Lewis was practically skipping down the hallway in Titty Territory, holding a piece of paper out in front of her, turning it side to side as she took each step. Her face was lit up with happiness and she had a wide smile on her face. The door to her room was unlocked and she went in, her smiling getting even wider as she went into the dimly lit room.

"Loooky what I goooot," She sang out to her two room-mates.

Heather raised an eyebrow, looking up from her book.

"Permission for a sex change?" Miranda guessed without turning around from where she was watching a normal, non-pornographic movie for a change.

"I got my license," Lewis half-sang.

"Really? How did you do that?" Miranda asked, tapping the pause button on the VCR and turning around.

"Yesterday morning when I went down to the soda machines one of the motorpool NCO's got the option to train a few people to drive military vehicles this weekend in return to getting two weeks taken off his extra-duty," Lewis smiled. "We did the obstacle course, the offensive driving course, and the driving test today!"

"What did you get licensed on?" Heather asked.

"CUC-V, 5-ton, deuce  & half, the VW vans, and the forklifts," Lewis smiled, opening her locker.

"Stillwater will be glad to hear it," Miranda said. "Good job on getting licensed. Hand me the sheet and I'll log it."

Lewis grinned widely, handing the sheet to Miranda, who got up and headed over to the dresser.

"They had me pick up everyone who went to church on Main Post and do one of the PX runs," Lewis smiled. She moved over to her civilian wall locker, pulling her keys out of her pocket with a jingle before unlocked the heavy brass lock.

"Crap. That means Roberts is back," Miranda sighed, snapping closed her green notebook.

"Well, we better go handle that," Heather sighed, slowly getting up.

"Gonna shower," Lewis said, grabbing jeans and a blouse on a hanger.

"Wipe it more than twice and you're playing with it," MIranda said, walking by.

"It's a sin to touch yourself," Heather added as she went by.

"The US Army requires all soldiers to ensure that military equipment, of which a soldier is part  of, are properly PMCS'd to ensure all components operate properly," Lewis said, feeling smug. She'd caught on to that running joke.

"She'll do fine," Heather laughed.

"Hopefully she'll still do..." Miranda said right before the door shut.

Lewis smiled to herself as she went in, showered, and changed into her civilian clothing. She took her time in the shower, enjoying the fact that the hot water had high pressure and seemed endless. She was used to maybe ten minutes of hot water growing up, so the luxury of endless hot water was something that Lewis loved.

Still smiling to herself she gathered up her laundry bag and headed down to the laundry room. She felt like she lucked out, all of the washer machines open even though she'd figured it was only two loads. The washers on the left had signs above them that read "NO MILITARY UNIFORMS/GEAR". Humming to herself she put her whites and underwear in one load in one of the washers on the left, military uniforms and her civilian clothing in the other washers.

A stocky woman with a short page cut pushed her way through the door, carrying two laundry bags.

"Holy shit, score," She said.

"I know, right?" Lewis grinned.

The short woman tilted her head slightly. "Lewis, right? Atlas Crew?"

Lewis nodded, still smiling.

"Groom, Support Squad," the woman said, dropping one of the laundry bags and holding her hand out. Lewis shook it, still smiling. "I'm one of the mechanics slash grunts out there at Atlas."

"How is it out there?" Lewis asked, hooking her bra straps so the tiny hooks didn't snag on any of her underwear.

"Truth?" Groom asked. Lewis nodded and Groom gave a frustrated sounding noise, "It's rough. The place is a killer. We've taken a lot of casualties out there. We're lucky we've got good leadership out at the site and back here at Group now. Especially with the Soviets trying to claim we're actually in East Germany."

Lewis looked over from where she was turning all of her white socks inside out. "What do you mean?"

"OK, the ammo site was originally built in 1937 by the Nazis, taken over by the US in 1944. The Soviet Union and US forces both used it as an ammo dump till 1945, when the US military took it over," Groom said, opening one of the white washers and digging out her own whites. "When the Iron Curtain went up, Russia claimed that the site was inside their territory. The US claimed it was on our side."

"OK," Lewis said, taking the time to turn all her T-shirts inside out so the graphics didn't get faded.

"So the Soviet Union is claiming they own the site and want the US and NATO to turn it over to them, which would push the 1K Zone six miles into the Gap. They claim the 1K Zone starts a mile past Atlas, we claim it starts two hundred feet from the edge of the side," Groom laughed. "Some maps show Atlas straddling the 1K Zone, with half of it being on the East side."

"So, they want it, we won't give it up," Lewis nodded.

"Exactly. They have a platoon of Spetsnaz on their side and have tried to take the site through armed force several times," Groom told her. "But they've learned not to take us on. Every time they've tried we've slaughtered them and chased them back to their side."

"Wow," Lewis shook her head. "So it's basically like we're at war?" Lewis moved over and began putting her uniforms in the washer.

"Pretty much. It's a live fire zone, everyone's locked and loaded, and we're pretty careful," Groom shut the lid on the washer and cranked the dial, starting it. "You've got, what, another week of inprocessing?" Lewis nodded and Groom continued. "Yeah, you'll have a week of learning about Atlas and getting trained up once you tox onto the Field Warfare pack."

Lewis nodded, following Groom out of the laundry room. When Lewis turned left and started to push open the doors to Titty Territory she noticed that the short stocky woman wasn't following her.

"You don't live in this hallway?" Lewis asked.

Groom laughing, shaking her head. "Naw. I live down her in Queer Country," She laughed.

"Oh," Lewis said, suddenly feeling off balance.

Lewis could remember being asked repeatedly when she joined: "Have you ever engaged in homosexual activities?" and "Are you now or have you ever been a homosexual?" As far as Lewis knew gay people couldn't be in the military.

Groom grinned. "Didn't expect that," She chuckled. "Well, you'll figure it out."

With that, Groom walked away, leaving Lewis to push into Titty Territory.

Lewis walked through the hallway, heading to the CQ Area. She waved at the CQ crew then headed in to the soda machine alcove, pulling money out of her pocket. She grabbed two soda then headed to the game room.

"Heeyyy, Lewis," Newsome said from where he was playing a video game that Lewis could remember from the grocery store a few years back.

"Hey, Newsome," Lewis said, heading over the pinball machine she'd been playing off and on.

"Whatcha up to?" Newsome asked, most of his attention still focused on the video game.

"Laundry and prepping for tomorrow," Lewis told him. "Got my license."

"Same here," Newsome cursed and stepped back, digging in his pocket for another quarter. He dropped it  in, slapping the start button. "Hear about what's happening with Roberts?"

Lewis nodded. "He's in massive trouble. Apparently he tried to blame him getting lost on not getting good enough instructions. Told that Chief Warrant in Operations that it was all Sergeant Stillwater's fault."

Lewis shook her head. "Everyone's afraid of that Chief. What was he thinking?"

Newsome shrugged. "Beats me, Lewis," He cursed and stepped back. "You gonna go upstairs and fight tonight?"

Lewis nodded. "I'll probably get my ass kicked again, but I'm going."

Newsome laughed. "Same here."

"You liking it here, Newsome?" Lewis asked, bumping the pinball machine with her hip to nudge the ball.

"Yeah," Newsome said. "I like it better here than Basic or AIT. Place is intense as hell though."

Lewis nodded. "People too."

"See you tonight," Newsome said, heading out of the Game Room.

"See you tonight," Lewis answered, concentrating on her pinball game.

After a couple of games she stepped back, grabbing her two empty soda cans and tossing them into the garbage can on the way back to the soda machines. She grabbed two Cokes before heading back to her room.

Neither one of the other women were in the room. Lewis went to the fridge, pulling out the bottle of rye whiskey before getting a glass. She made herself a light drink, turning on the VCR and TV before sitting down.

Either Heather or Miranda had left a porn in and Lewis sighed, sitting down on her bed. She was tempted to get up and put in a new VHS tape, maybe watch a movie or something, but she honestly couldn't be bothered with the effort.

After a minute the movement, the visuals, even the sounds, just became a blur to her and she flopped back on the bed, staring at the ceiling in the dimness of the room.

One more week of inprocessing and then she'd be going out to Atlas. The idea of actually doing her job, doing what she trained for in AIT, was exciting. She loved working with ammunition, loved driving the forklifts. Her training had mainly focused on storage and maintenance, with a lot of inventory management, but from the sound of it Atlas was a completely different animal.

Lewis waited for an hour, went in and switched her laundry over, then went back to the room to grab her jacket before heading out to the Chow Hall with a group of people from First Magazine Platoon. Lewis enjoyed having dinner with them, talking to everyone, and laughing and joking on the way back.

When she got to the room Heather and Miranda were sitting in their usual positions: Heather laying on her bed, Miranda sitting in the chair, both of them paying half-ass attention to the porn movie on the TV. Lewis could feel the tension simmering in the room, could tell by the tightness of the muscles across their shoulders  and the back of their neck that there was something going on. Lewis grabbed her last can of Coke and and started making herself a drink.

"What's wrong?" Lewis asked, closing the fridge. She'd seen how bright Heather's lavender eyes were glowing in the dimness.

"Roberts," Miranda growled. "I'm going to tear his fucking arms off."

"What happened?" Lewis asked, sitting down on the edge of the bottom bunk and sipping at her drink.

"Nothing, I guess," Miranda said, staring at her own drink.

"He just objects to Toddler Time," Heather said, lighting a cigarette.

"Toddler Time?" Lewis asked.

"It means he gets in depth instructions on everything he has to do. We supervise him bathing, prepping his uniforms, everything he does. We set his bed time and when he gets up, he's escorted to everything," Miranda said.

"Oh," Lewis shook her head. "That sounds rough."

"Rougher on us than him," Heather said through a cloud of smoke. "Instead of doing useful things the two of us end up micromanaging him like he's a child because he threw someone under the bus in front of one of the meanest men to ever walk the Earth."

"And now we have to treat him like a damn child," Miranda grumped, folding her arms. She looked at Lewis. "You gonna go up to the fourth floor?"

Lewis took a long swallow off her drink then nodded. "Yeah."

"I need to work off some aggression," MIranda said.

"Same here," Heather said. She looked at Miranda. "Who you gonna take on?"

"Maybe you," Miranda shrugged. "Maybe Monkey or Foster. Just gonna get in and fight."

Heather nodded. "Same here. Work off some of this aggression. Don't think I'm up to going toe to toe with Foster. He's getting faster."

Miranda nodded. "Since last winter he doesn't move right any more either."

"Moves more like Aine," Heather said, getting up and heading for the fridge. "Which makes it really hard to tell what he's telegraphing."

"Fun though," Miranda said, giggling. "Love a challenge."

Lewis giggled with the big Amazon, taking another sip off her drink. "I'm starting to learn that so do I," She said.

"That's Momma's good girl," Heather smiled.