Three weeks later, Cody had moved what gear he owned into his dads old cabin and spent a week working on getting it fixed up. Matt had done his best but being in charge of the Rangers and a father of two little boys hadn't left him with much time to do more than keep brush cleared away, the roof repaired and the cabin in usable shape.
Cody packed a bag of clothes and arrived at the Ranger station for preparation of his first day tomorrow, by mid-afternoon. The first snow had fallen but it wasn't deep enough to impede the horse he'd been assigned by the Rangers. His horse had died several years back due to old age and he hadn't spent much time trying to find a new one yet. That might have to change soon but for now, he was content with the mare they'd given him.
By five that night, the rumble of an engine came into the parking lot and the headlights flashed against the far wall of the main room and then were quickly extinguished. Within a few minutes Crane walked through the front door, wiping her feet off on the rug inside. She carried a large duffle bag with her, a large military backpack on her shoulders and a briefcase in her hand. All eyes settled on her and she stared evenly back.
Matt stood up, "Need help with anything else?" he offered.
She shook her head, "Live light and travel the same way."
Several eyes blinked at her as Robin spoke up, "So…you never got back to me on arranging lodgings outside of the station if you needed them." She offered in her own way to help.
Crane shrugged a little, "Don't really need them yet. Don't have anything else but this stuff and my truck. Just need a bunk." She stated.
She saw the blank looks and gave a slight sigh until she caught the look from Cody. He only nodded as he stood up. "Come on. I'll show you where you can stash your gear." He stated evenly and motioned her towards the stairs.
She nodded to the others and followed Cody up the stairs to the small room that had been Robins at one time until she moved in with Matt. He pointed out the bunkrooms for the guys, Matt and Robin's room, where the bathrooms were and finally where her room was. There was an adult sized bunk bed up against the wall and the only other furniture was two dressers and two desks.
She looked around the room and said nothing about the cramped living conditions. Cody offered then, "You're the only other female on the team besides Robin so it's all yours unless we get someone else down the road." He stated as she picked the top bunk and pushed her briefcase up to it before dumping her gear on the floor.
She turned to looked at him and he realized that she had taken her ring off on her right hand, leaving a visible groove and pale area where it used to sit. He smirked a little at remembering something. "I'm to let you know that the two of us have A.M. barn duty for the next week and it's up to us to make supper. Such is the life of being a probie." He stated. "Can you cook?" he asked.
She looked at him with a slight shrug, "Not much need for it…" she said. "Probie huh? All this time working my ass off to be Gunnery Sergeant and I get demoted by myself to Probate." She gave an exasperated look at him that made him chuckle a little.
"Hey, don't feel bad. I've got a number of years of ranger experience under my belt and I grew up in these mountains…and I'm a probie too." He gave her a slight wave as he moved down the hall. "Feel free to join us if you want, otherwise I'll see you at o-five hundred tomorrow in the barn."
He didn't see her for the rest of the night but he heard the floor boards squeak later on and the water turn on in the bathroom. She didn't appear downstairs afterwards and by the time the crew headed to bed, her door was shut and the light was out.
--
He'd gotten up when his internal alarm went off and crawled out of bed and into old jeans and a sweatshirt. When he left the bunkroom he'd shared with two other Rangers, he still saw her door shut and no light on. He decided to go downstairs to grab a bite to eat and if she wasn't up by then, he'd wake her so they could get their morning chores done.
He headed downstairs and flipped on the light to the kitchen. He nearly jumped out of his skin to find Crane sitting at the table, staring out the window. She had found the darkest shadows and was simply sitting there, enjoying a glass of orange juice. She smirked a little, "For someone as observant as you, I thought you'd at least smell the scent of OJ in the air." She commented.
Cody shrugged a little and changed the subject, "How long you been up?" he asked.
"Not long." She stated and left it at that.
He motioned to her, "Come on. Stalls don't muck themselves." He stated with a grimace and downed his juice before putting the glass in the sink, followed soon by hers as she got up from the table.
The next hour went by fairly quickly. She wasn't afraid of hard or dirty work as she helped muck out the stalls, toss down new straw from the loft, curried the horses, feed and water them before hauling the mess outside to dump in the steaming pile of compost. She tossed a little bit of lime on top of things and then some snow. It was obvious to Cody that she'd been around horses before and knew how to clean up after them.
The smells of breakfast were wafting out the air vent of the kitchen as they made their way inside and took their turns getting showers. She heard someone complaining through the door that they had just gotten used to Robin's schedule of taking up extra bathroom time but now there was another woman to delay the mix. When she came out of the shower room within ten minutes of entering, washed, hair braided, fully dressed and shower kit in hand, she raised an eyebrow at the offending voice but said nothing since the blush on their face was retribution enough.
The rest of the Rangers had filed into the kitchen, some still not quite awake and some were simply there, physically but not mentally. Cody, Crane and Mark were the only three really awake. It was Mark's week to cook breakfast. Introductions were made that hadn't been made the night before as people wandered in. The morning had started off pretty good but by lunch, Crane had already had to prove her piloting skills as they were called out to a skiing accident on the side of a mountain. They couldn't get the skier down without possibly causing more injury due to the rough slopes so they needed to be air lifted out.
Crane suited up and climbed into the newer chopper with two others and with little other than direction, longitude and latitude, they were off and heading quickly to the slope. She temporarily set down diagonal on the slope from the injured and those staying with him. Two of the rangers jumped out with the backboard, basket and med kit. It was her job to take off and circle around, looking for any other dangers and to stay out of the way until they signaled her to come back to get them.
It didn't take long and with quick instructions on staying exactly where they were, she set down just uphill from them. It was just a pinpoint precision drill for her and she told them to hook the rope around the rung to help lever up the injured to the chopper instead of carrying them. The person was soon secured into the chopper as she kept one rung on the hillside and one rung airborne. It kept the chopper level and kept snow from sliding down hill with the full weight of the chopper pushing it off the slope.
Once everyone was loaded and secured, she slipped easily sideways and took the chopper level with the trees before gaining a little altitude and heading towards the hospital. Izzy and Mark were the two Rangers with her and they could only stare at her. No one had ever maneuvered that exact before. She ignored them as she reported her bearings to the tower and hospital with an ETA. Once the patient was offloaded at the hospital with a gentle touchdown, she took her team back to the cabin where she powered down the chopper and climbed out.
Mark was the first to disappear as Izzy stood there, still staring at her. She stared back at him, "Yes?" she finally asked.
He opened his mouth and then closed it before taking a breath and saying, "That was the best damned flying I've ever seen. How did you do that?" he asked in awe.
She shrugged, "After flying Huey's and Troop Haulers for a number of years, this little whirly gig is like spreading melted butter on hot toast." She said before turning and heading inside.
Cody looked up from the fridge where he was crouched in front of as Crane entered the kitchen. "Hey. Well I hate to tell you this but they didn't leave us much to make supper with. You think they're trying to make life hell for us on our first day?" He stated.
Crane took off her coat and gear and tossed it into a chair before going over and looking in the freezer and the fridge. Cody spoke up as he watched her, "I had a few ideas but they aren't the best and I'm not sure how much you can help…."
Crane turned and looked at him, an eyebrow raised, "Hope they don't mind oysters, egg noodles and pickled beets." she said loud enough to be heard outside the open kitchen door. She could almost hear the gagging coming from the living room. She wasn't surprised to see Cody looking a little pale too. She motioned to Cody to shut the door.
Cody shut the kitchen door and looked at her in utter confusion as she went over to one of the bench seats in the kitchen nook and lifted the lid. Cody blinked, unaware that there was storage under them as she began pulling out a box of rice, several cans of chunk chicken, the brick of cheese in a foil wrapper, two cans of Creamed Chicken soup. "Where'd all this stuff come from?" he asked
Crane looked at him with a steady gray-blue gaze, "I might be new to being a 'ranger' but I'm not new to the pranks one plays on a probie. This morning I stashed away the makings of something that will hold if we get a call at the wrong time. I knew they'd 'empty' the kitchen of anything that could be made to make a meal."
"I thought you said you couldn't cook." he stated.
She shut the lid on the seat, "I said I didn't see much need for it. Doesn't mean I don't know how to cook. My mom was a ranch and chuck wagon cook. You pick up a few things along the way." She stated.
She motioned for him to help her get stuff to the counter and they worked for an hour cooking, stirring, chopping and peeling. Once things were assembled and put into a casserole dish, it was placed in the oven and the two worked quietly on dishes. Half an hour later, the table was set and she was pulling the casserole out of the oven. She had heated up large can of peas and put out slices of bread in a covered basket.
The supper bell was rung and within a few minutes, four rangers came in, looking around as if not quite sure what they would be getting for supper. Grace was said and Crane began dishing out the pile of 'goop' from the casserole dish. Several faces looked at it questionably, giving it a quick sniff. The first bite was hesitant to say the least but when they realized that it tasted fantastic, there was little else but the sounds of forks hitting the bottom of the plates.
Robin looked up at Crane when she was done with her meal. "So I have to ask….is there anything you can't do?" she asked seriously.
Crane raised an eyebrow, "If I answer that, everyone would know my weaknesses and the last thing an ex-marine does is to televise it." She said with a straight face but Cody caught the slight look of impishness in her eyes.
Mark spoke up, "So what you're saying is either you don't know what you can't do or you're too embarrassed to let us know." He teased lightly.
She shrugged, her expression unreadable, "I prefer not to say. I have faults and I do know what I can't do but… that's for me to know and you…well, you guys obviously couldn't find your way out of a wet paper bag so I doubt you'll ever find out." She stood up from the table, "Hope you enjoyed supper. If someone doesn't get the supplies back in the kitchen that were here this morning, I might be tempted to feed you dog food without you ever knowing." She only turned then and walked out the kitchen door.