< mutter mutter hate it when I sucked into darkfics mutter mutter>
Very well written, Bethy. I figured it out as soon as she said "Pre-emptive strike" but by then it was too late to stop reading.
Definitely intense and definitely satisfies both challenges.
I'm not sure I'd give it a G rating, though. I took that as a sign that nothing too bad could happen, but this is a pretty serious subject matter. You might consider changing that before sending it to the Archive.
As I said, though, it was well written.
Kathy
