Chapter 3: Denial

Grif didn't say anything for a long time; he never expected it to be so damn hard. All he had to do was tell Simmons the truth.

"How long have you known?" Simmons asked.

"Known about what?"

"About Luna, is she related to Sarge, Does he know?" Simmons demanded not wanting to believe that the man he wished to call father, was really a woman.

Grif looked at Simmons not sure if he should be ashamed or relieved. "Simmons, I have known since I first woke up after the surgery…She didn't want anyone to know," Grif replied with a light shrug.

"And Sarge knows about her?" Simmons choked.

"Yeah, let's go with that, if you're all done you should go to bed," Grif offered.

Simmons rubbed his eyes, even though the sun was shining bright on them. The maroon soldier felt like the world was getting dark and darker. He knew he wasn't going to be able to stay awake, even if he wanted to.

"Simmons go to bed," Grif smiled slightly, urging his friend to get some sleep.

"Yeah, I'll do that," Simmons yawned; he nodded his head and was walking down the stairs before he turned his head back to Grif. "This is just a bad dream right?" He asked.

"Yeah Simmons, just a bad dream, when you wake up, everything will be normal again," A part of him was trying to help, but he knew that if Simmons believed him, he'll never let the soldier down on it.

Simmons smiled halfheartedly as he continued down the stairs into the inner sanctum of red base. Grif followed after him; wanting to be sure the cyborg didn't cause any more trouble. Simmons walked past all the rooms, his eyes focusing on Grif's semi opened door, the yellow light spilling out of the crack and a portion of a silhouette showing towards the edge.

"It's just a dream," Simmons said to himself as he continued walking down the gray halls of the base.

"Night," Grif said, stopping by his door."

"Night Grif, so uh…this dream…"

"Won't be happening again, no more eating before bed," Grif said rubbing the back of his neck.

Simmons nodded his head then went into his room, closing the door behind him.

Grif sighed, shaking his head slightly as he entered his own room. Luna was on his bed legs crossed and arms behind her head. She turned her attention to Grif a deep frown on her tanned face.

"Don't look at me like that," Grif sighed rubbing his head with his hands.

"What look?" Luna puffed, turning her head away from Grif.

Neither one of them spoke for a moment; Grif didn't even bother to move.

"You told him soldier?" Luna asked darkly.

"I tried," Grif said receiving a death glare from Luna "But…He wouldn't accept it, and now he thinks it's all a dream, so," He walked closer to Luna, his feet pushing past the junk on the floor.

"So what?" Luna demanded pushing herself up on her elbows.

"So I told him it was just a dream, in the morning he won't believe that what he saw was real, which means, you have to be more careful, spend more time with Simmons."

There was another long pause before Luna got out of the bed and walked out the door. She didn't say anything and didn't even bother to look at Grif.

"Luna…"

"Shut up dirtbag, or I'll have Simmons poison your food," Luna growled, leaving the orange clad soldier alone in his room.

Grif smiled slightly as he watched Luna walk out. He knew that tomorrow was going to be weird Not like everyday weird, but 'I'm not sure how to approach this,' weird.

"Well no sense in worrying about it now, best just get back to bed before Sarge wakes me up for some odd reason," he yawned falling into his bed and going to sleep. He didn't bother with the lights, after a while they would turn off on their own.

"Wake up boys!" Sarge's deep voice rang through the halls of red base. Its occupants reluctantly waking up, well almost all of them.

Simmons blinked his one normal eye twice, his body turning on after a simple hibernation. He yawned still feeling tired, but in a better mood then he thought he would have been. He stood up and walked to the kitchen. Grif was just sitting down at the counter with his own meal, he looked tired, and like always he didn't want to get up. He looked up at Simmons for a moment before looking back down at his cereal, sighing and closing his eyes as he took a big bite. Donut was skipping into the kitchen, his normal cheery grin spread across his face. The only one who wasn't here was Sarge. Simmons looked around wondering if what happened last night was really a dream.

"Hurry up and get dressed maggots!" Sarge boomed. "We're going to test the new advancements on the warthog today, test it on those dirty blues!" he laughed walking into the kitchen, taking his food then leaving.

Grif groaned in annoyance, Donut simply enjoyed the preparations of his breakfast. Leaving Simmons alone to his thoughts, he stared after Sarge his gaze moving down his superior officer's body. He was looking to see if there were any real changes to his walk, if his hips swayed, things you would find on a woman.

"Are you staring at Sarge's butt?" Donut asked as he took his seat at the table.

Simmons flushed red, embarrassed that he had been caught staring. "No," he protested. "Why would I be staring at his ass?"

Donut smiled that knowing smile before he sipped at the contents of his morning mug.

Grif was quiet for a moment, eating his food eerily slow. Simmons turned towards the fridge, which in turn allowed him to see Grif in his eerie silence. He gave Grif a questioned look, worried for a moment. Grif looked up at him, and shrugged as if saying it was nothing, that everything was going to be as it always was. Simmons didn't push their silent conversation any further. He grabbed some food and sat next to Grif at the counter, content with just sitting there.

"I don't see why we even bother with fighting the blues, it's a waste of time, and I'd rather be sleeping."

"Don't you think you sleep enough Grif?" Simmons asked, "Besides that's orders, we follow them, and it would make Sarge happy if s….he?" Simons paused for a moment a look of confusion clear on his face.

He spoke, stumbled and he wondered why, what he had was a stupid dream. For some reason it didn't register with him, he didn't understand why it had bothered him so much.

Grif watched as Simmons slipped into that quiet confusion. "Simmons, you there?" He asked waving his hand in front of the cyborgs face.

Simmons blinked; he stared at Grif for a moment before he smiled slightly and nodded his head. "I'm here, so; let's get ready to go right?"

Grif shrugged, as he placed his dishes into the sink.

"Yeah, let's get humiliated again," He groaned, knowing that he would be the one to be humiliated.

"Just one of those weeks," Donut piped in.

Simmons and Grif turned to face Donut. The pink soldier just smiled at them before leaving the kitchen, nearly skipping to his room to get his armor on. Simmons looked at Grif, and Grif looked down shaking his head before he left the kitchen to get changed as well. This of course left Simmons alone with his thoughts…again.

"One of those weeks?" He thought out loud.

Grif was halfway done changing, after that operation they had to get him a new size of armor. He sighed as he picked up his helmet; a bit of worry was clear in his actions. What Donut said had gotten to him, what normally wouldn't have given the situation he was now in.

"Why did it have to be me?" he groaned.

"Because, you're the only one I know who wouldn't make a fuss over it," Luna said, she was wearing the red armor Sarge always wore, except for the dark brown feather behind her ears. She was just a mental image in Grif's mind, but more real than if she was standing right in front of him.

"Why not tell Simmons?" He asked. If anyone saw him they would think he was talking to himself.

"Because I didn't want him to start flirting with me, you're the only one who wouldn't care and carry on like it was nothing," Luna replied.

"Then why do you insist on coming and seeing me, when you know how dangerous it is, I thought you hated me."

"I didn't know any other way to express myself." Sarge said from outside Grif's door, there was a long pause between the two before she spoke up again. "Was just seeing if you were still around dirt bag," Sarge added quickly once Grif turned to face him.

"Express yourself?" Grif asked. "What could confuse you Sarge, where the only way you can express yourself is with threats, putting me down and humiliating me?"

Sarge turned around and walked away, ignoring Grif's question. "I better see you in that warthog Grif," he said before leaving.

"So fucking typical of you," Grif sighed.

If it wasn't for Sarge's secret Grif probably would have quit smoking, but the stress of it all left him little to no choice. He figured he had maybe half an hour for a smoke, so he was going to take it.

Climbing to the roof of red base, Grif sat against one of the walls and pulled out his pack of cigarettes out and a lighter.

"Out of all the things we don't seem to run out of, this might be one of the best, shame they can't send more food," he said talking to himself.

Simmons was cleaning his armor before putting it on, it was regulation, and rules had to be followed. He looked up at his clock, knowing Grif and Donut; he had thirty minutes to get ready. This meant he had fifteen minutes to get ready five to find Sarge, and ten minutes to try to hold a conversation with their leader. Smiling he put his helmet on and walked out the door, catching a glimpse of Sarge down the hall. Simmons walked after him, believing that his luck had changed.

"Sarge!" Simmons called out chasing after the elder man. "Sarge wait up, I have something to talk to you about!"

Sarge didn't' respond or react in any way to Simmons. He walked out of the base and sat inside the driver's seat of the warthog. He pulled out his shotgun and checked to see if he needed to put in anymore rounds. Simmons walked outside, taking time to make it look like he wasn't running to catch up.

"Sarge, I'm ready," He announced.

"Good job Simmons!" Sarge congratulated. "Where are is the pink fairy and the dirtbag?"

"Probably still getting ready, Grif is most likely eating, smoking or hiding," Simmons responded.

Sarge grunted, it wasn't really the answer he was looking for. Taking a cloth from his belt he started cleaning his shotgun as he spoke. "Tch, typical, Simmons!"

"Yes sir?"

Good job Simmons, being the only soldier who follows orders," Sarge said before making the sound receivers on his helmet go down to the bare minimum needed to tell when Simmons was done kissing ass.

"Sarge I'm just glad that we can spend this time alone, and I just wanted to tell you…" Simmons was finishing what his ongoing ass kissing.

Sarge lifted his helmet just in time to see Donut come up, the pink clad soldier skipped over to them and looked around, he wanted to know where he was going to sit, but being the polite person he was, he was going to wait for Grif to show up.

the tired soldier exhaled, pushing out a puff of smoke out from between his lips.

"Yeah, i'm not quite ready to leave just yet..." he muttered as he put out the cigarette. "Not like I get a choice in the matter."

He pushed himself off of the metal wall and stretched out, his eyes scanning the sky, just taking in the vast blue and puffs of white. What he'd give to get off this dump. He closed his eyes as the wind blew in his face. "It's too nice of a day to have to fight."

"Grif! get your fat ass down here! We have blues to fight!" Sarge's voice boomed from behind him.

Grif looked down and saw Sarge standing there with arms crossed, he sighed and gave a single wave to his boss. "I'm coming," he replied, sticking his smokes into an opening between his armor and body suit. Easy access for when he really needed it.

As he left the building Simmons cleared his throat. "I call..."

"Shotgun," Grif called out lifting his hand half heartedly as he took his seat in the passenger's seat.

"Where am I going to sit Sarge?" Donut asked.

Sarge took his spot in the driver's seat and looked at Donut. "You'll be staying here, in the off-chance that I need to come back for reinforcements."

"Alright Sarge you can count on me!"

Sarge grinned behind his helmet and started the warthog, waiting for simmons to get onto the turret before he moved out to the blue base.