I hope you enjoy the story even though the site keeps butchering the format. Argh. Check my profile for a link to a site with a neater looking version of this.


"Overpoured"

Olivia Steele cleaned her glasses with the tail of her shirt hoping that somehow the clean lenses would change the information on the computer screen in front of her.

It didn't.

She slumped back in the chair and let out a breath that pretty much summed up how she was starting to feel about the whole situation she had gotten herself into. She had been staring at the computer screen for the better part of her afternoon hitting nothing but dead ends. Suddenly remembering her "situation" had been unconscious for the past forty-five minutes, she rose from the chair, thankful for any small break.

When she entered the room, she realized he was in the exact position he had been in 10 minutes ago. Not a stir. Not even a muscle spasm. Now she began to worry. She checked his pulse once again.

Normal.

While checking his forehead for any abnormal spikes in his body temperature, she eyed the chains of dog tags around his neck, something she had missed when she first searched him for ID. She fished them from out of his collar and checked them. Blank.

"No ID. Blank tags. You're practically a ghost." She ran her hand over the material of his suit once more. It was like nothing she had ever seen or touched before. A high tech material that seemed to be the happy medium between rubber and a strong plastic.

"I don't know of a single branch of the military that issues suits like this." Instantly, she felt as if she had answered her own question, "Unless you're not military at all."

It didn't take Olivia long to get closer to finding the identity of her mystery guy with her newly narrowed search. With the answers staring her in the face, her good deed no longer seemed like a good idea.

She frantically ran down the hall, past her "situation", into her room closing and locking the door behind her. She desperately opened the drawer next to her bed.

"What in the hell have I gotten myself into?"


The mystery man in the dark suit finally began to stir. His blue eyes slowly opened and searched for something to focus his blurred vision on.

"What the –"

"Who are you!?"

"Somehow, I think I should be the one asking the questions."

"Answer me!" Olivia moved the .45 from his chest to his head to punctuate it. With her medium stature and soft facial features neatly framed by black, rectangular glasses she didn't look like she should have ever handled a gun before. But from her confidence with it, he knew it wasn't her first time. Still, this didn't faze him. He could think of much worst things than having a gun pointed at him by an attractive woman.

"Don't move!" She growled when he stood up.

"Where am I?"

"I've shot this thing before and I'm not afraid to let it be at a person this time," she cursed at herself quietly for being so honest.

"I don't doubt that."

His overall coolness about having a gun pointed at his head scared her more than his identity.

"You look just like him. I bet you go over pretty well in look-a-like contests."

"What are you talking about?"

"You must be the worst kind of sicko to go around impersonating Solid Snake." As she stared more intensely at him, it triggered a strange sense that this wasn't an impostor at all, "Are you…are you Solid Snake?"

"I've been called that."

All the blood in her face quickly rushed from it. The gun suddenly felt like a weight as her arms struggled to keep it straight at pointed at him.

"But you're dead. You died on the U.S.S Discovery…right after you sank it!"

"I didn't sink that Tanker! I was framed. Used—"

"And you expect me to believe that?"

"No. I don't." Suddenly, he didn't feel like a threat anymore. He felt like a sad man who had suddenly been reminded of his sins even if that was one of the ones he didn't commit. As he sat back on the bed, she followed him with the gun. She noticed him eye his equipment and weapons across the room which she had stupidly left in reaching distance of him from when she stripped him of them earlier while he was unconscious. Surprisingly, the abundance in weaponry he had didn't scare her from bringing him back to her house. After a moment, she angrily ripped the gun out of the air and out of his direction.

"Damnit!"

"Now, it's time to get some of my questions answered." He looked at her in time to see her holster the gun in the back pocket of her jeans, "Where am I?"

"You're at my house. My name's Olivia Steele and I brought you here."

"By yourself? I must have guns that weigh more than you. And not to mention my other equipment…"

"I manage. I found you out in the woods area that's about three miles from here."

Snake hadn't realized her hair was pulled back until she took that moment to take it down and let it messily fall over her shoulders and face.

"The woods?"

"Yep. There was an explosion there about four hours ago and I just happened to be in the neighborhood. I don't suppose you had anything to do with that."

"I don't even remember the explosion."

"Well, you were out cold and you might have gotten yourself eaten too. There are bears here in Canada, ya know," she said matter-of-factly.

"Well, thanks for everything but, I really need to get going."

Olivia stood back as Snake crossed the room and began reattaching all of the belts and weapon holsters of his equipment. She started to protest but instead crossed her arms in front of her and bit her bottom lip to keep her comments from making their way into the air. She didn't figure him to be one that would listen anyway.

He stopped suddenly on his way to the door. She didn't have to even look at his pale face to instinctively reach out to steady him.

"You should probably take it easy," Snake couldn't believe that the same eyes that had painted him as a bull's eye ten minutes before radiated such concern now. She sat him back down on the bed. "You probably have a slight concussion, Snake."

"I'm fine," He attempted to get up but Olivia immediately pushed him back down into sitting position.

"First thing in the morning, you can do whatever you like but wisest thing for you to do right now though is just stay here. You won't be good for anything like this."

"It might not be good for you if I stay here."

"It's safe here. There's no one for miles around and it'll only be for a few hours," Proudly, she added, "This place barely shows up on the map."

Snake certainly didn't agree but he didn't feel he had it in him to protest it either.

"I need assurance you're not going anywhere."

Her tone said that she wanted his equipment since she knew it was the one thing he wouldn't leave without. Reluctantly, he handed it over to her.

"Good. It'll be a while before dinner's ready. There's some clothes over there," she said and nodded toward a chest of drawers in a corner of the room he hadn't bothered to notice before then, "and a bathroom across the hallway if you want to clean up."

She headed towards the door, putting his equipment over her shoulder before reaching for the knob.

"Why are you helping me?"

She turned back to Snake who was visually burning a hole in a spot on the floor.

"You sure do ask a lot of questions for a trained killer."

He looked up just in time to see the handle of her gun go out of the room followed by the door closing.


Snake didn't know why he had put on the clothes. At first, it was because he thought that maybe his suit, even without the weapons, felt a little threatening. Then he realized that maybe the reason was more for him. It was the first thing he had worn in a long time that didn't have the lingering aroma of blood in it.

While entering the living room, he was immediately drawn to a mantle piece above an already roaring fire in the fireplace. He automatically picked up the picture of Olivia in a wedding dress. She was happy looking deeply into the eyes of the blonde man marrying her in a Marine uniform. He tried to recall seeing a wedding ring but then quickly realized the only time he had seen her hands was when they were wrapped around a gun ready to shoot him.

From the doorway of the kitchen, he watched Olivia eye two bottles of wine, finally choosing the one she wanted by placing the other one back into a bare wine rack under the cabinets. Becoming aware of his presence, she turned around to him.

"They fit perfectly."

"It's been a while since I've seen myself in civilian clothing."

"You fill them well."

Before she could stop herself, she was smoothing over the shoulders of the black t-shirt Snake was wearing with her hands, slowly moving down to his chest. Suddenly, she stopped and backed away.

"I'm sorry." She said and quickly grabbed the wine off the counter. She seriously considered how many glasses of wine it would take before she could forget that happened. Before he could say anything, she added, "The dining room is this way."

It didn't bother her as it usually did that while pouring herself a glass of wine she had slightly gone over the amount she meant to. She made her way to Snake's side of the table and began to pour.

No ring.

"Wine with a concussion?"

"Slight concussion," she reminded him, "I'm sure you'll live. Besides, I don't like to drink alone." When she stopped, she noticed she had slightly over poured for him as well. Looking at him from across the table, she remembered how long it had been since she'd seen the seat across from her filled with another body and plate of food.

"So, do you always bring complete strangers into your house?"

The question didn't catch her as off guard as Snake had maybe intended it to.

"Uh, no. I can't say it's exactly something I practice."

"Then why start now…and with me?"

She wasn't sure what he was trying to accuse her of in his tone but it sent a slight wave of anger over her.

"I saw that you were hurt and I wanted to help. Is that so strange?"

"You could have taken me to a hospital--"

"Are you always this ungrateful?!" she snapped at him. She became a little more thankful for over pouring as she took a long sip of wine and set the glass back down hard on the table.

"I just don't have a lot of reasons to trust people."

It was then that she realized that Snake, though clearly in his early forties, was developing lines in places on his face that shouldn't see them for years. And though his hair was still mostly dark brown, she could see it wouldn't be long before it would gray completely. She imagined that at one point, his eyes might have been a brilliant blue but now, they were barely even blue. Ironically, a life of war and killing was aging him at an abnormally fast rate and slowly draining the life from him.

She softened her tone.

"The truth is, I don't know why I brought you back here. I guess it was impulse. It didn't once cross my mind to take you to a hospital."

"I hate hospitals anyway." It sounded more like "thank you" and Olivia smiled at him though he wasn't looking at her.

"You seem to know what you're talking about when it comes to the medical stuff."

"I used to be a nurse. I haven't practiced in about five years since I moved here from Virginia though." She apparently hadn't thought about it either since the number of years that had passed surprised even her.

"You're a long way from home."

"Yeah. I was born while my parents were on vacation here. I never even thought about visiting this place until five years ago when I decided I needed a change of scenery. So, I packed up and decided to take advantage of my accidental dual citizenship and make the move. It didn't take me long to fall in love with this place."

"You must have planned on never seeing another person again."

"I wouldn't say that but I do enjoy the seclusion this place gives me."

"I lived holed up in Alaska for a few years. Seclusion can really take its toll on you," then he added, "but I have to admit, my admission into seclusion wasn't quite this nice."

He was referring to Olivia's house, which to him seemed a little big for even three people to regularly live in.

"I know it's a little big for one person," she said feeling she had read his mind, "but it's pretty easy to keep clean and the space certainly doesn't go to waste."

"One person? Your husband, is he…"

Snake immediately regretted everything he had said after "person". And after watching Olivia quietly leave the table, he regretted saying even that.


The moon was an angry paint that turned everything it splashed on a pale gray. Olivia looked out over the flat, endless land in front of her, which in the day was perfectly green. A few tress strategically sprinkled over it gave it some texture. She didn't move when she heard the door open and Snake step out onto the porch with her.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to…"

"It's not your fault. I'm just way too over sensitive to it all still."

"He was a Marine."

"Lived and died as one."

"Was he on the U.S.S. Discovery?"

"No, he died a year before that," she let out a huge sigh, "He was the reason I couldn't go back to nursing. He was the reason I felt I had to get so far away. "

"It must be hard for you." It was now Olivia who was surprised by the concern Snake showed.

"Probably harder than it should be by now since it was about six years ago. It didn't even take me this long to get over my parents' death."

"There's no time limit on how much or how long you're allowed to miss someone once they're gone."

"On our first date, do you know where Evan took me? A shooting range. He showed me how to shoot his .45. I probably shouldn't have accepted that second date, huh?"

Snake began to pat his body in the place his cigarettes were on his suit. Olivia recognized that pat.

"That is a smoker's pat." She produced an unopened pack of cigarettes from her side pocket. They weren't his brand but he wasn't one to complain. As she handed him one, he looked at her fingernails.

"You don't smoke."

"Not anymore. I smoked my last one about eight months ago. Life's too short to spend it looking for a light."

"Good luck pack?"

"Not really. I found these yesterday while I was cleaning up and I couldn't bring myself to throw them away for some reason."

He didn't question why she also had a lighter as she handed it to him.

"Have you ever loved someone, Snake?"

"No," he answered immediately, perhaps out of habit, but then said, "well, there was someone but, that was a long time ago."

"I can only hope that you didn't do something foolish like I did and give them the most important parts of yourself so that when they go, they can take it with them."

Snake took a long drag and let it out slowly.

"No, nothing like that."

"Good."

The hum of an electronic device caused him to turn his attention to a security camera sitting on the side of the porch in the grass.

"Security cameras?"

"State of the art. They're all over the property. I can see everything that happens from the comfort of my computer chair. No one ever comes around here but, I can identify any raccoon in this area if I ever need to."

"You can never be too cautious."

"That…and I was bored."

"Bored?"

"Yeah. I rigged them myself. I had to do something with my hands after I stopped smoking and knitting just wasn't an option."


Snake threw another log into the fire and watched the flames lick it up before sitting back into a chair.

"You know, if you actually said half of what you thought about you probably wouldn't have time to ask all those questions."

Olivia tried to calculate how many miles away Snake was as he stared off into the fire.

"Not a whole lot of people have ever been interested in what I have to say."

"I am."

"Well, it's not like I've lived a life I'm anxious to talk about either."

"I know it hasn't all been good but surely it hasn't been all bad. You did say earlier that there was someone you loved."

"It was years ago."

"What was her name?"

"It's not important."

"Do you regret it?"

Snake thought a moment and, without removing his gaze from the fire to look at her, answered.

"I don't regret it. I just wish it could have been…different."

"Oh," She wasn't satisfied with that but felt it would be wrong to pry anymore than she already had, "Do you have any friends?"

"Not really."

"Family?"

"There was a man that once called himself my father."

"Big Boss."

This caused Snake to look up at her. Olivia shifted in her seat, pulling her legs under her like a bow.

"You read Nastasha's book?"

"No, but a few years ago for fun I did get to audit the class they teach at the local university about the events of Shadow Moses. It was only for a day, though."

She watched him get up and walk across the room to a window that the moonlight poured especially brightly in from. She followed behind him.

"So, you're all alone," He was quiet for so long that she didn't expect him to respond, "I'm making you uncomfortable. I'm sorry."

Olivia grabbed the wine they'd opened earlier off the living room table and poured her self another glass. She saw it as a way to gag her self from asking any more questions. Before she could take her first sip from it, Snake gently lifted it from her hand and sat it down on the table.

"I could say the same about you."

"Huh?"

"Being alone."

"Oh, I guess you could. Looks like we have more in common than either one of us thought."

"I guess so. Including that," he motioned to the wine, "You shouldn't drink that stuff when you're upset."

Olivia was thankful to get the chance to change the subject.

"So, how are you feeling?"

"Better. I need to contact Otacon though. The think the batteries in my nanomachines ran out."

"Nanomachines?"

"It's like a space age walkie talkie. My partner, Otacon, could probably tell you more about it."

"Space age walkie talkie, huh?" Snake could almost hear the gears in Olivia's head beginning to turn. She continued, "If that's the case, I may be able to patch your nanomachines through my computer. Not only would you be able to contact Otacon but you'd be able to recharge it too."

"You can do that?"

"I'm pretty sure of it. It sounds complicated but really, it's not. Just a matter of finding a common frequency between them."

Of all the things Snake was, technological was not one of them.

"Don't worry, Snake," she said when she caught a hint of confusion on his face, "All you have to do is sit there and look handsome."


Olivia had been working for only thirty minutes before she typed the last command line and waited for confirmation. It was first time all day she didn't mind watching the computer screen for results.

"That should do it."

Olivia got up so that Snake could sit down in front of the computer, "All you have to do is punch in his frequency." Snake did so and it began to connect.

"How did you learn so much about computers?"

"What else better is there to do out here than learn to get into things I'm not supposed to?"

"So, you're a hacker"?

"I'm not a very good one," she admitted, "But I don't like the word 'hacker'. I like to think of myself as a 'digital security bypasser'."

The transmission connected and Otacon appeared on the screen. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and peered squinted his eyes at the fuzzy transmission on his end.

"Snake, is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Snake! Where have you been? I feared the worst had happened. After that explosion, your nanos stopped functioning."

"I'm fine. A little beat up but I'll live. I might have been a lot worse off had it not been for Olivia."

"Olivia?"

She stepped into view of the transmission to let Otacon see her.

"Oh! Hi. Sorry about that. I'm Otacon. It's nice to meet you."

"You, too," Olivia couldn't help but think that Otacon was adorable. He possessed a boyish charm that she didn't expect from someone Snake had chosen as a partner to save the world with. His white lab coat almost made him feel like a kid playing a scientist and gave no notion that he was a real one.

"She's also the one responsible for doing…whatever she did with my nanomachines."

"What he means," Olivia corrected him, "is finding the same frequency on the computer that the nanos have and patching it through."

"Letting the computer act as a monitor almost all while recharging the battery. That's pretty impressive," Otacon's tone suddenly turned serious as he talked to Snake, "We've got a whole new mess on our hands. That explosion earlier was only the tip of the iceberg. I'll give you all the details in person. I can be where you are in about an hour and a half. Is there any place to land around there?"

"Somehow I don't think you're going to have too much trouble finding one. I can leave first thing tomorrow morning."

"Tomorrow morning? Why?"

Snake glanced at Olivia before responding, "Doctor's orders."

Otacon prepared himself to disagree with Snake, but stopped.

"Well, that would give me time to finish up what I'm working on here. Okay, first thing tomorrow morning. No later than that, Snake."

"Got it."

When the transmission closed, Olivia leaned back on the computer desk next to Snake and crossed her arms in front of her.

"Doctor's orders, eh? Well, my next order is that you try and use this time to get a few hours of rest. Sounds like you're not going to have the opportunity once you get back."

"You're probably right. Just promise me there won't be any surprises when I wake up this time."

Olivia laughed a bit but agreed, "Alright, Snake. No surprises. I promise."


Olivia hadn't actually looked at the picture of her and Evan on their wedding day in almost a year. And though she passed by it every day on the mantle, she hardly remembered what it looked like. When she didn't look at it, she got to pretend he was just away and would be back soon. She ran her hand over Evan as she held the picture and took a deep breath. When Snake entered the room, she flipped it over beside her on the sofa. She smiled discreetly when she saw him back in this regular attire.

"Well, that certainly does look more like you. I'll go and get the rest of your things."

When she returned to the room with his equipment, she found Snake just picking up the picture she had turned over.

"Are you going to be okay?" He asked her after realizing what it was.

She slide the frame out of his hands, putting it back it its place on the mantle.

"I'll manage."

She handed him his equipment and watched him for a moment before turning to look out of the window. The first lights of dawn came pouring in much like the moonlight had a few hours before.

"There's still something about you I don't get."

"And what's that, Snake?"

"Why didn't you shoot me?"

"You know, sometimes a simple 'thank you' will suffice," she half-joked with him.

"Believe me, I'm grateful. But why didn't you? It's not like I gave you a real reason not to."

"I quickly realized you weren't the person the Internet and media had painted you out to be. You could have taken me out a hundred different ways with or without weapons when I was holding that gun to you…but you didn't. To me, that's certainly not the actions of a cold hearted, environmental terrorist."

The sound of an aircraft caused both of them to go outside just in time to see it stop to hover near the ground.

"Call me, Snake, if you need anything."

"I'll call if I'm feeling lonely."

"Snake…", she couldn't help but laugh even though she tried to not appear amused.

"I will. I expect you to do the same," For the first time since she'd met him, he looked her directly in the eyes when he spoke to her, "Take care of yourself, Olivia."

She watched from her porch from the time Snake got aboard the aircraft to the time it was out of sight.

"You, too Snake."


Calls from Otacon first thing in the morning were never good and Snake knew this as he woke to the sound of his Codec ringing.

"Snake, when's the last time you talked to Olivia?" Otacon talked like someone who had been up for hours. He was also no good at hiding bad news before he could give it.

"Two days ago. She's well on her way to becoming a first class hacker thanks to your virtual lessons."

"That means this was recent…"

"Otacon, what's going on?"

"I got a message this morning from an unknown sender. There was a video attached and I'm afraid it's not pretty."

"Did something happen to Olivia?"

Otacon didn't answer but it really didn't matter. Snake knew it already, "Send it to me."

"I don't know if I should."

"Please…"

A moment later, Snake heard the chime of his computer when the video from Otacon arrived in his inbox. He finished a cigarette before sitting in the chair and clicking on it.

A video screen opened up immediately and a few seconds of static stared Snake in the face. Finally, Olivia appeared.

Her glasses had been removed and she was bound with her hands behind her back to a chair. The fireplace in her living room was behind her and had a fire strongly going in it. The sounds of other people and their shadows were clearly visible and audible. Her face was bruised and beaten but her demeanor was surprisingly calm and collected. The sound of footsteps with the clinking of spurs following each one began to approach her and stopped right before the view of the camera.

"You're a pretty tough woman to track down," the voice was chilling and deep with slight wit to it.

"Who are you?"

"Let's just I'm a friend of a friend."

"What do you want from me?"

"You seem to know where our friend is."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Where is he, Olivia. Where is Solid Snake?!"

"I already told you, I don't know."

"You're going to make this so much harder on yourself by lying."

Just then, a man dressed in a BDU came into the view of the camera. He had a shovel used for Olivia's fireplace that he pressed against her face. It's obvious from its bright red color it had been sitting in a flame and was probably branding temperature when it touched her. She tried to stiff back a cry but, it was too painful and she let it out. The solider brought it back and connected hard with the side of her head. She appeared to be knocked out.

"He really can't be worth all of this," the male voice continued when she began to stir.

"You sure wouldn't know what it's like to be worth anything."

"You lived a pretty normal life before all of this, Olivia," he continued as if he didn't hear her, "What I'm trying to figure out is why someone like you would risk it all for Solid Snake."

Olivia didn't satisfy him with a response.

"Not talking, huh? It looks like we're going to be here for a while."

"If that's the case, you could at least untie my hands."

"That's a pretty tall order. I don't know if I can do that."

"What am I going to do? I'm clearly outnumbered by you and your goons and I have no false realities about being a one woman army right now."

After a bit of thought, he responded.

"Untie her."

Another man in a BDU quickly untied her and stepped from out of frame again.

"You're pretty feisty. You remind me of another woman Snake wasn't able to protect."

Olivia rubbed her wrists for a moment then lightly touched the side of her face and flinched in pain.

"I'm going to find Snake either way," the voice taunted to her, "and when I do, I'm going to send a bullet straight through him with your name on it."

"Go to hell!" Her words were angry and full of venom.

A quickly drawn revolver barely appeared in frame of the camera before it, without hesitation, sent a bullet into her left leg. Olivia let out a piercing cry and doubled over in the chair in pain, grabbing her leg.

"You're proving to be a lot more fun than I thought you'd be, Ms. Steele."

"You…bastard!" She hissed at him through clinched teeth. After a moment, she sat up in the chair, returning back to her composed and calm state.

"You're not protecting him by not talking, you know."

"I'll take every bullet in that gun before I tell you anything!"

He laughed as if he liked the idea, "That can be arranged."

Olivia reached into her pocket and produced a pack of cigarettes. Her hands trembled from the pain but her face continued to appear to be undaunted by her situation.

"Smoking's not very good for your health."

"Well, I don't imagine it's too much worst than being shot."

"You think you're clever, don't you?"

"I do what I can." She shot back at him before putting the cigarette in her mouth.

"I don't like clever."

Suddenly, the silver revolver appeared again but at Olivia's head. A quick flash of fear came over her but she quickly covers it.

"Now, I suggest if you have anything to say to me, you do it now."

Olivia patted her pockets a few times before looking up.

"You got a light?"

The gun cocked and Olivia closed her eyes.

Static.

Snake stared vacantly at the computer screen feeling the most powerless he had felt in a long time. When his Codec rang, he immediately silenced it. He found the nearest wall and leaned against it, the last image of Olivia in the video playing over and over again in his head.

"I'm sorry, Olivia."

Saying it aloud didn't make a difference. He knew she'd never get to hear it.

He thought of all the things Olivia would say to him knowing that none of it would be a single word of blame for what happened. Maybe it should have brought him some sort of comfort but it didn't. It only made him angrier with himself. When his Codec began to ring again, he didn't bother to silence it. There was another sin he had to answer for. And for it, he was more than ready.