Fight or Flight

Buzz...

Veronica stirred in Matt's arms, scooting closer to his form.

Buzz...

Her eyes snapped open, the bright light shining through the window. She was always up before the sun rose. She sat up straight, throwing Matt's arm from her body and realizing that it was Monday morning.

"Aw shit," She cursed, grabbing her phone from her nightstand. It was just after 8:30 and she had three text messages from Nate.

Where are you? The first one read. He'd probably sent it after he realized she wasn't at breakfast.

???

Get to the office. SSgt's wondering why you weren't at formation.

She began to type a reply.

You'll probably be shot for this. Another text from him came through as she was typing.

I'll probably just get chewed out. She paused before typing more. I overslept. I'll be there in an hour.

She put her phone back on the nightstand, glancing down at Matt's sleeping face. His chest rose and fell with his breathing, and he snored lightly.

"Shit," Veronica cursed again. She didn't have any more time to waste. She had to get to work now. She pulled her t-shirt over her head, rummaging through her drawers for a clean, army green t-shirt. She quickly put the shirt on over her sports bra.

"What are you doing?" Matt asked, his voice hoarse from sleep.

"I'm late for work," She told him, grabbing her camouflage pants. She jumped into her pants, wiggling them up her legs and buttoning them. Her phone buzzed again with a reply from Nate.

"Is that bad?"

"In the military, yes," She nodded, looking around her room for her stuff. "I'll just shower when I get there."

She pulled a pair of socks over her feet and stuffed her feet into her boots, lacing them up. It was almost nine o'clock. She ran her hands through her hair and placed a hair tie around her wrist.

"I'll have to do my hair in the car," She said to herself. She grabbed her matching jacket from its hanger in the closet, slipping her arms through it and buttoning it in record time. She slipped her cell phone into her pocket. She leaned over the bed, kissing Matt's warm lips. "Lock the door when you leave, please."

"Will do," He said, sitting up in her bed. He placed his hand on her cheek, bringing her in for another kiss. "I love you."

"L-" Veronica caught herself saying it out of habit. She picked up her duffle bag from the floor and grabbed her hat from the shelf. "You too."

She nearly bolted out of her apartment and down the flight of stairs to the parking lot. She threw her bag into the passenger's seat and started her car. There was no time to wait for the engine to warm up; she had to get to work as quickly as possible.



"Staff Sergeant Sampson, sir," Veronica knocked on his open office door before walking in. She stood at ease, with her hands behind her back.

The clicks of the keyboard stopped as Staff Sergeant Sampson looked up from his computer screen. Dusty Sampson was an intimidating man until you really got to know him. His hard, blue eyes and typical military buzzcut demanded attention from anyone who looked at him. However, his tough exterior was exactly that until he opened his mouth to speak or smiled, showing off his straight, white teeth.

"Sergeant, why weren't you at formation?" He asked in his boyish, adenoidal voice. "I don't really care about you not being there for PT."

One of the perks of being a sergeant was not having to do as much physical training as the new guys. She still did physical training to stay fit, but she wasn't as severely punished if she didn't show up.

"I, uh," She wondered if oversleeping was an acceptable excuse, "overslept, Sir."

Sampson chuckled, "Thanks for being honest."

"That's what I do, Sir," Veronica responded with a nod. She usually got along with all of her superiors.

"I'm hoping that's not what you're going to do when rotation comes around," He began in a serious tone. "You gonna oversleep during a mission? Fall asleep on firewatch?"

"No, Sir," Veronica abjured. "I would never do anything to put the unit in harm's way."

"Well, in combat, you just did," Sampson said, hypothetically. "You oversleep, we all get killed."

Veronica stayed silent. She refrained from rolling her eyes. As much as she appreciated the concept of teamwork, sometimes superiors took it too far. She hated being treated as lower than someone who was the same age as her, but of a different rank.

"If this was not your first case, you would have earned the whole company an asschewing," He told her.

She hoped that he would give her a break. She was not late for work, ever. This was a onetime thing.

"Go help out in the garage," He demanded, turning back to his computer. "And don't let it happen again."

"Yes, Sir," Veronica nodded. "It won't happen again."

She left his office with a sigh of relief. She could deal with garage duty for a few hours. Her superiors always tried to be all formal and serious, even when she knew Sampson was far from that. He was all laughs and jokes in the field. She'd known him long enough to know that he didn't have the heart for severe punishments.

She made note to text Nate to let him know where she would be for most of the day. Her stomach growled. She walked in the opposite direction of the garage to the cafeteria to grab breakfast. The garage could wait another half hour.



"How's punishment coming along?"

"Shut up," Veronica muttered upon hearing Nate approach her. She continued scraping the rust from the underside of a humvee.

"Long night last night?" He asked her in a suggesting manner as he leaned against the side of the truck.

"He just spent the night," She grunted, scraping a hard piece of iron off the bottom of the truck. "Nothing like that."

"Mhmm," He hummed like she was lying. He looked down at her toolkit and the small flakes of rust on the ground. "Sampson went easy on you."

"Eh," She shrugged. She dropped the scraper to the ground and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. "He said I'd got us all killed."

Nate raised his shoulders, almost agreeing with their superior's statement. "You're never late, Veronica. Shit happens. Just make sure you're ready for Friday."

"Why do we even look forward to it?" Veronica stood up and wiped her hands on a cloth. Friday was the day deployment rosters and schedules were posted. "We know it's our turn. We're going to go regardless."

"It puts you in the right mindset," He said, tapping his temple for emphasis. "When you know you're going to go, you get mentally prepared. It's just... a formal confirmation."

"Formal confirmation," She laughed. "I'm ready to go now, if I could. I'm tired of this office work shit... and scraping trucks. We have mechanics for that."

"Well if you came on time, you wouldn’t have to do it," He teased.

"Get out," Veronica pointed to the door of the garage. "Don't you have work to do instead of bothering me?"

"I do, but I'm not really in the mood to do it," He said. "But if you insist, I'll leave."

"Good. Bye," She waved, kneeling back down to return to her work.

"See you at lunch." He walked away. "Don't be late."

She rolled her eyes. “Later, asshole.”