A/N: Hey Everyone! I finally got another chapter up for this story! Also, my plot is now written out so the rest of this story shall be better structured. I've also now gotten myself a couple of beta-readers so I shall be posting edited versions of these chapters once I get them beta-read. A poll is now going on my profile as to which story I should update fastest so go vote now! :D
Three days had passed since Mav's team had arrived at Diego Garcia and the squad was getting restless. The days had been filled with mind numbing paperwork, physical and mental tests. Everyone was getting very frustrated, especially because no one had gotten to go home to see their families yet.
The more time spent on the island the more restless the soldiers got. After six months of being deployed the men had expected to be home and with their families by now. Unfortunately the government officials, namely Mr Galloway, had decided to make it as difficult as possible for them to return home.
By the end of the three days everyone was on edge, Maverick's team more than anyone else. The higher the tempers got in Mav's group the more friction was caused with the NEST team. The Autobot's had remained indifferent on the situation although many of the humans were either siding with the government officials or the Navy SEAL team.
"God this is just getting so frustrating!" Mav growled as she leaned back on the legs of her chair. The brunette was sitting in the human recreation room talking with Major Lennox, Epps and Figs.
"Yeah must be, your guys are very on edge," Lennox agreed as he took a sip of his coffee.
"Man, I understand what it's like for them. You're just getting home, only ten hours away and the government's not letting you go. It's got to be hell for those of them with families and girls waiting for them. I just hope the government doesn't go all hard assed and report you all dead, that would be the last straw for many of them," Epps commented as he looked around the room.
"It'd probably be the last straw for me as well. If I have to be considered government property, which I am, then I'd at least like a little down time here and there. It's not like my squad hasn't been proved for mental and physical tests. Not to mention the Defence Force has all the paperwork they need on any of us. We are one of the most specialised team sent out to Peace Keeping zones. My team is trusted to take care of high priority, high secrecy missions so I don't see what the problem is," Mav explained as she scowled at the far side of the room.
"It's probably just Director Galloway going all stupid and talking straight to the President and not following the channels. God knows he does it all the time," the Major stated.
"Yeah, he never follows the proper channels and we end up paying for it," Figs put in.
"You're telling me he is just going straight to the President with this? The President has direct control over our team and knows me personally. Galloway must not be telling whoever he is talking to just who I am. I'm going to call the President now and get this sorted, my men need to get home and get some rest," Mav said as she stood up and walked outside.
After exiting the building the brunette walked down the side of the recreation building and pulled out her mobile phone before dialling the President's home number. Maverick had come to know the President through her time in Defence due to the nature of the missions she undertook and the fact that she was in government/military custody for the time being.
The phone rang multiple times before anyone picked up.
"Hello, Barack speaking," the president said from the other end of the line.
"Hey, Mr Obama, Maverick Mitchell here," Mav greeted.
"Hi Mav, how can I help you?"
"Director Galloway is stuffing up relations between us and our visitors. It's stupid what he is doing and if he continues on as he is going they will leave us. Already Galloway has created tensions which will be hard to rectify. I propose Director Galloway is taken back to restricted access and removed from his role of liaison."
"I shall support your decision as long as you have an idea for who should fill the role."
"I believe this should be a decision made between you and our visitors although my suggestion is that someone from within the group of people who know our visitors should be chosen."
"I shall keep that in mind. Was that all?"
"No sir. Galloway has been keeping me and my team here. We've not yet gotten any rest and have had to go through lots of paperwork just to be able to get a couple of night's decent sleep."
"Someone has not been telling me what's really been happening there, have they?"
"No sir, I don't believe so. I think the chain of command for this needs to be thought through thoroughly."
"I'll make sure to get someone onto the issues in our chain of command. As for what's happening with your team, I shall authorise flights to get you out of there and back onto the mainland. From there I'll see if we can't get all of you home."
"Thanks sir."
"You're welcome."
"Seeya."
"Ok then, goodbye."
Mav clicked the end button and returned inside. Walking up to the group she announced, "That's two problems solved."
"Which problems?"
"Our Galloway problem and my team's leave problem."
"Uh, how in the world did you manage to fix the Galloway problem?"
"I told you I'm good friends with the President. He's going to sort through things and rearrange the chain of command they've got going in the politics area of things," Mav replied.
"And let me guess, you also got the president to authorise flights out of here for your team," guessed Fig.
"Aww, Fig, how'dya guess?" the brunette teased.
Fig just rolled his eyes at her teasing.
"When are you guys shipping out?" asked Lennox.
"No idea, the flights haven't been arranged yet. The sooner the better though," Mav answered.
"I can't believe you got rid of Galloway with one phone call! Finally I won't be tempted to plug him and get massively court marshalled," Epps exclaimed.
"I think I would have beaten you to it Epps. I was so close to killing him the other day when he walked into my room and started full on ranting at me for something or other that I hadn't even done," the commander said as she sat down in her chair.
"What did he think you did?" asked Fig.
"Apparently my love for breaking the rules is well known to him and he thought I was the one who hoisted his boxers on the flag pole," replied Mav.
"You serious? Someone put his boxers up like a flag on the actual flag pole? Are they still up there?" Epps questioned as an excited smile lit his face.
"Answers to your questions are yes, yes and yes," replied Mav with a matching grin.
"God! I have to go see that!" exclaimed Epps as he jumped out of his seat and headed outside.
"I hope he gets some photos for us. They would be brilliant blackmail to use if he ever ended up back here again," Mav mused.
"Knowing him, half of his phone space will be filled with the pictures already," stated the major.
"I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures," Fig said.
"Of course," Mitchell said.
Three hours later and the plane flights out of Diego Garcia had been arranged. However, Galloway was going off his rocker at losing his security clearance.
"You! I know you're the one who arranged for me to lose my security clearance! Mark my words, you will get the worst payback imaginable," yelled Galloway as he got right up in Mav's face.
"Nothing you can do to me will be that bad. I'm glad you no longer have your security clearance to flash in everyone's faces and annoy the hell out of them. I'm glad that you can't stuff up Autobot/Human relations any more than you already have and I'm sure as hell glad that you can't stuff around the Defence Force to meet your little personal agenda anymore. I don't give a crap what you think so just shut-up already and leave," Mav growled as Galloway continued to mutter under his breath.
Knowing that Mav was losing her temper, Fig signalled for the Air Field guards to escort the troublesome politician off the base. Despite the young girl's assurance that anything Galloway could do to her wouldn't harm her, he still felt as though she would be getting a lot of trouble from him in the future.
Trying to settle her temper, Mav took a couple of deep breaths before stalking away from the middle of the air field and heading into the Autobot's hangar.
Entering the cool atmosphere of the massive hangar she started to feel herself calming down. Inside the hangar the entrance way was devoid of the alt. modes of the Autobots. Deciding they would be in their respective offices or the recreation room she decided to head for the latter.
Once making her way down into the connected hangars Mav headed straight for the recreation room. The room was set up like a cross between a dining room and a living room. Large, Autobot sized couches were clustered around a bunch of massive flat screen TVs while on the other side of the room there were tables and chairs which were also big enough for the Autobots.
Entering the room Mav spotted Sunstreaker, Sideswipe and Jazz playing COD, as per their usual activities when not out pulling pranks and hunting down Decepticons. Taking a look at the screens the brunette quickly figured out that the three of them were kicking the enemy team's butts without the help of the rest of the team.
Climbing up the side of the couch, Maverick settled herself down on the arm to ensure she wouldn't get squashed. The game continued on for another four minutes until the Autobot's team one.
"Yeah, I totally whooped some random guys ass, he was like, creeping around the corner and then I just filled him with lead!" exclaimed Sideswipe.
"Uh huh, and who was watching your back and picking off the guys behind you?" questioned Sunstreaker sarcastically.
"Pfft, not like you needed to," Sides said nonchalantly.
"Well guys, I reckoned I got the most kills," interrupted Jazz, trying to diffuse the brewing fight.
"No way!" denied Sideswipe.
"In your dreams," Sunstreaker said, smirking.
"Why don't you guys just check the leader board before it disappears?" Mav put in before it would be a three way fight.
Deciding to listen to her for once the three of them turned to get a look of the leader board before they would be launched into the next game.
SuNsTrEaKeR 17 kills
SidesPullinPranks 16 Kills
JazzThaMan 15 kills
Once checking the leader board Sideswipe and Jazz started mumbling under their breaths, while Sunstreaker's smirk just grew.
"Can I join in the next game guys? I'll probably be leaving later so if you want to try beating my top record for kills the clock is ticking," the young girl asked.
"Ya leavin'?" asked Jazz.
"Since when?" questioned Sideswipe.
"I'm leaving later today I think and it was arranged earlier when I talked to the president," Mav answered as she picked up one of the human sized controllers.
"Well, it's going to get quiet around here again when you guys leave," Jazz mused.
"I don't think so, Sideswipe will just keep pranking you till you guys get royally pissed off with him," Mav stated. In reply Sideswipe just smirked.
At that moment the game started up and the group was thrown into the game.
It was four hours later when Mav and her team were boarding the aircraft to head back to the USA. Many of the soldiers were feeling intense relief at finally being able to go home. Knowing that the flight would only last around 8 hours the group boarded the plane feeling elated to go home.
Soon the aircraft was fully boarded and ready to take off. Getting clearance was simple and they were soon on their way. Not much chatter filled the aircraft as many were lost in their thoughts of arriving home. Observing her team in silence, Mav wondered just how many of their lives would be severely affected by their knowledge of the Autobots.
After eight hours of flight and two hours of arrival procedures Mav had finally reached home. Unlocking the front door, she pushed it open before flicking on the light switch. Wandering into the hallway the brunette dropped her bags before going into the kitchen. Opening the fridge she looked over its contents. Finding that nothing particularly exciting was contained within she walked over to the cupboard to get out a packet of Kraft macaroni.
Getting the packet out the young girl filled a pot with water before putting it on to boil. Knowing that it would take at least ten minutes to boil she headed upstairs. Pulling off her DPCU's Mav changed into a pair of men's jeans and a loose fitting shirt before sauntering downstairs.
Within half an hour her food was ready and Mav was eagerly scoffing it down. Finishing the bowl within five minutes she washed the dishes before going into the living room. Picking up the remote Maverick switched the TV on and changed it onto the ABC channel to find out what had been happening in the last couple of days. As she switched onto the ABC channel the brunette just caught the end of the previous story.
...and the illegal club down in the heart of the city has now been shut down and the owners charged.
Glancing at the images on the screen she quickly figured out it was the club she had been to just before leaving to go to Afghanistan. It was then that she remembered she had said she would ring that guy Sean when work wasn't so busy. Figuring that she wouldn't need to go in to work tomorrow at least, Mav decided to ring him. Rifling through her personal phone book, the young girl soon found Sean's number and dialled it.
After ringing twice the phone was picked up.
"Hello, Sean speaking."
"Hey Sean, its Mav, from the club."
"Oh, hi Mav. How's it going?"
"Pretty good, work's just slowed down for a bit so I decided to make good on my promise to call you."
"Glad you did. How was work?"
"It was ok although it could have gone better."
"I'm guessing you're in one of those classified jobs?"
"Yeah, sorry about that, I can't give details."
"That's fine. So, did you want to go out sometime? We still need to get those staring competitions done."
"Sure, as long as it's sometime soon because I'm not sure how long work will stay calm for."
"How about tomorrow night? We could go to the beach or something..."
"Tomorrow night sounds good and so does going to the beach. Which beach?"
"Is 'The Dump' ok?"
"Definitely! I'll be able to show you my epic riding of dumping waves."
"You can epically ride dumping waves? Why is this reminding me of my brother?"
"Uh huh, probably because your brother likes to be epic."
"Sure... so should we meet there at around four o'clock?"
"Yeppers, I'll see you there then."
"Ok see you tomorrow."
With that Mav hung up the phone. Turning her attention back to the TV screen the young girl fought to suppress a yawn. Deciding it seriously wasn't worth it Maverick headed upstairs to shower and go to bed.
Half an hour later saw Maverick in bed and quietly contemplating what had happened in the last couple of days. Meeting the Autobots, being taken to Diego Garcia, befriending an ex-Decepticon and much more.
It was just as she was thinking about meeting the Autobots that it suddenly struck her. Sean...Sunstreaker... they were the same person! Berating herself for not figuring it out earlier Mav promised herself she would talk to Sean AKA Sunstreaker when she met up with him the next day. Her mind now finally at ease, Mav fell into a very deep but not peaceful, sleep.
Yay! Another chapter finished! Read and review to share the awesomesauce!
