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Here is chapter 4!

The sound of bullets were booming through the musky afternoon.

The air was becoming heavy.

Breathing seemed impossible.

The sun was starting to set.

They were losing the light.

Staff Sergeant Dana Epps hunched behind a building as she felt rounds and rounds bullets wiz by her.

"Hostiles, twelve o'clock," Captain Hudson yelled through all the mayhem. Explosions were going off in the distance. The sound of machine guns firing off ammunition filled the streets of the torn up Afghan village.

"I see them," Dana answered as she fired off another round from her M4 Carbine.

Just keep breathing.

"More technicals comin' at 4 o'clock," Specialist Derek Epps yelled from behind her. Dana turned to look at her twin brother as her eyes went wide.

"We're surrounded,sir," She shouted towards her Captain.

"Where's the chopper?" Derek exclaimed as he continued shooting.

"We need evac now!" Private Flores yelled right before taking a bullet to neck.

Dana's eyes went wide as she rushed over to the private's side. She quickly place her hands on his neck in order to keep pressure on the wound.

"Shit, shit," she heard Derek's voice behind her as he took in the scene. The young private continued to cough up blood.

"Stay with me, Chris," Dana ordered to the bleeding man as she tried to stop the flowing auburn fluid. "Come on, Chris...you can't die on me now."

"He's bleeding out too fast," Dana yelled over the chaos. "We need to get him out here now! Where's the hawk?" She called out to her brother.

"Super 5-2, we need immediate evac now!" Derek shouted into the radio as his chest became heavy.

Dana continued to attempt to close the bullet wound while keeping her head down as enemy fire continued to rain.

"Private Flores... Chris!" Dana breathed out as she realized the young marksman was no longer moving. His eyes remained opened as his breathing stopped. Dana's heart dropped to her stomach as her eyes glistened with dirty tears.

"Whats his status, Sergeant?" Captain Hudson called out from his position.

Dana just stared at the dead bloodied private that laid before her, her soul not believing what had just happened.

"Epps! His status?" The captain yelled again.

"He's dead," she muttered to herself before raising her voice, "He's dead!"

Derek Epps closed his eyes in defeat as he gave a deep sigh as a round of sorrowful curses could be heard from the rest of the ranger squad.

"C2, this is Hudson, We have a KIA: Private Christopher Flores." Captain Hudson spoke into the radio.

"Motherfuckers!" Derek screamed as he stood up from behind his cover and fired his weapon like crazed mad man. Anger coursed through Dana's veins as she found her adrenaline pumping even faster than it was before. She swiftly reloaded her gun and followed her twin's actions as she saw red.

Dana woke with a jolt, a blanket of sweat covering her from head to toe. Just like in her nightmare, the only thing she could hear was the pounding of her own heart. Tears glistened her eyes, while her body shook from both the shock and adrenaline. The young woman ran a hand through her mused hair curly as she bit back a sob and tried to catch her breath.

"Breathe, Dana," she muttered to herself as she glanced down to scar that covered her upper thigh.

"Just breathe."

Once the medic caught her breath, she glanced at her clock on her night stand.

4:53 AM

Dana groaned to herself. There would be no use in trying to fall back asleep. Her attempt would be futile, just as they all were.

So she did the only thing that would clear her mind at the moment. She got up and searched for her running attire.

Running always helped clear her head, helped her see things with without her emotions clouding them.

After a nice seven mile run, Dana found herself walking back towards her apartment when she ran into a familiar brunette loading stuff into a jeep.

"Hey, Jean" Dana greeted with a smile.

"Hey, girl... you're up early," Jean stated as she gave Dana a once over.

"Ehh.. couldn't sleep...I could say the same about you. Up and ready to go at," Dana paused and glanced at her watch,"6:15 AM?"

Jean laughed, "You caught me... the brontosauruses have their monthly examination this morning and I like to be there for that."

Dana nodded, "Ahh yeah, that makes sense."

Jean grinned, "Yeah, I really don't trust those guys in the labs too much. They always forget that these are actual animals not just a science project."

"I definitely noticed that," Dana mentioned as she took a swig from her water bottle.

"Yup, so definitely gotta be there for my babies..." Jean added in with a smile. "You wanna grab lunch later today?"

Dana gave the woman a smile. "Yeah, that would be great. Text me when you're free today."

"Steve! What can I do for you?" Dana asked with a pleasant smile as she closed her files. The security officer trotted into the her examination room with a sense of cockiness.

The dark hair-man gave her a smirk. "I'm here for my physical," he stated. Dana furrowed her brow as she took a look at her clipboard full of names.

"It says here that you did your check-up with Dr. Malony," the Blonde read in confusion. These charts were usually accurate.

"Yeah, but I thought I should probably come to you as well...you know you can never be too safe," he said with a wink as Dana squinted her eyes at him. "Plus, I'never miss a chance to get 'examined' by a someone as gorgeous as yourself"

Dana's eyes went wide. Was this guy serious?

The medic just sighed as she began the examination routine on the security officer.

"So Lowery tells me you were in the army?" Steve asked as Dana took his blood pressure.

"Yup, served a few years with the Ranger Regiment"

Steve smirked once again as his eyes roamed her, "They allowed a delicate little flower like you on the battlefield?"

Dana stopped the examination as she pulled back and looked at the security officer. Her eyes hardened as she stared him right in the eyes.

"I am anything but delicate," She stated. She was a former Staff Sergeant with the U.S. Army Rangers, not some sorry spoiled ass from the JROTC. Everything her and her squad did was elite and dangerous.

To her amazement, the man before her took her anger as some sort of snarky flirtation. He smiled at her in way that made her want to send a flying right hook to his snotty face. See if he's still smiling then.

"You do have some fire in, ya." He flirted with another smirk. Dana rolled her eyes as she tried to calm her anger. It would do no good for her to knock this guy on his ass during the first month of her new job.

"Yeah, try not to ignite it," She stated as she wrote her medical recordings in his file.

Steve flashed another smile.

"Speaking of lighting a fire...if you're not doing anything Saturday night, I was wondering if you wanted-" he started as a voice at the door interrupted.

"Am I interrupting?"

Dana thanked the heavens that it was Owen Grady at the door. Hell, she would have been grateful for anyone. She really did not want to answer Steve's invite. To say he made her uncomfortable would have been a huge understatement. And she would have been less than polite to the overzealous InGen security officer.

"Not at all. Come in, Owen," Dana gestured as she placed Steve's file on her desk.

"But we weren't done-" Steve started up once again. Dana turned and gave him a hard look.

"Yes, we are. Mr. Donowitz...Unlike you, Mr. Grady has yet to be examined by a medical professional on this island," the blonde stated, hoping the cocky ass would get the point and just head out.

Steve seemed to get the message as he stood up from the examining table with a sigh. He glanced at Dana one last time.

"I'll catch ya later, Blue Eyes." He said as he gave her a smirk and walked out.

Dana blew out a frustrated breath and muttered, "not if I can help it."

Owen gave a loud chuckle as he came forward into the room. "Love the bedside manner, Doc." He said with a smile.

Dana shook her head with a small smile of her own. "I'm a medic, not a therapist."

The raptor trainer smirked as he sat himself on the examining table. "You know..I think I just thought of the perfect nickname for you,"

Dana gave him an annoyed look as she pulled out his medical file from her cabinet. "Please don't tell me you're going to follow in Chuckles's footsteps over there and be a sexist pig, Owen Grady," She stated, referring back to Steve.

Owen placed his elbows on his knees as Dana took in is muscular arms.

Shredded arms.

That was always Dana's weakness.

And Owen Grady had some killer arms. Hell, they were practically bulging out his beige shirt. He could probably hold her down with no problem. She'd probably let him. Hell, she'd let the man do anything he wanted to her.

Get your mind out of the gutter and focus, Dana thought to herself.

"Nah... I'll wait until our third meeting for that." He joked.

Dana smiled at him as she came forward with her stethoscope. She placed one end his back as she listened to his heart beat.

"Oh thank God for that," she said sarcastically as she moved the stethoscope end to the front of his chest. This caused her to get even closer to the rugged trainer. The room suddenly became unbearably hot as she got a glimpse of his tan toned chest that was showing due some undone buttons of his. She tried to keep focus as she listened for his heartbeat, however, it was only the loud thumping of hers she could seem to hear.

She then felt him let out breath as her eyes found his as time seemed to stop. He stared down at her with an unreadable glint in his eyes as something knotted in her lower stomach. She gazed closely at him to notice a small scar above his left eyebrow. It was when she saw his green orbs flicker down to her lips she realized how close in proximity the two of them were.

Dana quickly cleared her throat as she stepped away from Owen. His eyes went wide as he shook his own haze from them.

"So what nickname did you have in mind?" She asked, hoping to ignore what just happened.

"Bones," he answered with a cocky smile. Dana gave a loud laugh.

"Really? I like to think I'm not as grumpy as Dr. McCoy," She answered as she wrote down Owen's vitals in his file.

It was Owen's turn to give her a genuine smile, surprised that she caught on. "Ahhh... you caught the 'Star Trek' reference."

Dana grinned. "I like to think of myself as more of a Captain Janeway," She answered as she held her shoulders back and stood up straight.

Owen let out another grin as he held up his hand and pointed to her. "I like you..I think we could be friends."

The young medic through her head back in laughter. "Ehhh. I don't know about that...I try not to befriend redshirts," She responded jokingly.

The trainer's eyes widened as he spoke in mock anger. "Hey! I am most definitely not a red shirt, sweetheart. If anything, I am the embodiment of Captain Kirk."

"Sure, sure..whatever you say," Dana joked back before continuing. "Well everything looks good from here," she finished as glanced at recordings on his chart.

Owen smirked, "Oh does it now?"

Dana shook her head and rolled her eyes, "I meant your vitals, Champ."

"Sure., sure..whatever you say," He repeated what she said only a few moments ago.

Dana just gave another roll of the eyes at the trainer's antics. Owen stood up and approached the blonde. "So I have some ulterior motives to coming here and finally getting this useless physical," He said softly as the beating of Dana's heart started to quicken.

She gulped and looked at the man, "And whats that?"

"We're doing some more experimental training with the raptors soon... And management wants to have someone from the medical staff there just in case shit hits the fan...I figured a G. I. Jane such as yourself would be up for the challenge." He answered as he looked her in the eyes.

Dana raised her eyebrows as she gave him a nod. "Yeah, I think I can handle that," she stated as small little butterflies made their way into her lower stomach.

Owen smiled. "Perfect, I'll see ya then," he said as he glanced down at her outfit before adding in, "don't wear anything you can't run in." He gave one last smirk before exiting the room.

Dana's eyes widened as she let out a breath.

What have I gotten myself into, she thought.

Thank you so much for reading. I am very sorry for any mistake you may see.

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