Finally, Susie drew a deep breath and found her strength back. "Thank you!" Was all she said and Maura gave her a smile in return.
Around the time that the dinner started officially, most of the members were assembled inside the mess hall, using this to her advancement; Jane called out for a short moment of quietness.
"Okay folks, I make it as short and as painless as possible. We have some new members, as I am sure all of you already know. Beside the ones Major Korsak told me about - and which were already introduced to you -, there are two very special new members. Ladies, please come to me!" Jane made a gesture to Maura and Susie to come to her. "Folks, this is Dr. Susie Chang, she is filling the gab we had for a pediatrician – ladies don't thank me! Thank Maura!" Jane made a gesture to her, "- and she fills in for your good old country doctor. The other Lady is Dr. Maura Isles. She is a trauma surgeon and our new CMO. Naturally she will although help you as your good ol' doc."
"And she is your girlfriend!" A voice out of the back called.
"Yes buddy, you are right! Sorry but if it disturbs you – it isn't my fault that you were too slow for your own good!"
This got a lot of laughter from the assembly.
"Okay, that's it! Have a nice evening!"
The next couple of month brought a lot of training for the unit and because a fever rolled through the region of the planet the garrison was set, Maura and Susie as well as some hired local nurses got their hands full. Being in a good physical shape and well nourished helped the members of the Razors but even they had to pay the prize in form of half a dozen dead members. Two pilots and four infantry members died, the children were although really bad and in a couple of cases, Maura and Susie went to methods they would have called outdated and obsolete in recent years. To say that they worked miracles was as to say a nova was a little bit brighter as a usual star. While taking care of their children and most of them Will because he got ill, Jane caught the disease although. At the first glance of not only Will but Jane too, they asked Angela to keep an eye on Sofia and she did. Nearly four weeks the fever raged through their ranks until it was finally done, leaving most of the members of the Razors in a state that an old woman on a crutch would be able to fight them off with a wet towel.
Short after that, Frankie and Frost returned with their catch. Angela and Maura welcomed the Drop-Ship because those two were the most able.
Leaving the ship, Frost turned to Frankie the moment he recognized their welcome party.
"Something is definitively wrong. Over there, that is the doctor and your mother. Where is Jane or Korsak at least?"
Frankie shrugged his shoulders. "Hey Ma! What are you doing here? And why did you color your hair Maura?"
Hearing Frankie asking about the hair color, Angela gave Maura a questioning look.
"Hello Frankie, Barry!" Maura greeted them. "We are here because we had a fever raging along here, most of our people are still ill. And I didn't color my hair since the last time we saw each other Frankie, I stopped to color it, this is my natural color."
"Does Jane know?" Frost asked with a smile. In his opinion, blond was a color that suited the doctor very well.
"Yes, she does. More to it, it was her suggestion because we left New Barcelona two weeks earlier before she did." Looking over to the Drop-Ship, she made a gesture to the people that assembled at the end of the ramp.
"Our new members?" She asked and both men nodded.
"Yes, we thought we bring enough people along to form a complete company. We were even able to hire six pilots with their own machines but we could not find someone without we had a good feeling about. Somehow we always felt as if those guys only were interested in the Mechs and would be gone with the tin guys the first moment they could." Frost made a gesture to the newbie's to walk over. As they stood next to them, he made introductions. "Okay, the simple ones first. This is Captain Angela Rizzoli, she is our Quarter Master and yes, she is the mother of Frankie over here and of our boss, Jane Rizzoli. The other beautiful lady is Captain Dr. Maura Isles, she is our CMO and by the way your new boss because she leads the company we hired you for."
Watching them, Maura saw that all these pilots were between their mid forties to end fifties.
Frankie continued with the introduction. "Now let me please introduce our new members to you. We have here to my left Lieutenant Liu; he pilots a Spider and will be in charge of Scout lance. Okay, most of the time, he will be the only member of that lance but that is something he already knows about. Next to him is Sergeant Mifume, he is riding a PhoenixHawk-K and will be part of Battle lance as well as warrior Livingston with his Enforcer. Lieutenant Patroni is fleshing the Battle lance out. His ride is a Wolverine. Leaves me to introduce our last not introduced members. Here are Lieutenant Martinez who is piloting a Marauder-D and Sergeant Luis with her Centurion."
Maura gave them a smile and shook their hands. "I'm sorry that we couldn't bring more people to welcome you but there was a fever the last couple of weeks around here and a lot of our people are still weak, including your new CO. Nonetheless, I am happy to meet all of you. I would suggest that you bring over your belongings; we take them along in our car. After that, I believe it would be a good idea to unload your Mechs and follow us to our base. Those Drop-Ship crews are always unbelievingly itchy to get their holds empty to fill them again." Their new warriors shook their heads yes and brought their stuff over, walking inside the hangar after they have done it to bring out their rides.
"I have to confess that not all the Mechs are in a shape I would prefer but Jane wanted pilots in this age range and there weren't many of them. Some of them ran badly out of luck." Frost told them while they waited for the six pilots to return.
An hour later, the Mechs were stored and the pilots seated. Nina had rolled her eyes when she saw some of the problems the Mechs had but she was sure that they could fix them in about a week. Maura gave the new ones the next two days off and informed them that after then, they would start some training to get used to each other. The male members were ogeling her out as she could feel and finally she turned to them.
"Gentlemen, let me tell you something. First – I already have two children and at least at the moment I am not interested in more and second – my girlfriend is very jealous and will be more than happy to add your heads to her collection. Based on this simple fact I would suggest that you keep your eyes in your heads."
"May I ask who your girlfriend is – maybe she isn't as scary as you told us." Patroni asked with a wink at her.
"My girlfriend? Oh, that is easy to tell you because everyone here can show her to you. Her name – by the way – is Jane." A mischievous grin spread on her face. "Jane Rizzoli!" With a laugh Maura turned away and walked to the quarter, she shared with Jane and the children.
The picture she got the moment she entered was heartwarming. Jane was lying in the middle of their bed. At each side of her was one of the children cuddling in. Jane was wearing a pair of boy-shorts as well as a t-shirt Sofia was drooling on the later but been in a deep sleep, Jane was not recognizing it. Slipping out of her overall, Maura carefully placed her body next to Jane's and wrapped her arms around her children and her family. Dozing off she was brutally awakened after about only two hours later by a loud knock at their door. Groggily she stood up and walked to the door when Jane told her to stop. Maura turned her head and looked at the tall brunette.
"You should put on a robe or something else, sweetie, you are only wearing your panties, not even a bra." Jane's eyes wandered her body up and down while she spoke and it was more than clear that the last thing Jane wanted was that Maura pulled on some clothes.
With a smile, Maura took a robe from the door and dressed in it. Opening the door, she was more than relieved she did. In front of her stood Angela and she was not looking really happy.
"Angela, please come in and have a seat. I tell Jane that you are here, I am sure that we will be able to extract her from the kids." She told Jane's mother with a smile but could only drag a very small one from her. A minute later, Jane stood in front of her mother, looked at her and asked. "Tell me ma, what is the problem."
"One of our new guys, he reminds me in a kind of way about Casey. Charming but not very willing to accept a word he got." Angela gave a sigh.
"Who is it and what is he doing?" Jane's face completely lost all signs of humor.
"It is this Martinez guy, I think that you should walk out and kick him in his balls!" Angela was angry and Jane only shook her head. To have her mother in this state of angry, he really must have her pissed.
Ten minutes later, she walked into the mess hall where she found that Martinez guy easily.
"Martinez?" She asked more to be sure then to want to learn something new.
"Yes beautiful, the one and only." His grin was as big as a mountain. The fact that all people around him – except the other new ones – flooded away he missed.
"Until you earned it, Martinez, the term to address me is Colonel, if and let me strengthen the IF you earned it, you are eventually allowed to call me Rizzoli. You call me beautiful again and I have your balls for desert. Got me?" The room fell quiet and Martinez was baffled.
Jane was not willing to give any time to him to collect his wits. "There is another option I could draw out of my hat; I could let my girlfriend handle you." Her smile was not nice or polite. "Or you could come to the really bad idea to challenge me, whatever you like, baby face." Jane knew exactly what she was doing. Playing the CO-Card would be an option but her gut told her that it was not a valid one. This guy had been able to convince Frost and Frankie that he would be a good addition so there had to be something going on. Challenging seemed the best way to find out.
"You really think that you are the biggest hotshot, don't you?" He sneered.
"Hotter than you – every time." Jane shot back, she laughed at him. "As far as I can see it, there are two options. First one – you behave as everyone else or second one – you don't." The smile dropped from her face, Jane stood with her tights leaning at the table.
"There are special reasons you don't like me?" Martinez asked.
"I don't know how you convinced Frankie and Frost that you would be a good addition to this unit but honestly – I have the distinct feeling that you lied to them." Jane shrugged her shoulders. "Whatever. You will behave or you will fight against me – choose well."
Martinez jumped up from his chair. "No one is allowed to address me like this – no one!" He stepped closer to Jane who refused to take a step back. Instead, she leant forward. "Or what are you doing?"
"That!" He started and placed a knife in her stomach. "Nice to have seen you – beautiful!"
The second he stopped his speech, he felt something connect with his head and the world turned black.
The time his world reconnect with the world outside, he found out that they placed him in a room without a window and a very solid door. A foam-mattress was all he got. He had no idea how long he was out or if the brunette survived his attack. His client was paying an insane amount of money to kill her and as far as he was concerned, he was sure that he would be able to get away and spent the money.
After a lot more time than he liked, the door to his holding place opened. What he saw was although not something he liked. In front of him stood a smirking Jane Rizzoli together with an equally smirking Maura Isles.
"Nice try, buddy, but as you can see – not very successful. Why don't you tell me who was paying you to kill me?" Jane leaned at the wall, showing nothing about pain or been uncomfortable.
"I have no idea what you're talking about."
With a snort, Jane turned away to leave and Maura was starting to do the same when Martinez tried to grab her. Maura's only luck was that he slipped a little bit on his way and though she could avoid his first try. A second chance was something he did not get. Jane placed her fist at his throat and he fell, trying to catch a breath. Maura called for a med team and they placed him in surgery but before they were able to do a tracheotomy, he was dead. Jane was very pissed; his dead took their only chance away to find the one responsible.
"Nina! His Mech could be the only chance we ever get to find out who wants me death. Though please, look it up, find out what is possibly hidden in his databases." Jane begged her Chief-Astech.
"Jane, maybe I wasn't clear enough but there isn't anything in his memory-banks. I already looked. The machine was build for house Davion but this was thirty years and something ago, seems it was with a mercenary unit the last ten years. I would say this baby was used as a spare parts delivery boy and after the last run; he was only a walking hull. Barely able to walk i have to say, though I would think it is save to say he was cheap. I think although he was only bought as a disguise." Nina shook her head. "I'm not sure that he was in possession of that baby more than a couple of days when he met Frost and Frankie first time. Sorry Jane."
Jane closed her eyes and tried to calm down, after some time she was able to bring her anger down.