Chap 24

Did the talk with Scarlett help? Who would you think to encounter during the long dark nights in the Pit? Thanks for the reviews, and thank you all for reading!

Nighttime in the Pit:

He brooded in his room for hours. By the time he'd decided to emerge, it was nearing 3 a.m. His hesitant look up and down the hallway showed no one at all. The lights were dimmed down to the night settings, and he scooped up his dark loose pants and t-shirt. Walking down to the showers, he met no one, and only heard a low murmur of the tv from the rec room. He padded silently to the doorway, and peered in, looking to see if anyone was still awake. Instead he saw GungHo asleep on the couch with a old black-and-white movie playing. He moved on to the quiet showers, relaxing with the hot water. His hair had gotten overly long, but he was a little wound up over the confrontation earlier, and decided he would rather have Scarlett clipper it for him later sometime. It wasn't as if he would get written up for having an extra inch of hair underneath his hooded mask.

He had mostly relaxed by the time he had finished getting cleaned up. The odd thing was that before his banishment to the other unit, he'd begin to feel comfortable enough to shower during the day, and.. he thought about it objectively.. he'd even been eating in the messhall, albeit not all the time. Snake Eyes gazed into the mirror, somewhat relishing the pain that came from looking at the damage done to him. He turned to one side, looking critically at the keloid tissue spread out across his cheek, twisting the his lip upwards slightly. He should be happy the injury spared both eyes. Snorting at himself and his self-pity, he thought more realistically that he should be glad that the injuries weren't fatal. Although some days he wondered if it wouldn't have been kinder for them to have allowed him to die, those were always fleeting thoughts he chased away immediately, being aware that it was nothing more than self-pity that he would wallow in if allowed to dwell on it.

Twisting his head, he tried to examine the latest bullet wound. It had carved a chunk out of his scalp, and Doc's neat work had closed it up with a row of stitches. Although it was still an ugly healing wound, it looked clean and uninfected, so he left it be and dressed himself, smoothing his hair down with a hand.

Deciding he wanted a pot of hot tea before he went back to bed, he wandered down to the communal kitchen area. It wasn't much more than a spot to heat a kettle of water, or to make a bag of popcorn or a snack. He did check carefully that the marine was still sleeping on the couch, as without his mask he didn't want to be seen. Luckily, at this hour few people would be awake, and none of the night shift security watch should have any reason to come to the rec room. His small pot and stash of green tea was still on the upper shelf. Once it was steeping, he found one of the tiny teacups and rinsed it out.

A deep unexpected voice made him leap up in the air. "Green tea?" He twisted around with the cup raised to strike and saw LowLight standing casually. The sniper would be pleased with himself for managing to sneak up on him. He immediately turned away and nodded. "Enough for me?" He nodded, and reached around behind himself to set the cup in his hand on the counter near the sniper. He heard the rattle as LowLight poured the tea while he found a second cup. "No need to hide." The nearly silent footsteps moved away, and he turned slightly to look. The tall blond man settled into one of the more comfortable armchairs, flicking on the lamp beside it, and shaking out a newspaper that had been crumpled up at least once during the day.

Pouring his own cup of tea, Snake Eyes debated a few minutes about whether to leave. LowLight was one of the Joes he could be comfortable with, because the other man was quiet and serene, and never ever got emotional or upset. Even the first time he'd seen Snake Eyes without his mask, he'd simply looked, hefted his rifle, and asked if he needed any help. Of course, that had been when he'd lost the chunk of scalp to StormShadow's sword, and been streaming blood all over the extraction chopper too. Heavy Duty had turned pale under his dark skin at the sight of his uncovered face, and RockNRoll had simply turned his back, manning his heavy gun at the opposite side of the chopper with studied determination. The sniper had handed him a gauze 4x4 without further comment, while he peeled the shreds of his mask off from around his throat. That had been one of the longest helicopter rides, and Wild Bill had griped for two weeks about how much blood he'd had to hose out of the back.

He went and sat in a nearby chair, in the shadows since the lighting was turned down in the rec room like the rest of the base. They both sat in silence, sipping the hot tea, the only noise, the slight rustle of the newspaper, and the snoring from the couch. Finally LowLight lowered the paper slightly to give an annoyed look over at the television area.

"I'm out here because BeachHead snores like a drowning cow." Normally BeachHead and LowLight were perfect roommates, with opposite schedules, they rarely crossed paths. LowLight was sent out on lone missions a lot, and having just returned, probably would have preferred to spend his evening off in his room. Now the ninja understood why he was out in the rec area. Snake Eyes looked over and got up to walk over to the back of the couch. Reaching over, he carefully pinched the cajun's nose shut for a few seconds. The snoring became a slight honk, and he grumbled under his breath and shifted a little bit. The ninja waited a few seconds, then came back to pour a second cup of tea in the silence. "Handy trick." ..was the only further comment.

Snake Eyes gave a slight nod and sipped his tea. He looked over at the sniper as he went back to reading his paper. LowLight was a sniper. He was trained and experienced in shooting people down from a distance. Yet he didn't think any less of him, despite his cool nature. LowLight only shot down legitimate targets in military situations though. He'd never... never gone sneaking into someone's house..

...blinking through the pain and the blood in his eyes, struggling to grasp the hilt of one of his knives as he staggered to check the last enemy who'd shot him in the head without warning...

He shook his head to clear it. He didn't need to be thinking about that. As long as he could keep the images pushed away, he'd be fine. Hearing the paper rustle again, he looked up and saw LowLight frowning slightly at him. He motioned at the teapot, and the sniper only paused a second before extending the cup towards him.

Once he'd sipped his tea again, LowLight finally spoke up again. "You okay?" Snake Eyes nodded, and made an effort to lean back and look relaxed. He saw the other man's eyes narrow just slightly, but he went back to his paper instead of pressing. That was another reason Snake Eyes liked him, he wouldn't pry.

Eventually the pot of tea was gone, and he rinsed the dishes out, replacing them on the shelves. LowLight had wandered off, padding around the base at odd hours was his own eccentric behavior that everyone accepted. They had a regular night shift, and on occasion Mainframe would come wandering around when he should be asleep, but more likely he would be tucked away with one of the computers, or working on the database servers. In calmer times, LowLight and all three ninjas almost competed to see who could startle more of the others during a night. On occasion, Snake Eyes would set a task to his apprentices to sneak about and retrieve various objects from around the base, with manned stations included, just to test their ability to remain unseen and still thieve effectively. Eventually there were a complaints from the men on shift, when their items suddenly went missing, only to be returned later on. At that point Duke would often come around to lecture them on security and respecting their teammates on duty. Snake Eyes would dutifully listen, both Kamakura and Jinx would lower their gazes, and Duke would leave again, confident that he'd made his point. Normally the next target would be his office, but he never seemed to make the connection in timing. Or, if he did, he was simply satisfied it was his office, and not someone who would be more liable to complain about missing pens. Strange occupational hazard, worrying about ninja theft in the workplace, he supposed. No one ever promised that belonging to GI Joe would be boring.

Still restless, he padded through the hallways, doing a random security pass. As he silently moved through the darkened Pit, he would fade into shadows if anyone happened to be around. Half a dozen security guards, and nearly a dozen Joes on the night shift passed within feet of him, without ever knowing. Whether it was clinging to a ceiling over their heads, or standing exactly where their gaze would slide by without recognizing the shadow as a person, his presence went unknown. He grimaced at his daring, without his familiar mask, one of the newer security guards might just shoot him first, before realizing he was a Joe. Even ninja skills could fail enough for him to catch a bullet, and friendly fire hurt just as much. He would be mortified if he finally met his untimely end by being shot after hours by a overly nervous wet-behind-the-ears private making nightly rounds. Storm Shadow would probably manage to revive him from the dead just to scream at him over how stupid a way to die that was. He thought about his lost sword brother and sighed softly. One day, he would manage to deal with that situation. But for now, it was late, and he'd circled all the way through back up to the rec room.

Before he left the rec room again, he tossed one of the blankets over the sleeping cajun and flipped the television off. He'd just begun to snore again, but he simply left him to sleep. Back in his own room, it was time for him to try to battle through the nightmares again, fighting his way way through until morning.

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End chapter: A lot of activity in the Pit after hours. Things are beginning to go downhill, how much longer can he hide? Reviewers are adored!

Sorry I had to take one day off and write that plot bunny, you see the couple lines in here that set off the plot bunny, so there. I'll be writing another short describing them stealing various things as exercises.. but that's later. Also wrote a 8K+ word story yesterday, but it has gore.. not sure when/if it'll be posted. Plot bunnys gnaw on my brain if I don't give in and write them. Gnawed brains just plain irk me.