Team Building with Jack Landors (SPD, A Squad, #6, T)
characters: SPD's A Squad (Charlie/Rose)
prompt #6: sunrise
word count: 700
rating: T (for bed-sharing)
summary: Charlie listens to the allcall overnight for the first time since being back.
Team Building with Jack Landors (sunrise)
by *Andrea
If there was one thing rehab had over active duty--or whatever mockery of “duty” they were currently assigned to--it was the lack of allcall in rehab suites. There was an emergency notification system, of course, but none of this constant base chatter. Charlie had forgotten how to sleep with the damn radio talking all night long.
Rose was wearing headphones, sleeping the sleep of the sense-deprived with her tiny music chip tucked behind her ear. Charlie could hear it, treble leak outlining bouncy pop melodies in the otherwise quiet room. Quiet except for the occasional squawk of the allcall, of course, and she was seriously considering getting some headphones for herself at this rate.
Not that anyone was supposed to tune out the allcall. The whole point of the system was that anything broadcast over it was important for everyone to hear, no matter the hour. Consideration was given to the residential wings during night shift--no one wanted tired soldiers--so that squad-specific calls were routed solely to their wing... and to their morphers, if applicable.
She didn’t have a morpher anymore. But she and Rose were sleeping in A Wing, and they were getting every single squawk. Partly because Jack’s team was the one on call tonight, and probably partly because these were Ranger quarters. Cadets with morphers weren’t supposed to need as much sleep as everyone else anyway.
“A Squad to Command,” the allcall muttered, for the third time that night. It could be turned down; that was its single saving grace. In their room, it was already as low as it would go. “A Squad, report to Command. Please acknowledge.”
That they would get too, Charlie knew. From experience. Because this was A Squad’s wing, and A Squad communication got priority here. Were it actually her team being summoned, she would be glad for the litany of check-ins. It saved her from doing it herself. But it wasn’t her team, and she was having enough trouble sleeping as it was.
“A Squad Blue acknowledges,” a cute young voice chirped.
Right behind her, Kat’s calm reply. “A Squad Yellow, acknowledged.”
She wondered what it was this time. What could possibly call any squad out of bed three times in one night? This wasn’t what it was like now, was it? She knew the city was a mess, but that was ridiculous. There was no way they could function on a schedule like that, even with morphers... because they had morphers, they would be pulling two or three times the night duty of any other squad. How did they have the time or the energy for Jack’s base-wide mission of holiday cheer?
“Acknowledged,” Boom’s voice said, after a pause. He sounded sleepy and distracted. Which meant exactly nothing, since that was the way he always sounded. She wondered if that C Squad cadet had been able to get him out of the lab.
“Uh, Green,” he added belatedly.
His identification was drowned out by a cross protest from A Squad Pink, who didn’t bother to acknowledge or identify. “Honestly, why don’t I just live here,” she snapped over the open channel.
Jack’s grumbled remark, “This had better be good,” overlapped with hers, and Charlie wondered just how “open” the channel was. They were obviously getting the call over their morphers, not the allcall, which probably meant that neither Jack nor Ally would be brought up on charges of rank insubordination. But depending on who was in Command, issuing the call at this hour, they were almost definitely in line for an official reprimand.
Her lips twitched a little as she considered how much that wouldn’t mean to Jack. He was, as far as she could tell, actively trying to get himself fired. She hadn’t been kidding when she told him he and his team were the best entertainment SPD had seen in years.
“Hmm,” Rose murmured, just a soft little sound as she burrowed closer under the blankets. She must be hearing something over the constant stream on her headphones, because she mumbled, “Not us.”
“Yeah,” Charlie said with a sigh. She ran her fingers over the arm nearest her, finding Rose’s hand with her own and cupping the comfort close. Grumbling darkness pressed in, filled not with eyes and teeth and danger, but with order and judgement and constant reminders of what they weren’t. “Not for us.”
prompt #6: sunrise
word count: 700
rating: T (for bed-sharing)
summary: Charlie listens to the allcall overnight for the first time since being back.
Team Building with Jack Landors (sunrise)
by *Andrea
If there was one thing rehab had over active duty--or whatever mockery of “duty” they were currently assigned to--it was the lack of allcall in rehab suites. There was an emergency notification system, of course, but none of this constant base chatter. Charlie had forgotten how to sleep with the damn radio talking all night long.
Rose was wearing headphones, sleeping the sleep of the sense-deprived with her tiny music chip tucked behind her ear. Charlie could hear it, treble leak outlining bouncy pop melodies in the otherwise quiet room. Quiet except for the occasional squawk of the allcall, of course, and she was seriously considering getting some headphones for herself at this rate.
Not that anyone was supposed to tune out the allcall. The whole point of the system was that anything broadcast over it was important for everyone to hear, no matter the hour. Consideration was given to the residential wings during night shift--no one wanted tired soldiers--so that squad-specific calls were routed solely to their wing... and to their morphers, if applicable.
She didn’t have a morpher anymore. But she and Rose were sleeping in A Wing, and they were getting every single squawk. Partly because Jack’s team was the one on call tonight, and probably partly because these were Ranger quarters. Cadets with morphers weren’t supposed to need as much sleep as everyone else anyway.
“A Squad to Command,” the allcall muttered, for the third time that night. It could be turned down; that was its single saving grace. In their room, it was already as low as it would go. “A Squad, report to Command. Please acknowledge.”
That they would get too, Charlie knew. From experience. Because this was A Squad’s wing, and A Squad communication got priority here. Were it actually her team being summoned, she would be glad for the litany of check-ins. It saved her from doing it herself. But it wasn’t her team, and she was having enough trouble sleeping as it was.
“A Squad Blue acknowledges,” a cute young voice chirped.
Right behind her, Kat’s calm reply. “A Squad Yellow, acknowledged.”
She wondered what it was this time. What could possibly call any squad out of bed three times in one night? This wasn’t what it was like now, was it? She knew the city was a mess, but that was ridiculous. There was no way they could function on a schedule like that, even with morphers... because they had morphers, they would be pulling two or three times the night duty of any other squad. How did they have the time or the energy for Jack’s base-wide mission of holiday cheer?
“Acknowledged,” Boom’s voice said, after a pause. He sounded sleepy and distracted. Which meant exactly nothing, since that was the way he always sounded. She wondered if that C Squad cadet had been able to get him out of the lab.
“Uh, Green,” he added belatedly.
His identification was drowned out by a cross protest from A Squad Pink, who didn’t bother to acknowledge or identify. “Honestly, why don’t I just live here,” she snapped over the open channel.
Jack’s grumbled remark, “This had better be good,” overlapped with hers, and Charlie wondered just how “open” the channel was. They were obviously getting the call over their morphers, not the allcall, which probably meant that neither Jack nor Ally would be brought up on charges of rank insubordination. But depending on who was in Command, issuing the call at this hour, they were almost definitely in line for an official reprimand.
Her lips twitched a little as she considered how much that wouldn’t mean to Jack. He was, as far as she could tell, actively trying to get himself fired. She hadn’t been kidding when she told him he and his team were the best entertainment SPD had seen in years.
“Hmm,” Rose murmured, just a soft little sound as she burrowed closer under the blankets. She must be hearing something over the constant stream on her headphones, because she mumbled, “Not us.”
“Yeah,” Charlie said with a sigh. She ran her fingers over the arm nearest her, finding Rose’s hand with her own and cupping the comfort close. Grumbling darkness pressed in, filled not with eyes and teeth and danger, but with order and judgement and constant reminders of what they weren’t. “Not for us.”