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The Job

Chapter 1:

Mallory stomped her way down the hall to her room. She couldn't believe it! Where they all actually considering this! Even Tanya didn't disagree! What the hell! It seemed that she was the only one who did have a problem with this. She at least thought Wildwing would disagree considering what this means! Duke had apparently had a discussion with Wildwing a bit back about what they would do if they got stuck here. Which it looks like that they were since Wildwing blew up Draganus's Dimensional Gateway generator and sank the Raptor to the bottom of the ocean. Not to mention they later found out that Draganus had escaped.

What would they do about having four males and only two females of their species? Let's face it, dating a human wasn't going to happen. Gross! So that left them with each other. Wildwing called a meeting and brought up the issue.

It had been discussed and voted on by the whole crew. "Everyone against this raise your hand." Mallory's hand shot up instantly but she was surprised to be the only one. She looked over at Tanya questioningly, "Tanya?"

Tanya played with her hands under the table. "Ah wel-well, it's a good point."

Duke jumped in here. "It is Sweetheart, at some point someone is going to get jealous and this is going to start affecting our ability to function as a team."

Wildwing added his thoughts here, "And we can't have that Mallory. Not with what we do. If we can't function as a team in the field because of this then someone could get killed. I can't have that. As the leader of this team, I'm responsible for all of your safety."

"I don't believe this! You are agreeing? How about nobody dates anybody then. That sounds better to me!" Said Mallory crossing her arms and turning her head away from him. Wildwing seemed annoyed by her statement but sighed instead. "Well it's a decision that needs to be made by the whole team. Everyone for doing this raise your hand."

Everyone's hand went up except Mallory's. "It's 5 to 1 Mal. I'm sorry." Said Wildwing. "So here are couples. Tanya will be with Grin and Nosedive. Mallory will be with me, since we have already been in a relationship, and Duke." Mallory shoved her chair away from the table. It screeched across the floor and fell over. Wildwing stared at her stoically as she stomped out of the rec room back to her bedroom.

Truth be told when Duke had proposed this to Wildwing, he had not taken to the idea very well himself. As a matter of fact it took him a year to accept the idea that he would have to share Mallory. He wanted to live in the thought that Mallory was his and his alone. That they would be married one day and have a family and if they were able to get back to Puckworld that is what would happen. But they weren't and they weren't in normal circumstances either. Duke did agree though that if they ever got back to Puckworld that he would step down out of the relationship and leave Mallory to be with Wildwing, if that is what she wanted.

…..

Mallory made it back to her room and punch the button to close it behind her. It wasn't even 5 minutes later that she heard a knock, she sighed and opened it to find Wildwing standing there stoically. "What is it?" Mallory asked annoyed.

"Can I come in?" Mallory moved aside and let him pass. Wildwing went and sat on her bed, patting the spot next to him. Mallory glared for a moment but walked over and took a seat in the spot he padded, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Well?" Mallory asked irritably. Wildwing pulled off his mask and ran his hand through his hair. She needed to understand that he didn't come to this decision easily.

"Trust me, I didn't want to do this either."

"Oh come on Wildwing you could have at least given me some heads up instead of backing me into a corner!" Mallory stood up and paced in front of her bed.

"Mallory, Tanya had about as much heads up as you, or anyone else for that matter." Wildwing stood now as well but didn't move from his spot.

"Well maybe we shouldn't be in a relationship at all Wildwing if this is how it goes. Perhaps we should go back to keeping it strictly professional."

"I can't do that now. Maybe in the beginning when things weren't as intimate, but now I can't not have you Mal. If we stopped seeing each other now it would affect me badly on a day to day basis. I don't know how long I could hold out before I snapped on something or someone. Sometimes I think I'm borderline obsessed with you."

Mallory's head snapped over to him stunned. "And I know that its probably kinda creepy to hear that but its true. I think about you all the time! I want to see and be near you always! Hell before we were together I used to dream about you!" Wildwing stood up, grabbed Mallory's shoulders and pulled her to his chest. "So trust me when I tell you that when I was first approached about this, I was very fucking unhappy. Trust me when I say that this was not an easy decision to make and it took me a year to digest all the in's and out's of it. Trust me when I tell you that I'm afraid. I'm afraid that you'll find Duke more interesting then me and go off with him, leaving me behind. But I'm also afraid of being a bad leader and getting my team killed cause I was selfish... I love you Mal and this hurts... but for the time being we have to do it."

Mallory looked up into Wildwing's eyes and saw the hurt there. She resigned herself to this for now. "Okay Wildwing. For now I will go along with this but you have a lot of making up to do to me for this."

"I know." He hugged her closer and kissed her hard on the beak. Slowly he walked her to her bed and began taking her clothes off. "You can start making it up to me now." Said Mallory as she started to pull his clothes off too.

Wildwing was only too happy to obliged her.

…..

One week later.

Duke sighed as he looked out over the city. Once they had found out that Draganus had escaped the crash, he had been keeping an eye on Falcone. He was worried that Draganus was desperate and would try to work with Falcone again. Something in his gut told him that he would and one night when he was checking to make sure Falcone was snug in his cell, a strange looking guard came up, talking to Falcone through the bars. The guard left and exited the prison after speaking with him. Duke followed the guard to find out what he was up to and saw him change into the Chameleon.

Falcone was working with Draganus again. It was only a matter of time before he escaped prison now. Draganus would be playing at something big and they needed to find out what before it was too late. He needed to get Falcone to work with him again but in order to do that he was going to have to do something pretty extreme. Something that the team wouldn't condone. Mallory certainly wouldn't nor Wildwing for that matter.

Hum Mallory... she has been in his head for the past year. In the beginning Mallory and him were on rough ground. She didn't completely trust him and this miss trust came out the first time they fought Falcone. After Falcone was put away, she and and Duke had come to an understanding and they got along just fine after that.

Mallory, she was complicated and his feelings towards her were complicated. He knew that she and Wildwing were together, but he couldn't help but be attracted to her. There were times when she stilled ruffled his feathers, but other moments he wanted to take her where she was standing.

The fiery red head had gotten under his feathers over time and he wanted her bad. She had gotten under Wildwing's feathers the moment he saw her but for Duke it had been a slow poisoning. Something that was in his veins now and he couldn't get it out. Don't get him wrong, he had always found her attractive, especially that one time when she walked out of her room all dressed for the mall, he and Nosedives jaws almost hit the floor but over time it had only gotten worse. And Wildwing noticed it too.

He had been the one to bring up the issues of what would happen if they were stuck there to Wildwing. So he was the one who proposed that they share. Wildwing reacted the way he expected a male in love to react to someone asking him to share his woman. He was pissed but he was a good leader so Duke was able to get out his reasoning. Though Wildwing certainly didn't look like he listened to him, he knew that he did. After the meeting last week, he couldn't have been more thankful to Wildwing.

Duke was personally tired of being in a monogamous relationship with his hand. Grin was Grin. Nosedive he wasn't quite sure about, he was a teenager and probably had never been with a woman, but that didn't mean that he didn't think about it. Wildwing... well he has been getting his nookie from Mallory for the past year and a half so he was okay.

Duke sighed, he wanted Mallory and he wanted her to see him in a different light. Maybe not the exact same as she saw Wildwing but in a more intimate one for sure. He sighed again. "Which makes what I'm about to do all the more difficult." If she found out about what he was about to do, there was going to be hell to pay.

…..

Two days later.

Mallory walked down the halls to her room. It was all over the papers, a rare jewel called the Ark Stone was stolen from a museum in Paris. The investigation was posted in the morning paper. The local police had no clue who could have done it but Duke, Wildwing and Mallory recognized it. It was Falcone's style and he had escaped the day before.

It was his first two days out of prison and he had already stolen something of great value. The ducks had no idea what it was for or if he was working with Draganus. They knew that he had survived the crash but that's it. They hadn't seen or heard from him or his goons in months.

Duke was unusually quiet about the whole situation. Mallory thought that this was odd considering his strong reaction last time they dealt with Falcone but she didn't want to say anything this time. Wildwing was tense enough as it was, he didn't need to deal with Mallory and Duke being in another fight. Not only that but Duke was acting strangely distant from everyone, especially her. They had gotten along very well in the past year and had even gotten pretty close, even with the whole 'oh by the way were going to have to share you, it's for the good of the team' thing, but now he was outright avoiding her.

Mallory sighed as she went to work off some steam at the gym. Hopefully things would go back to normal soon.

Arriving at the gym, she was surprised to see Duke there practicing his swordsmanship. "Duke?"

Hearing her say his name made him freeze, he looked over at her and then turned away and started to walk out of the room going the opposite direction.

"Oh no you don't" Mallory blocked his path. "What's up with you? Your acting weird?"

"I'm not acting weird, I just want time to myself is that so hard to understand." Duke was instantly defensive.

"No and Yes. It's not that you just wanted time to yourself it's that your avoiding me specifically!" Mallory pointed her finger at him accusingly.

"I am not!"

"Oh Yeah? Then why is it that when I walk into a room you walk out, or you avoid conversation with me?" She took a deep breath and prepared herself for the conversation she was about to bring up. "This is all because of Falcone isn't it."

Duke seemed shocked by her statement but she knew that she had hit the nail on the head. "Just tell us what's wrong Duke. Everyone's wondering what's up with you."

"Look Mal. I appreciate yours and the others concern but butt out. You always feel the need to get into my business."

Mallory raised an eyebrow at that. "Look your acting oddly, I just wanted to make sure that my teammate was okay!"

"Like I said Mal. I'm fine, your the one that seems to have a problem." With that Duke left the gym. Leaving a annoyed and suspicious Mallory.

She had caught him sneaking out at night more recently and wanted to know what he was up too. She tried to follow him one night but he got away from her. She didn't think he had seen her but she still needed to be cautions with him. Duke was a master thief after all, his skills were supposed to be legendary. Perhaps he saw her tailing him and that is way he is angry. Whatever if he wasn't going to bring it up then she certainly was not going to fess up to it.

Wildwing would probably be fairly pissed but at the same time want to know what she had seen, which at the moment was nothing. She'd have to wait until she could get solid evidence that Duke was up to something and not just go in half cocked like she did last time.

This time she would nail his ass to the wall with solid proof and then confront him about it. That way he couldn't run away from her questions and if she had to, she would bring the evidence to Wildwing. However, first she would confront Duke and give him a chance to explain himself.

…..