Page 42 of Be With Me
Chapter 21
Who would’ve thought they’d run out of oak leaf clusters for ribbons at the off-post military supply store on Yadkin? Guess a lot of soldiers added to their medals during the last deployment, which was a good thing, meant recognition to those deserving. Bad thing for him though. Meant Mooney had to run to military clothing sales at lunch instead of getting in a workout. He was going to have to grab something at the kiosk for lunch too.
Mooney pushed through the doors and into the store. Please let them have some. He needed to fix his ribbon bars before Thursday’s board. Why he’d let Top talk him into competing for NCO of the Quarter still confused him. Yeah, it would look good when he went up for promotion, but it was a pain in the ass. He stopped in front of the wall of ribbons looking for the correct oak leaf. It sucked having to put them on the ribbons. Spying the ones he needed, Mooney grabbed them and another set of jump wings and headed to the check out. Shaking his head at the cost but upkeep on uniforms was all on the soldier; no freebies and the ones presented didn’t hold up for shit.
As he was leaving the store, Mooney decided to grab a coffee. Standing in line, he saw some of the specialists in Blake’s platoon eating lunch. From what Blake had said, these weren’t the sharpest in the unit.Please let them not see me. So far so good. He got to the counter and placed his order, moving to the side to wait. Why it took so long for a coffee with cream, boggled the mind but he’d wait.
“Did you see that Luna’s wife looks pregnant?” one of the soldiers asked.What the fuck? They’re talking about me?Mooney slid over a bit to see if he’d heard right.
“Oh yeah and there’s no way it’s his. She looks huge,” another agreed.They were talking about Debbie?OH FUCK NO!
“Guess he married a slut that opened her legs while he was gone,” the first told the other.Fuck no!
Mooney charged over to the table and lifted the soldier out of his chair. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking about?” He saw red as he shook the asshole. There was no way his control was going to last. No one talked about his wife like that.
“Sergeant Luna, we weren’t—” the other soldier started to talk but Mooney snarled at him.
“I don’t know what the fuck you were or weren’t doing. No one talks—” A voice from behind cut Mooney off.
“Beatle, is this our calm and collected MP holding a soldier off the ground?”
“I do believe you are correct, Blade. Must be all kinds of a jackass who did enough to snap Luna’s control,” Beatle’s Southern drawl interjected.
“Luna, why don’t you let the jackass down and we’ll take care of him?” Blade suggested.
Mooney didn’t let go of the one he held but looked over his shoulder at the two Delta soldiers behind him. “Yeah, don’t think so. This bastard called my wife a slut.” Mooney shook the guy as he talked to Blade and Beatle.
“He did what?” Beatle asked. “I couldn’t have heard you correct.”
“Oh no, I think we both heard him correct. And I’m guessing this coward trying to move back was in on the conversation.” Blade grabbed the other one by the collar. “Now, I think you need to apologize to Sergeant Luna, don’t you?” Mooney thought Blade had the guy by the collar but by the color in his face, Blade must’ve grabbed him by the back of his neck.
“Um, Sergeant Luna we wasn’t thinking,” moron two stammered.
“Have you ever heard a more on point statement, Blade? Jackass wasn’t thinking. Now, Luna? Maybe you should put jackass one down?” Beatle suggested.
“I don’t think I can, Beatle. Called Debbie a slut that opened her legs. There needs to be some pain inflicted.” Mooney tried to not lose his shit but yeah, he teetered on the ledge.
“I think we can take care of that,” Blade pointed out. “Beatle, take the jackass from Luna. We’ll clean up this mess for you, Luna. Can you let their sergeant know they’ll be helping over at the SF school this afternoon? We need some help with hand-to-hand training as victims… err, untrained attackers. If they’re lucky, they’ll only get bruised. They might end up at Womack though.”
Mooney took a few deep breaths and shook his head. As much as he wanted to hand them over to Blade and Beatle, he knew he couldn’t do it. He lowered jackass one to the ground. Turning to Blade and Beatle, he shook his head. “Thanks but no thanks, gentlemen. I think these two are going to have a lovely talk with the first sergeant this afternoon. Top will enjoy remedial training in sensitivity and morals.”
He pulled his phone out of his pocket and shot a text to the first sergeant, looking between the jackasses reading their name tapes. It didn’t take long for Top to text back. He was livid when he read what Mooney had texted. He glared at the two soldiers.
“First Sergeant Neale is currently in his office and says you have ten minutes to appear in front of his desk.” Mooney watched the two soldiers hightail it out of the food court before turning to Blade and Beatle. “Thanks for the backup. Not sure I wouldn’t have put him in Womack on my own.”
“You might have, might not have. You’ve got control,” Beatle said. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Deployed and returned in October. Got married few months before the deployment,” Mooney filled in. “What are you two doing here? Thought you were stationed…” He couldn’t remember where. “…elsewhere?”
“We are. We’re just here for a few jumps to keep current.” Blade’s attention was on something behind Mooney. “So wife?”
“Debbie is amazing. And pregnant. We’re expecting twins in June.” Mooney beamed. The guys hadn’t stopped razing him.
“Ah, so she looks further along than she is hence jackass one and two doing the math and coming up with nine million.” Beatle shook his head andtsked.
“You got it in one. The little buggers are growing as they should but yeah, Debs looks like she’s six months already.” Mooney’s phone buzzed in his hand. When he read the text, he cursed under his breath. “Nice to see you both but I’ve got to get to the unit.”
Blade and Beatle both slapped Mooney on the shoulder with Blade saying, “Stay calm, Luna.”
