Bobby Meets His Match- Chapter 27
I do not own Bobby or Lester, just borrowing them for awhile. I do own Cathy, cause I created her. Please let me know what you think. Only a few more chapters to go.
Lester leaned back in his chair and stretched his long legs in front of him with a sigh. His exaggeratedly noisy yawn broke the dead silence that had prevailed in the monitor room for the last three hours. The silence was too much even for
Lester in that it wasn't just a lack of noise, it was a complete motionlessness from the only other occupant of the monitor room. Bobby hadn't reacted to Lester's annoying yawn, just as he had for the last few hours, he sat , barely moving, watching monitors.
Bobby had displayed a sniper's deathly stillness the past few hours, Lester had even glanced over a couple of times to see if his partner was even still breathing.
The stillness, though spooky, was at least better than the nonstop activity Bobby had done for the last week, since that date with Cathy.
Something had obviously gotten totally fucked up somehow, because, instead of Bobby coming back from the date happy that Cathy was happy and because he had been thoroughly fucked, Bobby had come back a completely miserable bastard.
Lester had met him the next morning and gotten nothing but a glare when he asked how " the screetching" went. Twice more Lester had tried to pull details out of Bobby and been told to " mind his own fucking business."
Not that Lester needed Bobby to tell him that things had gone badly with Cathy, probably because of the fucking therapy thing again. Ranger had taken one look at Bobby's face that morning and told Lester that he was assigned to " take care of Bobby" until further notice. As f Lester needed that assignment. He and Bobby had been through absolute hell together. Lester might joke around but he loved Bobby even more than a brother, and there was no fucking way he was going to leave Bobby to himself until he got his fucking head on straight again.
That first morning after the whatever the hell had happened with Cathy, Bobby had been assigned to pick up a skip with Lester, and had thrown the skip against a wall so hard he gave the guy a concussion and broke two ribs. On the second shift, Bobby was so rough he broke the skip's arm. After that, Ranger had assigned Bobby to permanent monitor duty, not as punishment, but as a way to keep him contained. Thus, Lester had been sentenced to monitor duty, too. Ranger knew the score, and assigned a couple of Rangeman guys to follow Cathy to and from work , keeping her safe until "Bobby fixes this shit."
Bobby had stayed at the monitors, preternaturally still throughout duty, and completely silent. Then, when the shift was over, he would seek out some way to release the pent up anger and hurt inside him, made worse from the inactivity.
He lifted unbelievable amounts of weight over and over. When that didn't help, he went to the shooting range and took out his pain on innocent targets. Twice, he had beat the hell out of Lester in the boxing ring. Lester fingered his fat lip, courtesy of Bobby. He would take that shit, and whatever else Bobby could dish out, if it helped him get his friend back from the pit he seemed to be in.
As soon as Lester entered the stairwell, he heard the loud blasts emanating from Rangeman's pistol range, where Bobby had once again taken solace. The bursts were steady, and LOUD. Bobby was shooting something big, probably wanting to feel the kick of the gun in his hand. He knew Bobby hadn't come here for practice. Bobby was an expert sniper, one of the best in the SEALS, he could take out a target with a head shot form almost a mile away, so shooting a handgun at relatively short range was no challenge for him. No, Bobby had come here for comfort.
Bobby had loaded 5 handguns with 16 round clips and laid them on the shelf in front of him so that when one was empty, he could just pick up the next one and keep firing without having to stop to reload. He was shooting one handed and he didn't react to Lester entering behind him, although he was sure Bobby knew he was there.
Bobby just kept shooting rapid-fire, his rounds going through single holes in the paper man-shaped targets head and chest. Bobby had chosen .45s probably for their recoil. He understood why Bobby had come here to shoot round after round after round for the last week. It gave him comfort to feel the weight of the gun in his hand, have his fingers on the familiar trigger, hear the bang as the trigger released, feel the kick as the bullet was released.
For Bobby, for a lot of guys who had been there, the gun was comfort, it was the only thing you could count on. You loaded it and squeezed the trigger and it always did what you wanted it to. They had both learned the hard way that you can't always count on people, but a soldier can always count on his gun. Many times that gun was all that had stood between him and death.
Lester just stood patiently, leaning against the wall as Bobby methodically emptied all the clips, then decided that this shit had gone on long enough.
"Dude, what the fuck is going on with you? You shouldn't be this pissed off just form sitting through a musical," Lester goaded, trying to keep a light mood. He sucked at this shit.
That got him a look of exasperation and Bobby's " get the fuck away from me."
Lester sat down next to Bobby, crowding him, keeping a smile on his face. " there is not a fucking chance in hell that will happen, bro. I am tired of this shit, so tell me what the hell happened on that damn date with Cathy that has you so fucked up."
Lester spared only a fleeting thought to his incredible feat of having three different swear words in a grammatically correct sentence, because before his eyes, Bobby's angry bravado seemed to crumble at the sound of her name.
" She saw my scar…" was all he said. Fuck, thought Lester, imagining the conversation from there. She had probably wanted to get all talky about details, and Bobby hadn't given them, and… this was exactly why he didn't do relationships… they always wanted all the deepest darkest shit in your lives.
Bobby was now sitting hunched over on the bench, his head in his hands, his posture defeated. Fuck. Lester had been with Bobby when he'd gotten that scar, it had been ugly.
Bobby's voice was wobbly and muffled, his head in his hands. Lester hunched over, huddled next to him. " After I gave her four orgasms," Bobby said, pride in his voice at that, " we were lying in bed and she asked about my scar…then she got into that whole going to therapy shit." Bobby's voice broke and Lester was pretty sure he was crying. Fuck, Lester had only seen Bobby cry once, …
" I told her I will turn into a mean bastard again when that shit comes up. She said that she would love me no matter what and that I can't come back unless I trust her. " what the fuck did that mean? What the fuck did trusting her have to do with it? Didn't she understand that Bobby had already trusted her?
" I love her, so much, man, and she licked me out," Bobby rasped out. Lester huddled next to Bobby and put his arm on his shoulder while Bobby finally fell apart.
This whole thing was so fucked up Lester had no idea how to fix it, but he was going to fix it somehow. Bobby had saved his life several times, and now Lester was going to repay the favour.
Cathy plopped into her leather desk chair, exhausted, even though it was only one o'clock. She slipped off her three inch heels and wriggled her toes. Her neck cracked as she stretched it, trying to work out the muscles knotted from fatigue. She wished she felt Bobby's strong fingers, gently but firmly rubbing her neck, his strong hands rubbing her feet, working out the stress. But she hadn't heard a word from Bobby in a week.
Not since that wonderful night had turned horrible and she had kicked Bobby out. She squeezed her eyes shut against the tears that welled up and threatened to overflow down her cheeks, threatening to ruin her makeup again. She had already fixed it twice today. She sniffed, her eyes clouding again at the thought that she would probably never see him again, never look into his beautiful brown eyes, never see his breathtaking smile...
Why had she kicked him out? Sweet Bobby.. why couldn't he trust her? Why couldn't she leave well enough alone? He was a sweet man who adored her and took care of her, and didn't trust her enough to share with her...
Cathy sniffed and tried to stop crying. Bobby hated when she cried, not that that mattered anymore. She hadn't heard a word from him since she had kicked him out of her apartment. Although she was pretty sure the SUV that was waiting across the street every night when she went home was from Rangeman. She could never see inside the tinted windows, but the SUV was waiting whenshe left work and stayed behind her until she got home. Instead of being creeped out by the stalker-ness of that, it made her feel comforted, like something of Bobby was still with her.
She stopped for a moment while her stomach tumbled. In addition to losing the best thing that had ever happened to her, Bobby, she had the flu. She had been vomiting for almost a week now, and was dizzy. She brushed the cracker crumbs off her desk and into the trash, cursing that she had been too busy to ever get a flu shot. She wiped her eyes again and reapplied her mascara and lip gloss, sad that Bobby would not be kissing it off her again. She had just finished when her private line rang.
" Cathy, oh my god, " came her secretary's whispered voice, " come out here now. There is this really hot guy all in black here to see you," she ended on a giggle.
Bobby! OMG, he's here, she stood up, dizzy, her heart pounding. She fixed her hair and took a deep breath to calm herself as she opened her office door.
She rounded the corner wobbly in her three inch heels. She saw the dark shirt and broke into a smile. Bobby...
Lester broke off his flirting with the secretary to turn at the sound of her voice. Obviously she'd been hoping for Bobby, and her face fell when she saw him. Lester really liked her, but he wanted to be pissed at her for how much she had hurt Bobby. Except that she looked almost as bad. Her hair was limp, and her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and she looked wobbly.
This was the woman Bobby loved, the only woman he had ever given his heart to, so Lester couldn't be mad. He opened his arms to her, and she hesitated, then ran to him, burrowing her head in his chest. He held her tightly for a minute, letting her steady herself, then whispered, " I'm glad you remember me." Of course I do, she said, trying to smile. Then her smile fell. " How is Bobby ?, she asked, her worry for him all over her gorgeous face.
Lester didn't usually get involved in other people's business like this, but Bobby was fucked up right now, and Lester would do anything to help him. Bobby might kill him for it later, though.
"I'll tell you over coffee," he whispered as he finally let her go.
She stumbled, dizzy with emotion and her roiling stomach, and she almost fell at his feet.
"who, " what's wrong, he whispered, grabbing her arm and straightening her.
She smiled quickly, nothing. I just am a little lightheaded from not eating."
Lester smiled his killer smile, " make it lunch then, and you can tell me what the hell is going on."