Sarah giggled at Neil’s comment, but looked at Moose. “He’s right, Moose, lighten up a bit. If you stop being a surly asshole, no one will believe you’re you.”
Moose shrugged. “What, all I’m doing is being part of the team,” he said. “And I’m going to tell you something else, just so you know, but anybody who can kick my butt the way he just did, that’s somebody I want as a friend. Plain and simple.”
“As long as we can put whatever differences we had behind us,” Noah said, “then we’re good. I think that the best thing that could happen here is for the four of us to become as close as we can. Granted, I’m not the greatest in the friendship department, myself, but I can tell you that I’m one of the most loyal friends you can ever have. The one thing you can be certain of is that I’ll never deliberately let you down.”
The others looked at him for a moment, but Allison smiled. “I was a little surprised,” she said, “to see you two duking it out when I got here, but whatever method you had in your madness, Noah, it seems to be working. I gotta commend you for pulling it off, even while I want to reprimand you for risking damage to two of my assets.”
“There wasn’t much risk,” Noah said. “I wasn’t going to let Moose hurt me, and I wasn’t about to do him any serious harm. It didn’t take me long to figure out that we belong to E & E, which means you’d take a dim view of us breaking each other’s bones in a recreational setting. This was more of a psychological exercise, getting the power struggle between me and Moose out of the way so that we can focus on our missions as they come.”
“Wait a minute, hold up,” Moose said. “I just want to go on record that there’s nothing psychological about the swelling around my eye. Can I get a witness?”
“Hear, hear,” Neil said. “That looked pretty damn physical to me!”
Allison tipped back her beer bottle and took a long pull. “Whatever it was, it seems to have solved a major problem, so you get a pat on the back, this time.” Another drink finished off the bottle, and she tossed it into the trashcan behind her, then got to her feet. “Okay, children, it’s getting late and I got a busy day tomorrow. I’m going home, but I’m going to put the word out tomorrow morning that you’ve all got the next two days off. I strongly suggest you use it to make sure that any other differences between you are worked out as effectively as this one has been. As I said earlier, I decided on your first mission, and you’re going to need each other.” She turned without another word, and walked off toward her car. The rest of them waved and called their goodbyes, but all they got in response was a wave of her fingers over her shoulder. Her car started a moment later, and she was gone.
It was Sarah who broke the silence. “Okay, all BS aside, would you really have let Moose go if he had kicked your butt?”
Noah nodded solemnly. “You all heard me, that was the deal I offered.” He looked at Moose. “Don’t misunderstand me—it wasn’t that I wanted to get rid of you, because I didn’t. One thing I’ve already figured out about the Dragon Lady is that she’s pretty sharp, so if she decided you’re the best man for my team, then I’ve got to figure she’s right. This whole thing tonight wasn’t about trying to get you off my team, it was about trying to make you want to be a part of it.”
Moose stared at him for a good thirty seconds before he said a word. “Couple of things happened here tonight,” he said. “First off, Neil kind of got to me when he said he found proof that you told the same story all the way through, about what happened back in Iraq. From the articles that I read, it sounded like you only came up with that story after you were court-martialed, so that made me feel a little better about you.” He took a drink out of his bottle of beer. “Then, you made me your offer. If you had made that offer before I heard what Neil had to say, I probably would’ve tried even harder to whip your ass, but after that, I wouldn’t have quit the team even if I had won the fight. Just the fact that you gave me that chance, that said a whole lot about you. I’m with you, now.”
Neil waved a hand in the air. “Hey, just to make sure nobody has the wrong idea, I have been on your side the whole time, Noah. You don’t need to beat the snot out of me, we good on that?”