LEO

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30/05/2002 - 12am

Phoenix, Arizona

Redhawk Base

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Let's just say, this is not how I was expecting my day to go.

"Is this some sort of joke? Nova fucking Shields?"

Commander North is glaring at me with a pissed off expression; although my eyes are elsewhere. My eyes are fixated on the picture of the obnoxious woman that rests on the desk in front of me. Long dark hair, intense green eyes, a few small scars speckled around her face. 5'6 on the height chart.

She obviously wanted to kill the photographer when this was taken by the murderous look on her face, a similar way she looked at me back in '99.

"Nova Shields is replacing Richards?" I snicker in utter disbelief, leaning right back into my chair.

"She's a very skilled special op. Still not to be taken lightly, Leo. She won't have the time for your bullshit."

"Seriously? Of all of our fucking officers, you picked that arrogant bitch? Why am I only just finding out about this now?"

North glances down at his watch and rolls his eyes. "Because I knew you'd have some fuckery to say about it as soon as I told you. I'm warning you Leo, none of your idiot behaviour anymore. I don't give a flying fuck 'bout if you flounce around the fields together and make daisy chains; or if you want to wring your hands around each others necks yet again. Your relationship will not jeopardise the missions you face in any goddamn way." He hisses at me with a warning glare.

"I'd like to see her attempt to wring her hands around my neck." I chuckle under my breath, shaking my head in disbelief over the situation. North definitely isn't amused as he pinches the space between his eyebrows and shakes his head like he's at his final straw.

"Just shut your goddamn mouth for five minutes, Hendrix. Best behaviour, that's all I'll be fucking asking. I'm commanding a group of special ops, not a high school."

I raise my hands in defence, biting my lips together. "Alright, fine. But still, she was an arrogant little bitch. When is she getting here?" I ask curiously, putting her picture down with a scowl.

"Today, sometime in the next hour, I'm waiting for intel from the pilot." He mutters, his mind clearly on a more important issue.

What the fuck did he just say?

"She's fucking arriving today? You seriously thought telling me I'm getting a new goddamn partner on the day that she's arriving was a good idea?" Let alone when it's her?" I question in complete scepticism.

"I already explained why, Hendrix! Look how you're already acting and she isn't even here yet! I knew you'd have some sort of damn protest." He hisses at me. He still looks stressed out of his goddamn mind; although his subsiding bulging vein tells me he's calming down.

I can't believe this.

Silence fills the room for a little while as I'm frustratedly gazing over the mission file I brought with me in an attempt to take my mind off of this whole situation. A situation that I was not prepared for.

My gaze is diverted to the picture of Nova. She still looks stuck up and intense. North already having to warn me that she's still not to be taken lightly hints that we're going to have some similar issues as we did in the past. He's already anticipating the grudge between us. The fact that she, of all goddamn people, is filling the void of Richards is unnerving to me. Probably because I didn’t anticipate that there would be a void to fill. Let alone by her.

I'd rather just captain the squad on my own. At least with Richards, we were almost always on the same wavelength. I don't think I can take to someone who tries to go against our way of doing things. Well, my way of doing things. I'm going to try and take North's advice on this one. We can't let anything jeopardise the missions. More so, I can't let her jeopardise the missions.

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I'm teetering on the edge of falling head first into this pool of tension. The way North has started to pace around the room isn't helping.

"So is this why I was brought in here? So you can lock me up and force me to interact with her?" I break the silence.

North actually chuckles. "You hit the nail right on the head. And even though you're both fully grown goddamn adults, I'll be staying here and supervising. I know very well what the pair of you have acted like in the past."

"Yeah, you don't say." I murmur.

"You were both as bad as each other back in '99." He sighs, shaking his head.

"The target almost got away because of her, not because of me." I utter. We're interrupted as North's comms beeps. He raises his hand in order to tell me to shut up and lifts his comms to his ear, nodding along to whatever he's hearing. "Received."

Despite the fact I couldn't hear what was being said, I have a pretty damn good idea of what it was about.

He looks up at me with an tense expression engrained in his face. "They're landing in 15 minutes, I'm going over to the helipad. You, wait here." He orders me sternly. I raise my hands in defence.

"My ass will unfortunately still be glued to this chair when you get back, Sir."

He rolls his eyes before hastily making his way out of the room; slamming the door behind him and leaving me in silence yet again. I glance at the digital clock placed in the corner of the office, 12:35pm. The urge to just get up and walk out is painfully tempting. Although, I don't exactly want North to have my head on the end of a spear.

I have until 12:50 to get my shit together.

Time has genuinely never moved more excruciatingly slow. Considering my lifestyle consists of missions where hours feel like minutes, having to sit in a room on my own with absolutely nothing to do but wait to see her is putting me on edge.

In a futile attempt to pass the time, I decide to glance over the mission file I brought with me; considering this is what I thought our meeting was going to be about. My gaze is diverted back towards the clock, surely it's been about 15 minutes by now.

12:40 - for fucks sake.

10 more excruciatingly slow minutes. I groan, resting my forehead on the case files and using them as a cushion; closing my eyes. Maybe if I stop having a staring contest the clock, time will fly by.

I didn't think I'd fall asleep.

I'm snapped right out of my power nap as I feel the table vibrate under my head from the force of North slamming his hands down. "Hendrix! Wake the fuck up!"

My head flies up as I blink a couple of times. North is standing next to the table. Next to him, with that same intense green-eyed glare that I can remember, is Nova Shields.

She's staring at me with an unimpressed expression across her face, an AK-47 strapped to her shoulder. North's warnings are jabbing in the back of my mind. He's shooting me a cautioned glare from where he's stood beside her.

With my eyebrows raising upwards and a grin tugging against the corner of my lips; I break the silence.

"Well, look who decided to come in guns 'a blazing. Can't say I'm surprised."

Jesus Christ. If I didn't know any better, I'd think she was about to slide that rifle off of her shoulder and blow my head off right here and now. Her glare freezes on me for an intense few seconds.

"Thought I'd make an entrance." Her same old deep voice finally slices through the tension in the room as a sarcastic smirk twitched on her own lips.

Standing and pushing my chair under the desk with a screech; I mark my path as I slowly make my way over to her until there's only a few metres between us. She's still pretty damn small compared to me.

Nodding to the AK-47 on her shoulder, I raise my eyebrows.

"That's a pretty big rifle. I hope your speed has improved since we last met, you could barely aim it in time. Almost lost us the target."

Her swift movement catches me off guard as suddenly, in what seems like a matter of seconds; the barrel of her gun is raised at me. "How about you tell me?" She quips. I can see the faint definition of muscles spreading across her arms as she holds the rifle in place.

"I don't think I'll be much use on our upcoming mission if you blast a bullet in my chest, Nova." I mutter sarcastically.

North could literally not look more stressed out if he tried. Wrapping his aged hand around the barrel of her rifle, he lowers it down. His desperation to diffuse the situation was buried in his strained features as he clears his throat.

"For the love of God, can the pair of you shake hands or something; I didn't think I had to be worried about shots getting fired already."

We glare at each other for a few seconds; this isn't going to be a walk in the park. With both of us seemingly too stubborn to make the first move, I finally break the ice and bring my hand up in her direction.

"What an absolute pleasure to see you again." I smirk at her, daring her to shake my hand. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't hesitate; although it feels like she's going to break my fingers. I return the force.

"Pleasures all mine." She remarks, her deathly grip on my hand telling me otherwise. So she's still a sassy little cunt.

Pulling my hand away, I took a step back; looking her up and down. "I wonder if you'll live up to these claims that you're so 'skilled' now." I say, a provoking grin spreading across my face.

"Well, Hendrix, you certainly haven't changed. Not a good thing." She jabs back at me. The fact she still doesn't seem patronised by me is interesting. Then again, she didn't seem patronised by me those 3 years ago. My mouth opens, but closes again slowly; I actually don't have a remark to quip back at her. Instead, I just shoot her a warning glare.

North speaks up through the tension after a few seconds, his voice like scissors cutting into the thickness.

"This isn't the start I was hoping for. You're both adults. Fucking act like it," an exasperated sigh escapes his mouth, "Shields, come with me. I'll show you to your cabin. At 6pm sharp, I'm running a discussion for the upcoming mission with the team in the main office. I expect both of you to be on time."

He warns, his voice demanding that neither of us answer him back. He waves his hand at the bitch; beckoning her to follow him out of the room. She complies, not before shooting me an ice cold glare over her shoulder before she exits.

This is going to be fucking difficult.