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I had a hard time deciding where I wanted Allie to be. But then I remembered…the whole scene with Ben and Johnny in the change room is one of my favourite parts. So I decided to incorporate her there.
ENJOY!
After six weeks of intense training and preparations, we managed to finally reach the launch date without any major dramas.
And that was because we all trained separately.
I tried to steady my nerves as I walked out of the female change room to join the men's area. This suit Victor was making us wear under our official uniform was skin tight; really skin-tight. So every guy at the launch site knows that I don't have big boobs and a butt to gawk at.
When I got there, I saw Reed sitting on a chair with his laptop while Ben was sitting on one of the benches going through his journal.
"Thinking of your fiancée?" I asked Ben, approaching him.
The normally strict commanding officer looked up at the sound of my voice. When he saw it was me, he smiled widely.
"Hey!" Ben greeted happily as he stood up to hug me, "How've you been?"
"I've been worse," I shrugged.
"Oh yeah. You and Johnny broke up, didn't you?" Ben realised.
"Technically, we're on break, but it's almost like we've broken up. Every time I see Johnny nowadays, he has some beautiful woman on his arm," I grumbled the last part.
"Hey, there is only one beautiful woman he should have on his arm and that's you. Besides, when you visited him in Houston not long after you got engaged, I always did think that you were too good for him," Ben remarked.
I got that comment a lot. Especially after we started dating back in high school. Everybody would come up to me and ask me why I was dating Johnny because I supposedly could do better than a womanizing quarterback. But I was in love and too stupid to reconsider.
With everything that happened afterwards, I almost wished I could stop myself from beginning the relationship.
Keyword: almost.
"I got that a lot," I muttered before changing the subject, "Hey. What about you? I hear you finally asked Debbie to marry you."
"Yes. Finally. You'd think after being in love with a girl for so long, gaining the courage to propose would be easy," Ben laughed before taking out his book to show me a photo of them together.
I envied them. He and Debbie looked so happy. So in love. Her engagement ring shined in the minimal lighting that was there the moment the photo was taken. They had their arms around one another. It almost made me sad. It reminded me of the happy times I had with Johnny.
Particularly this one memory; I had always wanted to have the classic White Christmas. So a few days before Christmas during our first year of college, Johnny whisked me away to this cabin in the mountains where it was snowing and he gave me my first ever White Christmas.
"I miss you already, Debs," Ben whispered, caressing the picture.
"CAPTAIN ON THE BRIDGE!"
Reed looked up in amusement as Ben immediately stood upright and at attention as though he was in the army. I shook my head as I saw Johnny, dressed in the same suit as me, take a photo of Ben with that smart-ass smirk on his face.
"Digital camera: $254. Memory stick: $59. The look on your hard-ass former CO's face when he finds out he's your junior officer: priceless," Johnny smirked as he sat down before us.
I shook my head. Ben and Johnny didn't always have a good relationship during NASA training. Ben reckons the best news he got was that Johnny washed out of NASA after the incident with two Victoria's Secret wannabes and a flight simulator not long after we 'broke up'. Johnny had the talents, just not the attitude.
Ben went to wrap his hands around his neck to show Johnny how unhappy he was with this. Instead, he unzipped part of the uniform, revealing his neck.
"Thank you. That's very generous," Johnny's smirk only grew.
"Play nice, you two," I warned, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with being in the same room as Johnny wearing the skin-tight uniform, "If you two start brawling, you'll be patching yourselves up."
"Don't worry about me, Allie. I can handle the ship. I can even handle Mr Blonde Ambition," Ben began, heading towards the wardrobe with the uniforms, "But I don't know if I should be flying or doing Swan Lake in this suit. I mean, who the hell came up with these?"
"Victor did," Sue answered as she walked out in the same skin-tight suit with the low neckline, official uniforms under her arms, "The synthetics act like a second skin, adapting to your body's individual needs."
"Let me guess, to keep the hot stuff hot and cool stuff cool?" I surmised, earning a nod from Sue, "Bummer it can't shrink huge egos."
Johnny scrawled at me, realising that the last comment was aimed at him. I just smiled sweetly. Johnny rolled his eyes, muttering something I was unable to hear.
"Wow. Fantastic," Reed gasped as he walked up towards Sue.
I saw Sue smile, thinking her little plan was working. She was trying to earn Reed's attention, in a way. Trying to remind him of what he was missing out on. It was the ultimate revenge.
Unfortunately, it wasn't working.
"Material made from self-regulating unstable molecules," Reed gushed excitedly, grasping the suit in Ben's hand, "I've been working on a formula for this."
"Great minds think alike," Sue muttered bristly.
However, she quickly covered it up, turning to Ben with a smile as she held the pile of uniforms to him, "Here you are, Ben."
"Thanks, sweetie," Ben smiled warmly, accepting the uniform.
"Reed," Sue said coolly, throwing the uniform at him as she walked out of the room.
"There is nothing more dangerous than a woman that's been scorned," Johnny remarked.
"You would know all about that wouldn't you?" I retorted, causing Johnny to lose the smirk he was wearing.
"Careful, Johnny, she's a doctor. She knows how to castrate you and can make sure it's slow and painful," Ben threw in with cheek.
With a hum, I grabbed one of the two spare uniforms Sue left and walked away. I headed back to the women's change room where I saw Sue jumping around trying to get the uniform on.
"I know you were eavesdropping," I said to Sue, "Normally, you'd have that on in less than a minute."
"Hey. You were alone in that room with Johnny. My brother, your 'ex'-fiancé. Let's just say I got a bit worried," Sue defended.
"Maybe I should be worried about you. You haven't seen Reed in two years since you broke up. Now, you have a thing going on with Victor and he's still the World's Dumbest Smart Guy," I shot back.
"We broke up because I was ready to take the next step and he wasn't. He always had this thing where he has to calculate each step before taking one. Sharing an apartment with someone should be the simplest thing in the world. There's you; there's him and there's an apartment. No variables. No math," Sue rambled, "With you and Johnny, you actually took a big step in your relationship. You got engaged."
"You know, the day I found Johnny kissing Missy, we were supposed to begin house hunting," I revealed, "Johnny always said how we should just enjoy being engaged. How first, we were going to settle down in a house before we even considered setting a wedding date. I had real estate magazines, my laptop, a list of websites. You're not the only woman that was scorned here, Sue. Johnny arrived with some bimbo driving in a flashy convertible."
"But Allie, you guys haven't officially ended your engagement yet. You're just taking a break. Reed and I are history. And I'm with Victor now. He's too late," Sue enforced.
I rolled my eyes as I zipped up the uniform. A blind person would be able to tell that despite what happened between them, despite her being with another guy; Sue is still in love with Reed. Both of them just didn't know whether they should do something about it.
Sue is with Victor.
And for a smart guy, Reed's an idiot.
When we walked out, we ran into Victor holding a briefcase.
"Susan. Dr Fraser," Victor greeted curtly.
"Victor," Sue responded.
"Susan, may I have a private word alone with Dr Fraser?" Victor requested.
"Sure," Sue nodded before turning to me, "I'll meet you with the others."
Silently, I was begging Sue not to leave me alone with Victor. I'd rather be alone with Johnny over this slime ball.
However, I tried to be nice.
"Anything I can help you with, Mr Von Doom?" I asked kindly.
"Nothing at all, Dr Fraser. Have my medical staff placed the appropriate monitors on all the passengers?" Victor asked.
"Yes. I oversaw the process myself and wirelessly connected them to the monitors for the satellite," I nodded, "Was there anything wrong?"
"No, not at all, I just need to give you this," Victor said, handing me the briefcase he was holding.
Confused, I set it on the nearby bench and opened it.
I gaped at the contents.
It was a miniature computer; highly advanced, yet simple to use. On the screen, it had everyone's heart rate and other vitals such as temperature and weight, even mine.
"I understand you will need to keep a close eye on our health during the experiment. So I organized to have it all in this computer which will be attached to one of your workstations," Victor explained, "There is one in the medical wing, of course. However, while the samples are being loaded, I wish for you to remain near the airlock in case something happened."
"Thank you," I said.
"I hope you can handle being near your ex-fiancé for that amount of time," Victor smirked before leaving.
Wow. Ben was right. He does know everything about you. Then again, he might know about my past relationship with Johnny because of his close, not-so-work-based, too-close-for-my-liking relationship with Sue. But he's been known to hire people to snoop clients. Find out their weaknesses. Find out what makes them tick. Basically, everything there is to know, even their favourite food.
With Victor von Doom, no one can keep a secret.
"Please don't tell me that guy is flirting with you."
I turned around to see Johnny standing close behind me. His jaw was locked, his nose flaring in anger. And I was almost certain that his fists were clenched. They were clear signs of jealousy, particularly where I'm concerned. I can't count how many guys he punched for acting in a way he deemed to be inappropriate around me.
It's true. Jonathan Lowell Spencer Storm has a jealous streak.
"Jealous, Johnny?" I smirked, turning around to fully face him.
"The guy's no good for you, Allie," he snarled stiffly.
"Oh. And a cheater like you is?" I retorted hotly.
"At least I know everything about you by learning everything. I know what your favourite food is, your biggest peeves; even certain ways to pleasure you," Johnny's voice dropped at the last sentence.
"So does Andy," I smirked, anticipating his reaction.
I could have sworn I saw veins starting to pop. I had never seen Johnny so angry in my life. He always hated Andy since the two of them met. He got jealous whenever I brought up anything involving Andy. But I have never seen him react like…well, like this.
"He better not touch you again. If he knows what's good for him, he won't even think about touching you," Johnny growled.
"We're not together anymore, Johnny. My relationship with Andy shouldn't be of your concern," I retorted, pushing against his chest for two reasons:
Emphasis.
And for personal space.
"I don't like sharing," he seethed, closing the small bit of personal space I had managed to create between us.
"You don't have entitlement to share what's not yours," I spat. "I am not an object you can just claim."
Rather than stay and let the argument get ugly (or possibly end up pinned against the wall and ravaged by Johnny), I turned sharply on my heel and left.
Satisfaction built within me, knowing I had still made Johnny mad.
This space mission was going to be interesting.
Wow. Who knew Allie had that in her? You go, girl!
OK. Now I really want to write another version of this story in Johnny's POV. Hearing his thoughts, especially in this scene, would be interesting. Don't you think?
You guys have been doing this long enough to know the drill. Unless you're new. If you are, I'll explain what happens. Review if you want more or have ideas for me. Fave the story if you absolutely, positively love the story and/or me, if you love the work I do here. Ad me and/or this story to your subscription alerts so you know the story is updated when I update it.
Get it? Got it? Good. Now run along, my children.