Big Luke

"KATE, check the perimeter around the hotel. Make sure nothing can hit our headquarters with our pants around our ankles," I instructed KATE.

"Affirmative," KATE responded.

I turned around and caught up with Brandon and David as they were stepping in the building. We followed the directions from some of the campers in the lobby up to the penthouses in the upper floors. David and Brandon took the elevator, I have a thing against them. Too much shit can go wrong in an elevator, cable car, or sky bridges.

When I finally made it, the first sense to react was my sense of smell. Something attacked my nostrils that I only translated as food. It was only then that I realized that I was starving. We hadn't eaten anything for a while. I started scanning the room for anything edible. I found Brandon and David over by a snack table, they were already chowing down on food. Looked like hot pizza and cold ribs. Pizza from the demigods in the kitchens, ribs from the sleeping mortals earlier. I've been in worse crash pads.

I made a B-line for the table and picked up a plate. I picked a few slices of pepperoni pizza and stood next to Brandon and David. Looking around with our faces stuffed, we couldn't really find a place to sit. So, we stood.

"I know it's only been like a day, but it feels like I haven't eaten in a month," said Brandon with a mouth full of pizza, a long string of cheese running down in front of his chin.

David didn't even comment on Brandon's statement. He was too busy chowing down, as was I.

I didn't even notice when Brittany came in next to me and wrapped me in a hug. She ran into me so hard that I nearly dropped my pizza. I set my plate down with my left hand and wrapped my right arm around her back. It was only then that she noticed the damn arrow that was still sticking out of my left arm.

"Jon Luke, you have an arrow sticking out of your arm and your bleeding all over the place," she said, standing up straight and turning me so she could check out my wound.

"Shit, you're right," I said sarcastically, swallowing the last bite of pizza I took. "David, I need you to take this fuckin thing out."

"Mhmm," was his reply as he stuffed his face with his supper.

He pulled his med kit off of his plate carrier and we walked over to a couch. I sat down with my plate of pizza. Brittany sat down on my right and David stood on my left. There was a coffee table in front of us where David unzipped his med kit and laid it out on the surface. Brittany reached over and grabbed some padding up. There a bottle of peroxide on the coffee table, probably left there after a demigod was bandaging up his or her own wounds.

Brandon grabbed another slice of pizza and walked over to watch David cause me more pain. Brittany looked at him with the same look of concern that she was giving me. She picked up the bottle of peroxide and covered the opening with the pad that she had grabbed. She tipped it over quickly then turned it right side up. Mama Bear Brittany stood up and stepped to an unsuspecting Brandon.

"You have blood running down your cheek," she said before dabbing at a cut on his cheek.

Brandon winced a little bit as he chewed his pizza. He's a guy, Brittany, we get scrapes all the time and couldn't care less, I thought to myself as Brittany reached for a square band-aid patch which she peeled and stuck on his cheek. I stifled a laugh at the look on his face as he swallowed his pizza. It read Who are you? My mother?

"Don't laugh, Jon Luke. You're next," I heard Brittany say as she was throwing away the band-aid packaging.

"OK, I'm ready to pull this arrow out of your arm. You ready?" asked David.

"Yeah, do it."

David had cut the arrow head off the shaft so it didn't tear at my flesh more when he pulled it out. The bloody arrow head was sitting there on the coffee table, the reverse barbs plane as day.

David then pulled the rest of the arrow out of my arm. It was like someone deflated a balloon in my arm. He then took some more rags and applied pressure to the now own wounds to help stop the bleeding.

"You should be more careful," Brittany lectured me as she sat back down next to me.

It wasn't like she walked out unscathed. Her hair was a mess and there was what looked like claw gashes in her breastplate, revealing the bulletproof vest I gave her. One of the sleeves on her T-shirt was torn and the other was burned completely off. She had a few scrapes on her arms and hands but the only thing in her face was dirt.

"Uh huh," I replied, licking my thumb and rubbing some of the dirt off her cheek.

"Eww! Gross!" she complained, knocking my hand away and wiping my saliva off her cheek.

"You had a little something on your face," I said through a laugh.

She would soon have her revenge. She grabbed another pad and got it wet with the peroxide, probably more than she used on Brandon. Then she forced it onto an open gash on my right temple. I let her do it but I tried not to show any pain.

"You had a little something on your face there," Brittany mocked me.

David was just staring at us with one eye brow cocked. He still had both hands applying pressure on my arm. Brandon grabbed a chair on the other side of the coffee table to enjoy the show.

"You two act like teenagers some times," David asked.

"I blame him," Brittany said at the same time that I said "I blame her" as we pointed at each other.

"Whatever," Brandon said with a smirk.

I looked at Brittany, "Where's Mathew?"

I figured he was OK. Brittany would have been in a much different state if something had happened to him.

"He's sleeping right now. He got knocked over and landed on a curb on his arm. It's in a cast right now," she explained. "He's probably not going to do too much fighting for a while... which I am very thankful for."

The three members of the Strike Team looked off into the distance. I won't speak for David or Brandon but I was thinking about the first time I broke my arm. I suspected that Brandon and David were doing the same. Ah, good times.

"Well, it's good that he's alright," David said.

"Yeah," Brandon added.

"OK, well, I'm going to go take a nap." Brittany placed her hand on my knee. I could feel her gaze on the side of my head but I was looking at her hand which was still on my knee. "Good night, boys." She stood up and went to try and find an empty bed.

"She wants you soooo bad, dude," Brandon chuckled.

"Yeah. She wants the D, Bro," David added.

"Brittany is a hopeless romantic. You think fucking in the middle of a war zone is her idea of a 'good time'?" I retorted. "You guys get some rest. We need to be fresh when we are needed... and I call this couch."

"Damn it! I wanted this couch!" David complained.

"Too bad. Go find your own," I told them with a smile.

David got up and I swung my combat boots up onto the couch. With my stomach full of bread and cheese, I fell asleep. I didn't really dream much. Just a couple of flashbacks of my past. Some stuff about running moonshine back home and during my deployment. To my surprise, it was all good stuff. Memories of the 1955 Ford F100 pickup that I used to run liquor in, those two Army guys that we rescued, and of course, the time that Brittany kissed me at that dance she drug me to.

I was ripped from my flashbacks but I didn't open my eyes just. It felt as if someone was crawling over me but they didn't want to wake me. Being in a war zone, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

I opened my eyes and grabbed the person on top of me. Then I rolled over onto the floor with the person underneath me. All the lights in the suite were off and the blinds were closed, this made it dark and hard to see. I pinned the person by placing my forearm to their throat.

"Jon Luke, stop! It's just me!" I heard Brittany's voice say. I couldn't remove my arm fast enough.

"Brittany, I'm so sorry," I apologized as I got to my feet.

"Don't sweat it. Sometimes I forget that you're a light sleeper," she said as I helped her to her feet. "There's people sleeping on the floor and I needed that peroxide again. I cut my arm on those gashes in my breastplate."

She showed me her arm, it was bleeding pretty good which just made me feel even more like a dick. I picked up the bottle of the peroxide and yet another pad for the blood. I asked her to sit down and she did, I took the spot next to her. I applied pressure with peroxide on the pad to her wound.

"Ouch," she winced. "That stuff really stings."

"Yeah, it's not all that fun," I replied. I sighed. "I am real sorry about tossing you like that. I'm not really sure what came over me."

"Hey," she said, grabbing my chin and making me look at her in the face. Her eyes were kind and forgiving. "Don't worry about it. No harm, no foul. You spent all day fighting. I should have figured your reflexes would kick in. I'm fine. OK?"

"OK," I responded. I removed the pad once the bleeding stopped. Then I started wrapping her arm so it would heal. "How come you weren't asleep? Why were you messing with your armor?"

"I couldn't sleep." was her excuse.

"Nervous?" I asked.

She looked down as if she was ashamed. "Yeah."

"It's really nothing to be ashamed of. They say that anybody going into battle is either nervous or a fool," I explained to her.

"You're never nervous," she replied.

"I try not to show it. It's part of being a leader."

She grabbed my hand as we sat on the couch. "Just... remember that there is a fine line between being bold and being stupid. OK?"

"I'll do my best," I replied. "Ooh! Speaking of doing something stupid: I had an idea that I was going to talk to David and Brandon about."

"What did I just say?" I heard Brittany ask as I stood up, looking in a completely different direction.

I turned back around. "Uhhh... Bold idea. Not stupid idea."

She had this really worried look on her face. Her eyebrows were furrowed and she bit her lower lip. She wasn't looking me in the eye but at my arm where the arrow had impaled itself earlier. She grabbed the opposite hand and pulled me closer into a kiss. It was one of those I'm-never-going-to-see-you-again-and-this-is-the-last-kiss-I'm-ever-going-to-get-from-you kind of kisses. Her mouth tasted of peach lip gloss and grime.

She pulled away when she had had enough. Then she let me go. I nodded to her reassuringly before walking off to go get started with my idea to put a dent in the enemy's forces.