What a gal gotta do (open)

[Stephanie Amberson]

0200

Stephanie was in the workout room as usual. It was the simulation room or here if she wasn't in her bunk. Well the mess hall didn't really count because she didn't deal much with anyone. She saw three people and that was about the extent of her networking. Grabbing one of the bars off the bench she sat down and began doing some old fashioned arm curls. With all this technology, she still preferred to do things without it when she could. Right now she needed to take her mind off of things, the psychologist always put it on something be it her past or her issues with everyone in the ranks. The sniper was so detached from people in general and only attached to certain people. Everyday she was forced to fight the demons that were her past now and each time led her right back here taking her frustrations out on the punching bag day in and day out. Truth be told today was not a day for punching bags as her hands were already bleeding the last few days and she was going to end up back in the sick bay for medical attention if she wasn't careful. Her hands and her brain were two of her best assets and Connor had been getting more and more on her nerves lately. He had gotten one of those evil stares earlier this morning and had decided that leaving Stephanie well enough alone was probably a better idea.

The last thing she wanted to remember was Bulgaria and that hell trap and the betrayal. Where would she be if she had gone AWOL that one day? Losing everyone on her team that day because of a mistake she had made continued to haunt her and it was not something one could simply forget. Stephanie closed her eyes to try and force herself to forget it that was the past. The bitterness inside of her was building up like a firebox lately. Belligerence was not her only issue lately. She had been making most of her appointments but skipping some every now and again for personal time. Time she had needed. The anniversary of her families death had always made her a recluse. If anything she missed never having a real family. A year or so would pass and she would be passed onto the next one. The military family as little it was, was all that she had. Even their record wasn't perfect. Part of her thought about knocking on Hobbar's door but she gathered his room mate would have not appreciated that. So she had settled for a jog to the workout room.

She could smell the cattle and the chemical fumes from her nightmares. Sometimes the two separate instances were mixing and she was wondering if this psychologist was helping or hindering her efforts to get back in the field. She needed a long talk with someone she trusted and that was not to be had. The sergeant set the weights back down, there was no telling how many arm curls she did while her mind was wandering. Why couldn't thins have been different? Why did she always have to be the one who never belonged? Even Connor was worried she was becoming more detached than was good for her. Even he being her spotter and one of the people she trusted most had been shut out. The brunette glanced up hoping that Connor had sense enough not to follow her after the 0127 text she had sent that she was leaving her bunk. He was keeping tabs on her... again... Joy.

[Michael Hobbar]

It always happened on his deployments. And even though in about three weeks they’d be back on Stataca, Hobbar still suffered from his night owl syndrome. He’d never taken any meds for it, and he hated them. Not that it affected his job performance, no it hadn’t. If anything it made him a little sharper since he would only really get maybe a good five to six hours of sleep a day. He had noticed more things during combat and he never knew why he did. Going to the gym always for some reason made him tired and this is what he usually did almost nightly since they had departed the system. It tired him out so he’d get to sleep faster, meds were for him out of the question. Going down the hall there was no one in it, it felt…,like he was the only person inside a large shipping container. Well they sort of were in a container of sorts if one put their mind to it. The hall was silent and he could hear his breathing, which to him was strange for some reason. He always hated it when he heard himself breathing.

Finally making his way to the door of the work out room he opened it up and saw only one person off in the distance pumping iron. He couldn’t tell who it was as it was very far away. Hobbar was in his PT uniform, and he didn’t carry any sort of gym bag. Walking over towards the pull up bars, he got near one and started pull ups. As he did he thought about Franks. He’d lost one of the best people in a platoon. Staff Sergeants and Lieutenants on field were usually very cooperative and off field they sometimes didn’t get along. Franks always treated Jones with respect. They’d hung out as often as Franks and himself did. The two of them loved to play cards together with their platoon and would often try to have the winnings be fair. Jones always tried to show Franks how to play Baseball but Franks being from Earth never got much practice as it was rarely played on Earth or most inner colonies. But he made up for it by always having pratical jokes that he played on Jones, such as putting hot sauce into his morning coffee three days before he was killed in combat. The two of them were the best of friends, just like Hobbar and Franks.

Now the man would barely speak to him, and would often why away from conversation. Michael tried to talk about anything other than the campaign but he would only get a look in the other direction. How could he make the man feel any better? Well it’d only been about five days. People needed to grieve in their own way and the best way for him was to be silent. If Hobbar noticed anything funny like Franks saying something out of character he’d bring it to the attention of Dr. Baker and Captain Jones. For now he just decided to leave the man alone and let him grieve in his own way. Finishing his pull ups he dropped down and looked over at the lone person now using the punching bag. And then he realized he was looking at Stephanie. Wait…Amberson. What the hell was she doing this late in the night…or early in the morning depending on how one looked at it.



She was very intent on punching the bag and nothing else existed in the room to her. Better to just leave her alone, unless she came up to talk to him or she looked in his direction he would not bother her. She had gotten better since the incident with the bridge. She was less aggravated then the had been since the incident and she was also opening up to him more often, which was great. Hopefully Dr. Baker could put her back into active status with the rest of the platoon. With that he then went over towards an open area and started to perform sit ups. As he did he watched Amberson continue hitting the punching bag. She was obsessed by it, watching the bag go back and forth. She had almost an lioness look as she was punching it, it continued to squeak.

[Stephanie Amberson]

Stephanie looked up she didn't fail to see Hobbar in the gym also. Great.. just what she needed him to see that she was up this early in the morning again. Well at least it wasn't her that was keeping him awake at this time of night this time. It was whatever was bugging him she gathered. There was a sigh, maybe she needed to see if he needed something for once. She threw another punch before jogging in his direction. "Something wrong Lieutenant?" she asked in a very tired tone almost like she was going to yawn right about... now. She stretched her arms over her head and it was evident lack of sleep had been her greatest enemy already on the night.

She needed to be cleared for duty, being cooped up in this place was just making her more and more agitated. That much was apparent from her day to day actions. Kind of like pent up energy, even Connor was having a hard time calming her down these days. Hobbar was lucky she was tired and had just done enough arm curls and punching bag thrusts to take out most of her frustration for the night. Still she wished it would make all the nightmares and old realities go from her head. "I can gather its not your dysfunctional past keeping you awake?" she only hinted as to what was keeping her here right about now. Nothing more need be said when she didnt want to dwell on it.

(blargh but post)

[Michael Hobbar]

Hobbar started to do his sit ups. As he did he suddenly noticed that Amberson was coming over to him. Well it was bound to happen with just the two of them in here. He always wondered why he came in here around this hour. Maybe she also suffered from not being able to sleep while on deployments. He continued to do his sit ups when she asked him……. "Something wrong Lieutenant?" “No…well actually yes something is wrong at the moment. My fellow lieutenant Franks isn’t speaking since our last mission together. His Staff Sergeant got killed by a ARM insurgent who blew himself up, as the Staff Sergeant went to detain him. He hasn’t really spoken much and I’m actually going to inform the captain about it because it’s his call on what to do. Either leave him be or have Dr. Baker come and see what’s up.” He said and then stopped breathing for a few moments.


Standing back up he decided it’d be best if he not exercise and talk to her at the same time………. Michael then gave a funny look not a frown but just some sort of funny look."I can gather its not your dysfunctional past keeping you awake?" He replied “No, I’m fine. Actually whenever I'm on deployment I can't really sleep. ” Then he suddenly realized that she was not talking about him but herself. From his own perspective, she had been getting better. She was still shy but she was opening herself up to him. He hadn’t heard nor seen any violent out bursts . Strange behavior was not seen nor was drug abuse and down the list he went in his head. He then said “I’ve decided that for now we’ve dealt with the issue of your behavior issues. Your not combative towards me and you’ve opened up with me. I’m going to Dr. Baker and recommend that you be taken out of the program and for you to be returned to active duty. However I am also going to strongly recommend that we keep an eye on you. I’m going to make regular reports about you to Dr. Baker. In other words: Probation if that’s a term that could be used for this kind of situation.” He knew that what he was telling her was not concrete. “This is what I’d like to happen. But it all depends on Dr. Baker’s thoughts.” Michael then ran a hand through his hair and smiled at her.

“And I am assuming you’re here because you can’t sleep either?” he asked. He almost knew the reason she was here, to get out her frustration of being kept in a cage and not allowed to be with the platoon. Since it was hard for her to express her feelings, physical activity the avenue to show her emotions . Right now she looked quite good. She had been working out for quite a while, the sweat glistening off of her face, neck and stomach. Breathing hard was also a sign, it was as if there was no one else in the room. Her hair was a mess but she had the expression like she could really care less. You could tell that she could care less by the way her eyes looked at that particular moment....



Out of character context: sorry for the blue paragraph!

[Stephanie Amberson]

thought i replied to this... but i guess not ill be getting on posts tonight after class i think