(Untitled)

[niceofyoutoask]

Lipton was making a chair. Woodworking had always been a hobby of his, and while he was by no means an expert, he could usually turn out simple furniture with clean lines and sturdy frames. He'd learnt as much from a childhood tendency to take things apart and put them back together again as he had from any person - just as he'd learnt that once

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[nothingtomiss]

At home, it had been engines. In Iraq, it had been his Humvee. As much as anyone might, Brad understands the medetative quality of taking something apart and putting it back together. He's almost loathe to interrupt Lipton, if only because it used to piss him off so much when Rudy used to do it.

Still, things change and the world moves on apace.

"Hey, man," he says. "I think it's already dead."

[niceofyoutoask]

Lipton's eyes flicked up to Brad and he gave a small nod before returning to the work at hand, but he softened his grip a little. Any other day he might respond with a half-smile and a slighly embarassed joke, but not today. He wasn't sure how he felt about being interupted - he used to be a loner, and was sure that was how he functioned best, but nowadays he wasn't sure. How could he be, when it was having a woman avoid him that had him so messed up?

"Pass me that, yeah?" He asked, gesturing at the few already-sanded pieces of wood at Brad's foot.

[nothingtomiss]

Brad bends and hefts the wood, feeling the weight of it, the pleasing shape before he brings it over and holds it out. He tilts his head.

"What're you working on?"

[niceofyoutoask]

"A chair," Lipton explained, nodding to the finished version to his right. He tried the rounded pieces that would make up the back with the base. He paused, looking up at Brad. "You don't happen to need one, do you?"

[1st_zack]

It had been a crazy day. Zack knew a lot of what happened could have happened. He also knew things could have been a lot worse. He was thankful that they weren't. He'd left Strife tied to a tree near the Compound. He was no more ready to risk his dog than he was to risk his roommate, especially on endeavors that were doomed to failure. Since he didn't have really any injuries, just a few scrapes and bruises and sore muscles, he was shooed out of the clinic by the cranky doctor on duty, leaving him with no where to go except home

[niceofyoutoask]

"Did it work?" Lipton asked, a bit skeptically, looking up at Zack for a moment, wondering about the splatters of blood on his clothes but still, despite everything, somewhat relieved that Zack seemed to be okay. Christ, he wasn't about to build anything for Miss Bennet - he knew better than to try something like that, because he knew it was best for both of them that she stay away, even if his heart was having trouble working that through as easily as his head had.

[1st_zack]

"She made a list. Of twenty-three things that were wrong with it." He laughed. "I still have that list."

"But I think I'm better now than I was back then." Not that it had been too terribly long of a time.

[niceofyoutoask]

Lipton managed a small smile for that.

"My wife hated it when I made things for around the house," He said after a moment, and then promptly wondered where the hell that had come from. He rarely talked about his wife on a good day - but then, he wasn't usually constantly reminding himself he was married as he was today. "She said it made us look like we were hillbillies instead of upstanding townfolk who could buy things from stores." He said with a shrug, and a smile that almost faltered.

[realnicetrip]

After that morning and its aftermath, Harry could do with a little bit of quiet, and who better to provide it than good old reliable Lipton? After getting cleaned up and having his foot fixed he'd been on his way to have a lie-down back in his room, but he was happy to stop and talk a while.

He came over to Lipton, leaning on his crutches, and raised one arm to give a half-salute in greeting.

"Got enough chairs there, Lip?"

[niceofyoutoask]

"Good thing, too, since you look like you could use one, Sir." Lipton tried to sound a bit more upbeat than he felt, but for all he had practice doing so he just... didn't want to. He gestured at finished model, which he'd almost forgotten about in his concentration in the task at hand. "Feel free to test it out."

[realnicetrip]

"Very kind of you," Harry said, propping the crutches against the chair and carefully lowering himself into it, settling into place. "Ah, there we go."

He felt slightly groggy from the painkillers he'd just taken - nothing like as bad as morphine, but still enough to mean he wasn't quite operating at full speed - but he got a feeling that Lipton was feeling a little down.

"So how've you been, anyway?" he said.

[niceofyoutoask]

Lipton spared a moment of thought to wonder what it was God had against Welsh keeping both legs intact for any prolonged period of time, but then at Harry'd question he sat back and let his hands fall still.

"Do you mind, Sir - " And, damn, this was as good a time as any to stop with the 'sir'. "Harry, if I, uh, tell you about something? Something personal?" Oh, god he was terrible at this. He almost asked if the man happened to have any alcohol on him, but that would probably just make this worse instead of any easier.

[not_a_quaker]

Lip's always been the quiet sort, but I can tell by the set in his jaw and the vigor with which he's working on that chair that he's stewing about something. "Carwood, if you keep sanding that you'll have nothing left but a couple of matchsticks," I say with dry humor, my lips twitching.

[niceofyoutoask]

Lipton paused, not quite realizing how hard he was working the sandpaper until Winters brough his attention to it. "Duly noted Sir," He tried, but he knew it fell a bit flat. Oh Christ, he didn't want Winters to know how much of a failure he was, how he was so dangerously close to ruining his marriage in the worst possible way - not that he would betray his wife in that way, but wanting to was almost as bad. Not Winters, who he respected as much as he did.

[not_a_quaker]

"Something on your mind, Lip?" I ask. That much seems obvious, but it's more of an invitation for him to talk if he feels the need. We may not be in combat here, but we're still in a strange situation, one that's SNAFU at times, and I want to be available for my men.

[niceofyoutoask]

"It's just been a long time since we've been home, Sir." Lipton said quietly, looking up at Winters and unconsciously twisting his wedding band around his finger with his thumb. It was true enough, and it wasn't as much of a lie as it would have been to say that he was fine.

[unit_girl]

Jo came across Carwood by accident. And then when she did she noticed he was working hard on some sort of woodworking project. She was always impressed by people who could make things. It might have been the sort of lesson at school that was more interesting than just sitting and listening, but it didn't mean she was any better at it.

She sat down next to him. "What are you making?"

[niceofyoutoask]

"Chairs." Lipton said by way of explanation, gesturing at the previously finished version off to the side with his sandpaper. He wasn't sure how he felt about company; he could have sworn that he would want nothing more than to be alone at time like this... but he didn't. Just more proof that he wasn't the man he was before the war. Not the man that JoAnne married. "Don't want one, do you?"

[unit_girl]

She looked over at where he gestured. "Oh, I like it." She shook her head at his question. "I don't think I have the space in my room really." Even though it was designed for two people and she was the only one living in it. "It's full of clothes," she admitted.

[niceofyoutoask]

That... was really quite a lot of clothes. Then again, his room at the Officers' Club could pass as a cell for all the homey feel it had, so perhaps that didn't mean a whole lot by comparison.

"Let me know if you change your mind." At the rate he was going, it wasn't as if he wouldn't have any spare.