I think I love a background plot too much, still thinking about Amy and the Captain.
Want her to call him Cap’n Crunch ☺️
Girl* nobody loves a spinoff like I love a spinoff alright?
If she doesn't call him Captain Crunch directly to his face, it's at least how he's saved in her phone. 😜
I imagine he's not super thrilled with that when he finds out but she's like, "I literally didn't know your last name for months. It could have been Crunch for all I knew." "It's not Crunch." "Well yeah, I know that now..."
I know you asked for questions about Sam and Hayden, but also, what about Erik and Amy? Did anything solid transpire between those two?
Haha oh Amy and Erik. Nothing solid transpired before deployment (because they are sane, rational adults who would not be quite so stupid as to start something that could turn into a serious relationship at such a terrible time unlike SOME Sams and Haydens who shall remain nameless) but I like to think they run into each other again once Erik is back and he asks if he can take her on a real date and she says yes.
ain't that the worst thing you ever heard - ch. 5 sneak peek
I know I said the same thing last week, about this chapter not being done in time for a Sunday update and then it WAS.
But that's not the case this weekend. I had things to do. Funerals to attend. Yards to work in. 🫠 So you will have to be content with just a snip for now.
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For the most part, it was a gorgeous day. The sun had warmed all the flat rocks where they set out their towels and when the clouds parted, the waterfall looked like it was raining diamonds into the water below. After a summer of scorching temperatures, the pool was pleasantly warm, and Hayden could have probably spent all day swimming and floating on her back and playing far too many games of chicken.
And the added bonus of getting to stare unabashedly at Sam while he was dripping wet and clad only in swim trunks? That was just icing on the cake.
It only stopped being such a gorgeous, perfect day around three o’clock. Hayden had taken a break from the water when it became clear the new game was going to involve diving from higher and higher rocks along the bank. She had no diving game and no interest in competing with outrageously competitive boys who did just that for a living.
She’d just finished a chapter of her book when someone sat down beside her. She looked up to see Erik swiping at the water in his eyes with his beach towel. He glanced over. “Am I blocking your sun?”
She smiled and sat up. “No, you’re good,” she assured him. “Done diving?”
“Yeah,” he nodded and motioned to the right side of his head. “My ear’s fucked up, I gotta do something about it. Water’s not helping.”
There was a mildly awkward pause as Hayden realized he was hesitating as if he was going to say something else. She raised her eyebrows. “Something on your mind?”
“Yeah,” he said slowly before clearing his throat.
Oh Christ, she thought. Here comes the shovel speech. How many ways could they kill me and make it look like an accident if I break their boy’s heart?
“Your friend Amy…”
Hayden blinked. That was off-script. “Amy?” she repeated. “What about her?”
Another quiet cough. “She didn’t…say anything to you recently…” he glanced over quickly and then looked back towards the water. “About me? Did she?”
She felt her brow crinkle in confusion. “No...” she said cautiously. “Why would—” she cut herself off with a soft gasp before she dropped into a whisper. “Did you hook up with Amy?”
“Just…twice,” he mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck. “It was like a…one-time thing and then it was a…nother time thing.”
Hayden laughed once with her mouth still hanging open in shock. “Okay,” she said, shaking her head trying to process this new little development. “Amy and the Cap’n made it happen,” she muttered. “Good for her.”
When she looked over, Erik had caught her reference and choked on a laugh. “Yeah, well. I mean.” He shifted uncomfortably. “I know she just broke up with someone and obviously, I’m not exactly…geographically desirable at the moment. I just didn’t know if it was like a rebound thing or…I thought maybe she might have given you some kind of indication one way or the other.”
She pressed her lips together, trying unsuccessfully to smother another grin. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. “She hasn’t mentioned anything.” She paused debating on whether to keep going before she spoke again. “But I could slip her a note before study hall if you want.”
Erik stopped and looked over at her, holding her gaze for a moment before they both laughed. “Alright,” he grumbled good-naturedly. “Message received.”
“You could just call her,” Hayden reminded him with a little nudge of her elbow. “Tell her you like her. She’d probably…” she trailed off at the way Erik’s expression changed. His smile disappeared and his eyes narrowed at a point past her. “What?” she asked, looking over her shoulder. She didn’t see anything.
“What the fuck is he doing?”
“What the fuck is who doing?” she echoed, turning around to try and see what had captured his attention. It wasn’t until she looked back toward the water that she felt her stomach give an anxious twist. Sam wasn’t in the water. And everyone who was had turned toward the waterfall and was shouting a mix of cheers and catcalls over the roar.
Hayden followed their sightline and found exactly what had stolen the smile from Erik’s face. Sam had scrabbled up to the very highest point and was standing next to the brink of the waterfall.
“Holy mother of God,” she heard herself murmur.
It should have put her at ease to see that with the exception of their captain, no one else seemed concerned with how high up he was. But it didn’t. Not when all she could see were the sharp rocks at the foot of the falls. How smooth the rocks at the top were. And he was soaking wet. It would only be too easy to slip and fall, snapping his neck or cracking his skull on the way down.
“He’s not going to jump from there, is he?” she asked faintly, hating how her voice sounded stuck in her throat.
“No,” Erik shook his head and got to his feet with a grumble. “He’s gonna fuckin’ dive.”
She watched as he scrambled down from where they’d been to join his team near the water. She waited for him to yell up to Sam. To give him some kind of command to not do the dumbest possible thing imaginable. To insist he come down immediately.
But he didn’t.
He looked at the rest of the men in the water, his hands on his hips and dropped his head. “Which one of you fucks dared him to do this?”
Immediately, Elliott raised his hand. “That’d be me, boss.” He grinned. “To be fair, I didn’t think he’d actually do it.”
“Oh, like we didn’t think he’d jump out of a plane without a parachute?” Erik countered.
“Or walk straight across a minefield to recover one comms computer?” Dozer laughed.
Like this was a hilarious anecdote.
“Hey, I walked back, too!” Sam called from the edge of the cliff. “You always leave that part out!”
“Dude, come on!” Erik called up to him, interrupting a story Tommy had started to tell about some sort of underwater demolition stunt that had almost killed him. A week ago. “It’s not deep enough!”
Sam waited for the predictable response of That’s what she said (which, even scarcely being able to breathe, Hayden could admit he’d walked right into) from the rest of the unit before his grin widened. “Not deep enough for you, maybe,” he called back.
“Come on, man,” Erik rolled his eyes. “Come down.”
