Page 16 of Trusting the Team

“Hang out with my team, workout.”

“Obviously,” Maddox muttered.

“What?”

“Nothing.” She was moving over his shoulder now. “Do you draw?”

“I doodle,” Ferret answered modestly.

“Daniel,” she looked up into his eyes, “this is a little more than doodling.”

“What about yours?” he asked lifting an eyebrow at her sleeves.

“I doodle,” she answered back. Her right arm was a full-length side view graphic novel style Joker holding Harley Quinn from behind, her arms reaching behind caressing his head. Her left arm looked like a battle of fire and ice. So much color and contrast.

“You ‘doodle’ in beautiful colors,” Ferret replied.

“Thanks!” She worked in silence for a while as she traced down his shoulder. He watched her as she worked patiently two-thirds down his forearm. He watched her muscles flex and hold as she turned her head to see angles and continue working. “You're staring,” she interrupted without looking up.

“Not sorry.”

She sat up, looking him in the eyes. They sat silently for a minute until she backed down. His stare was honest, not lewd, she was not accustomed to that. “Hop off, I'll reset this so you can lay down.” Ferret hopped off and watched her unabashedly as she manipulated the chair into a new position, again watching her muscles and tendons work. She was about Dari's size but where Dari looked small and lethal, Maddox seemed more fragile. He was not sure how she had survived in the world of tattoo shops so far.

As he laid down, Ferret asked, “You’re a fan of Harley Quinn?”

“I feel like I can identify a bit. Biggest bonus being it gives most guys some pause.” Ferret did his best to look at her. She elaborated, “they think I’m crazy and/or I have an equally crazy boyfriend.”

It clicked, bad relationship and guarding at work. “Maybe She-hulk should've been considered,” Ferret replied, “kept the guy out of it.”

“Maybe. Are you asking if there is one?”

“No, I suspect if there was someone, they'd have married you already to keep assholes off you.”

“Humpf,” Maddox responded.

“Do you ever listen to music?” Ferret asked after a few minutes.

“Sometimes. But I tend to repeat a song for hours and that doesn't typically go over well so I wait till I'm by myself.”

“What do you listen to for that long?”

“Whatever is right at the time.”

Team’s Mission

Lowell’s teamwent active as Dari and he married. Within a year Dari was transferred from analyst to agent. She was selected for a mission assignment to Afghanistan due to speaking Pashto. Lowell's team was sent to the Pakistan border to kill or retrieve a HVT.

Dari was sent to Bagram. She was assisting with counterinsurgency operations. They had identified location of HVT. One morning Dari was out on a perimeter run, an 8-mile circle. The north side of the loop was least populated due to burn pits. A group was running opposite of her. “Guys!” Dari broke cadence to sprint into them, jumping into Trey's arms.

Lowell, who had prepped for Dari, stood looking like an idiot, “the hell?” Everyone laughed as Trey put Dari down and she stepped forward to Lowell.

“Come here,” Dari hooked her finger at him, he lowered his head, and she grabbed his neck lowering his lips to hers. When he straightened, she simply climbed up him, her legs wrapping his waist; her lips never leaving his.

“Alright, all right. Dari, we love you, but we got to get to work,” Chaos moaned. Lowell separated himself with a growl at his teammate.

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