As the week passed the team did a lot of small exercises making sure every little detail of the theoretical part was ingrained into their every move. The other teams were moaning about the course in the woods and of course, there was the odd ribbing about it being Luca and Deac and how that was unfair, on top of 20 David being the last team to actually have to pass this thing.
But Street shot all of that down by recounting his time at the academy and how especially Luca had been hard on him. Also, Lynch would be observing too so any favoritism was basically impossible.
The team felt fully prepared and Chris was optimistic they would perform well.
Only the medical part of the exercise was a little daunting, as she suspected one of them would play the injured party. All of them hoping it would be Chris aka the easiest to carry. But they would only find that out at the campsite.
They took two cars out and as they arrived at the clearing they were greeted by a beaming Luca and a smiling Deac. Both with clipboards in hand and the material tent set up at one side.
"Welcome to hell," Deacon smiled at them. "Isn't it peaceful?"
Luca holds out three large envelopes to Hondo. "Pick your scenario," he explains and Hondo pulls one of the manila packages.
It contains a list of materials they get to have and also their roles in sealed smaller envelopes. Everyone picks one and pulls out a GPS beacon.
"These beacons will tell us which role you are playing and if you are playing your role correctly," Luca explains when Chris and the others look confused.
Chris rips open her assignment and is pleasantly surprised, until Hondo mentions: "I see we don't have real tents just tarp, but thankfully we apparently get sleeping bags, for everyone."
The sight of Benni and Tan's faces is hilarious to Chris. They look so in disbelief and start bickering immediately about who was supposed to pack those, finally settling on a shocked Street before Luca calls them back to order.
"Okay, guys. You now have 48 hours to complete the exercise and if you are successful we will have a nice barbeque ready for you."
The first day of the exercise went by quickly and they managed to track down the "suspects" fairly easily- except for one. But they had that second day for that and Chris was hopeful it would work out. She still had her own task to fulfill; fall into the river and "break" her ankle.
She was pondering how to manage that on their hike up to a ridge to get an overview of the area after breakfast when she heard over the radio that Street and Tan had slipped on the rocks of the creek and now were soaking wet. Sounds like she can manage that too.
Benni pointed out an orange fabric sliver on a tree bark and they could turn around. From the footsteps, up here their target was down in the valley. The team decided on a meet-up at the campsite to make a game plan, and give Tan and Street a chance to at least change out of the wet clothes.
They all had their assignments and Chris was partnered up with Tan and Street, and back on the way to the river. She calculated carefully what she would do now, and on the last rock, she slipped and fell screaming bloody murder.
Now she would need to tell them her ankle is shattered. Street and Tan looked already worried even and pulled some medical supplies from their bags.
"It's my pretend injury," Chris informs them to keep them calm "but unfortunately my ankle is shattered."
"Okay, so splint? Right?" Street pinches his nose trying to remember the field medic training they had just days ago.
He hurries off to go look for two branches to help stabilize the splint.
Tan helps Chris get out of her shoe and puts the first layer of gauze on it, before pulling out the stronger materials to help her walk later.
Within 10 minutes her foot is in a make-shift splint and they can move forward.
They circle the intended target, which turns out to be Luca and the barbeque supplies, and can finish the exercise with time to spare.
Chris and Hondo had their own little debrief about the exercise while waiting for Luca, Deac, and the rest to set up their barbeque and for the final night even real tents. Subconsciously Chris reaches for her splint and starts scratching where the tape itches her skin.
"Stop, that. The splint stays until the 48 hours are up!" Luca admonishes and Chris groans.
"Look at it this way, we have to cater to your every whim," Hondo laughs at her annoyance.
"My every whim?" Chris raises an eyebrow and Hondo shakes his head.
"Let me help you over to the fire and a deckchair, so we can actually relax and you can put your foot up." Hondo holds out his arm for Chris and she reluctantly takes his help.
On their way over to the others, she notices that Street really is limping across the campsite.
"Street? What happened?" they hear Benni ask. It seems he noticed too.
"It's nothing, just twisted my ankle just now walking across." Street waves of their worries but still Hondo isn't having it.
"Sit, let me look at it. Can't have half the team out of commission after one trip to the wild."
Benni and Tan finished setting up the tents and when Chris glances over she immediately spotted the white paper with the red cross in the window of one, marking the medical tent. Her head counts out the tents and guessing from the sizing of each of the setup parts she knows that they did not set that one up for fun.
"So, who is going to play nurse tonight?" Tan jokes while plopping down next to Chris and she can't help the slight blush in her cheeks.
"No, one. No one is seriously sick, and hey we all have field medic training..." Chris still manages to joke back while to almost everyone's surprise Street stays quiet. From the way, he is clenching his jaw every time he tries to put pressure on his now wrapped foot it is clear it is very painful.
Chris leans over to him and whispers "Hey if you need a real doctor we can stop this nonsense and get you to a hospital. This game is not important. You and your health are." but he shakes his head no.
After Street's ankle is wrapped a little more the team enjoys their rather carefree evening, just hanging out and catching up on what's going on in everyone's lives. Having Deac and Luca with them feels like a return to the good old days. Chris has to remind herself actively that it isn't that time though.
She has moved forward and up the ranks. There are moments sitting at that campfire where she just wants to let go of her defenses and fall to her side, lean her head against his shoulder and enjoy that. But that is out of the question. She is his boss.
Chris realizes that it will be hard work to keep her feelings in check and she hopes that maybe, just maybe this night "alone" in a tent will help. She can see it in Street, he is deep in thought about something too.
After a while, when the fire dies down and all of them are just lounging and laughing Chris yawns and Deacon offers to help her over.
"Is that in the rules?" Chris raises an eyebrow teasing him.
"I want to talk to you, so yeah we'll let it slide," he answers and supports her up. That splint is making movements a little complicated.
When they are a couple of steps away Deac starts with "Is everything okay Chris? You seem a little tense," she can see he is worried. "Is there something I can help with?".
"No, it is nothing. Just this thing is freaking annoying and itchy," Chris replies and blames her demeanor on the offending makeshift splint. "Was that all you wanted to talk about?".
Deac shakes his head.
"No, I actually wanted to ask if you could help out with a training session at my day job. I asked Jess already and if you are saying yes, she'll sign off on it."
"You got it Deac. I'll always show up for family."
She makes herself comfortable in the sleeping bag shortly after and falls asleep.
The next few weeks, she makes a conscious effort to also reconnect with Street. And it seems that whatever feelings Molly had been speculating about were not there, at least he didn't show them. He even was back to flirting with witnesses and Chris shakes her head at that, every damn time.
It felt good getting their easy friendship back.
Over the next few weeks Chris felt her friendship with Street almost normalize. And the team went back to having hangouts and barbeques at each other's places. They were a unit, a family and it felt good.
She felt at ease, something she hadn't thought possible again.
The plan was to get through today and the hopefully quiet shift and hang out at Street's place later. Just hanging out, watching a movie and having a good time.
Chris was already looking forward to that and couldn't help the small smile on her face while running on the treadmill.
But unfortunately, the city had different plans and interrupted the slow training morning with a hostage situation in a high-rise downtown.
The negotiations were lengthy and Chris laid on that roof patiently waiting, trying to get a shot but as long as the gunman was cooperative she couldn't use deadly force. Four long hours she spent squinting through her scope until the idiot finally gave up and could be taken into custody.
Chris enjoyed her shower after that and looked forward to a relaxing evening. Her muscles were incredibly sore from the sheer concentration of keeping her rifle steady and her concentration high and she knew she wouldn't last long tonight. She was almost dead on her feet.
When she arrives at Luca's and Street's place there are no other cars in the drive and she figures everyone is taking some alone time before they show up, but when Street opens the door she realizes relatively quickly the plan is a different one. There is only enough take-out for two, and not even Luca is in the house.
Chris figures it's nothing bad, they had hung out alone before too and maybe he needed just someone to talk to. She could do that.
He always had been her sounding board so it probably was time to give back.
They chat about nonsensical stuff over their dinner before moving to the couch and deciding on a movie.
"You just had to pick that franchise..." Chris laughs at his pick of Fast and Furious. "Hey, fast and expensive cars... you know me!" he shoots back with a wink before flopping down close to her.
Chris is not particularly interested in the movie and with time she feels the strain of the day take over and she lets herself lean against him, closing her eyes.
She feels him shift his arm slightly and makes herself comfortable against his side, resting her head on his shoulder. She revels in being this close to him, inhaling his scent and feeling safe and at home.
The distinct mixture of his shower gel, aftershave and just something that is him makes her mind dream up a perfect fairytale and without thinking she turns and grazes her lips over his neck.