“Long? You mean it grew? Either way I can clean it up and bandage it better than you. I am coming in.”
“Funny. I thought you said it was the motion in the ocean and not the size of the ship?”
“Oh it is, it is. Really. I mean that.” Kate said with mock seriousness, “You're fine in that department, the ship size and ocean motion work for me just the way they are.”
"Well regardless this hurts like a bitch and is bleeding way too much for my taste.” Randy regarded any blood that came out of his body as 'too much'.
The Army had fought against the orders to train female snipers, a battle they had only recently lost, they had consigned them, like the Air Force to security positions, but had not been able to designate them as sharpshooters as the Air Force had done. At the very least the Army was attempting to keep women shooters with women spotters to prevent the partners from becoming romantically involved. Of course Katie and Randy had already been teamed up, so what was policy now would not affect their team.
Pushing through the shower curtain Katie emerged into a small washing area with benches up against the walls that had hooks above them on one side and two shower heads on the other. Old towels were hanging from some of the hooks and the place smelled like most locker rooms: of dirt, mildew and soap. Randy was on one bench and his pants were down. He had a small flashlight that he was playing over his leg. He had a piece of gauze from his medical kit on his leg, but it was soaked through already.
“Shit. C'mon, let's get your pants off, we can't bind it up like this.” Katie moved forward and unlaced his boots before pulling them off, then tugged the bottoms of his pants, removing them. Despite the many adrenaline rushes and injuries from the fighting Randy's arousal was noticeable through his briefs.
Katie giggled, “If I'd have known undressing you would do that I would have done it before.”
“Yeah, well I am only human. I think with all the death and trauma there is still something in me that wants to live and make babies. It must be human instinct or maybe the fact that we've been so busy that we have been able to get together lately. I am bleeding and bruised and still horny.” he said with some embarrassment.
“I wish the lights were on so I could see your blush. Can you stand up?”
Randy nodded and got to his feet. Katie took out her own medical kit. It was fairly small but held a few field dressings, some antiseptic and a single one shot syringe of pain medication. She lifted the gauze Randy had put on his leg and examined the wound while Randy held the light so she could see. There was a small bite sized chunk of flesh missing from his leg and the wound was trickling blood at a steady rate.
“'Not bad' my sweet ass. That little shit bit into you good. I am going to put the antiseptic on you. Do you need the pain medicine?” the single shot was designed to inject a variable amount of drug into a wounded soldier's system, it was fairly simple to use, just set the dosage according to wound severity and stick it in.
“No, not yet, maybe when we get back to the office.” Both of them knew that they had to account for the pain medicine if they used it, it was a narcotic and controlled by Army regulations.
Spreading the packet of antiseptic on the wound took only a couple of seconds, then Katie took the second largest bandage out of her kit to apply to the bloody hole in Randy's leg. She wrapped the long ends around his leg a couple of times, not tightly enough to constrict the blood flow to his leg, but snug enough to hold the dressing in place.
Katie rose to her feet and leaned into Randy, he stood there for a moment looking at her, then slowly leaned down to kiss her. She returned the kiss passionately and they fumbled to undress frantically in the dim light. Neither of them thought about the security of the situation, they were too absorbed in getting the release they needed as quickly as possible. Katie's shirt followed her camo suit to the floor followed by the rest of her clothing in short order, she helped Randy sit down on the bench behind him, but both laughed in frustration when it became obvious that the bench was too low and narrow to allow them to get into the position they were trying. Finally Katie gave up and helped Randy to his knees in front of the bench, she moved in front of him and he latched onto her from behind. The sex was short, brutal and satisfying for both of them, with Katie finishing the moment Randy entered her. A few pushes later and he finished as well, then he pulled back and looked around the locker room.
“That was foolish.”
“Yeah we shoulda used a condom.” Katie said.
“No, not that, just doing this here and now.”
“Well, sorry I wanted to get laid!” she said with mock anger.
Confused Randy said, “No, I didn't mean…It was good. Jeezus! You're winding me up?”
Katie smiled in the dim light, “Yeah, sorry. I know it was stupid. People do stupid things all the time. Keep watch, I am going to shower off.” She stepped into the shower and rinsed the sweat and sex off of herself in less than a minute. “I feel a hundred percent better, even my morale has gone up. You want to shower?”
Randy cringed visibly when Katie took an old towel off one of the hooks and started drying off with it. “Ew. You don't know how long that has been there!”
She dried off and hung the towel back up, then looked over at him, “Sissy, go shower, try not to get your leg too wet, then you can use my towel to dry off, you know where it has been, even if it is damp.”
Randy complied with Katie's request, complaining the whole while, she stepped to his side to shield his bandage from the water with another towel as he showered. When he was done he dried off while Katie dressed then she sat him down and took another quick look at his leg.
After a quick adjustment to the bandage Randy got dressed and they headed back to the office where they pushed the heavy metal desk against the door. Randy pulled out his radio and tried to raise his superiors, but could not get a signal.
“We are probably too far below ground and being inside all of these buildings doesn't help.”
Katie looked at the television on the wall, fishing around in the desk she found a remote and turned it on. The picture came up perfectly clear, unfortunately it was just a giant number nine on the screen with a steady low tone indicating the station was on the emergency broadcasting network. “The tv gets a signal.”
“Yeah, it looks like they got cable here.” said Randy, getting up on the desk to examine the connections to the television. He pulled the set off of the wall and looked at the coaxial cable connected to the television. “Maybe I can jury rig it as an antenna?” He unscrewed the cable from the television and then took out his radio unit. Unplugging his head set he tried pressing it up against the cable. A voice came through on the head phone, but only for an instant.
“Yeah, I can get this to work, I'll have a signal in a minute.” He pulled a rubber plug out of his radio and slowly brought it towards the short metal end sticking out from the television cable. The headphones came to life and he quickly put one earphone back in and adjusted his mic so he could talk.
Katie watched wearily from the chair she was sitting in. Randy was talking with their commanding officer and he didn't look too happy about what he was hearing. She heard him ask about the transport helicopters and his reply of 'All of them?' seemed to confirm what Kaleb had told them earlier. Unbidden tears came to her eyes. She wiped them away before Randy noticed and angrily told herself to show no emotion. Her entire career she had been subjected to comments, never official, that a woman should not be on a sniper team, especially not as a shooter. She'd had to work twice as hard and twice as long as her male counterparts to get to where she was and she knew, deep inside, that the only reason she was in the field was because of the domestic crisis. She could have gone overseas as a support person, but it was unlikely she would have been sent over as a sniper. The double standards irritated Katie to no end, she knew the reason the military wanted to keep women out of combat; rape. Pure and simple the military didn't want soldiers being raped as a form of torture or abuse. However Katie knew the risks and was willing to fight for her country and if Israel and some of the nations of the European Union allowed female combat soldiers, so should the most progressive country on the face of the earth.