Andi laughed, a comfortable sound that still drew attention for its foreignness.
"You send that devil sauce to my tribe," she warned Hector, "and you'll have the men having contests to prove who's
the bigger man by seeing how much of it they can drink down. You'll destroy the ability to taste in an entire generation
of men." She smiled. "Their future wives will thank you. And yeah," she turned her attention on Mark as Mike and
Swanson booted some Rangers to join the table. "It definitely feels 'American' in here." The sparkle in her eyes said
she wasn't going to comment on whether that was a good thing or a bad one. Considering who she'd come to see
though... "So what's next? When everyone's done eating, I mean?"
"Well, this is pretty much it." Mark said. "We eat, and eat, turn the music up, maybe someone breaks out a couple of
decks of cards...."
"Don't forget the stupid Ranger tricks." Swanson said with a chuckle.
Hector grinned at Andi and Mike. "Its horrible, we know. But we get the Rangers drunk," most of them legally underage
to begin with, most of them 19 or 20, " and see what we can get them to do. Like stupid pet tricks."
Mike laughed so hard he almost spit the soda he'd been drinking across the table. Andi's eyes went wide.
"That's horrid." She protested.
"Tell me you keep a camera around?" Mike was more concerned with.
"Mike." Andi objected. Trying very hard to be the voice of civilized reason in this testosterone laden atmosphere where
boredom was probably more dangerous than any other enemy. Of course, especially after the first time, the Rangers
couldn't exactly claim ignorance either. "Don't encourage the hoods."
"Never." Mike promised before turning to Swanson. "So that means you've got something worth drinking around here
other than soda in the first place?"
Andi rolled her eyes and shook her head. Muttered:
"I swear, he's reverting," before turning her full attention on Hector. "And what else do you do?" She asked, raising her
eyebrows. "When you're free time isn't take up by making young boys dance the funky chicken in nothing but a flak
helmet?"
"Hey don't knock it till you see it." Hector said, laughing hard. "And we do better than a camera, we've got a
camcorder, we're keeping a video log to show their parents when their tour is done. Actually, sadly, that's about it.
Cards, eating, chess, torturing Rangers....we like our down time as unstructured as possible." One could easily
imagine why.
"Well, we've got a stocked bar, plus different types of moonshine." Mark said with a grin. "Lots of things not allowed on
base. Under normal circumstances. But we're different."
"Uh, yeah!" Swanson said. "cause we're top secret or some such bullshit."
"Watch your mouth when there's a lady present." Mike chided Swanson lightly. Not that Andi hadn't heard, and God
help them all, used worse. But it was just too easy to tease the blond Delta over. Andi, of course, wasn't paying any
attention at all by this point. Instead she'd rested her chin on Hector's shoulder. Lips trying very hard not to smile.
"I'd really rather not." She responded to his 'see it' comment, trying hard to stifle a laugh. "Growing up tribal does tend
to change the way you view naked dancing men. Though I'm sure their parents are very pleased with all the skills
they're obviously picking up from their 'special' training."
"Then why am I drinking soda?" Mike wanted to know in reverence to Mark's 'stocked bar' comment.
"Because you haven't earned your bars yet." Mark said with a laugh. "Don't ask me how you do that, you just do
somehow. Besides, its too early to break out the booze, we're somewhat smart about it, we drink on a full stomach.
Except Hector, who doesn't drink. I think I've seen him drink two beers the entire time I've known him. And that includes
the one he snuck in your camp."
Hector was also ignoring the other men at the table as they teased each other and talked casually. "See, I grew up
redneck. Usually the women got naked and danced on tables." He teased.
"You have no idea what I've earned." Mike pointed out with a chuckle, pushing the bones to the side of his plate. "I
could have been a four star ranking general before I decided to take up sewing." Despite the joking he was filing away
the new information about the dark haired Delta and alcohol. Interesting intel.
"Really?" Andi asked, eyebrows rising, edges of her lips quirking as she met Hector's eyes. "You do have some
strange customs in your part of the world. Most of the rest of us use tables to eat off of, you know."
"Mores the pity." Swanson commented, since everyone at the table was carrying on one conversation and paying
attention to the other.
"Remind me to tell you about sushi bars in Okinawa." Mark said with a chuckle, about her comment of eating off tables.
"Shut up." Hector said, laughing. "Yeah, our customs are weird, so is dancing around a fire naked for the sole point of
dancing around a fire naked to get blessings from some god. Well, weird to me, normal to them. See what I mean?" He
saw a couple of others headed over and grabbed his plate. "Come on, I'll give you the military's version of a tour."
"I didn't bring any gum." She protested, standing up with him despite the fact she didn't have anything to 'donate' at
the end of his tour the way he'd offered to for hers. Mike slid her plate over toward himself as she stood so it solved
her problem of what to do with what she hadn't eaten. Though where he was going to put it considering how he'd
already cleaned his own and, even though she'd eaten until she was full, there had still been quite a bit left - she had
no idea.
"I should also make a comment about the fact dancing for a blessing seems a bit more noble than dancing for - what
do your women dance on the table tops for exactly?" She asked as she slipped her hand into Hector's as he led the
way away from the table. Curious about his world here. "And I would appreciate you noticing how good I'm being by not
asking how you've become so familiar with the concept of naked women dancing on your table too."
Hector laughed. "Never said they danced on my tables." He said, casting a glance over his shoulder with laughing
eyes as they exited the hangar.
The 'parking lot' was littered with little birds and Black Hawks, heavy artillery ground vehicles, convoy cars, transport
trucks, a few men on guard walking around. "And never know, they could be dancing for some sort of blessing." He
laughed again. "So our base is even more boring than your camp I think. This is the parking lot. That warehouse over
there is the actual mess hall. That one over there is the barracks."
"Oh, I'm sure they're dancing with something in mind." Andi commented dryly, before coming to a stop next to him,
shoulder resting comfortably against his as she looked out over the tarmac. There was a distinct lack of starving
children and wounded or sick people here. And considering what sick or wounded people would mean in a place like
this, she would chose boring. Boring without dancing women in fact.
"Boring isn't necessarily a bad thing. Your motor pool's much more fascinating than ours for instance." She pointed
out. "We don't get to fly anywhere. Are those benches on the side of those smaller helicopters? Can you actually ride
on the outside like that? Wouldn't you fall off?"
"Hell yeah." He said with a grin and led her over to a little bird. "It's easy, course hard to show on the ground, but you
get yourself on the runner like this," he said sitting on the runner. "straddle it and wrap your legs around it. If you're a
gunner, means you don't have to get off, so you've got a belay cord hooked to the inside...see that little clip in there?
If you are getting off, you've got a full repelling harness, also hooked to the inside, same clip, different length rope."
He sat on the edge of the open bird, "It can be cool, if it’s for training or drop off." Battle, not so much. "I remember
when I first jumped out of a helicopter, I was eighteen years old, and thought I was scared of heights. Got over that
quick!"
Andi had been a bit surprised at her instinctive, possessive gut kick reaction to the thought of other girls. Funny. And
something she'd have to give some thought to as well once she had the time. Now however she forgot it as Hector
explained basics to her, eyes narrowing as she watched what he was doing. Strangely, it reminded her of the first time
she'd been in biology class and actually 'gotten' it. Everything had suddenly become so much more interesting and
made so much more sense. She touched the clips he was talking about and then let her fingers trail over the metal
side of the helicopter. Soaking in what he was saying. She stood closer to him and looked past him into the interior.
Buttons and knobs and switches and wires and even the seats were designed funny. Asking 'what's that? what's that?
what's that?' seemed a bit much though. Besides...
"Eighteen's very young." She commented, leaning lightly against him. Focusing on his face which, to her, held
endlessly more secrets and questions than the multitude of bells and whistles in the cockpit. Wondering how far
stubbornness took you before you started wondering why on earth you'd agreed to do this kind of thing. "Did you ever
regret it? Wish you were doing something else?"
"Well, wasn't sure I was ever cut out for college. I mean, I did all right in school, but the thought of sitting in more
classrooms and having people lecture to me on subjects I may or may not really care about because some program
director says its required....wasn't my thing." He said with a shrug. "So that doesn't leave a whole lot of options...the
last thing I wanted to do was work in a factory making tires with my father after all...so I guess, the long way around
your question, No I don't think of doing anything else or wish I did, ‘cause there really wasn't anything else I could do."
She slipped her arms lightly around his shoulders while he talked shifting so one of his knees rested on either side of
her, watching his face. Wondering - what it said about him, that he thought the only thing he'd ever been good for was
being a soldier. Either that he'd found something that suited him so perfectly he couldn't dream of being anything else.
Or he didn't think he was worth more than living and dying in a foreign country far from his home and his family. Or a
mix of both?
There were other things he could have done. A great many more than the limited options he'd run through. A great
many of them he could have done after his first enlistment was through. Had he not thought of them? Or just not
wanted them?
Here, surrounded by his world, or one of them at least, she couldn't help but think of those things. Everything in life
flowed into something else. And every decision you made closed some doors and opened others. He was here, now,
with her, because of choices he'd made all along the way.
"So here you are." She commented softly. "Quite farther away from home than you might have originally thought."
"Oh, a lot farther away from where I started. Definitely." He said, smiling a bit at her. "I don't know, its hard to
understand. I guess anyone could do what I do with the right amount of training and drive...but I'd rather I do it, than
some whack job who gets off on it. Somehow the idea of me and the rest of the guys grabbing a gun and standing a
post makes this world make a little more sense. If that made any sense at all." He said with a chuckle.
"So what made you decide to go into medicine? That's not exactly close to your own roots, you know."
"Yes it is." She gave him a soft smile and brushed lightly at the short hair trying to curl against his forehead. "One of
the reasons we were put here is to help people. Whether its Mum teaching to open minds to bigger possibilities or a
farmer growing enough for others or a taxi driver sharing a smile when he drives you somewhere. Or a soldier keeping
us safe." She lightly kissed his forehead. "Growing up believing that, I wanted to do something to help too." She
shrugged. "Da heals souls. I would like to do that but I'm not very good at it. But Grandda healed bodies during the
war. And I can do that. I'm actually fairly good." She gave him a smile. "So that's what I do. It’s much more
straightforward than someone's soul. And it - fits. When I'm working - it fits. So I know I'm doing something right. So
yeah, I understand what you mean when you say things make more sense doing what you do. It’s your heart and soul
that tell you when you're where you're supposed to be. Even if your head says it doesn't make any sense." She
touched his heart lightly and met his eyes. "That's how you know its right."
"I thought I just went in it for the food." He said with a chuckle. "I don't know, the world's a confusing enough place
without double doubting your purpose or direction, or whatever you want to call it." Besides, in what he did, doubting
and questioning could easily get him killed. That was a fact. "Guess when you look at it that way, if you're not blatantly
trying to hurt or destroy someone or something, in a way you're helping." Then again, if you didn't step up in some
way, you were inadvertently helping the 'other' side too....
"So these are an example of our cool toys, at any rate." He said. "Arsenal storage is over there, but that's so heavily
guarded, even I can't get in without some effort if I don't have a good reason." They weren't immune to looters and
raiders, they just had a different way of dealing with them was all.
"Sitting passively still and helping aren't exactly the same thing." She commented, turning from facing him to look out
across the tarmac. "And I must say, I still think you have nicer toys than we do. Especially the flying ones." She
touched the side of the helicopter again. Noting that he'd changed the subject.
"Can you show me the infirmary?" She asked, looking back at him over her shoulder.
"Its ramshackled, like everything else here," he said with a chuckle, since everything was converted warehouses. "But
sure." He easily got off the side of the helicopter and took her hand, leading her across the makeshift airfield to the
infirmary, unmarked like everything else in the base. If you didn't know where you were going, you needed a map. And
that's the way they liked it. Made it harder for direct hits, which had been attempted.