Later on that day, when the sun was already setting, Mac sat on an edge in one of the caves in the hills. The cave was a bit higher than the ground, making an extremely good watch point, but not high enough to be over the trees and give away her place.
When she noticed someone entering the woods, she retracted, treading out the fire with her feet to keep the embers spending warmth but not giving away her position.
Footsteps drew closer to the cave she was in. She took her sniper rifle and hid in one of the side caverns of the cave, starting to aim at the entrance. When she saw a teal figure entering, heaving breaths like a steam locomotive, she knew that it was Tucker.
"Dude, seriously, when you want to get shot keep up with that." Remarked Ala dryly, lowering her rifle and starting to walk towards the solder who just jumped up in the air about a meter high.
"If you keep that up I first die of a heart attack!" screeched Tucker, grabbing the place on his armor his heart was underneath.
"Next time you either try being stealthier or you inform me about coming up." Mac muttered, throwing some wood on the fire and sitting down at it.
Tucker waited some more moments to breathe properly, before starting to walk towards the girl sitting at the fire. "You changed your armor." He remarked, sitting down on the opposite site and taking off the helmet.
Mac did the same only moments ago. Looking at her now, Tucker noticed that she looked like having aged for years within mere hours. Was this because of the guys?
"Yeah, I did." She simply replied, Tucker sighed.
"Why did you do that?" Tucker lift his hand when Mac wanted to answer. "Let me rephrase that. Why don't you want the guys to know who you are?"
This caused Macs shoulder to slump, before she answered simply. "It's complicated." She shook her head when Tucker wanted to say something, instead now waiting for her to explain further. Her soul was in a great turmoil and she felt horrible from all the memories coming up just with the guys showing up at the place here while she was on watch.
"This here." Mac made a motion with her hand to symbolically display what happened only hours ago. "Provoked so many hurtful and bad memories. I thought I'd be over that, seeing him and having this memories returning, but it turned out that I am not. It's more than ten years ago, Tucker. People change and I needed to go on." She explained with a tired tone to her voice and face. "I changed and he did as well. I don't think this will work out as it did before everything. I am hurt too. Because of the memories but also because he didn't tell me."
"You know he couldn't have." Replied the teal armored soldier.
"I know Tucker, I know. But still, it hurts." Sighed the Special Ops, playing with the clasps of her now completely blue helmet. "Still, given all that happened and the situation at hand, I think it's better he doesn't know. And I needed some space to sort out my thoughts and feelings before being able to face them."
The dark skinned man nodded, looking at one of his best friends for some more moments to assess the situation at hand.
"So you are going to hide here some more until we drag you out?"
"I don't hope it's going to be this way. I will stay here for some days and then return and act as if I don't know him. Which is why I prefer you calling me Mac and not telling him about my identity." Answered Mac with a sad smile.
"I can understand where you are coming from, although that doesn't mean that neither I nor Wash are okay with that. We both think it's better you tell him the truth from the beginning." Tucker tried again, but earned another sad smile.
"Please Tucker, just this one time." Mac also would love to tell North everything, how she missed him, how she had cried when she saw him getting killed by the Meta, how she still dreamed of him almost every night. How she never had been able to be this happy as she had been back then given the fact that she lost several important people within five years tops.
She had locked away her feelings after that to somehow stay sane and not go totally nuts.
It again was quiet for some moments, before Mac suddenly snorted, noticing something about what Tucker said.
"So you already talked with Wash about my case." She could see the first confused and then questioning glance of the dark skinned man. "Never needle Simmons and Grif again about being an old married couple. You and Wash aren't much better."
"What the fuck?" Exclaimed Tucker, an obvious display of rage to overplay the other feelings. But Mac could see right through his mask. She could see the blush darkening his cheeks a bit and the embarrassment in his eyes.
"Wow, calm down there cowboy!" She said with a laugh, those words calming the teal armored soldier down again. "I just said that it's rather obvious that you have a thing for our paranoid CO when someone is able to see behind your mask." She replied with a grin.
Tucker decided to keep his trap shut and looking away embarrassed. "It's complicated."
Mac snorted at that. "Okay, I give you that once since I used this explanation too some moments ago. But latest when I tell North, you're going to tell Wash."
"Which will never happen if it was about you?" Tucker raised an eyebrow at her comment.
"Well, let's see what the future brings. But I certainly will try keeping it a secret." She replied with another low laugh. "But anyway, I know that you're so whipped, that you probably will tell Wash a bit earlier what is up than I do. Even more considering that he seems to have a thing or two for you too."
This caused Tuckers head to snap up in surprise, gaping at the Special Ops in front of him who started laughing. "Seriously, for being such an observant bastard you're pretty blind when it comes to yourself huh?" she asked, chuckling lowly and putting some more wood on the fire before continuing. "The way you guys look at each other when you think nobody, even more important the other one isn't noticing. The way you keep around each other, the way you tend to know exactly how the other feels and what he thinks. Come on. You're even worse than Grif and Simmons in some parts."
This caused Tuckers facial color to again darken. "You… you think?" he asked after another amicable silence of them, causing Mac to roll her eyes. "Seriously, take that stick out of your ass you're always accusing Wash to have and start trying to get him. It's war Tucker. People can die every moment. Even more when it comes to Wash. He could have died several times by now and died once for real."
This caused the teal armored man to sigh deeply. "I know. And that's it what makes me so anxious."
"What the dying thing?" asked Ala, not really understanding what Tucker wanted to say.
"No." exclaimed Tucker, before adding. "Or… yes in a way. Not the dying part but the losing part. I am afraid I am going to lose him during this fight, just when we were about to get together."
"I know what you mean." This time Ala turned her head and looked outside the cave. In a war as cruel as this one here, where you never know when you are losing your best friends, beloveds and family, you are getting reluctant about bonding. But in the end, at least in her book, it was the wrong thing to do.
"But think the other way around, Tucker." Started Ala then. "When losing him for real now. Wouldn't you have wanted to make some memories as a couple before that happens? Wouldn't you regret it when he would die and you wouldn't have had the balls to tell him what you feel? Or at least try it?"
This caused a long silence settle over them whilst Tucker was thinking over what he just heard of Mac, before he snorted halfheartedly. "I could say the same to you."
"Yes and no. Unlike you, I already have made some memories with North as a couple. So it would be unfair comparing me with you." She replied with a sad smile.
She knew how devastated she had been when she had lost North, had even seen him die. But the good memories she had made together with him where the ones that gave her strength to pull through again. Those memories as a couple were the things that made her suit up again after his death and go back to the fight.
Going back to the war had two effects. She was able to pull her mind off Norths loss and the good memories evoked the will in her to help others keeping that happiness she hadn't been able to preserve as she lost her love because of this stupid fight going on.
Whatever it was she had been sent to, she did it with all her power, always persuading herself it was to make the world better and the war to end, in order to keep as much couples and lovers safe and together as she could.
She didn't want others to go through the same horror and the same gut wrenching and heartbreaking emotions as she had to go through.
"Earth to Mac, you copy?"
"Copy." Mac replied automatically, not really registering what Tucker just said.
"Then pull your head out of whatever hole you had it buried in, I'm talking to you." Snarked the dark skinned man, observing her attentively and with a smile playing around his lips.
"Sorry, I was in thoughts." Mac replied with an apologizing smile.
"Taking from the way you smiled I suspect those were better times?" asked Tucker, looking at her attentively.
Mac only nodded, sighing and pushing her thoughts and memories away before speaking again. "What did you say?"
This time it was Tucker sighing, as if speaking to a petulant child. "I just asked how you think I should make it then?"
"You mean getting into Washs pants?" Mac asked with a sly grin.
For being so bold when talking about steamy stuff, Tucker was easy to embarrass when it came to Wash and doing that with him. This also was pretty obvious in Tucker coughing awkwardly and looking away embarrassed before answering. "Yeah, that."
With a snort, Mac reached behind her and took a sip out of her water bottle she always had with her in one of the storage compartments of her armor.
"Hm… Wash's not the easiest to get to – to put it nicely. He can be extremely dense. He always had been."
This caused Tucker to again look up. Mac grinned. "North told me a thing or two about his fellow Freelancers, also about Wash. He had been the happy go lucky type of guy, who tended to put his foot in his mouth more than not. He was the kind of guy to run over the director when rounding a corner with his skateboard."
"Wait, Wash can skate?" Tucker asked incredulous and Mac nodded. "He had a skateboard in his locker. Anyway." She took another sip and then closed the bottle. "He was as awkward as he is now, but he had been more the kid-like type of guy. He was the rookie of the group and got treated this way by the others. And he behaved this way too. His specialization was on weapons." Explained Mac tapping with her index finger on her lower lip to think about more. "Anyway, if you want to know more, I guess it's better asking North or York when Wash doesn't want to tell you. I just know that he became the way he is because he got betrayed by more people he trusted than you can count and Epsilon fucked his brain over on top of that." Tucker nodded to her information about Epsilon as they all knew this snippet of information from Wash so far.
Mac coughed, deciding to take another sip from her water bottle before continuing. "Anyway. For seducing Wash… How about being yourself just with a little less innuendos. Maybe try to get his mind off Locus and Felix once a while to make him forget his sorrows?" offered Mac, what made Tucker nod in appreciation and thinking about what she said.
"You know, I had been rather good at skateboarding myself when I was young. I guess I could try to bribe him into a little skateboarding once in a while. I saw that there's a self-made skate part behind the lieutenants barracks and they're skateboarding there sometimes."
Mac nodded appreciatively "Sounds like a good plan. Tell me how it turned out when you were on that date together."
"You just want the steamy details, don't you?" replied Tucker with a smug grin.
"Guilty as charged." She replied with a grin, before shooting back. "But you aren't that better than I am in this department." She winked at the dark skinned guy and he laughed at that.
"Yeah, I guess we're both suckers for happy endings, huh?" he muttered.
"I guess so. But I don't think it's so bad considering the place and time we are in. Some sugary romance definitely lifts the spirits and you see every once in a while that the world isn't as bad as you sometimes think she is when fighting this pointless war." Mac explained, again looking out of the cave and noticing the biggest of the three moons rising and bathing the wood in silvery light.
"Right. Some sappy shit never hurts." Tucker agreed, following her glance and observing the moon some time how it was slowly wandering over the sky. Around one in the morning the moon would set, letting the second biggest of the moon taking over, although this one never was able to shine as bright as the biggest did. The third one, the one North and York came from, was now permanently on the sky for ten years, but you almost didn't see him. You more saw him when it was day, also seeing its rings that were circling it like the rings of Saturn did in their home galaxy.
"Sooo…" this word, the o being lengthened like that, made it pretty clear of Mac that she was in trouble now. "How about telling me something of your past?"
This caused the girl to snort. "Who's eager for the steamy details now?"
Tucker laughed at her comment. "I never said I ain't. So? You telling or not?"
The Special Ops again snorted. "Okay, but I guess this will take some hours. You still curious."
Tucker sported his best smile. "I have plenty of time. Aside of training the recruits, I do not have much to do."
Mac nodded at that. "Okay, point taken. As long as you don't shirt off your duties. Grif doing it is enough."
Tucker flipped her off at that, whereas she rolled her eyes at that. "But there's one condition though."
"Which would be?" Tucker asked, a bit annoyed.
"You aren't telling anyone what I am telling you now and you aren't telling the guys, except of Wash, about my location or I am going to another place only I know and you won't see me again until I return out of my own free will, got that?"
Tucker groaned. "For fucks sake, yes! I got it. So you starting now or do you want to talk all night about the ifs and when's of not telling your crush?"
This caused Mac to cough this time, but she decided it was better to start talking instead of stalling any longer as Tucker wouldn't stop needling her about that.