"Temporary truce." She agreed, bumping his shoulder lightly with her own before she finally unwound, letting out a
pleased exhale that ended with a laugh. She'd gotten into the habit long time ago of carrying water everywhere with
her and she moved over and got two bottles now.
"Tell me..." she thought about it as she walked back and gave one of the bottles to him, swiping the ball while he was
distracted. "Tell me about your family?" She asked.
He shrugged. "They're a normal family, I guess. My mom's dead, but I have a stepmother who's all right. My dad's...
wow, I've never had to describe my family before. I'm gonna have to actually think about this one." He said with a
chuckle as he sat on the ground, knees bent, forearms on his knees as he held his bottle of water.
"Four sisters, and a younger brother who's constantly getting into some sort of trouble. But he's a good kid, or he'll be
a good kid once someone smacks the shit out of him." He said with a laugh. "My stepmother is all right, Dad married
her when I was eight, so it wasn't so bad I guess. What about your family?"
"Mum and Da and me." She checked them off on long fingers. "Elephants." She added for good measure after a
moment.
She'd settled down next to his drawn up legs, sitting facing him, her own long legs folded up under her. "And a whole
village" She gestured widely with the hand that held the water bottle.
She wanted to ask about his siblings. She wanted to ask why his stepmother was 'all right'. She wondered if he took
after his father. As a child at boarding school she'd gotten so tired of talking about her parents. Having to explain,
each year, over and over again, what kind of mad people they must be to live in a thatched house without running
water. It wasn't a habit with her to talk about herself anymore. But she found herself explaining, face softening:
"Mum's beautiful. Of course. And Da - he has a laugh you can hear across the grasslands. And a bellow that carries
as far too." She grinned and bumped his leg with her shoulder. "Mum teaches. Da preaches. And the rest of the
village takes turns getting me into and back out of trouble. Da says whenever he gets one of my letters they have a
party and he has to read it out loud to everyone." She missed them. Would still rather be there than anywhere else in
the world... Unscrewing the lid to her water, she looked over at Hector.
"What about you? What are sisters and hooligan brother doing while you're here?"
"Four sisters. Two of which have given me three nephews and two nieces between them to hopelessly and mercilessly
spoil." He said with a chuckle. "One of 'em is working on number six as we speak, she should be about ready to pop
any day. I'll get a letter and some pictures, but probably won’t see the rug rat until its talking." He shrugged, was
normal life for him more or less.
"My brother...right now he's attempting college again, at least until he realizes he likes the parties more than the
classes and he'll get expelled for not attending classes again." Hector said. "So what kind of trouble did everyone get
you in?"
They were doing a strange back and forth thing, Andi thought, rubbing her palm across the bumped surface of the
basketball. A trade for a trade. As if neither one of them was used to talking about themselves and kept trying to pass
it back to the other one. Or as if they had to find everything out now - right now - because there wasn't enough time.
She wasn't sure how either of those lines of thought made her feel. She took a drink of water and gave her answer
some thought instead.
"The usual. Seeing who can climb the highest, seeing who can run the fastest to avoid getting in trouble when
whoever was highest falls. Scaring each other by making animal noises in the tall grass and than jumping out with a
roar. More running and screaming involved in that one too. Daring each other to see who can go farthest out in the
mud at the water holes before everyone gets stuck. Not a lot of running there." She slanted him a look from the
corners of her eyes with a smile. "Lizard-insect-small furry mammal throwing when the other one isn't expecting
anything. That kind of trouble. With five to twenty other children."
She smiled but she watched his face, dark eyes searching. Quiet for a minute before she rested the tips of her fingers
against his arm.
"Can I write to you?" She asked softly. "When you're gone? Would you mind?"
"See, we couldn't toss any small mammals anywhere. Had the whole thing called police and animal cruelty." He said
with a chuckle and watched her face as she asked him the last question, until they were basically staring at each other.
'When you're gone.' There was a strange turn of phrase he could read a lot into if he really wanted. And finding that
he did want to read into that as he slowly smiled at her.
"Yeah." He said with a nod. "I'd like that. I'd even write back." For it wasn't like he was on ops every moment of every
day. There was actually a fair amount of let down time.
"Yeah?" The smile grew until it spread into a grin that reached her dark eyes. "I'd like that too." She admitted. She
liked the promise enough that it didn't really matter if she should or shouldn't have asked in the first place or what
Suzette would have to say on the matter if she found out. It made her feel happy and it took her a minute to realize it
had been a while since she'd felt happy.
"Come on." She unwound her legs and stood up. Eyes laughing. She palmed the basketball. "I haven't taught you any
of those pithy English phrases that I promised." She gave him an sweet smile and added: "And you're going to need
them."
Hector chuckled as he capped his water bottle and got to his feet. "Oh bring it on." He said as they went a few more
rounds of basketball. She was better than she let on, and he wasn't as good as Vasil (who couldn't stand to lose to a
'lesser opponent') liked to say. Whereas he had the speed and strength, and height, advantage, she came back with
her own brand of speed and dexterity.
He caught the ball off the rebound as the sky brightened with false dawn. "Guess I should let you get back to work
now." He said with a chuckle. "Now that I've completely ruined your reputation as a workaholic." For some people had
milled around, watched for a moment, then left.
She straightened up and stretched, popping bones in her back. Smiling. And not nearly as exhausted as she'd been
before they'd started playing despite the fact it was much later now.
"Mm." She agreed, as she picked up both their water bottles and handed his to him. "But now they think I'm quite
fearsome on the court instead. And they must think you're quite the softy too." She took a swallow of her water,
watching him with laughing eyes. "Since you had your arse kicked by a girl and all."
He hadn't actually. And he'd let her cheat unmercifully too. She didn't enjoy competition. That had been burned out of
her in university. But he hadn't seemed to mind just playing for fun and foolishness as her mother would say. And that
meant something to her. She shot him a smile.
"So are you actually going to sleep now or were you going to challenge me to a game of checkers?"
"Well, I'd say scrabble, but you spell words all weird." He teased her, referring to the differences in American spelling
and English spelling. He rolled his shoulders and also cracked his back. This was the first time he had done anything
physically strenuous, these two sets of basketball games, in over a day, he wasn't quite used to that, and neither was
his body. He felt...almost lazy.
"Nah, I'll let you off the hook." He said, but didn't say he was going to sleep either. He had gotten a few hours, he was
okay. "But you should get some sleep. I bet Mr Snuffles is about to rise in revolt that he's seen me more the past 24
hours than you."
She watched him roll his shoulders from the corner of her eye. Watching the bruised one to make sure it wasn't too
stiff without indicating that was what she was doing. Instead she just gave him a grin.
"Mr. Snuffles is a bit possessive." She agreed. "Though with as little as he sees me you think he'd welcome anyone
that was willing to blow the dust off him." A quick nap in a semi-real bed did sound nice. Right after a quick shower...
She shot him a look.
"You're not going to sleep, are you?"
"I got my requisite sleep for the time being." He said. "Besides, I got some Delta to babysit and some Rangers to
smack the crap out of." And charts to take peeks at and give reports via radio back to base. And the last part was best
done out of earshot. Not that anyone would understand what was said, it was all alphabet soup. Well, maybe Mike. He
wondered about that guy a bit, like everyone else in the camp, even if he didn't know that he shared their curiosity.
"Besides, we've got some supplies coming in. One of the deals Sam made was that everything we use, we replace.
Water, food, medical supplies....he struck a tough bargain."
"Three hours isn't sleep. That's a long nap." Andi stated. "Match me a deal?" She asked after she gave it a moment's
thought. "I'll sleep now. You do your stalking, smacking, harassing bit. And - after I'm up, and your supplies are
settled, and it’s quiet again - you take a shift with Mr. Snuffles? Just to make me feel better."
"Does Mr. Snuffles know he's being used in a completely underhanded manner?" Hector asked, chuckling. "Don't
suppose I could convince you that I need less sleep than you think?" He asked, and her expression clearly said there
was no way she could be convinced of that. He shook his head as he chuckled. "Oh fine, I'll match you the deal."
Another two or three hours wouldn't hurt him. Or at least it wouldn't kill him! That was the theory. There were enough
undercover Delta around to ensure that.
"But Mr Snuffles doesn't like me, so if I wake up and he's smothering me, deal's off." He kidded her.
She laughed at that. Both at the image and the tone of voice he used. Her side was going to hurt with all the laughing
and exercise she was getting because of the tall Delta in front of her. And it was worth it.
"Fair enough." She offered her hand with a grin. "I'll have a long talk with him before I leave in the morning."
He chuckled and shook her hand. "You drive a hard bargain, you know." He said. "So go on, fulfill your half. And more
than three hours because that's just a long nap, remember?" He liked to make her laugh, she looked like she rarely
did that, really laugh that is. Not just smile at something amusing and maybe chuckle a bit, but all out laugh. And she
had a nice laugh, lit up her whole face.
She rolled her eyes at him but agreed.
"All right. More than three." She gave him a smile. "Just to pacify Mr. Snuffles enough to leave you alone later on."
She was going to have so much to catch up on with work. Sleep should really be something she was putting off. For a
year or two. Except...
"This was fun." She looked up at him, hand still in his. Not quite sure she remembered the last time she'd been lured
away from work so thoroughly. "Thank you." The soft smile went a bit crooked: "For teaching me how to play
basketball."
"Well, thank you for not embarrassing me too much out there." He said, echoing her grin, and also not making a move
to let go of her hand, any more than she was pulling away from him. "We should do it again sometime."
"I'm not hard to find." She'd meant it jokingly but it came out softer than that, surprising her into realizing what she was
doing. Acting like Zaire and not England. She should blame it on the fact she was tired. Except she knew it was his
fault.
"Good night." She stepped back, eyes still on his, hand slipping from his larger one last. "I'll see you when you wake
up." A soft smile and then she was gone. Opting for the strategic retreat.
He chuckled to himself as she left. With moves like that she should be in black ops rather than a red cross camp. She
had managed to easily distract him of all people, then slip away before he had even realized it. A harder feat than it
sounded. People had been trying to do that for years . (Sure the circumstances were completely different, but he felt
the analogy still applied, a bit.)
He went back to the med tent, where the French doctor was making rounds. She glared at him when he came in, but
he shook it off as he made his own rounds, then went to meet the supply truck.