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brUTUS

L ate March wasn't Brutus's favorite time of the year. He hated the offseason circus. The endless combine hype and free agency drama were a distraction when all he wanted was to focus on next year ... and more importantly, seeing Linda this weekend.

Also, the weather in early March was still a little too cold for his ankle's liking.

But as he turned around, doing another hundred yard lap of his backyard while dragging the fifty pound sled behind him on the slick grass, he felt like it had been a good month, and that with spring coming up he was in a better place than he'd been in years.

His workouts were going well. He felt strong, focused, and ready to prove himself again this year... but that wasn't the only reason he felt good.

It was Linda. Over the past few weeks, she and Brutus had developed a sort of pattern.

At night, after she got off work, they'd text or chat daily, often for hours.

She'd sat up with him as he went through an online course on European history, working with him to help him get back into the pattern of academia.

Or more precisely, to help him learn how to be a real student, one without a tutor, an academic advisor, a teacher's aide and a professor all contorting themselves in order to make sure he understood enough of the subject matter in order to pass the course.

It was refreshing, and as he learned how to study, he found it wasn't that hard from studying for football. He actually enjoyed the whole process. Which of course led to the two of them joking about him getting 'nerdy,' but the way Linda said it made him eager to be even nerdier.

"You're cute when you get all intellectual," she'd told him last night, her eyes sparkling with mischief as they video-chatted. "Smart is sexy, Brutus."

Apparently Linda Castellanos thought nerds were hot.

Or maybe she was just joking with him, but either way, the encouragement kept him going even if reading about the transition period from the Ancient Greeks dominating the Mediterranean to the Ancient Romans dominating the world was pretty damn boring in his opinion.

Get to the dominating, dammit!

In his headphones, his phone rang, and he paused his laps. His heart leaped when Linda's name flashed across the screen. Noon already? Her lunch break.

Grinning, he tapped the call pickup button, his pace quickening instinctively. "Well now, this'll get me going for the rest of my walk. How was your morning?"

Linda's warm chuckle had him leaning into the harness strapped around his chest, and his pace picked up a notch.

"Just fine, sexy man. Actually it was rather boring, doing maintenance for the most part.

Not even interesting maintenance, but checking ropes and web gear for abrasions.

So please give me a reason to not go hang myself with some of that web gear. How's your workout going?"

"Good." Brutus reached the end of the hundred yards and turning around.

He didn't have a clock on it, but he thought that Linda's voice had put a little pep in his step, and that last lap was faster than the previous one.

"This morning's not really interesting, steady state cardio by dragging a sled around the yard. Another twenty minutes, and I'll be ready to grab lunch. What'd you have, by the way?"

"You'd laugh, which is why I called. The DFAC was serving spicy enchiladas," Linda said.

And she was right, Brutus did laugh. He loved her honesty about her disdain of spicy foods, especially spicy Latin foods.

"So I bounced out, grabbed a barbecue sandwich off post."

"Sounds delish."

"Trust me, it was," Linda said. "Hey, let me ask you something."

"Go ahead."

"Every time I call you during the day, and sometimes even at night, you're working out," Linda said. "Why are you such a fiend for it? I don't hear about other athletes working out as almost a full time job in their off seasons."

Brutus laughed, which made him a little winded, but he was glad for it. Instead of stopping, he slowed down a little and kept walking.

"It's something I learned long ago, back when I was a kid. Who's the greatest wide receiver in football history?"

Linda's answer was immediate, and he knew she would be. She'd shared with him her knowledge of football over the past month.

"Jerry Rice, of course. I mean, the man's stats are almost untouchable."

"And one of the things that made Rice a beast for so long was that the man was legendary for the hard work he put in during the off season," Brutus explained.

"Even into his late thirties, he'd do two a day workouts that were so hardcore, so strenuous, that he'd make other players ten years or more younger than him puke up their guts before the end of the day. "

Brutus reached the end of his lap and turned around.

"I'm not going to do five mile hill runs, not with my ankle.

You've seen that, and you've seen how distance running is to me.

But I do plan on following in his path to be the best by outworking everyone.

So right now I'm dragging the sled, assault bike later, and anything else I can do to be ready for training camp. "

"What about overtraining?" Linda asked. "Aren't you going beating yourself up on it?"

"My trainer has me rotating through different exercises to shift the strain. I do it because there's going to be at least three or four rookies in camp who'll think they're good enough to take my spot. Same as every year. It won't happen easily, and I'm going to make them work for it."

Linda hummed warmly. "I like the results so far."

Brutus had to agree. While their respective schedules meant that they had to spend the work week apart, Brutus had become a regular visitor to Fort Pickett, to the point that last Friday, the gate guard had worked up the nerve to ask him for an autograph.

So in their free time, they spent as much of it together as they could. Whether it was Friday nights, Saturdays, or even Sunday mornings, they were practically inseparable. Even their daily chats felt like a treasured moment of each day.

The cherry on top of the sundae was last weekend. It had been glorious, three whole days at his house due to a federal holiday. They'd hung out, learned more about each other, made love repeatedly, and more. It was the best three day weekend in his memory.

"So does that mean we're still on for Saturday morning?" Brutus asked. "I know it's only one day, but I'll need Sunday to study something besides European history."

Linda hummed happily. "We're on, for sure. So… minicamp, huh?"

Brutus sighed. "Yeah, Coach Pugh's old school—two minicamps per year. This first one's just for veterans, seeing who's at what position, where we need help."

"But won't that just blow up whatever images he comes out of this minicamp with?" Linda asked him. "So what can he get from minicamp that he can't get from just, I don't know, looking at a chart on the wall?"

"Honestly?" Brutus asked.

On the other end of the line Linda hummed. She hummed a lot, and he'd come to learn what each of those hums meant.

"I think it's to allow him to get an eval of people's mindsets.

Sure, there's a ton of time between now and the start of the preseason.

And people's minds change, a motivated guy could lose his fire and vice versa.

Contract issues could spoil a dude's motivation, or light a fire under his ass.

But it lets him see the minds of the team.

I know I've done the same. As the captain of the defense, I take the opportunity to talk with our coaches after minicamp, give them an insight into what I'm seeing from the guys as we get ready for training camp and next season. "

"That's a tough call, only three days and then making calls that can affect someone's career."

Brutus chuckled, and stopped walking to shake out his ankle. "As Major Kirk would say, that's why I get paid the big bucks."

On the other end of the line Linda laughed.

He continued. "On the good side, I'll be able to stay in touch during minicamp. As a veteran and a team captain, I can drive in to the team facilities each day."

"You don't have to," Linda said. "Isn't there a place you can get better rest?"

"Well, I could sleep in the stadium like some players do, but I'd rather come home and be able to talk to you. Just a reminder, for main summer camp though, I'm going to be in lockdown in a hotel for the first three weeks."

It felt strange and wonderful to Brutus to be talking about summer training camp with Linda. To know that he was even considering their relationship lasting until late July told him just how fast he was starting to think of Linda as something very serious.

And hearing the happy sound she made in her throat when he told her that he wanted to come home to speak to her told him she thought very much the same way, and that she liked the idea.

When she laughed, his heart lifted, and he knew that his workout that afternoon was going to be all the better because of it.

"So you'll be in boot camp then, huh?"

Brutus laughed along with her, looking up at the blue Virginia sky. "I think I can handle it. I've done it plenty of times before, and besides, now I've got some extra special experience in what a real tough camp's like."

"So does that mean I get to wear those short coaching shorts and blow on a whistle for you?" she purred.

Brutus gulped, inhaling deeply.

Linda heard. "Oh, like that idea?"

"Now? Yes. But let's wait until after camp," Brutus said. "I really, really don't want to have any incorrect thoughts about my coaches in the middle of camp."

"Hmmm… I think I can do that," Linda said. "As long as you're here right at oh nine hundred Saturday morning."

"A timeline, huh? Why's that?" Brutus asked. "Everyone knows where you're spending your weekends. Or do you have other plans for the day that I should know about?"

"I'm actually quite proud of spending my weekends with you.

But I still like showing off my stud boyfriend in front of the National Guard bubbas who have to come in for the weekend," Linda said before clearing her throat.

"But speaking of work, my watch just beeped, I need to get back. Call me after your afternoon workout?"

"I will," Brutus promised her. "Thanks for this call, babe."

"Uhm… can we make it a video call, too?" Linda asked shyly. "I miss seeing your face, even if it's only been a few days."

Brutus nodded, wondering if their video call might go other places as well. "Deal. Then let's make it after dinner, so that you can refuel after a hard day's work. Hopefully its better than spicy enchiladas. See you tonight, Linda. Be safe this afternoon."

"I will."

Linda hung up, and Brutus took a deep breath, his heart light. He had lunch, and some history homework to do before his afternoon training session, but as he started dragging the sled towards the garage, he was thinking mostly about how much he was looking forward to that night.

He remembered how her eyes had lit up during their last video call, the way she'd leaned closer to the camera when he'd told her about his day. The memory of her laughter sent a shiver of anticipation through him as he unloaded the weight from his sled.

Whatever she's got on her mind tonight, I'm going to be ready for it , he thought. Because while video's better than just her voice, the truth is he could barely wait until he had her in his arms again.