Chap 14

Well, Beach has had some fun terrorizing the Cobra base. I think Cobra has probably decided they really don't want to hold him captive any longer....

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It was midday at the Pit, and Shipwreck was hiding out near the obstacle course. He'd done the morning PT, but was avoiding the motorpool's monthly washing of all the vehicles. It was supposed to be keeping everyone occupied, but Ship didn't particularly feel the need to help out if he could help it. The vehicles would just get dirty again.

He glanced up as the small aircraft suddenly appeared. It was flying too low and was the wrong configuration for one of theirs. "Hey!!"

It passed overhead and he saw something drop. "Incoming!!" he yelled as he ran to the side, hunkering down.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!" The scream ended with a sudden loud "THUD!!" and Shipwreck peered out. BeachHead was picking himself up off the ground, dust settling around him. "Danged impolite ninjas!! YOU BETTER KEEP ON FLYIN' YOU SPOOK!" He began dusting himself off, still cursing.

Shipwreck stepped out, trying to pick his jaw up off the ground. "B-beachhead?"

The Ranger jumped and turned to glare at him. "Shipwreck! What are ya doin' out here?" He crossed his arms and stared up at the sky. "Why haven't any of the SkyStrikers scrambled? Oh.. there they go.." Two jets screamed overhead. "That's better. Get 'em Ace! Shoot his butt down!!" He turned back to look at the sailor. "Hey.. go get my danged dog tags. They landed out there in the mud pit. Danged ninja.. throwin' my tags in the mudpit." He turned his face up to the empty sky. "DON'T THINK I DON'T KNOW YA DID THAT ON PURPOSE!!"

Shipwreck looked out onto the course. "The mudpit?"

The shade turned on him, looking irritated. "Yeah.. my dog tags are in the mudpit.. go get 'em."

"You're kidding me. You think I'm gonna go dig through the whole mudpit to find something the size of a set of dog tags? Are you insane?" Shipwreck turned then leapt away as BeachHead turned on him furiously.

"YEAH!! YER GONNA GO GET 'EM RIGHT DANGED NOW!!" The bellow drove Shipwreck into racing out to the mudpit and staggering into it. "Don't you come out 'til you find 'em!" He grumbled to himself watching the sailor hunt through the mud. "Danged fallin' outa planes.. can I fly? Ninja thinkin' he's a funny man huh? Stupid StormShadow.." He glared out at the mudpit. "Ain't you found 'em yet?! Get a MOVE ON SAILOR!"

"I'm looking!! I'm looking!" Shipwreck continued to comb through the mud, looking across the surface for any hint of where they might have landed. "Can't you feel where they are?"

"Yeah, I can feel they're in the danged mudpit!" His bad mood deepened. "Jus' find the danged things!"

It took nearly an hour, and two additional greenshirts helping before the tags were located in the mud. Duke had gotten notified and shown up, with Hawk in tow. The general was pleased that his sergeant had been returned, while Duke had been amused at the method of the return. The Cobra ninja had avoided the SkyStrikers and disappeared into the northeast, putting Beach into a sullen mood when he learned he wouldn't have the ninja captive to pay him back for the insult.

"Sir.. you're not gonna take me back to the cemetery, are ya?" BeachHead was carefully not looking at his commanding officer, choosing instead to watch the three men searching for the tags.

Hawk looked at the ground. "No.. of course not. I'm sorry I tried to leave you there but I really thought it was best for you. It's not that I don't want you back." His guilt clearly showed in his voice. "I want you here.. but.. I was trying to think of what I should do for you.. it was one of the hardest things I've ever done."

BeachHead nodded. "Yes sir. Just.. it kinda hurts a guy's feelings.. getting left behind like that.. all deliberate and all." He glanced over at Hawk. "We don't leave our guys behind."

Hawk heaved a sigh. "I thought it would let you pass on peacefully. I wanted what was best for you. Beach.. you know I wouldn't want to send you away. I just fear you'll end up hanging around here... instead of moving on properly." He suddenly looked at his Sergeant major. "It's really no different than Doc shooting you in the butt with a traq dart for your own good."

Beach's face twisted slightly under the mask. "Yeah.. well.. at least he can't do that no more." Hawk controlled the grin that threatened to break out when he saw the Ranger rub his buttcheek in a subconscious movement. "I didn't never like that none either."

Duke cleared his throat. "We were a bit worried that Cobra would try to destroy the dog tags. I don't know what that would do to you. I'm glad they didn't think of it though."

The Ranger's eyes crinkled up as he grinned under the facemask. "Oh.. they thought of that. StormShadow actually picked my tags up and was gonna toss them into a furnace or something."

Hawk's face paled. "But you stopped him?"

"Well.. not exactly. I told 'em to go on and get rid of my anchor. That way I could follow 'em all over.. instead'a bein' stuck near those danged tags. Once they got the idea that destroyin' the tags would free me to hang out with them whenever I wanted, they suddenly wanted to go chuck the tags into the Grand Canyon or something instead."

Now Hawk looked stricken. "We wouldn't have ever known where you were..."

Beach shrugged. "Don't matter none. I jus' told StormShadow that if he dropped those tags anywhere but back at a base, I'd find him no matter how long it took and I'd follow through with my threats." At Duke's questioning look, he continued. "I told him I'd stick my hand into his chest, make it solid and pull his heart out through his ribcage. I dunno if I can actually do that.. but that danged ninja didn't seem to wanna check and see."

Duke laughed. "I wish I could have seen that."

They all turned at the shriek. Duke grinned and stepped out of the way. "CoverGirl just heard you're back." Sure enough, the leggy ex-model came racing into view.

BeachHead got a soft smile on his face. "Ain't she a runner, though?"

"WAYNE!!" She came barreling up and they saw him bring himself to solid, just so she could slam into him bodily, taking him off his feet and into a heap on the ground. "Wayne!! I thought you were gone forever!"

His reply was muffled underneath her and she got up. He climbed to his feet and shook dust off himself again. "I'm happy to see you too, Cinderella. If I weren't dead already, that sort of greeting would probably do the trick."

"You bastard! I thought you were gone forever!" She swatted at him and her hand passed through him. "How are you back??"

He held up his hands at her. "I didn't go anywhere.. then StormShadow stole my tags.. and I annoyed Cobra Commander so much, he sent the danged ninja to return my tags. He threw them outa the plane as he passed overhead and the tags ended up in the mudpit, I landed over there." He pointed and then shrugged. "So.. here I am."

Duke brightened. "So you can fly!"

"Noo. I can fall. It ain't very danged pleasant either." BeachHead glared out at the obstacle course. "So anyway.. as soon as they find the danged things, I'm back. I mean.. I'm back now.." He sighed. "I'm jus' kinda tired."

CoverGirl reached out to him and he smiled and took her hand in his. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He smiled. "Cobra Commander went crazy faster than Flint did. Oh.. they'll have basically packed up by now.. cause they'll know I'll tell you where it is. But lemme give ya the coordinates of that base." Duke noted all the details and disappeared to put together a attack force.

Hawk cleared his throat. "CoverGirl.. you'll want to go gear up. We'll drop the heavy vehicles in the front lines." She nodded and gave Beach's hand a squeeze.

He reached to pull off the balaclava and bent to kiss her lightly. "I missed you."

"I missed you too.. I'm glad you're back. I have to go fuel up the Wolverine. You'll be here.. right?" She smiled at him when he nodded and then turned to run back towards the motorpool entrance.

"Got 'em!!" Shipwreck lifted the clump of mud up in his hand. "Found your tags, Sergeant major."

"About danged time!" The sailor tried to hand them over and BeachHead tilted his head towards Hawk. "I can't touch 'em.. give 'em to Hawk."

Hawk shook his head taking the tags and shaking the worst of the mud off. "Thank you Shipwreck. You greenshirts too. Go get cleaned up. Prepare for an assault on a Cobra base." He turned to BeachHead. "You need to do whatever it is you do for rest."

"I'm okay sir." His form faded even as he tried to reassure Hawk. "I jus'..."

"Go rest. You did good, Beach. Now go rest, while we go beat the crud out of Cobra for daring to steal our Sergeant major." Hawk turned to walk back to the Pit. "I'm going to put your tags into my safe for now. I know.. it's not the ideal position for you to be able to roam the entire base, but when we get back, we'll talk about putting them back into the lockbox in the motorpool."

Beach sighed lightly even as his form faded to a thin shadow. "Sorry sir.. I'm jus' really tired.."

"Go rest.. you did good.. we'll be back when we're done stomping on Cobra again." Hawk watched the shade beginning to disappear.

The soft voice sounded from near his ear. "Yer gonna watch Courtney fer me?"

"Yes, Beach. I'll watch over her." Hawk turned to go and almost felt the ghost following him. "Beach.. go rest."

"Can't.. yer carryin' mah tags.." There was a pause and then the disembodied voice sounded rather plaintive. "Ah'm gonna miss the battle."

"Beach.. you can come to the next battle. You're fading away now.. so you need to go off and do your resting thing." Hawk swiped his security card and lowered the lift to the office level. He heard the heavy sigh from nearby, although the spirit was still unseen.

"Ah can't go rest until ya stop touching mah tags.." The faded voice began to sound more exhausted.

"I'm putting them down.. almost there." Hawk's steps lengthened and he keyed his safe open and shook the tags one last time to get as much of the mud off as possible. "Rest up."

"..yes sir...." Hawk felt the presence disappear the instant he dropped the battered dog tags into his safe. He resisted the paniced urge to scoop them back up to make sure BeachHead hadn't left for good. BeachHead was dead.. he'd rest and reappear later when the Joes returned from the upcoming battle.. or he'd move on to where his spirit should have been. Hawk looked at the tags for a last moment before closing the door firmly.

As he stood to leave, he took a deep breath and tried to put aside his irrational worry. "Rest well, Beach."

"...Ah will sir... " This time the voice was so faint, he almost missed it. The touch of amusement in it made Hawk smile anyway. His steps quickened as he headed out to join his forces.

* * * *

When the Joe team arrived back at the Pit almost two days later, there was the usual flurry of activity as wounded were taken care of, gear and vehicles were off-loaded and people began on maintenance and repairs. Weapons were unloaded and cleaning and maintenance on them began immediately. BeachHead appeared and made himself useful, after reassuring himself that CoverGirl was back and unharmed. She was more concerned with damage to her Wolverine than herself and he left the motorpool before he got in the way.

"Beach.. can you work on the sidearms?" Flint had paused when he spotted the ghostly Sergeant major. Getting a affirmative reply, he nodded towards the armory. "They could use some skilled help.. if you're up to that."

"I'm fine." Beach headed off down the hallway, paced by Flint.

"Are you sure? You were in ragged shape when you came back. If you still need downtime.. it's okay." The warrant officer's concern made Beach shake his head.

"I'm fine. I was 'down' the whole time ya'll were gone." When Flint started to ask him again, Beach gave him an annoyed sideways glance. "I'm taking a shortcut." He stepped to the side and disappeared through the hallway wall, leaving Flint standing there staring at a blank wall.

"Blasted ghost. That's never going to not be creepy." Flint turned and headed back the other direction.

Beach emerged on the far side of the level and headed for the armory. Once there, his efforts were bent towards dismantling and cleaning the myriad of assorted handguns used in the battle. Dusty and LowLight were there working on the rifles, with Bazooka and SnakeEyes working on some of the larger guns. Handling the finicky little parts took all of his concentration and he paid little attention to the room's conversation.

Dusty's voice cut through finally. "BEACH! HEY!"

Startled, he jerked up, the 9mm handgun slipping through him to clatter across the floor into it's component parts. "DANG IT! What!?" He bent to scoop up the pieces.

Chagrined, Dusty quickly helped him pick up the gun parts, setting them back onto his workbench. "Sorry! You wouldn't respond."

"I was tryin' to work." Settling back on his usual stool, Beach picked up the parts and began to swab them clean again. "What did ya want?"

"I was just telling you how CoverGirl totally kicked butt. I thought you'd be interested in how she did during the battle since you couldn't be there." Dusty settled back into his rifle cleaning and looked over with raised eyebrows. "But if you're not interested.."

"No no!" Beach twisted to look with interest. "Tell me..." He listened avidly as he was regaled by Dusty about how the tank jockey had outmaneuvered several Cobra operatives to take out the armored attack vehicles almost single-handedly. Bazooka added in how she'd also used the Wolverine to shield a troop of greenshirts from incoming rifle fire.

Bazooka nodded to Dusty's description of the Wolverine sliding into position to fire on Destro's elite troops. "Yeah.. and she didn't get hit none either. She's real fast.. fires and zooom! She goes again real fast so she don't get hit!" He nodded again at the ghost. "She's real smart at how to drive and shoot all at once."

Beach shifted himself on his stool and struggled not to grin at them. "Yeah.. she's the best driver we got, that's fer sure."

Dusty sighed longingly. "And she's got it all.. smart.. capable.. gorgeous.. I mean.. really? How many women do you know that are soo beautiful and tall and sexy and also can outshoot most guys, outdrive almost all guys and then give you a single look out of those gorgeous eyes that'll turn you to jelly?" He turned his face towards Beach and abruptly straightened up. "Oh.. not that.. you know.. she's giving me any sort of looks like that.. just her looks in general.. not that I'm looking.."

BeachHead's scowl deepened a bit more. "Yer treadin' on real thin ice, boy."

Bazooka looked at the floor. "But there's no ice in here. Dusty is standing on concrete floor."

The Ranger's glare turned on Bazooka for only a few seconds. "It's a metaphor. Dusty understands me. Doncha Dusty?" He stared down the extremely nervous desert trooper. "Ah shouldn't hafta go remindin' no one 'bout nuthin' around here." The fact that his form was completely solid and beginning to brighten around the edges made Dusty nod repeatedly.

"Yeah.. I mean.. no.. no reminding needed at all. I didn't mean anything!" He held up his hands. "Besides.. why would it matter? She only has eyes for one guy.. we all know that."

Beach growled softly. "It matters." He left it at that and turned back to his collection of dirty handguns. Picking up a barrel to run a swab down inside it, he lost his grip on both items and they dropped through his hands to the work surface. "Dang it!" Leaning on the countertop, he closed his eyes for a few seconds to compose himself.

"Beach.. you okay?" Dusty leaned over to look at him.

"I'm fine." He opened his eyes and glared at Dusty. "I have to concentrate to hold onto things." Dusty nodded and smiled, already back to his normal good-natured self despite the recent snarling from the Ranger. "Go do yer own stuff."

"Okay.. geez.. don't get all ornery over it." Dusty moved aside and Bazooka perked up.

"But BeachHead is always ornery.. that's what you say all the time, Dusty." The infantryman looked puzzled when Dusty tried to wave him silent. "But you do! You say that all the time.. like when you said Beach is too uptight for his own good.. and, and.. how you said Scarlett.." Dusty clapped a hand over Bazooka's mouth and grinned nervously at the suddenly alert SnakeEyes.

"Ahh.. silly Bazooka! He's just joking.. isn't that right, Bazooka?" Dusty made Bazooka's head nod up and down while a muffled negative reply came from under his hand. "Yeah.. see? Joking. Ha ha. Bazooka wouldn't be saying stuff that would get me murdered... now WOULD HE?!" He glared at Bazooka who just looked puzzled. "He's going to shut up and not say anything else. Right?" Bazooka nodded. "Good.. because Bazooka is my pal.. and he doesn't want to get old Dusty into any trouble.. right?" Another nod and he turned him loose.

"SnakeEyes is really mad." Bazooka's declaration made Dusty laugh nervously.

The trooper bent to talk to Bazooka. "No no.. SnakeEyes isn't mad.. why would you think that?"

Bazooka nodded behind him. "Cause he's got a sword out and he's huffing like when he gets all ready to lop off a Cobra viper's head or something."

Dusty went slightly pale and turned slowly to see the commando standing and wiping the length of his katana slowly while eyeing him. "Oh." He smiled nervously at SnakeEyes. "Umm.. Bazooka is wrong.. you know I wouldn't ever think about Scarlett as anything but a teammate.. never ever would I go talking about her.. or.. you know.. discussing her attributes with other guys... umm.." SnakeEyes tucked the cloth into a pocket and twisted the sword before fastening his gaze through the visor on Dusty's white face. Dusty stopped breathing.. possibly practice for the time when his head wouldn't be attached to the rest of his body soon.

"Snakes.. stand down." BeachHead's calm assertive voice cut through the tension. "If'n I can't shoot him fer commentin' on Courtney.. you can't go slicin' him up fer maybe talkin' about Scarlett. At least.." His amused gaze took in Dusty's terrified pleading expression. ".. don't go slicin' on him where I can see it happen. I hate fillin' out that kind of paperwork. Wait until he's somewhere quiet.. and dark.. and alone.."

Dusty swallowed. "Gee.. thanks Beach. Really." He turned to SnakeEyes again. "I really really umm.. never.. you know.. " He backed up against the workbench when SnakeEyes' katana lifted slightly. "I'm really sorry.. please don't stab me!"

Beachhead's amusement was showing as he spoke up again. "Stand down, SnakeEyes. That's an order."

The commando's smooth turn to look at the ghost seated on his stool made them all think of a graceful tiger about to jump on prey. He turned to look at Dusty, then lifted the katana to slip it back into it's sheath on his back. BeachHead gave a slight nod and turned back to his work, while SnakeEyes pointed to Dusty and then made a throat cutting motion before going back to the heavy .50cal he was finishing with.

Dusty edged back over to his stack of rifles to begin working on the next one. Beach smiled to himself and tried to keep his concentration on the parts in his grip.

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End Chapter

Well.. Beach is back. I hope you're enjoying this fic! Any ideas and comments are welcome, please feel free to review or message!