Know thyself, know your enemy.

A thousand battles, a thousand victories.

-Sun Tzu

-;-

"Yeah, I love you too, dad. Uh huh. I gotta go. Yeah. Bye."

She hung up the phone before going back to bustling around the kitchen, pulling out bowls and cereal boxes. Grabbing the milk from the fridge, she put that on the table before going to the bottom of the stairs.

"LEON! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE BEFORE I EAT WITHOUT YOU!"

"Coming!"

Elina sighed, holding up three fingers and beginning the customary countdown, her eyes looking skyward.

"SON OF A STAIR!"

Elina sighed, running a light mocha hand through her black hair and going to the table to pour herself a bowl of Frosted Flakes. "I know you keep saying you're trying to improve your ninja skills, but really. You should have given up after the three hundredth and fourth time." she said casually, not even looking up as Leon entered the room, muttering curses under her breath.

"I hate those goddamned piece of pickle shit stairs." the brunette informed her.

"That's nice. Eat your cereal."

"Coffee?" Leon asked, searching for her mug.

"On the table."

"I love you, Ellie."

"I know." Elina smirked around a mouthful of cereal.

"Hey, you're grabbing some stuff at the store after work, right?" Leon asked, pouring herself some coffee. "We're running low on bleach."

"Again? I just bought some a couple weeks ago." Elina frowned.

"Sorry. Being a mechanic doesn't exactly mean that I can go to work and not get dirty." her friend rolled her eyes. "Little Miss Physician Assistant who never gets dirty."

"I told you what I would rather be doing, but with my record I'll never be able to." Elina sulked. "Stupid Russian asshole."

"Okay, so the liaison thing didn't work out, even though it was never an official thing. You're a PA now. You get paid a ton of money. We own an awesome house. Can you please cheer up?"

"But I screwed up the one career opportunity that I want to pursue!" she whined. "I just had to get along with the Russian, attempt to play nice, yada yada yada. But noooo, he decided to grab my ass!"

"Y'know, if you weren't so easy to piss off, you probably would have gotten the job." Leon pointed out with her spoon.

"Not helping, Leon."

"Sorry."

"Whatever." Elina checked the clock. "I'm going to go change, and then I'm going to head out. Try not to kill yourself."

"But the stairs make it so easy!"

Elina was about to retort when the phone rang. "I've got it."

"Uh huh." Leon yawned, continuing to shovel cereal into her mouth.

"Hello?"

"Hello. Is this Elina?"

"Yes. May I ask who's calling?"

"Don't tell me you don't remember your own Uncle."

"Uncle Epps?" Elina gaped. "I thought you were in Diego Garcia!"

"I am. I'm calling on business."

"Uncle Epps, is it possible to call you back later? I've got to get to work." Elina half whined, checking the clock again. She wasn't going to make it to the hospital for her shift if she took this call.

"Sorry sweetheart."

Elina sighed, knowing that it was going to take a lot of convincing on her part later on. "Alright. I'm listening."

"I thought you would say that." he replied, smugness in his tone.

"Don't start. If I get fired, I'm going to hunt you down personally." Elina snapped half-heartedly.

"So, where are you working right now?"

"I'm a PA at the hospital."

"A what now?"

"Physician Assistant." Elina explained, ignoring the raised brows from Leon and waving her off.

"Ah, yes. Now I remember." her uncle muttered to himself. "Good thing we got our boys to call in and say that you're unavailable for today due to a personal matter."

Elina's jaw dropped. "So, in other words, you decided to screw around with me?" she growled.

"Yes?"

"Ugh." Elina groaned, sitting back down at the table. "So help me God, Uncle Epps, if you don't start telling me why the hell you're calling, I'm hanging up this phone."

"Hold on a sec. I've got to make sure I'm on a secure line."

She raised a brow at faint voices that seemed to be yelling at each other loudly. It raised further when she suddenly heard her uncle's voice boom, silencing both of the other voices. A couple of seconds later, he was back on the phone.

"So, a secure line, huh? Sounds like you just wanted to go yell at a couple of poor recruits."

"Trust me Ellie, they can take care of themselves." Epps grumbled. "They're like a bunch of four year olds."

"Focus, Uncle Epps."

"Yeah, yeah. So, I've been charged with hunting down a new liaison for NEST. And, since I know you've always wanted to be one..."

"You called me." Elina perked up. "That's sweet, Uncle Epps, but I have absolutely no experience whatsoever in being a liaison. And I kind of have a record."

"For what?"

"Well, a couple years ago, I was being considered for a liaison position with some Russian guy, but he groped my ass." Elina grumped. "I ended up breaking his nose."

"Atta girl!"

"Uncle!" Elina protested, though there was a smirk on her features.

"So, what do you say? Even if it turns out that you're rejected for the liaison position, there's still a lack of a medical officer."

"You've already sent my resignation, haven't you?"

"You know me well."

"Which flight am I catching?"

"In one hour, catch the flight to Baghdad. We'll send someone to meet you there. He'll bring you to Diego Garcia."

"Alright. See you soon."

"Love you."

Elina hung up, feeling a little lightheaded from the information her uncle had unloaded on her in a short amount of time.

"Ellie, what the hell was that all about?" Leon asked, her eyes wide. "Resignation? Where are you going? And why were you talking about liaison work?"

"That was my uncle. I've been offered a job over in Baghdad to work for the military. Apparently the military has been considering me as a new liaison." Elina explained, running her hands through her hair.

"And you accepted." Leon sulked. "And you're leaving me."

"Leon, I'll call you every day, and I'll video-chat all the time, and we'll gossip about the hot army men that keep flirting with me, and we'll keep tabs on your fail ninja skills.."

"Fine." Leon grinned, back to being her usual self. "Go for it, girl. I know you've been waiting for this kind of offer for years. Just don't forget who your bestest friend in the whole world is when you go and get all those awards for saving the world from the Russians."

"Thank you Leon!" Elina squealed, launching herself at her best friend. "I'll make sure to send you my half of the bills every month."

"Go pack." Leon shooed. "Knowing you, you're catching the next flight out."

"Yep!" Elina chirped, making a mad dash for the stairs. Silently, she was already making her lists of what she would need. Which, in total, amounted to pretty much all the clothing she owned, her bank accounts full, and her passport and various other papers.

In an hour, she was heading out to Baghdad!