Chapter 2
For Jäger, nothing is more of a drudgery than cleaning a dozen of airplane hangars. At least he could enjoy the view of multiple aircraft, but the tedious punishment that the old Brit gave him overshadowed it. Cleaning half of Hereford Base was an unsparing punishment. It all seemed to take a toll on the German, but all he could blame was himself for accepting the challenge the Polish girl proposed. He debated on whether it was worth it or not. Nonetheless, there was one more hangar he would clean, and that was the hangar with the large, long swimming pool. Castellano's favorite place.
Though the VR Training Grounds was much more fun and real, Streicher figured that the old-fashioned kill-house with paintball guns was the best way to go.
Coming in to the hangar's large entrance, he saw the swimming pool. It shimmers as he walked in, wondering how in the world he would clean such a large thing. He secretly hoped that Meghan wasn't currently in the waters. Another embarrassment would be fatal.
Much to his consternation, he saw the blonde floating mindlessly in the middle of the pool, her back against the water. She was all with her long-sleeved swimwear.
"Get out of the pool, Meghan, I'm going to check the water circulation," Streicher said, his voice echoing throughout the almost-empty hangar.
Meghan turned her head slowly, squinting. "Zip it, janitor. It's already clean."
"Okay..." Streicher said, ignoring the fact he got called a janitor, "now where's the leaf skimmer?"
"The leaf what?"
"The pole with a net."
"Oh," uttered Meghan, "there are no leaves here."
"Are you stu-" the German groaned. Maybe that's enough cleaning for the day, he thought. The cleaning wasn't that serious, but it was still tiresome and boring. Most of the places he went to was almost close to immaculate, so he decided to call it a day. A bad day.
With a sudden splash from the other end of the pool, both Streicher and Meghan glanced at where it came from. Someone was already underwater. It better not be...
As the person surfaced from under the water, Streicher got a good look at the mischievous girl from GROM. Ela Bosak wiped her wet face with her hands. To say the German was surprised was an understatement.
"Ela?" Streicher scowled at her. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm going to swim with Meghan. Wanna join?" said Ela with a smirk.
"Are you kidding?" Streicher exclaimed, "you're done with the paperwork? That fast?"
"Yep. Wasn't a hard punishment, to be honest. Especially with the help of Emma." Ela beamed as she spoke.
Streicher raised an eyebrow. "You're not supposed to get help from anyone... That's what Baker said."
"I know." Ela went underwater, and surfaced again beside her American friend, who was still floating and going with the mild current.
"Hi Ela," Meghan greeted her Polish friend.
"Hey," responded Bosak.
Jäger could only scowl at the two.
"Hey egghead!" Meghan glanced at Streicher, squinting again. "Why don't you join us before it gets really cold?"
"If you people insist..." he said hesitantly, and canon-balled into the water, too lazy to change his clothes. After all, maybe swimming wasn't going to be so bad, especially after what his body had to endure.
Meghan opened her eyes. She remembered something, but her mind could only scrutinize something vague. Perhaps she was forgetting a schedule.
"Ela," she started, "what time is it?"
Ela looked outside the hangar. The sky was velvet, and artificial lights were scattered among another hangar. The pink sky from earlier was gone.
"Seven o'clock?" Ela guessed.
"Shit," the blonde whispered, immediately getting out of the water. She looked at her Polish friend. "I was assigned to be on training, like right now. Behave while I'm gone."
Ela rolled her eyes, smiling. Meghan's eyebrows were furrowed as she smiled back, and she said, "Don't do anything naughty with egghead. That kinda thing ain't allowed here."
The Polish girl scoffed with disgust. "Yuck."
"Good answer," Meghan said, and she walked away.
Frowning, Ela let her legs float on the waters, and soon her whole body was floating mindlessly. It has been two hours of backstrokes, breaststrokes, and other swimming styles she learned from her friend. One day, she was going to beat Meghan in speed, at least in the water. An ambitious dream, even for her. But ambition as the thing that got her here in Team Rainbow, or even in GROM.
When there are no on going terrorist disasters in the globe, Ela and Meghan would relax in the pool. And the atmosphere was pure silence, but nonetheless, they enjoyed each other's company. Sometimes racing or exercise, but sometimes mindless swimming. It has been like that for months. Ela feared that an operator would hog the pool all by themselves. She was glad that athletic Russian woman, Lera, wasn't into swimming.
Suddenly, a gust of cold wind hit her floating body, forming a very mild current. She shivered. That was the coldest she had ever experienced in Hereford. The hangar's large opening was all to thank for it.
"That's cold!" a voice exclaimed, and Ela turned her head to where it came from, Streicher, who was getting out of the pool. The German shuddered as he sat on the dry ground.
She soon followed and got out of the pool too. "I'll close the hangar, hold on." That was the first time she talked to him since two hours ago.
There was a small room just in the corner of the hangar. The room's door creaked open as she saw the bleached walls of the control room. Maybe not control room, but that room had the light switches and the large red button that closed off the hangar. She turned on all the lights and the airplane hangar's large opening was soon close by a metal wall. Then she headed back to the pool.
Ela saw Streicher sitting on the edge of the pool, only the two of his legs dipped under the water. She sat beside him.
Streicher felt a warmth on his left side. He shifted his gaze away from the swimming pool and into the person beside him.
"Hey," he started, "you're still going to help me with Monika. We had a deal."
Ela smirked at him. "The deal was if you beat me. You didn't."
"I was going to beat you, but Mike interrupted and-"
"Mike interrupted and you didn't get to beat me." she spoke as a-matter-of-factly, still flashing a triumphant smirk.
The German frowned at her response. Unfair girl. "Can you at least give me some advice? For Monika?"
"Look," she said, shaking her head, "after what you did in 2008, it's my best bet not to talk to her forever. If I were you, that is."
"You give the best advice ever." Streicher spoke sarcastically, and Ela could only chuckle.
"Leaving Leipzig just to get away from you…" she started, "that is painful."
"She left because she wanted to make her electronics detector, okay?" he retorted, "well at least that's what she told me…"
Ela laughed, holding her stomach for a dramatic effect. It was the first time Streicher heard her laugh. "I'm joking."
She heard him sigh, so she said, "I would like to help you, but relationships aren't allowed here. I am sure you know that."
"You're right," the German trailed off, staring at his fingers.
The past day felt like forever before it ended. First the heartbreaking defeat in training, that encounter with Ela in the gun range, then the "rematch" that was interrupted by Mike Baker. After the chain of events, an unsparing punishment befell upon Jäger and Ela. The German had to mop the floors of half of Hereford Base, and the Pole had to do the towering paperwork of the week. The latter had it easy, needless to say. But nonetheless, the entire VR Training fiasco was almost known by everybody in the team by now.
Tired and lazy, Streicher did not have the will to go to the pool again, or to even stand up. He realized that talking with someone relieved much of his stress. Maybe that someone could only be Ela, but he ignored the thought. The two were both introverts so it was unlikely.
When he first trained with Ela, it was clear to him that her only goal was to win.
"You and Meghan," he broke the ice, "you two are very sweet to each other, ja?"
"Well…" she said, playing with her hair, "she's one of my only friends here. She understands me."
"I'm also your friend," Streicher said, "right?"
With those words, Ela's body stiffened ever so slightly, but she relaxed after a few moments. An unexpected response from her competition, but she thought it was a welcome one. She shrugged.
"Yes," Ela said welcomingly.
"Huh. I thought you dislike me."
"I don't. You're the one that dislikes me," Ela spoke, raising an eyebrow.
"Not really…"
No one really took competition personal. Ever since Eliza Cohen threw a fit on the first few months of training together, Team Rainbow learned a lesson. He shuddered at the thought of that incident.
Out of nowhere, a cellphone rang, echoing throughout the hangar. Ela turned her head to her backpack a few feet beside the pool. Reaching for it, she dug through her stuff to find the ringing cellphone.
"Hello?" she said, and there was mumbling in the other line that Streicher couldn't hear.
"…yes… of course…" Ela responded to the caller.
"Heads up, Streicher, Monika's calling."
Ela threw her phone, and Streicher succesfully caught it. Monika? Before she could even process the situation, he pressed the phone against his ear.
"Hello? Streicher?" a sweet monotone voice from the other end proclaimed.
"Uhh, Monika, hey," Streicher could all but stumble upon his words, "Why are you calling?"
"Dominic needs you later for their team. Meet us at ze VR Training Grounds at 0800, ja?"
"Ja, natürlich." ("Yes, of course.") he said, beaming.
"Tschüss!" (Bye!") Monika spoke charmingly, and the call was ended.
Streicher looked at Ela confusingly as she shook her head. "What?" he asked.
"You should have lengthened the conversation, you idiot," the Polish woman said, and there she crossed her arms.
Streicher shrugged. There was no way he was going to try and take his relationship with Monika to more than just friends. He knew that flirting was extremely prohibited among the operators in Team Rainbow. It wasn't high school anymore. It was a team of counter-terrorists. Romance and other nonsense like that were kept mildly and off-duty. Julien and Emma were a couple, yet they rarely talk in public, and it stayed like that since three years ago.
But then again, a conversation is just a conversation. Nothing more or less. Monika was still his crush, and he figured he might as well improve their relationship just a little bit.
"Well, if only someone would give me some decent advice..."
"You know what, let's do it now," Ela said, standing up.
"What?" asked Streicher.
"Pretend I'm Monika," the Polish woman said, "now stand up."
Streicher stood up lazily as he scrathed his head in confusion. "I don't get it."
"I said to pretend that I'm Monika," she repeated, "and you have to show me how you approach her. How you talk to her, and such."
At first, Streicher felt uneasiness and anxious. Usually Monika would be the one that starts their short-lived interaction. The worst part is that in this situation, it's just Ela pretending to be Monika. He knew it was going to be awkward. But it's almost been a decade since he first laid eyes on that beautiful German woman, so he took the chance to at least practice.
Ela did her best with her impression of the German accent and Monika herself. "It's such a vonzerful day today, ya?"
Streicher scowled at her. "That's not how Germans speak."
Ela scowled back. "I SAID... it's such a vonzerful day today!"
"Okay, okay... Umm... Hey Monika," Streicher started reluctantly.
"Hello zhere, comrade."
The two stood still in silence. The long pause was too much for the German, but he managed.
"I better go now,"
"NO!" Ela exclaimed. "You have to lengthen the conversation. Start with something like, 'Hey you look nice today' or 'Hey it is a wonderful day but you know what's more wonderful, looking at you.' "
"Nein nein nein! Too cheesy!"
"I'm giving you ideas!"
"Terrible ideas!"
"Just go with it, okay? Think of something."
The German paused for a while.
"Hey umm, do you want go and grab some... coffee?"
"Vhy, yes! I have NOT been sleeping zhat much zhis veek... I've been doing something all night..." Ela winked.
"Okay, we're done here," Streicher said, as he turned around and started to walk away. "That is NOT how Monika talks."
"Oh come on! Marius!" Ela pleaded.
"See you later, unruhestifter."
The Pole dashed to her backpack beside the pool. She dug in and grabbed a bundle of envelopes and papers. They were pink and bright, and some were wrapped in ribbons and some had one of the worst attempts of calligraphy she has seen. She chuckled lightly.
"Leave or I'll show these to Elias and Dominic!" she shouted.
The German turned around. His eyes widened. "Don't you dare!"
Ela immediately stood on a plastic chair, while she waved the papers in the air so the German couldn't reach it. She laughed hysterically, while the German was being engulfed by worries and embarrassment. He ran to her and jumped high, trying to reach his secrets, but to no avail.
"Oh I know these love letters, you silly German!" Ela exclaimed, trying to hold back her laughter.
"Give those back or I'll swear to—"
SNAP
One of the legs of the chair broke. The next thing they knew, Ela lost her balance and she fell on top of the German. Streicher— overwhelmed by the sudden weight— lost his own balance too and fell on his back.
Ela was on top of him. They were extremely close. Ther chests were merely inches apart, and so were there faces. And as if it couldn't get any worse—
"OY!" somebody yelled, "WHAT IN THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING?"
Meghan Castellano appeared beside Thatcher, with a the greatest look of disappointment on her face. "Mike, I think they are going to devour each other."
A/N: Looks like the two are going into deep trouble. Again. The next chapter will be about other operators. I think, we should take a break from Ela and Jager for a while.
Anyway, yes. After a year or so I have taken a break from Siege and anything related to Siege, but now I am very much back. Hope you guys like my little stories!
