March 20th, 2023
Specialist Lukas "Amp" Weiss
West Coast Rainbow HQ
Portland, OR. USA
Lukas was napping in one of the lounges one evening. He had spent the day in the lab with Monika developing enhancements to his sonic grenades and decided to take a quick nap before grabbing dinner. It had been rather hard for Lukas to concentrate because someone had left a sketched portrait of himself in his room. Lukas had found it sitting there one morning a few days ago and he had an idea of who could have drawn it. Derrick had mentioned, indirectly, that Ela did some drawing in her spare time. Speaking of Derrick, it did feel a bit weird not having Derrick around for a few days while he was on some shore leave. He hadn't been completely gone those 3 days. He pranked his favorite victim, his big sister, by taping an air horn behind her bedroom door which went off when she opened it. Meghan's trademarked shout of "JESUS CHRIST DERRICK!" made himself and Elena (who was in the lab with him) chuckle to themselves. The news/rumor that Tina and Derrick were now dating had started to get around but Lukas neither confirmed nor denied it whenever someone asked about it. What Derrick and Tina did behind closed doors was none of their (or his) business. Currently, Lukas had fallen asleep to whatever was on TV and found himself reliving the concert attack...albeit with many horrible changes. For instance, Monika was the one that was shot in the shoulder twice, not him and Lukas had been unable to save her. She died in his arms. He felt someone sit next to him and he woke up with a start.
"NO!" he shouted. He noticed he was rather sweaty and was shaking slightly too.
"Easy there Luke," Ela's voice answered. "Didn't mean to startle you. Are you OK?"
"Yeah...yeah...just...bad dream…" Lukas said, rubbing his face with his hands. Bad dream was an understatement to be honest. That was nothing short of a nightmare.
"I could tell, you were twitching. Past trauma I'm guessing right," Ela asked calmly. Lukas removed his hands and saw Ela sitting pretty close to him and examining his face. Again, Lukas couldn't help but think that this woman was incredibly cute. She was wearing acid washed jeans which were ripped in some places along with a brown leather jacket with the design of a parrot on the left side. Under the jacket, she was wearing a white shirt with some kind of face on the front. Her shoes were different colors. One was blue and the other was red. It looked like she was listening to music before she sat next to him and Lukas saw that her hair was a different color too. Blonde but with a few streaks of green.
"Blonde now huh? Looks nice on you," he told her before he could stop himself. Thankfully, Ela smiled at him.
"Thanks. I felt like trying something else. I guess we match now don't we?" she said and ruffled Lukas's hair. Again, Lukas couldn't stop his mouth.
"Did you wanna, I don't know, watch a movie in the theatre tonight?" he asked. To his amazement, Ela smiled again.
"Sure. What are we seeing? Hopefully something boring," she told him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Uh...why would we see something boring?" Lukas asked. Ela chuckled before looking up and down the hallway and around the completely empty lounge.
"So we can do this," she said and kissed Lukas on the mouth. It was not at all what Lukas expected to happen right now. He too looked around the room quickly as Ela's soft lips pressed against his own. He was in the clear and he returned her kiss. It was the first time in at least a couple of years that Lukas had kissed someone. He'd had a few flings in college (don't tell Monika) like Derrick did but that was about it. Being on the BKA-ASE team was pretty taxing on Lukas's life and he didn't really have time for dating. Ela pulled away from Lukas and muttered that he was outrageously sexy in Polish.
"Why thank you Miss Bosak," Lukas answered. Ela looked politely puzzled.
"Mówisz po polsku?" (Do you speak Polish?) she asked him in Polish.
"I have a basic understanding because you know, Monika. Like I know what you're saying but I can't speak it well. Sort of like Derrick and Spanish. My English is better," Lukas answered in a surprisingly calm voice. His crush had just kissed him and called him outrageously sexy. This was yet another good day. Ela leaned up against his muscles and sighed.
"Where did this sudden display of affection come from? Thought you were Miss Independent and a rebel," Lukas asked. Ela looked up at him with that puzzled expression again.
"I'll be honest, I've kinda been crushing on you since Greece. From what I heard from your sister and what I saw, you're pretty much my type. Plus you gave me this the other week," Ela said and pulled out a flash drive. Lukas recognized this flash drive as the one that had gone missing a few days ago. It had all of his original songs on it. Some of them were even recorded when he was much younger but he hadn't got around to rerecording them. "I've been listening to them pretty much exclusively the past few days when I'm not on duty or working elsewhere. Why did you change careers again? You could have made it big," Lukas didn't answer at first because he was too busy trying to remember if or when he had given her that.
"I don't uh...I don't remember giving you that to be honest," he said.
"You sure? I remember you doing so. You just kind of stopped me in the hall and handed it to me and walked away without a word. Although I did hear you talk to someone but I thought you sounded like that guy from the movie with the robots and John Connor so it was a bit weird," she told him. Oh. Now Lukas knew what had happened.
"Derrick, you son of a bitch..."
"Call me Young Skywalker did, hmm?" Derrick's Yoda voice came from the hallway. He must have been going down to dinner too. Derrick peeked in the room, saw Ela and Lukas pretty much cuddling on the couch and grinned. "Done here, my work is," he continued in the Yoda voice, laughed and then made his way out of the room. Ela turned to Lukas in confusion. Lukas reached into his pocket and pulled out the neatly folded portrait of himself and showed it to her. She gasped.
"Where did you get that?! I was looking for it for weeks!" she said.
"Think about who just poked his head in the room and what he does for a living," Lukas said, folding his hands behind his head. Ela thought for a moment before saying,
"That...that was him?" she said. Lukas thought he heard Derrick humming "Matchmaker" off in the distance.
"Would it make you feel better if I said I liked the portrait? Because I do. I think Derrick gave us a push in the right direction. Stand up guy. Now did you wanna go see whatever they got in the theater? We can think of ways for Tina to get back at Derrick too," Lukas said, putting an arm around her. She leaned into his arm as if she was perfectly content with just laying against him.
"Should probably grab dinner first no?" she asked. Lukas's stomach growled at that very moment. Ela smiled. "Come on Skywalker, let's get something to eat before the movie or better yet, we could just walk around the city."
Lukas and Ela sat together in the cafeteria. There weren't that many others in there at the moment except Derrick, Meghan and Elena. The 3 of them were talking about one of the new research projects they started development on. Derrick looked up at Lukas and Ela as they passed by the table he was sitting at. For once, he didn't say a word/make a joke. He caught Lukas's eye and nodded with a grin across his face as usual...although that also might be because there was a "Kick Me" sign taped on Meghan's back.
"I should kick his ass for sneaking into my room," Ela muttered while staring at Derrick's back.
"You know he doesn't use that projector of his to spy on people or invade their privacy. Plus the only room I've ever seen him enter was his sister's for his various shenanigans," Lukas told her. At that moment, his phone buzzed and he read the message as Ela continued glaring at Derrick. The text was from Derrick and it read "She left her sketchbook open to that portrait of you in the lounge when she responded to that call about the bomb threat a few days ago. I slid it under her door after I snatched the drawing. As for Megs, get ready for this. Got a CLASSIC ready. I put some bubble wrap under the rugs." Lukas got Ela's attention and showed her the top part of Derrick's message. That seemed to have calmed her down slightly. She still looked annoyed. Lukas broke the ice by asking Ela questions about herself. Usually, this would result in one word answers or no answer entirely but Lukas happened to be very attractive to Ela so she responded with enthusiasm. Soon enough, he found out a lot of personal details about her including the fact that her grandfather fought in WWII. Lukas found himself becoming very uncomfortable due to the rocky history between both of their home countries. Ela noticed.
"Hey, relax Luke. I'm not blaming you for the past. You didn't commit those atrocities and I'm sure your grandparents didn't either," she said and grabbed his shaking hand. Lukas looked at Derrick's back for support and his phone buzzed again. Another message read "Breathe. I can see you in the reflection of the window. My grandparents were from Italy. They had to run from German soldiers and they hid in caves living on chestnuts for a few days. Do I hate you?" Lukas took a deep breath and looked Ela dead in the face. Again Lukas found himself getting lost in her soft blue eyes before he found his voice.
"No, they didn't. Both pairs of grandparents were in parts of Lower Saxony that were spared by the bombings. They used to tell me that they were beyond appalled by the actions of...you know…" Lukas said.
"See? You don't need to be nervous around me. I already told you that I liked you. Derrick over there basically told me you feel the same way," Ela said
"Guilty!" Derrick said from across the room as he took a bite of his sandwich. Meghan looked at him with a reproachful face and Derrick responded by folding his arms in defiance.
"Oh please Megs. You know what you did," Derrick told her. Meghan turned back to Elena, who had removed the "Kick Me" sign from Meghan's back and was looking at Derrick with a "very funny" sort of expression on her face. Derrick shrugged.
"I uh...spoke with your sister…" Ela said. Lukas turned away from his friend and back to his...well, date.
"Really? For what reason" Lukas asked. Ela looked a bit shifty as if she didn't want to say it out loud.
"I just asked her…" she began but Lukas had a feeling he knew what she was going to say.
"Don't worry about it. She's been fine with most of the people I've gone out with," Lukas said. Ela smiled at him and grabbed his hand again.
"So, walk around town?" she asked. Lukas turned to Derrick again who was ready to give his buddy help for his date on his night off.
"Mock's Crest bud. Right on North Skidmore. Great view of the river and the sunset. Have him home in a few hours Ela. His mother and I worry about him now that he's all grown up," Derrick said and then pretended to cry into Meghan's shoulder. As usual, Meghan rolled her eyes but Elena laughed. Lukas thought that if Tina hadn't scooped up Derrick as her own, Elena might have. He had witnessed Elena looking at Derrick for slightly longer than was necessary from time to time. Nothing creepy. Again, Derrick was a rather attractive man.
"Hey handsome, ready?" Ela said, squeezing his hand. Lukas realized that he's been staring at the wall for the past 30 seconds.
"Yeah, right. Sorry," Lukas said a bit flustered.
"You're cute when you're all confused," she said and smiled at him again.
March 20th, 2023
Specialist Lukas "Amp" Weiss
Mock's Crest Park
Portland, OR. USA
Lukas and Ela sat together on a bench under a tree around an hour later. They had found their way here relatively easy thanks to Derrick's directions. Lukas was the one that spoke better English and greeted anyone that acknowledged him and Ela. Plus a few of them had indeed recognized him as the former bass player/back-up singer for Time Warp.
"Hang on...the dude from Time Warp! Wow, you got fuckin' jacked man," some guy told him. Ela seemed to like the fact that she was basically on a date with a celebrity. Lukas had changed into civilian attire consisting of a pair of jeans and an Iron Maiden T-shirt. Ela still wore the outfit she was wearing when she initially woke Lukas from his nap. Most people didn't really make second glances at it. Partly because they didn't want to draw the ire of the jacked guy that was holding her hand.
"It's really nice in this city isn't it?" Ela asked him and leaned up against his shoulder.
"Yeah, I've only ever been in the Boston area on the East Coast. You?" Lukas answered.
"No actually. I've always heard America is filled with hateful racist assholes so I was reluctant to come here,"
"I'll be honest, I've heard that too. But I think the cities are where the more educated people live," Lukas said.
"So Big Guy, tell me. Why did you change careers?" she asked "I told you that you could have made it big as a musician and a lot of people still recognize you from your band days."
"I felt like it was more of a hobby than an actual career path. I'd lived out the 'being in a band' dream I had while I was still in college. It was fun for 4 years but I missed being in Germany so I went back and got a job in a music store for a few years while I figured out what I really wanted to do. I became one of the assistant managers at one point too. One day, I came across the BKA website while on break and started to give it a read. It sounded like something I wanted to try so I began the civilian recruitment process much like you did for GROM. I was a few weeks into the classes...when Monika found out…" Lukas stopped when he mentioned his sister. One, because he didn't want to talk about his sister on this date with Ela and two, the memory was still very painful.
"If you don't want to tell me, I understand." Ela said, sensing Lukas's pain and grabbed his large hand. At that moment, he felt like he could be completely honest with her. He took a deep breath and began to recount the story of his and Monika's falling out many years ago.
It began with Lukas arriving home to the family Christmas party after his shift at the music store. He was a few minutes later than he would have liked, mainly because he had lost track of time as he had been reading up on law enforcement and weapon handling. He greeted the various members of his family when he saw them. His mom, dad, uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents. He'd noticed his dad was a bit shifty eyed.
"What's up dad?" Lukas asked him.
"Nothing, just uh, glad you're here son," he said in a low voice for some reason. Lukas frowned and walked over to grab some food and a drink. His brother saw him.
"Luke, what did you do?" he asked. Lukas looked at him with a look of absolute confusion.
"What do you mean 'what did I do?'" he asked. His brother looked around the room quickly.
"Monika's been looking for you. Something about being unqualified or something" he answered while continuing to look around the room. Lukas's other sister walked over too.
"Luke, Monika's very angry with you for some reason. Dad won't tell us why" she said quickly and began to lead him away from everyone else. It wasn't enough unfortunately.
"LUKAS!" Monika's voice rang out from the doorway of the next room as his brother tried to warn him. Monika walked over and stared intently at Lukas. Even though Lukas was about 13cm (5 inches) taller than she was, he still recoiled slightly from the look of absolute venom she was giving him. Plus you know she was a highly trained BPOL and GSG 9 operator now.
"Explain yourself. Now."
"Is anyone going to tell me what I'm being accused of or do I have to play 20 Questions all night?" Lukas shot back. Monika took out Lukas's prototype of his sonic grenade that he had started to work on with his father. Oh, that explains why his dad was acting odd earlier. Monika must have found this somehow. Judging by the look on Monika's face, he knew exactly how this conversation was going to go down and he was NOT going to have any part of it. He was not 5 years old anymore.
"What's this you've been developing with dad? Hmm?" she asked him. Lukas could not hear any trace of his sister's calming tone anywhere in that sentence. He stood his ground though.
"Sonic grenade. Figured it could come in handy if I'm recruited," he told her and took a sip of his drink as if he was at ease with the whole situation. Monika, however, was not at ease.
"Recruited for what exactly?" she asked angrily.
"The BKA, why? Is that a problem," he asked just as angrily, which surprised him immensely. He can't recall a time before this that Monika had ever made him feel like this. Plus him saying that caused a hush to fall over everyone in the vicinity.
"Kind of! What makes you think you can handle something like that?! It's extremely dangerous!" she shouted at him. Again Lukas didn't back down.
"Gee I don't know, maybe because I actually want to do something with my life rather than sell music to people all day. In case you haven't realized in your infinite knowledge that you claim to possess, it's pretty much a dead end job. I took it to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. The BKA sounds like the thing I was looking for," Lukas retorted just as loud. He had seen his mom and dad flinch as he said this. They too had not been expecting this, Lukas was sure.
"So...so what makes you think I want my brother to leave the safety of his job THAT HE'S GOOD AT to go do something HE COULD POTENTIALLY DIE DOING BECAUSE HE LACKS THE TRAINING REQUIRED?!" Monika was yelling pretty loud now. Oh now Lukas found out why she was being like this. This whole obsession over his safety needed to stop about 5 years ago now. He was a grown ass man at this point and she needed to know this.
"I CAN MAKE MY OWN GOD DAMN DECISIONS WITHOUT CONSULTING YOU EVERY 5 MINUTES! WHAT, ARE YOU UPSET THAT I'M LIKE ONE OF THE FEW THINGS IN YOUR LIFE THAT YOU CAN'T CONTROL ANYMORE?!" Lukas yelled back. This time, most of his family backed away from him in fear. No one had ever heard him get angry like this before. They've seen him angry, sure...but not to this level...or directed at the person he spent a lot of his childhood with. Lukas glared at Monika as she took in the words he'd just shouted to her.
"Luke…" she began calmly...which sparked Lukas's anger.
"NO! DON'T TRY TO BE ALL CALM NOW YOU OBSESSIVE BITCH! 3 MINUTES AGO YOU WERE ALL PISSED FOR SOME BULLSHIT REASON! WANNA KNOW SOMETHING? I'VE ALREADY PUT IN MY NOTICE AT THE MUSIC STORE! I'VE BEEN TRAINING MY REPLACEMENT FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS! SHOULD I HAVE CALLED YOU THE OTHER DAY TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT AND TO GET YOUR OK? MAYBE I WANTED TO DO SOMETHING WHERE I DIDN'T HAVE THIS FUCKING ANNOYING BUZZING SOUND, THAT SOUNDS A BIT LIKE YOUR VOICE BY THE WAY, OVER MY SHOULDER 24/7! I DON'T NEED TO BE PROTECTED BY YOU FOR MY ENTIRE LIFE! SOMETIMES, I VALUE THE TIME WHERE YOU'RE NOT AROUND! IT MAKES IT SO I CAN FIGURE OUT WHAT I WANT TO DO RATHER THAN WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO!" he shouted in her face. Many of his family members gasped. His mother whispered "Lukas!" in a reproachful tone. Lukas was even surprised that those words came out of his mouth but only for a second. He'd always been a tad annoyed at her obsession with his safety while she was fine to go work for BPOL/GSG-9. What did she care if he didn't want to sell music to dumbass teens for the rest of his life? He had already lived out his band fantasy while being in college and wanted to do something to help other people. Plus, he thought that this would be a great way to spend more time with Monika besides just seeing her at holidays. Unfortunately, at this moment, Lukas could give a fuck if he ever saw Monika again. Monika's face changed from a look of stubbornness, to a look of someone who had their heart shattered into a million pieces. Lukas jabbed a finger in her face.
"I'm doing what I want. Do NOT try to stop me. Understand?!" he said angrily before turning away. He was so angry that he just wanted to leave.
"Luke...please…" he heard Monika's voice say from behind him and Lukas felt her hand on his shoulder. Again she was trying to calm him down and make him see her version of reason and he knew it. He violently threw her hand off his shoulder, turned back around to face her and got right in her face.
"If this is how you're going to be for the foreseeable future, then get the FUCK out of my life," he said with such ferocity and seriousness that he saw the last of the anger in Monika's face turn into misery.
"Lukas!" his mother said again but louder this time.
"DON'T TAKE HER SIDE!" Lukas shouted back. "I'M DONE WITH YOU MONIKA. DONE. YOU MEAN NOTHING TO ME ANYMORE!" The silence that followed was deafening. No one talked or said a word as Lukas stormed out the front door and down the street towards his car. He didn't even care that he could hear the sobs of his once favorite big sister through the open window before he drove away.
"So yeah, that's pretty much how it happened. Didn't show up to Christmas Day or any other family event for a while afterwards. Eventually, after much prodding from my parents, I decided to make up with Monika. I'm sure you've heard about that attack at the Powerwolf concert in Germany? I was there. Saved a bunch of people, got blasted in the shoulder twice and made up with Monika outside," Lukas finished his story as the sun disappeared behind the horizon. Ela, who had been listening intently, turned to him.
"You really said those things to her? And were injured at that concert?" she asked. Lukas nodded and pointed to his right shoulder.
"Bastard got me twice in this shoulder," he said. Ela leaned over and kissed it before giving him one on the lips again.
"Not sure how something like that deserved a kiss but ok," Lukas said.
"Oh come on, a younger sibling rebelling against his older sibling? That's pretty much my thing," Ela told him. "But I can see how that hurt you. I've seen you and Monika back at base. You two seem to get along so well now."
"Well yeah, I understand why she was so hesitant as I had no prior skills at the time. Imagine the rampage she would go on if I got hurt or killed. Sure I learned the skills later but-" Lukas was cut off by another kiss from Ela. That was fine with him, he was getting a bit tired of talking anyway. He even ran a hand up and down her back as he kissed her. Eventually Ela pulled away.
"Come on, let's go somewhere more private."
March 20th, 2023
Specialist Lukas "Amp" Weiss
West Coast Rainbow HQ
Portland, OR. USA
Lukas and Ela, as expected, barely watched the movie Lukas selected at random from the list on the computer. Turned out to be an old school drama film about...well, who the fuck cares. There was a pretty Polish lady pretty much glued to his face the entire time. No one entered the theatre the entire time they were in there either, although they could hear sounds of equipment whirring coming from the lab. Derrick, Elena and Meghan may have gotten a head start on that new project they were talking about at dinner. The noises eventually stopped about 10 minutes into the movie.
"Well, this was fun but unfortunately, I believe I'm on the midnight shift," Ela said as the credits began to roll about 2 hours later and she extricated herself from Lukas's strong arms.
"Right, work," Lukas said. In his excitement of being with Ela for the past few hours, he'd forgotten that he too was at work. Derrick and Elena might have covered for him if Ash had asked about his whereabouts...well, maybe Ash would listen to Derrick more than she would Elena. Lukas had a feeling that Ash had a bit of a soft spot for Derrick.
"Relax Luke, we're gonna do this again. Trust me on that,"
"Aw score! Second date!" Lukas said like a dork before he could stop himself. Ela responded by kissing his cheek again.
"Dork. See you around Weiss-enheimer," she said to him as she went to get ready for her shift. Lukas waited a few minutes before following her out of the room. His mind was racing from what just happened the last few hours. He, like his buddy Derrick, had asked out his own crush only to find out the feeling was mutual and they had a great time. Lukas was currently reliving the initial feeling he got when Ela kissed him for the first time when he bumped into Monika in the hallway. She looked as if she just got done working out and was busy looking at her phone. Monika looked up when she heard Lukas approach.
"Hi Lukas, where have you been?" Monika said (in German) with a knowing grin on her face.
"Oh you know...doing stuff…" Lukas said lamely. Horrible excuse. Monika could see right through it.
"Uh huh, by stuff do you mean hanging out with Ela for the past few hours?" Monika said, folding her arms.
"Fine, you got me," Lukas admitted. Monika gripped his shoulder.
"Subtly is not your strongest trait 'little' brother. Craig and his wife saw you 2 walking around the city and at some kind of park. What did you guys talk about?" Monika said, beginning to walk alongside Lukas.
"Oh you know, basic small talk. Interests, family, past trau-" Lukas stopped talking at that moment. Monika turned to him.
"You told her about Christmas that one year didn't you?" she asked shakily. Even though the event happened YEARS ago at this point, Lukas could still tell she felt horrible about it for some reason. She still didn't get that it was his fault. Reluctantly Lukas nodded. Monika stopped walking and instead pulled Lukas into a hug. He could also tell that she was on the verge of crying again. She hated reliving that day as much as he did.
"Easy Harmonica, you need to understand that I said those things to you. I told you the other week that I regretted it immediately. Do you know how often mom, dad, Richter and Julia spoke to me about that whole thing? Pretty much every single night but you know how men in their 20s are. I was convinced that I was in the right even though I spent most nights stewing in anger and looking at old pictures of us when we were younger wondering what the hell I did wrong. I almost abandoned the plan to join the BKA but I remembered what you taught me when I was like 5 during those English lessons. You told me to never back down from something I wanted to do or learn. I planned to call you after that concert but you know how that went down," Lukas said as he felt Monika grip him tighter when he mentioned the concert. "Do you remember what I said to you to calm you down?"
"That I was the best big sister ever and I saved your life?" Monika said still in the shaky voice. Lukas used his free hand to rustle Monika's hair...which was damp with sweat. Lukas grimaced and wiped his hand on Monika's shoulder.
"Bingo. That fact has not changed. Don't get me wrong, I still love Julia but she's 10 years older than me so her and Richter weren't around all that much after I turned 8. You were," Lukas said, continuing to walk toward his dorm. He could hear the soft sounds of a bass guitar coming from down the hall. It sounded like Derrick was playing some old school pop punk song, "Don't Leave Me" by blink 182 to be more specific. Lukas suddenly remembered something after hearing his best buddy playing. He turned to face Monika who was still clinging to him like a lost kitten as they walked down the hallway. Monika looked up at his smug face and then down the hall towards Derrick's room. She turned red and let go of Lukas.
"You just remembered he can speak German didn't you?" Lukas said smugly. Monika nodded and began to panic. Lukas held her shoulders steady but Monika began breathing very rapidly.
"Relax, Mon. Deep, slow breaths," Lukas told her, looking her dead in the face. Monika listened and Lukas could feel her breathing begin to ease.
"He...he knew what I was saying…about...about…" Monika managed to say. Lukas nodded. Monika had indeed been saying things about a certain blonde haired woman with Viking like tattoos on her arms in a low voice in German to Lukas whenever she saw her in the lab. According to Monika, this woman was "extremely beautiful."
"Here's the good news, he thinks you're perfect for her but he says she's a bit self conscious about the whole dating someone from work thing. Take it slow alright? SLOW," Lukas told her. "Besides, Derrick deserves a bit of revenge towards Meghan after she basically spilled the beans to Tina that he liked her. He tells me that Meghan likes women from other countries," Derrick's head poked out of his room. He must have heard them talking over his bass playing. He spotted Monika and grinned.
"Guten Abend Fräulein," he said to her. Lukas was reminded that Derrick's accent was pretty good. He had mentioned that the Air Force had stationed him in Germany for about 2 years when he first joined so he must have picked up some tips while he was there. Monika cleared her throat and answered in English.
"Evening Derrick," she said, avoiding his direct line of sight for some reason.
"Cool Hand is right Monika, I did hear and understand what you've been saying about Megs. You think she's beautiful don't you? I myself don't see how but you do and that's fine with me," Derrick teased, still with a grin on his face. Monika still didn't meet his eyes. Derrick walked over to Monika and had her look him dead in the face.
"Re-lax, I know what kind of people Meghan likes. Wanna know something? Remember when she found out I can speak German? She wanted to learn it from me so she could be closer to you. Oh dear...I'VE SAID TOO MUCH!"
"It's true, I've heard Derrick teaching her very basic stuff," Lukas added. Derrick nodded at him. "Much like how you taught Luke here basic Polish eh Monika?" a female voice from behind Lukas said. He turned to see Ela standing there wearing combat fatigues instead of the jacket and jeans from earlier.
"Well, long time no see Big Guy," Ela said. Derrick continued to try and calm Monika down. He was pretty decent at it but not as good as Lukas.
"I don't need to be there for another few minutes. I just wanted to make sure your 'father' saw me bring you home," Ela said, giving Lukas a hug and a quick peck on the cheek before heading off towards her post. Monika calmed down immediately when she saw Lukas watching Ela walking away. Derrick meanwhile pretended to cry again and hugged Lukas as if he was his actual son.
"You're welcome Big Guy," Derrick eventually said before yawning. "Welp, seeing as I am not on duty tonight and I spent pretty much all day working on random bullshit with Elena and Megs, time to hit the sheets. Wake me if we have a problem." Derrick turned back into his room and closed the door. Lukas walked toward his own room only to see that Monika was still staring at the place Derrick just vacated. Monika shook her head before turning back to Lukas.
"Please...please don't tell her yet," she begged. "Also what does 'hit the sheets' mean? Is he going to fight with his bed?" Lukas picked her up in a hug. Monika returned the hug, even if she was now a few inches off of the ground.
"Anything for my favorite sister. As for what Derrick said about hitting the sheets, it's another way of saying I'm going to sleep. I myself am going to follow Derrick's lead," he said and put her back on the ground. "Good night, Mon. Try to get some sleep tonight, ok?" Lukas walked into his bedroom and closed the door as Monika walked off in the direction of her own room. Lukas began to undress only to feel something in the back pocket of his jeans. It turned out to be a handwritten note from, surprise surprise, Ela. It read "You. Me. Beach. Next weekend. You're off, I checked" followed by what looked like to be her phone number. Lukas smiled and nodded to himself as he crawled into bed. Before he fell asleep, he sent Ela a message that read "Score! Second date next weekend!"
"Mission" Report:
Lukas and Ela spent some quality time with each other. Ela seems to be falling for Lukas pretty hard.
