Courage is the resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear.

-Mark Twain

-;-

"Ellie..honey, it's time to get up."

She groaned, shifting under her comfortable sheets, her legs stiff from the over use the day before. Lazily, she batted at whoever was prodding her, mumbling something under her breath.

"Go away. I'm sleeping." she yawned, opening her eyes to see the fuzzy shape of none other than her uncle standing over her.

"I know, honey. But someone got hurt out on a mission and they need your help."

Sighing, Ellie lay there for a moment before rolling into a sitting position to pull her boots on. A few seconds later, and she was walking down the large metal halls toward her infirmary, only bothering to pull her hair back into a messy bun as she went.

She was sure to raise a few brows by her appearance, considering that she was wearing dark blue fuzzy pajama pants and a light yellow tank top, with the dark army boots hanging loosely off of her feet. Not only that, but her hair probably looked like a hurricane had gone through it. Either that or some kind of animal decided to make a nest out of it. At this point, both options were possible.

Entering the Medical Bay, she quickly took note of the pale woman gritting her teeth as a couple of what appeared to be her teammates tried to stop a deep gash in her leg from bleeding further.

"Alright. Everyone out." she snapped, in no mood for anyone to protest against her words.

"What? Who the hell are you?" one of the men standing by her retorted, crossing his arms. "And why should we listen to you?"

"My name, asshole, is Elina Epps. And at the moment, this is my Med-Bay, so I suggest you shut up and get out before I make you a patient." Ellie growled, moving to pull on a pair of medical gloves. "And just so you know, I'm a national champion in kickboxing and state champion in muay thai. Not to mention I know roughly seventy ways to knock you out with minimal effort on my part."

"Marcus, stand down." the woman hissed, looking like she was ready to tear off her teammate's head if he so much as said one more word. Turning her gaze back to Ellie, she offered a half grin in apology. "Sorry about him. I'm Captain Eliza Barnes of the SRT."

Ellie smiled in return as she pulled out the necessary materials for her to hook up the woman to an IV, among other things. "Do I dare ask was the SRT is?" she teased lightly, ignoring her irritation for the moment at the fact that there was still a group of people surrounding her new patient.

"We're a SWAT team- only military style." another woman piped up brightly, causing her Captain to snort. She was the shortest of the group, and she had pale blonde hair pulled back into a high tail and bright blue eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, Lex. We get it." yet another man rolled his eyes.

Ellie rolled her shoulders as she set up the IV before popping her back. She wasn't all that annoyed at the moment, but she really did need the space to keep this team's leader from possibly dying.

"Alright. Everyone out. I need to get to work in peace." she snapped curtly, clapping her hands. "And if anyone gives me any back talk, I already warned you once. I won't do it again."

Marcus gave her a dirty look, but did what he was told. Lex, small and dainty, dragged a couple of other men out by their ears, ignoring their pained whines. The remainder of the group followed out dutifully, and Ellie gratefully locked the door behind them before turning back to Eliza.

"Alright. How are you feeling, Eliza?" Ellie asked, grabbing a chair and dragging it over so that she could sit while taking a look at the wound. "Do you know how long you've been bleeding?"

Mentally, she ran through her various notes that she had stored away in the back of her mind. The adult human body contains about 10-12 pints of blood, and can usually lose about one pint without harmful effects. However, loss of two pints may cause shock, and five or more usually led to death.

"Twenty minutes, I think." Eliza scrunched up her face in thought. "We were down at the southern point looking through an old storage facility, and suddenly everything just collapsed. I got hit by a falling beam."

"Uh huh. Alright. Has it been bleeding heavily, or lightly?" she hummed, gently pulling the skin apart to see how deep the wound was. She sucked in a breath through her teeth as the familiar red became visible. That was one part of her job that she would never get used to. The shade of red that made up the veins never failed to make her shudder.

"Somewhere in the middle, I guess. I haven't really been paying too much attention." Eliza laughed lightly, maybe a little dizzily.

"Alright. This is going to hurt, Eliza. I need to apply direct pressure over the wound, but to do that I need to cut away your pant leg." Ellie warned, grabbing for her scissors as she said it.

"Go for it." Eliza waved her off. "Not much more I can lose, anyway."

Ellie cut through the muddled brown fabric, the green stained deeply by the red. Peeling it away slowly, she murmured apologies at the pained sounds the other woman was making as she did so, leaning against the short metal headboard of the bed that she was half laying on. Placing the scissors back on the small, portable table, she stood, lining her hands up above the main point of the wound before leaning down and putting pressure onto it.

She kept an eye on the clock up on the wall, doing her best not to shift as blood seeped out past the other several inches of the wound, though it was showing signs of slowing. Ellie internally sighed in relief: it was a good sign.

The hands on the clock ticked by painfully slowly, as they always did, but eventually, the fifteen minute mark hit. Pulling back, Ellie was pleased to see that the bleeding had almost completely stopped, though Eliza's leg was now coated in semi hardened blood.

"Well? What's the verdict, doc?" Eliza asked dryly, pulling herself up to see the wound for herself.

"You're going to live." she returned with a grin, pulling off the gloves and throwing them out before grabbing a new pair to pull on. She then grabbed a cloth and placed it in a shallow bowl of warm water for a few moments before going back to wash away the blood. "But, you're going to need stitches."

"Go for it. I highly doubt I could be in much more pain right now." Eliza assured her, leaning her head back.

"Already ahead of you." she snickered, grabbing antiseptic cream and applying it gently to the wound. There was a relieved sigh from Eliza, and after putting it away, she grabbed her needle and suture. Looking at the wound critically, she decided to use an interrupted stitch. It would keep the wound the most protected from infection in comparison to the others that she could use, and would be the most comfortable for her should she want to be up and around. Although, it would be very limited movement for the next several days.

It went relatively quickly after that. Ellie taped gauze over the stitches to keep the area clean, and Eliza was regaining color, but she was going to keep her overnight so that she could keep an eye on her.

"You feeling ready for visitors, or should we move you to another bed so I can get these sheets cleaned?" Ellie yawned, still feeling tired. What she wouldn't give for a mug of coffee right now…

"I should probably move." Eliza said, making a face at the bloody fabric that she was situated on. "Besides, you probably don't want me leaving, do you?"

"Uh huh." Ellie muttered absently, pulling off the gloves and throwing them out. "I want to make sure that you don't get an infection in the next couple of hours, and all you really need other than that is a ton of rest and ibuprofen for your leg."

"That sounds like a plan." Eliza acknowledged, pulling her legs over the side of the bed and shifting, seeing how the stitches felt. Ellie knew that feeling far too well, having been on the receiving end of a similar injury once or twice. Offering Eliza an arm, she pulled the other woman up, supporting her bad side and moving her to the nearest bed, which only happened to be about ten feet away. Luckily, Eliza wasn't being a deadweight, so the mission was complete in only a matter of seconds.

After she had been settled in and IV's double checked, Ellie reluctantly went over to the door and unlocked it before allowing the rest of the SRT to come in.

Marcus was in the lead, which was no surprise already, followed by Lex. Ellie had the feeling that Marcus and Lex were pretty close to their Captain.

Crossing her arms, she didn't even notice when Fig entered with a cup of coffee until he put a hand on her shoulder. Lazily, she turned her head, still a little too out of it to react as she usually did. Which entailed a lot of violence. Instead, she honed in on the cup of coffee in his hand, which he was offering her with a wry grin.

"I brought you your coffee, chica." He offered simply as she snatched it from his fingers and downed it in only three mouthfuls. How she managed to accomplish such feats was beyond him, but he wasn't about to disagree with the mocha skinned woman. Not if he wanted to live a little longer, anyway.

"Thank you so fucking much." Ellie sighed contentedly, feeling the warmth of the caffeine spread through her veins. "I feel like a truck ran me over. And I'm tired."

"You get used to it." Fig said sympathetically, patting her shoulder. "So, other than that, how's your day been going?"

"Well, if the fact that I just spent about an hour and a half working on an SRT Captain's leg, I'm doing pretty good now that I've had some coffee. But now I can't leave cause she's staying overnight."

"Sucks to be you."

"Fig, I suggest you shut up. I'm still annoyed with you for the whole intrusion of my privacy thing when I first got here."

"It was…two weeks ago." The Spanish speaking male finally said, looking a little shocked. "Wow. Time flies."

"No. It crawls. I would know."

"How?"

"Well….let's just say Leon and Emergency Room." Ellie shrugged. "It sucked when I had to wait three hours to see her after she crashed the truck into the kiddy pool in the backyard."

"I don't even want to know." Fig sighed before checking the time. "Well, time to train. I'll see you later?"

"Maybe." Ellie yawned. "If I'm still awake."

Fig laughed as he walked away, boots clicking against the floor.

Ellie flipped him the bird before walking over to her desk and looking at the flat surface before wiping off an invisible speck of dirt and crawling onto it. It looked a lot more comfortable than the floor, and the beds were solely for patients only. She still didn't get that rule. There were way more beds in here than she could count! What was one bed?

Grumbling to herself, she rolled onto her side and used her arm as a pillow before dozing, not even caring that the SRT was watching her do so. They could suck it up if they didn't like it. She was the temporary CMO, and therefore this was her desk. She could do whatever she damn well wanted with it.

-;-

Epps and Lennox entered the Med-Bay a couple hours later, only to find the room dark.

Glancing at each other, they flicked on the lights.

Lennox noted the SRT Captain laying on her bed, face turned to the side as her pillow attempted to block out the low snores coming from somewhere over to the left. Curious, Epps turned to look before sighing and facepalming.

Ellie was sleeping on the desk, curled into the tiniest ball that she could, snoring. They would have found the scene cute if she wasn't drooling all over said desk. Actually, scratch that. She did look pretty cute, almost like a toddler considering her arms were nearly covering her face.

Epps' face softened as she snuffled softly in her sleep, and he walked over to the desk. Carefully, he worked his arms under her slender frame so that he was cradling her bridal style in his arms. The young woman sighed contentedly, mumbling something in her sleep before turning her head and nuzzling into Epps' warm collarbone. Epps laughed silently at her furrowed brows as her hands curled around his shirt, and he automatically was reminded of how she had done the same when she was younger.

Lennox found himself smiling at the scene between the two. Annabelle did something similar with him whenever she fell asleep on the floor back at the ranch. Suddenly, he wished that he was with Sarah and his daughter, curled up on the couch as a family. He wanted to tuck Annabelle into bed and press a kiss onto her forehead before going back downstairs and just enjoying his wife's company until they too, went to bed.

But he realized that he had nothing in comparison to his best friend. Epps hadn't seen his niece for years, and he deserved to enjoy his happiness. Besides, he would be seeing his precious daughter in mere months. Perhaps Epps and his family would come for a visit again this year.

"I'm taking Ellie back to her room." Epps whispered as he brushed past his friend. "I'll catch up with you later."

Lennox smiled and nodded before making sure that nothing was out of place before turning the lights back off and leaving.

-;-

Epps found Ellie's room without much difficulty: after all, it was in between the infirmary and the Autobot hangar.

Nudging open the door, he carried his niece over to the bed and lay her down. However, she had a rather tight grip on his shirt, and it took him a couple of minutes to gently pry her fingers off of the fabric.

She gave an unhappy snuff in her sleep, brows furrowing further as she curled up on her side. Epps smiled softly, pulling the covers up over her, making sure that her boots were removed first, of course. That accomplished, he stood there for a moment, soaking in Ellie's appearance.

She'd changed since he'd last seen her. There was no longer many signs of the little girl he'd used to bounce on his knee and giggle. She'd grown up into a young woman. A fine young woman, at that. She was a nurse, and from he'd heard, a national champion in kickboxing and a state champion in muay thai. Idly, he wondered if she'd played soccer at all. He recalled that she'd always loved the sport, and had always begged him to play with her whenever he and Monica visited his brother. She'd had shorter hair then, too. More baby fat.

But now, he could see that she was still Elina, still his niece.

Leaning down, he brushed back her bangs and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead, as he'd used to do every time he had tucked her in when she had fallen asleep on his lap. Ellie had always loved him, and he knew now that even though she was more sarcastic, and mature, that she still loved him.

"Sleep well, Ellie." he whispered before exiting, watching her for another moment before closing the door with a soft click.

"Night..." Ellie whispered in her sleep.