AN1 Missions will start up again very soon. I'm just tying up this loose end with Bryce. In the SAS, they speak their minds, and they don't bottle it up inside. So I'll deal head-on with the issues caused by Bryce last chapter, and then I'll get back to their jobs as soon as it's cleared.

Who Dares Wins

Chapter Twenty-Four: Lockdown: Part Three: Grudge Fight

Sunday, 4 November, 2007

After the events in the canteen, Red Team departed their base of operations to undergo free fall training jumps from out of helicopters. Red Team completed those training activities after a few hours, and within the past few moments, they pulled their vehicles to a stop back at the base with their job activities for the day at an end.

Departing their transports, Chuck stormed on past Bryce, shaking his head in disgust at him as if he was a piece of trash as he did so.

Throughout the day, Chuck and Bryce had glanced slyly multiple times with a lot of malice towards each other. Cole and Jamie, just like Chuck, hadn't been giving Bryce the best of looks either, but all four of them focused on the job at hand until the completion of their exercises, which they now had.

"What's your problem?" Bryce shouted after Chuck as he walked on by.

Chuck stopped walking, and he turned to face Bryce once more. "My problem," he said, as he sharply threw out a finger to point towards Bryce. "Is you and your mouth that you can't keep shut."

"Yeah?" Bryce asked as the teammates traded daggers as they stared in a confrontational way towards each other once more.

"Yeah," Chuck said, nodding, as he started to step towards Bryce, and Bryce returned the action.

"Not out here," Chris commanded as he glanced around the team's immediate vicinity, where multiple military personnel were going about their duties. "Too many eyes."

"I'll be seeing you very soon," Chuck said, still staring at Bryce in a hostile manner.

Bryce nodded, holding Chuck's menacing stare.

With the brewing confrontation at an end for the immediate time being, Red Team promptly entered the barracks. They walked along the corridor towards the changing area to the showers. Inside the changing room, the whole team of eight undressed in silence as extreme tension continued to simmer throughout the entire team over Bryce's actions towards Chuck, Sarah, and Jamie much earlier in the day, and what the team thought about those actions.

With their clothing discarded, the team stepped one by one into the group showers, and they moved to occupy places around the washing facility. Accommodations had not yet been made towards gender distinction on the base, though there had been a lot of talk about it since Sarah passed selection. The first few times of showering with a group of male teammates for Sarah had been slightly awkward. But she had quickly moved on from it because the reality was that she had to live, sleep, and fight side by side with them anyway. Also, if they were ever to be captured, she would fall under the captivity of male captors anyhow, with likely much worse conditions than having to shower with them. Her teammates, to their credit, had been complete gentlemen towards her, and they had never once made any kind of inappropriate comment towards her, nor made any leering glance in her direction, at least not one that she had spotted.

As soon as the water heated up, Bryce broke the silence between the unit. "I don't know what he's being so ratty about anyway. It's not like it didn't happen between them, did it?" he said, glancing all around the shower facility at the rest of Red Team.

Loud groans in frustration erupted among the entire unit for Bryce continuing the dispute, while Chuck slammed his hand into a wall, and Jamie Hughes put his head in his hands, and he sharply began to rub at his face to hold back his own rising frustrations.

However, Cole Barker opted for a verbal response instead as he turned to face Bryce. "For god sake! When will you shut your fucking mouth, you arrogant little asshole?!"

Because of Cole's strong words, all of Red Team had now turned to glance at Cole, Bryce and Chuck as frustrations continued to boil over amongst the team.

"Don't worry, Cole, I'll be shutting it for him very soon," Chuck declared as he entered another stare-down with Bryce.

Feeling unable to hold back from speaking his mind for a moment longer, Jamie declared lividly, "I have a good mind to do it myself, mate. If he wasn't a teammate, he'd be on the deck already."

"Come on then! Let's have it!" Bryce shouted in response at Chuck, and he extended his arms out in challenge to him.

"Come on then!" Chuck shouted back as he instantly abandoned his position, and he stepped towards Bryce, but he stopped as Big Dan suddenly stepped out in front of him.

"Don't kick off in here, either, fellas. Wait until we're outside 'cause the last thing I want to do is to slip on me fucking ass if I have to get out of the way of you both when you start flying punches at each other," Big Dan stated with a straight face because he didn't intend it to be a joke. He was equally pissed off himself right now with Bryce's actions towards his mates.

Red Team minus Chuck, Bryce and Cole—who each remained in confrontational states—snorted to hold in their laughter. Regardless of whether it was intended as a joke or not, and they knew it wasn't, they all found Big Dan to have a way with words.

"Can't you just make up without fighting?" Sarah asked, glancing at Chuck and Bryce. "We're still a team and we all have to work together, regardless of how appalling Bryce's behaviour has been."

Jamie waved Sarah off. "Sarah, it's too late for that, mate. I'm not happy with the gobshite either. If it's not those two at it in the next few minutes, then it will only be him and me anyway," Jamie declared, shaking his head to try and control his rising anger.

"Yeah, or me and him instead," Cole added in with a scowl on his face, glancing with extreme disgust towards Bryce.

Sarah puffed out a long sigh in frustration. "I feel like shit now. That I caused this," she declared in shame.

"Sarah, you caused nothing, mate. If anything, it was all of us who caused it for setting you up with each other," Jamie said.

"He's right, Sarah. Don't blame yourself. If anyone's to blame, then it's us," John Murray added in.

Sarah shook her head as she shared a glance with Jamie from where they stood next to each other in the showers and then at John, who was positioned one spot after Jamie. "We would have anyway regardless," she said, taking the blame off her team and back towards herself.

"Then forget about it if you would have anyway. 'cause what you do off-duty is your own business, and it has bugger all to do with anyone else on this base, nor anyone in these showers either!" Jamie shouted in frustration as he changed his glance towards Bryce. "And some would do well to remember it before they get their fucking heads punched in!"

Most of Red Team except for Chuck and Bryce nodded, who continued to stare each other down while Chuck would occasionally scowl in Bryce's direction as he wanted to run over to him and rip his face off, while Bryce would give him smug stares back every so often.

"Are we seriously ignoring the real fucking issue here right now?" Cole inserted himself into the very heated discussion in a pissed off state of mind. "It was that bollocks over there, and no one else who caused this because he couldn't keep his fucking mouth shut!" he shouted in anger, pointing aggressively towards Bryce while feeling dangerously close to punching his face in for his behaviour towards his best mate.

"Amen, Cole! Amen!" Chuck shouted, and he pointed multiple times in immense approval of his best friend's comments.

"Right, lads!" Chris shouted suddenly with a commanding presence. "Let's end it here and finish this outside before Blue Team walks in on us tearing each other's faces off whilst we're all stark naked!"

A few minutes later

Red Team departed the showering facilities on the barracks, now dressed. Bryce, Sarah, Chris, Jamie, John, and Big Dan were already in the corridor, while Chuck and Cole were the last to depart.

A standoff quickly ensued between Chuck and Bryce, with the entire team now present. As each second passed on by, the tension inside the hallway rose drastically as Chuck and Bryce exchanged intense glares towards one another, and everyone else knew it was about to kick off big time!

Nobody on the team had any intentions to intervene, open their mouths, or to egg either of the two on to scrap with each other.

This dispute could only end one way.

The team couldn't move on until it had.

The standoff continued for a short moment until Chuck began to move in motion towards Bryce, and Bryce followed suit.

Arriving in Chuck's proximity, Bryce prepared a straight punch at Chuck, which Chuck dodged, and he took hold of the trailing arm of Bryce. Grabbing hold of him, he aggressively dragged Bryce forward with a scowl on his face.

They entered one of the team's open-door accommodations, and using all of his upper-body strength, Chuck prepared a forceful push, which caused Bryce to crash into a cabinet and he lost his balance.

The remaining members of Red Team dashed to the doorway to obtain a vantage of the fight now in full force between Chuck and Bryce.

With Bryce off-balance, Chuck entered his proximity, and he sent a punch to the left of Bryce's face.

Bryce was able to parry the incoming attack with his hand, and they started to grapple as Bryce sharply kicked Chuck's right ankle multiple times in an attempt to throw him off balance to obtain an advantage to connect a blow to his face.

Chuck steadied himself from Bryce's kicking assault, and with his grip still on Bryce, he pushed Bryce forwards and towards the exit of the room, and Red Team quickly moved out of dodge.

Arriving out in the corridor, Bryce quickly tumbled, and Chuck fell along with him.

Landing on the corridor floor, Bryce caught Chuck with a straight left punch that connected against the left side of Chuck's lower lip.

Chuck grimaced from the hit which packed a punch as they picked themselves up from the ground, and Red Team kept their distance from their quarrelling teammates.

Now on their feet and squaring up eye-to-eye with each other, they positioned themselves into fighting stances, but Bryce was a split second too slow to set up his guard.

With the advantage for the first time in the altercation, Chuck pounced as he fired off a devastating left hook that connected with such ferocity to the right side of Bryce's face, it sent him tumbling backwards, and he fell to the floor of the barracks' corridor.

Chuck was on top of Bryce in an instant. He could see that the hit he landed was already a knockout on Bryce, but he had never felt angrier in his entire life.

"DON'T YOU EVER TREAT ME LIKE YOU HAVE TODAY AGAIN!" Chuck warned in extreme anger down at him, and looking down on his teammate, he threw a ferocious straight punch towards Bryce's chin, who attempted to raise his guard, but his hands were gone.

He was defenceless.

The second punch instantly knocked Bryce out cold, and Red Team audibly winced at the ferocity of the blow.

A few seconds passed as Chuck hovered over his disabled teammate, his anger consuming every part of his tensed up body.

Staff Sergeant MacDonald disturbed the chilling silence in the corridor. "Right, that's the end of it!" he commanded.

Chuck abandoned his position over Bryce, and he turned to face the team. He nodded at his team leader, before he walked on past them, and he entered his housing to cool down.

O-x-O-x-O-x-O

There had been a brief cooling-off period, and Bryce was conscious once more. He was stood in the presence of Jamie and Big Dan, who had helped him to his feet.

Now being humbled by Chuck, Bryce knew he needed to attempt to mend relations with the rest of the team that had also taken issue with him.

Glancing at Jamie, he offered his hand out towards him in an attempt to make it up with him, and he found it hard to look at him in embarrassment from being knocked out by Chuck.

Jamie scoffed sharply. "Are you serious?" he asked, shaking his head, but he didn't give Bryce a chance to reply, "I have a good mind to deck you just like Chuck did! And if you ever run your mouth off again saying Jamie said this, Jamie said that, then that's exactly what I'll do, and it will be much worse than what Chuck just gave you. I'll warn you one time, and one time only! Keep your fucking mouth shut about me and about everyone else on this team!"

And with that, Jamie walked off towards John Murray, who was waiting further up the corridor.

Bryce turned his glance towards Big Dan.

Big Dan suddenly laughed in Bryce's face while lifting his head back as he crossed his arms. "Don't even look at me for any sympathy, fella. I took heavy fire side by side in the shithole compounds of Afghanistan with both of those fellas that you have embarrassed and made a mockery out of today. And I'll give you a warning or two as well. If you don't intend to come home in a wooden box from when we do get out there, then you need to start treating all of us as your mates, and not how you've been behaving towards us since you got here. Today wasn't my fight because I never do something without giving a warning. But if you ever put any of my mates in positions like you've put Chuck, Sarah and Jamie in today again, then the next one will be my fight. Is that understood, fella?" Big Dan asked as he burnt a stern look towards Bryce.

Bryce nodded in acknowledgement. "Yeah."

Big Dan held his unfriendly glance towards Bryce for a final second before he turned, and he headed in the same direction Jamie just did.

O-x-O-x-O-x-O

Chuck and Cole came to a stop in Chuck's car outside Cole's house. Because of the potential active threat against them, they were armed per Colonel Wood's orders.

"Thanks for this, Chuck. I need to spend some time with her and explain the situation to her clearly," Cole said.

Chuck nodded, and he grinned at his best friend, but his mouth hurt from the hit that Bryce had landed on him. "Don't worry about it, mate. She's family."

Cole nodded with a loving gaze towards his best mate. "I'm proud of you. You gave Byrce a good beasting," Cole said in approval, and he moved to pat Chuck on his upper leg.

"Was the hit when he was on the deck too much?" Chuck asked, grimacing awkwardly as he thought back to the fight with Bryce a short while ago.

Cole shook his head and waved it off with his hand. "No, Chuck. It was no less than what that prick deserved. He's had it coming for a long time. I still need words with him myself."

"Cole, it's finished, mate," Chuck protested his best mate's comments as they remained idle in the front seats of his vehicle.

"For you, maybe it is, Chuck. But I wouldn't be your best mate if I didn't follow on after you," Cole remained unyielding in his stance as they held their gaze.

Chuck shook his head. "Cole, it's not necessary, mate, really. He won't behave like that again, and if he does, then he's more stupid than he looks," he stated.

Cole crossed his arms. "Chuck, if it's bothering you so much, then out of respect for my friendship with you, my response will be measured, and I won't go overboard. But he's said and done a lot of things to my best mate today, and it won't go without an appropriate response from me."

"Cole, I get that, but he needs a route back to the team without everyone taking issue with and knocking him out," Chuck laughed as they departed his car, and he promptly locked the vehicle.

He quickly caught up with Cole as they walked up Cole's driveway.

Cole nodded at Chuck. "And he will have one after I've had words with him. We don't bottle shit up inside in this regiment. We say what we have to say, and I have things to say to him, and that's the end of it, Chuck."

The best friends arrived at Cole's door, and with his keys in hand, he unlocked the door to his property, and they entered inside. Now inside, they drew out their firearms, and they prepared to sweep the house clear of any potential threat to them.

However, they paused their actions when Sophie soon appeared in view. She met the glance of both men briefly before her gaze lowered to the pistols in both of their hands that they were pointing at her, but they promptly lowered their weapons.

"Is that entrance you have just both made concerning why you got called in yesterday?" she asked, shifting her glance between the best mates.

Both men nodded.

"Yes, we'll tell you about it soon," Cole said.

Sophie nodded.

"Best to sweep the house anyway, Cole, you never know, mate," Chuck suggested with slight concern.

Cole nodded with Chuck's assessment. "Sophie, we'll be right back, ok?"

Sophie nodded.

Chuck and Cole quickly proceeded around the length of Cole's home in search of any potential hidden assailant. The best friends were simply following their standard operating procedures as tier-one soldiers. They were very good at it, and it's what they were trained to do.

They quickly secured Cole's home, and the rear of his property, and they found no hostile threat to either of them or Sophie.

Returning to Sophie's presence, they holstered their sidearms as Sophie locked her gaze onto Chuck.

"Wow, Chuck, what happened to you?" Sophie declared, looking right at Chuck's cut and bruised lip.

"You should see the other chap," Cole declared with pride.

"Who was it?" Sophie asked with concern.

"Bryce," Chuck admitted.

Sophie shook her head. "Teammates shouldn't be fighting. You need to trust in each other to have each other's backs and do what you need to do to come home."

Chuck and Cole nodded.

"Sophie, I agree," Chuck said.

"So why did you?" she asked.

Chuck drew out a sigh. "It's complicated."

"Is it resolved now?" she asked.

Chuck and Cole nodded.

"Yeah, Sophie, it's fine. Don't worry about it," Cole said, reassuringly.

Sophie moved in to slap Cole's arm. "Of course, I'm going to worry about it, Cole. Your best friend is looking like a boxer!" she chastised him.

Chuck and Cole instantly began to snort to hold in their laughter, but they were unsuccessful, and they quickly began to chuckle together, which hurt Chuck.

"Ow," he winced as he moved to hold his lip.

Sophie shook her head at them both before she moved to take Chuck's hand, and she pulled away at him towards the kitchen.

"Hang on a minute. Just where do you think you're both going?" Cole asked after them.

"To get him some ice," Sophie said back.

"Don't I get any attention?" Cole asked, grinning.

"Why? Have you been in a fight too?" Sophie asked back.

Chuck pointed at his best friend, grinning. "Oh, she got you!" he said, laughing.

Cole chuckled as he followed them into the kitchen.

Sophie promptly got out a frozen bag from the freezer, and she handed it to Chuck.

"Thanks," he said affectionately as he moved the ice up to the swollen and cut section of his face, but he winced at the contact.

Sophie and Cole instantly shook their heads at him.

"You baby," Sophie declared amusingly.

"I couldn't agree more, beautiful. You should see him at work," Cole joked with a straight face.

Chuck pointed at his best friend in contempt. "Hey, you!" he protested as a smile threatened to escape.

Cole and Sophie chuckled before they shared a lovers' kiss.

"That's better. I was beginning to think that I was the third wheel and not Chuck," he said, chuckling.

"Shut up, Cole," Sophie said with an affectionate smile.

Chuck nodded in immense agreement while pointing at Sophie with endorsement. "I couldn't agree more. As she so elegantly said: shut up, Cole."

"I'm feeling a bit teamed on here. Where's Sarah when I need her?" Cole joked.

Chuck pointed at his best friend. "Don't start!" he warned, as a grin threatened to erupt.

Sophie narrowed her eyes as she shifted her glance between them both. "Is there something I should know about? Do you and Sarah already have a thing?"

Chuck turned awkward, and finding it hard to lie to Sophie, he said, "Who, me and Sarah? Nope. Never."

Sophie continued her inquisitive glance. "Never is a long word, Chuck. Maybe I'll ask Sarah instead. I'm sure she would tell me."

"Don't you dare!" Chuck quickly shot back as he suppressed laughter.

Sophie merely shook her head.

"What?" Chuck asked.

"You're too easy to read," she replied.

Cole nodded.

"Am I?" he queried, frowning.

Sophie nodded. "Concerning this topic, at least, yes, you are. But don't worry. It's none of my business, and I will ask no more. I'm sure you will tell me when you're ready to tell me and not before."

Chuck nodded in immense appreciation for those remarks. "Sophie, thank you."

Sophie turned her attention to Cole. "So, what can you tell me about what's happening right now, and why you both entered our home ready to shoot whoever came out of the living room when I did."

Chuck and Cole glanced at each other briefly as they each asked each other an untold question as to whether they should be candid in detail about what was going on, and they quickly nodded.

Cole turned to face his fiancée. "There's a possible active threat against us. I clocked a tracker on my car yesterday when I was cleaning it just before we were going to head out," he informed her.

Sophie flung a hand to cover her mouth in shock. "Oh my god!" she gasped.

"Yeah, the whole squadron is in lockdown and confined to living on base, and if we must leave, then it's to be in pairs at minimum, and armed," Chuck said while gesturing to the location of his now holstered sidearm, and Sophie darted her glance onto the weapon.

Cole stepped into his fiancée's proximity, and he took hold of both of her hands. "This is very important what I have to say now. If anyone comes to this address or at any other place looking for me, you have to tell them that I'm deployed. If they ask when I'll be back, just tell them that you have no idea. Ok?"

Sophie nodded multiple times in acknowledgement.

"Yeah, and as soon as they're gone, ring either of us immediately. Do not try to ring either of us while they're still in the house. It's too dangerous, and you could get killed," Chuck stressed.

Sophie nodded once more.

"If they came by vehicle, try and get the registration number but not at risk to yourself. Even the colour of the vehicle and model should be enough to find them when paired with precision timing of them being in the area, so don't compromise yourself to get the registration without being safe to," Cole said.

"Ok," Sophie agreed. "So, how long can you both stay? Do you have time for dinner?"

Chuck and Cole shared a quick glance as they contemplated the question.

Nodding at each other, they turned to face Sophie.

"Yeah, why not?" Chuck said.

"Dinner sounds great. We'll help you with it," Cole added on.

A smile lit up Sophie's face, and the best friend's returned it to her in kind.

O-x-O-x-O-x-O

Sarah entered her apartment with Jamie Hughes. She was here to collect some civilian clothing items and just generally to check on the overall status of the apartment.

Closing the door after them, they instantly drew out their sidearms because they took no chances just in case Sarah's apartment was hot with enemy combatants.

The teammates went room to room through all of Sarah's apartment until it was secure.

Relaxing slightly, they returned their sidearms to their holsters.

"Jamie, thanks for coming with me," Sarah said, turning to face him.

Jamie nodded at her. "Don't worry about it, mate. You're doing the same for me in a minute when we stop at my place."

Sarah nodded. "I also want to thank you for having my back at the canteen this morning along with the rest of the team."

"Sarah, mate, you did nothing wrong, and nor did Chuck. You hooked up with each other for a good time. I don't hold that against you, nor does Cole, Chris, Dan, or John, and that's all that matters. Fuck the rest of those judgemental bastards. They'd all do it too if you'd have taken an interest in any of them instead of Chuck," Jamie said.

Sarah puffed out a sigh, and she broke her gaze with him briefly.

"Are you regretting it?" he asked while sporting her a consoling smile because of her response to his remarks.

"I don't know, Jamie," she admitted, and she paused for a long moment in consideration. "I like him, and he likes me. But it's not as simple as two people liking each other in our world as you well know. We have professional standards to adhere to also, and now we're the talk of the whole base, and we will be for some time, so what we did has now been brought to work..."

Jamie held his comforting smile. "It must be hard for you, mate. I've never taken a liking to a teammate before, so I've not been in the position that the both of you are now in. If you need to talk to anyone on the team about it for an independent opinion, you can come to me. I promise you that I won't open my mouth to anyone about it, not to the lads, nor even to Chuck."

"Thank you, Jamie," she said as the teammates shared a warm gaze.

Jamie nodded. "Right then. Grab your things, and then let's be off before the IRA or Al-Qaeda do decide to show their faces," he joked.

Sarah nodded, suppressing laughter.

End of Chapter

Next Chapter: Chris arranges a football match (soccer to you Americans :P) as part of his way to have the team release tension on each other, and Cole does exactly that towards Bryce Larkin. This will be the final part of the Bryce Larkin segment. Ellie will also make a brief appearance in the chapter. And more!

AN2 Leave a comment, please.