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Being Dutch’s best friends with years came with a lot of perks. He knew more about her than most – she trusted him and let him in. They bantered with the ease of a long and easy compatibility, switching from sarcastic smiles to sharp alert in microseconds. They understood one another, and with time Johnny could tell the difference between teasing and her hard lined “no” that indicated he’d managed to inch up against one of the few boundaries she hadn’t let down for him yet.

It’s why he absolutely had to get inside the container they’d just picked up.

Before they’d docked at Old Town Dutch had tossed one of those smirks over her shoulder at him.

“And under no circumstances should you fuss about with our new cargo. You could get hurt.”

He had maybe an hour while she was cashing in their last warrant to sneak his way into the lead-lined crate that seemed impervious to even the best of Lucy’s scans. Curiosity, the need to know, the need to pass this test he knew Dutch was setting up for him, the need to make her proud and possibly discover a new toy she’d picked up just for him all drove him to the edge of excited insanity. His leg bounced as he pulled off the front panel, biting at his thumb as he examined the complicated tangle of wires that seemed to connect themselves to the front lock.

He smiled.