Chapter Nine

Sleeping, Servicing, and So

The pilots didn't get back until early in the morning, not that any of them were coherent enough to know what time it was. After the bar fight with the off-duty Zeke's, Eve and the boys hopped from bar to bar until they had been kicked out of every drinking establishment in town. All that they wanted to do was lie in bed, and sleep until their hangovers disappeared. However, the resident brass had other ideas.

"WHOOP, WHOOP, WHOOP!" The reveille sirens blared, shaking the soldiers out of their booze-induced slumbers.

"Ooooooh, My fucking head." Brian groaned running his hand through his tousled hair. It was pounding so hard it felt like he had a rave party inside his skull. He peered around the room, still unsure of his exact surroundings. He was definitely indoors, which meant that he had managed to make it into a room before he passed out. After a few more seconds, his eyes started to clear up, and thankfully he was in his own room, and not someone else's! He stood up from his bunk to check to see if Rob had made it back as well. To his surprise, he saw not the face of his friend, but the beautiful visage of his commanding officer smiling down at him.

"Good morning Brian!" She said cheerfully. "That was one rough night last night, wasn't it? I hope you're feeling better than you look." Brian rubbed his eyes in disbelief, but no matter how hard he did it, Eve still sat there above him. What in the world was she doing here? None of the living quarters were co-ed, the men and the women had separate sections of the barracks.

"I...uh…I feel okay, I guess." He was lying through his teeth of course, but his mind was focused on other things. Rob was no-where to be seen, which means he must have passed out somewhere else. Eve must have followed him here, instead of going back to her room. But since she ended up sleeping in his room…does that mean that they…everything that happened last night was still so much of a blur to him. He had gotten so drunk he couldn't remember a thing, let alone recall how much control he had over his actions. Eve had already leapt done from the top bunk onto the floor, and was in the middle of doing some calisthenics while Brian's mind was still tossing and turning in thought. He looked up at her, and his eyes grew wide for the second time that morning. Ketari was clad only in a pair of fabric shorts and a tank top! Brian was well aware of how pretty the Ensign was, but he had never really noticed just how attractive she really was. She turned to face Brian.

"I want to thank you for last night, Brian." Oh no! This was sure as hell gonna make things a little awkward around the base.

"Um…you're welcome. What…happened?" He asked, not totally sure he wanted to hear what she had to say. Eve laughed out loud. She could tell by the look on his face and the tone of his voice that he had no idea about what happened.

"After we got back, we all got separated. I have no clue where the other guys ended up. For some reason, I ended up following you to your bunk. I was so out of it that you offered me the top bunk to sleep in for the night." Brian visibly breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't blame him, if she had been in the same position he was, she would have thought the same thing. She walked over to the bunk, and leaned down to give him a quick peck on the cheek. "It was nice of you, and I appreciate it. Don't worry though, nothing bad happened." Brian gave her a lopsided grin.

"Okay. We had better find out what happened to every one else. God knows where they passed out." Brian stood up; and had already begun to undress himself when he remembered that he wasn't alone. "Oh, I'm sorry commander."

"It's ok, we'll take turns. I'll turn around first." She turned her eyes to the door while he dressed, and then he did the same when Eve changed. As soon as Brian opened the door, he found one of his teammates. Sitting down on the floor was Rob, still looking like he was half asleep.

"Hey Rob, are you awake?" Lazily, Rob craned his head upwards to look at his friend.

"Yeah, I'm awake. Stupid sirens." He stretched and yawned as he spoke.

"How the hell did you end up sleeping there?" Brian asked.

"Well, if I remember correctly, I stopped to take a whiz, and by the time I finished you guys all wandered off. I guess I only made it this far before I passed out myself." He rose up to his feet, a few of his joints loudly popping during the process. "Ha ha, I suppose this means you got a better sleep night's…rest" Rob's voice trailed off when he peered into the room that he normally shared with Brian, shocked to find that someone else was in the room with him. Even more surprising was that, that certain person was Ensign Ketari. What a lucky bastard, he thought to himself. He straightened up as best he could and delivered a sloppy salute. "Good morning, Commander." Eve stepped out from behind Brian into the hallway.

"At ease, Rob. I want you both finish getting ready, we have to go over repairs for the team's mobile suits today. I'll see you there in exactly one hour." With that she nodded goodbye, and calmly walked off down and out of the hallway. As soon as the commander was off sight, Rob patted Brian on the back.

"You smooth dog you, scoring with the commander. Very nice!" Rob's smile was ear to ear, although it was easy to pick out the small but noticeable hint of jealousy in his voice.

"Don't get any more ideas Rob, we didn't do anything."

"Sure you didn't. You and the commander were just having a platonic sleep-over."

'I swear, all she did was sleep in the top bunk, and if you don't believe me, ask her yourself "Brian protested. The idea of dating and women had been a long standing competition between the two friends. Up to this point, it had always been pretty balanced.

"Sure. Whatever you say, buddy."

"Shut up and get dressed." Rob snidely grinned at Brian before entering the room. Brian shook his head in frustration; it would be a lost cause to attempt to convince Rob that nothing had happened between him and Eve, so all he hoped was that he wouldn't spread it among the rest of the base. Under any other circumstances, he would trust Rob with his life, but gossip always found a way to get passed around faster than the common cold.

"Alright, I'm ready. Let's get going." Rob stepped out of the room and back into the hallway. The pair walked exited the building.