8. Mika #2
“What? Stand by and let it happen?” Colin shot back. “Then you’re a bigger idiot than you accuse the rest of us of being.”
A shadow shifted nervously in the hallway, and I realized Cait was standing at her office door as Xander’s eyes widened. “Excuse me?”
“Those other assholes picked a fight, and they were going to have it no matter what the hell we did,” Colin growled at him.
“They went after Reno first when all he was trying to do was get Jake to a safe distance, and then we were going to leave. I didn’t make that prick go after Reno.
And don’t stand there and act like you wouldn’t have taken that fucker’s head off if you’d seen him go after one of your men. ”
Xander huffed. “We don’t need the town thinking we’re going to start trouble, Colin.
I get you were backing them up, but seriously?
There was no other way to handle it? You act like you’re their mother, their big brother, their whatever, but you couldn’t step in?
Fuck’s sake, you made Jake back off from Carter, don’t pretend otherwise, I got the full story. ”
“What’s your point?” Colin asked, and his face was ablaze with fury.
“You’re not in the military anymore, alright?
Where they’ll let you get away with being rough occasionally.
And you’re not some EMT on the streets who has to defend himself when people lose their minds, people you’ll never see again.
If we look bad, then the town talks, making shit hard on us, and they complain.
And what do you think is going to happen if I find out there’s complaints about us? ”
Colin’s mouth twitched, and he looked away.
“Fine. Maybe I should have made Jake back down sooner, or at least tried, because I’m going to be real with you, Xander, we’re still people, we’re not…
we’re not what you want us to be, alright?
We’re just people. And when we’re standing there, enjoying ourselves and a group of dipshits get up in our faces about something that isn’t any of their goddamn business…
yeah, you’re right, maybe I let it go too far.
Maybe some part of me let it happen. Or maybe it was out of my goddamn hands and I was backing up my guys just like you should be doing right now instead of worrying about our fucking reputation like some prom queen wannabe! ”
Xander’s eyes burned, and before anyone could so much as move, he turned and stomped out of the room with an inarticulate snarl.
Everyone in the hallway scattered to their rooms, though it clearly didn’t matter.
It seemed like as long as we were out of his way, Xander didn’t see anyone as he barreled down the hallway, hitting the doors with such force that it was a miracle something didn’t break on his way out.
“Food’s done,” Colin said in a low voice, so tightly controlled it was unnerving. “And you’re back on regular duties tomorrow, everyone.”
“Uh, not to poke the bear here, but is that a good idea?” Cait asked, hanging out of the doorway and looking at him cautiously. “Xander—”
“I said, everyone back on regular duties tomorrow,” Colin said, not quite snapping, but there was no missing the flash of a blade in his tone.
“If he wants to hold me to the standard of behavior of a second in command, then I’ll start behaving like one.
Our leader is being unreasonable, and I’m overriding him.
If he says otherwise, call me on the walkie and I’ll deal with it. ”
That was all he said before he walked out, not bothering to take any food with him. The rest of us crept out and watched him go out the double doors, heading to the left, which meant he was going to his clinic. The rest of us looked at one another nervously.
It was Reno who looked at Cait. “You’ve known Big Boss longest; how bad is this?”
“I’ve known him as a bitterly married man, and a bitterly divorcing man. I’ve never seen him as a happily in love man who just had a drag-out verbal brawl with the first boyfriend he’s ever had,” she said with a frown. “We’re out of our depth here, boys.”
Reno twisted to look at Jake. “Is that why you’re so scared of Colin?”
Jake frowned. “I’m not scared of him. He’s Doc. You put respect on that name, that’s all…well, I guess he is a little scary, but that’s because you don’t piss off the guy who comes near you with sharp objects.”
“I think…they’re okay,” Aidan said quietly, and we all looked at him in surprise.
“And how would you know that?” Cait asked, curious rather than hostile.
“A feeling,” he said with a shrug.
“Good enough for me,” I said as I climbed the last step and made my way into the kitchen to find the burgers and fries Colin had made.
“Since when do you trust someone’s word without more information?” Reno asked me as he followed me into the kitchen behind Aidan.
“Because his instinct with people is about as good as Colin’s, he just doesn’t have the same confidence in it that Colin does,” I said, ignoring the puzzled look Aidan shot me. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I want some peace and quiet.”
“That means no you,” I heard Trevor mutter, and Jake snorted.
“Yeah, fuck you too, Trev,” Jake chuckled, some of his normal demeanor faded in the face of everything we’d been dragged through over the past few days.
Which was strange, even tired and worn out, Jake was normally a font of sunshine and perkiness, but the past few days he’d been quieter, more subdued.
I stepped out and almost slammed into Carter and Mav. “Jesus.”
“Oh, thank God,” Carter said in a tired voice. “I was hoping I didn’t come all the way out here and there wasn’t going to be any dinner ready.”
“Freshly done,” I said, and then hesitated. I knew the walk from here to the building they normally stayed in wasn’t that far, but after the past few days, it probably felt like miles. “Might want to ask everyone else about the latest…update. Inside.”
“Uh, sure,” Carter said, and when Mav looked at me, I shrugged.
I didn’t want to linger anymore than Carter probably did, and I definitely didn’t want to risk being overheard because I didn’t know if Colin had really gone to the medical cabin and if Xander had really gone back to his cabin.
No way in hell was I going to risk making myself a target for either of them.
Aidan came out after me and nodded at them.
“Oh, Mav, I…can you come find me tomorrow? I needed to ask you something about tracking and catching. It’ll be good for some educational reels I thought about putting out since a lot of the people who follow us are into that, educational stuff and what not. ”
Mav peered at him for a heartbeat and nodded. “Sure.”
“Really?” Carter asked in surprise as they walked past Aidan. “I was so sure you were going to do that creepy stare thing that means no, but like, fuck no.”
Mav grunted, and I snorted as I continued walking with Aidan at my side. “Mav is going to help you with the social media stuff?”
“Yeah, but really it’s because he asked me to look for something for him and I found it,” Aidan said with a chuckle. “And I didn’t want to make a big deal of it in front of Carter.”
“It’s that bad?” I wondered.
“More like, Mav doesn’t want Carter to know because the object in question is for Carter,” he said with a smirk. “And if you tell anyone, I’m never giving you head again.”
“Liar,” I muttered as we reached the science building door, and I sighed when I saw it was open a crack. “Dammit, Reno.”
I bumped it open and looked around after flipping on the light. Aidan closed the door behind him. “What’s up?”
“Oh, Reno loves not closing that door right, and we’ve had a few…
invasions because of it,” I said as I watched a big moth flutter its way to a lamp.
“Kind of like that, though larger and more mammalian. Trust me, nothing beats waking up in the middle of the night thinking someone’s rummaging through your lab only to find a raccoon going through your samples hoping for an easy meal. ”
“Aw, I love raccoons,” he cooed as I set my food down and took a bite. I was at the point of hunger where nothing sounded good and I didn’t want to eat, but it was important to stuff my face with the large amount of food if I didn’t want to feel like hell on wheels tomorrow.
“I remember that opossum you were obsessed with outside your apartment building,” I said with a chuckle. “Never understood your obsession with them.”
“And yet you still bought me that stuffed opossum,” he snorted as he chewed robustly.
“I didn’t need to understand why you loved them so much,” I said with a shrug. “Just that you did. Do you, uh…still have it?”
“Believe it or not, yeah, I do. Just because you were a dirtbag who skipped town rather than tell me to my face, I still loved that thing,” he said with a smirk. Then grew quiet. “It was one of the few reminders of you that didn’t make me want to put my fist, or your head, through the wall.”
“Mmm,” I said thoughtfully, then lapsed into silence while we ate. “Us.”
He looked up from whatever he was looking at on his phone with a frown. “What?”
“When you were talking to Mav, you said the people who followed ‘us’ would like that kind of content.”
“Well, yeah. I mean, the pictures of the beavers and their dam that Reno gave me went crazy. I did a follow-up where he gave some beaver facts and whatever, filmed it where Reno thought it was safe and people went crazy for it,” he chuckled.
“Probably because, and I mean this strictly platonically, your brother is kind of adorable when he’s geeking out about something. ”
“It has its charm,” I admitted begrudgingly.
I loved my brother to death and beyond; there was no doubt about that, but that didn’t mean I was going to refer to him as cute, even if it was innocently meant.
“But again, you said us. As in we. Or our account. You’ve always referred to yourself as separate from us, even last week you were doing it. ”