Chapter 13 #2
Aspen wanted to laugh, but managed to control herself.
The girl had obviously been warned about swearing and was doing her best to not disobey her parents, but still get her point across.
“Be that as it may, there will be lots of poopholes you’ll have to deal with if you want to be a combat medic attached to a Ranger team.
A lot of people still don’t think women can physically do the job.
And they’ll tell you that over and over, to try to get you to quit.
You’ll have to work twice as hard as a man to get the job too.
It’s not fair, but if you want it bad enough, if you can show the officers in charge that you’re the best person for the job and that you can do it without losing your temper, then you’ll get it. ”
Annie studied her. “Being a girl is hard,” she said after a minute.
Aspen laughed. “It can be, especially when you want to do something that in the past has mostly been done by boys. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go after what you want. It might be harder, but when you accomplish it, you’ll feel twice as good as the boy because you worked hard for it.”
Annie nodded.
“I heard you’re pretty darn good at the obstacle course.”
“I am,” Annie said without a shred of bashfulness.
“Want to run through it with me?” Aspen asked.
“Sure.”
Aspen stood with Annie and they went to the beginning of the course.
Kane had finished talking with the boys and was standing off to the side having a conversation with his team.
Gillian and Kinley were there too, and they both waved when they saw Aspen looking in their direction.
Aspen waved back, then returned her attention to Annie.
“You go first,” Annie said, and once again Aspen had to hide her smile. It was obvious the girl didn’t quite believe that Aspen could manage the obstacle course; it was going to be fun to show her otherwise.
Glad that she’d decided to wear a pair of jean shorts and a loose T-shirt today, Aspen nodded at Annie and started going through the course. It wasn’t all that hard, since it was set up for the kids to run through, but it wasn’t a walk in the park either.
She scrambled under the ropes, ran toward the wall and climbed up and over it without hesitation.
Then she climbed up a pole and rang the bell at the top before sliding back down.
She leaped over three logs and jumped up and grabbed a horizontal pole.
Flinging one leg up and over it, she shimmied hand over hand across it, upside down, before using her leg muscles to pull her on top of the pole.
She sat atop it and reached for the bell hanging above her head.
Hearing applause, Aspen looked down and saw Annie jumping up and down and clapping her hands enthusiastically.
She’d drawn an audience, and everyone who’d been watching her was clapping as well.
Flushing, Aspen flipped herself over and hung from the pole by her hands for a second before dropping to the ground.
“You’re good!” Annie said, her eyes dancing. “Will you teach me how to do that leg thing on the pole? My arms are usually really tired by the time I get to that point and it’s hard for me to pull myself up to get to the bell.”
Loving that Annie was asking for assistance, Aspen said, “Of course. I’m happy to help. Just remember, you might be strong, but you need to save your strength whenever possible. Work smarter, not harder. And that means using your leg muscles wherever you can.”
Annie nodded.
“Come on, let’s start at the beginning. You show me what you can do, and I’ll give you pointers along the way, all right?”
“Awesome! My own Ranger combat medic coach. Totes cool!”
Turning to head for the beginning of the course, Aspen stopped in her tracks when she almost ran into Derek.
“What the hell, Mesmer?” he bit out.
Aspen had no idea what Derek was all pissed off about now, but she quickly took a step to the side, putting herself between Annie and her ex. He didn’t give her a chance to say anything.
“It wasn’t bad enough that we had to deal with you on the teams, but now I get word that you’re considering not re-upping? Figures you’d quit. You should’ve stepped aside a long time ago and given us the chance to train a real medic. Someone who wouldn’t divide the team like you did.”
Aspen saw red. “How dare you!” she hissed.
“How dare you belittle everything I’ve done for the Rangers.
I’m as much a Ranger as you, probably more.
I paid attention in training and would never leave a teammate behind.
Unlike you, who not only left three teammates behind, but two who were injured.
They would’ve died if that Delta team hadn’t come upon us. ”
“A real Ranger would’ve been able to handle it,” Derek shot back.
“I did handle it,” Aspen told him. “While you were busy having a dick-measuring contest with the Deltas. Too worried you’d come up short if you didn’t find Akhund before they did.
We’d been there a month and a half and hadn’t managed to catch him, and they did what we couldn’t in less than a week.
Leaving me, Holman, and Vandine behind made you look like an ass, not me. ”
Derek glared at her, and Aspen raised her chin. She could see the anger in his eyes. This whole situation was crazy; she hadn’t done anything to make him so mad at her. But then again, her simply existing seemed to anger him.
“Stand down, Spence,” a deep voice said from behind her.
Aspen didn’t have to turn around to know it was Kane.
“Stay out of this, Brain,” Derek snarled.
“I’m already in it,” Kane returned, stepping up beside Aspen. She appreciated more than she could say that he didn’t step in front of her, pushing her behind him. That would’ve pissed her off just as much as Derek’s words did.
“Look around you, man,” Kane said. “You’re standing in the middle of a park surrounded by your peers. Walk it off.”
Derek took a deep breath and his hands curled into fists, but he did take a step backward. “She’s no peer of mine,” he ground out. “This isn’t over, Mesmer. You can’t come into my team and fuck everything up, then just walk away.”
“I’m not on your team—and I’m not walking away,” Aspen told him.
“I’ve done everything possible to be accepted.
I’ve done the same training, crawled through the same shit you guys have.
I’ve studied my ass off and gotten my paramedic license through the state of Texas, just to prove I know what I’m doing when it comes to your safety.
I even saved the lives of two Rangers! Yet time and time again, just when I think I’m making progress with my team, you do something to sabotage it.
I’m done with your bullshit, Derek. You’re lucky I haven’t reported you for making us work in unsafe conditions—and the hundred other little things you’ve done. ”
Derek glared at her, his gaze flicking behind her briefly, then he abruptly turned and stalked away.
Aspen breathed out a frustrated sigh. She should’ve been glad he hadn’t attacked her, but all she could feel was pissed off that things between them had deteriorated so badly.
“I have no idea what I ever saw in him,” she muttered between clenched teeth.
“That was kinda hot,” someone said from behind her.
Aspen spun around to see Trigger, Lefty, Oz, Doc, Lucky, and Grover standing there. She wasn’t surprised to see them—but she was shocked to see the seven men behind them.
“Chérie, let me introduce another Delta team that we’re friends with. This is Ghost, Fletch, Coach, Hollywood, Beatle, Blade, and Truck.”
“What an idiot,” the man named Hollywood said with an eye roll.
“Dad! Did you see that? That was so cool!” Annie said enthusiastically.
Fletch’s muscles visibly relaxed at hearing his daughter’s words. “Yeah, squirt. I saw.”
“He gonna be a problem?” Truck asked.
Aspen stared up at him. He was almost a foot taller than her, and all muscle. But she wasn’t scared of him. How could she be when he was more than obviously on her side? She sighed. “Yeah. But I can handle it,” she told Truck and the others.
“Maybe I should talk to his commanding officer,” Ghost suggested.
Aspen shook her head. “Just drop it.”
“He threatened you,” Doc said. “He can’t get away with that.”
“Here’s the thing,” Aspen told the dozen men around her.
“This kind of thing happens all the time simply because I’m a woman.
I can handle men like Derek, they’re mostly bluster.
He’s threatened by me simply because I’m a chick.
I’ve been dealing with this for the entire eight years I’ve been in the Army. Eight years.”
“It’s not right,” Lefty said.
“You’re right, it’s not,” Aspen agreed. “But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
If you want to help, take a look at how you interact with the women you work with.
Do you talk down to them? Do you assume they can’t handle something just because of their gender?
Discrimination is both a state of mind and a conscious decision.
Just because you don’t think you aren’t being discriminatory, doesn’t mean your actions aren’t. ”
Everyone stared at her in silence, and Aspen felt uncomfortable for the first time. She didn’t often get up on her soap box about this kind of thing, she was used to sweeping it under the rug and just dealing with it.
“You mean like when Dad opens the door for Mom?” Annie asked.
Smiling, Aspen turned to the little girl.
“There’s being polite, and then there’s belittling.
There’s a difference.” When Annie’s brow furrowed, Aspen tried to think of an example.
“So your dad holding open a door, or carrying the grocery bags, or wanting your mom to let him know when she gets home while he’s at work and can’t be there to meet her…
that’s polite. It’s a part of loving someone and wanting them to be safe.