#leslie sheppard 39: insistence

[sergeant-spoons]

39. Insistence

Leslie Sheppard

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By the time October rolled around, the 101st Airborne had mostly settled into their new lives overseas. Aldbourne was undoubtedly picturesque, and for most of the enlisted folk, the sweeping of Summer into Autumn felt natural. The trees changed colors and began to lose their leaves. It was dry most of the time, but on the days it rained, it became cold enough that men complained of chills and swore at the slightest wind. By the end of the month, the soldiers had grown cocky enough to lay claim to certain pubs and bars. There were a few British soldiers around and about, but they couldn't put up much of a fight, as most of their comrades were still engaged on the continent. As such, the Americans made up the majority of those late-night establishments' patrons.

Tonight, the Mechorps had taken to their favorite local pub for hot pretzels, lukewarm 'chips', and frosty cold beer. Baskets of peanuts cluttered every corner of the bar and as the night went on, some migrated to a table here and there, emptied by picking hands before long. Easy Company would have joined them for drinks and games, but alas, their weekend passes had been stripped from them yet again by their CO. As such, Leslie, Tink, and Kiko spent more time socializing with their fellow mechanics than they usually might on a night out. They liked most of their comrades, they really did, it was only the circumstances of their friendships with Easy that kept them from interacting more beyond the wrenches and screws and lug knuts of the garage.

"If it ain't Miss Lucky," drawled John 'Cowboy' Bennett, breaking into a smile as Tink approached. "Now where are your friends at?"

"Right behind me." Tink glanced over her shoulder as she shook Bennett's hand. "Looks like they got held up by Danny."

Indeed, Danny Huff had sidetracked the pair, coercing them into a 'quick' game of darts. Bennett saw and huffed a laugh.

"Well, that won't do. You go on an' get them to come on over an' sit down. Drinks on me."

When Leslie and Kiko heard that, they happily abandoned the darts board for the bar. Danny came with them with only a few joking protests. They joined Tink at the bar and commandeered stools for themselves as a few of their friends came around and either stood or sat with them. For a little over an hour, the sociable group kept up round after round of lively banter about anything under the sun (but mostly their training and service). Jokes were lauded, teases were egged on, and challenges were made up to the point that even Mama E was roped in. The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the spectacle of her engaged in feats of arm-wrestling against more than half the regiment. By the time she emerged with a victory streak a mile long, nearly every man (and woman) in that pub owed her a drink. Leslie was especially pleased to see how certain men who had been opposed to the authority of a woman when the Mechorps was first formed were now saluting Captain Mercedes Eades and acceding her wins with a smile (or, at the very least, an embarrassed nod).

"Ain't that right, kids?" the captain gloated, flexing her biceps. "Mama always wins."

After the excitement of Mama E's winnings died down, Kiko took to a game of dice in a corner booth with several of her intentionally sober comrades, betting on chocolate and cigarettes rather than money. Leslie and Tink, in turn, returned to the bar, where Bennett bought them and himself another round. The trio groused over the timed exercise they'd run that same afternoon and sipped on their beers, starting to simmer down for the evening. Kent Hudley, who Leslie did not know well but thought decently enough of, joined them for a little while as he waited for the busy bartender to refill his and a buddy's drinks. He greeted the group with a cheeky smile and a quip about Bennett being the quintessential Texan boy, cowboy hat and all.

"I sure am," Bennett agreed with no shortage of pride, flicking the brim of his hat with a confident finger. "Bet the ladies like my country charm more'n your city slicker quick-talk, Hudley."

The Atlantan laughed. "You got me there, Cowboy. You always did have a way with the ladies."

"Did I, now?" Bennett flashed a smile at Leslie. "I hope that's still true."

Leslie laughed, wiping froth off her lip with her sleeve. She gestured for Bennett to go on and give them an example. He complied, leaning on the bar and turning his smile more flirtatious.

"Anybody ever told you your eyes sparkle in the light?" he drawled.

Thinking back to an evening spent lugging a drunken and doting Don back to Fort Benning, Leslie's smile tugged up at the corners.

"Yeah, actually, somebody has."

"Huh." Bennett thought for a beat. "Makes sense I ain't the only fella to think you got the eyes of an angel, darlin', but I'd sure be the luckiest fella of 'em all to tell ya so every day."

"Awww." Leslie brushed imaginary lint off his shoulder. "That's sweet, Cowboy."

"Never said it weren't true."

"Alright, alright," Hudley laughed. "Cool it, Cowboy, she's spoken for."

Bennett clucked his tongue. "Aw, shucks."

Leslie wasn't quite sure how to respond until she caught his wink and realized he'd meant the compliment kindly, no strings or expectations attached. She smiled at him, satisfied, and as he relaxed in his seat, she turned to Hudley.

"Spoken for, huh?" she queried, quirking a brow, and he chuckled.

"Yeah, right 'fore we left the States." He slung his arm around Bennett's shoulders and grinned wolfishly at Leslie. "Vinny sure got lucky, huh?"

Leslie went pale. Tink, who'd been listening in as she cheerfully downed a beer and a half, gasped loudly enough that she drew Hudley's attention away from her friend.

"Ex-fucking-s'cuse me?!" 

Hudley's grin started to fade. "What?"

"How fuckin' dare you!" 

Tink picked up her beer and made as if to dump it on him, but Leslie grabbed her wrist and shook her head. Hardly affected, she laid into Hudley, admonishing him for assuming such a thing, snapping at him to check his goddamn sources, and demanding to know where such a rumor might have stemmed from. Hudley, who'd gone even paler than Leslie, tried to express his innocence and apologize, but Tink was having none of it. It was only when Hudley bought her and Leslie another beer (which Leslie, no longer thirsty, soon gave to Bennett) and slunk off, repentant, that Tink stopped to catch her breath.

"Motherfucker."

"Tink!" Leslie frowned. "He didn't mean anything by it."

"Actually," came a new sighing voice, "I'm sorry to say he did."

Leslie turned her frown, now concerned, upon Eli Shackley, approaching from behind Bennett.

"He and Redding were friends. Are friends." Shackley grimaced sympathetically. "Redding's been trying to spread a rumor through his buddies still here that you and him... ah..."

Leslie felt queasy.

"Uh, can you excuse me for a minute?"

Tink went with her into the bathroom. Leslie sat on the cool tile, drew her knees up to her chest, and stared at the mousehole beneath the sinks until her nausea faded. Tink helped, chattering on and on about everything under the English sun until Leslie had no choice but to be distracted and forget Vince Redding. When she started to laugh at a story about Charlie forgetting he'd left his new shoes to dry by the stove and demanding Tink tell him whose they were until he remembered and took her out to dinner to apologize, a look of relief swept across Tink's face. Leslie accepted her friend's hand up and made sure to hug her, murmuring her thanks. She splashed her face with water, and with Tink leading the way, they rejoined the hubbub in the pub. Some of the men had left already, and Kiko's dice game seemed to be dissolving as one participant after another rose to walk their stumbling, bleary-eyed, hiccuping friends home.

"Hey, Leslie!"

Danny Huff grabbed her arm and she let him, departing from Tink with a quick wave of apology. Tink simply shrugged, smiled, and gravitated toward a trio of friends partaking in a drinking game at the end of the bar.

"You promised me a darts game," Danny insisted, leading her toward the vacant board.

"And a darts game you'll get," Leslie affirmed, and he grinned, waving over two other interested parties.

"Shackley, Bennett, c'mon. We'll do teams—I call Sheppard!"

"Fine by me."

"Alright."

As Bennett tested the weight of the darts in his hand and Danny, impatient, urged him to take the first shot, Eli glanced at Leslie and stepped a bit closer, dropping his voice.

"Didn't mean to upset you earlier," he said, "I just thought you should know..."

"Yeah. Yeah, of course." She shook her head, trying to assuage him of the blame. "You surprised me, that's all."

"You sure?" He frowned. "I mean, I’m on your side, and I have been tryin' to set people straight, but if there's anything else I could..?"

"No." Leslie forced a smile. "Thank you, but I'm alright. And rumors never last long."

Eli still looked concerned, but he shrugged and stepped back nonetheless.

"Okay."

Returning to the board, Leslie tried to sneak a sip from Danny's water glass while Eli accepted the dart Bennett passed to him. Danny looked irked that despite all that examination and thought, Bennett did not want to take the first shot. Leslie found it funny enough that she called the second shot and named Danny the third. Danny, narrowing his eyes at her, took his glass back in reproach.

"Get your own water, Sheppard."

She pretended to pout, and he gave the glass back to her almost immediately, still grumbling under his breath.

"Thanks, Danny."

"Uh-huh. You better win this for us."

"Just me?" She raised a brow. "'Us' usually implies a partnership."

He grinned. "Unfortunately for you, I happen to be nearsighted."

"What—Danny!"

He burst out laughing. "Just a little bit! I can still see everything, but sometimes details get... blurry."

She squinted at him. "So that's why you wanted me as your partner."

"Nope!" He reached up and ruffled her hair, grinning. "I wanted you on my team 'cause you're good company."

"And a damn good shot?"

"And a damn good shot."

They started the game fairly well; Danny shot better than Leslie was expecting, given his most recent revelation. They were only behind by three (or maybe four) points and closing in fast when Danny excused himself for the restroom. They paused the game for a few minutes and eyed the kegs of beer behind the bar, but noticing the states of those involved in the drinking competition (Tink appeared to be winning by a slim margin), they decided to snag a basket of peanuts and a round of waters instead. Relaxing into the chairs at the table nearest to the darts board, the three competitors ceased teasing hostilities and spoke about love. What sparked the topic was Bennett mentioning the letter he'd received from home yesterday detailing his sister's recent elopement. The conversation quickly swayed to Kiko and Penk. As the best-liked couple in the regiment, they were spoken of as the gold standard for a healthy relationship. Leslie was very proud to endorse this opinion.

"When'd they meet again?"

"Uh, it was... Yeah, it was around this time last year."

"At the Halloween dance?"

A smile spread across Leslie's face. "Yeah, exactly."

"Huh." Eli tilted his head thoughtfully. "Doesn't that mean their anniversary's coming up?"

"Halloween's in three days, so yeah."

Bennett checked his ostentatious gold watch. "Don't you mean two days?"

Leslie looked at her own wrist and gave a low whistle.

"Jumping Jack Christ, is it really that late?"

"Does it matter?" Danny asked, smacking the table as if his return was one of the utmost triumph. "C'mon, Sheppard, we got a game to win!"

"Hey, Leslie," Eli asked as they all rose and dutifully followed Danny, "how did you and that Malarkey guy o' yours meet?"

She chuckled. "Well, he's not mine in the sense that you're implying, but we've known each other since we were kids..."

Bennett and Eli won that game, and Danny was so dismayed Leslie agreed to another. She kept talking all the while, relating the sagas of her and Don's childhood. With every joyful memory, she grew more animated, each anecdote fueling her to tell another, even happier one. A few minutes into the new game, she caught Danny sharing a look with Eli. She trailed off at the end of what must have been her fifteenth story, though she hadn't realized she'd been speaking so long.

"Why're you lookin' at me like that?"

"'Cause you've been talking about Malarkey for the past twenty minutes," Eli informed her, trying not to snicker.

"Ya got stars in your eyes, kid," Danny laughed through his shining teeth. "You sure he ain't yours?"

"Nah," Tink cut in, slumping rather unceremoniously onto Leslie's shoulder, "Donny boy's been hers for years an' years, she just ain't his." 

"Sounds about right," Danny chuckled, wiggling his brow.

As Leslie swatted his arm, Tink took a swig from a hazy beer bottle, drumming a beat on Leslie's shoulder with her fingertips. Leslie shrugged off her friend but Tink, undeterred, turned to Eli Shackley and leaned on him instead.

"It is right," Tink declared to Danny, so busy grinning that she hardly noticed Leslie gingerly prying the dwindling drink from her woozy fingers. "But I think... I think it's changed." 

"Oh?"

Tink wiggled her eyebrows at Leslie. "You like him. You liiiiiii-"

"You don't mean that, Tink," Leslie refuted, "you know how Don and I are."

"Do I?"

With a devilish grin, Tink stole back her beer and raised it high enough that it nearly grazed the low ceiling. 

"He's in love an' you're in love—what more's there to it?!"

"Tink," Leslie said firmly, "Don and I are just friends. If you asked him, he'd say the same thing."

Danny, Eli, and Bennett all shared a look. Leslie missed it, focused on Tink's wobbling insistence.

"I think ya both need persip- prescrap-"

"Prescription?"

Tink clapped loud enough to startle one of the waitresses as she hustled by with a tray of empty drinks. 

"Prescription glasses, that's it! Ya need prescription glasses, you and Donny boy... Donny boy!"

As the boys laughed, Leslie playfully pushed Tink's shoulder, then had to catch her friend when she stumbled.

"I could see that," Bennett drawled, shooting Leslie a half-apologetic smile. "When Hudley called you a taken woman, I coulda sworn he meant that Malarkey fella."

"Right?!" Tink laughed sloppily against Leslie's arm. "It's like they wanna kill me with how long they're takin'."

"Prescription glasses," Leslie mumbled, fiddling with Tink's empty amber bottle. "What does that even mean?"

"Means you're- you're, ah-" Tink giggled. "Lost my train o' thought. Hold on a sec..."

"Okay," Leslie sighed good-naturedly, "time to get you home."

"Home?" Tink snuggled against her friend's side as they made their way through the bar to collect Kiko (who'd been waiting patiently in a corner booth for a good half-hour) and head outside to catch a ride back to the base. "Whaddaya mean, 'home'?"

Leslie almost teased "I dunno, home to your beloved" but stopped herself. Wasn't that joke the same kind they were making about her and Don? Then again, Tink and Charlie were genuinely romantically involved and had been so for some time. But Charlie wasn’t even in Aldbourne, and maybe Tink wouldn't mind the joke if it reminded her of her distant beloved. Just like Leslie didn't really mind that much when folks teased her about Don. He was her home, after all, through thick and thin—she'd followed him to war, for heavens' sake. But she didn't know if Tink felt the same way about Charlie or vice versa—in that regard, she could only hope. However it may be, they were already out the door, Kiko trying to tie Tink's jacket around her waist for her though Tink was hardly steady on her feet. She managed to succeed, and Tink mumbled her thanks, tossing her arms around Kiko and nearly tripping on her messily-tied laces as she moved. Her friends shared a mildly-amused glance and started down the road, keeping her carefully between them. A truck came along in short order and Archie Potts picked them up after a bit of banter as to their activities this fine evening.

"Ready to turn in for the night, ladies?"

Leslie looked at Kiko, who was dozing off as she leaned against the cool glass of the windowpane, then at Tink, who had already passed out, drooling on Leslie's shoulder. She smiled in fond exasperation, affection for her friends, no matter their insistences, warming her chest.

"Y’know, Archie, I think we are."

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