A/N: Alright... the action should start here... at some point. I've got a lot of great ideas now, and I just know this is gonna turn into a super- long epic novel. By the way, I forgot to put up a disclaimer, although I think it's virtually pointless. But, here it is... I don't own anything in this story. It all belongs to Square. sob

Special thanks to DBH once again... I appreciate your apparent devotion to reading each chapter. It makes me happy. :)

Also, to TrinForever.... thanks for the comment! I'm on a roll here... don't worry, I can't stop writing it!

Chapter 4 - The Field Exam

"We've got a bit of a problem," Xu said, closing her cell phone as Squall walked into the parking lot.

Squall stopped and looked around. "Where's... the van?"

"Exactly," she hissed, tapping her foot. "The headmaster, whom I just spoke with, has realized that he booked the van for a junior cadet field trip to Dollet today."

Squall sighed, cursing silently to himself. "Alright, so we take two smaller vehicles. Who's the field medic in this Squad?"

The blonde girl stepped forward. "I am, Commander."

Squall sucked in a breath, trying not be obvious in his discomfort with this. "Ok, you ride with me, as I assume Xu will be needing to fill in the regular candidates with any last minute details. I will gladly brief you and fill you in, with whatever you need, in my car."

He tried not to grimace as he realized just how laced with innuendo that last sentence was.

Xu nodded, oblivious to the flustered look on Squall's face, and escorted the other cadets to her small sedan nearby.

Squall pointed out his Jeep to the grinning blonde as he began to walk briskly toward the black Jeep's driver's side. She jogged to catch up and eased into the passenger seat.

They rode in silence for five minutes before Squall broke the silence by clearing his throat... a nervous habit he seemed to have developed lately.

"Well, I suppose I should ask if you have any questions on-" he cut himself off. "What's your name, anyway?"

"Evelyn L. Samuel, sir," she replied, smoothly. "However, I prefer Eve. And no, I don't have any questions on my mission or duties. Xu and Doctor Kadowaki were quite thorough."

"Oh... good."

"Sir, may I speak freely for a moment?"

He glanced at her, shifting the Jeep into overdrive hard as they entered a highway. "You may."

"I want to apologize for yesterday," she said. "I realize that you had just broken up with your long-time girlfriend, and I feel just wretched about coming on so strongly. I had not even been aware that she was standing there, and even so, I should not have behaved that way, anyway.
"Although I'm aware that it is a terrible excuse, I was under the influence of a fair amount of alcohol. For this behavior, I am truly sorry. I hope that this doesn't make things awkward between us, seeing as how we will probably have to work with each other frequently in the near future. Please accept my apology."

Squall was perplexed for a moment. He wasn't expecting this, and for several reasons.

First, he hadn't thought she'd actually apologize for the previous evening, as she'd been so bold and uninhibited about it. But then, she had said that she'd been drinking.

Second, it usually bothered him when people he didn't know spoke about his personal life, especially his relationship with Rinoa. However, he wasn't as disturbed by this as he usually was, surprisingly enough.

Third, he was taken by surprise at the confident, smooth, and articulate way in which she spoke. He hadn't noticed it before, as she hadn't said more than a few words each time she spoke to him before. She had a silky and confident voice, though not quite as deep and rich as Rinoa's. It was melodious, regardless.

He loved voices like that. He found them soothing.

He suddenly realized he hadn't said anything for several moments. He glanced at her, clearing his throat once again. She was waiting patiently for an answer, her eyes settled on him, unwavering.

"Accepted," he finally mustered, not sure if he felt eminently unsettled by her, or incredibly comfortable. It certainly was a strange disposition.

Eve let out a breath and smiled warmly. "Thank you."

Squall nodded lightly, his eyes darting to her once again, clutching the stickshift tightly.

A strange disposition, indeed.

The mission in the field exam was a relatively easy one. There had been trouble around the outskirts of Deling City, near the Tomb of the Unknown King. Apparently, a group of soldiers had set up camp nearby, blocking off all entry to the Tomb, and were digging inside.

According to one of General Caraway's personal guards from Deling, he was able to get far enough up to the Tomb to see that they had torn up the ground and there were large chunks torn out of the walls, before running back before he was spotted by the anonymous soldiers. He reported there to be about one hundred of them.

The request for SeeD's assistance had come from a tiny village nearby, after Caraway had said he couldn't help them anymore than he had. He had sent a team of his soldiers there, but they had disappeared almost as soon as they had arrived. The general had not been feeling very generous with his men after that.

Obviously, the SeeDs' job was to diffuse the problem, preventing further damage to the Tomb, and to eliminate the threat by dispatching of these soldiers, if necessary. Six different squads from Garden had been sent, consisting of 6-7 people each, including instructors and SeeDs.

Squall and Xu's squad, Squad A, arrived precisely on schedule, the other Squads having been brought in earlier to observe the threat before infiltrating. Squall's team was to be the first wave of offense.

"Everyone," Xu began, speaking to the squad as they approached the other waiting teams, "you will take your positions in four minutes. You have been briefed about your purposes as a group, and as individuals. We can offer you no more advice, other than be careful and good luck."

The cadets nodded, some shifting nervously. They waited for their signal to run and take their assigned positions.

Squall stood slightly behind the group, observing every detail he could about the surroundings, as well as his students and fellow SeeDs. The entire group of students and instructors were hidden behind a large boulder, and Squall stood close to the edge, taking discreet peeks at the soldiers' camp in the distance, about 500 yards away.

He glanced at his watch, watching the last few seconds before the infiltration tick by.

"Go," he commanded firmly as the second hand approached the assigned time.

The first squad ran in, stealthily, with the exception of the only field medic in the exam. Eve stayed low, watching the squad intently from her assigned position for when she might be needed. She advanced further toward the camp every minute or so, taking cover behind trees and large rocks in the area, her blue eyes never leaving the scene before her.

Squall watched her, closely. She was very stealthy and graceful. She moved easily and almost soundlessly from place to place, never stumbling, her eyes glued to the advancing squad in front of her.

Once the first squad was in position, the rest were dispatched, running in to begin attack.

The battle ensued.

Within minutes, half of the anonymous soldiers were down, with only a few of the cadets injured. Squall advanced quickly with the other SeeDs and instructors following. He watched all of the action happening, seeing every movement made, waiting for when he might be needed.

He saw Eve tending quickly to a wounded cadet, her precision and speed in wrapping the boy's hurt leg unmatched by any field medic he'd ever seen.

She's good he thought, surprised.

He glanced away to the other events, then returned his eyes to Eve, seeing a black-clad soldier approaching her quietly from behind. He was about to run forward to help her when he saw her quickly spin around from her low postion, delivering a swift and tremendous kick to his knees in the process. The soldier was caught off guard and crumpled to the ground.

As the soldier appeared to be reaching for a weapon on his belt, Eve smoothly wrapped her arms around his neck, taking him in a virtually unbreakable bar choke. The man passed out within seconds. Squall watched in amazement, having never seen a student with such efficiency in hand to hand combat.

She's DAMN good.

Eve turned back to the student she had been tending and quickly finished her task of treating the boy, wondering if anyone saw that brief brawl. Of course they did. It's an exam and I'm the only medic student here She groaned and stood, running for the next wounded cadet.

The battle was over in no time, leaving only a few of their cadets injured. Eve had been quick to heal and treat everyone from broken bones, to deep gashes, to simple scratches. Needless to say, all of the instructors were beyond impressed by her performance and composure on the field.

The ride back in Squall's Jeep was silent. He had no idea what to say to the obviously talented woman beside him. It was almost... weird. He had never seen anything like it before and he wasn't sure how to react. Who the hell taught this girl? He sighed, desperately wishing for the comfort that Rinoa had always brought him when she was around. She was good at this kind of stuff.

He finally thought of something to say.

"You did a, uh... real good job out there," he stammered.

Clever, dickweed he thought to himself, cringing.

"Thank you," she replied softly, sweeping a hand through her cropped blonde hair.

"I, uh... saw that bar choke you did on that soldier," he continued. "Where did you learn that? I've been trying to teach Rin that for like three months."

"Well, I just had a really great instructor back at my old garden. She was known for her precision, especially in chokes. Anyone could learn from her, really."

"Are you saying I'm a bad teacher?"

"No! Not at all! I've seen you teach, you are very good," she quickly said, only to realize by the smirk on his lips that he was joking.

She chuckled at herself, then resumed her earlier occupation of looking out the window.

He glanced at her quickly, then swallowed hard, not knowing what else to say, and wishing Rinoa were there to diffuse the tension. He let out a breath, not wanting to think about her and the events of the party. He could only imagine what she was thinking of him right now, praying his thoughts were wrong.

Rinoa grunted loudly, frustrated.

"What's wrong, hun?" Quistis asked looking up from the desk in her dorm, startled by the sudden noise from her best friend.

"My stomach still hurts, my throat is burning, my mouth is dry," Rinoa whined, flopping backwards onto Quistis' bed. "Not to mention the fact that I still couldn't get that damn bar choke in self-defense class that I've been trying to learn for like eighty-four years again today. And to top it all off, Squall's on a field mission right now, and I'm worried about him."

"Well, I can't help much with the effects of the hangover, other than give you some water, and I know very little about bar chokes, but I can assure you that Squall is fine. He's a big boy."

"I know, I know. I just would hate it if anything happened to him... But I'm being silly. Anyway, have you heard from Seifer lately?"

"Yeah," Quistis sighed. "He called this morning before breakfast. He's still in the middle of his mission. He says he's getting frustrated because all of the leads he's gotten are not going anywhere, and he's thinking of coming home early. I wish I could help him, but the mission is top-secret. I don't even know what the hell he's looking for."

"I'm sure something'll turn up. He's good at this detective shit."

"Yeah."

Rinoa was silent for a moment, her thoughts returning to the party last night.

"Hey, Quis?"

"Yeah?"

"Who was that girl Squall was dancing with?"

Quistis chuckled, amused by her friend's obvious jealousy. "Her name's Eve. She's in one of my classes. She's pretty good at magic, I'll tell ya."

"Why haven't I seen her before?" Rinoa asked, sitting back up.

"She transferred from another garden only a couple of weeks ago. You know, she probably just didn't know about you guys. I wouldn't get too upset over her. She actually seems really nice."

"Honestly, I'm not all that worried about it anymore. I thought about it all day, and realized that I have to get out of girlfriend-mode. Besides, I have more faith in Squall than that. I doubt he'd move on THAT quickly."

"See? You know it, and I know it, and there's nothing more to worry about. Besides, Squall's getting easier and easier to read... I can tell he's still pretty raw from this whole thing. He's missing you bad... I mean, he called you Rinoa at breakfast, for cryin' out loud."

Rinoa smiled. "Yeah. I noticed."

"So you know that he's probably feeling immensely guilty for all that stuff last night. I mean, he didn't even kiss her back. And then freaked out and left... leaving her on the dancefloor!"

Rinoa smiled wider. "You're right as always. Anyway, I'm finally getting hungry. Go have dinner with me?"

"Sure," Quistis smiled, rising from her chair. "Let me get ready real quick and we'll go in a sec."

"'Kay. Hey, do you mind if I invite Zone? I'm sure Zell's been driving him crazy since last night. That's probably why he was in the library all day long."

"Go ahead. How long's he staying, anyway?"

"I guess for a couple of weeks. He's probably really glad to be around people he knows, ever since Watts..."

Quistis nodded, sadly, understanding.

Rinoa's other partner-in-crime, Watts, had gone down the wrong alley on the wrong night almost a year ago, and it had cost him his life. Rinoa had been devastated, but Zone had been an absolute wreck for a good three months or so, Watts being his oldest friend. Rinoa hadn't seen Zone since the funeral until the night before. He'd apparently gotten better, but Rinoa could easily detect the lonliness he still suffered. Rinoa was the only other real friend he had.

Rinoa, however, was determined to change that. She would do her best to get her friends to accept him as one of their own, as she had, hoping that maybe he'd decide to stick around the area, instead of returning to Timber.

Determined, she headed to Zell's dorm, where Zone was staying during his visit.

And they all went out.

A/N: Yes, my wonderful readers, this IS a squinoa... just to assure you. And I promise, things will be getting much more interesting... I've got a whole huge suspenseful plot brewing, and there will be lots more action. (And more sappy stuff for those die-hard Squinoa fans. No offense... I'm one, too.)