By MMW
Meredith sat in her room and sighed. She’d been unable to rest or sleep most of the week. On the up side, she’d been able to complete most of her work here in Spokane early, so she should have a half-day tomorrow and all of Friday off. She’d fly out for San Diego late on Saturday. That suited her. She wanted to go back to Expo Park and ride the carousel as well as find her way to the gardens she’d heard about. A little time hiking outside of town on Saturday morning might be nice too.
Releasing another sigh, she looked around the room. She didn’t feel like going on-line again. She’d e-mailed her friend and asked her not to tell anyone she’d been in Denver Friday. Lord knew it was hard enough that five people knew of her humiliation, she didn’t want it bandied about the office. No, she didn’t want to go on line. She’d be spending enough time with her computer tomorrow. Besides, it was unlikely she’d get a response any time soon and the computer just reminded her of the resignation she’d sent in and of Travis’ counter offer. She didn’t want to think about that now.
Looking toward her pile of books, she picked one up before putting it down again. Nope, reading wasn’t what she wanted. The TV next caught her eye, but she knew that held no interest for her. Her eyes then wandered to the sliding door of the small balcony.
With the lights off in the room, she could see the stars outside. “The light of a thousand campfires,” she whispered into the silent room. Vin had told her that once when they’d camped out. A smile flickered on her lips before the emotional pain started again. Standing and grabbing the quilt from off the bed, she wrapped it around herself and headed outside.
Sitting on the small balcony, she looked up at the stars and allowed her mind to wander to more pleasant times.
She hadn’t been at the ATF all that long when Teams five through nine and their support staff were told they were going on a “team building” experience for a week. She smiled slightly at the thought of the complaints she’d heard. She couldn’t blame them, but for herself, she thought it would be a good opportunity to get to know the people with whom she’d be working, especially since she hadn’t really gotten a chance to speak with many people on the boat.
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It was Thursday morning around 6am when they gathered in the large room. You could tell a distinct difference between the morning people and the night owls. It would have been amusing if the overly-cheerful trainers hadn’t started shouting at them.
“OK, people,” the perky brunette said, with a wink toward the smiling Buck. “Today we’re going to play Capture The Flag! Isn’t that great!”
Meredith bit her lip to keep from laughing at the groans from almost everyone. Looking at the various men she knew had military experience, most of them looked put out whereas most of the women just looked disgusted. To tell the truth, Meredith had no great desire to play, but watching everyone’s reactions was amusing. They were all responding true to character.
The fit blond male trainer spoke up next, “We have split you up into four teams. Susie will be passing out a list of rules and requirements as well as a packet of forms each of you will be expected to fill out. Now, with four teams, the last team with a ‘living’ member wins. The rules are very straight forward and all activity ceases for the night at 6pm and should it be needed, activities will resume at 6am Friday morning. If you survive the day, you will be expected to camp out tonight. If there is no clear winner by noon tomorrow, the game will be called a draw and all people will head back in. Your packs have been prepared. I suggest you all get changed. OK, Team assignments in 40 minutes! Let’s go people!”
Meredith had looked over at Sunni and Glori and the trio had burst into laughter.
“Of all the ridiculous...” Glori began
“... idiotic...” Sunni continued.
“... down right stupid games...” Meredith added.
“...this one takes the cake!” Glori finished as the women laughed once more and headed toward their room.
Of course, it didn’t seem so funny in the middle of the afternoon when the clouds burst open and Meredith found herself hiding in an orchard with her paint ball gun getting soaked. Still, it wasn’t that much longer. She’d raised an eyebrow at some of the teams that were created and had been amused when she and Vin had been assigned to the same team. The rest of the ATF staff had instantly given their sympathies to the remaining member of their team, wishing them well with “Mischief and Mayhem”. A short debate between Meredith and Vin had ensued as to who was mischief and who was mayhem.
The team had met. Vin had been voted leader, much to the surprise of the young sharpshooter, though not to any of the others. After all, their most determined competitor would be Larabee’s team and who better to counter Larabee than Tanner? Of course that left them with Buck on a third team, another formidable opponent.
Meredith had done some thinking back and remembered a few fun war games she’d played with her friends in high school. They, of course had played with wooden guns. Each of them got three twigs, for three lives and kills were all on the honor system. What she and her friends had discovered was that for some reason, the guys always won in the woods and the girls in the open fields and orchards. Volunteering this information, Vin worked it into their strategy.
By sunset, their team had managed to take down Buck’s Team and Larabee’s Team had taken the other. Larabee himself had been gotten when he edged to close to the field where Meredith and two other members of her team lay in wait. Unfortunately, after taking out Larabee, Meredith’s two teammates had been hit. She had managed to escape and met back at the agreed upon location.
When she reached their site, it was to discover only she and Vin had survived the day. They gathered some wood for their fire and prepared dinner. As they ate, they began pooling their knowledge and developing a plan for the following day. The best they could determine, Larabee’s team now consisted of Sunni, JD, and Misty Taylor, an agent from Team 6.
Satisfied that they had a viable plan for the morning, the two relaxed slightly and enjoyed the evening. As the evening progressed, Meredith and Vin sat up late around the campfire. Meredith had teased Vin that it looked almost delicate the way he had it built. They had laughed a bit about it but eventually Vin admitted that he’d deliberately made the fire small so the other team wouldn’t be able to locate them. Meredith agreed that it was a good idea, especially given their upcoming plans for the morning.
As they relaxed for the evening, Meredith could tell that Vin was half asleep. Settling in to begin filling out the required forms, she was startled when Vin began talking. Their conversation wandered from topic to topic. Though they’d been good friends for a while, there was still much they didn’t know about each other. As they spoke, they discussed times where events had left them happy, fulfilled, angry, upset, even fragile. It was unusual for either of them to show such a vulnerable side of themselves, but something about the quiet of the night seemed to lend itself to soul deep revelations.
As their talk eventually wound down, they relaxed into the sounds of the night. Meredith once more began filling out her forms and was almost done when Vin inquired what she thought of the stars. “Exquisite,” she replied. After a few more moments of silence, she asked, “Do you ever look and try to find things in the stars? Not the constellations everyone knows, but your own constellations?”
Vin smiled slightly and looked up at the stars. “Yep,” he said. Lifting his hand, he pointed to one group of stars. “See those?” he asked, waiting for an affirmative answer, he smiled slightly. “Now if you trace them back to the East...”
Meredith traced the outline with her eyes and smiled. “A Harley?” she asked with a laugh. She heard Vin’s light laugh join her own. After a few moments of silence, she pointed to the sky, a mischievous glint in her eye. “There,” she said indicating a group of stars.
Vin looked at the grouping with puzzled eyes. He saw the group, but just couldn’t make much sense of it. “Just looks like chaos,” he said.
Meredith smiled. “It’s the last memo I had to write.” She heard Vin burst into laughter and allowed her own to join his.
“I have to say, I been tryin’ ta read that thing for days and it didn’t make much sense to me,” he admitted.
“Didn’t make much sense to me either,” Meredith admitted. The two spoke a few more minutes about the memo and about other briefs they had known. Sometimes the paperwork at the office was more amusing than official and they enjoyed taking a few minutes to poke fun at it.
Though they each enjoyed the conversations they had, mostly they just tried to fathom the mystery of the universe silently and enjoyed each other’s company. As they sat, being serenaded by nature’s symphony, Meredith finished the last of the forms she was required to fill out and settled back to stare at the stars.
After a while, she was feeling thirsty and went to get the water she’d been keeping in her bag with the emails she’d brought with her. Feeling the warmth of the bottle and knowing the water would be equally warm, she questioned whether she should drink it or not. Deciding against it, she set the water back in her pack, figuring it would cool overnight and then she’d have it for the morning.
Settling back, she ran the past week in her mind, examining the passing of time as the fire died down. As the light of the coals glowed orange in the darkness, the soft sound of Vin’s harmonica began to fill their campsite, she could almost see the images the gossamer notes formed. She knew that Vin was frequently teased about his harmonica skills, or lack thereof, but when he wanted, he could play beautifully, like now. Peace wrapped itself around them and settled as a comforting blanket upon them.
They sat contentedly for a while before Vin cleared his throat. He’d been staring at the forms they were required to fill out and dreading doing so. He’d been sitting admiring the beauty of nature around him when an idea came to him. Meredith was good with paperwork, much better than he was. She’d helped him out lots of times at work, maybe she’d be willing to share her forms with him now.
Meredith noted a small movement from Vin and glanced at him. She could almost read what he was scheming as he looked at his forms, looked to the forest and then slid his eyes toward her. Suppressing a smile, Meredith waited for Vin’s ploy, wondering what he’d try.
Vin finally came up with an idea. It could be a risky tact to take with his friend, but he was fairly certain it would work. “Meredith...” he began, his voice soft, his eyes catching hers before looking down. “I’ve known a lot of people and only ever been able to call a few friend. Some of them have been nice, some ornery, but you... you’re my elegant friend. I really appreciate all you do for me and having you in my life... well... I look forward to spending time with you and... and... I love you,” he finished quickly, his face still tipped downward.
Meredith saw him trying to gage her response without letting her see him looking. Shifting slightly, she looked at the Sharpshooter. “Vin,” she said, waiting for him to look up. When he finally did, neither could suppress their smile. “Vin, I love you too,” she assured, and she did, just as she loved all her friends. “But you’re not getting my forms,” she informed him as they both started laughing.
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Meredith wiped the tear from her cheek as she watched the greying pre-dawn sky. “I love you, Vin,” she whispered to the fading night, only this time she felt it through and through. This wasn’t the love for a friend; it was more, much more. “But it’ll never be,” she whispered as the first rays of the sun colored the sky.
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