It had taken hours to ship all the soldiers back to Washington. While the Autobots were securing the bodies of the dead Decepticons, NEST had been ordered straight back to their headquarters for a briefing with the head of the DoD and some other high ranking military personnel.
The city of Chicago was a mess including damaged and overcrowded hospitals and it had cost Epps a few favors to get Felice into military emergency care instead of being treated in a normal hospital. After her injuries had been treated and she was deemed fit for transport she was brought to one of the Air Forces aircrafts to be transferred to Washington with Epps and his friends. Lennox had called his fellow team mate to inform him that they had to be debriefed after the latest events.
After numerous phone conferences with the NSA and DoD, Lennox finally had the time change into some clean clothes and sit down for a few minutes. The past few days had been really exhausting.
Back in his office at NESTs headquarters he watched the Autobots roll into the hangar and transforming into their Cybertronian forms. While Optimus was talking to some soldiers, Ratchet went to Bee and examined him for possible injuries he might have suffered after his jump into the pillar. Lennox watched their interaction for a while. Then his glance caught Epps and his friends who were about to leave. By the sight of his former partner his thoughts went to Felice. His superiors had kept him that busy he had not time to worry about her. Now, he wondered whether she was okay and where the medics had taken her. He got up and headed downstairs to Epps to ask him about Felice condition. Epps was still talking to some of his old team members when the Colonel approached him.
"Hey Epps, can I talk to you for a second?" he asked.
"Sure, man." Epps replied and followed to his friend. While being in Chicago they had no time to talk about how their lives went on after Epps had left NEST. But seeing his former team leader, Epps could tell that Will Lennox still wasn't tired of taking down hostile alien forces.
"Guess we did it again, huh?" Epps smirked. When he saw Lennox' questioning glance he added: "Saving the world."
Lennox reciprocated his smirk.
"Yeah. You should really consider returning to NEST. You still have the balls."
"Yeah, maybe." Epps replied wearily. When he'd left the team he was doing it to be close to his home and family, but after the last couple of days it had come to the realization that the earth was still a target for alien attacks and that only few people were able to defend this precious planet. He knew that he had to think it over, but after the latest events he might consider rejoining the team.
"So what is it that you wanted to talk about?"
"Yeah… I was just wondering how your friend is doing? Is she alright?"
"Felice? She's doing fine, relatively speaking. Some minor injuries, but she had lost a lot of blood. I called in a few favors to get her transferred to DC since we have to stay for the debriefing and everything."
Lennox nodded. This was good news.
"Why are you asking?" Epps asked curiously. The exchange between his former team leader and his friend in the warehouse early hadn't gone unnoticed by him. While he had expected Felice to get herself into more trouble with her smart mouth, he had been surprised to see Lennox sitting down and talking to her for a while. Silently, he wondered what they'd spoken about. His friend's voice brought him back into reality.
"Just wondering." Lennox muttered and ruffled through his military short hair yet suppressing a yawn.
"Looks like you need some rest." Epps said stretching his neck and looking around in the hangar. Most of the soldiers had gone off to other duties or left the base.
"Yeah. Feels like an eternity that I slept." Lennox grimaced. "You and your guys can stay at the bunks down the hall. 'That alright for you?"
"Sure, man. Guess I see you later in the mess?"
"No. I have some other things to take care of." Lennox answered. "I see you in the morning."
Epps nodded his agreement and glanced after his friend who went up to his office. Then he was called away by some of his friends and followed them to their bunks.
Back in his office, Lennox went straight back to work. He had to file a lot of action reports and the sooner he got started the sooner he would get the much needed sleep neither of them had gotten in the past couple of days.
So he fired up his computer and started with the mission in Chernobyl. But he wasn't able to focus on the report. Instead his thoughts kept wandering back to the past hours in Chicago and to one person in particular. Even though Epps had told him that Felice was getting better he felt the strong urge to see for himself. He glanced to his action reports and scolded himself for not getting focused on the remaining work. She was a fighter pilot, she knew the risk of being injured in combat and he had no time to worry about one soldier when hundreds of people had been killed in the past days. But this female soldier stuck out to him.
Despite she'd never been in a fight with Decepticons, she didn't hesitate a second when it came to the battle. He'd watched her courage and fearlessness out there and he couldn't help himself admiring her for that.
He let out an exasperated sigh. There was no way he would finish up his reports today. So instead he reached for his phone to find out where the medics had taken Felice. Half an hour and a couple of calls later, he left the NEST headquarters to see Felice in the hospital.
Asking a nurse for her room, he now slowly pushed the door open and was shocked about the condition she was in. Her face was pale and she had a nasty scar on her forehead. She had gazes all over her hands and forearms which were lying on the white blanket and her left arm and shoulder were bandaged. She looked so thin and fragile. He approached her slowly unsure what to do.
Somehow she sensed his presence and stirred when he closed the door silently behind himself.
She didn't know how long she'd been out but when her senses returned she found herself lying in a comfortable bed. She could make out the faint rhythmic sound of a heart monitor and the scent of disinfectant and bleach. She moved her fingers and felt some fabric under her fingertips. No doubt, she was in the hospital which meant that she'd survived. Slowly, the memories of the past hours came back to her mind. She opened her eyes just to see Lennox standing by the door. She'd expected Epps to be with her when she woke up so she was surprised to see the leader of NEST instead.
"You are awake."
She turned to face Will standing a little lost in the doorframe. Now, he approached her and sat down next to her bed.
"What an unexpected visitor." she said with a faint smile, then winced when she tried to get herself into a sitting position.
"How are you holding up?"
"Pretty well, I guess."
She glanced at her shoulder, just to find it bandaged; then raised her hand to her forehead, which was hurting a lot.
"The doctor said that I was lucky. The metal in my shoulder didn't damage any artery or something. But I have to stay out of duty for at least a month."
"Take your time to recover. I won't even think how things might have ended when you had been in a jet today." he replied, thinking about a number of casualties he'd just read a few hours ago. Five F-22 were shot down and at least a dozen other aircrafts.
"Right. Otherwise I won't have you sitting at my bed." she smirked then got serious. "Is it really over, Will? Are they gone?"
Lennox sighed. "At least for now, but we'll never know. The Autobots will have a closer look at this, but even in the past years when no one had noticed their presence there were at least a dozen attacks all over the world."
Felice didn't know what to say. Even though she was in the NAVY she hadn't had a clue that there was an alien species constantly attacking the humans. Even though she knew from Epps that the Autobots where real, some of her friends thought that all this was just an urban legend. She couldn't have imagined the danger and the amount of destruction that an alien war would bring to the earth. But now that she'd seen and felt it for herself she had to admit that she was quite shaken up by the past events. Somehow, Will must have noticed her dark thoughts.
"I am sorry what happened to you today."
Looking into his face she was a little surprised to find an expression indicating his deep regret. But she didn't want him to worry about her.
"It's not your fault. I guess I am still a rookie when it comes to the Decepticon fights." she said with half a grin on her face.
Lennox shot her a surprised glance. How was it possible that she was able to make fun of her situation when she'd been on the verge of dying only hours ago? For the first time in what seemed years the Colonel was lost for words. In his line of work and especially as the head of an elite task force there was not much space for a private life. Long hours at base alternated with being deployed all over the world so the chances of meeting somebody were pretty slim. Some of his fellow team mates were married, but he could tell that it was a constant torturous maneuvering to make a relationship like this work.
Looking at his counterpart he was surprised about the direction his thoughts had taken.
"How about I tell you some of our combat techniques? Let's say, Friday, 8:00 pm?" he heard himself asking before he could stop himself.
Felice hesitated, not sure what to think about this sudden change of their conversation. Was he really asking her out after she'd just got out of a giant robo-deathmatch? Since their first encounter she knew that Will Lennox was a handsome man, but seeing him in private? A soldier; a Black Ops soldier to be more specific. She had always kept her distance when some fellow soldiers had taken an attempt to ask her out. She'd worked hard for her dream: being fighter pilot. She'd faced a lot of resistance while building up her reputation and she was very careful not to destroy it by being just a good hook-up for some random soldier. But even though she had her rules when it came to dating enlisted men, she had to admit that she was curious. Why hadn't she met Lennox before when he had been on the same team with Epps? And she enjoyed playing with the fire.
"So that's how you reimburse female soldiers for their injuries?" she teased him.
"Not all of them." he smirked.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" she laughed, but she didn't get an answer. The ringing of his phone saved him.
"Lennox… alright, I am on my way." he raised and with a last smile he said: "Friday, 8:00 pm, Trio Restaurant. Don't be late."
And then he was gone. Felice let out a heavy sigh and leaned back into the pillows. I'm having a date with the head of NEST. Jesus, what am I getting myself into?