So this is it...! The last chapter of Book One! I'm splitting the story into books as I don't want to have to go through all the chapters with selection and Lola's first few years in the SAS.

As I've said before, Book Two will be entirely from Soaps POV and will start from his first day in the SAS which, according to Modern Warfare, is in 2011 - six years after Lola joins. I've written the first two chapters but need to tweak them slightly so they will be up tomorrow!

I hope you've enjoyed getting to know our lovely heroine. She's about to become the most badass female ever. I sort of love her! For those who may be wondering who I'm basing her on, when I first started thinking about this story, I saw a picture of the model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and just thought she would make the most perfect Lola. She's meant to be unbelievably gorgeous so that's how I've written her.

Thanks for all the feedback and messages! I hope you've enjoyed book one and are excited for book two! xxx

I was one of those horribly awkward people that couldn't stand a silence. Maybe it was growing up in a busy, loud household where we would talk over one another our voices rising higher and higher until we were practically shouting. Normally, I found silences quite easy to fill. A little bit of chat about the weather, a question or two until the silence had dissipated. This silence, however, was the type of silence that couldn't be broken. Not even a slight crack. No, Gaz's stony face was firmly in place, only changing slightly when he would glance over at me and break into fresh eye rolls and muttering under his breath.

In short, it was potentially the longest car journey of my life. I didn't even know where I was bloody going. I didn't even particularly care. Gaz could have driven me to the edge of a cliff, told me to jump off and I would have happily done so just so to get out of this horrible silent jeep.

I wasn't even sure that what I had done to irk, Gaz. I didn't want to look at him because I was afraid that he would take my eye contact as a sign of defiance and more eye rolling and sighing would ensue.

The jeep finally stopped and Gaz practically threw himself out of the door. Did I wait here? Was there some secret code? I stared at him as he strode towards the entrance of the hangar, he pushed the door open without a second glance back at me and slammed it shut behind him, the force somehow managing to rock the jeep. My impulsive gene was starting to kick into gear. I had to go in, right? If Price had sent Gaz to get me, there was a massive chance that he was behind that door. I had come this far. What was one more door? I pushed the passenger door open and unfolded my legs. There were raised voices coming from the hangar. Was everybody in the SAS Cockney? It sounded like A Guy Richie film. My heart fluttered slightly as my hand came into contact with the cold steel door. Now or never, Lo.

The door creaked loudly as I pushed it. The shouting stopped. The hangar was dimly lit, so my eyes took a couple of seconds to adjust. I glanced around. There was some sort of obstacle course in the middle, all plywood and ropes. Was it supposed to be a ship? To one side there was a group of men clustered around a desk full of monitors, to the other side there were weapons mounted on the wall. Guns. Lots and lots of guns. My dad had taught me to shoot with a regulation handgun. Nothing special or impressive. But the arsenal of weapons that gleamed on the wall was enough to take down a small army. I was intrigued. Walking closer towards the wall of weapons, I saw a shooting range. The one that my dad had taken me to had been the kind you see in films, with the targets suspended from the ceiling from tracks that moved them closer to you. The SAS, however, seemed to have targets that popped up from the floor. Harder to shoot at. If a target was moving towards you it gave the eye time to focus and made getting that fatal shot so much easier. With targets that sprang up at you there was no chance to focus, you just had to shoot. I began to walk towards the wall of guns. They looked like something from Rambo. I wasn't naïve. I knew that there were other guns than just a regulation handgun but still, the sight of these weapons, which presumably cost thousands, was quite awe inspiring.

"Glad you could make it girl."

Price stepped from the shadows. Gaz stood behind him with a sour expression on his face.

"Yeah?" I laughed nervously. "I think you're probably the only one."

Price threw a look over his shoulder at Gaz, who clenched his jaw together. Was it healthy for the vein in his neck to pulsate like that? He looked like he was close to combusting.

"Wallcroft has already radioed the lads to tell them about you..." Price nodded his head at the gang of men who had been focused on the monitors. I turned and their heads snapped down quickly. They'd obviously been told to mind their own business.

"Wallcroft thinks that I have sex for money." I said. "Which as we covered yesterday, I do not."

Price gave me a small smile. "He was just joking around. You'll have to excuse the lads. They get a bit excited when they see a female. We don't have too many roaming around."

"And for good reason." Gaz hissed.

I raised an eyebrow at him. Price shook his head and Gaz went back to pouting like a child that had just been told he wasn't allowed anymore smarties. I looked back at Price who was looking at me with an unreadable expression. He was one of those men that just radiated authority. There was nothing particularly special about him but you couldn't help but be on your guard. He was studying me as I looked at him. Did he think that I wouldn't show up? My appearance had rocked a boat that I hadn't been aware of. Gaz looked furious.

"What is your problem?" I looked past Price at Gaz. Price raised his eyebrows. Shock? No. He didn't look like the kind of man who shocked very easily. No, he seemed impressed. I wasn't entirely sure how to feel about it.

"You are my problem." Gaz responded.

I shrugged. "Take it up with your Captain." I glared at him. "He asked me to come here." I sighed. "Speaking of..." I looked at Price. "Why am I here?"

"I may have a job for you." Price answered. Gaz practically convulsed.

"You can't be serious!" he shouted. "Sir, there's a reason that there are no women here." He turned to look at his Captain. "Women are irrational, hysterical and just not suited to what we do."

"I'm not the one having a temper tantrum." I muttered.

Gaz threw me a look. "Sir, you are well within your right to get swept up in all that pretty blonde hair and those big green eyes but I am begging you not to do something stupid like ask this girl to go through selection." He pointed at me. "She's in shape but there's absolutely no muscle there. What if you're injured and she has to drag you to safety?"

Had I missed something? What was selection? Why was I dragging an injured Price anywhere?

"I acknowledge that it looks crazy." Price said. "But the girl has something. I can just feel it."

"You're throwing away sixty years worth of history because you've got a feeling?!"

Price rounded on Gaz quickly. "Don't forget who is in charge here, Gaz." He growled, his voice a warning to the other man. His tone sent shivers down my spine.

Note to self: Never shout at Price. Ever. Gaz's cheeks went pink.

"I know how this looks..." Price raised his voice, mostly for the benefit of the group of men stood by the monitors who were watching the altercation with open mouths. "But if I say she can do it, then she can do it."

Wait... what? What could I do? I frowned.

"Take this." He pulled a pistol from his belt. "And take care of it." He pressed the gun into my hand. The cold steel sent a shiver through my body. What was his plan?

"Oh, yeah, let's give the girl a gun!" Grumpy Gaz was back. "Do you even know how to use that?"

"Would it make you feel better if I said yes?" I said menacingly. "Because I don't fancy your chances."

Price laughed loudly and Gaz grimaced at me. I wasn't stupid. I could read a room pretty well. Every single bone in my body knew that the only way to get through this, whatever the hell "this" was, was to put on my brave girl face and stare down anybody who tried to give me grief. Gaz was trying to belittle me, a tactic favoured by my darling older brother, but in this situation and in Price's company, I wasn't going to let that happen. I thought about my dads letter. Be brave.

"Lads!" Price hollered. "I know you're all trying to listen in so you may as well come over and meet Lola."

The group of men moved quickly and took position behind Gaz, who was shooting me his best death looks. Not that I cared. Brave face on, remember?

"It's no secret you any of you..." Price looked pointedly at Gaz. "... That I have always felt that something was missing from the unit." He turned to me. "And I think that she is it."

Excuse me? My brave girl face slipped considerably and was replaced by sheer panic. Me? In the SAS. I wasn't a soldier. I still wasn't even entirely sure what SAS stood for, what they did or who the hell they were... Now I was going to be one of them? I looked up at Price who was staring at me.

"Of course, you'll have to pass selection first." He puffed up his chest. "Rules are rules."

More riddles... The second mention of the elusive "selection". Was I wrong in imagining some kind of X-Factor style auditions? Price as Simon Cowell staring me down while I spoke about how much I wanted this? Was I going to have to sing?!

"But I'll get to that later..." He reached out and touched me on the shoulder. I had to stifle a laugh when I noticed how uncomfortable he looked. He clearly wasn't a touchy-feely kind of man. He spun me around in the direction of the shooting range and we began walking together, the hand on my shoulder guiding me forward. "I know that the lads will be dying to know why I've brought you here."

They weren't the only bloody ones.

"You've got something." He said. "I'm not sure what it is and I'm not sure how you've got it, but it's there."

"You realise I'm not a soldier right?" I responded. "I have no idea what the hell I'm doing." There was a slight panic in my voice. "I don't even know what SAS stands for."

"Special Air Service."

"Oh, well that clears it up."

It didn't.

"We're a part of the Special Forces." Price said. "In short, we are the best of the best. We go in, do the job, get out. It's a lot of high risk, unconventional missions."

My sheer panic had now escalated to a full on terror. I stared up at him. We stopped walking and he gently positioned me at the mouth of the shooting range, circling round so that he stood in front of me, Price placed both of his hands on my shoulders. "I'm never wrong about these things, so if I say that I can see something in you, then I can see it. I'm not here to find that thing, I'm not going to hold your hand and guide you through this, not because I don't want to, but because I know that you don't need it."

"But-"

"-There's a group of lads over there that are waiting for you to fail. They're waiting to tell me how wrong I was about you." He released his hands from my shoulders. "Don't let me regret this."

He walked away swiftly. I turned and watched him go. Was he right? Was there something inside of me that could do this? I stared at the gun in my hand. I knew how to use it. I could train harder, be better... I had to look at this logically. Price had said that the missions were "unconventional" and "high risk". Were they two words that I wanted to associate with my life? I turned back towards the shooting range. There was a flag at the end of the space. A dagger with wings either side of the handle and the words "Who Dares Wins" emblazoned on the bottom. Shit. It was true. He who dares, does win. Life is about risks. I thought about the path that my life was currently on. I'd graduate from University, find myself a nice job, maybe get married and have children... There was nothing wrong with that life. Nothing. But at the back of my mind I had always been aware, even whilst growing up, that I didn't want conventional. I wanted something else. When Charlotte had told me of her desire to join the Medical Corps, I had been impressed and, truth be told, a little bit jealous. She was going out there and doing something with her life. I wanted to do the same. This was my chance. Price was offering me a different life. I had to take it. I positioned myself and held the gun tightly in both hands, one on top of the other. I stared down the barrel.

"Viewing deck, lads." Price shouted. I could hear the smile in his voice.

I heard shuffling, the sound of boots on metal. I saw the group emerge onto a metal walkway that was slightly elevated to the left hand side of the shooting range. I concentrated on my breathing. My hands were beginning to shake. I had to breathe. Had to control the rapid thumping of my heart in my chest. This was adrenaline at its finest. I felt alive.

"There's ten targets, Lola." Price shouted. "You'll hear a siren, and then they'll start popping up. Just do what you did yesterday."

I gave him an infinitesimal nod.

The siren started and I clicked the safety off the pistol.

Breathe, I told myself.

Breathe.

In through the nose, out through the mouth.

Slow your heart rate down.

The siren stopped and the first target popped up shortly followed by the second, third and fourth.

I froze.

I fired one shot at the seventh and another at the eighth. I heard the bullet connect on the ninth target and missed the tenth entirely.

My heart pounded against my ribcage and my hands shook.

I didn't want to look at Price. I could practically hear Gaz's victorious smile. I brought my hands down and stared at the targets in front of me. I had hit one.

One.

I felt embarrassed. Humiliated.

Footsteps. A hand on my shoulder.

"What happened?" Price asked.

"I froze." I stated. "Nothing more, nothing less than that." I looked at him. "I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "Don't apologise." He stared down at me. "Just don't do it again."

He was giving me a second chance? I hadn't pegged Price as the type who gave second chances. He tossed me some ammunition. I unclipped the magazine from the gun and loaded the bullets as Price walked down to the targets pushing them down one by one.

"Who the hell taught you to shoot?" Gaz shouted from his vantage point.

"My dad." I replied.

"He should be embarrassed."

I pushed the magazine back into the gun and looked up at him.

"He's too busy being dead to care." I replied.

Gaz narrowed his eyes. "I'm not feeling sorry for you." he told me.

I turned away and looked back at the range. Price had finished pushing the targets back down and was wiping his hands with a cloth. A lightbulb went off in my head. If you blocked off one sense, the rest overcompensated for the loss. I thought back to my dad. I remembered him teaching me to shoot. "You react faster to sounds than sights." he had said. "Your brain registers a sound and your body automatically snaps into action. It's very strange."

"Can I have that?" I asked Price, my hand motioning towards the cloth in his grip. He gave me a look. "Please?"

He handed me the piece of fabric. It was black. Thick. I held it up to the light. I couldn't see through it.

"You don't need to cry about it." Gaz shouted. "See Sir, I told you that women get too emotional."

"I've got an idea..." I looked up at him. "How about after I take out all ten targets, I come over there, stick this gun up your arse and we can try and get rid of whatever crawled up there and died?"

Price laughed.

"It would be my pleasure, honestly." I told Gaz, who glared at me. "You have been so nice and hospitable that I feel like I owe you."

He stared at me silently.

"No?" I shouted. "Okay then, so why don't you keep your smart remarks to yourself and let me get on with this?" I handed Price the gun. "Hold this, please." He looked amused and was chuckling to himself softly. I pulled the cloth around my eyes and tied it in a knot before holding my hand out to him. "Gun, please."

He pressed the cold metal into my hand.

"I hope you know what you're doing girl." he whispered.

"Oh, I do."

He grabbed my shoulder once again, before I heard his footsteps. Boots on metal. I inhaled deeply.

My dad's voice came into my head. "Listen to your surroundings. Follow your instincts."

I positioned myself.

Safety off.

The siren started.

I could do this. I knew I could. I trusted my senses enough.

The first target popped up. I fired. The bullet connected.

Second, third, fourth.

Shot, shot, shot.

Hit, hit, hit.

I twisted my body fractionally at the sound of the targets springing up. Too much movement and I would lose my centre. The fifth and sixth shots came easily. I remembered that seven, eight and nine all popped up within a fraction of a second. I fired. Blood coursed around my veins. I was alive. The final bullet left the chamber and connected with the target. I pulled the blindfold off. My eyes adjusted quickly.

I looked up at the viewing gallery. Price was smiling. I stared at Gaz. "You can check them all but I can tell you where all the bullets are." I smirked. "Right between the eyes."

Price jumped down from the deck and walked down the range. He looked at each target before turning towards Gaz.

"And that's why I brought her here."

Gaz opened and closed his mouth like a fish before he and the rest of the men went to join Price.

"That was so cool." One of them whispered to me.

"Thanks." I smiled.

Price and Gaz walked over to me.

"You'll have to forgive me." Gaz said. "The Captain asked me to be a bit blunt with you." I frowned. "I'm not a horrible guy."

I looked at Price. "You react to people doubting you." he said. "I asked Gaz to get that reaction out of you." He smiled. "And he did."

"I can't believe you got ten head shots while blindfolded." Gaz said, he shook his head. "You can't teach that."

"No you can't." Price said, looking me directly in the eyes.

So I had passed the test with flying colours.

"Is that it then?" I asked. "Was that selection?"

Price and Gaz laughed loudly. Almost hysterically. I frowned.

"You've got a few hurdles to get over before selection in ten weeks, but Gaz is going to help you." Price said. "For now, go back to London, pack up your stuff and come back ready to start tomorrow."

I looked up at him. "Just like that?"

Price smiled. "Girl, I have been searching for you for a very, very long time." I blinked. "And now that I've found you, I'm not letting you go."