I'll be upfront and say this chapter is something you just have to read and get through – nothing too interesting happens other than, of course, the beginning scene. But I assure you, it's all an important and necessary step for the story. Just be aware that slow, seemingly 'unnecessary' scenes in this chapter do not represent the rest of the story. So with all that said. Please enjoy this chapter… it has relationship building so I hope you gain some satisfaction in characters earning friendship. More Sniper stuff will come… but it's gonna come naturally. I'm not forcing this shit to happen anymore.

Just then, the bathroom door opened. Jessie froze, unsure if the noise was just in her head. She eyed the shower curtain blocking her view, trying to focus her ears on any noises.

"Oi, what'er ya doin' in 'ere?"

Jessie's heart skipped at beat and then picked up where it left off but only ten times faster. 'Holy fuck. That was a voice. That was a real voice.' Jessie slowly went to look around the curtain.

"Don't move." The voice drawled out.

She froze in response. 'I'm going to get murdered.'

"Now, get outta tha showa an' this campa befor' I shoot ya where ya stand." The blurry silhouette of a man stood before the shower curtain, with a sharper shadow being the tip of his gun almost touching the curtain.

Jessie's limbs and ligaments were stuck, her lungs refused to process just how fast the heart was beating. 'Statistically speaking though, I'm going to get raped and then murdered.' Her eyes darted around the shower and at the shadowed figure on the other side of the curtain. After trying to sort out her thoughts for 3 seconds, she spotted her shampoo bottle.

Her vocal chords activated. "Okay, please just don't shoot." Her voice shook as she complied with the gunman, slowly grabbing the shampoo as she started pulling the curtain back just enough so she could see the man.

The moment she saw him she only had enough time to process that he was starting to lower his gun, and not that his snarled expression was softening into a confused one.

'Go! Now!' Jessie aimed the shampoo bottle and squirted a stream of soap into the man's eyes.

"ARHG!"

BANG!

The man fired a shot shattering the mirror behind her. The flying mirror shards didn't matter though, Jessie was too busy grabbing her towel and pushing past the man as he rubbed the stinging liquid out of his eyes. Jessie slipped in the narrow hall of the camper, but the walls were so close together that it didn't take much to just push back off of them. In a split second she was at the door.

"Bloody 'ell! Get back 'ere!" Just as Jessie jumped out of the camper, the man grabbed her by the arm midair and pulled her back down inside. Not only did Jessie hit her head on the table, but she hit her head again once her body finally slammed down onto the floor. There were shockwaves of pain radiating from her head but the only thing she could focus on was the inside of a gun barrel pointed right between her eyes.

"O'lright. Ya clearly not a homeless bloke." One of his eyes were closed due to the pain, but that didn't stop him from aiming the gun at her.

Jessie tightened the towel around her chest. 'Homeless?'

"So why are ya in my bloody home?!" He pressed the gun against her forehead. The contact of the cold metal with her forehead shocked her into speaking.

"Your home?!" Her face was still mixed between fear and shock, now there was an additional expression – confusion. The man snarled at this comment.

"Ah 'ell. Ya are homeless." His finger grazed over the trigger which fired up Jesse's vocal chords.

"No, no, no, no! I'm the secretary! I work here! I just got hired! They said I'd be living outside and thatmyroomwasnotready!" Jessie got out as many words possible in one breath and didn't take in a new one, she just closed her eyes and winced getting ready for the bang. The man looked down at the cowering woman, she was literally just in a towel. He looked behind him and saw the nice looking suitcase at the foot of his bed.

"Bugger." He grumbled out making Jessie open her eyes to see him lower his gun. Finally, her lungs accepted air back into them again, keeping up with the speeding heart. She slowly sat up, making sure not to scare the man.

"I thought this was the temporary room they set up for me." Her chest heaved as she was made aware of the unused adrenaline in her body. "I brought my luggage and everything. I even have the note from the staff here." She pointed to the bed, where the note laid.

The man looked back at the bed, when he saw the note he decided to walk over and pick it up. He scanned through it as Jessie sat up completely. She adjusted her towel, making sure it was covering everything. A couple seconds passed and the man looked up at her. He had a faint look of regret on his face as he sighed and grabbed her suit case, placing it a fair distance in front of him.

"Riote then." The Australian man turned his back to her. "Get dressed. Oi'm gonna take you inside so we can figure this out." He grumbled passively over his shoulder.

Jessie nodded at his back as if he could see her acknowledgement to his order, and stood up. She looked at his back. He was tilting his hat down as if not to be rude. A gulp forced its way down her throat and she stuck her hand in her suitcase and pulled out the first thing she touched: a simple workplace casual dress. As she looked back up, she noticed the man still had his back turned to her. '…' Her mind wouldn't produce structured thoughts, she was just trying to calm down as she followed his instructions.

"Okay, I'm dressed." Jessie stood in her dress, wet hair dampening the back of it. He lifted his hat and turned around, quickly glancing at her long enough to confirm she was dressed.

"Roite." He made his way past her and out the campervan. Jessie's breath hitched as he passed her. "Grab ya stuff an follo' me." He stood outside looking in with his rifle still at his side. Jessie nodded again grabbing her suitcase and plastic bag. She then followed him outside.

The air was cooler now that the sun was setting. The slight chill spread goosebumps up her legs like wildfire, it didn't help that her hair was wet.

'Okay, now this… is when he will kill you.' Her thoughts returned as she now had airtime to think properly. She eyed his rifle as they walked in silence. Her mouth opened, probably say something regretful.

"Is the gun still necessary?" She questioned with full respect. The Australian man looked over his shoulder and then back in front of himself.

"Listen. Oi'm about ninety percent sure you are who you say you are. 'owever, this means that I ain't 100 percent certain. So if I ain't certain, than that means I need to take precautions." He spoke over his shoulder.

Jessie stayed quiet this time. She understood his point of view but was still a little worried as she was in no position to defend herself. Her eyes scanned the back of his body as they walked. He was tall, taller than the average person and extremely taller than Jessie. He seemed gruff, not just by appearance but by his behaviour. 'He did just get out of practice only to be attacked in his own home.' Jessie gave the man the benefit of the doubt as to why he attacked her.

They made it inside the building and he continued to lead her… somewhere, she didn't exactly know where they were going, just that they were going to solve this misunderstanding. As she followed him she spotted people in the other rooms they passed. One of them made eye contact with her which shocked her into looking back ahead of her at the tired man leading the way. There was a small commotion beginning to start far behind her. The further they walked the more the commotion increased. Finally they entered what looked like a medical room and approached a man in a lab coat and another man in overalls.

"Oi!" The Australian spoke up getting them to turn around to acknowledge him. "You two wanna explain wot she's doin' ere?" He looked back at the woman as the other two men did the same.

"Oh! Frauline! Nice to meet you, I am zhe Medic." The man in the lab coat, Medic, walked up and took her hand in a handshake. "And zhat is the Engineer." He referred to the man behind him who tipped his head down in a greeting fashion. Before Jessie could respond he spoke again. "Did you not get my letter? I said ve vould start zhe tour tomorrow?" He gave her a harmless quizzical look that made Jessie even sorrier for the misunderstanding.

"I did and I followed what it said-" She started her explanation but was cut short by the Australian man.

"She thought me campa was her room." He stepped forward pointing his hand toward where his 'home' was. The Medic raised his brows as if the problem was solved right then and there.

"Vell, I can see why zhis would be confusing. But your room is zhe tent outside." He gave her a reassuring smile with a tint on victory from having solved the issue. Jessie couldn't focus on anything else he said other than…

'Tent.' She had to shake herself out of her vicious thoughts so she could solve this problem civilly.

"There was nothing out there but his van though?" Her eyes darted between his, just hoping that the importance of what she said would get through to him. Once she stated this the Medic couldn't help but look a little unconfident in his last statement. He then turned around to talk the man in the overalls.

"Hmm. Ah. You did construct her tent, ja?" He tried keeping his words on the down-low as to not seem completely unprofessional to the woman. The Engineer furrowed his brows, upset that he was hearing the tent was not up.

"Nope. I had to get Soldier to do it." He shrugged his shoulders at the Medic, they both knew how busy the other was, and so pawning off tasks was not unheard of. All of a sudden the Australian man unfroze from his spot, getting Jessie's full attention.

"You bloody wankas." He shook his head at the two men and rolled his eyes.

The four of them stood outside in the cooling desert. They all stared at the pile of rubbish that was made up of cloth and broken wood. Silence fell among them as the answer slowly started to dawn on them that this pile of trash was her 'room'. The Medic stepped out of line from them and smiled.

"See! Zhere it is!" He placed his hands on his hips, mission accomplished, mystery solved, case closed, assignment fulfilled, job comple -

"That?!" Jessie uncontrollably uttered as the crippling thought of being outside in a tent completely shook her. She swallowed her fear to continue speaking in a presentable manner. "I'm sorry, but it's not even put together. I think it's even broken." Jessie spoke up for herself. If there was any time she would step out of her comfort zone to complain about something, this would be that time. The Medic tilted his head to the side and smiled at her.

"Nonsense. It's fine." He attempted to persuade her, but his soothing words were not enough to mask the truth, and the man in the overalls knew that. So he pulled the Medic back to have a quiet word with him.

"Medic. I, uh, think she's right." He whispered to the German man.

The Australian man at this point was done with the situation and just decided to slink back away from the whole ordeal unnoticed. But Jessie noticed him sneak away, she was all too familiar with slipping out of socially awkward situations that no longer involved her.

"Shh. I vas just trying to see if she vould go for it." The Medic whispered back to the Engineer. Jessie didn't bother listening to them anymore, she was too focused on watching the rifle man escape the situation and how he went about it. He didn't announce he was leaving, but he also didn't try too hard to make sure no one saw him leave. As Jessie stared at him walking back to his camper, he turned to look back. Even from far away she could feel the intensity of his stare, normally she'd look away by now but her eyes felt stuck as both curiosity and vulnerability kept her focused on the man.

"Ah, Miss Mayfield is it?" The Engineer shocked Jessie out of her stare down and brought her back to her main issue.

"I'm sorry about the tent. One of the teammates clearly did something wrong while fixin' it up." He nudged at the heap of trash with his foot, only making it come apart more. Jessie sucked in all her disappointment and frustration as she continued to go about this situation politely.

"It's okay. Where is my room that's under construction? I wouldn't mind just sleeping in there for the night." She forced a small smile, trying to keep the peace between herself and her fellow staff. But this comment only made the two men look at each other with ashamed looks.

"Uh yeah, about that."

"It's not under construction." Jessie stood in front of a room that was filled floor to ceiling with crates all of different sizes and other random contraptions. The Engineer and Medic stood behind Jessie as she stared at her room.

"No." Overalls replied with a straight up answer, no longer hiding the truth. Jessie nodded slowly just barely keeping herself from freaking out.

"It's just full of junk." She stated, wanting to hear them admit it. A very small pause came but Jessie interrupted it again to speak her mind – a mind that was slowly losing its patience.

"You took away my room for storage." Her teeth clenched together but she did her very best not to seem angry. The Medic shifted behind her.

"Yes, and garbage." He was glad to confirm and add onto her last question. Jessie just shut her eyes and took a deep breath in. 'It's just the first day. It's just the first day. We all make mistakes. We all make mistakes.' She turned to the other men.

"That's fine. I'll just clean it out and store away all of this… stuff… later." Her head was tilted down slightly as her eyes bore into them. The Medic smiled at her response.

"Oh good! Zhat vill give me some time to work. Excuse me if you will, I must go dissect those vulture testicals before they dry out under the heat lamp." He smiled politely and headed back down the hall. The Texan man grimaced at what the Medic had said but then frowned at Jessie, for he could not help her either.

"I'm sorry about all of this Miss Mayfield. I promise you, it ain't always like this." The Engineer took off his hard had as he apologized. He kept switching between a disappointed frown to an apologetic sad side smile. Jessie could clearly register that this man was sorry, so all of the anger that was rising inside of her had to be settled down. For her target of disappointment was not him.

"It's okay." She sighed, feeling defeated and like her unused anger would be stored in an unhealthy way.

"I'm 'fraid I can't help you either. I have my own business I need to attend to." He told her the truth as he put his hat back on. She just nodded.

"That's fine." Her eyes stared at the ground as her mind raced. 'Oh fuck you… you stupid hard hat wearing motherfucker.' She looked back at her dump of a room and then back at the Engineer. 'No… he doesn't deserve that… he's really sorry and he does seem very busy.' She gave him a bitter smile which made the Engineer feel twice as guilty.

"You can ask any of the other men though. I'm sure they'd be glad to help you." His tone was more hopeful but it didn't give Jessie any relief. 'It's almost 9:00 pm… who the hell would help me at this hour?'

"Okay…" Jessie nodded wanting the conversation to be over. The Engineer just forced another rueful smile and headed off leaving her alone with her suit case.

She turned to her room again and started taking things out. 'I don't need anyone's help. I can do this on my own.' Her plan was to remove any useless things from the room tonight and then store it all tomorrow at some point. She emptied out about half the room but still couldn't find the bed. There were massive crates piled in the corner – probably hiding the bed. 'No problem… I'll just move them.' She wrapped her arms around the crates and attempted moving them but they would not shift. After a minute of trying she attempted lifting it from a different angle, but like before, it wouldn't budge. She huffed and wiped her damp hair out of her face. 'Okay… Maybe it's a good time to ask for help. Like the Engineer said.' She headed down the hall but stopped at the end, wondering which way to go. 'Now if I could just find them.'

After some aimless wandering Jessie came across a eating and entertainment area that contained some of her fellow workers. 'Oh good!' Things were looking up, but that didn't stop Jessie from shyly entering the room as if she was entering a den filled with lions. There were two men at the table, one with a helmet on eating some food, the other splayed over the table sleeping. There was a third man, he was the largest of them all and he sitting on a couch reading. 'Who do I ask? Okay go from least intimidating to most - sleeping man, helmet man and then big man.'

"Excuse me sir?" She bent her body at the hip to be at the same angle as the sleeping man. Once there was no reply she poked him, only making the intoxicated man roll his face over revealing his eyepatch and exposing the massive puddle of saliva that he had just been basting in. Jessie expressed her disgust on her face. 'Oh god.' She quickly moved onto the next man on her list – Helmet man.

"Hello, I'm Miss Mayfield. I'm your new secretary. I was wondering if you could help me carry some crates out of my room." Jessie had on her polite girl smile, willingly appearing weak in front of the man. Without even looking up or swallowing the food in his mouth he answered her request.

"If you cannot move them yourself than you need to earn that ability! You must lift anything and everything until you can move those crates on your own!" He slammed the bottom of his fist against the table making the peas on his plate jump up. He then looked up at her, well at least he faced her, she couldn't really tell with the helmet blocking his eyes. "I cannot help you, until you help yourself!" The man yelled the most 'self help' sounding advice in a loud aggressive way, it just completely shut Jessie up. Too stunned to even function, she went back into her brain to process what he just said.

'Okay, four out of the nine men have literally proven to be completely uncompliant or useless.' She looked over to the most intimidating man in the room and had to mentally force her body to walk over to him. 'Big man.'

"Excuse me. I'm really sorry to bother you… I'm the new secretary here and I just need some help moving some heavy crates out of my room." She forced a tired smile, no longer having any hope in her system. The large man looked up from his book.

"I've noticed. Soldier and Demo refuse to help leetle voman." He put the book on his lap. Jessie was floored by his response as well as the thick Russian accent, but also confused by what he called them.

"Soldier and Demo?" She tilted her head and the big man gave her a nod.

"Dey are insane and drunk. No use to you." He lifted his book and placed a bookmarker in it and set it on the coffee table. He then stood up, completely towering over the woman, literally casting his shadow over her entire body. "However, I can be of use to you since you are polite and patient." Even with all his intimidation, the fact that he said he would help her, completely removed her fear of him.

"Oh god. Thank you so much sir. My- my name is Miss Mayfield, I didn't get yours." She stumbled to get out the formals and stuck out her hand to complete the greeting.

"I am heavy veapons guy. But you can call me Heavy." He engulfed her small hand in his cinderblock of a hand, but he knew his own strength so the handshake did not feel any different than a normal one – aside from the fact that her whole hand was just inside his closed palm.

"Heavy… okay. Thank you Heavy." She took her hand back and naturally smiled, finally happy something was going her way.

The two walked down the hall, both happy in each other's silence. That is, until a skinny man crossed paths with them.

"Hey hey hey." The Boston accent rang out as the boy canceled his past destination, setting a new course to head wherever the lady was headed. "Woah up there. Hey there good-lookin, you droppin by for long." He was now walking beside Jessie attempting to talk to her.

"Yes, I work here." She stayed well-mannered, but by the way Heavy rolled his eyes she soon regretted engaging with the boy.

"Oh good – wait… ya do?" He continued side walking as he faced her. This was one of the only times the men here gave her any interest.

"Yes I'm the secretary." She briefly glanced at him noticing his youthful appearance and innocent face.

"What? We have a secretary now? They can afford to hire another person but can't afford to get me new bats. Fuck this." His innocent face was dead to Jessie now. This boy was just another disappointing member of her new team. "I mean. Not 'fuck you' or anything, I'm sure you'll help out the base a lot – answerin' phone calls and writin'… and readin' and such." He drabbled on making the Heavy grunt.

"Scout should leave leetle voman alone. Before she gets headache." Heavy didn't laugh or change expression at all but Jessie fought with all her might not to smirk. She didn't expect Heavy to say something like that, it was really satisfying to hear. By now they were at her room and Scout was steaming at Heavy.

"Hey tubby, watch it. Headaches are the last thing I give the ladies." Scout pointed finger guns at Jessie, and never in her life has she rolled her eyes so hard it physically hurt to complete the full circumference. "In fact, the ladies often come to me when they want their headaches to go away." He waggled his eyebrows at Jessie making her rethink her polite approach.

"Scout is it?" She furrowed at him and his odd name.

"Yeah it is." He gave her a toothy smile complete with a raised eyebrow. Jessie unfurrowed her brows and went stone faced.

"I agree with Heavy. So unless you can help lift garbage out of my room, I really feel like it's inefficient for you to be here." She went back into her room to move a couple more small things out, Heavy too started to help by lifting those extra heavy crates out. Scout, offended to be called such things, and to be out performed by Heavy, went above and beyond to prove her wrong.

"Lift garbage? Hell yeah I can do that. No problem. I ain't inefficient, I can be just as useful as tons of fun over here." He nodded over to the large man who was successfully clearing out the room. Jessie stopped her task to give Scout an order.

"Okay then. Go ahead and start by taking those crates out of there and placing them in the hall." She pointed at the other heavy crates.

Scout spent ten minutes trying to lift the crate while Heavy and Jessie were busy with their own tasks. Finally, the only unwanted object in the room was the crate Scout was trying to lift (and Scout). Heavy let Scout mull away at the unmovable object as he watched Jessie walk around the room speaking to herself.

"If I keep a crate there I can use it as a night stand. Oh and look, there's an old lamp. Good good, so if my bed was placed by that wall then I could actually have the lamp go beside it because it can reach the outlet. Oh… but what will I do for a dresser. Oh I'll-"

"Leetle voman sounds like Miss Pauling." Heavy couldn't help but draw the comparison out loud, breaking Jessie's concentration.

"Oh! You know Miss Pauling?" She was surprised to hear her cousin's name. The fact that they possibly knew her made her feel less alien to the facility. Sadly that warm feeling was scrapped away upon hearing Scout pipe up.

"Heh. Yeah we do. She can't keep her hands off me." He leaned against the crate that he couldn't move, turning his failure into a crutch to display his lady-charm. Heavy couldn't help but smile at the boy's delusional comment. Jessie smiled too, knowing how her cousin would truly act towards this man.

"Ha! As her cousin, I beg to differ that she 'can't keep her hands off you'." She smirked at Scout having completely destroyed his ego.

"Miss Mayfield is Miss Pauling's cousin." Heavy interrupted just to clarify what he heard.

"Yup. We were really good friends too, when we were little." Jessie couldn't help but think back to when they were kids, just how close they were brought a sad smile to her face.

"Really? Are you still friends with her now? I've been meaning to get into contact with her, but it's really hard with the administrator and all." Scout nearly leapt at the opportunity to have some connection to Miss Pauling. Jessie paid no attention to the man for she was hung up on his first question. 'Are we still friends…' Her smile softened into something that held sorrow. 'Why did you drift away from me?'

"It feels like we are just friendly acquaintances now… But no, any calls I make to her are completely business related." Her grief-stricken tone changed back to assertive. No way was she letting this man bother her cousin.

Scout's face dropped. "You know what? Fine. I ain't helpin ya anymore. So, uh, good luck cleaning up ya room." He scoffed as he passed through the doorframe.

"Its already cle-." Heavy placed his hand on Jessie's shoulder in order to stop her from engaging the Scout any more. The boy of course continued rambling on as he walked down the hall.

"I'll just leave you two to finish what I started." And with that, he was gone. Jessie went to get her suitcase but Heavy kept her in place with his hand. She looked up at him confused as to why he was keeping her in place. While still staring down the hall, Heavy spoke.

"Miss Mayfield. I hope you make friends with Miss Pauling again. Friends are very important in a place like dis." He then looked down at her, his hand more than half the size of her shoulder span. She in turn, smiled softly at him.

"Thank you Heavy. I hope someday I can earn your friendship as well." The corners of her eyes raised along with the corners of her mouth. Heavy patted her shoulder.

"Yes. Maybe someday soon." He nodded and stepped out of her room heading down the hall.

"Goodnight, thank you for staying up and helping me." Jessie stood at her doorway putting sincere thanks into her words. The Heavy continued walking.

"Goodnight Miss Mayfield."