Okay, so I have a thing with laser tag. ;) Sue me. :) Hope you enjoy this one, I have a few more up my sleeve, just need to get them down.

Jackie

PART 28 – Boyfriends and Laser Tag

Harm has claimed that I have a healing touch when it comes to him. That all his worries seem to vanish when I caress him. Apparently, my powers are immune when it comes to teenaged boys. Either that, or it was all a blatant lie on his part. I try not to laugh at how his nostrils are flaring or how his fists keep clenching and unclenching, but still, a bit of a giggle comes out.

Immediately, Harm turns to face me, his eyes bore into mine and not in a passionate kind of way. It's more of an 'I'm going to kill someone' type of thing. I guess he has a right to get this way, I mean, it's not every day that you meet your daughter's first boyfriend.

"Calm down." I lean in and whisper, my hand grazing his thigh.

We've agreed to go on a double date sort of affair, something that seemed less chaperoned than it was. "So, Nicholas, I understand you want to join the Coast Guards?"

Nicholas painstakingly turned his gaze away from Mattie and stared at us, almost as if it were the first time he realized we were here. "Umm. . .Yes, ma'am. . Uh, I mean, Colonel, Ma'am. . .I'll be the fourth generation puddle jumper." He grinned away, happily using a nickname that in the past was derogatory and now was just used for fun.

"You can just call me Mac." I say only to feel Harm squeezing the life out of my hand. I grunt out slightly, masking the nose by coughing but it all comes out like a wheeze. After he relinquishes the iron grip, I use my own force to bend back a finger or two. I mean, I know he has the right to be all fatherly and paternal, but why do I have to receive punishment?

It's not my fault he doesn't like the kid. I'm a good judge of character and see absolutely nothing wrong with Nick. Harm, doesn't see things my way. "Puddle jumper, huh?. . .We have some of those in the Navy, maybe you should join them?"

Maybe Nick's biggest problem is that he does not seem intimidated AT ALL by Harm. Perhaps he'd gain a point or two more if he at least pretended to be afraid of the big bad sailor. Oh, that's a good one and now I really can't help myself. As Harm goes into some sort of dissertation about how wonderful it is to be a squid, I turn three shades of red just trying to stop myself from laughing. Give it up, Harmon! "Mac? Are you alright?" Mattie asks.

I take my glass of water and swallow some down. "Oh yea. .. allergies."

"So how's about we hit the laser tag, Mattie?" Nick asks with this completely charming look on his face. Oh to be fifteen again.

"Laser tag?" Harm perks up, following Nick's finger as he points towards this black area with a bright green neon sign that says. 'Laser Runner.' "It's dark in there, isn't it?" He says with a sound of contempt. I swear, I think he's going to definitely kill Nick. "Mac, how about we join the teenagers?"

You know? I should have just taken Mattie's side, allowed her to go alone with Nick and attempt to calm my boyfriend down at home. But, the idea of shooting at them with a laser gun actually sounded like fun. "Oh, hell, yes!" Needless to say, I ran across the gaming parlor like a five year old on a sugar high.

It takes a good sixteen minutes before we are allowed inside. The walls are painted black and there is a nauseating florescent light above that shines down on two rows of vests which divided the group into "teams." As we stand there, a group of kids and a couple of adults join in. A few of the game operators are trying to discuss teams when I hear Mattie tell them something about me being a Marine and Harm being Navy. As a result I am made captain of the Red team and Harm of the Blue team. "Mac and I are the RED team." Mattie said with a grin as she tossed me a vest with a red mark down the center.

I slipped the vest on and came up with one tiny problem. Well, more like two, large ones. Glancing up, I find Harm, three teenagers and the game operator staring at me, practically salivating. "Are there bigger vests?" For the life of me, I can NOT get my boobs in this stupid thing. The guy shakes his head from side to side. "Fine. . ." Taking a deep breath I suck in my gut, hoping my boobs flatten a bit in the process. No dice and now they are half way up to my chin and squashed beyond belief. Glancing up, I find Harm with a silly expression. "You laugh Flyboy and they won't find your body."

"I wasn't going to laugh, I was just thinking. . ." He stops for a moment noticing that a few of the younger patrons are waiting on him. With a mischievous grin he leans in and whispers. "I was thinking of how lucky that damned vest is right at this moment."

"Whatever, Navy. . .You're going down, right Mattie?" I glance over at my partner and give her a thumbs up.

After we've suited up, the game operator flipped on this video recording of the game, how it works, what we do, the rules, etc. Basically, there are these two 'bases.' One is Base Red and the other is Base Blue. You can't capture the bases, which, kinda sucks, but, if you get to the base with a minimal amount of hits, and shoot at it's sentry, you can rack up more points for your team.

A shot can be made with this futuristic gun that is attached to the vest by a cord. Each vest has six spots to shoot at, two in the front and four in the back. The whole device has a nifty feature, whenever you get shot the vest and gun vibrates and shuts down for about ten seconds. If you make a shot, the gun let's you know by audibly stating: "Nice Shot!" Once the amusing video is done, the doors to the arena open and we step into another black room with neon designs on the walls which make it look like you're on another planet.

The red team, with me as the captain – the kids decided, head to the right side towards our base. As we head in I cast a look behind me to find Harm bringing up the rear on the Blue team. Inside of the arena, are these large 9 foot high, 6 foot wide shields with these lines through the middle that allow you to hide and shoot. They are strategically placed all over the arena so that a player would never be fully exposed.

Glancing upwards, I find a second floor with a suicide bridge and more shields to hide with. "This is so friggin' cool!" Mattie says to me as we head farther into the arena.

"Over here." I tell the team as I hear the operator telling us, over a speaker, that we have a minute to prepare. "You guys take the top." I say pointing to three male teens who seemed to like playing GI Joes. "You'll be our guards." The three happily oblige and begin to head towards the steps that lead to the top level. I give out instructions to the others and leave Mattie with me. "It's just you and I now kiddo."

Mattie grins like a Cheshire cat. "How bad do you think we're going to kick Harm and Nick's butts?" She asks.

"Oh. . .very badly. . .Go!" I yell, once we hear over the loudspeaker that the game has begun. Some funky, techno music plays over the speakers and occasionally, a strobe light tries to dizzy us. We start to weave through the shields and immediately sneak up on two members of the blue team. Mattie aims at one as I shoot the other. "Nice Shot!" Our guns say simultaneously as we round the two and head farther into the blue section. Glancing up I find the three boys shooting at everything in sight but doing a decent job if the fact that we've yet to be shot means anything. Course, I thought too soon.

"Ugh!" I hear Mattie groan and turn around to find Nick pointing his gun at her. "You're gonna pay for that." Pointing, I shoot at him, snickering as he loses his ability to operate the gun. "C'mon Mats." I grab Mattie and pull her behind this wall and a shield. As long as no one comes up from above, we should be safe here. The location is perfect to attack blue team members. "Okay. . .slowly." I start to peak from behind the wall and find my boyfriend with his back to me. "Oooh Jeez, this is sweet." I point at him, shooting once and hitting him before hiding behind the wall. "Nice Shot!" Course, the sound of the gun gives us away and a second later Harm is standing in front of us pointing the laser at me. "You wouldn't shoot me would you, Commander?" I say in a very, very, wispy voice which seems to be winning him over. Or so I thought. I feel my vest shaking, followed by the sound of Harm's chuckling as he backs off and starts to run around the shields. "Okay, now this is war."

"Go get him, Mac! I'm going to go find Nick." I was going to tell Mattie to stay with me. But, before I have a chance, she's heading towards the maze of shields. "Ah, young love." Squaring myself, I head for the task at hand as I slowly pass each shield, keeping myself low enough to not be seen. Not more than thirty seconds later, I spot him, squatting down behind a shield. He tries to get up, but I am a bit quicker. Wrapping an ankle with his, I send him down to the ground, flat on his back.

"Gotcha." I say, shooting once keeping laser pointed at his chest. "Nice Shot!" Grinning, I shoot again right after those ten seconds are over, making sure he can't shoot me back.

Harm is laughing hard and as he tries to stand up, I straddle him, keeping him on the floor. "You know, Mac. You're cheating?"

"How's that so?"

"That time thing of yours. . .You know exactly when the ten seconds were up and shot again to disable the gun." He doesn't seem upset at this though, instead, he's grinning. "Not that I mind the outcome." I feel his hand snaking up my leg and then a jolt against my chest.

"Nice Shot."

Turning around I find Nick and Mattie both pointing their guns at me. I try to stand up and defend myself when all of the lights in the arena come back on. We all remain where we are, momentarily blinded as the operator speaks through the speaker. "Red team is disqualified due to their captain breaking the rules. Repeat, red team is disqualified, Blue team wins!"

Arching my eyebrow in annoyance, I stare down at Harm who is laughing his head off. "Although effective, this is not one of the suitable techniques of laser tag."

I get off of him and then help stand him up. The four of us make it out of the arena and hand back the vests. I strike up a deal with the operator, giving him a bribe of ten bucks if he'd let the kids play again without us interfering. He agrees and Harm and I are happy to just sit back and watch the game from a two way mirror on the second floor. From our vantage point we spot Nick and Mattie, who are now both on the red team, walking together through the maze. "He's protecting her." Harm observes, pointing down towards their location. With a defeated sigh, he turns slowly to me. "He's not a bad kid, you know? Before the game started he told me a few things. . .Like how much he loved Mattie."

"That put you at ease?"

He shrugged slightly, glancing down at the kids. I noticed a change in him and a stiffness in his spine which, I have to confess, worried me slightly. "How long did it take me to tell you that I loved you? Though I did for so long? And this kid. . .he has no problem saying it. . . I envy him for that."

The honesty of his words hits me fully and I can't keep myself from holding Harm in my arms. "But you did say it."

"Yea, a hundred years later."

"Better later than never." I reason and as he looks down at me, I see a smile begin to form. "So does this mean we don't have to chaperone them anymore?" I hope, I mean, Mattie's got a good head on her shoulders and a spirit that is similar to mine. She'd kill the kid if he tried anything she didn't want and I do believe that to be true.

Harm's smile breaks out to his full flyboy one. "Not a chance in hell. . .In fact, they're going out tomorrow night to the county fair." His eyes are gleaming slightly and I am wondering if his amusement ahs to do with us chaperoning or something else. "You know, I've never kissed a girl on a Ferris wheel before."

"Neither have I." I say with a smirk, pulling his head down so I could kiss his lips. "But if we get to kiss on it, does that mean that kids can too?"

"I'm willing to negotiate."

Ah, yes, negotiation. Seems I'm going to have to do a lot of that for Mattie who I spot kissing Nick, right off the corner of my eye. Without stopping the kiss, I turn Harm slightly, putting his back to the mirror so that he can't see them. Ah, young love.