© 2024 Duleigh Lawrence-Townshend. All rights reserved. The author asserts the right to be identified as the author of this story for all portions. This story or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a review or commentary. If you see this story on any website other than Literotica.com, it has been copied without the author's permission.

Friend Zoned

Fortune Favors the Bold

Technical Sergeant Michael "Wedge" Donovan wasn't overjoyed with the orders he got, but he wasn't unhappy - Kunsan Air Base. Eighth fighter wing, eightieth fighter squadron, weapons loading flight. Wedge wanted Europe, but he'll take Kunsan. It's a perfect location for a lone wolf like him, no families, no useless First Lieutenant trying to turn a fighting unit into a social club. He loved the Strategic Air Command, but Minot North Dakota was a bit too cold. He tried to ignore the anxiety that gnawed at him as the plane clawed its way from Seattle to Seoul, Republic of Korea. He didn't know what to expect from Korea, the closest he has been to Korea was a short temporary duty assignment to Guam, but he was told that Guam wasn't representative of anything else except Tinian, Guam's tiny sister island.

Michael Aloysius Donovan was a large fellow from Coudersport Pennsylvania who enlisted in the USAF to avoid the economic malaise that greeted him when he graduated from high school. So far, the Air Force has been kind to him, and he's been to several state side bases interspersed with overseas bases in his career, but he still hasn't received orders to his top choice, England. He wanted England so he could take some time off and visit the Mother Country - Ireland. He was sure that he got orders to England this time when he received orders six months ago, but when he opened the envelope that his NCOIC (Non-Commissioned Officer In Charge (the Boss)) handed to him, he found that he would be on the opposite side of the world from England.

They landed late at night and the city of Seoul seemed to go on forever to Wedge. The city lights stretched out to the horizon, and it appeared like the whole country of South Korea was lit up for him as they approached. After 19 hours they touched down in Kimpo Airport and rolled to a stop at a massive terminal. Wedge found that his hips and legs were numb from sitting in the most uncomfortable airline seat he has ever sat on throughout his travels. (Thank you Northwest Airlines!) After gathering his luggage and clearing customs he found a telephone and called his duty section. "Weapons flight, Sergeant Clark."

"Sergeant Clark, I'm Sergeant Donovan, I've got orders to your section."

"Ah yes, you're due in tomorrow."

"It will be tomorrow in about twenty minutes," said Wedge.

"Holy shit... sorry, we're in an exercise here, I didn't realize how late it was. Ok, I'll let the first shirt know you're inbound. Go to the Military Transport Center to get a ride. When you get here they'll drop you off at the rec center, give us a call when you get there."

And that was it. Wedge found his way to the military transportation center and found that the bus wasn't leaving for hours. "I have a duce and a half taking cargo to 'The Kun' right now if you want to ride in the back."

"I'll take it," said Wedge and fifteen minutes later he and two other fellows were in the back of a two-and-a-half-ton cargo truck. In the Air Force a duce and a half is not the big dual axle Army truck you'd see in an old war movie, they call that a "ten by." A duce and a half is just a really, really big pickup truck. It was a warm night and at midnight the city was wide awake. Lights were on, the streets were full of people, and Wedge was inundated with the sights and sounds and smells of the city. "What is this? A holiday?" asked Wedge, shouting over the wind of their passage.

"Yeah, it's a celebration of capitalism!" his fellow passenger said. "It's like this twenty-four seven!"

Wedge was riding in his class A dress uniform; the Air Force calls it the Service Dress uniform. His co-passengers were in civilian attire and headed to Kunsan also, but they were in the Army. "I didn't know there was an Army unit at the Kun." said Wedge.

"US Army?" shouted Glenn Fry, a tall slim black guy who looked like he was about sixteen years old. "There's only one US Army unit, an ADA unit. There's several ROK units." ROK stands for Republic of Korea and their military is one of the best trained, fiercest militaries on earth. Glenn described how military service was mandatory for all able-bodied Korean men, but by then they had pulled on to an interstate highway and picked up speed and the rushing wind made conversation impossible. Wedge, Glenn and the third fellow, Shakir re-arranged boxes and sat with their backs to the cab of the truck as they headed out into the countryside.

Wedge woke up with Glenn shaking his shoulder. "We're at the Gate, get your ID out."

Wedge looked around and it was pitch black in all directions. Far off in the distance he could see lights from a Korean village but nothing else. Out of the blackness a security policeman appeared and stepped up to the truck. He had a few glow sticks stuck into an elastic strap around his Kevlar helmet and carried a 90-degree flashlight with a blue lens over the light bulb. "ID?" Wedge showed him his ID card then the policeman asked, "How long have you been here Sergeant Donovan."

"I just got here," said Wedge. "I got off the airplane at Kimpo at eleven o'clock."

"Orders," the cop said sternly.

Wedge pulled his stack of orders out of his briefcase and the cop studied them. Finally, the cop handed them back and said, "Ok, we're in an exercise, total blackout condition. Do not go wandering around until you've spoken with your first shirt. Welcome to the Koon."

Soon they were driving across the base, but all the lights were out, including the streetlights. Wedge had never seen darkness like this, and when they stopped at a stop sign, the two young army fellows hopped out and disappeared into the night. Soon they stopped and the driver came back and helped Wedge gather his baggage. Pointing off into the inky blackness the driver said, "That's the rec center, you can call your unit from there.

Wedge stumbled in the dark until he found a building and went in, there was a light trap that kept the interior light from escaping to the outside. Near the entrance was a phone and he called his unit again, and again Sergeant Clark answered. "Go get a good meal, and get one to go, you'll want something to eat in the dorm while we're in exercise conditions."

"Roger that," said Wedge and after hanging up he parked his suitcase, duffel bag, and backpack at a table then went to the lunch counter to order.

"Hi! You new bee?" asked the middle-aged Korean woman at the grill.

"Yeah, what gave me away?"

"You wear blue, new bee wear blue," she said with a huge toothy smile. Even though she used simple English words he was having a problem picking out what she was saying because of her accent. He ordered a taco salad and a couple of ham hoagies to go.

The taco salad was good, but it tasted completely different from anything he ever had. It was a tortilla shell, lettuce, tomato, onion, and ground beef but everything had a different flavor, it was interesting but even the lettuce had a weird flavor. It wasn't bad, it was just different. As he ate, he looked around the room and saw about a dozen people scattered around, all of them were wearing flack vests and had their helmets and gas masks at the ready. Their numbers grew and at some point, a loudspeaker outside said something about alarm yellow and a tech sergeant who was lounging without flack vest finished his coffee and rose.

"All right! All you dumb dead, follow me," and he led most of the people in the room outside. Soon a bedraggled Senior Master Sergeant in full combat gear came in and walked up to him.

"Michael Donovan?"

Wedge swallowed his last bite of the salad and said, "Yes, are you my first sergeant?"

"Yep, Mike Schaeffer."

Wedge stood and shook hands, "Everyone calls me Wedge after a character John Wayne played."

"Wedge? Oh yes, the Fighting Seabees. Come on, let's get you into a room. Wear this," and he handed Wedge a badge that had a number and the badge boldly proclaimed in bright red letters, "In Processing."

"And if I don't wear this, I may end up Dumb Dead?"

"Exactly," said Sergeant Shaffer and he led Wedge outside and they walked through the blackness of the Korean morning. "Watch your step or you'll end up in the binjo." The sidewalks were narrow and there were deep ditches on either side of the sidewalks that were called binjo ditches. In days gone by the contents of the ditches were more sinister, Wedge was told that they were once the sewage system of Asia, but these were not as odiferous as the binjos of the past once were.

"I've never seen a sidewalk with drainage ditches before," muttered Wedge.

"Wait for the rainy season." The first sergeant carried Wedge's duffel bag and led him through an area with small single-story barracks to a new three-story dorm built on a hill next to the flight line. "This building is all tech sergeants and staff sergeants with a line number for tech sergeant," explained Mike Schaeffer.

Mike led Wedge up to the second floor and Wedge found himself in a room with a bed and two large lockers, a dresser, and a counter with sink. The toilet and shower were shared with the room next door. "Keep your curtains closed or you'll end up dead for sure, regardless of what your status is. Get some sleep and be at my office at fourteen hundred in BDUs. We'll get you your gear then and start your in processing."

Wedge took off his blues and kicked off his shoes and socks, took a quick shower and found the shower filled with 'girly' products, so he just used the Head and Shoulders then pulled on fresh underwear and lay down on his bunk. The next time he opened his eyes there was a Korean woman in his room chattering in a rapid-fire mixture of Korean and English, the only words he caught was "new bee." She gathered up his uniform except for the blouse (jacket) and picked up his low quarter shoes then left and locked his room from the outside.

Lying back, he convinced himself to call the police but the next time he opened his eyes there was a black woman peeking at him from around the corner to the bathroom. She was wearing BDUs (camouflage Battle Dress Uniform) and belt with gas mask carrier and canteen. Wedge sat up and she smiled then tried to hide the smile. "It's ok, you can look all you want," said Wedge with his best wise-ass grin, "Touching will cost you."

"Oh? Like what?"

"Dinner," she looked a bit angry, but he said, "You have to have dinner with me."

"You buying?" again with that smile. Wedge has never seen a smile like that before, her smile spoke of jokes and laughter and maybe a little 'slap and tickle' later in the evening.

"Of course." Wedge climbed out of bed and pulled on a black t-shirt then extended a hand to shake. "Michael Donovan, folks call me Wedge."

"Roxanne Dawson, folks call me Roxie."

Wedge pointed to their clasped hands, "You're touching. Where am I taking you?"

"That was the worst!" Roxie said with a smile. "Michael Donovan I've been asked out a million different ways and that was..."

"The most effective?"

Her face suddenly became angry. "I came here to tell you to use your own damn towels when you shower and keep your hands off my product. Use your own." And she stomped off to the bathroom. Just as she was about to pull the toilet door closed she peeked back at him and with a smile she said, "NCO Club. Friday is Mongolian Barbeque." With a waggle of her eyebrows, she pulled the door closed.

"That was totally confusing," muttered Wedge. He checked the alarm on his ancient wind-up travel clock and lay back down.

Two hours later, Wedge Donovan was at the first sergeant's office and started in-processing. First he got his combat gear, flack vest, canteen belt, gas mask and carrier, Kevlar helmet, extra gas mask filters, flashlight and so much more. Then he hauled his stash from office to office, most were just visits to officially let the office know he was on base, like at the library, other offices he had actual business. At personnel he handed his records over to them, and the same thing at the tiny base hospital. At the security police he got a line badge that allowed him on the flight line and that allowed him to go to work.

He walked into his duty section in a large bomb-proof block structure and found a large open area filled with tables and chairs and small offices lining the walls. He knocked on the door of the weapons flight. "Ah! You're here!" said a Tech sergeant with a deep southern accent. "Josh Gravely," and he extended his hand.

"Mike Donovan, folks call me Wedge."

"Why do they call you wedge?" asked a short blond Master Sergeant who was behind the desk.

"Because I tell them to," said Wedge.

"Good answer!" laughed the blond fellow.

"That's the NCOIC of the weapons flight, Dan Baker," said Josh. "I'm the assistant NCOIC for Day Shift and you are my new weapons expediter."

"Sounds like fun," said Wedge, "that's not something I've tried yet."

"What's your background?" asked MSgt Baker, suddenly extremely serious.

"Back when I was a baby, I cut my teeth loading weapons on F-4's," said Wedge and began to list off the bases he's been to and the jobs he did as he moved about the military. Most recently he was at Minot Air Force Base loading B-52s.

"You like to keep on the move," said Josh. "No woman to tie you down?"

"Uhhh, no. She married my best friend while I was in basic training."

"No shit?"

Wedge shrugged, "He joined the Navy the next year and she ran off on him on his first deployment."

"Sounds like you've dodged the bullet. And it sounds like you've done everything a bomb loader can do," said Dan as he leaned back in his chair.

"Hardly. I'm the only one in this room without wings," said Wedge pointing to their uniforms. Underneath their flack vests both Dan and Josh were wearing flight crew wings showing that they were gun crews on AC-130 gunships.

"Well... that's not as much fun as it sounds," said Josh as he looked at a large desk calendar and Wedge's in-processing schedule. The schedule was filled with appointments and in-country briefings. "We will see you back here on Monday at your oh eight hundred welcome to Juvats Weapons briefing."

As Wedge stepped out of the office, he saw a small black girl in her combat gear. She wasn't tiny but she was small enough to make the flack vest and Kevlar look like they belonged to her older brother. "Hey Roxie."

"Mister Donovan," she said. He couldn't tell if she was smiling or not.

"Don't be messing with my Roxie," said Josh as he put an arm around Roxanne's shoulders. "Roxie and I go way back."

She rolled her eyes and said, "All the way back a month maybe."

"Has it been that long?" asked Josh as he patted her Kevlar helmet.

"I swear, all you southern boys are crazy." Her glare included Wedge.

"I'm from Coudersport PA," said Wedge defensively.

"Then I'd expect you to be normal. It's got to be the bombs what make you guys crazy," she said as she stormed out of the office.

Josh shrugged "She's a Com/Nav troop. They get kind of flakey on the F-16."

"And keep your hands off my product!" she shouted from the other side of the heavy entry door.

"Oh?" Josh and Dan stood grinning at Wedge. "Keep your hands off her product? Please enlighten us," Josh said with a huge grin.

"Product? Is that what the kids are calling it now?" said Dan Baker.

"I have in processing to do," said Wedge leaving their jokes and questions unanswered. He picked up his heavy duffel bag that was full of his MOPP gear (Mission Oriented Protective Posture) which was a set of protective outer clothing, overgloves, overboots, gas mask, and real gasmask filters. He was already wearing the flack vest, web belt, mask carrier, detection kit, and canteen. He dragged the bag outside and saw Roxie sitting in the driver's seat of a big metro van marked Juvat Six.

He stepped up to the door and said, "Ma'am, can you give me a lift to the gate please?"

"Get in," she said with an all-suffering sigh. "You need to get a bike."

It was incredibly difficult to get a driver's license in Korea and cars were insanely expensive. The troops were only there for a year, so they didn't bother, they just got a bicycle. "I can't carry this heavy crap on a bicycle."

"Newbee," she muttered and pointed to the path that heads toward the gate, there were airmen heading in both directions walking their bikes, their heavy MOPP bag perched on the bicycle seat as they walked next to the bicycle holding it up. "I hope you're not in a hurry, I have people to drop off," and she turned away from the gate and drove up to an F-16 that was being prepared for launch.

Each plane had a concrete shelter that looked like a huge concrete pipe half sunk into the ground and the nose of an F-16 could be seen peeking out from the gloom inside the shelter. "Smith!" Roxie called. "Fireguard." And without a word, an airman in the back grabbed his MOPP bag and jumped out the back of the van. She set out several fireguards and at the last plane a lieutenant colonel stepped up to her door and she slid it back.

"What'cha got for us today, Roxie?"

"Just setting out fireguards."

"Who's your co-pilot?"

"Colonel Walker, this is Technical Sergeant Michael Aloysius Donovan."

Wedge leaned across Roxie and shook hands with the colonel. "Sergeant Donovan, does anyone call you John Wayne?"

"They only call me that once, sir. Most people call me Wedge."

"He's your new weapons guy, sir," said Roxie.

Lieutenant Colonel Walker grinned, "Well Sergeant Striker, I'll see you Friday..." suddenly all the Public Address Speakers drown out what the Colonel was saying.

EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE. EXERCISE ALERT LEVEL RED, TAKE SHELTER IMMEDIATELY. MOPP LEVEL ZERO

"We're launching in a red!" he almost laughed. "Get that truck under cover!" shouted the colonel and Roxie shifted to drive and hit the gas almost sending Wedge tumbling to the back. Across the taxiway there was another shelter that wasn't in use and suddenly a million things happened at once. The pilots that were inspecting their F-16's up and down the flight line scrambled into the cockpit and in very short order the roar of the little fighters starting up echoed all over the base.

"Up that way!" shouted Roxie pointing to the south end of the base, "is the thirty fifth fighter squadron. They kicked our asses last year; this year we show them!"

There's two American F-16 squadrons on base, the 80th Fighter Squadron, the Juvats, and the top of their plane's tail was gold (yellow, but you never say yellow when talking about an airplane) and the 35th Fighter Squadron, the Pantons (a panton is kind of a lion) and the tails of their planes are tipped in blue. The squadrons are highly competitive, constantly trying to outfly each other, at the same time trying to out maintain each other and have the airplanes in the best physical condition.

One by one the aircraft crew chiefs trotted out in front of their shelters and when they got a signal from the pilot, usually a flash of the landing lights, the crew chief raised his hands and began marshalling the planes out of their shelters. The specialists that Roxie dropped off stood by their huge fire extinguishers in case fire broke out on the little fighters. One by one the F-16s dashed out onto the taxiway and headed off toward the runway, taxiing a lot faster than anything Wedge has ever seen in the past.

Another truck dove into their shelter and pulled up alongside Roxie's truck. "There's your weapons guys," she said.

The other truck's driver door slid back and a fellow leaned out, "are you Wedge Donovan?" They leaned across the open gap and shook hands. "Jimmy Scholes, I'll be training you startin' Monday. You best have your head out your ass, you're my replacement." Then Jimmy gave him a weird look, "What'r you doin' over there with Roxie."

"She's prettier than you and smells a whole lot nicer," grinned Wedge.

The rest of the conversation was spent laughing at Wedge. They went to MOPP Condition 1 which meant that they had to put on their "Protective Over-Garment," an uncomfortable, charcoal lined pair of pants and jacket that went over their uniforms and under the flack vest. The first time you put it on is a bit tricky and the pants are difficult to get over your combat boots. Roxie and a whole truckload of bomb loaders got a good chuckle watching Wedge put it on for the first time in years. Roxie slid hers on like a second skin and it was a bit of a disappointment because it covered up Roxie's nice round butt and hid her breasts which were big enough so even their frumpy uniforms couldn't hide them.

"By the way," said Wedge, "who was that officer we were talking to?"

"Colonel Walker? He's the new squadron commander." After that, talk was impossible, the shelter they were parked in rang with the sounds of gunfire and explosions. The base security forces had an exercise attack in progress and everyone on base went to MOPP4 and put on their gas masks. At the same time the F-16's roared off the runway in full afterburner, the sound echoed off every building on base. Thirty-two shrieking little bastards clawed their way into the sky looking for something to kill.

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The exercise ended on Thursday evening which meant all day Friday was spent cleaning up and putting the equipment away, maybe fix a few broken airplanes and it gave Wedge time to attend a lot of briefings. He even remembers being briefed by a doctor that the best you can do is ensure that your Korean meal downtown was deep fried, because bacteria won't survive a bath in 350° oil.

"How was your meeting with Colonel Walker?" Roxie asked Wedge. They had filled bowls with all kinds of ingredients and were standing in line at the NCO club waiting for their chance to hand their mix over to the cooks.

"He was intense. I guess the weapons flight on the previous rotation was weak and the thirty fifth took the commanders trophy. He let me know that he was going to be keeping an eye on me." Unlike other overseas assignments in the Air Force, Kunsan was one year, so people rotated in and out regularly. Each group was known as a rotation, and the fighter wing kept track of these rotations.

Roxie gave him a smile as their bowls were turned out on to the large round grill and the cooks went to work. "You didn't beat him up, did you?"

"I don't go around beating people up."

"Why not?" she said, "you're big enough," and she gave him a hip bump.

"I'm a lover not a fighter and besides, he's my commander, he makes sure I get paid."

"Lover?" Roxie acted surprised. "I don't see no woman on your arm, and you only have one picture hanging in your room."

"That's my sister."

"Kinky!" Roxie gave Wedge a wicked grin, that he shook his head at. They got their meals and headed back to their table. "What are you doing this weekend?"

"I don't know, what is there to do on the weekend around here?"

"Go shopping."

"Do I look like a guy that enjoys shopping?"

"Everyone enjoys shopping, come on, it'll be fun."

Wedge really wanted to re-arrange his room and read a book, but he really enjoyed spending time with Roxie, so he wasn't too surprised when he heard himself say, "Sure."

The next morning was a typical Korean morning, it was still. There wasn't a puff of a breeze, fog rolled in off the yellow sea and the peaceful silence almost screamed, "Get back in bed!" Korea is known as "The Land of the Morning Calm," and it lived up to its name. After a couple of pop-tarts, Wedge stepped out into the hall and tapped on Roxie's door. She opened the door with a toothbrush in her mouth and waved him in, then she leaned over her sink and finished brushing her teeth.

"Where are we going shopping? I need a griddle," he asked.

"We're going downtown but get your griddle in the BX when you get your bike." Soon they were at the NCO club waiting for a bus that would take them downtown to Gunsan city.

Soon they were on a comfortable bus and heading downtown. As they passed through the Korean countryside, Wedge saw things he never saw before, terraced rice fields, fishermen setting up fish nets in small ponds, farmers cultivating the edges of the road and ditches. They saw small villages that had a wall around them like a medieval fortress, and everything seemed new and alien to Wedge. Roxie wasn't going to admit that it was new and alien to her too, she's only been here a month and a half longer than Wedge and her experience set her above him.

At some point during the journey their hands touched, and Roxie said, "Don't be getting ideas so quickly, I'm bringing you along as a shopping cart."

"I can live with that," lied Wedge. He was really starting to like her, but she efficiently slammed the door in his face. He slid into a funk and turned to the window, ignoring the dark-skinned beauty at his side. He watched a "frog sticker" (it's what the American GIs called a Snowy Egret) picking the shallows of a rice paddy looking for breakfast. Wedge was a big, strong man. He wasn't handsome, but he wasn't ugly, his features were rough, he was described once as a well-dressed steel worker. Women gravitated toward him because he could do things for them from changing a flat tire to moving a couch. His last girlfriend took him to a party and introduced him to her friends as her personal moving company. He left the party quietly and she didn't notice for hours.

"Come on Wedge, suck it up, this is not the first time you've been friend zoned," he told himself. "It won't be the last time either, so pull your head out of your ass and enjoy the day."

Roxie knew that she, as a woman, was a rare commodity on Kunsan Air Base, but she didn't show it. For the lonely American GI there were a few enlisted females on base, most of them were married. There were plenty of Korean women around, but they didn't speak English very well, other than, "You buy me juicy?" When Roxie first got to Kunsan she had a small cloud of black guys hanging around her, watching her every move. Soon fights broke out over who's bitch she was, and a white co-worker was threatened and told to keep his hands off "their bitch." The next day at role call the cloud of her "owners" were standing on the sidelines waiting for her to finish. Some of them didn't even belong in the building.

"Sergeant Dawson, do you have anything?" asked her NCOIC.

"Yeah! I just want you people to know, I'm not anyone's bitch, and you mutts sniffin' around, you ain't got a hope in hell because there's one thing that I want that you ain't got, a pussy!"

Roxie wasn't a lesbian, she just wanted to be left alone and not treated like someone's bitch. But she wasn't insensitive either, she realized she said something that hurt Wedge. "Hey," she said as she elbowed him. "You ok going shopping with a lesbian?"

Lesbian? Wedge's ego took a strange leap when he heard her say that there was no pressure, she was one of the guys, a gal pal. A buddy... with tits. Very nice tits but since there was no chance that he would ever get his hands on them he relaxed. "Yeah, let's go find you a Ford Ranger."

"Fuck you!" she chuckled and dug an elbow into his ribs which he returned. A buddy! She missed having a buddy like her brother who stuck up for her. When she "came out" Josh Gravely in the weapons flight stood up for her and has been a friend ever since, now there is Wedge. "You remind me of my brother," she said as they relaxed.

"Was he an inarticulate ugly white guy too?"

"You're not any of that... well, white, but no he was big and handsome too. Football player. Do you play football?"

"I did," said Wedge. "I made the base team at Ramstein and played until I trashed a knee."

"What position did you play?"

"Tight end," he said.

"Appropriate," she said grinning. He usually wears floppy sweats, jeans, or BDUs, but she could tell...

The bus stopped on a busy metropolitan street and let everyone off. It didn't look like a shopping district, unless you were shopping for a Korean lawyer. "Come on!" and she led him down a few streets, then down a few narrow alleys. He started to notice odd things, like five- and ten-gallon aquariums filled with squirming eels in the stores.

"What's with the eels?"

"They love eel," said Roxie. "They even make wallets an' shit out of their skin." They turned a corner, and they were in an area that was packed with little shops and a few larger stores that catered to the American military man and woman. Shoe stores abounded, all selling knockoffs of high price brands. Wedge was admiring a pair of running shoes until Roxie pointed out the brand name: Nikee. All the shoes had a misspelled brand name, Wedge's favorite was LE Gaar.

They went from shop to shop and found several shops that would embroider anything they could stick in the machine. Wedge started with a Wolfpack hat with his name embroidered on it, then on to a leather shop. Leather of all kinds, from biker jackets to elegant leather overcoats. Another shop had all kinds of leather shoes and boots. While Roxie tried on pretty women's shoes, Wedge tried on a nice-looking pair of cowboy boots. "You a cowboy Pennsylvania?" Roxie asked.

"Wednesday night is Country Night at the club. Want to go dancing, Florida?"

"I don't line dance."

"I don't either, I prefer proper dancin', like a two-step, or a fox trot, or waltz. Come on, let's find you some boots."

"Ain't no such thing as a black cowboy," she said as Wedge found her a pair of boots.

"A third of cowboys were black, and another third were Mexican," said Wedge as pulled on a pair of boots.

"You don't see that in the movies."

"Well, 100% of westerns were produced by white guys who thought that the "wild west" meant Mulholland Drive after ten PM. How do they feel?" He held her hands and helped her to her feet. Her hands felt warm and perfect in his.

"They feel funny."

"You'll get used to them," and they headed out to other shops wearing their new boots so "their feet could get broken in." They had a lunch of delicious bulgogi, spicy beef with sticky rice, at a tiny café followed by a chance to sit down in a Korean coffee shop and talk with Korean college students that were learning to speak English. They walked together for miles up and down narrow alley ways and eventually ended up at the waterfront where Wedge watched the fishing boats move in and out of the harbor in fascination.

"You ain't never seen a boat before, Pennsylvania?" Roxie asked.

"Not like this, Florida. I've seen lake freighters on Lake Erie, but this is cool."

"How did you know that I'm from Florida?" she demanded.

Josh Gravely told him but Wedge wanted to play. "You talk in your sleep."

"What? Fuck you!"

"Don't worry... you only talk when you're not snoring."

"Fuck you all to hell! I can find another shopping cart whenever I want!" Roxie demanded as they walked back toward the shopping center elbowing each other and giving each other hip bumps on the way. Roxie stopped at a bakery and found a roll that she bought for Wedge, and they continued their walk back to the bus stop eating what looked like dinner rolls to Wedge.

"This is delicious! Sweet and fluffy, what's this red stuff in it," asked Wedge.

"Red bean paste. They're crazy about this stuff here."

There was a large crowd waiting for the bus at the bus stop. A combination of Americans and Koreans. The Koreans lined up next to the building and squatted down, it almost looked like they were sitting on the ground. "My knees ache just looking at that," said Wedge.

"When you live on the floor you learn to do stuff like that," said Roxie. "I went to a Korean's apartment, and they sit on the floor. The floor is heated and it's kind of nice."

"Kind of nice?"

"It's like... linoleum with a foam backing."

"Whoa, too weird for me. What were you doing in a Korean's apartment?"

"A Juicy girl picked me up and tried to come on to me," said Roxie with a sly grin.

"What's a juicy girl?"

"I'll teach you all about them next Friday."

Soon the bus pulled up and folks piled on. Wedge and Roxie were lucky to get a pair of seats together and they stuffed their treasures in the overhead rack then sat down and settled in. They were still in the city when Roxie went to sleep, her head on Wedge's shoulder. It felt nice with her leaning on him, sleeping like a child, depending on him for support and knowing she'll get it. Wedge thought that it's been a long time since something like that felt so right.

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Sunday morning Wedge went over to the BX and bought a bicycle, a black Huffy 15 speed mountain bike that he added a headlight, rear cargo fender and folding saddle baskets, making it look just like 2,000 other bikes on base. He added some gold (not yellow) reflective tape to several parts of the frame, and he figured he'd be able to find it in a blackout. He had a microwave coming in his hold baggage, so he also bought an electric kettle, and a griddle. After a ride around the base, he parked his bike in the 'carport' under his dorm and locked it up, then went back to his room and opened his other purchases. He was allowed to have the microwave in his room, but the kettle and the griddle were not allowed so he hid them in his locker until they were needed. He did not have a meal card, he was paid extra for food and not authorized to eat in the chow hall, he had to provide his own meals, so he got some bacon, some eggs, a loaf of bread and a few frozen hamburgers. Then he sat down and opened a book. It was then he realized that he should have bought a radio too.

A bit later, feeling peckish, he knocked on Roxie's door, but she didn't answer. He suddenly felt very alone. They were just buddies, there was nothing between them at all he kept telling himself, but he still felt incredibly alone. It was his first truly Roxie free day and he felt empty and lost.

Not being able to concentrate on the book he was trying to read, he remembered a sign he saw hanging at the rec center. It was a request for volunteers at MARS, the Military Affiliate Radio Service, to help patch phone calls back home which got him thinking of going over to the MARS shack and seeing what volunteering there would look like when a knock came at his door. He opened it and a guy, and a girl were standing in the hallway holding Roxie up, she was clearly drunk. "Is this yours?"

"If she's available, I'll take her," said Wedge.

Slowly Roxie's bleary eyes opened, and she cried "Wedgie!" She threw her arms around his neck and limply hung from him. "I think I'm a lil' drunk... do you think I'm a lil' drunk Wedgie?"

"I'll take it from here," said Wedge as Roxie hung limply from his neck.

"She got into the Soju, it's pretty potent."

"I was at the hospital hooch," Roxie slurred. "They're my friends at the Hospital Hooch."

"What is Soju?" Wedge asked.

"Mmmm... best guess is Korean rice vodka. It mixes with everything," said the woman who handed Roxie's purse to Wedge. "Need any help?"

"No, we're good, thank you."

"Is this her room?" asked the guy who gave Wedge that glare that officers like to use. He sucked at it so he's probably a lieutenant trying to perfect The Glare.

"No, she's my suite mate. I'll try to sober her up then get her back to her room next door."

"Thanks guy," said the woman.

"Thanks Wedgie," said Roxie and she started giggling. Then she said, "Take me home Wedgie." When the door was closed, Wedge ducked, slipped an arm behind her knees and scooped her up. "Sho romantic," she said, her pretty dark brown eyes spinning around. "Wanna know a secret? I don't date white guys."

"Because you're a lesbian?"

"You're funny. I'm not lesbian, who told you I was lesbian?"

"Everybody."

"Oh." Roxie acted like that was a surprise to her.

"So why don't you date white guys?" Wedge asked.

Roxie thought about it then finally said, "I don't know, but there's got to be something wrong with them if I don't date them."

"That sounds reasonable." He laid her down on his bed, pulled her shoes off, then pulled a soft, cozy mink blanket over her.

"Give me a ni-night kiss," she pleaded.

"I don't know," he said, "You're awful..." but she looped her arm around his neck and pulled him to her. Their lips met and they kissed, not a hot passionate kiss but a sweet, slightly sloppy kiss. It was the first kiss in a long time for either of them. When their lips parted Wedge whispered, "thank you, that was sweet," but Roxie was already asleep.

<><><><><>

When she woke up, she looked at her watch, it was six AM, they had role call at seven! She rolled out of bed, completely disoriented. Reaching for the reading lamp over the bed she realized she was in Wedge's room. Wedge has his bed next to a wall and his lockers next to the bed, the backs of his lockers make a small room for his bed. She got up and found Wedge asleep in an easy chair, so she eased into the bathroom and started a much-needed shower.

The hot water helped with the throbbing headache she got for her troubles. This was all Wedge's fault anyhow. She grabbed a towel that she always left in there and dried off and went to enter her room and realized that the door was locked. SHIT! Rule #1 - don't lock yourself in the bathroom. She normally locks that door because she doesn't want anyone, including Wedge, rooting around in her things. She tapped on his bathroom door and opened it a crack and he handed her a cup of coffee. "Good morning sunshine."

Surprised that he was up, she took the cup and said, "I locked myself in the bathroom." She was nervous because the towel was small and barely covered her.

He gave Roxie her purse and said, "toss me your keys," and he moved to the side where he couldn't see her digging around for the keys. Most bastards she knows would be standing there hoping to get a little side boob. Her arm extended from his bathroom door, and he took the keys from her, then went out into the hallway and entered her room, a moment later he knocked on her bathroom door. She opened the door, and she was in her room alone, her keys were on her vanity counter.

She dried and brushed out her hair, did it up in a bun then yanked on her uniform. She grabbed her backpack and headed down to the bike garage grabbed her bike and rode off to work. When she got to the block house, he was in the weapons flight office chatting with Master Sergeant Dan Baker and Josh Gravely. She wanted so much to go in there and hear if they were talking about her. They probably were. She'll ask Josh later; he had been straight with her.

She was pondering what they were talking about when Wedge came up behind her and said, "How are you feeling?"

"Huh? Oh, a bit worn out," she lied. She felt like she was run over with a lawn mower.

"I'm going to be over at Load Standardization most of the day. After that would you like to grab dinner?"

"Let's see how I'm feeling..."

"No problem," and off he went. Roxie shook her head, she was pretty fucked up yesterday, but it was all his fault. She wouldn't have gotten so drunk if he wasn't so damn nice to her. She's not quite sure how that logic worked, but she's going to stick with it.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

The weeks passed and Wedge and Roxie stayed inseparable buddies. They ignored the whispers behind their backs that they were having an affair, they probably never heard them. Life in Korea settled into an exciting adventure that neither Wedge nor Roxie expected. Their duty schedule started two hours before the first jets took off. The flying schedule was never the same so they could go in at 9:00 AM on Monday, 4:00 AM on Tuesday, 1:00 PM on Wednesday, and 5:00 AM on Thursday. Wedge and Roxie normally came in half an hour before their co-workers came in so they could get a good briefing from mid-shift on the condition of the fliers. Sometimes they'd go out and check the planes themselves, and Wedge was a stickler for the weapons systems, especially if there were dropping live bombs.

When the air crews began showing up, Wedge parked his step van in a central position so he could watch the engine starts and the planes head off to the runway. That was usually in the middle of what looked like a runway but was known to Wedge as the "Central Taxiway." It probably had a number or name, but the section he parked on wasn't used by airplanes. Roxie was the "Specialist Expediter" and dispatched electricians, radar specialists, etc., and ended up parked next to Wedge. Wedge's other weapons expediter was "Doc" Johnson, a tech sergeant that looked and acted like he was seventy-five years old, the truck he was in was Juvat Five.

"Juvat Four, Juvat Super. Need Weapons on spot thirty-six." Juvat Super was the head guy coordinating the maintenance effort.

"I'm on it," said Wedge into his radio, and waved goodbye to Roxie. Doc responded to calls below spot 18, Wedge responded to calls above 18. Spot thirty-six was on the south side of the central taxiway, they're a bit far away so he drove a bit faster than he normally would and pulled up to the F-16 that was sitting in the shelter. The aircraft crew chief, a staff sergeant came up to the truck and said, "He's out of argon."

"Tell me you're shitting me," said Wedge. The F-16 carries two training missiles, dummy missiles with no rocket motor or explosives but they have live heat seeking warheads. The missiles use argon to supercool the seeker heads so the pilots can try to lock on to each other. The argon is easily changed out, it's usually something that happens between missions and is always checked before the flight crew shows up.

"Nope, saw it myself."

"Juvat Four, Juvat Super. Need weapons on Spot 4." Being the senior expediter, Wedge gets all the calls from Juvat Super and from Job Control, then passes the appropriate calls on to Doc in Juvat 5.

"Juvat Five, Juvat Four," Wedge called, "can you get that Doc?"

"I'm over at the gun shop," said Doc answering Wedge's call for help.

Wedge pretended to believe that Doc was in the gun shop, but the chow hall was more likely. He turned around and saw that he had a three-man crew and one "truck bitch" who was usually an airman who assisted Wedge. "Danny," Wedge called out to the team chief, "Take your three-man and two bottles of Argon and swap out argon on both missiles then stay and fireguard."

"Gotcha Wedge," said the team chief and he and his three-man stepped out to change the argon bottles on the plane. The moment the door slammed Wedge turned to the Crew Chief and said, "See ya buddy," and hit the gas. He sped down the main taxi way and roared past the block house where the usual gang of smokers was watching people working.

"Was that one of yours?" asked Second Lieutenant Stone as Wedge flashed past.

"Actually sir," said Josh, "I prefer to think of him as one of yours." Josh Gravely hated second lieutenants, but Stone wasn't as stupid as the usual butter bar.

The 'emergency' on spot 4 wasn't as bad as the Juvat Super, a captain that managed the maintenance operations thought, but the delay almost caused a late engine start. "Are you always spun up, Sergeant Donovan?"

"I'm a SAC Trained Warrior, sir. The Strategic Air Command still institutes public canings," said Wedge. "To err is human, to forgive is not 5th Bomb Wing policy."

"Fifth Bomb Wing, eh? Why not Minot?" asked the captain with a grin.

"Freezin's the reason," said Wedge, and he drove back to the block house where Josh, Dan and Second Lieutenant Stone stood watching the show. Plane engines were starting and spooling up, now if there was some maintenance needed, it was Roxie's job to get the work done. Weapons will show up only after the engine shuts down.

Wedge hopped out of his truck and walked over to where his bosses were standing. Before they could berate him for speeding on the flight line, Wedge said, "God damn it Dan, this is the third day in a row that I was stretched out across the entire fucking flight line while Doc Johnson yanks his pud in the gun shop." Wedge, Dan, and Josh knew that "gun shop" was code for "chow hall." There is a gun shop, but their planes rarely fire their guns and there's no guns from their planes over there.

"Did he really say gun shop?" asked Dan, looking extremely angry.

"Sure as fuck did," said Wedge. "I was up on thirty-six and had to haul ass down here to four. I don't know what shit he's pulling but that fucking ROAD needs to get out of my way. Juvat super knows something is up. He didn't ask, but when he does, I'm telling him to come chat with youse guys. Either give me all the crews or get me a new expediter."

Dan and Josh looked at the lieutenant who realized that a Command Decision was required. "Sergeant Johnson's replacement will be here in two weeks. Can you handle all the crews?"

"I can."

"What if there's an exercise?"

"I have a staff sergeant whose crew is busted. He can drive a truck and listen to my instructions."

"This had better work, sergeant," said Second Lieutenant Stone, "because if it doesn't, I will fuck you up."

Instead of looking shocked or scared, Wedge looked happy. "Yes sir!"

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

"Sergeant Donovan, what am I going to do with you?

"Command me sir." Technical Sergeant Wedge Donovan was standing at attention in Lieutenant Colonel Walker's office as the commander of the 80th Fighter Squadron leafed through the papers on his desk.

"I try to, sergeant, and you cut me off at every pass. It says here that you convinced Lieutenant Stone to relieve Sergeant Johnson of his position and to allow you to expedite the entire weapons flight by yourself on Day Shift. Then when an exercise kicked off and you got your silly ass killed..."

"In my defense sir, I was not dumb dead. Sergeant Dawson and I were..."

"This is my office Wedge, let me finish chewing your ass. I don't know, and I don't want to know what you and Roxie were doing to get your asses killed. You left the flight line in the hands of two staff sergeants and..." He began reading from a document in front of him. "...the combined efforts of Technical Sergeant Donovan, Staff Sergeant Condron, and Staff Sergeant Zohner was instrumental in giving the Eightieth Fighter Squadron a rating of Excellent, the highest rating for the Juvats in over two years. The Exercise Evaluation Team said that they have never seen such responses to shifting exercise needs by weapons expediters. The training you gave Staff Sergeant Condron and Staff Sergeant Zohner reflect credit on the Eightieth Fighter Squadron, the Eighth Fighter Wing, and the United States Air Force, signed Colonel Pitcairn, Commander, Wolfpack."

"I won't let it happen again, sir," kidded Wedge as Colonel Walker handed him the letter of commendation from the Wing Commander.

"I knew the day I first saw you and Roxie that you were going to be trouble," grinned the commander. "Keep it up."

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

One morning as the fog was lifting, one of the planes failed to start. The accumulated pressure in the F-16 Jet Fuel Starter system failed to start the engine and they had to break out the T-Handle and pump up the accumulator. It's like hand pumping a hydraulic jack. It's a pain in the ass job but if the aircraft crew chief is nice to the folks around him, he'll get help. Normally Wedge would ignore a T-Handle if he had other work to do but this time it was a special mission on the D Model, two seat F-16. You always try to give those guys the best ride because the pilot is going to try to get the guy in the back to puke which is always entertaining.

The passenger in this case was Father Leonard, the chaplain, and the crew chief had to get the T-handle out. Pumping up the accumulator was equal to 150 push-ups, and for some reason they were doing it individually. The specialists had a line of people waiting their turn and only one person on the handle. Even Roxy was in line to take her turn at the pump handle. "Bitch! Watch the radio," called Wedge and whoever was Truck Bitch slid into the driver's seat as Wedge hopped out. He took a crew with him and as Roxie crawled under the plane she grabbed the T-handle and got ready to pump.

Wedge crouched down facing her and grabbed the handle along with her. "First one to quit buys dinner, ready?"

"What?" she asked but Wedge started pumping the handle and immediately she caught on and began pumping. It's a dual action pump so it pumps in both directions.

"It's easiest if you put everything into pulling," said Wedge as he gave the handle a solid yank that nearly pulled her off balance.

"That's as fast as you can go old man?" she said with a grin, her pretty eyes sparkled with mischief, and they picked up the pace.

"I hear they have rib-eye at the club tonight," said Wedge as he urged her to go faster.

"Oh, I like rib-eye," she said, "I may need two after this," and she started pumping faster.

"You think you're going to be eating my meat?" he said to see if he could freak her off the pump handle.

"You're not going to be eating my meat tonight," she gasped, and they went faster.

Suddenly the handle stopped. "Done!" cried the crew chief who was watching the accumulator level gauge. "Get out of here so we can fly this pig."

Wedge and Roxie crawled out from under the plane on wobbly legs and headed for the shelter entrance. "You can never say that you never got a hand job from me," she taunted.

"Ain't nothing like a handjob on a crisp autumn morning, ain't that right sir?" said Wedge as they walked past their squadron commander.

Of course, Lieutenant Colonel Walker was there at the side of the shelter entrance in full flight gear shaking his head. Before he could say anything the F-16's engine began spinning and it roared to life. "Now that's what one of MY hand jobs will do for ya," laughed Roxie as she hit Wedge with a well swung hip.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

As winter neared, half of the squadron went to Japan to fly out of Misawa. While they were gone the squadron loaded up live ordnance on several aircraft and let the young pilots do some "live drops." Roxie got to see how picky Wedge was when he did the post load inspection on every bomb that was going to fly. It wasn't hard, there was just two bombs on each airplane and each bomb weighed 2,000 pounds. The planes took off at 7:30 AM which means that Wedge's day started at 4:00 AM because he spends a lot of time on the pre-flights, especially after the Argon incident.

Around noon, Wedge and Roxie were eating sandwiches in Wedge's truck (because it has the best heater) when the call came, "Juvat four, control. Viper two three is coming back code three for weapons."

"Control, please repeat," asked Wedge trying not to laugh.

"Viper two three is coming back code three for weapons... I know, right? He's coming back to Spot six." That radio call caused Wedge and Roxie to laugh. Code three means the plane is so broke that it can't fly again. Weapons are not needed to fly, the only code three for weapons is if he fired his gun and shot his own nose off.

"I gotta see this," said Roxie as she hopped into her truck. The gang in her truck was goofing around and the windows were steamed up, but Wedge could see her brilliant grin through the steamed-up windows as they moved over close to Spot six. Soon the plane pulled into the parking spot and whirled around pointing out. The engines shut down and about ten guys pushed the airplane by hand back into the shelter.

The snow was starting to swirl as the pilot slowly got out of his plane and climbed down from the cockpit. Wedge did a quick inspection of the pylons and wings; it looked like the bombs separated cleanly and didn't strike the wing as they fell away. "Are you weapons?" demanded the second lieutenant as he struggled against his g-suit.

"Yes sir, you reported code three for weapons?" asked Wedge. He sized up the pilot, he doesn't look stupid, maybe there truly is a problem.

"Yes!" Then he got close to Wedge and said, "What the fuck? You gave me two nukes."

Wedge stared at the pilot and decided that looks can be deceiving. "You had Mark 84... nukes sir?"

"Yes! I saw the mushroom clouds!" said the pilot and he was looking scared. "Thanks to you I dropped two nukes within sight of North Korea!"

This lieutenant should know that a 2000-pound bomb is one ton of very hot expanding gasses and yes, they make mushroom clouds. Especially on cold days, and Wedge heard that it was -10° at the range today, but a MK-84, 2,000 pound bomb is 0.001% the power of a very small nuke. But also, every lieutenant should know that there are no nukes in South Korea. "Gee, that's unfortunate sir... and you signed for them."

"WHAT?" Shrieked the Lieutenant. He squealed like a prom queen that just got dumped.

Wedge couldn't help himself. "When the Munitions Accountable Supply Officer does his semi-annual stock inventory and comes up two nukes short he's going to crawl up my ass with a magnifying glass, but the fact remains, you signed for them. You had them last. What did you do with them?" and he walked away, right past a chuckling Squadron Commander.

"You have to lighten up on the butter bars Wedge," said Colonel Walker.

"Well, I got him all weepy, now you can go make everything ok and be his daddy."

"Fuck you Wedge."

"Yes sir, right away sir."

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

As the weeks slid past Roxie and Wedge spent all of their free time together getting to know each other. Wednesday Night was movie night on the base cable system, and they would pop some corn and sit in Wedge's room watching whatever came on. They sat side by side and chatted through Smokie and the Bandit 3 and he found out she was from the Florida side of the tiny town of St. Felix Georgia. The St. Mary's River goes through the town "Cutting every trailer park in the county in half" as she put it, and everyone on the east side is in Florida, everyone on the west side is in Georgia. "Our only claim to fame was having a bridge across the river. The next nearest bridge was thirty miles away on the north border of Florida." She was raised a single child by a widowed mother, her dad was a Marine that didn't come back from the middle east.

For his part, Wedge's dad worked at the Adelphia Cable headquarters and his mom worked in the local catholic school cafeteria and because of shift work they never saw each other while Wedge was awake.

"What do you want to do when you get out?" Roxie asked him.

"I don't know. I had my plan set, I was going to go squat on some forested mountain and live off the land."

"Being a mountain man is not so attractive anymore?"

"No..." but Wedge wouldn't go from there.

"Tell me why!" Roxie demanded and she started tickling him, "Come on, tell me!"

Wedge squirmed and laughed and came halfway out of his chair and finally said, "OK! Stop! I'll talk!" After catching his breath, he muttered something.

"I didn't catch that," said Roxie.

"I said I don't like being alone anymore."

A myriad of emotions crossed Roxie's face, then she settled down as the movie they were watching came back on TV. "Me neither," she said softly.

Wedge smiled faintly; how could two souls connect so perfectly over a shared bathroom? He opened his hand and shortly her hand slipped into his. So warm and perfect and small. He gazed at her chocolate brown skin contrasted against his pale white skin. It just felt right. Roxie rested her head on his shoulder and that felt even better.

Just as they both considered the possibility of a kiss, the sound of a distant "BOOM!" rattled his window. It was followed with a loud "BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"

"Was that a simulator or Big Coyote?" Roxie asked. A simulator was a large firecracker that the Exercise Evaluation Team used to simulate a bomb; Big Coyote was a hill that had an artillery piece on it covering the base. It was rumored that last year Big Coyote hit a two-man submarine from the north.

"We'll find out in about fifteen minutes," said Wedge and he got up and closed the blackout curtains and began to pull his civilian clothes off.

"Shit," muttered Roxie and she got up and headed to her room through the bathroom, pulling her blouse off as she went. Five minutes later they were dressed in their BDUs, flack vest and helmet, their gas masks strapped to their left leg and a canteen full of water on their right hip. They locked their rooms and headed down the stairs and were in the bike garage and were unlocking their bikes when the sirens started blaring and the lights were turned off all over the base.

They balanced their heavy equipment bags on the seats of their bicycles and fast walked to the gate that would let them on the flight line. "What's up?" said Wedge as he stepped into the Weapons Flight office.

"Still waiting for orders from the Wing King," said the second shift supervisor, the wing king being the Wing Commander.

Evening exercises are considered to be the most difficult, merely because you're starting at an odd hour, trying to figure out when to bring in your primary troops was a pain in the ass. They've already put in a full day, and your night troops have already put in half a day. Wedge stayed out of that discussion and let Dan and Josh and the new NCOIC Senior Master Sergeant Sammy Johns deal with the shift management. It's a headache because weapons loaders are not allowed to work more than 12 hours in a shift so their shifts must be managed carefully.

Soon the management started to pour in and eventually word came down from on high. This was going to be a big one. "Here's the schedule," said Master Sergeant Dan Baker, and he handed Wedge a clip board. "Let everybody know. This is Lieutenant Kenosha, he will be our new OIC, he will be riding with you tomorrow."

Many expediters will catch the crews as they come in, but Wedge likes to tell everyone all at once. "DAYSHIFT! Fall in on your team chief!" After a few minutes his eight load crews were lined up and he said, "Who's missing?"

"Roopy," said half of the flight. Roopy is Rupert Pines, who is constantly late. He's a young kid, a fair bomb loader, really bad drinker and he's auditioning a Juicy Girl to shack up with. He appeared out of a crowd of specialists at the sound of his name and the flight cried out "ROOP!" followed by Wedge saying, "They he is!" which embarrassed the hell out of the two striper.

"Ok, It looks like this is a sprint," said Wedge as the flight groaned. A sprint is the most difficult level of exercise they have. There will be all kinds of roadblocks thrown in their way, and a lot of simulated enemy activity. "Be ready for anything, make sure your MOPP gear is complete. Ok, the following crews be in at oh seven hundred, Pickering and Burke, oh eight hundred, Wyman and Marlowe, the rest of you in at oh nine hundred. Derrick and Heidi, you'll be truck bitches, be in at seven."

He was about to move on to something else when Heidi Bronson cried out "TRUCK BITCH? I'm a girl!"

"Oh shit," groaned Wedge and he could picture Heidi complaining to some limp dick lieutenant and there goes one or two of his stripes fluttering away.

Heidi merely grinned, "I'm a TRUCK BASTARD!"

"God love ya Heidi. Any other words of wisdom? See you tomorrow... Roopy, you're not going anywhere." Wedge led Roopy off to a corner to talk about his issues, it appears that he's either found the girl whose life is falling apart that he wants to help, or some hooker is taking him for everything he's got. Roopy is one of those kids that wants to help everyone, but he's young, inexperienced, and not real bright. They started talking about the girl and what Roopy can do to help her when the new Second Lieutenant Keith Kenosha said, "Sergeant, I'll take it from here,"

"Sir, this is..."

"You are dismissed, sergeant." Then the Lieutenant flexed his little supervisory muscle. "AIRMAN PINES, you are an example of..."

"Sir, please," begged Wedge. "Let me manage my men."

"You are DISMISSED Sergeant Donovan."

"Aye aye, sir," and Wedge turned on his heel and left. "Aye aye," was not meant respectfully in any form. Wedge meant it to say, "You should be in the Navy getting your anus reamed by a lonely sailor."

Wedge slammed the clipboard down on Sergeant John's desk and groaned, "That lieutenant of yours is going to fuck that kid up."

"Take a deep breath," said Senior Master Sergeant Johns. "Try to relax, he'll learn." Sammy Johns was a smiling, happy black man who claimed to have armed Wilbur Wright's first airplane. He was Dan Baker's replacement; Dan will be heading to his next assignment after the new year.

He glanced through the window and saw that Roxie was waiting for him. "See you in a few hours," said Wedge.

"Take it easy," said Johns as he rolled a piece of paper in his typewriter.

"Hold on Sergeant," said Lieutenant Kenosha as he blocked Wedge's exit.

"You dismissed me sir, I am exiting the building."

The lieutenant continued to block the door. "I take it that you dislike my management style, Sergeant. Tell me what is on your mind, sergeant." He made the honorable title of sergeant sound like it was a turd laying on his tongue and was trying not to puke when he said it.

"Since you asked, sir, Management Style? Sir, you usurped a noncommissioned officer in the commission of his duties and inserted yourself into a situation you know nothing about, sir, and then you proceeded to berate a confused young airman that by PACAF regulations shouldn't even be here, sir. What machine shop taught you that 'management style' lieutenant?"

The lieutenant glared at Wedge and started to shake. "I could relieve you of your duties, Sergeant Donovan."

In a soft voice Wedge said, "Sir, in my personal opinion I believe you couldn't relieve yourself after a dozen BX tacos."

"That's it!" shrieked Second Lieutenant Kenosha. "You are confined to your dormitory room until I speak with the Squadron Commander about this."

"Aye aye, sir." And Wedge brushed past the lieutenant and went looking for Roopy, but he was nowhere to be seen. He stepped outside and grabbed his bike and caught up with Roxie as she walked back to the dorm. "What time are you coming back in?" Wedge asked Roxie.

"I get to sleep in," she said sarcastically. They don't want me back until seven."

"I'll have your breakfast ready for you at six. How do you like your eggs?"

"Over easy, what's my choice of sides?" she grinned.

"Sausage and potato patties."

"Sounds interesting. Oh, I heard a rumor that you were fired."

"Yep, kicked to the curb," said Wedge. "There's no room in Lieutenant Kenosha's air force for an effective, hard-working NCO with a very foxy looking girlfriend."

"Oh? I'm now your girlfriend? How did that happen?"

"School yard rules, you hold hands with a girl, she's your girlfriend. What makes you think I was talking about you?"

"You said foxy, did you not?" Roxie's grin was infectious, and it lifted Wedge's spirits.

"Yes I did, so... are you my girlfriend?"

"School yard rules apply, so I must be... and that makes you my girlfriend too."

<><><><><>

Breakfast next morning was delicious, Wedge broke out his griddle and made eggs, sausage, and potato patties which were grilled leftover instant mashed potatoes. He made coffee with a French press, and they ate a wonderful breakfast at the small table in his room. "How long are you going to be in the doghouse?" she asked.

"Only till lieutenant dumbfuck talks to the commander. I'm thinking they'll come begging for me at nine."

"Eleven," said Roxy. "Betcha a fried chicken salad at the Rec Center."

"You're on," he grinned, and he set her off to work with a full tummy, a kiss on the cheek, and a pat on the butt.

At 10:00 AM there was a knock on the door. "First Sergeant," a voice called.

"You have a key, come on in." Sergeant Schaffer opened the door and Wedge looked up from the books and papers he had set out on his table. "Long time no see, what's up?"

"The lieutenant would like to speak with you."

"I'm a little busy now, I'm writing a paper on the Battle of Kleidion... fascinating stuff."

"Sergeant," said the nervous Lieutenant, "I am ordering you to return to work right now."

"Aye aye, sir." Wedge got up from the table and slowly took off his robe showing that he was wearing sweats underneath. He slowly hung up his robe in his locker and thoughtfully selected a t-shirt. "In my opinion, sir, this is a very unique way of apologizing... does this t-shirt make me look fat?"

"This is not an apology."

"So I'm still restricted to my dorm room?"

"Yes... why are you sitting down sergeant."

"I was given conflicting orders, both sound lawful enough but... why am I restricted to my dorm room again?"

"You know why!" snapped the confused Lieutenant.

"Because I hurt your feelings," said Wedge, sounding like a concerned parent. "It happens, you..."

"For your insubordination," said the lieutenant, as Wedge very slowly pulled on his BDU pants.

"You asked me for my opinion, and I gave it to you. That is following your directions, tell me how you see that as insubordinate."

"Sergeant, I..." Lieutenant Kenosha fumed and sputtered as he searched for legitimate reasoning behind his decision.

"Enough of this!" barked the squadron Commander, LTC Walker as he stepped into Wedge's room.

"ROOM, TEN HUT!" shouted Wedge as he snapped to attention.

"Kenosha, my office! Wedge, get your ass back to work."

"Yes sir!"

<><><><><>

Alarm Black - MOPP Level 4. Normally the men and women of Kunsan Air Base hate alarm black and MOPP level 4. You're stuck in a shelter wearing your chem gear, full outer covering and gas mask, it's toasty warm, which was nice in the winter but horrible in a hot, muggy Korean summer. When the alarm went off, Wedge saw Roxie's truck diving into an empty aircraft shelter, and he followed her in. They closed the blast doors, and it became pitch black in the shelter.

Roxie waved an orange glow stick at Wedge, and he grabbed his clipboard and radio and followed her. They ended up in the rear corner of the shelter and sat down. "You should have been there," said Wedge. "The first shirt led the lieutenant into my room and Colonel Walker was outside in the hallway." As he talked, someone shined a flashlight at them. The flashlight's beam didn't have a colored filter as required, so it was bright white.

"What are you doing sergeant?" It was Lieutenant Kenosha.

"I can't understand what you're saying," said Wedge. "It's all muffled." The lieutenant asked again, this time louder. Wedge again said, "I can't understand, can you understand him Sergeant Dawson?"

"Not a word," she said.

There was a loud boom, it sounded like somebody set off a simulator outside of the shelter. A bit of light at the front of the shelter showed that someone came in through the personnel access door.

At the same time the frustrated lieutenant was waving around his flashlight trying to talk to Wedge who kept saying "I'm sorry, that mask of yours makes everything sound garbled, can you wait for the all clear?" The angry lieutenant pulled off his gas mask and said, "I need to have a word with you, sergeant."

"Oh, why didn't you say that?"

"STAND UP WHEN YOU SPEAK TO ME SERGEANT DONOVAN!"

As he said that, an NCO stepped up to the lieutenant and hung a "Dumb Dead" badge on the lieutenant's collar. "Report to the rec center," said the evaluator, a Senior Master Sergeant who was not wearing chem gear, mask or helmet, and was not taking any crap. He was wearing just his BDUs and a hat that said EET (Exercise Evaluation Team).

"Sergeant, I am a lieutenant and I need to...

"You need to tell me your name, rank, and last four. Now." That was the last time the lieutenant was seen for a while.

The exercise went on for nearly a full week, the sound of sirens and explosions rang through the Korean countryside. A series of Patriot Missile batteries were set up on base and occasionally they would relocate in the dead of the night to a different point on base. During the exercise, Roxie and Wedge would work their asses off all day long, launching, recovering, repairing, reloading and relaunching airplanes. Occasionally the EET would set out fake craters to simulate bomb damage and they had to route the planes around the craters while the runway repair team repaired a fake runway somewhere else.

On day six of the exercise there was a full push. Normally during the exercise there's an attack and everyone goes to shelter and gets a nap for a few hours. The last day was solid flying, recovering, and more flying. Everything that could get off the ground flew. When they got back to their dorm they were too tired to eat. They set their MRE's on the table in Roxie's room and said, "That's it." Roxie came out of the bathroom in a t-shirt and skimpy shorts, Wedge had already showered and changed.

"I can't keep my eyes open," said Roxie and she climbed into bed.

Wedge tucked her in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Nighty nite."

"Tell me a story," she said with a smile, then lifted the covers.

Wedge lay down next to her, and they snuggled together, their body warmth warmed them up for the first time that cold blustery day. "Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess and an evil bomb loader."

"Oh no!" she whispered.

"And one day that evil bomb loader said, 'Beautiful princess, I am going to eat you,' and the beautiful princess said 'Promises, promises.'"

"Promises, promises," Roxie said as she drifted off to sleep.

Unconsciously she snuggled against Wedge, and he fell asleep too. They woke with Roxie's head on Wedge's shoulder, she was feeling so warm and secure until her alarm clock woke them. She reached up and shut off the alarm and they lay together in the darkness trying to wake.

"Morning, darling," groaned Wedge. His arm was numb from her sleeping on it all night.

"Tell me you didn't do anything."

"I didn't do anything," said Wedge as he mentally kicked himself for not doing anything.

"Damn. Let's get going. I need a quick shower to wake up," she said as she climbed over him.

"I could help," he offered, "I could get the spots that you miss."

"You have a much more important job. Go get the coffee ready."

He stumbled back to his room through the bathroom, did his morning thing, then while Roxie showered he started breakfast. He put on coffee and opened a Breakfast MRE, a cheese omlet, chopped it up, added some chopped hamburger from yesterday's MRE, some American cheese and threw it in the microwave.

"This is damn close to edible!" said Roxie as she tasted his creation.

"I'm out of everything, orange juice, coke, bagel dogs, salsa, pop tarts..." groaned Wedge. He had a drawer full of MREs but they were a last resort, he needed to go to the commissary.

Roxie leaned across the table and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "Thank you for breakfast honey, let's go to work." Wedge sat marveling at her reaction, it was totally unexpected. "Are you going to join us?" she demanded.

"I'm coming," he said as he stood.

"Promises, promises," she grinned as she disappeared into the bathroom.

The flying was heavy that day. They were dropping little 25 lbs practice bombs, and they dropped a lot of them, each plane was loaded with four bombs. During the first days of the exercise, they were bringing trailer loads of 500 pound and 2000 pound bombs to each aircraft. The load crew would load half of the bombs or missiles, then take them down, counting the download as the second half of the upload. That way it showed on paper the plane had its weapons loaded, but in reality it was clean and ready to fly.

This part of the exercise the squadrons are bombing for real. Each bomb was kicked off the bomb rack by a small explosive charge called an "impulse cart" and when it hit the ground it set off a smoke charge so the drop could be scored.

They flew all day long and since the 25-pound bombs were carried and loaded by hand, his guys all had aching arms from the carrying and loading. "It ain't fair, Wedge," Senior Airman Prescott said. Nathan Prescott was a fresh-faced young kid from the Colorado mountains who looked as innocent as a newborn.

"What ain't fair?" Wedge knew something was up. Roxie was sitting in the jump seat next to him trying to finish up her paperwork, the status board in Wedge's truck showed a history of the day's flying better than any other resource.

"Specialists, we have to help them when they need help, fueling planes and pumping starter handles, but when we need help they can't help us."

"That's because they don't have your training. They'd blow themselves up and you would have to spend the day mopping their guts off the airplane."

"Oh. When are you and Roxie getting married?"

"We were thinking of a nice little double ceremony," snarled Wedge. "Us in front of a preacher, and behind the preacher would be your casket with your mangled corpse inside."

"Stop making me laugh," said Roxie as she tried to copy numbers off the status board.

Suddenly the guys in the back of the truck yelled, "STOP! Open your doors!"

They threw the van doors open to the cold early December wind and the base loudspeakers were blaring, "THE WING COMMAND POST HAS DECLARED EXERCISE ALERT LEVEL GREEN, THE EXERCISE IS OVER!" Wedge slumped back in his driver's seat and took off his helmet and ran his fingers through his hair. It's over! Roxie mouthed the words, "We made it!" and he chuckled and clasped her hand, they didn't care who saw that.

The exterior lights came on all over the base, every single aircraft shelter's lights came on, and cops all over the base were launching illumination flares, bright white flares were drifting down under parachutes as Lee Greenwoods "God Bless The USA" blasted over the loudspeakers. The six weapons troops that were in the back of Wedge's truck hopped out and began to sing along with everyone else on base, waving their Korean windproof lighters like they were at a concert.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

"Are you ready yet?"

Roxie entered Wedge's room wearing a red dress trimmed with white fur and of course the mandatory Santa hat. Wedge's breath caught in his throat, she was beautiful, the white fir of the trim around her cleavage was striking against her mocha skin. "You like?"

"I... my god... you're beautiful."

"I know, right?" she laughed. She did a slow turn showing off the skirt that reached mid-thigh, the red nylons, red high heel boots and she flipped up her skirt to show the tops of her red stockings and red satin panties. She finished her turn and saw that Wedge was entranced. She put on her green shorty blazer to complete the outfit. "What do you think?"

"All I can think is... 'promises promises.'"

Remembering the joke Roxie's eyes lit up. "You wouldn't be lying?"

"You're gorgeous, and I'm such a schlub."

"We're a set!" she said. Wedge was wearing a dark green shirt, matching trousers, and a cherry red tie with a cherry red blazer. "Don't be calling yourself a schlub, you're mine. I won't put up with it." He held her coat open for her and grabbed his matching over coat. When the announcement for the squadron Christmas party was made, they went downtown to a Korean tailor and Momma Park whipped up their outfits in a couple of days.

"Let's go," and they stepped out and walked over to the Officers Club. There was about three inches of new snow on the base, and they walked the ten blocks to the O Club and when they got there they made a big hit... Correction, Roxie made a big hit. Being one of only ten women in the squadron she was incredibly popular. There were a few Korean girls there, a couple of guys were married to Korean girls, and they lived off base, on the economy. One of the guys who works with Roxie's specialists, Don something, he lived down the hall from them and he had a tiny Asian woman hanging off his arm but other than that, Roxie, Heidi and the other eight girls enjoyed their popularity.

Roxie had a crowd of men around her all evening, buying her drinks and peering down her dress. After a dinner of "Rubber Chicken" Wedge hung out with the senior sergeants in the squadron. As they talked, Roxie broke free from the crowd that hung around her and joined the folks around Wedge. Their commander, Lt Colonel Walker, was telling "Wedge Stories" to the new NCOIC of the weapons flight. Roxie hung on Wedge's arm with a huge smile on her face as Colonel Walker told the story of how the 80th Fighter Squadron nuked South Korea.

"It's not me, it's you, sir," said Wedge. "When you're not around life is normal. The dumb shit happens when you're there. If you weren't there when Captain Simmons landed the D model he wouldn't have freaked out Colonel Getz."

"What?" asked Wedge's new boss, Sergeant Sams.

"Oh god," laughed Josh. "That was classic!" He was there to watch the show too.

"Colonel Getz promised us a new roof on the MARS shack if we make contact with the space shuttle via HAM radio. Captain Simmons said he could do it if he had the orbital data of the space shuttle. So, I got the data and wrote it down on a piece of paper. That day Captain Simmons flew the flight surgeon in the D-model and got him to puke so everyone was there when he landed."

Roxie said, "we walked up to the plane as they're trying to get the surgeon out of the back seat and Wedge shouts, 'I got the data!' and he waves it around."

"Captain Simmons sees me holding the paper," Wedge continued, "and he jumped out of the cockpit without a ladder, takes the paper from my hand, reads it, then eats it and leaves."

Roxie laughed long and hard. "The wing commander was demanding to know what was on that piece of paper and I just said, 'It's a secret,' and I left and let the Wing Commander grill poor Wedge."

"And you just stood there and let it happen," said Wedge to Colonel Walker.

"Yup, I sure did."

"Isn't it cute how they finish each other's sentences?" said Dan Baker.

"Should I find a crowbar and pry these two apart?" asked Sammy Johns, indicating Wedge and Roxie who were holding on to each other.

"Don't you dare!" said Josh Gravely. "They have the Weapons Flight and Field Maintenance working together nice and smooth. It drives Occasional Maintenance crazy." Field Maintenance is an old term that used to describe Roxie's team, Occasional Maintenance refers to the aircraft crew chiefs.

"So when is the happy occasion going to be?" asked Colonel Getz as he came up behind Wedge and Roxie.

"Oh, we're just besties!" said Roxie as she clung to Wedge's arm.

For Wedge, everything stopped. There was a roaring in his ears and the sounds of the party faded and the laughter that he did hear was mocking him. "Yeah, besties," he said. He looked into his glass, it was a ginger ale, then he drained it. "I'm going to go freshen this up, do you want something?" he asked Roxie. When she didn't answer he pulled free from her grip and went over to the bar. "Double shotta Jameson."

The bar tender took his glass and replaced it (for a price) with a fresh glass of whiskey, and he sat down to drink his way to the Motherland. Such a fool, he convinced himself that there was something more there, that he had broken his way through the friend zone and was making headway. Why? Because they held hands on occasion? Because he feeds her? Because they watch TV? Dumbass redneck...

He watched her laughing and having a grand time, a dozen black guys surrounded her. He got up and walked up to her and she said, "Wedge! This is ____ and this is ____ he's in the ____ squadron..." For some reason he couldn't hear their names.

That's when the First Sergeant, Mike Schaeffer came up to him and pulled him aside. "Sorry about Airman Pines, I hear he worked for you."

"Roopy? The little bastard is AWOL. He'll turn up in Osan or Seoul."

"You didn't hear? They found him yesterday, he's dead, he took his own life... Lieutenant Kenosha was supposed to brief you..."

The first shirt's voice faded off into the hell that Wedge was trying to claw his way out of. His apologies were lost in the roaring that returned to Wedge's ears and he gulped down his ginger ale... no, it was whiskey, and it did exactly what he needed. Wedge sadly realized he was holding the solution to his problems in his hand. "You an' me, we're besties, let me buy you a drink" he said to his glass, and he mumbled something to the first sergeant and went to the bar. That's when things got blurry.

Wedge had no idea how long he had been sitting at the bar, but he had an empty glass. He pushed it across the bar and said, "I need a refresher."

"I'm going to have to cut you off sir," said a bartender that was fully expecting trouble.

"One for the road, just to settle the dust."

"Sorry sir."

"Why ya gonna go and do something like that?" demanded Wedge softly.

"You've had enough," said the bar tender.

Wedge tried to stand and realized that he had more than that one double shot. That was probably his third double shot. Maybe more.

"You OK big guy?" asked Josh as he patted Wedge on the shoulder.

It took Wedge a moment to focus on who it was, then he said, "I'm gonna go find Roopy, can you tell Roxie thank you for me?"

Josh said, "Why don't you tell her yourself, she's right over..." He looked around the party and didn't see her anywhere. "She's got to be here somewhere." He turned back to the bar and Wedge was gone.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Wedge Donovan woke up and found himself laying on the floor of his room. He had no memory of anything that happened after he left the squadron Christmas party. He blearily tried to recall what happened and realized that he had a mink blanket on him, and his head was on a pillow. "Are you awake?" asked Roxie. She was sitting in one of the easy chairs watching TV.

"No," groaned Wedge. He realized what was going on in his head and stomach and crawled off to the bathroom and puked.

"Are you going to drink like that every time you get mad at me?" asked Roxie as she mopped his brow with a cool, moist washcloth.

"Not mad at you," Wedge mumbled, and he sat back against the shower. "'s ok, just give me time and I'll be your bestie again."

"Is that it, you're mad at me because I said you were my bestie?"

"'m not mad at you, I'm mad at me."

"I don't understand," she said, and she knelt next to him facing him.

"You are you and I am me," he said with a slur, and he shrugged his shoulders. "You see me one way, but I thought you saw me a 'nuther. 's my fault. I hope I didn' embarrass you. Jus a dumbass ol' redneck."

"Wedge stop it!" she said.

"I let myself think that there was more, that you thought about me like I think about you. Then I saw you with all those guys... you were so happy, and I was dying inside." He banged his head against the shower stall and said, "Just give me time and I'll pull my head outta my ass an' be your bestie all proper."

She put a hand on each side of his face and said, "Michael Aloysius Donovan, you're pretty stupid when you drink."

"Yup, I'm Irish."

"No shit." Then she softened. "There is more, I've never felt like this before, I have a bestie that makes my heart flutter when he's around."

"Roxie," started Wedge, "I think I..." He gently put his hand on her shoulder, his fingers tangled in her long, raven hair. "I want to say that I..."

She stopped him with a gentle finger on his lips. "Not here, not on the bathroom floor all hung over and pukey. Let's clean up first. Come on, let's go lay down in bed."

He started to crawl to the door when he remembered... "Awww, Roopy, why'd ya do it?" His stomach twisted in a hard knot and he dove for the toilet.

<><><><><>

Josh Graveley knocked on Wedge's door and was a little surprised when Roxie opened the door, not real surprised, just a little. "I come to see how the big guy is doing."

"He's pretty messed up. He normally doesn't drink. Maybe some wine but usually he drinks ginger ale, so it looks like he's drinking. Last night he went all out."

"He had something on his mind, then he found out about Roopy."

Roxie sighed as she handed Josh a cup of coffee. "What did Roopy do now?"

Josh looked at Roxie with an odd look on his face. "You... you didn't hear? Roopy is dead, he killed himself."

"Ah shit," moaned Roxie. Roopy was like a kid brother to Wedge. The kid did some dumb stuff, but he was right out of tech school, he should have had a stateside assignment first. Kunsan isn't equipped to properly train an airman with an apprentice skill level. She glanced over at Wedge, they should be downtown enjoying the wintery day and doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. "I'll make sure he pulls through it. He'll be on time Monday.

"That's another reason why I'm here. We beat the 35th in the exercise, we got the highest marks the Juvats ever had, as a reward Monday is a down day for us and Friday will be limited duty."

Josh stayed and had coffee with Roxie hoping Wedge would wake up, but Wedge is probably lucky to be alive. After being cut off by the bar tender at the officers club, Wedge made his way over to the Army Air Defense Artillery hooch (A hooch is a bar built in a dorm room to raise funds for the unit running the hooch.) Roxie and a co-worker of hers, Don Campbell found him there, he and his wife helped Roxie get him back to his room. "I'm surprised he's not dead. When the shirt told him about Roopy, Mike Schaeffer said that it was like all the life went out of him," said Josh.

"Oh god, the poor guy," said Roxie, she looked over at Wedge and her eyes filled with tears.

"Thank you for being so good to Wedge, I can see why he loves you so much."

"Did he tell you that?"

"Roxie," said Josh letting his native accent take full reign, "Ah may be ah dumb ol' Georgia boy, but ah ain't blind."

<><><><><>

It was hours before Wedge showed signs of life. He looked around and said "Roxie?"

"How are you feeling?" she said as she appeared at his side.

Wedge propped himself up on his elbows, "Not bad, considering."

"You've eaten nothing but aspirin and Tylenol for the past twenty-four hours, something should feel better," said Roxie.

"I'm so sorry for acting the fool," said Wedge, his green eyes meeting hers, "if bestie is what you want then I will stop trying to break out of the friend zone and be the best bestie you ever had."

"Stop," she said as she leaned forward and touched her forehead to his. "You feel like you want to be more to me than a bestie. I feel the same way... but I have a history, and right now you are doing a great job getting me past that. Now come on, go take a shower while I get dinner ready."

"Why am I naked?"

"The last time you puked your aim wasn't very good..."

"I'm sorry," said Wedge as he headed into the shower. Roxie had his griddle fired up and grilled two luscious pork chops and put a couple of potatoes in the microwave to cook. She put a salad on the small round table and lit the candle as Wedge emerged from the shower and pulled on a pair of green sweatpants and a red t-shirt under Roxie's watchful eye. As he pulled the pants up he said, "You've seen mine... when can I see yours?"

"If I had a dick, I'd show it to you. Come sit down." She had put some Christmas music on his stereo and made a Christmas centerpiece on his table with some garland and faux pine. A red candle provided the only light as he sat down to a salad, chop, and baked potato.

"You made all this for me?" Wedge hasn't had a home cooked meal in ages.

"Shh... quiet. Eat. You haven't eaten since the rubber chicken at the O Club yesterday." Roxie watched with pride as Wedge dug into the simple meal she made for him.

"This is incredible. Thank you so much," said Wedge between mouthfuls.

"You look like you're feeling better... I'm sorry about Roopy... I just found out."

"It's not your fault, it was that fucking lieutenant."

"Dear, please," begged Roxie, "I know you're angry, don't let that hate burn you up."

"He's so fucking stupid," muttered Wedge, "sorry, I didn't mean to mess up your wonderful dinner mentioning him." He took a bite of his chop and chewed thoughtfully then brightened, "you called me dear. Is that allowed inside the friend zone?"

"Please don't take it so hard, give me a few more weeks. I... I was..."

"Stop." Wedge put a finger to her lips. Her lips were so pretty, pink edged with chocolate, they were lips he wanted to press his own lips to so much. "I hate being stuck in the friend zone; I really do. It's hell being next to a woman I want to touch, but the terror of you walking away keeps me mute and impotent. It's horrible, but not as horrible as being apart from you."

She looked into his eyes for a long time then softly said, "Come here, I was going to save this for Christmas," she took him by the hand and led him near his bed. She put her hands on his hips and pulled him close, he could feel her large breasts pressing against his chest. "Here it is."

"Where?" asked Wedge, but instead of an answer she looked up. Wedge looked up too and didn't recognize it at first, but she had hung a sprig of mistle toe right above where they were standing. "Merry Christmas, darling." They pulled each other close, and their lips met for more than a quick buss. Wedge couldn't help himself, she felt so good in his arms, he wound his fingers in her long silky hair, and he held her tight and his tongue reached out for hers. It was like they were meant for this very moment. As their tongues met for the very first time Roxie whimpered in passion as Wedge's kiss was everything she dreamed about and more.

Her kiss was something out of his dreams, it was a reminder of sunny afternoons and warm evenings, of laughing together and walking hand in hand, of finding a home for the two of them, of holding her close and never having to let go.

When their lips parted they clutched each other and panted, little kisses followed their kiss. Wedge was so happy and so much in love with Roxie that he wanted to climb to the roof and shout, but he was still in the friend zone, so he enjoyed those feelings privately. Roxie was just as passionate about her feelings for Wedge, but she wanted to hold back, she had far too many relationships fall apart because of her past. "That was the greatest Christmas present ever," gasped Wedge when he got his voice back. "What's the matter? You're shaking all over."

"I need to sit down," she said weakly. She sounded scared but she looked happy and maybe a bit shocked. Wedge led her to an easy chair, and she sat down. "I didn't expect that... whooo! Look, my hands are shaking!"

"Is that a bad thing?"

"It's a good thing, a very good thing."

"You relax, I'll get dishes," and he cleaned up while Roxie wondered if she was going to be able to tell him the truth.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

They spent Monday wandering the streets of Gunsan-si (Kunsan) in the oeguk jiyeok (foreigner area) through the blustery snow. Normally the shops would have been closed on Monday but being a week from Christmas they remained open, and the shopkeepers were happy to see Roxie and her "shopping cart." Both Roxie and Wedge picked up a few packages from shops where they had ordered items for Christmas and the shopkeepers gift wrapped their purchases for free.

It was getting late when they ended up in a shopping district that didn't cater to the American service men, and it was an entirely different world. There were street vendors that were selling all kinds of foods, generally meat on a stick grilled and eaten steaming hot, but there were a few that had huge pots of Beondegi, huge pots of bugs that were served in a paper cup with toothpicks (they later found out they were silkworm pupae) and it smelled like dog food to Wedge. "I'm going to try that before we leave."

"Why would you want to eat that?" asked Roxie.

"You see a lot of Koreans eating it," insisted Wedge.

"They also eat dog, are you ready to give Labrador Retriever a try?"

"We eat a lot of things they would find weird," he insisted.

"Name three," she demanded. He never found three. Actually, he never found one. In the first half of the twentieth century Korea had been so maltreated by Japan then by China that famine lasted for generations. Koreans learned never to turn their noses up at anything.

<><><><><>

At role call on Tuesday morning, Senior Master Sergeant Sammy Johns congratulated the weapons flight for their hard work, and he presented his predecessor Dan Baker with a plaque for his tour of duty and Dan got a hearty round of applause from the weapons flight, then Sammy turned it over to Wedge. "The lieutenant wants to talk when you're done. He wants to brief about holiday safety."

Wedge just nodded. It was easiest if he didn't say anything when the lieutenant was mentioned. "Ok, easy day today," said Wedge as he briefed his load teams at Role Call. "The thirty fifth has End of Runway for the rest of the year," which brought a lot of cheering. End of runway was thrilling and exciting, but it was also dangerous to work around running aircraft and arming the weapons as they took off. "Today we're going to fly eight, turn four, turn two... that's it?" He looked at his schedule, only fourteen missions total. That's almost nothing! "Ok, everyone have your tools ready? Davis you're my truck bitch, Prescott you're with Sergeant Harkness on Juvat five. Any questions?"

"Yeah," demanded Heidi. "What happened to Roopy? No one has seen him for over a week."

Wedge paused for a long moment, he was sure they all heard the rumors, they want to hear it officially from their management. "I will defer that question to Lieutenant Kenosha who knows much more than I do about personnel management," and he turned on his heel and said, "they're all yours sir." He left the arrogant lieutenant to face a suspicious and angry group of weapons loaders.

After the lieutenant was done, Wedge and Bill Harkness were heading out to get in their trucks and the loaders were still lined up in roll call formation. When the lieutenant dismissed them, they didn't move, and the lieutenant didn't notice. "What's the deal? Let's go," Wedge told the teams.

"What happened to Roopy?" Heidi demanded.

"The lieutenant didn't mention...?"

"No, and when we asked him he just walked away."

Wedge looked at these young faces, who was going to be the next one to end their life? These were kids! Lord knows that the Air Force has it easy compared to other branches of the service, but the USAF is also more emotionally isolated than other branches, the teams weren't as well defined, far too many men and women were emotionally isolated, even in the thick of battle. This wasn't the time for dress and cover formations, one of their own is missing. They needed a dad, and it looked like they elected Wedge to fill that position.

"Come here guys, huddle up, close in so I don't' have to repeat this." When everyone closed in, Wedge said, "Roopy had some problems, and he somehow didn't see a way out of them, and he took his own life... I don't know how, or when or where; I just know that he's gone and I'm going to miss the little guy. Now look, this place can suck, this base has the highest rate of suicide in the Air Force, and I don't ever want to do this ever again, so I want you all to take a vow, if you need to talk to someone, you turn to whoever is standing next to you right now and say, 'can I talk?' Can we do that? Can we vow to turn to each other if we have problems, or if someone turns to us we can listen?"

When there was some murmuring about dealing with suicide, Bill Harkness said, "You don't have to be an expert on shit, just listen to your brother, that's all it takes sometimes, and if you have a problem and you can't find someone to talk to, you come to me or Wedge any time, day or night."

"Then we get to talk to Roxie!" said Nate Prescott, which caused nervous laughter.

"Fuck you Nay-than," said Wedge, which cause more relaxed laughter. "I'm going to hold you guys to this pledge, we have to watch out for each other, because ain't no one else going to do it. Also, I want everyone here to call home this weekend..."

His remark was met with groans and complaints. In 1993 there was no high-speed internet and calling stateside cost a fortune. "I can't afford that!" gasped Nate Prescott.

"No one can," said Wedge, "that's why you can place one free five-minute call to anyone back stateside every Saturday and Sunday night through the Military Affiliate Radio System. Sunday is Christmas, wouldn't momma be happy to hear from her kid ten thousand miles away? I want every swinging dick here to call the MARS station Saturday and Sunday and talk to someone who gives a fuck about you. Be it momma, be it dad, wife and kids, Uncle Ralph, Mary Jane Rottencrotch, anyone. You have no idea how good it feels to hear from home."

"What about Heidi?" asked Nate.

"What ABOUT Heidi?" asked Wedge suspiciously.

"You said every swinging dick," started Nate who was actively taking over Roopy's position as Wedge's #1 pain in the ass.

"Heidi has more balls than the rest of you girls put together."

"YEAH!" cried Heidi and she gave Nate a hip shot that nearly knocked him over.

Wedge glanced at his watch; it was time to set out fire guards. "Got me? Let's go protect the free world from communist aggression. Break on three, one, two, three!"

"BREAK!" and the mob, now a team, headed for the door to get their tools.

"What was all that?" Sammy asked Wedge and Bill Harkness as the mob broke up and went to sign out their tools.

"They wanted to know about Roopy," said Bill as Wedge collected his paperwork for the days flying.

"That's none of their business," said Lieutenant Kenosha from his desk in the corner.

Wedge tried to dive over a desk to get at the smug little bastard, but Josh and Sammy held him back. "Let me go, I'll pop his fucking head off."

Sammy got right into Wedge's face. "Sergeant, get to work. You take care of the airplanes; I will take care of the children."

Still steaming with anger Wedge headed out and got in Juvat 4 and waited for his crews to climb aboard. Meanwhile, Josh stepped out of the office and stood by the door to prevent anyone from interrupting Sammy's little talk with Lieutenant Kenosha. Sammy closed the shades and turned to the oblivious lieutenant. "Son, we're going to have a talk..."

"Son?" said Second Lieutenant Keith Kenosha. "You are not my father."

"I was abbreviating," and for Lieutenant Kenosha the talk went downhill from there.

Out on the flight line Wedge set out his fireguards and pulled up at his usual parking spot next to Roxie's truck. She looked over and hopped out of her truck to talk to Wedge. "Don, take the helm," said Wedge and he climbed out of the truck while Airman First Class Don Davis climbed in the driver's seat. Wedge and Roxie held each other gently through their heavy field jackets, Roxie fitted hers with a fur lined hood which looked cute on her.

As he explained what happened with Lieutenant Kenosha he said, "I ordered all the weapons guys to call the MARS station this weekend."

"We're going to be so busy," she sighed. At the MARS station Wedge gets on the radio and patches calls home over the air, Roxie hangs out with Henry's wife Chu and makes snacks for the guys manning the radios and telephones. The new guy in her shop asked about the MARS station and started showing up with his wife Lanh. It's a fun group and it guarantees her a place in line to call home to mom every Saturday and Sunday.

<><><><><>

They spent Christmas Eve at the MARS shack patching phone calls stateside over high frequency (shortwave) radio and as Roxie predicted, they were busy. However, before they opened for business the Chaplain walked in. He's there quite often and they have him on speed dial because when they have a phone call go bad he's quite often needed. With the chaplain was Colonel Getz the Wing Commander, Lt. Colonel Snyder, commander of the 35th Fighter Squadron and Lt. Colonel Walker of the 80th Fighter Squadron. They brought a fifth of scotch to help celebrate the holidays and they thanked and congratulated the volunteers. "Wedge and Roxie, I should have known," grinned LTC Walker. "Why is it every time I turn around, you two are right there in the thick of things?"

Roxie gave LTC Walker a kiss on the cheek and said, "It's because we love you."

After a long, busy night of patching phone calls home, Wedge and Roxie walked back to the dormitories hand in hand in the gentle snow fall. "This is really pretty," said Roxie, "This is the first real snow that I've ever seen. We don't get snow at Luke." Luke was a base in Arizona, and she spent most of her career there.

"This is what I grew up with, it feels weird when I don't see snow at some point during the winter," said Wedge.

"This is my first white Christmas," she said as they walked between the airman's dorms. "What?" she asked, seeing the look on Wedge's face.

"I'm waiting for the White Christmas with a White Guy remarks."

"No! I'm not that crass... besides... it kinda goes without saying, doesn't it?" and she took off running before Wedge could grab her.

They ended up in her room which was more wide-open than Wedge's room. She had a small Christmas tree in one corner and lights strung around the room. They kicked off their snowy mukluks at the door and as she unbuttoned Wedge's flannel shirt she said, "I don't know if I'm ready, but we can compromise, can't we?"

"Of course," said Wedge softly, "I've never really had much experience so I guess we'll see what we can see." His fingers were busy on her buttons trying to open her blouse and feeling so incompetent at the simple task.

"You're a virgin?"

"No, but I spent most of my life in the friend zone, so my experience is minimal."

"There's no Missus Wedge from your past sucking your paycheck dry?"

"No, I have always been seen as a friend, very rarely a lover."

"Gawd damn you know some stupid women! But I have you all to myself and I get to slow walk you right where I want you," she said as their lips met and their shirts dropped to the floor. Wedge reached behind her and with four snaps unfastened her bra. Her breasts were large and heavy, and his hands cupped them and gently massaged them. Her nipples were hard and getting harder and he began to twirl them between thumb and forefinger as they kissed.

"Honey, you're shaking!"

"I'm terrified," said Wedge. "I'm afraid I'm going to do something stupid, and this is going to end, or that this is all a dream and I'm going to wake up alone..." his voice choked up as he admitted his fears to her.

"No, not this time. We're here together to the end," she said with a gentle smile.

"This is the Best Christmas ever," he sighed which caused her to start laughing.

"Silly! There's more to come," she said as he sat in her easy chair and pulled her into his lap putting her breasts in line with his mouth. He began nibbling and suckling on a breast and she gasped, it's been a long time since such exquisite thrills rolled through her body, she clasped her hands to his head and held his mouth to her breast. So good... so perfect... He nipped at her nipple sending a shock of delicious pain through her and she squeaked.

"Sorry," gasped Wedge.

"Don't apologize for awesome," she whispered and ran her hand through his hair and pulled his mouth up to hers for a kiss.

"I did ok?"

"Let me put it this way," she grinned and leaned forward. Her mouth closed on wedge's nipple and her teeth dug in gently and her tongue flickered over the sensitive nub. A jolt of sensation rocketed from his nipple to his cock. Instantly his cock was harder than he ever had been. The sensations were nothing like he ever experienced, they were overwhelming. He pulled her away from his nipple and they kissed sweet and deep.

Finally, she pushed away from Wedge and laid a mink blanket on the floor, tossed down a couple of pillows onto the mink blanket then came back to Wedge. "I've always wanted to do this; I had a dream last night where we did this, will you indulge me?"

"Is it kinky and weird?"

"Yes," she said softly. "Kind of."

"Then I'm your man." He stood at her urging, and she pulled his jeans down, and then his boxers. His cock sprung free, and she was transfixed for a moment. Her warm soft hand wrapped around his cock, her fingertips didn't reach the tip of her thumb and she smiled at what she had unwrapped for Christmas.

She studied his circumcised cock for a long minute then rose, still holding his cock and whispered, "This makes me so hot." Then she took his right hand and wrapped it around his cock and as they kissed again she urged his hand up and down on his cock. "Cum for me," she whispered. "I want to watch..." She leaned back and watched his hand tentatively stroke up and down his cock. "That is so hot," she gasped in utter shock at how excited it made her to watch him stroke his cock and knowing that it was her that made him so hard was even better. Then she quickly pulled down her slacks and tiny red panties and wearing only her warm wool socks she lay down on the mink blanket and began to masturbate along with him.

Fascinated, Wedge had never seen anything so sexually stimulating either. She laid back and timidly spread her legs while Wedge looked in amazement at her beautiful hourglass figure, her flawless mocha skin, her neatly trimmed pussy, her breasts that wobbled about on her chest. She squeezed her tits and sometimes savagely pinched and pulled her nipples as Wedge watched hungrily and stroked his cock. "Don't touch, just watch and show me what you like," she said breathily. "I always dreamed of doing this with the man I loved." Her right hand reached down to her pussy and her fingers began to dance in circles around her clit.

As she stroked her pussy Wedge knelt next to her, the gentle scent of her excitement filled his nostrils and he ached to jump on her and begin fucking but he promised to play the game, and it was exciting to watch this beautiful woman pleasure herself. He reached down with his free hand and eased a finger into her pussy, her eyes flew open, and she froze and gasped at the sensation. "I said no touching," she whimpered.

Wedge brought his finger damp with her juices to his nose and inhaled her natural perfume. It reminded him of warm summer afternoons in the pastures after the hay was cut and all was right with the world. Then he licked her juices from his finger and moaned in pleasure with her flavor. Watching him do that caused her to groan and whimper and she returned to driving herself to orgasm. Then spotting a large drop of precum dangle from his cock she reached up with her free hand and as he had done to her, she collected some of her lovers essences and brought them to her nose. The scent was heady and masculine, a scent she wanted to cover herself in. Then she placed the drop on her tongue, it was salty and strong, it was Wedge all rolled up into one sample and she couldn't wait for their first blowjob.

The sexy play was driving both of them closer and closer to climax, but Roxie had been dreaming of this moment for weeks, and she was overcome with the excitement of reality, it was so much better than her dreams. Her fingers danced over her clit as his hand stroked up and down his cock, her butt rose up off the blanket as she tightened up, this was going to be a big one, and she screamed as the orgasm struck. Wave after wave of mind-bending relief crashed over her. She found herself sitting up, then she was tossed back onto the pillows as the strongest orgasm of her life had its way with her.

When she was able to focus she saw that Wedge was still stroking his cock. "I'm going to cum on you," he whispered harshly. The idea was so thrilling to Roxie she couldn't speak, just a sudden intake of breath. "Should I come on your tits?"

She gasped and whispered, "yes!"

"Your face, should I cum on your face?"

The idea was so dirty, so sexy, all she could do was gasp and nod her head when suddenly he cried out. Wedge growled as his orgasm struck. Spurt after spurt of semen flew from his cock landing on Roxie's breasts and face, the warm thick fluid clung to her. He shuddered over and over as his orgasm claimed his mind and body.

Slowly Wedge slowed down and knelt over her panting. Roxie wiped some semen from her face and tasted it and nearly came again. "You got me everywhere," she said with a huge grin as Wedge lay down with her.

"I marked my territory," he said as he gave her a kiss.

"You damn near marked my whole room! I never seen a man cum so much!"

"I was saving that one for you," said Wedge as they hugged and kissed. God it was great to have a sexy woman he could laugh with.

"How long were you saving that one?" said Roxie as she saw that it was on the both of them now.

"Since Desert Storm," Wedge said as he pulled off her socks.

"I'm naked now!" she complained.

"Yes, we're going to go touch your product together," said Wedge as he helped her to her feet and led her to their bathroom.

"Did you get it in my hair? I hate it when there's cum in my hair."

"You're the one that wanted a white Christmas."

After their shower they snuggled in Wedge's bed, kissing and whispering. "Would it be ok if we keep our lovemaking to this level for a while?" she asked.

"Anything you desire," he said, then nibbling on her earlobe he asked, "may I ask why?"

Roxie sighed. "If you promise not to hit me."

Wedge was shocked, he could never dream of hitting her. "I promise. I will never hit you."

She thought for a long time then said, "before I enlisted I was going to school, I really couldn't afford it, I was stupid for trying, but I went to the University of Florida in Gainesville, and it cost a lot. I didn't realize how much until I got there... I was broke almost immediately, so when I needed money to eat... I sold myself." She fought back the tears and threw her arms around Wedge. "I'm sorry... what you must think of me..." and burst into tears. She felt sorry for him, suddenly finding out that his girlfriend is a whore, and on Christmas eve!

"It's ok, it's ok... I understand more than you know." He held her until the shuddering ceased.

"I just want to do this in steps, so when it happens, I know inside that it's real."

"It's ok, we had fun, we enjoyed ourselves and each other. Next time will be more fun, or maybe romantic, or maybe kinky. As long as I can be with you I'm happy."

"Are you sure you understand?" asked Roxie in a tiny voice.

"When you're as ugly as me..."

"You're not ugly," she said with a sniff.

"Ok, when you're lonely... really lonely you do things normal people won't do... like Roopy. Me, I..." he fought for the courage to say it. "Let's say that if I were in Florida I would have been one of your customers."

"Bullshit, you're just saying that to make me feel better about myself."

"No," said Wedge. "As an airman I couldn't find friendship, so I rented it. Most of the girls were German and barely spoke English, but they were there, that's all I really wanted was somebody there."

Roxie finally realized that she found her soul mate, someone who would understand her and forgive her foibles. "God we're pathetic," said Roxie.

"Yup. It's what I'm best at."

<><><><><>

They woke up in each other's arms and were as joyful as children even though they were 7,500 miles from home and family. Roxie stood at the window and looked out at the flightline, not even a new coat of snow could make it pretty, but this will always be the place where she found a man that understood her.

"Here, open this before breakfast," said Wedge handing her a beautifully wrapped shirt box.

She opened her gift and found that it was a beautiful silk robe with soft cherry blossom patterns. "It's beautiful! Where did you get it?"

"There's a silk shop near Momma Park's leather shop, I got a few things there."

"It's beautiful!" she gushed and eased it on, it felt sinful against her skin and put her in the mood for the next step, but first, it was Christmas. After a breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns, and a fruit salad that Wedge made from the fresh fruit he was able to get at the commissary, they retired to Roxie's room where she found a stack of gifts around her tiny tree.

"Santa must have been here while we were asleep," said Wedge. Actually, he had a stack of gifts in his lockers that he carried over to her room while she was in the bathroom. Wedge's favorite gift was an embroidered jacket that had the "flaming pisspot" of the ordnance careers on the left breast, on the back was the snarling 8th Fighter Wing wolf, and under the wolf was embroidered in gold, "JUVAT WEAPONS, If I suddenly start to run, try to keep up." They also gave each other their 'tour jackets.' They were similar to the jacket she gave him but with their rotation dates. Wedge was October 93-94, Roxie was August 93-94.

For Roxie he got several beautiful silk dresses that fit perfectly and a color TV. He has a small portable TV in his room, but the NFL playoffs are starting, and they were both rabid fans, he was for Pittsburgh, she was for Tampa Bay. Pittsburgh was a wild card contender, so Wedge was psyched. They needed a larger TV. "We're going to have dinner at the club at four PM with Don and Lanh Campbell," said Roxie as she tried on the hoop ear rings he gave her. She was wearing the Florida Gators jacket he also gave her.

"Who?" Wedge was wearing the gold Durumagi (robe that Korean men wear over their clothes) that Roxie gave him and was admiring his new Steelers jacket.

"The couple that live down the hall. They helped me get you home from the party." Wedge shrugged. "Don, the guy you trained on the phones last night?"

"Oh yeah... the farm boy and the soup girl."

Dinner was delightful, Don and Lanh were an amazing pair, Lanh flew to Korea on her own, found her way to Kunsan and waited for Don or his suitemate to let her in. She's been living in the dorm illegally and has no plans to return home until February. As they ate they shared their stories and Lanh and Don told them of the heartbreak they had when they found out on Christmas Eve not long ago that she will never have children. "It all we wanted," said Lanh. "When you raised in a big family, children are what you crave..."

"Or when you're raised on a farm," said Don. "But when we get back we're going to adopt." He was firm and excited when he said, "We're going to save every dime and hire a lawyer. They're not going to say no."

After dinner all four walked to the MARS station and patched phone calls home until midnight when the frequencies started to fall apart, but Roxie was able to place the call that she's always wanted to make.

Don and Lanh stood by while Wedge gave the now familiar phone number to net control. Liddy was an old hand at MARS calls, her husband Rasheed Dawson was an NCO in the marine corps and called her from all over the world via MARS, even when out at sea.

They heard Net Control contact Liddy, Roxanne's mom. "Mrs. Dawson, I have a call for you from Roxanne, are you ready to take it?"

The familiar voice of Liddy Dawson came over the air, "I sure am."

"Alpha Golf Alpha Eight Kilo Uniform, this is Alpha Foxtrot Charlie Six Romeo India," said net control, "We are ready to go with your number one."

Roxie keyed the microphone and cheerily said, "Merry Christmas mom! We got a white Christmas! It's snowing here, over."

"Glory be! It's sixty-five here and raining to beat the band. Did you get the cookies I sent you? Over.

"Yes mom, they were delicious, and thank you for the socks. Over."

"Honey, who is Michael Donovan? He has beautiful taste in silk. Over."

Roxie turned and looked at Wedge. "I sent a robe to your mom for Christmas, sounds like she got a kick out if it."

Roxie shook her head and lifted the microphone to her mouth. "That's something I wanted to tell you mom. I have a boyfriend, his name is Michael Donovan, and he's white. Over." Then she squeezed her eyes closed, waiting for the worst.

"I don't care if he's white, I wouldn't care if he was striped, does he have a steady job? Over."

The entire MARS shack burst out laughing and Roxie had to wait until she could say, "Yes mom, he's the same rank as me. Over."

"The card he sent said that he can't wait to meet me, is there something that you're not telling me? Over."

"Yes, but we're out of time, Merry Christmas, over," she lied.

"Child! You put him on this radio right now, I want to meet this man. OVER."

Grinning, Roxie handed the microphone to Wedge and said, "She's all yours!"

"Thank you darling," he cleared his throat and keyed the mike. "Missus Dawson, I'm Michael Donovan, folks 'round here call me Wedge. I want you to know that I really care for your daughter and love her company. Thank you for sharing her with me. Over."

"You sound like a polite, well-mannered man. We will talk when you get home. Over."

"We really are out of time here so I will say that I'm looking forward to meeting you Mom. Merry Christmas. Over."

"You called her mom? She's going to kill us both," groaned Roxie.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

January was tough on Wedge and Roxie, Wedge got moved to second shift for the month, but Roxie stayed on day shift. They were sure that it was because Lieutenant Kenosha had a black eye and Wedge was calling him "Lt. Shiner." Every day was a reunion and a goodbye. Even though they slept together, that was it, they were dead asleep. The only time they were able to spend waking time together was on weekends and at shift change. He would show up an hour early and catch a ride in her truck, and she would hang around for an hour after her shift and ride in his truck. Weekends they spent in each other's arms, aching to say the obvious but daring not to.

After three weeks of near separation, they were reunited on the same shift. They spent the weekend gently touching and caressing, and as they prepared to bike to work on Monday morning, the sound of explosions were heard from all over base. With a sigh they went back into the dorm, grabbed their MOPP gear, pulled on their flack vest and helmet and headed to the block house.

"Lady and Gentlemen, welcome to the Pacific Air Forces Inspector General," said Wedge. His load crews groaned; they all knew what an Inspector General was. It was a chance for an inspection team of unlimited knowledge and experience to crawl up the asshole of everyone in the fighter wing and inspect every thought and every polyp. "First lines come out in two hours people; I need six volunteers. Davis crew and Johnson's crew, thank you for volunteering."

"Aww, crap Wedge, what did we get volunteered for?"

"C-Shop has been tasked to reprogram IFF for every bird we got. I need each of you to grab a speed handle and a number two apex and open and close panels for C-Shop. If we loan six people with speed handles to C-shop, we can be done with the squadron in thirty minutes, and you will have time to set up your tools for the HARM lines." For some reason his crews loved to load HARM (High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles) it's a big job, but it goes quick and they're the last weapons to come out of the bomb dump giving the load crews some slack time.

"Why should we help them, they never help us," demanded Heidi.

"You're wrong toothpaste breath. See that pretty sergeant over there. Volunteering will make her happy. When she's happy she likes to make me happy. When I'm happy I postpone my plans to make your lives a living hell. See?"

"We're on it!" cried Nate Prescott.

"Why didn't you put it that way earlier?" asked Heidi. The load crews dashed for the tool crib to get their tools when Wedge noticed that everyone was healthy.

"Damn, I don't have any busted crews, who's going to be my truck bitch?" complained Wedge when he and Bill Harkness stepped into the office to get their line-ups.

"I'll ride with Bill and I'm taking Josh with me," said the shop NCOIC, Sammy Johns. "Wedge, you get Master Sergeant Anna Franklin and Lieutenant Kenosha."

"Shit. You hate me don't you," groaned Wedge.

"It's what you get for relaxing on night shift," grinned Sammy. Master Sergeant Anna Franklin was a tall, skinny black woman, she arrived right after New Years and being on night shift, Wedge never got a chance to meet her. Lieutenant Kenosha's shiner was gone; however, no one was sure if Sammy knocked some knowledge into him. He is quieter however, which was a plus.

Anna was positive that Wedge didn't like her. They sat in front of the block house and Wedge was transferring data to the plexiglass status board mounted on the engine hood and Anna asked, "You don't like having a new person under your wing?"

"You're wrong," he said as he filled in data on the board, "I enjoy training people, that way I know they got it right." But he was frowning as he filled in the data.

"Is it my rank?"

"No, some of my best friends are master sergeants. Actually, I have a good feeling about this last testing period, I hope to be one soon."

That rankled Anna, now she was sure it was her race, but she tried one more time, "is it my sex that has you annoyed?"

"Sergeant Anna, I had two very small women on my last B-52 load crew, and I requested them. They out loaded every other team on base, and we were load crew of the quarter for a year. Have you ever loaded a B-52?"

"No."

"One cruise missile pylon weighs more than a fully loaded F-16, and you hang two of them on a Buff, along with four gravity bombs and eight SRAM missiles internal. That's humping, and a lot of people didn't think Mari and Janet could do it. we were able to do three loads in a twelve-hour shift, it was insane. I have no problem with anyone's sex. I just want them to do the job."

Just as she was about to ask if there was a problem elsewhere, another truck pulled up as close as possible, driver's door to driver's door. They slid their doors back and Roxie and Wedge leaned out and kissed as long as they dared. "Thank you love, we're done!" said Roxie with a huge grin as the six bomb loaders hopped out of the back of her truck.

"Already? I knew it would work! Did an inspector say anything?"

"Nope. Did you get your orders yet?" she asked. In six short months Roxy is leaving, she has a follow-on assignment to Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina. Two months after that Wedge will be going somewhere, he hasn't received orders yet, he was originally hoping for a follow-on assignment to Lakenheath in England, but he heard his orders were cancelled and were being re-cut. Both Roxie and Wedge were terrified over his orders, it would be documentation that this dream they were living was going to end in tears.

"No orders yet. Well... hopefully we'll get blown up together," with another quick kiss and a wink, Roxie closed her door and drove off to take up position to dispatch her people as needed.

"Almost done here," said Wedge as he finished up transferring data to the board.

"Ok, why don't you like me?" Anna demanded.

"Don't like you? I don't even know you. It takes me weeks to work up a good dislike." Just then Lieutenant Kenosha started snoring. "For him I'll make an exception." The load crews clambering into the back of the truck didn't even wake the Lieutenant. "Ok, let's set out crews." He called each crew chief forward and pointed out the planes that he has them scheduled for. "You'll start out on spot five, when you're done with that, move up to seven, them over to eleven." And so on, the order he assigned the crews didn't make sense unless you knew the whole picture. The "healthiest" airplanes were first to get their weapons, the planes that needed more maintenance by anyone were further down the list. He handed each team chief a sheet of paper with his instructions and dropped his four crews off.

"Why not just have them do four, five, and six like that?" asked Anna.

"Five, seven, and eleven are all the same, five-hundred-pound snake eyes. Spots four, six, and eight are two-thousand-pound bombs and the weapons will come out later, I don't want our guys waiting around and they only have to sign out so many tools. It's a working system that I inherited." He found a parking spot and stopped. "Now we wait. Keep an eye out on the crews we dropped off." He pointed out all four shelters that they dropped crews off. "If they need us they'll step out and wave for us."

"What did you mean when you mentioned getting blown up together?"

"They like to target this truck and Roxie's truck. They kill me and then look to see how you take over. It's happened quite often. You get to run the show while Roxie and I have a nice hot meal at the bowling alley."

Soon the weapons rolled out and the loaders began their half loads. It was a cold miserable day, and the auxiliary heater in Juvat 4 didn't seem to be working properly, until Wedge discovered that the lieutenant had blocked the output vents with his MOPP bag, and he had shoved Wedge's bag out of the way to put his bag behind Wedge's seat. Wedge got his bag back and put it next to him where he wanted it, opened an MRE (Meal Ready to Eat) and rummaged around in it. He then opened the envelope of Corned Beef Hash and emptied the tiny bottle of tabasco sauce into it and stirred it up good and mixed up the orange drink in his canteen cup.

"It's best you eat when you can, we'll be putting our masks on eventually and you never know how long it's going to be before they come off." He dug out the pound cake that was included and put it in his pocket, that was a filling snack, but most guys didn't like it. Wedge loved it and Roxie said she was going to make a birthday cake for him out of them.

Soon the sirens blared requiring them to go to MOPP level 1, to put on their outer gear. "Lieutenant, put on your MOPP gear," called Wedge. The lieutenant muttered and went back to sleep. Wedge dropped his web belt and flack vest and pulled on his protective gear. It was almost like putting on his snow pants when he was a kid and was going out to play in the snow. "You set Sergeant Anna?"

"Those pants are a pain!" said Anna as she pulled on her flack vest.

"You get used to it." Wedge put the truck in gear and drove back to the block house. "Lieutenant! There's a call for you in the office!"

"Huh? Oh, ok," muttered the Lieutenant and got up to leave.

"Take your bag sir," and when the Lieutenant left, Wedge drove away.

"What was that about?" demanded Anna.

"I don't care who you are, if you're not properly equipped or attired, you're not in my truck. I'm not going to take a write up because you're hungover.'

"So, you lied to the lieutenant to get rid of him?"

"I'm sorry," said Wedge. "I swore I heard his phone ring."

"You dick," Anna chuckled. This was going to be an interesting day.

<><><><><>

The PACAF Inspector General threw everything they could at them. During simulated attacks, units from other bases like Misawa Japan, Osan Korea, and Kadena on Okinawa roared over the base, sometimes they were chased by a Wolfpack F-16. They were "bombed" by F-15s, F-16s and A-10s and quite often it sounded like the fourth of July with all the explosions. Smoke grenades filled the air with various colors of smoke and the security forces were constantly under terrorist attack. The sound of M-16s firing blanks filled the air day and night.

Wedge and Roxie usually made their way back to the dorm at night alone, and they agreed that if either one was asleep when they got home they would let that partner sleep. Even though they were exhausted when they got home they fought to stay awake for the other, but it was nearly impossible. Sometimes Wedge's mind was spinning so fast from the day's activities that he had a tough time falling asleep and Roxie could always tell when that happened because the next morning she would find him asleep on the floor next to her bed.

February literally came in with a bang, the IG tried to make sure that the shortest month of the year was also the loudest. An army helicopter squadron and a marine Harrier squadron had taken up home on Kunsan for the week. For some reason the helicopters decided to land using the main taxiway as their runway and almost landed on top of Wedge. He and Anna heard the load crew in the back laughing and yelling, so when he checked his mirrors he saw a pair of Apache attack helicopters behind him. Later an apology came to him from Base Ops who said that the flight of choppers did not know that runway 27 did not exist.

The exercise started on Monday, and it wasn't until Thursday when they were ducked into a shelter for an alert black that the inspectors came looking for him. "Who was driving this truck?" asked an inspector as he patted Juvat four.

"That was me," said Wedge. He had just sat down next to Roxie; it was the first time they were able to shelter together.

"Name, rank, and last four please."

"Donovan, Michael, A. Tech Sergeant, 0210."

Another inspector pinned a "smart dead" tag on him and said, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered to bid farewell to Michael Donovan..."

"Did you sit up all night thinking that one up?" chuckled Donovan as he pulled off his mask. It was damn cold, so he put his mask back on. While he gathered his bag he asked the inspector, "would someone be able to hear me inquire about a hoagie for dinner from beyond the grave?"

"No, I'm sorry, you're dead, no one can hear you."

"But I will pray for roast beef," said Roxie sadly.

That night when she got back to the dorm a roast beef hoagy with mayo and mustard just how she liked it was waiting for her, as was a steaming hot cup of chicken soup. "Were you lonely without me?" she asked Wedge who had nodded off in his "reading chair."

"Oh, hey baby," he said, and he got up and gave her a kiss. "I was chatting with that Vietnamese girl from Minnesota. She and her husband already got a follow-on assignment to Osan."

"Lanh? She's a sweetheart," said Roxie. "She says since she can't have kids, she and her husband are pouring everything into their education. They're having a contest to see who can get their doctorate first."

That thought struck Wedge, he had never thought about kids, now suddenly he has an actual lover (sort of, they're still blissfully happy with hands and fingers) "What about you? Have you ever thought about kids?"

Ever since she looked at Wedge as a lover, she's been evaluating his potential as a father. "You're not ready yet. You'll get there, but it will take some time."

"Is that a proposal?"

"I love this soup!" she said changing the subject.

"Lanh made it, her parents have a soup store."

"They should be millionaires!" said Roxie as she ate her soup. She only finished half of her hoagie and wrapped it up and put it in her fridge then said, "I'm going to take a shower and go to bed; I am so exhausted." When she got back from her shower she slipped on a comfortable gown and Wedge met her as she climbed into bed. "Wedge honey, I want you so bad but I'm so tired..."

They kissed sweetly and he laid her down on her bed and they kissed again. "I can't baby, I'm so tired. Next time, definitely next time."

"Promises, promises," said Wedge. "Just relax, let me help." He arranged himself on the end of the bed, their only light a flickering candle on her table. He began to massage her feet, eliciting coos and ahs from Roxie.

"Where did you learn to do that?" she groaned.

"My mom stood all day long at work, she taught me." Slowly he evolved from massaging her feet to massaging her calves.

"Don't, I haven't shaved," she said sleepily, but he didn't stop. His touch was magical, lulling, relaxing, and yet exciting. He didn't respond, he continued to massage her legs. It was so nice... so sweet... She felt him moving around at the foot of the bed, but she wasn't sure what he was doing. Then she felt him begin to kiss her inner thighs.

"No," she mumbled, his lips felt so good as he bit by bit began to kiss his way higher. "Don't," she groaned but she found her legs spreading wider and wider of their own accord. She couldn't stop them, they spread wide for Wedge all by themselves. Wedge was slow, he took a century... it took forever for his lips to finally reach her pussy. With a shuddering sigh from Roxie, Wedge began licking and kissing her cunt. With his thumbs he gently spread her pedals, exposing her pussy and clit and he began to drive his tongue into her pussy, exciting her exhausted mind with his licking and suckling.

How long did it go on? She had no idea; all she knew was that he was gently driving her out of her mind. She grasped his head and cried, "Stop!" but she didn't push him away, she held him right where he was. "Oh, sweet God," she groaned as his actions became more and more urgent. She was going to cum, and it was going to be big. Her hips raised up, lifting her ass off the mattress and she squeaked trying not to scream, then with a groan she came. Her hips still off the mattress shuddered, making it hard to lick her clit, then with a huge exhalation she went limp, and her hips dropped to the mattress, her orgasm thundering through her, and taking the built-up tension with it as it went.

As she began to drift off to sleep they kissed, and she could taste herself on his lips. "That was nice, why?" she asked sleepily as he tucked her in.

"Promises, promises."

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February was just as bitter and cold as January, if not worse. The excitement from the Outstanding IG rating for the fighter wing overall, and an Excellent rating for the Juvats died off quickly as the task of getting back to work was at hand. Wedge had four fliers that had live fires on their guns today. He had a crew ready to do clean and lube and another crew ready to reload the ammo drums. One by one the "shooters" came down and taxied into "The Flows". The flows are eight shelters in a row with no back or front doors. They have fuel capability; the plane can taxi into the shelter and "hot pit" (take on jet fuel with the engine running) or they can park there. Since the flows face a huge berm of dirt and concrete they're perfect for arming up the guns. The F-16 carries just over 500 rounds of 20 mm ammo, and the six-barrel gatling gun will fire them all in five seconds.

"Aw gross," groaned Wedge, the left side of the shooters was covered with soot from firing. The gun is on the left side of the plane behind the cockpit and the burnt powder was painting the left side of the plane just below the cockpit.

"Hey Wedge, come check this out!" said Don Davis, the head of the crew that's doing the reloads. He pointed to a write-up in the aircraft forms. "Gun will not fire in left hand turn." Wedge looked at the write up and the more he looked at it the dumber it looked.

"Who wrote this up?" said Wedge as he got his pencil out of his pocket.

"Our favorite nuclear bomber," grinned Don.

Wedge shook his head; the plane will not shoot in a left hand turn by design. If you are turning left you will turn into your ammo stream and shoot your own nose off. The dumbass pilot may even shoot himself in the back. He signed off the write up, 'Left turn sensor ops check good.' Then he turned to Don and said, "How long until this thing is ready for gas?"

"Twenty minutes," said Don as he connected the ammo loader to the aircraft gun. 'Ready for gas' means that all weapons activities are done, and they can put fuel on the plane.

Wedge turned to Juvat Super and said, "She'll be weapons ready in fifteen minutes." Don always pads his estimates. In fact, Don was done in ten minutes. Soon the air crews for the next flights started showing up and Wedge was back in his position in Juvat four, Juvat Seven with Roxie at the wheel was parked next to him. As he filled out his expenditure sheets, Wedge was also keeping an eye on his crews who were scattered about doing several different tasks, fire guard, loading practice bombs, and changing argon bottles. Roxie was helping one of her techs with a troubleshooting issue when a pickup truck marked Juvat CC pulled up in front of the two trucks and the driver indicated with a crooked finger that he wanted to talk to the drivers. Wedge hopped out and saw that Roxie didn't notice so he tapped on the door of her truck, and she hopped out.

They stood next to their commanders truck, and he rolled down the window. "Sergeant Donovan... Left turn sensor ops check good?"

"Yes sir!" said Wedge, standing at attention. "It passed with flying colors; air crew verified. Sir."

"Is that the proper way to sign off that write-up?"

"I quoted chapter and verse from T.O. 1F-16C-33-1-2 Nonnuclear Munitions Loading Procedures which clearly states that the gun will not fire in a left hand..."

"Thank you Sergeant Donovan, are you taking Sergeant Dawson to dinner tonight?"

"Well, sir... there's only one other couple in this squadron that I know of, we don't want to be a curiosity. We're thinking of a quiet meal in my room."

"Valentines day and the sweethearts of the Juvats are sitting in the dorm? Bullshit!" He handed Wedge a large 9 by 12 envelope. "There's tickets in there for a steak and lobster dinner at the O club tonight. Semi-Formal Class A required."

"Thank you sir," said Wedge. The envelope was thick, what the heck? He unwound the string that held the flap closed and looked inside and there was a thick stack of paper, they were a set of orders. Wedge was being assigned to the weapons flight in the 55th Fighter Squadron, the Fighting Fifty Fifth... he gasped looking at the orders... "I'm going to Shaw!" He looked at Roxie, his eyes wide, "We're going to Shaw!"

Roxie shrieked and threw her arms around Wedge. "We're going to be together baby!"

"Oh thank God," Wedge practically cried, he was worried sick over what was going to happen in October when he was scheduled to rotate stateside. "Thank you sir," Wedge gasped, as he held Roxie tight. "FIGMO!" (the traditional cry of someone who just received a set of orders sending them to another base. It stands for Fuck It, Got My Orders!)

"I'm glad you're happy," said their squadron commander as he climbed out of his truck. "I had to cancel a set of orders to Lakenheath to get you those." Roxie and Wedge were so shocked and overjoyed over his set of orders they didn't realize that they were surrounded by co-workers and their management. "Here, Happy Valentines Day," and Lieutenant Colonel Walker handed Roxie and Wedge each a small envelope. They opened their envelopes and in them were little Valentine's cards, a little cherub with bow and arrow in front of a heart that said, "Be my Valentine." In handwriting underneath it said, "Your line number for promotion is:" followed by a four-digit number.

"No!... NO!" Wedge shouted. He could barely breathe, this was a notification that he was being promoted to Master Sergeant, and Roxie's 150 decibel shriek told Wedge that she was being promoted too. They clung to each other, laughing and Roxie jumped up and down in excitement.

As they celebrated they were patted on the shoulder by co-workers and supervisors while the aircraft of the "second go" taxied by. They would goose their throttles making a loud roar giving Wedge and Roxie their congratulations also.

<><><><><>֎<><><><><>

Technical Sergeants Dawson and Donovan looked impressive in their semi-formal class A uniforms. (Semi formal is normal dress blues with a white shirt instead of blue) and once again they were seated with Mr. & Mrs. Campbell. Colonel Walker understood Wedge's comment about being a curiosity and they were seated in a side room with several other couples. They excitedly told Lanh and Don about their promotion and how they were notified, and Lanh said, "We prank my Don too."

"They called me into the orderly room and there was Lanh waiting for me," said Don. "The commander, the first sergeant, my bosses all lined up around her and they all looked mad at her. Lanh said, 'they accused me of kissing a tech sergeant.' And she was in tears."

"You're kidding, said Wedge.

"No!" said Lanh. "He asked me who, and I give him kiss and say, 'It's you!' and they give him his line number."

"I'd rather have the valentine," said Roxie. "Less butt rash," and she showed Lanh the valentine that Lt. Col. Walker gave her.

"We were out there in the snow, the second go is taxiing by, and both of our shops were in on it," said Wedge. "It was like a party out there in the snow."

"The planes were goosing their engines, whoom whoom!" said Roxie, and her hand that was simulating an F-16 throttle went back to holding Wedge's hand.

"Where is Shaw? That's where you're going, right?" asked Lanh.

"It's about thirty miles from Columbia South Carolina," said Wedge.

"About forty miles from the ocean," said Roxie. "We are going to the beach, are we not?"

"Yes, I get to pick out your swimsuit."

"Lanh is heading back on Sunday," said Don, who looked heartbroken. He clutched his life partner's hand.

"I'll be back in a year when he moves to Osan. Right now, his dad is looking for me," she said. "The babies will be born soon."

"Babies?" asked Roxie.

"Cows," said Don. "Calving season starts next month. We have a dairy farm and Lanh loves the calves."

"They're all bigger than she is," said Wedge, and Lanh nodded happily.

It was a wonderful night, not exactly romantic, but good friends, good food, and the excitement that an Excellent rating from the Inspector General, a good set of orders, and a line number for promotion can provide.

Steak, lobster, roast potatoes and white asparagus, and instead of wine, Wedge and Roxie chose sparkling cider. "I learned my lesson," said Wedge.

"Me too. Roxie and Soju do not mix," said Roxie.

Later, back in the Dorm, Wedge decided that this was the night. He recited the squadron motto to himself, audentes fortuna juvat (fortune favors the bold) and he led Roxie into his room. There at the foot of his bed he presented her with a rose, a card, and a box of chocolates. "This is sweet, but it is so silly," she said. "You didn't have to revert to dusty old traditions to..." but her words were interrupted by a kiss from Wedge that took her completely by surprise. So intense! So loving! One arm pulled her tight to him and the fingers of his other hand twined in her hair and held her head as their tongues danced together. It was the perfect kiss and she melted in his arms. "Oh my!" she gasped. "Where did that come from?"

He looked her in the eye and said, "Roxanne Audrey Dawson, I love you more than I ever dreamed it was possible to love a woman. From the moment I first saw you standing right here I knew you were the one for me, and I knew I would eventually break out of the friend zone."

"Oh!," Roxie whimpered. She buried her face into his shoulder to hide the tears and she kissed his neck. "Michael Aloysius Donovan," she said as she kissed his lips, her pearly white teeth gently grasped his bottom lip, pulling it out and letting it go. "You were never in the friend zone, I wanted to tell you that I loved you from the moment I saw you lying in that bed, but I was scared. I've been burned before..." She slowly sagged to her knees. "I've never felt like this..."

With shaking hands she unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned and unzipped his trousers and pulled his pants down. She gently licked his cock, from the root to the crown then began to enjoy his cock. Her lips and tongue stroked up and down his cock, savoring every inch and enjoying the shudders she was eliciting from her man.

This was the first time her mouth touched his cock. Wedge had gone down on her several times, but she called him "killer" because her orgasms from his tongue actually made her faint on two occasions. She let her tongue slather over his balls, and she took one large testicle into her mouth and gently massaged it with her tongue. "I didn't know that could feel so good," groaned Wedge.

"There's more where that came from," said Roxie with a smile and she went back to her delightful task. Now came the true test, this was a good, sizeable cock, she's never tried this with one this big before. She looked up into his green eyes... how did she just now come to realize how beautiful his eyes were? She took the head of his cock into her mouth and swirled her tongue around and around causing Wedge to shudder from the delightful sensations. "God, that's wonderful," groaned Wedge, but Roxie just winked at him. Slowly she took more and more of his cock into her mouth. Her tongue slithered against the sensitive underside of his cock causing him to groan, but she kept taking more and more of him into her mouth. He felt the rough texture of her throat squeeze his cock, but she kept taking more and more.

When her nose reached his pubic hair she gagged, and terrified, he stopped her. He pulled back and she coughed around his cock. Still coughing her mouth coming off his cock slowly. "Oh god, that was so wonderful, but I don't ever want to hurt you," he said as he coaxed her to her feet.

"I wasn't hurt," she said as her hand slowly stroked his cock. "I just need practice; it's been a while." They kissed long and sweetly, and their fingers were busy unbuttoning each other's uniforms.

"How long have you been pretending to be a lesbian?" Wedge asked as he pulled off her blazer and started to unbutton her skirt.

"Just until I met you," she grinned. She still remembers the way her heart jumped when he first smiled at her and conned her into having dinner with him.

That smile! Wedge's breath catches every single time he sees that big happy smile of hers, he wanted to put that smile on her face every day. Soon they were naked on his bed, their uniforms draped across the backs of the easy chairs in the room. They let their hands roam over each other's body, and this time they knew that they weren't going to stop.

There was so much Nick wanted to do, wanted to try, but Roxie quietly said, "let's start with the beginning." They lay side by side; she stroked his cock as he suckled at her nipple and knowing that she was going to make love to the man she loved, and she knew he loved her for just for herself had her on the edge of cumming. "Now baby," she whispered.

Wedge was like a child at Christmas, he wanted to play with everything all at once. "I want you to be ready."

"If I were any more ready I'd be pregnant! Come on Wedge, fuck me."

"I can't turn down such an eloquent lady," said Wedge as he smiled down on her. "Happy Valentine's day." She was so wet and excited, and she was eager. Before they realized what was happening he was inside her. Roxie's moist, warm pussy was stretched by his cock as he surged into her.

"Oh god, that is so good," groaned Roxie as he opened her wide.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"I can't believe this day!" she gasped as he started fucking.

It was everything they dreamed of and more, both were overcome with the sensations of their lovemaking. Wedge started out slow and sweet, letting Roxie get used to him, then at her urging began stroking her faster, harder. He pushed up on his hands and gazed down on Roxie, her beautiful dark skin against the sheet, her large breasts surging with every stroke, her dark brown nipples describing circles with every shudder of every stroke. Their groins slapped together wetly, and their eyes stayed on each other's eyes. "I love you so much," Wedge said as he moved inside of her.

Roxie reached up and pulled Wedge down for a kiss, urging him to fuck harder, faster. This was the fuck of her lifetime, the one she knew was out there. "Cum in me," she gasped, "give me all of your love." They cried out together as they came, waves of delicious pleasure flowed over them, Roxie cried out and wrapped herself around Wedge who came spurt after spurt inside of her.

After what seemed like an eternity they returned to their bodies, and they chuckled with joy as they kissed and pulled their blankets up. "I hope you have more of that in you," she said.

"Oh, you know I do," said Wedge as he kissed her neck sending little thrills through her body. With a grunt she turned on her side and faced him.

"We need a bigger bed," she said.

"We're master sergeants now; we're supposed to get bigger rooms."

"I like our rooms, we just need a bigger bed," said Roxie, snuggling closer to her man. "Do you think that we're going to celebrate Valentines Day as our anniversary?" she said as they kissed.

"I don't know about you, but I will."

Epilogue:

It was a cold blustery afternoon. You know the weather is bad if it's snowing too hard to go skiing. The driveway was shoveled but there was another two feet of snow on the way if Accu-Weather is right. All three children had a hand in the job, five-year-old Wayne, four-year-old Patrick, and two-year-old Vanessa helped mom and dad shovel. However, most of Patrick and Wayne's help was pulling Vanessa around in a plastic sled. She's more a pet than a sibling to the boys, but Roxanne says they'll grow out of that stage.

It was a nice house, but it wasn't theirs, it was Senior NCO Housing on Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora Colorado. They own a house in St. Felix Florida and in three years they will be moving there permanently. "If we had a snowmobile we could go out right now!" pouted Patrick.

"If we bought a snowmobile, a week later we'd get orders to Arizona," said Wedge.

"So?" demanded Wayne.

Inside it was warm and dry and in the family room a fire crackled in the gas fireplace. Dad made pigs in a blanket out of breakfast sausage and crescent roll dough from a tube; it was fast, easy, and the kids favorite. They carefully walked through the house with a paper plate with a couple of pigs in a blanket and a small puddle of ketchup and placed them on the coffee table in the family room where their fruit juice awaited them. As they ate, a relic from the past, Buggs Bunny and The Road Runner played on the TV.

Wedge and Roxie sat in the love seat and felt each other's warmth. It's been a horrible winter, and this is how they spent their "anniversary" too. They've had more extravagant Valentines Days, but none better. They kissed causing little Vanessa to cover her eyes and say "ewww" the way her brothers taught her. As they kissed a cell phone rang bringing the kiss to an end. "You're the one on call," said Roxie and she handed Wedge the phone.

It wasn't a base phone number; in fact, it was a 218-area code. "Senior Master Sergeant Donovan... Oh, Doctor Nguyen, how are you doing?... uh huh... uh huh... wait a minute, you'll want to talk to the chief..." Wedge handed Roxie the phone. "They want to talk to the chief."

Frowning at Wedge, Roxie took the phone. "Chief Donovan," she said in an annoyed tone. Who in her squadron did not understand "I will not be available this weekend?"

"Roxie, it me, Lanh!"

Roxie paused to glare at Wedge who was overjoyed with himself and his little bit of subterfuge. "Lanh, how was that boat ride of yours? How are you doing."

"We're going to have a baby!"

Roxie remembered their last conversation months ago, Lanh's sister Kim-Ly had volunteered to carry a baby for Don and Lanh who was infertile. "How is Kim-Ly doing?"

"She's going to have a baby too, so is Tam. All three of us!"

It took Roxie a moment, but the news sank in. "You're what? OH MY GOD!!! Oh my god that's so wonderful! If you need anything I can be right there! Christmas? We can do it. Yes!"

"What was that mommie?" demanded all three children as Roxie ended her call.

"A good friend of mommy and daddy is having a baby and we're going to go to Minnesota to visit them."

"Oh." And the three amigos went back to Buggs Bunny.

"That's so awesome," sighed Roxie. "They wanted a baby so bad, and now, somehow..."

"Don and Lanh are Juvats like us," said Wedge. "Fortune favors the bold."