Chapter Thirty-Two: Chutes and Ladders

AN: I have forgotten about the story. I had some issues where I lost part of it in the crash of a hard drive and had some other problems. But here's a new chapter.

Also, I wanted to mention that I rewrote the entire story from beginning to end. I figured if I was going to write a new chapter, I needed to familiarize myself with it once more.

Enjoy

~~~LELB~~~

Buffy got out her ID as she went through yet another checkpoint at Ft Benning. She was finally here; Basic Airborne Course with the 1st Battalion, 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Despite herself, a sappy grin pulled up the corners of her mouth.

Now all she had to do was to find her quarters and get her gear stowed. As she'd arrived early, she wouldn't be able to go through in-processing until tomorrow between 0600 and 1000 hours. She brought mostly the things that were were required as the instructors frowned upon extra gear being present. Currently, she had her student ID card, which doubled as her military ID, as well as five pairs of BDU's with insignia, her name, and service branch on them.

Buffy was also required to provide two web belts, a matte buckle, her BDU cap, two pairs of combat boots that were both broken in and shined, as well as regular running shoes, five pairs each of Academy undershirts, undershorts, cushion-soled socks. Lastly, she needed to have her boot shine kit, three towels, three washcloths, two heavy duty padlocks, toiletries, and whatever civilian clothes she could manage to fit into her duffel.

She also had to carry a couple of hundred dollars in cash on her, to buy anything she might need. For example, if she wanted to stay in bachelor officer quarters, or BOQ, assuming there was room, it would cost her seventeen bucks a night, which added up fast.

Buffy had already decided she'd stay in the officer housing tonight only, then tomorrow, she'd just shift over to the company barracks. It was both free and had the advantage of free food in one of the two battalion dining facilities, either Normandy or Rhineland Regimental Messes.

Managing to get all of the things she'd needed to bring stuffed into one duffel bag was one thing, but she had also brought one dress uniform in a garment bag for graduation day as both her mom and the colonel were supposed to be there. Flagging down a passing private, she asked, "Private, can you tell me where bachelor officer's quarters are?"

The private, a young man maybe a year or two older than Buffy, gave her a quick once over, which drew a frown from her. Noticing it, he pointed further into the base, while saying in a carefully neutral tone, "Ma'am, it's roughly one mile up Fort Benning Road. Did you need someone to help you with your bags?"

From the gleam in his eyes, which was at odds with his tone, Buffy immediately knew what the soldier was after. She shook her head. "No thank you, Private. I'll manage."

Manage she did, carrying both the duffel and the garment bag with her dress uniform in it. Arriving, Buffy knew she had to see the officer in charge of billeting before she could get into a room. It took a little time, as well as asking a few people, but eventually she managed to land in front of the door of Captain Michael Powers.

Making sure she was presentable, Buffy knocked on the office door. At the muffled, "Come in," she walked on in. Stopping in front of the desk, she immediately saluted and came to attention. She stayed that way for a moment as the man behind the desk gave her a puzzle once over.

"At ease, cadet. Air Force, right?"

"Sir, Third Year Cadet Buffy Summers, Air Force Academy, requesting quarters for one night at Fort Benning."

The captain looked bemused. "Cadet, what exactly is an Air Force cadet doing asking for quarters here? I'm not aware of any cross-service training going on."

"Sir, I am here for the Basic Airborne Course. I won't be needing quarters for the duration of my stay, just tonight."

The officer's raised brows gave ample of what he thought about Buffy's explanation. "Let me get this straight. An Air Force Cadet, at the beginning of her second year at the Academy, managed to get into BAC? How exactly did that happen, cadet?"

"My officer sponsor made the arrangements, sir."

The sandy-haired captain leaned forward in interest. "And exactly who is that?"

"Colonel Jack O'Neill, sir."

It was clear that Captain Powers recognized the name from the way his gaze sharpened. He gave her another once over as if wondering exactly what it was that an ex-special ops commander saw in someone like her. "Well, I can see why you didn't report for in-processing as required. You're early. Why exactly is that?"

"Sir, I used space-A flights to get here. Unfortunately, they are not as reliable time-wise as would be desirable. I ended up here a day early. If getting quarters now is unreasonable, I can head back into town and bivouac at a local motel until tomorrow."

Captain Powers shook his head decisively. "No need for that. I can get you a room for tonight, but tomorrow you'll need to vacate as they'll be giving out room assignments when you're in-processed. It's seventeen a night for the room. You understand all of that?"

"Yes, sir. Room for tonight, but clear out by tomorrow first thing then head over to in-processing. Cost is seventeen dollars. I'll be assigned quarters during in-processing. Understood, sir."

The captain proceeded to assign Buffy a room, then when her stomach rumbled, gave her directions to the Officer's Dining Facility, where she could get lunch.

It felt weird being on the base of a different branch of the service. There were so many young people, most of whom were enlisted personnel. If Buffy had been a commissioned second lieutenant in the Air Force, she would have rated salutes from the majority of the men and woman she ran into. As a lowly cadet, however, she just tried to stay under the radar.

Case in point. Entering the Officer's Mess and paying the nominal price of six dollars and fifty cents, Buffy headed over to grab chow, including some meat-like substance, potatoes, and two different kinds of veggies, before grabbing a half dozen rolls. She finished it up with a glass of ice tea, although she avoided the sweet stuff as it looked far too much like molasses. She'd heard southerners like their tea sweet and here was the proof.

She grabbed a small table in the corner of the mostly deserted room. Fortunately, it was still early for most people to be eating lunch, so she had a table to herself. She was about halfway through her meal when someone sat down across from her.

Staring into the warm brown eyes of the first lieutenant who'd sat down at her table, Buffy said, "Sir, do you require this table? I can move if you want."

He chuckled. "No... uh... I'm not familiar with your insignia. It was half the reason I came over. Of course, the other half was me just being social. Lieutenant Charles Stroud at your service, although you can call me Chuck."

Buffy held out a hand to shake. "Cadet Buffy Summers, Air Force Academy."

Chuck shook her hand, a look of bemusement on his face. "What's a female Air Force Cadet doing at Fort Benning? You're not during your base time here are you?"

Buffy shook her head. "No, sir. Global Engagement is done at one of the Air Force bases closer to Colorado Springs. I'm actually here for the Basic Airborne Course."

"Seriously?" The lieutenant took a bite of his own mystery meat, chewed and swallowed it with a slight frown as if he weren't all that sure he liked the taste. When she didn't volunteer any more information, he asked, "Just out of curiosity, why go through all that? It's going to be tougher than hell. Plus, I'm pretty sure that the Air Force Academy has its own parachute training."

She shrugged. "I wanted to get a chance to train with the best. If I do well here, I might get a chance with the Wings of Blue at the Zoo."

He rolled his eyes, muttering, "Service academy wienies and their BS."

Buffy lifted an interrogative brown. "Sir, aren't you a 'service academy wienie?'"

He shook his head vehemently as he finished off his entrée, chewing rapidly before swallowing. A moment later, he proudly declared, "I am a graduate of the finest institution in the nation, the Texas A&M Corp of Cadets."

Mystified, Buffy shrugged. "Never heard of it."

"That's because we don't play you weinies in football. It would be too embarrassing for you. Although, the Air Force Academy does have the best football team of all of the service academies. It just doesn't measure up to my beloved Aggies. Gig 'em."

Mystified as to what 'gigem' meant, Buffy shrugged and finished her meal, then got up for more. When she arrived back at the table, there were now three lieutenants sitting at the four person table. The two new additions were also reasonably attractive, fit, and young. Taking her seat, she did her best to conduct herself as an officer and not drool over so much salty goodness.

One of them introduced themselves to her. "Cadet Summers? My name is Lieutenant William Monroe, Billy to my friends. That's Lieutenant Arthur Fields. Call him Art. Your name is Buffy?"

Buffy nodded. "My friends call me Cali, though."

"Nice. I like it," Chuck said. "Gentlemen, Cali is here to attend BAC. Lieutenant Monroe, if you would?"

Buffy's eyes had already zeroed in on the Jump Wings the lieutenant wore. Clearly, the handsome young officer had already gone through the Basic Airborne Course. Hopefully, he had some kind of knowledge to pass on.

Aware that he was at the center of attention, Billy smiled widely. "You can call me Billy, Cali. Okay, first off, be especially careful of the falls. You can break an ankle when dropping from either tower. So don't take them for granted. You being so small, the T-10D's going to weigh a significant percentage of your weight. So be careful that you don't land wrong or you'll end up washed out."

He took a long swig of sweet ice tea. "Second, watch your weight. Just looking at you, I can tell you have to be knocking on the door of the cut off limit. Make sure to eat enough. If you let the physical training push your weight down below a hundred and ten pounds, they'll bounce you.

"Third, call all of the instructors "Sergeant Airborne" regardless of their actual rank. They'll tell you to do that during in-processing, but every year someone reads the insignia on their hat and calls them something else. If you do, I don't care if you're a full bird colonel, they're going to run you. Since you're already going to be running your butt off as part of Airborne training, the last thing you want to do is run more.

"Last, lock your sh... err... stuff up. Things have a way of disappearing when so many different people are hanging out together. Don't even leave your boots out unless you're there as well."

She nodded. "Understood, sir. I ran my butt off during the last part of my first year leading up to Recognition."

Lieutenant Fields, who'd been mostly silent up to this point, laughed and said, "It's a time honored tradition for upperclassmen to run the plebesinto the ground. You'll get your turn beginning your third year there."

"Maybe, but I'm not going to be a sadist about it," Buffy said, her eyes dancing with merriment.

"Cali, just a little hint: all upperclassmen are sadists. It's in the job description. You'll be one, too."

Buffy smiled at that. A second later, Billy asked, "Since you're at the Air Force Academy, you wouldn't happen to know the amazon who took down the men's champion at the interservice unarmed combat championships would you?"

She froze. What should she tell them, Buffy wondered? The truth? Deciding to stick with that, she said, "Actually, that would be me, sir."

Two of the lieutenants stared at her google-eyed, while Chuck just shrugged. "What's the big deal, anyway?"

Billy exclaimed, "The big deal is that Cali here beat up on a two hundred plus pound Marine Cadet with years of martial arts experience. He won the men's championship handily while I would guess that Cali here took the women's?"

At Buffy's nod, he continued, "She promptly proceeded to kick his ass like a drum. I heard scuttlebutt that she nearly took his head off at the end."

"I did not!" Realizing just how loud she'd been, Buffy gave the others a sheepish look. "I apologize for my outburst, sir. But that's not exactly how it went."

"So how did it go?" asked Chuck.

Buffy was then forced to tell a version of what had happened that didn't involve her being the Slayer or her true abilities. Instead, she emphasized that it was all about her skill and downplayed the skill of the Marine.

After finishing her story, Buffy managed to escape although not without taking down the phone numbers of all three lieutenants. She wasn't sure about the policy for dating someone outside your branch of the service, but for now, she didn't really need any further complications of her love life. Gator, who she hadn't seen since shortly after Recognition, was enough of one.

~~~LELB~~~~

The next day dawned bright and early, as well as hotter than hell and equally humid. Gotta love those Georgia summers, Master Sergeant Abel Caruthers thought, well used to them by now. He stood at the desk in the in-processing area for the most recent class attending BAC. He rolled his shoulders to relieve stiffness there as he wondered just what kind of fodder they would be sent this time.

Of course what he wasn't expecting was a five foot nothing blonde that looked like she was still in high school to be the first one through the door. Carrying her duffel easily in one hand, and what looked like a garment bag in the other, she walked up to his desk.

"Cadet Buffy Summers, United States Air Force Academy, reporting as ordered to the Basic Airborne Course, Master Sergeant."

With approval, Abel noted that she didn't sir him. After all, he worked for a living. She also recognized his rank, despite being in the chair force, while her hair and attire were regulation. Still, he wondered just what the hell was going on with not only a woman, but what appeared to be almost a midget reporting for in-processing. Curtly, he said, "Orders."

Cadet Summers handed him a copy of her orders. It appeared that she had at least the required nine additional copies as well. He grunted as he read the girl's orders. As it turned out, they were legitimate. Of course, when they assigned barracks space, it with the assumption that the attendees were all men. He'd have to figure out a place to put her, likely in one of the nearby women's barracks with a bunch of E-1's.

Abel scowled at the girl, who didn't flinch. "Let me see your Phys Ed form and 705."

The young woman provided both forms to Abel and he scanned them. Surprisingly, the girl was top tier for her academy PFT, topping out on what had to be the men's scores. Then he checked the other scorecard, which she'd apparently gotten from Fort Carson in Colorado Springs.

Okay, so she'd maxed out the APFT as well for males. It was good as she'd need to be tough to deal with BAC. The last thing Abel needed was to have to hold someone's hand while they were doing their jumps and falls.

"Staff Sergeant?"

"Cadet Summers."

"Do I have time to get breakfast before in-processing begins?"

Abel shrugged. "Yes, cadet. Head over to Normandy Mess Hall. Wait a second."

He took a chit that they used for meals for students attending BAC and handed it to the girl. He warned, "Don't lose this. Use it for your meals. That is, I'm assuming you won't be requesting BOC."

"No, Staff Sergeant. I'll be billeting where assigned and eating in regimental mess. I'm too poor to do otherwise."

He almost cracked a smile at that. Abel waved the girl off, watching as she easily hefted her duffel and carried it with her. Almost he offered to watch it for her, but he wouldn't really have time once more people arrived. Also, it wasn't something he would offer to do with any others attending BAC. So he stayed silent and watched Cadet Summers walk away.

~~~LELB~~~~

By the end of the day, Buffy was bored nearly to tears. It was literally one thing after another. Adjutant General. Finance. Transportation. Equipment issue. Platoon and squad assignments. Room assignments, which were just a fancy way of saying barracks space.

As it turned out, they hadn't known where to put Buffy. Apparently, she'd originally been assigned to the men's barracks, but upon someone discovering she was a girl, she had to be reassigned. Even then, it wasn't as easy as just letting her stay in the enlisted women's barracks. Instead, after all of the run around, she ended up back in Bachelor Officer's Quarters.

At least now it was free of charge. But she'd basically be in a room by herself, which actually kind of sucked.

Buffy had been looking forward to meeting people her own age, even if they were enlisted, and talking to them. Instead, she'd been exiled to having her own room, although she did have to shower in the communal bath at the end of the hall marked 'Women'.

She'd also put most of her money in the regimental safe, keeping out only fifty dollars to buy meals with. At least she still had her stash of granola bars, although that had been transferred from her duffel to the top drawer of her dresser.

Even worse, she had nothing to do until tomorrow. They'd sat through what was basically a glorified orientation, been assigned a class ID number (hers was C487, the C standing for cadet), then were let off by five for the remainder of the day. Oh, she had to be up by 0500 hours to shower, eat breakfast, and be in formation to run by 0600 hours, but that was easy.

Just then, her phone rang. Wondering if she was being assigned other quarters and half hoping it was true, Buffy answered it. "Cadet Buffy Summers."

"Hey, Cali."

It took her just a moment to make the connection between the voice and who it might belong to. Then she remembered the lunch table. "Lieutenant Fields. What can I do for you, sir?"

"Please call me Art. Pretty please? With sugar on top?"

Buffy couldn't help the smile that crept over her face. "Fine, 'Art.' What can I do for you?"

"You can do me the honor of accompanying me to the Officer's Mess and eating dinner with me. I'm off duty for the remainder of the day and would appreciate company."

She hesitated, then said, "I was actually planning on eating dinner at Normandy."

"Uh uh. You do not want to do that. The food is... well, let's just say that Friday's are stir fry night. I don't know what they're stir frying, but it doesn't resemble any food I've ever seen. You'd be better off letting me buy you dinner at the officer's mess. Surf and turf and surprisingly edible. What do you say?"

What did she say, Buffy wondered? In the end, she decided that eating alone to make a point didn't seem particularly smart. "Art, I'd be happy to accompany you to dinner. What time?"

"How about in an hour? Say 1800 hours?"

"I'll see you there."

Hanging up, Buffy wondered what she was doing.

~~~LELB~~~~

Lieutenant Arthur "Art" Fields walked into the Officer's Mess and looked around for a blonde head of hair. He spotted his target a sitting at a table already inside, then frowned. Cadet Summers was already sitting with Billy Monroe, one of his friends. From behind him, he heard, "Move over, Art, talent coming through."

Spinning around, Art saw his erstwhile friend Chuck Stroud grinning at him. Give the guy a glare, he hissed, "What are you doing here? And Billy!"

"Saving you from yourself, Art. Saving you from yourself. Seriously, though, you didn't think either of us was going to let you bogart the Chair Force chickadee, did you? Come on, let's go have some surf n turf."

~~~LELB~~~~

Buffy rolled out of her bunk at 0200 hours, ready to start her day. She grabbed a shower first, to wake up fully, then cleaned her room and made up her bed with surgical precision. According to the colonel, there was every chance they'd go straight from PT to room check on any random day, including the first. They'd go straight in and start assigning punishment details, which was almost all running.

Once her room was clean and everything perfect, Buffy got dressed in her PT uniform of shorts, t-shirt, regulations socks, and her Nike running shoes. Everything she was wearing came straight from the Zoo except her civilian running shoes, which were allowed.

She sat down and spent the rest of her time up until 0500 hours rereading all of the materials she'd been assigned by the Adjutant General's Office, 'in order to make her training as safe and effective as possible.'

Buffy rolled her eyes, but at the same time, she could see if someone was a brand new recruit that it would be reassuring to literally have every possible question answered before you even had to ask it. Fortunately, most of her questions had been answered by Colonel O'Neill, whom she'd seen quite a bit more of than she'd expected over the past couple of weeks while she had 'rehabilitated,' as apparently he and her mother were now officially dating.

It had been Colonel O'Neill who had gotten her onto a nearby Army base to take the APFT. Not that it would save her from having to take it again today, but hopefully she'd be able to keep back her competitive side, even with all of the various armed services she'd be training with today.

~~~LELB~~~~

Buffy felt like an idiot as she did six more push ups just so that she would have two more than Second Lieutenant Joe Wilson, who was also in attendance at BAC. Springing to her feet, she saw the momentary look of surprise on the face of the staff sergeant who had been counting them. He wrote down the number of push ups she'd done in a minute, then sent her off to the next section of the APFT.

In the end, Buffy did a little better on every single part of the APFT than Joe Wilson, although she managed to force herself not to try to pass the SEALS when it came to the runs. Fortunately, Joe wasn't a SEAL, just a regular Marine junior officer.

Take that, she thought in triumph, unaware of the stir she caused by her actions.

~~~LELB~~~~

Abel barked, "Finish up processing! Let's go!" In a lower tone, he asked, "What's got everyone riled up, Bell?"

Sergeant Jerome Bell, his dark face relatively impassive, shrugged. "It's that girl."

Biting back a groan, Abel asked, "Let me guess, she's struggling with the APFT standards? Wouldn't be the first time."

Then he saw the look on Bell's face. It was one of such impassivity that it was clear the other noncom was trying not to show his amusement. "No, she's blowing them out of the water. But it's the reason she's doing it the way she is that's got the tongues wagging. Remember the UA championships last Fall? With the service academies?"

Abel wracked his brain, but came up with a solid blank. "Refresh my memory."

"Some female smack from the Chair Force Academy handed the jarhead who was the men's overall champion his ass in an unsanctioned match. By which I mean, it wasn't for anything but bragging rights."

Doing the math, Abel nodded. "Summers."

"Yep. Get this. That wet behind the ears second looie, Wilson, is the guy she took down. Apparently kicked his ass pretty bad. I mean, it's gotten to be a standing joke. 'Pulling a Wilson' I think they called it."

Still puzzled, Abel asked, "It's a good story, but what does it have to do with the APFT?"

"Look at their numbers."

Abel took the clipboard from Bell, then found Wilson's numbers. Alphabetically, he was actually last. Then he found Summers right under Wilson. She'd been put there because she was the only female that was with the current class in BAC.

He read the numbers, then had to reread them again. Looking back up from the clipboard, he asked, "Are these correct?"

Bell nodded. "I did Summers' push up count myself. She did two more than Wilson, who did seventy-three. She also did two more sit ups and beat his two mile run. Hell, I can count the number of female recruits I've seen max the push up numbers on one hand and Summers did two more than a Marine with a chip on his shoulder."

Something occurred to Abel. "Does Wilson know that Summers beat every one of his numbers?"

Bell's expression, which had stayed utterly impassive the entire time the two of them spoke, was only betrayed by the shine of mirth in his eyes. "Definitely. Let's just say he's a tiny bit upset."

~~~LELB~~~~

"Hey Wilson, get your ass kicked by any more girls lately?"

Joe kept his composure despite the volcanic surge of anger in his gut. The silent glare he sent toward the two SEALS didn't make so much as a dent in their grins. In the end, he was the one who got up and left the eight man barracks room.

Ever since last Fall and the UA Championships, an event he'd expected to, and had won, Joe had been the laughing stock of the armed services. Not just the Marines, either, as many of the officers present had been from a multitude of other services.

The story of a six foot plus, two hundred and twenty pound Marine having his ass handed to him by a girl less than half his size had been too good not to make it through the grapevine of every branch of service out there. That most of them got his name right made it even worse. It made Joe wish he had a weird name that no one could pronounce so no one would know he was the one who'd been treated like an idiot.

It was all Cadet Summers' fault of course. The girl had challenged Joe, pushed him into acting like a jerk, then had gotten lucky and won through a fluke. As much as it had sucked, he'd actually made some headway with that explanation among his friends and fellow graduates. Still, he had the feeling the story was going to follow him for years as he made the Marine Corps his career, planning to stay in for at least twenty years.

Joe had been looking forward to BAC at Fort Benning with the 507th. When it came to paratrooper training, they were the best. Somehow, he'd never found the time to put in for parachute training while at the Naval Academy, too many other things he needed taking up his free time and summers.

So he'd always planned to head to Fort Benning and the BAC if he could get his officer sponsor to sign off on it. Fortunately, Major McClendon had done so, allowing Joe the time to take the course before joining his command over at Camp Pendleton. It would look good on his record, and he planned to pin his wings in a prominent place on his dress uniform.

Unfortunately, Joe had see her, Cadet Summers, the bane of his existence, at in-processing. She'd been seated three rows ahead and far to the right of him while the Adjutant General had spoon fed them the information they needed for the next three weeks. He hadn't even noticed her because of the size of the class until she'd asked a question. Seeing her there, he could hardly believe it.

What the hell was a... he couldn't call her a smack any longer he thought. A third year female Chair Force cadet doing at BAC? Who'd called in a favor to get her in?

The one thing that Joe was certain of was that there was no way a girl who looked like that could make it in here without someone pulling strings for her even if she had been able to do the formation run. Watching her in formation ahead of him during PT dressed in those shorts, he was certain his weren't the only eyes glued to the girl's butt as she ran along, easily keeping to the pace that the instructors set.

As bad as that had been, only during the APFT had things come to a head. Like most things in the military, they'd gone alphabetically. Joe was used to going either last or near the end any time there was a wait involved. Unfortunately, whoever had been setting up the testing hadn't realized until that day that Cadet Summers was a girl, so they had ended up putting her in an entirely different group made up only of herself.

It had also left her to go immediately after two male West Point cadets who'd gone just after him, since he was the last person alphabetically whose in-processing number didn't have a 'C' prefix. Annoying, but he hadn't talked to her, nor encouraged her to talk to him. Mostly, he was just trying to get through this without blowing a gasket.

Joe admitted that he'd lingered a couple of minutes after finishing his own push ups to watch Summers do hers. And he might have made a disparaging remark about the disparate numbers in the APFT for women versus men, which was hardly fair as the job they were required to do was the same. But what Summers had done as a consequence had set his blood to boiling.

She'd deliberately done two more push ups than Joe had done. She had not only beaten the max standard required for the men, as had he, but had blown away that of the women.

Then she'd done the same thing with sit ups. Joe had been steaming afterward. He'd also been determined to do his two mile run at a sub five minute per mile pace, something he'd managed before. If the girl thought that she could beat his mark there, then she was crazy.

After all, he'd never seen a girl who could hope to keep up with him. All the PFT for the Air Force required was that female cadets be able to do a timed run between nine and fourteen minutes. Not that Summers had apparently cared about the requirements. Instead, she'd done the same damn thing once more, beating his two mile run time of ten minutes and fourteen seconds by ten seconds.

It was all he could do not to rip her a new one. After all, he was an officer now, while she was still only a cadet. But he'd been all too aware of the eyes on him. Weighing him. Judging him. Seeing if he was going to crack. So he'd held his peace. Even under the taunting he'd just received. Perhaps especially under the taunting that he'd just received as even he didn't want to mix it up with those guys. Still, the taunting they'd done, something which reeked of disrespect, touched him in a way that a lot of other people's had not.

Joe was all too aware of just how nasty SEAL training was. Of the things that they did to one another, as well as what they had done to them by their instructors in an effort to break them, to either drive them from the course or forward into another day.

He'd briefly considered joining the Navy instead of the Marines, then putting in for SEAL training once he graduated. But a combination of there being a tradition of Marines in his family, coupled with just the tiniest doubt that he had what it took to become a SEAL had sent him to Annapolis, but into the Corp rather than the Navy proper.

He would never know if he had what it took to make it as a SEAL. For now, though, he'd settle for just making it through the next three weeks.

~~~LELB~~~~

"Cadet Summers, you will demonstrate the proper PLF for everyone here. Go!"

Buffy jumped from the fifteen foot platform, hitting the ground with her knees together, while most of the impact was to her lower legs and knees as she collapsed onto her side. At the same time, she rotated her entire body to bleed off energy throughout her entire form, thus avoiding breaking her legs or ankles.

Not that it would have, but by using the Parachute Landing Fall or PLF, which was the proper landing technique taught at BAC, no one would know that she was the Slayer. Or that a jump from a height three times this wouldn't exactly threaten to do her bodily harm.

Getting up from the soft sand, Buffy brushed off her BDU's and got back into the shortest of the five lines as the next several dozen people ahead of her went through the same thing. The worst thing about practicing the PLF was getting absolutely filthy, she decided as she ended up not being able to get all of the dirt off of her BDU's.

So far, she was finding BAC pretty easy. Certainly the physical requirements weren't much of a test for her, while the materials she had to study, after the grueling Fall and Spring she'd had didn't seem like much. If anything, it was the off field antics of those around her which she found the most challenging.

Whether it was the 'Three Amigos', as she had started calling them, or Joe Wilson, Buffy was keeping busy trying to minimize the distraction that each of them represented. Art, Billy, and Chuck, while nice enough, were having far too much fun trying to sabotage one another, while at the same time flirting incessantly with her. Joe, on the other hand, seemed to mostly glare at her, but turned up nearby with distressing frequency during meal times, although it was possible that was merely coincidence since everyone at BAC was released at roughly the same time for chow.

At least she didn't have to deal with Joe at dinner as Buffy had taken to eating in the Officer's Mess most days even though it was far from free. However, since most days when she was there, one or more of the three amigos ended up there as well, she rarely had to pay for dinner. She might have felt bad about taking advantage of the young men, but they seemed to be having way too much fun for her to care.

She just wished that everything was as easy as jumping off the platform.

~~~LELB~~~~

Abel barked, "Cadet Summers, weigh in!"

He watched as the tiny blonde, now bedecked with all of her gear and looking more like someone's kid sister playing dress up than a real soldier, approached the scales with a look of faint trepidation on her face. Abel was aware that the girl's official weight was one hundred and ten pounds, exactly at the cut off line for someone entering BAC. That, coupled with the gear she was carrying, was supposed to put her weight at one hundred and sixty-two and a half pounds, the minimum that would guarantee a successful static-line extraction.

Technically, that number was actually two pounds less than that, but the extra two pounds was there as a safety measure.

Despite his reservations over the girl's appearance, Summers had actually been one of the best students out of this group. She listened, only asking questions when she didn't understand some point that had been made to her. More importantly, she didn't make mistakes, any mistakes, showing concentration and focus necessary for paratrooper.

One hundred and sixty-three pounds, just barely under the wire. Abel grunted for the girl to keep moving.

Later that day, he winced as he watched Summers fearlessly jump off the fifteen foot platform with a full load out. It was one thing for a two hundred plus pound guy to do it, the added fifty-two and a half pounds only a quarter of his body weight. It was quite another to see a girl who weighed barely over half that do the same.

As always, Summers landing was textbook perfect. Abel couldn't have done better himself. Plus she jumped up despite the weight of her gear as if her legs were springs and got back into line to do it again. And again.

Well, he'd see how well she did when they started doing zip line falls from the thirty-four foot tower at the end of the week. That was when a prospective paratrooper got their first taste of making contact with the ground traveling at the speed that a parachute allowed. Plus, the half second of freefall at the start separated the men from the boys.

For now, he'd keep an eye on her just as he did the rest of her classmates, officers or not.

~~~LELB~~~~

"Atten-hut!"

Buffy snapped to rigid attention as she waited outside her room while the Black Hat Instructors went through her room. She'd escape the first round of inspections because of being in BOQ, but she wasn't missing this one.

Fortunately, she'd taken the time again that morning to make sure her room was spot on, just as she had every morning since she'd arrived. Something which was confirmed a few moments later when the two inspectors, white gloves and all, exited her room while giving her passionless looks.

"Dis-missed!"

She fell in, walking back into her room. She needed to get some rest tonight as tomorrow was going to be her first time using the Lateral Drift Assembly off of the thirty-four foot tower. They got to exit through a pretend airplane door, then do a zip line fall that would simulate the velocity of falling with a parachute and her impact with the ground. She literally couldn't wait to do it. It was going to be so fun.

~~~LELB~~~~

He took a few more snaps of the girl using the camera in his watch as she walked around the base. Officially, they were for the organization that had employed him for the mission. Unofficially, he'd send another set of prints to his other employers, whose goals paralleled the first group's in some ways.

That second group wanted as much real time information as possible, which continued to be a challenge.

Still, he'd managed to obtain copies of the records of her scores in both fitness tests and the Basic Airborne Course she was taking at Fort Benning for both groups. As it turned out, the Army wasn't all that good at locking up their records and breaking into the file room where they were stored was child's play.

Certainly easier than the job he was using for a cover the man thought as he emptied yet another trash can, adding the full and stinky bag to the growing pile in his cart, while replacing it with a clean one.

What fun, he decided with a rueful grin. Only a hundred more to go.

~~~LELB~~~~

Abel checked Wilson's gear, then slapped his shoulder. "Go!"

He watched with careful eyes as the young second lieutenant leaped through the mock airplane door, then up and off of the platform of the thirty-four foot tower, making a mental note to tell him to tone his upward motion down. On a real plane, he'd crack his head on the doorway, potentially even catching his MAWC at the top and sending him into an uncontrolled tumble out the door, thereby fouling his chute.

"Summers! You're up!"

The blonde, her eyes wide with excitement, moved with almost a bouncing step as if she couldn't stay anchored to earth such was her energy. Tossing the ridiculous allegory over his shoulder, Abel ran a quick equipment check for the girl.

She and her gear even to the Molle ruck with the MAWC and its dummy weapon within were textbook perfect, which was the only acceptable standard. Summers seemed to have taken the instructors' advice that only perfect kept you alive when you were falling from thousands of feet up. Abel had already washed out more than a dozen people, only one because of a physical issue, while the others just didn't have the attention to detail required of a paratrooper.

"Click on!"

Abel took her static line, then connected it to the zip line since he was acting as Jumpmaster, checking that both were properly set. He cautioned, "Remember, you are going to be traveling at approximately twenty feet per second! Parachute Landing Fall! Bend your legs, bleed off energy laterally!"

"Yes, Sergeant Airborne!"

"Go!"

Summers hurdled through the door, then leaped off the tower, moving forward rather than up, as utterly fearless as she'd been from the beginning. Abel checked on her progress until she traveled into the next instructor's purview. Then he yelled, "Anthers! You're up!"

~~~LELB~~~~

Buffy put away every single piece of her gear after first cleaning and inspecting it all. She now had an actual T-10C parachute, instead of the dummy one that they used to grow accustomed to the weight. Not that she'd be using it for another three days as she first had to do all of her jumps from the two hundred and fifty foot tower.

For now she was ready for chow.

Heading toward the Officer's Mess, Buffy almost bounced. She felt really good at the moment. The long days, with activities ranging from calisthenics, grass drills, and four mile runs, to the endless jumps and jarring landings were made for a Slayer. She thought that if she could do this pretty much every day, she wouldn't even really need to Slay vampires.

Feeling a restlessness fill her if only for a few seconds, she admitted that maybe that wasn't quite accurate. No, Buffy was still feeling a bit hungry and horny at the end of a day, the latter something which only a good Slay usually took care of. Not that she didn't have plenty of experience in sublimating those feelings. Certainly she wouldn't act on them. Not with anyone here.

Like, for example, Lieutenant Billy Monroe, who was waiting for her at what had become their usual table. When she questioned with a raised brow where his coterie was, Billy shrugged and said, "They've got duty at the moment. Art and Chuck are pulling shifts from 1600 to 2400 hours for the next four days. So you're going to have to settle for eating dinner with just me until next Tuesday. Like a real date."

Buffy rolled her eyes, but couldn't stop the laugh that erupted from her. "Hah! Like you could handle me!"

After going through and grabbing a couple of plates of food, Buffy headed back to her table. On the way, she noticed that Joe Wilson was sitting at a different table not that far from hers. Ignoring him, she sat down across from Billy.

Halfway through her meal, she felt a presence next to her. Unless he took a swing at her, though, she was going to ignore the Marine. Across form her, Billy raised a brow, and when she didn't acknowledge him, asked, "Can I help you, Lieutenant?"

"I just needed to speak with Cadet Summers here. Could I borrow her for a moment, Lieutenant..."

Billy stood up and introduced himself, "Lieutenant William Monroe."

"Lieutenant Joe Wilson, US Marine Corp."

Billy crooked a brow at Buffy, who still hadn't acknowledged Joe. "Are you and Cali acquainted, Lieutenant Wilson?"

"Yes, we are. Cadet Summers, may I speak with you?"

Buffy looked up. And up. Cursing the way that the tall Summers' genes seemed to have escape her, she said, "I don't think that is a good idea, Lieutenant Wilson."

"Please?"

The 'please' was so unexpected that Buffy involuntarily found herself nodding before getting up and following Joe back over to his table. There, she sat down, after which he seated himself across from her. She met his eyes, which were surprisingly furtive, seeming to look everywhere but at her. When he didn't immediately speak, she began to wonder exactly what he wanted.

"Gee, how about those Falcons, Lieutenant? Think they'll go twelve and oh in regular season?"

Joe automatically responded, "Of course not. Navy will knock them off."

That seemed to break the ice as he took a deep breath, then said, "Cadet Summers, I would like to apologize to you for my behavior back in October when I insulted you, the Air Force Academy, and women in general. My only explanation is that I was suffering from an overabundance of testosterone at the time and was ready to take offense at any comment."

He was apologizing to her? Buffy tried to wrap her mind around it. Joe Wilson was apologizing to her. For what he'd said during the UA Championships. It bogged the mind.

She quietly stated, "Sir, before I accept your apology, I should ask why you feel like you need to apologize after all of this time? Because I didn't get the impression that you thought all that much of me back at the beginning of BAC when we were doing the APFT."

Joe suddenly grinned and it was as if his face had come out from behind a cloud. Buffy was suddenly aware that Second Lieutenant Joe Wilson was actually a very good looking young man. He rubbed the back of his head ruefully, then blurted out, "I might have been a little ticked off still about losing to you during our fight. You didn't have to rub it in the way you did by beating my scores."

Buffy grinned back at the young Marine. "Sure I did, sir. I didn't want you to get too big a head."

He looked her over, then shook his head. "I admit, I've never seen a female who could do the things that you're able to do. Even the women we get in the Corp, and some of them are serious hardasses, can't do that many sit ups, let alone nearly as many push ups as you did."

Unspoken was the question of how Buffy did it. She puffed up, stuck out her chest, and said, "Clean living, Lieutenant Wilson. Clean living."

"Joe."

"Huh?"

He grinned playfully at her. "Call me Joe. You're Cali, right?"

Buffy nodded. "Yeah, I got that as a nickname my first day at BCT. It kinda stuck."

"I can see it. You do sound a bit like a quintessential Valley girl."

"I do? How would you know?"

He shrugged. "I'm from Redondo Beach myself. What school did you go to?"

"Seriously? I went to Hemery High before I moved to Sunnydale my sophomore year."

Joe nodded. "I had friends who went to Hemery. Ah, I think I'd better let you get back to your dinner companion. His first lieutenancy trumps my second."

Buffy got up, as Joe rose across from her. She hesitated, then said, "You could join us. If you want?"

He glanced over her shoulder again, then shook his head. "Another time. Thank you, Cali."

"You're welcome, Joe."

Buffy headed back to her dinner wondering if the sun was going to rise in the west tomorrow. After what had just happened, nothing would surprise her.

~~~LELB~~~~

As Joe headed out for another day's PT the next morning, he felt at peace. Apologizing to Summers seemed to have done the trick. And in more ways than one.

Hitting the two hundred and fifty foot tower, he had none of the landing problems he'd had the day before. He even managed to land within the qualification ring when they released him the last time. Of course Summers landed exactly where she was supposed, eerily close to the center of the circle. Weird girl.

Everything else went pretty damn good as well. Joe had no SEAL problems for the first time, which he couldn't understand. But for some reason, those two roommates didn't get on his case that day at all. Not even when he dropped an empty glass while busing his table at lunch in Normandy. Go figure.

Their last day of Tower training dawned as hot as every other one had. He busted his hump when they were doing grass drills prior to the usual four mile run. Like most days, he noticed the way Summers filled out her shorts, but he stayed focused primarily on the activity.

Later, he handled his chute deployment failure training with aplomb and got praised by the Black Hat instructor over his poise and his ability to react under pressure. Not that it was all that hard as he'd never been really afraid of heights. And he was quite certain they weren't going to let him actually hit the ground, pretend chute failing to deploy or not.

Watching Summers up in the air handling the exact same situation was interesting. Having already gone through it, Joe could see her run the checklist of things to do on a chute failure with alacrity, even faster than he did. Of course, she got her chute open in time. And landed in the exact spot she was supposed to, hitting dead center in the ring Actually, that might be just a little beyond bizarre he thought.

Joe spent the rest of the day thinking. At dinner that evening, he headed over to the Officer's Mess for one final time, as everyone would have to eat at Normandy their final week. He saw Summers there eating with a group of three first lieutenants, including the one he'd seen her with before.

He was mature enough to realize that nothing was happening. It was just a matter of a bunch of guys taking an opportunity to chat up a pretty girl. Still, he stayed when he was done eating, waiting for his chance. When Summers got up to leave with the others, he made his move.

"Cali, can I talk to you a second?"

The blonde cadet turned toward Joe and he was aware of being under the gaze of four sets of eyes, three of them calculating. Still, it was the arresting green eyes of his target that drew him in. When she nodded, he walked outside as she followed him.

Once there, Joe asked, "That match we had? The one where you beat me? That wasn't a fluke, was it?"

Cali's gaze, which had been mostly disinterested, suddenly sharpened. Joe was immediately aware of her in a way he only was around opponents. He knew he was being sized up, but refused to allow it to bother him.

Finally, after a moment of being weighed, she shook her head. "No, it wasn't. If you and I sparred again, I'd beat you again. I'm faster than you and more skillful. Sorry, but those are the facts."

Nodding along with the girl's assessment, Joe said, "I understand. Still, I'm going to go out on a limb and ask you for a favor. Will you go with me to the Smith Gymnasium and hit the mats with me? We can wear headgear and everything if you want."

Cali's eyes were cool and distant. "Why should I?"

He shrugged. "Because I have to know."

The satisfaction that he felt when she finally nodded then said her goodbyes to her dinner companions was surprisingly intense, but he kept it under wraps as he didn't want to queer the deal. He walked along beside Cadet Summers as they headed toward the gymnasium.

Later that night, as Joe nursed even more bruises than he'd gotten during their first match, he felt a strong sense of satisfaction. He hadn't been defeated by accident, by some fluke. No, all those months before, he'd been beaten by a superior opponent, plain as that. It made the sting of that long ago defeat pretty much fade away.

Of course, it didn't hurt that in between beatings, he'd made time with a pretty girl at the expense of a bunch of Army pukes.

~~~LELB~~~~

Buffy took a deep breath as she stood in the line of soon to be paratroopers about to exit the plane. It was Day Two of Jump Week and she and the others were about to take their first jump.

Everything about this had been thrilling, from being shuttled out to Lawson Army Airfield where she'd seen real jet fighters taking off for the first time ever, to getting into the C-17 with its load out of potential paratroopers written in chalk on the outside. It had been especially exciting to take off and head out to Friar Drop Zone because Buffy knew what was coming.

She would be jumping from twelve hundred feet today, which didn't sound like all that much for a parachutist, but if something did happen, it was more than enough to kill even a Slayer. Not that it would as Buffy had personally checked her main and reserve chutes, as well as checking every last bit of her gear, even to the retaining pins of the chute's container. Plus, she'd somehow managed to keep her weight at a hundred and ten pounds throughout the past two plus weeks, if by nothing else than pigging out every chance she got.

Now all she had to do was actually make her first jump. Of course since she was at the end of the chalk, Buffy would have to wait a while for her 'green light.' It was the time when two sticks of paratroopers at a time exited the plane, one through each side door, until they were out of the drop zone, upon which a 'red light' came on. Meanwhile, the plane made its racetrack maneuver, circling back to the beginning of the drop zone once more.

She would have to wait for the first green light to be done and the plane to head back around to the drop zone before her own came on. Ahead of her, Joe Wilson turned around for just a second from a few spots in front of her and gave Buffy a thumbs up. She returned the gesture, for once glad that the plane was too loud for anyone to carry on any real conversations. No, between the roar of the engines and the rushing sound of the air outside, it took loud shouts to be heard at all, not something she wanted to be involved with.

Her guts gave an involuntary clench as the green light flashed and the first two sticks of their chalk, roughly fifty soldiers, exited the plane, disappearing out of both side doors. For a moment, she wondered if they were going to get anyone backing out at the last minute, especially since everyone present was in their first ever jump.

But those sticks of soldiers moved smoothly forward in the airborne shuffle, and before she knew it, the red light was back on. Buffy could feel the gentle angle of the flight deck momentarily increase as the plane circled around for another pass over the drop zone. Her heart was starting to beat faster and she couldn't suppress the excitement that was filling her.

It looked like it was only going to take just two complete passes before the nearly one hundred soldiers were all off the airplane.

Finally, it was the turn of her stick of twenty-three and the stick of twenty-five next to them. Buffy got herself ready for the jump, girding her metaphorical loins, as she knew that hitting the high blue for the first time would be a shock, one that even the two hundred and fifty foot tower couldn't prepare someone for.

Suddenly, the green light lit up, and Buffy was following the person in front of her forward in her own version of the airborne shuffle. Hearing the roar of the engines ascend to deafening, she handed off her static line to the Jumpmaster, took a sharp left, then was out the door. She got buffeted by the turbulence a little as she went into freefall of a couple of second, then felt the opening shock of her chute deploying and looked up to see a fully deployed parachute.

Buffy had been in free fall for less than a second, and now she was floating, one of the most amazing things she'd ever experienced. The entire world seemed to be spread out beneath her and her face hurt she was smiling so widely. Giving the steering risers on her chute just the slightest tug, as she'd been trained the previous week, she headed for the drop zone. She was determined not to miss her target by so much as an inch, and to not land on anyone else already down.

At the same time, feeling the faint rush of air past her face, and seeing the world from such an amazing height couldn't be ignored either. Automatically, she noted the other students that she'd jumped with floating below her, many of them shouting, "Airborne!". The earliest jumpers had already landed, while the group before hers was nearing the ground.

Buffy's group was still at an altitude of approximately four hundred feet and she could still see so much from here. However, all too quickly her height dwindled and she had to be just a little more active with her chute controls as a Black Hat below her starting shouting at them with a bull horn to shut up and pay attention to landing instructions, which mostly turned out be to land in the soft dirt of the field and not on top of someone else.

A few moments later, Buffy touched down on the soft dirt exactly as instructed, falling and bleeding off the excess energy of her jump, while her landing point was more or less in the center of Friar Drop Zone. She was one of the last people down, was just glad there wasn't a noticeable updraft or she might have stayed up for a several minutes. She didn't waste any time in gathering up her chute and its cords and bundling it into a more manageable size so that she could carry it back to the shuttle bus.

Buffy grinned at one guy that actually kissed the ground, as if happy to still be alive, while another dropped to one knee and made the sign of the cross over his heart. Then she focused on what she needed to do.

After all, there was still the after jump lecture, as well as the question and answer section, which she hoped would be more interesting than it sounded. Then, when all their gear was cleaned, organized, and repacked by the riggers, it would be time for dinner.

Ahead of Buffy, Joe turned around. He gave her a wave. "About time, slowpoke. I didn't think you were ever going to come down."

Buffy flipped him the bird, for the first time not bothered by the razzing, as it was obviously good natured in tone. Besides, she hadn't come down that much slower than he had. Although it might be enough for her to get shot she considered soberly. After all, seconds were forever in combat.

But she wasn't going to think about anything negative. For now, she was just going to bask in the moment.

~~~LELB~~~~

The man stood next to the line of lockers, his uniform and identification showing that he belonged to the Maintenance Staff responsible for cleaning this area. Carefully checking his six, he produced a skeleton key that easily opened the lock on his target's locker.

Once inside, he removed the T-10C parachute inside. It was a moment's work to add the small vial of fast acting acid to the main chute's interior where it would burst as soon as chute opened, weakening and destroying a large portion of the silk. It was, after all, what he'd been paid to do by the same organization that had provided his credentials and cover.

However, the second vial he placed in the reserve chute had been provided by a different and darker organization that had paid him a great deal more money than the first group.

Not that he cared about the organization or what he was doing. Money was money. The second payment to his offshore accounts would allow him to retire, something that was necessary in any event as his continued survival would depend upon him disappearing after this job. The organization he was doing the second job for wasn't known for leaving loose ends. So he wouldn't become one, disappearing instead.

It filled him with an immense amount of satisfaction.

~~~LELB~~~~

More than anything, Buffy wanted to pout, something unbecoming in an officer. It was their third jump, another daylight jump after which they had to let the riggers go to work and do yet another later that afternoon, followed by a night jump on Thursday, ending with a sixth and final jump on Friday if it wasn't scrubbed by weather conditions. And she was going nearly last again.

Which was ridiculous. After all, the instructors, the Black Hats as they were called, knew that it wasn't a good idea to build a routine when parachuting, so they'd shifted the sticks around so that the jumpers would be going out at different times than before.

Except Buffy's group, which was even more undersized since they'd lost three more students to landing injuries in yesterday's second jump. The one thing that the Black Hats had done to her group was to shuffle them around a bit, but she still was only going to be jumping third from the end. Even Wilson had gotten pushed to the very front of the group.

Oh well, at least she was still jumping. Besides the three injured, there had also been one final non-injury washout, a private first class who had missed the drop zone completely during their second jump because he had been screwing around with his directional controls. As the Black Hats put it, there was no room for horsing around at a thousand feet.

She pulled her attention back to the present, that familiar sense of excitement filling her as she prepared herself for her green light. Buffy shook out her shoulders, then checked her nine and three, not wanting to be too narrowly focused no matter how fun jumping was.

Finally, it was their turn. The green light lit ahead of her and Buffy stepped forward, handing off her static line to the Jumpmaster before launching herself out of the plane. As she exited the door, she fell towards the ground. A couple of seconds later, her static line caught, and her chute deployed.

For a moment, she started to float, then there was a ripping sound accompanied by a sharp odor, and suddenly Buffy was falling through space. Staring upward, she caught a glimpse of one of the last jumpers behind her, his expression one of utter horror as she plunged toward the ground, her fingers desperately working to deploy her reserve chute.

Buffy yanked the reserve chute's ripcord, giving it a bit more Slayer strength that she might have otherwise, and the nylon popped open with a reassuring yank. However, she'd barely slowed before her reserve chute was also tearing and she was once again plunging toward the earth, now trailing two sets of shrouds flapping amid torn and ruined nylon.

~~~LELB~~~~

AN: Next time: Freefall