Witnessing the Roughnecks go wild isn't something she would ever want to see again.

Dizzy Flores couldn't believe it.

Never again.

And it was her idea.

00 oo 00 ooo 0000ooo

48 hours of R&R.

Not 12 nor 24.

48 hours of R&R.

Granted, everytime they seem to have this much downtime, something inevitably pulls them back into the fray before their allotted time expires. Dizzy Flores thought about it while she showered and she figured that odds are, they only really had half of the 48 to chill out. The other 24 would be on alert for the next emergency mission or something- like Zim demanding training.

Nevertheless, 24 hours was long considering most of the time they were only given 12.

24 hours is a full day after all.

So when she came out to the locker room and found the her squad stuffing things into their respective lockers looking a bit too blah for her tastes, she thought of only one thing. She launched herself on top of the bench running down the center and announced, "Who wants to party?"

"Sleep," Doc answered.

Brutto seconded with a nod. "I kinda want to get some-"

"No!" she interrupted, walking up and down the bench. "We have 48 hours of downtime. That's enough time to sleep, eat, fiddle with a screwdriver and anything else you guys want to do."

Gossard sighed. "But Diz-"

"No. No buts, Goss," she replied sharply. "We are going to party. You know why? Because we deserve to party. Haven't we give up enough?" she asked, eying the good medic. "We've joined up. We're doing our part. We've willingly given up our lives saving our world from these bugs. And what do they give us in return?"

"Citizenship," Higgins answered quickly, earning a raised eyebrow from the trooper.

"Wrong, paperboy," the red head snapped. "What we get is 48 hours of freedom. 48 hours until we're knee deep in bugs and guts. We might've given our lives to SICON but you know what we haven't given them? What they can't take away?"

"Our... dignity?" Rico guessed.

Dizzy rolled her eyes. "Our right to party!" she corrected, placing her hands on her hips.

"Zim's not going to like this," Jenkins warned.

"Johnny outranks him," she pointed out. "We got to fight for our right to party!"

"Now, you're just quoating the Beastie Boys," Andy commented as she slammed her locker shut.

"Who?"

"The Beastie-" the girl started then sighed. "Nevermind. A band way back when."

"Whatever," Dizzy dismissed. "There's a bar aboard the Valley Forge for a reason. We're gonna go," she said, stomping her foot down in case anybody cared to object further.

Thankfully, nobody did.

So they all marched up to a small room half filled with troopers from other squads trying to find some solace in the bottom of a bottle. Dizzy Flores didn't care if nobody was behind the bar. All she had to do was glare at the younger trooper behind her and say, "Anderson, didn't you mention that you worked in a bar?"

That was enough for the girl to shrug and get behind the counter, checking various bottles and equipment before finaly asking, "What's your poison?"

Dizzy grinned.

Finally!

It's game on!

After a the second round however, Dizzy started to have doubts.

Was Jeffrey Gossard really trying to stack their mugs into a pyramid even if they had different kinds of cups? The technician swatted the medic's hand when Doc tried to pry him away from standing on his seat. "Doc, it's totally possible!" he argued.

"Gossard, I'm trying to save your face from getting uglier," the only slightly iniberated Doc replied, tugging his friend by the belt loops.

"But Dizzy wanted a party! What's more party that a fizzy champagne pyramid?" he asked.

"Dude, we don't have champagne," Anderson sanely pointed out, leaning against the counter, with a bottle of beer on her hand.

Dizzy watched Jeffrey Gossard narrow his eyes in concentration. "Anything fizzy will do! Beer fountain!" he declared.

"Goss-" Dizzy tried but was ignored.

"It's so possible! We just have to use a calculator and science," he insisted. "Where the hell is my screwdriver?"

An ill timed snicker from Max Brutto made the red head reconsider her party position even more. "Yeah, you know. Coz Gossard has some screws loose up there," the younger troopers said drawing circles in the air.

"Brutto," she reprimanded, thankful that the mechanic didn't hear a thing as he was now behind the bar, erasing the drink's list to write his computations down.

"That's my last name. Get your own," the trooper returned.

Laughter erupted from her right side where Higgins, Jenkins and Rico were sharing a table. Johnny was slapping his leg with delight while Higgins held up a card between them both and hiding it from Carl. "So what's this card?" Higgins asked.

Carl wiggled his fingers near his temples and narrowed his eyes in concentration. "Ace of Diamonds!" he answered after a few tense seconds.

"You're cheating!" Higgins said, amazed. "You can't have gotten eleven cards right."

"Dude must be psychic," Rico announced.

"You know, that's what they keep telling me," Jenkins replied tipsy yet amused, pounding a fist down on the table. "But I'm telling you, it's not that hard to guess that the bugs want to kill us. I mean- Hello, humans are awesome!"

"You know what we should have?" Higgins said, after sipping on his amber drink. "We should have a theme song! I can cut it in my FedNet pieces."

"Higgins!" Rico slapped the paperboy in the back. "That's a great idea! I nominate Eye of the Tiger!"

"But we're not Tara's Tigers. We're Rico's Roughnecks," Higgins countered. "It has to be Eye of the Roughneck."

That's when Dizzy Flores completely made up her mind. She watched in horror as Johnny Rico stood up and climbed on the table. With one fist pump, he whole heartedly sang, "It's the eye of the Roughneck, it's the cream of the fight. Rising up to the challenge of our rivals." The lieutenant jumped off the table and sort of skipped towards her. An arm went around her shoulders. "Sing it with me Diz," he said.

"Um..."

"And the last lone survivor stalks his bug in the night. And Razak's watching us all through the eyyyyyyeeeee. Of the Roughneck," he finished upon the applause of his table.

"Johnny, maybe you've had enough-"

"Anderson," Rico called out loudly lifting his empty glass and waving it around. "Hit me with another gin tonic!"

Dizzy watched in horror as the girl just nodded and filled another glass with various kinds of clear liquid. "Andy," she caught the girl's arm before she pass her by. "You're not really giving him another. He's had three-"

"He's had one," the girl corrected. "They've all just had one real drink. You, me and Doc are the only one's who've had more," she informed her, pointing at the medic who was trying to settle Gossard down.

"What?"

The trooper shrugged. "I've been a bartender since I turned 18. I know my liquor. Doc said he ate some granolas before we left the locker room and he ate more bar chips while he was drinking. And you- tolerance, I guess. The rest of them haven't had a drink since... forever and they haven't really eaten anything substantial..." she trailed off her explanation.

"Because I wanted to come here straight," Diz realized with a sigh. "So what have you been giving them?"

"This gin tonic is carbonated water with a slice of lime," she said. "Brutto's tequila is peppermint apple juicing se. And Goss," she snickered, "Goss has been taking vodka shots of iced water."

"Huh." Dizzy found herself nodding in approval. "You are sneaky."

"I've been tending bar a long time. I've actually seen worse," the girl smiled sympathetically.

"Anderson! Post haste," the lieutenant snapped.

"Coming!"

Dizzy Flores finisehd off her drink in one swoop.

Yes.

Never again.