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He almost couldn’t believe how stupid it all had been, the events leading up to him laying in a hospital bed with a temporary cast on the lower half of his right leg. Of course he had been present to experience every bit of it, but he still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that it had all gone down like it had.
The whole situation wasn’t made any better by the fact that he ended sharing room with this guy he had seen around camp a few times. He didn’t know the other guy, but was pretty sure he was part of the elusive Delta Force. Not that he looked the part. Too tall, too wide, too eye-catching in just about every way.
And there he was, in the other bed with one of his legs propped up on pillows and with the same type of cast Full Metal had.
What was worst was that the guy snored louder than anyone from his own team.
* * *
He had almost reached the level of annoyance where he possibly would have gotten up and hopped over to smother the man with a pillow when the man suddenly stopped snoring and opened his eyes.
His green eyes quickly found Metal, “Hey roomie… Hope I didn’t snore too loud, sorry.”
“I think you set off the Richter’s scale…” Metal almost rolled his eyes.
“Sorry, bro…” the guy frowned and sat up a little in order to reposition his left leg a little on top of the pillows, “Just throw something at me if I snore like that again, I know it’s annoying as fuck.”
Metal chuckled a bit, “You’re lucky my leg hurts a good bit, because I was starting to contemplate how effective it would be to press a pillow over your face.”
The blond guy chuckled as he laid back down, “I know the feeling. My older brother and another teammate snore just as bad.”
“Yeah?”
The guy nodded and cleared his voice, “I snore some of the time, not all the time. Those two… They snore even while laying on their side.”
“Alright, guess having you for a roomie beats having those two as one then…”
The blond guy nodded, “I’m Cooper, by the way… Most people just call me Coop.”
Metal nodded a little, “I’m Scott. Most of my team mates call me Full Metal, or Metal.”
“For real?”
Metal nodded a little.
“Got to be a story behind that…”
Metal shrugged a little, he didn’t really want to share that story with a stranger. “A few buddies of mine thought I didn’t fit the name ‘Scott’…”
Cooper laughed a little, “Yeah, right…”
Metal shrugged a little.
“So, I see you’ve got a cast as well…” Coop shrugged, “What happened?”
“Guess I forgot my spatial awareness.” Metal shrugged.
“Yeah?”
Metal nodded, “It’s so dumb I don’t want to admit to it…”
“I bet you I’ve got something, somewhere, in my history of injuries which is bound to be worse.” Coop shrugged and lifted his left arm off the sheets, “See this scar? Longboarding after my buddy’s motorcycle along Highway 1. Pretty dumb, right? And that was the third time I got hurt doing just that.”
Metal laughed, he couldn’t help it, “Alright. That’s not the smartest…”
“I was 22… Definitely should’ve known better.”
Metal nodded a little, “So not that long ago, huh?”
Coop shook his head, “Three, three and a half years ago…”
“So you’re 25-26?”
Coop nodded a little, “Turned 26 not too long ago.”
“We’re about the same age then…” Metal chuckled, “Turned 26 this spring.”
“So, how’d you break your leg?”
“Still to dumb…” Metal shook his head.
“Alright…” Coop sighed, “Will it help if I deal out more dumb injury stories of my own?”
Metal shrugged, “Maybe…”
“I once stabbed myself in the thigh…”
“That’s pretty dumb, alright…” Metal nodded.
“-Because of an ant…”
“What?”
“I didn’t stutter, you heard me.” Coop shook his head, before he tried to drag the scar into view for Metal, “Got the scar to prove it as well…”
“Alright, that’s possibly some of the dumbest I’ve ever heard.”
Coop nodded, “Mom was not thrilled about it when I ran in to show her. I was eight or so…”
Metal chuckled.
“So, will you tell me now?”
“If you promise to tell how you broke yours…” Metal shrugged, “Okay.”
“Sure.” Cooper nodded.
“We had infiltrated this house, secured it and all… Everyone had bailed before we got there.” Metal shrugged, “I was in the first floor with this teammate of mine. He calls me over to look at something. I walk towards him, crossing this rug.”
“Don’t tell me you tripped on a rug?”
“No.” Metal shook his head, “You know how most of the tunnels have some sort of lid, which makes it possible to cross it without really knowing…”
Coop closed his eyes and tried to subdue a smirk.
“This one only had the rug.” Metal sighed, “And you know how gravity works.”
Coop chuckled a bit, “Yeah, I’ve got some first hand experience with gravity…”
“Anyway, I went down pretty hard. Think I landed with one foot on one of the last steps of the stairs, and the other on the tunnel floor. Not sure if it broke on impact or when I collapsed and the leg on the stairs slid in between two steps and got caught there. Snapped both bones a little above my ankle.”
“Ouch.” Coop frowned, “Sounds like it sucked.”
Metal nodded, “Didn’t really suck that bad before two of my teammates tried to help me free.”
Cooper nodded a little.
“So, you?”
“Oh, I…” Coop shrugged, “My team had also infiltrated this building. But it was not empty.”
Metal nodded a little.
“Now, I’m a pretty big guy…” Coop shrugged a little, “6’5”… 240lbs…”
Metal nodded, he had no problems believing those numbers.
“Now, this guy…” Coop took a deep breath, “Biggest gorilla I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had edged over 7 feet tall and had at least 30lbs on me…”
Metal followed along, nodding.
“You see, when you’re 6’5”, you’re used to fighting down. You use that to your advantage all the time…” Coop chuckled a little, “Basically the only experience I’ve got with fighting against someone my size and skill level is my older brother, and he’s an inch or two shorter than me… A little wider though.”
“Think I’ve seen both of you around the base…”
“Probably.”
“He’s a good bit older than you, right?”
“Yup, mom and dad spent 15 years figuring out how to make a new and improved second version…”
Metal laughed.
“So, this guy is using all the tricks against me. He’s got the height, the wingspan, the weight… I’m getting pounded, right?”
Metal nodded a little.
“And I can’t really call for backup either, because everyone’s fighting someone.” Coop shrugged, “Guy stepped backwards, and I didn’t read him well enough. Booted me right in the chest and sent me flailing backwards. Guess my spatial awareness was off as well, because the next thing I know, I’m on my way down a set of stairs, ass-backwards.”
“Yeah?”
Coop nodded, “I don’t think I had settled before this mountain of a man is on top of me once more. My legs of course being the only part of my body still on the stairs as I laid on my back trying to catch my breath and figure out what the hell just happened.”
“Sucks to get the air knocked out of you…”
“Sure does.” Coop agreed, “This guy saw an opportunity to break my leg. You know how you place a branch between two levels and stomp down in the middle of it?”
Metal frowned.
“My leg was the branch.” Coop frowned.
“How did he not kill you?”
Coop shrugged, “One of my teammates had won against his opponent. Managed to pull off a shot just before he planned on kicking my head.”
“Lucky.”
Coop nodded, “Yeah, I sure was. Guy still landed on me, and that sucked. But I’d take that over brain damage any day.”
Metal couldn’t agree more.
“So… Your boys haven’t been by with stuff to make the stay here suck a little less yet?” Coop asked, eyeing the empty bedside table.
“No, they had to follow a lead.” Metal shook his head, “I couldn’t go on, and some kids came to drive me back here.”
“Kids?”
“Yeah, you know… First tour, never seen combat before. Jumps every time they hear gunshots.”
Coop chuckled, “Poor kids.”
* * *
They had chatted about everything and nothing for a couple of hours when there was a knock at the door and five guys stepped through the door. One of them looking like an older, weather worn version of Coop, two others about the same age as the older blond one, and two about Coop’s age or there about.
“How are you doing, kid?” the shortest of the older ones asked in a thick Texan accent.
Coop scoffed a little, “I have to stay relatively still, how do you think I’m doing?”
The guy who looked a lot like Cooper laughed, “Little brother, you’re going to be restless as hell by the time they put you on paper-duty.”
“Don’t talk about it.” Coop frowned, “And y’all know my temper and mood is going to be unleashed on you guys, right?”
The last of the oldest ones chuckled a bit, “And you know you sound like a fool when you try to mimic me and Boxer, right?”
Cooper chuckled a bit, “Just messing with you boss.”
“Now, you fraternizing with a wimpy water baby?” the last of the elder ones had almost as thick an accent as the one who apparently went by ‘Boxer’.
“Wait?” Coop frowned and looked towards Metal, “You’re SEAL Team?”
“Oh great…” Metal sighed, “What branch are you?”
“Don’t you recognize gold when you see it?” the older brother twisted around and dealt a wicked grin, “Delta Force, baby.”
“Great…” Full Metal rolled his eyes a bit, “Coop, gotta give it to you… Your ego doesn’t seem that inflated, but I’m pretty sure your brother’s is.”
Coop laughed, but his older brother did not seem as amused.
“You little…” the older blond scowled at both Coop and Full Metal.
“Guys…” the shortest member of the unit rolled his eyes, “Can we please behave for half an hour? Coop’s probably tired and in pain, and that guy over there seems to be in the same boat.”
“Nah, not tired, Pete.” Coop shrugged.
“You better not be!” Metal shot in, “Because you were sawing some serious logs earlier.”
Coop chuckled, “Sorry about the snoring, Metal.”
“Metal?” the leader’s eyebrows knit together, “You on Eddie Guzman’s team?”
“You know him?”
“Yeah.” The man nodded, “For a SEAL, he’s alright…”
“Jack, Guzman saved your bacon on that joint op…” Boxer smirked, “Pretty sure we can call him more than ‘alright’.”
“Okay, I guess.” Jack smirked, “He’s… Good.”
Metal nodded a little, “Sure is.”
“Heard he has a pretty good crew under him as well.” Jack nodded a little, “Most of your team is pretty young though.”
Metal shrugged a little, “Well, what we lack in age, we try to make up for with experience.”
Jack smirked, “Only way to get experience is age.”
“With all due respect, being a fresh operator now, and being one 15 years ago when you were fresh in the game… Not the same thing. 9/11 took care of that.” Full Metal locked eyes with the team leader.
The older version of Cooper first paled a bit, before he shook it off like nothing had happened and shrugged, “Hate to break it to you, Dalton. That kid’s got a point.”
Metal saw Jack glance down at Cooper, and Cooper watching his older brother with concern in his eyes.
“Being in the unit now, and before 2001, I don’t think it’s the same thing even.” The older brother shrugged, looking more like he had a few minutes ago, but not as relaxed.
Jack nodded then tapped one of his pockets when the silence had lasted long enough, “Damn, I forgot my pack of cigarettes…”
“Yeah?” the last of the youngest looked over from where he was leaning against the window sill.
“Charlie, you’ve got some?” Jack followed up, looking over at the blond.
The older brother checked his pocket, “Yeah. Got some. Think I might need a nicotine fix as well.”
Charlie pulled the cigarette pack out of his pocket, picked out one and handed the pack over to Jack. Jack pulled out one himself, before he handed it back to Charlie.
“Back in a few minutes.” Jack winked to Coop, “Try not to fall out of the bed or anything while we’re away, klutz.”
Coop nodded, a smirk stuck on his lips.
* * *
“Did I say something wrong?” Metal asked the room after two of the oldest had closed the door behind them.
“Nothing you could know…” the oldest one left shook his head, “They were… We were on leave September 2001. I was back home, had this concussion I struggled with. Those two were in New York.”
“Crap, I’m sorry.”
Coop shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. Jack just wants to make sure everything’s alright. Charlie will be fine once he gets that smoke.”
Metal nodded a little, “Still feel like I’m a verbal bull in a china shop…”
“Don’t worry, man…” the one who had kept quiet most of the time shrugged, “Charlie’s fine. He’s always fine.”
The man they called Boxer nodded a bit, “Dips on not sparring against Californian number one tonight though.”
“NOT IT!” Pete called out as well.
Coop chuckled, “Well, I can’t. Looks like it’s either you Dunc or Jack then.”
“No…” Dunc shook his head, “No… I couldn’t walk upright for almost a week the last time. My skinny ass against that genetically modified freak, NO!”
Metal chuckled a bit.
“Relax… You’ll live…” Pete chuckled, “I promise to have Motrin and an icepack ready for you.”
“Not funny, Doc.”
“Oh, I know you love my humor.” Pete smirked in return, then he looked over at Boxer, “You know that guy’s team as well, Box?”
“Some of them.” Boxer nodded, “We’ve had a couple of joint ops with his 1IC and maybe two others.”
“Yeah?” Metal tilted his head.
“Adam and Brett still a part of the team?”
“Adam’s 2IC. Swann’s got his own team.”
Boxer nodded, “That’s good. You think they’ll be around soon?”
Metal shook his head a little, “No, don’t think they’re done with the mission yet.”
Box nodded, “In case we don’t catch them, tell them we said hey, alright?”
“Oh, they’ll be around base for another couple of months anyway.” Metal shrugged, “Fair chance you’ll run into them.”
Boxer nodded, “I’ll keep my eyes open then.”
* * *
A little while later, Jack and Charlie came back, joking and laughing. Like nothing had ever happened.