Thanks for the lovely reviews, alerts and hits. It's a little nerve-wracking to post, so the kinds words and support are very much appreciated. I should tell you that I have never been to Bristol and I am not an electronics engineer or weaponry expert, all of which may be obvious as you read this chapter. I have googled and wiki'd my little heart out to try to get the details right, but if there are mistakes, please just write them off as artistic license. Thanks! Enjoy.
I don't own Skins. Bummer.
Chapter 4 – What She Wants
Emily
The briefing was pretty routine. We're going on a recon mission later this morning to clear a hospital complex that recently came back under militia control. Naomi was pretty good leading the briefing: clear, concise, no fuss, no muss. She had answers for the couple of questions we came up with, and from a tactical point of view did everything I expected. But she took off as soon as she stopped talking, not even a "good-bye" or "see ya later." And Effy wasn't much better, heading out the door just a second or two after Naomi. I decided to follow her, because something is obviously seriously out of whack and I need to know what it is.
"Effy, wait," I yell.
She's about 50 feet ahead of me in the hallway. She stops, turning slightly to look at me over her shoulder. I keep walking until I catch up with her. "What was that back there, with Naomi at the start of the meeting? Why'd she freak out like that?"
"Like I told you, it's complicated. She's complicated. Just give it time."
"Just give it time? Effy, she looked like she wanted me to shrivel up and die!"
"Mmm. Yeah. That's definitely not what she wants. You need to go back to JJ now and get kitted out. We leave in an hour." And with that and a look that tells me absolutely sweet fuck all, Effy turns around and walks away, leaving me standing in the hallway wondering what the hell is going on.
Naomi
"What the fucking hell, Kieran?" I am in the command centre for the base, which is on the second floor of what is left of the old Royal Marines Reserves building at Dorset House. The base basically takes in all the buildings in the area. What used to be a quadrangle of back flower gardens now holds the base food gardens. Once the militia ran out of airplane fuel, it made sense to move away from the airfield, and closer to accessible water. The River Avon is close by here, as is the Clifton Bridge to cross it. I had left the briefing room at Engineer's House like a bat out of hell as soon as I could and headed straight here. Despite the walk, I am still a wreck, and I am still totally pissed off.
"Lower your fookin' voice, and don't you ever come into this room without knockin' again or I'll have you working convoy patrols so fast your head'll never stop spinnin'. Better yet, I'll put you on farm protection and you can spend your days breathin' in cow shite! You may be as good as a daughter to me, Naomi, but not even you get away with behaving like this." Kieran's accent gets stronger when he gets mad, and he is definitely mad.
I try to get a hold of myself, and I lower my voice as ordered. I take a deep breath, and try to make myself sound at least a little bit reasonable. "You can't assign Emily Fitch to my team, Kieran! That cannot happen."
"Naomi, you have to get over this. You've had six months, and I can't keep protecting you anymore. Fitch is a good tech, the best we have available. From an ops point of view this is a no brainer. I was willing to indulge you on this for a while, but time's up, lass."
"But Kieran, you know…"
"Naomi, I know this is difficult for you, but she is the best Comms Tech available right now. She's experienced and competent and from what I hear, one of the nicest people around. Not hard to look at, either."
"That's my whole point, Kieran!" I am yelling again, but Kieran lets that go. "Ah. I see. You're attracted to her, then?" he asks instead. He sounds happy about it, the fucker.
"Of course I'm bloody attracted to her, Kieran, have you seen her? I may be a walking disaster zone, but I still have a fucking pulse you know. She's stunning! For fuck's sake I cannot handle this. I can't. You know that. You have to assign her somewhere else."
With a hint of sadness in his eyes, he interrupts me. "My decision is final, Naomi. She stays. You may not have to respect my decisions as a step-father, but you will respect my decisions as your Commander. Now, you have a mission to prepare for, so get out of my office and start figurin' out how you're goin' to make this work. I have work to do, and so do you."
I can tell by his voice that the conversation is over. I storm out of his office, slamming the door behind me. Shitting hell. I am going to be stuck with her. I need some time to wrap my head around this before the mission starts. The park. I need to get to the park. I have a bench there, next to the Clifton Observatory. It is where I go when I need to think, or just to be by myself. It does not take long to get there. The path through the woods is a bit overgrown now with grass and wildflowers. There are some fallen branches here and there, but it is still pretty easy to follow. There is only one tricky part, where a small stream has managed to gouge a pretty decent sized channel that I have to jump. The banks of it are a slippery clay and every now and then I wind up on my ass. Not today, though. The hard part is actually where it used to be open field. That is totally overgrown now, with the grasses almost as high as my chest in some places, and new growth trees fighting for room to grow. As far as I can tell, I am the only person who bothers trying to fight through it. I come here so often these days that I could find my way in the dark. The peace and solitude are worth it to me.
I finally arrive at the bench, breathing hard and sweating. I have cleared the space around it over the past months, so I can sit comfortably and look out over the river. I sit, with my head in my hands. My heart is beating a mile a minute. I have to relax. Okay. Just breathe. Breathe in, breathe out. Nice and easy. Come on, Campbell, you can do this. I lock my eyes on the Clifton Bridge, use it as a focus point to help calm my racing mind. Slowly I can feel myself loosen up. The panic attack is ending, thank god. I wipe my forehead on my sleeve and rest my arms on my knees, looking down at my beat up boots.
All I can think of are images of Emily Fitch, flashbacks to the jolt I felt when our hands touched, to the spark I felt when our eyes locked. It has been months since I felt attraction to anyone, and almost never have I felt an attraction so strong and instantaneous. I can't sit still anymore, so I start to pace instead. Okay, I can do this. Fuck, I have taken on some of the most dangerous men in Britain and won. Surely to fuck I can handle one small, beautiful bundle of redhead, no matter how cute she may be. I just have to block her out. How hard can that be? I will just keep my distance, stay professional, and stay as far away from her as I can whenever I can. I don't have to be her friend, and I sure as hell don't have to be anything more than that. Okay. That's the plan. She is my Comms Tech. That's it, that's all. That is all I will let her be. No problem. No sweat. Yeah. Fuck.
Emily
Naomi is back from wherever she took off to, and we're all mustered by the Range Rovers we'll be taking out. She blew into the motor pool in a hellacious hurry, snapped out to Cook that he would be riding with her as driver, with Effy driving the other vehicle, JJ navigating, and me on the machine gun. Cook tried to argue that he rides with JJ, but she cut him off. Effy started to argue the point and Naomi shut her down with a sharp, "I'm not talking to you." Effy just quirked an eye-brow at her, and then slowly turned and ambled toward the second Rover. There's a lot of history there, I think.
After that, Naomi started the most detailed vehicle check I have ever seen. Jesus, she practically checked every nut and bolt on the damn things. Finally she decided that they were okay and we loaded up. She didn't say a word to me or even acknowledge that I was there the whole time, which is going to get really old really fast if she keeps it up.
A couple of hours later we're on the road to the old hospital. It recently changed hands and is now just inside the area the Bristol militia more or less controls. The theory is that the guerillas may have left some useful supplies when they had to bug out. The area isn't really secure yet, which is why they're sending in a combat team. The ride has been pretty boring, although watching JJ navigate old school-style is pretty cool. No such thing as a GPS any more, obviously. The same thing that wiped out the cellular networks took out the GPS systems, too. The satellites they relied on are still up there, but they're just space junk now. They got fried in the Crash and there's no way to fix them. Not a lot of road signs still hanging around either, so JJ's working with a map, a compass, a timer and a note pad filled with so many math calculations they look like rocket science to me. Still, as far as I can tell he hasn't steered us wrong yet. He's an odd guy, but impressive.
After I went back to find him at the briefing room, he escorted me around to find body armour and weapons for me, each of which was stored in a different building around the base. The first stop was for armour. JJ showed me to a large open room filled end to end with rows of 4x8 tables. It looked like a GI Joe convention exploded in there. Bits and pieces of armour covered every available surface. We started the hunt for gear that would fit me, which was not exactly easy given my size. I found the neck and upper arm pieces fairly quickly, but it took a fair amount of trying on and taking off to find a vest and helmet that would do the job and let me move in them without drowning. Poor JJ - I accidentally flashed a boob at him when my shirt rode up as I was taking off a vest piece and I thought he was going to hyperventilate. I don't think I've ever seen anyone turn quite that shade of red before.
The armoury was next, one building over. There was a pretty eclectic collection of small arms and rifles, as well as some more unusual items, like cross-bows and machetes. No thanks. Not my style. I grabbed an old, but very well cared for Walther PPK and an M4 carbine that must have been salvaged from one of the U.S. bases. We picked up the appropriate ammo, and JJ kindly carried most of the gear while we headed to the communications depot to grab the equipment we would need for the mission.
That room was another amazing sight. Every sort of old-style radio-based technology was represented in some way, from CB radios to walkie-talkies to a handful of more complex UVH based systems. Line of sight radio communications started working again about a year after the Crash. But by then so much equipment had been stolen or trashed that even now it's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle to try to cobble together a reliable system. A couple of guys were working away doing repairs and refits on the various units for just that reason. JJ told me that there are a few established radio receiver-transmitter units permanently loaded on the base vehicles. But for individual comms, each member of a team carries a modified walkie-talkie / CB hybrid that's programmed to transmit to, and receive from, the units used by the other members of the team. I got a basic walk-through on how it all worked, so that I could make repairs on the fly if we hit a snag. But the technology is actually pretty simple stuff. That's the only kind that still works. And of course, I'll have JJ there to help if I need it.
The drive so far has been typical: manoeuvre around IED holes in the road and abandoned or burned out cars, trucks and buses; steer clear of any building that might hide a sniper; and bounce around like a bobblehead over the bumps and debris. It's a damn good thing I don't get motion sick or things would be getting pretty colourful right about now. JJ signals Naomi that we're getting close. The plan is simple. Go in, check the place out as fast as we can, radio in for a collection team if we find anything good, and get the hell out in one piece. Simple to say, not necessarily simple to do. The place is going to be a maze of potential hiding places and booby-traps, and we have to be on alert for the bad guys to pop up at any time.
A few minutes later we pile out of the two Range Rovers. We're at one of the side entrances to the central building of the 6 story hospital complex. We can't use the main entrance because it has collapsed. It looks as though it took a direct hit from some kind of explosive, with broken concrete and twisted rebar creating an impassable web. It always surprises me how a building can take that kind of a hit in one area, and look untouched just around the corner. I can see that most of the glass in the windows on this side is cracked, probably from the shock of the explosion at the front, and there are more than a few pit marks that I recognize as being bullet holes, but other than that, from this angle you'd swear this place had never seen a battle.
I realize as I'm looking around that I'm a little nervous. It's my first mission with this team, and I don't want to mess it up. "Cook, you are with JJ. Effy, you take Emily. Emily, you do exactly what Effy tells you to do." Naomi's still obviously upset with me, although I'm no closer to understanding why. She's treating me like an unpinned grenade, as though she's almost scared to be near me. It's really weird. It's also really screwing up the team. The tension is ridiculously high.
"I want you guys to check Casualty, X-ray and the labs. Once you finish that, if we are still all clear, head up to the wards. Split up and cover as much ground as you can as fast as you can. Check in by walkie if you find anything or you run into any problems. I'll take lookout and cover the exit route." Naomi seems almost relieved to watch us go.
The tension from being around Naomi and her mood is lessening as we move into the complex, but it's being replaced by the stress and heightened awareness that comes with being in this place. It's eerily quiet inside. The sounds of our boots echo strangely in the empty halls, and it's more than a little spooky. Where there are windows, the sunlight gives us pretty decent visibility, but in the interior sections we are going to have to work with the head lamps on our helmets and the torches on our rifles. Not exactly how I prefer it. Everywhere we look we can see old blood stains, and soiled instruments and bandages left behind from the last time this place changed hands. You can almost feel the ghosts lingering.
"The Cookie Monster does not like this." That's the first thing Cook has said since we arrived, and it's strange to hear him speak in a whisper instead of at full roar. "Yup," I say, "I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." I toss out the old movie line to try to ease the tension a bit. Effy just looks at me like I'm nuts, but Cook starts to grin.
"Fasten your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night." That's Cook.
"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." Me again.
"I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse." Even JJ is playing along now, although I'm not quite sure how that one is supposed to fit.
We hit a T in the hallway, with the big lab complex to the left and a passageway to the other departments to the right. "JJ and me will take the lab," Cook says.
"Stay alive, I will find you." That one earns me an ever bigger grin from Cook. "Toosh," he says.
"You mean touché."
"Yeah, probably," Cook smiles and moves into the lab as Effy and I head farther up the hall. "I'll be back," he throws over his shoulder. He's a tosser, but I'm starting to like him.
Effy and I keep moving towards Casualty, with her in the lead. Now that we're alone, I realize that she moves like the wind. I can't believe anyone can make so little noise wearing combat boots. It's freaky. Of course, Effy is a little feaky all around, so I shouldn't be surprised. We're taking our time, clearing each corner and side passageway before we move forward. It takes a lot longer to do it that way, but I'm glad that she's so careful. Makes old age more likely for both of us. We finally hit the Casualty department. It has a huge waiting area, and behind that a door and see-through window leading to the reception desk. The interior is dark as hell, which is going to make this even harder than I thought it would be. We move through the door and past the reception desk, turning our lights to the underside of the desk to make sure no one is hiding behind it, and steadily work our way forward. We have to dodge bits of wiring and fluorescent fixtures that are dangling from the ceiling, piles of soiled sheets and bandages on the floor, and about a dozen gurneys, some upright, some on their sides, all showing damage or the gore of recent use. They all throw wild, jerking shadows from the beams of our lights as we move, making the whole thing frankly scary as fuck.
There's a ton of small exam rooms and supply closets on either side of the darkened hallway we're moving through, and we have to check each one before we can safely move on. It's slow and painstaking, but we're finally getting near to the end. I wipe the sweat from my brow - fuck it's hot in the armour. I'm just about to point out a sign for the x-ray wing when Effy drops into a crouch and signals me to drop and freeze. She's sighting down her weapon at a closet a few feet ahead and to our left. It is one that we haven't checked yet. She beckons me forward to the side of the closet, mouthing towards me that she heard a sound from in there. Oh, shit. We're going to have to open that door.
I take a deep breath and move as quietly as I can to the right side of the door, Effy moves into position in front, but slightly to the left of the door, to give herself a sight-line into the space as soon as the door starts to open. I can feel my heart beating hard, and hope it isn't obvious. I reach around and place my left hand very carefully on the handle, grabbing oh-so-lightly with just my thumb and index finger. The last thing I want to do is to accidently jiggle the knob before we're ready. I have my eyes locked on Effy waiting for her signal, and she has her rifle sighted square on the closet. I let out the breath I've been holding, and when she gaves me the barest nod of her head I swing the door open as fast as I can. I see a flurry of motion coming out of the door, and Effy's rifle swings left to follow it up the hall. Instantly I start moving into my firing crouch to back her up. By the time my brain catches up to wonder why she hasn't fired yet, I realize that what I saw move past us was a rat. A big mother of a rat, but still, just a rat.
Fuck me. I did not need that little bit of adrenalin rush. I am standing there breathing hard, with my hand on my chest, trying to regain my composure. Effy on the other hand just relaxes her grip on her weapon and waves me back into our small formation so that we can finish the search. "Well, that was eventful," is all she says. Nerves of steel, that girl. Gotta say, I'm impressed. I just shake my head, smile a little ruefully, and fall into line.
Twenty minutes later we're back at the main entrance. The recon has been a bust. The place has been picked clean, which isn't really a surprise, but is still frustrating. Naomi doesn't bother to speak when we re-group, she just confirms the head count and then heads towards the Rovers. Of course, I'm assigned to Effy's truck again, not hers. I've pretty much had enough of being ignored, so I call out to her. "How'd things go on your end, boss?" She turns at the sound of my voice and looks at me. But all I get in return is a quick, dead-eyed "fine" and she turns back and heads towards the truck. I look at Cook, and he just shrugs and follows Naomi, climbing into the driver's side. Okay then.
So, Naomi is acting like a grade A bitch for some reason. Well, I survived growing up with Katie Fucking Fitch. After that, Naomi mardy-pants Campbell sure as hell isn't going to get the best of me. I'm just going to have to keep trying. Because bitch or not, I like her. I really do. She's incredibly beautiful, yes, but that's only part of it. I can't help thinking of the stories I heard about her over the years, not to mention the heart-crushing display she put on last night. There's just so much about her that intrigues me. I eye her as discretely as I can as she climbs into the Rover. It's a nice view. She reminds me of a panther – strong, graceful, powerful, and definitely not someone you ever want to piss off. I wish I knew what her problem with me is so I could fix it. Whatever it is, I'm not going to give up until we get past it. We need to find a way to work together, whatever bug is up her ass. Plus, I just want her to like me. I mean, aside from the fact that I'm attracted to her, I think it would also be nice just being with her. At least it would be if she'd stop being a prick for 5 minutes. In the meantime, no harm in looking, right? Nope, no harm at all.
You can find the area Naomi describes by doing a google map search for Bristol Clifton Observatory. Put it on satellite and zoom in and you will even be able to see the path between the observatory and the Royal Marines Reserve building, which is up and to the right of the observatory.
Feel free to let me know what you liked, or didn't, if you are so inclined. Thanks for reading.