“Jill, Sheva, break off!” Rebecca’s voice cracked through the comms. “Get in cover and stay in cover. Let John handle this.”
John?
That Rebecca felt comfortable using Dalton’s first name was very curious - in Jill’s opinion, not in a good way. She didn’t get much time to ponder that, though. A monstrous roar rocked through the trees.
The giant went charging.
The ground thundered under those massive, gnarly feet, each step kicking up dirt and debris. BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM, footfalls low and loud and rattling Jill down to her bones as she watched the thing that had once been Jonah barrel down on Dalton.
From her spot in the brush, she could see it all clearly, the towering beast and the lone soldier facing it down. An image right out of a story book, the brave knight and the evil monster. But Jill knew the truth. Dalton wasn’t some humble hero who came to save the village. He wasn’t an ordinary man. He was a supersoldier. And a mercenary.
The giant howled and slammed his mighty fists down to crush the puny soldier - but Dalton was already gone. The beast might have been far too quick for something of its size, but Dalton was even quicker. Jill watched the man slip through those crooked, treetrunk legs, coming out of a roll and opening fire with his weapon, a beefy LMG. It belched out a spray of bullets, tearing up the gray mass of muscle that made up the giant’s back. The creature howled again, angrier now, lumbering as it turned its massive bulk around.
Dalton kept firing, steadily moving backwards as he did. Jill could see that the man was smiling.
“I can’t tell if he’s brave or just crazy.” Jill heard a soft voice murmur beside her.
Agent Alomar, Sheva, was peering out over Jill’s shoulder, stunned by what she was witnessing. Jill felt a brief urge to roll her eyes until she remembered Sheva hadn’t seen Dalton in action before. She didn’t know the things Jill knew. It only made sense the woman would be in awe.
But if Jill had to listen to her fawn over the guy…
“He’s something, all right.” Jill muttered under her breath.
“Does he always pull stunts like this?” Sheva asked, having heard her.
Jill didn’t answer. Everything she wanted to say was too impolite.
The ground shook again as the giant swung his fists like mallets, trying to squish the man peppering his face and body with high caliber lead. Wild, angry strikes, coming fast and graceless. Dalton was dodging them all, sweeping aside with ease. Jill swore she could hear him laughing.
A game. This was just a game to him. It was more than just bristling along the back of Jill’s neck. It was heat, steaming just beneath her skin.
The monster that had once been Jonah had Dalton backed up against a tree now. The beast let out a nasty snarl and brought a massive fist down like a meteor, right at the base of the trunk, making splinters of the wood. Thousands of thin, jagged shards flying out in a deadly hail, sending Jill and Sheva ducking back behind their own tree for cover.
“Damn!” Sheva cried, covering her face as the splinters flew by on both sides. Jill could only barely hear her over the giant’s howling.
Jill frowned, feeling a dip in her gut. Dalton had taken on a horde of Lickers with no problem. It was stupid to worry. And Jill was the last woman to worry about Dalton. Still…
“Rebecca, do you have a visual?” Jill flipped her comms on, inching to peek around her cover. “Dalton, is he-”
The sound of steady, sustained machine gun fire answered her before she could even finish. A lightness swept into Jill’s chest, the tension seeping from her shoulders and back. She almost rolled her eyes.
“Nevermind.” She said, flipping the comms off.
The stream of gunfire continued, belching out through the branches and the brush. Shorter bursts now. Dalton was conserving his ammo. All the while, the giant snarled and snapped, each footfall rumbling through the soil.
Jill dared a peek around their cover and saw that the giant Jonah was lumbering slower now. Deep red blood was trickling from dozens, hundreds of bullet wounds peppered all across the ruined hide of his bulging torso. Dalton was finally wearing the big bastard down.
“We should do something.” Sheva patted Jill on her arm. “Take some heat off of Dalton or-”
“No point.” Jill wavered her off. Then she saw the woman’s bewildered expression and let out a sigh. “Trust me, he’ll be fine. He’s survived worse. And it looks like he has things covered anyway.”
Indeed, the hulking monster roars had weakened into strained growls and pained grunts. The towering mass of ragged gray skin and red muscle swayed to and fro, stumbling on heavy feet, slowly, slowly losing balance. Even the savage rage that had burned so hot in those yellow eyes had dimmed.
The beast that had once been Jonah lurched forward then, dropping onto its knees. The whole forest shook. The beast let out a long, pained groan. Like a mammoth finally worn down by chasing hunters. It was almost pitiful - until Jill remembered who it was. A warlord. An arms dealer. A would-be bioterrorist. Brought down by his own god complex… and hundreds of high-caliber rounds. And there was Dalton, taking the chance to climb up onto Jonah’s back. Jill watched as the man steadily made his way to stand at the curve between the beast’s shoulders, right where it started into its thickened neck. She saw Dalton crack a sharp smile as he leveled his machine gun right at the back of Jonah’s head.
Jill thought she would have found the move garish. Beneath the dignity of their work. But as her focus fell upon the bleeding giant again, she found she had no more sympathy left. Men like Jonah were the reason the world was as screwed up as it was these days. And Jonah wasn’t even a man anymore.
Men stand trial. Monsters get put down.
There came the thunder of gunfire. Dalton held the trigger down until his magazine was empty - though Jonah was gone long before that. Nothing left but a small mountain of dead weight.
Silence settled over the forest. Out of the corner of her eye, Jill noticed Sheva shaking her head.
“You weren’t joking.” Sheva whispered. “I’ve never seen anyone pull off something like that.”
Jill bit her tongue.
A moment later, the two came out of cover, guns at the ready just in case. Dalton came hopping down from the giant’s back, looking only a little proud of himself… which was still too much for Jill’s liking.
Dalton kicked at the hulking corpse with his boot. It didn’t move. He turned and flashed her and Sheva a broad, punchable smile.
“Target down.” He said, chuckling.
- - -
For as huge and ungainly as Jonah had made himself, swinging his giant fists in that feral rage, it was a miracle that none of the Umbrella barrels had been damaged in the fight. Still, the team kept their distance but to snap pictures. Handling was a job left for the disposal unit.
The hard part was over. Now it was a routine clean-up, cataloguing evidence for the After Action Report, and settling her still-buzzing nerves.
Rebecca kept looking back to that mountain of a corpse, all ragged gray skin and spots of exposed red muscle. That ugly face half-buried in the dirt, with one yellow eye wide open and empty.
Another beast slain. How many did that make for her so far? Dozens? Hundreds? Zombies, Crawlers, Dogs, Plants, all manner of vicious things, all trying to kill her. Yet Rising Rookie Rebecca was still standing. Though she couldn’t really take credit for this one, could she?
Such is what held the other half of her attention. When Rebecca’s eyes weren’t on the giant corpse, they were flicking towards the man that made it that way. John Dalton, his beefy machine gun set aside, was sitting on a weapons crate off at the edge of the rebel camp. All relaxed, all smiles, doing nothing while watching the rest of the team was occupied by their busywork.
Today she’d let the slacking slide. He did save their lives. Hell, she’d have given the man a big smooch right then and there if not for the onlookers. The militants in custody, the rest of the team… Jill.
The smooching would have to wait. Until then… a genuine thank you would have to do.
“Impressive work.” Rebecca started as she came up to the man. She crossed her arms, giving the hero of the hour a deliberate once-over. “You even kept your shirt on this time.”
John chuckled. It was a low, deep rumble, shockingly sweet on the ears. He gave her a look-over of his own, though he didn’t bother to hide his interest the way she had.
“You sound disappointed. Hoping for a skin-show?” He let his back rest against the tree trunk behind him, crossing his arms as she did. On purpose, surely, what with how the fabric of his sleeves stretched over all the firm muscle of his arms and shoulders.
Nothing Rebecca hadn’t seen before. But it sure was easy on the eyes.
“Hoping to stay employed.” She retorted. “At this rate, you’ll put the rest of us out of work.”
“Relax. Gionne and her people like having you girl scout types on payroll. And I like having an audience.”
“Of course you do.”
“Plus it’s good to have people to do all the cataloguing and write up all the paperwork. You know, the nerd stuff.” John’s eyes had that damnable shine again. The kind that had Rebecca wound up and steaming.
The medic chewed on her tongue for a moment, trying to will the warmth across her cheeks away.
“Quite the pep talk.” Rebecca made her tone dry as sand. Inside was a different story. Lightness, weightless, and twisting all around her belly.
John still smiled. Like he knew. He gave a half-hearted shrug.
“Well… they don’t pay me for my personality.”
“You have your charm. Buried deep inside.”
Rebecca had to be careful. This was drifting dangerously close to flirting. And to make things even more complicated, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. It was Jill coming up to see them.
The look on her friend’s face could almost be described as suspicion. The disdain she had for John, however, was plain as day. Rebecca straightened her posture, reflexively taking a half-step away from John. A silly move that Jill no doubt caught - the quirk at her brow told as much. Fortunately, Jill only had work to speak on.
“We’re just about wrapped up here. The disposal team is five minutes out, they’ll take the barrels off our hands. We can handle the guns.” Jill turned and regarded the lounging mercenary with a cold look. “Planning on lending a hand?”
Rebecca tensed, fearing an argument. But if the edge in Jill’s tone bothered the man, he didn’t show it. John sat up with a half-hearted wave.
“Yeah, yeah, don’t get your panties in a twist, Valentine. Just thought I earned a break, is all.”
“Don’t tell me the big superhero is tired?” Jill prodded back with mock sympathy.
Again, Jill’s sharp tongue may as well have been made of brittle ice, crumbling against John’s firm surety. The man stood up, his full height bringing him to loom over both women. Across his solid, rugged features broke a smile. It was confident, amused, and knowing all at once.
“You haven’t seen me break a real sweat. Trust me.” For a split second, his eyes flickered over to Rebecca. The warmth was back in her cheeks then and she prayed, prayed that Jill was too vexed by John to notice. The mercenary clapped his hands together, shocking Rebecca from her storming thoughts. “Back to work then.”
He cracked his neck and went off towards the weapons crates. While the rest of the team was carrying them off, two men to a crate, John seemed to be of a mind that he wasn’t done showing off for the day. Rebecca and Jill watched - Jill scoffing - as the mercenary hauled up for himself two crates. One for each shoulder. For him it looked as easy as lifting cardboard.
A silence settled between them as he carried the crates off to the humvees. Only when it started to become really awkward did Jill speak.
“Getting friendly with the merc?” She asked. Pointedly.
The heat across her face remained, but Rebecca felt a different sort just then. It bristled across the back of her neck.
“He saved our lives, Jill. Again.”
“Because he was paid to.”
Jill gave Rebecca a look and held it for a long moment. It seemed like she had some more choice words, but bit her tongue. Finally, Jill let out a huff, her nostrils flaring. She turned to the rest of the team, calling out loudly. “Let’s wrap this up, people. We’re out in five.”
Jill marched off, her body tense. Too tense, in Rebecca’s professional opinion.
- - -
The ride back to civilization was calm. So calm that Rebecca could almost believe they all didn’t nearly get crushed by a mutated giant warlord.
Some members of the team weren’t so lucky, she couldn’t forget. Not nearly as many losses as in Toronto, but they stung anyway. In spite of that, Rebecca felt some satisfaction. They took another bio-terrorist off the board. That had to count for something. Agent Alomar agreed, at least. She and her team were on their way back to West Africa HQ, surely to be greeted as heroes.
Rebecca and the other Yanks would likely get a different sort of welcome. Fat paychecks, sure, but Rebecca wasn’t expecting a parade in their honor. Today was just another day at the office. Tomorrow there’d be another bioweapon and another warlord.
This was why Rebecca didn’t like waiting. It gave her too much time to think.
The hotel wasn’t exactly the Ritz, so there wasn’t much to distract her anyhow. Not even the quirks of local television. Rebecca counted her blessings besides - at least Gionne sprung for an actual hotel. It was better than sleeping in tents or in the airstrip hangar. No worries about bugs crawling into her sleeping bag. The only thing she had to worry about here was not drinking the tap water.
Still, she was restless. Pacing, pacing, pacing about in front of the bed. The bad guys were dead or in cuffs, and here she was, all nerves. And not a single bit of it was from fear.
Rebecca chewed her lip. She was a grown woman, damn it. The days of the pipsqueak teen medic were long behind her. If she didn’t want to bunk alone, she sure as hell didn’t have to.
She went for the door. All nerves and all set.
“Nerd stuff. I’ll show you nerd stuff…”
Rebecca was already imagining the look on the man’s face when she opened the door and-
Oh.
John was already there.
“Hey, Doc.” He pushed off the wall he was leaning against, the dim lights of the hall casting him in a faint, warm halo. Out of his gear, he was dressed casual. Black shirt, grey sweats, all wonderfully fit on his Adonis body. There was that glimmer in his eyes, the kind that meant he knew she was drinking him in. “Looking for some company?”
She was, but that didn’t mean he needed the satisfaction of knowing. It was only a split-second later that Rebecca realized just how she was dressed. Shorts and a tank top. Nothing else besides. Not even a bra.
“God.” Her heart nearly came jumping out of her throat as she spoke. She snatched John by his wrist, using all her might to drag his tall, muscled ass inside. “Get in before someone sees.”
“Well I’ll be damned.” He laughed, humoring her by stumbling further into her room. She slammed the door shut behind them, but that only amused him even more. “Am I your dirty secret?”
“Shut up.” Rebecca whirled around on him, finger pointing with menace. “And wipe that damn smile off your face.”
John recoiled playfully, hand over his heart. “Ouch. Didn’t think I’d get this cold of a reception until we got back stateside.”
Rebecca channeled Jill with the scoff that came next.
“Oh, please. You’re Excella’s golden boy. You expect me to believe they’re not rolling out the red carpet for you back at base?”
“You’ve never been there for her debrief.” He said, only half-paying attention to what she was saying. John, as she expected, was much more interested in her. He was moving in close, those big hands going for her hips and the sliver of skin left bare between her shorts and top.
She let him do it, too. She’d admonish herself for it afterwards. For now, though… his hands were firm, pleasantly so. And so warm.
“Aw, poor baby superhero.” Rebecca gave a mock pout. John’s hands slipped around to the small of her back, creeping up underneath her tank top. If he didn’t already know she didn’t have a bra, he sure as hell knew now. Warm and possessive, feeling up at her lithe, little body, John’s roaming hands had Rebecca sighing softly. “Maybe you’ll like my debrief better…”
John’s mouth was already at her throat, doing diligent work there. He grunted in approval at her pitch and Rebecca could feel the rumbling in his chest. And the hardness down low, the one hidden in his sweats and brushing against her thighs, she felt that too. God, she felt it.
His kisses trailed along her chin before finding her mouth. That kiss was longer, hungrier, and nearly took Rebecca’s breath away. Left her dizzy by the time he broke off.
“Are we gonna touch on me taking down the big ugly bad guy all by myself?” He murmured against her lips. “Because I feel that’s a really important detail. Shouldn’t leave that out of the report.”
Her heart was thumping hard. Her blood was up and hot. Her whole body, hot. And somehow the man dragged a laugh out of her. She wanted to hit him. Instead, she settled for nibbling on his lower lip. The way he groaned and bucked his hips into her was her small victory.
“Sure. Sure.” Rebecca swiped at his mouth with her tongue. Stole a kiss for herself while John’s hands went for her ass.
Her shorts lasted a paltry few seconds before he was slipping them down her legs. Rebecca felt a flash of daring and slipped her hand down the front of his sweats. Felt that thing, thick and hard and hot. Her fingers curled around it and the flash that went through John’s eyes had her heart pumping even faster.
“Call me old-fashioned…” Rebecca breathed, her voice low and husky. “But I think my big brave hero deserves a reward.”
“Yeah?” John all but growled.
“Oh, yeah.”
John was upon her then. A starving wolf, fierce and feral and focused. Then Rebecca was on the bed, on her back, and John was looming over her. A dark shape of power and lust. Kissing her. Kissing her throat, kissing her breasts, her belly, then back up to her mouth again. Swallowing up her gasps, her moans, even the tiny little squeaks when his fingers went between her legs.
Rebecca could hardly think, except for remembering that the hotel was cheap and had thin walls.
She would have to keep it down. For Jill’s sake.