Page 12 of Courageous Demands

“Let’s get moving, or it might be four pairs of pants if we include the chief,” Colton said bluntly. “Look, always check your surroundings, and don’t go rushing into danger carelessly. I like you and really need you to not get yourself killed under my watch – okay, Smartmouth?”

“You talking to me?” came Alec’s voice from below. “Hellooooo? Fellas?”

He stood there in the dark, wincing. Oh yes, he was going to feel this after he had a chance to sit down for a bit. He could hear them talking up there and really didn’t relish the idea of being down here much longer.

“Guys?”

Silence.

“I’m fine,” he hollered upward sarcastically. “Don’t worry about me. I’m perfectly okay limping out of here in the dark, you know? I mean, it was sweet of you to check on the condition of my pants, but there are other parts attached to them that are a little rattled from plunging to my near death, but I’m good – don’t you worry.”

Alec made his way blindly through the room to the faint glow in the distance and found a window. He claimed he was ‘good,’ that things were ‘fine,’ but they were anything but that. He was completely reeling and trying his best to keep it together while everything in his head, heart, and soul was falling apart slowly.

His last thoughts before he thought he was going to die weren’t the regrets of his mother hearing the news from the chief. It wasn’t letting the team down, how they would react to finding his charred body, or even the things that had been left unsaid between him and Willow.

No, his final regrets were that his mother would never hold her grandchild. In that second, the regret splintering through him was more painful than any feeling he’d ever had. He would never hold his own child. There would never be another Beckett in his family.

“I’m fine,” he said hoarsely, blinking back the stinging tears and blaming it on the scare, the fall, the smoke… anything but facing that hard fact that had slapped his soul into reality.

The truth was that he had no clue how to even reach Willow anymore. He couldn’t see a relationship with her or anyone else and was too proud or stubborn to open that doorway between them.

* * *

If the fall hadn’t been enough, apparently, this shift was out to destroy his psyche. Facing Willow was his ‘Ghost of Christmas Past.’ The fall had knocked him right into the ugly face of ‘The Ghost of Christmas Future’…with a future that was pretty bleak. Apparently, ‘The Ghost of Christmas Present’ was going to be the feisty Mrs. Kendall, he realized as they pulled up to the woman’s house.

“I quit,” Alec said bluntly, looking at all four grinning faces staring at him. He held up a middle finger and slowly moved it around the cabin, putting it in each of their faces, causing them to laugh. “Oh wait!” – and held up his other hand, making the obscene gesture. “Look, it's my two-seconds notice! How ‘bout ‘dem digits… eh?”

“That guy’s got a smart mouth,” Chad chuckled, looking at Justin, his new captain – who was grinning like a Cheshire cat, nodding.

“He’s smart – with a big mouth. Not exactly sure about combining the two, but c’mon, Alec… and shake a leg in those sassy pants, brother.”

“You go,” Alec said mulishly.

“Dude, we are doing just like the other team and taking turns,” Lance retorted. “If I switch with you, you aren’t going to want to go next time either.”

“Nope. Colton…?”

“No. Take your licks…”

“UGHHH?!” Alec said, horrified, making a face and shrinking back from the doorway. “You think she’s gonna lick me? Did she lick you last week or something?”

“It’s an expression – and no. She never acts up around me. Talk to her, be nice, and you’ll be shocked at how kind she can be.”

“Kinda kinky… and kinda gross?”

“Alec, she’s sweet…”

“I heard cyanide is too.”

“BECKETT, MOVE YOUR BUTT OUTTA THE TRUCK!” Justin snarled. “We’re on a wellness check call, and if you are refusing to do your…”

His captain didn’t even have to finish the sentence. Alec shoved open the doorway, muttering and grumbling under his breath, before marching up to the front door.

“I bet the ‘Prune Goon’ is lying on the floor with some slutty satin get-up, all sprawled out. I don’t see Big Bad Boss Man getting outta the truck, oh no. Not him. He gripes and moans about how hard it is to handle us. Swooping in like an avenging angel yesterday doesn’t give him the right to be so crabby or boss people around and…”

“You know I can hear you, Beckett,” came a voice in the radio – and Alec turned to wave at the truck without answering. Anything he said at this point would only incite violence, and he wasn’t in the mood for it.

“Mrs. Kendall, E.C.F.D… just as you demanded. It must be Friday in Hell, and I, the biggest imp of them all, am apparently your obedient servant today. Light the pyres and get the sage. Wheeeeeee. Go me,” he retorted glibly and heard chuckling on the radio. “’Sacrificial Lamb Beckett’ is going in…”

---