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brUTUS

"W elcome home," Brutus greeted Linda as she came through the door of the house.

Sure, it wasn't really home, but after the past week of seeing her come in from duty, it felt homey for sure.

He was freshly showered and shaved, having started his Saturday with a light workout. He'd made sure to be ready for Linda, wanting to make her feel welcome and cared for after her shift.

He'd had the idea of snuggling her to sleep, but one look at her face as she came through the door put all that aside immediately.

"What happened?" he asked Linda, taking her hand and leading her over to the recliner. "Here, get comfortable, sit back. I'll get your boots."

Linda nodded, unzipping her top and sitting down in her brown t-shirt while Brutus knelt down in front of her, untying her boots and easing them off.

Reaching up, he cupped her calves through her trousers before easing her socks off, setting them next to her boots before he started massaging her calves again.

She kept so much tension and stress in her calves, some days Brutus swore the woman had rocks in her lower legs.

Linda hummed. "That feels good."

"I figured you'd enjoy it, I remember how my feet ached after a day in combat boots," Brutus said. "Although I've still got mine. Really useful for yard work."

Linda chuckle. "I bet."

"So what happened?" Brutus repeated. "You look more than tired."

"You're paying a lot of attention to me," Linda said with a small smile. "It really was nothing. About midnight one of the soldiers came back to the barracks drunk. Started pissing on the basketball court."

Brutus made a face. "Yuck."

"When I went out to get him to go back inside it got… physical," Linda said softly.

Brutus's hands stopped. Noticing, she looked down at him and shook her head.

"I'm okay, Brutus. He was drunk, I ended up hitting him with an elbow to the head, and his squad leader was there a minute later to take care of business the rest of the way."

"The son of a bitch wasn't arrested?" he asked. "Why?"

Linda shook her head. "Because it was a drunk enlisted soldier, not a big deal. Yeah, he was a little gropey, tried to push his cock against my butt, but I…”

"He what?" Brutus recoiled in anger. "He…"

"Brutus, stop," Linda said firmly. "Look, I'm not saying it's all good.

Yeah, it's sticking with me a little. And for about an hour or two, I had a few flashbacks to what happened to me in Bayamon.

But his squad leader's handling it, and I guarantee you that this kid's going to regret what he did by the time he transfers out of here.

He'll learn his lesson, and he'll be able to make a change to himself and his life.

That's a lot better than getting arrested, court martialed, and given a Big Chicken Dinner which'll haunt him for the rest of his life. "

"Big Chicken Dinner?" Brutus asked, and Linda nodded. "What's that?"

"A Bad Conduct Discharge. It's... not good. It would ruin his life."

"I… still, it pisses me off to think of anyone touching you that way," Brutus admitted. "Linda, I know you're a warrior, but still, you're my girlfriend. Only person I want touching you is me. Well, and yourself."

Linda leaned back in her chair, nodding tiredly. "I know."

"Is there anything I can do?" he asked, knowing it was a silly question as soon as it came out of his mouth. "Never mind."

"It's handled, but there might be a few tough times up ahead. Like I said, I had some flashbacks, and we haven't talked about what happened to me in Bayamon, but… I might need to talk about it."

Brutus swallowed, and nodded. "I'm ready to talk, to listen, to… whatever. What can I do to help you?"

"It means something to me that you'd ask," Linda said. "Look, I'm not quite ready to go to sleep, so… wanna share a coffee? I can smell it, you know."

Brutus hummed, and got to his feet. "Sure. Then maybe we can run you a warm bath, and then you'll be able to get some sleep. I've got a quiet day of studying planned for when you're out, so I won't disturb you."

"Not as romantic as I'm sure you had in mind,” Linda said, trying to get up, but Brutus waved her down. "Seriously?"

"Serious. You earned the chance to put your feet up and relax for a bit," Brutus assured her.

Going into the kitchen, he made her a cup of coffee just the way she liked it, with two spoonfuls of sugar and a dash of skim milk. Bringing it out along with a cup of black coffee for himself, he handed it to Linda, who took a grateful sip.

"Good?"

"You spoil me… I can get used to it," she said with a soft laugh. "Not too many people have. I don't let too many people even try."

"Why is that?" Brutus asked. "Because of your position in the unit?"

"Not just that, really," she admitted. "Growing up, we had to fend for ourselves a lot.

Maybe familia is big to us Boriquas, but when your parents are working ten, twelve hours a day just to put food on the table, that didn't leave a lot of time or energy to ask for anything from them.

So I learned not to. Then in the Army… yeah.

Women have been able to serve in the infantry for less than ten years.

I can remember as a little girl a time when women in the Army were only allowed to be in certain jobs.

Even now only a handful, about a hundred, have graduated from Ranger School.

I'm not one of them. That Charlie Company has three women is a statistical anomaly.

Me, Jess Adams, and Lieutenant Starr, we all have to fight for our right to be respected and accepted.

There's a lot of people, in uniform and out of uniform, that would see us out of the infantry and back to doing other jobs.

Some would try and force us fully out of the combat arms. To them, we're good for nothing more than being MPs, maybe the ADA.

And of course there's those who want to see the military go back to the days of women being nothing more than nurses and WACs, never wearing boots and being issued high heels for their uniform.

No fucking way am I letting that happen. "

"Is that why you didn't have this guy arrested?" Brutus asked. "To show that you weren't bothered by what happened?"

"Perhaps a bit. Let's face it, everyone's going to know it by Monday, and the only reason the officers are going to stay out of it is because they'll respect our decision to handle it in house.

They take notice, it requires paperwork.

" Linda sighed. "I had to ask myself, if this guy had tussled with a male NCO, take away the grope, would he be seeing paperwork?

Because as you can see, my boobs are just fine. "

"They do look like they're where they're supposed to be," Brutus admitted. "So would he?"

"In some units, sure. But I've always tried to give my soldiers a chance to fix their mistakes, to correct their shit. Hell, the guy's lucky really."

"So you fight," Brutus said. "In your way. Would it sound too biased if I said I think what you're saying is totally badass?"

"Maybe a little biased," Linda said, "but I like it."

"Yeah well, you're badass, fighting the way you do.

As for those people who say you shouldn't be in the infantry…

fuck that," he said. "I've seen you. Yeah, maybe if we played football you can't play linebacker, but then again in football I've learned that I can't play receiver, or lineman, or god forbid, kicker.

Could you imagine me trying to kick a football? "

"It may or may not go in the right direction down the field?" Linda asked.

Brutus nodded.

"Tell that to the people trying to take my job from me."

"And they're wrong. Because in football, every position is important," Brutus said.

"And you can help your team win from any position.

I mean, look at the scoreboard, and I'll tell you that our kicker scores more points in a single season than I have in my entire career.

What you're doing… that's the sort of leadership the military needs.

If I were to turn my future kids over to the military, I'd hope their drill sergeant would be like you. "

Linda took a long drink of coffee, and set it aside. "Speaking about that, what are your thoughts on kids?"

"Do you mean have I thought about having them?" Brutus asked, surprised by Linda's question.

Linda nodded.

"Well, sure. I mean I come from a decent sized family, and I've definitely got a nest egg ready for them when the time's right. I do know I'm going to be a different dad than too many of the teammates I've had."

"What do you mean?"

Brutus sighed, shaking his head as he finished his own coffee.

"There's too much accuracy to the stories about pro athletes and fatherhood.

Too many parenting via child support checks.

We've got a wide receiver who literally has to get the team to cut the game checks to four different women because of how much he fucked around.

He can't even name two of the kids, that's how bad it is.

I won't be that way. I'm going to be there for my kids, and I'm going to make time for them.

" He lifted an eyebrow, looking up at Linda.

"What about you? Have you thought about children? "

"Sometimes, but in mostly non-concrete ways," she admitted.

"Like, I know if I have a baby, that's it for me in Charlie Company.

I'd be non-deployable for two years, the whole pregnancy and then twelve months afterwards.

That's an eternity for an infantry NCO, I'd basically be losing my entire Staff Sergeant time.

So I'd have to either transfer to another branch, become a schoolhouse NCO… or leave the Army."

"None of which sound like something you want to do," Brutus said, and Linda nodded.

"Until I met you, I'd never even met someone I thought I'd want to even have kids with," Linda said.

"But you're… different, Brutus. Maybe I'm just so fucking tired that I can't stop my mouth, but when I think of you, and the past week staying here with you all the time…

yeah, a baby sounds nice. I figure your DNA and my DNA could make a pretty decently smart kid. Good looking one, too."

"As long as we don't make a daughter with her father's shoulders and weak ankles." Brutus got to his feet. "You know, maybe there is a little time for what I had hoped to do before going to sleep."

"And what did you have in mind?" Linda asked, taking Brutus's hand and climbing to her feet. "Because if you were thinking sheet ripping, headboard banging wild monkey sex, I hate to tell you buddy, I'm in no mood for that."

"No, I was thinking some soft kisses, a little snuggling, and if we do end up having sex, it'll be slow and gentle," Brutus assured her. "How's that sound?"

"Perfect." Linda whooped when Brutus swept her into his powerful arms. "Whoa there, stud!"

"Saving your energy for the snuggling," Brutus assured her, kissing her lips quickly. "I think we can start with…”

Linda's cell phone rang, and she winced. Brutus immediately set her down, his eyebrows knitting. "What is it?"

Linda went over to her phone and looked, sighing.

"Fuck my life." She picked up the call, holding the phone to her ear. "Yeah? Yeah… okay. Yeah, my gear's still in my room. Yeah, cool. Thanks, Orkin. Cool. Be there ASAP."

"Bad news?" Brutus asked as Linda hung up and sat down to pull her boots back on. "Linda?"

"That was First Sergeant Orkin." She tucked a trouser leg into her boot. "I'm going to have to take a raincheck on the snuggling, my love. Charlie Company just got recalled. Duty calls."