Grand Slam finishes his packing first and decides, after loading it into his truck, to go check on Spitfyre. He goes up to her quarters and discovers her in the hallway, shoving her suitcases to the stairs. She is out of breath and very pale. He silently scoops her into his arms and carries her to the truck, setting her gently down in the passenger seat. Then he goes back and retrieves her suitcases, loading them into the truck and tying them down.
He knew that she had had some help from the eunuch downstairs to get up to her quarters on the third floor, and that she would have an easier time going back down the stairs.
She tries to shove her suitcases towards the stairs, determined to get them to the trailer without help when a shadow falls over her. She looks up to find Grand Slam standing there. She had thought that he looked good in a uniform, but in civilian clothes? "The man is totally hot!" she thought, "And strong, too!" as he silently picked her up and carried her to the truck, "Not to mention gentle. What more could you want in a guy?"
He loads her luggage, goes around and gets in the drivers' seat, looking Spitfyre over, noting her paleness and the fact that she is shaking. "Are you okay?"
"I just need something to drink. Preferably water," she replies. He leans down to the cooler between the seats and comes up with a bottle of water, holding it out to her.
"Thanks." She takes it and pulls the top off, downing half the bottle in one long swallow.
"I usually carry a cooler of iced drinks and water whenever I go anywhere, just in case."
"I do the same thing for the same reasons. I never know what situations I'm going to run into."
"Exactly."
After this, the pair gets pretty silent, for a long while down the road, each are lost in their own thoughts; him watching the road and concentrating on driving, and her watching the scenery passing by and wondering why this man was so friendly towards her and didn't try to get rid of her like everyone else.
They ride along in silence for a while, until Spitfyre breaks it.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure. I may not have an answer, but you can at least ask."
"What's your real name? I only know you by your code name as Grand Slam."
"James Barney, what about yours?"
"Felicitie Tolliver."
"Do you have a middle name, Felicitie?"
"My given name is actually Cadence Felicitie Tolliver. Most people call me Cadence, though."
"Cool. I like it. Do you mind if I call you Cadie?"
She blushes and turns back to the window. "No, I don't mind."
He notices her blush in the dim light and wonders why she is still so shy and aloof with him.
"Maybe it's me. Maybe it's not. Maybe she's had some pain to deal with in the past and she's not quite over it yet. Maybe I can help her get over it," he thinks.
They stop somewhere after midnight, when he can no longer focus his eyes. They start the night in the same room and separate beds, but when he wakes in the wee hours of the morning, she is in his bed with him, teetering on the edge, still sound asleep.
He protectively pulls her into his arms in the middle of the bed and goes back to sleep.
She wakes up in the morning with her head pillowed on his shoulder. She stays still and thinks back over the past night, trying to figure out how that had come about. She feels a slight movement and turns her head to look up at him.
He looks at her and smiles slightly. She smiles back and gets up to go to the bathroom, watching him stretch in the mirror.
"Jeez, I never knew a guy could be that hot! And to wake up to him holding me in his arms like I actually was his wife in more than just name only? He's so hot, I'm burning up!" she thought. She took care of her personal business and then started the shower.
He hears the shower start and immediately starts to imagine what it would be like to have her in his bed, in his shower, in his life forever. He moans in desire, imagining her screaming in ecstasy as he makes love to her, pounding into her as hard as he can.
Suddenly, there is a loud, terrorized scream. It takes him a minute to realize that it wasn't his imagination, but coming from outside the hotel room. As soon as the thought registers, he watches Cadie come out of the bathroom, wearing only her underwear and a towel wrapped around her, headed for the door, armed and ready for battle.
James stares, speechless, in amazement as the attacker decides to leave off the other woman and take on Cadie. The attacker rips the towel off of her, leaving her standing there in her bra and panties. James feels himself getting hard as he watches her very calmly take on the attacker.
"You want a piece of this? Come on, I'm ready to open a can of whoop-ass." Cadie ducks as the assailant swings a knife for her throat, and comes back up, swinging a tremendous right uppercut, hitting him in the middle of the chest, doing serious damage, breaking his sternum and shattering a couple of his ribs.
James rushes out to grab her arm and drag her back inside the room before anyone else could see her. A huge fight erupts.
"What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed, and then where would we have been? And what if someone had seen you? You could have given the mission away already!"
"It's nothing I haven't faced before, and besides, I was disguised. Don't mess with me; I'm not in the mood for it this early in the morning." She turns away from him and goes over to the dresser to repack her overnight bag and get dressed.
He marches over to her and slams his hand onto her shoulder; she turns and slaps his face, leaving a dark red handprint on his cheek. He grabs her arm painfully and swings her around to face him.
"Look at me! You could have gotten killed out there, and where would we be? This mission could already be a failure because of your stupid, juvenile, unthinking actions! Gad! I don't know why Hawk decided to team me up with one of the most juvenile Joes he's could find. He knows how much I hate having to train people on the fly! Not to mention doing something that's not directly related to my primary MOS!" he yells at her, letting go of her wrist, trying hard not to lose his temper.
She violently jerks her arm away from him and trudges slowly to the bathroom, looking back once at him, a single tear sliding down her cheek, and locks the door behind her. She then leans against the door, letting her emotions loose at last, tears streaming down her face. Once again, she had lived up to the moniker of gutter trash that her family had given her.
He stands in the middle of the room and forces himself to calm down. He takes a few deep breaths and then notices a small sobbing sound. He kicks himself as he realizes that it was Cadie that is crying, and that he is the cause; he'd treated her like something less than human. He was no better than her mother, who had been trying all of the young woman's life to kill her or force her to commit suicide.
He slowly walks over to the bathroom and softly knocks on the door.
"What do you want now?" she angrily asks him.
"You. I mean... I want to talk to you."
She opens the door a crack, and peeks out. "Go ahead; tell me it was my fault. Everything else is."
He suddenly realizes why she had reacted the way she did. His blood goes cold as it dawns on him where most, if not all, of her scars had come from. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I didn't know. It's just that ...you scared the hell out of me when you went storming out of here in just your underwear and a towel. You're not up to full strength yet, and I didn't want anything to happen to you. You're far too valuable to me...I mean, to the team."
He pushes the door open farther and slips in, gathering her body close to his, resting his cheek on the top of her head.
She cries even harder as he reveals the level of his fright. He helps her over to the bed and sits down, pulling her onto his lap.
"Cry it out, little one. Let it go. You'll feel better." He holds her and comforts her, rocking her like a small child while she cries out all the pain and fears that she has hidden inside all of her life. They stay like that for about half an hour. He becomes lost in thought for a few minutes, thinking about what might have happened to her in the past and when he comes back to himself, notices that she is no longer crying.
"I think we better get going, or this mission will never get started. What do you think, Mr. Manning?" She asks him with a smile, impudently. She bounces off of his lap and heads for the door.
"I think you're right," he replies, "But aren't you forgetting something?" He looks pointedly at the wheelchair in the corner.
"Oh, yeah. Right." She settles herself into the chair as he gets dressed. She slaps herself on the wrist to get her mind off of the single track it seemed to be on whenever he was near. He goes to the door and opens it to take their overnight bags to the truck. He leaves it open.
He comes back in and, as he leans down to help her put her shoes on, she reaches out and cups his cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispers. He takes her hand and plants a kiss on her palm, as another couple walks by the door.
"You're forgiven, little one. It was my fault anyway. I do love you, Mrs. Manning. And I will forever. Now, are you ready to continue our little trip?" he asks. She nods.
He pushes the wheelchair out of the room and helps her into his truck. They continue the journey until they reach the address that was given to them by Hawk; their new home.
He knew that she had had some help from the eunuch downstairs to get up to her quarters on the third floor, and that she would have an easier time going back down the stairs.
She tries to shove her suitcases towards the stairs, determined to get them to the trailer without help when a shadow falls over her. She looks up to find Grand Slam standing there. She had thought that he looked good in a uniform, but in civilian clothes? "The man is totally hot!" she thought, "And strong, too!" as he silently picked her up and carried her to the truck, "Not to mention gentle. What more could you want in a guy?"
He loads her luggage, goes around and gets in the drivers' seat, looking Spitfyre over, noting her paleness and the fact that she is shaking. "Are you okay?"
"I just need something to drink. Preferably water," she replies. He leans down to the cooler between the seats and comes up with a bottle of water, holding it out to her.
"Thanks." She takes it and pulls the top off, downing half the bottle in one long swallow.
"I usually carry a cooler of iced drinks and water whenever I go anywhere, just in case."
"I do the same thing for the same reasons. I never know what situations I'm going to run into."
"Exactly."
After this, the pair gets pretty silent, for a long while down the road, each are lost in their own thoughts; him watching the road and concentrating on driving, and her watching the scenery passing by and wondering why this man was so friendly towards her and didn't try to get rid of her like everyone else.
They ride along in silence for a while, until Spitfyre breaks it.
"Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure. I may not have an answer, but you can at least ask."
"What's your real name? I only know you by your code name as Grand Slam."
"James Barney, what about yours?"
"Felicitie Tolliver."
"Do you have a middle name, Felicitie?"
"My given name is actually Cadence Felicitie Tolliver. Most people call me Cadence, though."
"Cool. I like it. Do you mind if I call you Cadie?"
She blushes and turns back to the window. "No, I don't mind."
He notices her blush in the dim light and wonders why she is still so shy and aloof with him.
"Maybe it's me. Maybe it's not. Maybe she's had some pain to deal with in the past and she's not quite over it yet. Maybe I can help her get over it," he thinks.
They stop somewhere after midnight, when he can no longer focus his eyes. They start the night in the same room and separate beds, but when he wakes in the wee hours of the morning, she is in his bed with him, teetering on the edge, still sound asleep.
He protectively pulls her into his arms in the middle of the bed and goes back to sleep.
She wakes up in the morning with her head pillowed on his shoulder. She stays still and thinks back over the past night, trying to figure out how that had come about. She feels a slight movement and turns her head to look up at him.
He looks at her and smiles slightly. She smiles back and gets up to go to the bathroom, watching him stretch in the mirror.
"Jeez, I never knew a guy could be that hot! And to wake up to him holding me in his arms like I actually was his wife in more than just name only? He's so hot, I'm burning up!" she thought. She took care of her personal business and then started the shower.
He hears the shower start and immediately starts to imagine what it would be like to have her in his bed, in his shower, in his life forever. He moans in desire, imagining her screaming in ecstasy as he makes love to her, pounding into her as hard as he can.
Suddenly, there is a loud, terrorized scream. It takes him a minute to realize that it wasn't his imagination, but coming from outside the hotel room. As soon as the thought registers, he watches Cadie come out of the bathroom, wearing only her underwear and a towel wrapped around her, headed for the door, armed and ready for battle.
James stares, speechless, in amazement as the attacker decides to leave off the other woman and take on Cadie. The attacker rips the towel off of her, leaving her standing there in her bra and panties. James feels himself getting hard as he watches her very calmly take on the attacker.
"You want a piece of this? Come on, I'm ready to open a can of whoop-ass." Cadie ducks as the assailant swings a knife for her throat, and comes back up, swinging a tremendous right uppercut, hitting him in the middle of the chest, doing serious damage, breaking his sternum and shattering a couple of his ribs.
James rushes out to grab her arm and drag her back inside the room before anyone else could see her. A huge fight erupts.
"What the hell were you thinking? You could have been killed, and then where would we have been? And what if someone had seen you? You could have given the mission away already!"
"It's nothing I haven't faced before, and besides, I was disguised. Don't mess with me; I'm not in the mood for it this early in the morning." She turns away from him and goes over to the dresser to repack her overnight bag and get dressed.
He marches over to her and slams his hand onto her shoulder; she turns and slaps his face, leaving a dark red handprint on his cheek. He grabs her arm painfully and swings her around to face him.
"Look at me! You could have gotten killed out there, and where would we be? This mission could already be a failure because of your stupid, juvenile, unthinking actions! Gad! I don't know why Hawk decided to team me up with one of the most juvenile Joes he's could find. He knows how much I hate having to train people on the fly! Not to mention doing something that's not directly related to my primary MOS!" he yells at her, letting go of her wrist, trying hard not to lose his temper.
She violently jerks her arm away from him and trudges slowly to the bathroom, looking back once at him, a single tear sliding down her cheek, and locks the door behind her. She then leans against the door, letting her emotions loose at last, tears streaming down her face. Once again, she had lived up to the moniker of gutter trash that her family had given her.
He stands in the middle of the room and forces himself to calm down. He takes a few deep breaths and then notices a small sobbing sound. He kicks himself as he realizes that it was Cadie that is crying, and that he is the cause; he'd treated her like something less than human. He was no better than her mother, who had been trying all of the young woman's life to kill her or force her to commit suicide.
He slowly walks over to the bathroom and softly knocks on the door.
"What do you want now?" she angrily asks him.
"You. I mean... I want to talk to you."
She opens the door a crack, and peeks out. "Go ahead; tell me it was my fault. Everything else is."
He suddenly realizes why she had reacted the way she did. His blood goes cold as it dawns on him where most, if not all, of her scars had come from. "I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I didn't know. It's just that ...you scared the hell out of me when you went storming out of here in just your underwear and a towel. You're not up to full strength yet, and I didn't want anything to happen to you. You're far too valuable to me...I mean, to the team."
He pushes the door open farther and slips in, gathering her body close to his, resting his cheek on the top of her head.
She cries even harder as he reveals the level of his fright. He helps her over to the bed and sits down, pulling her onto his lap.
"Cry it out, little one. Let it go. You'll feel better." He holds her and comforts her, rocking her like a small child while she cries out all the pain and fears that she has hidden inside all of her life. They stay like that for about half an hour. He becomes lost in thought for a few minutes, thinking about what might have happened to her in the past and when he comes back to himself, notices that she is no longer crying.
"I think we better get going, or this mission will never get started. What do you think, Mr. Manning?" She asks him with a smile, impudently. She bounces off of his lap and heads for the door.
"I think you're right," he replies, "But aren't you forgetting something?" He looks pointedly at the wheelchair in the corner.
"Oh, yeah. Right." She settles herself into the chair as he gets dressed. She slaps herself on the wrist to get her mind off of the single track it seemed to be on whenever he was near. He goes to the door and opens it to take their overnight bags to the truck. He leaves it open.
He comes back in and, as he leans down to help her put her shoes on, she reaches out and cups his cheek. "I'm sorry," she whispers. He takes her hand and plants a kiss on her palm, as another couple walks by the door.
"You're forgiven, little one. It was my fault anyway. I do love you, Mrs. Manning. And I will forever. Now, are you ready to continue our little trip?" he asks. She nods.
He pushes the wheelchair out of the room and helps her into his truck. They continue the journey until they reach the address that was given to them by Hawk; their new home.