Love Began with the First Meeting

Before Maggie could say anything more, Edgar replied with an ominous chill in his voice. "Could you just shut up, Maggie?"

She closed her mouth hard, looking at Edgar's grim face. A voice inside her whispered, 'Why the long face? Do you see this as the training ground?' But whatever her thoughts were, her face betrayed nothing.

After all they were in the army, and even though the man before her was no longer a Major General, he still carried two more golden stars than her on his epaulets. He was still the captain of the Eagle. This thought ought to have brought Maggie some comfort, but the truth was that she felt even more distraught than before.

"Go get Daniel and Cathy," Edgar ordered with barely a glance at Maggie.

With expedience in mind, Maggie looked at the landline phone nearby. Her first thought was 'Why would he send me over to base when he could get hold of them with a call?' She hesitated and then moved to the phone.

"This is an order! Go now!" Edgar said with emphasis, his face barely concealing the pain which he felt when exerting himself to speak.

"Yes, sir!" Maggie stood to attention at once, her heels clicking sharply on the polished floor as she saluted. With another look at Edgar she went back to the Eagle.

Barely minutes after Maggie had left, Tompson arrived with charts, and a nurse followed right behind him. After he examined Edgar's injuries, he sighed, "Captain, why can't you pay more attention to your wounds? You come here so often lately. It feels like we could reminisce about old times."

Edgar made no sound as Tompson checked him over. Whenever he registered pain he frowned so lightly as if he wasn't the one who suffered. "In the Eagle, everybody gets scars here and there." As his dark, thoughtful eyes fell on Tompson he added, "Including you, even a doctor, right?"

Tompson shrugged, smiling. "It was just an accident."

Edgar chuckled softly and asked him, "When did you return? Why didn't you tell me about it?"

"You were on a mission when I got back. I tried to find you the first thing when I got here, but only to be disappointed. Then I got dragged to the sniper company. I was drunk all day and almost screwed up my work." Tompson signed the medical chart and handed it to the nurse. "Get the medicines ready and inject it in an hour."

"Got it!" The nurse, who had just graduated from military medical school, was smart enough to know that Tompson wanted to have a talk with Edgar. She saluted them and then discreetly left.

Tompson pulled up a chair and sank into it. "I have heard from Hackett that you ripped your wounds open before. And just now you got out of bed, against doctor's orders?"

Edgar gave him a wry smile and ignored the subject. Tompson was a smart guy, and he had Maggie on his mind, so he vaguely understood why Edgar behaved like this. Tompson hated to admit it, but the thing was, fate seldom granted a person a second chance. Back then, he and Edgar had arrived at the scene at the same time. Compared with the members of the Commando he had been no more than a green boy and all he could do was watch. Otherwise, there was no telling who would have been the one that managed to carry Maggie out in his arms.

Although Tompson had missed his chance on that occasion, he had tried his best to make up for it. He had changed his decision not to join the army and became the person that he was now because of Maggie. It was because she had claimed that she would marry a soldier, since soldiers were the hottest men in her mind.

The purchasing personnel of the hospital gave Maggie a ride back to the Eagle. She was lucky enough to bump into Cathy, who had just returned from her exploration task. Then Maggie took her instructor's car to get Daniel. "Instructor, Edgar wants to see you and Daniel," Maggie explained.

Cathy grunted and then sighed in exasperation. She looked at Maggie with concern. "Once you step into this world, there is no turning back. All that is waiting out there for you is more troubles."

Maggie didn't seem to mind this very much. She leaned back against the seat, her eyes looking off into space as she seemed distracted. She had just been away for a few days, but it seemed to her that a generation had passed. Cathy glanced at Maggie. "Have your commanders suggested you go to see the counselor?"

"What for?" Maggie asked distantly, her mind wandering. Then she seemed to recall something and added, "I am fine. I didn't kill anyone myself." She was so mad at that moment that she would have happily done the killing if Brian's men hadn't arrived in time. Her words made Cathy chuckle. "This isn't about whether you have killed them yourself or not. Take my advice and go see the counselor." Knowing perfectly well how stubborn Maggie was, she stressed after a short pause, "That is an order." Maggie sighed silently. It seemed to her everything was always going well in the army, save that she had to obey commands at all times without argument.

"Yes, instructor," answered Maggie, pulling herself upright in her seat.

They arrived at Falcon Commando's training ground five minutes later. Daniel and his team were busy doing the obstacle course. His grim expression softened as he saw Cathy.

His teammates loved having Cathy there. Her appearance could transform Daniel instantly from a devil into an obedient kitty.

"Excuse me, sir." Maggie got out of the car and gave Daniel a salute.

"Speak!" he replied formally, aware that the rest of the squad were watching.

"Captain Edgar wants to see you and Instructor Cathy, sir."

"Um." Daniel gestured for Seahawk and the others to continue with the training.

The news that Edgar was injured had spread among the team members, but only Seahawk and Gerd knew the details. Corporal Sparrow Hawk, who had been the biggest headache in S Army, saw that Maggie was here. He glanced at Daniel and broke the silence. "Major, are you all right?" Sparrow Hawk grinned at Maggie. "And how is Captain Edgar doing?"

A dozen voices all began to speak at once. They all tried to find out more about Edgar's situation from Maggie, or asked her to take care of Edgar. There was a sense of family among the squad and they were naturally concerned by the injury to their commanding officer. Daniel let them prattle on for a short time. Two minutes later, he cut in with a commanding tone, "How about throwing a tea party here?"

The voices vanished as quickly as they had appeared. This was the Falcon Commando's style. They thought fast, and reacted even quicker.

"Seahawk!"

"Yes, sir!"

Daniel seemed not at all to be Cathy's kitty now and had donned the devil's face again. He was Nighthawk, the soul of the Falcon. His sharp eyes swept over his mud-splashed teammates. "A cross-country run for everyone after all the training is done. Whoever can't finish it in time has to do 500 push-ups tonight before supper."

"Yes, sir!" they chorused, not daring to complain at the exhausting load.

Daniel turned away and gestured for Maggie to get in the car with a glance. Soon the three of them were heading toward the S Army's hospital in the dazzling military SUV.

All the way there, Daniel and Cathy completely ignored Maggie and spoke about a military maneuver scheduled for half a month from now. Occasionally they brought some family gossip into their conversation. 00