FanFic100: #067 Snow
“Sir?” He looks up. In front of him, Lieutenant Cadman and Sergeant Meyers are standing, looking a little like children about to ask their teacher something the teacher might not answer in a positive way.
“What is it?” Cadman and Meyers look at each other, and then the Lieutenant clears her throat.
“Permission to check the perimeter, sir?” What the…? Outside it’s freezing, and they are asking him permission to leave the building? A little suspicious he frowns.
“Any special reason, Lieutenant?” He’s really interested in this, because he simply fails to understand why someone would want to leave the nice and dry heated Ancient facility they are currently inhabiting as security detail for the scientists working on the various terminals they discovered. Granted, it’s a little boring… but once in a while, boring mission equals good mission.
“Well, uh… just making sure no one catches the scientists here off-guard.” Uh-huh. Nothing to do with being bored out of your minds, right? Ah hell, if that’s the only way these two Marines can be kept from developing cabin fever… so be it.
“Permission granted. If you happen to notice anything unusual… radio me.” On both faces there’s relief showing. They must have been really bored if they volunteered to go outside.
“Will do, sir.” He just nods and they leave the room, the Sergeant trailing behind the Lieutenant. He wants to turn around to watch the scientists again, but something catches his ear.
“I don’t want to sound overly pessimistic, ma’am… but wasn’t that far too easy?” Huh? Pretending his concentration is elsewhere he strains to hear Cadman’s response. And yes, she does him the favor of answering while still being in earshot.
“Don’t worry, Sergeant. I’m positive the Major has no intention of leaving this building before we’re done. We’ve got plenty of time.” On second thought… maybe listening in on them wasn’t such a good idea after all. Typical case of curiosity got the cat now. The implications of what Cadman just said… they aren’t really… are they? Okay, so they called each other by their rank… but couldn’t that have been just to fool anybody passing by? And isn’t Meyers married? Sometimes he hates his duties as a CO. Already personal drama involving adultery, court-martials and other unpleasant things is unfolding in his mind. He has to act now.
Giving them a head start, he gets up after ten minutes, tells the second team’s leader Major Andreesen that he’s headed outside and cautiously makes his way through the corridors leading to the exit of the building. The whole time he’s a little on the edge, expecting to catch Cadman and Meyers doing something highly inappropriate in every corner. Strangely enough… he never finds them.
Only when he’s nearing the open exit door, he hears female laughter and the Sergeant’s voice saying, “Hey, that’s cheating, ma’am!” Good God. Determined, he steps out of the door, ready to give them both the dressing down of their lives… but being stopped dead in his tracks by something cold and wet hitting him squarely in the face. Holy…
For a moment, the only things moving are the snowflakes falling down softly. Then he can actually see who threw the snowball at him, because Cadman’s face tells a very clear story. At first her eyes grow round and large. Then, her mouth opens slightly, probably with a few choice words lodged firmly in her throat. And last, her cheeks that are already reddened by the cold, start to glow in a bright pink.
He swears he’s never seen her like this before. Already he can feel laughter coming on, but just for that cold, wet snow slowly melting in his collar, he decides to not let her off the hook so fast. “What the hell was that, Lieutenant?”
She swallows and is still so much in shock that she’s not her usual loudmouth self. “Well, uh… you see, we didn’t expect… uh… I mean, I wasn’t aiming at… um… sorry, sir?”
He raises his eyebrow, which just serves to make her look down on the ground in embarrassment… or is she trying to hide a mischievous gleam in her eyes? Before he can ask, though, Meyers clears his throat. “What the Lieutenant is trying to say, sir, is that she didn’t expect you to come out here and clearly didn’t intend to soak your clothes.” Is he imagining it or is Meyers immensely enjoying this? Him with melted snow still dripping from his face and Cadman speechless at the result of her poorly aimed snowball… yeah, if he was a NCO, he’d probably find the whole scene very amusing as well.
But he isn't. “And why didn’t you expect me to come out here, Lieutenant?”
She sneaks a look towards Meyers that’s promising the Sergeant imminent torture the moment he has left the scene again, but then straightens up again and says, “Well… it’s common knowledge you’re something of a California beach boy. Sir.” Common knowledge? Uh-huh… And did she just call him a sissy who can’t take a bit of cold because he grew up in one of the sunny states? Alright, that calls for drastic measures.
“Ah… I guess it’s time then that someone shows you that California beach boy doesn’t equal wuss.” The confusion on her face is replaced very fast with alarm as she realizes that he just bent down to get his revenge. A full-blown grin starts to form on his face, because he might have grown up in California… but that doesn’t mean his parents never took them on skiing trips. His snowball hits her as squarely in the face as hers did just a few minutes ago.
She sputters a little and then calls out to Meyers, “Hey, he cheated! That was definitely cheating, Sergeant!”
Meyers, though, just shrugs and raises his hands. “He’s the boss, ma’am. The boss can cheat whenever he wants to.”
She grumbles something that sounds suspiciously like “Stupid male bonding.” and then obviously has decided that the best defense is an offense, because she manages to hit them both in quick succession, grinning very smugly.
At that, something in him - maybe his inner twelve year old - brings him to start and run after her. He actually manages to leap at her and throw her to the ground, right into the powdery softness of a big snow bank. A cloud of very fine snow crystals surrounds them for a few moments, and beneath him she squeals, but somehow it sounds much more delighted than irritated.
For a moment, neither of them says anything. Both are panting, and his face is only inches away from hers. Snowflakes are gently landing on her face and in her hair. A few strands have escaped the braided and pinned up hair at the back of her head and cling to the sides of her face because the snow has wet them. Her lips are slightly parted, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. He finds himself surprised at the color of her eyes, because it’s quite unusual for a natural redhead to have eyes of such deep velvet brown that Cadman has. As if pushed by some unknown force he finds himself pursing his lips slightly and at the verge of bending down…
“Uh, sir, it’s getting a little cold down here.” Oh. Dammit. Stupid snow and stupid fooling around and stupid himself. A little ashamed at how he just let himself go he struggles to get off her.
“Of course. Sorry, Lieutenant.” He wishes he had the guts to look her in the eye, but the strange feelings still linger on and he just has to avert her eyes. And so he never sees the small amused smile playing over her face and the slight smirk Meyers throws her from behind him.
There’s a terrible moment of uncomfortable silence, but his Sergeant decides to rescue them from all-around awkwardness. “Sir, ma’am… with all due respect… I would suggest returning back into the compound. We haven’t found anything suspicious, and I’d hate Dr. Beckett or Dr. Keller coming down on me for one of us catching pneumonia.”
After having dusted most of the remaining snow off his BDUs, he turns towards Cadman, trying very hard to keep up the closed-off professional façade. “Lieutenant? Can you confirm this assessment?”
Cadman is her usual Marine self again, but finds it obviously quite hard to keep the lingering amusement fully out of her face. “Positive, sir.” And then a slight smirk breaks through. “Would be a shame if one of us had to pass up next week’s Christmas party because they’re sneezing their ass off.”
He suppresses a sigh at her mentioning that dreadful party and simply nods and jerks his head towards the compound’s entrance. Cadman is the first to go, then Meyers and he’s the last one. All the time he feels his gaze glued to the snow on her back and he can just hold off reaching out to brush it away. As they reach the entrance, she suddenly turns around and he isn’t fast enough to pull his gaze away from her. She notices it and gives him a grin that’s something between teasing, inviting and mischievous. It’s so infecting… that he just can’t help returning a small grin of his own.
And did he just hear Meyers murmur “Definitely need to ask someone from the botany department to find something similar to mistletoe.”? He’s about to bust the Sergeant’s ass for that, but then he decides that overhearing this is going to be his one good Christmas deed. Besides… he wants Cadman to keep grinning and smiling at him just a little while longer. It’s this year’s Christmas present to himself.
~*~
TBC in Something More I've Got to Give.