Ripcord finally reached down and slowly turned the knobs of
the shower, reluctantly killing the jet of hot water that had
been running over him. He slowly stepped from the shower,
grabbing a towel off of a small metal rack as he headed for the
bathroom's sink. He quickly ran the towel over his body as he
stepped in front of the large mirror just above the counter top,
his eyes taking in the details of his war-weary body. His chest
still looked like hell. The sight of the deep blue and black
marks on his flesh caused an unintentional wince to cross the
face of the paratrooper. As if that wasn't enough, there was the
plastic and gauze that covered his left forearm. Ripcord didn't
want to do what he had to do next. He had to check the damage.
Ripcord carefully removed the plastic covering from the limb and
set it aside while he picked up a pair of scissors from the
counter top. Working very carefully he cut the bandages free,
causing the soldier to wince as the bandages fell away and his
forearm came into view. The mangled flesh had scabbed over and
was even starting to fade to scar tissue in some places, but the
sight was still gruesome enough to send a shutter through him.
Ripcord quickly coated the destroyed skin in an anti-bacterial
cream before rewrapping it in several layers of fresh gauze. As
soon as he gauze was taped shut, he quickly placed the plastic
covering back over the bandages as he tried to push the image of
his damaged arm out of his head. He then scooped up his towel off
of the counter top and wrapped it around his waist just before he
reached for the door handle. Much to his surprise, the door swung
open before his hand was anywhere near the knob. The door swung
open to reveal Covergirl standing speechless in the doorway, clad
only in a sports bra and panties, holding her shorts and a
sweatshirt in one hand. Both soldiers froze as soon as their eyes
fell on the other, both just standing wordlessly on opposite
sides of the door frame. Ripcord let his eyes scan over
Covergirl's body before for a quick moment before adverting his
eyes. The female soldier did the same in addition to raising her
sweater to cover herself as best as she could.
"Sorry, I thought... I didn't know anyone..." Covergirl
stumbled through her incomplete string of short sentences.
"No, I was just leaving..." Ripcord responded quickly
before he unintentionally trailed off. After another short moment
had passed in silence, Covergirl broke it with a short laugh,
which brought a small smile and a slight blush to her face.
"Well, this is awkward..." She started before shifting
her eyes back towards him, swinging them down towards his chest.
"Jeez, Wally, your ribs look like sh...look terrible."
Her comment caused Ripcord to throw a quick glance down at his
own chest before he shifted his gaze back towards her.
"It's fine. They're still sore but they're healing
fast." He responded with a slow shrug of his shoulders.
"Good." She responded with a nod as she diverted her
eyes away from his battered chest. "I was just going to take
a quick shower, if it's okay."
"Oh..." Ripcord said with a shake of his head, suddenly
realizing for the first time that he was in her way. "Yeah,
be my guest." Almost immediately both of the two moved
forward at the same time, bumping lightly into each other,
causing them both to smile and shake their heads.
"Sorry." he said again as he moved aside, allowing her
to enter the small bathroom. With a glance at Covergirl, he
quickly slipped out of the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind
him.
Ripcord stepped into the sizable kitchen of his family's house,
drawn in by the smell of eggs and bacon. As he stepped in he saw
Kitty setting a bowl of scrambled eggs and plate of bacon down on
the small table in the back of the kitchen. The soldier took in
all the details he could, images of home were the one thing that
could never be taken from him. The aroma of the simple, home
cooked breakfast. The sight of the hazy, mid-morning sunlight
filtering in the through the small windows of the room. His
sister setting the table, the light playing over her dull white
dress and the bright red hair that cascaded down her shoulders
and back. He let each small detail assault his senses, hoping
that they could block out the disturbing scenes of battle that
had embedded into his mind. He was broken free from his thoughts
as his sister turned, the sunlight reflecting in her bright green
eyes and on the gold cross around her neck.
"Well," She said with a warm smile, "Are you gonna
eat or just stand there all morning?"
"Yeah, I can eat." Ripcord said as he returned his
smile and headed for the table.
"You get a chance to say goodbye to Mom before she
left?" Kitty asked as she filled a plate for her brother.
"Yeah, I did." Ripcord responded as he took the plate
from his sister and slid into one of the four seats. As he and
sister began to dig into their breakfasts, she spoke again.
"You two make quite the couple. You guys really care for
each other don't you?" Kitty asked, keeping her eyes down at
the plate in front of her.
"I don't just like her Kitty. I don't just care for her. I
love her. I've never felt this way about anyone. I'd die for her.
She's what keeps me going." He responded as he stared out of
one of the small windows and out into the cloudless sky.
"I can tell." She responded with a nod of her head as
she offered a warm smile to her brother. "Besides, it's
about time you felt that way, it comes off too freaky if just
she's obsessed."
"This is another Anna joke isn't it?" He said with a
roll of his eyes.
"You know it." Kitty returned with a grin. Ripcord
shook his head at the comment before he caught sight of movement
in the corner of his eye. He shot a glance over to the doorway as
Covergirl stepped into the kitchen, nodding to the two siblings.
Ripcord's face immediately lit up as she entered the room,
finding instant comfort in her warm blue eyes. She came to stop
in front of a section of the counter that had a coffee maker
situated on it. As she went about pouring herself a cup of
coffee, she turned her head towards the table, her strawberry
blonde hair slowly swinging with her motion.
"What time did you want to head back today, Wally?" She
asked, flashing another warm smile.
"Later this afternoon." He responded, offering his own
smile in return. After a brief moment the warm smile widened into
a grin. "Something we gotta take of first."
"Should I even ask?" Covergirl responded after a
quizzical glance.
"I wouldn't tell you anyways." He said with grin before
sliding back one of the two open chairs at the table.
"Hungry?"
"Nah, coffee's good." She stated with a shake of her
head as crossed over to the table and sat down in the offered
chair.
"Suit yourself." Ripcord said with a shrug. After
taking a short moment to look over the details of her face, he
shifted his gaze to his sister and began to grin. "I'd tell
you that the food is good but I wouldn't want to make that big of
lie."
"Oh shut up Wally." Kitty retorted, "My cooking is
not that bad."
"Yes it is." He responded with a false flatness to his
statement. "You're just in denial."
"Fine," She started in a playful tone. "See if I
ever cook for you again."
"No big loss there." Ripcord said with a grin and a
shrug.
"It's great how you both get a long." Covergirl said as
she took another sip of coffee before a smile crossed her face.
"I'm really glad I got to meet you Kitty. And judging from
yesterday, I don't think your cooking's that bad."
"Thank you." Kitty responded with a nod of her head.
"Don't believe her," Ripcord started in a playful tone.
"See how she's not eating now? She's just tryin' to let you
down easy Kitty."
"Oh shut up Wally." Kitty shot back with a shake of her
head as she stood. She quickly carried her empty plate over to
the sink before crossing back over to the table. She stepped in
behind her brother, wrapping her lightly around his neck and
chest in hug. "Well I really have to go, but it was great
having you here. Even if it was just a day." She said as she
planted a quick kiss on his cheek.
"Thanks Sis," He responded as he gave her forearms a
reassuring squeeze. "Great seeing you again too. I'll drop
in when ever I get the chance to, same as always."
"Yeah," she said as she reluctantly broke her hug away
before heading towards the door of the kitchen. "Bye
Wally."
"See ya Kitty, stay outta trouble." He called out,
getting a nod and a final look from his sister before she
disappeared thought the doorway. Ripcord stared at the doorway
for moment before Covergirl's voice brought him back to reality.
"Your sister's great." She said, flashing a warm smile.
"Must run in the family."
"Yeah," He responded with a smile as he closed his eyes
and shook his head for a brief moment. "A regular Superman
and Supergirl."
"I'll say." She said with a nod of her head. "For
what it's worth, I'm glad you brought me. I was a little nervous
about it at first, but they really are good people."
"Yeah. Yeah, they are." Ripcord said in a slow sentence
as he looked back at her, a bit of depression showing in his
eyes.
"You okay?" She asked as she placed one of her hands
over one of his.
"Just gonna be hard, going back after this week." He
said after a heavy exhale.
"I know..." She trailed off, dropping her eyes. After a
brief moment, she seemed to perk up again. "But we still
have seven days in Hawaii and I can't think of anyone who I'd
rather spend them with."
"I feel the same way." He responded as he reached over
and ran one of his hands down her cheek, taking caution not to
touch the butterfly stitch on her temple. He let his hand linger
on the side of her face as he continued after a long moment.
"I just worry at times." He stated in a worried tone.
"Each time I pull that trigger out there I feel further away
from who I was..." his voice trailed off for a moment before
he reluctantly continued. "And the scary part is that it
keeps getting easier."
"I won't let you slip too far." She returned as she
offered a brave smile and moved her hand towards her face,
resting it on top of his hand. "I promise."
"Thanks Courtney." Ripcord said with an uncertain
smile.
"I don't make promises I can't keep, Wally." She stated
before changing her tone to a more light hearted one.
"Besides, like I said, we have eight more days off, and I
believe, Wallace Andrew Weems, you owe me a date."
Ripcord let a huge grin creep across his face as he finally
pulled to a stop off to the size of the squat metal hangar. He
slowly opened the door of Stingray and stepped onto the tarmac as
his eyes took in the sights of an environment almost as familiar
as home. Icarus Skydiving. He saw several people milling about
through the massive open doors of the hangar, which was partially
taken up by a C-47. The C-47 was painted in the same olive drab
color scheme common to World War II era Skytrains, with the
notable except being the winged 'I' emblazoned on to the vertical
tail stabilizer of the aircraft. The old airframe had its engines
half-way dissembled, apparently it was due for an overhaul.
Parked off to the opposite side of the hangar was another C-47
twin engine plane, this one painted in yellow with red stripes
running the length of the airframe, the same winged 'I' clearly
seen on the same spot of the aircraft. Ripcord gave himself a
brief mental shake to bring himself back to reality before he
crossed over to the passenger side of the bright red Corvette. He
took another moment to grin at the sight of Covergirl anxiously
sitting in the passenger seat, her eyes hidden by a bandana that
had be used as a make-shift blindfold. He let out a small
chuckle, hardly believing he'd actually managed to get her to
keep the blindfold on from the drive between his house and the
airport. He reached down and opened the fiberglass door, before
reaching down and taking a hold on her hand. He carefully guided
Covergirl out of the bucket seat and helped her steady herself to
stand on the dry tarmac.
"All of your dates start out like this?" She asked as a
faint smile crossed her face.
"Nope, just this one." He said in a playful voice as he
slowly moved in behind her and removed the blindfold.
"So you weren't kidding..." Her voice trailed off as
the already faint smile completely disappeared. Her eyes took in
the sights of the area around her for a long moment before she
managed to muster another half smile. "You know there's
something wrong about throwing yourself form a flying aircraft,
right?"
"Says who?" Ripcord retorted playfully as the grin on
his face broadened.
"I'm starting to wish you were the take-a-date-to-a-diner
type." She said with a slight shake of her head. "At
least it won't be twenty thousand feet."
"Twenty eight thousand actually." The paratrooper
stated flatly with another grin. "On such short notice the
only flight I could work us in on was with a group of more
serious skydivers."
"Like back in England?" She said in a small voice as a
look almost resembling terror crossed her face.
"At least it'll be daylight and everything will be over once
we touch down." He said as he gave her shoulder a reassuring
squeeze. Before anything else could be said between the two, a
flash of movement caught the corner of Ripcord's vision. He
panned his gaze over to see the approaching form of a short,
older man dressed in an unmarked military issue flight suit.
"Chuck!" Ripcord called out as he saw the man's
grizzled face and neatly trimmed gray moustache.
"Wally!" The slightly overweight man said as the two
paratroopers each slapped one of their hands together, putting
the other's in a white knuckled grip. Strain started to show on
each of their faces, almost turning to pain before their clamp on
the other was broken and they each let out a laugh. "How the
hell have ya been boy?" The older jumper asked with a large
smile still dominate on his features.
"Good, I've been good." Ripcord responded with a smile
and a nod.
"Whoa," Chuck said with a low whistle as he finally
caught sight of Covergirl. "Your taste has improved I
see."
"Chuck, this is Courtney. Courtney, this is Chuck." The
younger paratrooper said with a slight laugh as he shook his
head. He watched Covergirl offer a nod and the same half hearted
smiled during the introductions before he continued. "Chuck
here is the guy who taught me how to jump. He's also the one who
sparked my interest in the Army. Hell, I wouldn't be who I was
toady if not for him."
"Nah, I just offered you a little guidance." Chuck
responded with a slow shake of his head. "You wouldn't be
one of my best success stories if you didn't have the natural
skill and down-right craziness that you do."
"I can vouch for that." Covergirl added with her first
full smile since they'd reached the airport.
"What? The down-right craziness he has?" Chuck asked
rhetorically before continuing with a laugh. "Hell little
lady, everybody can vouch for that."
"Okay Chuck, how much longer we got till the jump?"
Ripcord asked through his laughter.
"Well, as you know the C-47s can't go that high so we gotta
wait on the C-123. It's inbound and due back shortly." Chuck
let a wide grin cross his face before he continued. "You and
her goin' tandem or should I break out some gear for her?"
"Yeah, she'll need some gear." Ripcord responded,
shaking his head at the comment.
"Okay..." Chuck trailed off as he looked over
Covergirl. "She looks about the same size as Jennifer and
she's gonna be buried in paperwork all morning, so I'll round up
her equipment. I'll have it sitting in the hangar in a few."
Ripcord nodded as his mentor turned and headed back in the
direction of the squat metal structure.
"Check all seals on the suit, mask and goggles locked and
tight, otherwise I'll freeze quick. Chute timed, grace period,
call out when chute pops..." Covergirl trailed off with a
heavy sigh.
"Nope, not this time." Ripcord responded with a grin.
"We're not in a hurry and you're not a first time jumper
anymore. You're operating the chute by yourself this go
round." He gave her another reassuring squeeze of her
shoulder before he continued. "Welcome to the real world of
freefall."
"I didn't sign on as a jumper, Skyboy..." She trailed
off with a shake of her head but with a smile on her face. As she
glanced up she was him flash her a warm smile, causing her to
offer a thumbs up. "I'll do fine." Ripcord only nodded
at the comment, still wearing his warm smile.
Ripcord took another look around the dull gray metal of the
C-123's cargo cabin. In front of him were two columns of four
people, all dressed in thick insulated jumpsuits of various
colors. Only the sounds of the aircraft's prop driven engines and
the noise of his slow deep breaths inside his oxygen mask were
able to be heard. He slowly shifted his gaze off of his side,
seeing a familiar figure dressed in a black jumpsuit with yellow
lightning bolts streaking across the material, additionally a
matching parachute and helmet were worn. It was Jennifer's gear.
Ripcord smiled under his oxygen mask as the memories of the
middle aged woman he'd learned to jump with came into his mind.
However, the thoughts were shook free as he saw that the usual
confident brown eyes behind the plastic of the goggles weren't
there. In there place were an equally familiar set of blue eyes
that darted around the cabin nervously. Ripcord broke from his
position and stepped over to Covergirl, giving her gloved hand a
reassuring squeeze to catch her attention. As the female soldier
shifted her eyes to meet the paratrooper's, he offered a single
wink to her. He saw her give one of her hand signs. He recognized
it from before. What was it? Walk in the park. As the realization
of the sign hit him Ripcord gave another nod of his head and gave
Covergirl's hand another squeeze. Before he could do anything
else, a rush of chill air assaulted the inside of the aircraft,
causing Ripcord to look towards the back of the aircraft to see
blue sky beyond the slowly lowering ramp. He began to hum 'Paint
It Black' as he stepped back to his position in the opposite
line. He took up his position and waited in the line, still
calmly humming the tune as a klaxon sounded and the lights in the
cabin burned green. In a well practiced, two by two sequence the
multitude of jumpers ran off of the aircraft's loading ramp. As
the last two in the group, Ripcord and Covergirl's turn finally
came but unlike those before them while running towards the ramp
the paratrooper suddenly shot his hand to her arm just before the
two leapt from the ramp. As the feeling of freefall over took the
duo, Ripcord immediately shifted himself into a good jumping
position, followed shortly by Covergirl shifting into a mimicked
position. As the two continued their descent the paratrooper
slowly let go of Covergirl's arm and began to move his hands over
her body, shifting her figure into the optimal freefall position.
As soon as she seemed used to the standard fall position, he
showed her how to slow down and speed up her fall. As they
continued to fall he used hand motions to instruct her go the
various positions, having her fine tune her movements through the
air. After a time that seemed all too short for the soldier's
tastes, he began to see parachutes appear below him. He quickly
guided himself over to tap Covergirl on the shoulder before
pointing to a handle on her harness. Almost immediately Covergirl
pulled the cord and was jerked upwards with the unfolding chute.
Inversely, Ripcord kept falling. He glanced quickly at the
altimeter on his wrist ticked down before focusing on the other
skydivers disappearing above him. Finally after fall just a
little longer than the others, he grinned as the parachute lazily
deployed while the ground still rushed swiftly up to meet him.
Mere seconds before he hit the ground, the silk of the black
parachute fully deployed and slowed his decent to safe levels. He
landed perfectly on his feet without a sound, removing his
goggles as he grinned to look up at the still falling chutes. He
quickly rolled up his chute and stripped out of the thick olive
drab jumpsuit before folding the equipment in a neat pile on the
soft grass on the field. Dressed only in the military issue
flight suit he'd worn under the jumpsuit, he plopped down on his
equipment. After a cursory glance at the edge of the field to
reveal an approaching truck, he focused his eyes skyward, wearing
a grin as the first of the other skydivers started to touch the
ground. "Amateurs." He muttered under his breath as the
others went about collecting their gear. With a finally small
chuckle, he focused his eyes on the from of Covergirl approaching
his position.
"So that's what a first date with Superman is like?"
She asked with a smirk.
"Well I'd offer you a romantic dinner too but we just don't
have the time." Ripcord playfully retorted.
"It couldn't top this, anyway." She said with a single,
satisfied nod. "But you're right. Long drive we should get
going."
"Yeah." Ripcord stated as he began to gather his gear
up. "And you're half way there by the way." He stated
cryptically
"Half way?" She asked in a dumbfounded voice.
"Two more jumps and you'll be airborne." He responded
with a wink.
