*

When the explosions start, Tacoma immediately clicks his comm. unit, then winces as static crackles directly into his ear. Undeterred, he clicks the unit again and again, willing to hear his sister’s voice through the interference. “Tanski, come in. Dakota, if you hear me, come in.”

As more explosions rip through the night, Tacoma looks over at the Colonel with wide eyes. She holds a hand out. “Let me try.”

Slipping the earpiece from his ear, Tacoma hands the unit over to Allen. She situates the piece, then clicks to open transmission. “Allen to Rivers. Allen to Rivers. Do you read me. Over.” Static answers her, and she tries again. “Allen to Rivers. Dakota, Manny, damn it, if you’re receiving me, answer.”

Nothing.

She shoots a quick look over her shoulder. “Mendoza, do you have a fix on their position?”

The young corporal looks at her with a hangdog expression. “No, Ma’am. Nothing but interference across the board.”

“Shit.” Allen’s epithet was softly spoken, but Tacoma’s sharp hearing picked it up, and he shared with her a brief look of concern and commiseration. “Allen to Rivers. Dakota, can you read me.”

Another moment passes in silence.

Tacoma shoulders his weapon and straightens his jacket.

“What are you doing?” Allen asks, eyes narrowed.

“I’m gonna find them. Now.”

“Wait.” She doesn’t back down from the tall man’s fierce glare. Swallowing her Colonel’s pride, she deliberately softens both face and voice. “Please, wait. You don’t even know where they are!”

“She’s my tanski. My sister. I don’t need a map. I just need this.” A meaty fist thumps against his heart. “I’ll find them.”

Static crackles. And then….

“…ta he…rea…u.”

“Dakota! Dakota, can you read me? Come back.” She knows her voice has a note of rather obvious desperation in it, but she can’t seem to dredge up the will to care.

Tacoma freezes, turns, and looks back at the Colonel, who nods and beckons him back while listening through the static to Koda’s broken words.

“…read…Colonel…t….”

“Dakota, you’re breaking up. Listen to me. We can hear explosions coming from your last noted position. Are you okay?”

“…fine….mines….we’re….”

Allen’s eyes widen. “Excuse me? I didn’t copy. Did you say ‘mines’?”

The static clears for one miraculous moment. “I said mines, Colonel. Anti-tank mines.”

“But where? How?”

“From the supply sergeant at the base. Now if you’ll excuse me….”

“Wait a minute!” Maggie yells as Tacoma hides a chuckle behind a faked cough. “You’re saying you took anti tank mines from the base? Do you know how dangerous that was?!? You could have been killed!!”

Dakota’s return transmission is succinct. “I do, we weren’t, they worked, and with all respect, Colonel,” Dakota deliberately emphasizes Maggie’s title, “yell at me later. We’re in the middle of a white-out here and I need to get my team to safety. Rivers out.”

Allen looks down at the dead comm. link in her hands, then up at Tacoma, whose dark eyes are shining with mirth.

“Do you find this in the least funny, Sergeant?” she snaps.

Tacoma sobers slightly. “Respectfully, Colonel, this is Dakota we’re talking about. No one commands her.” A slight smirk curves his lips. “Unless she wants them to, of course.”

Allen simply glares.

*

Dakota continues forward as she clicks the comm. link closed. Manny, who has heard the entire conversation, turns his head in her direction, though the snow is still far too furious for him to clearly see her, only half a foot away. “Ooooh, she’s not gonna like that, cuz.”

“Let her fire me if she wants to,” Koda mutters in return, trying fruitlessly to peer through the swirling snow. “I just want this damn squall to stop.”

As if only awaiting those very words, the snow does just that. It doesn’t just taper off. It stops completely, vanishing as if it had never been.

Manny comes to a halt and blinks. The abrupt end of the storm reveals their APC not more than ten feet away, blanketed in at least eight inches of newfallen snow. “Holy Mother,” he breathes before turning to his cousin, eyes wide as saucers. “I can’t believe you just did this. I knew you were half Hupaki glake. I fucking knew it!”

Koda rolls her eyes at him. “You’ve got the ears for one.”

Blushing slightly, Manny instinctively reaches up for the aforementioned appendages. “Not fair.”

“Take that up with Makha Ina. Right now, I just want to get home. You drive.”

“You got it, cuz.”

She looks to Kirsten, who is staring at her with an odd expression on her face. “What? What is it?”

Reaching up to turn her implants back on, she removes the ear bud from her ear and takes a step closer to Dakota. “You’re bleeding.”

Koda looks down, for the first time noticing the red stain covering much of her left chest. Her cammo suit is raggedly torn and fresh blood oozes slowly from the hole. “Oh. It’s just a scratch.”

“How did it happen?”

“From the tree that fell. I think.”

Their eyes meet. “The one that would have hit me if you hadn’t shielded me with your body. Why did you do that?”

Koda shrugs. “Because I could.” It is a simple reply, and the truth of it shines through in her words, and eyes, leaving Kirsten to look at her in wonder.

Manny ends the moment with a quick toot of the horn. “Come on, guys! Time’s a’wasting.”

As Koda starts forward, more blood flows from the wound, soaking her cammos. Kirsten stops her with a touch to the wrist.

“That’s more than a scratch. Sit in the back with me. I’ll tend it as we’re driving back to the base.”

“It’ll be fine,” Koda demurs. “It can wait.”

“Please.”

One simple word, so softly spoken, opens up a side of the young scientist that Dakota had long suspected was there, but had never really seen. Until now. She smiles, a cockeyed half-grin that Kirsten privately finds rather attractive. “Okay.”

*

“Geez, Manny!” Koda hisses as the APC hits yet another deep rut, bouncing its occupants, particularly the ones in the back seat, around like rag dolls. “We’re not at the local tractor pull, you know.”

“Sorry, cuz. The roads are a bitch out here. I’m doing my best.”

“It’s alright. Just…try to be a little smoother.”

“You got it.”

Kirsten pulls up the heavy first-aid kit from its place bolted to the floorboards of the armored vehicle. Popping the clips, she opens the metal lid and peers inside. Her hands set upon a pair of bandage scissors, and she pulls them out, then looks up at Dakota. “If you can unzip your cammos, I’m going to have to cut your thermals away from the wound.”

Nodding, Koda unzips the suit to just above her navel.

Kirsten quickly averts her gaze as she gets an unexpected view of Dakota’s small, firm breasts, clearly outlined against the thin, skin-tight fabric. She can feel her face go a flaming red and guesses Koda can likely feel the heat of it from her place against the opposite door. “I…um….”

“It’s ok,” Koda replies softly, smiling. “Like I said, this can wait.”

“No.” Kirsten clears her throat and tries again. “No. I can….” Forgoing any further attempts at talking, she grabs the proverbial bull by the horns, reaches for the neckline of Dakota’s thermals, and gently cuts down to mid chest. Peeling the blood-sodden fabric away, she exposes the deep, sluggishly bleeding cut. She then tracks up to meet Koda’s eyes. “It’s um…it’s….”

“On my breast. I know.” She smiles again. “If you can wet down a bandage, I’ll get some of this blood off, then tape a pressure dressing to it. It’ll hold until we reach base.”

“I’ll do it,” Kirsten replies firmly, trying desperately to rein in her professional demeanor, which seems to have fled with the rest of her common sense. God, you’d think I was some giddy schoolgirl. Get your act together, Kirsten. You offered to help. So help. Think about her breasts later.

And she would. Of that, she was sure.

Forcing her hands to remain steady, she uncaps a bottle of sterile water and wets a dressing sponge with it. She begins to blot at the wound, though the task is made harder by the fact that she has nothing to purchase on. Manny driving them like he’s riding a steer in a rodeo doesn’t help matters any.

Finally, blessedly, most of the blood is cleaned away. Kirsten then unwraps a sterile 4X4, doubles it, then doubles it again and presses it tight against the wound. The APV chooses this moment to hit its biggest rut yet, and in pure instinct, Kirsten lifts her free hand and cups Koda’s entire breast in order to maintain pressure on the wound.

“I guess this means we’re married now.”

The amusement in the low voice causes Kirsten to realize the positioning of her hands, and she looks up at Koda with something very akin to horror blazing from her features.

Dakota can’t help the soft laugh that escapes. “Relax,” she soothes. “You’re doing a good job.”

Kirsten’s fiery blush deepens.

Koda rolls her eyes. “Breathe,” she orders softly. “I can’t have my nurse passing out on me like this. What would people think?”

The vehicle hits yet another rut and Kirsten, already off balance, falls forward, diving nose first into Koda’s warm cleavage. Dakota’s arms come around her instinctively, protecting her from further jostling as the APV stutters and bucks its way down the unplowed road.

“Could this possibly get any worse?” comes the plaintive wail from between her breasts.

Koda laughs out loud. “Well, we could be walking.”

*

Wearing a freshly pressed jumpsuit she got from the base hospital, Koda steps quietly into the darkened, cool house. Her head is lightly buzzing from the four or five shots of pure octane that her brother and cousin had all but poured down her throat in celebration. Of what, she still isn’t quite sure, but their good spirits and warm companionship was a fine enough inducement to stay. Her wound is neatly stitched and dressed, and quite complacent beneath the numbing weight of the alcohol she’s consumed.