The High Life (14/? Shannon/Stella)
Title: The High Life
Author: wiked_nachos
Fandom/Pairing: Rush - Shannon/Stella
Summary: Stella's brother Frank is slowly becoming corrupt from the influences of gangs and tastes of the high life. Unknowingly and unwillingly, he involves her in the dispute with a local gang who holds a lot of power in the area. On top of recovering from being thrown into the consequences of her brother screwing over a violent gang of drug addicts and traffickers, Stella has to deal with a long-lasting not-so-secret relationship at work, a clingly ex-fling and a stalker. How will Shannon and Stella survive these rough times? Together or apart? As friends or lovers?
Rating: PG-13 with mentions of sex
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Rush so this could really happen more than once a week for more than one hour every time.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to post. Next chapter coming soon. I promise.
Shannon was the first to wake the next morning with a mind full of fog. When a heavy boom rolled overhead, the fog cleared almost instantly and she was able to take in the overwhelming sensations flooding her senses. Her muscles groaned in protest when she moved to rub the last webs of sleep from her eyes. She shuffled and shifted and that familiar throbbing between her legs was still there, reminding her in jaded memories of what had happened the night before. Shannon felt like she had a hangover but without the one-man marching band playing in her head and instead of drinking alcohol it was like she had overdosed on Stella.
With a glance past her sleeping girlfriend, Shannon glanced at the clock and was shocked when she realised that she had only been asleep for three hours. She felt oddly refreshed as she shivered, taking in the feeling of her bare skin against the thin sheet that was covering most of herself and just over half of Stella. As she pulled the sheet tighter around her chest and tucked one arm under her pillow, Shannon took in the sight of her sleeping girlfriend. She finally understood the attraction of watching someone sleep: there was nothing put innocence and peacefulness on her face, her true beauty there for the world to see but only there for Shannon to see.
Stella was lying comfortably on her stomach with her arms acting as a pillow; her real one lying forgotten about on the floor. The sheet was sitting low on Stella's back exposing the tattoos and scratch marks marring the smooth olive skin. She smiled at the memory as her fingers reached out of their own accord tracing the ink's patterns and lines before moving on ghost across the already healing marks. Stella didn't wake until Shannon's fingers running through her hair and across the back of her neck stirred her from her slumber.
There was a nervous exchange of sleepy smiles and Stella stretched, her face disappearing into the crook of her elbow momentarily before one eye peeked out to take in Shannon. She was met with blue eyes staring back. The hand that had been playing with Stella's hair was now sitting firmly just above the sheet on Stella's back. Her fingers were cool against Stella's skin
It came as a whisper and Stella was pretty sure she wouldn't have heard it if she hadn't seen Shannon's mouth move. "Hey."
"Hey, yourself," replied Stella, shifting closer to Shannon. A few minutes were spent in silence before anyone spoke. "So last night was..."
Shannon's face fell slightly. Had she not been very good last night? From the responses she had gotten all night, she thought that she had been okay. Her mind raced along in the early morning light, her worry evident on her face.
"You weren't kidding when you said you were going to devour me," Stella joked, laughing at herself. Shannon blushed and smiled as well, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to the shoulder sitting before her effectively bringing both women even closer. "Have I told you lately that I love you?"
"I think there were several times last night." The older woman simply continued her ministrations across Stella's back. "I love you too."
Stella rolled over and covered herself up before pressing a soft kiss to Shannon's lips. The brunette hummed in contentment as she settled against the pillows and tightened her arm around Shannon. The younger woman slipped the tip of her finger along the bridge and down Shannon's nose with ease and dropped off the end softly. Her eyes slid shut just as Shannon began tracing imaginary lines across the side of her neck.
They spent the early morning hours in silence, the rain still bucketing on the roof. Shannon focussed on the steady beat of Stella's heart. it was a strangely intimate sensation for the Senior Sergeant; most of the sexual partners she'd had were never as willing to hold her, kiss her just because or tell her she was beautiful when she had just woken up as Stella was. It was the little thing that the brunette did that had caused Shannon to fall in love with her and the night before they had shown each other just how much.
The rain had shown no sign of stopping (despite the fact that it had reduced to a heavy drizzle) when they decided to get up to get something to eat. After their night together Shannon was more comfortable with her body and made no attempt in covering herself up as she sifted through her drawers for some clothes to wear around the house. Stella's grin was stopped in its tracks when a dark grey singlet hit her in the face.
"Come on, I'm getting hungry."
Stella reluctantly left the warmth of the bed and followed Shannon downstairs into the kitchen. As they made themselves coffee and toast, flittering around the small space, the two often found themselves attached somehow. Stella burnt her toast after becoming distracted with a rather deep kiss from Shannon.
"Shit!" she exclaimed, burning her fingers as she was pulling the hot toast from the toaster.
Shannon laughed. "You dork."
"It's your fault."
"Why is it my fault?"
"You distracted me."
"You kissed me first. I was simply returning it."
That was true and Stella huffed lightly before trying to scrape the charcoal off of her toast. Her sour mood improved slightly when Shannon pressed her lips to the back of her neck.
"Stop distracting me!"
Shannon simply laughed and continued her assault on Stella's neck until the brunette gave in. "I just can't stop touching you."
Stella dropped her piece of toast thankfully onto the plate and not the floor, and turned to face her girlfriend. That was the most straightforward Shannon had ever been with Stella.
There was a smirk on her face. "Oh is that so?"
Shannon nodded and felt herself being pulled in for a kiss. They didn't even pull apart when the phone started ringing, but instead let it ring out and the answering machine picked it up.
"Don't answer it," mumbled Stella.
Kerry's voice flittered out of the device as they continued to ignore it.
"Shannon, I'm guessing that the reason you're late to your nine a.m. fitness testing is because Stella is there. Both of you, get your arses in here."
They stopped kissing just as Stella's tongue slid into Shannon's mouth to look at the microwave clock. Its bright green letters read 09:44. "That's today?"
"Apparently. I thought the boys were doing that today and we were doing it tomorrow," said Stella, shoving her toast into her mouth as Shannon sped through her contacts list and quickly called Kerry back.
After a minute of 'uh-huh's' and 'mhmm's from Shannon, the older woman's eyes simply slid shut. "We'll be there at there around ten-thirty. We'll be an hour and a half late for fitness testing."
"Come again, why are we doing it today?"
"It got swapped around for Christian and one of his kids or something."
Stella nodded and sprinted upstairs, thankful that she had some clean clothes she could put on for their testing. That was the only real bad thing about being a part of a highly trained tactical squad, besides the paperwork; they had annual fitness testing to make sure they were still able to cope with the high standards of their jobs.
Thanks to Shannon's driving, they had made good time. Both of them had managed to have showers in record time, get dressed, drive to Stella's to pick up the younger woman's trainers and another change of clothes (it would have been just a little suss if she rocked up to work in Shannon's clothing again) before racing to work.
It was still raining when they arrived and the view they had over the city was dark and cloudy, a preview to the rest of the day. The clock in the dashboard of Shannon's car read 10:29 and the moment they stepped out of the car, the two women were met with a sour looking Kerry.
"Remind me to kill Christian. I was having a good morning," huffed Stella, before nearly running into Kerry who had crossed the parking lot without either of them noticing.
"Do I want to know why the two of you are late?" asked Kerry, with her arms crossed over her chest and angry yet curious look on her face.
Shannon and Stella shared a silent look before speaking simultaneously. "No."
"Well, go on, the garage has been blocked off for testing. They're waiting for you."
They trudged across the wet parking lot towards the back entrance of the building that led into the garage. The TR vehicles were parked outside to allow for room inside and Kerry's car was sitting next to them. The testers were finishing setting up the basic tests as they walked towards their lockers to rid themselves of extra items such as keys, wallets and phones.
Josh walked in halfway through their fourth test and laughed. Shannon told him off, that him that he had to do them the next day. Almost immediately his smile fell.
Four hours later and a sweaty Stella and a tired Shannon were sitting on the garage floor stretching after their shuttle run while the testers were completing Shannon and Stella's charts to compare their results to the norm requirements for their positions.
Thankfully they were both above the expected requirements and they headed back to their lockers to collect their stuff. When keys, wallets and phones were back in their hands and their towels were hanging over their shoulders, the two women met Kerry in her office to tell her that they were done.
"Our testing is done. Are we needed tomorrow?" asked Shannon.
"Unless you have paperwork, you both have the day off."
"Sweet," Stella whistled.
Shannon and Stella were halfway down the hallway when Kerry yelled out to them.
"And don't forget about the bush training on Thursday! You have to be here and ready to leave by eight!"
"Got it," yelled Stella, waving her hand over her shoulder.
"Don't be late!"
Shannon turned and nodded to show she understood before half chasing after her girlfriend through the garage.
"It's like déjà vu," muttered Stella as they stumbled back towards Shannon's car with sore legs.
"What do you mean?"
Stella pinched Shannon's keys from her hand again and headed for the driver's seat. Shannon was thankful for her girlfriends need to drive even though she had no idea how the younger woman had any energy.
"This is how I felt less than twelve hours ago."
Stella's smirk quickly disappeared when her girlfriend yanked on the strap of her singlet and pulled her into a kiss. The car doors were open and the vehicle was facing the building. If anyone was to walk out of the garage, they would see Shannon and Stella locked in a passionate kiss.
"Babe, someone could see us."
"I don't care," replied the Senior Sergeant. "Maybe we should go home."
"That sounds like a great idea."
"I think you need a cold shower."
"Care to join me in that shower?" quipped Stella. "But can we make it a hot shower? It's too cold for a cold one."
"Let's see how quickly you can get us home," answered Shannon, closing her door and pulling on her seatbelt as she waited.
Stella didn't need to be told twice as she closed her door and barely had her belt across her chest as she tore out of the lot. Shannon giggled when Stella groaned because her hand was slowly creeping up the younger woman's thigh. This only encouraged her to drive faster without actually speeding.
They had arrived back at Shannon's within fifteen minutes and the younger woman was practically trying to run through the hallway and pull her shoes off at the same time. Shannon's shoes came off, followed by her shirt dropping to the floor.
"You in a hurry or something Stel?"
Stella turned around just to see her girlfriend drop her shirt. Her jaw dropped and her voice croaked slightly, "Or something."
Shannon could only laugh as she was pulled upstairs towards the bathroom. As soon as they reached the top of the stairs, Stella's lips were on hers and she could feel hands pulling at her top trying to reach the skin underneath. They fumbled into the bathroom and Shannon broke away momentarily to catch her breath and open the shower door to turn on the taps.
Stella used the space to take a quick breath and take off her top leaving her only in her bra. The water was on and heating up fast. Shannon could feel the arousal coming off of Stella in waves; it felt just as strong as it had the night before.
Before she fully understood what was happening, she was being pulled into the shower. It was going to be a long, tiring afternoon.
It was nine twenty-five according to Shannon's watch and Lawson had started playing his classical music the moment TR1 was out of the parking lot. Today was the day of the Tactical Response's bush training exercise. Shannon would be leading Stella, Michael and Christian on a 'manhunt' for Josh and Lawson before a navigational exercise that would cover up to ten kilometres. They were currently heading towards the State Forrest over an hour away from the city and TR1 puttered behind TR2 along the windy roads.
Lawson's taste in music was beginning to give Shannon a headache and they were only twenty five minutes into the drive, but she could mostly blame that on not getting enough sleep the night before. That was purely Stella's fault. Michael hadn't said a word to her all morning even when she asked him how his fitness testing went. He had simply handed her a coffee and took the keys from her hand. The tension between them wasn't that high when they both laughed at their boss's antics when it came to his music.
Stella was trying to nap in TR2 as Josh and Christian talked in the front seat. It was all Shannon's fault she didn't get enough sleep the night before their training exercises. Her head was propped up against the window, resting on a blanket she had found in the boot of the car. Her attempts at trying to sleep were halted when Christian changed the radio station fifteen minutes into the drive and her phone buzzed in her pocket.
'Help. Lawson's music is driving me crazy and Michael hasn't said a word to me the entire drive.'
'You think you've got it bad? Christian has started talking about the Devine Jesus Christ and his kids.'
'It's a tie. I am so tired.'
'And whose fault is that?'
'Yours. :P. I love you. xx.'
Stella smiled sleepily at the text. The music wasn't that loud and she was sure the boys had heard her as she had typed her replies. Surely enough after her third message, Josh spoke up.
"Who is blowing your phone up?"
"My girlfriend," she answered before finally replying to the last message. 'I love you too babe.'
'Shannon,' he thought, smirking to himself.
"I'm going back to sleep," she muttered. She was trying to ignore any more questions from Josh about her current relationship. Even if he had his suspicions, Shannon and Stella couldn't actually comment on it without admitting that they were dating for the most part.
Christian moved on from his two (soon to be three) kids to a dream of his ten minutes later when he got back in the car after pulling over to relieve himself against a bush.
"I've had this dream my entire adult life right?" Stella could practically hear Josh nod. She wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or serious. "I'm driving home, it's Friday, had a crappy week, but the weekend's ahead of me. I turn into my street and I know it's there waiting for me. I turn into my driveway and there it is."
"What?" asked Josh.
"My speedboat."
"Bogan!" Stella deadpanned from the back seat.
"I thought you were asleep," he said, slightly crestfallen that his dream wasn't appreciated by everyone in the car.
"Yeah right, with this cock-rock banging in my ear."
Josh simply laughed.
"Cause you know you've made it when there's a speed boat in your driveway."
"Yeah, I reckon you could make that dream come true mate," offered Josh. He was beginning to get a little tired of this story, especially when all the comedy had worn off five minutes into the trip.
"But it just sits there. All weekend."
"Why Christian?" he asked.
"Cause I can't back a trailer for shit!" The Islander laughed at his own joke and then tried to listen as Josh answered his phone.
"Lawson says that there's a servo up here. We're going to stop so TR1 can fill up."
"I hope there's a toilet," muttered Stella.
The rain was getting heavier and some thunder rumbled over their heads as they pulled up to the servo. Michael got out of the car to fill it up with some more petrol before they moved up to their destination. According to Josh it was only about another ten minutes drive, but Stella wasn't listening as she rushed out to the mechanic in the garage to ask him where the toilet was. He wasn't going to deny a police officer.
Shannon watched for a moment as Michael went about filling up the car and listened through Lawson's open window to Christian complain about women going to the toilet being 'a major production'. Her attention moved to the road and bush land surrounding them as Michael then went on to call Lawson a tight arse because he wouldn't help pay for petrol. Christian honked the horn for Stella to hurry up.
"What?" she asked.
"I think your ex-boyfriend is trying to get your attention," explained Christian.
Stella turned at looked at Michael who glared at her and continued inside to pay. She turned back to Christian with a questioning look on her face. "What?"
One word summed it up.
"Overalls."
Stella finally spotted the mechanic just his eyes travelled back up her body. "Aww, gross," she whispered, more to herself than the boys and pulled a face at the mechanic. His leering smile dropped and he slammed the boot of the car he was standing in front of.
"Pretty subtle, Stel," said Josh as she got back into the car.
"Well that's how I roll Josh," she said sarcastically. Christian just laughed and started the car.
Josh was true to his word when they arrived at a service road into the Forrest. The Park Rangers knew that they were there and were the TR vehicles would be in case of an emergency although it was unlikely that they would be called for the emergency when the Rangers were told not to disturb the group.
The cars were parked and Stella took the moment to admire the view of Shannon walking towards her. She had to stop herself when Christian began getting out of the car and pushed herself to walk to the back of the car to get the equipment. They had their police issue jackets, their vests, safety glasses and paintball guns. It was still early and they were going to be out there all day.
"Alright. Anyone unclear on the operation?" asked Lawson. He and Josh were standing across from the rest of the group in camouflage pants. Stella was finding it slightly difficult to take him seriously as she put on her safety glasses. No one answered. "Good. There's a phone there is you need it. By needing it I mean someone is close to death."
"Or dead," added Josh sombrely.
"Excellent, see you soon," laughed Shannon, leading the group off into the words.
"Not if we see you first," challenged the team leader.
Stella clapped. Michael jumped off a fallen log. Christian started walking with big steps. Josh and Lawson smiled to each other and hopped into the driver's seat of each car and drove off. They were going to be driving around to a back road on the edge of the Forrest and then working back towards the officers.
"Let's move," ordered Shannon.
Over an hour later and the TR team had still not come across their 'criminals'. They were spread out in a standard formation with Michael in the lead, Shannon and Stella flanking the sides and Christian bringing up the tail end. The thunder was getting louder and they were on the west side of the mountain range that the Forrest was located on so all the water was running downhill under their feet. Thankfully it wasn't too muddy so they didn't slip too much.
They all stopped and Christian ran into Stella's back as they came across the head of a sheep on a stake, warning that trespassers were not allowed.
"That's sick," Stella declared, her weapon still raised and she looked at Shannon. "Who would do that?"
"Are we on someone's property?" asked Christian, when he managed to untangle himself from the three he had walked into after bumping into Stella.
"Nah. This is definitely State Forrest," said Michael, speaking for the first time since the left.
"Or someone thinks they own it," Stella added in.
"Alright, let's get back on task. According to intelligence, our fugitives are east of this position. Let's go," ordered Shannon.
Stella looked at her. The words Shannon used made her seem so high-tech.
They continued walking, crossing a track and moving back into the thick shrubs catching on their boots. They had now formed a line with Michael still leading. They were less than one hundred yards from the sheep's head when the sound of a thick twig snapping was heard. The group of officers stopped and dropped, waiting for anymore sounds.
There fugitives were close.
Stella was positive of this when pellets of paint began hitting tree trunks near her head and Shannon spoke through their comms. As they took cover the Senior Sergeant silently communicated with Stella, ordering her to try and get a look at where the shots were coming from.
The brunette motioned for Christian to follow her, leaving Michael with Shannon back where they had taken cover. As Stella and Christian moved off to circle around one of their fugitives, Michael moved closer to Shannon.
"Shannon, it's an ambush. Let me get some distance. I can cover you."
"Nuh. You're a part of this team Michael. We're not splitting up."
"Trust me, it's a trap!"
"Did you hear that?" she asked, smirk on her face.
"Nah, he just wants you to think he's here," justified Michael.
In the distance they could hear Lawson groaning about something. There was one more crack of a twig behind Michael and he turned, firing a pellet right into Josh's shoulder.
"Drop your weapon!" ordered Stella.
"Put it down!" came from Christian, some fifty meters ahead of Shannon. "You shouldn't break cover like that man."
"You almost cost me my notional life," muttered Michael as he pointed to Shannon.
The Senior Sergeant jokingly told Josh to put his hands in the air. He did before the three of them trekked off towards Stella and Christian holding Lawson and paint-gun point.
"Find a friend did you Lawson?" asked the younger officer.
"Its head's back that way," nodded the Islander before grimly adding, "on a stick."
They had an hour for lunch before they had to start their navigational exercise. Thankfully the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out. They sat down and opened their backpacks, pulling out sandwiches and water bottles. Shannon and Stella were sitting next to each other with their backs to the sun, and with the boys they made a large wonky circle.
"Hey, I got a question for you two," said Michael, pointing at the girls.
"What?"
"Leon's been going on about this at the pub the other night so I want to know if he's telling the truth. Then again he was drunk."
"Spit it out then," demanded Shannon, taking a bite of her vegemite and cheese sandwich.
"Is it true that the two of you kissed in the locker room?"
Shannon choked slightly, while Stella chuckled at Josh and Lawson's reactions; their eyes were bulging out of their sockets. Christian smiled at the memory.
"Yes we did," said Stella, almost proud.
Michael was giving Shannon a glare that she chose to ignore as he asked his next question. "Why?"
"Look at it this was. Back up Leon and she's pissed at me," started Stella. "Or back her up and shut Leon up. His silence s a wonderful sound."
"Fair enough," said Lawson. "Alright pack your crap up; you guys need to get going."
Their rubbish was stuffed back into their packs under drink bottles as they prepared themselves for the boring exercise, according to Christian. Lawson went on to explain their task.
"Alright, the next task is a navigational exercise. Follow the coloured markers in accordance with the map I've given you. Josh and I'll be waiting for you back at unit base, with food ready to take you back in to town. Now, you've made pretty good time so far so if you keep up the pace, you might even be outta here by nightfall."
"We'll make it," Shannon said cockily. Stella hid her smile, while Michael finally showed a warmer reception to Shannon by openly smiling at her.
"If you don't make it out of her by dusk, you're out here for the night," said Josh, his own smirk growing as Michael's fell. "And you don't want that."
"What, we'll be beheaded and impaled on a stick?" he asked jokingly.
"I reckon it's about an hour and a half before its dark."
"So best get moving," ordered Lawson, waving his hand in the direction of the first coloured marker.
"Keep your eyes open," Josh reminded them. God, it was like this was their first navigational exercise.
Stella took off in front, everyone else trailing behind her. Shannon pulled out the map Lawson had handed her after lunch while Michael searched for his compass.
"Maintain a thirty-five degree bearing. Should be about fifty metres in front of us," she explained, trying to watch where her feet were going and the instructions on the map.
Michael had taken the lead once again with everyone silently voting him in front. Stella was in between Shannon and Christian but she kept tripping when she would lose concentration. She was too busy watching Shannon. She was half-tuned out when the boys began talking.
"Thirty-five degrees, you got it," replied Michael.
"Hey, what do you think Josh knows that we don't?"
"About the spooky forest?"
"Yeah."
"Nothing." Stella didn't need to turn around to know that Christian was slightly confused. "The thing you have to realise about Josh is that he exists for one reason: and that is to fornicate."
"Fornicate?" asked Shannon.
"I'm in polite company Shannon, I'll use the polite term. And if he can't fornicate with a female, he'll find something else to fornicate with. In this case, he's fornicating with our minds."
"So you're saying he's a mind-fornicator?"
Shannon turned and looked at Stella. She could feel her girlfriend's eyes on her every time she took a step. But if she gave Stella attention for staring at her she may as well be walking backwards.
"Who's to say he did find a dead sheep out in the forest and cut its head off? Get us all on edge?"
"No way! Michael, you're full of it," said Stella. "There it is."
Straight up ahead they four police officers could see a thick red cloth tied round a tree, marking it.
"Aha. Team work."
"What are the next co-ordinates?" he asked.
"Ninety-eight degree bearing. One-point-five k," Shannon answered.
"That'd be this way," said Michael, turning.
Before he could gain any momentum up the hill, his boot caught something sending him falling down a small ridge.
"Michael! Michael!"
Stella reached him first. "Hey, you alright? Did you break anything?"
"I don't think so."
"I gotcha. Get up. You're such a tough guy," she commented.
Shannon laughed but Michael didn't seem to get the joke.
"I lost the compass."
"Ah, don't worry. I'll find it," said Christian, going back up the ridge slowly to search for the small white compass.
Michael went onto blame Josh. Stella shushed him and Shannon agreed with her. They were calming down until Christian told him that their only source of true direction was broken.
"Well can you take it apart?" asked Stella.
"Yeah I could but then what?" said Christian.
"Alright, let's just call this in. They have to pick up Michael anyway. We'll go in, have a barbeque, we'll be right," suggested the brunette.
"We're not calling it in. We've made it this far, I'm not losing this now."
Shannon chortled at him. "Well can you walk?"
"I can't dance, but I can walk. And when I see Josh, I am going to shoot the shit out of him."
Stella searched for Shannon's brown eyes and managed to find them, only they weren't filled with comic relief but it was closer to worry.
"We got about an hour left," said Christian.
"Let's do it. Look out for the markers and I'll navigate us out of here."
"Thanks for that Lawson," Stella joked, her head whipping around to Shannon just before she tripped.
"Watch your step Stella."
It was a fifteen hundred metre walk to the next marker, and that was under the assumption that they were walking in the right direction. With no compass, it made things a little harder. Shannon could hear the thunder rumbling over their heads which meant only one thing: the rain was back. The clouds were quite dark and Christian made a comment about God being pissed off about something.
The groups pace slowed with an injured participant and Stella had somehow been nominated to keep an eye on him.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"What do you think?" His voice was no longer full of angry hinted at Josh, but now there was a bit of bite to his words as he snapped at her.
"Where did that come from?" she asked.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you about what?"
"The kiss in the locker room."
"I call bullshit, because you are too pissed about just a kiss."
"I just want to know why you didn't tell me."
"That's it?"
"Yep. And you still haven't answered my question."
"Why didn't I tell you about the locker room kiss, gee let me think? Oh yeah, because it's none of your business who I kiss Michael. It was just to shut Leon up. Besides you're dating Audrey."
"We broke up. I was going to ask you out again."
"Okay, you need to get it through your head that I don't want to date you. Yes, we had sex. But that is all it was Michael."
Michael's face dropped slightly and his voice changed. Stella began walking again when Shannon yelled at them to hurry up.
"So what's the whole story? Are you dating?"
The automatic response was for Stella to deny her relationship with Shannon but she thought he deserved to know. She had kind of strung him along for two years. Besides it would get him off her back about it. Then again she and Shannon had decided not to tell anyone.
"It was just a kiss Michael."
"Are you sleeping with her?"
"No I'm not sleeping with Shannon. How about you get that through your head along with the fact that I don't want to date you? Huh?"
"Hey, hurry up!" yelled Christian.
They were lagging behind significantly and Stella jogged to catch up, leaving the physically and emotionally wounded Michael behind.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"As long as there is a big barbeque at the end of this," he said.
"Well, step it up, it's getting dark," said Shannon. She would never openly admit it but being left out in the woods over night was her most irrational fear. She had watched too many horror movies as a kid and vowed to stay away from them as much as possible. Her hand came up to play with the cross hanging around her neck. "If you're too injured, I can call Lawson to come and pick you up."
"Is this better? Is this better?" asked Michael sarcastically, trying to catch up by running.
Shannon and Stella turned as Christian took the lead, and the Senior Sergeant spoke again. "Oh, look at him go, look at him go."
"I know what you are doing, and you are worse than Josh."
"Hey," said Christian, pulling them from their banter. "There we go. Blue?"
Less than twenty meters ahead of them was a thinner blue rag tied around an even thinner tree. Shannon was definitely worried now as she searched the surrounding trees for any other markers; hopefully a red one was hanging off a tree somewhere close by.
"Well, he never said what colour," state Michael.
"No. Shit!" exclaimed Shannon, still searching for the invisible red marker when Michael snatched the map from her hands.
"Come on, it's not that hard. We're here, unit base is there. The sun sets in the west - thank you - so north is that way," said Michael, as if it was all that simple.
All three fully functioning officers were worried.
"We're not going to find the markers are we?"
"I blame Josh," said Michael.
'Here we go again,' thought Stella. 'Why did he have to fall down a hill? I could be getting ready to go to bed with Shannon right now. A warm bed, in dry clothes after a full meal.'
"No, you know what? I blame Lawson for a lack of leadership when it comes to Josh. Actually I blame both of them."
"Alright, let's follow Michael," said Shannon, caving in to the younger man's ideas.
"Hey there's another one!" shouted Christian, which was cut off by Stella's laughing when Michael fell over again.
Shannon trailed behind smiling lightly, but still worried. Her girlfriend must have sensed it because Stella held back, letting the boys go ahead.
"Hey, you okay?" asked the brunette. Her voiced softened the same way it did every time she spoke to Shannon. It was familiar and gave Shannon just a little bit of comfort.
"Yeah. I just don't want to get caught out here overnight."
"It'll be alright."
"If anything happens, we're armed with paint-ball guns."
"Spit it out," Stella deadpanned.
"I watched too many horror movies as a kid," she said. The last thing she wanted to do was get into a therapy session with her girlfriend about her irrational fears.
"Sure, sure. Oh hey, guess what? Michael thinks we're sleeping together."
"We are sleeping together," Shannon whispered back.
"He doesn't need to know that."
Shannon giggled and followed Stella back up to the boys, wishing she could just hold her hand. They walked in silence, their minds focussed on where they were walking. Michael eyed both women suspiciously. Even though Leon had a habit of over exaggerating especially when it came to his fantasies coming true right before his eyes, the intelligence officer had been right when he suggested the idea of something happening between the two women.
"Hey check this out. What the hell is this?" asked Stella as the group came across a burnt out car in the middle of the forest with no visible way in or out. There were also signs around the car, labelling certain places or objects like a cafe, yucca, bamboo and a topiary.
"Looks like a train ground for the bombers," commented Shannon, taking a quick look before following Christian in the direction of a possible road.
Once again they had formed a single line as they trekked through the never ending bushland. The sun was getting lower and Shannon could feel the drop in temperature, even through all of her layers. Stella tripped behind her again and she rolled her eyes. There was movement to their left and they all stopped to search for the source of the sound. Their team leader motioned for them to duck down silently.
"Josh?" she whispered.
Stella smirked and giggled quietly as she nodded.
"It's gotta be," muttered Christian. He himself was silently praying that it was Josh. If it was and one of them got shot with a paint ball pellet, it meant they could be lead out of the forest and back to civilisation.
The four of them smirked and pulled out their toy guns, ready to shoot the Senior Sergeant for leading them on a wild goose chase through the forest. For Michael it was to get him back for making him fall down the ridge. Christian was ordered forward towards the source of the noise and they all waited with baited breath to see the outcome. Shannon was ready to throw a stick at him as a twig snapped under his foot.
The Islander turned back to the group with a less than pleased but slightly amused grin. "Clear."
Shannon, Stella and Michael stood and holstered their weapons. Michael instantly became attached to the live sheep that was munching happily on the shrubs and weeds.
"Someone around her must have a broken fence."
Shannon and Christian agreed with Stella and they turned to look into the distance for any sign of a property fence. Their team leader took another glance at the darkening clouds and her worry grew just a little bit more. This didn't go unnoticed by Stella.
"Hey, how did you get out here girl?"
"How do you know it's a girl?" asked Stella.
"I know women," the young man explained cockily.
Christian could help but to point it out. "Women of all species."
Stella was somehow managing to keep a straight face, but she honestly wasn't surprised at Michael's behaviour. He had a habit of becoming attached to women he had just met, no matter which species, and she could tell that he was ready to make a dig. "You're a sheep magnet."
"Well you could say I go for a certain type." Michael spoke without taking his eyes from Stella.
The brunette simply rolled her eyes and scoffed along with Christian. Shannon could tell that he was hinting at Stella, and immediately shut down the conversation. She didn't either want to or need to hear about her girlfriends past with their immature colleague.
"The shadows aren't getting any shorter, let's move it folks."
"Shannon, I reckon we should bring her with us," Michael suggested with a grin on his face.
Stella finally laughed.
"What?"
"She's not safe out here."
"He's in love," joked Stella.
"Are you serious?" asked Shannon.
"Well look what happened to her mate."
"No! She'll slow us down!" Michael's smiled faltered. Stella and Christian's eyes flew back and forth between Michael and Shannon. "Do you want a barbeque or not?"
"Let's have a vote." Michael's three colleagues all pulled faces at him and walked off. "Ahh, stuff it."
They could hear him saying goodbye and trying to 'shoo' it away.
"Michael, hurry up!" yelled Shannon.
They walked mostly in silence for the next half an hour, with Michael occasionally whinging about leaving the sheep behind, being hungry and slightly in pain. The rain had finally set in for the afternoon and Shannon had a feeling that they would definitely arrive back in the city with head colds. When Stella looked at her girlfriend, she was reminded of why she had fallen for the older woman.
"Gorgeous," she whispered, barely loud enough for Shannon to hear. She must have heard it because she received a smile and a wink back.
When Stella finally looked back towards the front, Shannon had stopped and raised her hand automatically. She looked past her shoulder and saw an older man looking around for something. They all quickly took cover.
"He's got a weapon," said Christian.
"Trapper," said Shannon.
"Arsehole!" Michael whispered furiously.
"Alright, I want to talk to him. We're going to make an approach. Michael I want you to come around from behind and wait for my signal to make contact."
"Are you sure that's a good idea? He's armed," Stella asked.
"We're not going to let him walk. That trap could have killed Michael."
"Don't worry, Stel. We'll get him," Michael offered. He felt warm at the idea of Stella worried about him. Little did he know, the worry was more for Shannon, herself and Christian than it was about Michael. But that was only because she was mad at him for his earlier assumptions.
"You hope."
Their trapper was walking away from them and the remaining three officers watched as Michael sprinted silently to get in front of him so they could box him in. There was more thunder and Shannon signalled Michael.
Michael addressed him and held his attention before the others joined him. Shannon began asking questions and he admitted to looking for missing sheep due to holes in his perimeter fencing. He got a little smart with Michael over his weapons license, but in his defence Michael did walk into it. The trapper went on to explain that he set rabbit traps, nothing bigger, and it was his neighbours traps that kill his sheep.
"Who?" asked Shannon.
"Ginsberg."
"Why does he set traps?"
"Why don't you go and ask him. I say he lives just over there."
Christian stepped in. "We've actually found sheep, dead and alive. The live one is about a twenty minute walk that way."
"What about the dead one?"
Shannon handed Christian the map. "The body is about round there. But the head is back that way."
It was no secret that he was angry. "Bloody maniac. Can I have my gun back?" Stella adjusted the rifle before handing it back to him. "You lot aren't planning on spending the night out here are you?
"No," deadpanned Michael.
"That's good. You don't want to be out here at night," said the trapper, before walking off in the direction Christian had pointed in search for his live sheep.
The rain stopped suddenly and the sun came out of hiding. The day's rare warmth though was not long lasting as they speed walked through the forest. Stella was beginning to hate mother nature and her tempera-mentality. Why couldn't it just rain or shine? All she wanted was consistency, but her prayers were for rain so she wouldn't feel muggy and cold, wet and dry all at the same time.
"This is good," said Shannon, just as they came over a small rise. "If we're lucky we might be out of here by dark."
"Might," added Michael.
"Enough of you scepticism," said Shannon.
"We are an elite team. We cannot be beaten," Christian said in a voice that reminded Stella of the voiceover at the beginning of a Law and Order episode.
"Except we failed the navigational exercise," laughed Stella.
"It wasn't our fault."
"Lawson's going to make us pay for it, I bet you."
"What are they going to do? Withhold the sausages?" Michael joked sarcastically.
"Don't say that. Not even as a joke," announced Christian, just as he and Shannon came around a tree and spotted another dead sheep but this time it was impaled with a large spike log. "What kind of sicko does this?"
"Do you think it suffered?" asked Stella.
Michael rounded on Shannon. "What did I tell you? We should have brought her with us."
"Don't look at me."
"It was you who made the decision to leave her behind."
"It was you who made the final decision as I recall," said Stella, sticking up for her girlfriend. As they argued, her eyes flickered back and forth again.
"Now?" asked Shannon. It was only getting darker by the minute. They didn't have much sunlight left at this point.
"Or first thing tomorrow."
"What? You want to set up camp tonight?"
"Not particularly. But I don't really want to wander around lost in the dark."
"We might make it out of here," said a hopeful Shannon.
"We're not going to make it out of here Shannon!"
"What if it rains again?"
"Aren't you enraged by this?"
"Well yeah I am, of course I am." Michael wasn't letting her get out full sentences or paragraphs without interrupting. 'Who is the team leader again?'
"Well then don't you want to do something about it?" asked Michael. Shannon looked at him slightly shocked. He was moving on to borderline vigilante status now. Stella however couldn't help but agree with Michael when he suggested that they pay Ginsburg a visit about the dead sheep and offered Shannon a gentle smile. "So let's teach the prick a lesson."
Shannon was tempted to scoff when her girlfriend agreed with Michael, but she held herself back. If she said something about their history is would result in a fight; their first fight as a couple. If she said no she would become the bad guy and then Michael would really complain. She seriously wanted this day to be over.
"Alright," she started. She was a little uneasy as she spoke. "We'll find a space and set up camp, hit him at first light."
Michael seemed pleased with himself. "Okay."
Within in twenty minutes, they had found a nicely sized area with low shrubs for cover. It wasn't too big so they were in shouting distance of one another, but not too close so that they were basically sitting in each other's laps. The trees were also thicker which mean that they had some shelter from any unwanted visitors and the lowest sitting branches gave them just a little bit of dryness.
As Christian cleared a space for himself and began setting up his little sleeping area, he announced his hunger. "I'm so hungry I could eat a butted monkey."
Shannon and Stella were looking into the surrounding bushland while clearing an area they could share. When Michael questioned them about being so close, they claimed it was to keep warm and that if the boys were that cold they could snuggle with each other. Michael went back to doing his own thing quietly.
"Is that a Samoan thing?" asked Stella.
"No, I think it's just Christian. Nice kit you got there," said Michael as he picked up another stick and watched as Christian set up a thin mat and blanket.
"It is."
"You reckon you got a spare thermal or something?"
"You see it's called, ahh, preparation," Christian explained mockingly. "You do good to remember that."
Michael took it in his stride and went back to collecting sticks. "It's fine. I've got my own shit going on over here."
Stella laid out her own thin mat as Shannon cleared a little more space for her own. Michael was the only one without something to sleep on besides the wet ground. Shannon laughed.
"No fires Michael."
"We're going to freeze our arses off."
"You were the one who wanted to set up camp," said Stella.
"You agreed with me!"
"No, I agreed with teaching the trapper a lesson. Not camping."
"Besides, a fire would tip of our sheep-torturing mate. This is a State Forrest. No fires except in the pits in the camping grounds," Shannon explained.
"I'm not eating it raw," said Christian.
Stella was lost as she leaned against a tree. "Do I want to know what you're not eating raw?"
"We're not eating the sheep," said Michael.
Stella shuddered and leant closer to Shannon for some warmth. She wasn't entirely sure is she was shuddering because of the rapidly dropping temperature or the idea of eating a murdered sheep.
"It's a sheep," said Christian, as if that justified eating it.
"It was murdered. You don't eat murdered sheep. Who are you?"
"What?"
The girls grimaced and laughed and prepared themselves for a cold, wet night with a very little source of heat.
When Stella announced she needed a bathroom break before they went to sleep, she pulled Shannon with her under the excuse that she didn't want to get lost and she wanted somebody to watch out for anyone else in the area. However the moment they were just outside the visual ability of the boys, the older woman was pushed gently against a tree.
"You have no idea how badly I've wanted to do that all day," said Stella, pressing her lips to Shannon's desperately and gripping her hips. Their vests were making it just a little harder for Stella to reach her girlfriend's lips.
"I have some idea," Shannon muttered as she smiled, her forehead resting against Stella's.
There were a few more quick kisses before they pulled apart and Stella took in the look in Shannon's eyes. "You alright?"
"Yes, I just really didn't want to get caught out here for the night."
"Neither did I. We could be snuggling in warm bed in a sleazy motel back in town right now," Stella joked, earning her a soft jab to the stomach.
"Part of it was because you all ganged up on me, don't look at me like that. You know it's true." Shannon's voice was soft to show she wasn't really angry, just a little upset that she had let herself be overturned by three junior police officers.
"You know I didn't mean it like that when I agreed with Michael. I said yes to getting back at that prick, not sleeping out here."
"I know. I guess it's just more his attitude that's giving me that shits than anything else. He keeps pushing about everything if it's not his way. Sorry."
"It's okay. I'm sorry that I didn't stick up for you earlier. It's just harder because he has suspicions. You know he's pushing you because of those suspicions. He's waiting for you to tell him off so he can pick a fight. We can't really do or say anything without admitting our relationship. It's the same with Josh. I guess this is the hard part about keeping it from everyone at work huh?"
"Yeah, I'd say so. In hindsight we did kind of bring it on ourselves."
Stella laughed lightly. Anything too loud would alert Christian and Michael. "I love you."
"I love you, too, baby."
They made their way back to their 'camp' to get some rest. Now Stella really did need to go to the toilet.
'Damn it.'
The rain was becoming heavier and more consistent when they finally decided to go to sleep. Christian simply smirked to himself as he watched the outlines of Shannon and Stella roll over and face away from the boys. He could just make out Stella wrapping an arm over Shannon. Fortunately for the girls, he couldn't hear the soft kiss that was pressed against the back of Shannon's neck.
Author: wiked_nachos
Fandom/Pairing: Rush - Shannon/Stella
Summary: Stella's brother Frank is slowly becoming corrupt from the influences of gangs and tastes of the high life. Unknowingly and unwillingly, he involves her in the dispute with a local gang who holds a lot of power in the area. On top of recovering from being thrown into the consequences of her brother screwing over a violent gang of drug addicts and traffickers, Stella has to deal with a long-lasting not-so-secret relationship at work, a clingly ex-fling and a stalker. How will Shannon and Stella survive these rough times? Together or apart? As friends or lovers?
Rating: PG-13 with mentions of sex
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Rush so this could really happen more than once a week for more than one hour every time.
A/N: Sorry it took so long to post. Next chapter coming soon. I promise.
Shannon was the first to wake the next morning with a mind full of fog. When a heavy boom rolled overhead, the fog cleared almost instantly and she was able to take in the overwhelming sensations flooding her senses. Her muscles groaned in protest when she moved to rub the last webs of sleep from her eyes. She shuffled and shifted and that familiar throbbing between her legs was still there, reminding her in jaded memories of what had happened the night before. Shannon felt like she had a hangover but without the one-man marching band playing in her head and instead of drinking alcohol it was like she had overdosed on Stella.
With a glance past her sleeping girlfriend, Shannon glanced at the clock and was shocked when she realised that she had only been asleep for three hours. She felt oddly refreshed as she shivered, taking in the feeling of her bare skin against the thin sheet that was covering most of herself and just over half of Stella. As she pulled the sheet tighter around her chest and tucked one arm under her pillow, Shannon took in the sight of her sleeping girlfriend. She finally understood the attraction of watching someone sleep: there was nothing put innocence and peacefulness on her face, her true beauty there for the world to see but only there for Shannon to see.
Stella was lying comfortably on her stomach with her arms acting as a pillow; her real one lying forgotten about on the floor. The sheet was sitting low on Stella's back exposing the tattoos and scratch marks marring the smooth olive skin. She smiled at the memory as her fingers reached out of their own accord tracing the ink's patterns and lines before moving on ghost across the already healing marks. Stella didn't wake until Shannon's fingers running through her hair and across the back of her neck stirred her from her slumber.
There was a nervous exchange of sleepy smiles and Stella stretched, her face disappearing into the crook of her elbow momentarily before one eye peeked out to take in Shannon. She was met with blue eyes staring back. The hand that had been playing with Stella's hair was now sitting firmly just above the sheet on Stella's back. Her fingers were cool against Stella's skin
It came as a whisper and Stella was pretty sure she wouldn't have heard it if she hadn't seen Shannon's mouth move. "Hey."
"Hey, yourself," replied Stella, shifting closer to Shannon. A few minutes were spent in silence before anyone spoke. "So last night was..."
Shannon's face fell slightly. Had she not been very good last night? From the responses she had gotten all night, she thought that she had been okay. Her mind raced along in the early morning light, her worry evident on her face.
"You weren't kidding when you said you were going to devour me," Stella joked, laughing at herself. Shannon blushed and smiled as well, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to the shoulder sitting before her effectively bringing both women even closer. "Have I told you lately that I love you?"
"I think there were several times last night." The older woman simply continued her ministrations across Stella's back. "I love you too."
Stella rolled over and covered herself up before pressing a soft kiss to Shannon's lips. The brunette hummed in contentment as she settled against the pillows and tightened her arm around Shannon. The younger woman slipped the tip of her finger along the bridge and down Shannon's nose with ease and dropped off the end softly. Her eyes slid shut just as Shannon began tracing imaginary lines across the side of her neck.
They spent the early morning hours in silence, the rain still bucketing on the roof. Shannon focussed on the steady beat of Stella's heart. it was a strangely intimate sensation for the Senior Sergeant; most of the sexual partners she'd had were never as willing to hold her, kiss her just because or tell her she was beautiful when she had just woken up as Stella was. It was the little thing that the brunette did that had caused Shannon to fall in love with her and the night before they had shown each other just how much.
The rain had shown no sign of stopping (despite the fact that it had reduced to a heavy drizzle) when they decided to get up to get something to eat. After their night together Shannon was more comfortable with her body and made no attempt in covering herself up as she sifted through her drawers for some clothes to wear around the house. Stella's grin was stopped in its tracks when a dark grey singlet hit her in the face.
"Come on, I'm getting hungry."
Stella reluctantly left the warmth of the bed and followed Shannon downstairs into the kitchen. As they made themselves coffee and toast, flittering around the small space, the two often found themselves attached somehow. Stella burnt her toast after becoming distracted with a rather deep kiss from Shannon.
"Shit!" she exclaimed, burning her fingers as she was pulling the hot toast from the toaster.
Shannon laughed. "You dork."
"It's your fault."
"Why is it my fault?"
"You distracted me."
"You kissed me first. I was simply returning it."
That was true and Stella huffed lightly before trying to scrape the charcoal off of her toast. Her sour mood improved slightly when Shannon pressed her lips to the back of her neck.
"Stop distracting me!"
Shannon simply laughed and continued her assault on Stella's neck until the brunette gave in. "I just can't stop touching you."
Stella dropped her piece of toast thankfully onto the plate and not the floor, and turned to face her girlfriend. That was the most straightforward Shannon had ever been with Stella.
There was a smirk on her face. "Oh is that so?"
Shannon nodded and felt herself being pulled in for a kiss. They didn't even pull apart when the phone started ringing, but instead let it ring out and the answering machine picked it up.
"Don't answer it," mumbled Stella.
Kerry's voice flittered out of the device as they continued to ignore it.
"Shannon, I'm guessing that the reason you're late to your nine a.m. fitness testing is because Stella is there. Both of you, get your arses in here."
They stopped kissing just as Stella's tongue slid into Shannon's mouth to look at the microwave clock. Its bright green letters read 09:44. "That's today?"
"Apparently. I thought the boys were doing that today and we were doing it tomorrow," said Stella, shoving her toast into her mouth as Shannon sped through her contacts list and quickly called Kerry back.
After a minute of 'uh-huh's' and 'mhmm's from Shannon, the older woman's eyes simply slid shut. "We'll be there at there around ten-thirty. We'll be an hour and a half late for fitness testing."
"Come again, why are we doing it today?"
"It got swapped around for Christian and one of his kids or something."
Stella nodded and sprinted upstairs, thankful that she had some clean clothes she could put on for their testing. That was the only real bad thing about being a part of a highly trained tactical squad, besides the paperwork; they had annual fitness testing to make sure they were still able to cope with the high standards of their jobs.
Thanks to Shannon's driving, they had made good time. Both of them had managed to have showers in record time, get dressed, drive to Stella's to pick up the younger woman's trainers and another change of clothes (it would have been just a little suss if she rocked up to work in Shannon's clothing again) before racing to work.
It was still raining when they arrived and the view they had over the city was dark and cloudy, a preview to the rest of the day. The clock in the dashboard of Shannon's car read 10:29 and the moment they stepped out of the car, the two women were met with a sour looking Kerry.
"Remind me to kill Christian. I was having a good morning," huffed Stella, before nearly running into Kerry who had crossed the parking lot without either of them noticing.
"Do I want to know why the two of you are late?" asked Kerry, with her arms crossed over her chest and angry yet curious look on her face.
Shannon and Stella shared a silent look before speaking simultaneously. "No."
"Well, go on, the garage has been blocked off for testing. They're waiting for you."
They trudged across the wet parking lot towards the back entrance of the building that led into the garage. The TR vehicles were parked outside to allow for room inside and Kerry's car was sitting next to them. The testers were finishing setting up the basic tests as they walked towards their lockers to rid themselves of extra items such as keys, wallets and phones.
Josh walked in halfway through their fourth test and laughed. Shannon told him off, that him that he had to do them the next day. Almost immediately his smile fell.
Four hours later and a sweaty Stella and a tired Shannon were sitting on the garage floor stretching after their shuttle run while the testers were completing Shannon and Stella's charts to compare their results to the norm requirements for their positions.
Thankfully they were both above the expected requirements and they headed back to their lockers to collect their stuff. When keys, wallets and phones were back in their hands and their towels were hanging over their shoulders, the two women met Kerry in her office to tell her that they were done.
"Our testing is done. Are we needed tomorrow?" asked Shannon.
"Unless you have paperwork, you both have the day off."
"Sweet," Stella whistled.
Shannon and Stella were halfway down the hallway when Kerry yelled out to them.
"And don't forget about the bush training on Thursday! You have to be here and ready to leave by eight!"
"Got it," yelled Stella, waving her hand over her shoulder.
"Don't be late!"
Shannon turned and nodded to show she understood before half chasing after her girlfriend through the garage.
"It's like déjà vu," muttered Stella as they stumbled back towards Shannon's car with sore legs.
"What do you mean?"
Stella pinched Shannon's keys from her hand again and headed for the driver's seat. Shannon was thankful for her girlfriends need to drive even though she had no idea how the younger woman had any energy.
"This is how I felt less than twelve hours ago."
Stella's smirk quickly disappeared when her girlfriend yanked on the strap of her singlet and pulled her into a kiss. The car doors were open and the vehicle was facing the building. If anyone was to walk out of the garage, they would see Shannon and Stella locked in a passionate kiss.
"Babe, someone could see us."
"I don't care," replied the Senior Sergeant. "Maybe we should go home."
"That sounds like a great idea."
"I think you need a cold shower."
"Care to join me in that shower?" quipped Stella. "But can we make it a hot shower? It's too cold for a cold one."
"Let's see how quickly you can get us home," answered Shannon, closing her door and pulling on her seatbelt as she waited.
Stella didn't need to be told twice as she closed her door and barely had her belt across her chest as she tore out of the lot. Shannon giggled when Stella groaned because her hand was slowly creeping up the younger woman's thigh. This only encouraged her to drive faster without actually speeding.
They had arrived back at Shannon's within fifteen minutes and the younger woman was practically trying to run through the hallway and pull her shoes off at the same time. Shannon's shoes came off, followed by her shirt dropping to the floor.
"You in a hurry or something Stel?"
Stella turned around just to see her girlfriend drop her shirt. Her jaw dropped and her voice croaked slightly, "Or something."
Shannon could only laugh as she was pulled upstairs towards the bathroom. As soon as they reached the top of the stairs, Stella's lips were on hers and she could feel hands pulling at her top trying to reach the skin underneath. They fumbled into the bathroom and Shannon broke away momentarily to catch her breath and open the shower door to turn on the taps.
Stella used the space to take a quick breath and take off her top leaving her only in her bra. The water was on and heating up fast. Shannon could feel the arousal coming off of Stella in waves; it felt just as strong as it had the night before.
Before she fully understood what was happening, she was being pulled into the shower. It was going to be a long, tiring afternoon.
It was nine twenty-five according to Shannon's watch and Lawson had started playing his classical music the moment TR1 was out of the parking lot. Today was the day of the Tactical Response's bush training exercise. Shannon would be leading Stella, Michael and Christian on a 'manhunt' for Josh and Lawson before a navigational exercise that would cover up to ten kilometres. They were currently heading towards the State Forrest over an hour away from the city and TR1 puttered behind TR2 along the windy roads.
Lawson's taste in music was beginning to give Shannon a headache and they were only twenty five minutes into the drive, but she could mostly blame that on not getting enough sleep the night before. That was purely Stella's fault. Michael hadn't said a word to her all morning even when she asked him how his fitness testing went. He had simply handed her a coffee and took the keys from her hand. The tension between them wasn't that high when they both laughed at their boss's antics when it came to his music.
Stella was trying to nap in TR2 as Josh and Christian talked in the front seat. It was all Shannon's fault she didn't get enough sleep the night before their training exercises. Her head was propped up against the window, resting on a blanket she had found in the boot of the car. Her attempts at trying to sleep were halted when Christian changed the radio station fifteen minutes into the drive and her phone buzzed in her pocket.
'Help. Lawson's music is driving me crazy and Michael hasn't said a word to me the entire drive.'
'You think you've got it bad? Christian has started talking about the Devine Jesus Christ and his kids.'
'It's a tie. I am so tired.'
'And whose fault is that?'
'Yours. :P. I love you. xx.'
Stella smiled sleepily at the text. The music wasn't that loud and she was sure the boys had heard her as she had typed her replies. Surely enough after her third message, Josh spoke up.
"Who is blowing your phone up?"
"My girlfriend," she answered before finally replying to the last message. 'I love you too babe.'
'Shannon,' he thought, smirking to himself.
"I'm going back to sleep," she muttered. She was trying to ignore any more questions from Josh about her current relationship. Even if he had his suspicions, Shannon and Stella couldn't actually comment on it without admitting that they were dating for the most part.
Christian moved on from his two (soon to be three) kids to a dream of his ten minutes later when he got back in the car after pulling over to relieve himself against a bush.
"I've had this dream my entire adult life right?" Stella could practically hear Josh nod. She wasn't sure if he was being sarcastic or serious. "I'm driving home, it's Friday, had a crappy week, but the weekend's ahead of me. I turn into my street and I know it's there waiting for me. I turn into my driveway and there it is."
"What?" asked Josh.
"My speedboat."
"Bogan!" Stella deadpanned from the back seat.
"I thought you were asleep," he said, slightly crestfallen that his dream wasn't appreciated by everyone in the car.
"Yeah right, with this cock-rock banging in my ear."
Josh simply laughed.
"Cause you know you've made it when there's a speed boat in your driveway."
"Yeah, I reckon you could make that dream come true mate," offered Josh. He was beginning to get a little tired of this story, especially when all the comedy had worn off five minutes into the trip.
"But it just sits there. All weekend."
"Why Christian?" he asked.
"Cause I can't back a trailer for shit!" The Islander laughed at his own joke and then tried to listen as Josh answered his phone.
"Lawson says that there's a servo up here. We're going to stop so TR1 can fill up."
"I hope there's a toilet," muttered Stella.
The rain was getting heavier and some thunder rumbled over their heads as they pulled up to the servo. Michael got out of the car to fill it up with some more petrol before they moved up to their destination. According to Josh it was only about another ten minutes drive, but Stella wasn't listening as she rushed out to the mechanic in the garage to ask him where the toilet was. He wasn't going to deny a police officer.
Shannon watched for a moment as Michael went about filling up the car and listened through Lawson's open window to Christian complain about women going to the toilet being 'a major production'. Her attention moved to the road and bush land surrounding them as Michael then went on to call Lawson a tight arse because he wouldn't help pay for petrol. Christian honked the horn for Stella to hurry up.
"What?" she asked.
"I think your ex-boyfriend is trying to get your attention," explained Christian.
Stella turned at looked at Michael who glared at her and continued inside to pay. She turned back to Christian with a questioning look on her face. "What?"
One word summed it up.
"Overalls."
Stella finally spotted the mechanic just his eyes travelled back up her body. "Aww, gross," she whispered, more to herself than the boys and pulled a face at the mechanic. His leering smile dropped and he slammed the boot of the car he was standing in front of.
"Pretty subtle, Stel," said Josh as she got back into the car.
"Well that's how I roll Josh," she said sarcastically. Christian just laughed and started the car.
Josh was true to his word when they arrived at a service road into the Forrest. The Park Rangers knew that they were there and were the TR vehicles would be in case of an emergency although it was unlikely that they would be called for the emergency when the Rangers were told not to disturb the group.
The cars were parked and Stella took the moment to admire the view of Shannon walking towards her. She had to stop herself when Christian began getting out of the car and pushed herself to walk to the back of the car to get the equipment. They had their police issue jackets, their vests, safety glasses and paintball guns. It was still early and they were going to be out there all day.
"Alright. Anyone unclear on the operation?" asked Lawson. He and Josh were standing across from the rest of the group in camouflage pants. Stella was finding it slightly difficult to take him seriously as she put on her safety glasses. No one answered. "Good. There's a phone there is you need it. By needing it I mean someone is close to death."
"Or dead," added Josh sombrely.
"Excellent, see you soon," laughed Shannon, leading the group off into the words.
"Not if we see you first," challenged the team leader.
Stella clapped. Michael jumped off a fallen log. Christian started walking with big steps. Josh and Lawson smiled to each other and hopped into the driver's seat of each car and drove off. They were going to be driving around to a back road on the edge of the Forrest and then working back towards the officers.
"Let's move," ordered Shannon.
Over an hour later and the TR team had still not come across their 'criminals'. They were spread out in a standard formation with Michael in the lead, Shannon and Stella flanking the sides and Christian bringing up the tail end. The thunder was getting louder and they were on the west side of the mountain range that the Forrest was located on so all the water was running downhill under their feet. Thankfully it wasn't too muddy so they didn't slip too much.
They all stopped and Christian ran into Stella's back as they came across the head of a sheep on a stake, warning that trespassers were not allowed.
"That's sick," Stella declared, her weapon still raised and she looked at Shannon. "Who would do that?"
"Are we on someone's property?" asked Christian, when he managed to untangle himself from the three he had walked into after bumping into Stella.
"Nah. This is definitely State Forrest," said Michael, speaking for the first time since the left.
"Or someone thinks they own it," Stella added in.
"Alright, let's get back on task. According to intelligence, our fugitives are east of this position. Let's go," ordered Shannon.
Stella looked at her. The words Shannon used made her seem so high-tech.
They continued walking, crossing a track and moving back into the thick shrubs catching on their boots. They had now formed a line with Michael still leading. They were less than one hundred yards from the sheep's head when the sound of a thick twig snapping was heard. The group of officers stopped and dropped, waiting for anymore sounds.
There fugitives were close.
Stella was positive of this when pellets of paint began hitting tree trunks near her head and Shannon spoke through their comms. As they took cover the Senior Sergeant silently communicated with Stella, ordering her to try and get a look at where the shots were coming from.
The brunette motioned for Christian to follow her, leaving Michael with Shannon back where they had taken cover. As Stella and Christian moved off to circle around one of their fugitives, Michael moved closer to Shannon.
"Shannon, it's an ambush. Let me get some distance. I can cover you."
"Nuh. You're a part of this team Michael. We're not splitting up."
"Trust me, it's a trap!"
"Did you hear that?" she asked, smirk on her face.
"Nah, he just wants you to think he's here," justified Michael.
In the distance they could hear Lawson groaning about something. There was one more crack of a twig behind Michael and he turned, firing a pellet right into Josh's shoulder.
"Drop your weapon!" ordered Stella.
"Put it down!" came from Christian, some fifty meters ahead of Shannon. "You shouldn't break cover like that man."
"You almost cost me my notional life," muttered Michael as he pointed to Shannon.
The Senior Sergeant jokingly told Josh to put his hands in the air. He did before the three of them trekked off towards Stella and Christian holding Lawson and paint-gun point.
"Find a friend did you Lawson?" asked the younger officer.
"Its head's back that way," nodded the Islander before grimly adding, "on a stick."
They had an hour for lunch before they had to start their navigational exercise. Thankfully the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out. They sat down and opened their backpacks, pulling out sandwiches and water bottles. Shannon and Stella were sitting next to each other with their backs to the sun, and with the boys they made a large wonky circle.
"Hey, I got a question for you two," said Michael, pointing at the girls.
"What?"
"Leon's been going on about this at the pub the other night so I want to know if he's telling the truth. Then again he was drunk."
"Spit it out then," demanded Shannon, taking a bite of her vegemite and cheese sandwich.
"Is it true that the two of you kissed in the locker room?"
Shannon choked slightly, while Stella chuckled at Josh and Lawson's reactions; their eyes were bulging out of their sockets. Christian smiled at the memory.
"Yes we did," said Stella, almost proud.
Michael was giving Shannon a glare that she chose to ignore as he asked his next question. "Why?"
"Look at it this was. Back up Leon and she's pissed at me," started Stella. "Or back her up and shut Leon up. His silence s a wonderful sound."
"Fair enough," said Lawson. "Alright pack your crap up; you guys need to get going."
Their rubbish was stuffed back into their packs under drink bottles as they prepared themselves for the boring exercise, according to Christian. Lawson went on to explain their task.
"Alright, the next task is a navigational exercise. Follow the coloured markers in accordance with the map I've given you. Josh and I'll be waiting for you back at unit base, with food ready to take you back in to town. Now, you've made pretty good time so far so if you keep up the pace, you might even be outta here by nightfall."
"We'll make it," Shannon said cockily. Stella hid her smile, while Michael finally showed a warmer reception to Shannon by openly smiling at her.
"If you don't make it out of her by dusk, you're out here for the night," said Josh, his own smirk growing as Michael's fell. "And you don't want that."
"What, we'll be beheaded and impaled on a stick?" he asked jokingly.
"I reckon it's about an hour and a half before its dark."
"So best get moving," ordered Lawson, waving his hand in the direction of the first coloured marker.
"Keep your eyes open," Josh reminded them. God, it was like this was their first navigational exercise.
Stella took off in front, everyone else trailing behind her. Shannon pulled out the map Lawson had handed her after lunch while Michael searched for his compass.
"Maintain a thirty-five degree bearing. Should be about fifty metres in front of us," she explained, trying to watch where her feet were going and the instructions on the map.
Michael had taken the lead once again with everyone silently voting him in front. Stella was in between Shannon and Christian but she kept tripping when she would lose concentration. She was too busy watching Shannon. She was half-tuned out when the boys began talking.
"Thirty-five degrees, you got it," replied Michael.
"Hey, what do you think Josh knows that we don't?"
"About the spooky forest?"
"Yeah."
"Nothing." Stella didn't need to turn around to know that Christian was slightly confused. "The thing you have to realise about Josh is that he exists for one reason: and that is to fornicate."
"Fornicate?" asked Shannon.
"I'm in polite company Shannon, I'll use the polite term. And if he can't fornicate with a female, he'll find something else to fornicate with. In this case, he's fornicating with our minds."
"So you're saying he's a mind-fornicator?"
Shannon turned and looked at Stella. She could feel her girlfriend's eyes on her every time she took a step. But if she gave Stella attention for staring at her she may as well be walking backwards.
"Who's to say he did find a dead sheep out in the forest and cut its head off? Get us all on edge?"
"No way! Michael, you're full of it," said Stella. "There it is."
Straight up ahead they four police officers could see a thick red cloth tied round a tree, marking it.
"Aha. Team work."
"What are the next co-ordinates?" he asked.
"Ninety-eight degree bearing. One-point-five k," Shannon answered.
"That'd be this way," said Michael, turning.
Before he could gain any momentum up the hill, his boot caught something sending him falling down a small ridge.
"Michael! Michael!"
Stella reached him first. "Hey, you alright? Did you break anything?"
"I don't think so."
"I gotcha. Get up. You're such a tough guy," she commented.
Shannon laughed but Michael didn't seem to get the joke.
"I lost the compass."
"Ah, don't worry. I'll find it," said Christian, going back up the ridge slowly to search for the small white compass.
Michael went onto blame Josh. Stella shushed him and Shannon agreed with her. They were calming down until Christian told him that their only source of true direction was broken.
"Well can you take it apart?" asked Stella.
"Yeah I could but then what?" said Christian.
"Alright, let's just call this in. They have to pick up Michael anyway. We'll go in, have a barbeque, we'll be right," suggested the brunette.
"We're not calling it in. We've made it this far, I'm not losing this now."
Shannon chortled at him. "Well can you walk?"
"I can't dance, but I can walk. And when I see Josh, I am going to shoot the shit out of him."
Stella searched for Shannon's brown eyes and managed to find them, only they weren't filled with comic relief but it was closer to worry.
"We got about an hour left," said Christian.
"Let's do it. Look out for the markers and I'll navigate us out of here."
"Thanks for that Lawson," Stella joked, her head whipping around to Shannon just before she tripped.
"Watch your step Stella."
It was a fifteen hundred metre walk to the next marker, and that was under the assumption that they were walking in the right direction. With no compass, it made things a little harder. Shannon could hear the thunder rumbling over their heads which meant only one thing: the rain was back. The clouds were quite dark and Christian made a comment about God being pissed off about something.
The groups pace slowed with an injured participant and Stella had somehow been nominated to keep an eye on him.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"What do you think?" His voice was no longer full of angry hinted at Josh, but now there was a bit of bite to his words as he snapped at her.
"Where did that come from?" she asked.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Tell you about what?"
"The kiss in the locker room."
"I call bullshit, because you are too pissed about just a kiss."
"I just want to know why you didn't tell me."
"That's it?"
"Yep. And you still haven't answered my question."
"Why didn't I tell you about the locker room kiss, gee let me think? Oh yeah, because it's none of your business who I kiss Michael. It was just to shut Leon up. Besides you're dating Audrey."
"We broke up. I was going to ask you out again."
"Okay, you need to get it through your head that I don't want to date you. Yes, we had sex. But that is all it was Michael."
Michael's face dropped slightly and his voice changed. Stella began walking again when Shannon yelled at them to hurry up.
"So what's the whole story? Are you dating?"
The automatic response was for Stella to deny her relationship with Shannon but she thought he deserved to know. She had kind of strung him along for two years. Besides it would get him off her back about it. Then again she and Shannon had decided not to tell anyone.
"It was just a kiss Michael."
"Are you sleeping with her?"
"No I'm not sleeping with Shannon. How about you get that through your head along with the fact that I don't want to date you? Huh?"
"Hey, hurry up!" yelled Christian.
They were lagging behind significantly and Stella jogged to catch up, leaving the physically and emotionally wounded Michael behind.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"As long as there is a big barbeque at the end of this," he said.
"Well, step it up, it's getting dark," said Shannon. She would never openly admit it but being left out in the woods over night was her most irrational fear. She had watched too many horror movies as a kid and vowed to stay away from them as much as possible. Her hand came up to play with the cross hanging around her neck. "If you're too injured, I can call Lawson to come and pick you up."
"Is this better? Is this better?" asked Michael sarcastically, trying to catch up by running.
Shannon and Stella turned as Christian took the lead, and the Senior Sergeant spoke again. "Oh, look at him go, look at him go."
"I know what you are doing, and you are worse than Josh."
"Hey," said Christian, pulling them from their banter. "There we go. Blue?"
Less than twenty meters ahead of them was a thinner blue rag tied around an even thinner tree. Shannon was definitely worried now as she searched the surrounding trees for any other markers; hopefully a red one was hanging off a tree somewhere close by.
"Well, he never said what colour," state Michael.
"No. Shit!" exclaimed Shannon, still searching for the invisible red marker when Michael snatched the map from her hands.
"Come on, it's not that hard. We're here, unit base is there. The sun sets in the west - thank you - so north is that way," said Michael, as if it was all that simple.
All three fully functioning officers were worried.
"We're not going to find the markers are we?"
"I blame Josh," said Michael.
'Here we go again,' thought Stella. 'Why did he have to fall down a hill? I could be getting ready to go to bed with Shannon right now. A warm bed, in dry clothes after a full meal.'
"No, you know what? I blame Lawson for a lack of leadership when it comes to Josh. Actually I blame both of them."
"Alright, let's follow Michael," said Shannon, caving in to the younger man's ideas.
"Hey there's another one!" shouted Christian, which was cut off by Stella's laughing when Michael fell over again.
Shannon trailed behind smiling lightly, but still worried. Her girlfriend must have sensed it because Stella held back, letting the boys go ahead.
"Hey, you okay?" asked the brunette. Her voiced softened the same way it did every time she spoke to Shannon. It was familiar and gave Shannon just a little bit of comfort.
"Yeah. I just don't want to get caught out here overnight."
"It'll be alright."
"If anything happens, we're armed with paint-ball guns."
"Spit it out," Stella deadpanned.
"I watched too many horror movies as a kid," she said. The last thing she wanted to do was get into a therapy session with her girlfriend about her irrational fears.
"Sure, sure. Oh hey, guess what? Michael thinks we're sleeping together."
"We are sleeping together," Shannon whispered back.
"He doesn't need to know that."
Shannon giggled and followed Stella back up to the boys, wishing she could just hold her hand. They walked in silence, their minds focussed on where they were walking. Michael eyed both women suspiciously. Even though Leon had a habit of over exaggerating especially when it came to his fantasies coming true right before his eyes, the intelligence officer had been right when he suggested the idea of something happening between the two women.
"Hey check this out. What the hell is this?" asked Stella as the group came across a burnt out car in the middle of the forest with no visible way in or out. There were also signs around the car, labelling certain places or objects like a cafe, yucca, bamboo and a topiary.
"Looks like a train ground for the bombers," commented Shannon, taking a quick look before following Christian in the direction of a possible road.
Once again they had formed a single line as they trekked through the never ending bushland. The sun was getting lower and Shannon could feel the drop in temperature, even through all of her layers. Stella tripped behind her again and she rolled her eyes. There was movement to their left and they all stopped to search for the source of the sound. Their team leader motioned for them to duck down silently.
"Josh?" she whispered.
Stella smirked and giggled quietly as she nodded.
"It's gotta be," muttered Christian. He himself was silently praying that it was Josh. If it was and one of them got shot with a paint ball pellet, it meant they could be lead out of the forest and back to civilisation.
The four of them smirked and pulled out their toy guns, ready to shoot the Senior Sergeant for leading them on a wild goose chase through the forest. For Michael it was to get him back for making him fall down the ridge. Christian was ordered forward towards the source of the noise and they all waited with baited breath to see the outcome. Shannon was ready to throw a stick at him as a twig snapped under his foot.
The Islander turned back to the group with a less than pleased but slightly amused grin. "Clear."
Shannon, Stella and Michael stood and holstered their weapons. Michael instantly became attached to the live sheep that was munching happily on the shrubs and weeds.
"Someone around her must have a broken fence."
Shannon and Christian agreed with Stella and they turned to look into the distance for any sign of a property fence. Their team leader took another glance at the darkening clouds and her worry grew just a little bit more. This didn't go unnoticed by Stella.
"Hey, how did you get out here girl?"
"How do you know it's a girl?" asked Stella.
"I know women," the young man explained cockily.
Christian could help but to point it out. "Women of all species."
Stella was somehow managing to keep a straight face, but she honestly wasn't surprised at Michael's behaviour. He had a habit of becoming attached to women he had just met, no matter which species, and she could tell that he was ready to make a dig. "You're a sheep magnet."
"Well you could say I go for a certain type." Michael spoke without taking his eyes from Stella.
The brunette simply rolled her eyes and scoffed along with Christian. Shannon could tell that he was hinting at Stella, and immediately shut down the conversation. She didn't either want to or need to hear about her girlfriends past with their immature colleague.
"The shadows aren't getting any shorter, let's move it folks."
"Shannon, I reckon we should bring her with us," Michael suggested with a grin on his face.
Stella finally laughed.
"What?"
"She's not safe out here."
"He's in love," joked Stella.
"Are you serious?" asked Shannon.
"Well look what happened to her mate."
"No! She'll slow us down!" Michael's smiled faltered. Stella and Christian's eyes flew back and forth between Michael and Shannon. "Do you want a barbeque or not?"
"Let's have a vote." Michael's three colleagues all pulled faces at him and walked off. "Ahh, stuff it."
They could hear him saying goodbye and trying to 'shoo' it away.
"Michael, hurry up!" yelled Shannon.
They walked mostly in silence for the next half an hour, with Michael occasionally whinging about leaving the sheep behind, being hungry and slightly in pain. The rain had finally set in for the afternoon and Shannon had a feeling that they would definitely arrive back in the city with head colds. When Stella looked at her girlfriend, she was reminded of why she had fallen for the older woman.
"Gorgeous," she whispered, barely loud enough for Shannon to hear. She must have heard it because she received a smile and a wink back.
When Stella finally looked back towards the front, Shannon had stopped and raised her hand automatically. She looked past her shoulder and saw an older man looking around for something. They all quickly took cover.
"He's got a weapon," said Christian.
"Trapper," said Shannon.
"Arsehole!" Michael whispered furiously.
"Alright, I want to talk to him. We're going to make an approach. Michael I want you to come around from behind and wait for my signal to make contact."
"Are you sure that's a good idea? He's armed," Stella asked.
"We're not going to let him walk. That trap could have killed Michael."
"Don't worry, Stel. We'll get him," Michael offered. He felt warm at the idea of Stella worried about him. Little did he know, the worry was more for Shannon, herself and Christian than it was about Michael. But that was only because she was mad at him for his earlier assumptions.
"You hope."
Their trapper was walking away from them and the remaining three officers watched as Michael sprinted silently to get in front of him so they could box him in. There was more thunder and Shannon signalled Michael.
Michael addressed him and held his attention before the others joined him. Shannon began asking questions and he admitted to looking for missing sheep due to holes in his perimeter fencing. He got a little smart with Michael over his weapons license, but in his defence Michael did walk into it. The trapper went on to explain that he set rabbit traps, nothing bigger, and it was his neighbours traps that kill his sheep.
"Who?" asked Shannon.
"Ginsberg."
"Why does he set traps?"
"Why don't you go and ask him. I say he lives just over there."
Christian stepped in. "We've actually found sheep, dead and alive. The live one is about a twenty minute walk that way."
"What about the dead one?"
Shannon handed Christian the map. "The body is about round there. But the head is back that way."
It was no secret that he was angry. "Bloody maniac. Can I have my gun back?" Stella adjusted the rifle before handing it back to him. "You lot aren't planning on spending the night out here are you?
"No," deadpanned Michael.
"That's good. You don't want to be out here at night," said the trapper, before walking off in the direction Christian had pointed in search for his live sheep.
The rain stopped suddenly and the sun came out of hiding. The day's rare warmth though was not long lasting as they speed walked through the forest. Stella was beginning to hate mother nature and her tempera-mentality. Why couldn't it just rain or shine? All she wanted was consistency, but her prayers were for rain so she wouldn't feel muggy and cold, wet and dry all at the same time.
"This is good," said Shannon, just as they came over a small rise. "If we're lucky we might be out of here by dark."
"Might," added Michael.
"Enough of you scepticism," said Shannon.
"We are an elite team. We cannot be beaten," Christian said in a voice that reminded Stella of the voiceover at the beginning of a Law and Order episode.
"Except we failed the navigational exercise," laughed Stella.
"It wasn't our fault."
"Lawson's going to make us pay for it, I bet you."
"What are they going to do? Withhold the sausages?" Michael joked sarcastically.
"Don't say that. Not even as a joke," announced Christian, just as he and Shannon came around a tree and spotted another dead sheep but this time it was impaled with a large spike log. "What kind of sicko does this?"
"Do you think it suffered?" asked Stella.
Michael rounded on Shannon. "What did I tell you? We should have brought her with us."
"Don't look at me."
"It was you who made the decision to leave her behind."
"It was you who made the final decision as I recall," said Stella, sticking up for her girlfriend. As they argued, her eyes flickered back and forth again.
"Now?" asked Shannon. It was only getting darker by the minute. They didn't have much sunlight left at this point.
"Or first thing tomorrow."
"What? You want to set up camp tonight?"
"Not particularly. But I don't really want to wander around lost in the dark."
"We might make it out of here," said a hopeful Shannon.
"We're not going to make it out of here Shannon!"
"What if it rains again?"
"Aren't you enraged by this?"
"Well yeah I am, of course I am." Michael wasn't letting her get out full sentences or paragraphs without interrupting. 'Who is the team leader again?'
"Well then don't you want to do something about it?" asked Michael. Shannon looked at him slightly shocked. He was moving on to borderline vigilante status now. Stella however couldn't help but agree with Michael when he suggested that they pay Ginsburg a visit about the dead sheep and offered Shannon a gentle smile. "So let's teach the prick a lesson."
Shannon was tempted to scoff when her girlfriend agreed with Michael, but she held herself back. If she said something about their history is would result in a fight; their first fight as a couple. If she said no she would become the bad guy and then Michael would really complain. She seriously wanted this day to be over.
"Alright," she started. She was a little uneasy as she spoke. "We'll find a space and set up camp, hit him at first light."
Michael seemed pleased with himself. "Okay."
Within in twenty minutes, they had found a nicely sized area with low shrubs for cover. It wasn't too big so they were in shouting distance of one another, but not too close so that they were basically sitting in each other's laps. The trees were also thicker which mean that they had some shelter from any unwanted visitors and the lowest sitting branches gave them just a little bit of dryness.
As Christian cleared a space for himself and began setting up his little sleeping area, he announced his hunger. "I'm so hungry I could eat a butted monkey."
Shannon and Stella were looking into the surrounding bushland while clearing an area they could share. When Michael questioned them about being so close, they claimed it was to keep warm and that if the boys were that cold they could snuggle with each other. Michael went back to doing his own thing quietly.
"Is that a Samoan thing?" asked Stella.
"No, I think it's just Christian. Nice kit you got there," said Michael as he picked up another stick and watched as Christian set up a thin mat and blanket.
"It is."
"You reckon you got a spare thermal or something?"
"You see it's called, ahh, preparation," Christian explained mockingly. "You do good to remember that."
Michael took it in his stride and went back to collecting sticks. "It's fine. I've got my own shit going on over here."
Stella laid out her own thin mat as Shannon cleared a little more space for her own. Michael was the only one without something to sleep on besides the wet ground. Shannon laughed.
"No fires Michael."
"We're going to freeze our arses off."
"You were the one who wanted to set up camp," said Stella.
"You agreed with me!"
"No, I agreed with teaching the trapper a lesson. Not camping."
"Besides, a fire would tip of our sheep-torturing mate. This is a State Forrest. No fires except in the pits in the camping grounds," Shannon explained.
"I'm not eating it raw," said Christian.
Stella was lost as she leaned against a tree. "Do I want to know what you're not eating raw?"
"We're not eating the sheep," said Michael.
Stella shuddered and leant closer to Shannon for some warmth. She wasn't entirely sure is she was shuddering because of the rapidly dropping temperature or the idea of eating a murdered sheep.
"It's a sheep," said Christian, as if that justified eating it.
"It was murdered. You don't eat murdered sheep. Who are you?"
"What?"
The girls grimaced and laughed and prepared themselves for a cold, wet night with a very little source of heat.
When Stella announced she needed a bathroom break before they went to sleep, she pulled Shannon with her under the excuse that she didn't want to get lost and she wanted somebody to watch out for anyone else in the area. However the moment they were just outside the visual ability of the boys, the older woman was pushed gently against a tree.
"You have no idea how badly I've wanted to do that all day," said Stella, pressing her lips to Shannon's desperately and gripping her hips. Their vests were making it just a little harder for Stella to reach her girlfriend's lips.
"I have some idea," Shannon muttered as she smiled, her forehead resting against Stella's.
There were a few more quick kisses before they pulled apart and Stella took in the look in Shannon's eyes. "You alright?"
"Yes, I just really didn't want to get caught out here for the night."
"Neither did I. We could be snuggling in warm bed in a sleazy motel back in town right now," Stella joked, earning her a soft jab to the stomach.
"Part of it was because you all ganged up on me, don't look at me like that. You know it's true." Shannon's voice was soft to show she wasn't really angry, just a little upset that she had let herself be overturned by three junior police officers.
"You know I didn't mean it like that when I agreed with Michael. I said yes to getting back at that prick, not sleeping out here."
"I know. I guess it's just more his attitude that's giving me that shits than anything else. He keeps pushing about everything if it's not his way. Sorry."
"It's okay. I'm sorry that I didn't stick up for you earlier. It's just harder because he has suspicions. You know he's pushing you because of those suspicions. He's waiting for you to tell him off so he can pick a fight. We can't really do or say anything without admitting our relationship. It's the same with Josh. I guess this is the hard part about keeping it from everyone at work huh?"
"Yeah, I'd say so. In hindsight we did kind of bring it on ourselves."
Stella laughed lightly. Anything too loud would alert Christian and Michael. "I love you."
"I love you, too, baby."
They made their way back to their 'camp' to get some rest. Now Stella really did need to go to the toilet.
'Damn it.'
The rain was becoming heavier and more consistent when they finally decided to go to sleep. Christian simply smirked to himself as he watched the outlines of Shannon and Stella roll over and face away from the boys. He could just make out Stella wrapping an arm over Shannon. Fortunately for the girls, he couldn't hear the soft kiss that was pressed against the back of Shannon's neck.