A new chapter brought to you by the efforts of Karama9 who gave me encouragement and a kick in the pants when needed. Sorry it's taken so long to get this restarted. Stuff happens. Thank you Karama9! Also, go read her stuff, cause it's awesome cool and it's how I figure out if my StormShadow is 'right' or not. This chapter is with the Beachhead crew!

Covergirl swung and cursed as sand flew up in a cloud around her. "Why is there a sand pit in the middle of all this grass?" She searched for the ball half-hidden in the sand and stepped to the side. Standing over the nearly buried ball, she aimed carefully. "Stupid ball!" She swung again and threw more sand. The ball popped up only to bounce against the lip of the sand trap and roll back down to the middle. Her cursing grew louder.

Beach stood up on the grass looking down at her attempts to knock the golfball back out. Flint and LadyJaye had moved to a shade-tree after Flint's snide remarks resulted in death threats. The shapely mechanic had a vocabulary of curses that rivaled Shipwreck's and wasn't hesitant to use them on the warrant officer. Beach tilted his head to the side as sand flew up around him. He shook his head, shedding clumps of sand out of his hair. "You know Princess... maybe you should..."

"Shut up. Seriously. I will climb up there and warp this club on your pointy skull." She pointed the club at him. Her long legs were coated in sand now and the shining gold hair was starting to look slightly bedraggled.

Beach took a breath before he spoke up anyway, keeping his voice low. "Just throw it out."

She frowned at him. "What? But that's..."

He interrupted. "Faster than diggin' that sand pit deeper?" He turned to look over at Flint under the tree chatting with Jaye. "Ain't no one gonna care. Just throw the stupid ball out and let's get on with this crap."

She contemplated for a few seconds then scooped the ball up to fling it in the right direction. Beach watched it go sailing off into the green and smiled at her. Then he turned to frown severely at Greg. "You didn't see nothin', got it?"

The caddy's eyebrows went up and he turned to Covergirl who was trying to climb out. "Very good swing, ma'am. Nice shot." Greg reached to take her hand to assist her out of the sand pit but thought better of it. Stepping back, he got out of the big man's way as he took Courtney's arm and lifted her easily. Her feet touched down on the grass and she smiled at Wayne in thanks. Greg took the club from her and followed them back towards the green.

Flint smiled at Covergirl as she approached, brushing sand off her legs. "Now see? If you'd listened to my advice, it wouldn't have taken so long." He stepped away when she glared at him. "Well it's true. I'll bet you ended up doing exactly what I advised in the end."

Beach snorted at him and waved one hand dismissively. "Yeah, yer brilliant... at least about useless stupid games." He motioned towards a golfball lying on the green. "That's gotta be mine."

One of the caddies piped up quickly. "That would be Miss Burnett's. Your shot went into the bushes over there." He smiled as LadyJaye walked up and took a club. "You'll want to angle towards the uphill slope, ma'am."

She smiled genteelly back at the young man. "Why thank you." Looking the area over, she settled in to swing smoothly, sending the ball flying over the uphill slope out of sight. "Nice."

Beach snorted at her. "Whatever." He went to his caddy. "Gimme a sturdy club fer whackin' bushes. I'm gonna go find my damn ball." He stomped off towards the nearby brush.

Flint waved at Covergirl, motioning for her to continue. "You might as well take your shot, Wayne will be a while, searching in that thick brush." She rolled her eyes but walked up and took a casual swing to send the ball winging after Jaye's.

"Very good shot, ma'am!" Andy the caddy walked up really close to take the club. "You have excellent form, if I might be so bold." He glanced around in an overly casual manner before leaning in to speak quietly. "Aren't you a model? I'm so certain I've seen you in pictures, I couldn't forget a face like yours." His awkward smile betrayed his inner excitement at caddying for a model.

Courtney preened slightly, twisting to watch him sliding the club back into the bag. "That's so sweet." She winced as a golf ball suddenlycame whipping through the air to clunk into the side of Andy's head. "Ouch, are you okay?" She bent over to look at him sprawled on the grass. "That's gonna leave a mark."

Beach came stalking out of the brush, glowering at the caddy who was sitting back up. Walking up to him, he pointed the club at the hapless boy's nose. "Well look at that. You musta been standin' in the wrong spot." Andy nodded while staring at the club. "See if'n ya were standing somewhere else... like say, fifteen feet away from Courtney here... I don't think yer head would have a lump on it."

Flint rushed over. "What happened? What did you do?"

Beach looked at Flint for a moment then back to Andy. "Seems Andy got in the way of a golfball. Shame." He looked at the ball lying right next to the caddy. "Well, I guess I should take a good swing at it... gotta 'play it where it lies', right Faireborn?" His smile held no humor and Andy let out a soft whimper.

Flint reached down and lifted the guy off the ground, assisting him to stand up. "Don't be ridiculous." Giving the shaken caddy a pat, he looked him over. "Are you okay?"

"J-just startled, sir. Thank you." Andy scooted around behind Flint to gaze wide-eyed at a completely unrepentant BeachHead. "Sorry sir." He moved to behind LadyJaye just for good measure at the glare from the Ranger.

Jaye gave Beach an indulgent smile. "Oh I'm sure Wayne is terribly sorry for thumping you with the ball accidentally." She winked at Courtney who seemed rather pleased herself. "It seems like Courtney attracts accidents. Young men seem to have quite a lot of mishaps when they're around her."

Flint grumbled loudly. "Well, there'd better not be any more accidents today." He pointed at Beachhead who tipped his golf club up onto his shoulder and smiled. "You go take your shot. Try to hit it onto the green this time. There's been enough of hunting through the brush and taking drops from the water hazard." The warrant officer stood with his arms crossed, waiting for Beach to hit the ball. "Go on. Hit it."

Beach frowned at him, most of the pleasure from chastising the caddy dissipating with Flint's comments. "Fine." He stood over the ball and looked to where the flag could barely be seen fluttering past a hill. "You want me to hit the damn ball... I'll hit the gawd damn ball."

Flint stepped back another few feet, positioning himself well to the side. Courtney and Jaye exchanged glances and stepped backwards instead, putting themselves behind Beachhead. The heavy Ranger gripped the club tightly, frowning at the small white ball sitting on the grass. The caddies looked at the confident smug Flint and at the slightly nervous women and stepped backwards to check the golf balls, brush some bits of grass into place and step on scuffs in the rough... anything that put them both behind Beachhead and well out of range.

Flint smirked over and spoke in a condescending voice. "Are you going to hit the ball today... or should we all just play on ahead and expect you to finish up sometime tomorrow?"

Beach's jaw clenched and he lifted the club to swing powerfully. Club connected with ball with a loud crack, sending it flying at top speed... into the back of Flint's oblivious head. The ball hit with a dull thunk and bounced backwards beyond the entire group.

Flint clutched at his head, yelling in pain. Everyone else froze in shock for just a few seconds before Jaye rushed forward to check him, Courtney turned on Beach to yell at him and Beach took the opportunity to fall over onto the grass howling with laughter.

"It's NOT funny Wayne!" Courtney almost kicked him but he rolled aside.

"Oh GAWD! That was GREAT! Best shot Ah made all damn day!" He moved out of range again. "Oh come ON! It was a dang accident!" He got to his feet quickly as Flint stomped up holding one hand to his head. "Accident! Ah swear!"

Flint stopped just short of getting into the Ranger's face and pointed angrily. "If you think I'll believe that you didn't do that on purpose..."

"Oh shut up... of course it weren't on purpose you fuckin' pogue." Beach still seemed incredibly pleased with himself. "If'n I could shoot the ball well enough to aim it at yer pointy head, do you really think that I'd have waited this long to whack you?" He wiped at his eye slightly.

Flint growled, unable to refute the Ranger's self-depreciating argument. "You're an asshole."

Courtney, having reassured herself that Flint wasn't injured and given up on attempting to kick Beach, spread her hands at the warrant officer. "He's got a point though. He couldn't possibly hit it accurately enough to have done that on purpose. So Wayne didn't mean to hit you."

Andy spoke up quickly. "It is the second person he's hit in the head with a golfball." He glanced over to the glowering Ranger. "B-by accident... of course."

Courtney sighed lightly and leaned towards LadyJaye to whisper loudly. "I got ten bucks that says Andy doesn't make it to Hole Eighteen without at least one broken bone."

Jaye raised an eyebrow thoughtfully. "I'll take that bet... Wayne is good at sticking to soft tissue damage."

Flint raised both hands up at them. "You! And You! Not! Helping!"

End Chapter

Ahhh, Flint is learning why Duke never goes anywhere without a bottle of asprin.