CHAPTER 5
"The Air Guard? Are you serious?" Leroy asked as Rachel's parents looked at her in surprise. They were all in the dining room, eating a vegan stir-fry for dinner when Rachel broke the news to her dads.
"Well that's...unexpected." He continued. "I didn't think Finn had the sack to do something like that."
Rachel glared at her dad.
"That's not nice, Dad," Rachel scolded him as she took another bite of dinner. "It's actually a good decision for him, as surprised as I was when Kurt told me. And after everything that happened to him during Junior year, I feel like it would be a good idea for him to get away for a bit. Anyways, he'll be gone for the summer, so I guess I don't really need to worry about bumping into him."
"Good," Leroy said as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. "He doesn't deserve you, anyway."
"Leroy," Hiram exclaimed with a small scowl on his face. "There was nothing wrong with Finn. He was very respectful of our daughter and never pushed her to do anything she wasn't ready for. He was kind and gentle and helped her, and us, whenever we asked. And he was always faithful to her. Many boyfriends, especially Football jocks, aren't"
"Yeah daddy, I agree with him," Rachel said to Leroy. "Finn is a great guy and he's the nicest guy I know. He was always so kind. When your car broke down, who came at 5am and fixed it free of charge?"
"Finn," Leroy mumbled in reply.
"And," Rachel continued. "Who's the person that prevents the football team from physically beating up the Glee club?"
"Finn" He said, a little louder.
"If it weren't for him, there would be less slushies and more fists."
"He made you cry! That alone puts him in my bad books," Leroy argued. Rachel rolled her eyes at her father.
"I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one sad. Our breakup was all my fault, and I basically told him I trust the school whore more than him! And after all of those wrongful accusations that he was cheating, I was the one who cheated on him! "
Leroy shook his head. "You kissed another boy while dating Finn, and while certainly not something I approve of, I'd hardly call it 'cheating'. Quinn last year? Now THAT was cheating on Finn."
Rachel waved her hand about it. "Regardless, I got the person that I knew would hurt Finn the most and tried to cheat on him. And Finn and I both knew that I was so upset that if Puck didn't get out of there, it could have been a repeat of Quinn all over again. She sniffed and wiped a tear away. "Well, he's gone all summer so I don't have to see him whenever I go over to Kurt's. I'll finally have three months to finally come to terms with the fact that he doesn't love me anymore."
"Amen!" Leroy exclaimed, raising his glass of wine to her. "You just worry about yourself. Worry about seeing him in September."
"Ha," Hiram scoffed. "Somehow I don't think it will be that easy. Especially with him being shot at in some god forsaken country as we speak. But we'll see…"
"Alright men, form up!" Sergeant Johnson told them. Finn and his fellow recruits raced out of their barracks after changing quickly into p.t. gear. They lined up in front of their sergeant, who stood in front of them in his own physical training gear. The sergeant walked up to each man and squared up to them so that their faces were inches apart. The sun glared down at them as he walked over to each recruit, double checking that all the military issue gear was correctly worn by each man.
"This afternoon will be your first test at working as a unit. You've learnt all of the Air Force land skills. Next week, you'll be learning how to pilot, fire bullets and jump out of planes. However, to test that, we need to do an assessment of your skills. Men, get ready for a little bit of paintball hostage rescue practise!"
All of the recruits smiled. They had learnt the theory of how to rescue hostages, but had never practised a mock-situation before. The sergeant then continued explaining to them the drill...
"Me and the other officers/sergeants will be the hostage takers, and the 10 of you will be retrieving the hostages. HUDSON!"
Finn looked at his sergeant. "YES, SERGEANT!" He replied, confused. Why was he being called out? Had he been cut from the force?
"You have the best physical and mental test results. You will be the leader of your team. Good luck men! Any questions?" The sergeant asked.
"NO, SERGEANT!" The group all called out in unison.
"Good. And you better give me a challenge, Hudson, or you're gonna be on kitchen duty for the next two nights. Understand?"
"Yes, Sergeant," Finn said, turning towards his platoon. They all looked at him, waiting for instruction. Finn snapped into his 'Quarterback' mode and explained the plan to his group.
"Ok guys, Eriksen and Donovan, you guys are on office duty. You gotta use the CCTV footage to tell us where the hostages are. Leonard, Grosjean, Markowski and Donaldson - pair off and be on perimeter duty. Daniels, Morrison, Chen and I will be extracting the hostages. Any questions?"
They all shook their heads and split into their respective roles. Finn was a great leader, but they were competing against more experienced officers so the chances of them succeeding would be slim.
"Cool, everyone stay on your coms so that Eriksen and Donovan can be our eyes. Let's do this!"
They all cheered and got ready to move in. Eriksen and Donovan got into the communications booth and the other guys strapped on their weapons.
"Ready?" Eriksen said over the coms as the men approached the fake embassy. "3… 2… 1… Go!"
The 8 men crept stealthily into the embassy. They were all carrying silenced paintball rifles so that they wouldn't be heard. They all helped eliminate the hostage takers who were guarding the embassy without being seen. After this, they split up so that the four of them could find the hostages. Each group also split into smaller groups of two to help with stealth. Finn and Morrison paired up together and tiptoed down the corridor together. Eriksen and Donovan were in their ear the whole team.
"Hudson, two guys when you turn left…" He stated. Finn and Morrison turned the corner and took out the two surprised men. They kept on going.
"Finn, another man coming from behind you!" Donovan shouted. They turned just in time to see someone turning a corner. Finn shot him between the eyes and he swore at them. They kept on going. However, halfway through, things started to go wrong…
They turned one final corner before they would make it to the room that the hostage was in. There were two men there, and Finn and Morrison took them out.
"Congrats guys, everyone but the people in the hostage's room are dead."
"FUCK!" Morrison shouted a second later, not realising that he had to stay quiet. Finn turned to him.
"What's up?" He whispered.
"I'm out. I got shot." He said, pointing to a splatter of paint on his side. Finn nodded and kept on going. He finally made it to the door of the room where the hostages were. He could hear 2 maybe 3 hostage takers in the room, and Finn knew that he would be shot before he could shoot them. It was the end of the mission. They had failed. Unless…
"Don't shoot. I'm out of ammo!" Finn shouted at the door. He heard voices coming from the other side of the door.
"DON'T COME IN OR WE SHOOT THE HOSTAGE!" One of them shouted. Finn nodded.
"I know. I'm unarmed! My hands are up!" Finn shouted. He could hear them muttering to each other, and moments later, the door swung open and Finn stepped inside.
There were 3 hostiles and one hostage in the room. Finn walked in with his hands up, and they noticed that Finn was not posing any threat.
"Well, well, well, Hudson. Look who came out on top!" the Sergeant smirked at him. Finn smiled back.
"What a surprise. The experienced sergeants beat the inexperienced recruits. If we had won, that would have been really humiliating for you." Finn said, keeping a level tone.
"Yeah, it would have. But it didn't happen." Sergeant remarked.
"I mean…" Finn continued, ignoring the Sergeant. "How would you be able to show your face here knowing that the guys who you train are able to best you?"
Sergeant nodded. "Yeah, you're damn right that would be embarrassing. But it doesn't matter as it didn't happen."
"I wouldn't be so sure," Finn murmured, and suddenly a pistol materialised in his hand. The three men were extremely surprised and, before they could react, Finn killed all of them. He had used his love of Die-Hard to help him win, taping a gun to his back so he looked unarmed, and then waiting for the hostiles to drop their guards. When they did, Finn shot them. A moment later, Eriksen spoke into the mic…
"Well done, Finn. They're all dead. Take the hostage and rendezvous with Leonard, Mancowski, Grojean and Donaldson at perimeter B. Exit the building with them."
Finn nodded. "Copy that." He said and he untied the hostage. He helped him up and they made their way towards the exit. On his way out, Finn turned to look at his sergeant, hoping the officer wasn't too upset with the stunt Finn had pulled off successfully. Sergeant Johnson, for his part, simply stood with crossed arms, an evil smile, and a cold gleam in his eye.
Finn should have known better than to think his victory would be rewarded.
Another large bowl of unpeeled carrots were dumped in front of Finn. He had already spent about forty-five minutes peeling carrots that were about to be served in the mess hall that night, and with the load he was just given, his team probably had around 1 hour left of work. He groaned slightly as he finished the carrot he was working on and then handed it over to Morrison, who was busy cutting them.
"I should have known we were gonna get assigned duty anyway." Finn shook his head, but was still happy deep down. He had just pulled one over his strict sergeant.
Dalton Morrison shrugged slightly before slicing another carrot Finn had given him. "Probably just because we won by completely embarrassing the Sarge. If you hadn't cheated, we might have gotten out of this."
"I didn't cheat. I was just made a creative solution" Finn clarified before continuing with the next carrot.
"Said every cheater ever!" He remarked. Finn rolled his eyes.
"I used a cheap trick that's totally insulting to the other team, but it's still legal. I can't help it if Sarge is a sore loser. And come on, I used Die Hard to win the game! It was fucking awesome!"
"It sure was, Hudson," Eriksen chuckled from behind him, also busy peeling carrots. "We got the upper hand on those assholes and you schooled 'em six ways from Sunday. If my Mama had been there, she would have baked us all enchiladas after and told us we kicked some senior ranks tail. And anyways, dumb tricks aside, you had by far the best shooting out of all of us. You got a higher body count than everyone else combined."
"It was a good trick. Sergeant Johnson deserved to lose. Hudson proved he was better. But more importantly, he used Die Hard. I mean he John Macclaned all over it!" Chen chimed in, causing everyone to look at him in surprise. Normally, the Asian-American recruit kept quiet but when he did speak, he had a certain power to his voice that made everyone turn to him. He continued his steady rhythm of chopping potatoes and then glanced up with a questioning look. "Why'd you stop? Carrots starting to peel themselves?"
Finn laughed at Chen's comment before returning to their frustrating task. Morrison and Grojean each rolled their eyes, but also turned and continued with the food preparation.
"Ten Hut, you dumbasses!" The 8 of them instantly turned around and faced Sergeant Johnson. He walked over, his eyes glinting with mirth as he looked over at them. "Are you enjoying your just rewards, Maggots?"
"Yes Sergeant!" The 8 of them echoed loudly. They were obviously lying through their teeth but didn't want to earn themselves a punishment. Although they had beaten him at the drill, the Sergeant was still their higher-up and could kick them out of the Air Force.
Sergeant Johnson rolled his eyes at them. "You know, being disrespectful is one thing, but don't any of you fucking dare lie to me! That is so much worse!" Johnson shook his head and kept watching the men slave over the meal. "Hudson! Have fun during the drill?"
"Yes, Sergeant." Finn smirked back at the Sergeant. Finn still had a hard time believing that he had actually John Mcclaned the Sergeant. It was so awesome.
Johnson nodded and saw the proud expression on the recruit's face. Johnson knew that Finn wasn't a cocky, over-confident person, but he was clearly proud of his actions during the drill. Hudson was probably Johnson's favourite recruit. He was the fittest, tactically smartest and best shot of all the recruits. Without Finn's knowledge, Johnson had put Finn on the list to be considered for the next Air Force Special Operations mission.
"Good. Now I'm pretty pissed off at you for pulling that retarded, action movie trick, but I'll admit you beat me. So if you want, your fellow recruits can finish the meal prep and you can go get some rest. What do you say?"
Finn raised his eyebrow. On one hand, he was feeling extremely sore from doing so much work in the kitchen, and his feet were begging to sit down for a few minutes after all the standing, running and marching during the day. However, there was no way he was about to take advantage of his Sergeant's offer.
Glancing at each of his friends, he stood a little straighter before returning to look at Johnson. "Thank you Sergeant, but I'm sticking with the team. They did just as much to contribute as I did, and they shouldn't suffer just because I got the final kill."
Morrison's eyes went wide with surprise, and Marcowski almost spat out the water he was drinking, and had a coughing fit.
Johnson's eyes widened and he had a newfound respect for Finn. He nodded at him. "Fine. Stay in the kitchen and suffer with the rest of your team. I gave you an out, and you didn't take it. Your choice."
He turned and headed towards the door before turning back to them. "Dinner is in 90 minutes, so you guys better fucking move it with that food prep or you'll be doing push ups until you all puke." He then walked away from the rest of the men, leaving them to go back to their chores. Once they had made sure he was out of earshot, the other 8 men ganged up on Finn.
"Hudson, you're such a fucking dumbass." Donaldson shouted, as they kept mindlessly peeling carrots. "You shoulda ditched while you still could!"
"I would have been gone in a fucking flash, that's for sure." Graham agreed as he cut up another spud.
Finn rolled his eyes.
"Gee thanks, guys" He remarked. Both Grojean and Donovan laughed, not looking up from their work. Before he went back to peeling another potato, however, Finn and Morrison's eyes met, and he nodded a quick thank you. Finn nodded back. In that moment, Finn knew despite what they said, his fellow recruits were appreciative.
"Have you noticed?" Morrison asked after their duties for the evening were completed and he and Finn were sitting in the rec room together. They were learning about each other's lives outside of the military. Morrison - well Dalton was his first name - was a freshman in OSU, but he joined the air force for a completely different reason than Finn did. Just like Finn, Morrison's dad died in the military, and Morrison wanted to be closer to him. The two boys were roomed together in barracks with both Eriksen and Chen, which probably explained how the four of them became such fast friends. It was easy to make friends in the military - they knew that they would be constantly relying on one another so they knew that they had each other's backs.
Finn shook his head. "Noticed what?" He asked, almost bored. Morrison grinned at him, his deep brown eyes sparkling.
"Recruit Brooks, my man. She's beautiful!"
Finn's eyes widened. "Oh my god! You didn't use the term 'fucking hot' to describe a girl! Who is she?" Finn remarked, and Morrison rolled his eyes. Finn spun around the room, looking for the girl who had castrated Morrison. He finally saw her...
Katie Brooks was undoubtedly a gorgeous person. She had dirty blonde hair, had ample bosom, and was 5'8. The funny thing was that she was just as tall as or even a little bit taller than most of the guys in the troop, actually; Finn and Morrison were the only two who could be said to tower over her. She seemed to be making eyes at Morrison the whole time, but Morrison was oblivious to it. But despite how attractive she was, all he could do was shrug.
"Go say hi," Finn told his friend. Morrison chuckled mirthlessly.
"Yeah, no I'm not gonna do that. I need a strategy." He said and turned to face Brooks. "I'm gonna place myself by the jukebox which is one the way to the bathroom, so when she walks by…" Morrison turned to his friend and realised that Finn had vanished. When he turned back around to look at Brooks, he saw Finn walk over to her.
"Hi, Finn Hudson, nice to meet you," Finn held out a hand and Brooks shook it.
"Brooks. Katie Brooks," She replied. Finn nodded.
"So do you want an introduction to Morrison? You know, the guy you've been making eyes at all night?"
She blushed furiously and raised an eyebrow. "Is it that obvious?"
"You know, I could be nice and say no, but I've been taught to never lie." Finn remarked and Brooks laughed. She nodded and they walked to Morrison, who looked slightly pale.
"Dalton, this is Katie Brooks. Katie, this is Dalton Morrison." Finn said and walked away. He went over and sat on a nearby sofa next to Chen, who smirked at him.
"Classy, Hudson." He smirked. Finn raised an eyebrow and put on an indignant expression.
"What?" He asked, laughing.
"You introduced Morrison to a hot girl and now he looks like he's about to throw up."
Finn shrugged. "Well, one thing that could happen is that he attempts to flirt with Brooks. Option B, he heaves all over her. I can't wait to watch either. I'm just sorry we don't have popcorn."
Chen laughed and nodded. They watched as Morrison tried to flirt with her, but they were getting nowhere. They both clearly liked each other, but both were too scared to make the first move. 5 minutes later, Finn and Chen started to get bored.
"That's it, I'm going in," Finn got up and walked towards them. Chen was confused. What was Finn doing? Finn walked across the room to the water cooler, and Brooks and Morrison were right in front of it. When he made it next to them, he 'accidentally' tripped and pushed Brooks. She fell right into Morrison's arms, making them just inches apart. Chen almost choked on his drink in laughter. Finn smirked at Morrison, who caught his eye, as Finn walked back to his seat. He fistbumped Chen when he got back to the sofa. And Finn and Chen watched the pair continue flirting, Dalton looked over at them. Brooks' back was to them so Dalton could see them but Brooks couldn't. Finn and Chen goofily gave him thumbs up and Morrison rolled his eyes at them. But, to Finn's credit, by the end of the night, Morrison and Brooks were together. They couldn't show it in public though as it was against the rules to have a relationship with anyone in your platoon. Finn was happy for his friend. Morrison had found something that Finn thought he had, but he definitely didn't, and probably never would.