Halo Two - Five Ch. 01

That was the thing about this place; you could run, but you couldn't hide. Brooke found me reading a book in the library.

"My back needs doing, and I can't find Maria."

When I looked up I damn near dropped the book. The only thing between her and that skinny bikini was a nearly see-through wrap thing that wasn't even worth wearing, and that sunscreen bottle was still in her hand.

"Couldn't one of the security people do it?"

The shrug of her shoulders was just as casual. "Probably, but I'm not getting one of them from the gate down here when you're in the house. And that reminds me: why are you in the house instead of sunning it up and keeping me company?"

"Because you're naked and I'm respecting your virtue."

At least she had the decency to look down at what she was wearing, but when she looked up her eyes held so much mischief.

"I still remember a conversation that already had me naked all day, every day, around you."

Minutes later I was slapping sunscreen on her back while she lay prone. She wanted to know why we needed to run every morning since she was on leave. I did point out to her that this was her leave, not mine, and I would be running at seven sharp so that I would be done before the sun got up to strength.

Once I slapped her backside with one hand and handed her the sunscreen with the other I stood to go back into the house.

"Rick?"

I stopped and turned to look at her. She had adjusted her position so that she could watch me from her recliner.

"I promise I won't look, and I even promise to just do your back for you. Let's just enjoy a sunny day out here for a change, rather than being stuck inside."

I've always been a sucker for puppy-dog eyes, and I strongly suspect that it's taught from the age of pre-school. Other than nod my head and go back into the house to change, I said nothing. I'm almost sure I heard Brooke say something in a whisper to herself that sounded a lot like "yes," although I couldn't be sure. Minutes later I came out in shorts, with a towel over my shoulder.

"Before you start getting ahead of yourself, I'm not swimming. If we go into town then I'm getting trunks. If not, then it's sun time out here."

Her mouth still hung open, even when I sat in the chair next to her. Finally, feeling really weird about Brooke not only staring but having a case of wandering eyes, I had to ask. "What?"

"I figured you would be ribbed, considering the job you do, but I didn't figure on how buff you would be."

Feeling my cheeks go ever so slightly warm, I asked "Do people still use that word?"

Brooke just shrugged her shoulders. As far as she was concerned, she did, so that's all that mattered. We talked about anything that came to either of us, and I was just starting to think that maybe she was going to be all right once she got cozier with a therapist. It was then that she wanted to do my back before I burned.

"What the fuck happened to your back? Shit, it's all down your legs as well!"

I spun round and grabbed her hand, her eyes still large and, although she was talking, I was hearing much more gibberish than English. This was the wrong position for me, so I sat next to her, putting the sunscreen bottle on the table beside the recliner. Thinking that she would calm down if I left her long enough was a pure false hope.

"I'm front line, Brooke. In your haste to feel guilty about your circumstances back in that square, you stopped short of realizing that most of us carry baggage. Some emotional like yours; some physical like mine."

Although her mouth moved from time to time, she stayed quiet as I explained a rather unusual job I was given. Initially I was sent in as lead scout/sniper. What I found when I got there was the man our country considered the most dangerous of them all. He stayed alive longer than most because he was always suspicious of everything. Finding him was so unexpected that it even caught God's brother unaware.

My task changed to watching his movements while those upstairs decided what to do: take him, or drop a surprise on him. Of course, suspicious man just kept looking my way, and even sent a few of his guys up the hill to check on his own hunch. When they found nothing I thought that was the end of it, but within minutes air burst explosions covered the hill top. I was slightly lower down than the top of the hill, but still caught a chunk of it.

To me, I thought I had covered enough for her to stop asking. Silly me!

"OK, so then what happened? You can't just leave me hanging like that! It's plain to see you got out of it, but how?"

The pain was excruciating. A quick hand check of my back revealed too much blood. My legs felt like lead, and my failing concentration worried me. The words "sitting duck" came to mind right about then. At best I may have been able to crawl a few yards, but the blood trail would have lead them to any position I moved to.

Flight was out; it was time to fight. I took aim and, when I felt my concentration at its highest, I put two holes in Mr. Suspicious and then pulled my radio out from under me and gave a mortar platoon some work for the next ten minutes. The next part was perhaps the hardest: staying awake. The helicopter would never have found me on its own, and you had to be conscious to lay down smoke.

We both went inside for cold drinks, putting my top back on when I did. Brooke retaliated by wandering around the kitchen in that excuse for a bikini.

"I won't allow my children to see me like this; I have to let their grandparents take them swimming. At the moment they don't think it's odd that I wear a shirt and track bottoms on sunny days, but they're smart children so it's not going to be long before they do."

"What will you do then?"

Shrugging my shoulders felt like a cop-out. The truth was I just didn't know.

"I'm hardly a poster boy for helping you with your PTSD, am I?"

Brooke launched herself across what little space was between us and gave me a hug, something I wasn't expecting. The thought of all that nakedness this close to me got my heart racing. I was polite and hugged her back, and then gently pushed her back before I found a need to adjust my pants.

It was her knowing smile that gave it away: I hadn't been quick enough to put some space between us. She called out to Maria for soft drinks in the day room as she practically ran up the stairs to change. As the staircase divided half way up and she took a left, I got a good long look at how her chest moved before she finally reached the top. The drinks came out and Maria was gone before Brooke came back. She was dressed, but I would have to use that term loosely.

A baggy t-shirt that stopped just below her hips, and shorts that fitted her like a second skin. The jiggle of her tits when she walked gave away the lack of a bra, and what also seemed to be the norm for her was bare feet. Brooke dropped onto the couch across from me, and grabbed her iced tea before leaning back and sliding her feet under her.

"I'm sorry."

When she noticed my look of confusion she continued.

"You are Halo."

She knew I was going to interrupt and correct her, but one of her hands came away from the glass she was holding to stop me.

"Please: let me finish."

There was something about her eyes that made me do as she asked; a sadness I had only ever seen at funerals.

"You are Halo. When my world imploded and I was all alone in that little square you were my guardian angel."

Brooke's eyes went to her glass and her face almost took on a vacant look as she spoke. She had watched all of her team die; even the two men left after the run across the square were gone within seconds of each other, leaving her alone. It was then that people around her started to die, and she couldn't understand why. A part of her had already accepted she was going to die, and yet no one got close enough. When the bodies started to stack up she realized she wasn't alone anymore.

When she felt the first bullet come within inches of the dead lieutenant's head Brooke had put it down to a stray, and then another landed in exactly the same place. It slowly dawned on her that someone else out there was on her side and, within minutes, her guardian angel had a voice. I now lived in her head and, for the first time since the death of her colleagues, she felt hope.

"The selfish part of me wanted to swap places with you."

I smiled, thinking that was funny. Sadly, the look she gave me showed me that this woman in front of me was being brutally honest, both with me and, for perhaps the first time in her life, herself.

"My Halo was keeping me alive, and all I wanted to do was put you there and me elsewhere." Even as she paused her eyes looked around the room, her hand following her gaze for a moment before once again resting on her glass.

"I wanted to be here. I was there because they needed a medic, and when it all went to shit my only response was to put you in the line of fire so I could go and hide."

Her emotions were catching up with her and the tears fell down her face, remaining unchecked as she clutched her glass of tea like a liferaft.

"I didn't want to die, Rick, and I'm embarrassed to say that, at the time, I would have gladly swapped places with you and just kept going."

She felt shame, both at being alive and for thinking that, if she had the power to swap places with me, she wouldn't have hung around for the order to keep me alive.

*******

"You know you're talking crap, don't you?"

The look on Brooke's face was almost the same as if I had gone over and slapped her.

I had watched them enter the square, and quickly figured out where the gunman was that killed the lieutenant. The house next to that one came alive when the corporal went down, as did the various houses that the insurgents came out over that day to try and snatch Kitten away. Most would have relied on their sidearm, yet she instinctively went for her knife. Hand to hand is taught to us all.

It's only a few that perfect the art. The urge to survive may have pushed her onwards, but it was instinct that put a knife in her hand because she was far more confident with it. Not once, but twice, and when I grabbed her to keep her quiet it's what she went for first yet again. Yes, Brooke was in a hole and couldn't get out but, as she realized this, her humor saw her through.

Brooke went to argue my conclusion, but a polite cough from Maria told us that dinner was ready. We both had to look at the clock on the wall to realize that we had talked for almost three hours.

"Are you dressing for dinner?"

She raised an eyebrow and then got off the couch heading for the nice smells coming from the dinner table. Being a gentleman, I followed those swaying hips all the way.

*******

It was just before seven the next morning when I walked into her bedroom. It seemed pretty obvious that she thought I had been bluffing. It was warm in her room and her naked form was face down, breathing softly. Well, at least until my hand slapped her backside. She let out such a scream that I'm just glad I had warned Maria what I was doing. She must have phoned security from the kitchen, as they didn't come rushing in.

The gentleman in me was walking away so I didn't get to see the front. Mind you, the supposed bikini she had worn the day before meant I didn't have to connect too many dots to join in what it covered.

"Get your backside out of bed, Brooke! We have five miles to kill."

"You fucking..."

I never did hear the last bit. Her bedroom door was shut by then, plus I was three steps down the stairs as well. The front door shook as she slammed it, her face a picture of anger.

"You come into my room again uninvited and I will shoot you before you get two feet past the door! Do I make myself clear, mister?"

"Well, I see you've done your warm up, so let's go."

Now, I have seen some competitive women in my time, but Brooke was right up there with the best of them. I set the pace and she matched it for a few hundred yards, then put herself in front of me. So, of course, I just had to match that, and a few hundred yards later... you get the picture, right? By the time we had got to the last five hundred yards of the course it was at a sprint.

I'm almost sure we were the entertainment for the morning when it came to the security people. We reached the steps to the ranch house together at an all-out sprint.

"Warm down, Brooke."

"Go fuck yourself!"

Those words had just left her when she was suddenly looking up at the sky. My hand on her chest caused her tits to separate.

"I asked politely. Don't make me ask NOT so politely in future."

What she saw in my face made her stop and mentally take a step back. She placed both hands on my wrist and I pulled her up. She kept her mouth shut for the next ten minutes while we warmed down, and remained tight-lipped once we were done and she left to take a shower.

It was the silent treatment all through breakfast that amused me. I felt sure that wasn't going to last, though, and sure enough, as she got up and headed for the stairs, she said "I'm going out."

"Fine; but be back before six. We have someplace to go this evening."

I'm almost sure curiosity made her stop and turn around. Her still being pissed at me quickly muddied that pool.

"I'm over twenty-one, and you're not my folks."

All I did was shrug my shoulders and carry on eating. She was dressed and gone within an hour. I enjoyed the pool and sunbathed for the day, packed up by five, and by five past six my cab was pulling up at the ranch house.

*******

It was late evening when the commercial flight landed in Orlando, so I took a hotel room for the night and joined them for breakfast. Tessa and Olivia were so happy to see me, but their grandparents looked worried. They kept that to themselves until we managed to get both girls in the children's pool at the hotel, and I told them everything was fine. We were all sitting down to dinner when my cell rang. It wasn't a number I recognized, so I excused myself from the table.

"My daughter seems to be on her own at the ranch house, Mr. Chalmers."

I smiled. "Your daughter is a strong-willed young lady, ma'am."

The laughter sounded genuine.

"Are you two having a game of who has the biggest set of balls, Mr. Chalmers?"

"No, ma'am. But, short of putting her across my knee, I'll have to let her have her way. She doesn't need my help, and has told me that."

"Well, I must say your help is somewhat out of the box, and I'm not surprised that going into my daughter's room to wake her that way would put her on the defensive."

Was there anything this woman didn't know?

"My security people seem to be having bets on the outcome of this head-butting contest you're in, Mr. Chalmers. Do you plan on returning now that I have found you?"

"No ma'am. I plan to see out my holiday with my children and go home to some peace."

There was silence at the other end and, for some reason, I felt the need to fill in the awkward moment.

"Your daughter has the stones to get through this survivor's guilt, ma'am; she's just a little lost at the moment. I'm no doctor, so I can only go by what I can see, and that is that you have a great daughter who went through a traumatic time and, when she finally comes up for air, someone should tell her that."

She laughed again, only this time I didn't think I had made a funny.

"Somehow I thought you would say that, Mr. Chalmers. Please enjoy your holiday; there is plenty to do in Disney World, even for the adults."

I looked around the restaurant; unsure why, but I did it anyway. Nothing seemed out of sorts but, then again, I wasn't factoring in a mother with her own daughter's interests at heart. We were still enjoying our meal when the duty manager came and stood beside me. He leaned down and whispered into my ear that the management had been told to allocate me a larger room free of charge.

When I asked why, he mentioned that my party was here as the guests of the owners, and I was to be given the same privileges. If I gave him the key to my room my stuff would be transferred immediately. Since I was the only one hearing all this, both children and grandparents alike just sat confused, even more so when I pulled out my room key and handed it to him.

Stupid of me I know and, with hindsight scurrying for cover, I believed the man. We took in a show, and the duty manager came back later with the key to my new room. It was a fun evening, and reading stories to my two girls at bedtime so their grandparents could have at least some time to themselves pleased them as well. I kissed the girls goodnight and waited an hour for Max and Beth to get back.

The light was on when I opened the door to my room. Brooke was sitting on one of the two queen size beds in a t-shirt and shorts, resting her chin on her knee as she painted her nails.

She looked up and smiled. "Surprise!"

I waited until I hung my jacket first before saying anything.

"I suppose I should be pissed off. Let me guess: your mother?"

Her voice followed me to the bathroom. "Half right; it was both of them. Ever had a conference call with your folks?"

Somehow I suspected that was a rhetorical question.

"Well I got chewed out by my folks for my attitude and what we both got up to at the ranch house. Mom said that, since you weren't coming back, there was only one solution."

I came out of the bathroom in time to see her eyes follow her hands around the room, and her saying "ta-dah" seemed to have that full stop moment. Well, almost. Her mouth formed an O and her eyes did a full body scan of me.

"Um...have you forgotten you have a guest?"

"Correction. I have an uninvited guest in my room and, since it's been a long day, I'm going to bed. As you may have noticed, I sleep naked."

Brooke was still looking. "Oh, I noticed! Want me to join you?"

"Nope. That's your bed; this is mine."

She wasn't talking beds. As I was making myself comfortable she was already pulling her t-shirt off. It was perhaps time that I reminded myself that she was uncomfortably close in attitude to me. This was clearly one of those "you started it, so I'm finishing it" moments with her. Once her shorts hit the floor she again assumed the contorted position she had been in to finish painting her nails.

"We still on for seven?"

The "mmhhmm" she got was as sleep took me.

*******

It was the pain that came first. Opening my eyes a second later, although my mind was trying to tell me, it still took my hand to feel my backside for realization to grab a firm hold. She was already dressed in her running kit.

"See you in the gym downstairs in ten."

My hand was still feeling for blood; the bitch had bitten my backside to wake me up! Brooke was already warming up in the gym when I found her.

"Your choice - the hotel gave me a five mile route that the joggers use, or we could use the treadmills."

"You bit my bum."

She smiled, and then wandered over to the treadmill, turning it on so that it started life at a steady walk.

"I bit your ass. Go on - say 'ass.'"

"Arse."

Her hand went to the dial, and she was now on a slow jog.

"Nope! Not good enough! You still sound like an up-tight Englishman when you say that. Say 'ass.'"

She was baiting me, and this early in the morning I was too stupid to notice. I stepped on the other treadmill and quickly caught up with her.

"Whatever. You still bit it."

"It took some doing as well! You were on your back when I woke, and the thought of biting that did make me stop and think about my original plan."

I stopped. The machine didn't, and shoved me off the other end. I tottered for a second before momentum and gravity settled the issue. She laughed so much she forgot she was on a treadmill as well, and her machine put her on the floor next to me. Members of the gym team came to see if we were OK, and we somewhat sheepishly thanked them.