This story takes place during Operation Snake Eater at the Krasnogorje Mountaintop. Snake takes shelter in an abandoned building nestled in the mountain as he buys time before moving forward with his mission. An unexpected visitor will soon arrive but this time, she isn't Eva.


Love is like de sea. It's a movin' thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it's different with every shore.

Zora Neale Hurston


Chapter I : Visitor

"What is it with some guys and their unnerving sense of dominance over women?"

"Maybe those guys are more complex than others."

"I don't know. I think they're just spoiling for a fight." A pause. "What about you, Snake? Anyone special back home waiting for you?"

"Can't say that there is. There weren't many people in my life to begin with."

"Really? No girlfriends? Or—or lovers?"

"Nope. Just me and my good ol' weapon collection." He smirked as he pulled a cloth out of the shotgun and peeped through the shiny tubular body.

"Oh."

Radio silence. He continued cleaning out the rest of his weapons, lost in the hypnosis of his repetitive motions, when he heard footsteps. He straightened up and held his breath, listening. Seconds later there was a loud thump at the door. Snake pulled out the MK22 strapped to his thigh and pointed it squarely at the entrance to the room. Closing one eye, he guesstimated the angle at which the head of his enemy would appear in the next few seconds. He had one knee on the floor as he propped himself upright and steady. His radio was still on, just in case she had anything else to say.

One, he inhaled a sharp breath.

Two, the enemy continued thumping at the door, attempting to knock it down.

Three, the thumping stopped. He raised his head and stared at the doorknob, noting the 30-degree turn.

Now, the door opened and before the shadowy figure could look around, a tranquilizer dart was fired right at its forehead. It was a perfect shot. "Bullseye," he whispered as the figure collapsed with an unfamiliar gasp. "What the hell?" Flipping the gun back into his leg strap, he walked over to the body on the ground. He turned it over to realize the figure was smaller and curvier than the ones he'd been looking at for the past few months. "A woman?"

He removed the dark hair that covered her face and peered over her complexion, looking down at her clothing to see where she came from. He noted her particular features before registering the familiar patch on her uniform. As she lay there with a tranquilizer dart jabbed into her forehead she was, in every respect, a strikingly beautiful woman. Her skin was pale like porcelain, and there wasn't a speck of dirt on her face. He examined one of her hands and noted the faint and uninterrupted lines of her palm, lines that were free of marks and scratches. Whoever this woman was, she wasn't doing physically demanding work. Nor could she have been a spy. This he was certain.

A moment later, he stood up and moved his spread of weapons from the cot to the small metal desk nearby. He carried her over and laid her down gently, careful not to meddle with the dart in her forehead. He'd take that out later. First, he needed to contact the Major. He took a seat on the chair beside the desk as the signal traveled across airwaves for a minute before Major Zero picked up from the other side of the world.

"Snake, is everything alright?"

"Major, I've got a… I've got a woman in my bed."

"A what? Did you say a woman?"

"Yeah. She managed to pick the lock on my door. I shot her with a tranquilizer dart before she had a chance to look around and see me."

"Bloody hell, Snake," said the Major. "I can assure you that the woman is neither spy nor enemy. That's Para-Medic."

"What?" Snake spat back, confused. "What the hell is Para-Medic doing here? You couldn't give me a heads up sooner?"

"Oh, stop being a baby. I was helping Sigint with his coordination controls and forgot to give you a ring about her arrival. She was supposed to check on your vitals to make sure everything was in order."

"My vitals? What's wrong with my vitals?"

"Do you remember those tranquilizer darts The End had shot into you during the last battle?"

"Yeah, his special rounds. I thought I fixed that when I took them out."

"The old bastard is craftier than we'd care to think. Those darts were dipped in a stringent poison that will spread over time. I'm afraid you've got the lot of that poison filtering through your bloodstream at the moment."

"I haven't felt any different. What was the intended effect of the poison?"

"We recently discovered that the molecules work at glacial speed. It will take a few weeks for you to feel any effect, if at all. Para-Medic made clear that once the poison infiltrates your bloodstream, you will be paralyzed." The Major paused for a moment, then continued. "As soon as we discovered this information, we immediately dispatched her to your location. We can't risk paralysis, Snake. We need you for this mission."

"So Para-Medic had to come here to physically treat the poison that's filtering through my body?"

"Correct. However, your treatment has now been delayed because you've tranquilized her. You'll have to wait until she wakes up."

Snake growled under his breath as his gaze fixed on the figure whom the Major just claimed was the one and only Para-Medic. "Yeah… Sorry about that," he mumbled.

"It's alright," the Major said lightheartedly. "Let's be grateful it was a tranquilizer dart and not a shotgun bullet." At that, the Major clicked off his radio and left Snake in silence with his thoughts.

While Snake had known Major Zero from previous missions with the CIA, he knew none of his other teammates personally. He never saw their faces, just heard their voices through his radio. However intense or meaningful those conversations were, people like Sigint and Para-Medic were shadows in his mind. Physically meeting someone on his team while on a mission was rare. His gaze traveled the length of the figure who lay before him, noting her untarnished camo suit and combat boots. He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "Para-Medic, huh," Snake said to himself after a moment, transfixed on the woman before him.


Notes:

August 31, 2017 | Of all the questionable crap I've written, this was and still is my favorite fic. I'll love Naked Snake, Para-Medic and their Cold War era love to the end. Foremost, I've renamed the fic to something more apropos. I've revised the grammar a few times but just did an overhaul so that everything reads smoother and more dynamic, ie. the love scene in Chapter III. I added more introspection to both characters because I wanted to explore their motivations as well. Check out my addendum at the end of this fic for more recent insight.

I'm scrapping the assumption that anyone who communicates via radio has seen the face of the person they're talking to. The radio is just a radio, without the ability to transmit images through fancy satellite technology. I think this makes for a more interesting connection between the characters.

After playing Snake Eater, I couldn't stop thinking of how much I loved the nerdy chemistry between Naked Snake and Para-Medic. These two are more a match in their complimentary differences than people like Eva or The Boss are to Snake. I'd like to explore the emotional/psychological trauma of his past relationship with someone like The Boss to then illuminate the real love he shares with Para-Medic at some point, perhaps in a sequel to this story.