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Desert Love	By : Krayzee_Aussie Category: Celebrities - Misc > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 4321 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction! I do not know Prince Harry of Wales, Prince Charles, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Queen Elizabeth, Camilla Parker-Bowles or Prince Phillip, Corporal Ben Roberts-Smith VC and I do not profit from this story.

Chapter List
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(**** signifies change in character perspective eg. Major Desiree Kitana - Sgt Scott)
  They had been travelling for a few hours, the dust being thrown back behind their convoy. Desiree sat up front in the third vehicle, scanning their surrounds as they drove through the landscape. They slowed as they came up onto the first village. She reached for the radio receiver.
“Alpha three to Dusty one, we’re going to stop here and go in on foot, scope it out and say hello to the locals. Find out what’s the word on the street.” She released the button and waited for a response.
“Roger that, Dusty one out.”
She dismounted the truck, swinging her chest rig on once she was off the Bushranger. Her men marshalled up around her, she started designating tasks.
“Jonesy, take your section to the west of the village. Marshall, the East. Scotty, you’re with me. Tonk, you and your section are on vehicle protection this time, sorry boys.” She tucked her braid into her chest rig, as the Brits formed up around her. She relayed her formation to the Captain.
“Right, you want me to split my squad to follow yours?” he asked.
“Yep, EOD, split yourselves into three sections and join a section. H, you are to stay with me. Do not move unless I tell you to,” she said sternly. He looked taken aback but nodded. She noted in the corner of her eye, Scotty looked very smug “Right, move it.”
They began falling into formation and moved across the ground towards the village. Desiree made sure to watch the two squads of her men as they moved to flank the village. She slowed as they came across a ditch, the Captain and Scotty stopping beside her.
“Was this one of the villages you cleared out?” Captain Wales asked, crouching beside her.
“Yep, one of the easier ones to be honest.” She watched as Jonesy and his men came to a crouch and waited for the EOD specialists to check the way through.
“She’s not kidding,” Scotty piped up from Desiree’s other side. “The elder was trying to buy Des for his son.”
Harry looked at Desiree in horror.
“I know, i know, it was horrifying. Hopefully he found his son a wife.”
Scotty burst out laughing, which in turned caused Harry to try and stifle a laugh.
Desiree rolled her eyes and looked to their EOD team. They gave the nod, they had cleared a ten metre gap in the ditch for any explosive devices.
“Jonesy, Marshall, your EOD team cleared the area yet?” she asked through her radio.
“Affirmative, Des,” came the response in unison.
“Right, move in.” The three teams began moving towards the village. Desiree could see the children playing in the middle of the walkway that led through the village. They soon turned and looked up, bright smiles appearing on their faces. That was a good sign.
“The kids have spotted us, Des,” came Marshall’s voice over the radio.
“They’re smiling, that’s good. That means no one has threatened them yet.” She reached the road and held a fist, signalling her squad to stop.
“Holding position,” Marshall reported. “Got the road covered from the east.”
“Holding position,” Jonesy also reported in. “Got the road covered from the west, good to move in Des.”
“Right, H, stay,” Des ordered motioning at Captain Wales. “Scotty, you’re with me. Eyes open, kids.” With that she and Scotty stood up and moved into the village. A few adults had started to appear now. The children had called out that they had arrived.
One of the children recognised her. “It’s the lady soldier! Get the elder!” he shouted. Desiree gritted her teeth. She really did hope the village chief had managed to find his son a wife. She was careful to look through any windows she could see into. She spotted a few women in the windows, covered head to toe in their black burqas. They weren’t allowed to come out and see her, although this village welcomed her as she was not one of them and had treated several of their sick and injured on their last visit, they still feared she might spread her ‘disregard for the lord’. The young girls in particular were whisked away when they saw her coming. This made her sad, but nonetheless, it was not her place to say so.
The men came out to see them, nodding towards Scotty. She knew they were still unsure of how to react to a woman in a position of power, so she just did her best to look less threatening. The village chief soon came strolling down the road. He was leading a goat.
Desiree groaned under her breath. Just loud enough so Scotty could hear it. She saw him do his best not to laugh out loud.
“Ah, Australians! Welcome back!” he said. Desiree smiled back, awkwardly. The chief looked to Scotty. “Does this mean you rethought about my deal?”
Scotty and Desiree laughed quietly. “Nah mate, i keep telling you, she’s the boss lady. And she would be worth at least ten goats.” Desiree looked to Scotty narrowed eyes, she had mixed emotions about this, both grateful and annoyed. Really? Only ten goats?
“Ahh, this is too steep a price for me in these times. Maybe next time,” the chief said. He handed the goat’s lead off to one of the other men standing nearby. “Come! What brings you back so soon?” He started walking down the road towards Harry.
“We just thought we would stop in, see if anyone needed anymore medical attention or help with anything?” she answered.
“Ah, thank you. We are doing quite well since you last visited us.”
“No problems here then?” Scotty asked. It was always better if Scotty asked the hard questions regarding enemy movements. They responded better to it. “No more visitors?”
“Thankfully no, they have not come this far in. I would guess it is because you are not far away from here.” He noticed the Brits positioned with Desiree’s squad at the entry to the village. “Why are their uniforms different?”
“They are British, they have come to learn our ways and make them better soldiers,” Desiree answered, shooting a glance at Scotty. She watched him as he tried not to laugh again. One day, he was going to get them killed, it was just too easy to make him want to laugh. “Would you like to meet them?”
The village chief nodded and Desiree got on her radio. “H, you and your sergeant want to come say g’day?” She saw Harry look to his sergeant and nod. They both got up carefully and walked cautiously toward them, careful to have their weapons pointed at the ground.
“Where are these ‘British’ men from?” the village chief asked as he looked them up and down as they got closer.
“England, you know, Queen Elizabeth and all that?” Scotty answered. Desiree noticed Harry adjusted his sandy coloured balaclava so it covered a little more of his face, much like hers, although she did it out of respect for the religious customs of the natives, she figured he had been briefed to do so as a precaution. Many of the villages did not have access to TV, but some of the Taliban had gained access to satellite and TV, it was a better way to ascertain enemy intelligence.
The village chief nodded and held out his hand to shake, Harry looked to Desiree. She nodded to Harry, and he accepted the handshake. Scotty introduced him. “Chief, this is H. He is captain of these British troops.”
“And he commands the lady soldier?” the chief asked, hopefully. Desiree smirked under her balaclava.
“No, sir. The lady soldier is in command of him,” Scotty replied with a slight chuckle. The village chief looked disappointed for a moment.
“Has there been any other news from the other villages close by?” Desiree asked, hoping to steer the conversation in another direction.
“We heard stories that one of the villages, about two days away from here by foot, has gone quiet suddenly. No people come and go from there. We were expecting traders from their village yesterday but nobody came.”
Desiree looked at Scotty, who looked back at her with mild concern. Desiree nodded to the chief and walked away, Harry following her with his Sergeant. “What do you think, Desiree?”
“It is a little strange, usually when these villages organise a trade, they keep their appointments or it will likely create a riff. I’ll call it in and we’ll head out for a look and check in with the other villages along the way. Will have to keep our eyes open.”
“Roger that, ma’am,” Harry said with a nod. She nodded towards his squad, and motioned that he should rejoin them. He hesitated for a moment, but moved away to rejoin his squad.
Scotty farewelled the chief and called back the two other squads patrolling the east and west sides of the village. He followed Desiree back towards their convoy. “Well, if what the village chief said is true, things may be a little more interesting than we expected.”
“Yeah, I’ll have to call this in. I think there might be a distinct possibility the young prince will be leaving us.” She winked at Scotty before climbing into the back of the Bushranger and began gearing up the powerful SAT radio.
******
                Desiree climbed back out of the truck a good five minutes later. “Well, ma’am? We going home early?” Scotty asked as Jonesey stood up and slung his rifle, looking at her expectantly.
“Well, that didn’t go as I planned.” She sat down, biting her lip like she did when she was frustrated. He had seen her do it too often. If he was younger, braver and not happily married, he might have chanced a crack at her. “They want us to keep pushing through. They haven’t got the man power to pull us out, and they think if we pull out the enemy could push closer and lay more IEDs.”
“Well, at least we get to have fun!” Jonesey said rubbing his hands together. Scotty glared at him. That kind of eagerness was good but dangerous, especially considering they were travelling with very precious cargo. Desiree shook her head but didn’t reprimand Jonesey.
“Cool your jets, Jonesey. We’ve got more pressing matters at hand.”
“Like what?”
“Like keeping the future of the monarchy alive,” Scotty answered. Desiree huffed at the mention and stood up. Both men turned to look at her expectantly.
“The man is here to do his duty, and do his duty he will. Lt Col Graham said that the British hierarchy want him to get this out of his system.” She sneered slightly, showing her true thoughts on the idea. “So let’s show old H how to party, shall we?”
They followed her over to where the British troops were keeping watch over the farming fields of the village.
“Ma’am, what’s the news?” Harry asked. Scotty noticed Desiree narrowed her eyes at Harry, he wasn’t sure if it was because of her detest at being called ma’am or because she detested the idea of taking him further into some dubious territory.
“We’re moving on. Mission parameters are the same. Check out the villages, clear out any enemy, bring back intel and most of all, stay alive.” She looked pointedly at Harry. He seemed taken aback by the ferocity of her look. Scotty had been on the receiving end of the look. She was an intense character in general, but she had an uncanny ability to seem to pierce through you.
“Yes, ma’am,” the entire two platoons responded.
“Mount up, I want to be out of the village before sun down and make it to a safe spot for the night,” she ordered, as she unslung her rifle and walked back to her bushranger.
Scotty waved his hand in the air, reinforcing the order. “Move out!”
*****
Desiree sat in the front of her bushranger, listening to a few of the diggers discuss the results from a rugby league match played back home. She kept an eye on the trucks a little ahead of them, watching as they carefully picked their way through the dusty roads, watching for any sign of people watching them and passing it on to any enemy parties in the area.
She couldn’t believe they were putting the young prince in harm’s way like this. He should have been home, doing royal duties at home like his brother, not getting in her way.
“Des, we’re coming up to camp A.” A call came over the radio.
“Roger that, EOD check out the perimeter, Jonesey, get your squad out patrolling out past the perimeter for any sign of anyone or anything around or having been around. Keep your eyes peeled people, I do not want anyone sneaking up on us.”
They dismounted the trucks and set to work. Desiree walked back along the road to the Coyote Harry was riding in.
“Everything alright, Des?” Harry asked, as she climbed up onto the side step of the armoured vehicle and clung to the side.
“Just waiting on the order to move in, the lads are checking everything out. Once they’re okay with it we can move over the bridge into the camp,” she explained, looking further ahead of the trucks. There was a crackle over the radio and Jonesey called through the all clear.
“Right, follow them through, Corporal,” Desiree ordered the British soldier driving. He eased the truck forward, following the bushrangers through. “Apologies, H, it’s not exactly Buckingham Palace in here. Skeleton crew run this joint, and I doubt they’ve been keeping it tight since the last time I was here.”
Harry looked at her with a slightly disgruntled look. “I hope that’s your attempt at Australian humour.”
“Maybe,” she said slyly, before dismounting before the truck had come to a full stop. She skidded to a stop and looked back to watch the rest of the trucks drive through. Once the last was through she waved to a guardsman on the gate and he shut it. She moved back to her own bushranger and gathered her gear as the boys began to gather around the back of the bushranger. “Right lads, clean your gear, have a feed. Marshall, you and your squad are on first piquet followed by Jonesey. Tonk you guys can rest up first, I’ll probably have you guys running a few scouting missions tomorrow when we hit that village.”
“Roger that, ma’am,” Tonk replied, the others nodding in agreement as well. She motioned for them to be dismissed before turning to Harry.
“If you want to split your lads up and arrange a piquet to work alongside my boys, please?” she asked. He nodded once before turning and giving out orders. She watched him, it was odd, although he was the heir to a monarchy, it seemed his men did more than just look up to him as their prince. She saw it in their faces, they respected him as their leader. It was something she knew was hard to come by in men, although easier when you were a man. She had to work tirelessly to prove herself to the new men to come her section, although with the squad she had now, they usually made sure the newcomers understood just how good Desiree was at her job and how much respect she had already earned.
Once he had finished debriefing his men he picked up his pack and turned to Desiree. “Don’t suppose you know anywhere here we can grab a cuppa tea?”
Desiree furrowed her brow at him in amusement before motioning for him to follow her. She led him to the small mess tent in the centre of the base. When they walked in, they were greeted by the sound of crashing pots. They quickly dropped their gear by the door before Desiree looked over the bain marie into the kitchen.
“You right, cheffo?” she asked noticing a young man she didn’t recognise behind the point, crouched down and gathering his dropped pot of food. He looked up, his face was very red.
“Oh, yes, ma’am. Sorry, ma’am.” His eyes were wide with surprise and shock.
“Something wrong, private?” Harry asked, also looking over the hot point. If the private’s eyes could get any wider, Desiree was certain he would lose his eyebrows in his hair. He stood up very quickly.
“Apologies, sir. I was just surprised to see Major Kitana on this base. I had heard rumours she was headed out this way but wasn’t expecting her to stop here.”
Desiree stared at him, stunned. Harry looked back at her with a smirk on his face.
*****
          Harry started chuckling at the look on not only the private’s face, but Desiree’s face. She was staring incredulously at the private. He too was rather stunned that the private’s reaction was not to him but to her. He had grown accustomed to that kind of a reaction, so had presumed it was because of his entrance into the mess tent.
“I’m sorry?” Desiree asked finally, apparently the cook’s answer finally sinking in enough for her to respond. “What is so surprising by that?”
The private stood straight at attention while answering. “Well,” he began to stammer. “I’m a huge fan, ma’am.”
Harry struggled not to laugh at the look of exasperation on Desiree’s face. “Ah, big day for you then, mate. Best clean that mess up and jog on then, hmm?”
“Ah, yes, sir. Did you need anything?”
“No thanks, mate. Just here for a cuppa.” With that he ushered Desiree onwards into the mess. “Well, that was interesting. I take it you’re a bit of a commodity, Des?”
She gave him a disgruntled look. “That’s the first i’ve heard.” Harry pulled a seat out, offering it to Desiree. He noticed her curl her lip slightly, but she took the seat offered to her. He got the feeling she didn’t like being treated like she was different.
“Tea or coffee?” he asked, pleasantly, smiling at her. She furrowed her brow at him, why, he wasn’t sure.
“Coffee, white with two sugars, thank you.”
He moved away to make their drinks. He noticed as he was at the brew point, the chef in the kitchen kept looking to where she was seated. He chuckled when the private was then berated by a corporal who walked into the kitchen and caught him not working. The private then seemed to draw his attention to Desiree, sitting alone in the mess. The corporal craned his neck to look, then spied Harry at the brew point. Harry nodded to him once, and the corporal rounded on the private and sent him back to work.
Harry carried the two cups back to the table and set one in front of Desiree before sitting down himself, across from her.
“Thanks,” she sighed, before bringing the cup to her mouth. She took a deep breath before taking a sniff, sighing once again as she brought the cup back down. Harry smiled at her as their eyes met. “Not bad, for a pom.”
“Hey, we may have reputations as tea drinkers but we know our coffee too. Especially when we are out on ex. Need to stay awake somehow.” She gave a small smile. It was a rare thing to see on her, and he was a little taken aback. Even the smallest of smiles on her face, changed it. He found himself wondering what her face looked like when she smiled properly. He looked down at his tea quickly, surprised by those thoughts.
Admittedly, he had never met too many women on the frontlines of the military, but he had met others in support roles back home. Never before had he found any of them so intriguing. Naturally, he flirted a lot with them back home, but he didn’t really have the urge to flirt with Desiree.
“So, how did you get here?” he asked, asking what he had been wondering for a while. He looked up from his tea. She had her head cocked to the side and an unsure look flicked across her face. It was gone quickly though as she looked back at her coffee, before leaning back in her seat.
“I’m assuming you mean to find out the long winded story that leads up to me being here, rather than the simple answer I’m tempted to give you?” He was surprised to see a smirk grace her lips.
“Well, that would be nice,” he replied with a grin. She raised an eyebrow before lifting her coffee to her mouth again.
“Right, well, I suppose I can oblige you for a little while. My mother and father are both military. Father was army, special forces to be exact, mother was air force. I joined straight out of high school, into the air force would you believe?”
Harry furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Wait, the air force?”
“Yep, I joined the air force. Remember when I joined that women weren’t allowed on the front line. I had no interest in any of the positions in the army available to me so i decided to join the air force so I could at least be near some high powered machinery.” She smiled to herself, looking into her cup as she took another sip.
“When it came to recruits, I flew through it. Was top of my class in all aspects. No male could beat me. My PTI’s even wanted to test my skill set at the male level, which we did, with some special permissions from high places. Passed them with flying colours. Not long into my job training and the word came through after some scandals at ADFA that women should be given more equal opportunities, but I still had no interest in it.”
“Why not? And how on earth have you come so far?”
“It wasn’t my idea. Rumours have it that my father was keeping tabs on my doings at recruits and job training. He saw all my results, my instructor’s comments. Anyway, the PTI’s and my superiors pushed me towards it. Me being me at the time, I tended to go along with whatever anyone suggested, just to get them off my back.”
“I take it you come from a family where a lot of pressure was put on you?” Harry asked, sensing some resentment in her voice.
“A little, there was three of us. We all joined the military, it’s all any of us knew. And our father did... ‘encourage’ us a lot.”
“I feel your pain,” he said with a wink. She gave another small smile before looking back at her coffee. Harry couldn’t help but think about how much he wanted to see her smile more. He mentally scolded himself. She was a superior officer, thoughts like that were completely inappropriate.
“So, anyway, I went onto put in the paperwork, took lots of tests, psych evaluations and physical tests before they sent me on to infantry training, still classified as an Aircraftwoman.”
“Surely that would have made things even harder? Wouldn’t it have been easier to just transfer for you to the army?”
“This is the military, H, when do they ever do anything the easy way?” she asked sardonically. He nodded, she was right. “There were six of us, mixed into an intake of boys, fresh from Kapooka. All the other girls I came in with were either fresh out of Kapooka themselves, or currently serving ARA. Naturally, they all looked down on me. The lone RAAFie.”
Harry noticed her bite her lip slightly. The look on her face read of bad memories. Then she smirked again, looking up at him.
“Didn’t I show them? Once again, I took top of the class. Much to the annoyance of every single male in my class, and I paid the price for it more than once.” She pulled her collar aside and showed a scar on her neckline. “One of my course mates got a bit angry at me during training and hit me with the butt of his rifle, my bone pierced the skin.”
“Jesus, what happened to him?” He couldn’t help but notice how tanned her skin actually was under her shirt line too.
She shrugged. “I broke his jaw, with my foot.” Harry stared at her for a moment. “Anyway, after the initial six weeks of the ten week course, the weakest of the course had dropped out. Including every other woman i went in with. I was the only one left. After that, the boys treated me like I was one of them. They had no issue with me.”
“What changed?” Harry asked curiously.
Desiree shrugged again. “I don’t know. Maybe they finally accepted that I was the real deal and wasn’t going to pull some gender card or have small man’s syndrome. I just put my head down and got on with it.”
“How was it after that?” Harry asked draining his cup. “From memory, you didn’t mention anything about RMC?”
“Oh yeah, that came after Singleton. And boy, did those officers have a complex about me coming in. The women were ok, the guys though, especially the infantry officers, jesus! Of course, I had the advantage of having done a course on infantry so I was already way ahead of these young guys, and once again, flying colours, blah blah blah.” She made chatting hand motions as she drained her coffee.
“But did I hear right, you’re special forces trained?”
“Can’t give away all my secrets today, H. You’d best go and enjoy a shower. Don’t know when your next one will come at this rate.” She stood up, picking up her cup as she did so. Harry hurried to his feet, as was etiquette at home. Desiree, obviously not used to that kind of behaviour, raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. She took her cup to the kitchen, paying no mind to the corporal who stared as she exited the mess tent.
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Desert Love