Author's Note: Thus the Barney entry was made! I have to say that writing this entry was about as fun as writing entry 8. I prefer to stay on the actual Half-Life story line to a degree, but going off topic like with Markey always makes writing more enjoyable. Anyway...read, enjoy, and review!

Entry 9, the Calhoun and I

Things around the lab sure have gotten annoying. Initially I thought that having another headcrab around wouldn't be that big of a deal, boy was I wrong. Every morning now I awake to my hair being completely covered in headcrab slobber. Lamarr often cuddled with Kleiner so I seldom got the 'pleasure' of waking up with my head soaked. Markey it would seem has taken a liking to me and any chance he gets (I do mean any chance), he tries to attach himself to my head. Kliener thinks it's adorable but I would love to mock him one day about his lack of hair. Also now that there are two headcrabs wondering around the lab, we have to collect double the amount of watermelons since that is their main diet. I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to become like Barney with his 'love' for animals.

Barney Calhoun was and still is a very dear and close friend of mine. He was a security officer at Black Mesa whom I had met through Dr. Kleiner. However his minimum security clearance made it hard for him to meet up with me in Sector F. Luckily I was allowed frequent lunch breaks, which was a privilege not everyone got. This gave me ample opportunity to join up with Calhoun where ever he was and patrol Black Mesa with him. The fact that we were same age (an age I wish I could remember) made it easy for the two of us to start nice long talks about almost anything anyone could think of. Usually though, it was about our past or our jobs. Both our pasts were pretty simple and straight forward. The only real difference was that I grew up a genius and Barney grew up a daredevil. Looking at Barney today, most would never guess he did parachuting, bungee jumping, and motorcycle stunts.

Besides our patrol meetings, sometimes we had the rare chance to get together for lunch. Lunch meetings weren't really all that different but we tried to keep our outgoing conversations to when we were alone or when we were with Kliener. Most scientists at Black Mesa were what you could call stuffed shirts who thought badly about security officers. I can recall too many occasions where a research associate would say something rude about the education level of a 'rent a cop'. When this happened, it usually always ended with me being restricted to my quarters for a few days. Was pretty embarrassing because I felt like a kid that was being grounded to her room, even though all I did was stick up for a security officer.

But anyway, Barney and I got particularly close before the Black Mesa Incident. Not like a relationship but more like brother/sister love. We shared almost everything and we both had nicknames for each other. I usually called him Barns but sometimes it was Dino; I got that name from that popular kid show with the purple dinosaur. Barney however used his unique sense of humor and came up with many nicknames for myself. However I can only recall three. The first is 'Green eyed beauty', which he perceptibly made up because of my eye color. The second and most common is Lauren which he accidentally called me one day because he was thinking of his sister. The last one always makes me laugh and it's Miss Hannibal. Silence of the Lambs was one of my favorite movies back then, and when I finally convinced Barney to watch it he combined Hannibal Lector's name with my own.

Now and days things are a bit different. For one Barney is a Resistance leader but unlike me, he puts his life in danger every day. Barney works undercover as a Combine and has been doing so for quite awhile now. Luckily the Combine has not caught him yet; it's a great source of information and I don't know what I would do without him. After losing my whole family to the Seven Hour War I don't want to lose Barney, he really is like the brother I never had. Writing these last few sentences has made me become rather emotional so I think I'll continue tomorrow.

– Val

Author's Final Note: Alright I hope you enjoyed entry 9! ^^ For this entry's final note, I'm going to answer a few questions that one of my friends recently asked. I figured I would answer them again here for anyone who was curious or shared the same question(s).

Are Gordon or Adrian going to appear in the story? Adrian, no. Gordon, maybe...haven't given it much thought. I'll leave that as a surprise.

I want more Alyx!!! Will you have her appear more pleeeeease? I know that Alyx is on many people's favorite character list, so I'll try my hardest to add her in more. It can be rather difficult to add in interactive situations though when writing in diary/journal form.

What about D0g? Can't make a story without adding in D0g, so yes he will be in eventually.

Everyone has a story about the cat, is it going to be in yours? Of course, cats rock...especially that one that haunts Barney.

Is your real name actually Valeria Lector? Nope, someone stole my nickname so I used my characters name. :P

Now to answer your question One Schim, yes I'm going to be writing more about Black Mesa. In fact the next few entries will be about the Black Mesa Incident, how Val escaped, etc. I will most likely be writing in more flashbacks involving Black Mesa, but for the most part the timeline will follow the Resistance.

If anyone else has any other questions, feel free to ask! ^_^