Fifteen years ago
The Terran-Nurachni War
The Asgard Star Cluster
Command Carrier 117A The Patriot
Brigadier General Anthony Stark sat and waited as patiently as was possible for him, twirling a pen between his fingers. He reached over and took a small sip of water from the glass on his neat and orderly desk. He sat it down, cleared his throat, and looked sternly at the soldier sitting across from him.
Captain Steve Rogers sat upright and to attention, meeting his superior officer’s gaze with unflinching eyes. He had been here almost twenty minutes, waiting in a very awkward situation for their always-late third party to arrive.
Outside, he was a picture of discipline and profession, on the inside; however, his mind was swirling with anticipation.
The man could not just do him a single favor and be on time for once, Steve thought as the General began drumming on the desktop with the pen.
The sound of the lift door opening and heavy footfalls finally gave him the relief he had been desperately praying for.
Captain Logan Howlett strolled in without a care in the world. He was dressed in his Civvies, complete with snakeskin boots and an old worn cowboy hat.
He plopped down in the chair next to Steve and gave him a wink and the barest of grins.
“I called for you almost half an hour ago, Howlett, or did you forget that we are trying to fight a war here?” Stark asked. His disdain for the man saturated his voice.
Logan turned his attention to the CO and shrugged. “Yes, Sir, sorry, Sir; was hoping the war would be over by the time I got up here.”
Stark ground his teeth; the man really could send him over the edge. “You will be going on report, Captain, and you shall be reprimanded.”
Logan saluted him. “Sir. I do believe I deserve it, Sir.”
Steve was almost wincing at his best friend’s words and the looks the General was giving him.
Stark all but hated Logan with a passion. That was common knowledge, to even the new recruits who had no doubt heard the stories of the two butting heads on so many occasions. The list of reprimands he had given him almost matched the string of medals that he had been forced to bestow upon him.
It didn’t matter much, Steve knew, Stark would never have him decommissioned and thrown out.
Logan was just too good.
The best at what he did.
And Stark was not proud enough to lose one of the only two Weapon Class soldiers he had.
Logan and Steve both were invaluable members of the operation here in Asgard. Their training and abilities made them the perfect spearhead for driving into the Nurachni territory.
And despite it all, Steve knew Logan’s heart was in it. He cared just as much as anyone else, even a bit more sometimes. Mutant, human, it didn’t matter; they were all fighting for the same thing.
Survival.
And both Steve and Logan knew that neither would want anyone else watching their backs than each other.
But Steve did admit to sometimes wanting to kick Logan’s ass himself for things such as this.
“Since you decided to take your time on getting here, I am now behind schedule and must take my leave,” Stark said, standing up from his seat.
Steve followed, with a sighing Logan doing the same.
“Hell, should have just stayed in my buck.”
Stark didn’t acknowledge the comment. He found it best right now for his state of mind to just ignore Logan as best as he could. “The Grand Admiral will be here within the hour and we have things to discuss, I will see the BOTH of you back in this office at precisely 1900 hours, for a pre-briefing.”
Logan rolled his eyes.
Pre-bullshit was more like it.
Steve saluted, as did Logan, who was only halfhearted about it, and the two men turned on their heels and left the office.
When the lift doors closed, Steve sighed.
“Thanks again for that, that makes what, three times in the past month?” he asked looking over at his smirking partner.
“Five, actually, but who the hell’s counting?” he quipped.
“You didn’t even come in your uniform.”
Logan winced. “Just the thought of that damn thing makes my skin crawl.”
“You know, with the medals you have, some guys would wear them to bed.”
Logan slapped him in the shoulder in a friendly gesture. “You have more than me and you don’t wear ‘em; I think that’s one of the reasons I like you so much, you fuckin’ Boy Scout.”
Steve smiled despite it all. The two were polar opposites in so many ways, but when it came down to a few things, they were the exact same.
“Just try to be on time for the next one; you know how well Stark and I get along.”
Logan smiled. Steve was a poster boy for the recruitment offices all right; a real by the book kind of guy, but Logan loved the fact that he also knew when to chuck the book right down the toilet.
The VERY few reprimands on his record were because of Logan himself. Steve and Stark both never got along all that much, but there was a solid respect between the two. Logan never forgot the fact that Steve had sacrificed his perfect record and his rocky relationship with Stark to take up for him in the past.
He smiled at Steve and shrugged. “No promises.”
Steve laughed and shook his head.
Logan slung an arm over his friend’s shoulder. “Fuck all the brass in the world for the time being bub, you and me are having a beer.”
“Long as it has a “Root” in front of it.”
Logan laughed out loud. “You fucking pansy.”
Officers lounge
They had been sitting and talking for hours now. They rarely ever had any time of late to talk about anything but the war, and it was good to unwind a bit.
A few members of each of their squads had come in and waved their greetings.
Bucky Barnes and Clint Barton were playing poker with a few others in the back and had invited the both of them to the game.
“Maybe later, Ladies, I’ll come over there and take all you girls’ money, but for right now you’re safe,” Logan answered.
Steve waved off the offer as well.
Another choice pair walked into the room and many eyes settled on them. Neena Thurman and Raven Darkholme both sauntered in and sat at the bar. Logan took in the sights enough to make Steve even blush a little.
“Damn, ain’t much finer than a good looking woman in a uniform.” Logan said, tipping the beer back.
Steve nodded in agreement; he had to concur with that statement.
Neena had turned around a moment and cast a small wink in Logan’s direction. Logan let a devil grin brim over his face.
The two were good friends, to say the least.
Neena was a strong and spirited woman.
And one hell of a kinky one, too.
Logan had a rule about officers and soldiers dating.
Don’t.
But getting laid?
Well, that was a different story.
No Strings.
That was always the arrangement.
When they needed to unwind and burn off a little excess energy, they knew that the other would be more than willing to comply.
They weren’t involved in the slightest other than being friends and the occasional lover.
Logan was just fine with that. He had no desire to get involved with a woman at this point in his life.
He had made that mistake and hated himself for it every day of his life.
He wondered if he would ever be ready for it.
”Carol says Hi, by the way; she sent a vid to me the other day.”
Carol Danvers.
Logan knew that God was having a great laugh over this. Just when he is thinking about the biggest mistake of his life, it comes crashing into him like a tidal wave.
“How is she?”
Steve took a sip of the soda and nodded. “Good, she’ll be in the Triskellion sector next week and will be on radio silence, so she wanted to get a word in before it went dark.”
Logan nodded and kept his eyes on his drink. “Good to hear she’s out of the line of fire.”
“Tell me about it.” Steve took another pull of the root beer. “Glad the last thing I need to worry about is my wife’s safety at this point in time.”
Logan said nothing, only nodded.
A lot of old things were creeping up in his mind.
Old feelings.
Old emotions.
Old regrets.
He had dated Carol long ago. She was a Lieutenant at the time in the Skybreaker unit, flyboys. Hoping to be a captain soon and tear up some space ways. She was a bit on the wild side, funny, damn smart and sexy as hell. Logan couldn’t resist even if he tried. It was nothing real serious, just the two having a good time, mostly. Logan knew it would not go anywhere, and also knew that Carol was a hell of a woman to keep on a string.
So he introduced her to Steve.
And damn if the sparks didn’t ignite like the sun.
Carol found Logan’s bad boy attitude attractive, but it was Steve’s wholesomeness that made her fall in love with the man.
Logan had to laugh at the time. He remembered hearing somewhere from someone that “You flirt with the dangerous guy but marry the good guy,” or some such shit as that.
They had dated for two years, and Logan had never seen Steve quite so alive. They had gone through the Project together, each being assigned to different divisions. Steve got he serum, Logan got his bones. It was a shitty time for both of them; Logan’s anger and Steve’s burden of responsibility were hard things for the both of them to overcome.
If it weren’t for each other, they were not sure where they would be now. During all that time though, Logan never thought he would see Steve really happy again as he was with Carol.
On the anniversary of their third year together, Steve proposed and Carol accepted.
Logan was the best man and he couldn’t have been happier for either of them.
Then the War started.
Steve was shipped out first.
He had to be the great shining light that drove all others forward.
In almost Four years the two had not been apart more than a few days at a time. It was hard on both of them, but both were professionals first and foremost.
Logan had not been shipped out yet. His unit was on an emergency standby while Federation forces began consolidating.
He and Carol were still good friends who enjoyed each other’s company, so they would go out a few nights a week for a few games of pool, couple drinks and just to raise a little hell.
They were having a really good time.
Too damn good of a time.
And one night, they let it get the best of them.
Carol had been lonely without Steve and Logan was filling a much-needed void in her mind and heart. So without either of them thinking the two had slept together in one night of hormone-driven passion.
While his best friend was out fighting for his life, Logan was at home fucking his wife.
After that, the both of them began drifting apart as friends. Carol still loved Steve with all her heart, and the both of them knew this beyond any question. They felt their guilt eat away at them like jackals on a rotted carcass.
They stopped seeing each other for the most part, and only talked sparingly.
They both went about their lives, though, never talking about what had happened.
And then Steve was wounded in action.
A nurachni War Bringer had put a Shard repeater on full auto and put about a dozen of the damn things in Steve’s back.
Logan and Carol were on the first trans to the med frigate where Steve was being treated.
When they got there, he was still in critical condition. The Soldier serum, they had said, was what was keeping him going; if not for that, he would have died on the spot.
They had both requested leave, and surprisingly enough, got it. Logan thanked General Nick Fury for pulling the strings on that one, so they were there for the entire time of Steve’s crucial moments.
The guilt had become too much for Logan to bear, though.
Just looking at Carol and thinking of Steve letting a fucking machine do his breathing for him was tearing him apart.
He finally told Carol that they should fess up.
She had gone ballistic on him, and after the outburst she broke down into tears. Logan would have liked to kick his own ass clear across the galaxy into the nearest black hole at that moment.
They held each other in the waiting room while she sobbed into his shoulder.
She had said only one thing to him the whole time.
“Please, for his sake, please don’t.”
And so he hadn’t.
Steve made a full recovery and was back on full duty a few months later. That serum they say saved his life, but Logan knew it was the man and not some damned magic potion that some asshole scientist cooked up.
Logan had carried that secret now for years, as had Carol. There were times, though, that looking at Steve and hearing him talk about Carol was gut wrenching.
“Good evening Sirs,” Raven said, thankfully breaking Logan out of his trance.
The blue-skinned woman pulled up a chair. “May I?”
Steve nodded. “Of course.”
Logan smiled, pushing all the old guilt and thoughts down. “Finally couldn’t resist coming over, huh, Lieutenant.”
She smiled, her perfectly red lips pulling back to show wonderfully white teeth. “Don’t think too much of yourself, Captain, I don’t want you to think I’m putting the moves on you.”
Logan shrugged and downed another gulp of beer. “You love me and you know it.”
She laughed, “I love my pet python too, but I wouldn’t take it to bed with me.”
“Ouch,” Steve said, snickering.
Logan grinned. “Guess not, cause me and that python share one or two similarities.”
“Squeezing the life out of things and devouring them whole?” she asked.
“That too,” Logan returned. “Now moving on from my anatomy, can we help you with something, LT?”
“Just curious about the next mission statement is all,” she said. “I hear we’re going to Pax.”
Logan waved that away. “Who the hell told you that?”
“Just through the grapevine is all; I hear they’re planning something big.”
“Don’t trust everything you hear from the Vine, LT,” Steve said. “You can hear some real misleading crap.”
“Yea, I heard that the project made you no longer anatomically correct to keep your mind on business,” Logan said, pointing to Steve.
“WHAT??” Steve almost shouted, a look of horror on his face.
“Vine said it, not me.” Logan raised his hands in defense.
“Anyway,” Steve continued, still casting baneful glances at Logan, “Pax is a prime Nurachni area; that would be a suicide run.”
“’Course, that’s what we are here for. “ Logan put in.
“Just a rumor.“ Raven said and stood up from her chair. “ Just was wondering if you had heard anything.”
“We should know something later today. We’ll pass it along in the team briefings,” Steve assured her.
She nodded. ‘Ok, then. Good day, Captain,” she said to Steve and turned to face Logan. “Later, Serpentor.”
Logan grinned at the leaving woman and took in a few eye views of her retreating form. “Women in uniforms.”
Steve raised his bottle in agreement and the two continued to drink.
Three hours later
Neena had come to his quarters a few minutes ago.
And Logan could smell what kind of mood she was in.
It was hard and rough and energetic.
The way both of them liked it.
She screamed as she reached her peak and gripped him tightly around the shoulders, sweating and breathing hard and fast.
Logan had not finished.
He couldn’t.
He lay back in the bed and Neena curled beside him.
She spoke after a moment. “Something is on your mind.”
“Nothing worth hearing.”
“When Logan Howlett doesn’t get off, you know something isn’t right in the universe,” she said, running a hand down his chest.
He smiled a bit. She really knew how he thought.
“Just got a feeling, is all.”
“You sure gave me a helluva feeling.” She smiled at him.
Logan chuckled only a bit as they both fell away into sleep.
Dark thoughts still haunted his mind all the while.
Two hours later
Logan had gotten cleaned up after his little nap; Neena gave him a deep and hard kiss before sneaking out of his quarters and back to her own.
Steve had agreed to meet him back in the lounge for a few rounds of poker before their big to do with the brass.
When he got there, Bucky and Barton were still playing along with other members of Logan’s own squad. David North pulled him out a chair, and Ben Grimm handed him a beer.
“Ready to lose some money half pint?” he asked.
“Well, your mom got a good portion of it already, Grimm, don’t think I have much to spare,” he said, snikting the cap off the top.
Steve walked in then, along with another member of his team, Janet Van Dyke.
They all sat down and were dealed in.
“The game is five card draw people, you can play or just go ahead and hand all of your hard earned federation plats over to me,” Barton said, slinging cards with unmatched accuracy.
“Keep talking your trash, Barton,” Grimm said, puffing away on a cigar.
Logan was laughing and enjoying himself on the outside, but deep down he still had that nagging feeling. He was thinking it was just over the whole Carol thing that had popped back into his mind.
But, that just wasn’t it.
He couldn’t believe it, but it felt even worse than that.
He nodded it away and got back to playing.
Janet was a hell of a player, as was North; Bucky, the poor guy, had already lost a week’s pay, and Grimm and Barton both weren’t doing too well, either. Logan and Steve were still in pretty strong.
After an hour’s worth of play, Bucky finally had enough and decided to keep what little pride he had. Janet decided to call it quits as well when she received word that she had a vid from her three-year-old daughter waiting for her in her quarters.
North had a tech problem to see to as well, so it just left Barton, Grimm, Logan and Steve.
Grimm had gone through at least a dozen cigars, and Barton was silently cursing in ways that would have inmates blushing.
Finally it came down to just Logan and Steve.
Logan smiled over his cards. “Looks like I’ll be getting that new Harley pretty soon after all.”
“Keep talking pal, as usual when it comes down to it, the Canadians just sit around drinking while an American gets it done.” Steve grinned back at him.
“Them’s fighting words in my country, Rogers, lucky for you we ain’t in my country.”
Logan pushed forward his entire stack of plats. “Put up or shut up, Boy Scout.”
Steve matched him.
“Alright boys, time to show.” Barton said.
Logan dropped down three aces; he had only been bluffing a little.
Steve only sat there a minute and then looked over at Barton. “You remember Rebecca Romijn Stamos?”
Barton crunched his eyebrows together. “What the fuck does that have to do with poker?”
“I do,” Grimm said. “Real pretty thing, was an actress or something back in the 21st.”
“She was married, right?” Steve asked.
“Yea, some guy on an old TV show.”
“Oh, yeah” Steve said and dropped his cards. “It was Full House, right?”
Logan’s cigar hung from his mouth.
Grimm howled with laughter. “Booya, BUB!”
Barton shook his head. “That was the lamest shit I have ever heard, Captain.”
Steve laughed and pulled the plats into a rather large pile.
Logan looked down and sure enough.
Aces over eights.
“Well, Hoorah,” he said, and conceded his utter defeat. “That means you’re buying the next few rounds, Rogers.”
“Later,” he said gathering up his winnings. ‘Time to polish the brass.”
Logan rose from his chair and put out his cigar. “Think I’d rather lose more money.”
As Logan started to walk away he took a notice of the cards.
Aces and eights.
Damn, that sounded familiar.
And for some reason, in the pit of his stomach he felt that dark feeling return to him.
He couldn’t place it, though.
As they walked out Grimm shouted to them “Enjoy getting rustled by the brass, cowboy.”
And all of a sudden it clicked.
Logan remembered.
“Nah, that’s bullshit,” he whispered to himself and decided to just forget about it.
They were only card, not some great omen of bad fortune.
But still he couldn’t shake that bad feeling.
He remembered the story of a lawman way back in early Earth American history that had that same hand. He was a real bad ass from what the stories say, hard and as tough as they come.
But getting shot in the back of the head can change all that.
He had been playing poker at that time and had won a game with a full house, too.
Aces and eights.
After that, they started calling it The Dead Man’s hand.
[Reviews - 46]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story |
Has been viewed 1227 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story | - Text Size +
You must login () to review.
