Officially A Member

They walked to the main entrance together. Richard was still curling up his lips at Priscilla's reaction while she was biting her cheek in discomfort.

Richard chuckled again. She turned to him and gave him a menacing look. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing…" Richard stepped aside a bit just in time to avoid her mock punch. "It's just that the expression on your face is so priceless. Can I take a photo?"

"Haha," she mimicked a dry laugh. "Not funny. I see your nanny has finally passed the photo frenzy to you?"

Richard froze and his hand—which was about to pull out his phone—hung in mid-air. It was true. He had let Lily rub off on him too much that he was starting to pick up her habits at some point. The worst thing was that Priscilla kept referring to her as his nanny!

He rubbed his neck a bit uneasily. Priscilla chuckled at his reaction. It was true that 'what goes around comes around'. He was making fun of her just a few seconds ago but the table turned so quick that he didn't have time to root himself.

"Wow!" Priscilla hovered her hand over his face. "The expression right there is priceless."

Richard shot her a look but she ignored him. "You should really consider taking care of this weakness of yours."

"General Gordon was discussing the recent attack with me and Pauline." He suddenly said before letting the A.I. scan and register his palm. It was possible to scan the ID or ones palm to get access to the front door.

Priscilla did the same while glancing at him. "What made you decide to tell me?"

She had a feeling that he was doing it in a bid to change the topic. If it were the case then she'd poke harder just to make Richard's skin crawl. It was hard to get under his skin and the few moments she was able to make him look really lost were priceless.

Another look at his face told her that he was being serious. He shrugged. "It's not like it's classified information besides, you can easily get the answer from Pauline."

Richard filled her in on the gist of the discussion and the current conclusions they had arrived at while tactically leaving out the part about the 'mole'. He did this for two reasons. The first reason was that the information or the suspicion about a mole in the army was sensitive and classified information and even Maya wouldn't spill it to anyone who wasn't in on the secret.

It would lead to a lot of trouble for the soldiers to keep looking at each other with suspicion thinking of one another as a sell-out. It would really damage the team spirit. The second reason was that it was just a suspicion and Richard didn't want to lead it to become a rumour that could start a wild fire. Although he believed that Priscilla wasn't the type of person to do such a thing but he had to uphold his duties.

Priscilla nodded after listening to him. She paused as they walked towards the training centre. "I'll also keep an open ear in case I learn anything that might lead you to find them. You know we doctors do share some great secrets."

She winked at the last part. Richard nodded. She sighed inwardly. 'I'm also doing this for myself. I need to know what connection the Zeros have with my mission. Their name has popped up since 15 years ago… let's just hope the Fillers are able to provide clues.'

They continued forward in silence for a while before Richard turned to her and smiled gently. "I have a surprise for you."

"A surprise?"

"Yes, a gift rather."

"What is it?" she asked with a bit of wariness. "Can I get it soon?"

Richard smiled. He made another conclusion about her. 'She seems like the sort of person who doesn't want anything to be kept a secret from her for too long. She just wants to unwrap every surprise gift!'

On the outside, however, he said, "Of course but we have to return to the training centre first."

Priscilla nodded. She calmed her heart down. Somehow she was a little excited about this 'gift' he mentioned. Maybe it was because the gift came from Richard or because it had been a long time since she actually received gifts except from Donald.

Thinking of him made her cringe on the inside. She had spoken to him a few times and even paid him a visit a couple of times within the week. She saw him at the hospital almost every day before coming over to the HQ but something made her uneasy.

She could still recall the drawing he made of her. Although they had come to an unspoken agreement to not speak about it again, she still felt…weird. That was the first time he'd drawn her and naked at that.

It made her think that maybe he had several other copies stashed away. The only silver lining was that he completely got her lower part drawn wrongly. She looked nothing like that down there!

Amidst her burgeoning thoughts they arrived at the training centre and Richard led her to the corner where his bag was placed. He unzipped it and took out another bag. He handed the green military coloured bag to her with a smile.

"Open it."

She quickly opened the bag and brought out a set of military gears. The uniform, the cap, the bullet proof vest, the boots, a gun and few grenades.

She looked at him, speechless. "Why?"

Richard smiled. "That is to both welcome you into the team and to encourage you on your hard work of training hard with us."

She shook her head. "I don't understand. I'm just your team doctor."

He chuckled. "Aren't you selling yourself a little short there? You're the head of the medical department in this division and also my team doctor which should make me really proud. Besides, you're part of the team and if we go on missions in the future you'd follow along.

"A member of the army must have the uniform."

She smiled broadly though her eyes showed how touched she was. "Thank you so much. I've always wanted the gear."

"It's nothing."

"How did you get it though? Do they hand it out like that? I haven't seen the other doctors with one."

Richard chuckled. "I pulled a few strings and bribed two to three officers to get my hands on that baby."

They burst out laughing after he said that.