Page 11 of Uncharted

“No, sir,” I said, still grinning because we both knew what he’d been thinking, and he probably had a good idea what had been tempted to fly from my mouth.

Xander scowled. “Why don’t you act like that when I give you orders?”

I stared at him with wide, confused eyes and pointed at Colin. “He’s…Doc.”

“Marines,” he muttered, and when he glanced at Colin, he shrugged.

“They’re a special breed,” Colin said in what I thought was probably agreement, but I didn’t take offense. I knew we were a special breed, but I also knew Doc didn’t give orders. Except when he did, and when that happened, you were a good boy and did what you were told because it could mean the difference between life and death. It could also mean that they make your life hell down the road too; the hand that heals is the same hand that kills, after all. “So what could be being talked about in here that has Jake looking almost serious?”

“We’re going to have a Guys’ Night Out,” I explained with special emphasis. “To welcome you and Aidan to the outpost.”

Colin raised a brow. “Guys’ night? What, is Cait not allowed?”

“No,” Xander said, and when Colin looked curious, Xander rolled his eyes. “She’s not allowed to go out with Jake or Carter.”

Colin clearly didn’t know why, but the flash of amusement in his eyes said he suspected something good. “God, please tell me why.”

“Because she can drink us under the table,” I said with a heavy sigh. “I wish I knew how she managed it.”

Colin arched an eyebrow. “You and Carter? I mean…you?”

His disbelief made me feel better. “That’s what I said the first…every time.”

“And every time you’ve tried to keep up with her, Carter too, which means you both end up royally fucked up and everyone else has to deal with the fallout,” Colin said, showing not only his insight but his wicked sense of humor. “I kind of want to see that.”

“No,” Xander said firmly, and I could see that while Colin was disappointed, he understood when Xander was being Xander, and when Xander was drawing a line in the sand that no one had better dare cross.

“No fun,” Colin teased, and in one of those rare moments where I sensed what was going on, I could see he was resisting the urge to cross the distance and touch Xander.

It was probably nothing sexual, or at least nothing that would scar onlookers, but he still held back. Honestly, I thought it was kind of stupid; it wasn’t like we didn’t know they were an item. Then again, it would be just like Xander to admit that aloud, like he did, but also hold him and Colin to certain professional standards. Colin wasn’t nearly as stiff-necked or hung up on procedure, but was good at knowing when to behave and when not to.

“Then I’m gonna go see who’s up for it,” I said, thinking it was probably best to leave them without a witness around. If Colin wanted to sneak a moment to cozy up to Xander while no one else was aware, or at least pretending not to know, then I’d let them have that without a fuss.

“You do that,” Xander grunted, and I tried not to laugh as he seemed to put distance between him and Colin while not bothering to move at all. I wondered how all of us had missed what was happening between them…or maybe some of them had seen and they were just better at keeping their mouths shut than I was.

That wasn’t a hard thing to do.

Leaving them to their business, I stepped out and smirked when I saw mirror images wrestling almost silently in the hallway. I couldn’t make out who was who from a distance, didn’t help that they were both wearing jeans and plain boots, and one was in a red shirt while another was in a purple one.

I left them to pop into the nearby dispatch room and grin as Cait looked up from the book she was reading to eye me warily. Her desk was the same disaster it always was, littered with papers, notebooks, and a bank of equipment at the back against the wall. I couldn’t make heads or tails of it but she knew exactly what she was doing, probably better than the rest of us knew how to do our own jobs…except maybe Reno and Mika, so we knew better than to question whatever weird ass system she had.

“I don’t know what it is, but no,” she said, and when I grinned wider, she sighed. “Fine, make your pitch.”

“I wanna welcome Aidan and Colin to the group, the right way,” I told her.

“You want to take them out to some dive bar, get them wasted, and see what kind of trouble you can all get into, you mean,” she said dryly, setting her open book on the desk, face down. I remembered overhearing Aidan complain quietly to Colin about how she treated books, and I wondered if he twitched every time he thought of it. If he’d thought that was bad, he should have seen how my mom treated books sometimes. She called them ‘well-loved’ but if love made you look like her book collection looked, especially the favorites she loved revisiting, maybe love wasn’t the greatest thing in the world.

“You know me almost as well as my momma,” I told her with a grin.

The praise did nothing, as expected. “Don’t butter me up. If I were your mom, I would have thrown you into a sack, and that sack into the nearest river.”

“Might wanna throw some rocks in there too, otherwise I might float back up.”

“If I had ever seen you read a book or watch a thriller, I might tell you to ease up on the murder mysteries. But since you haven’t…it’s probably best I don’t ask too many details.”

“Could be,” I said vaguely. “So⁠—”

“You can tell Xander I’ll pick up the slack that night and work late,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “On one condition.”