A Kiss for Comfort

Woken up bright and early, the Stamper Oil workers found themselves running on a long line of treadmills with their heart rate and breathing monitored. Adena found it most irritating to have to jog with a tube stuck in her mouth, restricting her movement unless she wanted to pull on the tube and in turn her lips and cheeks from where the plastic was anchored against her teeth. It was a lot like a breathing regulator used for scuba divers, but it made it harder to breathe instead of easier. The man standing in front of her treadmill was watching her readings carefully, wearing a slightly more pleased look than the others and she had to fight not to smile around the tube. They were taped to their mouths, and their noses were taped shut as well, to allow the EKG machine to get a full reading.

"Accelerate!" the Chief Medical Examiner called through the room and the medical scientists increased the speed on the treadmill, forcing them to work harder to keep up with the speed and keep their breathing regulated enough that they didn't choke through the breathing tube. She could hear when Max started to struggle the most, but he kept going and refused to give up first when everyone else was still going. Glancing at Harry next to her, she was pleased to see that he didn't seem to be having any difficulty.

"Alright, come on, let's go," one of the overseers encouraged, watching them all jog in sync. The man in front of Adena gave her a smile and nod before he stepped away, her readings for the previous speed already recorded. She found herself wishing for some music to listen to because she was starting to get bored with nothing but her mind to keep her occupied.

And so that is how she found herself reciting the periodic table of elements over in her head, singing that song she had once heard someone write that held each of the elements in order. When that was finished, she began to name all of the constellations as she pictured what they looked like and where they would be located at that present moment. When the man came back again to check her readings, she was humming the national anthem and Harry was trying not to laugh from beside her since he knew exactly what was going on.

By the time her newer readings were down and he was leaving, she had moved on from the national anthem to the song 'God Bless the USA' and Harry had calmed down so that he didn't choke on his breathing tube. However, it seemed that she had started something because Oscar started to hum along next to her and soon most of the men were humming God Bless the USA and were getting an exasperated look from the Chief Medical Examiner before he ordered them to cease and focus on their training.

When they were finally finished and had the pads removed from their chest and the tube from their mouth they were all itching to get a deep drink of water and somewhere to sit. As fit as Adena was, her legs felt like they had turned to pudding and she nearly fell into Oscar when she got off her treadmill. She wasn't the only one, however, as A.J. had to hold onto the railings behind him to steady his own shaking legs.

"We're not finished, but you can have a couple of minutes to go use the washroom and get something to drink," the Chief said as he looked over to tired, sweaty group of individuals.

"Woo," Adena cheered dully with sarcasm in her breathless tone that caused Freddie to nod along. Pushing herself away from where she was sitting on the end of her treadmill, she made her way to the woman's washroom and relieved herself before trying to make herself somewhat presentable, washing the sweat from her face before trying to do the same with her neck using some wet paper towel. She knew that it was such an insecure thing to do, but she didn't want to go about walking amongst the NASA scientists reeking of sweat when she knew she already smelled like oil from having been working on the Armadillo the day before. Even after a shower, the smell of grease and metal still clung to her.

Leaving the room and moving to the small sitting area off of the exam room, she met up with Oscar as he gave her a water bottle that was cold and dripping with condensation. Knowing it was stupid to do in a room full of men, she stuck the cold water bottle down her cleavage and sighed at the relief of the heat on her chest. Oscar swallowing thickly from next to her as he watched the movement before he looked away to see where Harry was.

The father figure to the tanned woman was talking with Truman on the other side of the room and had yet to notice the sexually appealing display that his figurative daughter was making. Thankfully, Adena pulled the bottle out after a minute in order to take a drink of it, leaving a wet section on her chest and shirt from where it had been stuck down her shirt, mingling with the sweat that had already been there.

"That was…"

"Shut up," she warned, pointing at him as she took another drink from the bottle. After replacing the cap she put the cold bottle on the back of her neck, her hair already pulled up in a slowly loosening bun. Her dark, chocolate curls were sticking to her face and neck in sections, her cheeks reddened slightly from the run. Oscar wisely turned away in favor of getting a snack before they resumed their testing.

"You're doing inappropriate things again, baby girl," Bear warned with an amused smile from where he had been sitting a couple of feet away. Adena knew that she was probably being inappropriate, but she couldn't help it that she was so uncomfortable from the heat and the sweat on her skin.

"I'm hot," she retorted dryly, pointing at him as well when he opened his mouth to most assuredly say 'that you are' or something of that nature. "What time is it, anyway? How long were we running?" Looking around the room for a clock, as NASA had them everywhere, Adena spotted where there was a table of snacks and made a bee-line for that instead of waiting for an answer. Bear's baritone laugh followed her over, but she didn't care and instead snatched a granola bar and another bottle of water.

Halfway through the chocolate and oats bar, the Chief whistled loudly through the room. "Break's over," he said shortly, motioning for them to head down a new hallway. "We'll be checking how your bodies can handle pressure next. No more running. However, you're gunna need to change into these hospital gowns." Motioning to the table next to the door, there were indeed light blue paper gowns sitting on the surface.

"Come on, not this again," Rockhound groaned, probably remembering a sore ass from the last time they had been asked to change into those irritating paper gowns with the open back. Swallowing down the rest of her granola, she dropped the other bottle back on the table and rather violently snatched a robe from the table that caused Harry to snicker at her.

Why did she have to be the only woman in this group?

After another three hours of grueling tests by the Chief Medical Examiner, they were free to return to their work on the Armadillo. Some engineers provided by NASA had already begun to replace the parts that had to be removed with the proper pieces that could actually be used in while drilling. Harry immediately took control of the situation and began ordering the Engineers to do everything that he wanted them to do and nothing more. The rest of his crew fell in step behind him, knowing their own parts that needed to be played.

"Truman!" Adena called as soon as he stepped into the hanger with Sharp and the other pilots right behind him. They were scheduled to go up in the jets the next day and they were finishing on selecting who was going to be going up with whom. "Those Armadillo's come with a manual?"

"I thought Max and A.J. were driving them?" he asked in return.

"They are, but they are also technologically retarded with anything more advanced than a pipe and a valve. I need to rewrite them a new instruction manual, short and to the point, that they can memorize in the next three days before starting real training with the 'Dillos," she explained calmly, looking back to where they two men in question were working on some of the welding for the drilling arm that was going on the next day.

Nodding in understanding, Truman called Quincy over. "Take Miss King to somewhere quiet; give her the manual for the Armadillos and whatever else she may need." Nodding his head, the other genius motioned for her to follow him from the hanger. "Adena!" he called after they were a couple of yards away, drawing those green eyes back to him. "Try not to burn the manual!"

Grinning a shit eating grin, the woman made a so-so motion with her hand, almost as if to say there was a 50/50 change of her burning the book that Quincy was going to retrieve for her. Watts couldn't help but to give a huff of a laugh at the woman's antics, watching as she disappeared around the corner of the hanger, heading for the main building. While the men were doing the physical labour that would finish most of the work with the Armadillo, Adena was meant to finish the work more on the mental front.

It took a couple of hours and she knew that dinner had already passed as her stomach seemed to want to eat itself, growling loud enough to distract her every now and again, but she was soon working out the last of the typed work for Max and A.J. to run the Armadillos. She used photos that were from the original manual to show what certain components were and knew that if the two men weren't able to drive the Armadillo after all of her work then they were much dumber than she gave them credit for. The original manual had taken her hours to read through, her newer, simpler version was only going to take the men about a night to sort through and more than likely memorize.

One of the men that worked at NASA brought her the finished printouts and Adena checked them through quickly before beginning to put them inside of small binders to give to A.J. and Max. As she was finishing with this the smell of food caught her attention and she looked up to see Harry standing in the doorway with a tray of food from the cafeteria.

"I figured you'd go and forget to eat," he said with a smile, moving to the metal table she was working at to place the tray down. It appeared to be vegetable soup with a sandwich and can of Coca Cola. "All done?"

"Yea, mostly," she answered with a sigh as she looked over to the still open binders. A.J. and Max each had their own, so there were two binders with their names scrawled across the front in permanent marker. "How are things with the 'Dillos?" she asked after a brief pause, falling to sit down in front of the tray as Harry sat next to her, seeming to move more slowly than he usually would.

"It's getting done," he answered simply, watching as she took a bite of her sandwich. "You need to take better care of yourself, Adena."

Grunting in answer as she chewed, the tanned woman leaned back in her seat to look at him properly. "You look like you could use a nap," she began, getting a dry laugh from Harry as he ran his hands down his face, looking incredibly worn down. "You need to trust your men, Harry. Don't have to babysit us all the time."

"Well, you and Grace-"

"Do not even start me on that," Adena interrupted even though she was laughing, causing Harry to smile. He knew that Adena would side with Grace—not A.J., but the other woman who had become her close friend and sister through the years. "Go and get some rest, Harry. The world's not going to end while you sleep, and we promise to come to you if the asteroid picks up speed."

Harry shook his head at her humour but still lifted himself from the chair as she took another bite of her meal. "Smart ass," he muttered, getting a smile that was forced around a mouth full of food. Kissing Adena on the forehead, he left the room a moment later and Adena was once more in the silence of her small little work area. Eating the meal that Harry brought before it went cold, she was soon finishing up the binders as she continued to sip on her Coke.

"Need something stronger?"

Jumping in shock at the sound of someone else having come to see her, Adena turned around to find who else was standing in her doorway. "Colonel," she greeted, surprised to see him of all people coming to see her. In his hand was a black coffee mug that was steaming with the hot liquid. Holding the beverage out to her, Adena hesitated a moment before taking it from him, leaving her Cola on the table behind her. "What brings Mr. Air Force Colonel to my little corner of NASA?" she asked curiously, getting a huff of a laugh from his as he nodded his head.

"I know I haven't been that…kind to you and the other drillers-"

"You've been an ass," she amended, seeing his flinch as she stepped away to put her coffee on the table. "But I can understand why, so believe me when I say that I don't take it personally."

"You'd be the first," Sharp muttered, stepping into the room and looking down at the binders that she had put together. "That…was very quick," he commented, lifting the front cover of the binder to look at the first page. It was a large diagram of the inside of the Armadillo, almost like a drawing of the console, with lines and numbers that, in the following pages, explained what each number was labelling and what that exact component did.

"Thank you," Adena answered with a smile as she almost lovingly sipped from the coffee. "How did you know I liked just cream?" she asked after a moment, looking down at the light brown of the liquid that smelled so welcoming after sitting in that little office for so long.

Sharp dropped the cover closed in the binder again to give her his full attention. "I ran into Harry on the way here; said you could probably use more than just a coke after the day you've had." Smiling to herself, knowing that she should have guessed it had been Harry's doing, Adena nodded her acceptance before motioning for the Colonel to take a seat.

"Will you be one of the pilots taking us up tomorrow?" she asked with the hope of starting a conversation. It might have sounded selfish, but she wanted to keep him there, since she didn't get to spend much time with anyone but her own crew, and it was both a nice relief and a selfish desire because of her little fantasy bubble that included the attractive Colonel.

Taking the seat next to her but shifting so that they were facing one another, Sharp couldn't stop himself from looking down to where she had crossed one leg over the other and in doing so gave the impressing of very long, toned legs. "Yes, I'm either going to be taking you or Harry up. But we have a Vietnam Vet and anything final will be up to him, his name's Chuck and he's going to be in charge."

He stopped for a moment, making the face that Adena knew meant he knew something and was debating on whether or not to tell her. "What is it?" she finally asked, raising an eyebrow in wait.

"There's another surprise for the guys tomorrow, it helps to give them that moment of weightlessness while testing just how strong their stomachs are," Sharp explained, watching as Adena began to grin. "Here at NASA, it's a D-C9 plane called the Vomit Comet."

Adena couldn't help but the laugh at the name, trying to imagine what this thing must have looked like. "What does that do?"

"It's a plane that can climb to forty thousand feet and drop down to ten thousand feet; it gives only about thirty seconds of zero gravity, but it's more to test how they can handle to pressure." Sharp was surprised that she wasn't paling at the thought of what she was to expect the next day. "You seem a bit too excited for this."

"I like fast things," she answered simply as she continued to smile. "When I was fifteen, before I met Harry, I snuck into a theme park because I had no money and spent hours just going from ride to ride, over and over. I've always enjoyed things that went really fast, so I may be looking forward to tomorrow more than just a bit too much."

Sharp smiled back, realizing that this woman would have to have a pretty strong stomach, but he couldn't help but to wonder if that would stand up to the threat of the fighter jets and then the vomit comet. "Maybe I should take you up, won't have to worry about any puke in my plane."

"If you take me up, I guarantee that I won't puke in your plane," she corrected. Her green eyes were dancing with amusement and she was more relaxed than she had been since they arrived, since she hadn't had much time to actually have a moment away from her crew aside from her run the night before. It was strange to spend the last minutes of her night with Sharp for the second time in a row, but she didn't mind in the least as she watched the amusement shine in his eyes to match hers. "Are you nervous about flying the X-71?" she asked after a brief pause, tapping the rim of her empty mug with her nail.

"The Freedom? More intimidated than nervous; it's more than I've ever flown before but I know that I'm prepared to do it. I've been doing simulations as often as I can; not much more that I can do, so knowing that I've done all I can to prepare makes it easier." Watching her nervous tick at tapping on the glass, Sharp leaned forward. "Are you nervous?"

"I am completely terrified," she laughed out, no actual humour in her tone as she glancing up for only a moment before looking at the mug again. "I keep trying to convince myself that everything will be okay, and in two weeks' time things will have gone back to normal. But I've been drilling with Harry nearly ten years—we've almost lost people on rigs on Earth and here we are thinking everything's going to work out perfectly on an Asteroid-"

Sharp took her hand quickly as she began to ramble fearfully, drawing her attention to look him in the eye.

"I don't know how to drill, or how dangerous that asteroid will be, but I have to have faith that your crew are as good as you all have been bragging. Harry's been confident enough to entrust the world to you guys and I'm going to have to hope that that faith stands true."

Swallowing hard, Adena gripped Sharp's hand as she tried to stop the shaking in her limbs. It was just like that first day all over again, when Harry had first explained what was going to happen. Looking into those icy blue eyes, she found something that she had seen in many of the men around NASA, and on her own team as well.

"What else are you fighting for?" she asked timidly, keeping a tight hold on his hand in the hopes that he could be her anchor. "It's personal for you; it's not just about saving the world."

Sharp gripped her hand in both of his, locking them together as he stared down at them. Her skin was deep with a tan from the years of working on the rigs, while his was rather pale from staying in the protective dome of the jets that he had flown over the years. "My two daughters," he answered, squeezing her hands. "My wife and I divorced three years ago; my girls are six and eight now, and they barely even know me anymore."

"You don't get to see them?" Adena asked as her heart tugged at the pain in his voice.

"I have the right to, but when I'm not a work they're with their mom and I only get to see them on weekends anyway. My job was the deciding factor in court when we were fighting for custody. I couldn't be there for them."

Lifting his hands instinctively, Adena pressed a kiss against the knuckles of his right hand, still clasping hers. "You're about to be there for them in the greatest way possible. Not many little girls get to say their daddy saved the world," she assured calmly, looking into his eyes as he gripped her hands in a near vice hold.

"They don't know, no one knows."

"They will," she insisted. "This won't stay quiet. More of the meteors are going to fall and eventually people are going to notice that there's a giant rock hurtling for Earth. NASA can only keep it quiet for so long, and after that it's up to humanity to decide on what it is going to do."

Silence lingered between them after she stopped speaking, the knot of their hands never breaking as they sat in the office with only their breathing to provide a distraction from the quiet. "What about you?" Sharp finally questioned, seeing the pain in her eyes that told him she didn't have people waiting for her out there when she returned to Earth, if they returned.

"The only family I have will be at my side on that Asteroid," she answered meekly. "My parents died when I was seventeen, in a house fire. I ran away when I was fifteen—they didn't even look for me—and it was an aunt that I never even knew I had that tracked me down and told me. They didn't leave me anything, but she thought I should know. I went to their funeral and I had no idea why I was there, standing among these weeping people that I didn't even know. I couldn't cry, even though my parents were dead I could not even force a tear."

"They abused you?" Sharp asked in a strained voice, seeing the answer on her face before he even asked the question. Nodding her head faintly, the tanned woman closed her eyes. "Then they don't deserve your tears."

Looking up with broken green eyes, she offered the best smile that she could in gratitude as she once more lifted his hand and pressed a kiss to his knuckles, giving her thanks for his words.

Thank you to those who reviewed, I'm glad that you like the story so much

I'll have another chapter out as soon as I can, I've just got to edit it but it'll have to wait a bit until I have the time. I hope to hear from my readers again, so please review and let me know what you think