This is the last seemingly boring chapter. Everything is set up after this chapter and then the real shit will start next chapter. So once again, just hold on. Pls.

Beep. Beep…

Beep. Beep..

Jessie's watch alarm went off interrupting her from her current rhythm of reading. 'Time to get up.' She had already been up for 2 hours, passing the time by reading her book: Rocks and Minerals; a rock lover's guide to rocks of Alabama River. It was just one of the many other rock books she had collected over the years. An odd obsession of hers that had grown from her fear and curiosity of nature. It didn't take long for her thoughts to change back to work though. 'It hasn't even been a day and I think I've talked more here than I have at any of my other workplaces'. She reflected on the many faceless people she surrounded herself with. She never wanted to be physically alone so she worked in heavily populated companies and cities until she found some sort of comfort in just knowing other people were in the building. Never had she ever talked to those people either, they might have been close to her in distance but they were miles away from her socially... or… she was miles away from all of them. Regardless, Jessie was always open to change, until she was confronted with an internal flaw of hers that she would rather keep hidden and untouched. As she got ready, her eyes affixed themselves on her window and what lay beyond the wall – a never-ending outside world. It was so vast… and empty, she was embarrassed to even admit that it frightened her. She quickly turned towards her foggy mirror and adjusted her French bun, assuring herself that she did not have to go outside. Jessie got dressed and was ready to take on her first day.

It started with the tour, led by Engineer. He was surprised to see her room so clean and continued to apologize that he couldn't help. She, having completely forgiven him, assured him it was no problem and that she got some help from other staff members. Engineer showed her around the building, making sure she knew where the kitchen was, what was considered entertainment and living areas, and where to find both himself and Medic - who could almost always help her if she needed something and if they weren't busy. Jessie felt more welcomed, up until she saw where she would be working. Engineer introduced her to the very small decrepit room that was so small due to all the filing cabinets and so decrepit because of how unorganized and messy it all was.

"Uh… Engineer-" She stood in the door way, unblinking at the catastrophe before her.

"You can call me Engie." He was now friendly with her thanks to the tour.

Although happy to be on a more casual level with the man, she still had a bigger problem at hand. "Right. Engie… when was the last time someone organized this?" She still couldn't keep her eyes of the room of papers.

"This room has been off limits to most of the guys – not cause anything is classified. Jus' cause they don't wanna deal with it." He explained staring at her back.

Jessie's eyes narrowed as she was wondering how on earth they keep track of things. "Right… so how do you file away information?" She finally spun around to look at him.

Engie shrugged. "We just throw it in. Well they do. I keep all my documents in my workroom." He pointed with his thumb over his shoulder referring to where his workroom was in location to their position.

"Mhm." Jessie looked back to the room and brought her hand to her face as she started holding her chin in thought.

"Alight I'll leave you to it Miss Mayfield." The Texan announced his departure, heading back to his own work.

"Right. Thank you." She called out in reply to be polite but was still deep in thought staring at the paper filled room.

'I'll start with alphabetizing everythi- No, I'll categorize it first and then alphabetize.' She pulled open a file drawer to expose thousands of papers shoved inside, some of which were put into files and some of which were crumpled up into a ball and stuffed into the corners. 'This is going to be a lot of reading.' She rubbed at her eye sockets. 'I can already feel my eyes drying up.' Before a day of intense uninterrupted reading, Jessie would treat her eyes with moisturising eye drops that helped her stay focused and kept her eyes from hurting. It was an old trick, or possibly even a habit, she picked up from her mom. If she had pockets and was working, she had eye drops with her and after a couple drops she was ready to take on anything, including this room. 'Okay.'

A couple hour pass and she had made a very small dent. The thing slowing her down were the mentions of classes and different class equipment. If all of it were organized, she would be able to see some sort of pattern and then be able to draw a conclusion as to what a class was. But with this mess, she was completely in the dark. So her main focus was on any financial papers, tax forms, and payment receipts. Jessie was seated on the floor surrounded by piles of these categories as well as other randomly scattered papers. '$500 dollars spent on sandwiches was written off as a business related payment? How the hell did they manage that?' She scanned for the signature – Medic. 'They even sign using their profession type as their signature?' Aside from that oddness she couldn't help but wonder how this man pulled off making sandwiches something business associated. 'There is going to be a lot I will have to learn from these men.'

"Oi…" An Australian accent broke Jessie out of her deep set concentration and snapped her attention toward the doorframe. There stood the Australian man from last night, he didn't look as mad though. Instead he looked rather sheepish as he attempted to pick out and say his next words.

"You left this in me campavan." He showed her the shampoo bottle in his hands.

"Oh, thank you." A stunned Jessie got up from the ground feeling the ache in her knees, she pushed the pain aside though and took the shampoo off his hands. As she turned to put it on her desk a silent pause hung between them. Jessie didn't mind the silence but the Australian man had more to say, so breaking the silence was proving to be difficult for him.

"Oi'm sorry about tha whole incident that happened last nioght. Oi didn't mean to-" Jessie turned to face him as he started his apology. The look on his face was enough to let her know he was honestly sorry and probably embarrassed too. 'What was it with these men and their apologetic faces?'

She quickly stopped him from continuing. "Oh no. It's fine, really. Probably the most exciting way to be welcomed at a company." Her words didn't lesson the embarrassment on his face so she decided to be less sarcastic. "A stranger was in your house and you were just protecting yourself. No apology needed." She offered him a half smile as she defended his behaviour.

The man knew he was in the right, but he still wanted to clear the air with his new colleague. He looked down and scratched his neck, he had to offer her a better explanation for his actions. "It's funny because I wos about to put me gun down when I heard ya voice. I thought 'ell, ain't a lot of homeless sheelas out 'ere. This don't seem roite.'" He softly chuckled to himself while still looking down as he remembered the events.

Jessie scoffed back. "Oh… is that when you started to put down your gun? Cause that's when I thought it was the best time to spray the soap." She pointed at his eyes and gave a small laugh as well, trying to lighten the mood.

As he thought back, the lips of his mouth slowly started to go up as he gave a 'yeah that's what happened and I'm embarrassed that it did' smile. "Heh yeah, that's exactly when." He nodded but didn't look at her, his eyes remained on the floor no longer in memory recollection but just in awkwardness.

At the mention of the shampoo it finally clicked for Jessie that she had squirted damaging liquids into this man's eyes. "Are your eyes okay?" Her brows pulled down in a concerned look as she tilted her head to get a better view of his eyes. "They put a lot of chemicals in woman's shampoos now."

He finally looked up at her only to be slightly startled that she was looking back. "Oi'm fine. Oi've 'ad harsher things in my eyes before." He swatted the air in the – it's not a big deal – hand gesture.

"Still…" Jessie was used to dealing with pride, she had seen it in almost every man she knew. The way to go about someone's stubborn pride is to continuously not back down and assure them that they are not seen to be any lesser than they were before. "Here! Take this." She pulled the eye drops out of her dress pocket and thrusted it in front of her. "They're eye drops. They should clear out anything in your eyes." She didn't reference that he was in pain or would be hurt by measly chemicals, just that her gift could assist him.

Once he heard her explanation he put his hand up in a 'stop' motion. "Nah mate, Oi'm fine." And there was the response she expected him to give – 'I don't need help, I'm a tough man! Some guys are like clockwork.'

Now comes the part where she has to stand her ground. "No no. Just take it. Consider it my apology for invading your home." Jessie took his hand and placed the little bottle in the center of his palm. For a very small moment she was hyper aware of the feeling and texture of this hands – they were very dry and rough. She pushed down these thoughts to complete her process of bypassing his pride before he could even object again. "If you don't accept my apology, I won't accept yours." Her eyes locked on the Australian man's eyes as her brows raised to emphasize the importance of her statement. The last step of surpassing someone's pride was to offer an ultimatum.

There was a silent pause as the man contemplated what to do, his eyes were of great importance to him. He looked at her and then back at the eye drops. 'C'mon. This never fails.'

"O'lright then. Thanks mate." He bowed his head slightly and pocketed the new gift. He had finished what he came there to do and now everything was cleared up between them. Now it was time for him to leave. "Oi'll see ya 'round then yeah?"

Just then, as she thought about getting back to work, she remembered the trouble she was having before. "Oh! Actually before you go…" She went to the pile of papers that baffled her and brought them to Sniper. "…can you tell me what 'classes' mean - here?" She stood beside him holding up the papers so they could both look at them.

Sniper's sore eyes scanned over the paper. "Ah, yeah. They are just wot our professions are." He pointed at the piece of paper. "See 'ere, there's nine of us." He then dragged his finger along the class list. "Which means there's nine classes." He looked down at her to make sure she was following along.

The finger that was skimming stopped at one line. "That's Pyro – pyrotechnics." He continued moving his finger down the list. "That's Demo – he's our demolition man." He looked back at her and then pointed to another line. She could really feel how close he was and was embarrassed that she even put herself in this position. "An' thots Spy – he's just a spy."

Jessie's eyes widened. "Oh…"

'Heavy weapons guy – Heavy, Demolition man – Demo, Pyro the pyro, Engie the engineer, Medic, Scout, Soldier, Spy… they are called by their class. They have literally named themselves by their class…' Jessie felt pretty dumb for not being able to figure this out sooner. There were nine men and nine classes. But she continued to blame the mess, who knew if there were other classes in the mess? – She didn't, and that's why she didn't think there were just nine.

Now feeling stupid, she quickly removed herself from his personal space as her face flushed with embarrassment. "Okay. I get it. Thanks." She took the papers over to her desk and started organising them out.

"Eh, no worries." His Australian accent rang out reminding Jessie she had been constantly referring to him in her mind as the Australian man. As the question grew within her mind so did the intensity of her furrowing. She spun around from her desk forgetting the fact that her face was completely red.

"So what class are you?" Her head tilted.

"Oi'm tha Snipa'." A corner of his mouth rose to expose his canine tooth. A millisecond flash of attraction washed over Jessie as she saw his toothy half grin, the feeling was there and gone so quickly she hadn't even registered it. Instead, she smiled softly like she did in quiet moments when she was calm yet happy.

"Sniper…" She tested the name out with her own accent, didn't sound as cool coming from her. Regardless, where were her manners? "It's a pleasure to meet you Sniper. I'm Miss Mayfield." She stayed planted against her desk but offered him a closed warm smile.

"Miss Mayfield, Oi'll best be off then." He tipped his hat at her and then calmly went on his way.

Jessie watched him leave, content with just staying silent and having those be the last words of their conversation. There was a bit of a communicative ability between them, Jessie felt like she didn't have to say much to have a full conversation with him. 'The Sniper… Hmm.' Jessie immediately went back to work, but this time she started forming class files for each member of the team. The first profile she started with – Sniper.

Lunch had gone by, never once coming to Jessie's mind for she had worked another seven hours and was on a roll. 'Blueprints can go in that filing cabinet. The medical files are going to need two filing cabinets so I can squeeze the performance reports with the bills. Or should I put them with the profiles...?' She had all the papers organized and it was just a matter of placing them in appropriate cabinet locations. 'Yeah, I'll put the performance reports with the profiles… that way I can organize the reports the same way as the profiles but still keep them separated.' She stood up quickly making her head spin. The blurring of lights, lines and colours forced Jessie to kneel down with her hand on her head. 'Right… I need to eat.' She stood up again, this time more slowly. She could feel the headache setting in and the sudden loss of energy.

Mayfield headed down to the kitchen, hoping that no one would be in there so she could eat in peace and tend to her ever-growing headache. To her disappointment she was not alone, there were two men in the room, and to further extend her disappointment, it looked as though it was going to be impossible to tend to her headache since Scout was in the room and had immediately spotted her.

"Ey! If it isn't Miss Mayfield! You grabbin' dinna? I just sat down too!" Scout nearly jumped out of his seat, grabbing the attention of the other man in the room who was cooking something on the stove and wearing a balaclava as he did it. The man did not move though, he simply just started listening to what was happening around him. Jessie went to the fridge and pulled out a microwavable dinner – like Engie had told her to do for the time being, up until she's there when they get food.

"How did ya make out with ya room after I left?" The boy spun in his chair, straddling it, just to face her.

Jessie put her food in the microwave as she kneaded her temple with her thumb. "Fine." She winced as the words came out, it felt like her vocal chords were vibrating in her head.

"That's great. Yeah, sorry I stormed off. I needed to get my sleep so I could work betta today. Runnin' and fightin' is real hard work." He flexed his bicep admiring what his hard work rewarded him with.

Jessie sighed and started pulling information from her memory. She then turned to face him. "Oh… yeah that's a good idea for you. Your performance scores were low this month." The corners of her mouth begged to go up, but she kept them down in order to fuck with him. The balaclava man's ears perked up at the mention of performance scores – something they didn't even have access to.

"Yeah my performance scor- Wait what?" His muscles stopped flexing and his lips stopped flapping as he waited for an explanation. The man in the suit waited as well.

The microwave dinged so Jessie removed her meal and started walking over to the dining table. "You were below average this month on shooting accuracy, speed, and damage dealt…" She sat down in front of him as she toyed with him. It seemed to be the only way to get him to shut up for a bit.

"What? How do you know that?!" Scout sat forward in his seat with his full torso almost all the way over the table. The man in the suit continued to cook and listen, turning his head slightly so he could hear them.

"I'm the secretary. I'm just about finished finding out everything about you guys." Jessie gloated a little bit, feeling she deserved a pat on the back for what she's gone through in the last 30 hours.

Scout's wonder and amazement completely took his mind off the low scores thing. "Oh! Oh! Oh! Whadaya know about Spy, huh?" He thumbed the direction behind him, referencing the man cooking. Spy shook his head slightly and groaned but didn't turn around.

"Whatever I know, I'm not telling you." The amusement was taking the edge off her headache. She actually started smiling now, feeling giddy about holding back information.

"C'mon Miss Mayfield! You cockblock me and Miss Pauling and now you're holding out on me with that juicy info!" Scout now had his hands on the table and had escalated his voice. An irritated Spy finished making his meal and placed it on a plate.

Jessie shrugged and held back visually exposing her enjoyment. "It's a shame too. I know quite a lot of interesting things about you guys now." She wore a wicked smile as she playfully dangled the unreachable in front of Scout.

"Miss Mayfield! Please!" Scout yelled with a smile. Spy winced and then finally turned around with his plate in hand.

"Scout. Be quiet." He walked past him and smacked the back of his head. Jessie snickered and Spy darted his eyes towards her. She stopped her snickering as she looked up at the sharp looking man.

"And you." He talked down to Jessie making any sigh of positivity drain off her face. "Quit indulging him. You are the secretary, not his playmate." Spy's lip curled up pushing up one of his nostrils in a scowl. "Act like it." He lifted his nose in the air making sure she could see the look of distain on his face as he left.

Jessie just froze. She didn't have any come backs or anything.

"Ay! Spy!" Scout shouted at the doorframe over Jessie's shoulder.

Jessie looked down at her food, there was an odd sensation in her stomach and it wasn't hunger.

"Whatta dick." Scout scowled but that expression changed once he saw Jessie's face. "Hey… Don't listen ta him." His tone was surprisingly softer, something Jessie wouldn't have expected to hear from the boy but did not notice because she was still hung up on Spy's words.

Jessie continued to look down at her food. "I'm going to eat in my room." She stood up quickly and started to make her way out.

"Miss Mayfield – no, c'mon don't let what that spook said get ta ya." She was out of the room but she could hear him shout for her to come back.

"Goodnight Scout." She shouted back not wanting to leave him in the dark for her mistakes.

Jessie ate in her room alone thinking over what the Spy said to her. 'That was unprofessional of me… telling him any information in the documents.' She aggressively stabbed her peas. 'But it was just information about himself. I wasn't going to tell him anyone else's information.' Her face scrunched up as she mulled over the rights and wrongs. Finally her expression sank as it settled on disappointing features. 'I shouldn't have shared any information from the start… I shouldn't have riled up Scout…' She then started stabbing peas again 'And I shouldn't have let that despicable man go without telling him to mind his own business.' She waggled her head as she mimicked the Spy's expression of disgust.

Jessie finished her meal and decided it was time to shower.

Sniper

"Bugger…" He whispered to himself as another drop missed his eye. This time he held his eyelids apart and - while looking into the mirror - attempted to get the medicine in his eye. Upon the release of the drop, he immediately closed his eye again.

"Bugger…" That had been the sixth try, his eyes were red and his nerves were on edge. He would have done this in the comfort of his campervan but his mirror was trashed along with his vision. The dryness in his eyes had kept him from being any use as a sniper on the field that day. That shampoo truly did do quite a number on his eyes.

He missed again.

"Bugger!" He slammed his fist against the sink counter. He was desperate for relief.

"Sniper?" A female voice – the only female voice - called out. He looked over his shoulder to see Miss Mayfield standing in the doorway with a towel in her hand.

Sniper looked back at the mirror, his hands firmly planted on the counter, and sighed as he hung his head. "Oh, bollocks." He muttered under his breath. His mouth opened in preparation to apologize and leave the bathroom for her, but she interrupted him.

"It's tough getting used to it." The voice was fairly close making Sniper look to her with slight surprise. She was suddenly beside him placing her towel on the long bathroom counter. For being a normal secretary she was fairly swift and quiet.

Miss Mayfield tilted her head to the side as her eyes scanned his face. "Especially with someone like you."

Sniper, now perplexed with her statement, opened up his posture to her – facing her head on with one hand on the counter and one hand on his hip. "'ow so?"

Miss Mayfield raised her eyebrows. "Well…" She then leaned back against the sink with crossed arms, and had her eyes go up as she thought. "You're the sniper. You're eyes are everything…" Her face focused on something as her mind went deeper into thought. "They are so well trained and interlaced with your reflexes, that when anything goes near them you are going to be the one that flinches the hardest." Her eyes returned to look at Sniper who just stood there unsure of what to say. She pushed off the counter and faced the man.

"When I first used eye drops I needed my mom to put them in." She then held out her hand. "Would you mind?"

Sniper froze up a bit, not use to receiving help outside the battlefield. He was leaning towards turning down her offer but when he glanced back in the mirror he could see just how red his eyes were. Seeing the bloodshot red colour triggered him to remember the pain he was currently in too.

"Sure, go ahead." He sighed, then relaxed into a smile at the thought of his next words. "If I'm as quick as you say, then you might have a bit of a challenge on your hands." He looked back to her and placed the eye dropper in her hand.

"Okay…" As soon as she approached the task she stopped, realising something had to change. "Uh... I'm going to need you to kneel down or something." She looked up at him and it became apparent what her issue was.

Sniper chuckled at this request. "O'lrioght, lil' missy." He emphasised the word 'lil' as he slowly kneeled down.

Mayfield waggled her head as she fake laughed. "Oh ha ha…" She grabbed his head in between her hands and looked him dead in the eyes with a playful smirk. "That's lil' Miss Mayfield to you. Gotta stay professional." She then tilted his head up so he was more or less facing the ceiling.

Miss Mayfield got the eye dropper off the counter and then stood back in front of Sniper.

"Feels lioke Oi'm gonna be executed." He chuckled as he continued to stare at the ceiling.

"What a coincidence, because I'm also going to be counting to three." Mayfield joked as she held up the bottle to the light to see how much liquid was inside. "But… unlike an execution-" She unscrewed the cap and hovered her free hand over his cheek. "-I need you to focus on keeping your eye open as soon as we make it to 'three'." She placed her thumb under his brow and pushed up lightly - further opening the eye. "Think you can do that?" She teased with a smirk on her face.

"Sheela, Oi've kept my eyes open for thirty minutes straight just huntin' the great Boar of Australia." Sniper boasted while still staring up at the ceiling. He could feel just how smooth and soft her hand was as it pressed against his cheek.

Mayfield just shook her head and held the bottle over his eye. "Okay you ready." She continued to push his top eyelid up.

"Yeah, Oi'm ready." He confirmed, every muscle in his body tensed.

"Okay…" She started to squeeze the bottle. "One." The bottle released a drop that finally landed in the Sniper's eye.

"Oi!" Sniper immediately threw his head forward as he started rapidly blinking. "Wot the 'ell!" He rubbed his eye and stared at her irritably with his other eye.

Mayfield put her hands on her hips. "You really think I'm going to tell a trained mercenary when I'm going to strike them and then tell them not to defend themselves at that instance?" Her brow raised and she took Sniper's head between her hands again, tilting his head back up to face the ceiling.

Sniper let her move his head and hold his eye open as he continued being ill-tempered. "Oi didn't think ya'd lie to me so quick. You really are becoming one of Helen's employ-." Mayfield squeezed another drop into his other eye while he was busy talking.

"Oi!" He threw his head forward again and rubbed both eyes. "I wasn't ready!" He yelled out blindly.

Miss Mayfield screwed the cap back on and placed the bottle on the counter. "You're not supposed to be ready." She looked back at Sniper to see him rubbing at his sensitive eyes. "And stop rubbing your eyes, you're going to get a scratched cornea." She grabbed his wrists and held them away from his face.

Sniper, with his hands held away from his face and eyes shut, looked in the direction of Mayfield a corner of his mouth went up showing his canine tooth. "Lying to me and now you're blindsiding me. I 'ave neva met such a sneaky secretary."

"Every secretary is sneaking." Mayfield teasingly scoffed and let go of his wrists.

"Is that so?" He stood up and tilted his head back as he blinked rapidly.

"We are basically the gate keepers who know everything." She leaned her hip against the counter and now looked up at Sniper.

Sniper blinked slower and then rested his sights on the woman in front of him. "Bein' smoll must 'elp."

Mayfield rolled her eyes at his comment but then brought the topic back down to the situation at hand. "How are your eyes?" She tilted her head as she examined them from her respectable distance.

"Much… much betta'"

"Good. Now, keep using this. Like twice a day." She took the bottle off the counter and held it out for him.

Sniper smiled as he took it off her hands. "Thanks lil' Missy Mayfield." He watched as she smirked in response, a small pause growing between the two as they shared a quiet moment. But that smirk of hers was quickly replaced with a bitter smile as she cleared her throat and broke eye contact with him.

"No problem." She nodded and picked up her towel. "I have to shower now. Have a good night, Sniper." With that she went further into the bathroom down toward the showers.

He tracked her movement and swung from his hips to watch her walk away. "G'night." He called out and then looked down at the small bottle in his hands.

Jessie

'You're a secretary. Act like it.' She stood in the shower overthinking everything she experienced today. 'There should be nothing wrong with spending time with the others. There should be nothing wrong with getting to know them and have fun.' She shampooed her hair viciously. 'He was just talking about leaking information.' Her motions slowed and then sped up again. 'Did I say talking? I meant unnecessarily scolding.' She quickly rinsed and took a deep breath of steam as the water hit her back. 'I need to stop over analyzing what he said…' Her fingers ran through her hair slowly, getting any tangles out. 'Maybe Scout is right. Maybe the Spy was just being a dick.' Her finger got caught in a tangle and she stopped all her movement to stare into space. 'Then again… that boy did say he could lift heavy crates…' With a blank expression she thought back to the truth behind his latter statement. Her finger broke through the knot in her hair. 'Well… a broken clock is right twice a day.'

Jessie finished up her shower and headed to bed to get some much needed rest. She would need all her energy for tomorrow… she could feel it.