DON'T MESS WITH THE NAVY
BY: THE BARD

Part Three
Aim High

    “Nothing like a big hearty breakfast after a hard workout!” Leatherneck exclaimed as he dropped his heaping tray onto the table and crashed down into the chair.

    “You said it, mon ami” Gung Ho agreed as he sat next to him, an equally full plate gracing his tray.

    “Is food all you Marine’s ever think of? “ Ace shook his head in wonder. On his tray was a fruit salad.

    “That, fighting and sex…” Leatherneck laughed, “And not in that order. The food is just fuel for the other two. You should try it Ace…it would give you more stamina with the ladies than that rabbit food of yours…”

    “I don’t need stamina…quality, not quantity is my motto.”

    “Really,” Torpedo looked up from his paper, “ I thought they called you Zoomies cause you flyboys were so quick to…”

    “Would you idiots cut it out!” Deep Six frowned, cutting Torpedo off “Some people are TRYING to eat here.”

    “Man, I didn’t know you were such a prude, Six.” Torpedo shook his head.

    “I don’t know, Torpedo…in my experience it’s the quiet ones who are usually the best in bed.”

    For the second time that day, Leatherneck ended up choking on his coffee.

    “JAYE!” Roadblock exclaimed in astonishment. Deep Six had turned crimson and Ace was laughing so hard he nearly fell off his chair.

    The woman merely smiled mischievously and winked at the diver, whose eyes began to frantically search the room.

    “My god, you ARE a prude!!” Lady Jaye laughed as she gracefully sat herself down, putting her bowl of cereal and grapefruit on the table in front of her, “What in the world are you looking for? Has COBRA infiltrated the mess?”

    “He’s looking for your partner…” Shipwreck supplied as he sat down across from her.

    “Flint?”

    “Six foot two, eyes of blue, look at my girl sideways and I’m going to kill you…” Roadblock hummed.

    “Ok…’A’ he’s not like that and ‘B’ I’m not his girl…” The Joes around the table rolled their eyes in unison.

    “Remind me why I sit with you guys?” she sighed and began to pour some milk on her cereal.

    “Pass the salt.”

    “Salt!” Roadblock spluttered, glaring up at Shipwreck from his place across the table “You had better reconsider your request dude, before you insult this chef’s food!”

    “Oh come on,” Shipwreck grunted as he reached over and snatched the salt himself, “Why do you always take this stuff so personally?”

    “Food is my life and my art,” the big man sighed and shook his head as he watched Shipwreck re-season his omelet, “Why do I even bother wasting my talent on an old sea fart.”

    “That’s MISTER sea fart to you!” The old sailor grinned and winked, “I salt everything, Roadblock. Comes from spending so much time on the ocean. Sea spray coats everything…gets to the point you can’t taste anything without a good coating of the white stuff.”

    “Either that or your taste buds are slowly dying…” Wetsuit quipped as he planted himself down next to the sailor, “…age does that.”

    “Funny…very funny…you know what you need SEAL-boy? You need a good swift kick in the…” Shipwreck paused and looked up mid sentence, his eye drawn to the figure making his way into the mess and towards their table.

    “Oh goody, front row seats…” Mainframe rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

    “Men…” Flint placed his tray in the spot next to Lady Jaye and smiled shyly at her, “…and Lady”

    “I thought you were going to get some sleep.” Jaye looked up at him, concern in her face.

    “Can’t…jet lag…” he sat down “And in any case, I wanted you…” The entire table froze and Flint’s eyes grew wide, “I mean…I wanted to see you…I mean talk to you…”

    “FLINT!” Dukes authoritative voice carried across the room, “Come over her for a sec. I need you to look at something.”

    With an expression of ‘saved by the bell’ relief etched across his face, Flint flew up and sped off towards his CO as fast as his feet could carry him, leaving a very confused Lady Jaye in his wake.

    “Rhodes Scholar, eh?” Wet Suit asked.

    “Yup.” Shipwreck answered as he continued to eat his eggs.

    “What is with the Joe men lately?” Lady Jaye asked incredulous, “I’ve known Flint for two years and lately he can’t string two words together around me, every Joe I meet keeps staring at me and looking at their watch and to top it all off that new guy has been following me around like a puppy since I met him last night…”

    “Don’t look now, Jaye…but it seems that puppy has found you again.” Gung Ho smirked as Lt Falcon approached their table.

    “Squids…Jarheads…” he turned and flashed Lady Jaye a brilliant smile, “Beautiful lady…”

    “Falcon, I…” but before she could even begin he sat himself down in the seat next to her and pushed Flint’s tray over to the side. The others looked up just in time to see Flint’s eyes narrow as he noticed what was going on from across the room.

    “Hey Ahab…” the Green Beret turned to Shipwreck and with a grin threw him a small bottle. The sailor caught it easily.

    “Advil?”

    “I thought you might need some after your workout this morning…”

    “You did, did you? I think you are going to be needing these back when I get through with…” Shipwreck stopped as Mainframe whacked him on the back of the head.

    “Cut it out, squid…stick to the plan.”

    Falcon, meanwhile, was no longer paying attention. He had turned to Lady Jaye and was in the process of sidling up closer to the female Joe.

    “So. What are you doing later?”

    “Same thing you are doing…hand to hand exercises with Beachhead and Quick Kick.”

    “No…I mean tonight.”

    “Tonight?” Lady Jaye stared at him in surprise, so completely thrown for a loop that she failed to notice Flint making his way back towards the table. Nor did she notice the room suddenly go very still.

    “I thought we should spend some time getting to know each other better seeing that we are going to be working closely together.” The word ‘closely’ was said in a very suggestive tone.

    In the background, Torpedo began humming the melody from TAPS.

    “Closely, eh…” Lady Jaye’s eyes narrowed, a sign to those who knew her to watch their step. At that moment, though, Flint appeared behind her.

    “Falcon…” he growled.

    “In a minute,” Falcon waved his hand dismissively at the Warrant Officer, “Can’t you see I’m talking to the lady?”

    He turned back to Jaye, missing the tell tale sign that Flint was about to loose it, clenching and unclenching his fists in attempt to regain his composure. “So…is it a date? You, me, a romantic…”

    “FALCON!”

    But before Flint had a chance to lunge forward an alarm rang out through the building. In an instant, all the Joes, even Falcon, snapped to attention and began racing towards their battle positions.

    “So close…so close…” Gung Ho moaned as he and the others made their way to ops, having realized that the Marines were now out of the pool.

    “You win some you loose some.” Ace laughed as he turned down the hall, heading towards the airfield. “I, on the other hand…never loose.”

    “Don’t get cocky, flyboy…” Torpedo shouted at his retreating form, “We have the whole day ahead of us…and by the look on Flint’s face just then, I don’t think we are going to have to wait much longer.”

    “Cocky, eh?” Ace stopped and smiled, a glint in his eyes, “I’ll show you cocky! Double or nothing…squid…”

    “Double or…” Torpedo paused to consider the large amount of money that stood to be gained…or lost. But before he could answer, Shipwreck cut in

    “You’re on!”

    “Are you nuts? That’s almost a month’s salary!”

    Ace merely winked as he sped off towards the Sky Strikers, “Aim Higher I always say…”

    “I hope you know what you’re doing Shipwreck.” Wetsuit glared at him as they entered ops.

    Shipwreck merely grinned, “Where is your Navy pride, kid. Don’t worry…if I know Flint, and I do, we have this in the bag.” He paused as he pocketed the pain-killers Falcon had given him. “I fact, I think someone is going to be needing these babies back before the sun goes down.”

    He looked over to where the two Beret clad Joes were standing on either side of Lady Jaye, the expression on Flint’s face unreadable but deadly.

    “Maybe even sooner than that.”

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Continued in Part Four!
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