Newbie - Part 2
Disclaimer: Hasbro owns G.I. Joe. I don't. Please don't sue. I do own Cricket, however.
*****
Cricket, wandering around the base to see if she could begin to find her way around on her own, got to the gymnasium a few minutes early. She smiled inwardly; it had been a long and tiring day, but she finally felt like things were beginning to make sense.
She gave the gym the once-over. It looked relatively new, despite the frequent paint chips and scuff marks. It was lousy with exercise and traingin equipment. At the far end was a locked cabinet which contained swords, throwing stars, and a few other things Cricket couldn't identify at first glance. There were also a lot of mirrors strewn about. She walked up to one and bent close to it, checking to see if she had anything in her teeth. She didn't. She glanced over to the doors to see if anyone was coming. When they weren't, she flexed her arms to see how they were coming along.
Naturally, by the time Scarlett came into the room, dressed in sweats, Cricket had gone into full-blown Hans-and-Franz-posing-for-the-mirror mode. She watched for a few seconds, then cleared her throat. Cricket jumped at the noise. "Oh. Um, hi. I didn't hear you come in."
"Sorry," said Scarlett, smiling. "Didn't mean to startle you." She put her bag against the wall. "I was asked to swing by and help out. The instructor's going to be a little late; he had something come up at the last minute he needed to take care of." She unlocked the cabinet at the far end of the room and pulled out her crossbow. "While we're waiting, can I see something?"
"Sure. Is that yours?"
"Yeah. Have you ever used one?"
"Once or twice." She took it from Scarlett, who hooked a target onto the far wall. "I never really got used to them." She went over to her quiver and noticed that the crossbow used a slightly different type of arrow than she normally did.
"Something wrong?" asked Scarlett.
"No, this just uses different arrows than I'm used to. Mine are longer, and won't fit in the notch correctly."
"No problem. Use these," Scarlett said, pulling some arrows out of the cabinet.
Cricket looked them over. Most of them had standard arrowheads. Some were blunted, some had specialized tips, and some were just plain bizzare. She notched one of the more normal-looking ones into the weapon and waited for Scarlett to get out of the way.
"Let me know when you're ready," said Scarlett.
Cricket lined up the sights to her liking, and fired. It hit the target a little to the right of center. She twiddled with the sight some more, and reloaded. This time it hit where she wanted. She kept reloading and firing until she ran out of arrows. It turned out some of the odder-looking heads contained things like dye, a rope line, or a net. One had a magnesium flare, which Scarlett had apparently put in the pile by accident.
Once they got their sight back, they looked at the target. Cricket had hit seventeen out of twenty dead center. She seemed irked by her performance.
"Hey, first time using a weapon, 85 percent isn't too bad."
"I guess so."
"So what are your thoughts?"
"Honestly? I'll learn it, but this isn't my first choice. It's heavier than my bow, takes a lot longer to load than I'd like, and I've never really been one for the Green-Arrow-Boxing-Glove type of trick arrows."
"Huh?"
"Sorry; I let my dork flag fly for a minute there."
"So you don't use any non-lethal arrows?"
"Fired correctly, any arrow can be non-lethal. Fired incorrectly," holding up the now-empty net arrow, "this could easily be lethal. Besides, in my experience, they take up a lot of room in a quiver and go off when they're not supposed to."
Scarlett couldn't help but remember the time the stink-bomb had gone off in her apartment. Flint wouldn't go near Lady Jaye for a week and a half. "That's true."
The door swung open behind them. Cricket tensed up considerably when she saw Snake Eyes enter the room, about as unarmed as he ever got. Almost instinctively, she looked for another exit, but Scarlett was standing in front of the other doors.
Snake held up his hands and signed at Cricket. "He's apologizing for his lateness and says he's not angry at you," Scarlett said. "Incidentally, he's full of shit."
Snake gave Scarlett some sign language that Cricket had no trouble deciphering.
Scarlett added, "But he'll behave. Right?" Snake nodded, then turned his attention fully to Cricket. Hearing about her battle with Firefly some months earlier, he'd been looking forward to this. Lunchtime only added to his anticipation. He crouched some, and motioned for her to come at him.
Cricket ran at him, giving Snake Eyes all kinds of warning as to which fist was going to try for him first, attempting to see how he would counter. He easily batted it away, and countered with an easily blocked left hook followed by an immediate sweep of his leg. She saw them both coming, and leaped backward, glancing his chin lightly with her right foot. This went on for a few minutes, until Snake Eyes backed up and signed at Cricket.
"He wants you to stop holding out on him," said Scarlett, "because he's done holding out on you."
The fight immediately went up about three notches. Cricket, it seemed to Scarlett, was a born street brawler. The same keen eye and quick refexes that had made her such an outstanding athlete was serving her well here. She'd taken her natural toughness and been trained to put a foe down quickly. But while she was very good, she simply wasn't in Snake Eyes' league. And despite what he had said, he was still not giving her everything he had.
They were only able to connect glancing blows for a while. Cricket was getting tired, however, and although she managed ring Snake Eyes' bell with a fairly solid blow to the head, he quickly recovered and pinned her down, sitting on her chest with a foot just under her chin.
He signed to Scarlett, who translated for him. "He's impressed, but you have a long way to go." He signed some more. "I'm not going to ask her that." More signing. "I mean it. That's between the two of you."
He sighed, then went into a small pocket on his sleeve, pulling out a small notepad. He retrieved a pencil from the same pocket, and wrote something down. He showed her the notepad, which said only one word: SHIPWRECK?
Cricket wanted to say that he should know better than to ask that. It was her first day on the G.I. Joe team, but it wasn't her first day in the army. She'd been around long enough to know that you didn't rat on someone in your unit under any circumstances. And furthermore, if Snake Eyes had any respect for her at all, he would know that, and leave it at that.
However, with about two hundred pounds on her chest, all she actually managed to get out was "Urk."
Snake looked at her long and hard. He knew that she wasn't going to say anything.
Finally, he got off her chest and offered her a hand. He helped her get up, then pointed to the clock, indicating that the hour was up. He turned to leave, when Cricket, wheezing, asked, "Sir?"
He wheeled around, putting three fingers on his upper right arm.
"Sorry. Sergeant." She coughed a little, then drew herself up to her full height. "Are... are we all right now?"
He stopped for a moment, seemingly thinking it over. Then he nodded. Finally, he turned around and left.
All the tension that had been building inside of Cricket flowed away.
*****
With that, Cricket was done for the day. Scarlett advised her to head over to the motor pool to catch up with Cover Girl, who would be on duty for an hour or so longer, but who would probably be able to get her into her room. Naturally, the motor pool was clear on the other side of the base, and somehow there was no one willing to carry her.
She trudged along, stopping briefly to rest by a flagpole. It almost didn't surprise her when she heard someone yell, "Hey, kid!" from somewhere above her.
She looked skyward. There, at the very top of the pole, was Shipwreck, hoisted by his belt loops, wriggling and squirming for all he was worth. Putting as normal a tone into his voice as he could from sixty feet int he air, he said, "Say, um, I don;t think I ever caught your name."
Squinting into the sun, she said, "I'm Cricket."
"Cricket. Hi. I'm Shipwreck."
"Yes, I know."
"Ah. So, listen, you wouldn't, by any chance, feel like getting me down from here or anything?"
"How did you get up there?" she asked, despite a very strong suspicion.
"Oh, you know how it is. You get someone, they get you. That sort of thing. Very innocent, really."
"I see." She looked at the pole. Attached to it was a note, written on a yellow sticky, which read, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LET THIS MAN DOWN. SNAKE.
"You know, I would, but as it happens I have to be somewhere. Good luck up there, though."
Defeated, he sighed, "Thanks. Um, if you see Snake, ask him if he's done being mad yet, will ya?"
*****
She entered the motor pool, which seemed empty except for a pair of boots sticking out from under a VAMP. She called out, "Hello? Anyone here?"
The man attached to the boots slid out from under the vehicle. He needed a shave pretty desperately. With a think New Jersey accent, he said, "Hey, doll. Didn't I see you here earlier?"
"Yeah. I was with Lady Jaye. I'm Cricket."
"Cricket, huh? I'm Clutch." He was grinning at her like an idiot. "So, speaking of nocturnal animals who make a lot of noise in the dark," he said winking, "Is there something I can help you with?"
Cricket groaned. This guy couldn't possibly be for real. "I'm looking for Cover Girl. Is she around?"
"She just stepped away for a minute. You know, we could probably kill some time while we wait for her. There's this corner around the back -"
"Uh, you know what? Thanks, but I think maybe I'll wait outside."
"If you want, we could always -"
*****
Duke and Cover Girl walked across the base to the motor pool. "Couldn't this have waited until tomorrow?" Cover Girl was asking. It's getting late and I want to get the new crankshaft into the Wolverine before I knock off."
"Sorry, but I need to collect my winnings from Saturday night. I couldn't do it before now; Hawk's been all over me like stink on fish this week, and he'd shit a brick if he knew for certain I was in the poker game that isn't supposed to take place on base."
"I'm shocked - shocked! - to hear you've been gambling illegally, Top."
"Knock it off. You're just upset that you were the first one to go bust. You know, I assumed you'd just bring the money with you when I called you into my office."
"How was I supposed to know you wanted it tonight?"
"I'm going into town tonight. I have some shopping I need to do before next week. It's all collected, right?"
"Yep. Say. that wouldn't be for a certain sergeant's birthday next week, would it?"
Duke rolled his eyes. "We've been friends for a long time. Stop reading too much into it."
Cover Girl chuckled. "That's your story."
"And I'm sticking to it."
As they reached the motor pool, they heard Clutch yelp loudly.
They rushed in, only to be greeted with the sight of Cricket pinning Clutch down, both arms stretched behind him, her knee in the small of his back.
"Say it!" she yelled.
Clutch grumbled something into the ground. Cricket lifted his arms back even further and yelled, "I said SAY IT! Who are you?"
He groaned, then mumbled "I'm your bizmmumnuh."
"What?"
"Gah! I'm your bitch!"
"What's that?"
"I'm your bitch!"
"Damn right you're my bitch!" She looked up to see Duke standing impassively, with Cover Girl smirking close behind him. She got up off Clutch, and looked down at the ground. "Um... hey, Duke."
"Cricket." He turned to Cover Girl, and said, "Um... the thing?"
Cover Girl said, "Right. The thing." She went around to her desk, got an envelope, and handed it to him.
"Thanks," he told her. "Oh, and Cricket? Usually they just slap him."
"Understood," said Cricket. She just about wanted to die.
*****
Cricket made her way to the officers' quarters. When she saw that the elevator was out, she remembered that the women were on the top floor. Typical. She had to argue her way past the MP, who insisted on seeing ID that was, naturally, waiting for her in her quarters. She managed to convince him to let her pass when he saw the look in her eyes of a person who had just had a miserable, grueling first day in a unit she had worshipped from afar for years and was perfectly willing to take his rifle, shove it up his ass as far as it was willing to go, and then another foot or so after that.
She made it to the top of the stairs, and looked down the hall. There were four apartments, two on each side. The two largest had the names SGM HAUSER stencilled on a nameplate next to one, and WO1 FAIREBORN on the other. She knew Duke was Sgt. Hauser and idly wondered who Faireborn was.
A little more than halfway down the hall was another MP, sitting on a folding chair. He looked up, saw Cricket coming, and stood. "Name?"
"Cricket."
"MacDougal?" the MP asked. "You have your ID?"
"Yes I am, and no I don't. I was told that my ID was going to be on my desk in my quarters."
"Yeah, they always do that. Look, I'll let you in, but if anyone asks, you had your ID with you. Okay?"
"Sure. I just need to sleep for about a week. So, what do they have you here doing?"
"I'm here to make sure no, um, fraternization happens, if you catch my meaning."
"You're here to keep the boys out?"
"Mostly. Although between you and me, Flint and Jaye spend a lot of time in each other's apartments."
"Really? He's the WO with the beret, right?" That explained Jaye's reaction to Flint seeing her in the infirmary.
"Yeah. You know how it is; it's a huge secret that the whole base knows about and pretends not to as long as it doesn't hurt anyone." He started to look uncomfortable. "Look, I probably shouldn't gossip like this. This is the easiest detail on the whole base, and the last thing I want to do is wreck it."
"I understand. We'll talk later." She smiled at him and continued down the hall.
She came to the smaller apartments. On the left were stencilled SGT O'HARA and CPL HART-BURNETT, while on the right had SPC KRIEGER stencilled in the top slot, with CPL McDOUGAL written on black marker on a strip of masking tape underneath it. At least they'd spelled her name right.
Cover Girl had found Cricket on her way out of the gym and given her the key. Opening the door, she made her way to the couch in the open room and flopped down on it with all of her might, dropping her bow.
At last, she thought. At long, long last. She was about to close her eyes when there was a knock at the door.
Of course, she thought to herself. "Hold on!" she called out, struggling to lift herself from the couch, which at that moment was screaming at her to lie back down.
She fumbled her way across the room and opened the door. Cover Girl was smiling at her from the other side. "Hey, kid. So, how was your first day."
"Sleepy," Cricket answered, not minding that it didn't fit the question. "Very very sleepy."
Cover Girl looked at her watch. "It's only six. How tired could you be?"
"Very. Very very very." She yawned, which hurt. "And sore. Also very sore."
"I thought of that. You didn't see the note I left you?"
"Where'd you leave it?"
"In your room."
"I never made it that far. I got as far as the couch."
"Well, go back to the couch. Try to sit up, though; it's not very good for sleeping on." Cover Girl went into one of the bedrooms and brought a huge pan out, which she carried into the bathroom. Cricket could hear the water running for a while. Cover Girl came back out, with the pan now full of hot water, and set it down in front of the couch.
"I figured what with you being chased around by Beach, then being chased by Snake Eyes, and then getting what I assume to be a pretty thourough beat down in your hand-to-hand today, you could use something like this." She held up some packets filled with epsom salts.
"Oh, my God, bless you." Cricket tried to move but couldn't. "Could you...?"
"Sure." Cover Girl got Cricket's feet and pulled off her boots. "So, discouraged yet?"
Cricket smiled. "No, not yet. This is more or less what I expected." Cover Girl had pulled off her socks and rolled up her pants; Cricket lowered her feet into the pan. That was soooooo much better. "So, look, if I told you I loved you right now, would that be a problem?"
"We have to save something for day two, kid." She got up and went to the minifridge. She asked, "Are you hungry yet?"
Cricket's stomach suddenly awakened. "Yes, very, actually," she answered. "I just realized I haven't eaten since about lunchtime yesterday."
Cover Girl poked around the fridge for a minute, then found some fruit. "Heads up," she said, lobbing an apple towards Cricket.
The apple floated across the room, hitting Cricket square in the chest. She waited a few seconds for the information to process, then said, "Ow." She really was tired. Picking up the apple, she bit into it, finding it to be just about the most delicious thing she'd ever eaten. "Thanks, Cover Girl."
"We're off duty. In here, it's Courtney. And it's no problem; I wish I had more. Roadblock's usually good to set some fresh fruit aside when he cooks, but there wasn't much left over today. If you wanted to head down to the mess, you might still be able to grab something, but I assume you're more interested in resting up for tomorrow right now."
"Oh, right. Tomorrow. I get to do all this again."
"You'll get used to it."
"So what is it you do here, exactly?"
"I drive the Wolverine. You can usually find me in the motor pool. I heard you got to experience that foolishness a couple of times first hand today."
Cricket smiled. "I hear I caught it on a good day. Sorry you missed it."
"Not half as sorry as I am. I could have come in second place, easy." She shrugged her jacket off her shoulders and slumped down next to Cricket. "Say, Cricket... first of all, is there anything else I can call you?"
"Mae. Please."
"Mae. First of all, Clutch is harmless. Obnoxious as hell, but harmless."
"I got that," she said, smiling.
"Also, Scarlett was going to stop by tonight to hang out and to give Jaye some, er, privacy. But if you want, we can find someplace else to -"
"No, that's fine. I need to unwind some before I get some rest." She lifted her feet out of the tub and looked at her left small toe. A hellishly impressive blister was beginning to form there. "Are there any Band-Aids around here?"
"There's some in the medicine cabinet," Courtney replied.
*****
Mae stepped out of the shower feeling a thousand percent better. Most of her muscle aches had left her, and she had woken up a bit. Drying off, she noticed that there was a robe hung up on the hook on the bathroom door. She opened the medicine cabinet, getting the bandages. As she donned the robe, she heard two women talking out in the common area.
"- remember my first day," she could hear Courtney saying. "She'll be fine by tomorrow morning, but she's pretty miserable now. Snake Eyes wasn't too rough on her, was he?"
"Well, he was pretty pissed when I talked to him, but if he still felt that way he didn't let it affect him. Well, not too much, anyway. He did try to get her to tell him who put her up to the joke, though."
"She didn't, did she?"
"Of course not. I mean, he was standing on her neck at the time. But I don't think she would have even if she could talk."
"Did he ever find out who it was?"
"I imagine he's figured it out by now," Scarlett said. "I mean, everyone knows. Duke said he'd stay out of it long enough for Snake to do whatever he needed to do. I mean, Shipwreck has it coming to him. But he can only hold Hawk back for so long; he hates this whole ritual."
"But Snake's calmed down by now, right?"
"Oh, yeah. He didn't say anything to her, but he was impressed. He thinks he can teach her a lot."
"But he won't actually tell her?"
"Oh, you know how he is."
"Yeah, I guess I do."
Mae smiled.
"Oh, listen, I was talking to Flint today," Courtney said. "He mentioned that party Roadblock and Rock 'n' Roll are thowing down in the mess next week."
"Oh, yeah? What for?"
"I guess Roadblock got a lead on some really good steaks being sent across the country and managed to wrangle some. Anyway, he was talking to Duke about it..."
"Courtney..."
"Duke asked if you were going."
"What?"
"He was talking to Breaker. He was there when Duke asked Roadblock."
"What is this, study hall? You heard from Flint who heard from Breaker that Duke said to Roadblock he was asking about me?"
"I'm just passing along information."
Mae decided it was time to rescue Scarlett from the conversation. Opening the door, she walked towards her room. "Oh!" she said, feigning surprise, "I didn't realize you were here."
Scarlett smiled at her in greeting. Dressed much more casually in jeans and a Braves T-shirt, she looked very different.
"Hey, you," Scarlett said. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better. Lemme just throw something on and I'll be right out." She went into her room to find her belongings piled on her bed. Apparently her things had been sent up ahead of her. She'd have to straighten it up in the morning; she just couldn't find the energy to do it now.
She pulled everything off the bed, and grabbed some clean sweats out of the duffel. She pulled them on about four seconds before she fell asleep on the bed.
She awoke two hours later to raucous laughter.
Disclaimer: Hasbro owns G.I. Joe. I don't. Please don't sue. I do own Cricket, however.
*****
Cricket, wandering around the base to see if she could begin to find her way around on her own, got to the gymnasium a few minutes early. She smiled inwardly; it had been a long and tiring day, but she finally felt like things were beginning to make sense.
She gave the gym the once-over. It looked relatively new, despite the frequent paint chips and scuff marks. It was lousy with exercise and traingin equipment. At the far end was a locked cabinet which contained swords, throwing stars, and a few other things Cricket couldn't identify at first glance. There were also a lot of mirrors strewn about. She walked up to one and bent close to it, checking to see if she had anything in her teeth. She didn't. She glanced over to the doors to see if anyone was coming. When they weren't, she flexed her arms to see how they were coming along.
Naturally, by the time Scarlett came into the room, dressed in sweats, Cricket had gone into full-blown Hans-and-Franz-posing-for-the-mirror mode. She watched for a few seconds, then cleared her throat. Cricket jumped at the noise. "Oh. Um, hi. I didn't hear you come in."
"Sorry," said Scarlett, smiling. "Didn't mean to startle you." She put her bag against the wall. "I was asked to swing by and help out. The instructor's going to be a little late; he had something come up at the last minute he needed to take care of." She unlocked the cabinet at the far end of the room and pulled out her crossbow. "While we're waiting, can I see something?"
"Sure. Is that yours?"
"Yeah. Have you ever used one?"
"Once or twice." She took it from Scarlett, who hooked a target onto the far wall. "I never really got used to them." She went over to her quiver and noticed that the crossbow used a slightly different type of arrow than she normally did.
"Something wrong?" asked Scarlett.
"No, this just uses different arrows than I'm used to. Mine are longer, and won't fit in the notch correctly."
"No problem. Use these," Scarlett said, pulling some arrows out of the cabinet.
Cricket looked them over. Most of them had standard arrowheads. Some were blunted, some had specialized tips, and some were just plain bizzare. She notched one of the more normal-looking ones into the weapon and waited for Scarlett to get out of the way.
"Let me know when you're ready," said Scarlett.
Cricket lined up the sights to her liking, and fired. It hit the target a little to the right of center. She twiddled with the sight some more, and reloaded. This time it hit where she wanted. She kept reloading and firing until she ran out of arrows. It turned out some of the odder-looking heads contained things like dye, a rope line, or a net. One had a magnesium flare, which Scarlett had apparently put in the pile by accident.
Once they got their sight back, they looked at the target. Cricket had hit seventeen out of twenty dead center. She seemed irked by her performance.
"Hey, first time using a weapon, 85 percent isn't too bad."
"I guess so."
"So what are your thoughts?"
"Honestly? I'll learn it, but this isn't my first choice. It's heavier than my bow, takes a lot longer to load than I'd like, and I've never really been one for the Green-Arrow-Boxing-Glove type of trick arrows."
"Huh?"
"Sorry; I let my dork flag fly for a minute there."
"So you don't use any non-lethal arrows?"
"Fired correctly, any arrow can be non-lethal. Fired incorrectly," holding up the now-empty net arrow, "this could easily be lethal. Besides, in my experience, they take up a lot of room in a quiver and go off when they're not supposed to."
Scarlett couldn't help but remember the time the stink-bomb had gone off in her apartment. Flint wouldn't go near Lady Jaye for a week and a half. "That's true."
The door swung open behind them. Cricket tensed up considerably when she saw Snake Eyes enter the room, about as unarmed as he ever got. Almost instinctively, she looked for another exit, but Scarlett was standing in front of the other doors.
Snake held up his hands and signed at Cricket. "He's apologizing for his lateness and says he's not angry at you," Scarlett said. "Incidentally, he's full of shit."
Snake gave Scarlett some sign language that Cricket had no trouble deciphering.
Scarlett added, "But he'll behave. Right?" Snake nodded, then turned his attention fully to Cricket. Hearing about her battle with Firefly some months earlier, he'd been looking forward to this. Lunchtime only added to his anticipation. He crouched some, and motioned for her to come at him.
Cricket ran at him, giving Snake Eyes all kinds of warning as to which fist was going to try for him first, attempting to see how he would counter. He easily batted it away, and countered with an easily blocked left hook followed by an immediate sweep of his leg. She saw them both coming, and leaped backward, glancing his chin lightly with her right foot. This went on for a few minutes, until Snake Eyes backed up and signed at Cricket.
"He wants you to stop holding out on him," said Scarlett, "because he's done holding out on you."
The fight immediately went up about three notches. Cricket, it seemed to Scarlett, was a born street brawler. The same keen eye and quick refexes that had made her such an outstanding athlete was serving her well here. She'd taken her natural toughness and been trained to put a foe down quickly. But while she was very good, she simply wasn't in Snake Eyes' league. And despite what he had said, he was still not giving her everything he had.
They were only able to connect glancing blows for a while. Cricket was getting tired, however, and although she managed ring Snake Eyes' bell with a fairly solid blow to the head, he quickly recovered and pinned her down, sitting on her chest with a foot just under her chin.
He signed to Scarlett, who translated for him. "He's impressed, but you have a long way to go." He signed some more. "I'm not going to ask her that." More signing. "I mean it. That's between the two of you."
He sighed, then went into a small pocket on his sleeve, pulling out a small notepad. He retrieved a pencil from the same pocket, and wrote something down. He showed her the notepad, which said only one word: SHIPWRECK?
Cricket wanted to say that he should know better than to ask that. It was her first day on the G.I. Joe team, but it wasn't her first day in the army. She'd been around long enough to know that you didn't rat on someone in your unit under any circumstances. And furthermore, if Snake Eyes had any respect for her at all, he would know that, and leave it at that.
However, with about two hundred pounds on her chest, all she actually managed to get out was "Urk."
Snake looked at her long and hard. He knew that she wasn't going to say anything.
Finally, he got off her chest and offered her a hand. He helped her get up, then pointed to the clock, indicating that the hour was up. He turned to leave, when Cricket, wheezing, asked, "Sir?"
He wheeled around, putting three fingers on his upper right arm.
"Sorry. Sergeant." She coughed a little, then drew herself up to her full height. "Are... are we all right now?"
He stopped for a moment, seemingly thinking it over. Then he nodded. Finally, he turned around and left.
All the tension that had been building inside of Cricket flowed away.
*****
With that, Cricket was done for the day. Scarlett advised her to head over to the motor pool to catch up with Cover Girl, who would be on duty for an hour or so longer, but who would probably be able to get her into her room. Naturally, the motor pool was clear on the other side of the base, and somehow there was no one willing to carry her.
She trudged along, stopping briefly to rest by a flagpole. It almost didn't surprise her when she heard someone yell, "Hey, kid!" from somewhere above her.
She looked skyward. There, at the very top of the pole, was Shipwreck, hoisted by his belt loops, wriggling and squirming for all he was worth. Putting as normal a tone into his voice as he could from sixty feet int he air, he said, "Say, um, I don;t think I ever caught your name."
Squinting into the sun, she said, "I'm Cricket."
"Cricket. Hi. I'm Shipwreck."
"Yes, I know."
"Ah. So, listen, you wouldn't, by any chance, feel like getting me down from here or anything?"
"How did you get up there?" she asked, despite a very strong suspicion.
"Oh, you know how it is. You get someone, they get you. That sort of thing. Very innocent, really."
"I see." She looked at the pole. Attached to it was a note, written on a yellow sticky, which read, DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES LET THIS MAN DOWN. SNAKE.
"You know, I would, but as it happens I have to be somewhere. Good luck up there, though."
Defeated, he sighed, "Thanks. Um, if you see Snake, ask him if he's done being mad yet, will ya?"
*****
She entered the motor pool, which seemed empty except for a pair of boots sticking out from under a VAMP. She called out, "Hello? Anyone here?"
The man attached to the boots slid out from under the vehicle. He needed a shave pretty desperately. With a think New Jersey accent, he said, "Hey, doll. Didn't I see you here earlier?"
"Yeah. I was with Lady Jaye. I'm Cricket."
"Cricket, huh? I'm Clutch." He was grinning at her like an idiot. "So, speaking of nocturnal animals who make a lot of noise in the dark," he said winking, "Is there something I can help you with?"
Cricket groaned. This guy couldn't possibly be for real. "I'm looking for Cover Girl. Is she around?"
"She just stepped away for a minute. You know, we could probably kill some time while we wait for her. There's this corner around the back -"
"Uh, you know what? Thanks, but I think maybe I'll wait outside."
"If you want, we could always -"
*****
Duke and Cover Girl walked across the base to the motor pool. "Couldn't this have waited until tomorrow?" Cover Girl was asking. It's getting late and I want to get the new crankshaft into the Wolverine before I knock off."
"Sorry, but I need to collect my winnings from Saturday night. I couldn't do it before now; Hawk's been all over me like stink on fish this week, and he'd shit a brick if he knew for certain I was in the poker game that isn't supposed to take place on base."
"I'm shocked - shocked! - to hear you've been gambling illegally, Top."
"Knock it off. You're just upset that you were the first one to go bust. You know, I assumed you'd just bring the money with you when I called you into my office."
"How was I supposed to know you wanted it tonight?"
"I'm going into town tonight. I have some shopping I need to do before next week. It's all collected, right?"
"Yep. Say. that wouldn't be for a certain sergeant's birthday next week, would it?"
Duke rolled his eyes. "We've been friends for a long time. Stop reading too much into it."
Cover Girl chuckled. "That's your story."
"And I'm sticking to it."
As they reached the motor pool, they heard Clutch yelp loudly.
They rushed in, only to be greeted with the sight of Cricket pinning Clutch down, both arms stretched behind him, her knee in the small of his back.
"Say it!" she yelled.
Clutch grumbled something into the ground. Cricket lifted his arms back even further and yelled, "I said SAY IT! Who are you?"
He groaned, then mumbled "I'm your bizmmumnuh."
"What?"
"Gah! I'm your bitch!"
"What's that?"
"I'm your bitch!"
"Damn right you're my bitch!" She looked up to see Duke standing impassively, with Cover Girl smirking close behind him. She got up off Clutch, and looked down at the ground. "Um... hey, Duke."
"Cricket." He turned to Cover Girl, and said, "Um... the thing?"
Cover Girl said, "Right. The thing." She went around to her desk, got an envelope, and handed it to him.
"Thanks," he told her. "Oh, and Cricket? Usually they just slap him."
"Understood," said Cricket. She just about wanted to die.
*****
Cricket made her way to the officers' quarters. When she saw that the elevator was out, she remembered that the women were on the top floor. Typical. She had to argue her way past the MP, who insisted on seeing ID that was, naturally, waiting for her in her quarters. She managed to convince him to let her pass when he saw the look in her eyes of a person who had just had a miserable, grueling first day in a unit she had worshipped from afar for years and was perfectly willing to take his rifle, shove it up his ass as far as it was willing to go, and then another foot or so after that.
She made it to the top of the stairs, and looked down the hall. There were four apartments, two on each side. The two largest had the names SGM HAUSER stencilled on a nameplate next to one, and WO1 FAIREBORN on the other. She knew Duke was Sgt. Hauser and idly wondered who Faireborn was.
A little more than halfway down the hall was another MP, sitting on a folding chair. He looked up, saw Cricket coming, and stood. "Name?"
"Cricket."
"MacDougal?" the MP asked. "You have your ID?"
"Yes I am, and no I don't. I was told that my ID was going to be on my desk in my quarters."
"Yeah, they always do that. Look, I'll let you in, but if anyone asks, you had your ID with you. Okay?"
"Sure. I just need to sleep for about a week. So, what do they have you here doing?"
"I'm here to make sure no, um, fraternization happens, if you catch my meaning."
"You're here to keep the boys out?"
"Mostly. Although between you and me, Flint and Jaye spend a lot of time in each other's apartments."
"Really? He's the WO with the beret, right?" That explained Jaye's reaction to Flint seeing her in the infirmary.
"Yeah. You know how it is; it's a huge secret that the whole base knows about and pretends not to as long as it doesn't hurt anyone." He started to look uncomfortable. "Look, I probably shouldn't gossip like this. This is the easiest detail on the whole base, and the last thing I want to do is wreck it."
"I understand. We'll talk later." She smiled at him and continued down the hall.
She came to the smaller apartments. On the left were stencilled SGT O'HARA and CPL HART-BURNETT, while on the right had SPC KRIEGER stencilled in the top slot, with CPL McDOUGAL written on black marker on a strip of masking tape underneath it. At least they'd spelled her name right.
Cover Girl had found Cricket on her way out of the gym and given her the key. Opening the door, she made her way to the couch in the open room and flopped down on it with all of her might, dropping her bow.
At last, she thought. At long, long last. She was about to close her eyes when there was a knock at the door.
Of course, she thought to herself. "Hold on!" she called out, struggling to lift herself from the couch, which at that moment was screaming at her to lie back down.
She fumbled her way across the room and opened the door. Cover Girl was smiling at her from the other side. "Hey, kid. So, how was your first day."
"Sleepy," Cricket answered, not minding that it didn't fit the question. "Very very sleepy."
Cover Girl looked at her watch. "It's only six. How tired could you be?"
"Very. Very very very." She yawned, which hurt. "And sore. Also very sore."
"I thought of that. You didn't see the note I left you?"
"Where'd you leave it?"
"In your room."
"I never made it that far. I got as far as the couch."
"Well, go back to the couch. Try to sit up, though; it's not very good for sleeping on." Cover Girl went into one of the bedrooms and brought a huge pan out, which she carried into the bathroom. Cricket could hear the water running for a while. Cover Girl came back out, with the pan now full of hot water, and set it down in front of the couch.
"I figured what with you being chased around by Beach, then being chased by Snake Eyes, and then getting what I assume to be a pretty thourough beat down in your hand-to-hand today, you could use something like this." She held up some packets filled with epsom salts.
"Oh, my God, bless you." Cricket tried to move but couldn't. "Could you...?"
"Sure." Cover Girl got Cricket's feet and pulled off her boots. "So, discouraged yet?"
Cricket smiled. "No, not yet. This is more or less what I expected." Cover Girl had pulled off her socks and rolled up her pants; Cricket lowered her feet into the pan. That was soooooo much better. "So, look, if I told you I loved you right now, would that be a problem?"
"We have to save something for day two, kid." She got up and went to the minifridge. She asked, "Are you hungry yet?"
Cricket's stomach suddenly awakened. "Yes, very, actually," she answered. "I just realized I haven't eaten since about lunchtime yesterday."
Cover Girl poked around the fridge for a minute, then found some fruit. "Heads up," she said, lobbing an apple towards Cricket.
The apple floated across the room, hitting Cricket square in the chest. She waited a few seconds for the information to process, then said, "Ow." She really was tired. Picking up the apple, she bit into it, finding it to be just about the most delicious thing she'd ever eaten. "Thanks, Cover Girl."
"We're off duty. In here, it's Courtney. And it's no problem; I wish I had more. Roadblock's usually good to set some fresh fruit aside when he cooks, but there wasn't much left over today. If you wanted to head down to the mess, you might still be able to grab something, but I assume you're more interested in resting up for tomorrow right now."
"Oh, right. Tomorrow. I get to do all this again."
"You'll get used to it."
"So what is it you do here, exactly?"
"I drive the Wolverine. You can usually find me in the motor pool. I heard you got to experience that foolishness a couple of times first hand today."
Cricket smiled. "I hear I caught it on a good day. Sorry you missed it."
"Not half as sorry as I am. I could have come in second place, easy." She shrugged her jacket off her shoulders and slumped down next to Cricket. "Say, Cricket... first of all, is there anything else I can call you?"
"Mae. Please."
"Mae. First of all, Clutch is harmless. Obnoxious as hell, but harmless."
"I got that," she said, smiling.
"Also, Scarlett was going to stop by tonight to hang out and to give Jaye some, er, privacy. But if you want, we can find someplace else to -"
"No, that's fine. I need to unwind some before I get some rest." She lifted her feet out of the tub and looked at her left small toe. A hellishly impressive blister was beginning to form there. "Are there any Band-Aids around here?"
"There's some in the medicine cabinet," Courtney replied.
*****
Mae stepped out of the shower feeling a thousand percent better. Most of her muscle aches had left her, and she had woken up a bit. Drying off, she noticed that there was a robe hung up on the hook on the bathroom door. She opened the medicine cabinet, getting the bandages. As she donned the robe, she heard two women talking out in the common area.
"- remember my first day," she could hear Courtney saying. "She'll be fine by tomorrow morning, but she's pretty miserable now. Snake Eyes wasn't too rough on her, was he?"
"Well, he was pretty pissed when I talked to him, but if he still felt that way he didn't let it affect him. Well, not too much, anyway. He did try to get her to tell him who put her up to the joke, though."
"She didn't, did she?"
"Of course not. I mean, he was standing on her neck at the time. But I don't think she would have even if she could talk."
"Did he ever find out who it was?"
"I imagine he's figured it out by now," Scarlett said. "I mean, everyone knows. Duke said he'd stay out of it long enough for Snake to do whatever he needed to do. I mean, Shipwreck has it coming to him. But he can only hold Hawk back for so long; he hates this whole ritual."
"But Snake's calmed down by now, right?"
"Oh, yeah. He didn't say anything to her, but he was impressed. He thinks he can teach her a lot."
"But he won't actually tell her?"
"Oh, you know how he is."
"Yeah, I guess I do."
Mae smiled.
"Oh, listen, I was talking to Flint today," Courtney said. "He mentioned that party Roadblock and Rock 'n' Roll are thowing down in the mess next week."
"Oh, yeah? What for?"
"I guess Roadblock got a lead on some really good steaks being sent across the country and managed to wrangle some. Anyway, he was talking to Duke about it..."
"Courtney..."
"Duke asked if you were going."
"What?"
"He was talking to Breaker. He was there when Duke asked Roadblock."
"What is this, study hall? You heard from Flint who heard from Breaker that Duke said to Roadblock he was asking about me?"
"I'm just passing along information."
Mae decided it was time to rescue Scarlett from the conversation. Opening the door, she walked towards her room. "Oh!" she said, feigning surprise, "I didn't realize you were here."
Scarlett smiled at her in greeting. Dressed much more casually in jeans and a Braves T-shirt, she looked very different.
"Hey, you," Scarlett said. "How are you feeling?"
"Much better. Lemme just throw something on and I'll be right out." She went into her room to find her belongings piled on her bed. Apparently her things had been sent up ahead of her. She'd have to straighten it up in the morning; she just couldn't find the energy to do it now.
She pulled everything off the bed, and grabbed some clean sweats out of the duffel. She pulled them on about four seconds before she fell asleep on the bed.
She awoke two hours later to raucous laughter.