A side-note to my Psych fans. I recently lost most of my shit on my computer. I had to recover the contraption to out-of-box state, so I'm working, furiously, at re-writing Gus's story. What I have here is easy, of course, because I can just copy and paste. But I'd nearly finished the story itself in my documents on this computer... Which I lost. So, please forgive me for how much that sucks, but until the thing is up and running the way I want it to again... I have Red vs Blue.

Disclaimer - I don't own Blood Gulch, Halo, Red vs Blue, or Church, Caboose or Tucker. Wish I did. Really... REALLY wish I did. That said, on with the story.

Thunder at Blood Gulch - Chapter One - The Blues

"Church?"

A small, soft voice called him slowly back from the land of the dreams.

"Church, are you awake?"

Leonard Church stretched his arms up, over his head, and dropped them quickly to his chest, cracking his eyes open to slits to get a look around the room and at the Rookie just at the foot of his bed.

"What is it, Caboose?"

The other soldier wrung his hands together, blue eyes darting left and right and chest heaving slightly with each breath. He said nothing until a crash of thunder shook the base. Then, as if some switch had been flipped, Caboose leaped onto the bed and curled his face into Church's side, whimpering and shivering.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Church said with a groan, turning his head just enough to view the top of the blonde's head. "Caboose… Get up."

Caboose shook like a leaf, but did as he was told, sitting up and scooting away from his C.O. He pulled his knees up to his chest (thank God the whole "nap-time comes before pants-time" thing did not rule out underwear) and wrapped his arms about his legs, resting his cheek against the tops of his knees. Another crash of thunder rang through the base. Caboose cringed.

"Can I… sleep with you tonight, Church?" his voice was small and frightened, nothing like a Spartan should sound at all.

Church heaved a sigh and scrubbed his hands over his face. "Yeah, sure, Rookie. Just don't cuddle me. I don't do that."

Caboose beamed and dropped his head onto the bed next to Church's. Church scooted over so the other man could have room without risking things getting too close.

"Thanks Church," Caboose sighed, nestling down beneath the thin sheets.

Church shrugged and closed his eyes again, attempting to recover what little sleep he was able to get these days. He listened to the thunder and the sound of Caboose's breathing finally slowing down and settling into a sleep lull before finally being able to pass out himself.

It felt like barely two seconds had passed before a weight pressed him down into the mattress, specifically in the region of his hips. Church groaned and opened his eyes, ready to tell Caboose to stop whatever the fuck he was doing and get off of him, and saw a flash of short black hair and a brown face before he felt another weight against his chest. Tucker buried his face against Church's shoulder and let out a whimper.

"What the fuck, Tucker?"

Tucker looked up at Church a moment and let out another whimper when a crash of thunder shook the base hard enough to knock pictures off the walls (if there were pictures on the walls, but there weren't).

"What the fuck is that?" Tucker yelped, shoving his face against Church's shoulder hard enough to hurt.

"It's called thunder, Tucker," Church growled, rolling to his side and shoving the other man off him, into the space between himself and Caboose. He briefly thanked God or whoever was listening to him now for having given him the insight to sew together those spare cot mattresses to make himself a larger bed. It was a crude set-up, but it fit the three of them somewhat comfortably, so it worked.

"Thunder?" Tucker laughed. "Oh… that… Yeah."

"You forgot what thunder sounded like, didn't you?"

Tucker nodded and pressed his face against Church's arm.

"My God," Church laughed. "You guys are in the military. You're grown men, and you're shaking because of thunder! That's fuckin' hilarious."

"No it's not," Caboose said, his voice still tiny.

Church snorted his disagreement, but said nothing more. Another crash of thunder rang through the sky and Tucker and Caboose both flinched and curled toward Church, nearly shoving him off the bed in the process.

"Alright, this is stupid," Church said, raising himself up on one elbow so he could look down at the other two men. "It's thunder. It's not gonna hurt you. Hell, thunder is just a noise. It happens after the act that causes it. Lightning hits the earth and seconds later, you hear it. The dangerous part is the lightning, and we're safe inside the base, so you guys don't have to worry. Thunder is nothing more than a loud noise. High pressure and low pressure hitting just like a drumstick hitting a drum. So chill out, okay?"

Tucker let out another whimper, then sniffed and nodded. "Yeah, just a noise…" He was still shaking. And Caboose didn't even bother to acknowledge his C.O.'s comments.

"You guys are gonna insist, aren't you?"

"Please, Church? I don't like to be alone in thunderstorms… It's just… I never liked them." Caboose looked up at Church with pleading eyes, his hands clenching and un-clenching around Tucker's bicep.

Tucker remained with his face pressed to Church's arm as best he could. He mumbled something, but Church couldn't hear it.

"What was that?"

The teal Spartan leaned back and looked up at Church with a sigh. "Can you sleep in the middle so we can both like… know you're there?"

Church rolled his eyes and nodded. "Sure, fine. If it means I can sleep tonight, sure." He sat up enough that Tucker could slide over to where he'd been lying before he dropped down into the middle of the bed, sprawled on his back. "You guys are pussies."

The room fell silent after that, aside from the rolling thunder outside. It was quieting down a bit and Church was finally feeling the pull of sleep again when he felt two quick weights against his chest. He cracked his eyes open to see both Tucker and Caboose had laid their heads against him. Sighing, he rolled his eyes and looked to the ceiling. A particularly loud crash of thunder, bigger than all the ones he'd heard so far, rang through the base, causing him to jump slightly along with the two at his sides. Instinctively, he brought his arms around the other two men, hunkering down and cuddling to them.

"I guess we're all pussies, to an extent," he muttered, closing his eyes and dozing off again.

End, of the Blue version. There is a Red Base reaction to the same storm coming soon. Reviews please. I like them.