TC Stark: Ugh, three days? Shame on me! I'm sorry guys, work and school has been chewing up my schedule Thank you for the amazing reviews for the last chapter, I'm glad it got a positive reaction. This chapter is sort of fun, just a little thing to read. Don't worry, this story has great things approaching it :P So please continue to read! And review!

Disclaimer: I only own CJ…and in this chapter only Alexia.

Chapter 10

"I hate wrestling."

Hale turned his head towards Toll Road, who was now scrunching his face in anger. Tool chuckled, walking over to pat his friend on the back, "Why so steamed?"

The other bald headed Expendable folded his arms, fixing his gaze on the TV seriously, "It's all fake. Those guys couldn't take us professionals."

"Those guys are still throwing themselves around the arena, Toll." Hale defended calmly.

Then again Toll Road wasn't a calm man as he pointed to his ears, his eyebrows arched, "You think any of those guys got this?"

The other men in the room grimaced, yelling at him to not tell his cauliflower ear story yet again. Instead Lee snatched the remote to change the channel, getting Toll's mind off of the WWE. Flipping through the channel, he heard a voice shout out "stop!" once he passed the channel playing Sex and the City. All of the men turned to Tool, eyebrows raised as Lee questioned, "What?"

"What?" Tool grinned wolfishly, "You ever see the sex scenes in that show?"

The eccentric man stayed cocky under the gazes of his comrades, watching them all slowly turn back around. Shaking his thoughts away, Lee Christmas flipped pass a scene of Samantha getting fucked. Tool was upset, but then again he got enough ass he didn't need to watch it on TV. Still, the boys needed to keep an open mind in his opinion, all of them trying to find something the group could all agree on. Today there was no such luck.

Bored while flipping well into the 300s, Lee turned around to greet Gunnar as he joined the rest of the Expendables who had nothing else better to do that day than lounge around Tool's shop. After a moment of staring at the rapidly changing channels, the blonde haired man turned to his friends, "What are ya'll doing today?"

All the men shrugged as he asked them if any of them would like to go to the paint shop with him. Tool then asked why he was going to the paint shop to which Gunnar replied, "I'm going to go paint CJ's living room and I wanted you guys to come with me."

"What?" Toll Road was baffled, "I'm not spending my day painting walls."

His eyes then shifted over to Tool who amusedly shook his head, then Lee who shrugged, "Sorry, mate."

Gunnar frowned; it wasn't like these guys had anything to do today anyway. He thought it would be nice to do his female friend a favor and paint her God awful living room a decent color. Since she had been such a help to all of them he thought he'd be a good friend to her. He also thought that his comrades would be a little more on board with him, obviously having the wrong idea.

"I'll go with you, Gunnar."

Grinning, the tall mercenary patted his friend on the back, "Thanks, Hale, it'll be fun."

Hale the pointed to the former junkie, "You're buying me a drink."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stop complaining and get your ass in gear."

The two Expendables said their goodbyes to the rest, heading out to the local paint shop. Gunnar that day had taken his bike, deciding to take her up on her offer to repair it. In that case Hale had to follow the other with his own car so that they could load the supplies in his vehicle. Not that he minded. The great thing about Hale was that he was very easy, pretty much up for anything. It would be a great day, Gunnar and Hale painting CJ's walls.

"What color are we painting it?"

"I have no idea."

Hale turned to his friend while in the shop, his eyebrow raised as he watched the other going though the booklet of colors. That was the truth. Though CJ's bedroom was purple, he doubted the girl wanted her whole house to be. It would have to be a nice color, something that represented her well. For a moment he considered red, to match her hair. But, would that be too tacky? One of the drawbacks to being a man was that he wasn't very creative; his walls were just white.

His friend decided to go take a look around, seeing if he could make any better of a decision. The young high school girls who worked there were very helpful, giving him all sort of suggestions. In the end nothing helped. They didn't know CJ so he knew they wouldn't be able to help him much. He then chuckled to him, considering a neon green since he remembered the neon green bra she was wearing that night at the club. Then again he thought that would be too obnoxious.

"Gunnar?"

Turning around, Gunnar was suddenly face to face with the former Mrs. Jensen, "Alexia?"

Alexia Jensen was the woman a thousand years ago Gunnar had made the vows to live till death do we part…or until two years later. Most of which was spent filling out divorce papers. She was one of those women who looked great at the age of 50, still having a body which resembled her younger self. Alexia was tall, about 5'11" with light pink skin, bright green eyes, and very long blonde hair. She was standing in front of with the look on her face as if she had seen a ghost.

Her face warmed, looking up at him with big eyes, "Wow…you look amazing."

"I finally got clean." He admitted sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck.

Now her face was filled with shock, her glossed lips hanging open. Recomposing herself, the older woman held her hand over her heart, "Oh my God…Gunnar, that's amazing!"

Gunnar nodded his head, keeping it low. Even Alexia had no idea what he did for a living and he wasn't about to tell her the real reason why he had decided to kick his bad habit. The two of them stood in silence for a moment, the blonde female running her fingers through her hair, "I ugh…quit smoking."

"Finally."

Alexia gently laughed, nodding admittedly, "It did take a while. What a nasty habit. I wish I had never started. For the longest Karina would hound me to quit."

"Whose Karina?"

"Oh…" She then scratched the back of her neck, a small smile on her face. It was an embarrassed one. Although it had been forever since they were married, it was still weird to talk about this with him, "My daughter. I'm married now…I have three children."

Gunnar nearly choked on his own breath, staring at her wide eyed, "Oh, wow. Really? That's…that's great."

She held her hands on front of herself, proudly admitting, "Yea, they're amazing. I'm so proud of all of them. My oldest starts college in a year."

Tucking his hands in his pockets, he nodded modestly. Then clearing his throat, he asked her seriously, "And ugh…this guy…are you happy?"

"Yes, we've been married for 27 years last month," She then eyed his large hands, as if searching for something, "What about you?"

Gunnar shook his head, explaining to her that he mostly became concerned with other things. The two of them knew what that meant and it was just kind to not mention anything at all. Even though their marriage had been short, Alexia knew him well and he wouldn't be surprised if she probably thought he'd be dead by now. Not that he was ashamed at all what had happened between him and CJ, he wasn't about to tell her that he was hanging around someone half his age.

Hale had interrupted the large man's thoughts, bidding his ex-wife goodbye. He hadn't bothered explaining to his friend who the woman was, rather getting back on track with the day's initial initiative. Gunnar felt the breeze run across his shaven face, guiding Hale on his bike since the other had never been to the young woman's house before.

It didn't take long for the two men to arrive at CJ's house, Hale parking his pickup truck on the side of the road and Gunnar guiding his bike in the driveway. CJ came to the door after the first knock, having a confused look on her face, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Move along, pretty lady, we're gonna do some painting." Gunnar gave her a large grin, holding up several cans of paint.

Standing baffled, the red head tilted her head, "No, stop."

"We're not kidding."

Deciding to finally believe them, she let the two big men into her house and immediately offering them drinks. Hale followed her into the kitchen, going to raid her refrigerator. The other man rolled his eyes as he looked around her living room. There wasn't much to move, just a couch and a small TV. This painting job would be a breeze; it would be done in no time.

As CJ went to work on making Hale a sandwich, Gunnar leaned against the doorframe of the kitchen with his arms folded, "Putting her to work, huh?"

"Well, she was offering." He replied with a toothy grin, taking the sandwich to the table to start munching.

"I can't believe you're doing this," She looked up at him with large blue eyes, a genuine smile on her face, "This is the nicest thing someone's ever done for me."

A genuine smile formed on his own lips, holding back the urge to tuck a strand of her smooth hair behind her ear, "It's nothing, really. Besides…it's sort of a trade."

CJ raised a smile as she looked outside, seeing his bike resting in her driveway. She then smirked while lighting up a cigarette; it had been a while since she worked on a motorcycle and she was excited at a new challenge. After getting the keys to the bike, he watched her walk outside and start up his Harley. She was moving it into the garage where he assumed she'd be working on it.

After Hale had finished his sandwich, Gunnar got his ass to work. In the end he went with a subtle red, to go along with her hair. It may have been a corny idea at the time, but the whole time he was at the shop he couldn't get the color red out of his mind. But, he didn't want the color to be too overwhelming, deciding to just make one wall red and the rest a neutral color. It had been a long time since either of them had done a paint job and the times in the past the colors had already been picked out.

Again there wasn't much to move in the living room, being able to practically get started once everything was set up. They got to work on painting the walls while listening to the sounds of CJ working in the garage. Today she was blasting some Jimi Hendrix, Gunnar smiling at the array of music she listened to.

Some time had passed and the walls were looking great. By now their female companion was finished with her fix up on Gunnar's bike, retiring herself downstairs to do some work and so as not to be in the way. In a way he wished she had stayed and kept them company, but he understood she had work to do. Besides, Hale always was entertaining, glad that he was the one who decided to tag along on this mission.

It was dark out when the boys had finished the walls of the living room, now covered with paint and sweat. As if sensing this, CJ appeared upstairs, shoving ice cold water in both their hands and clean rags. She then eyed her newly painted walls, her hands on her hips, "Wow, look at you guys. My walls look so good!"

"I got the magic touch." Hale said smugly, brushing his fingers against his chest.

Gunnar and CJ looked at each other and laugh, the female patting Hale on the back, "Yes, yes, good job. Anyone want a beer?"

The blonde nodded as the other man looked at his voice, wincing at the time, "I gotta go."

"What do you have to do?"

"I got a date."

CJ gave a low whistle, winking, "Go get 'em, tiger."

After Hale left, Gunnar shoved his hands in his pockets as he looked over at the girl he had slept with a couple of days ago. She looked great like she always did, finally reach over and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, "How's my bike doing?"

"Wonderful, wanna see it?"

"Let's take it out on a test run, huh?"

A certain childish excitement sparkled in her eyes as she grinned largely, "That sounds amazing."

Gunnar smiled as well, happy at the fact he'd get to enjoy a lively ride with a beautiful woman on the back of it. It was getting late and he had no idea what was to happen after the ride. He wasn't going to initiate anything, not wanting to give her the idea that all he viewed her as was sex. He also didn't want to make the assumption that just because they had had that type of connection that he was allowed to stay the night."

"Hey…wanna stay the night?"