Didn't work in with what I was writing; but I didn't want to get rid of it. Like Always the characters aren't mine they are Hasbro's and all the other places that GI Joe shows up.
Don't sue, I don't have much; I work for a living.
"Then ah swear to god, Shipwreck looks up at me saying he was just trying it on to make sure it fitted Lady Jaye correctly." Beachhead explained over the gales of laughter in his thick Alabama accent. "Flint, Ah thought that girl was going to kill him. Took me an' Leatherneck ta pull her off of him." The blonde Ranger then pointed at the small of his back, "Ah still have a bruise where she got me."
Duke held up a finger "So that's what this means." Duke showed a picture of Shipwreck in a Bra. "That Pirate scares me."
"Ah hate to say mon Amies," Gung-Ho said taking the phone out of the First Sergeants hand. "Flint, Shipwreck almost fills this out better then Lady Jaye, non?"
Flint looked at Duke's phone as he shuffled the deck of card. "His ass is a little bigger then Jaye's." He passed the phone back, the Sailor was looking a little 'fluffier' then usual. "Speaking of which."
"Speaking of Lady Jaye's ass? Sure I can talk about that subject all night long." Ace organized his cards.
"I am right here, dumbass." Flint glared at the pilot. "Who keeps inviting him anyway?" Flint nodded over to Ace. "I use to win more when he did not show up."
"All I am saying chief," Ace brought the conversation back to a topic he felt that everyone could appreciate. "You could at least throw us a bone about her. Five years, the only way we know that you get laid is the bite marks you sport." He threw a chip out. "Engaged to one of the hottest women on Ft. Colton, you should feel it is your duty to tell us 'does her accent get thick?'" He looked up to see Flints dark look, Ace then backtracked. "I'll I'm saying is Duke at least gives us something."
"No, I don't" Duke raised Ace's bet looking at Pilot like he had just sprouted a third head.
"I, for one, don't want to know anything about Lady Jaye or Scarlett in bed," Roadblock took a long drag of his cigar. "Not that they aren't beautiful, but those two are like sisters to me." He threw a stack of chips to emphasize his point.
"I mean every one has a hot sister." Ace shrugged.
"Talk like that got Shipwreck banned." Beachhead said throwing his bet in and raising. "Ah mean Falcon has been asking to join us." He looked around the table to everyone agreeing that Falcon could just as easily replace Ace in the 'backroom' poker game. "Just sayin' Ace."
Ace shut up at that point. This was the best game on Thursday night, though the bets were pennies to the high stake games he played in, the conversation was always good, being in the backroom of Izzy's the food and drink flowed freely, not to mention the amount of brass that showed up could help his career.
Gung-Ho chuckled at the expression on Ace as a pretty blonde waitress walked in with wings. Long beach waved hair, big blue eyes, and deep tanned skin she looked more Surf bunny then bartender. "Good evening gentlemen." She put the wings on the side table.
The men at the table were regulars, in her sleep she knew their orders, a High Life to Beachhead, Duke the Corona, Roadblock the Scotch and Soda, Ace Martini Dry, Gung-Ho PBR and Flint the Guinness Stout. "So Bailey, graduation in three weeks. You excited?" Duke asked.
"Terrified." She passed out empty plates for the guys to put the wings on. "I already have a client. Charlie Iron-Knife wants me to be his staff veterinarian up at Willow Bark ranch." Charlie Iron-Knife was a former Joe with the Codename Spirit. In an effort to help veterans, the Pueblo medicine man ran an Therapeutic Riding Center for Wounded Warriors and others that could benefit from the treatment .
"Guess you not going to be our bartender for much longer." Beachhead said throwing out chips.
"Ask me how that works for my sister." She said looking picking up empty bottles and glasses "Uncle Raven called her in to tend bar last week when ya'll had those visiting Brits. This is a family run business, so it doesn't matter if your about to be a veterinarian or your code name is Lady Jaye, you will work the Bar."
"And don't forget that," Raven aka Simon Lagos walked in to the room. When his sister had been killed at the hands of Cobra, he had taken in her four children, with the help of their Scottish Grandmother, raised them as his own. "You two have to pay back all the clothes I bought. Its not my fault your sister refused to wear your hand me downs."
"Yes, Uncle Simon, every 16-year-old girl wants to wear t-shirts with High School Musical blazoned across their chest." Though the younger of the two sisters, Bailey stood taller by three inches then the Joe team's Covert Operations OIC.
"She could have worn it ironically. Speaking of girls, where are they?" Simon asked pouring shots from a dusty bottle of vintage whiskey. Izzy's might look like a rowdy Southern Roadhouse but the owner did know his spirits.
"An award ceremony for one of the local colleges." Flint raised his bet. "They invited a few prominent businesswomen to speak. Lady Jaye, Scarlett and Kaylee Abernathy got an invite. Cover Girl went along so she wouldn't have to suffer us alone."
Bailey opened her mouth to comment when a roar of new Joes playing pool caught her attention. "I better go check on Chasity," the men looked out the door to see the middle aged woman sitting at the bar. All of them leaned back into the table wishing they hadn't. "She's on the prowl again, those new Joes don't know what's what yet."
Raven good naturedly messed his niece's hair as she walked by and started passing out the shots. "On the house guys. Got to finish a few things, but Duke you have some money I need to win back."
"Bring it on 'old timer'." Duke's accepted the challenge.
"Damn, must be nice having an 'in' here." Beachhead finished his shot appreciating the flavor.
Flint raised and called, grinning as he won the round with a lousy hand of nothing. He began stacking up his winnings. "Right now it is, but having to clean up this place after we've had a successful mission is another story." Flint shook his head. "You know I found Alpine passed out in the rafters last month?"
Duke took his first card while reading a text message, "Why does she need toilet paper?"
"Oh the Joys of married life, Flint you ready?" Roadblock asked looking at the Warrant Officer whose impending nuptials were only a few months away.
"Something tells me being married to Lady Jaye will give him even more grey hairs." Duke returned the text then pocket his phone.
"She isn't as high maintenance as you think, Duke," Flint defended Lady Jaye, the First Sergeant and Brunette Joe often complained about each other. Flint found it humorous, though the First Sergeant and Flint's fiancée would dig at each other, god forbid if someone said something bad about the other in their presence. "I swear last night she was so quiet I forgot she was home." Flint organized his cards throwing one out for a new one.
"Jaye quiet?" Beachhead's disbelief was written on his face.
"She was working on your expense reports. Why did you think you could get away with trying to expense a Mossy Oak shotgun cover?" Flint glared at Beachhead, then adding for Ace's benefit. "Trust me she wasn't quiet once I found out I had been neglecting her." The pilot almost did a dance at the first acknowledgement from Flint in five years that the team's most talked about couple actually had sex.
Flint shook his head; the minutes the words flew out of his mouth he felt guilty. It was one thing for her to talk about the more intimate details of their relationship with the girls, she had control over what she told them. It was another him talking to the 'boys'. He feared to talk about what they did in the bedroom would cheapen what they had, that was something he could never stomach.
Pushing the thought aside it was hard to keep his stoic frown, aces over kings. This was going to be a good night. He should win back what he lost to Ace, last month, with this hand. He threw out his first bet when the pocket of his cargo shorts buzzed. Pulling it out he noticed a text from Lady Jaye. 'Baby we're out of strawberries :( Can you pick some up? ;)'.
Flint looked at his hand, then to the text. It was a hell of a hand; but that was a hell of a text. The first time he had received a text like that he was looking for any excuse to get out of a losing streak he had raced home. There is something to be said abut positive reinforcement; his body still reacted to the thought of her waiting for him in his apartment, oh god, in his beret.
Standing up he pulled out the hundred and fifty dollars out of his wallet placing it on top of the deck. "Where you going Flint?"
"Sorry guys I got to get." Flint pulled his keys out out of his pocket.
"Man we never see you anymore," Ace complained. Which was true, due to him losing his leg it seemed that he was spending more time at Physical Therapy and the Gym then with his friends, add being newly engaged, "don't tell me she's got you whipped."
"Amie, if I came home to that…" Gung-Ho shook his head "I wouldn't even have come down here tonight."
"No Ace is right; she does seem to have you wrapped around her little finger." Duke pointed out. Flint wanted to point out that, though Duke and Scarlett were very much in love, the First Sergeant's cluelessness had him sleeping on the couch once in a while. Flint could honestly say that he had never had that punishment, yet. He wasn't about to make tonight the night.
"Jaye thought she heard something." Flint shrugged.
"Like hell she did," Beachhead glared at him. He knew what Flint was running off too. He was with Gung-Ho, if a girl like Lady Jaye was crooking her finger in his direction he'd leave the game too. What had him irritated was insinuating the girl couldn't take care of herself, which everyone knew at the table that was the farthest from the truth. "We have all seen her take on twenty Cobra Troopers by herself."
He punched Beachhead on the shoulder, "Maybe there's twenty-one." Even to Flint his excuse sounded lame.
"Look who I found." Raven returned with General Colton behind him.
"You can have my seat, Jaye needed…" He mumbled the rest when Raven threw him a look. Jaye's uncle scared the bejeezus out of him, and very few men could claim the honor, not even Snake Eyes. Flint still had an eye on him when he held out his hand to shake Colton's.
Colton took in the team's Executive Officer swearing the man had put on twenty more pounds of muscle since he had last seen him. The Kansas farm raised Joe was dressed in a blue polo shirt and a pair of Cargo shorts, not hiding that from below his knee was metal. "Like the hardware." He said in response to Flint's prosthetic. "Question: do I smell? Cause everyone seems to be running off. Hawk took off like a bat out of hell when his wife texted."
"But that is the great thing about cell phones" Duke said throwing down some chips. "I just texted Scarlett I would pick up the toilet paper when I got done."
Flint smiled, texting Jaye he was out the door. "Let me guess when your done here Scarlett is asleep in her ugliest PJs, and some sort of gooey face mask?" As he finished his question her reply dinged the picture was meant only for him with smile, he deleted it. Time was he would have kept the racy picture but he had learned a lesson, never keep anything you don't want the resident Geeks to see on your phone, computer or cloud.
"Yeah.." Duke said looking confused. Flint laughed patting Duke on the shoulder. Silently reinterring a point that the First Sergeant was missing some key information. Duke looked up at him clueless. Flint finally sighed picking up Dukes phone he texted 'j/k on my way now.' "But I'm winning."
Colton who had taken Flint seat looked at the cards the Warrant Officer had given him. "No you're not." Everyone else growled and folded. "Next excuse?"
"We don't need toilet paper." Duke said.
Everyone looked at him. Blinking.
"I hate to say this: please, please, Flint explain this to him before I lose respect for Top." Raven moaned.
"You don't go get toilet paper. Just go home, the girls are playing a wine induced game." Flint handed him the phone, which had sounded an alert for a text. "If you play, then trust me, you will be thanking me in the morning. Because everyone wins this little game of theirs."
A little while later…
"'Lucy I'm home!'" Flint quoted Ricky Ricardo's signature homecoming greeting from the I Love Lucy Show.
"You are such a nerd!" She yelled her brogue thick filled with laughter. "How was the game?"
"Lost a hundred and fifty." He shrugged thumbing through the mail trying to act like it was nothing him racing 95 miles an hour down I20 in his Shelby, just to get to her. "Where are you, Baby?"
"Right here." Emerging from the shadows he couldn't help but feel like he was kicked in the gut. It wasn't his beret; but, lacy black boy shorts. Even after five years the sight of her body brought him to his knees.
Walking past him she touched his arm but kept walking toward the stairs. glancing over her shoulder at him she smiled. He pulled both arms up, panting like a dog begging for a bone. She laughed at him, then biting her lip, she gave him a come hither look that made his heart skip a beat. Thanking God he watched her ass sway away.
She hadn't even got to the bedroom before his arm circled her waist. Pulling her into his chest, she turned, standing on tip toe he expected a mind shattering kiss. Instead, her nose wrinkled at the smell of beer and whisky on his breath. "Flint, I can't believe you."
"It was one beer," He was not going to let the beer and whiskey ruin what was standing in front of him. "Besides you knew the minute you texted me I'd get out of there." She glared at him. He threw her his famous lop-sided grin, following her field of vision as she tried to look away in an attempt to hide her smile. "Jaye, Al," Al the short version of her first name, Alison. "I was up a hundred and fifty, I had aces over kings." He rubbed her shoulders, looking down appreciating what her chestnut, beach wave curls were hiding.
"Well next time I'll let you.." she started.
"Ah, no baby." He interrupted her, pressing his lips against hers he had to coax her slightly, but the minute her tongue danced with his he pulled her closer. Groaning with pleasure he picked her up, wrapping her tanned legs around his waist. "This beats beer with the boys any night of the week."