Note: Happy Memorial Day to my American Readers.
Stephanie stood at the start of an obstacle course that appeared to be wholly made of mud. In her opinion Jeanne Ellen, who was standing right next to her, was enjoying this far too much.
"So your idea is to kill the competition?" Stephanie asked.
"This is ops training, Babe," she said. Stephanie whipped around to face her enemy.
"Don't call me that!" she snapped.
"Would you prefer 'Cupcake?'" she asked.
"I prefer Stephanie." She said, sharply feeling a pang at the endearment used by her long dead ex-boyfriend. She may have moved on, even before the loss, but she never stopped caring about Joe Morelli as a friend and the reminder of him stung.
"You said that you wanted to do Special Ops training. This is the lightweight stuff." Jeanne Ellen warned. "No one is going to blame you if you quit now."
"You will," Stephanie said.
"Maybe a little. I've done this. This isn't easy but if you want it badly enough…." Jeanne Ellen let the thought trail. Stephanie thought back to the damp basement in Florida and the helpless feeling of waiting for Ranger to arrive knowing that he'd be risking his life for her.
"I want it," she said coldly.
"That's great, "Jeanne Ellen said, "I almost believed you."
"Just start the clock," Stephanie said. Jeanne Ellen lifted the stopwatch.
"Go!" she said. Stephanie made it easily through the tires and then fell to crawl on her belly through the mud, under a net. She stood to find a dreaded 8 ft wall made of wood in front of her.
"Use the rope!" Jeanne Ellen called. "You're doing great!"
Stephanie grabbed the knotted rope hanging from the wall, braced her feet and felt the weight of her body pulling her down. She fell flat on her back in the mud sending pain radiating from her bottom up her back. Not even a minute in and she was exhausted and covered in mud. She lay on the ground winded for a moment before trying again with the same result. On the fourth try, she started to make her way up the wall and by the 10th she had hope of making it to the top.
"Brace yourself! Walk up the wall! Show me you can do it!" Jeanne Ellen cheered. Stephanie sweated and grunted as she used the rope to brace herself and climbed the wall. When she reached the top she felt a rush of pride and dizziness before dropping to the other side. She raced quickly through the other obstacles before reaching a climbing rope. She'd done the others, she could do this one, right? When she reached the top of the rope and grabbed the zipline, her hands were raw and bloody but the rush of pride as she descended to the ground overwhelmed her and pushed any pain she felt away. She started to cry. Jeanne Ellen crouched next to her, hugging the muddy, sweaty and bloody women and chanted, "You did it. You showed me. You did it." Jeanne Ellen handed Stephanie a water bottle and she gulped the contents greedily before falling back into the dirt.
"You did it and in only 90 minutes," Jeanne Ellen said. "Let's go again and try to get that down to 30." Stephanie did not have the energy to audibly groan but she maintained that high that came from the knowledge that she did it and if she had to do it again, that's what she'd do.
Jeanne Ellen smiled down at the exhausted woman knowingly; she always knew that all Stephanie needed was a little motivation. She'd have this recruit in shape in no time. She could tell by the goofy grin on Stephanie's face that her adrenalin was high and she'd get hooked on that feeling.
"Come on, Stephanie," she said, nudging her lightly with her foot. "We can get through this two, maybe even three, more times before the sun goes down. Let's get to work."