The next morning was a reminder to Kess about how draining the previous day had been for her. She could barely keep her eyes open in the shower, and the only thing she could think of was a large cup of black coffee. As she left to head for the cafeteria, Sam was coming down the hall. Kess drowsily looked in his direction, and Sam announced, "Those circles under your eyes are really big today."

"Oh? I didn't notice," Kess said sarcastically. She began to walk away, but Sam approached her from behind and gently grabbed her shoulders, stopping her. He put his mouth close to her ear and said softly, "I had a dream about you last night."

Kess's zombied-out brain flopped in confusion. What in the flying fuck? Am I still asleep? "You what?" She asked incredulously.

"I had a dream about you last night," he repeated with a seductive edge to his voice, his breath tickling her ear. "You did something to me in it."

I cannot fucking believe this. "And just what did I do?" Kess asked, half horrified and half morbidly curious.

"You messed up my gun." Sam whispered, then released her and continued on his way. "Remember, be real careful," He called over his shoulder just before he turned a corner and disappeared.

"Son…of…a…BITCH!" Kess growled savagely through gritted teeth. "'Oh Kess, don't worry, he'll come around, give him time, he's just being Sam!' I don't know how much more of his bullshit I can take…If he doesn't like what I do to his gun, he can just shove it!" she grumbled to herself as she stalked down the hall to the cafeteria.

One strong black coffee later, Kess was back in the workshop with a new plan of action. She browsed the wide variety of silencers that were stocked there until she found the one that would be used on a normal sniper rifle – a large, bulky item. She placed it on the table and sat down, staring intently at it. Well, I'm gonna have to chop it down. That's gonna all but make it useless as a suppressor, though. I could slow down the round by adding rubber wipes for friction… but that would dramatically reduce the range and stopping power of the bullet. And it would only last a few shots, anyway. Forget that idea. She frowned and concentrated on it for several minutes. Then she sat up. I got it! She went to the door, shut and locked it. I'm not taking a chance of Sam bothering me right now…I need to make sure I do this right. She then grabbed the toolbox and started sorting through it.


Back in his apartment, Sam stepped into the shower. Got a long day of strength training ahead…hope I'm not too sore afterwards, he thought. He was unusually tired. With eyes half-closed, he grabbed some bottle of body wash that Grim had passed off on him because she didn't like the scent. He squirted a glob out onto his hand and lathered up his body with it. Yuck, sweet smelling stuff. He looked at the bottle. Mango Passionfruit? I hate this frilly frou-frou girl crud. I wish I'd looked at what kind it was before I took it. Oh well, too late now. He finished lathering himself up and rinsed off, then scrubbed his hair with a little shampoo. Ugh, I just can't seem to wake up today. He stuck his head under the stream of water and let it beat on his face for a minute, but that didn't seem to help. Ok, Plan B. He began to stroke himself, which usually worked. But this morning his equipment couldn't wake up either, and he only managed to get semi-hard before he gave up.

After getting dressed, he left once more to get some breakfast before heading to the gym. When he entered the cafeteria, he saw Redding standing in line. Redding spotted him as well and waved. Sam nodded and grabbed some food, and then got in line behind Redding.

"Good to see you again, Sam," he said pleasantly. "Did you have some nice time off?"

"I did. It was great. Good to see you too, Will." They bought their food and then sat down at a table together.

"So what do you think of the new agent…Kestrel Sterling?" Redding asked, examining his croissant.

Sam chuckled a little as he took a sip of coffee, then said, "You know how they'd always tell ya, 'If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all?'"

Redding glanced up at Sam and grimaced. "Oh, come on, Sam. She seems like a really nice girl."

"Mmmh. We'll see." Sam grumbled.

"In fact, I'd like to get to know her better. I might ask her out sometime." Redding said.

Sam laughed. "You? Will, I thought your only romantic interest was in the Osprey."

Redding grinned. "Well, there are some things a woman can give you that the Osprey just can't. A labor of love she'll remain, but alas, that's all."

Sam raised an eyebrow at him. "So, you wanna try to get Sterling in the sack?"

Redding frowned. "Sam, I just met her! She's pretty but I'd rather share our interests before jumping into anything else. I'm far more eager to talk weaponry with her."

Sam shook his head. "Man, you do love the military too much. I'd go for the gold right away."

Redding smirked at him. "What are you saying? Are you interested in her?"

"Not on your life," Sam growled. "That was a rhetorical statement. Besides, I can imagine a tiny thing like that would break into pieces under a man. She's too waify."

" I think she has a sweet, delicate build," Redding commented.

"You say tomayto, I say tomahto," Sam said nonchalantly. He stood up, tossed his refuse in the garbage can and waved to Redding. "I'll see ya around, Will, I gotta get to work."


"Finally!" Kess exclaimed. She picked up the silencer and looked it over, blowing a little stray dust off of it. She looked at the clock. Nearly 4pm. All that's left now is a ballistics test. I hope this works. She got up from her stool and picked up the phone on the wall, dialing Lambert's extension.

It picked up after two rings. "Lambert," he answered.

"Colonel, it's Kess. I've finished the modifications."

"Good! Give me a few minutes to call down to the firing range and clear out anyone who's in there, and then I'll go collect Sam and we'll meet you at the workshop."

"Sounds good," Kess agreed. She hung up and went to unlock and open the workshop door, then got a dustpan and brush from a peg on the wall and swept the debris of her work off the table. She then bent over to sweep up some grit that had fallen on the floor.

"I see London, I see France…" sang a voice from the doorway.

Kess quickly stood upright and turned around to see Sam leaning against the doorframe, grinning. Kess blushed. "Do I have a hole in my pants?"

"No. Your undies were hanging out the top of your pants when you bent over." He informed her.

Good timing. What did I put on again today?…Oh Jesus, it's the pink ones with the pictures of sandwiches all over.

"They're cute. Different." Sam said, still grinning.

Kess imagined her head turning progressively redder and then exploding. "I have…eclectic tastes." She mumbled.

"I like it," Sam said, and winked at her.

Kess stood dumbfounded. Okay, now I'm sure that was a come-on.

Sam looked over to his gun and the silencer on the table and his grin faded. He glared back at Kess. "You better not have ruined anything."

Kess shot him a defiant look. "Don't assume anything before you've even tried it." No normal person comes on to someone one minute and threatens them the next. He's just being a knob. Anything remotely nice he says is just to make me put my guard down.

Kess heard Lambert's voice before she saw him. "Sam! No wonder I couldn't find you in the gym. How'd you know she was done?"

"I didn't. I just dropped by to visit." Sam explained.

"Well, you're miles ahead of me already. Come on, you two, let's take the SC-20K down to the firing range and give her a go."

Sam stepped into the room and picked up the gun, sniper module and silencer, and grabbed a handful of shells from the ammo box. He then followed after Lambert, with Kess trailing behind.

They made their way down several corridors, then entered into the firing range, an area that almost looked like a parking garage with fuzzy walls. The fuzz, of course, was to absorb the sound of fire and prevent it from echoing or disturbing adjacent departments. At the end of the long room were several human-shaped target sheets hanging from the ceiling. There was a line painted on the floor to separate the firing zone from the target area.

Lambert folded his arms and nodded. "Okay, Sam, why don't you try it out. Kess can explain what she's done."

"Alright," Sam said, sounding almost exasperated. He attached the sniper module and fitted the silencer on, loaded the bullets, then looked at her expectantly.

Kess stuck her hands behind her back and crossed her fingers. Then she crossed her toes for good measure. Taking a deep breath, she said, "I know that to fit a suppressor on the sniper module makes it more cumbersome than worthwhile, due to the size that's required for a weapon of that caliber. I've modified the suppressor by cutting it down lengthwise, and I've added more apertures in its mechanism so the gas can still expand slowly enough that we should still be able to achieve significant noise suppression."

"Hmm." Sam said, cocking an eyebrow at her. "Let's see if it can perform as well as you can talk about it." He turned towards the target and raised the gun, taking careful aim through the scope.

The seconds that passed felt like an eternity to Kess. She braced herself, waiting to hear the deafening BANG of failure.

Sam pulled the trigger.

"Thwip," went the gun.

Kess let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding. OhthankyouGod.

Sam looked at the gun, surprised, then took aim again and pulled the trigger twice more.

"Thwip, thwip," the gun repeated.

Sam lowered the gun and looked at it again, then grinned wide over at Kess. "Well, I'll be."

Lambert patted her on the back. "Great work, Kestrel. There's one addition that'll make Sam's job that much safer. I take it you're satisfied, Sam?"

"I am," he said sincerely, still staring at Kess.

"Glad to hear it. Well, the day's pretty much over with. You're dismissed, Kess. Report to me tomorrow morning and be ready to exercise. We'll run you through the training course."

"Sure thing," said Kess. She turned to leave.

"Hey…Kess." Sam said.

I think that's the first time he's actually called me by my name, she thought with surprise. She turned back towards him. "Yeah?"

He winked at her again. "Thanks."

She allowed herself to smile at him. "You're welcome." She then made her way back to her room. Time for a well-earned nap.


Chapter 6 coming soon!