I don't own any of the characters used or Primeval. Please review, constructive critism only please, no hate. Special thanks to SandyLee Potts for being the beta reader to this story. She helped me come up with the great ideas of how to improve this chapter.
Charley was sat down with her best friend, Maya, as the teacher droned on and on about how they would be having mentors for the next few weeks. They were cadets at Sandhurst, hoping to qualify for Special Forces. Some great soldiers had attended this academy, many people that Charley admired. Captain H Becker was one of them.
Many Generals and Majors had worked with him on missions and each and every one would commend him. They would say that he was the most dedicated, loyal and one of those people who always got the job done before relaxing.
Their very strict Sergeant Major finished speaking just as ten soldiers, dressed in Sandhurst uniforms, walked into the room. A lot of them were Captains, a few Generals. One person stuck out to Charley though. The serious looking, tense, dark haired figure that was Captain Becker. All of the cadets had heard about the mentors via emails that had been sent out through the last week about then and knew straight away who they were.
"Right Cadets, each one of these people is going to be assigned to you. They're going to help you improve as members of the force. Please treat them with respect; they're all ex students here." Sergeant Major Weeks kept trying to drill that 'respect' thing into their heads for five minutes.
Maya and Charley were the only female cadets in the class. Charley looked over to the group of people and noticed something strange. There was a small woman standing just behind Captain Becker, tapping her bright purple 5 inch heel impatiently on the floor. She looked completely out of place with everyone else in uniform. Charley couldn't help but notice the way Captain Becker and the lady behind him were whispering, she was blushing slightly. There seemed to be some sort of relationship going on between them, at least a friendship. Maya caught Charley's attention by placing her hand on her shoulder.
"I don't see what the big deal is. He's not even good looking. I don't know how you managed to research him for that paper a year ago." That comment cause Charley to look at her as if she was an alien.
"I'm not concentrating on looks; it's his résumé that I'm impressed with. And I talked to a lot of the trainers here when I researched for that paper. They only ever had good things to say about him."
"Never mind, I'm gonna go and find out who I'm with. And it had better not be him." She practically shouted the last sentence, causing a few heads to turn towards the loud noise. Maya walked over to the front desk and scowled at the piece of paper with the pairs on, her fist clenched in frustration.
"Bloody hell!" Charley muttered under her breath, did she have to be so loud about it?
Becker walked up behind Maya and introduced himself. He seemed to have a lot of confidence, walking into the lion's den like that. Charley loved Maya to bits, but when she was in a bad mood it was best to leave her be. However, what actually happened surprised Charley. They went over to a desk and say down opposite each other, Maya looking extremely bored already whilst the Captain had a rather tense form. Whilst Charley had been looking at them, she hadn't noticed that someone had sat down next to me. He looked to be in his 30's, with ash blonde hair and hazel eyes. He was much taller than me, probably about 6 foot 3". She looked at them expectantly.
"Captain Jack Callow! I'm your mentor, and you are?" He extended his hand towards her and smiled. A rather formal introduction, but then, they were at Sandhurst. His smile was nice, a full set of straight white teeth on show, the kind that you envy, looking like they've just stepped out of a toothpaste advert, always looking perfect with their teeth whitened.
She accepted it quickly, hoping it would make up for being so out of it. "I'm Cadet Charley Harker, nice to meet you."
"So, shall we go and get started?" Wow, she thought, he's eager.
"Sure...let's go. What are we going to doing?" She suddenly felt very nervous, which was extremely unusual for her. She was normally quite a confident person, someone who was always up for something new.
"I figured we could go down to the gym and spar, give me a chance to see what you can do."
"Okay, that sounds great. It's been a while since I had a good sparring partner, do you think you're up to the challenge?" Trying to cover up her nervousness, She thought of Maya who would have been proud of a cocky response like that.
"Of course I am."
They began walking to the gym, which was only a two minute walk from the Training room, and she took the opportunity to get to know her mentor a bit better.
"So...what did you do after you left Sandhurst?"
"Well, I went into the Special Forces for a bit, served there for about 10 years. Then I was recruited to the Anom...a government facility that needed a lot of help with security at the time."
"Oh, what's the anom? Is that code for something?" She smiled cheekily at him, digging for information.
"That's classified information covered by the Official Secrets Act." She was startled when the answer came from behind her and not from Jack. Turning around they saw Captain Becker smirking at them.
"You can't jump like that if you're going to be a soldier. That's something you need to work on." He looked at her so seriously, making her want to curl up and die from embarrassment for the second time in five minutes. Maya walked up behind him, looking fed up. She looked at Charley, waiting for her response to him.
"Well...don't sneak up on me like that, then I won't jump like that."
"I apologize then. Just wanted to test your reactions, like I did with Maya earlier."
Charley looked at him with a really confused look. Maya rolled up the sleeve to her rolling stones top, which now doubled as her work out top, to reveal a small bruise on her bicep.
"He decided to pounce on me when I wasn't ready. I put my arm up to block his fist and ended up with that."
"You did well; my fist could have ended up in your face. You wouldn't want to mess up that straight nose would you?"
Maya huffed and walked into the gym, dragging Jack along with her to spar. Maya was driven on sparring; it helped her to channel her frustration and anger into something. Jack looked back at Charley, begging for help. She just smiled at him and turned to Becker.
"So...how are you getting along with Maya?"
"She's...interesting..." He looked conflicted for a moment, as if he was trying to figure out whether or not to say what he really felt or not.
Charley took a deep breath and spoke her mind instead. "Whatever you want to say, don't insult her. She's been my best friend since we were four."
Maya may have her faults but she's great once you take the time to get to know her. She can be kind, caring and a good person to have a laugh with when you need cheering up. One time, she danced around Charley's living room whilst she was crying her eyes out because of some boy that told her she wasn't good enough for him. Maya was everything that a best friend should be. Sure, they've had our arguments but what friends don't? They just brood for a while, spar and move on.
"I wasn't gonna insult her. I'm just saying it's gonna take me time to get used to her." He stepped back from her slightly and held his hands up in a mock surrender.
"Good, glad we got that out of the way. Bye." Just as she turned to leave, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back.
"Your mentor's busy at the moment, why don't you spar with me?" He raised his eyebrow again in a challenging way. She looked back over at Jack and Maya. Maya had Jack pinned to the training mat in the middle of the room. She had a smug grin on her face, thinking victory was hers. She turned to smirk at Charley and Becker and was taken off guard at that moment. Jack flipped her back over and pushed her head back with his hand, indicating that he had won the fight.
Maya's posture slumped completely as she admitted defeat. Charley chuckled to herself, knowing how much Maya loved to win. Jack got up and held out a hand to her, which she took. As soon as they had vacated the mat, Becker moved towards it. He got into a fighting position and looked at Charley, waiting for her to join. She walked cautiously over to the mat, Maya stopping her on the way and whispering in her ear.
"Beat him, do it for me. He's an arrogant little..."
Charley stepped onto the mat and copied his fighting position. They circled each other for a few moments, waiting for someone to make a move. Suddenly, Becker did. He raised his arm and struck towards her face. Immediately, she put her arm in front of her face so their arms ended up in a cross position. They carried on for the next few minutes, trying to use their heights and weights to our advantage. She tried to sweep his legs from under him many times, but he was too quick for her. He had tried to do the same to her with her upper body, which was the weakest part of her body as she usually focused on keeping her legs strong. Charley pushed him back as he advanced on her and he spun around, turning his back to her. She took the chance and jumped on his back, hooking her legs together near his ribs. That was a stupid move as he just let himself drop to the floor with her still on his back. He rolled off of her and jumped up. He had won that match too easily; she wasn't as good as he was. Charley looked over to the door and saw that woman again, who was now walking over to them with towels in her hand. She handed one to Charley as she got up off the floor and the other went to Becker. He turned to Charley, slinging the towel over his shoulder.
"Good work, keep that up and you could be out in the field before you know it." He extended a hand towards her, but thought better of it considering they were both drenched with sweat.
"Thanks, I've been trying. I noticed that you had a lot of upper body strength. Could you help me with improving mine? All of my strength is in my legs." Charley placed her hands on her hips and bent over slightly as she tried to catch her breath.
"Sure, I'll be here most days now when I can get away from work. We can work on it a couple of hours each day and you should get better. You can start improving by using the punch bag over in the corner. Work on your punches as well." He seemed to be thinking of work out sessions already. Maybe Maya was right and he is a drill sergeant that never lets up.
She was about to reply when he turned to talk to the woman next to him.
"Jess, want to spar?"
Jess looked at him like he was mad. "No no no. You know I don't do that. That's your department."
"I still think you should learn. You need to be prepared for everything. Maybe you can spar with..." He looked at Charley, indicating that she should tell him her name now.
"Cadet Harker...Charley." She quickly gave her first name after seeing the woman's stern look. Did she have something against ranks?
"Hi, well I'm Jess and this is Becker. Don't be put off by the sparring, he can be nice sometimes."
"Ha, maybe you should spar with someone. If you don't wanna spar with the Captain at the moment, why don't you spar with me?" Charley tried her best to remain professional towards Becker despite the fact that he had just beaten her in a sparring match.
Jess' face lit up in a smile. "That would be so much better. No offense Becker, but you can be too intimidating for a beginner."
Becker just chuckled and grabbed hold of his towel. "That could work. I can help you both at the same time then. This time tomorrow? I think we've all had enough for today."
"Now that's a lie Becker. We both know you'll get back to work and be straight in the gym."
Becker was just about to reply when his and Jess' phones rang loudly. It sounded like some sort of alarm. It caused Charley to jump back slightly as the sound pierced through the gym. They both looked at their phones and sighed as if this was a daily occurrence. Jack had just walked up to them and his phone had done the same thing. Jess and Becker both have Charley small smiles before running out of the room. Jack was about to do the same but stopped for a second, turning to his student.
"You got away lucky, he's normally a drill sergeant, never lets up on us."
"You do a lot of training at work?"
"Yeah, gotta be prepared for anything in our line of work."
"Callow!" Becker's voice bellowed from outside.
Jack shot her another amazing smile and began to jog out of the room.
"What...?" Charley was extremely confused as to what could have them all running out of the room so quickly. Jack looked over his shoulder quickly, smiling sympathetically.
"Duty calls. See you tomorrow."
Maya walked slowly towards Charley, obviously feeling the effects of sparring with trained soldiers.
"Well, that was different. I prefer Jack to Becker. He's not as intimidating."
"Yeah, that's just what a soldier wants to hear. You're not intimidating; you're like an innocent puppy."
"I wonder what got them all running so quickly. Where the hell do they even work?" Maya bluntly asked.
"I have no idea, but I'm sure they'll tell us at some point. How's your muscles?"
"Sore, tired. But I don't feel properly worked though. Wanna spar?"
Charley chuckled at her friends words and nodded her head. It was always amusing when the two of them fought, a miracle that one hadn't ended up in hospital yet. They got brutal. The problem was, they both channelled their anger and frustration in their sparring. Last month, Charley only stopped when she struck her arm down on Maya's shoulder and heard a bone crack. That was when she decided she had gotten too into the fight. Charley walked back towards the training mat and stretched her arms and legs in preparation. Maya joined her and did the same. Then, they began their usual sparring match that always lasted about half an hour, no matter how sore or tired they were.