Page 7 of Be With Me
Mooney cooled his heels back at the station. It wasn’t quite shift change yet so there weren’t a lot of others in the patrol room; just a few doing paperwork, so it was quiet. Tonight’s desk sergeant, Master Sergeant Wheaton, had sent both Cassidy and a sergeant to Womack; Cassidy to guard the woman that had been beaten and a sergeant to arrest her attacker when he woke up.
When they’d gotten everyone there from Sports USA, the desk sergeant had him take statements from the Third guys. Surprise on him, they weren’t from Third after all. Mooney was even happier that he hadn’t had to get physical. They were Delta. The morons were lucky they weren’t actually hurt when they attacked those two. He’d left them in the interrogation room while they waited for someone from Special Forces Command to come collect them. Wheaton had called Command Sergeant Major Hall who wasn’t the happiest to get a call on a Saturday night.
Wheaton had listened to the group of morons for all of one hot minute before he came to the same conclusion that Mooney had. One, they were morons; two, the Special Forces guys were just stopping a woman from being beaten.
The door opened and before anyone could get up, a voice said, “Excuse me, I’m looking for Master Sergeant Wheaton?”
After swiveling his chair, Mooney looked over and saw a staff sergeant standing there, holding his green beret. Brandt and Ringer apparently decided to pretend to be busy and leave it to him.
“He’s detained at the moment,” Mooney said, just as a loud shout came from the back room. Oh yeah, someone wasn’t happy.
“Is there someone else I can speak with?” the staff sergeant asked.
Mooney stood and walked over to him. “That would be me. Staff Sergeant Rafe Luna.” He held out his hand.
“Staff Sergeant Eric Casper, Third Special Forces.” Casper shook Mooney’s hand.
“Oh you’re here for our non-moronic guests,” Mooney said about to turn. He needed to get the release papers done.
“Sergeant Major Hall sent me to pick up the two Deltas that he got a call about.” Casper had a look on his face like he wasn’t quite sure of Mooney’s intelligence. “Ummm…”
“The two you’re here for got into it with a group of morons when they objected to the morons’ friend beating on his wife. Okay, that sounded a bit confusing and I was there. Let me try again. Your two acted decently and stopped a woman from being beaten. When they knocked out the attacker, his friends decided they needed todefendhim and started throwing punches and a chair,” Mooney paused letting Casper catch up.
“You called them morons?” Casper glanced around the patrol room.
“Here, have a seat. I’ll pull up the paperwork,” Mooney offered as he moved back to his chair. “Yeah, I’m shocked they made it through basic. Can’t wait for Wheaton to get a hold of their first sergeant.”
“They’re lucky they’re still in one piece. Who’s stupid enough to take on two Deltas? And did you say they threw a chair?” Casper shook his head at their stupidity.
“Well, in their defense — and mine— we didn’t know they were Delta. I thought they were with Third. The morons thought they were just MMA wanna-bes.” Mooney reached for his coffee cup and took a sip as he waited for his computer to behave. It didn’t take long once it was working for the paperwork to spit out. “Okay, I’ve got their statements for them to sign and then you’ve got to sign that they were released into your custody.” He put two sheets in front of Casper and held out a pen. “Sign here and here.”
Before he took the pen, Casper asked, “They’re being charged? Shit, I don’t want to be the one to tell the sergeant major never mind their captain. If you think those two are scary? They’ve got nothing on him.”
Mooney could feel the color drain from his face at that idea. “No, they’re not being charged as of right now. It’s just more a formality since they were brought in for public disturbance, we processed them for the paper trail.”
“Thank fucking God.” Casper signed the paperwork. Mooney stood, took the documents, and put them in his out basket.
“Let me get them for you.” Mooney crossed the room and headed down the hall. It didn’t take him long to get to the room and when he opened the door, he had a hard time controlling his laughter. Both men were sleeping. They’d propped their feet on the table, slouching in the chairs. He went to move into the room when they both suddenly jumped to their feet and turned to the door. Wide awake.Holy shit!
“Yes?” Beatle, also known as Sergeant First Class Lennon said; Carlisle, aka Blade, just glared at Mooney.
“Listen, I’m sorry that I had to treat you as if you’d done something wrong. We had to follow all the procedures. You stopped a domestic assault. Don’t want to give his defense any wiggle room when he’s charged,” Mooney explained.
Lennon and Carlisle looked at each other for a minute. It was as if they were having a private conversation before they both nodded.
“We’re glad we were there but yeah, having to be picked up by command is going to give the rest of the team ammunition for months if not years.” Carlisle held out his hand. “No hard feelings.”
Mooney smiled and shook both their hands. “Let’s get you to sign your statements then the staff sergeant will get you out of here.”
“Staff Sergeant? There isn’t a E6 on our team.” Lennon sounded confused as they followed Mooney down the hallway.
“We contacted SF command since you’re not stationed here. The sergeant major sent someone to get you. What else he’s done, I can’t tell you.” Mooney picked up their statements from his desk and held them out. “Please read through this and make sure it’s all accurate to your recollection. If all is good, sign next to your name.”
“Do you need to get their personal property?” Casper asked, causing the Delta guys to turn toward him.
“And you are?” Carlisle straightened to his full height and Mooney was again glad he hadn’t had to restrain these two.
“Sergeant Major Hall sent me to pick you up while he contacted Captain Jackson. He didn’t want you to have to spend any longer than necessary here,” Casper told them.
