Chapter 6 #2
“No. Of course not. He was reaching for a map on the table and bumped it. Thankfully it wasn’t full, but we all still scrambled to get the maps out of the way of the liquid so they wouldn’t be ruined.
Apparently the table isn’t as level as we thought, because the coffee—cold coffee, thank God—made a beeline for where I was sitting and ended up in my lap. ”
Zita could picture the scene, and her smile widened. “At least tell me you got the sand out of your underwear.”
“Finally, yes. Took a long shower after getting home tonight, and I’m pretty sure I got it all…until tomorrow morning, when Casper decides to make us all sugar cookies again, just to be a dick.”
That made Zita laugh out loud.
“He’s been stressed out for some reason, and none of us know why.
And we’ve noticed that Laryn, his girlfriend, has been cranky as well.
Something has to give, because while we respect and admire Casper, we don’t like being treated as if we’re privates in basic all over again.
He needs to lighten up, for his sake and ours. ”
“Will he be there tonight?” Zita asked.
“He should be. When I reminded everyone about tonight before we left base, he said he and Laryn would do their best to be there.”
Zita hoped the tension between the team leader and the rest of his friends wouldn’t be too awkward. If they had some beef with him, the last place she wanted to be was in the middle of it.
“Buck and Mandy will be there as well. And the rest of the guys.”
“Can you remind me of their names?”
“Sure. Pyro, Chaos, and Edge. Casper and Pyro usually fly together, as do me and Buck, and Chaos and Edge.”
“Do you always fly with the same person? Are you assigned to them?”
“Not all the time. We can fly with anyone. And we’re able to interchange who’s the pilot and who’s the copilot, as well.
We all know the roles and duties of both positions.
But we’re comfortable in the current configurations, so why switch it up?
We aren’t assigned, per se, but if we had to choose, those are likely the partners we’d pick.
Because they work. And we’re all damn good together. ”
There was so much about helicopters that Zita had no clue about.
And the Night Stalkers were even more mysterious.
All she knew was that they were the best of the best, and they were sent into dangerous missions around the world.
Which wasn’t comforting, but it did make her proud of the man sitting next to her.
It was hard for her to imagine him being in full gear, dodging bullets and RPGs as he flew in and around mountainous terrain while he dropped off or picked up teams of special forces soldiers.
That kind of situation seemed a million miles away from the cozy and intimate atmosphere of his car.
“Did you always want to be a Night Stalker?”
“Hell no. I mean, I’ve always loved flying, but I wanted to be a commercial pilot.
” He grinned. “But I got bored in college. One of my friends was joining the Army and somehow talked me into joining with him. It was extremely rash, but it also changed my life for the better. I would’ve been bored to tears flying planes from one airport to another.
There’s no bigger rush than being behind the controls of my chopper and swerving around missiles and mountain peaks while successfully picking up our brave men and women on the ground. You probably think that’s crazy.”
Zita shrugged. “I mean, it’s not the same at all, but it sounds a lot like the feeling I get when I come up on a really bad scene, and there are people screaming for help and I have to triage the situation and figure out who needs the quickest assistance.
The adrenaline that courses through my veins when I get someone’s heart started after being flatlined.
When I can stop blood spurting through a severed artery.
“Sometimes, after delivering a patient to the hospital and coming back out to my ambulance and seeing every inch covered in blood, vomit, and other bodily fluids, I wonder why any sane human would do what I do. But then I remember the lives I’ve saved, the mothers who’ll live to see their children again, and husbands and wives who’ll get to spend more time with their loved ones.
It makes all the yucky stuff a little more bearable. ”
She felt a little silly when she was done speaking, comparing her job to what Sage did. But to her relief, he simply nodded in agreement.
“Adrenaline is a strange thing. What we both do is a little crazy, huh?”
She snorted. “Just a little.”
“You like working on the ambulance when you aren’t on set?”
Zita nodded. “Yeah. Even though I spend most of my time on sets, and make most of my money there, I find working shifts on the ambulance is a good break from all the travel that comes with a job in the film industry—not to mention some of the egos. Conversely, movie sets are a good way to force me to pace myself. I know far too many paramedics and EMTs who’ve burned out by working day in and day out on an ambulance, experiencing the extreme highs and extreme lows. ”
“Where’s your home base?”
“Right now, Hollywood. But I’ve been thinking about moving.”
“Yeah?”
“Yes. For a while now. I don’t know if you’ve been out to Hollywood or not, but it’s…different.”
“I haven’t been there. Different how?”
“The drug problem is out of control. And it’s not just the homeless who are afflicted.
I mean, yes, we go on a lot of calls for people passed out in the streets next to their tents or shopping carts.
But it’s rich people too. People are shooting up left and right.
It’s wild. We use more Narcan than you could probably imagine.
And yet, the next day, week, whatever, we see the same people, and we have to bring them back to life all over again.
I get that addiction is a disease and it’s extremely difficult to overcome, but as a paramedic, it’s tiring and disheartening. ”
“I can’t imagine. Where would you like to move to?”
“I have no idea. That’s mostly why I haven’t left yet.
And before you say it, I know there are drugs everywhere, but I’d love to find a place where I could use my skills for more than just administering Narcan.
Maybe somewhere a little less populated.
I don’t want rural, because I’d probably be bored, so I’d want to be in a city somewhere. Just not like LA.”
“Would that hurt your chances of working on sets?”
“I don’t think so. I mean, I can always fly to where I need to be, where a show or movie is filming.
I might not get as many gigs. For instance, I’d probably no longer get jobs filming in California.
And eventually, if I’m not in LA where the unions reps and agents are, I could fade from their memories entirely.
But I don’t think I’d mind that so much. ”
“You have family?”
Zita liked this. Liked how interested Sage seemed in her life. Too many dates, she’d been the one asking all the questions and listening all night to a man talking about nothing but himself.
“Nope. I hatched from a pod on an alien world and was dropped off here on Earth.”
The burst of laughter from Sage made Zita’s lips curl up into a huge grin.
“Knew there was something different about you the first time we met,” Sage said, without missing a beat.
“Of course I have a family. I mean, I guess there’s no ‘of course’ about it, since some people don’t.
My parents live in West Lafayette, Indiana.
They’re both professors at Purdue University.
I have a younger brother, Chris. He’s married, lives in Monticello, which is a little north of Lafayette.
He works at a car factory. No kids yet, but he and his wife are actively trying to change that, according to Chris.
Which is way too much info. Thinking about my dorky little brother having sex is enough to make me want to puke.
But I know my parents are anxiously awaiting the day when they’ll be grandparents.
I think they’ve written me off on giving them any grandkids, so my brother’s their last hope. What about you?”
“No siblings. My parents live in Colorado Springs. My dad’s an engineer, and my mom hasn’t worked…ever? She raised me, and she’s involved in all sorts of volunteer work and charity things. I don’t think they’re super close, but their relationship seems to work.”
“Colorado Springs…isn’t the Air Force Academy there? Is that where you got your love of flying?”
“It is, and not really. We took a trip to Disneyland when I was little, and I got to go up to the cockpit and sit in the pilot’s seat.
I got my picture taken with him, and he gave me the little plastic wings pin they give to kids, and that was it.
Seeing all those buttons and levers, and realizing the people who sat up there and flew the plane knew how to use them all, was fascinating to me. ”
“And now here you are,” Zita said with a small smile. “Flying helicopters.”
“Yup.”
“I have one more question.”
“Shoot.”
“Do you still have the pin you got that day?”
“Of course,” Sage said, looking over at her with a huge grin on his face. “It’s in a box under my bed with all the medals I’ve earned in my career.”
Zita had no idea if he was kidding or not, but figured he probably wasn’t. “Awesome.”
“Yeah. We’re almost there.”
Looking out the front windshield, Zita saw a building with extremely bright lights ahead and to the right, covering the entire parking area.
“Wow, you could land your chopper right there in the parking lot,” she joked.
But Sage didn’t even crack a smile. “Mandy was attacked in the lot one night, several months back, and since there were hardly any lights, Buck didn’t see it coming.
After a large donation by a former SEAL we know, the owner put in the high-powered lights to try to ensure no one else gets attacked on his property again. ”
Zita felt horrible that her joke was apparently in such poor taste. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay. And yes, the lights are a little bit overkill, but no one complains. Not even the people living in the houses nearby. I think they’re probably relieved, because this neighborhood hasn’t been the best at times. But it’s slowly getting better.”
“She’s okay though? Mandy?” Sage had talked about the other woman a few times, and Zita still felt horrible that she’d made such an offensive offhand remark about someone he cared for.
“She’s good. Took a bit for her to recover, but she’s been amazingly resilient.
She’s currently long-term subbing at a school on the naval base, but Buck told us the other day that there’s a full-time slot opening for a first-grade teacher at the same school next year that she’ll almost certainly get. ”
“That’s great.”
“It is. She’s the kind of teacher I’d want for my kids. Caring, compassionate, and determined to make their school experience a good one.”
Sage parked his Jeep toward the back of the lot, under one of the bright lights. He turned to her before he opened his door. “Ready?”
“Ready,” Zita told him. And she was. The more she learned about his friends—and him—the more she wanted to know.
Sage nodded and reached for his door handle.
Zita did the same, and they met at the front of the Jeep.
She could hear music coming from the bar as the door opened and closed, with people entering and exiting.
It seemed like a popular place, which was a good sign.
In her experience, the more rundown a place looked from the outside, the better the food and atmosphere.
And the fact that it was so busy also said a lot about it… all good things.
Even with her nerves, Zita was glad she’d agreed to come with Sage. Not only because she was getting to know him better, but because she loved learning about the soul of a town or city.
The more she saw of Norfolk, the more she liked.
There was an interesting mix of military men and women, minorities, income levels.
Zita had visited a lot of cities and towns thanks to her career, had seen the good, bad, and ugly, and she felt as if she was a good judge of a location’s character.
And she got nothing but good vibes from the city on the coast of Virginia.
She shifted her purse around her body and smiled at Sage as he held the door open for her. Taking a deep breath, she walked inside, excited about the upcoming night and meeting Sage’s friends.