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SYLVIE

S ylvie was about a year into her tour. As an Army medic she was serving a tour with the Navy and was currently on a sea tour. They’d been underway for a few months; she hadn’t made friends. Being a loner wasn’t unusual she always had a hard time making friends. But even with loner status, Sylvie had attracted some unwanted attention.

She was alone in the clinic when her regular antagonist stalked in, as usual overly confident. Stuffing down her inherent dislike for him, Sylvie asked, “Can I help you?”

“You’ve been avoiding me,” Taylor responded as he stepped into her personal space. He mirrored her movements as she backed up, not stopping until her back was against the wall.

“I’m not interested and don’t want you, Taylor.”

Taylor scoffed. “You’ve been on this boat for three months and I haven’t seen you with anybody else.”

“If you don’t need anything I was getting ready to close shop.”

“Is it the uniform you don’t like?” he looked down at his NWUs. His eyes came back up, hoping to catch her looking him over, “or the Navy?”

“It’s the person in the uniform,” she answered blatantly.

In a flash, Taylor slammed her against the wall, his hand around her throat. There was a shuffle at the door, Sylvie seeing what had to be, a Special Warfare Team freeze entering the clinic. Before anyone had a chance to speak Sylvie’s face shifted from mildly bored to hate.

She clasped her hands together, reached up and threw her elbows down into Taylor’s forearm, breaking his hold while his head was turned. As he turned back toward her, Sylvie palmed the back of his head driving his face into her knee. Covering his broken and bleeding nose as he fell to the ground, Sylvie stepped over him. She reached back with her right foot and drove it as hard as she could into his groin. There was a reverberated gasp from the door, mirroring Taylor’s as he moved his hands from his nose to his balls. She stepped back from Taylor’s wriggling body, looked up with a hard gaze still in place at the team frozen in the door, “I was just closing up. You’ll need to come back later.” She headed for the door, the team moving to allow her to leave.

As she hit the threshold, the team split on either side of her, she heard Taylor, “I’m gonna get you, you fucking bitch.”

Two sets of hands grabbed her as she spun around. The two farthest into the clinic faced Taylor, effectively blocking Sylvie from him. The dark haired, crystal blue eyed team member, who was clearly their leader started slowly, “Man, you should think about this. Maybe we can find somebody to look you over?”

The second SEAL, blonde and clean shaven, chimed in, “that nose surely seems broken. Maybe we can find some ice packs for everything.” The final two SEALs moved around the two holding Sylvie and into the clinic to start looking for supplies to clean up Taylor.

One of the two SEALs that restrained Sylvie, Red, dropped his hands and backed up a step, hanging around just for backup. Sylvie felt the adrenaline shakes start, her skin goose bumped. The set of hands that remained on her, instinctively started rubbing her arms, “Are you okay?” he dipped his head trying to catch her gaze.

Her jaw still set she looked up at him, “Why are you helping him?” Rave could have sworn his heart stopped when she stared up at him. She was so defiant, her dark green eyes shooting daggers, her nose flared, mouth set, a muscle in her jaw ticking. His teammate coughed quietly.

Rave blinked back into the present. “To keep you out of as much trouble as possible.” He watched her face relax the tiniest, her eyes still skeptical.

“I don’t care anymore. He hasn’t left me alone since this tour started.” She spared a look back into the clinic, “besides, I don’t think he’d tell anyone I did that to him.” She looked back up at Rave. “His ego is too fragile.” She heard Red stifle a laugh from behind her. Another set of goose bumps spread across her body. She needed to go; the adrenaline was gonna make her look weak; no way in front of these guys after what just happened. Sylvie took a half step back away from Rave’s hands, stumbled on the boots behind her. Red steadied her as she turned to head down the hall. Rave watched her disappear as his teammate headed into the clinic. Rave looked into the clinic and saw his team leader standing over Taylor, now on a table, looking at his broken nose. He glanced back at Sylvie’s back, a stupid grin on his face. He stepped into the clinic and headed toward the mop bucket to start cleaning up the floor.

Sylvie collapsed into her bunk. Crap! What the hell did I do! Fuck! She pounded on her pillow. She didn’t doubt Taylor would come after her, but she was confident he’d have to convince his friends to help without admitting she broke his nose. Never again. This assignment was not working out the way she’d hoped. She’d spend the rest of the time watching her back. She figured she would still be able to see some cool stuff during any shore leave but it would be time to go back to an Army assignment afterwards.