Promotion ceremony
Inspired by my husband's recent promotion. I love you dearly.
Title: Promotion Ceremony
Fandom: Losers
Rating: teen (for a bit of language and illusory slash relationship)
Disclaimer: I don't own the boys. I make no money from writing or posting this. Summary: Jensen gets promoted to E5- Sergeant
“No one is more professional than I. I am a Noncommissioned Officer, a leader of soldiers. As a Noncommissioned Officer, I realize that I am a member of a time honored corps, which is known as “The Backbone of the Army”. I am proud of the Corps of Noncommissioned Officers and will at all times conduct myself so as to bring credit upon the Corps, the Military Service and my country regardless of the situation in which I find myself. I will not use my grade or position to attain pleasure, profit, or personal safety.”
Jensen’s voice is clear and ringing in the morning air as he recites the NCO Creed. It’s just the beginning, but his eyes are locked straight forward as he stands at attention. His unit is lined up before him, pride on every last one of their faces. He’s worked his ass off to get to this point, gotten in more trouble as a Loser than he’d ever care to admit. But Clay’s no wimp of an officer, and his men are the best. Jensen’s rise to Sergeant marks a milepoint in his life. He knows without moving his eyes that his sister and niece are standing to the side with Jolene, and that their faces are shining even brighter than his teammates’.
He’s never been more grateful for his sister’s support in his life. And god bless her little heart, his niece is waiting with his rank pin in hand, because his sister demanded the right to change his jacket patch, but the ten year old wanted to help. So she will pin his rank onto his cap, and he knows she will do it perfectly, because the last week she has spent practicing. As perfectionist as she is, she will have it exactly right. Jacob Jensen has no doubt she would make one hell of a soldier if she ever decided to join.
“To order!”
Every person in uniform snaps even more alert, if that were possible, while the officer in charge rattles off a few lines, how proud he is and how much this achievement is worth. Then he calls the ladies over, and Jake glances down at his sister’s eyes and winces. He’s got a bad feeling about that look. Rachel places one hand against his chest, fingers catching the edge of the patch and literally ripping it away. He’s glad the new uniforms are velcro and the thing comes off easily. He can feel her lining up the new patch, his stripes pointing to his chin and then she fucking slugs him. Every ounce of air shoots from his chest, but he doesn’t buckle or fall over. Instead he inhales nice and slow as she rubs a hand over the patch to make sure it was properly stuck before grinning fearsomely and stepping to the side.
His niece is nicer, mostly because his sister has to hand his hat down to her. Becca does it solemnly, ensuring the back pieces are properly in place before handing the cap back up. He returns her smile and carefully places the cap on his head, promptly returning to his stance. He waits out the remainder of the ceremony’s announcements and oral crap, daring to wonder what the guys are going to do. For being Losers, they will, somehow, find a way to surpass his sister’s little act of macho-ism.
He would, of course, take it like a man. The ribbing and comraderie harassment was normal, even expected and encouraged. It strengthened the fraternal bonds of teammates, and the greeting of equals was something to be treasured. Not that he’d ever be ‘equal’ to Clay and Roque, being officers, but now he could stand toe-to-toe with Pooch and Cougar without worry. They’d still kick his ass if he needed it, though. And he’s okay with that, too.
He meets and holds Clay’s eyes as he leads the line. “You’re a smart-ass, bitchy know-it-all, Jensen.” He murmurs low, voice not reaching beyond the two of them. His hands are triple checking Jensen’s new rank with that precision he gets. “But I’m fucking proud of you, as a soldier and a man.”
“Yes sir.” Clay steps away, and Roque takes his place. The man is blowing delicately across his knuckles, and Jake tries to brace himself without being obvious about it. The shark- grin spreads across Roque’s face before the heel of his hands meets the new set of stripes, and it’s all Jake can do not to fall on his ass. Instead he rocks a little, letting the blow take his air but not succumbing completely. He stutters out a thank-you that hopefully came out more manly than it sounds to his own ears.
Thankfully, Pooch merely shakes his hand and reminds him there’s a party at his place later that evening, and that he’ll only hurt him if Jensen’s going to do something stupid enough to lose his rank. He really does not have to say how he’ll hurt Jensen. It’s in the seriousness of his eyes.
Jensen’s ready to flinch when Cougar walks up. He believes the line about watching out for the silent ones. Roque will be obvious, and Pooch tends to be nicer, but Cougar was nearly always a wild card. The only time he’s unpredictable is in the execution of his job, and whenever he’s wearing his sniper-face. Today the mile-long stare was missing, and Cougar merely shook his hand.
Jensen let himself relax minutely when his team left and a few other influential officers pay their respects, followed by his family and Jolene. Almost there... He gives small polite smiles to everyone, snaps back to attention when the order cuts through the brisk air.
“Thank you everyone for attending. Fall out!” The area crumbles immediately into organized chaos the instant the order sounds, and Jensen smiles madly and grabs his sister back in for a hug. She chuckles and squeezes him back. “You are a tough S.O.B., little brother, but you are one tough man. Now smile and grab Becca’s hand so I can take pictures.”
She’s not the only one that’s brought a camera, it seems, and it spawns a full ten minutes worth of picture taking, primping and posing and acting like an ass for a few cheesy pictures. Finally, it’s done. All the other suits wander off, Clay and Roque promise to catch up at Pooch’s. Cougar just gives Jensen one of those looks and disappears.
Jensen is still trying to catch up with all the meaning involved with that one particular look.
The barbeque at Pooch’s place is ‘da bomb’, as some of his friends would say. Honestly, he’s just glad no one has decided he deserves more torture. It has, however, stooped to more than one handful of whipping cream dumped in his face, and Jolene pulled out the spray hose connected to the kitchen sink to help ‘clean him off’. Now he’s lounging in a pair of borrowed shorts, as his clothing runs in the dryer. He’s quite aware of several looks being passed around but hasn’t picked up on what’s happening.
Nine o’clock rolls around, announcing Becca’s bedtime, Pooch’s kids having crashed out an hour or so before. Rachel leaves, taking Becca home. Suddenly his clothes are being shoved in his arms, and Pooch points him toward the door where Clay is standing stiffly. Roque, he knows, is on the back porch with a beer in hand, and won’t be leaving until he’s raided Jolene’s fridge a final time.
He hasn’t seen Cougar since the man disappeared at the end of his promotion ceremony.
“Sir?”
Clay holds up an envelope, keeping it close to his chest and making Jensen wait. “I only have a couple words, Sergeant Jensen. Discretion. Responsibility. And I don’t ever want to know. Understand?” With those words he hands Jensen the envelope, and he opens it to find a hotel card-key and a slip of paper with an address.
Jensen stares at the key and the familiar handwriting for a moment before his eyebrows climb to his hairline and a grins splits his face. “Sir, copy that. You are safe to assume I shall be too drunk to go anywhere and the hangover will keep me from all contact until at least noon. Sir.”
“Out. I don’t want to see you until Saturday, Sergeant!”
“Yes sir!” Jensen grins, dashing to his car and making the ten minute drive with anticipation eating at his veins. He has a kitty to catch for his promotion present, it seems.
For those interested, the NCO Creed can be found here