my team and I'll admit it, I was hesitant as to whether you could get the job done but I know you can. Your file is remarkable, better than some of the guys on the team's actually. It wasn't fair of me to deceive you like that." All I could do was nod, I was scared that if I spoke my lips might tell him 'apology accepted'. "I know a good diner open at this hour, I'll make it up to you."
"No tricks?"
"No tricks. I don't usually take my men out to eat at 11 at night, I'll make another exception."
"Seems like you're doing that a lot for me." We started to walk across the street and he glanced at me.
"I guess so."
NOTE:
So, reviews would be amazing as long as they are nice, I'm not abandoning my other story, I just had a dream about Rumlow and I couldn't help it!