Now that there was a firm deadline for being sent on assignment, Maggie knew she and Kurt needed to step up their game to finish preparations. Today that meant sparring. They used one of the gyms on the Amphib base where both she and Kurt had access.

"You're holding back," Maggie said. She easily blocked a punch from Kurt. The two of them had been going at it for a good fifteen minutes, enough to leave them both a little sweaty, not enough to leave much in the way of bruises.

"I thought we were messing around." Kurt did a foot sweep that Maggie avoided. He gave her a grin, showing his mouth guard.

"The object of this was to figure out if I can tell what you're planning without you having to open your mouth."

"Are you implying I telegraph?"

"I don't know, hence why we're here on the mats." Maggie rolled her eyes. Mr. ex-Navy-SEAL was way too freaking confident in his ability to overpower and out maneuver her. That might be fine in a low risk situation but she needed to learn exactly how far she could trust him if their lives were on the line.

He had been seriously injured the day they first met and only now, months later was Kurt back up to speed enough to be cleared for active duty. The two of them had been training hard together for three weeks, running, obstacle courses, combat drills, and the firearms training simulator. She trusted his judgement and his trigger finger. In her mind, the final hurdle was knowing if she trusted his body in the field ... the way she trusted him in bed.

Kurt made a grab for her wrist, intent on a take down, and she went limp, on purpose. He flinched as he came down on top of her, hastily folding his arm under her body to protect her from the full force of the impact. They landed in a tangle, his body weight only partially pinning her back to the mat.

Maggie was furious. "You shit! Do not protect me. I can take any damn thing you can dish out. This is never going to work if you think I'm going to get hurt!"

He rolled off of her and sat with his elbows on his knees. "I outweigh you by fifty pounds. I can bench more than two hundred without a problem. I could kill you."

"Try." Maggie snarled at him in anger.

He got up, a grim expression on his face. Good, maybe she'd finally get a good read on his capabilities.

Kurt came at her hard, punches, grabs, and body blows. Some she blocked, some she avoided, and a few she plain sucked up the pain and kept going. She also finally figured out his real tell. He was stepping short with the leg that hadn't been injured, over compensating for the one that had. He dipped left, avoiding a chop and left himself way too open. It was too good an opportunity to pass up.

Maggie twisted, presenting her back to him and in an instant delivered a spinning heel kick that caught him in the side of the head. He dropped to the mat with the grace of a broken doll. The moment he fell, she knew she had hurt him.