Room 223 and beyond, birthday morning
Kawalsky was awake. Cam was not. This situation needed to be rectified, and it was with the age-old awakening tool known as a big fluffy pillow. Charlie hurtled it at Cam. "Wake up!"
Cameron jerked awake, blinking in confusion as he grabbed the pillow that definitely wasn't his. "What?" he asked, looking around. "Are we being invaded?"
"Nope. But we're running late. Up! Shower. Change. Now!" Kawalsky didn't give Cam time to think. "Let's go!"
"Uh..." Cameron blinked, his brain still not very much awake. Figuring this was part of the training thing, he stumbled out of bed. "Okay. Gimme five minutes," he mumbled as he headed towards the bathroom.
Looking quite pleased with himself as Cam went to the bathroom, Kawalsky headed to the closet and grabbed some of Cam's clothes. "Hey," Kawalsky said to get his attention and tossed the clothes to him.
Catching the clothes, Cameron frowned as he noticed they weren't his usual outfit to go running. "You want me to jog in these?" he asked.
"We're not jogging. Get ready or we're gonna be late!" He tapped his watch and then waved him off.
Cameron's mouth was already open to question as to what they were going to do then. When Kawalsky motioned to his watch, though, he decided he'd find out soon enough. With a nod, he turned on his heels and went to get ready.
While Cameron was off getting ready, Kawalsky grabbed his gear and shoved it into his pockets. He then opened the door and stuck his head out to look for Molly.
Molly was leaning against the wall next to the door to 223 twirling her digital camera around by it's strap. She looked up with a grin when the door opened. "Hey, Charlie. Is he ready?"
"Nah, he's in getting dressed now. You good to go? As soon as he steps out, I'm gonna drag him out the door. Gives him less time to think."
"I'm completely ready," Molly said as she stood away from the wall. "My ID is in my pocket and I even remembered my camera." She held it up before putting it in her jacket pocket.
Kawalsky grinned. "Cool. Gimme a sec. I think he's almost done." He popped back inside and closed the door behind him. "Mitchell, move it!" he barked.
"Dude, keep your pants on," Cameron said as he came out of the bathroom, still pulling his shirt down.
Kawalsky coughed and pointed to where Cam's pants button was undone. "Keep *your* pants on," he said and opened the door to reveal Molly. "Got your wallet and everything in here," he patted the bag. "Let's go!"
Molly was standing in the middle of the hallway now, hands behind her back and bouncing on her toes in anticipation. "Good morning, Cam!" She said with a bright smile.
"Yo, Molly," Cameron said, grateful that he'd gotten his pants closed. It was starting to really register that they weren't going for a run and Kawalsky having grabbed his things - whatever those were - was even more suspicious. "What's going on?"
"You'll see!" Molly said and stepped back to wait for them to start down the hallway.
"C'mon," Kawalsky said, gesturing to Molly with a jerk of his head. "Trust me, you don't want to keep these people waiting."
"People? What people?" Cameron asked, but he did move into the hallway to follow along.
"You'll see!" Molly repeated in a sing-song tone and turned to start skipping down the hall.
Another blink. "I can tickle it out of you," Cameron warned.
Molly stopped skipping and turned to walk backwards in front of him. "But, that would ruin the surprise," she said. "You wouldn't want to ruin your surprise, would you?"
Kawalsky looked very pleased with himself. "You tickle, I call it all off and you never find out." He appealed to Cameron's curiosity and kept walking. "So you coming or what? Because I don't wanna miss our ride and it won't wait forever."
Kawalsky didn't have to repeat that. Cameron quickly followed. "There's people and there's a ride?"
Smirking, Charlie just kept walking, knowing Cam would keep up. The smirk stayed all the way to the causeway where a black sedan was waiting for them. A man in civilian clothing was waiting for them by the car. "Hop in," Kawalsky called and went over to greet their driver.
"Dude?" Cameron stared at the car and then at Kawalsky. Something was definitely up.
Molly ran over and opened the back door of the car. "Come on, Cam! If you just keep standing there, we'll leave you behind." She climbed into the car, not waiting to see what he did.
Deciding that he didn't want to get left behind because he wanted to know what they were getting worked up about, Cameron climbed into the car. "When are you two going to tell me what's going on?" he asked loudly so Kawalsky would be able to hear him outside too.
When Cam got in the car, Molly took the opportunity to take his picture quickly. Then she gave him a huge grin.
Charlie finished up talking to the driver, giving him instructions not to tell and thanking him for the ride. He got into the car and put on his seatbelt. "When we get there."
And there came the obvious question. "Where's there?"
Molly looked up from buckling her seatbelt and grinned at him again. "You'll see!" She said excitedly.
The trip was going to take a while, but after about 45 minutes they were doing pretty well. The questions had stopped a while back and now there was a kind of electricity in the car. Not literally, but there was this uncertain, built-up excitement. Charlie looked at Cam and Molly and grinned. Today was going to be great. The driver kept his eyes on the road and they cruised along. Then the impatience set in.
Molly was trying to be good, but she was very excited. She took a few pictures out the window as they drove along, but was getting bored and finding it hard not to fidget. She hadn't thought to bring along a comic book or her video game and didn't think the driver would appreciate it if she started kicking his seat. "How long until we get there?" She finally asked.
"Still got a way to go yet," Kawalsky replied.
The fact that both Molly and Kawalsky were excited was definitely starting to catch on. Plus, Cameron still didn't know where they were going. "How much of a way would that be?" he wanted to know.
"As much as it takes us to get there," he grinned.
"How much would that be?" Cameron asked, because he needed to know, damnit.
"I'd kind of like to know that too," Molly added.
"You two just pulled the 'are we there yet?' thing on me! I can't believe you pulled the 'are we there yet?' thing on me. Soon! We'll be there soon!"
Cameron bit his lip, trying not to laugh at Kawalsky's reaction. "How soon's soon?"
Molly glanced at Cam and smirked slightly before changing her expression to one of complete innocence and looking back at Charlie. "Yeah, is it an hour soon or five minutes soon? There's a big difference."
He was getting exasperated. "It's just soon! Do you guys want me to turn this car around and head home?" He blinked at how he sounded. "Soon!" Charlie shook his head at the driver who had glanced over to see if he was serious.
Cameron immediately shut up at the threat. For about about fifteen seconds. "Did you bring food?"
Molly had pressed her lips together to keep from giggling at Charlie's outburst. She lost it though at Cameron's question and snorted with laughter.
Kawalsky snickered and shook his head. Then the driver took an exit off the main road. That made Charlie sit up more in his seat. "Hey guys? I think we're almost there."
"About time," Cameron perked up right away and nearly flattened his nose against the window as he looked outside and to see where exactly they were going.
Molly was doing some gawking out of her own window, camera ready, to see what she could see. Hoping that nothing would give away the surprise too early. Only the seatbelt kept her from crawling forward to try and look out the front window.
They rounded a few corners and eventually headed out onto a straight towards the Air Force base. The front gate got bigger and bigger and eventually they stopped at the front checkpoint where Colonel Brad Jefferson was waiting for them. Jefferson peered in at the car and when it pulled to a stop, Kawalsky undid his seatbelt and got out. Jefferson walked towards the car and Kawalsky gestured for Cam and Molly to follow suit and hop out.
Cameron didn't need much encouragement as he climbed out the car, gawking as he knew exactly what this was. He just didn't know what they were doing here, not that it mattered because this was the Air Force and whatever was happened next just had to be good. "Dude?" he questioned, looking around with wide eyes. "What's happening?"
Molly got out of the car and ran around to stand next to Cameron. "You'll see," she whispered and took another picture of the expression on his face before giving him another huge grin.
"Guys, this is Colonel Jefferson. This is Molly Hayes who's in on our surprise visit and Cameron Mitchell, birthday boy, who has no clue what we're doing here."
Jefferson grinned and offered a hand to shake. "Let's get this show going then, shall we?"
Cameron shook his hand eagerly. "What show would that be, sir?" he asked with as much enthusiasm as he was shaking the Colonel's hand.
Jefferson glanced at Kawalsky, who again looked very pleased with himself. "If I tell you, I get the feeling short stuff over here," he jerked his head towards Kawalsky. "Will get in my face. But if you give your ID to the Airman here, we can go take a look and stop the suspense torture I bet he's put you through."
Molly hesitated and gestured with her camera. "Is it okay if I take pictures or is that not allowed?"
"Yes and no. Just ask first," Jefferson smiled. The Airman processed their IDs and gave them all those neat little clip-on badges. "Here we go." He gestured to a golf cart that would take them to where they needed to go.
Not needing to be told twice, Cameron hopped into the golf cart. He studied his clip-on badge for a second, quite possibly thinking of framing it. Then he was looking around again, all wide eyes and nearly bouncing with enthusiasm. The presence of the Colonel was the only thing that kept him from actually bouncing. "This is so cool," he said to no one in particular.
Molly got into the golf cart and put on her badge before turing to take a picture of the Airman at the gate. She also took pictures of Charlie and Cameron before the cart started moving.
Jefferson drove the golf cart, but seemed more interested in his new driving companions. "So Cameron, I hear you've applied to join the service."
Cameron beamed at him and straightened up a bit. "Yes, sir. I'm currently training for my PAE to get admitted at the Academy."
"Good work," Colonel Jefferson replied. "Don't listen to what this guy tells you," he said, nodding at Kawalsky. "If he says anything anti-Academy, that is. It's the way to go if you want to make a career out of it."
Glancing briefly at Kawalsky, Cameron shook his head. "Kawalsky's actually been very helpful, sir. He's been helping me with the training."
"Now that I'll believe. But if he's actually pro-Academy, then miracles do happen."
Kawalsky remained silent, but gave Jefferson a look and gestured to himself as if to suggest 'duh, yeah they do happen, wiseguy'.
The golf cart brought them towards the hangars on the base, but Cameron wasn't paying much attention to where they were going. They were close to the landing strip right now, getting a perfect view of one of the F-16s taking off.
"Dude," Cameron said to no one in particular. "Look at that," he was completely absorbed in what was going on that he didn't even notice the golf cart coming to a stop.
Molly chuckled at Cam's reaction and took another picture after she got out of the cart. "You don't want to hang around staring too long," she told him. "You'll miss the good part."
Cameron climbed out of the cart, trying to combine looking around the hangar and keeping an eye out for more planes at the same time. "You mean this isn't the good part?" Kid in a candy shop didn't even come close to describing him right now.
Molly's smile widened. Oh, yes. This had been a very good idea. "No, Cam. This isn't the good part."
Colonel Jefferson had walked off to make sure everything was organized and Kawalsky turned back to the other two. "Cam," he called and jerked his head towards where Jefferson was waving them over to where he was standing by one of the planes with one of his pilots. "Well go on," he badgered. "You don't wanna miss your ride."
"Ride?" Cameron looked from the plane to the pilot and to Kawalsky and Molly. "You mean... Are you serious?"
Molly took another picture of Cameron. "Happy birthday!"
Cameron broke out in a grin and quickly moved over to hug Molly. "Best. Birthday. Ever."
Molly laughed and hugged him back. "It was my idea, but Kawalsky is the one who made it happen."
"You guys rock," Cameron said as he pulled back and moved over to give Kawalsky a very manly hug as well, with lots of back thumping.
Kawalsky was sure to give plenty of back thumping back. "Happy birthday, pal." He stepped back. "Go on, you gonna keep a full bird Colonel waiting?" Kawalsky grinned.
"No, sir," Cameron replied, grinning back at Kawalsky and Molly. "Thank you," he said before bouncing off towards where Colonel Jefferson and the pilot were waiting. This was going to rock like no other birthday ever rocked before.
((Preplayed with kawalsky and bruiser_in_pink. No interaction possible due to them leaving the island.))