Grace was pissed, alone scare, tired of being locked up, and STILL in love with Parker. She was furious, and everyone knew it. The strong, scary Grace was coming out, and Jake and Norm were kind of terrified.

"God damn it all. I knew this was wrong, I knew it felt wrong. I let Parker fucking micromanage my whole project, I let my emotions take over, and it's going to cost all of these people their lives." Grace's fury was incredible, aimed towards everyone. "Selfridge and his stupid fucking men, they didn't give a shit about these people. I never should have trusted him."

"Or slept with him." Jake said. She whirled around on him.

"And you! What were you thinking, joining in with Quaritch and his lackeys. I can't believe it, I even showed the whole layout of the Tree of Souls and how to fucking get there, I can't understand why I trusted you-"

Jake was the one getting angry now, pacing back and forth. However, his anger was quieter and more reserved than Grace's fury. "You think I'm not upset? That I didn't get my own chance to warn them? The woman I'm mated with for the rest of my life is in that tree, and there's nothing I can do about it."

Norm was just sitting, watching the two stare each other down, when he saw Trudy roll through the door with a cart. The only word Norm caught was "steak," and then the officer was on the floor, with a gun to the back of his head. She called in Max, who opened the door and began to rush them to the airlock. When Norm and Trudy ran ahead, Jake pulled Max aside.

"Stay here. I need someone I can trust on the inside." Max nodded and got himself back to his desk. He watched as the camera trained on Norm and Trudy, and then Jake and Grace as Grace lifted Jake's chair into the craft.

Quaritch caught wind of this and immediately kicked open the door in a psychotic rage. He used a machine gun to rip holes into the ship, the sounds of bullets ricocheting off of metal assaulting their ears. As they flew away towards site 26, Jake happened to look back. Grace was bleeding, and he could see it was a bad wound. He felt a sharp pain in his heart and swung around to help her.

"Trudy! Grace was hit! We have to go back!" He turned to Norm, who was panicking. "Get the trauma kit. We gotta patch her up." Norm rustled around for the trauma kit, but Grace knew it was a lost cause.

"Come on, Marine. It's like putting a band aid and Neosporin on… well, a gunshot wound." She sounded calm and normal, but Jake could see into her pain filled eyes. Trudy was turning the ship around, pulling them back towards the dock. Jake was working furiously in his head to think of a plan, some way to get past Quaritch to Parker. He would not let Grace die, not like this. As they landed, Trudy pulled her gun from her waistband and guarded a shaking Grace as Norm lifted her. Jake pulled his legs into his chair and followed the group.

Quaritch was already buckled into another ship as he saw them headed back to Parker's office. He knew he couldn't let them get to Parker, it would discredit him enough to make the entire mission a moot point. He was sprinting towards the group when Jake suddenly turned with a gun, pointed at his chest.

"Don't even try it. You shot at her, this is your fault. I should shoot you right now." Quaritch's face turned to a sneer.

"Well, it looks like someone went soft. What, do you actually like her now? I remember you bitching about her nagging you, and now you want to defend her honor? I'm shocked, Private." Parker was sitting in his office, not believing Grace was gone, praying she was okay, hoping she would come back.

His heart nearly stopped as he saw Norm carry her in. There was blood everywhere, and she looked pale and sick. He pressed the 911 button on his phone, and then rushed over to the spot where Norm had laid her. He fell to his knees and pulled his own light blue shirt from her. What he found underneath it was a mess of blood. It was everywhere, and Parker couldn't find where it was coming from.

"Here." Grace reached her hand up to his, and placed it over the gunshot wound. He could see the bullet. Parker made a quick decision, and had the other men hold her down. He whispered to her, "Forgive me." and held his breath.

He removed the bullet from it's superficial attachment to her muscle tissue, thankfully it had not gone any further or punctured any organs. Grace's screams were muffled by her refusal to show any weakness. It wasn't suiting her well. Parker wanted to hear her say something, anything, and she only kept deathly silent. He would have done anything to take back everything he had said to her. She looked up at him, made eye contact until he began to feel uncomfortable. Parker kept applying pressure, disinfectant, and calling for a medic. Norm, Jake, and Trudy all stood around them, watching in amazement as Parker saved Grace's life.

"How many times have we seen them almost kill each other, and this is happening?" Trudy whispered to Norm. He took her hand and tried to blink away tears. Grace took Parker's hand and stopped him.

"I always held back with you, when you gave me your heart. I won't make that mistake anymore." The truly feminine side of Grace was taking over, and it wasn't a good sign. She began to feel weak and closed her eyes. The medics rushed in and prepped her for stitches, trying to stop the bleeding. After several long, agonizing minutes, she was stabilized, lifted to a stretcher, and moved to the sick bay. Parker abandoned his bloodstained office, afraid of physically killing Quaritch. Instead, he sat by Grace's bedside and told her stories. They were mostly the little moments that he remembered from them being in love.

Grace had been working non-stop, for weeks. Twenty four hours in a day and Grace spent sixteen of them staring at lab samples. Even she was beginning to get tired of it. Parker was sitting in his office at his desk, doing paperwork. Curiously, the unobtainium was no where to be seen. Grace was coming from her link machine, grinning ear to ear and unable to keep herself from almost running to Parker's office. "Park! Where are you? You wouldn't believe what just happened-" She looked into his office, but found him slumped over in his chair. Flashbacks of the previous Head of Operations and how he had killed himself assaulted her mind. She kneeled at his chair and tried to wake him.

"Park.. Baby? Wake up, come on…" The fear in Grace's voice spurred Parker to start quickly, and then lift his head from the desk. "I don't… Grace?" She threw her arms around him and tried to hide her tears. "Oh my god, I thought the pressure had gotten to you and you took something, or had a heart attack, or something terrible!" He pulled her into his lap on the chair and frowned. "Why would I want to do something like that, when there's so much for me to lose sitting right in my lap?" Grace smiled, her eyes brightened. Her tears began to slow, and finally stopped. "I'm just glad everything is okay…" Parker stood up, intent on carrying Grace to his bed. "Come on sweetheart, it's been days since you had a good night's sleep." She looked at him shyly. "Or just a good night." She giggled and followed him to bed.

There was obviously no question, Parker and Grace had broken the rules of their original agreement and fallen in love. The question was, where was it going to go from here?

*Uh-oh. I don't like where this is going. So, I ran out of actual movie references to use. It's all me now, kiddoes. We'll see how this turns out. Reviews are like adderall to me, they will instantly stimulate my creativity. Long ones are the best… feel free to include any ideas you want to see, if you hate a certain thing I did, or whatever. Oh, and in Chapter 3, the "unimaginable bastard" part was a Titanic reference. If I hadn't wanted to use that line, I would have picked a more Grace-like insult.*