4. Mika #3
“Intoxicated? I’m not drunk,” Don said and looked at me like I was the one who wasn’t making sense.
Which, to be fair, I probably wasn’t in his pot-addled brain.
I didn’t care if people got high in their free time, even if I didn’t, but I didn’t understand why people thought they were better at decision-making because they were stoned and not drunk.
“So, I’m gonna say, and hope this is correct, but, uh…we can’t force him back, can we?” Aidan asked, and when Mav frowned at him, Aidan snorted. “What?”
“No,” Mav grunted.
Aidan let out a breath. “Good.”
Mav’s eyes lingered on him for a moment before glancing down at the bag; I took the cue. “And, uh, what do you have that you brought with you?”
“Oh! Of course,” Don exclaimed as if he had been waiting for someone to ask.
It prompted him to list everything in the large pack, and I marveled at the ability of someone as high as he was to list what he had with the ease of someone completely sober and focused. I met Mav’s eyes as he rounded up his list, and I could see in his face he was thinking the same thing I was.
“Alright,” I said when he finished. “You certainly seem…equipped.”
“Of course,” Don said brightly. “Like I said, I’ve been doing this for years. I know what I’m doing.”
I looked at Aidan, who scoffed and gestured to Mav and me. “Don’t look at me, I’m just observing, remember?”
“Fine. Just call the outpost if you end up in trouble.”
“Of course,” Don said in that same serene, bright way that was getting on my nerves a little. “I respect what you boys do. One of the few government sorts that are worth a damn if you ask me. You take care of yourselves, especially you; looks like you hurt yourself.”
“Just a misstep,” Aidan said, looking startled. “I’m okay.”
“Just listen to your body,” Don advised, like some sort of stoned survival wisdom. “We don’t do that enough.”
“Why don’t you go back to listening to the woods?” Aidan suggested with a smirk. “I’ll worry about my body.”
“Good, good,” Don said, closing his eyes.
“Listening is something we’re so bad at…
people that is. We always want to talk, we always want to share, to explain, but we never want to listen.
And when we do? We hear what we want to hear.
Learn how to shed the ego, to break down those walls and let the world in.
You can’t grow without learning to listen, so you should start with your body, trust what it says, and then work your way up. ”
“I’ll…keep that in mind,” Aidan said, squinting at the man.
Mav grunted and, pushing off from the tree, began walking away.
With a sigh, I followed him, hearing that Aidan was keeping up with us.
We walked for a few minutes before Mav looked back, his eyes roaming up and down my body, which was smeared with mud and plant matter.
His eyes drifted to Aidan, who was still hobbling slightly but was also covered from our fall down the hill.
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t.”
Mav snorted and turned his attention back to the front, and we continued walking.
It took me a little while to notice there was silence, at least silence from people.
Aidan had grown quiet, and when I looked, he was still limping, but there was a thoughtful, distant look on his face that told me he was following us on autopilot.
I didn’t know what had made him so introspective, but I was willing to leave him be for the moment.
He came back to life when we reached the quads, and he hopped on his with a smile.
I remembered him telling me his mother’s side of the family had always been big on outdoor excursions, so he had grown up riding quads, jet skis, snowmobiles, and the occasional dirt bike.
He was comfortable enough that he was more daring in his driving.
Daring enough to force me to bite back a criticism for his borderline reckless driving, telling myself that if he drove into a tree, he would be the one to deal with Colin.
We made it back without incident, and I wasn’t surprised to see Xander waiting for us as we parked the quads in the garage. The big man immediately took in the state of Aidan's and my clothes, his frown deepening.
“The fuck happened?” he growled, his eyes immediately darting toward Aidan.
“The reports were well-intentioned but not accurate,” I said before Aidan could speak.
I could see the way the man felt the burn of Xander’s stare, and I knew Aidan cornered or accused would balk and snarl.
“We found the man they reported, and he’s fine.
Stoned as hell, but despite that, we determined he was well prepared for being out here and is reasonably capable. ”
“Uh-huh,” Xander said, looking over Aidan and me with that same doubtful glare.
I glanced at Aidan and saw he was standing upright without a sign of his hurt ankle. “The footing wasn’t that great out there. Everyone’s fine.”
“No one needs to see Colin?” Xander asked.
“Oh, I’m actually supposed to be seeing him,” Aidan said with a slap to his own forehead. “He wanted me to stop in for a visit.”
I glanced at him. “Might want to get changed and wash up, or you’ll have him combing every square inch of you for injuries you don’t have.”
He looked down at himself. “True.”
“Go,” Xander grunted, and Aidan looked like he was going to say something but then walked off with a soft snort.
Xander waited until he was back in the building before turning to Mav and me. “So?”
“He was fine,” Mav said, and Xander raised a brow at what we both knew was the best sort of praise Mav could give for someone he barely knew.
“What happened?” Xander asked me instead, looking at my dirty clothes.
“I stepped wrong, slipped, Aidan tried to save my bacon, and we both went down,” I said with a shrug.
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“You’re not covering for him?”
“Now why the hell would I do that?”
Xander crossed his arms. “Look, just because you think Colin was keeping me away from you doesn’t mean I didn’t notice shit. Something is going on between you and him.”
Ah, hell. “Look—”
“Don’t,” he interrupted with a growl. “I don’t want to hear your bullshit, Mika. Especially because you’re one of the ones I rarely expect bullshit from, but I can see bullshit all over your face right now. All I care about is that you’ll both do your jobs and not bring any drama into this place.”
“There’s not going to be any drama,” I assured him.
“Uh-huh, wanna try that again?”
“No drama you’ll have to worry about,” I told him, feeling my temper come to life. “And he’s here to do his job. But he’s going to be a little green when it comes to going out and doing search and rescue. He’s not had to do something like this before.”
Xander stared at me before frowning. “Fine. But I’ll be keeping an eye out.”
“Keep two out if you want, assign someone to report back to you, throw up cameras,” I said.
“Whatever it takes to make you feel better, Xander. But whatever you do, don’t act like I’m going to lie to you or that I’m keeping something from you.
And yes, I know I’m keeping stuff from you.
We all are, just like you keep stuff from us.
Because some shit is none of your business, and I have no intention of making it your business.
So unless you want to strip-search me for boo-boos, I’d like to change into warmer clothes. ”
His frown deepened, and he gave a grunt. “Fine, go.”
“Great,” I said and marched back into the main building.
I didn’t use my assigned room as much as some others, but I still kept my things there and grabbed dry clothes from my closet and a towel before heading toward the locker room.
I came to a halt when I found Aidan sitting on the bench and Colin with him, looking over his ankle.
It seemed he had been intercepted on his way into the shower because there was still drying mud in his hair, but he was stripped to his boxer briefs, his towel on the bench behind him.
“And it has gotten better?” Colin asked doubtfully, and Aidan snorted.
“It’s been feeling better since the drive back,” Aidan told him. “If it were getting worse, I would have said something. Right now it’s barely in need of an ibuprofen, but if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll pop a couple and stay off the ankle for a few hours…after my shower.”
Colin eyed him. “Will you?”
“He will,” I said, and when they both looked at me, I shrugged. “Unless something changed over the years, he’s the first one to take a rest when needed. He’s not going to push himself unless it’s necessary.”
“There’s nothing manly about not letting your body recover, and pushing yourself unnecessarily is nothing to be proud of,” Aidan said dryly. “Trust me, I like my body, Colin. I don’t want to wreck it just to prove a point.”
“Hmm, considering this group, you’re going to be the odd one out if that’s the case,” Colin said as he stood up. “We’ll see if you two are telling the truth down the road, but fine, get your shower and kick back.”
Colin’s doubt felt less offensive than Xander’s.
Mostly because Xander could just be an asshole, whereas Colin at least did his best to appear personable.
That, and well, considering his professional history, it made sense that he didn’t trust someone to follow his medical advice without a lot of bitching at minimum, if not outright coercion and blackmail to get the job done.
Shaking my head, I went to the locker and glanced over to see that Aidan had stood up, towel and bag in his hand, and an unsure look on his face. I realized we were alone, and he kept glancing at me.
Oh…right. This wasn’t a case of two coworkers having to share a shower, because we weren’t just two normal coworkers. We weren’t something, but we weren’t nothing either.