Ripcord's eyes wandered out of the open window and into the
beautiful Hawaii morning. Not even the buildings of the cityscape
seemed to take away from the natural sights. The blue sky, with
the occasional patchy cloud. The lush green mountains in the
distance. The warm tropical air that was surprisingly devoid of
humidity. He was so preoccupied with the scenery that he barely
noticed the sound of a door opening somewhere behind him. After a
long moment the silence of the hotel room subsided as a voice
called from just beside him.
"Lucked out with the view, huh?" The voice was
Covergirl's. It couldn't have been anything better that had
interrupted his moment of silent serenity.
"Sure did." He responded simply with a slow nod of his
head. After taking a last moment to soak in the view he turned
towards her, a warm smile playing over his face. He took a moment
to look over her, standing in only a white robe, her damp
strawberry blonde hair cascading off of her shoulders. He let his
smile grow a little wider, she could look great in anything.
After letting his gaze linger on her for a moment longer, he
spoke up. "We'd better get going, we don't want to waste an
opportunity."
"An opportunity?" She asked, her bright blue eyes
staring a curious glance back at his.
"Yeah, we're on an island that's supposed to have some of
the most beautiful beaches in the world." He said as he
gently placed his hands on her hips.
"It does." She nodded back, throwing her arms over his
shoulders and around his neck. "Has some great hiking too,
if you're up for it. Waterfalls, volcanoes..." She trailed
off, stepping even closer to him before continuing in a soft
voice. "And you know what the best part is?" Without
responding he immediately leaned his face closer to hers, causing
their parted lips to meet, lasting for a long moment before he
slowly leaned his face away.
"It'll be just us." He said, his voice barely audible.
"It'll be just us." She repeated in an equally
whispered voice, as she offered a slow nod.
A dull ping sounded as the metal doors of the elevator slid back,
revealing the lobby of the hotel. Ripcord and Covergirl both
turned their heads towards the other, flashing a shared smile as
they stepped clear of the elevator. Almost immediately their
looks of joy changed to visages of frustration.
"Hey! Where you guys off to?" Came a shouted greeting
as Fastdraw approached the two, wearing a gaudy flowered shirt
with three multicolored leis dangling from his neck. The comment
immediately caused Covergirl to let out a heavy sigh before
casting her eyes skyward.
"To the beach." Ripcord stated flatly in a grumbled
tone while looking at the younger soldier through narrowed eyes.
"Oh good." Fast Draw said, stopping to wave hello to
young brunette in a bikini top and a pair of shorts that walked
by. As soon as the girl had passed Fast Draw looked back to his
two teammates "It'll get us out of the hotel for a while. If
they look that good here I'll bet they're mind boggling on the
beach."
"Us?" Covergirl asked in a contemptuous voice as she
swung her own set of narrowed eyes at Fast Draw.
"Yeah." Fast Draw stated with a grin on his face.
"The three of us." The soldier then shot a wink at her
before continuing. "Of course we can dump Skyboy and his
fragile arm off at the lifeguard shack so me and you can get some
quality time in." The comment immediately caused Ripcord to
grit his teeth and clench his fists into white knuckled balls.
"Obnoxious..." Covergirl trailed off, catching sight of
Ripcord's bottled anger and shooting a quick worried glance at
the paratrooper. Just as quickly she dropped her gaze to the
floor and shook her head. "Just drop it, Hotshot."
Anything that was be said next was cut off as Zap and Heavy Metal
emerged from the restaurant in the hotel and approached the trio.
"Good morning amigos, what's up?" Zap asked as he
tossed a mango up and down that he'd carried off from his
breakfast.
"We're headed to the beach." Fast Draw stated
matter-of-factly with a shrug. "You guys wanna tag along
too?"
"Sure." Zap said with a nod in a cheery voice.
"Might be the last chance to be on a beach without
assaulting it." Despite the light-hearted intent of the
comment, Heavy Metal visibly paled somewhat at the reference to
combat.
"Cool." Fast Draw responded, ignoring the worries of
the former finance geek. "Wanna find Dad and the Statue too?
Turn this into a real Rogue outing?" Fast Draw asked as his
threw his arms over the shoulders of Ripcord and Zap. Fast Draw's
comment immediately caused Ripcord and Covergirl to exchange a
pained glance. So much for their plans.
Ripcord stared calmly out into the horizon, his eyes focused on
the point where the sky melted into the sea. Despite the sun
beating down on his bare arms and legs, combined with the sound
of the people on the beach, it was still relaxing. The cool
Pacific breeze. The sound of the waves crashing against the
shore. The water rushing over his legs where he was seated just
inside the tide's lines. All of it served to relax him. To keep
his mind off of what he'd done and what he would most likely have
to do in the future. His mind broke from his wandering for a
moment to take stock of his team. He'd noticed it'd become habit
that had developed at some point after the Brazil mission. After
a quick moment of searching he'd found the partially submerged
form of Heavy Metal then Zap further out in the water. Zap seemed
to be swimming around in wide laps while Heavy Metal just was
wading around in the surf. His gaze then shifted on shore, to
Repeater leaned back on a chair in the shadow of a life guard
shack, peering out from under sunglasses and an olive drab
'boonie' hat, apparently watching the various people on the sandy
beach. A little further away was Hotseat, sitting in a similar
chair, thumbing through a copy of 'Time' that had Hector Ramirez
on the cover. Off near the paratrooper's own things was the prone
form of Covergirl, laying down in a blue floral printed bikini,
taking the opportunity to sun bathe. Then of course there was
Fast Draw, in the middle of a very animated conversation with a
young islander girl, proudly displaying his bare chest with his
ID tags dangling from his neck and the bandages that wrapped
around his damaged shoulder. Ripcord had to grin as football came
out of nowhere and connected with the gut of the younger soldier.
As soon as Fast Draw had realized what happened, he began to look
around almost furiously at the beach around him, searching for
the thrower. Within seconds a sizable man in a gray t-shirt that
had 'NAVY' printed in black across the chest jogged up to Fast
Draw. The sailor motioned for the football back. As usual Fast
Draw didn't want to cooperate. He saw his teammate start to have
a heated exchange with the sailor. "Shit." Ripcord
grumbled out in a disappointed voice as he shook his head. Fast
Draw may not have been the top person on a list of Ripcord's
friends but the younger soldier was still his responsibility.
Ripcord slowly rose to his feet, taking a moment to attempt to
shake some of the wet sand from his gray board shorts and the
tail of his sleeveless airborne t-shirt as made his way over to
the near dueling servicemen. As the paratrooper neared the two
the corner of his eyes caught sight of the big machine gunner
also making his way towards the dispute, with Hotseat dropping
the magazine into his lap to watch the potentially dangerous
situation. "What seems to be the problem here?" Ripcord
said, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible.
"Your friend here is bein' a dick, grunt." The sailor
said, spitting out the word 'grunt' like as if it was physically
difficult to say.
"First off, he's not my friend." Ripcord stated flatly.
"But if anyone's gonna kick his ass it's gonna be me."
"What? So you and Frankenstein there are gonna take
me?" The sailor said with a grin. "I hope you know I
got six other guys here with me."
"No." Ripcord responded simply. "I doubt any of us
are looking forward to spending a night in lock-up." Before
anyone else could speak up, a thought came into the paratrooper's
head, causing him to continue. "I've got a better idea on
how to settle this. You and your buddies like football, huh?
How's about a little seven on seven?"
"You're on grunt." The sailor forcefully spat out as he
jabbed a finger in Ripcord's direction.
Fourteen to Seven. Up by seven. The sailors were pretty much on
the goal line. Them scoring wouldn't win the game, just tie it
up. Ripcord wouldn't allow them to tie with his team.
"Hut!" Came the barked call from the sailors'
quarterback. The six people that compromised the respective lines
rushed forward, clashing on the line of scrimmage. Heavy Metal
and Covergirl immediately flared out, following the opposing
receivers. He watched as Zap rushed into the central melee,
attempting to get to the quarterback. Ripcord kept his eyes on
the ball at all costs. The quarterback dropped back, searching
for a receiver. The man's arm shot forward in an arc similar to a
throw. But the ball didn't leave his hand. The former high school
linebacker watched the quarterback spin, handing the ball to the
fullback. The large sailor immediately shot towards the hole open
hole between Repeater and Hotseat. A grim smile crossed Ripcord's
lips. Right where he wanted him. The paratrooper rushed forward,
watching as the fullback leapt upwards in an attempt to clear the
chaos of the line. Ripcord quickly threw his good arm up. The
clothesline like move caught the sailor in the gut midair.
Ripcord quickly shifted his weight into the blow, throwing the
man back behind the line of scrimmage. The small crowd that their
game had drawn let out a loud, collective cringe as Ripcord
watched the sailor fall onto his back. As the man's body sent up
a thin cloud of sand the paratrooper noticed that he didn't have
the ball in his hands.
"Fumble!" Ripcord shouted as he quickly spun to search
the ground for the ball. He immediately caught sight of Zap,
clutching the ball to his chest. The Hispanic soldier shot out in
a wide hook to avoid the line before he turned up field, causing
the players to stop mid-stride, reversing their directions to
pursue ball-carrier. Ripcord tried to stay hot the heels of his
friend as the they kicked up sand in their wake. One of the
smaller sailors shot ahead of Ripcord, but the runner didn't move
fast enough. Ripcord quickly leapt forward, his body tackle
catching the smaller man full in the back. The two violently
tumbled to the ground below. Ripcord quickly used his momentum to
roll to his feet, flinging even more sand into the air as he
went, taking off as soon as he was upright. Despite the few
heartbeats length of the maneuver, it wasn't fast enough. Two
more sailors had appeared between him and the ball, one of which
was dangerously close to Zap. He wasn't going to make it. However
Ripcord saw his team's saving gracing in the form of Covergirl
about three meters off to Zap's right. "Lateral!"
Ripcord shouted. Immediately Zap haphazardly tossed the ball to
his right, a heartbeat before he was taken to the ground but one
of the sailors. The ball made a lazy flight through the air
before being hauled in by Covergirl. Damn. The second sailor was
right behind the female tanker. He saw the man hesitate, almost
unsure of how to tackle the woman. However any doubts were swept
away after she raked one of her arms back in a stiff-arm,
catching the sailor full in the neck. The man collapsed to the
ground hacking as Covergirl sprinted the remaining distance to
the end zone. As she crossed over the line that was shallowly dug
in the sand a cheer erupted from the spectators.
"Yeah!" She cried as she forcefully spiked the ball
into the sand.
"Oh, I'm sorry." Fast Draw called out as he lifted a
foot up and stared quizzically at the sand under it. "Was
that your pride?"
"Told you winning was overrated!" Covergirl called out
as she jubilantly high fived Ripcord as he joined her in the end
zone. "Crushing is the fun part!" She finished, raising
laughter from the paratrooper.
"This is bullshit!" One of the sailors cried out,
raising a wave of nods from his teammates. "You grunts
aren't playing fair!"
"Accept it son," Hotseat started, taking a moment a to
catch his breath before a disgusted look washed over his face.
"You suck." The older tanker's comment caused the
soldiers to look at each other in surprise just before they
exploded in a fit of laughter.
"Screw you guys! We're outta here." The same sailor
yelled out in frustration.
"If you insist." Fast Draw said with a melodramatic
show of disappointment. "Oh, don't forgot to pick up your
balls, er, ball from Courtney before you leave." The comment
immediately caused Covergirl to grin sheepishly, holding out the
football by it's tip with one hand and twirling her hair with the
other. The very un-Covergirl-like act sent the team into another
fit of laughter.
"Better luck next time boys." Covergirl said in an
airheady voice as one of the sailors forcefully grabbed the ball
from her hand. The sailors then continued to either sulk or storm
off of the field, with one of the more calm ones coming to a stop
near Covergirl.
"You played great out there." He praised with a smile
playing across his boyish face. "Could I maybe buy you
dinner sometime?"
"Sure." Covergirl responded, bring a brightness to the
young sailor's face. "When Satan calls to tell me Hell's
frozen over." With that said, the sailor's looked darkened
before he turned and continued to sulk off of the 'field'. With
the game over the small crowd of spectators dispersed while the
team came together.
"Nice work people." Hotseat said with a nod.
"Nice work? We kicked their ass!" Fast Draw quipped.
The group continued to buzz with jubilance until an athletic
looking middle aged brunette took a few steps towards the group,
a pair of big brown eyes staring shakily at Repeater.
"J...Jeff?" The woman hesitantly called out. "It's
me...Diana." The big Ranger instantly turned paler than any
of the others had ever seen him, his body shaking. The team
quizzically shot glances between the two, shocked at how bad an
unassuming woman had shaken Repeater. Without warning, the big
machine gunner turned and stalked off, his troubles still easily
seen on his worry-ridden face. "Jeff, I'm sorry I
didn't..." The woman trailed off, holding an arm up as if to
stop the veteran soldier.
"How do you know Jeff?" Covergirl asked in a cold tone
as she stared at the woman through narrowed eyes.
"I...I knew him from China Beach." Diana spoke in a
shaky voice.
"Holy shit." Fast Draw stated in disbelief. "You
knew the Big Man in 'Nam?" He asked, getting a nod from
Diana in return.
"Whoa." Was the biggest sentence Zap was able to
muster.
"Well he obviously he doesn't want anything to do with
you." Covergirl said as she crossed her arms.
"I've noticed." Diana responded in a defeated tone.
"He's been that way ever since he'd come back from his last
tour." Covergirl didn't seem to care to hear and opened her
mouth to say something but was stopped as Ripcord held up a hand
to stall her comment.
"What do you mean? What happened on his last tour?"
Ripcord asked Diana with a confused look on his face. Diana let
out a heavy sigh before she reluctantly pressed on through a
story she obviously didn't want to have to tell.
"In Jeff's first tour he'd lost several friends, at the end
of the tour he'd decided that maybe if he stayed in country he
could save some poor kid from dying. But then it happened
again....and again. Then about halfway through his fourth tour
his squad had been sent out to recon the perimeter of the
firebase. They were ambushed, and when the smoke cleared he was
the only one left alive. He'd suffered a hit to one of his
kidneys and was med-evaced. His body recovered but he didn't. The
shrinks said it'd pushed him over the edge with grief. He'd even
forgotten he'd been hit." As she finished her short recount
of Repeater's past, she brought a hand up to catch a single tear
that started to slide down the side of her face. For long moment
the team stood in silence, not even the sounds of other people
enjoying the beach seemed to break their shock and horror at the
events that made up their teammate's past. When the almost
whispered voice of Covergirl sounded out it almost sounded
thunderous.
"The nightmares..." The female tanker trailed off as
she stared at the point where Repeater had stalked off. "So
that's why he's so..."
"Yeah." Diana responded in a quiet voice, casting her
eyes down at the sand before closing them tightly. "One day
he actually worked up the courage to send me a letter. He said
that he didn't want me to be around him. He said everyone he'd
ever gotten close to had died and that he cared about me too much
to risk getting close."
"Then maybe you should just leave him alone." Covergirl
spoke, her tone far less harsh with the woman than it'd been
earlier.
"I...I can't." She responded sheepishly as she shook
her hung head.
"Look," Cover started, proceeding in a careful voice.
"I'm trying to be nice about this. If he wants to see you he
will. Obviously he's been through enough, without something or
someone reminding him."
"Jus...Just let him know I'm here if he wants to talk. He
can find me in the directory for Fort Shafter." Diana stated
as she slowly raised her head, wiping away another tear before
she nodded a silent goodbye to the group and walked swiftly away.
The departure of the woman left the group silent until Covergirl
spoke up, turning her now less defensive eyes towards her team.
"I knew it had to be something with Vietnam..." She
trailed off before she slowly shook her head. "I just didn't
know it was that bad."
"That was awful." Ripcord seconded with a nod.
"Amen." Zap stated in a reverent tone.
"Poor guy." Covergirl said with another shake of her
head before swinging her eyes to Ripcord, searching his eyes for
something. Her eyes looked pleading, as if she needed
reassurance. The paratrooper didn't have any to offer.
The two soldiers collapsed on to the double bed as soon as they
had entered the hotel room. After a moment of staring up at the
white ceiling, Ripcord looked over to the figure of Covergirl
beside him. She rubbed the back of one of her hands over her
eyes, letting out a yawn before she leaned her head on his
shoulder.
"Long day." She muttered lazily.
"Longer night." He responded as his placed a quick kiss
on her forehead before giving a sigh of his own. The comment
sparked a quizzical look from Covergirl, which in turn gave rise
to a small laugh from him. "Roasted pig. Fire dancers. Hula
girls. Poi. Any of this ringing a bell?"
"The Luau." Covergirl said with a defeated sigh as she
let her head fall back on the bedcovers. "I don't know
Wally..." She trailed off, putting a slightly whiney tone in
her voice. The voice raised a small chuckle from Ripcord as he
rolled over, staying on his hands and knees as he straddled
Covergirl. He leaned his head down towards her face, their lips
meeting in a loving kiss that allow them to forget everything for
that long moment.
"Trust me, I'd much rather prefer to stay here for the other
five days." Ripcord said just after their lips had broken
apart. "But Hotseat wouldn't stand for it."
"I know." Covergirl sighed out before shooting a
worried glance up into his eyes. "Has he said anything to
you?"
"No, but he's not naive. None of them are. Chances are they
just think that we're professional enough to keep our heads clear
when it counts." He stated matter of factly.
"I hope so." She responded in a whispered voice as she
moved a hand up and began to run it through his close-cropped red
hair. The two just shared the calm moment of just having the
other near before Covergirl's eyes flashed a pain of some sort.
"I can't stop thinking about Thieran."
"Yeah." He responded with a nod before a chill went
down his spine, causing him to push away from her, and move to a
sitting position on the edge of the bed. "Neither can I. I
mean it explains a lot but that ain't no way to have to
live." Almost as soon as he'd moved, she pulled herself onto
her knees, moving in behind him and hugging her arms around his
neck and shoulders.
"No, it's not. I just wish there was something we could do
or say." She said in a concerned tone.
"I know." Ripcord stated before continuing with a
shrug. "I do too but we'd have to find him first."
"A near seven foot skulking man on a Hawaiian Island?"
She responded with a slight laugh. "I'm thinking a Don Ho
concert." She joked, raising a small laugh from the
paratrooper.
"Yeah, but I'm not worried. He can take care of himself.
Chances are he just wants to be alone right now." Ripcord
said with a slight shrug.
"Probably." Covergirl said with a nod just before
another peaceful silence fell between the two. After a long
moment had passed, she leaned forward and whispered into his ear.
"Thanks for stay with me, I didn't want to be alone."
She spoke softly before smiling as she continued. "I'd
forgotten about the Luau."
"You're welcome." Ripcord whispered back as he gave one
of her forearms a reassuring squeeze while he turned his head,
planting a peck on her cheek. "Besides," He started
with a smile. "I kinda had to stay. Zap just isn't as
attractive."
