'Nice day' wasn't exactly what Mike would have called it. He'd been up early to drive one of the supply trucks into the
refugee camps and then he'd had to eat egg substitute for breakfast. He hated egg substitute. It didn't even really
have the right to have 'egg' put in front of it because it wasn't even really the right color, much less in any other way
related.
Then he'd nearly lost a good man on the table. And found Andi in someone else's arms.
He should have known a day that started out with fake food couldn't come to anything good.
And he wasn't sure if Hector was intentionally pushing it now or just seeing where the boundaries were so he knew how
to walk. The Delta would be gone in a few days anyway. So Mike didn't need to deal with him. This was one of those
problems that would take care of itself.
Yeah, and the only easy day was yesterday.
"I hear you play basketball." Mike stated mildly. Meeting Hector's eyes levelly. "Give me a minute to change out of my
scrubs," and he did use that word loosely, "and I'll see you set or two."
"Sure." Hector said in a nice friendly voice, as if he and Mike had known each other forever. "But I have to warn you, I
only play it because I'm tall. Other than that, I pretty much suck. But I'll see you there. Bring the ball, I don't know where
they stashed it." For some others had been playing in the morning, after he and Andi had.
Mike had to snort at that and one end of his mouth jerked upward. That was the problem really. That he actually liked
the guy.
"Yeah," he agreed before heading off. "I'll bring the ball."
Hector watched Mike walk off, and glanced once more at the tent before making his way to the makeshift court,
wondering if he should be wearing body armor for this game or not as he started to stretch and warm up.
Suzette watched the encounter outside between Mike and Hector and looked at Andi. "Are you all right?" She asked.
That...soldier....had been holding the tent closed after all.
Andi looked at Suzette. Who was standing in the way of the tent flap so she only heard the vague murmur and knew
Mike and Hector were talking. So she concentrated on Suzette's face. Which looked - more worried than it should.
"Suz." She took her friend's face in her hands and met her eyes. Surprised. "Of course I'm fine."
Suzette took Andi's face in her own hands while her face was held. "You're so warm." She said. "And flushed. Are you
coming down with something?" She asked, almost hopefully. As if she'd wish Mad Cow Disease on her friend rather
than a soldier. Well, actually. She would.
Andi gave a laugh and brushed a kiss to Suzette's forehead before straightening up.
"You'd like that." She teased, walking back to the half finished supply boxes and starting her loading again. "Then you
could blame Hector for the fact I'd come down with the plague AND you'd get to keep me locked in a tent somewhere."
Suzette followed her to the boxes and started loading also, an automatic thing, they'd all done it a million times before.
A million too many times, if any one asked Suzette, since every time one was used, one had to be replaced.
"Excusez moi." She said, nearly pouting. "For being concerned about your welfare after a soldier held you hostage in
the tent. The only one we're all safe from is the one Mike operated on." And that's because he was still unconscious.
"How is he?"
And that was why she loved her, Andi thought, giving Suz a soft smile as the woman worked next to her. Because of
that last question.
"He coded." Andi stated softly, growing serious. "Mike pulled him through and he says its an even chance now." She
looked over at Suz. "If he lives, he's going to get to go home."
Suzette nodded, glad for the patient/soldier, and the family. He'd get to go home and recover and leave this life
behind, start a new one. She had faith in Mike, he hadn't lost a patient yet. Seemed the more serious they were, the
better they did under his care.
"And how is the other?" Suzette asked, and re arranged her expression into one of absolute innocence when Andi
looked ready to shut her down. "Come on. If you insist on involving yourself with this soldier against my objections and
probably your better judgement," then her expression became mischievous. "Then as your female friend you have to
spill about the man in your life. Its only fair."
Andi's eyebrows arched and she suspected treachery. Suz in non-lecture mode wasn't something she was sure she
trusted. And - having no personal history to base it on, wasn't sure if her involvement was that easily forgiven or not.
And still she had to fight to keep from smiling.
"I thought you were sure he was walking death." She commented, sliding the woman a look. "Suddenly you want to
know how he is at snogging?"
Suzette gave her a long suffering sigh as she packed the sterile wrapped gauze. "You don't want to listen to me." She
pointed out. "And since you're not listening to me and doing it anyway, I thought I would be able to get a little girl talk
and mushy dirt. And you did just admit you were 'snogging' him. Such a vulgar phrase....which brings to mind...how
vulgar would it have gotten were it not for me returning?"
Which Mike had fetched her. And nearly dragged her back. Especially after they had seen Molly refilling the water
bottles.
Andi couldn't help it. She started to laugh. She might have been able to resist despite Suz's nosiness. But the purely
French comment about language - well, it had Andi turning her face away as she laughed. Most people wouldn't
understand why she and Suz were friends. It didn't make sense. But it was moments like this that showed the soul
behind the trimming in their relationship.
"All right." She stopped what she was doing to show her palms. Still smiling. "I'll call it 'kissing' from now on. And he's
very good at it." She softened. Knew she should stop right there. Added anyway: "He holds you as if he can't keep you
close enough." Andi's eyes found Suz's, a bit puzzled and surprised by what she'd just realized. "As if he expects you
to walk away from him at any moment."
Suz raised an eye brow at that. "Sounds...tight." She said. "And people might, you know, the ones who listen to their
friends?" Then she put her hands up. "I know, I know. Back off. I will." After all, Mike had assured her the Delta and all
his friends would be gone soon enough. No sense causing a rift because of something so temporary.
"But...that's...sad." She said, moving some of the boxes and sitting on the work table. "Because if you and I were in a
café in Paris, and he was just some American tourist making a fool of himself with bad French, I might have been
tempted to have a cat fight over him." But she wasn't one for soldiers, so Hector wasn't even a thought in that area.
There were far too many new (and cute) volunteers to work on.
Andi chuckled at that. The entire image from the café to Hector with a French travel dictionary in hand.
"I don't know that I've ever been in a cat fight before." She commented, leaning back on a table that was facing Suz
and folding her arms loosely. Content to idle away time with talk for a change. Still thinking about what she'd just
realized about Hector. Who'd done that to him before? Left him? A girlfriend? "I think I might have to tell you that you
could have him and then bump you over the head when you weren't looking instead." She smiled at her friend. "So I'm
glad you're not interested. It would be hard to compete with you when you're in full fledged attraction mode."
But if it had been a girlfriend - he wouldn't have been so open to her now. There would have been walls up against
getting involved, even temporarily, with anyone. So it had been someone else in his life that had left him and left him
thinking he was someone that was easy to walk away from...
"I don't know, Suz." She admitted, voice softer. "He makes me feel safe. Safe - to just be me." She gave a brief smile.
"Does that make any sense?"
There was defeat in the Frenchwoman's eyes. She had tried. Tried so hard to protect Andi. From the harsh realities of
soldiers. Maybe Suzette had just become too bitter in her time here, in the Red Cross, in areas like these where she
saw the damage done by soldiers. Didn't matter if it were an American, English, French or African soldiers.
But she had tried, oh how she had tried. Pleading, railing, riling, nothing. So now she would just sit back, talk idly, and
pick up the pieces when he shattered her friend. because that's what friends did.
"In a strange way, it does." Suzette said, which made Hector all the more dangerous, really. "Just..." She was going to
tell her to be careful, again. But instead she pursed her lips and shook her head. "Never mind. In places like this, I
suppose we should take whatever safety and peace we can get."
'In places like this'. What her friend didn't know, because they never spoke of such things, was that everywhere was
'places like this' to Andi. Maybe not surrounded by war lords and cruelty and starvation and blood. But 'places like this'
meant everywhere she wasn't herself. That she wore a refined, controlled 'English' mask and didn't laugh too hard or
cry. Didn't feel too much or react too strongly. Peace and the safety to be herself had always been in one specific part
of the world, the one that was called 'home' and nowhere else.
Until now. And she'd never before dealt with some 'one' that did that to her. It was scary. Almost terrifying if you
thought about it at all. But so was getting out of the boat and walking on water.
She just hoped there was someone to catch her if she started to sink.
It didn't change the fact that she couldn't do anything but get out of the boat in the first place though. Because - the
alternative was impossible to imagine.
"Yeah." She agreed softly. "I'll take it. While I can. For as long as it lasts."
Molly, whistling loudly, chose to come into the tent at that moment and her eyes went surprised as she saw the two
women sitting across from each other.
"Wait a minute." She told Suz. "You're a lot shorter and more feminine than you're supposed to be."
Suzette chuckled at Molly. "It’s her new magical ability. She can take tall American soldiers and turn them into short
petite Frenchwomen." Suzette said. "But..at least I don't clog the drain with facial hair! So even I have my good points!
I can't believe you left that poor boy alone with Andi. What were you thinking?" Easier to joke about that than go
around in circles again, which Molly had already witnessed. "No." Andi chuckled. "You just clog the drain with your long
head hair."
Molly looked from one woman to the other. Well aware that everything wasn't quiet but it seemed like a truce of some
sort had been reached. So she smiled and decided to pretend she didn't see anything either.
"That's not much of a magic power." She protested, starting to grin. Ignoring Suzette's question because she had the
feeling she was in hot water over it. "Now if you could turn short French women back into tall good looking soldiers..."
"Who apparently 'snog' well." Suzette said, turning evil eyes on Andi. If she insisted on going ahead with...whatever
this was, then she was going to be subject to teasing all around from the women who would do it.
"Oh yes." Molly agreed enthusiastically. "I like that word. Snog. If you're going to be turning people into handsome men
you really do need to make sure they can snog well."
"Mm." Andi commented and shot Suz a look for turning the conversation down that track.
"So..." Molly wanted to know. "Is he a good kisser? He's certainly got the lips for it."
Suzette laughed. Yes, it was torture Andi time. Everyone had certainly done enough with Suzette whenever she had
taken a lover, or even just taken an 'interest.' It was good to have the tables turned, and as long as she kept thinking
like that, she could keep her mouth shut about the other thing, the concern and fear. Since Andi wasn't listening
anyway.
Andi raised her hands in an expression of surrender. Or exasperation. Gave in.
"Have you ever had someone kiss you as if you were all that had ever mattered to them? That's the way he kisses. As
if you're the only one he's ever wanted to touch that way."
Molly went melty.
"Really?"
"Really." Andi agreed. "Now stop gushing and help us stock these."
Suzette laughed at Molly and hopped off the table to stock. "Americans, they fight a war against the English, and later
in their development...all the American men I've ever known have just gone right over the moon for English women."
She knew, at least, Mike had. "Can't be the accent. It’s hideous."
"Thanks." Andi laughed, giving Suz a smile.
"They like the refined thing." Molly supplied. "All the hoity toity stuff just makes them wonder what's really going on
underneath. Can't wait to unleash the wild side of that."
"Are we out of bandages already?" Andi asked, ignoring the full box she'd just brought in. "I should really go get some
more of those."
"Are we?" Molly asked, going through some of the boxes by her again. "Nope. None by me. Or are you just looking for
an excuse for more snogging?"
"Please don't use that word. I hate that word." Suzette said, making a face.
"Suzette hates that word.” Andi repeated. "Says its 'vulgar.'" She imitated the accent perfectly and Molly giggled.
"Though she was just telling me about the attractive new arrivals she was just checking out." Andi provided and Molly
pounced on the topic.
"Which ones have you picked already?" Molly asked the French woman demandingly and Andi mimed wiping her brow
for a close call behind the girl's back.
"Well..." She said, drawing it out, then went through all of the new arrivals, with her own special ratings for them. She
didn't realize it, but some of her top picks were undercover Deltas. "There's the new translator. American, but I think I
can change him from an Anglophile to a Francophile if given half the chance. The accountant shows promise, but most
accountants, bankers, those math people, tend to be total snores in bed, as if it were an equation more than anything
else!" She said with a laugh.
Andi listened to Suz and her 'list'. The amazing thing was - aside from the fact that Suzette did seem to unconsciously
prefer soldiers - that Suz would have most of them by the time she was done. Suz was beautiful and easy for people to
fall in and out of love painlessly with. Because she expected it from her choices.
No strings attached.
Andi looked down at the box she was adding sutures to.
No strings...
Molly and Suzette noticed how Andi had gotten quiet all of a sudden. Not even a "mm" to show she was half listening.
"You all right?" Molly asked. She had gone from beaming and flushed to so serious so quickly.
"I was just thinking..." Andi stated softly, eyebrows down. Before giving a smile and teasing. "That we really need to
find you someone now too, Molly. Its only fair we get to tease you back."
"Oh please. I'm hopeless." Molly said. "I prefer just to look." Then she grinned. "Course, I won't mind if you insist, even
if they are Suzette's left overs!"
Suzette laughed. "And what left overs they are!"
Andi chuckled as well.
"We'll see what we can do." She agreed. Having no intentions of doing so. The 'leftovers' idea bothered her though.
"Oh thanks." Molly said. "if I wanted something, I'd go get it. I'm kinda pining for the guy back home, you know?" Not
that she was 'together' with this guy, but she was holding out hope.
"Someone back home?" Andi asked, truly curious now. "All this time you've been holding out on us?"
"Oh you know." Molly said with a sigh. "The normal home town boy. Nowhere as interesting as your Delta, Andi." She
teased with a smile. "Didn't know I was alive before I left, maybe he'll figure it out now." Molly had a bit of low self
esteem, and had arrived here straight out of nursing school still with childhood 'baby fat,' which had long disappeared
since she started. "Mom tells me he's still single and dating up a storm. I don't know, its stupid. But he's always been
my idea of Romeo."
"When are you due for your next visit home?" Andi asked.
"You should call him when you go home." Suzette stated. "Tell him you are in town and want lunch."
"Wouldn't hurt." Andi agreed with a smile. Molly with her bright sunshine personality and interesting lifestyle had to be
hard to overlook. "After what you do here every day, calling someone for lunch should be a small challenge."
"I'm supposed to take a week next week." Molly said with a shrug. "I don't know, I might. Worse that could happen is he
laughs in my face and walks away, only to make fun of me to his friends, who still live in the town....oh yeah, that would
be pretty bad...wouldn't it?"
Andi snorted.
"You're beautiful and fun to be around and you're doing more and seeing more in a year than most people manage all
their lives. You're doing something that makes a difference. If he's stupid enough to miss that, he deserves to spend
the rest of his life with uninteresting people that don't think beyond their own heads." She flipped a hand. "You're
special. And everyone that matters already knows that."
Suzette looked impressed.
"Listen to you." She stated. "We should have dragged you into relationship counseling a long time ago." She grinned
at Molly. "And she's right. If your boy is too thick to be interesting - we will go to France next time. And I will show you
what real men are like."
Molly smiled at them. "Thanks guys. You're great. And who knows. When I get home, I might look at him and not see
the Romeo I thought he was. Sure, he's incredibly gorgeous, but I still remember looking at him when I was in high
school. He was a god. But you're right. Enough time might have passed that I'm completely over it. Then we'll go to
France and find a real man." She looked at Andi. "I don't know, your Delta is an American, is he a real man?"
Andi wasn't sure she was comfortable with the conversation turning back to her and Hector. But she already knew that
flat out avoiding the question would just make them dig harder. It seemed to work when she gave them a little and then
shifting things. So she stopped her packing and thought about it. What did she consider a 'real man' was? And what,
out of that list, was she willing to share with the women with her now?
"There is a saying I've heard and I don't remember where. It says - 'nothing is as strong as gentleness; nothing is as
gentle as real strength'. So yes. Yes, I believe Hector is a man and not just a male that's accidentally learned how to
walk upright."
"Oh la." Suzette remarked, arching an eyebrow. Andi rolled her eyes at her and gave Molly a smile.
"Maybe you're right and Romeo's not worth remembering. Or maybe he's something special. Only one way to find out."
"You should wear blue." Suzette supplied. "It makes your skin glow. He will never know what knocked him over."
"Ooh, I'll just have to raid your closet later and see if there's something worth stealing." Molly said, for even though
they were out in the middle of the desert, Suzette's taste in clothes was sublime. And they were nearly the same size
and height. Borrowing any of Andi's clothes wouldn't be worth it, she was taller and more slender than both women.
"Because even if he turns out to be worth not even a glance from me, would be nice, and yes petty, to make him see
what he missed out on!" Molly had to laugh at that sentiment. "Okay, my trauma kits are all nicely packed. God I hate
these boxes...so....sterile looking. Maybe we should decorate them while we've got down time."
Andi started laughing again. The idea of Molly sprucing up the trauma boxes, and what, with their limited supplies, her
overactive imagination might come up with was almost a scary thought.
"We will pack a suitcase for you from my things." Suzette stated loftily. More than happy to share her fashion
principles. One day she was going to convince Andi to let her try her hand. That tall, a form just begged to be shown
off. But for now she was already plotting different styles for Molly. "We will make them think you have spent all your
time in Paris instead of the middle of a desert without a boutique in sight."
"Come on." Andi closed up the last box and set it in place. Still smiling as she draped an arm over Molly's shoulders. "I
didn't get much lunch. Let's head over to the mess tent and see if we can beg something."
"Mike gave you a sandwich and told you to eat it." Molly said as they headed out of the tent toward the mess tent. "You
didn't let your Delta eat it, did you? I mean, nothing against him, he just seems like the type that could put away
massive amounts of food in a commercial break."
"Oh most men are." Suz said breezily. "He just happens to be one of the lucky few with either the metabolism or the
activity level to not look like, what is that American thing, the one at the end of the movie with the ghosts and the slimy
thing?"
"Ghostbusters. And the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man." Molly said.
"Oui, that's it." Suz said.
Andi laughed at the image.
"No. I ate." About half of it and that had been more than she'd expected to get down. Hector's fault. He had a way of
making things seem easier to deal with...She snapped herself out of it before she started going soft and added: "But it’
s been a while and you know how it is around here. Eat when you can."
"I need chocolate." Molly decided and Suzette gave a elegant snort.
"Bon chance."
"I can dream, can't I?" Molly said with a sigh about the chocolate. "Big hot fudge sundae, a weakness of mine...being
denied them is what helped take off the weight."
"Ice cream in this heat? That would be an act of God were it to appear." Suzette said with a chuckle.
Molly smiled brightly. "Andi believes in miracles. Maybe you can pray us some ice cream."
Andi chuckled. "Right after God answers my other prayers, I'll add that one to the list."
"I thought God already answered your prayers in the form of a tall, dark, handsome soldier."
Suzette made a noise and Andi did as well. Probably for different reasons.
"How about we just get ice cream next time we all go to France." She substituted.
"The French don't make it right." Molly said. "You'll all just have to come back to America with me, I'll show you how it's
done. Along with root beer. That stuff we're getting from Greece is pathetic."
"Well, you're a grateful little whelp, aren't you?" Suzette said, laughing.