Author's note: Well, as promised, chapter three is out sooner than normal. Not much to say here, just enjoy the story.

What Will It Take?

Chapter 3

Ela and Meghan were sitting next to each other in the corner. They were in the main training building of Hereford Base where the operators would hone their skills before going on missions. They had chosen the armory to defend their "bio-hazard container", it was really just a box with yellow strobe lights taped to the side. Currently, Meghan was looking through the cameras she had placed with her phone.

"Got 'em, first floor, main entrance." She had spotted a few members of the opposing team coming through the doorway on the floor above them. "Buck and Blackbeard, can't see anyone else."

Right now, Ela and Valkyrie were hiding behind the concrete barrier in the corner, Frost was on the other side of the room behind a stack of boxes, overlooking the corridor watching the base of the stairs, Lesion was taking cover behind a set of lockers just outside the armory, and lastly Smoke was hiding in the briefing room across from the objective. For training purposes, they were using paint rounds and all necessary gadgets were adjusted to be non-lethal.

"They're moving down the hall," Meghan reported. "into the side room."

"Just a bit closer…" Frost commented.

*POP*

On the camera feed, they saw Blackbeard step on one of Frost's welcome mats. Buck immediately stopping to help his "wounded" ally.

"Yes!" She exclaimed. She then started running up the stairs.

"Frost, no!" Meghan warned over the radio.

"Don't worry, while he's helping him, I'll pick them both off."

"Damnit get back here, ya bloody Eskimo!" Smoke ordered.

Frost didn't respond, she continued up the stairs. She could hear the two men struggling in one of the adjacent rooms. She began to sneak towards them, but as she passed by a connecting corridor, she didn't notice the three women who had entered the garage. In an instant, Ying had put multiple shots into the Eskimo. By then, Buck had managed to pry Blackbeard out of the trap.

"Damnit Frost."

The two men continued down the stairs, while Ash, Ying and IQ climbed down the ladder into the basement.

"They're coming." Meghan warned.

As they advanced, Blackbeard didn't notice one of Ela's GRZMOT mines, a loud boom resonating in throughout the building. The concussion caused him to stumble around, onto one of Lesions poison darts. While he was distracted and couldn't run, Smoke tossed one of his canisters out the door and set it off. Finally, Blackbeard was considered "dead" and he laid down.

"Fucking traps, I swear!" He exclaimed.

"Shut up wanker, you're supposed to be dead." Smoke yelled to him, inadvertently giving away his position.

Ying immediately threw in one of her candelas, multiple flashes going off at once. The device causing smoke to go blind temporarily.

Seizing the opportunity, Buck rushed in and shot the defender multiple times. Lesion attempted to move in and help his friend but by doing so he moved into the line of fire of IQ, who immediately took him down. Now it was just Valkyrie and Ela against four opponents.

"Great." Meghan said.

Ela had to think fast, this was her element, where she would always excel, simulation or not. She quickly looked around the room, looking for anything she could use to her advantage. Suddenly she noticed something about the layout of the room, there was a considerable gap between the walls and the ceiling. She looked at Valkyrie and gave her a confident smirk.

"Follow my lead." Was all she said. She then got up and started moving toward the door.

"What?! Ela wait!" Meghan called, not knowing what was going on but following her teammate anyway.

Ela took out one of her mines and threw it up in the air, the arc of the throw managing to thread through the gap in the wall and landing on the other side, right at the feet of the four remaining attackers. The four of them barely had enough time to process what was happening before the gadget detonated, concussing all of them.

Ela rushed out the door with Meghan right behind. Ela immediately dropped to the ground while Valkyrie took a knee. The two of them raising their SMG's and unloading both of their magazines into the attackers. Just like that, the round was over.

"Alright, alright," Jager said as he walked in, "good round everyone, head back and resupply before we start the next one."

"Jeez, you didn't have to use all your rounds." Said Eliza.

"It's going to take forever to clean off all this paint." Monika commented

"Don't worry babe, I'll clean you up." Eliza winked.

Monika didn't respond, instead she grabbed Eliza by the ponytail and dragged her out of the building.

"Ow, ow, ow babe I'm not into hair pulling!"

Everyone got up and began exiting the building, heading towards the resupply station, also cleaning off as much paint as they could.

"Hey Ela." Meghan called. "Good work back there."

Ela smiled back. "Just like old times."

Half an hour later, the next round had started. The defenders had chosen the top floor this time, since it had less points of entry. Ela had placed a mine next to each doorway while Valkyrie managed to throw a camera outside. They already knew where the enemy team was coming from.

"Doorway, middle of the stairwell." Valkyrie called out.

"Got it." Ela responded. She had a carved out a little hole in the wall overlooking said doorway, waiting to ambush the unsuspecting attackers.

Suddenly, the wooden barricade began to break, she readied her gun. Finally, it shattered and behind it she saw Capitao and Buck. Immediately she fired a burst at the two attackers, Capitao went down as Buck fell back and returned fire.

Ela decided to retreat back to the room with the bio-container, where Meghan and the rest of the team were held up.

"Good kill there." Meghan complimented.

"Easy." Ela responded.

Just then, the barricade adjacent to the room started to shatter.

"I got this one." Meghan said.

She ran over to the doorway just as the wood broke down. Ash and Sledge were on the other side. Valkyrie began firing at the door, taking out Ash and startling Sledge who began to return fire. While the two were in their little fire fight. Valkyrie didn't notice the window open behind her. Looking into the building was none other than Ying, instead of her usual T-95, she was sporting her SIX12 shotgun, and she was pointing it point blank at Valkyrie's back.

"Meghan lookout!" Ela yelled. Without thinking, she was up and running towards the SEAL. She managed to push her ally out of the way, but in doing so, put herself right in the line of fire from Ying.

She felt two impacts to the side of her torso and immediately hit the ground in pain. These were in fact, simulation rounds and there was going some pain involved, but something was off. The wind was completely knocked out of her, and the usual sting wasn't subsiding, it was growing, so much that Ela began to scream.

"Ela, are you okay?" Valkyrie asked.

"I don't think so." Ela answered, clutching her side.

Ying and Sledge noticed what was happening and stopped what they were doing. Sledge even called for the training to come to a pause, letting the other operators know to stop as well.

For Ela, it hurt to even breath, she was gritting her teeth and shutting her eyes from pain at her side. Something had gone wrong with Ying's paint rounds. At first, she thought that maybe there had been a mix up and had used real shotgun rounds. But she then realized that two real buckshot rounds wouldn't hurt her, she would be dead. She felt around her side and noticed there were no entry wounds, so thankfully she hadn't actually been shot, but she had been hit hard none the less.

"Get up for God's sake!" It was her father's voice.

"Haven't I trained you better?!" She tried to push herself up.

What will it take for you to try harder?!" She fell back down.

"Get up!" She couldn't.

"Ela, let me help you up." It was a different voice.

Ela opened her eyes. She saw Meghan staring back at her, offering a hand. She grabbed on and Meghan slowly helped her get to her feet. She draped one of Ela's arms over her neck and wrapped an arm around Ela's waist, careful not to touch her wound and worsen her pain.

"I'm taking her back to the barracks." Meghan said. "Eliza, can you and Monika take our weapons back to the armory for us?"

"Of course." Eliza responded, grabbing the guns.

"Alright, that's enough for today guys." Jager said, "Let's pack up and head back. Ying, we're going to have to take a look at your weapon after this."

It was only a short walk back to the barracks, but it seemed longer do to the pain, and how slowly they had to walk.

"Unfortunately, Doc isn't here," Meghan told her, "but thankfully I know a thing or two."

They made their way up the stairs and eventually stopped at Meghan's room. She pulled out her key and opened the door. She then walked over to her bed and sat Ela down.

"Let's get this jacket off you." Meghan said, and she helped the Polish girl strip off the camouflaged clothing. Then she helped Ela lay down on the bed.

"Wait here, I'll get some ice." She said as she walked over to her freezer.

As she waited, Ela looked around the room. Meghan's room was simple, without a lot of decoration. She had a laptop on one of her tables, on the counter were a few of her black eye cameras. The only thing that stood out in the room was her Navy dress blues hanging on the wall, adorned with various medals and ribbons, each one representing an event or achievement in the SEAL's carrier. Ela imagined Meghan wearing the military uniform, thinking the blonde women would look fairly attractive in pristine outfit.

"Here." Meghan said, pulling Ela out of her thoughts.

In her hand was a bag of ice wrapped in cloth. She began to lift up Ela's tank top, taking the girl by surprise as her stomach and bra were exposed. Ela looked away as her face began to turn red with embarrassment, no one had ever seen her like this before. Meghan, oblivious to the girl's discomfort placed the icepack on her injury, she winced at first but the cold soon began to help with the pain.

"Hold this here." Meghan instructed, placing Ela's hand on the pack. "You want something to drink?"

Ela nodded, and Meghan began to look through her cabinets. Soon she pulled out a bottle of bourbon and poured some into a glass. She brought the glass to her "patient". Ela took the drink and began to sip the alcoholic beverage. She wasn't a big drinker, but she figured anything to dull the pain in her side would help.

"Let me see." Meghan said and lifted the icepack.

She gently felt around the injury, checking for any abnormalities, making Ela's blush worsen, not used to this much physical contact.

"Well, the good news is, nothing is broken. The bad news is, there's still probably a couple hairline fractures. It's going to heal in a few days, but you shouldn't really move too much until then."

"What about training?" Ela asked.

"Don't even think about it."

Suddenly, Meghan's door opened.

"Hey, you guys in here?! Oh!"

Eliza, Monika, and Siu had walked into the room and were surprised by the scene in front of them. Only then did Ela think to cover her chest, the bullets didn't kill her, but the embarrassment just might.

"Have you ever heard of knocking?" Meghan asked, highly annoyed.

"Damn Meg, reunited only a day and you've already got her in bed." Eliza said jokingly.

Meghan started looking around for something she could throw at the red head, but before she could, Monika stepped in.

"Don't make any more trouble for yourself than you're already in Ms. Cohen." The German said as she pointed her finger her girlfriend's chest and pushing her against the wall. "Don't forget, we still have to discuss the video from yesterday."

For once, Meghan saw fear in her friend's eye's. Even after being shot at and blown up many times in the past, she had never seen Eliza scared. The situation would have been hilarious if it weren't for the fact that this was supposed to be a private moment. "Why are you guys here?"

Siu finally spoke up. "I wanted to make sure Ela was okay and to apologize for what happened. We looked at my SIX12, we found out that the paint rounds I was given were defective, there was too much gun powder inside and they shot with more velocity than intended."

To Ela, the apology seemed unnecessary, there was no way she could have known about the defective rounds.

"You don't have to apologize, I know you meant no harm." Ela assured her.

"So, we're good?" Siu asked.

"Yes, we're good."

The Chinese woman looked relieved.

Meghan was glad that issue was resolved, but could sense Ela's growing discomfort. "Okay, now that that's settled, she needs rest." She said as she ushered the three women out.

"Get well soon Bosak, I want a rematch." Eliza said as the door was shut.

Meghan sighed, anything involving Eliza felt like running a marathon.

"Sorry about her." She said.

"Your friends are…interesting." Ela commented.

"Well that's pretty much everyone here in Rainbow, you don't exactly make it onto a team like this by being normal." Meghan decided to pour a glass for herself.

Ela thought about the statement, and she had to agree. This wasn't a normal job for normal people, even she knew that she was far from the epitome of normality.

"You can put your shirt down now, by the way."

Ela looked down at her half naked body and immediately pulled her tank top back down, she couldn't remember the last time she had blushed this much. Meghan laughed, and at first Ela wanted to snap but remembered that the SEAL was the only one helping her out during this whole situation.

"Thanks for the help." She said quietly.

"I should be thanking you really." Ela looked at her, confused. "You pushed me out of the way."

Meghan gave the injured girl a thankful smile, this made the green haired girl blush even more.

"You should get some rest, lets get you back to your room." She put her drink down and help Ela to her feet.

The pain had subsided enough for Ela no longer needing to lean on Meghan, but the blonde still wanted to be there for her just in case. They made there way down the hall to Ela's room.

"Well, this was some second day huh?" Meghan said.

"Could have a lot better." Ela responded.

They made their way into Ela's room and Ela laid down on her bed.

"I'll go to the medical station and get you some actual pain medication. For now, keep using the ice pack, I'll bring you another one and some food later."

"You don't have to do that?"

"I'm supposed to look after you, and I've already let you get hurt."

Ela took a moment to process that statement. Did Meghan really think her injury was her fault? Before she had a chance to ask, Meghan got up to leave.

"Get some rest okay. If you need anything just give me a call."

"Thank you"

Meghan was filling out some paperwork, yet again, reporting on the injury of the newest operator. Injuries weren't uncommon, due to the practices of the organization, but was still something that had to be reported to Six regardless of severity and circumstances of the injury. Meghan would report this to her boss in the morning.

"Hey Meg, you here?" Came Eliza's voice.

Meghan really needed to start locking her door. "Yeah, I'm here."

"Where's Ela?"

"I took her back to her room."

Eliza sat down on Meghan's bed. "You filling out the report?"

"Yes. I'm sending it to Six tomorrow." Meghan said as she finished the last piece of the report. "So, I see Monika hasn't killed you."

"I told you, she doesn't mind."

"That's not what the expression on her face said earlier."

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting any for at least a week, but I'm still her favorite FBI agent."

Meghan gave Monika a lot of credit, it took a lot of patience to handle being Eliza's friend, she couldn't imagine what it took to be her girlfriend.

"Speaking of getting any, you get to see anything else after we left."

"No! In fact, she was uncomfortable, so I had her put her shirt back on."

"So, you got even less, that's rough. When was the last time you even got laid?"

Meghan, was losing her patience. "That's none of your business, and it's not rough because that was never my intension in the first place."

"Well, I'm just saying, if you don't, someone else will. I'm not sure if you noticed how some of the guys have been looking at her, especially with those pants she has on."

Meghan slammed her fist on the table. "Eliza, shut up!" She took a breath, "For God's sake its only her second day…and I let her get hurt."

Eliza, slightly startled by the outburst, looked at the blonde confused. "What do you mean you let her get hurt?"

"I've never been that reckless, training or not, I've always been carful and precise, taking no unnecessary risk. I should have never just run out in the open like that. I don't know what got into me, and now she's hurt because I made a mistake."

"Meghan, this isn't your fault. It isn't anyone's fault, accidents happen. Someone was going to get shot with those defective rounds eventually."

"Yeah, and that person should have been me, I was the one acting foolish."

Eliza walked up to her friend and grabbed her by the shoulders, Meghan looked like she was trying not to cry. "Don't blame yourself."

"If this had been real, she would be dead."

"But she's not."

"I should have been better than that, I know better than that."

"You were off your game, it happens to all of us."

"Not to me."

"Stop." Eliza couldn't take seeing Meghan beat herself up. "Listen to me, this isn't your fault."

Meghan was seen by many as one of the best leaders Rainbow had, people put a lot of trust and faith in her, and with that came a lot of pressure. She wasn't supposed to mess up, she wasn't supposed to make mistakes, she wasn't supposed to lose anyone. Occasionally that pressure was too much to take.

"You're only human, you can't be a perfect leader all the time, but we all still respect you and love you the same."

Meghan wrapped her arms around the redhead, she realized that she was trembling. Eliza returned the embrace, despite how much of a hard time the woman gave her, Eliza was Meghan's best friend, and the only person she could trust with such a personal moment like this. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it."

"Maybe Monika is on to something."

"I told you, favorite FBI agent." Eliza said, with pride. "It's been a long day, we should get some rest. I think they want us to try again tomorrow."

"I will in a bit," Meghan responded, "first, I need to take some things to Ela."

"Okay, don't stay up too late." Eliza said as she left.

Meghan yawned, it had been a stressful day. She gathered a few things that she would take to Ela, as she was about to leave she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. They had left Ela's jacket behind, she figured now would be a good time to return it to her. As she picked it up, something fell out of one of the pockets. She picked that up as well and examined it, it was an old piece of cloth, clearly from a piece of clothing. She flipped it over and was taken aback by what she saw, the name Bosak stitched into the fabric. The piece was too old to be Ela's, so Meghan figured it must have belonged to a relative of hers. Maybe she would ask when she brought it back to Ela's room.

She made her way to the newest operator's room, she had with her some food, an extra ice pack, actual pain medication, and Ela's jacket. She knocked on the door and got no response, she knocked again, no response. She checked the handle and found the door unlocked, she knew she shouldn't, but she peeked in. She heard the shower going, so at least she was still here. Meghan walked in and began to set everything she brought on the counter and put the ice pack in the freezer. The shower stopped running and after a few moments, she heard the door open.

"Hey Ela, I-" She turned around and was immediately lost for words. In front of her was Ela, completely naked. Her hair was still wet, her skin was pale except for the bruising on her side, her body damp and barren of any body hair. Her muscles were not as toned as her own but still pronounced, and she noticed that those pants she wore, in fact, left a lot to the imagination. Meghan finally processed that she was staring and immediately turned around as Ela dashed back into the bathroom.

"I'm so sorry!" Meghan said.

"I didn't hear you come in." Ela responded, she stepped back out wrapped in a towel, she stepped into the closet.

"I shouldn't have just walked in, I'm so sorry." Meghan apologized again.

After a few moments, Ela stepped back out, now fully dressed, along with a blush on her face once again. She gave Meghan a serious look. "Eliza will never find out about this."

"Absolutely." In her mind, Meghan could already hear the redhead laughing hysterically.

"Why are you here?"

"I came to drop off some things," She gestured to the various items on the counter. "and you left your jacket in my room."

Ela noticed the gifts Meghan brought. "Thanks, I guess."

The awkwardness was growing, as usual, so Meghan decided to change the subject. "What's this from?" She asked as she held up the piece of cloth.

Ela's eyes went wide, and she immediately snatched the cloth out of Meghan's hand.

"It…belonged to someone important to me."

"Who?"

Ela said nothing

"Ela, you know you can trust me right, you can tell me anything."

"No…I don't know that."

"Ela."

"Please...just stop."

Meghan put a hand on her shoulder. "Okay."

"Thank you."

As much as she wanted to open up, she just couldn't, it simply wasn't in her nature. She clutched the piece of fabric close and looked away from the blonde in shame. Since reuniting, Meghan had shown her nothing but kindness and care, she even considered her a friend, and yet she continued to push her away like a coward.

"Look at you." Her father's voice had returned

"Your second day, and you're already broken." She closed her eyes.

"Relying on someone else to help you, as always." She shook her head.

"What will it take for you to get stronger?"

"What will it take for you to get it right?"

"Ela?" She snapped out of her reverie and looked at Meghan. "What's going on?"

"Nothing."

"You're crying again."

Ela realized her face was wet with tears, yet again. Still, she said nothing, there was nothing she could say.

"Here." Meghan handed her a tissue, which she accepted and used it to clean her face. Meghan grabbed Ela by the hand, neither one said a word, Meghan simply made sure that Ela understood that she was there if she needed her, which the girl silently appreciated.

After ten minutes, Ela had seemed to recover and by now the pain from the injury had returned and she started clutching her side. Meghan noticed and grabbed the medication.

"Take this." She handed her two pills, which Ela swallowed. "I brought you some food as well if you're hungry and there's another ice pack in the freezer."

"Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Meghan got up to leave. "Get some rest, I'll be busy for most of tomorrow, but I'll be sure to check up on you. Again, I'm sorry about letting myself in."

Ela nodded and said goodbye to her friend.

"And Ela, call me if you need anything, okay?" With that, Meghan left.

She was left alone to her own thoughts and tried to process what happened. Her old ally from ten years ago had, in less than forty-eight hours, introduced her to her new home, cared for her after getting hurt, seen her naked, and consoled her from pain she didn't even understand. Meghan was a good person, one that was way beyond what Ela deserved to have in her life. Ela wanted to find a way to show her appreciation, but with her being a recluse, it wouldn't be easy, she wasn't even used to having a friend who cared for her. She decided to go to lay down, maybe she would figure something out after a night's sleep.

Author's note: I really enjoyed writing this one (not that I don't enjoy writing all of them). So I know some of the combat didn't quite match i.e. that grzmot toss, but I did it because it sounded epic. Also, in this story, operator vs operator, aka pvp, is training only and the white masks aka terrorist hunt is real combat. As always, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and feel free to leave a review. Until next time.