Disclaimer: Same as before. If you recognize them they're not mine. Enjoy please leave a review and let me know what you think. Thanks!
Ranger POV:
My alarm woke me from my sleep earlier than I would have liked. I looked down at the woman sound asleep next to me. In an instant I'm slammed with the feeling of guilt. Its not right for me to be sleeping with one woman wrapped in my arms only to be dreaming of memories of another. Its not fair to me and even more so to Steph.
I know I need to put just a little distance between us until this is all over. But how do I do that without her thinking I'm pushing her out of my life. How do I tell her that until this is over we probably shouldn't sleep together? That its not fair to her to do so until I have my head on straight. I need her to understand but I know she has so many insecurities when it come to men because of how Dickie and Morelli have treated her in the past.
With a quick gentle kiss to her forehead, I crawl from the bed to get dressed and head to the gym. I need to clear my mind and find my focus. I need a clear head so that we can accomplish everything that needs to be done today.
Upon reaching the gym, I look around and notice all my men are here. Good! Its good to see that my inability to hide my reactions yesterday hasn't messed with their ability to listen to my commands.
I walk over to the track on the out side of the room and do a few stretches. With my muscles stretched out, its time to get this show on the road. Just as I start off on a slow jog I notice out of the corner of my eye that the guys have all fallen in step behind me. Some of the tension that has been riding my body since we left Trenton eases out at the knowledge that they have my back. Always have and always will.
During one of our laps around the gym, Les moves up beside me falling into step again with me. We've done this millions of times before so I know what is coming next. Our strides matching step for step. He looks at me with a nod, "Do it to it Los!"
I nod then yell to the rest of the guys, "Lets do this! Hooah!" As I hear hooah echo behind me I pick up my speed to a full out run. I know the guys can handle my pace. If they can't well I guess they will be in need of some supervised gym time.
Not long after we start at the faster pace I noticed the music that was playing over the speaker system was turned down. Next thing I know there's a group of about ten guys in formation in the middle of the room. JJ standing in front of them.
"WHO ARE WE?" comes from JJ's voice.
"SEALS!"
"WHO ARE THEY?"
"RANGERS!"
"WHO'S THE BIGGER DOG IN THIS POND?"
"SEALS!"
"SHOULD WE SHOW THESE JUNGLE BUNNIES WHAT REAL MEN CAN DO?"
"HOOAH!"
With that they fell into step with us. I had to shake my head at JJ's tactics. After a few laps I once again hear JJ's voice echo off the walls.
"SEALS! STEP IT UP!"
With that, his guys surge past us. Alright its on big brother, if you want to play this game we will. Les and I look at each other with huge grins on our faces. We speed up our pace to catch up to the Seals. We not running at our max speed just yet but its still a harsh pace to keep up.
Over the years JJ, Les and I have played this game many times. Once we're running at a fast pace, one of us would call out a number. That number was the amount of laps we would keep at this pace then push ourselves in a race for the last lap. We take turns on the call outs. Last time was me, the time before was JJ. Leaving this time to Les.
Les calls out 6. I estimated before starting our run that a lap was roughly a third of a mile. So guessing that by the time we are on that last lap racing to finish, I will have ran about five miles. About average for me, however this pace is sure to make my muscles ache for awhile.
By the time we are about to start the final lap, I noticed everyone except for JJ, Les and I have stopped running and are stretching out in the middle of the room on the mats. I don't blame them for dropping out. The only thing that can push you thru at this pace is having determination behind it. The three of us have that determination fueling us. Not allowing us to slow down. Adrenaline coursing thru our veins from the need to win and show the others who was better.
Male ego at its finest. We've always been competitive with each other. Always will be too I'm sure.
At the start of our final lap, a huge grin spreads across my face. I hear JJ breathe out "shit" as I surge past them. Its no holding back. I throw everything I have into my speed. Letting go of the frustration, anger, sadness, and worry I'm holding onto over what we might find with Cat. I let all those emotions fill my body to fuel it as I push myself to my absolute limits.
As I reached our starting mark, I notice Les and JJ are battling for who will come in second and that they are almost half a lap behind me. I slow down to a jog for a final lap to cool down. After my lap I walk over to where all the other guys are sitting and start to stretch out my muscles. Hoping to limit the aching I will most definitely be feeling later.
After JJ and Les finish their cool down lap they come over and sit down next to me to do their stretches.
"Getting slow in your old age there big brother." I tease JJ.
"Well it was bound to happen sooner or later. Just wait young pup you'll get yours one day." The sad thing I know he's right about that. One day I will be slowing down too. But not anytime soon.
JJ stands up and addresses everyone in the room. "Alright guys get cleaned up and report to the galley for chow. After your finished go about your normal duties. Hawk your up on Cole's training for today correct?"
"Yes sir, today would be swords training." Replies Hawk.
JJ nods then turns back to the rest of the guys, "Dismissed!"
I can't help but wonder who this Cole guy is. I know there are many people around here that I don't know yet but his name has been brought up a couple times as if someone important.
We head off to clean up and then head towards to the galley. About halfway there I tell JJ I'm gonna go get Steph up to eat since I let her sleep this morning.
"No need little brother. Seems she ran into Sean and is in the galley already eating." He said as we reached the doorway to the galley pointing into the room towards where Steph was sitting.
I grab my food and head over to sit next to Steph. "Babe." I say as my way of saying good morning.
"Morning Batman. Doing ok this morning?" She says in between mouth fulls of her eggs.
I nod yes to her. "Your up early."
She shrugs and replies, "new place plus I didn't want to sleep too much since I know there's a lot of ground to cover in finding your friend."
I lean over and kiss her on the side of her head and whisper my thanks to her. She nods and continues to eat her breakfast and I decide to follow suit.
As I'm finishing up my meal JJ walks over and sits next to me.
"After your guys are done I'll take you on a quick tour of the grounds to give you an idea of where everything's at. Then we'll get down to business in the command room. I talked to the Admiral in charge of our team and he said that I can give full disclosure to your group as long as they are members that you fully trust with this type of information."
I nod and tell him I do. We stand up and put our dishes away. I look towards my men and tilt my head towards the door telling them its time to go. They finish and we follow JJ up to the main floor of the house to begin the tour.