It had been 3 weeks, Unit 6a had been disbanded and introduced into G.I joe, Julie, AKA Maverick, was training Joe techs to learn new technology 6A had brought in.
Life was finally looking somewhat normal, she had her on quarters, a place she called home, slept in the same bed everynight... usually Snake eyes's, and ate 3 square meals a day. the last time she remembered having such a sheduled life shd been i her last year of college. Before joning her brother's Merc company.
Snake eyes had been out on a mission for 2 days now, with 5 more days to go, Her shift started at 2100and she knew shed be monitoring the team till at least 6 am... maybe more if something went wrong... hopefully it wouldnt. She loved the monitoring station, mostly cause she coud keep an eye on her man. And se knew he liked it too cause he cold hear her voice and know she was fine even thoug he was thousands of miles away.
It had takn her a few more days to tell Snake eyes everything he needed to know, including the relationship shed had with Tommy. that had been one of the hardest hings shed ever had to do. Snake hadnt spoken for awhile... not that he usually talked a lot... it had taken him about 1 week to finally come back to her and let her know that even that would never change how he felt for her. She had been so scared hed just walk away. He had uderstood that for her the five years shed spend on and off with Tommy had simply been companionship, friendship with benefits.. nothing more.. But for Tommy, Snake yes knew it had been something completly different.
Julie knew they had fougth, she had heard th stories going around the pitt, but no one knew why. Snake eyes and Julie had taken every precautions nessesery for no one to know about their relationship. Only the General knew of their connection, and only what was written in their files: That Snake eyes had Been Mavericks Sensei at one time, many years ago.
That night it was quiet in the ops room at the pitt, Alpha team was out, a simple recovery mission, nothing to dangerous. Maverick was on monitoring, chatting a bit with Scarlett anf jking around with Duke, the tall blond had finally accepted to have a Merc on his team, and, after a few pranks and jokes had welcomed her as a full member of his team. Once in a while Maverick woud receive tells on her screen, short pms aimed at letting her know Snake eyes hadn apreciated the last joke, or that he missed her. This seperation had been more than anoying for him since he knew that StomShadow, Tommy was on leave and staying at the pitt for the week. Granted, the dark ninja trusted his Lover implicitly.. it was his sword brother he had issues with .
" you know, he typed, Im off next week and i think so are you ... we could figure something out ... " The tell was suprising, Julie was sure Snake eyes was going off to his cabin, Scarlett had mentioned he went there when on leave, he seemed to need the peace and quiet. Julie had been ready to le him go and simply take her week and go tothe beach.. or go visit her brothers.
"what do yu have in mind?" she answered... " yuore not thinking about Paris or Rome are you " she teased.
"nah, i was thinking more.. you me... time alone... i dont care where "
SHe though about it. ...
"why dont wego home then ... Japan?"
The answer took longer then she expected.
"sure, why not"
The rest of the night was quiet, at the end of her shift she sent him a tell... " Good night my love... i miss you "
The next day the ops room was all a flutter, Alpha team had gone dark at 0700 that mornin, the last message the op room had gotten was short. "target changed, going dark. next mess at 1400"
It was now 1357 and everyone in the room was holding their breath.
Maverick hadnt ben allerted through regular channels, It was Tommy whod come to let her know...
At 1406 General Hawk had paged her
Shed rushed to the op room
As she walked in the room the General turned towards her.
" Maverick, alpha team needs a specialty tech on the ground. They found something, Breaker cant seem to make heads or tales of it, so they though of you ... which one of your men is best suited for this sort of job ? we need someone fast. Who can understand code and hack like no bodys business...
" Alpha fuond a cache, full of experiment data, and a building full of labs. theyneed someone to g through the data and transfer everythnig relevant."
Julie though about it ...
" il go General"
He looked at her,
"you sure soldier?"
Julie noded
"prepare the plane, ill get my kit."
The General simply noded " well let you know, keep your earplug in ."
Julie pointed to SAmuel. " i want you to monitor ... let me know what happens as it happens.."
Sam huged her, nodded his head and sat down at his station.
Julie ran out the room
Her kit was all prpared when she got to her quarters, Hendrck had prepared it whne hed heard she was on her way. H looked at her, concerned,.
"ill be ok " was all she said. and she ran off towards the tarmak.
The plane ride wasnt very long, no more then 2 hours, bt in that time a lot could happen, and a lot did. Maverik stayed connected to he direct line btween Alpha and the pitt, she heard everything, Alpha team had been found, the decision had been made to transfer the data and hen destroy the building.
The plane landed about 2 miles from the compound, no very big, composd of about 4 buildings, they stood at the top edge o a cliff overlooking the ocean.
Maverick jumped on her Bike, She could hear the gunfire in her ear and knew the jos were in trouble, she needed to get there fast. She gunned her bike and sped off, it was dawn and the sky was a beautifll pink. Julie didnt notice, all she kept thinking about was the heavy grunt shed hear and the words that followed:
"General, this is Scarlett we cant stay here, 2 pople are down , i repeat 2 people are down request backup."
" backup on its way, stay where you are"
Maverick was sweating, 2 people down...who ? How ?
She entered the compond and heard he gun fire, Maverick grbbed the gun she had stashed in her boot, clicked her inercom... " Alpha , this is backup, i need pinpoint, where are you"
She waite a few secconds, " This is Duke, ewre in the 2nd building, withtt he tower. Awaiting info"
Maverick loked over the building, and decided the bes aproach wa the diret aproach.
She guned her bike, rode it right through one of the widows, jumped off he bike as it crashed and landed at Dukes feet. Scarlett was shootng at something infront of her, Breaker was on the flor bleeding from a bad cut and Snake eyes was no where to be found.
"Wheres the data ? " She asked Duke..
He pointed a door in the floor, down there...
Julie took out a package from her bag... tore the plastic wrapping from it and set the timmer...
" you have 4 minues, get everyone out make sure the bad guys know about the bomb."
Duke looked at her, astonished...
" What.. youre gonna blow it up... bt the data"
" ill take care ofthat she cutin... you take the joes and get out!.."
He moved, she ran down the stairs.
There she foun Snake eyes trying to work the computers, he was god but seemed to be frustrated...
" Go, they need you ... get em out.. ill take care of this..."
Snake eyes looked up ... he noded, put his hand on her shoulder and left.
Julie sat down... she had less then 4 minutes to do this...
SHe needed to recover he usefull data, then figure out the network, decode it nd try to send an undetectable virus ... she had morethen enougth time ...
As Maverick worked her magic, she could hear the joes running ou of the compound, the gunshots had stopped... and then, she felt it before she heard it.. a terrible pain in her left shoulder, She had been shot. But before she could even register the pain, shed already taken the shooter down... she had been well trained.
Maverick managed to find the root of the network, place a virus, changed some important base codes from he main server and ran upstair.
The building had been cleared, there was 1minute rmaining on the timer, and she could see from the windows that the buiding was heavilly surounded... what se didnt see was anything lef of the joe team... they had managed toget out.
She saw a staircase heading up... " SAmuel, ... this is Maverick i need to kow the exact heigt of the tower in the western building, added to the height of the cliff... i also need the exact depth of the water below and he exact angle at which i must hit the water... you have 45secconds"
The line ad gone silent ... " repeat please,"
Julie didnt have time...
"you fucking heard me... get me the info"
SHe ran up the stairs, 3 by three... no stoping to breath...as she reached the roof she could see the ocean underneath her...
"maverick... yor height is 319 meters the depth is 56 meters and you need to hit the water at an angle of -35 degrees... do you read ? "
"yeppers"
and she ran off the roof... swan dove and hit the water.
She was thankfull she had thoug of swallowing the usb key before jumping. As she entered the water the temperaure chage hit her like a brick. She undressed quickly, getting rid of the heavy jacket an boots, she stripped dow to her bra and panties... easier to swim. her com had fallen ut of her ear and she had no way to comunicate.. she as officially dark. Nothin new... thats how se usually worked.
Julie swam up the coast a bit, hoping she wouldnt fall on Cobra men on her way up the beach... She swam about 2 hour, untll finally she couldnt swim anymore. She reached the beach and laid down on her back... the wind was cold and made her shiver.
If she wanted to reach the plane hed have to double back a few miles...
After catching her breath Julie stoodup and started walking in the direction she knew the plane woud be. Few minutes later she reached a road and there, waiting for her, was a plain black unmarked van.
Th doors opened and Scarlet jumped out with a banket, came around her and wrapped her in it ...
" we didnt htink wed see you again" said the beauifullred head.
Julie asked her to give her a seccond...walked away a few steps and threw up...
"must be the nerves" She heard breaker say...
Then she bend down an picked up the usb key...
"nop, just a usb key" answered Duke.
Julie was exhausted, she laid down in the van, and sh heard Duke whisper " well he said,, now we kow why they call her MAverick"
the joes laugthed.
Julie just waned to sleep..
When the van reached the airport no one bothered waking Maverick up. When she next opened her eyes she was in the med wing. With 2 tubes up her arm. She pulled them out and stood up... she was wobbly.
"hey there missy... were not done with you yet"
She didnt bother to answer the Dr, simply started getting herself dressed... she turned around to pick up her boots and found herself face to face with Snake eyes... his mask was off he was shirtless and he had a heavy bandage on his left arm. Hed been hurt it seemed.
"Maverick, we need your signature if youre just going to walk out of here"
She turned to face the med, took the pen handed to her and signed her name.
The she looked up at Snake eyes.. he was still there... looking down at her.. with that look he always had when he was looking at her.
He slowly wraped his arms around her and bent down to lay a kiss on her forehead .
"that was a stupid move"
he signed, wearing a smirk on his face.
"yeah it was, wasnt it" Julie answered... "Bu it had to be done, and i hope we got everything we needed it would suck to have to go throug that again"
Snake laugthed silently.
put his shirt on, his masked and they both walked out of the med wing together.
She walked intoo the ops room, tired and sore, her left arm was bandaged and she was wearing it in a brace. Her arms hurt because of the long swim.
As she walked in everyne stopped what they were doing looked up ad stared at her... you could cut through the silence with a knife. Julie sat down at her station, and started her regular routine. Genera Hawke finally came to see her. Julie stood up, as fast as she could considering the pain in her legs.. and saluted.
"at ease Soldier"
He said as he looked at her.
"you gave us quite a scare yesterday Maverick... do you walways work like that on missions."
Julie bushed, shed would have ever though anyone here would be worried about her... she ad only done her job.
"good job out there,Maverick.. but next time.. keep the cliff diving to a minimum."
Julie heard some people laugth, saw more smiles around her, The general patted her shoulder and left.