Overlap

“Two years ago, we ran a Lioness mission that ultimately failed. Actually, it was the mission right before Manuelos came on the scene. The target was a Syrian national who was arming and funding ISIS and some other terrorist organisations. He’d studied in the States and married an American girl before promptly relocating her to the Middle East to become his baby factory. We lost track of them after the mission failed but intel shows that since he went underground his operations have really ramped up. We really need to get this asshole.”

Bobby had just whirled into Josie’s private hospital room like a hurricane, closing curtains and blinds and pulling out equipment that she’d only just started packing up an hour ago.

“I’m pretty damn sure I just came face to face with his wife coming off the Herc. I checked with the triage officer but it looks like she’s given a fake name. This could be our way back to finding Al-Khouri and finally taking him out.”

“So why is she here?” Asked Josie, “is she a casualty?”

“She has chemical burns all down her left side, consistent with her being attacked- not burnt by the blast. And she’s got two kids with her who are completely unharmed. If he did this, there’s a good chance we can use it to get closer to her.  Just a sec- yeah, it’s me,” Bobby answered her phone and tapped away at Josie’s laptop, verifying herself with her personal cryptographic credentials and biometric authentication.  It became obvious that Joe was on the other end of the call, and little by little, Josie could see the broader picture as the situation unravelled.

Bobby wanted to pair the woman, Samira Al-Khouri, with an operator who would pose as her case worker once she arrived in Atlanta.  It was no surprise that she was trying to enter under a false identity, she could be prosecuted and imprisoned for her proximity to ISIS, but it would be easy enough to break through that facade with the right operator.  There was still about 18 hours until they would arrive in Augusta, plenty of time for Joe and Kaitlyn to cement a detailed plan.  In the meantime, Bobby would make herself completely available to Samira, passing as an aid worker.  Josie, much to her dismay, learned that she would be sedated for their flight home and would have almost no part in this new excitement.

“It’s standard procedure according to your doctor, so you can take it up with her, Cap.  Joe’s gonna get Manuelos’ boney ass to Augusta to embed the agency operator they send.  It’s been designated as non-combat at this stage so they’ll get some desk-jockey to work up a cover, not one of us.  But Cruz’ll brief and monitor her.  Seems like Joe’s got her eye on our marine.”  Bobby seemed impressed but not surprised.

Cruz will be in Augusta.  Josie felt light enough to float.  Now to convince her doctor not to over-medicate her, the last thing she needed was to sleep through more time with Cruz. Who knew how long they’d stay at JMS anyway?  Josie picked up her phone to send the requested text to Cruz.

Everything’s fine here, i hope you’re getting some sleep. See you tomorrow ;)

Josie glanced up from the phone when she heard a familiar, “knock, knock,” from the doorway.  A woman in royal blue scrubs and a white coat entered, wearing thick-rimmed glasses and carrying a clipboard. There was a flash of recognition between her and Bobby, who smiled to herself, burying her face in the laptop.

“Captain, how’re you feeling today?” Dr. Greene stood at the foot of Josie’s bed and flicked through her chart.

“Never been better,” Josie replied, with surprisingly little irony. She wondered why the woman kept using her former rank.

“OK, sure. I hear you’re leaving us tomorrow, I’ve got your discharge papers here. Have a look, sign on the dotted and make sure you take the last few pages - they’re your aftercare instructions.  Bobby swing by my office before you leave, I have paperwork for you too.”

“Sure thing, Doc” replied Bobby, her eyes following the doctor as she left the room.

“Ooh Bobby just lurrrrrves paperwork,” teased Josie, prompting Bobby to get up and slink towards the door.

“I really do” She winked and slipped out.

Josie started to flick through her discharge papers, signing as she went. It was fairly straightforward stuff although the aftercare instructions were depressing as fuck. As she pulled the documents out of the clipboard, her eyes were caught by an unfamiliar cursive. It was her patient intake form. Under PATIENT, the author had written CAPTAIN Josephina Carrillo. Well that explains the doctor using the rank she’d been stripped of. All the other details seemed accurate enough.  She flipped the paper over absentmindedly and smiled as she read the last entry, EMERGENCY CONTACT: Sgt Cruz Manuelos.

She pulled the form out of the clipboard, folded it up and slipped it between her aftercare instructions, the first keepsake of her marine. Hopefully the first of many.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Josie stood apart, watching herself from a ridge that felt both impossibly far and strangely near. Below, her own body knelt in the dirt, shoulders trembling, a service pistol loose in her hand. The world was washed out, colourless but for the wet gleam of blood.

Her far-away self turned slowly, glancing over her right shoulder. Joe sat there, reloading her rifle. As Josie watched herself raise her pistol in the distance, a small, perfect hole bloomed on Joe’s forehead. Blood trailed down between her eyes like a tear, but her expression was serene, almost expectant. The gunfire roared on, muffled as if from underwater, while Josie’s scream vanished into nothingness.

Josie watched herself turn to her left, cock her pistol and suddenly the upright Cruz was only half-visible, a slumped shape merging with the rock. She leaned forward, hair swinging, dark and heavy with blood. Her head lolled just enough for Josie to see the wound at the back of her skull, blood matting her hair into a slick curtain.

Josie’s distant self sat between the two dead women and slowly lifted the pistol to her own temple. From the ridge, the watching Josie tried to scream, tried to move, but with every step she was further and further away.  She watched as her own hand squeezed…

“No!” Josie woke herself up with a start, yelping in her sleep from the dream that had haunted her before - this time was slightly different but no less terrifying.  Her eyes were still blind from sleep, the glare of the fluorescent lights disorienting her. This was not her hospital room, she could hear noise and hubbub from other patients, and beeping and hissing of medical appliances outside her curtained patient bay. She rubbed her eyes and felt the bed move behind her. From her upright position and with her vision now returning she could see more clearly that she was bordered on one side by someone long and warm, their shoeless feet crossed. Their right arm, resting across their lap, sported a telltale scar- a long-healed cigarette burn.

“Jos,” a soft, gentle voice lured Josie’s eyes upward. Cruz. Their hands entwined and Josie felt an overwhelming urge to cry. Cruz sat up, removed her left arm from behind Josie’s head and, still sitting by Josie’s side, turned to face her. ‘Josie, hey. What’s wrong? Everything’s ok, I’m here.” Cruz leaned towards Josie, cupping her face with her hands. She kissed a tear that ran down Josie’s cheek, whispering soothing words as she pulled her to her chest, and laced her fingers through Josie’s thick chestnut hair.  Cruz gently rocked the two of them until Josie’s breathing slowed, her fingers tracing nothing in particular over Josie’s neck and back.

“Hey,” the marine crooned tenderly.  Josie slowly pulled away from Cruz’s embrace, but the distance between them was barely more than a breath. Their foreheads met in a soft, intimate touch, and their hands traced each other’s features with a quiet reverence—fingertips gliding over jawlines, lingering at the curve of a neck, memorising every contour.

“Hey… God, I’m sorry,” Josie laughed sweetly through the last of her sobs, embarrassed that this is how she should be reunited with Cruz, as a half asleep, weeping mess. “I planned to be so much cooler when I saw you.”

“Shhh, you’re perfect. I can’t believe you’re here Jos.”  Cruz looked her up and down, taking her all in, then asked quickly, “how’s your leg, do we need to get you something for the pain? I can go find someone- ”

“No… Cruz, stop,” Josie stilled Cruz’s sudden mania by grabbing her wrists, massaging the soft skin with her thumbs. “Can you please kiss me already?”

Cruz drew in a shaky breath, her gaze falling to Josie’s slightly parted lips. God, she is so beautiful. Cruz released herself from Josie’s hands and gently cradled her face. Josie’s honey-coloured eyes held her captive, pulling her in until the space between them disappeared and their lips met in a slow, tender kiss.  As Cruz began to pull away, Josie clutched at the front of her shirt, drawing her back and kissing her again. Cruz moved closer on the bed, the fingers of her right hand threading through Josie’s hair while her left hand eagerly roamed the soft skin exposed beneath her rising T-shirt.  From somewhere behind the curtain came a loud crash, the sound of a trolley falling over.  Cruz stood, suddenly vigilant and aware that behind the thin curtain were doctors, nurses and the critically injured.  Josie reached again for her hand, tugging her back to the bed.

“Where you going?” Josie asked, looking through the hair falling into her eyes. 

“Sorry, I kinda forgot where we were for a minute there.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Josie grinned at Cruz, who all of a sudden, had become shy. “Just come back to me.” She patted the space on the bed that Cruz had just abandoned.

Cruz, blushing, sat back on the bed and laced her fingers with Josie’s.  She lifted her hands to her lips. “Tell me how you are, tell me everything. My asset’s getting background from Bobby while Al-Khouri’s in surgery, we have a bit of time.”

Josie took a deep breath, unsure of where to begin and finding it impossible to concentrate with Cruz skimming her fingers across her lips. The sheer proximity of her obsession was enough to render her speechless but seeing Cruz in this perfectly fitted white cotton shirt, sleeves rolled up and an unprofessional number of buttons left undone -if that’s for my benefit marine, thank you for your service- Josie thought her heart might explode in her chest.

“I’m… uhhh, just trying to remember words,” she stuttered, still recovering from the kiss. Cruz grinned and looked at Josie through long dark lashes.  In no time, Josie found her words and it all came pouring out of her.  The fuzzy, cotton wool covered pain she was in for the first few days, trying to come to terms with what her father had become - may have always been.  The expectation of Kaitlyn and Joe, ‘asking’ her to do the only thing she’d never wanted.  And finally, the feeling that without Cruz, she had no-one - her family was off-limits, her unit up in smoke…

“I’m not saying this to put pressure on you, and if it’s all too much - I’m a big girl, I can take it.  But I don’t want-“

“-Enough talking.”  Cruz leaned forward and kissed her again, the magnetic charge between them summoning their lips to meet, this time with more urgency, their need surpassing propriety.  Josie’s hands found the back of Cruz’s neck and inched down to her open collar, exploring every available part of her warm, impossibly soft skin.  A soft whimper escaped her lips as Cruz’s tongue swept over hers, and Josie felt like a drunk teenager, intoxicated by this woman.  Cruz’s hand pulled at the tangle of Josie’s hair and her lips began a wet and messy migration along her jawline to her ear. Hearing and feeling Cruz’s heated, uneven breath was driving Josie crazy and soon Cruz’s fingers were brushing her lips to stop her from moaning. Lips replaced fingers and Josie found herself untucking Cruz’s shirt so she could have access to more skin, more Cruz.  Her fingertips coursed across rippling abs, finding a home on the marine’s back, one hand teasing at the base of her spine where her trousers began.  Cruz’s hands surveyed the curve of Josie’s breasts and a thready gasp escaped her as the wounded pilot’s fingernails grazed the length of her back.  Josie arched into Cruz’s touch, desperate for more, only to be interrupted by the obnoxious high pitched ping of a cell phone.  It was undoubtedly the alert used by the QRF.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Cruz I swear to God-“ spat Josie, disentangling herself from beneath Cruz’s shirt.

“-Fuck, I know,” groaned Cruz, resting the weight of her head on Josie’s should whilst searching for her cell.  “Once I’m home we’ll have a strict no phone policy.”  She paused, reading the message. “It’s Bobby, she’s on her way back.” 

Cruz stood up and ran both hands through her hair, exhaling through puffed cheeks as though she’d just finished a sprint.  A loud sneeze exploded from someone behind the curtain and soon the two women, with their disheveled clothes and suggestively unkempt hair, locked eyes and erupted into laughter.  Cruz hurriedly tucked her shirt into her high waisted, wide legged trousers and leaned over to flatten Josie’s hair, planting a soft kiss on her lips as she did so.  Josie just sat back and watched, marvelling at Cruz’s every movement.  As Cruz bent over to tug on her boots, Josie hummed involuntarily.  Cruz looked over her shoulder and enquired, “What is it?”

“You’re just… really fucking sexy.” Josie said, smiling smugly.

“Oh yeah?” Cruz scoffed, her dimples working over time.  She looked away, failing miserably at hiding her embarrassment with bravado.

“Yeah, come here.  Let me-“ Josie ushered her forward and reached to do up a few more buttons on Cruz’s shirt front.  As Cruz leaned in, Josie pressed gentle kisses on her neck, savouring the smell of her.  Their eyes met, and for an instant they were still, indulging in the intimate domesticity of the moment.  Cruz cleared her throat and sat back down on the bed, this time closer to Josie’s feet.  She straightened her collar and tucked her hair behind her ears, all the while biting her bottom lip through a lopsided grin.  Josie somehow looked totally cool -finally- as if she hadn’t just been a whisper away from third base.

Bobby’s boots appeared beneath the curtain and it puckered where she poked at it. “Knock, knock! Thunder, you decent?”

“Come in, Bobby,” Josie replied and Bobby pulled the curtain to one side, breaking the spell of their intimate sanctuary. 

“I’ve filled her in, she’s pretty green but you are too, soooo…” Bobby jabbed at Cruz and then looked at Josie.  “You good?  There’s a nurse comin’ round soon to give you your meds coz you’re due to tighten your screws in half an hour.”  Josie nodded.

“Ok, thanks Bobbo.” Cruz stood up and inched past Bobby, “I’ll swing by before you guys leave. Feel better, Jos.”  Cruz slipped out and pulled the curtain shut behind her. Bobby replaced Cruz on the foot of the bed and removed a Red Cross-branded vest.

“It’s fuckin’ crazy out there.” Said Bobby. “Sorry about your crib, we had to put you somewhere while you slept off the sedation-“

“ -Yeah, about that,” interrupted Josie. “Whatever happens next, I don’t want to be sedated again. You can up my pain meds if you think it’ll keep me more comfortable but I’m having really fucked up dreams every time you knock me out.”

“Ok, bring it up with your doc.  Anything you wanna talk about?” Asked Bobby.

“Nope,” Josie replied, indicating the subject was off limits. “When are we outta here?  And where’s that nurse at?”

“You feelin’ it?” Bobby stood up and pulled back the curtain, looking for a member of staff. “You already had your crutches and wheelchair confiscated, I don’t wanna have to take away Manuelos too.”

“Ha ha.” Replied Josie, sarcastically.

“To answer your question though, we’ll be heading off just after dinner.  A military ambulance is gonna drive us to Liberty, I’ll be with you the whole time.”

“Fuck I’m sorry, Bobby. This must be the most boring fucking assignment.” Josie crossed her arms in sympathetic frustration.

“Nah, you’re one of us now, Thunder. And I bet, in no time at all you’ll be draggin’ my sorry ass out of a war zone.”  Bobby dragged a chair into the cubicle and sat, stacking her feet up on Josie’s bed.

Bobby was good to have around. She was easy to talk to but also comfortable with silence.  The awkwardness between them at the beginning of her mission was a distant memory, even so, they hadn’t really delved beyond work and the superficial. Maybe that would change.

Josie had always been well liked. She made friends easily, and certainly had no trouble making friends with benefits. It was keeping them that had always been difficult. So afraid of the questions about her family -how the fuck do you bring someone home to that house?- She would exist in a world of small talk and trivia, shying away from exposing any part of herself that might invite scrutiny. She had started to believe that maybe that’s just how it would be for her, and that was fine, as long as she could fly.  But these people, Bobby, Cruz, the rest of the team - they knew everything about her, every awful, dark thing about her family, and they still wanted her on their team.  It was heartwarming but she still didn’t quite trust it.  Maybe in time she would but for now she would keep her cards close to her chest.  She understood why Cruz was so obviously eager to keep their attraction to one another on the down-low.  Not only would the ribbing from the team be relentless if they were open about it but it could easily hurt their credibility with the higher-ups, and once you were in the grey, your credibility was all you had.

Josie scrolled through the news on her phone while Bobby dozed with her cap over her face. A nurse came by to administer Josie’s meds so her pain would be sufficiently dulled to tighten the screws on her ex-fix and soon after she was nodding off. She awoke as a dinner tray was put down in front of her, Bobby nowhere to be found. She checked her phone and found several messages from her; she was doing final checks on their transport.  She nibbled on a sandwich as a text from Cruz came through.

C: Any word on your ETD? I don’t want to miss you.

She started her reply as Bobby waltzed in.  “Come on, Thunder, let’s blow this joint.  We’re gonna transfer you onto the gurney here and wheel you out that way.”

“Now?  Lemme just finish this text-“ Josie panicked.  She had to see Cruz, who knows when they’d see each other again otherwise?

“Yes, now.  Our transport’s waiting, you can text from the road,” said Bobby, impatiently patting the thin mattress of the gurney.

“Bobby, I just woke up, I haven’t been to the restroom-“ she argued.  Bobby relented.  They transferred her to the narrow gurney and stopped by the restroom on the way to the ambulance bay.  She quickly fired off a text to Cruz.

J: We’re leaving now, come to the ambulance bay if you can get away x

In no time, Josie was getting loaded in the back of the rig.  A medic was trying to tell her about the pain relief she could self administer during the four hour drive but her eyes were fixed on the sliding doors of the hospital, searching for any sign of her marine.  Suddenly they were out of her view as one of the back doors closed.  Bobby began to climb in through the remaining open door and Josie’s hopes of seeing Cruz were shattered.

As Bobby pulled the door behind her, a hand grasped at its edge, preventing it from closing. The door swung open to reveal Cruz, out of breath and with her hands on her hips.

“Bobby, get out.”

“Manuelos, what? These guys are on the clock- “

Cruz didn’t take her eyes off Josie. “I don’t give a fuck, I need a minute. Get out”

Bobby rolled her eyes and stepped down from the rig, Cruz changed places with her instantly.  She pulled a fold down seat from the wall and sat, reaching for Josie’s hands.

“You made it,” said Josie, hazy from the recent pain meds.

“I did. I was just there at the gift shop when you messaged. Put this on your nose, it’ll help it heal. And then on your leg once the stitches are out, ok?” Cruz took a small jar of Burn and Scar Balm from her pocket and inserted it into Josie’s hand.  Josie beamed at Cruz’s sudden blush.

“Thank you.  God Cruz, you’re sweet. Is that the only reason you ran out here though?” Josie’s sleepy, hooded eyes looked expectantly at Cruz’s lips.

“No, Jos”. Cruz leaned in and met Josie’s lips with her own. The kiss was passionate and firm, and felt not like a goodbye but like a promise of what was to come. She cupped the pilot’s face, pulling away from her lips. “I had to kiss you goodbye, but I’ll see you soon, ok?”

“Yeah,” Josie was having trouble with her words again. “See you soon.”  She watched as Cruz ducked out of the rig, looking back at Josie with a wave and a one-sided grin.

“You done, Casanova?  Can we go?” Asked Bobby, arms crossed and leaning against the rig.

Cruz slapped her on the shoulder. “Nowhere near done, Bobbo. But you can go!” She turned and smugly strutted back towards the fluorescent glow of the hospital doors.  Bobby stepped up into the rig and closed the door behind her and they began the long drive to Fort Liberty.