Chapter 4: Shooting Bullseyes

Bob nods. "Alright, madame." He says as he holds on tighter to his guns as he waddles in. "I can use these, right? I don't have to shoot with such a lame and abused gun from the base, have I?" He asks a bit concerned. He doesn't enjoy shooting with those, they always have a slight deviation to, in most cases, the right and are never really taken good care of. Bob plays some with his loaded guns in his flippers.

Grace looks at Bob and glances at his guns. "Sure." She nods. She herself never used the base guns ever anyway. Grace follow Bob inside and takes out her clipboard and pen.

Bob nods and gets ready in the shooting stance. "When do I begin?" He asks impatiently and looks at the targets. Most of them seem to be solid ones, though further back in the shooting hall there seem to be moving ones as well. Bob makes sure nobody is around and controls his gun again.

"Whenever you're ready." Grace says and looks at him.

Bob nods and starts shooting. He first takes two bullseyes right in the middle of one target like he is supposed to, but then he starts moving to a different one and does a flip as he does so. He hits that one straight in the bullseye too and then makes a different move to the next target. He isn't even really showing off, he is just following his now normal, and for him, easy training schedule.

Grace watches and follows Bob with surprised and slightly wide-eyes. She is impressed. Grace makes some notes on his training report as she watches him. 'Note to self; if I ever need a good-shot, find him.' She thinks silently to herself.

Bob moves further through the shooting hall towards the moving and harder targets. He takes out his second gun in a flip and shoots both of them at the same time. He then finishes without even breaking a sweat. He smiles a little as he sees that he bullseyed everything and then turns to Grace. "To answer your earlier question, madame Gray." He says politely. "I think I can shoot 49/50 on an easy range like this." He smirks somewhat.

Grace looks at him and nods. "Actually, Bob, if I counted correctly that was 50/50..." She says and jots something down on the report. She tries not to seem as impressed as she actually is feeling. "Shall we go check your combat skills now?" She asks.

"Well, lets not get too enthusiastic." Bob says with a small laugh. "I hit the last one with a slight deviation to the left." He says as he evaluates his shots. "That one definitely could have been better." He says and then nods. "Sure..." His smile fades away a little.

Grace nods and opens the door. She is still impressed that finally there's a penguin at the base that is a better shot than her. She is glad. Grace now glances around for a decent guard as she waits for Bob. 'Ah! He'd be fine.' She thinks as she sees one of the guards waddle by. "Jeff! Stop a moment!" She orders the guard.

The guard stops and gives Grace a nervous salute. "Y-Yes, ma'am?" He asks.

"I need to have you fight against LG Bob for his evaluation." She says.

"Oh...Okay, ma'am." He nods and starts waddling towards the training room.

Grace nods and watches him waddle towards the training room before glancing back at Bob.

Bob follows Grace and the guard towards the training room. He swallows a little as he thinks about the last evaluation fight he had had. He had been very fast, but also really clumsy and had lost his balance after a couple of movements so he had been easy to get down. And that was basically how every fight before that one had went. He had come in too fast, lost his balance or his concentration and was easily down.

Grace and the guard enter the training room. Grace drags the mat out from where she had left it out into the middle of the floor. She then waddles back over to the wall and leans against it. She nods towards Jeff and Bob. "Begin when you're ready." She says.

"I come at Jeff or Jeff comes at me?" Bob asks nervously at Grace. He is already in his fighting stance and is planning on coming in really quickly.

Grace shrugs. "Doesn't matter, one of you just starts." She says and looks at them.

Bob nods and comes into the fight with a flip in a really high speed. He rapidly starts attacking Jeff, though letting almost constantly his defenses down.

Jeff fights Bob back mostly in his own defense before hitting at Bob a bit in offense.

Grace watches and takes notes. 'Leaves his defenses open for the enemy... That's not very good...' She thinks as she takes notes. 'He'll definetly need to get some specialized training on that...'

Bob moves quickly and manages to, kind of, evade Jeff's attack though it lacks completely in the correctness of the moves and is basically only focused on going really quick. He starts to lose his balance and tries to regain it again, but he has overwhelmed himself with his speed and starts stumbling. "Why can't I just shoot the guy?" He mutters a bit irritated under his breath. This was exactly what had happened all those other times before.

Grace frowns a little as she watches. 'Looses balance because he tries to fight too quickly...Hmm...' She thinks as she writes things down. "Enough." She orders as she looks at Bob and Jeff and waddles over to the mat.

Bob gives a nod to Jeff and then looks disappointed at the floor. "Well, that was interesting..." He mumbles silently under his breath. "Why the grilled kipper can't we just always use our guns?" He mumbles.

"We can't always use our guns, because what if you're trying to sneak in to a location? A gun shot would give you away. And then there's those lovely times when your gun runs out of bullets and if you can't fight by flipper, then you're as good as gone, Bob." Grace says as she had heard his mumbling. She motions to Jeff that he may leave now and he does. She then looks at Bob some more. "Now, have you ever even had any combat training?" She asks curiously.

Bob looks at Grace. "It was a rhetorical question, madame." He says unamused and a bit dryly before shrugging. "Not much..." He says a bit silently. "I mostly had medic training when there was combat training..." He says.

Grace looks at Bob. 'Its a real good thing that you're cute and a good shot...' She thinks silently. "Alright. Well, we'll have to do some specialized training for you for sure...Mostly on keeping ones guard up and not loosing balance due to concentrating too much on speed, does that sound about right, Bob?" She asks.

"Sure." Bob says a bit silently. He is still a bit beating himself up for failing the fighting. He looks at the ground and thinks that he really dislikes flipper-to-flipper combat.

Grace nods. "We can start that tomorrow." She says. She jots something more down on the report.

"Great." Bob says not at all enthusiastic. "After work?" He asks and already knows that Risette and Edmond probably wouldn't be happy about that at all.

Grace nods. "Yes, after work." She says looking at him. "There isn't a problem with that, is there, Bob?"

"No madame..." Bob says a bit silently as he thinks about how he had promised Edmond and Risette to go out tomorrow evening. He swallows a bit as he already imagines the angry rant he is going to get and the disappointed face of his son. "No problem at all..." He bites his tongue a little.

"Good." Grace says. "You may go now." She says and starts towards the door herself. She now is going to see if she can possibly try to find something to keep her at work a little longer.

Bob gives a small nod to Grace. "Good day, madame." He says with a quick salute before sliding out of the base really quickly to his car. He knew that Risette probably already would be waiting for him and he doesn't want to make her angry... Or probably more angry by coming later home than possible.

Bob drives his car to his house and thinks about everything that is waiting for him there. He sighs a little and drives a bit slowly through a traffic jam. After some time, Bob parks his car in front of his house and gets out of the black car with a sigh. He lets his flipper run down his face. "What a day..." He mumbles and then looks back at the car as he locks it. "And then to think tomorrow is going to be the same or maybe even worse..." He silently mumbles as he waddles to his front door. He opens it and looks around. "Risette, Eddy! I am home!" He calls out, trying to sound happy and lively. A small boy chick slides towards him and Bob kneels to hug him. "How is my little Eddy?" He asks and Edmond hugs him too. "Daddy home! Daddy home!" He happily says and Bob gives him a small kiss on his cheek. "Yes, he is." He says softly to his son.

Risette waddles out from the kitchen with her flippers crossed. "What took you so long? You said you would be home hours ago!" She says with a frown.

Bob looks up to Risette and his smile fades away a little. "I had an evaluation with my boss, GLC Gray." He says as he continues to hug his son. "I know I had promised to be home right after my shift... But this was really important." He says as he tries to make himself a little smaller under the look of his wife. He softly lets go of his son.

"Daddy, pway wi' me?" Edmond asks in his sweet little voice and looks with big eyes at his dad. Bob looks at Edmond with a small and somewhat sad smile. "I am sorry, Eddy." He says as he feels a small pang of guilt. He had not only been able to not keep his promise to his son to play with him, but with a second glance at the clock too, he saw that he had also missed dinner and their favorite TV show. "But we can't play now, it is bedtime." He softly ruffles the feathers on his boy's head. Besides that all, he was feeling really tired from today and when he looked at Risette's expression, he knew that he hadn't seen the end of it yet too.

Risette gives Bob a look before turning and waddling to their room, she didn't want to make a fuss about it all in front of their son.

"Risette, wait!" Bob calls out behind Risette, but he already knows it is a lost case. "Come on, Eddy, let daddy tug you in." He says softly and he takes Edmond's flipper softly in his and waddles with him to Edmond's room. He softly helps him in the bed and gives him a kiss. "Good night, sweet boy of mine." He says softly and tucks him in. He then turns on the night-light and turns off the big light. He looks at his son one last time before closing the door a little, but not completely. He softly and silently walks to the main bedroom.

Risette sits grumpily on her bed and looks with a glare towards the door as she waits for Bob. She couldn't stand it when things didn't go the way she wanted them to go. She mumbles silently some words under her breath in her displeasure.

Bob opens the door of their room and looks at Risette with a small apologizing smile. "Risette..." He says softly. "There really was no other way around, you know, I have tried!" He says as he shields himself from an expected attack from her.

"Of course you tried. You always try." Risette says and rolls her eyes. "But have you yet succeeded? Hmm, I don't think so, Bobo." She says a bit angrily with her flippers folded in front of her chest.

Bob looks at Risette. "But what the flying kippers did I have to do then? I thought you wanted me to get this job too!" Bob brings in. "And I can't just waddle out of the base as my boss tells me to do something. That's insubordination! And that means that they fire me, and that, dear, is going to cost your holiday to Paris!" Bob says. He is totally not in the mood for this.

Risette looks at Bob with narrowed eyes and a soft grwl. "Well, it is not only my holiday! And don't you care about your son anymore? Is he just something you can set on a shelf when playtime is over and get out again when you want to, to you?" She says angrily.

Bob looks at Risette and then lays down on the bed with a sigh and starts watching the ceiling. "No..." He says silently. "No, he is not something like that too me at all."

Risette lays angrily down next to Bob, steaming and all. "Edmond was really sad you know. When it became later and later and later. You just don't care about us!" She says angrily.

"Risette, please! You know, I do care! I tried everything to get home on time!" Bob answers. "I have that job for you and mon fils*. Not because I want it that badly!" He says a bit agitated.

Risette rolls her eyes. "Don't lie to yourself. You know perfectly well you want this all as badly as I do." She says in an almost hissing voice. "Besides that, your fils, didn't want to eat his vegetables today. If you were here you could have helped me, but noooooo... You were too busy with fooling around at your job."

Bob looks a bit hurt at the ceiling and remains silent. He remembers how he had wished at work to be at home... Now he kind of wishes to be at work again. Failing at being a good fighter sounded as much more fun to him than failing as husband.

Grace goes back to her office and sits down with a small sigh. She glances around at her empty desk and wishes that she hadn't finished all of her work already. She also hopes that Marian wouldn't remember to drop by... She probably would order her to go home anyway. She gets onto her computer and plays a game of solitaire. She can't stop thinking about Bob, though.

Commander Marian waddles happily through the base. Besides that she had gotten a nice email from the guard she has had an eye on for some long time, Eric, she also had finished her work really easily and early today. And that is also why she is waddling an extra round through her base. She hides her smile as she passes some guards and some agents and then puts it back on as she waddles back to her office. Most of her co-workers are already back home, seeing how their shift had ended some time ago, but there were still some lights on in some offices. Marian waddles to the offices and she shuts off all the lights and closes the doors. "Note to self; Hang a note on the bulletin board saying that everybody should make sure to shut off his or hers own office before leaving." She mumbles as she passes the third office with lights on and an unlocked door.

Marian then waddles towards some of the last offices of the block, those of that new penguin she had seen earlier by some sort of catastrophic experiment and the one of her GLC, Gray. She laughs a bit mentally at her own joke; 'cat-a-stroph-ic'. She then frowns as she sees the lights on in Gray's office and waddles to it. She knocks a couple of times on the office door.

Grace looks away from her solitaire game at the door. "Oh kipper..." She mutters. "Come in." She says at the door.

Marian waddles into the office with a small. "Grace." She says. "Why aren't you at home yet?" She asks then a bit softly. "Your shift ended hours ago and you know how I feel about penguins staying in the base tired and all after shifts if they are not going to train. It is dangerous." She says with a small smile as she invites herself to sit in the chair at Grace's desk. "Besides that, I don't want to lose my best General Lieutenant Commander because she has worked herself into a fit." She says with her small and happy sounding laugh. Though Marian always had a dangerous and very busy job which always brought a lot of stress on her, she stayed happy most of the time. Maybe that was why the higher-ups called her 'the joker'. But when they were perfectly serious, they had to admit that she was probably the best commander in quite some time.

Grace looks at Marian. "I...Euhm...Had to assess the training of that new LG, Bob...And I did a bit of training myself." She says.

Marian takes Grace's computer screen and turns it so she can see it. "Uh-huh. That's why you're playing a useless card-game on a base computer." She says with a laugh. "But how is he?" Commander Marian asks. "Is he good enough for the job?"

"Well, he needs a lot of work on his combat training...But he's a very, very excellent shot. He got 50/50 in fact..." Grace says with a smile. She can't help but think about all of those impressive and cute flips he did. "Too bad he's already married..." Grace mumbles really silently to herself.

Marian looks at Grace. "50 out of 50? You are sure you counted that right? Or did you favor him with an easy course?" She asks with a laugh and then frowns a little. "Grace. How many times do I have to tell you that my base is not a dating service? And I saw the way you were looking at him... As a lion ready to jump on its pray." Marian adds.

"No, I didn't count wrong or give him an easy course. He even threw in some flips! Flipping flips!" Grace says looking at Marian. "And well, even if I did like him like that, Marian. I can't. He's been caught by some other lioness..." She gives an inaudible sigh. "And has a chick, too." She frowns a little.

"Flips too? That's impressive for a penguin who has been a medic." Marian says and then laughs a little. "Oh, Grace. Do you ever just forget the fishes in the sea and enjoy swimming for a bit? There is plenty of time to catch one after you have improved your swimming." She says with a smile.

"I can swim just fine, thank you very much, Marian. We just need better quality fish to swim after." Grace says with a small sigh. "And what's the fun of swimming if there's no one to swim after?"

"You're a real piece of work, Grace." Marian says with a small sigh. "So why don't you just get your tail feathers together and search for something outside the base? If you found one guy that does meet your extremely high standards, you would at least be able to be together!" She says.

Grace looks at Marian. "Euhm...I don't know, Marian..." She says silently.

"Well, maybe it is with how you don't spend any time actually outside the base." Marian offers. She then takes Grace's flipper and drags her from her chair. "Come on you, go ahead, go home." She says as she reaches over for Grace's bag and pushes it in her flippers. "Shoo!" She says with a laugh.

"B-But—" Grace kind of stutters as Marian pushes her bag into her flippers.

"But? What's wrong with my but?" Marian asks as she gets a scarf from Grace's peg and wraps it around her neck. She then pushes Grace out of the office and shuts and locks it. "Now, go. And that is an order." Marian says as she pushes Grace towards the door.

Grace looks at Marian and then sighs a little. "Yes, ma'am." She says with a small salute and starts towards the door. She looks back over her shoulder once at her office before continuing going out the door to her bright red car. Grace then gets into the car and drives loathingly towards her house. It's not that Grace doesn't like her house, but she doesn't like the lonely silence of it. That harsh, painful silence that she could probably hear a pen drop on the floor on the main level if she was upstairs.

She parks her car outside of her house and then slowly unlocks her door and waddles inside with another small sigh. "Good evening, house. Did you miss me?" She mutters as she sets her bag down in the living room. She takes her scarf off and hangs it up before waddling back to her bag and pulling out a small tape-recorder with which she sets down on the couch.

"Grace's Log." She says after pressing the recording button. "Today the new LG came to the base. His name is Bob and he's really cute... But he's also already married and has a son. He is an excellent shot, but a terrible flipper-to-flipper fighter. I'll have to work with him on that for sure." She says to the recorder. "Dr. Osvalda had another experimental laser thingy to show me today... It exploded... Again. I also lost my temper on a guard again and nearly sent him to the hospital." She sighs. "I really didn't mean to... But well, I guess I just really lost my head when I heard him mutter behind my back as I waddled past that I was an 'uncaring witch'... Marian's right. I really do need to find a better way to deal with my anger problems." Grace says. "She also right that it's probably about time I start looking other places besides at the base for a possible guy... But that LG Bob. Mmm. It's really too bad that he's already married...If he wasn't, he'd be perfect. I mean, he fits every detail of my requirements! But... I will not interfere with his marriage... Or, at least I don't think I will. I won't try to interfere with it on purpose is more what I mean... And there's nothing wrong with having a bit of 'eye candy' at work even though I can't have him... Right?" Grace looks at her ceiling for a moment deep lost in her thoughts. "Well, at least I don't think there's anything wrong with that... Over and out." Grace turns off the tape recorder and puts it back away in her bag before continuing upstairs to her bedroom and getting ready for bed.

Translations:

Mon fils : My son