Secret Indulgences, an emergency fanfic

"Remind me never to make vacation plans with you guys again!" Marco groused for possibly the tenth time that evening. Johnny irritably threw a pillow from the sofa at him. "Hey!" The lineman grinned, his teeth practically glowing in the firelight.

Johnny grinned back. "Cheer up, Marco! If the wood gives out, you can always use the stuffing from that thing to keep warm."

"Ha-ha!" Marco rolled his eyes at his friend.

Captain Stanley looked at the youngest member of the group. "Nope, Gage. If the wood gives out, Pal, you're elected to go find some more!"

Johnny protested, "Cap! In this storm? The snow would bury me before I got off the porch!"

Cap grinned and looked decidedly unrepentant. "Your cabin, your idea, you're elected!"

The other men from A-shift all laughed at the dispirited look on Johnny's face. "This freak snowstorm was sure as hell not my idea!" he groused.

Cap grinned again, "Stow it, Gage!"

Mike Stoker, ever the peacemaker, piped up, "Cap, you gotta admit, the trip up was beautiful. Nobody had any idea this storm was even coming."

Chet grinned, gazing over at the normally silent engineer. "He talks!"

Stoker withered the lineman with "The Look," one for which he was famous. "'Course I do. It's just that I only talk when I have something to say," he paused for effect; then let loose the zinger as he grinned evilly at Chet…"unlike some people!" Chet glowered at Mike as the room erupted into laughter.

Soon everyone settled back into bored silence. They had plenty of supplies, despite the ribbing they had been giving Johnny earlier. They were in no danger of the wood, or anything else, running out unless the storm lasted for a month or better; which was just not likely.

Suddenly Johnny popped off with an idea. One that turned out to have hilarious and… well, disturbing…consequences. The men would never look at each other in quite the same way again.

"Since nobody wants to tell any more ghost stories, or anything, how about we tell a different kind of story?"

Eyes rolled around the room, as Cap cautiously asked, "Like what, John?"

"Like something really, y'know, good, aaaand, just different. Uuuh, wait, I got it! How about, we go around, and everybody tell about their one secret indulgence on their days off? Long as it's not about like, their sex life or nothing like that…that would just be too, blleeech!" He shuddered, shaking his hands dramatically, as the others laughed at his antics.

The men were quiet for a minute as they considered the idea, and then Cap spoke up. "Okay, John, sounds like it could get…interesting. But, we better set some ground rules." Here he looked pointedly at Chet, who struggled to maintain a wide-eyed, "Who, me?" expression.

Cap continued, "One. Nothing gets repeated after tonight. By anybody." He took another sip of the beer he had been drinking. "Two. No exaggerating. I'm sure you puppies are sick enough, you won't need to anyway." He grinned at that. "Three. No blackmail! Okay, that should cover it." He aimed a stink-eye at his junior lineman. "We clear, Chet?"

Chet grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, Cap."

Cap leaned back in his recliner, finished off his beer and told John, "Okey-dokey then. Let's get this road on the show!" All of the others in the room looked at their captain, slightly wide eyed, until he winked at them, and they relaxed. He wasn't as drunk as he was playing.

Johnny asked, "Who goes first?" And every eye in the room trained directly on him. He grinned nervously. "Stupid question, huh?"

Roy smiled. "Well, Junior, it was your idea."

Johnny thought about it quickly. Should he tell them the truth? They would probably never believe him. He had never been able to engage in his passion before he moved out to his ranch, because he'd never had the room, and now that he did, he kept the room under lock and key. It was nothing to be ashamed of—not at all. He'd even heard of other grown men doing it, but…still—

"Earth to Johnny…" Cap was looking amused. So were the others.

Johnny realized he had been so into his own head, he hadn't heard a word Cap had said. He blushed a bit. "Uhh, sorry, Cap. Just thinking."

"Anything you wanna share with the class?"

"Well, umm, yeah actually, but you guys may not believe me. I, uh, well…" He took a deep breath and finally just laid it out there. "Legos."

There was a moment of silence and a few blinks of confusion.

Mike finally broke it. "Legos? Like as in the building sets?"

Johnny could have kissed Mike for not using the word "toys."

"Yeah, I-uh actually, have a whole room full of houses and buildings, an' all sorts of stuff I've built. I've even designed landscaping and added cars an' stuff. I know it prob'ly sounds dumb, but..."

Marco looked at John in amazement. "No, amigo. It doesn't sound dumb at all! It sounds pretty cool! How come we've never seen this stuff?"

John blushed again. "Well, because, it's y'know…"

Mike smiled, "Kid stuff?"

Johnny smiled back. "Yeah."

Mike shook his head and told him, "Would it help you to know that engineers sometimes use Legos to help with their designs? In fact, if you haven't already done it, I'll bet we could come up with a scale model of 51's."

"I got some of the design on paper, but I can't translate it into the design with the bricks. The dimensions aren't working right."

"I can help you out with that," Mike offered. "That's basically what I did in the Army—3-D structural designing and building. It's pretty much what I do at home, too. I have this drafting set up that is completely awesome…" Suddenly, the normally silent engineer stopped talking as he noticed his other shift-mates staring at him, and realization dawned onto him.

Roy realized now that he was not the only Army veteran in the group. This was something Mike had never before revealed to the group. He also knew that Mike must have been in Vietnam with the Corps of Engineers. Theirs was one of the most dangerous jobs, as they often worked basically unprotected, deep in the jungles, designing and building bases and airstrips. He wondered what other layers Mike hid under his cool, calm exterior…

Mike grinned widely. "Well, guess my secret indulgence is out now, too!" he said with a laugh.

Chet looked at him with a smile. "I know your other secret, though."

Mike looked at him quizzically. "And that would be?"

"Well, pal, you don't drink chocolate milk at the station, but you do at home."

"Yeah, so?"

"You stir it with a fork."

"Yeah, so?"

"Tell 'em why." It was Chet's turn to grin evilly.

Mike shook his head, as if addressing a child "Chet, it hardly counts as an indulgence. And it's a theory, not an indulgence."

Chet just grinned and shot back at the engineer, " Yeah, but a gallon of chocolate milk per week is definitely an indulgence!" The others gaped at Mike. It was well-known he sometimes had nearly as much trouble as Johnny meeting the minimum weight limit. Mike scowled at Chet and went into lecture mode, intent on his pet theory:

"It's a very simple concept. The fork displaces the liquid chocolate throughout the milk at a much more even rate than would a spoon, while at the same time causing less displacement of the milk itself. It also causes less surface tension; thereby reducing the chances of the milk spilling out of the glass. A slightly different theory comes into play if you use powdered chocolate, but the basic concept is the same… Simple."

Mike shrugged and sat back as his friends looked at him as if he had grown an extra head or two. He placed his empty beer bottle on the floor next to him. Chet simply dissolved into laughter, having been treated to his friend's "simple" explanation, and his indulgence, on more than one occasion.

"Great," Cap mumbled. "A twofer."

"After that explanation, I could use some reefer!" Marco suddenly snorted. The whole group exploded into laughter at the senior lineman's completely uncharacteristic comment.

Roy looked at Marco, his eyes dancing, "Okay, Lopez, 'fess up! So that's your secret indulgence, huh?"

"Are you kidding me? No way! Not even close. Nope. Mine is new, now that I got my own place, but I really don't think you guys wanna know."

"Food," Chet guessed. "Knowing you, it's gotta involve food. You're always flirting with almost being too close to the weight limit."

Marco looked hurt. "Hey amigo, you wound me! I'm not that close! Besides, you got closer than me last time, remember? But it does have to do with food…" Chet grinned back at his best friend.

Cap rolled his eyes. "Okay, Marc. So what do you do on your time off, then?"

Marco grinned and said, "Okay, I'll tell you, but don't say I didn't warn you! I get naked and eat chocolate chip cookies." At the loud groans of protest from around the room, Marco howled with laughter, finally ending up on the floor near the fireplace.

Chet was scrubbing at his eyes, melodramatically proclaiming, "Nooo, Noooo! They're burning!

Johnny was staring at Marco, speechless for once.

Mike was staring at the floor. His quiet comment, after a few moments, broke the whole room up. "Geez, Lopez…that's… really…gross."

The lineman stood up and bowed playfully to his audience.

Roy looked at his partner and deadpanned, "You didn't bring any chocolate chip cookies along, did you?" And they were off again.

Johnny, now practically in tears and holding his sides, laughed, "No, thank God!" He then eyed his partner with a grin. "Your turn, pally!"

Roy shot Johnny a 'Thanks a bunch' grimace, and thought for a few minutes. "Well, does this indulgence have to be something we do alone, or can our wives be involved?"

Immediately the teasing and groaning started up again, as Cap, now halfway through another beer, as were the rest of them, reminded him, "No sex, remember?" The cackling around the room made the fair-haired paramedic blush deeply, and reminded Cap of a roomful of chickens.

Roy shook his head violently, and once he found his voice again, sputtered indignantly, "That's NOT what I meant!"

Once the room had settled back down, and Roy had himself somewhat under control, he continued in his normal quiet way. "Actually, it is something Jo and I enjoy doing together. When the kids go to stay with her parents, or with their friends, she and I like to go for road trips. Sometimes we pick a destination, like a winery in Napa, or a trip to see a particular tourist attraction or something, but most often, we just jump in the Porsche and take off, with no destination in mind at all. We've had some real adventures. This one time, we decided to flip a coin, and just turn right for heads, and left for tails, and see where we ended up. " His eyes softened and sparkled at the thoughts evoked by his memories.

The pause in his story was interrupted by an impatient Chet. "So—where'd you end up?"

"What?" Roy had had a few beers more than usual, and was starting feel them.

Chet rolled his eyes. "The coin tosses, man! Where'd you and JoAnne end up?"

"Oh, that time we ended up in San Francisco. That was before I started with the department. Most people don't know we spent our honeymoon driving Route 66."

Chet looked impressed. He nodded. "That's cool. I've never been much of anywhere…too busy, y'know?" He settled back into his spot on the sofa and closed his eyes, supremely comfortable. Johnny eyed him. No way was The Pigeon gonna miss this chance!

"So, Chet? What about you?" Johnny needled. "What's your big secret indulgence? How do you spend your time off?"

Chet cracked one eye. 'Oh, boy,' he thought. 'I really do not want to tell these guys about it…especially Gage! He'll be giving me a hard time about it for the next hundred years!' Still, it was the truth…

Chet sat up a bit straighter in his seat. "Promise you guys won't laugh?"

Cap snorted lightly, "Are you kiddin'?" At the serious look on Chet's face, Cap and the others grew more solemn. Cap looked into Chet's eyes. "Promise."

Chet took a deep breath, staring into the firelight. "I been volunteering for about two years at a soup kitchen in my neighborhood. They needed help with people to just come in to talk to the guys who come there. A lot of 'em are vets like me. They just need somebody who understands. Who knows what it was like. I was stationed on a Navy troop transport ship for a while, and then worked heavy equipment in 'Nam." To the men in the room he need say nothing else. Most of them were either ex-military, or family of military. And one had grown up on a reservation. He, too, knew the need to be understood.

The room grew very silent for a few minutes, as each man processed what their usually playful lineman had just revealed. Mike was the first to speak.

"I'd be willing to help out, Chet, if they still need people." Chet looked at the engineer gratefully, as the other vets expressed similar offers. Johnny was looking at the floor when Chet's voice drew him from the dark place his thoughts had taken him. Half-breeds did not fare well where he grew up.

"Hey, babe, you okay?"

"Yeah, just wishing I could help, but I'm not a vet."

"So what? That makes no difference. These are just a lot of hurting people, Johnny, and if there's one thing you're great at, it's helping hurting people!" Not a man in the room missed Chet's use of John's first name…something that almost never happened.

Johnny grinned, the sun coming out on his face once again. "Thanks, pal."

Chet shrugged dismissively, leaned back, and The Phantom got comfortable once again. Nobody was fooled for a moment.

Cap, sensing the change in the mood of the room, decided to lighten things up a bit. He stood up and surveyed the amiable men lounging amongst the clutter of the comfortable cabin.

"Welp, guess that leaves just me and my depraved indulgence, fellas!" He grinned as his men's eyes widened in trepidation as their slightly tipsy captain eyed them all evilly.

Suddenly, he came to attention before his men, snapped off a British style salute, and gruffly intoned two chilling words…

"Vorld Domeenation!" His men all blinked at him in confusion as Hank Stanley dropped the salute and laughed maniacally. In a truly horrible German accent, he continued, "Zer zhu haf eet, men. Zhu haf dishkuffert mein scheekret!" He laughed again at the stunned look on their faces. As he once again took his seat in the recliner, he continued his story in his normal voice. "As my work shifts allow, I travel around the state and play in "Risk" tournaments. I actually walked away with the championship two years ago! Used all my vacation time to do it, though!" He sat back, delighted to have actually pulled one over on his normally insightful crew.

Marco grinned at Cap and asked him—"Risk—the board game*?!"

"Yep! Used to play it all the time with my girls, then they got mad at me 'cause they couldn't beat me; so they quit playing the game when they were in their teens. That's when I joined a league."

Mike threw a look at his superior and best friend. "Wait a minute! We play that game at the station all the time, and you've never won a game yet! It's usually me or Johnny that wins." The others nodded in agreement.

"Of course," Hank shrugged. "I let you guys win. If I didn't, I wouldn't have anybody to play with, now would I?" The evil grin was firmly back in place. And the men all learned a very important lesson about just who might be the most devious member of 51-A!

Finally, the men had gotten to sleep very, very late. The next day, they were pleased to see that the storm had moved off, and that they would probably only be stuck at the cabin for a few more days. No one mentioned the "game" from the night before, but it was still very much on everyone's minds.

Finally Mike was the one to bring up the subject, after everyone had finished supper that night, and they were once again all gathered around the fireplace, staring into its flickering flames. His quiet comment, though it caused a chuckle, brought nods of agreement from all the men.

"Last night was…interesting, but next time, let's stick to ghost stories."

~The End~

A/N The board game "Risk" was invented by a French film director named Albert Lamorisse. It was originally released in France under the name "La Conquệte du Monde (The Conquest of the World) in 1957. It was first released in the United States in 1959. There have been numerous updates and re-releases of the game over the years.

Although alcohol does play a role in this story, the guys are by no means alcoholics. They don't get roaring drunk, and they are stuck in the storm. They aren't going anywhere.