Chapter 7: Bang Bang, Baby
A/N: I'm working on getting things posted as quickly as possible. Misty23y has generously offered to beta. :)
Lester's P.O.V.
I stepped away from the elevator wall as the doors opened for the garage. I can physically feel the tension between us and I don't know what to do about it. I can't look at her without feeling like an even bigger idiot so I just keep looking off into the distance as we walk towards the back right corner. A large metal security door is installed inconspicuously on the back wall with a security pad on the wall to the right of the door. I punched in the code and a green light blinked on over the door. I pulled on the handle and held it open for Steph. She walked past me with a curious expression on her face. I'm guessing she hasn't figured out what was in the room on the other side of the door. I'm going to go ahead and say she probably isn't the best at listening to others and applying that conversation to actions afterward. I mean, she seems genuinely surprised that we're in a gun range and I told her that's where we were headed not even an hour ago.
She stopped just inside the door and surveyed the space. The majority of the room was taken up by lanes with targets at the end. To the right of the door was a pegboard covered wall with an assortment of weapons hanging on it. A worktable was set up in front of the pegboard with various items involved with maintaining a handgun. I walked over towards the wall and gave her a quick overview of the basic items and showed her how to use each tool on the workbench. Her eyes glazed over a little more with each item and I gave up when a little trail of drool started out of the corner of her mouth. Clearly, I'm going to need to take this slowly and introduce things a little at a time.
"Okay, first things first. Let's try out some different models and see what suits you best," I said while walking towards the section of room that held the smaller handguns. "I know you have a little Smith and Wesson five-shot, but I think you might prefer something a little sleeker." I grabbed a small 40 caliber semiautomatic and walked her over to the worktable. I broke the gun down into its separate parts and showed her how it worked. I put it back together, walked us over to the range, and dry-fired it. "This is a lightweight 40 cal meant for concealed carry. It's small but powerful. It holds eight rounds plus one in the chamber. If you choose this one, you will be required to carry it chambered and loaded to capacity. It does have a safety that you can engage if that would make you feel more comfortable, but it will add to your reaction time and could mean you miss your window of opportunity. Any questions?" She shook her head no so I handed her the gun and some ear protection.
I showed her how to load the bullets and how to chamber a round and pointed her towards the wall target. "I just want to see where you are before I begin instruction. I know Ranger taught you the basics and I need to assess how much you remember and what areas we need to work on." She nodded and stepped towards the counter and picked up the gun. I stood a few steps behind her and watched while she took a slightly forward-facing stance with her feet shoulder-width apart and raised the gun towards the target. She had her hands in the standard two-hand hold and seemed to be focused on her breathing. She let out a long breath and began firing.
My jaw dropped when she hit the target just to the left of dead center. Bullet after bullet ripped through the target within inches of each other with deadly precision. When the slide clicked back empty, she stepped towards the counter and removed the magazine and laid the pieces on the small counter. I closed my mouth as she turned around and raised her right eyebrow at me. Without saying anything, I leaned past her and toggled the controls to move the target down to us. We both removed our ear protection and inspected the human outline. All nine bullets were in kill zones, 6 in the chest and 3 in the head.
I turned to Steph and stared. She laughed and said, "What? Do you really think Ranger would tolerate anything less than proficiency? He drilled me until I could do this in my sleep, which is basically what I did with Jimmy Alpha. Despite what Joe and others spread through the Burg rumor mill, there's not enough luck in the world for someone with zero expertise to fire five rounds into the heart of a moving man through a purse. It wasn't dumb luck that saved me, it was Ranger's training. It's part of why I'm here now."
I grinned at her and said, "Oh, Beautiful. This is going to be so much easier than I thought it would be! First, you kick ass at the physical eval and now you show me how deadly you can be. Why do you act like you hate guns when you're this good?"
She grimaced, "I do hate guns. I avoid them as much as possible. I don't like the permanence of using them. It's an all or nothing act, and I prefer to use less lethal means."
"You mean like hair spray and a flying Lula?" I couldn't stop the shit-eating grin from manifesting on my face. She glanced up and scowled at my expression.
"You know what I mean! I've killed in self-defense, and I'd rather not have to do that again. Most of my skips are dangerous but not particularly deadly. I don't want to escalate the situation by brandishing a gun at them. Who knows what they will do then?"
The smile slid off my face as I thought over what she said. "You're partially right. Weapons in general seem to take a confrontation to the next level, but if you were confident in the entire takedown, you wouldn't need to threaten with a gun. It wouldn't get to that point 99% of the time."
She shrugged her shoulders and looked away. "I know that. I've done this the wrong way for too long. I'm not stupid, I know what the consequences of messing up one time too many will be. That's why I'm here leeching off you guys." She shook her head and started towards the worktable, glancing over her shoulder at me as she went. "So what's next, boss?"
Oh, I could get used to being called "boss." This should be fun.