Because I felt bad about abandoning you lot, and because I'm only around for this week for a while, here's a quick update and a new chapter.

Chapter Twenty-One: Congo Savanne II

**The Lieutenant**

"Is it true," Glenn asked as they drove down the highway, Sasha driving them in the right direction to meet up with Delgado's group. "What they say about how a woman is supposed to get Mardis Gras beads?"

The Lieutenant chuckled blithely from the backseat of a minivan they had exchanged for one of their beat up trucks somewhere on the highway. "Well, I can tell you what I do know about—"

Grace clearing her throat from the seat behind them primly killed his story dead in his throat.

"I wouldn't know about Mardis Gras shenanigans, never been," he said. "What is it, like a kind of plastic dishware party or something?"

Licking his bottom lip, Glenn leaned in closer. "Like, right there on the street? In front of everyone?"

"Sins of the flesh, Glenn," Grace purred. "I heard New Orleans during Mardis Gras is as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah."

"You're striking up a conversation about women's breasts in a minivan full of women, Glenn," Sasha said from the front where she sat with Carol, smiling congenially in the rear view mirror at him. "You may want to rethink that topic of discussion."

"It was just a question," the young man clarified.

"It's a perfectly good question, here's one for you," the Lieutenant returned. "Where the hell do you get a Blackhawks cap down south when no Southern man I know has ever even touched an ice skate?"

Touching his cap, Glenn shrugged. "Found it in a car on the highway last week."

"Let me see it," the soldier said, tugging it on as soon as it was handed to him.

"No," Sasha said, eyeing them in the mirror, "you look like you're hiding from the cops or something."

"Yeah, not for me I think," he said, removing the cap and putting it back on Glenn's head, tugging it down low playfully.

"This soldier," Carol broke in, turning in her seat to look at him, "you trust him? I mean you must to a degree if you're taking us with you to meet him, but do you really trust him?"

The Lieutenant nodded without hesitation. "There were Marines I was posted with that I wouldn't trust with my luggage at an airport, but I would trust Delgado with the life of my ailing Mamere."

"Did you serve with him in the Middle East?" Sasha asked.

"No, we worked at the base together before I was shipped over and some after, but he was laid up in the infirmary for a while before the trouble started. He's a good man, quiet, sharp, keeps to himself. I was his only support during the DADT mess when they were thinking of retracting it."

"DADT?" Glenn broke in.

"Don't ask, don't tell."

"Oh, like a secret mission or something?"

"Gays in the military, loutre," the Lieutenant clarified.

Glenn nodded. "Yep, no, of course. I…yeah."

"It's partly why he keeps to himself a lot, still sort of ashamed of what he is."

"You must be a good friend," Sasha said.

"Not so good, I left him to fend for himself at the base when he was laid up."

"It doesn't bother you? That he's…a homosexual?" Grace inquired.

"No," he stated flatly. "Who he chooses to love is none of my business, he's a good man, hell of a good Marine and I can't abide anyone who faults him for his lifestyle." As he said this, he angled his head to eye the former nun in the backseat.

She frowned delicately at him. "Honey, I'm insulted you'd think I was raised to hate. Besides, it's not about who you love, it's that you love."

"I never met a gay man before," Carol mused. "Not that I know of anyways. Though with all the testosterone thrown around by Ed's friends, I wouldn't be surprised if one of them had been deeply, what's the term? In the closet?"

"I had an uncle we thought was gay," Glenn admitted. "But it turned out that he just really liked show tunes."

..-~-..

..-~-..

They pulled up to the beginning of the tree-lined drive and Sasha put the brakes on gently, long enough for Glenn to hop out and tie the blue flag to the antenna.

As they rolled slowly down the lane, they found one person waiting for them, standing under a large oak that was dripping with Spanish moss.

"If anything goes wrong," the Lieutenant said, climbing over Glenn to get out, "put this van in reverse and get the hell out of here."

Keeping his wounded wing tucked in close to him, he headed towards the figure.

"Delgado, still kicking I see," he greeted with a grin.

The soldier eyed him warily for a moment, before grinning broadly and clapping him on the shoulder. "Sarge, wasn't expecting to find any other Marines out there, let alone one of the ones I liked." Seemingly to realize himself, he forced his grin down and saluted rigidly. "Sir."

"Don't pull that crap with me, Delgado. I've had a long, hot trip in a minivan, about as rock bottom as one can get while still on the mend."

"You broken, Sarge?"

"Most definitively, battered and bruised too."

"Well, we have a doctor—"

"Naw, it's fine, I was looked over by my medic. He used to treat horses, so I figured he'd be the best one to patch me up."

Looking over past the Cajun's shoulder, Delgado studied the minivan. "How many did you bring?"

"Four others, you want to call off your man in the tree?"

"Tree?"

The Lieutenant motioned to the tree they stood under. "I know you have a gun stashed up there. How about telling him to lay off with it?"

"Kowalski? Naw, he's always got something in his sights, won't shoot until he sees a threat."

"Military?"

"Marine. Met him at the base, they flew him in direct from overseas just before it all went to shit. Deaf as a post, supposedly."

"IED?"

"Probably."

"Jesus. Alright, well you wanted to meet. Here I am."

"Why don't you bring your people inside, we can get them fed and talk turkey at a table like normal human beings."

"Didn't you hear? Civilization's dead." The Lieutenant said as he motioned his people out of the van. Delgado did likewise, motioning for his people to come out of hiding as well.

"Is that what's been going on? I thought this was one of those fucking war game retreats."

Chuckling, the Lieutenant motioned to his people as they joined them. "Delgado, this is Carol and you've met Sasha and Glenn and that's Grace bringing up the rear."

"You're civilians?" Delgado asked in shock.

"What were you expecting?" The Lieutenant asked.

"More Marines, maybe. Sarge?"

"No, Marines, Corporal, just civilians."

"Well, they're no less welcome, I'm just shocked, I guess. I thought maybe you still had a platoon with you."

"No, they all went home, if they were lucky enough, I suppose."

Delgado nodded as his people joined him, standing a little behind. "Well, there's just me and Kowalski, so don't get your hopes up about a military force reconciliation."

"That we know of," the Lieutenant said.

"This is Doc Russell, his wife Kate, Eve, Dolly and Jack, Mr. and Mrs. Hollander on the porch there, they own the place, so I guess in matters that don't involve fighting or weapons, you talk to them. Come on, Sarge, we'll get you something to eat."

"Lieutenant, now, actually, Corporal," he corrected as they made their way towards the house. "If you're going to stick to treating me like a CO, then you'd better address me properly."

"What idiot promoted you?"

"Well, he didn't have a choice. There was an infected chewing on his face at the time."

"Ah, that explains it."

..-~-..

..-~-..

During the meal of homemade bread and butter made with the milk from the dairy cattle, the Lieutenant noticed his people eyeing the other group warily and vice versa. He didn't assume they'd make nice right away, he liked that they remained leery of the others, but Delgado was doing the right thing extending the olive branch. If there was a group in or near his territory he'd want to feel them out first as well, see if friendly terms could be made. Allies were always a good thing to have when it came to a lawless country.

Making idle chitchat with Delgado as they ate, he took a head count of Delgado's group for future reference. As they darted in and out of the house, he counted sixteen, including the children who weren't allowed to be anywhere near the newcomers, but as he ate, he had spied them peeking in through a window at them.

Sasha sat beside her brother, talking to him as he told her all about his adventure and the new group. It was reassuring to hear from him that Delgado's people were nice, suspicious of newcomers, but that was to be expected.

Andrea was good, though re-breaking her leg was going to put her in bed for another month until it healed and then, the doctor had said she'd probably have a limp or nerve damage.

He only hoped it was teach her to stay put when told.

Then again, he mused, he wasn't going to be the pot that called the kettle black.

As the plates were cleared away and Glenn packed about four or five good slabs of warm, fresh bread and butter away in his gut, the Lieutenant turned serious eyes on Delgado and cleared his throat.

"Well, let's talk shop. You want to make an alliance, is that right?"

"I think, given the way things are, it'd be nice to have another group who we could call upon in times of trouble and of this could go both ways. Now, we don't want what you got, that's yours and this is ours, we just want to know you won't be looking with greedy eyes at us and what we have."

"I agree, it'd be nice to have the back up, but I can't make that decision without taking this offer back to my people."

"I understand, Sarge, you know I do. But the olive branch is extended."

"I appreciate it, I really do. It's easier too, having it extended by someone I know and trust."

"Of course, you know where we are."

The Lieutenant angled his chin. "Yeah."

"You or any of your people come up that drive, they'd better flying a blue flag or they're fair game."

"Good to know."

"But that's not to say none of your party could come flying that flag and still bend us over a barrel."

"My people are good people, they wouldn't."

"That's words, only words, Sarge."

"I know, words aren't worth shit, but my word is and you know that. If I say no one from my group will bother you, then I mean it. I'll shoot any dog myself who breaks this word. That's how much my word is worth and how much trust I put into them."

Rubbing the stubble on his jaw, Delgado sighed. "Of course, my people were worried that you know where we are, but we don't have clue where you are."

The Lieutenant froze for a moment, before easing back in his seat. "Yeah, that's a hell of thing."

"You're not going to tell me, are you?"

"No, but if your people are worried about that, what I can do is when I go back to my group with his olive branch, I can take a vote, see if they'd feel comfortable letting you all know. That is, if your people can be trusted."

"My people are good, Bloom is kind of nutty in the head, but I think that was long before this all went down. I think that'd be fair."

"Well, let's say for the time being, that we have a shaky alliance until we can set things in stone."

..-~-..

..-~-..

They played Elvis on an old hi-fi later after the talks and as some of Delgado's group enjoyed themselves and the music, Delgado turned to the Lieutenant and explained.

"I know it wastes generator power, but the generators won't last forever anyways and they need to enjoy themselves now and then. You know troops under stress need their free time," he said.

"Yeah."

"What do your people do?"

The Cajun frowned. "Not much. We've been taking some shit lately, had no time."

Delgado nodded. "Yeah."

"Sometimes we gather around a campfire and joke and talk, but not lately."

"Your boys seem to enjoy it," Delgado motioned with a nod of his head towards Glenn and Tyreese who were both lively dancing with two of Delgado's group.

"Let them, no harm."

"You used to tear up the dance floor, Sarge."

"Yeah," he sighed. "When I'm better mended, maybe I will again someday."

"So what happened?"

"Doesn't matter now."

"Wounds are still fresh, huh?"

The Lieutenant was quiet, pondering something he had overlooked. Troops did need a break now and then or they'd start going peculiar, he didn't know why he didn't think about that. Maybe it was because with everything going on, he didn't have time to really think like a soldier.

"You know," Delgado said confidently after a bit. "These infected won't last forever. There will always be stragglers, late comers to being bit, but I've been watching them and most of them are getting too rotten to do much other than stagger around."

Eyeing him, the Cajun soaked this information in. Delgado's face was stone serious.

"I think they still rot, slower than most corpses, but I think they die off after a while. That last surge of infected we had was coming from the coast, but they were emaciated looking, weak, couldn't even get up the energy to hold you down."

"That's an oddly comforting thought." Thinking of Milton Mamet's uggie and how they took her and how he was holding on to her for research, the Lieutenant pushed away from the wall where they had been leaning. "Makes sense when you think of it."

"Well, when it first happened we were all too busy running away from them, I don't think many people took the time to study them over a long time period."

Spying Grace heading towards them, Lafayette cleared his throat and straightened up, he didn't want her knowing how much the adventure was wearing him out.

"Lafayette honey," she greeted him softly.

He stooped as best he could to hear her over the music, it wasn't overly loud, but he wanted to give her his full attention.

"We should probably get back before the others begin thinking we ran into trouble," she said, taking hold of his free hand and gripping it lightly. "You look like you could use the rest as well."

Glancing to Delgado who was twitching his nose to cover a smirk, the Lieutenant nodded to her.

"Alright, magpie, you get the others together, yeah?"

She smiled at Delgado. "It was nice to meet you, Mr. Delgado, er, Corporal."

Delgado smiled softly. "Ángel's fine, ma'am."

Offering her hand, Grace bowed her head almost shyly. "I hope we meet again soon."

As she moved off to gather the others, Delgado cast him a sly look.

"Lafayette honey?" He asked.

"Yes, darling?" Lafayette shot back.

The Marine chuckled. "You have someone soft and curvy keeping you warm at night, Sarge?"

"Soft? Hell no, that woman is all knees and elbows at night."

Folding his arms, Delgado leaned back on one leg, eyeing Grace as she gathered the others like a mother hen with wings spread. "I like her, middle of the end of the world and she's still a real Southern lady, polite and sweet."

"Sweet?" The Lieutenant laughed. "You should see her when she's good and riled."

"Wasn't that always your type, Sarge?"

..-~-..

..-~-..

The Voodoo Dialect

Congo - A handsome but apathetic loa. Content with any clothing and eats mixed foods with much pimiento, and is fond of mixed drinks.