Hector had overslept. He promised her two hours, she got three. But he got up, gathered all his things, made up her cot
since he had disturbed the top lying blanket until you could bounce a quarter off it (habit), and stole a quick shower.
Showers were luxuries here, due to water shortage, so it was luke warm and short. But showers were big time luxuries
for the Deltas, they weren't usually places where one could stop and take a simple shower. He brushed his teeth, and
like everyone else forewent shaving for the time being. After taping and stowing everything, he laced up his sneakers,
got his sunglasses on, and braved the bright African sun, which didn’t seem so endlessly bright now that he had a few
hours sleep on him.
He scanned around the camp and saw Andi standing with another doctor and headed over that way. "How're my boys?"
He asked, since he was the known Delta around.
Mike shrugged and drank his water. "Cheever should be up and about tomorrow. Clancy...well...he's still out. The rest
could get up and run a 10K. The Rangers will survive." He said with a bit of a smile. He had military experience, and
everyone in the military knew about the friendly (and sometimes not so friendly) rivalry between the younger Rangers
and more experienced Delta operators. Hector nodded.
"We just gotta be able to move, Clancy, man." He said as reassurance and looked at Andi. "so, how'd you do on your
list?"
The edges of her lips shifted upward despite herself and the hint of silent laughter moved in the depths of her eyes.
"Well," She began, face thoughtful. "I'm fairly sure they're not faking wounds in the clinic or posing as malnourished
women and children. Nor do I believe there are any hiding in Sam's office. And unless I'm mistaken, none of them were
posing as boxes when I made my run into the supply tent earlier." She hadn't had a great deal of time to stop long
enough to look in all actuality. And that said, every new face that had walked past her today had made her wonder. And
she wasn't sure how that made her feel. "Apparently all I've managed to do so far is figure out where they're not." She
offered.
"They're not women." Mike supplied, blue eyes watching the faces of the two in front of him. "Delta doesn't take
women." He gave Hector an easy shrug. "She's going to need all the help she can get if you're playing 'nail the
operative'. Just tell me you've managed to insinuate at least one of your guys into the kitchen staff." He shook his head.
"On second thought, don't. Better I don't know. But you won't hear me complaining if the food quality takes a sudden
spike." He glanced over at one of the supply lines and then back. "Time for an appearance for my fans." He met
Hector's eyes and the warning was there. Though all he said was: "I'll catch you two later."
And then he was gone.
Andi, having missed the look entirely, gestured over at the mess tent.
"They're still serving lunch. If you haven't eaten yet."
"Catch you later." He said to the departing Mike then turned to Andi with an easy smile. "Gotta be better than the
rations I got in my bag, no matter what he says." He said with a chuckle. "Okay, I'm in, let's go." He said as they started
off. "Actually I just got up a little while ago, I did three instead of two, you know, just to get a certain doctor I know off my
back about the bodily requisites of sleep!" He chuckled again as they got into the line and he handed her a tray.
"Damn, I forgot, was I supposed to tell you where we all were with or without a list?" He teased her.
Andi gave a quiet laugh but she was pleased. She'd hoped that if he could only get a bit of quiet, his body would take
over. Two hours had been the minimal she'd hoped for. The scientists might say the human body needed eight hours
every night but Andi didn't know many people that even daydreamed about that kind of uninterrupted sleep anymore.
"I'm glad to hear Mr. Snuffles didn't run you off." She teased. Than she looked at the people working in the kitchen and
sobered slightly, brows coming down.
"I think I would like to know. After I've tried guessing." Maybe, like Mike, she was better off not knowing. But the thought
of thinking someone was a college med student volunteering time and finding out they were an American sniper instead
bothered her. Finding out someone she thought she knew was something else entirely simply bothered her. And it
seemed important that, if anything happened, she knew which of the people around her needed protection and which
ones she'd only be getting in the way of.
Apparently, she was becoming quite paranoid. Bother. She helped herself to a plate of... something over rice and
added:
"It would be helpful to know who not to hand a scalpel to."
"We've got no one in medical, I promise." Hector said. "Well, not the real medical. The new guy responsible for laundry,
he's one of mine." He said as they grabbed a table. "One of the new interpreters, I went to basic with him. Another in
civil engineering, he's putting up tents for all the new people. Even a real honest to god accountant, like I promised." He
said with a chuckle. "Well, he's going to muddle through for a couple of days at least." He named the rest and they were
completely unexpected as he pulled pepper packets out of his bag.
"Want some pepper? I never travel without it. Or tabasco sauce. So how are we at blending in?"
"Good Lord." Andi commented, only half faking the horror at the thought of pepper and hot sauce on everything. "Well,
I would say you were blending in quite well until you pulled that out." She took one of the packets from him as if it were a
mildly contagious petri specimen and gave it a studied once over before handing it back unopened. Her brow wrinkled.
"Did you say 'tobacco sauce'?" She asked with concern.
Hector laughed. "Tabasco sauce, hot sauce." He said, pulling out the little bottle. "Seriously, will spice up the rice and
make it palatable. Come on." He said handing her the bottle, dark eyes glittering. “Live a little."
"So what's the deal with the elephant, besides the fact that I swore it was watching me the entire time I was napping." He
teased, she wasn't very talkative about herself. So he hoped in a round about way he'd convince her to open up a bit.
There was just something about her.
"My mother gave him to me. When I was very young." Andi took the sauce from him, answering absently as she gave
the bottle a concentrated study. "I was heart broken because the elephants were migrating and I wouldn't see them all
winter and she said as long as I took care of him while they were away, they'd come back come spring."
She took the top off the bottle and dripped a bit of it on her fingertip. Still studying it carefully. Finally she took a very
minor, cautious taste of it. And was immediately reaching for her bottle of water in reaction.
"You put that on your food?" She gasped.
Hector laughed as she started chugging her water. "On everything but my cereal. Unless its oatmeal, then definitely."
He said. "Elephants? I take it you didn't grow up in England then, even though you sound more English than the Queen
herself. So where's that leave you? India or Africa?" He remembered some of his history from school and what was
considered missionary or colonial sites to the English. "Me I didn't leave my home town till I joined the Army. Now I
spend no time there."
Andi set her water down and wiped at her eyes.
"That's horrible stuff." She declared before adding it to the rice and... something that was on her plate. It couldn't
possibly make it any worse. Capping the bottle she handed it back to him. Mind fastening on...
"Home town?" She looked across at him, eyes curious. "Where are you from?"
He watched her add the sauce to her rice and chuckled. "Oh me? Some little backwater southern town in the United
States. Whole town is smaller than the refugee camp down the street, one movie theater twenty miles away...shit...I
mean shoot..." He said, giving a bit of an embarrassed grin. "We're lucky we've got electricity and indoor plumbing
compared to the rest of the country. So the minute an army recruiter came up to me and offered me a chance to see
the world...took him up on it. Thought I'd get to see better places than this. You know Aruba, Jamaica, some place." He
laughed at that. "So where are you from?"
"Zaire." The country had a distinctly un-English accent when she said it. "My parents are missionaries. I was sent away
for my schooling." As a child she'd wanted nothing more than to stay in her birth country for the rest of her life. Her
parents had insisted on something else.
"Our movie theater was a huge screen with a tear patched with duct tape and an old camera Da had to manually wind
to start it running. We'd sit outside with the tribe and watch whatever movie the church had sent us. I saw a great deal
of Cary Grant when I was young." She raised her eyes to give him a smile and then looked back down as she shifted
her fork through the rice. Bracing up for it and less because of the added sauce and more because she still hadn't
figured out what was over top of the rice. Finally she simple tried it and kept herself going afterward. It wasn't bad as
suspicious as it looked.
"The tobacco sauce does help, you were right." She intentionally mutilated the word, one edge of her lips curving
upward as she glanced over at him. "So tell me what made you decide to make a career of going to places that weren't
Aruba?"
Because - she wanted to know. He was easy going and relaxed and quick to laugh or smile and tell stories. And yet one
couldn't forget for an instant that he was a soldier and no doubt exceptionally good at his job. Because - somewhere in
the back ground of him, that soldier was always there. And she wondered which was closer to the core of who he truly
was. The smile? Or the hunter? Or both somehow?
She'd never met anyone like him before. And she didn't know it that was simply him or her lifestyle that was the reason
for that.
He shrugged. "Originally, when I was 18, it was going to pay for college. Then before my bid was even up, guy from
Delta approached me, and then I survived the training, which let me tell you, isn't as easy as it sounds. The surviving
part. So I stuck with it." He knew he wasn't explaining it well at all, and his brow furrowed as he thought of how to explain
something that was as simple as that's what he was, what he did.
"The way I look at it, someone's gotta do what I do. And I can." He said, trying that approach. "Does that make sense? I
mean, why are you a doctor? Because the rugby thing didn't work out?" He joked.
"American football." She supplied, face serious. "But I injured my shoulder and it put an end to my dream of going pro."
Just because she wasn't, didn't mean she didn't still hang out with Americans enough to speak the lingo. She shot him a
smile and looked down as she laughed.
"Truly though, I think I understand." Her own brows came down and she met his dark eyes with her own. "I wanted to be
a doctor all along. But I thought I wanted to be an animal doctor and work with my elephants. Except - whenever we did
our biological studies, I always kept coming back around to people instead. It just - felt as if I belonged there." She
paused and looked back down at her half eaten lunch. Added softer: "And it lets me do something good. It lets me help
people. So they don't have to hurt anymore. I'm not as good at saving souls as my parents are. But I can save lives.
And that's important too."
"It is, I agree." He said. And felt what he did saved lives also, even if it was in a less tangible way than medicine. Every
drug lord or warlord he took out, was one less person to cause chaos in the world. But he knew better than to mention
that, having already gotten a feel for this camp and how they thought about soldiers.
Heck, he'd over heard two nurses (who didn't know they were being overheard), who swore up and down that he and
his D-Boys got off on killing people. It was one thing to be able to do it, quite another to enjoy it, and he knew not many
people got that. He did his job, and he did his job well, even the 'distasteful' parts. And anything his country required of
him, he'd do. End of story.
"Well, I'm not good at saving souls either." He said with a laugh. "I figure if the tabasco sauce can't get the devil out of
'em, then there ain't no hope."
"And did it?" She tipped her head to look at him with a smile, feigning innocence in the question, eyes laughing. "Am I
devil free now?"
"Jury's still out on that one. Mark says you're Satan, keep waking him up to check on his dressing." Hector said,
laughing. "Then again, yesterday you were an angel, so maybe he's not the best source. Besides, that's not enough
sauce to do much of anything."
He looked at her as he ate his food. "I'll let you know when I make my decision, how's that?"
"My mother will be thrilled." She answered with a laugh. Honestly curious as to what conclusion he would come to. And if
he'd be here long enough to reach one in the first place. She knew she should be hoping he wouldn't. But - she liked
his company.
She almost asked if he took so much tabasco sauce himself to scare away devils but thought it might sound pointed.
And she wouldn't have meant it that way. It couldn't be easy being the only visible representative of the American forces
in a camp of people who lived and died by pacifist principles. And it was - important to her that she not hurt him.
"I intend to tell Mark his secret opinion of me is out." She warned with a smile. Then curious, she asked as she started
to eat again: "So do you truly know how to balance a ledger?"
"Mark will deny it clear to high heaven." He said with a chuckle. "Actually...I do. Ain't that hard." He looked at her for a
moment. "You have no idea what Deltas do other than run around with guns and sunglasses, do you?" He asked with a
grin.
She made a face at his 'ain't that hard'. She'd failed accounting. Twice. The only class she'd ever struggled with to no
avail. He said it was easy but she knew better. And she gave up on her food too while she was at it, pushing the mostly
cleared plate to the side. Hating to waste the little that was left but unable to stomach any more despite the new flavor
of tabasco that had at least allowed her to put down more than usual. Instead she propped her chin in her hands,
leaning forward on the table.
"The sunglasses are a surprise." She admitted, reaching across to touch the bridge of his before shaking her head with
a quiet smile. "No, I have no idea what you do. I suppose it’s a bit like the British SAS. But I don't truly know what they
do either." Eyes focused entirely on him, honestly curious, she asked: "Will you tell me?"