It had been sometime after she?d pulled her tenth partner from what could have turned into his doom when she?d decided she?d had enough with co-operative missions. The Commander had argued until he?d been blue in the face but, in the end, he?d agreed not to lump her with anymore partners... even though it went against one of the unwritten rules of the Menagerie Unit.
No soldier goes in alone so that no soldier gets left behind.
There had been times ?years and years ago- where she?d relied on her own wits, on her own skill. Unarmed, vulnerable, she?d been sent into warzones to fight the fight that had never been hers. Procuring weapons on site, sneaking through the undergrowth, clubbing the nearest enemy with an empty Magnum...
Reminiscing made her realize how old she?d become. Nearly twenty-one years old. Shocking.
Had she ever thought she?d live this long? Even the very, very best soldiers didn?t live long, healthy lives. Some went off the rails. Some were killed in action. Some just had bad luck. And some just lost sight of why they had started to fight in the first place.
She supposed she missed those times, those troubled and vicious times, because they had helped her form the character she was now. She wouldn?t have been Eve if she didn?t know how to snipe or dress a field wound or knock someone out with their own weapon. She wouldn?t have been Eve if she hadn?t fallen in love on a warzone.
She believed in love, oh yes. And she wondered how she?d survived in those years with Battleaxe, living a life without love. She couldn?t imagine living that life again, not when she had had a taste of what love was like. And it had happened so strangely.
It seemed like everything had been leading her up to this moment, this point, this minute.
?Will you take this man as your lawfully wedded-husband? To love, honour, cherish, as long as you both shall live??
To these words.
?I do.?
To this instant, with all the happy faces and all the cheerful laughter and the tears that sped down her mother?s face and seeing her father in his best suit and tie. And watching the sunshine glint on the wedding band when it slipped onto her finger and seeing it glint again as she slipped its mate onto Will?s.
And hearing those words ? ?I do? - and knowing that it was real.
He?d been her partner before he?d been her lover, and then he?d become both. He?d joined her on the battlefield and it had been too late to tell him to turn tail and go it on his own. In Russia, amidst the wreckage, they?d slipped into a routine.
For a while, she thought he?d been able to read her mind. If she needed another clip, he slammed it into her gun for her; if she wanted to change direction, he was already stepping to the side so they could swap positions. Like they were one soldier in two bodies. It had been deeper than instinct, deeper than understanding, deeper than knowing. She still didn?t know what it was that had made them work so great together in battle.
No soldier goes in alone so that no soldier gets left behind.
It made a lot of sense, even if she hadn?t thought it applied to her.
?You may kiss the bride.?
She could charge in, guns blazing, in another country entirely, and she would never be thoroughly alone now. And she knew, as the kiss deepened and warmed and as the congregation cat-called and whistled, that she?d never be left behind either.