Chapter 1

Jen (or Jennifer) Gregory was the unwanted daughter of a drug-addicted mother that lost custody when Jen was two. She had lived with her grandparents until she was eleven, when both of them died in a car crash. Her mother, again, was in jail at the time for drugs and with no other family she was placed in foster care.

Jen was one of three girls that were placed with a new family. The family was a bit different, as the father was a retired Marine Corp drill instructor. He ran the house like a mini boot camp, but with less pushups and a lot of caring and love.

The other two girls were hardened by the foster care system, and quickly began to establish their dominance over Jen. This was easy for them, as Jen was very small and slim.

The two girls had been very mean, taking quite a few things from Jen. They had either kept them or broke them in front of Jen.

Jen crawled in and hid in her closet, with several broken items that she saved. They were all she had from her grandparents.

It had been about two hours that she had been in there, when Leo Thorne called the girls to assemble. When he found Jen not there, he went in search of the girl. He found her when he heard her crying. When he ordered her out of the closet, she didn't move but stayed curled up around the broken frame of her grandparent's picture.

Leo moved several things thinking Jen was just being disobedient until he saw her up close. It scared him. He saw her hands were covered in blood from the broken glass in the frame. Leo quickly reacted, calling for his wife, and scooping the little girl into his arms. He ran to the bathroom, to see how bad things were. Jen never notice the blood, she was just too heartbroken.

Jen had been lucky. She only had some small cuts, small, but messy. After she was bandaged up Leo and his wife Betty put Jen in their bed to rest. That was when Jen mumbled about what the girls had done. Leo was shocked, and then became pissed. So while Betty tried to reassure and soothe Jen, Leo had gone into full 'drill instructor' mode.

Before the night was over the other two girls were crying. They first were made to return everything they had taken. Then they were treated to the tried and true methods of training for new Marines.

Every time the two tried to stop. Leo would make them tell why they had done what they did, or what had happened to them that would make them want to do what they did. By the time the sun came up Leo had turned the course of things, telling them the things that would make a difference in their lives, unless they didn't make some very serious changes.

Leo put the two girls to bed, then went to his room. He found his wife sleeping in a chair and the little Jen sleeping on his bed. He chuckled, then went to the living room, to crash on the couch.

That set off a series of events that led to Jen being adopted by the Thorne's, and to her eventual enlistment to the Marines. With the training she had from her father, she was taken into officers training quickly and then later into the special ops area. That was where she teamed up with Jon (Jonny) Doel, Mark Carver and Jason Waters.

That was a great time for Jen. She was both the little sister and den mother. But, she could operate any firearm ever made, handle any explosive device ever thought up, and could kick the crap out of anyone including her teammates ... all while making a nice roast, with all the trimmings.

Unfortunately for Jen, and for her team, one of the missions they had been assigned, dealt with more than they bargained for. To them, there was nothing out of the ordinary. There were, sadly, no survivors to pull out. However, there was a lot of papers and data recovered.

Jen was the one who's job it was to gather all that could be put together for shipping out. There was one thing about Jen that only a few knew about. Jen had a perfect memory. Total recall, as it was called, of any information that she even half assed looked at. So as she packed up all the papers she saw all of it but could really only understand about 10% of what was there.

The mission came to an end, as they all do, and then came the after-mission debriefing. Then three days off, only to come back and begin training for some other mission that might come their way.

Jason Waters, the team leader, was having a bit of a problem. He was having trouble with his feelings. He was, so far, doing a good job of hiding it. He had been in spec-ops for nearly fifteen years. For five before that, he had been a Marine ground pounder. He wasn't married (except to the corps) and had never found anyone that he felt could handle him. That was until a very young kid named Jennifer Gregory joined his team.

Jason had served with many people over the years, but none so young yet so highly trained. That was until he learned her background. That made him feel just that much older. He learned that the drill instructor he'd had, was her adopted father. At first he tried to treat her like she was a kid. Well that lasted until the first mission and she saved his happy ass, when an unexpected enemy jumped out behind him, and she took the guy out. He settled into a kind of strained relationship with Jen. Either she didn't notice, or she didn't feel that way.

After three years Jason started noticing that Jonny was watching Jen the same way he did. That led him to watching Mark, who was watching Jonny and Jen.

They were a really good team, but Jason could see things were starting to affect the other guys. It was time for a talk. Jonny and Mark tried to deny everything but Jason pushed through and made them see the truth. In the end the three men decided that the team couldn't continue the way it was.

Jen was shocked when orders came the next day to disband the team. They were her family, and she didn't want to lose them as she had lost the rest of her family. Sadly, orders were orders, and everyone went their own way.

That was the start of some other strange and ugly stuff. Three months later, she found herself being marched into a Court Martial hearing that she had no clue as to the why.

A list of strange charges were read, and when she asked who and where her counsel was, she was instructed and told she wouldn't have any. Five days later and under a lot of pressure she agreed to leave the corp. She left with her rank and benefits intact but she was still out.

Time passed, as it always does. Jen strangely felt only half awake, for some reason. It never seemed to leave her, once she was over being kicked out of the Corps, and was working again. After a year, where she found a place to live, a place to work and even a boyfriend that then turned to something more. She found herself married to a man named Bart Jeffers. Then, six months later, the man turned into a stranger.

Jen came home from work one day, to find him half drunk. He all but attacked her. Both physically and verbally, asking odd questions or asking about the missions she had been on. Jen refused to talk about any of those times, because as far as she knew, they were all still classified top secret or higher.

That, of course was not good enough for Bart. He wanted information and he was going to get it. So with that in mind he struck at what he considered his temporary wife.

Jen was so shocked, that she didn't fight back. She just took it until she blacked out. When she woke, she was alone. She called the police and went to the hospital. Bart was later arrested at their house.

Jen had never let herself be in a place where she just took what was given to her, since she was a child. She didn't really understand why she would, now. But she knew it would never happen again.

Once out of the hospital, it was as if she were starting to wake up from a strange dream, one that was all too real. Bart was still in jail, because he had been denied bail, due to several outstanding warrants. Jan was able to pack her stuff, move to an apartment, and file for a divorce.

Bart was livid. He could see what he thought was his big score being taken away. He had already made a bundle by pretending to be a husband to a woman he couldn't stand, though the wedding was real. He had been hired to seduce the woman, to keep tabs on her, and to watch for anything strange. After a little while and some digging he found out his loving bride was a spec-ops Marine that had sensitive knowledge that he might be able to cash in on.

When he couldn't get what he wanted one way, being nice and sweet, he decided to use a more familiar persuasive method. To his frustration Jen never talked. When he stopped beating her, he found she was unconscious. He left the house to rethink his plans.

About two hours later, he was arrested, and charged. When they found that he had a few warrants outstanding, bail was denied.

He thought he couldn't get more pissed than he was, until a lawyer arrived and served him with divorce papers. That was too much for him. He ended up in confinement, for starting a major fight, and almost killing another prisoner.

After only two months, and with everything that happened, it shocked Jen that Bart's lawyer finagled his release. Before the court could contact her, Bart was out, with her new address in hand.

Jen had just gotten home when Bart pulled up to the apartment. The restraining order was in place, but she knew it wouldn't keep him away. So, even though she couldn't believe he was out and on his way to her apartment, she called the cops. The best she could do was hope they would get there in time.

Well they didn't, and luckily her training had reasserted itself, so when Bart kicked in the door she let him hit her a few times. That was only so she could have some marks and then blocked the rest, still hoping the cops would get there to see him hitting her.

This fight was different, and Bart knew it. He pulled out a knife to try to even things up. He managed to cut Jen's arm twice, but then she took the knife out of his hand. She broke it, and tossed it to the side. Bart was so enraged that he pulled a gun.

Jen knew time was up and wished she hadn't tossed Bart's knife. She could hear the sirens of the cops but knew the fight was going to be over before they could get there.

Rage took over Bart, pointing the gun towards Jen, taking no time to aim, he just fired and missed. Jen was moving too fast for him. With two punches, Bart was turned around and faced the front door. She was now behind him, and kicked. He and the gun went sailing out the door. Bart grabbed the gun, and ran back inside before Jen could try to close the broken door.

The cops had just pulled up, and saw a man. It was clear he had a gun in his hand as he rushed back into the apartment. As back up was called for, more shots rang out. The cops moved quickly into position in order to stop what could only end badly.

Jen knew she had to get the gun this time, or she was dead. That was almost too easy, after she hit him in the back with a chair when he came through the front door, letting off a few more rounds. What she didn't see was another knife.

When Bart hit the floor and his gun taken, he pulled his other knife out. When he got up, he charged at Jen.

Jen had moved away from him, but the emotional toll made her drop to her knees. Incredulously, she watched as Bart got up. Hate was in his eyes as she saw him start to run at her. That was when she saw he had a knife in his hand. Training made her raise the gun in her hand, and even more training helped her to aim and pull the trigger. What shocked her was that at that moment, she heard another gun fire. Her shot hit Bart right between the eyes, and the other hit his chest.

Once Bart was on the ground, and before anything else was said, Jen ejected the now empty clip, made sure the breach was clear and set the gun down.

Officer Newman was the first to the door and what he saw was something that every cop hates to see. The man he saw outside when they rolled up no longer had a gun, but he had a knife. He was charging a woman who was on her knees. Then he saw the gun in her hand, but it was at her side at the moment. In his mind though there was only one choice. He raised his gun and fired at the same time he heard her gun fire. He watched as the man flew backwards, dead. As he moved into the room to make sure it was clear, he watched as the woman expertly cleared the gun and left it on the floor. She moved back and waited.

The house was cleared quickly and the cops turned to the woman and found her a mess. Blood was all over her. They questioned her, while they waited for an ambulance.

The family of Jen's now deceased husband wanted her charged with murder, because of her training. She thought this was again strange, as she never told them about her time in the Marines.

The judge, in the end, ruled it self-defense. This was because several officers told that they saw Bart, gun in hand, run inside the apartment and heard several shots as soon as he entered. The testimony of the first officer to enter the apartment was that he had seen Bart with a knife, charging at Jen. That was why he had fired. There were other reasons, as well. One was that Bart was a felon, in possession of a gun. Another was the violation of a restraining order. A third was that several people in the complex had seen Bart kick in the front door. Most compelling to the judge was, considering Jen's training, the cuts and bruises that she had sustained were indicative of self-defense.

Jen quickly packed what she wanted from the apartment, and what she wanted from the house. She gave all the other stuff to Bart's family. She sold the house that she and Bart were buying, closed all their accounts, and left the state. She had too. Bart's family was already making her life even more miserable than it was.

A month later Jen found a small piece of land with a house just outside of a small town in the middle of nowhere. It was a small house, owned by an old couple, who had let the place go to seed. This meant she had lots of work to do. It was nice and quiet, most of the time.

Jen was in town doing some shopping when several young men came in and started pestering some of the older customers. They had one near to tears and none of the management or employees were doing anything to stop it.

Jen knew she didn't want to be involved, but she hated crap like what the guys were doing. Slowly she came up to one and forced her cart between the guy and the old lady.

"Watch the fuck where you're going Bitch!" yelled the man.

"My what a mouth. Do you eat with that filthy thing? I'm sure your parents didn't raise you to be mean to your elders. Take your buddies and go home, find a bar, or just go fishing."

There were a lot more words but Jen only partially cared. She watched as the old people moved to the check out but stayed together.

Then she saw one of the men make a grab for her. She moved and hit his arm in such a way that the opposite side hit the cart. Jen knew that was going to sting but it was a good distraction which allowed her to move to the front of the store with the others.

"Where's the manager?" Jen asked one of the clerks.

"Most likely hiding. Shit! Here they come again!"

"Call the police."

The man flinched but picked up the phone.

The three young men came at Jen, in what looked like they were going to tackle her. One small push and a quick foot between moving legs and all three men were on the ground.