"You're cheating!"

"No, you're just really bad at math. You guys say I'm an idiot, but even I can add up to 21."

Sniper snorted into his morning coffee, listening in to the little argument going on at the table behind him; tiring of poker Shiloh had switched them to blackjack, and from the sounds of things Soldier wasn't having the greatest time at it.

"I can count to 21 just fine, I just do not see an optimal plan to hit it."

Sniper could hear the sounds of shuffling as Soldier lapsed into grumbling under his breath with Scout laughing at him; as Shiloh began to deal out another round Sniper turned his chair around to observe, his legs sliding under Shiloh's chair as he stretched them out in front of him, crossing them at the ankles as she shifted and tucked her feet under her, her toes banging into the soles of his feet. She turned to briefly give him a look before turning back around to the game.

This early in the morning they were the only four up and moving around, and after a light breakfast Soldier had busted out the deck of cards again. Sniper had opted out of playing, leaving the other three to engage in a fairly lop-sided poker game where Shiloh swept the floor with both of them, after which she'd suggested maybe they'd have better luck at something else. So far it seemed Scout was pretty good at blackjack, and Soldier...not so much.

"Here's a beginner's tip - always assume the dealer has a face card or an ace facedown, and if you've got a sixteen or better between the cards you start out with stay with it unless my imaginary face card and my face up card total more than that."

Soldier grunted at that and Sniper hid a grin behind the rim of his coffee cup; he assumed that once everyone was awake it'd be back to preparing and planning for their assault on the dam and its "master" and, according to what Engineer had mentioned last night before collapsing into bed, there were a few new things he wanted to show off.

Instead of Engineer however the next person to enter the room was Miss Pauling, who looked exactly the same as she had the night previous and made Sniper wonder if the woman actually ever slept.

"Good, here you both are. Soldier, Shiloh, I could use the two of you for a moment. Sniper, if you could look over what Demo's come up with that would be helpful - you always being at the far back gives you an advantage to remembering where doors and windows are, may as well help with the planning while we wait on Spy."

Sniper nodded at that as Shiloh collected all the cards and slid them back into their cardboard box. "Consider it done, just as soon as he drags himself out of his bunk."

"He was stirring when I poked my head in a moment ago. Anyway, Soldier, Shiloh - let's get going."

"What do you need me for, exactly?" Shiloh asked as she stood, giving the woman a wary look.

Pauling simply smiled at her and pushed her glasses up further on her nose. "You'll see, but I think you'll be agreeable. Come on, you two."

Sniper and Scout watched the three of them leave, Scout eventually turning to look over at Sniper. "What do you think that's about?"

"Couldn't tell you. Kind of suspicious though if you ask me."

"Yeah, yeah... I mean, wanting Soldier for something? Sure. Wanting Shiloh? Why? She's not one of us."

Sniper chugged the rest of his coffee before replying. "Shiloh did say yesterday that Pauling was taking her when she left...not sure why she'd need both her and Soldier." As he stood he looked toward the door they'd disappeared through. "Kind of suspicious though."

Scout drummed his fingers on the table, lips scrunching up as he stared at the door as well. "...maybe I'll go have a look."

"Since you're the only one who didn't get marching orders."

"Yeah I noticed that, guess I'm free until Engineer drags me back in for more manual labor."

"Go have a look then, you'll know where to find me."

With a scrape of his chair Scout was up and gone, jogging after the others. Sniper stood and paused long enough to shoot the door another glance; it was odd that Pauling would want Shiloh going anywhere - this WAS the woman who tried locking her into a room and pulled a gun on her previously - and, where was there to even go on base? Because if she had Soldier with them too then she clearly wasn't leaving...odd, odd, odd.

His thoughts were interrupted by Demoman stumbling through the door looking half awake and grouchier than usual.

"Hey mate, coffee's on and let's get a look at those maps you worked up last night."

Whatever Pauling had them doing Soldier and Shiloh didn't make a reappearance until early evening, both of them sweaty and looking bruised but generally in good spirits. Scout wasn't with them but then Sniper hadn't seen him all day either...or anyone besides Demoman for that matter, as the two of them had spent the entire morning and afternoon going over Demoman's maps and notes on the dam.

Soldier and Shiloh dropped into chairs across the small table, Soldier giving Shiloh a grin and a nudge with his elbow before looking over the plans. "How does the battle look to be shaping up?"

"I think between the two of us we've got it down correct," Demoman answered, rubbing his eye - he still looked as tired as he had earlier - and beginning to set things out in a more organized fashion. "Sniper's got a keen eye for window detail, and I remember those hallways like the back of my hand."

Sniper tapped his fingers on a few of the hand-drawn layouts. "We were just discussing whether we wanted to kick the front door in or try being a bit more sneaky about it - the way I see it I think the front door looks to be the better option. Who expects a team to bang the door down and stomp in?"

Soldier's grinned took on a slightly nastier look. "I approve of any plans that require kicking the front door in." He flashed his grin at Shiloh who only silently raised an eyebrow at him with a warning look.

Sniper looked between the two of them. "And what were you two up to all day?"

"That is classified."

"Come off it, Soldier - what were you doing?" Sniper fixed the other man with a frown before looking directly at Shiloh. "What'd she have you doing?"

Shiloh shrugged. "Well, she did actually ask us not to discuss it, but part of it was boxing."

"...boxing?" At his incredulous look she simply nodded. "You're serious?" Again another nod, and a grin from Soldier; Sniper stared between the two of them, mouth slightly agape.

Shiloh lifted her hands up to rest them on the table; her knuckles were red and a little raw looking with the barest hint of bruises forming. "Boxing, knuckle dusting, whatever you want to call it, we went a few rounds."

"But...why?"

"Classified," Soldier said, chuckling and crossing his arms. "You'll find out when Spy gets back."

"What's so damn important about a boxing match that you can't tell anyone about?" Demoman asked, tone dry. "I really don't see a bloody connection between a boxing match and our Spy."

Shiloh smiled sweetly at him. "I decked him in the jaw on accident once, does that work?"

Demoman blew out a sputtering laugh, shaking his head. "Ah, wish I'd been there to see that little scene play out, lass! Did he just appear out of nowhere in front of you like a bloody ghost?"

"Yeah, and - I was holding my gun when he did it so maybe he's lucky I didn't shoot. He did get socked in the jaw with the hand that was holding it though."

"Can't tell you how many times we've almost shot or burned him ourselves - he's welcome to go invisible all he likes, but the man's in need of some common sense sometimes."

Soldier snorted, making a fist and lightly bumping it against the tabletop. "I did accidentally blow him up back at the sawmill."

"Yeah, I remember that," Shiloh replied quietly. "I'm amazed he wasn't hurt worse than he was."

"There you all are."

They looked up in unison as the door at the end of the room creaked open and Engineer stuck his head into the room, a cheeky grin plastered across his face. He gestured with his gloved hand before disappearing back through the door with a "you're missing all the fun, come on."

"Well, was wondering how long before he started showing off," Sniper said into the silence that followed. "Let's go see what he's got."

"Bound to be better than staring at bloody maps," Demoman muttered as he stood, stretching.

They made it out of the room and halfway down the hallway beyond it before Sniper grabbed Shiloh by the elbow and tugged her to a stop next to the wall; he held a finger to his lips, shaking his head at her and remaining silent as Soldier and Demoman rounded a corner and their footsteps steadily faded.

"...all right, what now?" she finally asked, looking between his hand on her arm and his face.

"What did Pauling want?"

She sighed. "This again?"

"You really expect me to believe she took you and Soldier off for a boxing match?"

"I already said that was part of it." With a snort Shiloh lifted her free hand - the one attached to the arm Sniper wasn't currently gripping - and waggled raw knuckles at him. "And I wasn't lying about that."

"Then what else?"

She pointedly looked down at his hand still on her arm, then shook that arm gently before looking back up to him. "We talked some, I've got a better understanding of her and of what's going to happen. You going to let go of me any time soon?"

He released her arm, but slammed a hand against the wall beside her to block her path with his arm as she went to step around him, Shiloh coming close to burying her nose in the crook of his elbow. She flinched back with her fists clenching, fixing him with a sort of exasperated look.

"Unless you plan to pin me to the wall and ravage me, you'd better move that arm," she sighed.

"I - what?" he sputtered, yanking his hand back like she'd burned him. "What are you even going on about? THAT is the first thing out of your mouth?"

"Well it got your attention."

"Damn right it did! You think I'd hurt you?"

"I didn't say hurt, I said ravage - I'm told some people might enjoy that," she grumbled, crossing her arms as she leaned against the wall behind her. "What is your problem anyway?"

"What is my prob-? I've already said what my problem is! I haven't trusted Pauling around you since she pulled that gun on you, and now I want to know what she's got planned!"

Shiloh stared evenly up into his glaring face. "You don't need to worry about me. Not right now, anyway."

"Don't tell me that, tell me what she wanted."

"You aren't going to like it, you're going to throw a fit - hell, you ARE throwing a fit and I haven't even told you anything yet."

"WHAT aren't I going to like?"

She went silent for a long moment, staring up at him, expression impossible for him to read; as she opened her mouth to reply they both jumped when Demoman leaned out around the corner.

"Ey, you two coming?"

"Be there in a moment, I'm trying to talk my way back into my own pants," Shiloh quipped before Sniper could think of a reply. She tugged on the waistband of her baggy borrowed pants with a snort. "These are just loose enough to be uncomfortable, though I do appreciate you lending them," she added, looking back up to Sniper.

"Uh, right...yeah, we can go grab those," he said after a pause. Demoman shrugged and disappeared back around the corner and once his footsteps were once again not audible Sniper blew out a sigh. "Nice cover."

"Daddy didn't raise no fool. Let's...head somewhere private if you're really that dead set on weaseling this out of me."

Sniper huffed out a sigh that was part annoyance, part resignation, then turned and headed down the hall without a word; he bypassed the mess hall doorway and kept walking, leading the way through the maze-like corridors until they were both stepping outside into the evening air. Shiloh remained silent and stubbornly behind him, stopping if he stopped to remain at his back, as they headed over to where Sniper had left his camper, finally speaking up as he unlocked the back.

"Why are you so determined to hear what went on?"

Sniper inhaled loudly, tilting his head back until he was staring at the sky. "Look - I got you into this mess, I'm going to see you through it. You are my responsibility so far as I'm concerned, and Pauling's pulled a gun on you once - I don't want to bust my backside keeping you safe only to have her pop you in the head when I'm not looking. If she's got something planned, I want to hear it - I don't trust her."

He stepped aside to let her into the back, then turned to seat himself on the bumper squarely in the middle of the now-open camper door.

"Well, you're about to have your evening ruined, then."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Behind him he could hear the muffled sounds of cloth being moved about and under him he could feel the gentle movements of the camper shifting as Shiloh moved around inside it.

There was a heavy sigh and then he twitched a bit as there was a sudden weight and pressure against his back; Shiloh had sat down and put her back against his as she pulled socks and boots back on. "Uh, well - she wants me to go with her, right?"

"Right."

"Yeah. Thing is, she um." There was a pause, then the weight against Sniper's back shifted and moved away as she stood. "She's waiting for Spy to come back, but Pauling plans to go with you guys - you're going to assault directly, Pauling wants to sneak in and set Blu free. And I'm going with her...she had Soldier testing my 'combat abilities' as she put it. She thinks I can handle mys-"

"-she's insane. She's nuts. You can't possibly be thinking-"

"Now hang on a moment," Shiloh interrupted. "She had a fairly good point."

Sniper twisted around, banging his knee against the camper's doorframe. "Nothing of what you just said can be considered good. Has she forgotten this entire time we've been trying to keep this man from killing you? And she wants to march you through his damned front door?!"

Shiloh held up both hands in a concilatory gesture. "Just, hang on before you start getting all indignant. This is going to depend on what Spy finds - if it seems pretty damn impossible to sneak in, she's taking me to some sort of safehouse she said she uses when she's traveling around doing errands for your Administrator. If it seems doable though, she seems to think taking me with her might be the best option: if you were trying to find me where's the last place you'd think to look for me?"

"That is goddamn childish logic, 'last place you'd look' - what is she even thinking? You can't do this, you can't go. I'm not about to let you."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "You're not going to 'let' me? I appreciate everything you've done for me, Mundy, but you don't get to make that decision - actually, as I recall, you didn't argue too much about me being with you guys in that first gunfight back at that other base."

"And look at what happened! They nabbed you right out from under us! If that Spy hadn't set you loose-"

"-at least being grabbed where I was actually seen clued you guys in that I'd been taken. Those robots tunneled in, half the damn things can apparently turn invisible, and if I'd been stuffed in a room for them to find while you guys were distracted by the ones busting the gate down, how long do you think it would have taken you guys to realize I was gone?"

Sniper opened his mouth, closed it, ground his teeth together, then exhaled sharply. "I don't like it. It's not a good idea."

Shoulders slumping she dropped back into the camper's floor to sit facing him, legs crossed underneath her. "No, it's not...but when you're weighing a bad idea against other equally bad ideas, comparatively it doesn't seem so terrible."

"What other bad ideas? I've only heard the one."

"Well... If Pauling and I go running for a safehouse - which, I'm under the assumption is somewhere no one but she and your Administrator know about - and we get intercepted? I mean, that robot back at Dulcimer just appeared out of nowhere...what would the two of us do if we get jumped? Miss Pauling doesn't strike me as having a skill set aimed at battling killer robots, and I just kind of...flail at them and hope for the best." She rested her hands on her knees, gently rocking back and forth where she sat. "You've taught me how to shoot a rifle, Spy's shown me a few things with a revolver, and Soldier gave me some training with his shotgun today after I went a few rounds with him so Pauling could see what kind of melee 'skills' I had...but, compared to you guys? I'm nothing. I'm terrible."

"You're not terrible," he growled, jabbing a finger in the air at her. "This is like comparing apples to oranges, sheila. You just need teaching, God knows you've got the bloody guts for this sort of thing - brawling in the damn street with a hammer against a killing machine..."

She snorted and rolled her eyes, but smiled weakly at him after a breath. "I've had teaching, Mundy. I can throw punches, sort of shoot a few kinds of guns, but I'm not you - I'm not a mercenary. Yeah, it's probably a really bad idea for me to go sneaking in with Pauling, but...they won't be looking for me inside their own base. HE won't be expecting me to be there, or at least he shouldn't be. It feels like the least-bad idea out of the rest of the bad ideas we've got."

"I do not care for the thought of you being out of my sight."

She stared down into her lap silently, picking at the roughed up skin of her knuckles. After an uncomfortable silence she sighed and looked back up at him. "We should head back inside before someone comes looking again and starts getting ideas about other things we could have been up to, off by ourselves."

He got up and out of the doorway and she stepped out, still in his shirt with her shirt folded in half and thrown over a shoulder; Sniper stuck his head into the camper briefly to see the pair of pants he'd lent were folded up neatly and sitting atop one of the cabinets. With a whoosh of a sigh through his nose he closed and locked the camper again, then jogged the few steps to bring him back even with Shiloh as they walked back toward the door.

They walked in silence until Sniper paused at the door leading in. "Why was 'ravaging' the first thing you spouted?"

"I'm a woman who regularly travels alone...there's certain types of men in this world who would take advantage of that, but, like I said - daddy didn't raise no fool."

She stepped around him and pushed the door open, moving inside; she was several steps down the hallway before Sniper shook his head and stepped in behind her. "I would never."

"I know, if I thought you would have you'd be laying on the floor sucking on your own teeth," came the response, along with a brief smirk thrown over her shoulder at him. "Though, you being the gentleman you claim to be, I imagine you'd ask first."

Sniper pressed his lips together as she faced front again and kept walking, plodding along in her wake and deciding the best course of action was not to even dignify that with a response.