salute [h.s]

chapter 9 - notorious neighbours & aggravating assaults

Piper's heart was racing so hard in her chest that she wouldn't be surprised if it catapulted right out of her chest cavity. Her throat felt like the Sahara and she was panting unattractively. There was so much sweat covering her body that she felt like she'd just gone for a swim. And all because she had gone for a short run. She was so fucking out of shape.

She was screwed for her physical testing, which she knew was going to be coming up any time now. The flu had taken a lot longer than normal to clear out, probably because she refused to miss work, slogging off to the building each morning (or night) and putting in her ten hours. She probably wouldn't have made it through if Harry hadn't dropped by every couple of hours during his shift, bringing with him a cup of broth or a mug of tea, dutifully taking her temperature (in front of the whole fucking T branch, no less) and recording it to track the illness's progression.

By the end of the flu's run, she had wanted to kill him. She told him this and he kindly reminded her about the physical testing he was going to be scheduling coming up.

Piper took the hint and began her jogging regimen to try and get her stamina back to normal. Turns out, she had fallen more out of shape than she had originally thought. On Wednesday, the first day of her training, she had gotten two blocks before she felt like she needed to throw up. Yesterday, she had managed to do a twenty minute jog but 'jog' was really generous for the speed she was going. And today, picking up the pace made her feel like dying.

"I'm screwed," Piper muttered to herself as she pressed on the stitch in her side, hobbling the rest of her way down her street. She was going to fail all of the tests and she was going to be forced out of the training program Harry had her on. He had said to her that she needed to pass the basic physical if she wanted to keep on track for membership for One Direction. She could see her new job slipping away.

The thing that she was most disappointed about, other than missing out on being Harry's analyst, was stopping her training with Liam. They had spent another day in the armoury on Wednesday afternoon, practicing with the assault rifle once more. By the end of the session, Piper had a 73% accuracy which was a big improvement from last time around. Liam had promised that if she kept doing this well, they would start sniper shooting next week (and she may have gotten a bit too excited about that).

She didn't want to give that training up. It was something physical that she was actually good at. As much as this running sucked, she was going to need to keep it up if she wanted things to stay the same.

She glanced at her watch and groaned when she saw that she didn't have enough time to nap before she had to get ready for work. It felt like she hadn't gotten any sleep the last couple of nights. Clive, who she expected to be weird, had reached a whole new level Wednesday night. She had woken up just after midnight to him screaming at someone in his flat. It took a moment of one-sided conversation for Piper to realize he was on the phone.

She wouldn't have minded but she heard the word 'gun' and then the word 'parliament' within a couple sentences of each other. Maybe she was being paranoid but that wasn't a normal thing. That was the sort of thing that GCHQ were supposed to be picking up on.

She should have left it well enough alone but she couldn't help thinking that it was too strange to push aside. She had gotten out of bed just in time to hear his door slam open above her. She cracked her front door open just a smidge, enough that she could see out just barely. Clive, fully dressed for the first time since she had met him, stormed down the steps right past her. He had a dangerous look on his face and she could have sworn she saw him adjusting his jacket around a holster on his belt. She ducked away just in time to avoid being caught and when she cracked the door open a second later, she could just see him exiting through the back of the building.