Damon Baird got up from his seat, pulling the goggles from his eyes as he made his way to the door of his garage.
"I'm coming…jeez..." he said, irritated as he heard a second rap on the door.
The rusted hinges creaked as he swung it open, to find Samantha Byrne standing on the other side.
"Hey, Blondie. I got the parts."
Baird wiped his grimy hands on a worn towel as he looked her over. She had a few pieces of random machinery cradled in her arms. Other then a couple pipes and rolls of wire, everything was of unknown origins to anyone other then the mechanic, who gave her a quick nod and gestured for her to come inside his cramped workshop.
They made their way to where three packhorses were parked, which looked a little less then depressing in their current state of repair. Yesterday's victory had been costly; the battle had taken a toll on the equipment as well as the soldiers, who were all pulling their weight to fix what had been nearly destroyed. There were weapons and armor to be cleaned, walls to be rebuilt, the wounded to tend to, and in Sam and Baird's case, machinery to be repaired. The south islander had been paired with him because she was the only one who had remote experience working with vehicles, much to Baird's dismay. All because she's worked on her friggin' rat bike, doesn't mean she has a clue what she's doing, he said to himself when Hoffman insisted they work together. But he knew he couldn't get everything done by himself (in a timely manner anyway,) so he'd reluctantly accepted her "help". He decided he'd let her run errands while he did the actual work. That way, she'd leave him alone, and save him a trip or two; A win-win as far as he was concerned.
Baird sat back down on the only stool in the room, taking a close look at each item Sam handed to him. She groaned and leaned against the packhorse door.
"Give it a rest will you Baird? I got everything. Let's get started, yeah?"
Baird pretended to ignore her, but reached for his toolbox on the table to his right. He grabbed a screwdriver and a wrench, along with a couple of the things Sam had brought and slid underneath the over-sized vehicle.
Sam didn't mind being excluded from the process. In fact, the more Baird ignored her, she knew just how agitated he was, which made her pretty happy. She grinned and helped herself to Baird's toolbox, then popped the hood of the packhorse opposite her companion. She heard Baird stop whatever he was doing as she sifted through his supplies, before returning to work.
Neat-freak, Sam thought to herself with a laugh. She knew how jumpy Baird got whenever anyone touched his precious machinery, so the fact that she had the permission to do so made it all the more satisfactory.
"Ok, let's see…" She looked over everything, trying to figure out where to start. It couldn't be much different from her bike, she thought. She worked on the engine for a while, but when she tried to start it up, it wouldn't kick over. She turned the key again, but again, no dice.
"Bloody hell…" she went to the front of the truck and looked it over again.
"Having some trouble?" She turned around to find Baird standing behind her, his grey tank shirt already stained with soot. She hadn't even noticed he'd gotten out from under the truck after he'd heard her struggling. She stood up a bit straighter.
"The damn thing just won't start, I tried everything."
She did her best to keep cool, but she squirmed inside at the thought of her needing help from Damon Baird. The blonde wiped the sweat forming above his brow with his forearm and looked over her work.
"It looks like…you need a new spark plug." He squinted, leaning in a bit closer. "Two new plugs."
Before she could say anything, Baird went over to his desk, sifting through a bin full of spare parts, and retrieved the small objects in a flash. As he began to replace the piece, Sam leaned in closer, trying to figure out what he was doing without having to ask.
"You have to make sure to keep the wires in order as you remove them," He said suddenly, not looking up. Sam was startled when he broke the silence, but quickly scooched in closer to get a better look.
"Could you get that ratchet on the table there?" He gestured to the small metal table in the far corner of the room. Baird glanced at her as she retrieved it, but quickly looked away once she turned around. He was attempting to remove the old plug before he cringed, pulling his hand away.
"Oh, that's just friggin' terrific…" he muttered, making his way to the sink before Sam saw what happened.
He turned the water on and put his palm underneath, inhaling through his teeth for a second as the cold water ran over the decent sized cut on his right hand. Sam looked over and saw the reddish water filling up the basin of the old sink. She walked over to Baird, who was searching around the clutter for a towel that wasn't too dirty.
"You ok?" she asked, pulling a small handkerchief from her pants pocket. He met her gaze as he gently took the cloth and dried his hand.
"Yeah…it's fine"
Sam looked him over as he rubbed his eyes. He looked tired; the creases on his face seemed to be more visible then usual and dark circles had formed under his powder blue eyes. Sam reached for his injured hand and silently began wrapping the faded green cloth around his palm. Baird stiffened at the unexpected gesture, but didn't pull away. She carefully tied the ends, and smiled at him before casually walking back to the trucks.
Baird stood still for a moment before following her. He raked his hand through his light blonde hair, clearing his throat.
"Ok, look." He pointed to the back of the engine. "These are fine; it's just these two here that are busted. Once you get the old plug out, the rest is easy." He tightened his grip around the small piece, being more careful this time and after a bit, it gave way.
"There we go," Without looking, Baird tossed the faulty plug over his shoulder and let it clatter into a pile of other junk in the corner of the cramped space. He gestured towards the second plug to be replaced.
"Just remove the plug wires first. Be super careful though, ok? The connectors inside the boot-he gestured to the piece covering the plug-are delicate. If you pull em' loose, it might not fire once we put it in, and then we'll have to start over."
Sam nodded and gripped the piece Baird referred to as the "boot" firmly, pulling straight up, removing the wire from the plug. Baird looked pleased as he handed her the new plug.
"Alright, taking the old plug out can be a bit tricky…" He hesitated, before deciding to remove the old plug himself. This one came out easier then the last, to the blonde's relief.
"The rest is pretty easy." Sam watched with fascination as he sifted through the small pile of tools on the workbench next to him. He found what he needed in a flash, and Sam caught herself staring just before he did.
"Just put that right in there, and then tighten it like this."The brunette watched him carefully as he placed the plug into the socket, tightened it, and replaced the wire making whole the process look easy.
"And that's it. Go ahead."Sam did exactly as he said, working carefully while listening to Baird's instructions.
"Just don't tighten the plug too much, or you'll strip the threads on the engine block." She put the wire back in, then looked at Baird, silently asking if she'd done everything right. He looked like he wanted to smile but gave her a quick nod instead. They looked at each other for a moment before Baird spoke up awkwardly.
"You…wanna start it up?" Sam turned away quickly and hopped into the driver's seat. She slid the key into the ignition, turned it, and the engine roared to life. Her eyes went wide and she looked at Baird with a grin. When he saw her face, lit with child-like enthusiasm, Baird couldn't help but smile back.
"Wow, it works…" she said aloud, stunned, though she wasn't sure why.
"It's no big deal, pretty easy job actually…" Baird saw Sam seemed a bit hurt by his words, so he immediately regretted his comment. It wasn't like him to give a damn how people felt, but he didn't mean to be rude. She'd actually been pretty helpful so far and after all, for someone without much experience, the job wasn't THAT easy.
"Well, easy for me anyway…You learn pretty fast though …," he stammered, trying to fix things. Sam was stunned by his sudden change of attitude. She smiled genuinely, blushing a bit. That was basically the only compliment she'd ever gotten from Baird, no matter how awkward it sounded. Maybe he could be nice after all…
"What's next?" she said, taking a breath as she looked around.
"Well, I was going to take a look under here," he answered as he crawled back under the truck he'd been working on. He laid on his back and was reaching for some tools when he saw Sam. He forgot she was waiting for a job to do.
"You, ugh, can help if you want. Just grab those pipes over there."
Sam gave him what he needed, and he moved over, making room for her to slide under the truck next to him. He worked at a steady pace, telling Sam what he was doing each time he changed jobs. To his surprise, Sam was able to do a couple tasks on her own. Apparently, she wasn't as inexperienced as he thought.
"How'd you know how to do that?" he asked, clearly impressed as she replaced the cracked exhaust pipe. Sam was about to dismiss his question with a joke, but when she saw he was genuine, she shifted her gaze before returning to work.
"We didn't have much back home, so we had to make do with what we did have," She said softly. "You couldn't just go out and buy new stuff, so you learned to fix whatever you could. Waste not, want not, right?"
Baird remembered hearing about the food shortages the townspeople had faced in Anvegad. He felt bad when he saw the look in Sam's eyes as she recalled difficult times, trying hard to focus on the task at hand. He thought for a minute before replying.
"It's good to know how to be resourceful, especially now," he said, pausing a moment, trying to find the right words. Not only was Sam a hell of a gear, she was smart too. He liked that. He just didn't know how to say it.
"I had no idea, I mean… you've been a big help…" he said shyly as he continued his work. Sam couldn't hide the shock on her face as he spoke. She blinked, going back to work, though her mind was elsewhere.
"And thanks…for before I mean…" Baird added suddenly, fingering the cloth wrapped around his hand. Sam turned to face him and shivered when she realized how close they were.
"How's that feeling, by the way?" she asked.
"Oh, it's…it's fine." She noticed the mechanic's ears turning red and smiled.
"Thank you," Sam said in a hushed voice. She placed her hand over Baird's when he reached for his screwdriver. Baird looked at his calloused hand, her soft skin a soothing balm as she rubbed it gently.
"For what?" he asked softly, meeting her gaze. She opened her mouth to answer, but smiled and leaned her head against his bare shoulder with a soft sigh.
"Just…everything."
Baird sat motionless for the longest time, unable to respond. He'd been trying to get rid of her all day, but now he didn't want to be anywhere else. He took her hand and squeezed it gently as she closed her eyes, enjoying the moment. Neither of them spoke; there was nothing to say that wasn't already expressed.
"I guess you really do learn something new everyday," Sam said out loud, though more to herself then her companion.
Baird smiled. "I guess so." He leaned over and kissed her forehead as Sam moved over closer to him, eyes still shut. Baird rested his cheek against her head; her soft dark hair a perfect pillow, and closed his eyes. This wasn't like him at all. I'm going crazy, he thought. That's all there is to it. But he didn't care. It was so nice to just relax; to have someone you care about safe at your side. Samantha Byrne was much more then she seemed, and Baird was looking forward to learning more.